The Stepford Class

Fire in the house

2012-11-26T23:21:00.000+00:00

The wood burner is operational!

Isn't it just beautiful.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

House Progress

2012-11-23T18:26:00.000+00:00

Since I last wrote about the renovation things have been steaming along at full speed. Seriously its beginning to actually look like a house rather a building site. The house has been a flurry on workmen coming in and out. The Kitchen is nearly done and so is the Bathroom they just need finishing touches like grouting and flooring before they are ready to be finished.

The Cul-de-sac has been filled with skips and vans as a house across the way is also being renovated so we must be driving the neighbours up the wall.

The walls have been insulated this week, by a man doing slight acrobatics with a wall injector, and the loft will be done at some point next week, then laid so we can use the loft as storage.

Despite all the progress there is still a long way to go, the wood burner isn't in, light fixtures, decorating, flooring, finishing touches and dressing still needs to be done. It is so exciting to bring this house back to life, it has metamorphosed from the 1970's atrocity into a modern family home. Its sort of boggling to be doing a modern project after living in period properties always so its been a very different build from anything any of us have done before. Thats both exciting and nerve racking.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Full Steam Ahead

2012-11-21T16:18:00.000+00:00

There has been a sudden flurry of business at the house, over the course of this week there have been endless streams of people in and out. Fitting and finishing work. We officially have a bathroom that actually works, rather than a shell with holes in the floor. All the major jobs are now done. Which is a load of our minds.

The wood burner has also gone in, and it looks beautiful. A home is not a home without a fireplace. Now we can start burning things so that the fabric of the house is warmed. We are so close to the house being finished. It is all so exciting.

Its a little hard to believe that a few months ago this house was a greasy, filthy smelly 70's monstrosity and now its been stripped back and reborn. This is what I love about interior design.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Looking forward

2012-11-20T12:59:00.000+00:00

There are two things you really look forward to at University one is food shopping. Lack of funds and having to make everything yourself means that food shopping becomes this little deacon of hope. Where you get to wonder around the shops salivating over things you can't afford and treating yourselves to the things you can. Maybe shopping for food looses its lustre as you get older but for now its one of the best things in life. Nothing is more satisfying than a full fridge.

The second thing is holidays, the christmas season is almost upon us and and I am already really excited to be heading home. I can't wait to squeeze my puppies. I can't wait to see my friends from back home and most of all I can't wait to eat my parents out of house and home on christmas food. So I have started to get in the spirt and started looking for presents. Christmas is awesome and I'm going to revel in it for as long as I can.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

An update on all things

2012-11-16T23:57:00.000+00:00

This blog has been slightly dead since august, how sad, I seriously keep meaning to write in it but I've been swamped. That being said this is my 100th post! University work is in full swing and added to that Student Finance England the utter horrors are being evil to me yet again. Now they have decided that I am only eligible for the bare minimum of funding (not true) and are messing me about "reassessing me" yet again. Its as though everything that can go wrong has gone wrong with them. So I've been on even less funds that last year, if thats possible. I even caved and had my mother buy me a food shop, something I didn't do in first year even though I stock piled in preparation for not having money. I would sincerely like to kick the shins of who ever is in charge of student finance. They belong in the very dankest pits of hell. Anyway, rant over. There has been other more interesting news than my money woes. The house is nearing completion! Work has obviously been slower now my sister and I are back at uni and with my parents both working the build speed has slowed down but some awesome progress has been made. Despite some minor mishaps with feet going through floors and metal beams needing to be put into secure up the utility before it fell down throwing the budget slightly its going okay. The huge Sycamore tree has been cut down in the garden, we've kept some of the wood for the new wood burner.

The kitchen is almost complete it just need the light to go in, to be painted and for the floors to go down. It looks absolutely lovely though, the cooker is a super cute old fashioned looking thing that I'm a little in love with. Even though we couldn't get the little half moon handles we wanted the ones we got aren't a bad replacement and look really sweet. I think my dad and I did a pretty decent job on picking the work tops too.

All the rooms have been lined with paper and the carpets are getting measured sometime this week so progress is ticking on. The bathroom still isn't in even though its supposed to have been done weeks ago. Builders don't half like to drag things out. Parents have also been maniacally sorting out our current house getting ready to rent it out as soon as possible after the move so haven't had time to constantly chase around after slacking workmen.

Thats all really. I've got some plans for future posts so fear not I refuse to become one of those bloggers who posts once in a blue moon complaining they don't post enough, I'm out of the habit but I'm getting back into it I have big ideas for this little site even if it is only really for me.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Super Salmon Toastie

2012-11-15T00:00:00.000+00:00

I had an amazing toastie today, So I thought I'd share. I had to use up the left over peppered salmon and I didn't really want to use it for my main meal, but when I came home from gym I was craving protein but didn't want a huge effort to cook so I used my noodle and came up with this.

2 slices of whole grain bread
Salmon slices
Mozzarella
Spinach.

Laura my housemates family visited recently and her dad brought some of his amazing home made bread. I'm still working on getting the bread thing down so I won't do any recipes just yet.

To the bread slices I added the salmon after tearing it up into rough little chunks.

Then I sliced the mozzarella, pretty thickly I'll be honest but I do love mozzarella.

Then I covered it in spinach leaves and slapped it into the toastie maker until the cheese started to fizzle. The toastie machine is a students godsend, its just awesome, I guess I could use the grill but who wants the hassle.

Super quick, totally tasty, 100% awesome.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

In which I run away with a recipe

2012-11-13T23:24:00.000+00:00

I found this recipe quite a while ago and saved it. I kept meaning to try it so finally decided to do it this week, a slight problem of I couldn't remember what it was supposed to look like reared its head so I slightly made it up as I went.

Potatoes

Ingredients:
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
3 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
4 pounds russet potatoes, peeled
4 shallots, thickly sliced lengthwise
Coarse salt
1/2 to 1 teaspoon red-pepper flakes (optional)
8 sprigs thyme

Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. In a small bowl, combine butter and oil. Brush bottom of a round 9-inch baking dish with some butter mixture. With a sharp knife, slice potatoes very thinly.

2. Arrange potato slices vertically in dish. Wedge shallots throughout. Sprinkle with salt and red-pepper flakes (if using); brush with remaining butter mixture. Bake 1 1/4 hours. Add thyme and bake until potatoes are cooked through with a crisp top, about 35 minutes more.

Seems simple enough, I was missing the pepper flakes and the thyme but I substituted the Pepper for paprika as I know they're made out of red pepper, no red pepper corns as I think this recipe intended but oh well.

The first bit went well I preheated the oven to 275 instead of 375 as that seemed far too high to be right. Then I added the olive oil to the bowl, then realised I was supposed to add melted butter so just threw in the butter and slapped it in the microwave for twenty seconds on high.

I brushed the pan neatly. I wasn't too optimistic the butter oil mix did not look appetising.

Now cutting the potatoes was my biggest mistake, I started cutting them thinly then remembered this recipe was for hasselback potatoes. I then failed to slice them slice thinly across the top. as though the potatoes where supposed to be crisps but hadn't been cut all the way through. I laid out my sliced potatoes on the tray so they didn't go to waste.

I then attempted to slice the shallots and wedge them in the potatoes, the problem I faced is there was no room to accommodate the shallots so I ended up breaking bits of the patatoe and throwing shallots everywhere. I gave up and just diced and sprinkled the entire pan with them. Then I sprinkled with salt and paprika, even I can't manage to mess that up.

Then I doused them in the left over butter mix. They didn't exactly look the most beautiful thing in the world.

Then I baked them for an hour when I noticed they had begun to burn at the edges so I rescued them and served them with peppered salmon and spinach with herring pickle over. After all that they actually tasted amazing and looked really appetising so I think I'll try this recipe again.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

20 Years Old

2012-11-10T13:14:00.002+00:00

Tomorrow I'll be 20, and I don't feel ready for it. I've always been one of those people who becomes super excited for their birthday but this year I'm not looking forward to it. I didn't celebrate my 19th because I was so sick last November and now I'm about to be 20 it seems crazy. I'm the kind of person who would rather be watching cartoons and climbing trees than doing grown up stuff. I can't help but feel like I'm out of place not being a child, does everyone feel like that?

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Cafe Direct Coffee Sample

2012-11-09T23:37:00.000+00:00

I had a sample of Cafe Direct Coffee arrive today, so I thought I'd share my findings with you. I had pretty high expectations of this coffee, the packaging looked slick, the ethical credentials where there (even the pamphlet the sample came with was sustainably sourced) and when I opened the packet the smell was divine. The Blend they sent me was their full roast strong coffee, supposedly "velvety, rounded and full bodied".

