The Girls

In November, after a year of pestering and over-the-top egg usage, we welcomed two feathery friends into our lives. I can honestly say we have never looked back. Pearl and Polly are Lohmann Browns and started laying in February half term.


We got the girls when they were pullets, looking back they were so tiny and still made the cute 'cheep cheep' sound. Now, they are full on 'boawk boawkers' (perhaps this sound will only make sense if you are a full on mad chicken lady, as I now am!)

As we are currently in the midst of serious home improvements, we haven't had the opportunity to eat a lot of the eggs, so the neighbours have, very eagerly, took them off our hands! However, today, we had fried eggs and I have baked two cakes using fresh, Polly and Pearl eggs.







For anyone considering owning chickens, I would say 'go for it'. I love coming home to find Polly literally throwing herself at the pen in excitement and watching their attempts to escape when I open the door. Furthermore, they are relatively easy to care for and have a love for rice, which is easy, and cheap, to cook.

Em x

Books at my Bedside

After reading Sarah's blog, I really liked the idea of showing what books are by my bed. I have always loved having books to read in bed and like to have a variety.

There are some that remain there constantly, for example my chicken manual. I have recently taken the role of chicken keeper and have to say that I have become quite attached to my two feathery friends. This manual is a Hayne's manual, just like the car guides, but for chickens. A blog post about them will follow soon. I often pick this book up when they have done something new (like sneeze) or at the beginning of a month to check what I should be doing.

There are others that are there for work purposes: Arthur Miller's 'The Crucible' is one of my favourites and Curtis Jobling's Wereworld is there so I can read it for a workshop I am running. It wouldn't be something that I would pick up normally, but I want to make sure that I have read some of his work and have to say, I am really enjoying it. I love the sentence structure and vocabulary that he uses.

There are a variety of baking books because I often find that Clandestine Cake Club's Warrington announcement comes out around 9-10pm. This then involves are nail-biting few moments where I must get my RSVP in as soon as possible and start to plan my cake. This is the best place for them!

Finally, there are some on the shelf that I just want to read for pleasure. Sadly, it takes me a while to get through a book. However, I tend to read a lot more in the summer to balance this out.

So, that's my bookshelf and my books.

Emma x

A Splash of Colour

A little bit of colour for such a frosty Friday.

Warrington Clandestine Cake Club

The third Warrington Clandestine Cake Club was held on Tuesday. The theme was 'Patron Saint of Cakes' and with a flurry of new members, it promised to be bigger and even better.

I decided to bake a banoffee and marshmallow cake. It didn't really have a link to theme (whoops) but I knew I had to bake something that I wouldn't eat myself. It hasn't been unheard of a whole cake disappearing in our house, so something with banana in was perfect!


After a disastrous second attempt at my cake, I wasn't holding out any hope. However, the final bake had no sign of shrinkage and looked like it did in the picture.

Lovely cake baking fun! x

Teacup Candles

After swooning over teacup candles for a long time, but never buying one. I thought it was about time I made one myself. I have searched a number of charity shops looking for vintage china, but always found it wasn't exactly what I wanted or was too expensive, perhaps I am looking in the wrong place?

I found this teacup in Sainsbury's and decided that this was the one. I set about making the teacup candle the next day. It was relatively easy, however, I would want to add a fragrance to it next time. I bought the wicks from Ebay and the wax was recycled from old tealights.

 I am really pleased with the finished product and now have another teacup ready and waiting. 

And for those of you who know I can't complete a task without *something* going slightly awry, here's what happened!

SpottyTeacup x

2011: The Year of Shabby Chic!

Hello bloggers,

I have so many ideas for blog posts that I have started to write a list! I just hope that this enthusiasm continues and that it is remotely interesting. My only worry is that I am not going to find enough time to write/edit my posts. How do you all do it? This one should have been on earlier – naughty!

I thought my first ‘real’ blog post should be about what I achieved in 2011. It was the first full year of living in our new home and offered some high and low moments. As the house was bought with the intention of ripping it all out and starting again, I began the year with so many ‘to do lists’ and projects in mind. Whilst some projects were a success, others were a complete and utter disaster. So, here are some of my projects from 2011:

The first lesson I learnt was that cream is a colour that should never be overlooked. When we moved in, I was eager to paint upstairs. I created mood boards; spent hours scouring the shops for unusual colours and purchasing magazines to help me plan. I remember wondering why people would just nod and smile wryly when I told them about my overly ambitious designs. I decided on a very pale pink for my dressing room/ little bedroom; cream with a brown feature wall for the back bedroom and grey with a violet feature wall in our bedroom.

When it came round to purchasing the paint, we, I mean ‘I’ decided that it would be a good idea to get our paint mixed for our bedroom. We couldn’t find the purple/violet/lilac that we wanted, and thought this would be the best move. It wasn’t. When I opened the tin, I still wasn’t happy, so therefore set about ‘rectifying’ the situation. As a result, the colour we now have is a concoction created after said tin was opened and cost double the amount it originally should. Thankfully, the bedroom is finished and although I like the room, it isn’t perfect and I regret making such a fuss. I am currently waiting for the appropriate moment to say, “Can we change the bedroom walls?” I wonder how long I should wait?

My second achievement was my faux fireplace. Again, when I moved in, I thought there would be lots of hidden character and treasures to discover. One of my craziest thoughts was that there was a Victorian fireplace behind the plasterboard in our bedroom. I imagine you are shaking your head in exasperation or thinking, ‘surely, if there was, it would have been on display?’ Well, you are right, especially as it is a 1950’s house. Not even a whiff of Victorian character.

Please ignore the Xbox controller...

What happened after I began to peel away the plaster and wallpaper was not how I had anticipated this little project to materialise. After knocking through the plasterboard, I was greeted with a cloud of black dust, soot and… a dead blackbird. It took two hours and five bin bags to clear the muck. Gross! However, in its place now stands a beautiful cast iron surround that gives the room the character I was looking for.

My third project was a roman blind. I have a bit of an obsession with red and white polka dot material, as I am sure you will come to find out, so wanted to create some blinds to lift the kitchen and hallway. At that point, I had virtually no sewing skills whatsoever, however, with the help of some online tutorials, a book and a very patient and mathematically gifted boyfriend, I succeeded. It definitely has that rustic charm! To add to this, on my birthday, a wooden heart suddenly appeared attached to the string. This was a lovely addition and a nice surprise.

Another project that I am particularly proud of, but can’t take complete responsibility for, is my bedroom curtains. I wanted a dark and thick material and had seen this ruffled effect in a local restaurant. With the help of my mum, I made these bedroom curtains and I love them. She is such a whizz on the sewing machine and my aim in life is to be as good as her. One of my fondest childhood memories is going to a fancy dress party as a bride. My mum had cut up her wedding dress and made it into a mini one for me. I remember spending hours playing dress up and organising cat walks for my sisters and I. I wish she had kept it, but sadly, like all my dancing costumes, she donated it to the local Primary
school. Hopefully, some little lady is sitting in it right now!

New Year, New Beginnings

Hello all,

Well, I have decided to be very brave and begin to blog! It is something I have been thinking about for a while, but worried that my life was not all that interesting. After doing *a bit* of research, I decided that perhaps I could give it a go and witter on about my normal life anyway! So, here I am! As we are in the process of doing up our very first house, no doubt my first few posts will be about that. However, as I am now officially in the throngs of domestic goddess training, I hope to offer some insight into my progress along the way.

Emma x