Hey

I appologise for my long absence. We have been working very hard on our garden trying to get it finished before the end of summer..and I went to visit my family in Poland..and was job hunting..busy busy summery months!!!

Unfortunately not much of crafty- inspiring busy-huh*

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Witajcie

Wybaczcie moja dluuga nieobecnosc. Duzo czasu spedzilismy pracujac nad naszym ogrodem, ja rowniez wybralam sie w odwiedziny do Polski...i bylam pochlonieta poszukiwaniem pracy... bardzo napiete letnie miesiace!!!

Niestety niewiele z tego czasu spedzilam na robotkowych pracach i natchnieniach-heh*

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just leave you with this...Polish cut-outs, it's a traditional thing, but I find some colours and shape combinations inspiring :)

taking care of ourselves

I love living healthy, eating fresh and nutritious food,,, just generally taking care of my body. I believe that health is something difinatelly worth investing in for the future well being... my wellbeing and wellbeing of my children...(maybe at some point). There is nothing that frustrate me more than going to the supermarket and trying to chose a vegetable or a fruit that seems semi fresh or not rock hard! Do you find that too? That's why I am having a go at some growing this year so that next year I can really put my efforts into it! It is worth it. Organic vegetables and fruit have far more vitamins than artificially ripen(you know not artificially but injected with chemicals to help them ripe) ones that I can buy in a supermarket. Shame that organic stuff is so expensive! Anyway I already spent quite a sum of money on my vegetable garden and green house, so I am really counting on them! Hehe!

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Uwilebiam zyc zdrowo, jesc swierze, pelne witamin jedzenie,,, generalnie dbac o siebie. Wierze, ze zdrowie jest zdecydowanie czyms w co warto jest zainwestowac na przyszlosc...na moje zdrowe samopoczucie...i moich dzieci (moze kiedys). Co najbardziej denerwuje mnie ostatnimi czasy to to, wybor warzyw i owocow jaki mam w hipermarkecie! Wszystko jest albo nieswieze, albo niedojrzale (przynajmniej tu w anglii!!). Zreszta dlatego postnowilam, ze bedzie warto samemu wychodowac pare warzyw i troche owocow. Warzywa i owoce chodowane ekologicznie maja o wiele wiecej witamin i mineralow niz te ktore byly sztucznie dojrzewane (tzn. nie tyle sztucznie co pompowane chemikaliami, ktore umozliwiaja dojrzewanie po zbiorach). Szkoda tylko, ze zywnosc produkowana ekologicznie (organic) jest taka droga. W kazdym badz razie, ja juz wykosztowalam sie troche na moje ogrodki i na szklarnie, wiec trzymam za nie kciuki, hehe.

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But it's not all about only taking care of my body on the inside, the outside is important too! Shower gels, shampoos, body butters, hair sprays etc. they all contain man made horrible chemicals that damage our skin! I always loved body lotions, hand creams but was very disappointed when I found out that mineral oil or Parafinnum liquidum (which is in ingredient list of most moisturizers) coats my skin make it appear soft and healthy, while drying out the natural oils that moisturize my skin. In effect I'd have to use it more and more often as my skin loses abilities to moisturize itself...if that makes sense. Other most common chemicals: Parabens (methylparaben, ethylparaben...and anything with "paraben" ending...cause skin irritation, allergies and may disrupt our hormones. Parfum-linked to asthma, mood changes, depression, memory lapses. Sodium lauryl sulphate (found in almost every shampoo) can promote formation of cancer-causing substances.

and many more. Crazy!
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Ale nie chodzi tylko o dbanie o siebie wewnatrz ale rowniez z zewnatrz. Zele pod prysznic, szampony, kremy do ciala, lakiery do wlosow...itd..wszystko to zawiera chemikalia, ktore niszcza skóre. Ja zawsze uwielbialam, balsamy do ciala i kremy do rak, dlatego bardzo sie zawiodlam kiedy dowiedzialam sie, ze Mineral Oil, lub Parafinnum Liquidum (ktore sa skladnikami w wiekszosci balsamow i kremow) pokrywaja skóre, zeby wydawala sie nawilzona i gladka ale niszcza naturalne oleje nawilzajace, ktore znajduja sie w skorze (czyli jakby wysuszaja skore). Efekt jest taki, ze regularnie musialabym uzywac kremow i balsamow, zeby poprawic wyglad skory. Inne bardziej znane chemikalia: Parabens (methylparaben, ethylparaben...wszystko co konczy sie na "paraben" podraznia skore, powoduje rozne alergie oraz moze doprowadzic do zaburzen hormonalnych. Parfum: powiazania z astma, zaburzeniami lub zmiennoscia nastrojów, depresja, zaburzeniami lub zanikami pamieci. Sodiu Lauryl Sulphate (w niemal kazdym szamponie do wlosow) moze doprowadzic do produkcji substancii powodujacej raka.
oraz wiele innych.

