How To: Turn a Jumper Into a Cat Bed

We have 3 cats, 2 of which are outdoor cats who sleep in the shed. We've had one of those climbing towers since the 2 younger cats were kittens and it's in a precarious state of disrepair these days. It's still their bed in the shed, although they've grown so much that only one can fit on at a time now. Through the summer this wasn't a problem but as the days are getting colder it means one cat is sleeping on the cold shed floor.

Rather than buy a new cat bed that'd cost anywhere from £15-30 for something cosy, I thought I'd turn my hand to upcycling and see what I could create. I'd seen a post on Facebook months ago showing how someone else had turned an old jumper into a bed and since Tom had a pile of jumpers waiting to go to charity I nabbed one!

Here is how I did it in picture form...

Sew up the neck hole

Sew from armpit to armpit then stuff the arms & neck to create the sides of the bed

Tuck the end of one arm into the other then stitch them together

Pad the body of the jumper and trim the excess from the bottom, turn it over and stitch the body to the arms

And you're done! Donate to a furry friend 

Recipe: Endo-Friendly Banana 'Ice-Cream'

I chose this recipe today to celebrate as today was the last Zoladex injection I need before my lap next month! Avoiding dairy and sugar has been difficult (and I've slipped quite a bit on sugar..) so finding this recipe has been a god send. This is definitely one for your sweet tooth, saved for those occassions when you absolutely need something sweet but don't want to slip off the bandwagon. Obviously it isn't real ice-cream, but it's close enough! It does take some pre-planning and you may not get to the ice-cream stage - while preparing my first attempt I couldn't wait for it to freeze and ended up with ice-cold mashed banana! :)

Serves 1

Ingredients:
1 Banana
Fruit Syrup (optional)

Method:
1. Break the banana up into chunks
2. Freeze then part-thaw the banana
3. Blend the banana until it's smooth and creamy
4. Serve with fruit syrup

Very budget friendly, very tastebud friendly!

Recipe: Endo-Friendly Spicy Lentil and Chicken Soup

This is a new twist on an old favourite of ours and is really simple to make. Spicy chicken soup is a fall-back whenever we fancy something satisfying, warming but still healthy and budget-friendly - it really hits all bases! I especially like this recipe as you can get away with just 1 large chicken breast for 2 people. Chicken isn't cheap (there's a pun there somewhere) so needing half the amount definitely helps the food bill. I was doubtful when I first tried it, but you really do end up with a LOT of chicken once it's shredded. If you're not a fan of spicy foods it's really simple to swap out the spices and put herbs like Basil, Thyme and Parsley in their place too.

(Serves 2)
Ingredients:
100g Red Split Lentils
Olive Oil
1 Onion, chopped
1 Carrot, chopped
1 Garlic Clove
1 Large Chicken Breast
400ml Chicken Stock
270g Crushed Tomatoes
1tsp Cumin
1tsp Cayenne Pepper
Salt
Black Pepper

Method:

1. Heat the oil in a large saucepan on a medium heat and add the onion, carrot and garlic - cook for 5 minutes.
2. Add the chicken, cumin and cayenne and cook fur a further 5 minutes until the chicken starts to brown.
3. Stir in the stock and water then simmer for 15 minutes or until the chicken is cooked through.
4. Remove and set aside the chicken and add the lentils and tomatoes, leave to simmer for 15-20 minutes. While the soup is simmering, shred the chicken breast.
5. Add the chicken back to the soup and simmer for a further 5-10 minutes.
6. Season to taste and serve.

For a naughty added extra crush some lightly salted corn chips (make sure they're gluten/soya/milk free - Asda Smart Price ones are but don't know about other brands) and sprinkle them over the top for a crunchy layer.

Eco-Friendly Easter Ideas

Hi guys!

With Easter just a week away I thought I'd give you some quick ideas on how to keep things green and save money. :) The activities especially are either very cheap or free!

Easter Eggs:
1. Buy easter eggs with as little packaging as possible.
2. Try to buy fairtrade/organic wherever you can.
3. Make a list of everyone you're buying for and get them all at once to save on transport costs.
4.  Buy the eggs on your regular food shop to save an extra trip to the shop.
5. Keep the plastic packaging from the inside as moulds so you can make your own next year!

Activities:
1. Why not try using natural dyes to create your own coloured eggs?
2. Organise an Easter Egg Hunt for kids or even adults!
3. Bake your own Easter Biscuits.
4. Make an origami rabbit!

