Tuesday 29 April 2014

Multichrome space invaders and some florals




 

More stamps from the past few months.

Sunday 27 April 2014

Picnic on the balcony - with recipes


The weather was really nice today, and I really felt like picnic, but have too much shit to do at home (my get shit done list is long due to procrastination), so I wound up making picnicky food and eating on the balcony with a book for company (though I would actually have enjoyed more social company today).

It's barely warm enough to sit out there without a sweater and warm socks now that the sun went around the corner - in the morning it was too hot to sit for long with the sun straight on and no wind. But it was nice: I closed my eyes and listened to the seagulls, and being baked by the sun. If I imagined a salty tang on the air it was like being back on my childhood islands on a summer day.

I ate pasta sallad and homemade lemonade. I had planned to post the recipes but I already got questions about them so I will do it RIGHT NOW.

Lemonade with ginger
1.5 liter finished lemonade

130-150g fresh ginger
3 large lemons
3 tbl sp sugar
water

Peel and slice the ginger, place in a pot
Slice the lemons in thin slices and place in pot (if you are making pasta sallad at the same time: Save one lemon from the pot, it can be added later)
Cover with water and boil up
Add sugar if you want it, about 1 table spoon per large lemon, add or subtract to taste
Mash down the lemons to get all the juice up, leave at a boil until the lemons are mostly dissolved.

Strain into a jug
Add the juice from the last lemon if you went that route
Add cold water until it is 1.5 litres - I poured it all into an empty bottle, shook it up, and put it in the fridge.

Serve chilled and probably over ice. The flavour is slightly more adult due to the spicyness of the ginger, and it is an excellent booster for your immune system if you have caught that late spring cold that seems to be doing the rounds.

Pasta sallad/Chicken sallad
Note: 1 cup is 237ml, but exact measures aren't needed - just roughly that amount.

1/2 cup mayonnaise
1/2 cup creme fraiche or sourcream
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tblsp lemon juice
1 tblsp lemon zest (I zested the last lemon for the lemonade and squeezed some juice from it)
1 tsp sugar
A little salt
A little white pepper

1 cup diced bellpeppers or celery (according to preference - other vegetables can be substituted if you like)
1/2 cup green onions, sliced (spring onions, sallad onions, in Scandiland)
2 cups of cooked diced chicken or 4 cups of cooked pasta

Combine the ingredients in the first section in a bowl, add the vegetables.
If you are making chicken sallad, add cooled cooked chicken now, and put in fridge for 1-2 h before serving, though it sits well overnight.
For pasta sallad, cook the pasta al dente and rinse in cold water, mix it with the goop just before serving.

Add a sprinkling of blue cheese, some dried cranberries, or sunflower seeds if you like.

Saturday 26 April 2014

Friday 25 April 2014

Industrial Valentine

I can't find that I posted these back in February, but here they are. Since it was a friday I was going to a synth event - so hearts and cog wheels! 


Wednesday 23 April 2014

Holo!

I love nailpolish with a holo effect (rainbow colorshift, like a discoball). I prefer the linear holos, the stronger the better, but a scatter holo can be pretty damn awesome too..

Jade holografico, linear, indoor lighting

Zoya blaze, scatter

Zoya Aurora, my hands down favourite polish to date! 

Happy birthday

Alasdair and Olivia 1 year old today!

Babies!


Sunday 20 April 2014

Alasdair


Saturday 19 April 2014

Nemesis

Nemesis helped me tidy on the balcony, and put seeds in three big planters.


Friday 18 April 2014

Shiny black

This is my shiniest plain black mani ever. My camera freaked out.


One of those days

It'll soon be too warm to wear this for a few months, but today is a grey drizzly somehow chilly morning and I will totally wear my eeyore onesie until I have to get ready to leave the house!

Wednesday 16 April 2014

Trapped inside looking out

Spent most of last week at a course (about labour legislation, which is super interesting!) - but we were stuck inside looking out at the lovely spring weather that finally arrived on the last day.
 The first two days it rained, and rained, and rained. 

Tuesday 15 April 2014

Lawn

These flowers were blooming before winter returned early this month, but now they are back, and have multiplied. A sign that spring is for real now?

Monday 14 April 2014

Colour changers




I can't help it, I love polish that change colours depending on angle and how the light falls, socalled duo or multichromes. Here are a few - all of them over black.

Sunday 13 April 2014

Green thumb

I just started my balcony garden for the year; sowing a miniature wildflower meadow in a big pot. I'll add more as inspiration strikes, and once I have cleaned out there. 





Saturday 12 April 2014

Vivid Lacquer!



Plate VL019 with Nails Inc Old Park Lane over VL Black creme

 So I got a box of lovelies from Anni at Vivid Lacquer a while back and have started using some of them. Here are a few photos!
Plate VL017 over a grey VL from the Buffy line (I asked for an anthracite holo and I got one and I am so in love!) with two coats of Theoretical Rockstar on the accent finger. 

Spring poking up

Peeking through the hedge in a maze


Friday 11 April 2014

Sunday 6 April 2014

Purry snuggles

I got "help" packing my bag, from both cats - here's Alasdair. We got lots of snuggles in while I took a cat-decreed break from packing!


Thursday 3 April 2014

Squirreled away

I made this necklace as a birthday gift for a friend who likes squirrels. I had been hoarding the squirrel for ages waiting to find out when her birthday was :)