I unfortunately found it dull, and slightly forgettable. I use my cafetiere as a treat, a ten minute break between essay writing, I stop and just make my coffee. I drink in the smell and the action of plunging my French press. Its the little things that enrich my day. This sample left me utterly cold, with a tiny splash of warm milk it became washed out and uninviting.

My current coffee is Lyons Rich Evening Blend and it is lovely, and I can't ever see me swapping it for a Cafe Direct Coffee now after this disappointment.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Angel had surgery

2012-11-05T00:25:00.000+00:00

Little squiff Angel hasn't been to happy lately, with my sister and I back at University she hasn't been getting quite as much fuss as she is used too. Especially now my Mim has started training Blossom to Stack (the way show dogs stand) recently. Until about a week ago when my parents took her to the vet to get spayed. She was fine in surgery and charmed all the vets with her cute little eyes.

She wasn't too please though with her cone, dachshunds are definitely the wrong shape to wear cones. Every time she tried to eat or drink she ended up scooping food up and throwing it everywhere, so my Mim had to hand feed her and let her drink out of mugs. Which definitely made her feel like the centre of attention, her favourite trick was to stand on my mim while she was sat down and stick her coned face right into my Mim so all she could see was Angel and cone.

She also had to sleep in the cage to stop the others going after her stitches which she didn't like one bit. She has definitely discovered her howl. For such a tiny dog she can howl the house down when she wants too. Our neighbours must really hate us, but it doesn't matter on one side we have a really weird guy who is very rude and on the other side we have a young noise couple.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Cooking with Russia

2012-11-03T00:21:00.000+00:00

Last year I bought a Russian cook book, then promptly looked over the recipes salivating in anticipation... Then realised I had none of the ingredients and zero capital to buy new ones. So then left it gather dust. Until now... and even then I didn't really follow the recipe.

Original Recipe for White Cabbage with Cream
1 head of perfect white cabbage 1 1/2 cups sweet cream
2 tablespoons butter White Pepper
1 tablespoon flour Salt

Cook the head of cabbage whole in salted water until almost ready. Drain. Cut into serving portions. Combine butter, white pepper and salt. Mix flour with cream and add to the butter. Add cabbage and cook slowly until the cabbage is completely done. Serves four.

My Recipe
1 Serving Red Cabbage sliced 2 tablespoons Greek Yogurt
2 teaspoons Flora Black Pepper
1 Teaspoon flour Salt

Cook the cabbage in boiled water with salt until slightly under done. I like mine slightly crunchy so I only boiled it for about three minutes. Then plunged it into cold water. Then I drained the cabbage and put it on my plate to rest.

I then, in the pan I cooked the cabbage, melted the butter and added in a decent amount of black pepper. I chose to leave out the salt because I'd cooked the cabbage in salt already.

Then I added the Greek Yogurt to the pan and the flour. Once mixed up I've got to admit that it didn't look too promising. The cabbage smell and the strange milky thick mess that was unfolding before me.

Then I added cabbage and cooked until the sauce no longer had a slight flour taste and it was a more pleasing texture.

I then served it with pickled herring that I got from Tesco, which are served with gherkins and sliced onions. They taste great and have a lovely texture. They also are definitely fitting for a Russian menu as herrings are a staple food in Russia. Then because the plates at our University house are so large and the fair sized meal looked so tiny on them I added a heap of spinach.

It was absolutely delicious, I imagine it would be better with Cream not Greek Yogurt and Butter not Flora. That being said I finished everything on my plate. Russian cooking is definitely something I'm going to keep trying.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Five things I wish didn't exist

2012-10-30T19:46:00.000+00:00

Number one:

Sweat pants, now I know they are comfy for lazing about the house and they are suitable for the gym but that does not change the fact that people seem to think that they are an item of normal clothing. Sweatpants are a affront to taste, they have elasticated waists and make people think you're sweaty. In all honesty sweat pants are closer to pajamas than too clothing. As Dita Von Teese Said on the subject of sweatpants. When asked if she'd ever wear a pair, "Why would I do that? Who wants to purposefully feel crappy?" Boys in sweat pants is one of my greatest pet hates, they look like tools.