Some friends are coming to stay at the weekend and their little boy is 3, so I'll definitely be trying some of these ideas myself. :) I'll make sure to take pictures and post the results!

Making your own Water Butt

The summer is approaching and already the warnings about drought have started. Hose pipe bans are inevitable and any avid gardeners are going to have expensive water bills. Although its difficult to believe that we're going to run low on water when it's been raining non-stop all day (and a lot of the weekend!) now is the perfect time to be thinking about this. Making your own water butt will collect all the rain that's falling now and save it for the dry months approaching when you'll really need it.

There are commercial water butts available, but these tend to be quite expensive. It's much cheaper and also better for the environment to make your own as you can recycle materials. The best material to use is plastic - it's waterproof, you can get large containers and since plastic isn't biodegradable you'll be saving it from landfill and repurposing it instead. A temporary solution is to use a wooden container with a pond liner or polythene bag inside, however the bag could split or the wood could break under the water pressure so it's not good as a long-term water butt.

The best containers are old plastic food bins that can be picked up on internet auction sites pretty easily. They're perfect because they come with a lid that makes them child friendly and pet safe, as well as less likely for mosquitos to breed in them. There are also a variety of sizes available, from 70 to 200 litres. When you aquire one of these containers you need to get it steam cleaned to prevent any residual bacteria from growing fungi.

There are two ways to access the water; through the top of the butt or by fitting a special tap lower in the wall that is sealed by aquatic sealant. If you go for the latter option, be sure to choose a sealant that doesn't contain fungicides which will contaminate the water. Tap kits are available in most garden centres. Getting water from the top is quicker and easier than a tap, but when water levels get lower this becomes more difficult. It also leaves a higher chance of mosquitos breeding.

Some of the other options that work well are old oil drums, although they can be expensive to get, and old oak barrels which are aesthetically pleasing and can be sourced from dedicated suppliers. With the oak barrel you will need to install a wooden water spigot instead of a tap, making sure to use the fungicide free aquatic sealant.

Whatever option you go for, you'll be ensuring you have water for your plants throughout the summer months and smug in the knowledge that you're helping the environment. The more water butts you have the better off you will be and if you place them around the garden you'll maximise your chances of catching the rain water while simultaneously reducing the distance you need to carry a heavy watering can!


So what do you think? Will you be making a water butt while the rain is here?

How-To: Make Cheese Scones!

Since visiting Marks & Spencer on Mother's Day I have had a craving for cheese scones. They had them on sale in the cafe, I don't just get random cravings when I'm there! I wondered how to make them a few times, but didn't really bother to look into it as I was having too much fun with making muffins.
At work we've been raising money for The Stroke Association throughout March (raised £85 in total - woo!). They sent us a fundraising pack but until now I haven't opened it - useful I know. Inside they had all the usual advice on planning events, information about the charity etc. but they also had some recipes in there to sell at the Tea Party they recommended throwing. Imagine my delight when I saw that one of the recipes was cheese scones!

Lately I've had a bad stomach, the only symptom being really bad pain in my stomach at all times. It's annoying, but I've been trying to get on with life as best I could. This afternoon at work it got a bit much and since I had no more appointments I headed home for some R&R. And that brings us to todays post, so you can guess what I've done with the extra time!

Here's the recipe so you can make your own:

Ingredients:
225g self raising flour (I used ordinary flour and 3tsp baking powder)
55g unsalted butter
100g grated mature cheddar cheese
150ml milk
1/4tsp mustard powder (I skipped this step)
Pinch of salt and pepper

Method:

1. Preheat your oven to 200C (220C for non-fan ovens) and cover a baking tray with greaseproof paper.

2. Sift the flour into a bowl with the salt, pepper, mustard powder and butter. Then use your hands to mix it all together.

3. Add the milk and 75g of the cheese and continue mixing it all with your hands until it becomes a soft dough.

You might have to add a little more flour or milk, depending on whether it's too sticky or not sticky enough. Eventually you will end up with a nice, soft dough that looks like this.

4. Put the dough onto a floured surface and knead it before patting it out into a 2cm thick circle.

5. Use a 5cm cutter (I used a glass) to cut the scone shapes and place them on the baking tray.

6. Knead and re-shape the remaining dough until it's all used up.

7. Brush the tops of the scones with milk and sprinkle the remaining 25g of cheese over the top of them.

8. Pop in the oven for 12-15 minutes or until they've risen and gone golden. Once done, take them out and leave to cool.

And voila! Now you have cheese scones and a room full of friends! (Trust me, once the smell starts spreading through the house people will love you!)

