Birds

Had a day out with my parents to Harewood House near Leeds on wednesday. I have to admit that I find stately homes all look very similiar inside, but Harewood House have a bird garden. The birds all live in big aviaries or enclosures and look really well cared for. I didn't get many good photos because of the mesh on the aviaries getting in the way, but here's something you don't normally find living in the Yorkshire countryside:

We took a picnic (which we ate in the car sheltering from the rain), it amuses me that despite me having grown up and left home, my Dad still cuts my sandwiches into quarters like he used to for my school lunch box when I was little!

I've got another day out planned for sunday, going to the Great Northern Quilt Show at Harrogate with Mum. Looking forward to seeing gorgeous quilts and doing some shopping.

A sunny sunday

We have an annual tradition in my family - we go to Bamburgh in Northumberland for a day on the beach with family friends. So yesterday we packed up a picnic and left rainy York and headed north to glorious sunshine and views like this:

This is my favourite place, and the setting for most of the family holidays we had when I was a child. We walked on the beack, climbed up the sand dunes and investigated the rock pools. It was a lovely day and we arrived home late, tired and sunburnt, but more relaxed than we've felt in ages!

Some other news - we have some new additions to our furry family. 3 mice came to live with us this week, all named after Disney princesses thanks to the previous owner's little girl. Only one would stay still for a photo, so here's Aurora the mouse:

I hope everyone else has had a lovely bank holiday weekend. I'm looking forward to a week off work this week!

My new favourite meal

I haven't got any finished crafty projects to show off today, so here's a quick update on life in general this week:

We decided to stop buying meat, mostly to save money but I'm pleased because of the animal welfare reasons too. It's created a challenge thinking of meat free meals to cook, but my weekly shop had some interesting things:

 My new favourite meal is chickpea and veg curry - all you need to do is cook a chopped onion, a couple of cloves of chopped garlic, some cauliflower florets, a diced sweet potato and a diced butternut squash, add some curry paste (I bought mine but you could make it if you wanted), add a tin of coconut milk, a tin of chickpeas and a handful of spinach and cook it all till the veg is cooked through, then eat with rice or naan bread. Omnomnom!

I got my partner for the Random End of Summer Swap this week, this swap is a little scary as it is completely down to people and their partners what they make for each other. I’m only at the planning stage for this one but I’m looking forward to getting started.

The weather has been a little insane, poor Misty got caught in a storm yesterday:

And I'll have some new furry additions to our family to introduce soon.

I'm off to get some crafting done now, so I'll have something more exciting than a pile of veg and a damp rabbit to show you!

A lovely weekend

I've had a great weekend, I just wish it could go on for longer:

On saturday I collected my wedding dress! I'd post a picture but I'm keeping it a secret from the groom until the big day. I can't believe how close the wedding is suddenly - there's only 3 months to go. I really must post those invitations tomorrow.

Saturday evening involved board games, good company and the best shepherd's pie ever.

I received my partner for the Tiny House Swap on Craftster. I was expecting to be making a cute little pastel coloured cottage this week, so I was a little thrown when I got a partner who likes bright colours and doesn't want anything too cutesy. I have a great idea though, and what I like most about swaps is the challenge of using the information given by my parter to design something for them.

We've had some spectacular thunder storms, I don't even begrudge spending 10 minutes getting drenched chasing a rabbit who didn't want to go back into her hutch out of the rain!

And today I finally did something I've been wanting to do for ages, but haven't dared to do - I opened a shop on Etsy:
http://www.etsy.com/shop/RachelStitches

All there is there so far are some felt brooches and a fridge magnet, but I have plans for much much more. Here is my favourite item I listed today: