Attic24

Happy Halloween

31st October :: Halloween.
Much excitement in the Attic24 Household.
7.30am and I give in to huge pester power....
....go down to the cellar to search for the box marked "Halloween"
Re-discover favourite decorations from past years.
Sling bits of colourful  orange Pumpkin Tinsel and morbid black Skull Tinsel around the place.
Decorate our front door with hanging Black Cat, Spider and Pumpkin.
Out into the street in our pyjamas to check that they are suitably visible from the pavement.

Find plastic Pumpkin plates, load up with spiders and Halloween chocolates for Little People and Friends to tuck into later on.
Allow Little People top eat one chocolate each for breakfast.

Bake buns and ice.
Decorate with Raisin spiders (Teena, I borrowed this idea from you, hope you don't mind?).
Refuse to let Little People eat these for breakfast too.

11am and the Little People go out (LM to his friends house for a play date lunch, LL to her Grandparents for a Baking Day).
I decide belatedly to go do battle for a Pumpkin (yes tut-tut I go to the Supermarket, oh the shame).
A few lonely pumpkins remain in the box and triumphantly I bring one home.
I adore carving pumpkins and am secretly glad that the Little People are not here.
Because I can do it By Myself.
Enjoy it hugely.
Childish pleasure.

We have very good friends coming to stay the weekend.
We shall drink much wine, dress up and go to a Halloween party this evening.
I shall go as a cat. Meow.
Need to go find black clothes to wear.
Guests arrive in approximately 3 hours.
Need to clean and tidy entire house for invited guests.
Need to make space for them to sleep in the Attic.
Have sooo much to do.
Is 12.45pm too early to start drinking wine?

Happy Halloween everyone.
xxxxxxxxxxx

On The Menu :: Lentil and Peanut Bake

I love to make various Bakes at this time of year, I like the warmth and comfort of them very much and prefer them to stews or casseroles. The thing that bakes have over casseroles is melted cheese :: for me, the sight and smell of golden, bubbling, melted cheese provides one big huge dollop of comfort.

And I love lentils too, in particular red/orange lentils. I think they are such an underated ingredient :: they are extremely nutritious, versatile, tasty and economical, which are four supremely good foody adjectives if you ask me. I am always on the lookout for lentilly recipes, and this one is an absolute star. It's a combination of several different recipes I've accumulated, a sort of hybrid-recipe, and I've been making variations of this for a great many years - since my early twenties when I left home and first began to cook for myself. When the Little People were Little Babies, I weaned them on a pureed version of this (minus the peanuts), much to the delight of my Health Visitor who was more used to new Mums using jars of baby food.

Some of the ingredients are interchangeable, some essential.

Make sure you have the following essentials ::

175g red lentils

1 onion, 2 carrots, 2 sticks celery (all chopped)

2 large or 6 new potatoes (cooked and thickly sliced)

100g salted peanuts (roughly chopped/blitzed)

2tbs olive oil, 600ml good stock,1 tsp mixed herbs, 2 tbs tomato puree, 50g cheddar cheese

Optional/interchangeable items are the veg :: courgette, mushrooms, peppers (chopped)

Heat oil in a large pan and fry the onions for 5 minutes or so until soft.

Add the celery and carrots and cook for a few minutes more until softened.

Stir in the lentils, herbs, tomato puree and stock and bring to the boil.

It smells wholesome, looks wholesome, a bit like soup at this stage.

Cover and simmer for 20 minutes, stirring every so often.

Add in the other vegetables (chopped courgette, mushrooms, peppers), give a good stir and continue to simmer for a further 10 minutes or so.

By now it should be thickening nicely ::  keep an eye on it in these last stages, stirring a bit so it doesn't stick to the bottom of the pan. You need to be aiming for a thick, soft consistency, it can't be too runny or it'll end up like slop, yet it shouldn't go too dry and overcooked either.

When you think it's almost there, add in the peanuts (roughly blitzed/chopped) and stir a few mins more. Taste at this point and add seasoning, but go steady on the salt cos the peanuts are quite salty. Incidentally, you can make this recipe without the peanuts, but they do add a delicious texture to the bake that I find irresistible.

