autumnal wish list

lovely autumnal bits and pieces - I want them all.

Fluffy black cardi - Topshop

Heart Dress - A Beautiful Mess for Modcloth

Geo printed leggings - UO

Bison sweatshirt - Ohh Deer

Plaid a little love bag - Modcloth

Lace-up boots - Topshop

Llama Print Pinafore Dress - Topshop

Woven winter shoulder bag - UO

Triangle cage necklace - UO

Pin up girl brooch - Ladybird Likes

Quilted contrast coat - ASOS 

Hooded coat - Lauren Moffatt

Oversized scarf - UO

Johann Earl tartan dress - ASOS

a much loved recipe: chocolate brownies

This chocolate brownies recipe is one of my staples. I've been using the same one since I returned from uni (ahem, four years ago). Before we all parted ways at the end of third year I compiled a cookbook featuring all my flat mates' best recipes - this was one of them.

Ingredients:

175g (6oz) unsalted butter

125g (4 1/2 oz) plain (or dark) chocolate - broken into pieces for melting

3 large eggs

150g (5oz) golden caster sugar

75g (3oz) ground almonds

75g (3oz) plain flour

50g (2oz) plain chocolate chips (although I used milk chocolate on this occasion)

50g (2oz) white chocolate broken into smallish pieces

icing sugar to dust

What you gotta do:

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C (that's 350 F).

Cut the butter into pieces and melt, along with the plain (or dark) chocolate, in a saucepan. Keep it on a low-medium heat and keep stirring - don't let the mixture burn or get stuck to the bottom!

Whisk the eggs and sugar together, around 5 mins should do it, until think and fluffy. Combine with the melted chocolate/butter mixed.

Fold in the ground almonds, flour, white chocolate pieces and plain chocolate chips.

Pour the mixture into a lined 20x20cm tin.

Bake for about 30 mins or until well risen and slightly firm at the edges.

Leave to cool in the tin and then turn out and dust with icing sugar. 

Cut into squares and then eat or, if you're feeling generous, share them!

Although I've not tired another brownies recipe it doesn't mean I'm not up for the challenge (I just know this one always turns out well). So, if you know of an excellent brownie recipe please do tell - I am aware that I am a creature of habit, cooking and baking the same (loved) recipes time after time but perhaps it's time for a change...one things for certain, I've got a growing pinterest board boasting all sorts of amazing foods and they aren't going to cook themselves!

Tuesday's Tees - Something Nice

So I'm not sure if these count as tees buuut...I make the rules here at Tuesday's Tees so today this is what's going down.

I happened across Robin's blog and subsequently her shop. At first glance I thought these were excellent tees nicely styled with cool skirts. I was wrong. They are in fact tee dresses! (see there is a tee connection) 

Aren't they pretty!? My favourite is the anchor one :)

weekending fun

I was rather taken with this Iguanodon soft toy and the slogan sweets in the natural history museum gift shop

secret screening 

quilt planning and brownies

September's weekends have been particularly awesome this year, and the latest one did not disappoint! Being the last weekend before pay-day, Friday was a quiet one - more new york based movies and a take-away. On Saturday I made use of the glorious sunshine with a walk around the park followed by an early evening visit to the Natural History Museum. If you're worried about the weekend crowds at the museums I'd recommend going at around 4:30 - tourists and families have normally had enough by then and cleared off home, plus you still get an hour and a half to wander around. Mitch then treated me to dinner and a movie. We went to a steak place, the food was so good. I've only had steak twice before and never in a restaurant - it's just not something I'd usually order - but I'm glad I did. After, we watched The Imposter in our own v.private screening. Mitch's company deals with digital projectors and have a mini cinema on site inside their building. With permission we were kindly allowed to watch the film in there (which was pretty cool). Incase you're not familiar with it, The Imposter is a documentary film about a boy who went missing from Texas when he was about 12 years old. Four years later a 'boy' is found in Spain who may or may not be the missing Nicolas Barclay... I don't really want to say anything more because the twists are insane - even more so because it's a true story. It's compelling stuff - I highly recommend it. As for Sunday, the foul weather confined me to the flat so I started working on a new quilt and baked some chocolate brownies. Hope you all had a good weekend too!

the only stamp in my passport

New York holiday planning continues. We've applied for our short stay visas which got me thinking about my empty passport. Despite owning my current passport for 5 and a half years there's only one solitary stamp inside it. I got it when I travelled by ferry from Italy to Albania. My 5 days in Albania were certainly an eye-opener, not a holiday as such, more of an endurance test. 

Don't get me wrong, the scenery was beautiful, I ate v.well, met some nice people and I learned a lot - the culture of eastern europe was something of a shock for my naive 21-year-old-self. The problem for me was that I was thrown into something I hadn't been prepared for, under different circumstances it could've been a great holiday... I came back from Albania feeling enlightened but also annoyed. To get rid of all the pent-up anger I wrote 5 pages about my experience, not all of it bad. It wasn't the country's fault that I felt so rubbish about my time there, by any means, but if you read what I wrote you'd never what to go there either. Now, four years on, I see what happened to me as a learning curve about a good number of things, I also realised that I never really looked back over the photos I took, mostly because I didn't want to think about the trip. Like I said though, the Albanian scenery was quite spectacular so, here, as some sort of 'moving on' thing, I'm bringing the pics into the light.

  

Hills, beaches, even more coast, restaurants over the sea, old houses left to crumble, Tirana, an abandoned factory at the side of the road.

bits & pieces

Just a couple of things I've been up to lately. Inspired by this from Jesse's blog I decided to put up a changeable photo line using string and mini pegs. As we're renting our flat and the landlady wouldn't be too chuffed with us making lots of holes in the walls, I find that this works perfectly. Last week I doodled on an otherwise rather plain tote bag using a fabric pen. I've also been rummaging through my fabric scraps box to find stuff for a new project.

Quite a few of the blogs I follow are written by great bloggers who freelance or work for themselves, something which I most definitely aspire to. I hugely admire them but I also wonder how, how do they do it? I should think myself lucky as my job does allow me to be creative and has introduced me to many awesome things. On the downside I can't stand being in an office 5 days a week, it suits some but not me, and it's hard to come back from an 8 hour day and feel motivated every evening to get on with my own projects. Some nights are more productive than others but then I guess that's how it is for everyone. Ultimately I would love to make stuff for a living, and maybe one day I will but for now I'm not quite good enough or financially stable enough or, if I'm honest, disciplined enough. So heres to you all you DIY-ers, making your own path – you are cool.