The great Cromer crab hunt.

Being the very end of the summer holidays I thought it would be a good idea to take my children crabbing on Cromer pier.  We used bacon for the bait and lowered our crab line and basket into the North Sea with great expectation!  An hour later were had caught NOTHING.  A change of position on the pier and a refill of our bait bags did the trick and were ended up with a great haul of the little critters.  Meanwhile, we had Chips and an ice cream while the crabs explored our crabbing bucket.

These aren`t big enough to eat and we let them scuttle back into the water at the end of the day.  A good time was had by all.

See you soon XX

Lavender loopy

Its been a lavender frenzy here at MISS POPPY`S HQ today.  Rain was forecast for later, so I decided to get on with my lavender harvest.  I only got to deal with one of my monsterous bushes and filled a cardboard box with lavender flowers.  These will be turned every few days to ensure an even `dry`.  I have lots of planned uses for my bumper harvest, from lavender pomanders, to additions to my soap and balms AND in the kitchen.  Below is a Lavender biscuit recipewhich I made today.  Its apparently a favorite of the Duchess of Cornwall (Camilla) perhaps she offers some to Wills and Kate when they pop in for a cuppa! 

1 Cream the butter and most of the sugar together (save some for later)

 Ingredients :

70g sugar

110g butter/marg (I used Flora Buttery)

150g plain flour

25g rolled oats

1 tablespoon fresh lavender flowers









3 Mix into a dough and chill in fridge for 15 mins.



2 Add flour and oats



4 Roll out so it`s 1cm thick



5 Use cutter of your choice, place on a greased baking sheet and sprinkle with the rest of the lavender sugar



6 Chill for another 15 mins.  Then bake at gas mark 4 for 20 mins.

7 Finally, relax with an afternoon cuppa and a biccie. 

Enjoy!   See you soon XX 







Fresh & French

BONJOUR!  I`m a bit of a francophile, but my French is, frankly, quite shockingly terrible, tres bon, it is not!  To make up for this here are 3 of some of the loveliest French style items I could find in the shops of my fellow FOLKSY shop owners! Click the links to view!

What a lovely fresh blue design,  I`d love this in my summerhouse !  £12.00  from JennyBenny.

http://folksy.com/items/3540833-French-Postcard-inspired-Cushion-Cover

I use lavender all of the time when I make my soap, balms and body butters.  It`s simply one of my favorites and is a truly excellent essential oil with many many benefits so this beautiful print (£63.75 from Eyeshoot phtography) was especially eye catching to me!

http://folksy.com/items/2692994-Three-Shabby-Chic-French-Country-Style-Lavender-Photo-Prints-save-15-



This ultra cute little wooden boat (£8.00 Wood & Rope) can be customised with a childs name etc and would look great in a nautically inspired childs room or bathroom.  I think its wonderful!





http://folksy.com/items/3123690-Little-French-Boat-Le-Squid-



Here in the UK, the summer holidays are almost over, I`m always quite sad at this time of the year as I get so used to having my children around ALL of the time and I do miss then when they start school again.  I`m also struck that they are a year older as they move up a year at school.  I have so many happy memories of this summer and all the fun we have had.  I bet I`m not the only one!


See you soon XX

Caravan cool

£9.00 from London Handmade

I recently holidayed in a caravan and I can tell you it was completely adorable.  It was decked out, beach hut style, with nautically inspired soft furnishings, driftwood style flooring and snazzy polar white and navy colour scheme.  We were about 200 metres from the sea and were woken but the monsterous seagulls every day.  Long gone are the days of dreary caravans, so to celebrate this and the re-emergance of the `staycation` in ths Jubilee and Olympic year, here are some of the great caravan inspired pieces currently available from my fellow shop owners at ETSY.  Click on the links to see more of their very clever and inspiring stuff!

First up is a caravan broach,  there is also a matching necklace available from London Handmade.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/londonhandmade

£4.99 from Mystic Moose

Mystic Moose has this great tote bag available, great to take to the beach or to pick up your holiday shopping.
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MysticMooseCrafts












Lastly, here is a lovely gypsy caravan print by Caroline Rose Art,  if I every have my own caravan, I`m sure I`d want it to look just like this!

http://www.etsy.com/shop/CarolineRoseArt




£13.00 from Caroline Rose Art

 I really hope you have enjoyed my caravan mini fest.  I have been sitting in my garden summerhouse drinking tea whilst writing this.  The sun is shining and I think I am still on my holidays...........


See you Soon XX

Yorkshire in the sun

 

I`ve just returned from a lovely lovely holiday in Yorkshire.  We were blessed by the weather and were able to escape from the holiday crowds and found some wonderfully peaceful spots without another person as far as the eye could see.  

The view from the Pennine Way towards Scarborough

  



York Minster



My children enjoyed fossil hunting on Filey beach and we all marvelled at the splendour of York Minster and the great shopping opportunites in the York Shambles.  I think that there is no better place to be than the UK when the sun shines.





Glorious Filey beach



We had a stop-off at Lincoln on the way and I found a great soap shop with the most yummy looking soap cakes.  They actually look more cake like than the cakes I bake at home!  I was very impressed.  Visit http://www.facebook.com/TheLincolnSoapCompany for more info.

These look absolutely scrummy!

 

Since returning, I have launced three new items, lavender body butter, lavender and geranium bath oil and a gift boxed set of three handmade soap bars



All available from Miss Poppys online shop 

3 pack of gift boxed soap

Lavender and geranium bath oil

Solid lavender body butter



See you soon  XXX