While all this is happening, you should boil your potatoes, skins on, and thickly slice. And here's something to consider :: trying to slice hot boiled potatoes is foolhardy and painful. Ouch. Make sure they have cooled somewhat before attempting to slice, or you might end up having a tizz. I have been here many, many times.

Pour the lentil mixture into a shallow oven proof dish, and arrange your potato slices over the top. Sprinkle with grated cheese and pop under a hot grill until  the cheese has melted and the potatoes are golden brown.

This is real Autumn comfort food, wholesome and hearty. In our house this week it scored about  8/10 with the Little People (there was some griping about the "green bits" aka courgettes). So not bad for an ultra healthy offering of homecooking.

But wait up folks, theres more to tell. This recipe is so very versatile you see.

Another variation you can try is to alter the liquid content. So instead of 600ml of stock, try halving it to 300ml and adding a tin of chopped plum tomatoes. Cook in the same way, but for not quite as long (and perhaps without the peanuts?) and you end up with a gorgeous lentil bolognese mixture, perfect as a pasta sauce, or dolloped onto crispy jacket potatoes.

And there is even more :: if there happens to be any leftovers, throw them into a blender with a little water and blitz it to make a really delicious soup.

Little Lady and I had this soup for lunch yesterday and it was fabulous. Really fabulous.

Hope you give this one a try, I do get enormous pleasure sharing the Attic24 recipes with you and hearing about how it turned out in your household.

Enjoy xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

Ps I'm back in MY Attic yayyyyyy!!

Hello

I am peeping out of a very muddly day to say hello.

Let me tell you my day is all askew, mainly due to the fact that husband is unusually working from home, hogging the main pc, working in MY Attic no less, which I have to admit is causing me considerable discomfort. I know we technically share the Attic, that it is really his computer up there that he generously allows me to use, but still. I am very attached to that little muddled space up in the rooftops, the view from the window, the chill in the air up there (no heating in the Attic yet). And I miss it.

I am finding it hard to load pics up to typepad from the laptop downstairs (actually for hard, read no-can-do), and I am a  little miffed because I had an On The Menu recipe all lined up for today. Delicious foody pictures are all on the camera but I can't work out how to get them on to the laptop, and cannot possibly disturb husband to ask. I fear I may not live to tell the tale.

I have already meekly complained to husband about not being able to blog properly when he is around. Husband said well you can surely not blog for just one day. What????? NOT BLOG????? Harrumph, I can do no such thing. I cannot for the life of me seem to leave my blog for Just One Day :: like not brushing my teeth, or going out the house in just my socks, the mere thought of missing a blog post during the week makes me feel all incomplete and odd.

So even though today I can't blog properly, even though it took me an unspeakable age to load just one photo, I am still needing to come and say hi, still needing to stick my nose into Blogland and peep at you all from out of the muddle, give a little wave :: Helllooooo, still here!

With any luck, normal service will return tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

PS Is there a support group for Addicts like me? Bloggers Annonymous?

Magnetic

Good morning, hows things? All good here, thanks for asking. Now before I get going can I just say a warm ((thank you)) to you for calling by the Attic to see me, I am always so pleased that day after day you choose to stop by to see what I'm up to. I do enjoy having visitors, even the silent ones amongst you, my stats tell me you are there, and I am glad.

So :: pretty things today. See those magnets up above there? Aren't they  the most gorgeously beautiful and desirable magnets you have ever seen? Aren't they just? Of course when I was browsing my local shops the other week, I wasn't in any way looking out for magnets. I was actually in the shop to buy soap, but you know how it goes, you go in looking for handmade soap and come out with delicious but expensive magnets and approximately one quarter of the weeks grocery money suddenly  spent. I simply could not walk away and leave these beauties behind and oh the joy! YEs! They are worth every penny and I do adore them wholeheartedly.

So what to do with these delicious magnets? They are too pretty to be put on the fridge and quite frankly cost too damn much money to be placed at a level accessible by Little Fingers.

So I decide on a magentic notice board (a high up out of reach notice board), and go forthwith to our local DIY store to spend more of the weeks grocery money. And some paint. This is fast becoming a chain of expensive events, but no matter :: the outcome will be both pretty and practical :: a winning combination. Actually, the notice board and the paint combined costs less than half the price of the magnets, so I am quite pleased.

