Monday, 12 March 2018

Pinterest Inspired Home Ideas - on a budget.



If like me your Pinterest obsessed you will of lost several nights sleep...

You get into bed and start the obligatory scroll through of various apps, you think its only 11 pm  I'll just have a look on Pinterest till half past and then I'll go to sleep.  The next time you look at the clock its 3 am!! Where does the time go? Do we enter some mysterious vortex? After having a panic attack when I realise I am up in 4 hours I turn my phone off but cant sleep because my heads buzzing full of ideas!
So lessons learnt I only Pinterest at weekends now - just in case!

So this weekend I was on a mission to find inspiration for my fireplace mantle, after all the fire place is the main focal point in any room.
I look in the fancy home magazines and look at all the grand mantle decor in awe. I'm always on a budget and everything in the fancy mags cost a fortune and unfortunately a fortune is what I haven't got!
So I turned to my trusty Pinterest.

After whiling away a couple of hours there was one picture I kept going back to, a picture I liked and thought yeah this is do able! So I set myself a challenge to style my mantle on a budget, and here is the end result... I have to say I am rather pleased with myself!

PINTEREST MANTLE
MY PINTEREST INSPIRED MANTLE


                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   





                                                     


















I already had my mirror (originally from Dunelm Mill £75.00), my checked throw (e-bay £14.99) 
small filled cushion (The Range £4.99), candles (The Range £1.49) and candle sticks (e-bay auction £7.00), small ceramic bird 99p and white pottery bottle 75p both in the Dunelm Mill sale.
The Lantern was originally from a set of two (The Range £11.99), the quote card in the corner of the mirror was a gift and my Alexa (love her!), echo dot was from Amazon.co.uk £39.99

The rest of the items I purchased to update my mantles look where from Dunelm Mill, e-bay and The Range and cost a grand total of £31.17p!! - Super happy!

Thursday, 8 March 2018

Quick and Easy Carbonara




This quick and easy creamy carbonara recipe (made without cream) will become a firm tea time family favourite, even my youngest loves it and he is hard to please!

This recipe serves 4 and only takes 15 - 20 minutes from preparation to serving.



INGREDIENTS

400g spaghetti or linguine
140g diced pancetta or streaky bacon
olive oil
1 garlic clove (optional)
1 small onion
4 eggs
 grated Parmesan cheese
salt and black pepper

METHOD

Put the pasta in a pan of boiling water, while the pasta is cooking peel and dice the onion, add some of the olive oil to another pan and fry the pancetta and onion for a few minutes until slightly crispy and the onion translucent. Crush the garlic clove and add to the pan and fry for another minute then turn the heat off.
Crack the eggs into another bowl, add salt and pepper and whisk. When eggs are whisked add most of the parmesan (saving some to sprinkle on top at the end) and whisk again.
When the pasta is cooked remove from the heat and drain, adding some olive oil to stop the pasta sticking together.
Add the eggs to the pasta and mix together until the pasta is coated , the heat from the pasta will cook the eggs.  Once the pasta is coated well add the pancetta and onion from the other pan and stir well then serve, adding the remaining parmesan on top.



Please let me know if you try my quick and easy creamy carbonara recipe. 
Leave me a comment below.





Thursday, 1 March 2018

SPRING IS MOST DEFINITELY NOT IN THE AIR!


1st March 2018

DAY IN THE LIFE

I always look forward to the first of March, in my mind I have the idyllic picture of daffodils and tulips bathed in spring sunshine, furry bunnies and frolicking lambs, and pretty crocuses peeping through the grass...
But in reality, it its -5, snowing, and blowing a gale with a windchill factor of -11!

Any thoughts of looking stylish are out of the window as I have that many layers on I resemble the Michelin Man!  On the plus side come the warmer weather people will think I have lost weight when I shed all my layers... every cloud!!

