Carrot and Ginger Soup

One of the things I didn't list in my New Year's goals was that I hope to try a new recipe every week this year.

Today I'm here to share a great, healthy recipe for carrot and ginger soup:

You will need:
Low calorie cooking spray
One onion peeled and chopped
2 celery sticks chopped
2 cloves of garlic peeled and chopped
1.5cm of ginger finely grated
1 litre of vegetable stock
600g carrots peeled and roughly chopped
Salt and pepper

So all you need to do is prep the ingredients.

Using the cooking spray fry the onion, garlic, ginger and celery for 2 minutes.

Add the carrots and stock and bring to the boil.  Reduce to a simmer for about 20 minutes or until the carrots are soft.

Blitz it all in a food processor or using a hand blender.

And serve.  You can stir in a dollop of fat free natural yogurt but I never seem to have much success with that, it always seem to curdle or split so I left it out and the soup still tastes great and is really filling.

If you are doing Slimming World then it is sin free and speedy.

I hope this encourages you to have a go at trying a new recipe.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo x

Welcome to 2014

Happy New Year to you!  I am so excited about this year, I was born on the 14th and 14 has always been my lucky number so I have high hopes that there will be exciting times for me this year.

I had a look back at this post from January 2013 to see how I'd done with the goals I'd set myself for last year, all in all I didn't do to badly.

This year I want to focus on the following:

1. I still need to work on my time management.
2. I will carry on losing weight.
3. I want to try to make/bake/create at least two things a month from the hundreds of things I pinned on Pinterest.
4. I'm going to stop just hitting the 'like' button on Facebook and Instagram and make more of an effort to actually leave comments and interact with people.
5. Me and Maddie are going to go out and do something together at least once a month.
6. I'm hoping to read more this year.
7. I want to blog more regularly.
8. I intend to enjoy every moment!

I think that's a manageable amount of things to see me through the year.

I hope this year is fantastic for everyone.
Jo xx

Review of 2013

I had a great time in 2013, here are the highlights:

 My new niece Alice was born just before my birthday.

I enjoyed walking in the snow.

I taught myself to crochet a ripple blanket.

I really enjoyed doing Project Life, still need to do 33 weeks to catch up on this year though :)

I met online friends in real life.

I got new ink.

I went on a Gromit hunt.

I went to the air show at Bournemouth.

I enjoyed a hog roast at my brother's 40th birthday.

I spent time with the whole family.

I spent time with friends and went to an old work reunion.

I walk 10k with my brother and sisters to raise over £1000 for Alzheimer's research.

I spent lots of time on the beach.

I carried on with my weight loss.

I spent time with Pippy.

I spent time with Paul.

I spent time with Alfie.

And I spent lots of time with Maddie.

Oh and there might have been cake along the way!

All in all 2013 was a good year and now I'm looking forward to 2014 and the adventures it will bring.

I hope you had a good year.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo xx

My Most Precious

It's the very last Story Telling Sunday and that makes me a bit sad.  I have really enjoyed telling stories and reading the stories of everyone else who has joined in for the last three years.  It's all been thanks to Sian over at From High in the Sky.

This year has all been about picking our precious and my precious for the very last story was a no brainer, here she is:

My beautiful, funny daughter who goes by the names of:

Samantha Rose Daisy
Samantha Rose
Samantha
Sammie
Sam
Mattme
Matt
Maddie and
Boobar Rushdedardee!

Everyone calls her something different and I'm surprised that she hasn't ended up with split personalities!

I had a couple of miscarriages before I had Maddie and a couple after, I even had a threatened miscarriage when I was carrying her so she has always been very special.She surprises me with her intelligence, her sense of humour and the way she treats those less fortunate than herself.

She loves to photo bomb everything!

And even though she's 19 (and a half) she still likes to fall asleep cuddling her mum!

We live together and work together and I love it. She makes me laugh every day and makes my heart melt when she randomly comes up to me and hugs me.  There has only been the two of us for the last 14 years and we have such a special bond.

More often than not she is the adult in our relationship :) She checks all of my blog posts for me because I just can't spell so, as this one is a surprise for her, it's probably riddled with spelling and grammatical errors which will drive her mad!

I think know she's beautiful after all she looks like me :)

She has her own sense of style and is definitely not a sheep who follows a flock.

