This is impressive, Tif the star of dottie angel blog has decided to create a challenge. She will use and buy secondhand and handcrafted goods for a year.  Check the few below who have made a good start.

Abigail’s Pocatello

Mum design

May the cloth be with you

I love the idea of it and am thinking about it, but worried I won’t keep it up.  Please send me ideas and advice if you’ve started with dottie’s challenge.

Halloween was my favourite!  I sent my husband off to the shops to buy a pumpkin.  I was going to make the soup and he could have fun carving it.  I wasn’t sure about a recipe, so had a little go at making my own and it worked wonderfully.

Verymissberry Pumpkin Soup

1 small Pumkin

I large Sweet Potato

1/2 an Onion

500ml Veggie Stock (Low salt)

200ml Milk

1cm grated Ginger

2 small cloves garlic

A bunch of Corriander

Pinch  of Salt & Pepper

Chop all the veggies and garlic and roast them with a touch of oil in the oven for 30mins on Gas Mark 6. When they look soft, pop them in a pan on the hob and add the 500ml of stock along with ginger, coriander and salt & pepper and leave to simmer for a further 15mins before adding the milk and then turn the heat and continue to simmer for 10 mins.  Taste and season as needed!

Its really nice to save and roast the pumpkin seeds to sprinkle on top. (Keep them out of the hubbys sight, mine ate them all before hand.)

Yum yum yum!

I’ve found these new sheepskin boots, they look a great alternative to Uggs in the UK and seem to be real sheepskin and better quality. I would love a pair, with all the snow here at the moment!

Life’s back to normal work and sleep, work, sleep and eat.  Though I have found time to make this yummy recipe I wanted to share with all you fish lovers out there.

I have recently found lemon sole, not the most flavoured of fish but great if you cook it with creativity.  So here goes,

place the fish in a flat dish, making sure you score both sides to let the flavour in.  Set the oven to Gas mark 6 and start chopping the ingredients.  Tomatoes, garlic, basil, red onions, mushrooms, lemons, salt & pepper I roughly chopped them all and placed them over my fish and then made a dressing of lemon, garlic and olive oil to drizzle over the top before placing in the oven.  I only cooked two pieces of sole and this took about 10 - 15 mins.

It works really well with salted Canarian style potatoes and salad.  Wonderful!

After a wonderful wedding, quite a lot of injections and a little help from our friends and family we were all set for our trip to Africa.

A rather long flight, though free champagne and then my first time on light aircraft we arrived in Zanzibar.  A bit of culture and then a well earned rest by the coast!  We headed to Stone Town and the Zenji Hotel.  Stone Town is steeped in culture with its winding alleys, bustling bazaars, mosques and grand Arab houses and for Richard a wonderful amount of carved, wooden doors - there are more than 500 different examples, though we didn’t see them all.  It really was a labyrinth of narrow streets and alleyways, where the local people are glad to show you the way.

Our time in Zanzibar wouldn’t have been complete without some, chill out time on the beach.  We headed an hour north and a very bumpy cab ride to Nungwi on the northern tip of the island. Nungwi’s beach is more a series of small beaches, but it has no seaweed and very little tide compared with the rest of the Island.   We stayed in Flame Tree Cottages further away from the main tourist area and it was lovely, very quiet and had a great little beach restaurant.

Whilst on Zanzibar we tried snorkling off the most idilic island and had a great tour of the local village from Romeo (found most day on the beach near flame tree).  We visited a turtle sanctuary where injured turtles and other marine animals are nursed back to health before being released into the warm waters of the Indian Ocean. Though lets not forget the Dhou trip and seeing Dolphins, it was just great.

The second leg of trip involved more light plain journeys, before arriving in Selous the largest but least well known of all Tanzania’s game parks.  We hadn’t even touched down and I’d seen my first Giarffe.  Arriving to cool towels mango juice and a surprising game drive straight away, we knew we’d made the right choice with Selous Impala Camp.  The camp was amazing and our tent was right at the edge of the Rufuji River.  On our first night we awoke to a bull elephant tearing at the trees next to our camp, a scary experience.  The food was great, our driver was great and we saw a massive amount of animals from lion cubs to kingfishers.  I could have lived there!

A lass we had to leave and set fight for our last port of call The Tides on Oshongo beach.  This was truly in the middle of no where, landing on a field where the whole local village was gather under a small tree to see us and the plain arrive.  We drove through very poor areas of Africa to arrive at a beautiful palm tree beach on some unspoilt coastline.  Our days were spent relaxing read talking to local children and more relaxing.  Just what we needed at the end of our trip.

I just want thank all the people who bought us gifts and excursions relating to our amazing honeymoon, we loved them all.

On 07.08.09 I got married to Richard Holt.  The day was lovely and I now have a few pictures to show to the world.  Our photographer was Victoria Hamilton and she was super and has captured so many perfect memories for us to treasure.

The day started at my mums and after a few hours getting my hair and makeup done then squeezing into my dress I was ready.  I managed to find all the tradition items, old, new, borrowed and blue.

When my Dad arrived we had a few family pictures in the back garden before mum and bridesmaid left for church.  At which point nerves set in, so I decided I needed a few pieces of toast to stop my tummy growling at the alter.

I had picked a wonderful car to take me to the church, a vintage 1930s Austin. It was totally fitting for the vintage styled day.  Though rather tricky to get into in a tight corseted wedding dress!

Richard got a little surprise as well, his sister and friends had sorted out a Delorean to get him to the church on time.  This was a massive hit and I’m sure calmed his nerves and the guests loved it later.

The bestman and bridesmaid were great and made the day extra special by helping it run to perfection and earlier in the month organising great parties for us.  So a big thank you to them and all the others who helped us sort out our perfect day!

In the end the day was perfect and I married a very special person who I’ll be able to share the rest of my life with.  A big thank you to Richard! x

Well these are the first of the wedding pictures.  This is how my tables looked, my new husband (holster) created the table names and I decided on the rest.  We had vintage table cloths in the centres, Leifheit jars with my flowers in.  The flowers were grown by Sue at Sweet Loving Flowers, and I was so happy with them.  We had little jars with sweets and lots of pretty ribbons and of course my teacups!

It was a lovely day, the sun was out, we had all our friends and family were around and the venue looked stunning.

Watch this space for more pictures and wedding bits.

Two weeks to go and only a few last things to do.  I’ve collected tea cups, tablecloths, ribbons, made baggage tags, and created mini bunting.  I’m not sure what’s left to do apart from get married and have a good time.

I am very pleased with my flower jars, they are by Leifheit and are just great.  After the wedding I am going to have to start making jams and preserves to fill all my lovely glasswares.

Its not quite as perfect as the large bunting, but it will look cute where ever I use it.

My partner in crime at work had a little baby a few weeks ago, so I got busy creating the prefect little shoes.  I regret not taking any nice pictures before giving them.  Here they are being modeled so beautifully though.

To think I thought they were to small.  As these where so greatly received I thought I’d make a pair for my next door neighbours who’s just had a baby as well.

I’ve had to do something to distract myself from the guys who seem to have moved in, only a few doors down with there pumping dance music.

A banana and green tea cake!  A bit of an experiment, but it is actually quite nice, though maybe a little dry.  i just can’t seem to get the green tea recipes right.

I only this isn’t a sign of what I have to look forward to over the summer!  Enough moaning as I need to enjoy my cake.