A delightful weekend in Wales

Went to Wales this weekend to visit a friend of mine from University who I lived with for three years, hadn't seen her for 4 years so I was really looking forward to it and to seeing a lot of other friends from Uni too. 
Happily her fiance is a farmer so they live in a beautiful farm house that comes with his job, in beautiful Welsh countryside with amazing views, fresh air and the sweetest dog I have ever seen!  It was so lovely to see her and catch up, we chatted about weddings, jobs, gardening and life in general and I think the highlight of the weekend was a guided tour round her fiance's farm including the calves (eeeee!) and the dairy where the cows are milked. 
We went for a wonderful walk around the fields of their farm and I felt like my soul was really enriched. It was such a glorious day and it all made me feel very motivated to try harder to get the life I want. 

I have more photos from the weekend to show you over the next few days, we went out for a meal in a lovely pub which was adorned with vintage wedding photos, I snapped a few which I would love to share with you.

I hope you are all having a wonderful week so far.  I have some plans brewing which I will share with you as soon as I feel like it is safe to do so!

TTFN

Yummy pumpkin pie

Not a fan of Halloween, but I am a fan of pumpkin pie. This is my favourite recipe:

Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees, serves 6.

Make a sweet pastry crust, blind bake.

For pie filling:

425g blended fresh peeled pumpkin,

1 large egg and 1 yolk,

50g soft brown sugar,

1/2 tsp cinnamon,

1/4 tsp freshly grated nutmeg,

1/4 tsp ground allspice,

1/4 tsp ground cloves,

1/4 tsp ground ginger.

142 ml double cream (approx)

Lightly whisk the egg and extra yolk together in a large bowl. Put sugar, spices and cream in a pan and bring to simmering point on the hob, whisking. Pour this over the eggs and whisk briefly. Add the blended pumpkin still whisking. Pour into pastry case.

Bake for 35-40 minutes until filling has puffed up but is still slightly wobbly. Remove and leave to cool. Lasts for a few days in the fridge.

Another lovely baby photoshoot in Berkshire

A fun, relaxed and beautiful Autumnal photo shoot with gorgeous Aoife and her mum and dad. Aoife was so photogenic and relaxed parents made this session a pleasure. I am so pleased with the results, the morning Autumn sun was very beautiful which is what I love so much about natural light.

You can see more of my photos on my photography blog, or on my webite helenjackson.org

New Treasury on Etsy

Had a lovely time looking through beautiful things on Etsy and created this Treasury, here are a few of my favorite items:

Raceytay

irenesuchocki

Pennytreads

Monicaj

Hope you are all having a  lovely weekend, done a couple of photo shoots today, will reveal later.



Beautiful purchases

After a discussion with my sensible and clever friend Katy I have decided not to sign up for the monthly scrap booking club.  She said I should just spend £30.00 per month in Hobby craft on things that I actually want rather than getting whatever comes in the scrap booking kit.  i think this is sound advice although I am sad to not be recieving a surprise scrap booking stash through the post once a month. 
So...I now have £30.00 extra pounds more than I though I would have, and and although it it now quite November, I have already spent it on these beautiful books:

Oh yes, so beautiful, and not bought entirely based on the gorgeous linen cover...honest!

Now I just have to work out how I can afford the other books in the set.  I was looking at them in Waterstones in town today and was standing holding one and a lady in the show said isn't the cover lovely and I said "Yes, I am mesmerised by it's beauty"!

New scrapbooking pages

I think I might be getting the hang of this now, I just need to not go crazy in Hobby Craft because I can't afford it!

Two pages about organising the flowers for our wedding, still have lots of flower pages to go and have ordered a load of embelishments from K and Company from a range called Poppy seeds, so just waiting for these before I really get stuck in. Am I doing it right?

What is beauty

 Just read this wonderful post from Apron Thrift Girl and watched this beautiful video:



To me, beauty is about the feeling you get from something, it is a feeling of joy and happiness and bliss and a glimpse of God.  I see it now and again in light and colours and actions.

What is beauty to you?