Are you going to have a go? Let me know what you think. :)

Post Twenty-One: Icing Flowers and Egg Shells

Good Afternoon lovely readers!

I apologise for my absence over the weekend, but as my wonderful partner Tom pointed out I have to have some down time, and I spent that time pretty well! The strawberry & vanilla muffins turned out brilliantly - getting compliments from everyone who has tried one (or two, or three..) so I'm pretty pleased with that result. Plus I learned a new skill, courtesy of my friend Rachel who is pretty amazing at cake making! I give you...

...an icing flower! The method is pretty simple and one day I'll get around to doing a How-To Guide but for now you'll just have to admire our efforts and be jealous. ;)

As for the egg shells, I've found a lovely picture of an old egg carton and egg shells turned into a mini garden, with an article on how to make your own. The article can be found here.

I'm loving the idea of a mini garden right now and I'm wishing I hadn't thrown the eggs in the bin after making muffins at the weekend! Luckily I still have the carton left, so I'm sure I'll find another use for that somewhere along the line.

How was your weekend? Did you get out in the garden with the lovely weather, or cook up some delicious treats?

Post Twenty: Green Gardening

I know what you're thinking, gardening is about as green as it gets already! And you're right for the most part, but there are still a few ways to get extra green when you're growing things - whether it's just some pretty flowers or some veg. Recycled household items are brilliant to use as pots - some can even be broken down into compost once the plant outgrows them! You can use your imagination for things to recycle, anything from the plastic trays you get meat in to egg shells! For some obvious ideas and even a couple of weird ones check out this article.

Now I warn you, I'm not a keen gardener. Even my best efforts end up dead eventually (sorry Aji!) and that's when I try really hard. But I'm told that growing herbs is ridiculously easy and that even I could do it... so in the spirit of being green in every aspect I'm trying to grow Basil. I use it a lot when making bolognese and I'm told it's the easiest of the lot. Here's my simple guide on how I've done it:

Take two meat trays (clean of course!) and make small holes in the bottom of one.

Pop the one with holes in into the one without and press them together so there's only a small gap at the bottom. Then fill the top one with compost - leaving about 1cm at the top. Next get a coke bottle (or fanta, tango sprite..) and chop the end off to create your own mini greenhouse. You might need more than one depending on the size of your pot, I used two for mine. Use the end to indent the soil so you can see how much space you have for the seeds.

Put the seeds in the little circles making sure you don't overcrowd them. I probably put too many in mine, but whatever! Add a thin layer of compost over the top of the seeds, approximately 0.5cm, then sprinkle them with water. Finally you just need to put the greenhouses in place and wait for them to grow! Don't forget to water them now and then though or nothing will happen. ;)

Have you ever tried growing something edible? How did it turn out? Or are you now going to try basil seeds with me? Let me know in the comments below. :)

Post Seventeen: Banana Muffins, yum!

What a wonderful Wednesday! Today I thought I'd share with you a recipe I found for Banana Muffins, which I made last night and can personally advertise as the best banana muffins I've ever eaten! (Note: I haven't eaten banana muffins before, but these are nom I promise..)
I bought some bananas last week and they were coming to the end of their life, so rather than throw them in the bin I decided to get creative!

You might need to jiggle the cooking temperature/times around a little, as I found the sugar content made the tops brown a little too quickly for my liking. The middle was definitely cooked, but perhaps a little squidgy.

Ingredients
 3 very ripe bananas
 125ml vegetable oil
 2 eggs
 250g plain flour
 100g caster sugar
 1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
 1 tsp baking powder
 150g white chocolate chips

This recipe will make 12 decent sized muffins.
I only had 100g of the chocolate chips, so I improvised with 20g of mini-marshmallows. To be honest, you can't taste the marshmallows so you're probably better off sticking with more chocolate. I can't hear you complaining... ;)

Method

1. Preheat your oven to 200 (This could be where I went wrong - I assumed that meant fan assisted ovens and it probably doesn't. So next time I'm going to try 180ºC instead.)

2. Mash the bananas in a bowl - not the one you're going to be mixing everything in.

3. Mix the eggs and oil together in the bowl you'll be mixing in.

4. Mix the dry ingredients together, then add them to your mixing bowl.

5. Add the mashed banana and chocolate chips (plus marshmallows if you go with that).

6. Divide into muffin cases and place on the baking tray.

7. Cook for 20 minutes, checking frequently in case they're finished sooner! (Mine only took about 16 minutes.)

And there you go! Banana muffins. :) Like I said mine came out a little brown, but they are delicious and don't taste at all burnt.