Number Two:

Fake tan. The smell, the streaks, the orange; There are no redeeming features to the slop. Pale is beautiful and so is natural tan but faking your skin shows your just not comfortable in it. Some boys wear it now too... how masculine. Make up, plucking and primping is just making a person the best that they can be but tan tie dye is a step to far.

Number Three:

Fast Food chains. Fast food is bad enough as it is, being high is salt and fat and nasties. My objection to chains is they are so far detached from the person in charge that the standards slip. A family who own a pizzaria are going to put love and care into their food as good sales are there livelihood but a global chain where the staff are on a minimum wage stop gap aren't going to care if there products aren't that good. Cheap food is not the answer, Good food is.

Number Four:

Glass Tables. I've yet to see one that isn't an abomination to taste, they are a health risk and they are impractical. A beautiful wooden table is indefinitely more practical and more aesthetically pleasing in all cases. They serve no purpose but the signal you out as tasteless.

Number Five:

Jeans. No one looks as good in jeans as they think they do. They make skinny girls look fatter and curvy girls look like sausages. They ride down or up showing kidney or weird bit of ankle. They are unflattering and dull. They are lazy fashion for people who don't care enough about what they look like to put consideration into their outfits. Then forty something old men wear them and attempt to look hip and young. Just no.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Blossom Drama

2012-10-25T19:17:00.000+01:00

One of the many dramatic goings on since I last posted was somebody attempted to steal Blossom. Which would have possibly been the worst thing in the world if we hadn't got her back. Don't worry she is home safe and sound now though... Here's what happened.

My Dad was in the house and heard a crashing sound from downstairs and all the dogs where going mental barking, so he ran down to check what had happened and the back garden gate was open and Blossom was missing. So he ran out and began frantically searching to see if he could see anyone or her. The garden gate lock was totally broken so someone had broken in and grabbed her and ran off. So he then called the police and then had to call my Mim which was obviously a incredible hard phone call to make. The likelihood is a pedigree like Blossom would have been sold into the Puppy Mill trade was a very real and terrifying possibility.

The Police where absolutely useless, they didn't even really want to report it because it is such a common crime. My parents where beside themselves and went out searching for her. They though they could hear her in a house that was a few doors down on the opposite side of the alleyway that our houses back onto so knocked on their door and asked. Apparently they found her in the street and had kept her incase she was missing. Which we thinks unlikely because their house overlooked ours and they hadn't reported her found to anyone. There was no evidence they had actually stolen her though so there was nothing we could do. It did cement to us though that we are absolutely making the right decision in moving. The though we could be living near people who think that its okay to steal a dog is horrific. Taking a dog is like taking someone's child, the rest of the dogs where totally freaking out that Blossom was missing and they could probably hear her seeing as she was so close.

Once she was back she needed a bath because she was filthy and was given lots of fuss and hugs from my parents. Then they called me to tell me what had happened. That was not a nice conversation to have, Blossom is most definitely my dog and the prospect that someone would just take her was so frightening. They then called my sister and told her, who then went to one of her first meet and greets of the new term and cried. The dogs are no longer allowed in the back garden unsupervised and the all the locks have been replaced, when we move they'll be in a very secure garden with a dog run so they will have even more protection. Its a sad reality that people willing to steal pets for money exist. I'm just glad we've got her back and if I ever find out who took her I'll have their head on a pike.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Puppy news from Rosie Darling!

2012-08-18T19:31:00.000+01:00

We've had an email from Rosie our biggest and last born pup who went to live with the school teacher Helen. Rosie also got the mohawk gene like Angel but her's is even better!

Firstly, can I start by apologising about my lack of e-mails! I know I'm rubbish!!! I've tried to send of couple of e-mails recently but the files were too big and wouldn't send so I gave up! I'm going to send only a couple of photos per e-mail and see how that does... How is the lovely Lily and the others in the brood?

Rosie is wonderful! She has settled with her new family life perfectly and it's as if we've always had her! She has become very well house trained with only a few accidents here and there. She has been to two sets of training classes now and will generally do what we want her too - but she is certainly a Dachshund and it's all still very much on her terms!!! She is however, becoming a very good guard dog and unfortunately tends to bark at everything that moves (but this is getting a little better)! My poor neighbours!!!

