SPRING DECOR

In order to spruce up our decor for spring time I decided to add little pops of colour. I didn't want to overdo it or drastically change the whole look of the lounge area but I did want it to look a bit fresher. 

A twig wreath with coral flowers greets you as you come in the door. I really love the coral colour, although it looks a little more peach in this photo. It's rather hard to photograph because its in a very small dark porch like spot. But hey, you get the idea.

This area didn't get too much of a spring touch. I attempted to write a Bible verse on our chalkboard in different fonts. Its not the best and I need some serious practise but I was copying from Pinterest. Its not the worst and it'll do for now, until I have time to get my perfectionist hands working on it again!

The best bit about the bookcase area is our new antique find. I love our new airmail scales. They were tucked away in the antique shop and I fell in love with them at once. I convinced Andrew to get them pretty quickly which is good because there was an older couple eyeing them up too and I didn't want to end up losing them. Snap decision and we owned them! 

This is the main lounge area and here is where the colour pops happen. I made the pinwheels from some amazing patterned card I found on sale in a craft store over here. They were pretty easy once you got the hang of it. I could have made quite a few but then I would have struggled to find homes for them and as Andrew pointed out when he came home, maybe less is more! (I probably would have had them on every available surface!)

Those close up shots show our two favourite parts of the decor (other than the amazing scales). Andrew loves the mustard and greeny coloured pinwheels and I love the spring print. It was yet another Pinterest find that I just printed out. But I love how when its sat next to the whale bookends the grin from Mr Moby makes it look like he's happy its spring. I'm happy its spring too. Its not been a particularly cold winter in California but I am glad that the  sun is out and there was a little bit of greenery around where we live. It didn't last long as the heat began to build but I liked it. 

So there we go, there's our spring decor. Hope you like it. Macintosh does, just ignore him pouting in the of the bookcase. I wouldn't let him have a treat, that always makes him grumpy!
H

BON APPETIT

We are also getting into our cooking stride with some surprisingly good meals, you know the recipes that you have never tried before but you feeling confident about. They may begin to look like they are going wrong but they turn out pretty amazing. 

I had that with a quiche that I thought would be a fun alternative to use up a few leftovers instead of something like an omelette. I'm terrible at pastry at the best of times, it just doesn't like me. As I started to put this pastry in the tin I realised that the movers didn't pack the baking beans so I just had to go with it hoping the base didn't bubble up and go crazy. Well in the end it was perfect. I don't know why, I probably couldn't do it again but hey. Here's the recipe if you want to try it but I would cross check it with a reputable source first though. 

Quiche de Woodruff

Pastry 

175g Flour

100g Butter

1 Egg yoke

2 Tbsp Water

Filling

3 Eggs

1 Egg white (from the pastry egg)

75ml Milk

75ml Cream

2 Handfuls of Rocket (wilted just before adding)

1/2 finely chopped red onion

100g of various meat (we had a salami, pepperoni and cured ham)

50g blue cheese

Making the Pastry
Combine ingredients in mixer until its one lump. Cover with cling film and refrigerate for 20 mins. Preheat oven to 190C/375F. Rollout pastry and place in 25cm approx. loose bottom flan tin or something similar. Cut off excess. Pierce pastry with fork all over and bake for 15mins (use baking beads if you have them.)
When finished you should be able to be easily remove it from tin and place on a baking tray ready to be filled.

Making the Filling
While the pastry is cooking, fry the onions till soft.
In a jug mix the eggs, milk and cream. Pour into pastry case with the rest of filling a bit at a time so its all evenly added.
As long as the filling doesn't leak out of the pastry case you can cook it on a baking sheet. However if there are signs of leaking then place the pastry back into the flan tin. 
Cook for about 25 minutes until the middle is set but still soft.
Then enjoy.


We also been trying our hands at bread and cake, here are some photos of them too.

A

OUR HOUSE - VERSION 2.0

Its been a while since we last let you have a sneak peek into our house. Last time you saw the house we had scattered pieces of embassy furniture and the place looked rather sparse. If you can't remember then look here. Since then our stuff has arrived from England, we have made some furniture and we have made the place more homely. I won't bore you with another shot of the front of the house as nothing has changed there, so we'll kick things off in the kitchen area. 

Having all our stuff from England has cluttered up the kitchen surfaces a bit more but its great to be able to cook a bit more. Andrew bought a kitchen aid as you can see with his birthday money and he's loving it. I used it to make the muffins I put on Instagram and it works so well. Think we'll be exploring a lot more in the kitchen now!

Macintosh's area has become more defined now that he has a bed, which is huge by the way! And his little box of toys. I got fed up of tripping over his toys so they get stored in there now. He pulls them out to play with them but at the end of every night (or when people are coming round) they get placed back into the box and the neat freak in me calms down again! 

Our lounge is feeling a lot more cosy now it has ornaments on the sides. It feels a bit more us. We still need to add some pictures on the walls and one of the new ones we have ordered comes this week so once we've agreed on where they go we'll show you some updates. 

The desk/office area is rapidly becoming my favourite. Andrew's desk is amazing and looks great. I think the vintage fan he found in Florida really adds to it. It actually still works but is far too powerful and blows everything off the desk! 

Our trusty sideboard is in place and ready to become our new fireplace. Once I've got some inspiration I'm going to create a little fall display on there and will change it out each season. Just need to get thinking about what to do. For now the trusty whale bookend keeps me smiling. 

Our dining area feels a little less sparse now with something on the table, a picture up and a bookcase. We must admit we rarely use the dining table as its just the two of us. We tend to sit on the bar stools at the kitchen. But when we have people round its a handy space to have. 

The guest bedroom photos always come out a little dark as its the hardest place to take photos of due to its position. There's not masses of light in there. It's Mac's favourite place to sleep because its so cool in there. We have to drive him out though otherwise he covers in the place in hair! 

Our bedroom gets lots of lovely light from our big patio doors. The outside has been cleared and no longer is covered in weeds. However there's not much going on out there as we tend to sit out the front. So there was no need to photograph the A/C machine again.

The tour wouldn't be complete without at least one picture showing our pooch. In this photo he's showing his displeasure at being photographed whilst attempting to nap. Sorry puppy! 

I wouldn't say that what you've seen is finished. We still have lots of adjustments we can make and I love to tweak with decor so no doubt there'll be more sneak peeks into our house, although probably not all in one go, more like room by room as things change and develop. I would also say that our house doesn't always look this neat and tidy either. I had cleaned and tidied prior to taking the photos. We don't live in a house that looks like a showroom. Most of the time its quite the opposite, but I wanted you to get a sense of the house so that meant clean and tidy! 

I really enjoyed looking back at the first photos and seeing the transformation. I can't wait to see how it changes and adapts too. If you want to see the changes firsthand remember Hotel de Woodruff is open for business!
H 

SHOWERS ARE THE GREATEST

Our bathroom redo is finally done!! Break out the banners and cheering! It was finished on Monday however Macintosh's silly stunt of ripping off a claw meant that I haven't actually got around to photographing the wonderful new bathroom. However now that his paw is on the mend and he's beginning to accept that the cone of shame is here to stay for a little while, I finally managed to snap some pictures. 

So here's the new bathroom! Its fairly standard to many people but to us its simply amazing! The fact its all new and clean, that we have a heated towel rail, a beautifully big mirror, a light near the mirror amongst other things just makes the place so much better. 

But that right there, ladies and gentleman, is the real reason this bathroom is so amazing!! After three and a half years we finally have a shower! :o) The first day I used it I never wanted to leave it. It was true bliss. To be able to use two hands to wash my hair instead of having to hold something over my head was just insanely good. I may be taking far longer to get ready in the mornings purely because I'm enjoying the shower so much!

Some decorative bits from Majorca. Things Andrew doesn't always appreciate but he's not here so its tough luck! 

Oh hello nice big mirror. For the more observant amongst you, yes I have had a haircut and yes I am wearing Andrew's oversized and very comfy jumper. It's become a staple piece of clothing. It no longer smells of him though but smells rather girly. Oops! 

So there we go. Our bathroom redo that I can enjoy for the last few months before we leave. It was definitely worth the mess and I'm grateful we don't have to pay for any of it. Thank you RAF! 

H 

THE GRAND CREATIVE PROJECT

I know the title makes you raise an eyebrow but this last weekend was the drawing to a close of one big project, which was also secret one (hence why I haven't mentioned it on here before now). Two weeks ago one of the guys on our team suggested a cool idea. We would think of a few countries to put in the hat, each one of us would dress like someone from that country and make our room into a bar/restaurant of the country we drew out of the hat. We had two weeks. 

Hoping for France or something familiar, I was initially disappointed with my choice but as is normal my imagination took over for I had picked.... Japan! I couldn't wait to begin! And yes I decided there and then I would make a working sushi conveyor. Being nothing short of highly competitive I got to work straight away. This was something of a challenge as the hotel staff probably wouldn't be best pleased if they walked into room progressively turning into a sushi bar so much of it had to be hidden flat packed under the bed.

After seeking advice from a few friends from home who tried to discourage me from trying to make a sushi conveyor, I ignored them as my head said it will be fine. Here are photos of the development of the bar.

(Disclaimer - I apologise if any of the japanese symbols cause offence, they were purely chosen for aesthetic reasons only due to time constraints)

The evening began in Holland, passing through Mexico, South Africa, Jamaica, Australia, India and one of my favourites Russia (he had made his room look like it was straight out of the USSR). I was so impressed seeing what people had done, especially the accents people were putting on in the rooms and the Russian dancing was something to be seen (maybe some more practice of that needed). It was so cool seeing everyone getting very competitively creative and I was jealous of quite a few ideas (dry ice mist and a crocodile in the Australian room was awesome).

My advisors were right in the end; the sushi bar didn't work in the end as I had to many issues (many of which wouldn't have existed if I had a slightly bigger budget. lol) but it didn't bother me too much as the bar still looked very cool and a great evening was had by all, maybe except for the very confused local who turned the corner to see a strange mix of internationals walking past.

A.

(I discovered I don't really like caviar)