The Pinterest Challenge

One of my favourite things to do is peruse Pinterest. What with the list of things I want to do with my time I have figured that the best way to make my way through them is to take on the Pinterest Challenge. I first came across this concept on the wonderful Merrick's Art blog (ironically I discovered her on Pinterest).

I was inspired by the idea of a challenge focused on the mass of Pin's you can amass without batting an eyelid. A happy time spent trawling through said amassed pins later, I plumped for the following 6:

1: Blossom Canvas/ 2: Tea box
3: Butterfly gift box/ 4: Painted pasta bows/ 5: Gift bag
6: Button Biscuits

I don't know how many of these I'll get through in the next six weeks as of Monday 22nd, giving me a few days planning before embarking on all these challenges. I would have loved to have included some sewing challenges but until the sewing machine is up and running again that is going to have to wait. I think there is enough appeasment in the inclusion of a tea-based, and this will be doubly useful as the tea "area" of the kitchen really needs a pinch of organisation! I am not looking forward to a happy weekend (day) of plotting. See you back here in 6 weeks for the results!

Nelly x

Foodies Unite

What makes a good chef? Is it the qualifications possessed  or an innate ability to understand and combine flavours in a unique way. Is it it the ability to follow recipes to the letter or is it the bravery to experiment. Though all these things come in handy I believe that there is one key ingredient that makes a chef better than good (pun most likely subliminally intended). It is nothing more, or less, than a love of food and finding joy in cooking it to share that love. This is how I feel when I'm baking and I know that is how my friend and founder of The Portly Gourmet feels when he gets into the kitchen.

This may be one of the reasons that the two of us get on so well. We have a connection in our appreciation of food, and that's not in terms of quantity but in terms of ingredient, flavour, occasion and of course company. If made perfect sense, therefore, for him to return home to the family business and then branch out into the aspects of cooking that inspire him most. And the world of relishes, jams and chutneys has found an amiable friend.

This is where anyone in the Cambridge locale should listen up. If you happen to be anywhere near Fish Burwell Ltd (18 The Guineas Center, Newmarket) pop in, and not only to buy some excellently sourced fish. (Follow them on Twitter for the days fish: @FishBurwellLTD or pop to their website where you will find fish recipes aplenty http://fishburwell.com/press/.) No, not only will you find fish on these premises. You will also find jars carrying the Portly Gourmet label (and have I mentioned just how much I love the label). Jars that will delight the soul and tickle your taste-buds. Among them you may notice the ever dependable Pickled Onions, and a delightful and slightly exotic Sweet Chili Relish!  

And if you (like me) are not in the local area then we need not fear. All that needs to be done is to head to: http://portlygourmet.wordpress.com/page/2/ for all our culinary dreams to be ignited (with recipes attached.)

Portly Gourmet, we can never thank you enough!

Nelly xx

To The Wire

There was a dress I made before I came to HK... I say before,  but I was actually handsewing the hem in my bed the night before my flight. This only just made it into the suitcase. And boy am I glad it did. It is the handmade dress I wear most frequently.\

The fabric is a vintage liberty print that my mum had vast amounts of lying around and it's fully lined in a cotton blend. The pattern is the one pictured below. I tweaked the sleeves a bit also. This is the best picture I have of this dress - sadly not full length but it's the best picture ever taken of the dress...

I found this a relatively simple dress to make. It was at the end of a run of three fully lined dresses that I made and with a few skills that I'd never used before, so this was always going to be the easiest of the three. It was simple to construct and the instructions were clear. The only change I made was to make the sleeves shorter so they suited me! I'm already looking forward to making another - the fabric awaits! 

Nelly x

A Book I tell You... Another Book... (#8)

So it's not a week, but maybe I'll be able to hit 52 by the end of the year... (see post below). Challenge heartily accepted and here is one that I have read through at double quick speed: Going Solo by Roald Dahl.

I have read Boy many a time and delighted in Roald Dahl's wonderful ability to recount his memories in the most humours and laugh-out-loud ways. Going Solo maintained much of this but also had a level of seriousness that I have not encountered in any of his writing that I have read up to now. This alteration is of course because of the time to which he was referring (from 1939) and the stories and ideals of the people he meets. Despite this backdrop Dahl still manages to inject much of the book with his wonderful humour.

I was hooked within the first two pages simply because of the explanation of the collective vocabulary the the Empire Builders as-was had in common, regardless of location. Some are words that I am very used to hearing and I can put this down to the fact that my father and my grandfather are all connected to various parts of the British Armed Forces. The fact there are a few words thrown in their that I use makes it all the funnier.

I would always recommend Roald Dahl to anyone. The Twits and Fantastic Mr Fox have long been favourites and I vividly remember the first time someone but an old battered copy of Boy into my hands. I didn't put it down until it was finished and there was little difference for this. Dahl's autobiography is a must for any fan of his writing and it is so much fun to join him as he flies (almost literally) through Africa. Magical!

Nelly x

Go With The Flow.