We've had some fabulous holidays together. She loves the beach and open fields. Running and gambolling around is her favourite thing. She is the most loving and adorable little dog ever and she follows me everywhere!!!

We are going away to Cornwall tomorrow and she has recently come into season - so we'll all have to watch that she doesn't get any amorous advances from any other dogs!!! Nightmare. Has her sister come into season yet?

Well, I'm going to have a go at sending some photographs now... Hope you are all well your end and that the house move went/is going smoothly. Take care and I will try and send some more update when we get back from Cornwall.

Love Helen X

Constructive Destruction

2012-08-12T21:46:00.000+01:00

We have been busy little bees in the last two weeks, the house has transformed. We have reduced it to a shell and the start of rebuilding has begun. I stripped all the wallpaper and ceiling chipboard off the living room. My parents did the same to the hallway. Everything became covered in flakes of pine that had created the textured ceiling. We've stripped the dining room ceiling which consisted of polystyrene tiles on top of patterned paper, on top of artex, covering a leak stain which hadn't been dealt with. Such madness. We also took the dogs to the house one at a time so we could get them used to being there.

We have totally removed the kitchen, mallets and man power was used to rag the units from the walls. Horrific discoveries of more piles of greasy remnants where discovered underneath the units. A swarm of silverfish scuttled out with every movement, some ever lived underneath the wall tiles. We ended up greasy and dusty while dragging the kitchen into the utility room, and again when we transported the units into the car on our many trips to the recycling centre.

Once one side of the kitchen was out we set about removing the tiles, which where two layered thick of plain white modern tiles over brown 70's tiles. They where reluctant to leave the wall but once the hammers came out we had fun clattering them to the floor.

The plumbers came in this week and installed a new boiler and re-piped the entire house, which was a mismatch of various peoples DIY misadventures over the last fifty years leading to a dangerous array of weak spots around the heating pipes. They also removed the bathroom so all that is left to do is remove the tiles and start the refit. Then they removed all the radiators so we could remove the wallpaper behind them and line the walls with backing paper, which revealed even more ugly patterned wallpaper.

Then Darren the kitchen man came and removed the kitchen sink so we could finish removing the units and tiles. We also arranged with him the units, handles and worktops that we are getting, we've already picked the tiles. He then set about demolishing the wall, and moving electrical out lets. He finished off rounding the arch in the kitchen and prepped it to be plastered over this weekend. He also did a fabulous thing of removing the 70's gas fireplace and ripping off the pine casing around the chimney breast. He also happens to have a wood burner for sale, a lovely little one with a marble surround which suits us perfectly. We've also had a tree surgeon out to survey the sycamore in the back garden, he agreed to remove it and trim the overhanging trees so the garden will get more light.

The further we take our archaeological dig into this house the more it feels as though the house is sighing with relief. Its not long now until we can start decorating and make the house ours.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

House progress

2012-07-31T00:23:00.000+01:00

We got the house on Wednesday and by Saturday we had already near transformed it. Simply ripping out every single vile stinking carpet out of the house made a huge difference and covering the house in candles. The rooms look instantly bigger and brighter. The house now smells of bleach and cleaning products not old Chinese food. It is so much more welcoming and easier to see the potential in the place.

We also cleaned all the the windows and scrubbed the kitchen. My Mim and I scrubbed the kitchen surfaces for hours but they still felt greasy it was awful. Worst of all when we removed the tin foil from the wall there was grease underneath the foil, that was there so long it had been painted over. What cretin saw a greasy wall and thought, you know what would improve that... covering it in foil. yuck!

The kitchen despite hours of bleaching and scrubbing when I knelt on the work tops to clean the top of the units my knees stuck to the grease on the work tops. I was just trying to get them clean enough to put in the back of the car to take to the tip but they are so impossible to actually clean I think we're just going to have to put a tarp down and take them like that. My Mim tried to brighten our greasy kitchen up by bringing some flowers in from the garden and popping them in a tea pot.

We also started de-weeding and tearing apart the garden, on a particularly sunny day. We managed to drag out four really established sycamore saplings, rather a lot of brambles and seeming never ending cleavers. All in all we've been very productive, when we weren't sitting in the sun drinking tea...

I love playing house, its like the sims but real real life, so much fun.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

In which we acquire a time warp.

