Pumpkin time

So Friday night was pumpkin date night, there had been many obstacles leading up to this day, but it finally arrived, the pumpkins were purchased, the tools were wealded and the carving was able to take place!

As you can see, this prestigious event is taken very seriously in our household, here we see the contestants warming up ready for the competition.

And here we see the end results - guess which is which :)

Josh wasn't particularly happy with his in the end, even though I quite enjoyed the 'jail' look it had going on, but he has been filled with an even greater sense of competition for next year as a result.

Mine was perhaps a bit too fiddly. It was based vaguely on my design from last year, just on a smaller and more regimented scale, but it has become clear to me that the reason not many people carve intricate pumpkin designs is because it is actually very difficult, which I found out for myself. Several times glue was involved to fix a diamond that had lost a side, and this even resulted in a super glue explosion, in which my entire trouser leg (and indeed actual leg) was covered. Both trouser and leg still bare the scars of this mishap.

Nevertheless it was definitely enjoyable, and will definitely be becoming a Kennard tradition :) And in the meantime they just look nice sat in the corner of our lounge, before they go mouldy and gross!

Hope you enjoyed this, and as for the winner, I'll let you be the judge.

Amy x

Orange Loaf Cake

Ooh a recipe, haven't had one of those in a while!

One day while we were on our honeymoon, Josh and I stopped at a little bakery and bought an orange loaf cake for lunch, and it was divine. So I decided to try and recreate it, by doing the following:

Ingredients:
125g butter
250ml caster sugar (don't ask why this recipe used ml, just use a measuring jug and accept it!)
3 eggs
Zest and juice of 1 orange
250ml plain flour
1tsp baking powder

Method:
Cream the butter and sugar together, then add the eggs one by one and mix.
Pop in the flour and continue to stir until it's all mixed in, then add the baking powder.
Then add the zest, juice and baking powder and pour into a lined loaf tin (I used baking paper to line mine).
Finally put it in the bottom of a preheated oven at 175 degrees and bake for 50 minutes until golden brown.

It's that easy, and really delicious as well, goes down well with a mug of Earl Grey as demonstrated below. In fact you could probably even put some Lady Grey in the cake for added citrussy/tea-ey yummyness, now that's an idea!

You've probably noticed the pumpkins loitering in the background too, I carved a pumpkin last year which was actually the reason for starting this blog, and Josh & I intend to carve them tonight. I had a bit of a fiasco last week, in that by the time I went to buy the pumpkins they were all gone! Luckily Josh managed to find these beauties in Portobello Market, so we're having a competition to see who's carving is best, and hopefully will make a tradition out of it too :) The tools have been imported to the flat, the designs have been pondered & I'll make sure I pop them on here for your viewing pleasure.

Happy cake eating and belated Halloween,

Amy x

Compromise

I've probably mentioned it before, mine and Josh's tastes are not the same. In the slightest. So decorating our flat has been interesting at times to say the least. However we have discovered this wonderful thing called compromise - which I think by definition means you choose something you both agree on. Our definition is slightly different, our compromise is based on Josh adding something he likes to the flat, and then me adding something I like to even it out, and vice versa.

Hence our fireplace:

   

Much as this may surprise you, I actually wasn't massively excited about Josh's idea to put a nutty professor-esque light bulb into our fireplace, complete with copper pipes. Which is why we now have a lovely bunch of flowers in a pretty jug sitting underneath it :) Compromise.

This is what the fireplace looked like when we first bought the flat - an ugly, boarded-up square in the wall with blue LED lights fitted badly into the bottom to give a disgusting uplight effect. Below shows what it is beginning to look like now, though it was taken a few days ago so it doesn't show our newest lighting addition. Josh managed to take the plaster off the back and side of the fireplace to reveal the lovely brick behind it, which we were going to do to the whole wall but have since decided to postpone it due to the amount of dust involved!

It still needs some work, a nice mantelpiece to hang Christmas decorations on and maybe a mirror or a big picture above it, but for now it looks so cosy and we're actually both happy with it (I'm even warming to the light bulb).

And as for the gorgeous flowers, obviously couldn't finish off the post without a picture of them!

That's all for now, I'll do some more flat-blogs soon I think, to show off what's been happening :)

Amy x

Leaf it out

It's Autumn! My favourite season due to the beautiful colours, cosiness and particularly its crunchy leaves :) I'm hoping to decorate another pumpkin this year, my first married pumpkin, but in the meantime I have decided to autumnify (is that a word?!) our flat. Starting with this felt leaf garland which I started almost a year ago but which went on the back burner when wedding planning reared its head!

It's not going to be a very long post I just wanted to show you how sweet it looks, its brightens up the window, especially when its bucketing down outside. I found the templates on Google, cut them out of felt & then spent a couple of hours the other night sewing on the veins in cable stitch while watching Modern Family.

And that's all for now folks, I've got to leave for uni in a second so can't be writing an essay for you, but I hope you liked my handiwork and I'll keep you posted if I get round to making anything else.

Amy x

Hen time!

This post is very out of date, most probably so are the main attraction of the post but I didn't want to eat them until I had proper photographic evidence of them, and that's taken a while! A couple of weeks ago Josh's lovely sister Em (my new new sister in law!) got married, and for her hen party we learned how to decorate cupcakes :) This is something I have ALWAYS wanted to do, and which the film Bridesmaids has only fuelled, so I was super excited about it, and look at the results!