So it is no surprise that my 52 books challenge has become as flat as a pancake, but I have not stopped reading, oh no! I recently discovered the most amazing bookshop in the world: Flow.

Flow is a second hand, predominantly English bookshop tucked away in a tiny room just off the Mid-Level escalators in Soho (and who ever thought a few years ago that I'd be writing that sentence!) Flow really is the last word in second hand bookshops. The organisation is brilliant and logical (titles in alphabetical order or books by subject) and but the overflow is a jumbled mess of all sorts, but to my mind this makes the experience ten times more exciting. You never know what you are going to find! Flow is so called because it is all about the flow of the books themselves; coming into the shop, leaving and coming back to be sold again. It's like a localised Book Crossing!

I finally found my way to Flow (it felt a little like a treasure hunt) in order to find one particular book. I had been hankering after the book for a few weeks and it is one of the many books that I have sitting on my shelves back in England that have not been digitalised. The book in question was Matthew Reilly's Seven Ancient Wonders. I love all of his books, but this one and Temple have always been two particular favorites. To my joy of joys, there the book was, sitting happily on a shelf calling out to me to be bought. And so it was.... along with seven others... (though one was for a friend). Flow has thus cemented itself as one of my favourite places in HK!

So I have a reading list and all in proper book form. There is nothing better than having a real book with real pages in you hands, and the books that I will soon be reviewing are:

• Little Bee by Chris Cleave Finished!
• Vernon Godlittle by DBC Pierre  Had to call it a day on this one!
• The Guernsey Literary Peel and Potato Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffer
• Hell Island by Matthew Reilly  Finished, see review here.
• The No.1 Ladies Detective Agency by Alexander McCall Smith Also finished, see review here.
• Excavation by James Rollins Another finished, see here. 

Alongside these I am also reading Bloodlands by Timoth Snyder and Tea: A History of the Drink that Changed the World (I am a devoted tea lover) and Harry Potter and the Philosophers Stone in French (somehow Madam Pomfrey became Madam Pomfresh....!) Really it's not unusual for me to have a good ten books on the go at any one time, but that's the way I like it. Reviews will hopefully be flooding in shortly!!

Nelly x

Growth Over Regression.

The only direction in which to travel is forwards, going backwards doesn't allow the space for growth and development.Going backwards is not what I want to do and the last few days have thrown up options and ideas that once upon a time I would have jumped at had I been given the chance. When these became a reality it turned out that it wasn't what I wanted at all. Now no longer a 'what if' it can be put to bed and the path forward is now, for the moment, cleared of um's and ah's.

So, feeling as free and as positive as I felt in November 2011, life seems ten times more exciting again and I'm looking forwards with great excitement and a new personal challenge. This challenge concerns the wardrobe and will I hope (technology permitting) kill multiple birds with the proverbial stone! I am going to attempt to construct an (almost) entirely hand made wardrobe. I think that jeans are going to be beyond me, so it's going to be all about the dresses, skirts and tunics. Here are a couple of my inspirations (with major credit to Roisin at But it can't be from Dolly Clackett. She gave me an Easter egg! and her many Elisalex dresses - I have now bought the pattern!):

BurdaStyle is just too good to me!

Hopefully this will keep my brain whirring and my fingers occupied and I can amass a collection of garments that I want to wear, like and feel good in whilst saving money at the same time. The added benefit is that once summer come's round here it can sometimes be too hot and oppressive to spend time outside, so there won't be too much guilt and the fabric choices here are beyond amazing... I already have a fabric in mind for that wrap dress... So here's a prayer to the sewing machine gods - let me work out why my pedal is not working!!!

Toodles,

Nelly x

The Induction of Tradition

I love public holidays. Free days off work are always a winner. This Easter has been particularly sweet as I have finally been well enough to enjoy my time off!

This Easter has also brought with it that most wonderful of delights - a visitor - and begun what appears to be the bi-annual tradition of celebrating Easter in a random eatery at odds with the local cuisine. Two years ago it was Chinese in Glasgow, this year it was American in Hong Kong (we had originally been aiming at Mexican  but it was sadly closed!) Who know's where we'll be and what we'll be eating in two years time!!

I have also finally made it to Aberdeen of the Hong Kong variety. It made me feel much the same way that the Scottish version does, but was worth it for the comedy value of the confusion that it caused, and the promenade is a nice walk with sampans and fishing boats aplenty (though I can't imagine that it's anything Dad would recognise at all!)

The bonus of a visitor is the excellent excuse to go tourist, brush of the back pack and see all the sights again. I still haven't got bored of the light show or this most amazing of skylines. It even looks good in the rain! (helped by finally working out how to use the low light setting on the camera!!)

And for the "Mind.Blown." moment of the weekend, there was this semi-circular escalator. I kid you not, it was incredible!!

However work has returned and things will now once again rumble on, but the visitor is still here and Hong Kong is a city alive at night, so here's to a lack of sleep till Tuesday!!

Nelly x