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It is absolutely shocking to me that few years ago I didn't have a slightest idea how many chemicals was daily put into my body.

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Straszne jest to, ze przed paroma laty nie zdawalam sobie sprawy z tego na ile chemikali dziennie poddawalam swoje cialo.
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But I found series of Naked products that offer 97% natural ingredients in their products! I just love to use that stuff. It's a UK supplier and they sell their products online or via Boots. I had a nice surprise when I made my first online order ( I usually buy their products in Boots) when I opened my package everything was so nicely wrapped. It's great when people put a little effort into what they sell to you, don't you think?!

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Ale znalazlam ta serie kosmetykow, Naked, ktore sa produkowane w 97% z naturalnych skladnikow! Uwielbiam ich produkty. Niestety jest to tylko brytyjska firma, (poki co:)), ale niedawno zlozylam zamowienie do ich internetowego sklepu (bo zazwyczaj kupuje ich produkty w sklepie kosmetycznym). Po otworzeniu przesylki czekala na mnie mila niesodzianka, bo wszytskie produkty byly piekniutko osobno zapakowane! Fajnie kiedy ludzie wkladaja troche starannosci w to co Ci sprzedaja, no nie?!

time goes fast!

As you probably experience, time just goes past so quickly!!!
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It seems that I only got married... and tomorrow we will celebrate our 3rd Wedding Anniversary!!!

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This is incredible, it seems like we known each other for ever, but still few months back I had to count several times, what year we are in and when we go married to figure out that actually it has been three most amazing years!

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We were planning to go camping for few days, since the weather here in UK has been great for the past month, but it turns out it will pretty much rain for the next week and it will be cold, so there is just not much point. (I can see more cinema trips comming up...maybe I should start writting reviews..hehe). Crazy weather. I must admit I started to like English hot weather in May, that's the only thing that UK is missing! Nice'y nice hottness...

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Just not to leave the post without pictures this was one of my wedding bouquets (we had a wedding in Poland and England= two wedding bouquets; this one was from our Polish wedding).

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cinema

I really enjoy going to cinema I find it so relaxing and when I'm stressed or have a lot on it really helps me to take my mind of everything for at least those couple of hours. I was aware that I go to cinema very often, (at leats much more often than I used to 4 years ago) so this year I thought I would count how many times I'd go in 12 months (hence the cinema trips- thingy on the side bar). We are half way throught the year so in the first six months I went to cinema 20 times... Hmmmm... I find that the information doesn't really do much for me but my curiosity is potentailly lightly satified plus I feel that if I happen to come across a survey about entertainment or someone asks me about it I would be able to give pretty procise number...

Anyway...

I thought I may share something here. Everytime we (me and my Husband) go to cinema we always take chupa chups with us! We don't tend to eat them any other time...It's not too crazy, right, but when I just thought about it, we' ve been having a chupa chups everytime we went to cinema for the past year...and recently we kind of went up to two chupa chups each cineam trip (you know one is just not enough anymore)...so I guess we ate quite a lot of chupa chups in just one year, hehe. We ocasionally contemplate about buying them in bulk of a 1000 (you can get them on a stand-haha), but I think that would be going much over the top.

