Back to School

Picture of Teachers Pet Biscuits by Biscuiteers

After a little (okay actually quite big) summer break from blogging I have decided it is most definitely time I come back. I would like to say this was because I felt like there were millions of readers out there just begging for me to start blogging again but in truth my family is just very, very bored of hearing me talk about craft and baking all day and has begged me to to talk to the internet instead.

In less than a week I go back to school. I'm starting a new school and am, of course, terrified! But also very excited, and also pretty terrified. To try to calm my nerves I am spending most of my time planning my back to school outfit, pencil case and knitting a back to school scarf. Because as we all know a perfect garter stitch really is the best way to make friends. Or maybe I imagined that...

Anyway the general message of this post is that I'm going to start blogging again. Which is brilliant for me because I miss it like crazy. And is also good for anyone who stumbles across my blog while googling 'cheesecake strawberries and greys anatomy.'

I hope everyone is having a great summer.
Love Scarlett.

Click on this List

1. Holga cat camera - it makes cat noises when you take a picture! (scream)

2. Sushi Cakes - made from pound cake and shaved coconut! 

3. The Mulberry Bryn - who thinks I can make 695 pounds selling friendship bracelets and cupcakes on the beach this summer? 

4. This picture of Meg Ryan and this article by Lena Dunham on Nora Ephron - We recently re-watches You've Got Mail and When Harry met Sally and it's just unbelieveable how amazing they both are. 

5. This adorable D.I.Y recipe book from A Beautiful Mess. 

6. The Sweetapolita recipe for Lemon-Blueberry Macaron Delight Cake - YES please. 

7. Sincerely Kinsey's Stained Glass Coaster DIY - I think this would be fun to do with green glass from the beach. 

8. Watermelon Pops - the perfect summer treat! 

Happy Monday :)

Love Scarlett x

If you're loving the Olympics...

I've never been one to get into sports (and when I say never I mean NEVER) but just like the rest of the country I have developed a slight case of Olympic addiction this week. I've been staying on my own so have the TV on most of the day and something about the energy, the story's and the patrioticness (is that a word?) has got me hooked. Oh and this could have something to do with it as well...

Anyway, all this Olympic action has been making me think a lot about a book I read last year called The Art of Fielding. There was quite a big fuss about it when it first came out so you've probably already heard of it but in case you haven't here's the blurb - 

In The Art of Fielding, we see young men who know that their four years on the baseball diamond at Westish College are all that remain of their sporting careers. Only their preternaturally gifted fielder, Henry Skrimshander, seems to have the chance to keep his dream – and theirs, vicariously – alive, until a routine throw goes disastrously off course, and the fates of five people are upended.

After his throw threatens to ruin his roommate Owen’s future, Henry’s fight against self-doubt threatens to ruin his; while Mike Schwartz, the team captain and Henry’s best friend, realizes he has guided Henry’s career at the expense of his own. Keeping a keen eye on them all, college president Guert Affenlight, a longtime bachelor, falls unexpectedly and dangerously in love, much to the surprise of his daughter, Pella, who has returned to Westish after escaping an ill-fated marriage, determined to start a new life.

Written with boundless intelligence and filled with the tenderness of youth, The Art of Fielding is an expansive, warm-hearted novel about ambition and its limits, about family and friendship and love, and about commitment – to oneself and to others.

Now, if you know me at all you will know this is not really my kind of book but in actual fact this is one of my all time favourite books ever written. Watching the Olympics has made me think about it a lot. It perfectly describes the strain, struggle and emotional challenges of being playing sports and made me think about athletes in a way I never would have otherwise. On top of that it's one of the best written books I've ever read and some of the passages about the character's pasts will stay with me forever. I find that books can move you in all different kinds of ways and while this book may not be overly emotional I found myself crying at the end just because of how complex and well written all the story's were. Basically... it's an incredible book.

So if you're short of a summer read and want something that will tie in with the Olympic fever I would really recommend reading (or listening to) this book. 

Lots of love Scarly. 

One Ingredient Banana Ice Cream Recipe

Okay, a lot of recipe blog addicts out there may already know this recipe but if you don't can I just prepare you to have your mind completely blown. At first you will 100% completely not believe this is going to work but TRUST ME it works ever single time. I don't even like bananas that much but this banana ice cream is my family's new addiction. It's yummy, creamy, custardy and just generally amazing. 

Step Two: Pop the banana coins into the freezer for two - three hours.

Step Three: Place all the frozen coins into the blender (or food processor) and blend. This step is magic! In a few seconds they will go from rock hard banana slices to crumbs and then magically turn into thick, rich, creamy ice cream.

