Midterm, autumn and my time with Dom.

Whole this week we are spending together with Dom, midterm break at school.

I was doing my best to keep my son occupied :).

We were in Newcastle on Monday - Hancock Museum and dinosaurs, nice walk around city centre with finding Snowdog on Central Station (train station) plus yummy lunch in Chinatown.

On Tuesday we went to library of pick up some books for Dom and pop in to theatre to buy tickets for pantomime - details here: http://www.thephoenixtheatre.org.uk/whats-on/dick-whittington.

We had lazy Wednesday with little shopping and then some reading and listing the music athat home.

Yesterday I decided we need some nice walk doesn't matter is cold or warm. Sky in the morning was beautiful :)

We went to park 

Was really small chance not to finished in Ridley Park Caffè :). Yes we are guilty, we spent some time there too :) with nice piece of this yummy lemon cake

Then we had some nice time on park's playground area and after that Dom decided he wants to go to the beach :). After coming back home we where colouring digi stamps.

Dom and his markers :)

Me with my new pencils :)

And today we spent few hours in Whitley Bay - we found some hidden treasures there :). First was: Re-create Today - nice craft and workshop place on 35 Park View run by Alison. Dom fell in love with wooden ducks :).

Only few here - we saw lots more :)

Christmas stuff :)

If you want to know more about this place check: http://www.recreatetoday.co.uk/ or follow: https://www.facebook.com/recreatetoday.

Other place we found was little restaurant/cafe called: The Vintage Powder Room & Tea Shop. Nice interior, friendly stuff and great food :) You can find them on 164-166 Park View.

My Earl Grey :) 

Dom's chocolate - fruity cake :)

Definitely we had great week :) Hmmm I need to think about his next school break and plan something nice, cause I don't want to keep my son bored at home.

Bathroom, cards and high-protein snacks

What a relief!

Bathroom redecoration is finished!!!
Whole thing took about 1.5 week, but was worth it :) Everything new :) Tiles, spotlights, shower, bath, etc! I love our new bathroom :)

I supposed to update my cv - still not done :). I lost my wirewrapping mojo - hope will have it back soon..

During week I checked new stamp - free gift from crafty magazine.

Image by Helz Cuppleditch for Trimcraft - received with Dear Santa paper pack.

I was colouring 6 images in one go :)

1 from 3 cards - set 1

1 from 3 cards - set 2

At the moment waiting for rubber stamps goodie bag my man bought me from http://www.kraftinkimmiestamps.com/ from Canada - very cute stamps, just cannot wait to have them :)

From 'cooking' point of view I was making high-protein snack rolls today, result below:

My man said they are brill, checked them too :) They tastes like halvah. Recipe I found on pinterest :) If you want to try, check: https://uk.pinterest.com/pin/202450945727237973/

Enjoy!!!

Life with bathroom re-do :)

We decided that is time to give our bathroom some make-over. After living in our home 7 years we were sick of wallpaper there. Now our bathroom is almost done :) New tiles, spotlights, bath etc. and no more pink :).

I'm laughing that I changed myself into 'rainbow catcher' - few days in row we could admire rainbows :)

Dom spotted this beauty when we were on a walk :)

Other day we were in mood for Chinese and I took my bamboo steamer out of box and made 'money bags' :) Hmmm yummy - Dom fell in love with sticky plum sauce :).

He was also in crafty mood one day - result above :)

I made this card for his Daddy yesterday - today is his birthday :)

And finally found a time to start book 2 of Dark Tower by Stephen King.

Fingers crossed our bathroom will be done today :) Cannot wait :)

Sweet potato mad :)

Why title like this? Because we decided we really like sweet potatoes :)

For long time I was making chips from them or use them as alternative when cooking my version of Shepard's pie.
Not much for so yummy veggie.
I didn't realized that is so many recipes using it, that I can make even sweet bakes like scones or biscuits from it...
You should see my face guys when I saw article on net, in simple words my jaw hit the floor if you know what I want to say by that :)

So in our last week menu we had 2 cooking experiments:
* sweet potato gnocchi
* sweet potato and beans patties.

I'm experimental cook, so not always keeping close eye on recipes, sometimes just remember general idea, sometimes doing something my way.

This week experiments turned out brilliant - my man decided he likes them both even better then other similar recipes we checked before eg. beans gnocchi - I'm not surprised really :)

For sweet potato gnocchi you need just 3 ingredients: baked sweet potatoes (2-3 medium sized), flour (plain, wholemeal or gluten-free - choice is yours) and salt (I used about 1/2 tsp).
Just mashed your potatoes, add salt and flour, make dough - soft but not sticky, rolled into sausage shape, cut into pieces, use fork on them :), cook in boiled salted water and serve with butter and garlic like us or with sauce of your choice :)

For Sweet potato and bean patties you need: 2-3 sweet potatoes, can of beans (any kind), breadcrumbs (1/2 cup +), 2-3 spring onions, 1 garlic clove, salt, black pepper, paprika or chilli (your choice), allspice (optional).
Bake or cook your potatoes (I baked mine), mash them, add half of beans - mash them, then add rest of beans, chopped onions, mashed garlic, spices and breadcrumbs, mix well, if too sticky add more breadcrumbs. Form patties, fry them and serve with salad of your choice.

Before frying

After :)

On the plate with simple tomato and onion salad :)

Yummy!!!