Pinoy Hubby

I went a bit crazy with the rubber stamping on this card! I had a flower stamp that reminded me a bit of a geometric shape at the same time, and decided to stamp it all over a pink card to create a background. I used black ink, letting the pink of the card show through, and deliberately stamped in a fairly haphazard fashion. I had a pre-cut circle of pink card in my craft stash and stamped the flower again onto that, and secured the circle to the card with adhesive pads so it would stand out. Finally I stamped the words 'happy birthday' onto a piece of pink card, cut the ends to make it more like a banner, and stuck that on the bottom of the card. I'm sharing this with the Simon Says Stamp challenge as their theme is 'make it girly'.

Bakingaddict  is really good at finding places for dinner that offer set menus for pretty reasonable prices, allowing us to eat in some very nice restaurants. I'm also really good at getting lost on the way (yes, despite a print out from Streetmap in my hand and Google Maps on my phone) so invariably keep her waiting! We recently ate at the Montagu at the Hyatt Regency . The Hyatt Regency is a 5-star hotel on Portman Square in London hosting a famous Italian restaurant, Locanda Locatelli, as well as the Montagu. Lobster and Devon Crab Bisque At the Montagu you can book the chef's table - a special table where you can see everything that goes on in the open plan kitchen (restaurants generally charge quite a lot for the privilege). Our table was actually quite close to the kitchen anyway and while I couldn't see everything that was happening, it was quite interesting to be able to see and hear. We remarked to the waitress that the chefs were particularly quiet and polite (no ...

Last year I reviewed a new cereal called Keep Me Going ; the makers, Freedom Cereals, have now sent me their second product, Keep Me Strong. This is a far cry from the sugary cereals I used to like as a child and I think is more likely to be eaten by a health-conscious adult. This product is a high-protein, low fat multi-grain cereal which is also low in salt and has 'reduced' sugar (overall it's 10% sugar - many cereals contain three times that, they say). The cereal uses whole grain brown rice rather than wheat gluten which is commonly used in other cereals, but which Freedom Cereals say is one of the hardest types of protein to absorb, with a low digestibility. Whole grain brown rice is much better absorbed by the body as a protein source though it is more expensive. Freedom is quite upfront about this and say they have experimented with a dozen protein sources and found this one was much better and tasted good. It does mean the Keep Me Strong cereal is £2.65 a box (at O...

Monday butternut squash quinoa risotto Tuesday Out at a work quiz Wednesday Out at a Waitrose event Thursday fish and vegetables for me, chicken and mashed potatoes for him Friday pasta with broccoli pesto for me (using spiralized vegetables instead of pasta) and pasta carbonara for him Saturday Lunch: quinoa cheese tartlets from this recipe Dinner : Slimming World buffalo chicken from this recipe with homemade potato wedges Sunday at my parents' for my birthday visit

Back in the winter I was looking for a dessert that my fiancé would like that didn't involve chocolate, but where I could make individual puddings rather than something big like a sticky toffee pudding. I have a book called Desserts by James Martin and found in it a recipe for a Kentish pudding pie - an old fashioned  English dish consisting of a shortcrust pastry base, filled with a set custard made of ground rice and often citrus flavoured and topped with dried fruit and ground nutmeg. It's served cold, often at Easter. The recipe is available online here . Here I've brought the cream and milk to the boil and added the whisked eggs and sugar. It looks a little lumpy but it got better as it thickened! Lining the tarts with the pastry to bake them blind. I got some great little loose-bottomed tart tins from Amazon. Adding the ground rice, nutmeg and lemon zest and juice to the filling mixture Ready to go in the oven: the cooled pastry cases filled with the lemon and cream m...

This is a card I made for my friend's 7-year old daughter who has decided she wants to be a fashion designer. I had a sheet of die-cut cardboard shapes of dresses and handbags in different colours and decided to make a fashion show theme. I chose a pink card blank and turned it on its side and cut out pieces from a darker pink piece of cardstock to represent curtains and the top of a stage. I stuck a variety of dresses and bags on the card and some stars in the top corners, and finished it off with a Happy Birthday topper. I'm sharing this with Fab Funky Challenges as their theme is 'girly and pretty'.

  If you’re getting married and are into crafts or baking it’s very tempting to decide you are going to make everything for your wedding yourself – but even the most ambitious bride (or groom) will realise they are just not going to have time. There is so much to do in the run-up to a wedding: OK, you’ve booked a photographer, but you have to give them a list of what family photos you want; OK, you’ve found a florist but you need to choose the flowers, find out who in the wedding party wants buttonholes or corsages, arrange when the flowers are going to be delivered, and decide what to do with them afterwards – every task on the to do list seems to split into multiple sub-tasks.   I realised this from the outset, but at the same time wanted some handmade elements for my wedding. As well as the personal touch, it also meant we could save money on certain things – though you have to be careful not to go overboard, thinking you’re saving money by making every guest a take-home gi...