2012-07-28T22:16:00.000+01:00

My family has finally bought a new house! As we've had such difficulty selling our current home we couldn't get a new one unless we bought a little house to do up and eventually rent our current one. So after months of messing about with lawyers and difficult people we managed to buy a new little property.

Inside was not exactly brilliant, though the rooms where of an okay size they where decorated horrifically, I mean seriously badly. Every surface was patterned and or colourful in the worst possible way. Everywhere was covered in grease and dust as though the place hadn't been touched since the sixties. The entrace hall to the house had this horrid red carpet and everything smelt like Chinese food. The hall is actually surprisingly spacious and we think would be a good location for our huge mirrors that currently live in our living room. Moving from a relatively large Victorian house to a modern one is part of the challenge.

The living room has a large plastic wood style gas fireplace that is going to ripped out and large sliding glass doors that lead out to the garden. The garden is the main reason that we bought this house, it is large enough to keep the dogs happy, entertain in and have chickens in. The house is really bright, the kitchen is decent sized and its in a really lovely area so the house isn't too much of a compromise. It will also hopefully be a decent investment in the slightly more longer term.

As I mentioned before the kitchen is fairly large, when we got it they had 50's units that had probably been there as long, everything was covered in a thick layer of grease. They had put tin foil up on the walls to act as a splash back from the grease, that had been there so long the sellotape holding it up had been painted over. Grim. We plan on gutting the kitchen and knocking the wall between that and the little dining room down as the dining space is sort of wasted.

The little dining space we plan to knock through into has the weirdest set of patterned wall paper, horrid flooring, swirly boarders and odd ceiling tiles. It seems like an awful lot of work but it is mostly cosmetic.

The last room on the ground floor is the utility room which runs the length of the house that you enter through the dining room, which will make so much more sense when we knock through the dining kitchen wall. Who designed a utility room off a dining room in the first place. The utility is where the downstairs loo is and is probably going to be the most work as it needs totally re plastering.

The utility also leads onto the garden, the garden is rather large and has a little concert patio at the moment. We plan on removing the sycamore tree and all the saplings around the edge of the garden, we also need to remove a ton of brambles and creepers from the over grown garden. The patio is being redone bigger so there is a place for a barbecue, table and chairs, and entertaining space. We also need to replace parts of the ramshackle fence.

Back in the house the upstairs is in a similar state to the rest of the house, sixies carpets and horrid mismatched wallpaper throughout. And equally as filthy, a lovely collection of cobwebs amassed everywhere. The weird thing is the house was lived in by a family all the time so how it has become a time capsule from the sixties is beyond me. how could you live like that and not go mad?

There are two double bedrooms that look out on to the garden with huge windows and one small single that faces the front garden. They are actually really bright nice rooms if you can get past the car crash decor. The wallpaper is all textured and the carpets where geometric oddities.

The single room was particularly badly decorated with blue and silver striped wallpaper mixed with the worst carpet in the whole house. It has a funny little step where the stairs cut into the room so we plan on turning that into a little bench type thing or wardrobe depending on how the room looks when we have thing in it, as each time we've returned to the house it feels bigger and bigger. This room is going to become the guest room.

Lastly is the upstairs bathroom, a delightful *ahem* grey and an pink faded tiled room with strange flowers and enough grim to classify as a biohazard. At one point my Mim was attempting to clean the bath and the side fell off it, she just threw it away. That shall be a total over haul as well.

So thats it, the beginning of our new home, a fun little project. What fun!

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

A Reappearance

2012-07-09T14:50:00.001+01:00

Hi readers,

Regulars to my blog might that I've recently enabled ads on my blog, I realise this is somewhat odd timing as I haven't posted in a while but trust me I am working on it. I also figured that if I enabled ads then maybe I will have more of an incentive to post regularly. I've also been having some problems with photographs uploading, so I've resorted to using imgur which doesn't look as nice but it's better than having no photographs. I've been super busy with moving from my old house in Winchester into my new house in Winchester. Although I am going to be so sad not to be living with Lizzie and Maria, I am beyond excited to be moving with Laura in with Andy, Sophie and Beth my history society friends.

In other news my sister is back home as well from university and we've been using the time to photograph each others pets. She has been struggling to get her guinea pigs looking slick and I've been struggling to get any photographs of Addi in focus. So naturally we swopped.
The guinea pigs are both dark and their cage makes it difficult to get a decent angle on so I had to find a place that was bright, big enough but high sided... my conclusion bath tub. I actually managed to get some pretty decent photographs.

My sister tried using the bath but Addis size and speed caused those photographs to come out a blur. So she tried with my holding Addi and continually shooting, which yelding some much better results.

Once I get past these technical issues I promise to post more often.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Victory Tea

2012-06-12T18:49:00.002+01:00

British Blended, delicious and fair trade. What could be better? Victorytea.co.uk sell exclusively online so the price is lower than it would be in store and you can buy bulk too. If you head over to their website you can get an almost free sample of their tea breakfast blend. Which is exactly what I did.

It arrived in a cardboard small box similar to a Grazebox that had really cute little prints of very traditional British iconography, such as a crown. Inside it proclaims that the two gold packets of tea are specially sealed in foil and the tea leaves are vacuum packed almost as soon as its been picked to help seal in all the flavours. So the expectation of the quality of the tea is high.

Firstly the smell when you pop open the foil bag is amazing, really sweet and spiced so its a good start. The colour of the tea is quite strong so again good sign but the proof is in the tasting. Well let me tell you this tea is Amazing. It is mild enough for everyday drinking but tasty enough to be something special. I could drink it all day long and I'm picky when it comes to tea, I'd rather just drink boiled water than bad teas.

I would absolutely recommend this tea, you won't loose out at least ordering a sample.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Just a Little Ramble

2012-05-08T16:56:00.001+01:00

I swear I am not dead. I've not posted using the new layout at all, which is a bit of a inconvenience seeing as I've had it for well over a month. I hate it, I just don't like how everything is so bitty and all over the place. I will be resuming blogging properly when I get the hang of it I promise.

In other news I now also have a tumblr, that I update daily, http://allmyinspirations.tumblr.com/

I mostly post photographs of beautiful houses and interiors.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Blog Birthday!

2012-04-24T00:00:00.000+01:00

Well my blog is officially a year old, at the time of writing I've had three thousand, four hundred and seventy six views to eighty three posts, I don't know whether thats a good number or not but I'm taking it as a win :) To celebrate my blog birthday I baked a pineapple upside-down cake but the recipe isn't quite perfect so I'm not ready to post it yet.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Out takes

2012-04-16T22:45:00.000+01:00

My sister was kind enough to take the photographs, though when my sister and I work together things tend to disintegrate. It took far longer to take the photographs as we where messing around, I thought some of the photographs where funny so thought I'd share. They started off some what normally...

So the out-takes started some what normally, then of course as it aways seems to be decended into slight maddness...

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Spring Shopping

2012-04-16T17:38:00.001+01:00

I've been having a rather rough time with clothes, I tore one of my silk skirts and I've obliterated the zips on some of my favourite dresses. Though honestly I've had my wear out of them, I'm a big fan of second hand clothing. I hate waste and believe if something is useable then you should keep using it so to Ebay I headed. Nothing cost me over twenty pounds, the average was probably closer to five pounds. My first purchase was a little surprise, I clicked watch and forgot about it completely... Then Fatherbean bought it for me. Utterly fabulous.

Its a lovely one hundred percent silk L.K Bennett summer dress, with detectable straps. It fits me like a glove and feels amazing against the skin. It had been worn once, most people don't wear formal clothes very often I am most certainly not one to let formality stop me from wearing a gorgeous dress. Please excuse the mess in the photographs the house move is on its way and their is stuff everywhere.

This next purchase is a Monsoon summer dress with a lovely floral design, it hugs my figure beautifully as it light cotton and perfect for my size, sometimes Monsoon sizes are a little hit and miss so I'm really pleased with how it looks on. The Empire line and bow really flatter the bust I think without being revealing. The dress feels new, even though it did arrive smelling a little musty once washed it was dandy.

Added to that I bought a amazing Jaeger skirt, when it arrived it was a lot longer than I thought i was going to be but I'm very glad that I bought it. The skirt hangs beautifully on my scrawny hips, the light grey is really flattering and the cut really makes it a classy piece of clothing even the zip follows the diagonal line of the seams. I know that bra is totally visible, I'd usually wear a nude one under white but I accidently left it at Winchester when I came home.

