Starting Sugar Free February with Healthy Banana Bread as Seen on BBC Good Food

I am not signing up for this challenge as I have no experience with raising money and I have no idea what to do and where to start, but I just want to give up added sugar this February for my own health. However, if I see other people doing it, I will definitely support them. 

My relationship with sugar (in fact, cakes) is a love-hate one and it goes back a few years now when I started to develop a sweet tooth (no idea how as I was into savoury). On one hand, I am craving cakes and I would eat them every day for breakfast but on the other hand, I know that too much sugar is not good for you. Then I discovered no-bake ones with no sugar but dried fruits and maple syrup, yet I would still slip back into the old habits of eating old-fashioned full-of-sugar indulgent cakes.

A Very Folksy Christmas

Banoffee Traybake Inspired by BBC Good Food

Luxurious, indulgent and decadent - this Banoffee traybake is the ultimate dessert for the dark autumn weekend days when you just want to stay in and feel cosy. I thoroughly enjoyed making it, photographing it and, of course, eating it. You can find the recipe here. Enjoy! 

Recycle, Reuse, Re-purpose: Garden Planter in a Bathtub

When we moved into our new home, in the bathroom we had both a shower cabin and a bathtub. As we are shower people, we decided to take the bathtub out and make some more useful room for storage and re-purpose the bathtub as a planter in the garden. We cut it around the edges to make it shorter and we started filling it with soil, compost and grit. What we hope is to have flowers and plants all year round, meaning bulbs in spring and various summer flowers later on as well as decorative grasses for the winter months. I also added the painted rocks to have some colours for the in-between flowerings. 

Other Arty Projects: Painted Rocks

Painted rocks are so in at the moment, you can see them everywhere in people's gardens, in schoolyards, on the Internet, everywhere. It is such an easy thing to do and the results are simply spectacular, no matter what artistic ability you have. It is a great project for all the family, too; I am sure children would enjoy seeing something pretty coming out of their hands and brushes. 

For my rocks, I used acrylic paints, thin brushes and Internet images for the colourful bugs - the species I captured are Coreid Bug Nymphs, Fungus Beetle and Jewel Beetle. I also painted some strawberries and primulas and I just love how colourful they all are. Here are some photos with the results. Enjoy!  😊

Colourful Food

April is a festive month in our household as we celebrate birthdays, name days and Easter. I couldn't help experimenting with colourful food, as you do, from roulades and dips to birthday cakes and Easter eggs. For those who don't know me, don't be deceived by the abundance of recipes shown here; I don't really enjoy cooking, but I like home cooked food so the compromise is trying to make it as colourful as possible so I can enjoy the process of cooking it too, not just the eating part 😉.

This post is supposed to be a visual feast but if you are interested in any of the recipes shown here, feel free to ask and I will be more than happy to answer. 

Patio Decor on a Budget

When I think outdoor space, I have this image in my head from when I was a little girl in my home country and I used to play in the balcony in the summer when it was raining. It was something magical about the sound of the rain, the smell of the wet earth, the warmness outside despite the rain and the image of the clouds above the mountains in the distance and over the high hills just in front of our balcony. I was lucky enough to spend the first ten years of my childhood in a picturesque place in Romania, close to the mountains where spending the holidays hiking and foraging wild berries were a given.

Natural Dye for Easter Eggs

The challenge for me is to dye real eggs a different colour each year. The traditional way to dye eggs in my family was using onion skin (either red or orange) and create leaf patterns using women tights to keep the leaves in place. Although I love the results, throughout the years I wanted to try different colours but keeping the natural dye tradition.

DIY - Easy Garden Sign

Yesterday, I finally had some time to tidy up the patio that was long overdue. After playing with the furniture and the planters around and I was happy with the layout, it was time to think details. And I don't mean flowers (yes, I know that some of the planters are still empty - I promise, there will be flowers soon), but little details like accessories and garden signs.