The notice board, as you can see, is plain and functional. It is no match for the gorgeous, desirable magnets, so I set to work giving it a suitable makeover.

I paint the wooden frame of the notice board using  a small tester pot of sky blue paint. I choose pretty fabric, sweet ribbon trim and some old vintage buttons to cover the magnetic bit. And I also employ this marvelous invention, of which I have a stash left over from my textile art days.

Its a little tricky actually ironing the fabric to the notice board, but I manage, I am determined.

I am really thrilled with my new magnetic notice board. I know the ribbon is a little wonky, and one of the pearl buttons fell off during the tricksy and rather brutal ironing process, but hey, it's got that authentic handmade quality which i find appealing.

And this is where the notice board now lives :: a little corner of the hallway reserved for "being organised". Note the calendar with vital dates and reminders, the hooks for keys, the wire heart which usually holds the days in-coming post. And on the shelf is a little shoe box I covered in pretty wallpaper (a rather large sample I managed to "aquire"), it holds shoe polish for that inevitable last minute pre-school removal of scuffs.

And while I had some paint to hand, I also gave a few wooden pegs a makeover, and strung them up on ribbon to make a small gallery for current Little People Artwork.

The noticeboard is currently doing sterling work and is already pretty much hidden behind school letters, reminders, party invites, business cards, telephone numbers.

Oh I do enjoy a pretty makeover, makes me feel all industrious and proud of myself.

Domesticated Sunday

I think we've forgotten how to go out. Another weekend and another stay-at-home fest for the Attic24 family. Well a part of it was spent at my in-laws eating junk food (pizza and chips) and drinking sparkling wine and allowing the Little People to sit wide-eyed in front of endless choices of children's channels on Sky TV. Fun of sorts, but oh I did enjoy coming home again :: there's only so much junk I can take in one day.

Sometimes on a Monday morning when I sit down to blog, nothing much springs to mind. If we've not done anything riveting over the weekend, the camera usually contains a hotch potch of Domestic images :: nothing specatcluar, just the Stuff of Life. But I love it, I continue to delight in all things domestic, I get my thrills from such simple, homely things these days. Trips to Paris? Wild Parties? Nightclubs? At one time in my life, yes, but these days, nope.

I am aware that my blog is showing repeat patterns, well it is bound to isn't it, to some extent? I am trying not to apologise for this, as the wonderful Mrs Magpie once said "blogs follow life and not vice versa", and I do try and remember this.

And I really enjoy photographing my home life. I've been inspired by some blogs recently that have been showing a series of photogrpahs documenting "a week in the life". I just love this whole idea, love that the ordinariness of life-at-home can become something special when photographed and shared :: warm, cosy, friendly, intimate. Have a look at Notes from my Days, The Ecstasy of Being Ordinary and Garden Nymph for some beautiful images of Domesticity.

So here for your perusal,  are some little snippets of my own Domesticated Sunday....

Sunday morning :: I bake banana bread, ((click)) I photograph it hot and fragrant as it comes out of the oven. Butter melts on the still-warm bread, just moments before it is devoured by the resident locust-children (and their father).

Sunday morning yarn :: after a visit to a little wool shop the previous day, I get the pleasure of opening the bag again on Sunday morning and force-feeding myself eye-candy. Gobble it up and then ((click)) take a  photograph.

A little lull in the afternoon :: I sit drinking tea and making hexagons. After showing off my blanket to the lovely ladies in the wool shop on Saturday, I have renewed enthusiasm for it.

Little snippets of yarn :: for some reason I just adore seeing these accumulate almost as much as I love seeing the hexagons themselves grow. ((click)) and capture it on camera.

I opened a new box of tissues yesterday :: I loved the design on the box when I bought it (roses again, my rose-fest shows no signs of letting up). It was only when I opened the box and took the first tissue out that I realised each one is decorated with rose petals. How thoughtful, how delightful! To blow ones nose on such prettiness! ((click)) that too, that rosy loveliness.

Browsing through the Laura Ashley catalogue :: we are gearing up for some major home renovations/decorations after Christmas and I am enjoying planning it out in my mind, thinking of paint colours, curtains, lighting, furniture...

Domestic chores still needing to be done :: early evening and I fold clean laundry in the bedroom, put away the piles, re-clothe beds with clean-cotton bedding. Think how I adore my ripple blanket and the smell of clean cotton laundry and ((click)).

