Author: Marina

Wholemeal bread

        
We got used to eat amazing bread while we were in Italy, and now that we are back in the UK we can’t really get adjusted to the local one. So we are baking our own. I must say, we had a breadmaker for over three years now, but never really liked the results; it’s useful to do mixing, but the cooking bit is disappointing. So I started to use the oven instead, but with a little trick…..pizza stone! 
And it works magic!
No excuses for not eating fresh bread everyday now 🙂

Goodbye Summer // Welcome Autumn

Summer memories 2011
It’s the first day of fall today and it made me think about the long summer we had this year…..we spent over two months in Italy. We had a great time; lots of good homegrown food, swimming, sunshine, walks on the mountains, laughters and a lot of family. There have been not so great times too, but when you think about the past, your mind somehow remember all the good things and forget the bad ones!

Autumn is here

But now autumn is here, and I’m trying to think positively about the new season ahead. This year it will be different, in a very good way, but I want to be prepared. Our house will be changing to embrace the season, tones and colours will be matching the surrounding nature, the food will be warm and comfy and our lifestyle will slow down (just a bit!) so that we’ll still have enough energy to go through the winter.

At the library

Could not get around the fact that yesterday the public library was closed (on Wednesdays!) so I spent the day thinking about all the books I was going to look for today.
I only spent about 1 hour there, sitting on a comfy couch, in silence, flicking through about 15 books, looking for ideas and inspiration.
Came back home with only four, as more would have been too heavy to carry. Moving from top left clockwise:
  • baby knits for beginners, by Debbie Bliss
  • Knit, Purl, Save the World – knit and crochet projects fro eco-friendly stitchers, by Vickie Howell & Adrienne Armstrong
  • One skein – 30 quick projects to knit and crochet, by Leigh Radford
  • The Knitter’s Year – 52 simple seasonal knits, by Debbie Bliss
The projects look gorgeous and simple…let’s see what I can make out of them!

Countdown to Christmas

So it starts! and this year will be more special with a little someone joining us just before the holidays. That means my countdown is even shorter…..only 76 days to go 🙂

Summer memories

I love collecting memorabilia from the beach over the summer months. I remember  collecting all sorts of pebbles, wood sticks, roots, shells and whatever I could find on the seaside when I was young. But really never got to use any of these things, they used to end up in the bin as soon as we were back home from the holidays.

This year I decided I would make something to remember the summer days we spent in Italy. I collected some halved cane sticks from our favourite beach in Roccelletta (Calabria, Southern Italy). I cleaned them from all the sand and cut them to the same length leaving some rough edges.  I had already bought one of those deep frames from Ikea from the bargain corner a while ago, which hadn’t found any use, so far. I glued the sticks to a cut-to-size 300g cream paper which G brought me from paper source and used a 2B pencil to write some text at the bottom.

I haven’t found a place on the wall for it yet, but I already like the idea of looking at it during the next winter months and remember the sunny days we spent relaxing on the beach.