Mornings are a struggle on days like today (mornings are a struggle full stop!! I am not a morning person! I am one of those people who have four alarms set in case I sleep in and takes till 11am to wake up!) when your all snuggled and warm in bed and the wind is howling outside, apparently its 'The Beast from the East' who will soon be joined by storm Emma - why do they insist on naming things?
However I'm proud of myself this morning as I got up at my second alarm, George had cookery so I had to get all his ingredients ready and weighed out for him, this sausage plait has cost a small fortune to make, you could feed a small family with what it cost!

The boys had everything crossed school would be shut but it wasn't much to their disgust, I told them to put an extra layer on this morning when they got up after Alexa informed me it was -5! I kitted them out with scarves and gloves so I knew they'd be warm walking back from school.

Thank god the days of the school run days are over, I did the school run from 1997 to 2017!! 20 years!! I counted the days to when George left primary school and I no longer had to do it - I HATED it with a passion no wonder really. The boys high school is a 15 - 20 minute walk from home, they moan about walking but a bribe of £1 for the shop on the way home always does the trick even though it costs us a a few quid each week!


First attempt at felt flowers, a daisy,
 three roses and a forget me not.

I had a productive -ish day planned today (well productive for me!) once the boys had gone to school, I wanted to catch up with my planner and try and organise my self a bit and write some lists (Oooo I do love a list!! Makes me feel so much better when I have written a list!), I wanted to plan  meals for next week and write a shopping list, and I also planned on having a go at making some felt flowers, I am planning on making some broaches for Mums and Grandmas for Mothers Day.

So I poured coffee and while watching  Jezza on the TV (where on earth do they find these people on Jeremy Kyle? And why do none of them have any teeth?) I had a go at my first flowers that I am rather pleased with, I made a daisy, three roses and a forget me not.

It was around 10.30 when I had finished being crafty so still dressed in my huge fluffy dressing gown, I poured another coffee as a reward for actually ticking something off my to do list, took my morning medication, for my back, blood pressure and a hundred and one other things (once I hit 40 I started falling apart!) I caught up on my social media and...  then fell asleep for an hour till 11.30!

Managed to drag myself off the sofa and upstairs around midday to make myself look more human then went back downstairs pored another coffee and snuggled under a fleece blanket with the dogs watching You Tube until my phone rang at 1 o' clock.

Every Thursday at one I have a call with Margaret my telephone friend. I am part of Age Uk's telephone befriending scheme, I joined last year when ITV launched their 'Million Minutes' campaign.
Their aim was for people to pledge some of their time to help the elderly or less fortunate in some way so I pledged 30 minutes every Thursday to Age Uk and they matched me with my telephone friend Margaret. Although I pledged 30 minutes we can chat for over an hour - and we do!!
We have become great friends and we both look forward to our chats each week.

I will do a separate blog post on Age Uk's telephone befriending scheme in case anyone would like to become a telephone friend.

After Margret and I had put the world to rights, I went back to You Tube and scrolling fashion sites popping things in my basket that I never buy!

This month is a NO SPEND month - ugh! Promised to do it January - FAILED, then February - FAILED, so lets see what happens in March!
Shopping online is so easy, too easy!! I order so much stuff I forget what I have ordered!! And when the postie hasn't been and my Hubby is home from work early I feel sick because I never know what hes bringing!! Usually I hide all evidence before he comes home from work... Ladies you know the score! I DO NOT need any more clothes!!! But I love buying them so much... so much I think I have a problem!!
My name is Karen and I have a shopping addiction!
#truestory

Just before 3.45pm Robert arrived home from school, no George! (They usually arrive home together)
He had forgotten to collect his cookery and had gone back to school for it, which is pretty much typical George. Robert had his scarf on but forgot he had gloves so his hands where that cold he couldn't feel them.
George then arrived home, he had gone back for his cookery and the door was locked so he was moaning about that being a waste of time and about being cold and that he too couldn't feel his hands, not only had he forgotten his cookery he forgot to put his scarf on and he also forgot that he had gloves too - honestly I do wonder sometimes!

