True Blue Baby I Love You

I'm still in love with my new kitchen. Here are some blue things I spied with my little eye recently...

Spotty bowls from Avoca. Blue plates from Ikea in plate rack.

I can't remember where I came across this sweet girl. We haven't quite found a home for her yet so she hangs out in the kitchen with us for now. 

Tea cups on the dresser with a cute knitted tea pot cosy a friend gave me.

Washing-up gloves from Homebase. Very unused looking I might add. I do like my dishwasher. The appliance one rather than the husband one.

 Scales by Typhoon.

Love this bowl's shape and colour, by Sophie Conran. Stack of bowls, baking dishes and colanders on a kitchen shelf.

No Irish kitchen is blessed without the holy Mary water on the dresser. A dear friend gave me one and not sure where I got the other. Probably my mother. I sprinkled the whole house with one of these when we first bought it. The other one helped me find a lost diamond when away with work once. Handy things to bring traveling, Holy Mary waters. Cute bottle from Avoca for homemade drinks.

Currants tin, from an auction house, reused as a utensil pot. Retro clock with cooking timer from ebay.

poached fruit

I had meant to pop this recipe up over the bank holiday weekend. Poached fruits are the perfect thing to have in the fridge to dip in and out of on a long weekend. They are delicious with pancakes, yoghurt, granola, a wedge of cake and of course ice cream. 

However, I got sidetracked with a weekend of partying. I ate and drank all the bad good things. Must make these this week as part of a my five a day on the road to recovery...

STAR ANISE POACHED PLUMS

175g caster sugar

450g plums (about 10), halved and stones removed

3 star anise

Place the sugar in a wide pan with 175ml of water and bring to the boil, stirring until the sugar dissolves.

Add the plum halves and star anise and leave to poach gently for 10-15 minutes until softened but still holding their shape.

Serve warm or cold at breakfast, lunch or dinner time or anywhere in between.

EXTRA FLOURISHES:

Other fruits perfect for poaching include pears, peaches, apricots, figs, berries, pineapple, mango and rhubarb. Poaching time will vary depending on the size and softness of the fruit.

Besides star anise try flavouring the sugar syrup with other spices like cardamon or cinnamon, a split vanilla pod, orange or lime zest, herbs like mint, rosemary or tarragon, lavender or even lemongrass, ginger and chilli.

Try liquid flavourings like poaching in fruit juice, wine or add a dash of rose water, orange blossom or grenadine or something stronger like brandy, kirsch, frangelico or amaretto.

So maybe vanilla and red wine figs, cardamon apricots or ginger and lemongrass mango...

TOP TIP: keep any leftover fruity flavoured syrup to use in your cocktails!

sugar and spice and all things nice...

Welcome to another corner of my crazed 'sleeping with the enemy' world. Organised food storage. Call me a diva, but I pretty much hate having to open and close kitchen cupboard doors. The boy isn't always necessarily around to do that for me so open shelving it had to be.

We have one big open shelf for all the best bits....the baking ingredients. These storage jars look so much prettier than stacks of packs, so I decant ingredients into them. It also makes it easy to find ingredients when speed baking. I stick a name label on any ingredients that are not so easily recognised, cutting it out from the packaging it came in and sticking on with tape. I also write the best before date on the bottom of anything that might not be used so often.

Hopefully I haven't scared you off too much just yet...last bit...To keep things in even more order, the shelf starts with dried fruits, nuts and seeds, moves onto flour etc, then sugars and finally other baking ingredients like vanilla pods, pudding rice & tapioca (yum yum), desiccated coconut & dessert spices.

Call me mad, but this is the kind of stuff that puts my world at peace! I might just save my spice storage reveal for another time then eh.

Green Day

Happy Paddy's day! So, what does the day mean to you? A huge chunk of Irish pride....an even bigger tuft of shamrock...a parade...a sequined green cowboy hat?...hhmmm. a day off work perhaps? or just another excuse to head to the pub? 

Here at Friendly Cottage we're spending the morning at home before heading to the hills (to escape all of the above!). Looking around I'm seeing lots and lots of green...

My junk shop habit can't be kicked, but thank goodness as I found this gorgeous platter last week. 

Some  teensey dishes I bought here in New York.

My green spotty bedlinen find in TK Maxx *Hot Flush & Faint*. 

Old school chair in a bedroom.

The junk shop & polka dot theme continues on the dresser. 

Retro Habitat enamel lampshades thanks to the ebay addiction.

Bedspread from M&S. 

Cookbooks in the yet to be revealed bookcase.

Shabitat again...this time their spindle lamp. 

My comfort blankie & cushion on the couch.

Kitchen cabinet door knob from Lizabeth Dahl.

Green panelling in the kitchen.

Basil pot by Rice. 

My Green Goddess juice....another addiction....
juice 1 large pear, 2 apples, 1 stick of celery, a small piece of ginger and a few handfuls of spinach....uuummm

Some Inspiring Links

You may remember when I met the lovely Paget Scott McCarthy & Rebecca Devaney here. Well, since their first class back then, they have been whisking the Dublin crafting scene into a frenzy with their successful Textile Workshops at the Pearse Museum. They are now also hosting embroidery evenings at Nelly's deli on the South Cirucluar Rd, clever girls! Sadly I won't be around this Wednesday evening for their Valentines themed evening but that leaves a seat for you if you want it, you'd be mad not to!

On the subject of all things inspiring, there are a few other things I have wanted to tell you about...
- Check out fellow bloggerette over at Inspire my house pretty (say hi, because she has been blogging away with lots of great inspiration since last year & apparently my recent comment was her first!). 
- My friend Agnes beavers away down at LIT where they have a brand new food site and have very kindly linked us on *blush*. 
- Also, Happy, the lovely lady who changed the face of Friendly Cottage, has a brand new online shop *squeels of delight* selling vintage goodies, some of which she has made herself.....hands off the button necklaces! 
- Thanks to the guys over at Shelterrific for the inclusion of Friendly Cottage on their blog-watch list, shucks!
- Finally, big thanks to Lorna over at Garrendenny Lane Interiors for including Friendly Cottage in an upcoming feature in Munster Interiors, can't wait to see it!

The Friendly Cottage Face-lift

Ta Da.... Introducing the new face of our blog.....isn't she pretty? The face-lift is perfect timing to coincide with our home's recently completed (well almost) transformation too.

The extreme make-over was taken on by a lovely woman called Happy. She has an adorable home which you can see through her blog. And if you would like Happy to create a fabulous banner for you, check out her other blog. 

I feel a celebratory cake coming on....

P.S. A couple of hardcore Irish have asked why the British butterflys?....don't forget my boy is London's Finest Export ;)

House & Home Magazine

I'm probably the last blogger to post about this but how exciting is this months House & Home mag feature 'the Irish bloggers guide to interiors'?! Zita over at Homebug put together a fab article once again and drafted in top tips from the blogging troops with many familiar blogger friends like Lorna from Garrendenny Lane and Mel over at Design Heaven. Thanks Zee for the Friendly Cottage link and your lovely words too. And of course, welcome to any new visitors who have popped by because of it!

Also, Paula over at Mabel & Violet must be beaming to take position in the mags 'Hot 100' feature alongside Lorna and Zee too. Well done girls!

P.S. Friendly Cottage is currently having a bit of a make over & she will be revealing her new 'do' soon, so watch out for the grand reveal!

'kirsties homemade christmas' decorations

Well, have you started decorating your nest yet? Here are some snaps, that may help inspire you, which I took when working on 'Kirstie's Homemade Christmas' recently. (Click on images to make them bigger). Hopefully they will also give you a taste of what's to come in the three part series this week. Check out this post on my work blog for the heads up on some of the crafts to expect to see Kirstie indulging in.

cutesy decorations & fabulous table settings

christmas trees, festive hampers & this seasons decorations (the stylist bought these beautiful birds from vv rouleaux in london but i picked some up recently here in dublin (& quite cheaply at a few euros each) in flamingo display.

twinkly fairy lights

festive garlands

santa & his reindeers corner & advent calenders

kitsch kitchen

& decadent dining

Meadowgate - Kirstie's Homemade Home

Well, I have certainly been missing in action for quite a while now, so apologies! It's been like 60 minute make-over stuck on replay here at friendly cottage with heavy workloads in the day jobs thrown in.

Now, speaking of day jobs, I have a nice little treat for you as I have been to work in Meadowgate in Devon....do you remember the beautifully gorgeous house that presenter Kirstie Allsopp brought back to life in the Channel 4 series, 'Kirstie's Homemade Home'? Squeals of delight at this end as I actually got to work there....find out more about that on my work blog.

In the meantime, feast your eyes on some snaps I took of Kirstie's holiday let and stay tuned for some christmas decorating inspiration photos and some clues as to what and when to expect the three part Christmas special. This trip has certainly inspired me to get moving on getting over the finish line of turning our house into our home.

favourite fabrics

Here are some delicious fabrics I've fallen in love with online....I feel a shopping splurge coming on...the first four are from here, the next two from here and the final two from here. (As you can see I like my graphic prints!).

Kitchen Hunt

We spent all day yesterday on a mission to find a kitchen. It's been a long time coming let me tell you, but without tempting faith I think we may be 3-4 months away from finally having a one, horrah! I was armed with enough photos, tear sheets, drawings and plans to send any man into a spin (as only women can!). Here are some snaps to give you an idea of what we're looking for (I've got plenty more & have even started a dream file for 'the next house'!). Anyhow, let's get this one first and here's hoping it turns out half as nice as these...

creatively crafty

I've been beside myself with excitement the last couple of days as I've been attending a fantastic textile class. For a long time now my inner creative child has been craving something other than working with food but she just hasn't been given the time or space, so when I heard about this course I cleared the diary and fell wholeheartedly into it.

Rebecca Devaney & Paget Scott-McCarthy are two fabulous textile designers and gorgeous girls who ran the course as described here. They have totally inspired me to get back into working with textiles, were bursting with hints, tips and inspiring ideas and even reintroduced me to the world of potato printing (amongst lots of other things of course!).

We covered things like hand embroidery stitching, free stitching on the machine and printing with paint using a variety of methods. We then worked on our own little projects to bring all of these skills together and I choose to make bunting (having heart palpitations as I speak!) and greeting cards while I was at it. Here are some snaps of work in progress..






I'll post more about making bunting once I start to get it sewn up...off to pull my sewing machine out of storage in the meantime....oh how happy is my soul?!

sizzling summer days

I hope you have been enjoying every last sun soaked second of this bank holiday weekend - how amazing are those clear blue skys?! No doubt the word Barbeque has passed your lips and hopefully a sizzling sausage or two also! Here are some BBQ's that have caught my eye recently...

Thanks to Harry for the photoshop help i.e. doing it!

1.Portable Weber 'Smokey Joe' BBQ from Meadows & Byrne
2.Marks & Spencers kettle BBQ

3.Portable BBQ from Divertimenti

4 Bodums portable BBQ from Divertimenti

5.Gas 'Genesis' BBQ from weber

mirror mirror

Did anyone see Channel 4's, The Home Show last night? I was so glad to be treated to some eye candy in the form of George Clarke...or is it his accent, his carisma, his dress sense, his inspiring designs and ideas..The whole package? yes please!

Anyhow, I was snapped out of my trance when I spotted these mirrors - I have been searching for months now for exactly this style and indeed for over our bathroom sink, so bingo! I think the double sinks and mirrors look great but unfortunately not for us this time in our teeny tiny bathroom.

Anyway, I had a little look on the shows website (while taking another sneeky peak at George) and found the supplier here. Now, I just have to pray I'm not disappointed with a 'no delivery to Ireland' policy!

paint me pretty

I must admit I'm not a huge fan of wood and so (much to some peoples cries of disgust) take the paint brush to it without batting an eyelid. I much prefer colours and so like to cover wood with a paint or spray paint colour that matches (or, much preferred, clashes!) with other things in the room. Here are some snaps I took in Avoca & Cath Kidston of exactly that....colourful and fun and a great way of instantly (but cheaply) updating something old, giving it a new lease of life...