Etsy shop find...

Jilly P has recently opened her super cute etsy shop featuring her lovely designs on greeting cards and notebooks. 

Her shop 'ichi ni three' is definitely worth a visit and you can hop on over there right now by clicking here.

Here's a few examples of what you'll find...

(all images are from jilly p's etsy shop)

x x x

Bread and butter pudding...

I made this bread and butter pudding the other day when my folks were over for dinner, and it went down a treat (apart from with the boy who decided to declare his hatred towards blueberries...honestly).

Anyway, as you know the normal recipe for bread and butter pudding contains sultanas but I used blueberries instead and covered my helping with cream and got stuck in, nom nom!

I kind of followed two recipes for this, the original recipes can be found here and here.

I couldn't resist using a bit of maple syrup too... (addicted much!)

I love how it ended up looking like a little parcel all wrapped up...

(photo taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Cherries cherries cherries!

I've been snacking on a lot of cherries lately in one form or another...

You probably saw my recent post on those super rich chocolate brownies with little cherry jewels hidden inside, mmm...

I think it goes back to when i was little and my Dad used to buy 

brown paper bags of them from our local market.

I loved nothing more than nibbling on them as he passed them to me after picking out the stone, 

bless him!

(photo above taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

So... gotta love the simple things right?

I couldn't resist taking a quick snap of these little cherry jewels, all washed and ready to nibble on.

I also thought whilst we're on the subject, I'd do a little recipe round up of things cherry related.

These guys are all on the 'to make/bake' list

cherry cheesecake | cherry pies | chocolate and cherry cheesecake | raspberry and cherry pie

enjoy

x x x

Colour crush...

I've found myself pinning a lot of images with the same colour mood lately, so, here's a nice muted, but summery colour crush post for you...

Loving the mix of the aqua and jade tones with the pinks and peaches.

1| Unknown 2| Bikes 3| Brick wall with display 4| Painted blocks 5| Pool 6| Liberty star print

x x x

More cake...

Well, we're here again...another weekend, another great bake off!

This time it's the turn of 'Buttermilk Chocolate chip crumb cake'

I literally followed the recipe to the letter so you can find it here

Here are a few snaps I took of how mine turned out...
It was very yummy indeedy!

(mmmmm chocolate gooey yumminess)

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Ibiza...

Well, they've been a while coming, but I've finally got round to posting the photos I took whilst in Ibiza... 

As you can imagine, I took quite a few, so these are just a selection.

I have to say the best part of the holiday was without a doubt, the day we spent in Formentera, 

soooo beautiful! 

And the sea was unbelievably blue, amazing...

Anyway, here they are...

And you can see the post on Ibizas' hippy market I did a little while ago here

 

(all photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Take Four...

A little bit of shimmery loveliness for this glorious sunny Friday!

1| Reflective sea 2| Metallic Nails 3| Carousel 4| Concrete candle holders

x x x

Paper & Cloth at Printsource...

It's that time again... how time flies eh

Paper & Cloth are exhibiting at Printsource next week in NYC!

Heres a little sneaky peek at what's in store from the portoflio for AW14.

Pop on by and say hi to the lovely Jen if you're there.

(image above copyright of Paper & Cloth Design Studio)

x x x

Must be July...

I've been playing around with new designs for this blogs' header for a while now, 

feeling in need of a change.

It was this time last year that I updated the header and colours, etc... so 12 months until a new one is needed isn't bad I suppose.

It must be a July thing...

Anyway, I hope you like the new header and little avatar guy coz it'll probably be around for a good year or so, ha!

How glorious has the weather been in the UK recently by the way?? Oh my, amazing! Lets hope it lasts a bit longer eh.

Happy Monday everyone!

x x x

Banana and pecan muffins...!

I've got another lovely recipe for you today...

Banana, brown sugar and pecan muffins, mmmm... (with a cheeky drizzle of maple syrup for good measure) 

More mmmm's...

I cant seem to get enough of pecans lately. 

Anything with them in, I'm there! 

And the combo of banana with them and some maple syrup... droool!

I had a few bananas that had seen better days so rustled these up.

They're super yummy as a breakfast muffin. 

Well, to be honest, an anytime muffin really, 

but particularly nice for breakfast or elevenses with a cuppa.

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

Ingredients

3 bananas

2 eggs lightly beaten

75g unsalted butter melted and cooled

125ml semi skimmed milk

250g self raising flour

1tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda

115g brown sugar

50g porridge oats + extra for sprinkling

50g chopped pecans

Maple syrup

Directions for 12 muffins...

* Preheat oven to gas mark 5 and line a muffin tin with cases

* In a bowl, mash the bananas and add the eggs, melted butter and milk and mix together

* Mix the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and a pinch of salt in a separate bowl

* Add the sugar, oats and pecans and mix together

* Make a well in the centre and add the banana mixture and stir until combined

* Spoon into the cases and sprinkle a few oats over the top 

(here's where I added a little drizzle of maple syrup on top before going in the oven)

*Bake for 20-25 minutes

* Leave to cool for a few minutes and then...nibble! 

Well...devour! 

Enjoy!

x x x

Poppy fields...

Nevermind strawberry fields... 

I was out with the folks over the weekend and look what we came across...

I couldn't quite believe how vast this field of poppies was...I'm talking huge! They went on and on...

It was absolutely beautiful!

So, as you can imagine, out came the camera...

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Instagram...

This is one of my favourite edits from Instagram last week.

It's a shot I got whilst in Ibiza on the boat cruise to see the sunset in San Antonio. 

I love the simplicity of it and the layers of colour against the tiny silhouettes walking along the deck...

(photo taken and edited by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

If you want to follow me on Instagram, my username is 'love_print'

Or, you can click on the images down the left side of the blog.