If you want your ice cream a little chunkier like the picture above you can take it out of the blender while there are still some pieces in it. The longer you blend the smoother and creamier the ice cream will be. 

This is what my ice cream looked like after a few more seconds in the blender and personally I prefer it this way. 

Once this process is over, chances are your ice cream is going to be pretty sloppy as the bananas have been out of the freezer for quite a while. We found it was best served after chilling in the freezer for a little while longer after we'd made it. But having said that the first batch we made we couldn't resist eating it straight away! 

The ice cream will last perfectly in the freezer so feel free to make as much as you want. But make sure you put a lid on whatever you are storing it in or else it might absorb the other smells from your freezer (my mum loves to keep fish in the freezer.)

The other amazing thing about this recipe is that you don't even need that many bananas. I used three bananas when I was making it and that made two whole bowls of ice cream (both the bowls from the pictures above). 

If you do try out the recipe please leave a comment to tell me how it went!

Love Scarly xx

Some Photos from Cornwall

So, I'm back from Cornwall, and I know I said I would blog more while I was there but as you've probably noticed I didn't. I don't know about you but I find it much harder to blog when it's sunny! We had such a lovely time in Cornwall and we were staying the most beautiful place. It was my first time ever visiting the area and I think I may have fallen in love with it. I recently saved up and bought a Lomo LC-A and I took loads of pictures while I was there. They came out pretty nice and I thought I would share a few. 

We had an amazing deck outside our house looking straight out into the sea. The weather in our second week there was amazing (although personally I prefer the rain) and it was really nice to just be able to sit on the deck and look out at the sea. Seeing as how I haven't been that mobile the past few weeks it was nice to feel like I could experience the seaside without having to move around too much.

The town nearest to our house was called Fowey and I COMPLETELY fell in love with it. I made my mum take me back there every single day and we would just sit on the dock and look into the water. I've never really had that feeling before where you go somewhere you've never been before and just feel totally at home and I'm definitely going back there soon. 

While I was taking photos I experimented with taking a whole roll of film of landscapes, rewinding the film and then taking a whole roll of portraits. The effects were really nice and these two pictures of my brother were my favourites. 

I hope everyone's enjoying the Olympics and the typically English weather. I'm not much of a sports fan at all but I'm staying on my own in the country at the moment and must admit I've gotten pretty into it. I might even have to come up with an olympic themed D.I.Y. while I'm here.

Lots of love Scarly xx

Wordless Wednesday

Contemporary embroidery art by Lou Gardiner

Love Scarlett. 

Essential Summer Scrapbooking Kit

Something I've been feeling more and more like doing lately is scrapbooking. Or journalling or diary writing or whatever you want to call it. I guess now that I feel like bigger things are happening to me I think it's important to keep track of them. I've seen some scrapbooks online that are just amazing and I guess this always kind of put me off doing it. I felt like mine could never be that beautiful or layered so there was no point.

But since I've started doing it more I've discovered just how easy it really is and how you don't need to do it perfectly. I take a lot of polaroids so all I do is stick a polaroid on a few pages and write a quick description underneath of what the pictures of. I also stick in things like tickets, movie stubs etc and before you know it you have a lovely little scrapbook full of things you want to (or don't want to) remember. 

I really wanted to keep a diary of our time in cornwall so before we left I packed myself a summer scrapbooking kit. I thought it would be a fun thing to share and maybe inspire some people to start there own. The actual scrapbook I'm using is only a tiny postcard size one so it's perfect for polaroids and means you don't need to write too much. 

So here are the things in my summer scrapbooking kit:

1. Craft knife, 2. Scissors, 3. Carry case or bag to store everything in, 4. Polaroid camera and film, 5. Washi washi tape, 6. Power pritt stick, 7. Your favourite pens, 8. Double sided tape, 9. Pretty bits and bobs to decorate your pages, 10. Glue dots, 11. Sketchbook or scrapbook, 12. Stickers and letter stickers. 

And here are some amateur tips I've learnt along the way:

- If you think you're going to be sticking a lot of things into your scrapbook (photos, travel tickets, stickers, etc) rip out a few pages before you begin to make sure the binding of your journal holds in place. 

- I don't like using glue on my polaroids so I stick them in using 3 strips of double sided tape on the back and two pieces of washi washi tape on the top and bottom to give them a nice little border.

- If you think you're going to be taking a lot of stickers with you (I LOVE stickers) you can buy really great little sticker books to keep them all in and save a lot of space. 

I hope everyone is having a good swinter so far and I will hopefully post pictures of my Cornwall scrapbook once I've added a few things into it (there may be a few Cornish Pasty receipts in there)

Lots of love Scarly.