Autumn colours

I love autumn colours. They are so warm and bright at the same time.
As I am at home for 2 weeks due to a small car accident, I can afford myself to go to the park with my dog every day.

I couldn't resist to bring these wounderfull colours at home...

And by the way - what do you think about seasonal cooking. I've got this marvelous book for my birthday - Jamie At Home. I just love it!!! Not only for the recipes - which are easy to make, traditional and yet modern at the same time - but also for the beautiful pictures this book is full of. I am not too much into cooking books as they cost a fortune nowadays, but this one I am really glad to have in my collection.
Well, anyway what I wanted to show you is my pumpkin creation from that book. Just plain baked pumpkin with herbs and wild mushrooms I picked when I was in Russia on vacation.

Very tasty with some aked pork.

And to finish up for today some more autumn colurs inspiration for you...

Have a nice and cosy Sunday!

Autumn-Herbst-Herfst

It's quite a while since my last post here.
I am back from my wounderfull vacantion in Russia and Karelia. It was such a lovely experience, as you can see.
Felix travelled with me - that was his first flight and it all went so smoothly. I am so proud of him!
There are a lot of changes in my life since my last message. I don't want to make you too curious, but I think I will wait just a bit with telling you all the news. The only thing I can mention at the moment - I will move again probably in 2010.
I haven't been too productive lately on the craft field. No time, no time... and too tired in the evenings. My eyes are so tired that I can't see what I am knitting, which just can't result in anything good. But I miss my crafting, so I still try to knit 2-3 raws per evening.

October in Belgium is a rainy, dull month. It's so grey and depressing outside. I am trying to compensate it with nice and warm colours in my clothes and around the house. And you, what do you do to fight the grey autumn feeling?

Raw food - something for you?

I have been surfing around and happened to find this interesting blog. I have tried to find a suitable diet for me for years, but the biggest problem is that I love cooking (and eating). I think baking and cooking in general is creative. I just can't imagine that I would eat raw food for the rest of my life. Don't get me wrong, I really do admire people who can do it. But it's impssible for me, I would miss the process of cooking and creating too much...

I am Orthodoxe, which means that I have Lent from time to time. I must admit and I am so NOT proud of the fact, that I don't follow all the rules strictly. I do not have Lent on Wednesday and Friday, as I should; and I even allow myself to skip Lent periodes occasionally. Especially during the summer it's almost impossible for me to lent. I don't want to excuse myself and give you all the reasons I do not succeed in Lent. To be honest, it's because my will is not strong enough and my faith is not deep enough. These are the only reasons. Nothing else. Shame on me, I mean it!

And what about you? Do you follow any diet or way of life? Do you know 80/10/10 diet? What do you think about veggies? Please, feel free to share in the comments.

Granny blocks in progress

It takes time, and patience, and again a lot of time... It's a relaxing thing to do in the late evenings. You don't have to think or count, you can just keep on crochetting these blocks. The only thing you have to worry about, is your colour choice. The rest are peanuts.

I still enjoy the fresh colours of the summer. My blocks are made from 100% cotton yarn. I am planning to crochet enough of those to make a blanket. I know, it is not going to give a lot of warmth, but it's planned for pure decorative goals.







I guess it would be lot of fun to combine all these blocks in different colours in one blanket.




Have a great day!

Wednesday bread

Yes, I know - strictly speaking it's not a bread... I wanted some change in my breakfast routine, so I decided to bake some croissnts. No, I am not that crazy to make them completely on my own - t would take me about 4-5 hours. So I let you do the counting to figure out, what time you should gt up if you want to eat freshly baked croissants at 7 a.m.

Lucky me, they have here fresh dough for croissants, which you only have to cut in shape, roll it and bake it. Just this simple.

Oh boy, they are TASTY. Maybe they don't look as they are from a bakery, but they are delicious. And at the en of the day - that's what counts, right?

With a cup of hot tea it's a nice beginning of the day!

Are you getting hungry ?

Fabulous embroidery

You have to see this. Don't you just love this emroidery? It's fabulous, I love the colours. My hands are already itching for a new embroidery project. I am more familiar with cross-stitching, but this technique has definitely its charm.

All the picture s are from dona-anita blog.

Are you into some stitching projects? I have seen a couple of interesting ideas in the last edition of Anna. Maybe I will have some time during my vacation in September to make a couple of them. We shall see...

Thursday bread

This time it's wholegrain rye mix. The taste is a bit heavier than a normal wheat bread. But I am Russian, and our traditional bread is rye bread, so I really enjoy the taste of it.

The napkin is, by the way, the result of the previous weekend in the Netherlands. The napkin itself comes from Dille en Kamille, I only had to add a crochet edging.

Rye bread is the most difficult to bake I think. It's structure is too thick and wet, and you have always a risk that it will ot rise properly. Luckily for me, this time it's turned out quite well.

I also managed to bake a plum crumble cake. It was delicious! It didn't last long though. We managed to eat it in 2 days. And now all I have left are the memories...

Well, let's add a little bit of colour.

I love baking! And as you hae noticed, I am quite proud with my napkin.

Buttons

I've bought the last edition of Anna magazine today. Yes, I am really happy with it. There are a couple of interesting ideas and a lot of inspiration in it. I also read about this website, where you can order all kind of wounderfull buttons for your patchwork or other creative projects. It's really worth taking a look at it!

Just to give you an idea:

Or for those among us who is already preparing for the Christmas Holidays Giftmaking:

They are so cute! I would buy all of them if not the price. Let's be honest - they are not cheap. But I must agree, they have a huge choice and ,anyway, I won't find these kind of things here in Belgium in a regular shop.

This is also a useful way to reduce your scrap stash:

I bought two pillow cases which were too big for my pillows but also too cheap to let them go. So I had to make them smaller, which left me with two pieces of fabric I could you use for another pair of pillow cases. I also had some white cotton fabric stashed at home. One hour of measuring, cutting and sewing (yes, I know, I am a slow one ;-) - and voila, I have two extras! I believe this kind of things are always useful and welcome in every housekeeping.

It's pumpkin time!

I have found today a wounderful blog/website which tells you all about bread baking!
Just look at all these tasty things - don't you feel urged to rush into the supermarket for the ingredients?
I have picked a couple of recipes for myself to try out this autumn. I want to start using pumpkin a bit more in my cooking and baking. It's such a terrific vegetable and it suits autumn cuisine so well!

And what do you think about these marvelous butternut muffins from J. Oliver? I am definitely going to try this! And here you see the result of it:

Right, do you recognise the granny blocks?

Nice colour matching, don't you think?..

Little garden

What you do if you don't have a garden?

You try to make the best of what you do have:

And enjoy the result!