And there's not a day that goes by that I'm not thankful for her, she is definitely the most precious thing in my life.

I love you Boobar xxx

Now it's your turn to head over to Sian's and tell your story.

Thank you for stopping by
Jo x

I'm Mad About The Boy!

I know that I don't stop going on about how much I love my boy, Alfie.  He was a rescue dog removed from a home where he'd been locked in a room with no food, no water and no love. That all changed just over four years ago when he came to live with us.

He's a Belgium Shepherd/Collie cross but I haven't come up with a ridiculous name for him like the overpriced Labradoodle mongrels :)

I thought I would tell you a couple of things about Alfie, the things that make me laugh and make my heart melt. He loves cuddly toys, they're his babies and they are always near to him. When I get the vacuum out he always runs to get his babies so that he can save them :)

When I go to Paul's Alfie always stays behind to look after Maddie and he always moves into my bedroom.  Last time I came home I found FOUR of his babies in there! He was most upset when I removed them and I'm sure he thought he was moving in for good :)

Another thing about Alfie is that he always has to be touching me. When I'm preparing dinner in the kitchen he's always at my feet, when I'm crafting at the table you can bet he's at my feet.

If I'm sitting on the sofa sewing or knitting then he is always there lying right next to me. Even if it's just his head leaning on my foot he will always find away to touch me.

And, despite his size, in his head he thinks he is a lap dog!

I love him to bits and wouldn't have him any other way.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo x

Quickest Story Ever Scrapped!

I realise that my blog has been woefully neglected this year and there's been hardly any scrapping on display, hopefully that will change!

Last week I had a go at the weekly challenge over at UKScrappers.  The prompt was to use sewing on a layout, real or fake, to use a die cut or do some fussy cutting and to take inspiration from this sketch:

I actually managed to get my layout done on Thursday at the crop, yes I actually did manage to do some real, live scrapping at the crop!

I added the title last night but didn't really have any journalling.  I have lots of layouts of Alfie telling the story of where he came from and how lucky I was to have him, I needed a new tale.

I let him out the garden while I had a think about what story I could tell.  It was nearly midnight and he didn't allow me any thinking time.  He managed to get into my neighbour's garden and get out the other end into the alley!  I didn't know whether to follow him or head him off at the front of the house!  I was in a panic, I was shouting, it was raining and then he came bounding back to me with a massive bone in his mouth!

And I had the journalling for my layout!

What's the quickest you've ever got a story in to an album?

Thanks for stopping by
Jo x

Precious Friends

Unbelievably another month has passed and it's time for Story Telling Sunday over at Sian's.  This year it's all been about the precious things in our lives, the things that mean so much to us.

My story this month is about friendship.  When it comes to friends I always prefer quality over quantity and the few friends that I have are definitely worth their weight in gold.  I know that I can count on all of them and I know that if anything were to happen to me then Maddie could rely on them too.  This month though I'm just going to focus on one of those friends and I'd like to introduce you to Allison:

I first met Allison at high school way back in 1983. I had an exam and the desks were set out with alternating rows of year ones (my year) and year twos (Allison's year).  I was put next to Allison and straight away she started talking and telling stories and making people laugh.  Being new at the school I was mortified and wondered what sort of trouble I'd get in to because of this girl. Little did I know then how much she'd come to mean to me.

Allison is still a talker, she can still tell a story and she can still make everyone laugh.  Nothing seems to faze her, she can and does cope with anything and everything. She can reason and she can see all sides of a story.  She has an amazing knack of telling you a negative by making it sound like a positive.  She always makes you feel that she's got time for you, that you've never called at an inconvenient time - I once called her in tears and she let me talk for 20 minutes before she let me know she was at her son's birthday party and was looking after 20 kids!

I can go for years without talking to Allison but I know she's always there for me and for any of her friends.  No matter how long it's been we'll always start up where we left off and the years in between just melt away.

It is always great to spend time with Allison, I always know that I'll end up laughing and feeling good.  She is a special kind of person but if you ever cross her then I can guarantee that you'll see all kinds of crazy :)

So this little story of mine is to let you know about a great person and to let her know that I know she's been through so much recently and we all love her dearly.

Now it's your turn to head over to Sian's and tell your story.

Thanks for stopping by
Jo x