Post Twelve: How-To Make A Jar of Hearts

How To Make A Jar Of Hearts

If you've been following my blog for the last few days you'll know that I've been working on a secret project for Mother's Day. Since yesterday was the big day, I can now let you all know what the present was. :) I made the card myself and all the hearts in the jar (obviously I didn't make the jar!).

I should've got a smaller jar if I'm honest, as I wasn't able to make enough hearts to fill it in time. But now I have present ideas for the next few years - I plan to get some really nice fabrics and add to mum's collection each birthday, christmas and mother's day. Along with other presents of course!
To give you an idea of what the hearts look like here are a few of them:

So here's the how-to guide. There are a lot of pictures to give you a good idea of how to do each step, so don't be put off by the length of the post - it's actually very simple! Each heart takes about 30-45 minutes to make depending on how good you are with a needle and thread and how big each heart is. I'm sure the experts out there could do one in about 15-20 minutes even.

You Will Need:
Fabric - I used old clothes I didn't want anymore.
Rice (or some other form of filling - why not scraps from cutting out the hearts?)
Needle & Thread

Optional
A sewing machine (way easier than stitching by hand!)
A funnel (makes filling with rice easier)

Method:

1. Draw your design on the WRONG SIDE of the fabric, with a border around to allow for a seam.

2. Cut it out and draw around it on the RIGHT SIDE of the fabric (this is so your shapes match up - if your heart is identical both sides you can draw it on the wrong side).

3. Cut out the second heart and sew the two together RIGHT SIDES facing inwards, leaving about an inch gap along one side.

 



4. Turn it inside out so that the RIGHT SIDE is now on the outside.

5. Fill the heart with rice (or your other filling).

6. Finally, use invisible stitch to close the small gap you left. If you don't know invisible stitch, just use whatever stitch you know - remember it doesn't have to be perfect!

And that's it! Just repeat and make as many hearts as it takes to fill your jar. One thing you can do is add a few drops of essential oil into the rice on just ONE heart. The scent will be really strong so don't do it to all of them! I used lemon and it gave the jar a lovely smell when it was opened. :)

As for the card I made, I keep a lot of the nice birthday/christmas cards I get each year and I have some plain black card for making my own. I just chopped up old cards, ribbon and added glitter to make my own unique card. Plus some metallic gel pens for the writing. Simples!

Post Eight: Mothers Day Presents

It's that time of year again! Shops are stocked to bursting with flowers, teddy bears, jewellery, chocolates, cards... you name it they have it! And they're all telling you that material gifts are the way to show your mum how grateful you are for her constant love and care.

If you have £50 to shell out on that perfume gift set you've seen or a deluxe box of chocolates, that's brilliant. Your mum's face will probably light up when she sees what you've bought her and she'll be warmed by the thought that you appreciate her. But a week later when the chocolate is sitting on her hips, the memory of that feeling won't be fresh in her mind!

Instead, why not make her a gift that she'll cherish forever? A homemade gift personalised to your mum's own tastes won't get thrown out when the house gets too cluttered and she certainly won't be damning you for the extra inches on her waist (unless you've made your own chocolate for her!). A few quick ideas can be found here but all you need to do is get creative! Knit something, weave something, paint something, bake something.. the possibilities are endless. And the great thing is you don't need to sell these items so they don't need to be perfect. They're going to the person who loves you most in the world and will forgive your little mistakes. :)

I love the idea of making your own bath bombs, so here's a simple little guide on how to do it:

Budget bath-bomb
             
What you need
4 tbsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp citric acid, some dried flowers
1 tbsp almond oil
1 -2 drops food colouring
10 drops of essential oils including witch hazel
+ ice cube tray, foil
Important: keep everything dry at all times
How to do it
Step 1: Mix the bicarbonate of soda and citric acid together
Step 2: Stir in the almond and essential oils, food colouring and the flowers
Step 3: Spray on your witch hazel and stir quickly until the mixture goes crumbly
Step 4: Pack the mixture into the mould, nice and tight and leave in an airing cupboard overnight
Step 5: Wrap in foil. They're now ready to use!

I hope to try this method sometime - maybe in time for mothers day if I can get hold of some witch hazel before the weekend. :)

Are you going to make your mum something? Let me know how you get on! :)

On a side note I've finally remembered to take a picture of the box I painted, so here it is: