Felicia's Blog - Page 4 of 39

In Hungry?/ Life in General

Rainy days and Sundays.

Rainy Days and Sundays.

Good afternoon from a wet and windy County Kerry. Before you say it, I know the title of the song was Rainy days and Mondays, but i’m using artistic licence here!

So, as I was saying it is wet and windy.Yesterday I took the dogs to the Copper Mines at Ross Castle, this is a favourite walk of ours. If you are visiting Killarney it really is worth a visit, very pretty indeed!

Look at that for a moody sky.

We got home before the rain started, but once it did there was no let up. I happen to really enjoy days like this, you might as well try and make the best of them because we get a lot of them!

I spent some time knitting more of the jumper and decided to make soup. Since there was a butternut squash waiting to be used the choice was obvious. I first had this soup when Tim’s brother made it, I can’t remember where he got the recipe but if you like spicy give this a try.

Butternut and Chilli Soup

You need:

A butternut squash, peeled, deseeded and chopped.

Garlic, chilli, ginger and onion – all chopped.

100g red split lentils.

800ml of vegetable stock.

1 can of coconut milk.

Method:

Pre-heat your oven to 200°.

Put the chopped squash into a roasting tin with a little olive oil and a handful of crushed chili flakes. Put them in the oven for about 20 minutes until soft. The time will obviously vary depending on how small you chopped them.

Saute the onion, garlic, ginger and chili in a little olive oil in a large pot. Its really up to you how much chili you use, I used one large red chili and left the seeds in.

When the onions are soft (but not browned) add the vegetable stock and lentils.

Bring it to the boil and then simmer gently for 10 minutes.

When the squash is roasted add it to the soup with the coconut milk. Simmer gently for a further 15 minutes, whizz it up and there you have it!

Delicious, heart warming soup that make rainy, windy days worthwhile.

So, now its Sunday. I spent the morning at a yoga class. That sounds very virtuous doesn’t it? Well, since it was the first yoga class I’ve been to I can hardly claim I do it all the time! It was actually really enjoyable but surprisingly hard. They all made it look so easy and graceful, and i’m like, how do you stand like that without falling over?’

I’ve always shied away from yoga because I like energetic activities like kick boxing and rock climbing. Well, let me tell you ,it may look gentle but my abs hurt and I feel amazingly stretched. I will be going back for sure.

I apologise for all those times I thought yoga wasn’t really exercise ! The class was run by Elaine from Nave Yoga and held at Heathers in the Gap of Dunloe. We had a great class and then brunch in the restaurant, all in all another excellent way to spend a rainy day!

Felicia xx

21/08/2016 By felicia

In Craft/ House Love

Home is the Nicest Word.

According to the dictionary it means, ‘House or other dwelling’. To me it means love, family, comfort, safety, coziness.

I am a home bird. My favourite place to be is home. Going on holiday is fabulous, but the day we’re returning i’m frantic to get back . It’s where my kids are (sometimes) & my dogs are. The word ‘home’ makes me happy.

It comes out a lot in things I make. There seem to be wonky roofed houses popping up everywhere- cards, paintings, notebooks, even necklaces. They make me smile, so I keep making them in the hope that they make someone else smile aswell! The obsession extends to real houses too, but until I get to build my dream home (a four bedroom bungalow , sounds fairly ordinary right? wrong- It’s going to freakin amazing!!!) I’m just making imaginary ones.

So, after making notebooks and painting pictures I moved on to wood. These houses are beyond quirky, they have been personalised with house numbers, family names, initials, but each one is made to bring a little magic into your home.

This one stands on the hearth in my sitting room, its 22″ tall and is nothing if not a conversation starter!

This one is available at The Beach House gallery in Dungarvan.

And you can find this one in Craft Makers, Tralee.

(Here is Miss Boo photobombing my house picture!)

I hope to have them on my Etsy shop soon, so if you want the perfect ‘new home’ gift for a friend or something made just for you and yours, you know where to come!

Felicia xx

16/08/2016 By felicia

In Book Love

Quirky? Me? Surely Not!

I do like a bit of quirky. Quirky fashion sense, yes. Quirky home decor ? (there are big polka dots painted on the kitchen walls) so yes. Quirky books… LOVE!!!!

I belong to a book club, we have been meeting for eleven years now so we have read a huge amount of books.

Some of them have been scary, some adventurous, a few romantic and some sad. But I have a particular love for the odd ones. Here are my top five – i’m sure there are more , but these five stick out in my memory.

In no particular order

(As Dermot O’Leary might say!)

Behind the Scenes at the Museum by Kate Atkinson.

I have seen at least seven different cover designs for this book – why so many?

The next book is: Going Loco by Lynn Truss

Fantastically and superbly weird! That would be my review of this one. I highly recommend it. Actually I think I might have been the only one in Book Club who liked it, but give it a go anyway. I found four different cover designs for this one.

Then we have The Little Paris Bookshop by Nina George.

All book shops should be renamed ‘Literary Apothecaries’ in my opinion. A book to cure every ailment, isn’t that a beautiful idea?

We also have, A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman

I was so fond of this character, he reminded me very much of another grumpy old man I know…

The last one is a bit different, it is The Night Circus by Erin Morganstern

It is the first novel by this author and I am really looking forward to the next one. It conjures up the most amazingly colourful images. It’s one of those books that you don’t just read, you climb into it and live there for a while.

If you read one or two (or five) of these suggestions and like them, then we might just be the same kind of quirky.

It would make me very happy to know there are others out there – think of all the book titles we could swap!

Felicia xx

12/08/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Knit one, Purl one.

Knit one, Purl one..

Do you knit? Do you like cosy fires and winter days and knitting away the winter?

In theory so do I, but for some reason whenever I get bitten by the knitting bug its summer time.

You could argue the summer part, officially its Autumn, but the days are still fairly warm (20°C today).

Also, this knitting bug only bites once in a blue moon. To call myself a knitter is stretching the truth a little.

The last time it struck was four years ago, I was knitting a shawl in a beautiful Debbie Bliss wool. Cashmerino Aran in Blackberry to be exact.

Now, as you may or may not know, my knitting was seriously hampered by this. It has taken a while to get back to it, I did make a rabbit for a friend, but as it happens I had knitted all the pieces before T.F.D. (That fateful day) so all I had to do was stuff it and sew the legs on.

But then,

I was scrolling through Pinterest as I do (the most enjoyable time waster ever!) and came across this:

(You can get it here)

And then I remembered my promise. About nine years ago Tim asked me to knit him an Aran jumper. He rarely asks for anything, and so I said, “Of course, you can have it for Christmas”. I promptly got the most amazing pattern and spent about a week knitting, then unpicking the stitches. That very complicated pattern was made for a better knitter than I!

Eventually I gave up and told him, “Next Christmas for sure”, which turned into, “You’ll have it before you retire”.

Well, the fifth anniversary of his retirement has just passed. Yes, I am a terrible person.

I even contemplated buying a jumper and cutting out the labels but my conscience got the better of that plan.

Although this doesn’t have any cable stitches its fairly close to what he wants, so I bought it, got the wool and here it is!

TA DAH!

You thought it was going to be finished didn’t you?

There are precisely five inches on the needles, but look at the pattern, isn’t it fab?! Because of the pattern changes it’s holding my interest, who knows, I might even finish it in time for Christmas!

Felicia xx

09/08/2016 By felicia

In Felicia the Artist

Ten Things you don’t know about Me.

Ten things you don’t know about me..

Maybe you don’t want to know them, but I’m gonna tell you anyway!!

Since this is a fairly new WordPress blog, and since I’m actually Tweeting a bit these days I have a few new ‘Followers’.

How pretentious does that sound?

You have to understand, I like meeting people, I like making new friends. If I met any of these people in real life I would want to know more about them. So i’m hoping that by sharing a bit about me, people will share a bit about themselves and we’ll get to know each other a bit better.

That’s a hint by the way, if you read this please write your own ‘Ten things ‘ list.

Here’s my list:

My family and my home are my happy place. You know when you’re in the dentist or somewhere you’d rather not be, and they say, ‘think of you’re happy place’? Well, that’s my house.
Tattoos. I have three of them and constantly think about getting another. I have the design ready, and i’d like it on my inner wrist, but at 47 is it too late for inner wrist tattoos???
I am a hopeless romantic and I have no wish to be saved from this affliction. My main source of love comes from books ( and a few films), it started when I read Wuthering Heights at the age of fifteen. I only read it because I was obsessed with Kate Bush’s song, if she only knew what she has started! “If he loved you with all the power of his soul for a whole lifetime, he couldn’t love you as much as I do in a single day” Yeah, after that I was lost forever to the romance!
I have a life long loathing of cheese. The only exception to this is in the form of cheesecake and even then if its too creamy I don’t like it. It’s vile, stinky stuff, but it’s also Tim’s favourite food.
A bit of positivity and humour will save the day. You’ll find plenty of my favourite quotes on my Pinterest board. One of my absolute favourites is this: Words to live by people!
When I was asked what I wanted to be when I grew up, I always said ‘ A Mum’. I was always then told, ‘that isn’t a job’ – I beg to differ! Running a home and looking after a family takes planning and effort. I have worked in ‘proper jobs'(that’s my career advisors voice right there, not mine!) and its tough going trying to do both. I take my hat off to anyone who works and runs a home. Anyway, I’m a mum,I love it, so I achieved what I set out to do!
To speak French and Italian fluently would be one of my dreams. However, I cannot. Building a house is another.
Laziness is my pet hate. Don’t get me wrong, I love fluting around the house in my jammies. What drives me mad is when people say, ‘my life is so awful’ but then they won’t follow the advice they were looking for. That kind of lazy. Also, if my kids walk past something on the stairs (their shoes for example) and don’t pick them up… Aghhh!
Being outside in the fresh air will cure pretty much anything. I am blessed to live where I do, it’s incredibly pretty. Walking the dogs on a windy day – that makes it just about perfect.
For as long as I can remember I have kept a book of names. Every time I heard a nice name I wrote it down. I had pages and pages of girls names and about five boys names. I have a rubbish memory for important things but I can remember kids names. If I ever go on Mastermind my specialist subject will be ‘ Celebrities kids names’!

So, there you have it. There is loads more I could tell you, but that will keep for another day.

I’d love to read your list, so tag me if you write one. 🙂

Felicia xx

05/08/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Summer Art Class

Despite the wind and rain in Kerry (cats and dogs I tell you!) it’s time for summer art class.

There was nothing else for it today, it lashed rain all day. Not what you expect for the first of August, but it was a perfect day for staying inside and getting the paints out.

This morning’s class was fun, Eva and Megan love art and are very sure of their colour choices. They were in the first kids class I taught four years ago, they still have the aprons we made!

We used 20 x 5″ stretched canvases, and introduced some new products such as heavy body acrylics, Mod Podge and Gelatos. If you’ve used these you know that the Mod Podge acts as a sealant .When you add Gelato on top you can move it with your fingers or a wet brush, so you can shade and blend colours.

Here are the paint layers.

Time for some detail.

The girls used Gelatos to shade the features of the faces and to add tone to the hair.

The finished pieces.

I love how they turned out! It was a pleasure as always to spend the morning with these two.

Thanks for coming girls.

Felicia xx

02/08/2016 By felicia

In Craft

The Perfect Gift.

The perfect gift.

Last week I went to the Craft Makers gallery to drop off some artwork. I am wrong to call it a gallery, it’s more than that. As their website says, it’s a craft store, gallery, workshop and studio. Their ethos is wonderful, make, learn , buy.

“At Craft Makers we follow a Make Learn Buy philosophy… we encourage you to make craft as we believe it is good for the soul; we offer you an opportunity to learn about craft making in our workshops and courses; we offer our customers a wonderful store and gallery in which you can browse, buy or commission work by craft makers from all over Kerry and beyond.”

If you’re looking for the perfect gift you will find it in the beautiful corner building on Ashe Street, Tralee, Kerry.

Deirdre Enright is the very welcoming manager. It was extremely busy the day I visited so whilst Deirdre dealt with the customers it gave me a chance to have a good look around. These were only a few of the photos I took…

Jewellery by Amelie Gagne.

Hand sewn gifts by SwinkyDoo

Scented candles by Fleur Daly – The top one actually smells like a turf fire!

I love wood, so when I saw this I may have swooned a little! Made by Gary Marcham of Goose Island Workshop, it is a work of art.

More wood… This time by John Murphy. Isn’t it beautiful?

Skellig Pottery – such happy pieces.

Then of course there was the paintings….. I think they will have to be a post of their own!

This is the lovely Deirdre – Call in and see her, I’m sure you will find the perfect gift to give to someone and maybe a gift or two for yourself!

Felicia xx

29/07/2016 By felicia

In Life in General

What’s for Dinner?

Whats for dinner?

Here is a really quick, totally delicious dinner that uses up all the leftover veggies in the fridge.

It tastes amazing and you make it from scratch. No jars of sauce, so you feel even healthier eating it!

Did I come up with this recipe all by myself?

No. I took it from Jamie Oliver, Jamies’s 30 Minute Meals to be precise.

As much as I love his recipes, this one has evolved to suit my family over time, so that’s the version i’m sharing with you.

So, Whats for dinner?Thai Veggie Curry.

( I realise that this is not the most amazing food photo you have ever seen. However, if you could smell it cooking you would forgive my lack of photo skills!)

Here is the recipe:

Ingredients:

2-3cm of ginger, peeled.

2 small red chillies ( adjust to suit you spice level!)

2 cloves of garlic, peeled.

4 dried lime leaves.

1/2 a jar of grilled peppers.

1 heaped tsp of tomato purée.

2 TBSP of soy sauce.

1 tsp sesame oil.

1 can of coconut milk.

Veggies of your choice – I use, mange tout, spring onions, green beans, mushrooms, red and yellow peppers, broccoli and asparagus.

Cashew nuts.

Rice of your choice. I used Jasmine infused Basmati.

Method:

Put the ginger, chilli, garlic, lime leaves, 1/2 the jar of peppers, tomato purée, soy sauce and sesame oil in a food processor. Blitz it into a paste.

I get the jars of peppers in Aldi . They are in their ‘Anti pasti’ section, which is above the pizza freezer (that’s assuming your Aldi is laid out the same as the one here) if you find them buy two jars – they don’t always have them.

Ok, put the paste that you’ve made into a large frying pan. Heat it gently and add all the vegetables. Cook gently for about 5 minutes, add the coconut milk. You might not need a whole can, it depends how much sauce you like. Let this gently simmer for another 10 minutes – until the vegetables are cooked but still crunchy.

Meanwhile, cook your rice. I have a rice cooker and my mum had a rice cooker so I have no idea how to cook rice without one! If you add a jasmine tea bag to the water it tastes delicious though.

And voila!

I suppose you could add chickpeas to the curry for protein – I usually just throw in a handful of cashew nuts in instead.

If you have all the ingredients in the larder this is super quick, cheap and delicious. Enjoy & let me know if you try it.

Felicia xx

26/07/2016 By felicia

In Book Love/ Life in General

That time Marian Keyes nearly killed me….

That time Marian Keyes nearly killed me.

*Disclaimer* I ADORE Marian Keyes and do not hold her responsible for my own stupidity in any way. (Then again, if she wasn’t as funny….)

About eight years ago, Tim and I went on holidays to the Alps. He, being a mountainy sort thinks that all holidays must involve huge height gain and in fairness the area around Mont Blanc is beautiful.

(You can’t really tell from this shot, but it is beautiful!)

It was January so as well as having a full week of walking and climbing in the snow we also had a great week of Apres Ski (or apres climbing in our case). On our last night we celebrated Tim’s birthday at a lovely restaurant that we’d been to a couple of times before.

(Standard mountaineer pose!)

This is all just background information before we get to the ‘incident’.

We were staying in a little village called Les Houches, just a few miles from Chamonix. Its really small, not somewhere you would expect to find any mad nightlife. But, since we had been to the restaurant before and since the staff were very friendly they decided to take us out to celebrate his birthday.

Things had been going so well up till then. We crossed the road, went down some steps under a house and found ourselves in an underground nightclub. It may have been the size of someones kitchen but we were in France so it was uber cool. The music was slow and hypnotic ,people were dancing in an effortless sway. It was just dripping in French fabulousness.

While I was dancing (not in an effortless sway) Tim sat at the bar and found …. a Guinness tap. We like wine, we had had lots of lovely wine already. No one in that place looked like they drank Guinness, which means it wasn’t going to be like a pint at home. It was going to be nasty. But he drank it anyway!

The following morning we left early for Geneva airport. Tim was quiet, apparently not feeling his best – I wonder why?

I know, you’re wondering where Ms. Keyes comes into this – soon, very soon.

Airports always involve a lot of waiting around don’t they? so to kill time I bought a Toblerone (if you can’t eat Toblerone in Switzerland where can you eat it?) and settled down to read my book*

*I never go anywhere without a book, not a Kindle, a proper, three dimensional book.

The book in question was ‘Rachels Holiday‘. I had read it before and have read it many times since. But still, every time I laugh and laugh. There is something so fabulously normal about the Walsh family. They argue, life isn’t always great for them, you don’t laugh at their predicaments (because they are very real) just at the way they are handled. You climb into the book and live there with them, I just love them.

This book has got me through some tough times and I’ve come out smiling.

Anyway, back in Geneva…

We were sitting in a small waiting area. There were several business men, all in grey suits, all hiding behind newspapers, all very sensible looking. Then there was us. Two skanky mountaineer types with climbing boots and rucksacks that had a slight whiff of week old mountain socks escaping from them. Tim by this time, was fast asleep.

I managed to break off a triangle (it was a big Toblerone) but it was really cold and I couldn’t bite through it. So, because no one was looking, I PUT THE WHOLE THING IN MY MOUTH.

This unfortunately coincided with the ‘Real Men’ and the leather trousers. I started to laugh, quietly (didn’t want to draw attention to myself) but I couldn’t stop and my mouth was FULL of chocolate. So I started choking, tears rolling down my face, chocolate dribbling down my chin, completely unable to draw breath. Tim was no help to me. By now I was on my hands and knees still laughing and spluttering- so much for not drawing attention to myself . But do you know what? Not one of the suits looked up from their newspapers!

So that is the long and drawn out story of how Marian Keyes nearly killed me.

The moral of the story is don’t expect anyone who has drunk bad Guinness to help you if you’re choking.

Don’t eat whole triangles of Toblerone (especially the big airport sized ones).

But DO read a book by Marian Keyes, I bet you laugh (you might cry too, but that’s what her books will do to you.)

Felicia xx

22/07/2016 By felicia

In Craft

Upcycled Briefcase.

Upcycled Briefcase.

Black briefcase? yes, I’ve got one of those.

Uses for a black briefcase? – none.

Something to display handmade gifts in for craft shows?

See where this is going?

Firstly, I painted it all over with gesso.

Removed all the pockets from the inside, which left a wooden panel.

I was going to paint inside the lid so I covered that with gesso too. That plan changed though.

This fabric has been waiting for the perfect project, and this was it! I used it to cover a piece of mount board that was cut to size, and glued it onto the bottom.

Next, I gathered a length of contrasting fabric and hot glued it into place around the sides.

I thought I could add some text inside the lid, so I painted some more mount board. That way I can change out the board whenever I want to change the text.