And so to bed :: I go early (9pm) and sit to read a while.

A birthday present :: such a generous and unexpected gift from my friend Lovely C, this book is beautiful, interesting and thought-provoking. I love "nesting" in bed, snuggled up amongst crisp white cotton, CK roses and my ripple-stripes. Such warmth and happiness ((click))

And so to sleep :: thinking of roses and lavender, and looking forward to the week ahead.

It's half term week here, and right now I'm drinking coffee, typing this on the laptop at the dining table while the Little People are watching a film. I've been really looking forward to this week, I love the ease-up on routines during school holidays, the possibilities of simple fun with my Little People. 

Here's to a happy Domesticated Monday-Tuesday-Wednesday-Thursday-Friday-Saturday-Sunday for us all. Enjoy!

xxxxxxxxxxx

Midwinter Red Domino

Spotted these plates in our local Antiques and Collectors Centre yesterday.
Its a a great type of place, our A&C centre, with more than thirty independent sellers displaying furniture, bric a brac and collectables of all descriptions. Old clocks, jewellery, silver, pottery, kitchenalia, glass, paintings, books, baskets, enamelware etc etc etc all higgledy piggledy and rammed into  a large four storey old building.

Very, very quirky folk who run the place too, there is always forthright and unabashed comment made on whatever I choose to purchase. Last week I went in and bought an old toasting fork, well actually I bought two because I couldn't decide which one I liked best :: it was found most comical that I bought "'Is 'n' 'Ers" forks for us both to sit making toast for our tea. Much laughter at my expense, well you can imagine. Ahhh these Yorkshire Folk.

Anyhow, yesterday we got to talking about these plates, I was informed they are from the 1950's.

"You like that sort of thing, do you?"
"yes I do, very much"
"....." (insert a derisive Yorkshire grunt there)

 Today I went back to purchase some dishes.
"So. You've come back for more then? (grunt). You must like 'em right enough"

As it happens I absolutely LOVE them, and now have 8 plates and 2 dishes.

I looked up "Midwinter Red Domino" on t'internet, and found out they were designed c1953, and appear to be quite collectable. Plates that I paid £4 for are fetching four times that amount on ebay.

But I didn't buy them because they are Collectable. I bought them because I just love the look of them and intend on using them. Every day, as much as possible.
And they even appear in the Yarnstorm household.
In fact, when I first spotted them, I immediately called them Yarnstorm Plates.
So them there plates are very Bloggy indeed.
And yes, I like 'em right enough.

Reasons to be Cheerful #13 :: Beaded Jewels

I absolutely adore beady jewellery, and guess what I do have quite a few beady necklaces. If you look back through my reasons-to-be-cheerful posts, then you will see that #7 was also a beady necklace.
For me, coloured beads and cheerfulness go hand in hand.

I've been doing the rounds of the town's charity shops this week, and spotted this fabulous necklace in the British Heart Foundation. Its not thrifted :: the BHF does sell various new items, including a small range of interesting jewellery.

I love the fact that the beads look so much like sweets, and even though they're made of plastic I just couldn't resist it's charms. True, I much prefer glass beads, like prefering wool/cotton yarn to acrylic,  but hey-ho, I made an exception for this beauty.

Yes, I think I can bring myself to wear plastic beads if they look like this, and for the charming price of £4.99, well, I am quite smitten.

At the same time as buying the necklace, I also spotted this beaded ring.
Its a fantastic construction of elastic thread and tiny beads, topped with an array of semi-precious stones.

I absolutely love it to bits.
Was it Costly?
Nah, less than two pounds.

I had to show you this lovely ring  as it looks on my finger, but my goodness, when I took the photograph and saw the macro close-up of my own hand, I was totally horrified.
The beautiful ring looked like it was on the finger of your great-great-granny.
Honestly, my hands look ancient :: lined and dry and wrinkly.
My God, I have wrinkly hands, it's quite a shock.

I quickly had to go search out my emergency Winter-months Hand Rescue Treatment.
Had to lather my hands up before I could take a half-way decent picture.
Still, cheerfulness and all that, not letting the state of my hands drag me down.

The Tooth Fairy

Yesterday, 4pm or thereabouts and I sit in the Attic to stitch a little something.
Blue felt, old vintage button, pale blue embroidery thread.
I recall from a long-forgotten part of my brain how to stitch blanket stitch.
Enjoy doing it enormously, this little bit of quiet stitching.
Think it quite neat in fact.
I have a companion up in the Attic, watching my every move.
It is Little Man, waiting patiently for me to finish the sewing.
And in his hand he is holding something very precious.
Something white and pearly.

Yes, it's his first baby tooth.
It fell out during PE, was wrapped carefully in a blue paper towel to bring home.
He is 6 years and (almost) 2 months, and his best friend has already lost 6 of her teeth.
So this loss has been a long time coming, and is greeted with the deserved excitement.
I tell him how vividly I remember this tooth first appearing.
How he was exactly seven months old, 31st March 2003.
It was an Event To Be Remembered.
Just as this day is, 21st October 2008.

He puts the precious tooth carefully into the little hand stitched pouch.
He is concerned that the Tooth Fairy might not be able to manage to undo the button.
Because she will be very small and delicate.
But in the same breath he declares there's no such thing as the Tooth Fairy.
Kids at school say It's Just Your Mum And Dad.
But what time will the Tooth Fairy come, will it be Midnight like Father Christmas?
How will she know when to come, how will she lift the pillow up?
She must have Strong Magic.
But it's Just Your Mum and Dad that do it.
????????
He teeters on the edge of disbelief, I see him wobble.
Yet he knows the Tooth Fairy will surely come if he Believes.
And if he doubts her then she might not come.
And the bottom line is that he truly wants that money.

Yes, his mind is made up.
She will surely come at Midnight.
She will exchange the pearly white for a shiny gold.
And I'm informed matter-of-factly that the going rate for a pearly white tooth is now £1.
It was 5 pence when I was a child.

The precious tooth is safe in it's little pouch.
We wait for Daddy to come home, so he can share in the excitement.
Examine the tooth, examine the hole that it left behind.
See the adult tooth already there and waiting to grow.
The little blue tooth pouch is put under the pillow at 5.30pm.
All ready and waiting.
Run up numerous times to check and double check.
It's still there, ready and waiting.

* * * * * *

6.20am this morning or thereabouts and the scampering of feet into our bedroom.
The little blue pouch no longer contains the tooth.
There is shiny gold coin, just as expected.
Big smiles all round, because she came (and "she" almost forgot)
But there's no such thing as the Tooth Fairy you know.
Its Just Your Mum and Dad.
But still he wonders what the Tooth Fairy does with all the teeth she collects?
And she must be very VERY rich because he has 19 more teeth.
And that's gonna make Twenty pounds total.
He teeters and wobbles on the edge of disbelief.
And I will him to carry on Believing.

Flowery stuff

Good morning! Hows things?? Hunkydory I hope?
All well here :: this week I am fighting off my monthly hormone-induced rant about the state of my house (remember this time last month?) See, I was right, I told you all my housework was probably due to PMT. It's amazing how blogging allows one to see the cycles of ones life unfold, how it seems that during the  third week of each month I get all antsy about the house and start picking flowers to make me feel better. I am so completely predictable, and I hope you don't mind looking at pretty flowers with me again today.

When I came home from school this morning, the sun was shining and I was really glad to see the flowers blooming in my little patch of front garden. The cosmos plants that grew and grew and grew all summer long but refused to flower are now really getting going, and they are wonderful.

Same for the nasturtiums, they too were so late to flower, but they are making up for it now and were positively glowing in the Autumn light this morning.

Jewel bright against the green of their leaves.

And I love the way the little droplets of rain are collected like jewels too.

A pink geranium, a little chomped around the edges, but still beautiful.

And a self seeded poppy, also chomped around the edges, with it's little Chomper still in residence.

And here I am look, having just jumped down off the wall, camera in hand, slipping on the wet flagstones and narrowly avoiding a serious injury.
Thought it was hilarious that in mid fall, I must've had my finger on the button and unknowingly took an action shot of my own slippy skid.
Good job you can't hear the words that tumbled out of my mouth, they were not pretty.