Hope to see you there

x x x

Best ever chocolate cherry brownies...

I made these brownies recently and had to share the recipe with you.

They are super rich, so only small pieces required at one sitting!

But seriously yummy...

They're adapted ever so slightly from this recipe.

I had some glace cherries to use up so replaced the raspberries with them,

(I'm a huge black forest gateau fan so anything that combines chocolate and cherries is good in my books.) 

So..get baking!

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

Directions for a tray of chocolate brownies (makes approx 15 small squares)...

* Heat oven to gas mark 6

*Line a 20cm x 30cm baking tray with baking parchment

*Gently melt the chocolate, butter and sugar in a large saucepan, stirring occasionally

*Remove from heat when melted

*Stir the eggs into the melted chocolate mixture

*Sieve over the flour and cocoa and stir in

*Stir in half the cherries

*Pour into the tray and scatter over remaining cherries

*Bake for 30/ 40 minutes

*Leave to cool before cutting into squares

*Enjoy!

x x x

Bloglovin'...

Well, there's not long to go now until Google Reader is no more...

So, I thought I'd do a post on the new reader I'm using, Bloglovin'.

I'm sure most of you have either heard of it or are in fact using it already.
It seems to be the most popular option from what I've seen on other peoples blogs and after giving a couple a try, I really like it too!

As fas as I'm aware, the closing of Google Reader will automatically make the 'Join this site'/ 'Followers' bit pretty much redundant too, bad times...

And I really dont want you lovely followers to be left in the bermuda triangle of blog land with nowhere to go, so...

Join bloglovin'!

Its really easy..you just create an account and as part of the process, you can import all the blogs you currently follow through google reader to your new shiny bloglovin' account

Theres an app too so you can catch up on all the goings on in blog land on your mobile or ipad, etc...

Its easy to discover new blogs with their 'popular posts' and 'top blogs' features...

Ooh ooh, and a really good additional feature which is great, are the email updates you can choose to receive daily with all the blogs you follow in one easy to scroll through email.
So, if youve not had chance to go through them individually, the email is great to get a 'top line' view of them quickly, and you can click on them to see the full post if you want to read more.

Whats not to love right..?
So, click right here to join now!

And for all of my lovely followers on here who have joined and signed in through google, please now follow me on bloglovin before July 1st when we sadly wave goodbye to google reader :-(

Here what my page of recent posts looks like on bloglovin'

x x x

Colour crush...something blue

I'm really liking these blue/ indigo shades lately, so thought I'd do a little colour crush post...

1&4 | Emily Ferretti interview on the design files 2 | Emily McDowell 3 | Birds and berries  

5 | Bird and girl flying 6 | Hillary Bird

x x x

Ibiza...the hippy market!

Here are the first batch of photos from our recent li'l holiday to Ibiza.

This was probably up there with one of my favourite days while we were there...

We took a boat to Es Cana and visited the vibrant, bustling hippy market full of colour and pattern and interesting people, followed by a relaxing afternoon drinking and eating overlooking the sea...aaah bliss...

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Take Four...blue crush

Thought I'd pop in and leave you with a nice, refreshing Take Four post...

(how much do you wanna dive in that water...?)

1 | Seagull on stripes  2 | Stairs down to the water... 

3 | Wake up and live - unknown 

(please do let me know if you are aware of the original source and I will add the details here) 

4 | A fresh start

x x x

Cornkist ceramics...

I recently did a post on 'An organized kitchen' where I collated a selection of nice labels and such for all those pantry essentials. 

(gotta have all those cake making ingredients at the ready, right?)

Well... I bought these little lovelies from cornkist ceramics a couple of weeks ago...ceramic jar labels!

I couldn't resist, they're sooo nice.

Cornkist make a range of handmade porcelain and stoneware gifts from labels and tags, bowls, stones and bespoke designs for christenings and weddings, etc...

I order the 'tea, coffee, sugar' set along with the 'treats' and 'oats' labels 

and there are plenty more I want too.

My labels arrived in a lovely little display box together with paper tags and all packaged very nicely indeed.

Here are a few pics...

(photos taken by me for use on loveprintstudio blog)

x x x

Lemon blueberry muffin bread...

Ok, so...if you only bake one thing this month, make it this!

It is super yummy!

I've made my fair share of blueberry muffins/ lemon and blueberry muffins/ lemon drizzle cakes, etc... (you get the idea) 

but this is seriously, by far the nicest of them all.

It's a sweet breakfast bread that is basically like a big muffin!

I've included the ingredients for this Lemon blueberry muffin loaf on the first pic and the recipe I followed below all the photos. 

You can also find the original recipe here if you prefer, as I made a couple of little tweaks to my loaf. 

(tiny thing but couldn't resist adding some gorgeous lemon curd in the middle, mmm, but this did mean cutting back on the sugar).

It went down very well here, so hope you enjoy it too!

(photos taken by me for loveprintstudio blog)

Directions for one Lemon Blueberry muffin loaf...

* Preheat oven to gas mark 4

* Line loaf tin with a baking sheet

* In a medium sized bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt

* Add the blueberries and lemon zest and stir to combine 

(be careful not to crush any of the blueberries whilst stirring, otherwise your loaf could look very purple inside when cooked)

*Cream together the butter and sugar until light and fluffy

* Add the eggs, one at a time, beating well after each addition

* Add the yoghurt, then the dry ingredients, mixing until incorporated

* Scoop half the mixture into the prepared loaf tin and then dollop your lemon curd so it will run through the centre of each piece when cut 

(a little strip of yumminess down the length of the loaf)

* Scoop the remaining mixture on top making sure the lemon curd is covered

* Bake for 1 hour 10 minutes, until golden brown

* Leave to cool for 10 minutes

* Enjoy!

x x x