gfjh: May 2010

Babushka-ya-ya

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, by Unknown

In belfast, northern ireland

Spotting the Small Stuff...

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, by Unknown

The Dark Hedges - An amazing story

Well I hope everyone had a brilliant weekend. We were blessed with gorgeous sunshine and high temperatures so it was just lovely.

I thought I would share the most amazing story about me and the Dark Hedges (N.I.) that happened to me recently. I have posted about them before here, but I'll tell you the background about them again.

Back in 2007 I went to see the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition in the Natural History Museum in London and out of all the photos one really took me back. My first reaction was "where in the world is that?". After closer inspection I actually laughed out loud when I discovered that this eerie scene was actually a place in Northern Ireland! So ever since then I have always wanted to take the trip to find the "Dark Hedges"

Original shot taken by Bob McCallion (source)

I must have been driving my friends nuts talking about this picture, as for my birthday last year I was treated to a photograph of the Dark Hedges taken by a friend who lives near them:

AND Sir bought me a framed print of the original shot taken by Bob McCallion:

So that weekend after my birthday we decided to take a day trip up to find these elusive hedges so that I could see them for myself. I tell you, they certainly are elusive...we had to ask several people for directions to find them. But it was worth it, and here is MY version:

This is a little country road that you would never even know about if you weren't looking for them. Ironically, even though it was 'in the middle of nowhere', there was another guy there at the same time as us taking his own pics...and I thought to myself "oh dear, I bet he's really annoyed at us because we are getting in the way of his shot".

Here's the AMAZING part of this story: earlier on this year I got a comment on my blog, followed by an e-mail...from the photographer Bob McCallion, who took the original version! I was honoured that he had found my blog and found my version on the dark hedges. But to make things even MORE amazing, he had a picture in his possesion which he thought I was IN!!!! In his e-mail he attached this:

And there I am, with Sir....IN BOB McCALLIONS PHOTO!!!!!!! Aparently he has been 'searching' for the girl in the pink ski jacket for ages, tormenting his wife trying to find the couple in his photo...and lo and behold...he found us! I just couldn't believe it. And last week I recieved a signed print of the very photo to have as my own. I love it - it is just gorgeous, and I love it even more than the original shot - the lighting is so fresh and vivid. Who would have thought that back in 2007 when I first saw that photo I would have ended up with my own personal version taken by the very same photographer!

xxx

P.S. Sorry for all the 'sample's on the last pic, but it'd not mine to share so I thought I'd better do something to 'protect' it!

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, by Unknown

In sewing machine,

Oh Brother - what a Singer!

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, by Unknown

In baking, cheese cake

Sugar'n'Spice Dinner Party

Well as I mentioned in my last post, last Saturday I hosted a "Sugar and Spice and all things Nice" dinner party - the theme chosen to celebrate the imminent arrival of my friends baby girl in June. There was definately a fair bit of organisation, planning and prep required, and I worked all day saturday, but I think it turned out a success. Just seeing the girls faces when they saw the table was worth it!

This is going to be quite a photo-intense post....but those are the best kind aren't they!!!! So lets get on with it....

Prep in the kitchen....peppers sitting ready to be roasted....veg par-boiled ready to be added to the curry at the end...lots of bowls full of various ingredients!

Minor DISASTER! I had never made the 'baked raspberry cheesecake' before so I wasn't prepared for how much mixture there was...it barely fitted into my tin...and then it rose A LOT in the oven. I honestly didnt know if this would be edible or not....check out the pics further down the post to find out what happened....

The table cloth was an old sheet I decided to keep (I hate throwing material out...so many possibilities for making things!). I tied 'pink' scarves and bits of 'pink' material around the chair backs for added colour. And because of the Sugar and Spice theme, I scattered the table with sweets, cinnamon sticks and cloves - and then some sparkly spots and butterflies for added girly-ness!

The menu! I found a great website called Download and Print which has a whole range of beautiful invitations which you can download, costomise on Word and then print! So I was able to find a pretty invitation (which was actually for a wedding!) and adjust it so that it showed the evenings menu instead. I thought this added a fun touch to the night. Since I didnt have accesss to a colour printer I just coloured the butterflies in by hand afterwards. I didnt own the right colour napkins so I just bought paper ones, wrapped them in pink ribbon and slotted a lollypop in with it - and then a pink raspberry ruffle at the corner of the menu for extra 'sugar'!!

The menu was as follows:

Sparkling Pink Cocktails

- these were made by drizzling a teaspoon of homemade raspberry and strawberry cooli (heat raspberries, strawberries and icing sugar in a pan until jucy, mash with a fork and squeeze through a sieve), a squeeze of lime juice and then top up with cava. Mocktails were made for the drivers and the mum-to-be by substituting the cava with sparkling mineral water (which had a slight lime and elderflower flavour)

Roasted Peppers Stuffed with Halloumi and Couscous

- I substituted the mushrooms for sun-blushed tomatoes, which added a lovely zing to the flavour

Fragrant Thai Green Chicken Curry

- with added baby corn (coz I love it!)

Baked Raspberry Cheesecake

- with added strawberries which was a nice extra. And served with vanilla ice cream and creme fraiche

The food:

Ta-da, once the cheesecake had cooled, it dropped back down to 'normal' size and after slicing and decorating with cooli, berries and cream it was 'presentable'...and tasted pretty nice too!!! No close-up of the starter (but if you look at the first pic with the girls at the table they are about to tuck into the roasted peppers - so if you squint you can see it!

The girls enjoying their cocktails (all wearing pink of course!)

Trying to feel for a kick!

And lets just throw in a pic of the hostess in her 'pink' outfit as well!

So a fun night for all and I think the girls had a good time :)

xxx

p.s. BOY did a cook too much rice! So with the left over I made a mix between Nasi Goreng (Indonesian fried rice) and egg friend rice with chicken, peas, sweetcorn, peppers, tomato, corriander and lime for sunday dinner with Sir - tasted delish! And ALSO spicy tomato, bean and chorizo soup with rice thrown in, which we are having for lunch today. I'll see if I can take some pics.

I'm also adding this to Made by You Mondays over at Skip to My Lou - check out loads of other brilliant homemade craftiness over there by clicking on the link below: