Things I loved, autumn 2015.

This autumn I've loved,

Reading - I read some really good fiction, 'The Boston Girl' by Anita Diamant, 'Carry On' by Rainbow Rowell and 'Going Vintage' by Lindsey Leavitt.  I read the children's picture book 'The Princess and the Pony', which is excellent!  The best non-fiction I read was 'What we Wore', 'My Tiny Veg Plot' and 'Big Hook Crochet'.

Learning - I enrolled on a couple of free online courses, Writing for the Web (which was really good!) and now I'm doing Principles of Project Management. 

Home renovation-ing - We have carpet!!  I'm sooo happy!  And we've ordered our new sofa and are expecting it in the next week or so.   Joe put light shades and blinds up too, which makes it much more cosy.

Guiding - (I'm a leader at a Rainbow Guide unit, the girls are aged 5-7) We finished our Unicorn Challenge badge, which was super fun, we made unicorn horns, cupcakes, necklaces and played pin the tail on the unicorn!  We're doing the Wish Upon a Star challenge now, and we've made a wishing tree, a wish jar and a fairy wand!

Watching - Doctor Who, Agents of Shield season two, Arrow season three, The Flash season one, Hellboy.

Listening to - I've only just unpacked my CDs, I've been listening to the Christmas ones!

Socialising - I had a lovely birthday, we went to Birmingham to see an art exhibition, family from Australia visited for the day, we had a lovely curry for my boy's birthday, my brother got married and my nieces had their naming ceremony, we went to the Seasonal Market in Digbeth and we went to Hogwarts in the Snow!

Remembering - my Grandma, it would have been her 100th birthday this year in November, and my Grandad's 100th birthday would have been last February.

Buying - I've been killing it in the charity shops recently!  We bought a beautiful second hand mid-century unit for our dining room and an awesome retro mirror too.

Auntie-ing - My oldest niece is 2 now, you can have a proper conversation with her, she's super lovely and clever.  My littlest niece had her 1st birthday, she has loadsa teeth and has started talking too, she puts her arms up and asks for a 'cug' sooo cute!

Some posts you might have missed, 3 easy, vegan potato recipes, make a log pile for your garden and my stripy, crochet shawl.

How has your autumn been?

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Charity shopping, the one with all the plant stands.

Here are my latest charity shop finds,

I walked past this big retro tapestry once, but I had to go back and get it! I really love it and will hang it in the dining room when it's decorated.

£2, local charity shop.

These retro plant stands are lovely!  

Big plant stand, £2.50, little plant stand £2, local charity shops.

Linking up with Vintage Bliss.  

Have you bought anything from the charity shops lately?

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Photo an hour, November 2015.

November 21st was the day set for this months Photo an Hour challenge. 

Photo an hour is organised by Jane and Louisa and you can find round up posts on both of their blogs.

Here's my day, 

8am - I didn't want to get out of my bed!

9am - Walking to the bus stop.

10am - Once again, I'm at work during the morning of photo an hour day!

11am -  Elevenses.

12pm - My view for the morning.

 

1pm - There was some sort of Christmas light turning on/rodeo reindeer riding thing going on in the town square.

 

2pm - I was on my way to Wilkos to buy an new SD card for my camera, I always cross the road to look at the display in the wool shop window though.

3pm - I got home and put my cosy fleece nightie on, a sure sign I wasn't planning on moving again

 

4pm - Feet up, ignoring the unpacking that surrounds me (my house looks like a bomb's hit it, I had to empty some stuff I was storing in my mum's garage, it's all childhood toys and it's hard to sort out!).

5pm - I was asleep!

6pm - The boy made tea.

7pm - I seem to have missed this out!

8pm - Settling down to watch Doctor Who.

I stopped taking photos after 8, I didn't move for the rest of the night!

Did you take part in #photoanhour this month?  
Let me know if you did, I'd love to have a nosey at your day!

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What do vegans eat? Out in Birmingham.

People always ask me what do vegans eat, so here are some yummy vegan ideas, all from my nearest big city, Birmingham.

Seasonal markets in Digbeth.

Cute little Seasonal Markets, with craft stalls and food trucks are held seasonally at The Bond on Fazeley Street, Digbeth.  Lots of the food trucks have vegan options, this time I had spiced vegan noodles from Buddha Belly, a super-yummy chocolate cupcake from Cake Doctor and onion bhajis from Becky's Bhajis.  The noodles were the best I've ever tasted, and the bhajis were huge and came with delicious raita made from coconut cream.

Birmingham Frankfurt Christmas Market. 

I seek out the same two stalls for vegan food every year at the Frankfurt Christmas Market.  The potato and mushroom stall (which is usually by the Council House) and the onion bhaji wrap stall (usually by the old library building) - try the yummy balti chips too!

Las Iguanas.

I Love Las Iguanas, in the Arcadian in Birmingham, and usually ask to go there for my birthday!  They have a special vegan menu, my favourite is the mushroom fajitas, the chips are really yummy too.  Sadly the cassava fries aren't the same as the aipim I ate lots of in Brazil, but they're tasty nonetheless. 

Do you have any recommendations for vegan places to eat in Birmingham?

Follow me on Instagram for more yummy vegan food photos. 

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My garden, November 2015.

Life stuff has got in the way of gardening this month, I haven't had the time or desire to do very much! 

I did make time to gather lots of leaves to make leaf mould with.  I have about 5 bags full, which will hopefully be ready by next autumn.  I have no shame, I've even been collecting fallen leaves from the cherry trees on my road.

So here is a photo of my garden, un-gardened this month!  There are still some flowers, I can see this orange one from my kitchen window and it makes me smile each time.

Luckily, things keep growing whether you ignore them or not!  My garlic and onions are growing well in my front garden raised bed.  I have clematis, spring onions and pansies growing in the pots by the door.  One clematis is growing much better than the other, despite them being bought at the same time!  Very mysterious!

I've thrown some big twigs into this corner of the front garden to make a mini log pile, which is sooo good for wildlife.

I collected some seeds from a corriander plant, I wanted to collect enough to use when I'm cooking but as there aren't many I'll replant these ones next year!

It's very autumnal out there!

Have you managed to get out into the garden this month?

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Our new home, in progress tour. Upstairs.

We've had carpets fitted since I showed you the downstairs of our new house!  I'm sooo happy about that! 

The main bedroom is at the back of the house and we've been living in the front bedroom while Joe decorated the back one.  We moved the bed over into the back bedroom when we had the carpets fitted, so we're in our real and proper room now!  The retro dressing table was a valentines present from Joe, but I'd actually never seen it as it's been in storage since he bought it!  It's beautiful.

 

The back bedroom is currently Joe's computer room (Fallout 4 has just come out, anyone else a Fallout-widow?) and clothes drying area, it'll be a spare room one day though!

The box room is very full of boxes at the moment!  I unpacked 3 today though!  Once it's cleared and decorated this little bedroom will become the Man Cave.

The landing is pretty much finished!  We bought the tall mid-century mirror from the charity shop at the same time as we bought the amazing retro cabinet.  The banister is doing double duty as a drying rack, I should probably put up a washing line in the garden!

I'm feeling much happier about our house than I was last time I showed it to you, hopefully it won't be too much longer until I can show you real finished rooms! 

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3 easy vegan potato recipes.

Potatoes are one of my favourite foods, so I was super happy to see lots of vegan potato recipes in this month's issue of Vegan Life Magazine.  

Here are my favourite easy, vegan potato recipes,

Chili baby potatoes with chickpeas.

• Slice new potatoes and pop them into a baking dish with some oil, chili powder, a little paprika, sea salt and black pepper.  Add in a tin of chickpeas and roast in the oven until the potatoes are cooked.

Potato cakes.

• Take some left over mashed potato, slice up a couple of spring onions and mix in flour, a tablespoon at a time, until it reaches a roll-out-able consistency.  
• Roll out the dough and cut it into squares using a knife, or with cute cookie cutters.  Fry the potato cakes in a little oil in a frying pan until golden brown, then they're ready to eat!

Potato wedges.

• Take a couple of big baking potatoes, prick with a fork and microwave them until they're cooked.  
• Slice the cooked potatoes into wedges.  You can add some slices of red onion, peppers or leeks to your baking tray too, if you want to add some extra veggies and flavour.  
• Pour a little oil onto a baking tray, add sea salt, black pepper and paprika to taste.  Add in the potatoes, a couple of whole garlic cloves and other veggies, coat with the oil and then roast until crispy.

Image c/o Vegan Life Magazine.

For more yummy vegan potato recipe ideas, check out November 2015's issue of Vegan Life Magazine. 

You can subscribe to Vegan Life on paper or digitally.  There's also a handy app for digital subscriptions. 

Disclosure - I have been provided with a free digital subscription to Vegan Life Magazine in return for reviewing this publication.  I even have my own page in the vegan bloggers section of their lovely website!  All opinions are, of course, my own and always will be.

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Easy green actions and articles, November 2015.

Here's this month's selection of eco friendly actions and articles,

Use Friends of the Earth's online form to email your MP, asking them to protect our drinking water from fracking.

Sign Sum of Us' petition asking the EU to ban bee killing pesticides. 

Ask MEPs to stop the overuse of antibiotics in factory farming.  

Add your name to 350.org's call to investigate Exxon's involvement in keeping information about climate change from the public for decades.  

I love Jen's reminder of the difference between want and need, on her blog Make do and Mend-able.

It's world vegan month, check out govegan.org.uk's great vegan challenge. 

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