Another Jaeger find was this amazing colourful silk shirt, its painfully 80's I know but I love it. It has shoulder pads and cute little fabric covered buttons, not to mention a matching sash. I defiantly need to buy some chinos or something to go with it though, if it had been any brighter the colours would have looked garish but its muted enough that the pattern works. I played about adding a rather hipster hat I had lying around and pretended I was Boy George...

My Mim also bought me a skirt while in a Oxfam charity shop, a patchwork lined cotton Gypsy type skirt. Its very relaxed looking and perfect for summer. Worryingly it sits quite loose on me even though its a uk size six, hopefully thats just because its a Per Una skirt which is a brand aimed at older ladies. Here I teamed it with a vintage Laura Ashley top, another Ebay find and a pink angora cardigan.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Dandelion Delights

2012-04-05T23:45:00.000+01:00

The dandelions in the front garden are rampant, and after eating some in a salad the other day I thought I would look some recipes and see if I could do anything else with such an unusual ingredient. Turns out you can do an awful lot. One in particular struck me as sounding pretty lovely, Dandelion Sorbet, you can find the recipe I used over at Emma Brabradshaw's Blog, a great blog I discovered in my quest. I did make some rookie mistakes during this recipe but you can forgive that.

What you will need
2 pint glasses full of Dandelion Flowers - make sure you harvest them from a pesticide free area.
3 cups of Water
1/4 cup of Honey
1/2 Sugar
3tsp Lemon Juice

I made the most basic miss calculation, not picking enough dandelions, I mean they looked like there where hundreds in the garden. Emmas recipe calls for three pints I gathered about two, instead of two and a half cups of dandelions I had one. Ultimately that was quite good as it made two small portions.

Cut your dandelion petals as soon as you have harvested them or they will start to wither, don't cut to close to the white base of the petal as that area can be bitter. Try to avoid the green bits, but don't worry if there are some.

Next I added three cups of water, a quarter cup of honey and half a cup of sugar, then brought it all up to the boil. It was a bit fiddly getting all the honey into the water, my hands ended up getting sticky and I ended up with petals stuck to my fingers.

Now stir in the dandelions and turn down to a simmer, the smell is hypnotic. Slightly lemony and a bit like incense. Simmer for about an hour with the occasional stirring to keep an eye on the water level. The colour will change dramatically.

Then use a very fine sieve or a muslin, and strain the syrup through it into a ice cream container. Add three tea spoons of lemon juice and put in the freezer.

Every couple of hours check on the forming sorbet and break up the ice a little. You do not want big lumps forming, it does take quite a while to set so I'd suggest making this when you get up if you are having a summer afternoon Barbecue. As rookie mistake #2 I thought it would set in a few hours so made it at like 6 o'clock in the evening. In the end I went to bed with it still like a sweet caramelish lovely tasting slushie in the freezer.

Luckily for me it broke up really easily, I then served it in ramekins. It tastes of something! something I just can't put my finger on, it is a definite taste I recognise but can't put my finger on. Almost like earl grey tea but not. It is very sweet, I'd maybe cut the honey next time I made it.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx

Dandelion Salad

2012-03-31T18:39:00.000+01:00

Dandelions are a delicious, nutritious and rarely used food source. They are chock full of base minerals that most people fail to get in their modern diets. So in my bid to try out dated foods, just as I did with livers, so to did I try dandelions. They where going mental growing in our garden and I thought I would find a use for them before composting them. Apparently dandelions are really great for your liver, who knew.

Firstly harvest them, cut the plant out by the root and discard any soiled leaves and all the yellow flowers. Early spring and late autumn are the best times for dandelions, in summer they get to bitter to enjoy. Once harvested, process the leaves by picking them away from the main stem and discarding any stems and strangely leaves.

The soak in some water for an hour then rise and shake the leaves to get rid of as much dirt as you can, you can be quite rough with them.

Dry the leaves and set in a bowl, to the bowl and a drizzle of lemon juice and equal parts good olive oil. mix into the leaves by hand.

Finally add some salt, pepper and some crushed up Thyme and mix in well. The taste in very strong, unusual and peppery, after the first few mouthfuls though you get used too it and its actually quite pleasant. I'd advise against selecting the larger leaves as they tend to get a bit bitter. I ate it with fried mushrooms and mash potatoes.

Yours

Belinda Stepford

xxx