After yesterdays post, I did end up clearing the coffee table, and so first thing this morning it was completely, totally Free of Stuff. Yes, it really was empty!
And now this is where my little posy of garden flowers are sitting. I love this taken-from-above photo, this still life shot captures our morning perfectly ::  my habitual morning coffee and biscuit, a toy truck left over from some game taking place on the table early this morning, and the sweetest little beaded bracelet made for me this very morning by Little Man.
See his eye for colour, isn't that quite something, the way he has arranged the beads?
I was watching him string them  before breakfast and I just LOVED the way he chose to put those two turquoise blue beads there to finish off. Beautiful.



I so love seeing fresh flowers in a room.



I know that as soon as I've finished writing this I'm going to go running down two flights of stairs and straight into my living room so I can feast my eyes on these flowers again.
Will try not to slip or trip on my way down cos I really do have to run.
Two steps at a time running, yeah, I'm off now......
Need to see the flowers now, right now.........

At-home Weekend

I was at my friends house after school on Friday and we were talking about our plans for the weekend, as you do. I said we were planning on having an At-home weekend, quite possibly in our pyjamas for much of the time, and I was really, really looking forward to it.
My friend looked slightly alarmed and asked if we would be ok staying at home all weekend, wouldn't the children drive us nuts? Wouldn't we be climbing the walls, desperate to get out? Didn't the children need to be excercised? Wouldn't they go mad if they were cooped up all weekend, and wouldn't it all end in tears?  Because this is how it is in her house I guess. But in the Attic24 house, we have become very good at making At-home weekends work.



True, we don't seem to have them very often, and as it happened, we didn't stay indoors for the whole of the weekend :: we managed a short trip into town on Saturday to buy ourselves some magazines, and on Sunday a walk round a local reservoir and a wonderful Sunday lunch at a  village pub.
But essentially, as planned, we were delightfully, cosily, happily At Home.
And it was good.

The top picture is of our living room. Do you call it a  living room, or sitting room or lounge? I think we say living room, haha I'm not sure now I'm thinking about it! But anyways, whatever the word, its the room that we spend a lot of time in, especially during the weekend. We haven't decorated this room yet (well we haven't decorated any of the rooms yet), it remains as we found it when we moved in last year. And all the furniture came from our old house so consequently it's a little shabby, in need of a makeover, and generally quite untidy, but it is homely, relaxed, bright and warm, and we love it.

And this is our coffee table, as it looked this morning after the weekend was over. This table is never, ever, ever free of stuff. It is permanently in use, mostly as you can see by the Little People. You may remember me talking about this a while back. Oh I go through phases with this table. At times I rage with the Little People and despair at the state it is always in, beseach them to tidy their things away when they've finished with them. But mostly I've come to enjoy seeing them use this little table, love that they do various colouring/drawing/reading/roleplay/creative/construction activities here, that I can glance at the table throughout the day when they're at school and know that they will be home soon to carry on where they left off.
The table itself is nothing special :: I rescued it from the storage shed of our little local playgroup when they were having a clear out last summer, as it was destined for the skip. I had fully tended to give it a  makeover, possibly involving white or duck egg blue paint, but never got round to it. And now I'm not sure if I do want to paint it after all. It's quite worn and scratched, but I like that. I'll do what I do best and "ponder" it for quite some time more.
 

So this weekend, the little table was in constant use.
Magazines were browsed and coloured in.
Stories were read.

Afternoon tea was enjoyed (do you like my new spotty cake tin?? Tesco's, two tins for £4. Bargain? Yes wasn't it just!)

And during the later afternoon, at 4pm or thereabouts, J declared it to be fire-lighting time.

And so we settled down in front of the fire, using the little coffee table to hold an informal picnic tea. Actually, I would like to say a little something about this food here. On Saturday afternoon, I said to J that I wasn't going to cook :: I quite often bake at the weekends, and quite often refuse to cook meals. So he volunteered to go to the supermarket to buy non-cookable provisions for an impromptu At-home picnic. He came home with grapes, marinated olives and peppers, Chorizo sausage, a hunk of Wensleydale cheese with Autumn Fruits, some delicious little goats cheese and poppy seed cracker bites, and a french stick.

I was suitably impressed.
It was an utterly delicious picnic.
The rose wine just added the final rosy glow.

I am so very grateful  for our happy home life.
It's so very simply good.
And I try not to ever take it for granted.