A lady from Froghollow bakery came to show us how to make these six designs, and they all looked so good! We even got to make leaves for the flowers which I have also always wanted to do (again blame Bridesmaids).

My proudest one is the one below on the left, he's a piped rose - I piped that! My next task is to buy a load of different piping nozzles so I can try to recreate them, Becky made a load for the wedding and they look amazing :)

So if teaching doesn't work out, and floristry doesn't either, then you will find me working in a lovely bakery making these all day.

Speak to you soon,

Amy x

End of Summer love

Don't get me wrong, I flipping love autumn and I'm already excited for Christmas, but before that becomes a serious thing to have to think about I just wanted to share something which I have also fallen in love with this summer. And yet again it was sparked by my girl-crush, Cherry Menlove ( http://www.cherrymenlove.com/).

Turquoise and pink.

Who would have thought? It's so pretty! After reading her blog about tea caddy roses I went straight out and bought this very Fortnum and Mason caddy, haven't drunk the tea out of it yet but I'm just enjoying having it out and admiring it for the time being. One day it will become a vase or some other kind of vessel, but until then it will simply give me joy when I look at it.

But the love didn't stop there, it deepened! I mean simply look at all these things which look lovely just because they are these two colours:

Wowzers.

So anyway, we've entered Autumn now (the best season in my opinion), which requires a different and more cosy selection of colour combinations. My Pinterest seems to have gone into Autumn overdrive and I've had to restrict the amount of leaf pictures I add! Have a little gander at it and see what you think (http://pinterest.com/amylaurakennard/).

Until next time (when hopefully we'll have internet at the flat so I can post some wedding pictures), happy leaf crunching :)

Amy x

Hitched!

Yes, the rumours on the street are true, Josh and I are now married! In fact, as of today it is even Facebook official.

We had the most perfect day imaginable, sun was out, everyone was happy, everything looked amazing, and surprisingly nothing went wrong either! Some might say it went without a hitch, wink wink. Here are just a few snaps from the day, still waiting for official photos which we are so excited about :)

BEST. DAY. EVER.

We even took some cool artsy snaps of our rings while on our awesome honeymoon in Crete, although Josh's turned out much better than mine... must re-do.

So there we have it for now, I'll post some more pictures when we get the professional ones woooooo! I'll admit married life hasn't been all sunshine and flowers, our oven broke due to an exploding plug socket in the flat, and we've only just got the boiler to work and consequently been able to have a hot shower at last, but apart from that it's all going good, I wouldn't change it for the world.

I'll be back on here soon,

Mrs Kennard x

Love Locks

So the Daily Mail has bought joy into my life once more. Those who know me know that I am a MailOnline junkie, I don't care that people go on about it, I like it! And this will probably tarnish my name even further, but it's not even the slightly biased news stories that I visit it so frequently for, it's the celebrity gossip part - ask me, Lydia or Becky the current relationship status of nearly any celebrity and we will probably be able to answer.

But ever so often, a gem such as this appears. Not from the FeMail section, just a diamond in the rough, a touching story which warms the heart and gets the brain cogs ticking. Have a little read: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-2172901/The-lock-love-For-years-couples-world-left-padlocks-bridges-tokens-love-Now-Britons-unlocking-inner-passions-too.html

A new addition to my bucket list is now to visit this Pont de l'Archeveche, I want a padlock on that bridge! The comments about throwing up and wasting good locks are not enough to undermine the power of a good old romantic gesture!

Happy Friday 13th,

Amy x

Making a splash

It's been a long time coming, but I finally got baptised on  Sunday. I'd been meaning do do it for quite a few years but always managed to put it off, until we had a service on it and I decided that if I carried on thinking like this but not being proactive about it, then it would never happen. Which is why I went forward, and bish bash bosh it was arranged.

What was really lovely was that Josh got baptised as well, which was nice as I felt like we were in it together (literally), and think it's a good way to cement our relationship with God before getting married.

For those who haven't seen my video testimony from my facebook page, the link is here for your viewing pleasure so you can listen to my annoying camera voice (it's an unlisted video so you can only get it using the link - priveledged few!) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dEJxB3-6mlk.

It was such a great day, filled with loads of the people that I love plus tonnes of amazing food - definitely goes straight up to my top 5 days :)

So that's all I have to say for today, thanks for reading & I hope you enjoy the video.

Amy x

Cluck cluck

I realised yesterday, not for the first time, how blessed I am to have such wonderful family and friends, not to mention the best sister ever! It was my hen party and everything was kept a complete surprise from me, in fact I was banned from the lounge, kitchen and conservatory for quite a few days!

As you can see, we started off with a lovely girly tea party with 100% handmade decorations and snacks, complete with beautiful colour co-ordinated straws and pom poms. 

   

This was followed by a belly dancing lesson which is something I've always wanted to do, and it was so fun! It was nice to hear what was happening simultaneously at the stag do too, for instance I felt comforted to know what whilst Josh was being pummeled with paint balls, I was learning moves such as 'the camel', and having a ball (of quite a different type)!

And then we hit the town to paint it red... although ended up back home in our pyjamas with a cup of tea by 1am - perfection :)

So well done Lyds for planning a perfectly executed and amazing day and thanks to all the lovely girlies who made it so special, I am one happy little hen!

Amy x