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Bardzo lubie chodzic do kina, jest to dla mnie dobra forma relaksu a szczególnie gdy jestem zestresowana, badz mam wiele rzeczy na glowie, kino pozwala mi sie od wszystkiego oderwac, choc na te dwie godziny. Zdawalam sobie sprawe z tego, ze czesto chodze do kina (a przynajmniej czesciej niz przed czteroma-laty), wiec w tym roku postanowilam, ze policze ile razy chodze do kina w ciagu 12 miesiecy (stad aplikacja "my cinema trips" po prawej stronie). No wiec minelo po roku i w tym czasie bylam w kinie 20 razy... Hmmmm ta informacja nic szczegolnego mi nie daje, ale potencjalnie troszeczke zaspokaja moja ciekawosc. No i oczywisie gdyby mi sie zdarzylo wypelnic kwestionariusz na temat rozrywki, badz gdyby ktos sie mnie zapytal na ten temat to bylabym w stanie im podac dokladna liczbe...

W kazdym badz razie...

Pomyslalam, ze sie tu czyms podziele. Za kazdym razem kiedy idziemy (ja i moj Maz) do kina to zjadamy po chupa chups'ie. Tzn. na codzien ich jakos nie jemy, tylko w kinie... Nie ma w tym bynajmniej nic zwariowanego, ale jak tak sobie pomyslalam, ze od roku podczas kazdego filmu w kinie jemy chupa chupsa (a ostatnio nawet dwa..bo jeden juz nie wystarcza :P). To raczej zjadamy duzo chupa chupsow w ciagu jednego roku, hehehe. Czasami rozkminiamy zakup hurtowy, tylko, ze wtedy musilibysmy kupic 1000 chupa chupsow...nio choc dostalibysmy na nie stojak...hehehe...ale to bylaby juz raczej przesada.

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Enjoy your weekend!!!

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Milego weekendu!!!

To niesamowite jak szybko wszystko rosnie...

To ta sama cukinia- dwa tygodnie pozniej

Ostatnie dni spedzilam na "nadrabianiu" roznych prac w ogrodzie

co sprawilo, ze troche zaniedbalam blogoland

ale za to saltki sa smaczne

-Ohhhh my laptop is being incredibly slow and I appologise for a very brief post-

I am back!!!

I finally finished all assignments, projects, dissertation and exams and am study free!!!

Nareszcie oddalam wszystkie zaliczenia, projekty, prace i zakonczylam egzaminy, koniec nauki!!!
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I've been so busy ever since!!!

I od tego czasu jestem zagoniona!!!

I had some weeding to do in my vegetable beds...

Musialam powyrywac chwasty z jarzynowych ogrodków...
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looking forward to...

From the very begining, this year has been very busy for me... dissertation, a lot of my voluntary work, exams, some work on a garden...huh...the hardest thing is to persevere with it all... My health is a little bit funny and I think not getting enought rest over a long period of time...might be the reason. How I'd love to sit down and crochet something or work on my sewing "skills" (;P)...so many ideas..but no time... I am trying very hard to stop myself from any potential "time involvement"that would intefere with my studies... So I started this project...(amongst a few)... I thought it will be nice to have something to look forward to...when I am done with revision and stress!!

nice'y nice!!!

Last week I was one of the people who won a giveaway prize from Emma, *bagladee*. I was just so excited!!!

A little parcel arrived yesterday!!! Oh you can't imagine how exciting... I love surprises...and a surprise from a creative person... must be great!
...and just look at this!!!!!





It is such a PRETTY brooch!!!! I love it!!! It looks great on my handbags...eghm.. quite a few of them I don't know if I will be able to de-attach myself from it!
THANK YOU SO MUCH EMMA!!!

Happy Earth Day!!!

a gift - prezent

It was my friend's birthday last week, I really wanted to make something for her so it is more special, but with my exams approaching and voluntary work I am doing...I just could't figure much out. Then I remembered Sarah's pretty tutorial for a coin purse, which I wanted to try for a long time but didn't get a chance...and there we go! Brilliant tutorial!!!

W zeszlym tygodniu byly urodziny mojej znajomej i bardzo chcialam wykonac cos dla niej recznie, zeby bylo to cos bardziej wyjatkowego. Niestety z moimi zblizajacymi sie egzaminami i praca wolontaryjna nie mialam kiedy o tym myslec. I wtedy przypomnialam sobie o wzorze, wymyslonym przez Sare, ktory chialam od dawna wyprobowac...i prosze! Swietny wzor!!!

I also made some bracelet using a bead loom and made a little baggy so she can keep the bracelet in it.

