They mustn’t eat much at Riverford.

Riverford fruitmeatveg box is receiving mixed reviews from us.

The meat is good. I’ll do that bit again, but the fruit and veg bit? Well, frankly I was expecting more. It’s fresh and tastes great, but well…… They mustn’t eat much at Riverford. I chose the size box we had because the info guide on their website said it “feeds 2-3 people for a week”. I thought this meant it would feed us for every meal for a week. Eh, no. Unless they have bird like appetites at Riverford and 2 out of the 3 people don’t eat!

…… Plus they rang and gave me the hard sell on the phone, which kind of made me want to go try a less pushy provider. So, next up to try is Cusgarne- just up the road and apparently a fairly chilled out bunch. http://www.cusgarneorganicfarm.co.uk/

I have also begun to realise that going totally organic might be a bit hard on my lean maternity leave wallet, so I’ve been reading up on the top 12 organic foods to eat here: http://www.ewg.org/foodnews/summary/

The organic experiment continues…..

Riverford veg & meat box

I’ve been thinking a lot about what I am putting into and on my body now I am caring for & feeding a little. I have started to make a few changes.

Our little is breast fed and I didn’t like the idea of his sweet head and hands being so close to such scary sounding chemicals, so I switched from a standard roll on deodorant to one with less chemicals. That didn’t seem too hard, so I started using a Lush deo bar (have now been using it for 2 weeks and still within acceptable smell range!)

This change went so well that I got all smugbrave and started to investigate veg boxes. I went with Riverford in the end because they offered a fruit-veg-meat box that made ordering simple. I am all about getting a task done in 10 minutes.

Today our organic meat and veg box arrived. Supposedly it feeds 2-3 for a week. It cost £45. We shall see how far it goes…….I went all bloggyhomefancy in the photo and put flowers in and everything. The cup of tea did not come with it, but it might be a nice touch if they’d deliver tea with the boxes next time!

New things

Our New Year has lots of new things in it. The chief one being a baby. So I have begun crafting baby related things…..well I began crafting for him before he came….then he arrived and he is he baby-that-eats-time, so the crafting is in small and short doses.

Today I made this for him. I read some scary articles about the dangers of talc right after I finished a thing of powder…..great. Might have been better to read those articles before. Nevermind-move-on-don’t-panic. So I did a bit of research made this as an alternative, which we are using right now:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Cornflour baby powder

Add some drops of lavender essential oil to cornflour.

Prise top of old talc pot.

Put in cornflour mix.

Use

Baby seems to not object and it smells lovely…..well for a while anyway, until he changes that!

These links were really useful:

http://naturalmommie.com/
http://www.babycenter.com/
http://wellnessmama.com/

 

Art deco wedding invitation

We’ve just posted off a new wedding invitation from Good Job

♥

Anna & Ian asked Good Job Creative Studio to provide design services for their May 2012 wedding party in London.

Advertising their party at the Garden Museum in London, the invites were designed with an art deco, garden party theme that entices the guest with a promise of “A fine feast and a little dancing”.

Thanks to Kirstin Prisk for the photography.

♥

Procrastinate for creativity

I have discovered that procrastinating is my time for finding INSPIRED photos of oddity and interest.
I would go so far as to say that during times of dormant creativity all I need to do is be set a task that I don’t really want to do, but has a deadline attached to it and ‘/ping/’ I am suddenly inspired to do all manner of creative things other than the task at hand.
I have started to keep a notebook to hand in work, for the ideas that pop up, out of a rebellious brain…..

So without further ado, I introduce you to  the fruits of my procrastination – A selection of hats:
First up is a fabulous and frivolous man hat:

followed by his friends with their strictly-no-kissing hats:

And lastly a hat and a weapon for the modern miss about town:

All images found here: http://www.retronaut.co/2011/04/historic-wtf-part-2/

What a good idea

I saw this picture and thought
‘What a good idea’….

Found here via here

Patchwork cushion

A long time ago – lets call it many cups of tea and fruit and nut bars ago, I made a large piece of patchwork with no real final project in mind – it is made of bits of everything I have been working on and some leftover buttons.

I ironed the patchwork onto some interfacing to give it a bit more structure and also to stop it unravelling

I do this with most of my off road sewing so the whole thing doesn’t just unravel the first time it’s actually used.

(…the best bit was hammering in the snap on poppers….there really should be more sewing projects which need a hammer to finish them off…..)

The time lapse from the making of the patchwork, to ironing on the interfacing was cup-of- tea -length:

The time lapse from here to cushion was months.

Sometimes projects like to stew a bit.

We’ve been using the cushion for ages before the light today made me chuck the cushion on a chair, reach for the camera and grab the owl…..

(well, the cushion looked lonely without a prop and the cat is busy bashing the kitten from down the road. Nice.)

Letterpress and fabric wedding invitation

Geen and Sarah are getting married, so the talented Neil at Good Job and I worked with them to create a wedding invitation that suited them.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Sarah has a huge love of vintage fabric and old quirky things, so we designed them a wedding invite to look like a 1950s fabric sample card, with the wedding information on the right half of the card and a space for a fabric sample on the left.

 

Photos by Kirstin Prisk and wedding design by Good Job Creative Studio

♥

Clean all the things

Am loving this website: Hyperbole and a Half

This image in particular strikes a culling chord with me:

Image taken from http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

You can even buy the image on an apron….

Image taken from http://hyperboleandahalf.blogspot.com/

How to make a calendula infusion

I really like this post on how to make a calendula infusion: CALENDULA.

It has been hacking down all day and I have been thinking about what to plant this year…

I’d like a whole bed of marigolds in the raised bed….in and around the non functioning raspberry cane. It knows if it doesn’t kick into action this year, it’s OUT!

I’ve been thinking about my snoozing creativity and where it leaves me…..

I found this quote (here) by Ira Glass on creativity really dinged a bell in my brain:

“What nobody tells people who are beginners — and I really wish someone had told this to me . . . is that all of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, and it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not.

But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase. They quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know it’s normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story.

It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”

….so listening to these very sensible words, I sat down and made something….and I will again tomorrow….and maybe that will coax the sleeping bear out of its cave…..