This seasons must have item,
the bigger the bobble the
better!
Once the boys where safely home I put on my 57 
layers, 3 pairs of socks and my bobble hat - everyone knows its this seasons must have and the bigger the bobble the better! and Will and I ventured round to the stables to check on the ponies who where very happy and toastie warm despite the arctic conditions.
The only problem we had was the automatic water's had frozen, fortunately yesterday the girls from the yard filled buckets and containers at my house ( I live less than quarter of a mile from the stables) so they were all able to have a drink.
I took some warm water round to mix in the ponies feeds which they seemed to love - spoilt? My ponies? Never!! 
Today was the first day I had been to see the ponies since Saturday as my wonderful back had once again floored me! - Grrr!

Once the ponies where tucked up for the night it was home to see to the other animals, contemplate what was being cooked for tea and have a shower and my hair washed in lieu of a Doctors appointment tomorrow.

Will ended up cooking fish for tea, I didn't fancy it so ate a full family sizes pack of Revels instead and spent the rest of the evening feeling sick!!

After catching up with Emmerdale on TV (It was on twice tonight!) I took myself off to bed with a hot water bottle and the dogs. Dad is coming over early in the morning so no snoozing till 11.30 tomorrow for me!!

Its now 10.50pm and I'm all caught up and its time to sleep, lets see what tomorrow brings.

I'm thinking positive thoughts that I will wake up to 25 degrees and wall to wall sunshine - well one can dream.



All About Me and My Blog


All About Me & My Blog.
A 'get to know me' and what to expect from my Blog.

Hello and welcome to my blog.

I'm Karen, I'm 48 *groan* Mum to 4 boys (age from 12-23), and happily married to Will.
Although Liverpool born and bred I now live in a quiet farming village in Lancashire UK and I love it, it has been such a lovely place for my boys to grow up in.

We have three dogs (two Whippets, Dotty & Viv and a Cocker Spaniel called Meg).
We also have a Muscovy duck called chicken! (too many) bantam chickens ( if you can ever have too many!)  two geckos, and two ponies, Rosie and her daughter Brodie who we bred ourselves.
So as you can see we have quite a menagerie and lots of mouths to feed!

I used to work for myself running my own Market Garden business with Will from 2004 till 2013 (which is when I first hurt my back - which I will share how in a separate blog post) and I also had a little part time job in the local corner store, but now I am no longer able to work after a simple back procedure last year went wrong, I had a selective nerve root block injection, something I had had done for four years as I have a nasty herniated disc, unfortunately when administering the injection the doctor went a little too deep and damaged my nerve root. This has left me with paresthesia in my left foot, which has affected my mobility and caused chronic nuropathic pain.

This is another reason for starting my blog, its something to keep me busy as I no longer get out of the house much and one day rolls into another and slowly you start to go insane!!

In our busy lives we often wish for a week of being at home with your feet up doing absolutely nothing... be careful what you wish for because it isn't what its cracked up to be!!

I hope to blog about my things that I have experienced in life, and share the ups and downs of such experiences and hope I can help others going through the same.

Unfortunately I have been a victim of domestic violence, lost a parent to a terminal illness, cared for my Grandmother who had dementia and I've gone through a divorce with two small children.

And of course I have also given birth to and brought up my boys so I will share my parenting tips and hacks to being a Mum of 4.

I have also witnessed a birth, my friend asked me to be her birthing partner. To witness her little girls birth was so emotional a amazing and something I will never forget.



And then there is all the animals, they always give me lots to blog about.

You can see from the picture my dogs are never far away, this is whats happening while I write my blog - Dotty snuggled in the crook of my arm!

They do call Whippets velcro dogs as they stick to you.. like velcro!!


There is also my crafty makes which I will share with you. I love to make cards and gifts for people, I always think something homemade is extra special than something bought off the shelf.

My blog will hopefully lead to regular uploads on my You Tube channel. i have just got to get a bit more confidence up. I have however posted my first ever vlog... I am really bad at it, but hopefully I will get better at it in time - well we all have to start somewhere!!

In case you would like to watch it here, click  HERE to go to my channel. Please subscribe, I only have 7 subs - boo!!

So from domestic violence to making mothers day gifts, I will be sharing it all with you.

You can also follow my life in pictures on Instagram  @karens_life_adventures and you can follow on  Facebook too.


Karen xx