Na dodatek zrobilam bransoletke, a jako ze uwielbiam prezentacje to uszylam takze woreczek do przechowywania bransoletki.

a clutch

I still cannot believe what has happened the other day... I decided to try and sew a handbag...a little clutch to be precise. I am not good at sewing... I often forget how to thread a cotton in the sewing machine!!! At the same time I really wanted to give it a go... I bought some blue fabric in Ikea a while ago...and thought I would use it now. I was sure that something would go wrong at some point... since I haven't tried this before... so using an Ikea fabric sounded good for a practice... I also chose some black polka dot lining, which is a crazy combination! I drew a pattern of what I would liked it to look like (-free hand-)...and after 2 hours I could't believe my eyes!!! When I turned all that sewing effort- right side up...it just looked as i drew it!!! It had a shape of a clutch... the magnetic clip closure was working... crazyness!!! ANYONE CAN SEW!!! I encourge you to have a go at making a clutch!!! It's a great fun.

Do tej pory nie moge w to uwierzyc... Postanowilam sprobowac uszyc torebke...malusia, fajniusia kopertowke jakby. Ja z szyciem..tak nie bardzo... czesto nawet zapominam jak sie zaklada nitke na maszyne!!!! Ale jednoczesnie bardzo chcialam sprobowac... Jakis czas temu kupilam niebieski material w Ikeii i postanowilam ze go uzyje...poniewaz bylam przekonana ze pierwsza kopertowka mi z pewnoscia do konca nie wyjdzie...a materialu z Ikeii mi nie szkoda zmarnowac...a material do srodka wybralam sobie zwyly czarny w biale groszki. I tak sobie narysowalam cos tam od reki...mniej wiecej ksztalt jaki bym chciala i sobie wycielami zszylam...i po 2 godzinach wlasnym oczom uwierzyc nie moglam!!! Wywrocilam to cos na prawo strone i wyglada tak jak chcialam!!! Ma ksztalt torebki..zapina sie jak powinno...szok!!!KAZDY MOZE SZYC!!! Zachecam do kopertowek!!! Jest to swietna zabawa.

Shame it's a little bit plain... but I may use it as my new "cinema clutch", intead of my green one (picture below), the green one is a little small and I usually have to limit the amount of things I can take with me. Anyway I hope that when I get some time..I will try again with some more colourful fabric!!! And I am looking forward to it!

Szkoda tylko, ze jest troche zwyczajna... tzn. bez super fajnych kolorkow lub ozdoby... ale pewnie uzyje ja jako moja nowa "torebke kinowa", zamiast tej zielonej (zdjecie ponizej), zielona jest troche mala i nie wiele rzeczy sie do niej miesci. Mam nadzieje, ze kiedys jak bede miala wolniejszy czas... to uszyje cos z bardziej kolorowego materialu!!! I nie moge sie juz doczekac!

a little tomato

Chyba powoli zaczynam przynudzac dlatego szybciutko pokazuje tylko zdjatka pomidorka...

I think I am becoming rather boring...but I will just quickly show you a few pics of the tomato...they are a little better than the last ones.

Po 14 dniach - After 14 days

A te zdjecia robilam dzis rano... Powinnam go przesadzic...ale w dalszym ciagu czekam na szklarnie...mamy szklarnie ale bez szkla...sam szkielet!!!

And these photos I took this morning...I should re-pot it, really but I am still waiting to finish the greenhouse...I have a greenhouse but without the glass!!!

Chyba tutaj przesadzilam z bazylia...musze je porozsadzac..i pewnie porozdawac ludziom! I z pewnoscia bede mogla zrobic duza ilosc pesto!!!

I kind of went over the top with the seeds in this basil pot... I shall spread them over few pots and give some away to people. I will definatelly have plenty of pesto to make!!!

od nasionek.../ from seeds...

Trzy tygodnie temu posialam kilka rzeczy, tak zeby jakos zaczac..pomimo tego ze w tym momencie brakuje mi na wszystko czasu. Posialam dwa rodzaje pomidorow, papryke slodka, papryczki chilli, koprek, bazylie i szczypiorek. I w sumie nie spodziewalam sie niczego przez dlugi czas...a tu jednak niektore pomidorki zaczynaly pokazywac sie z ziemi juz po tygodniu, co prawda nie wiele (zdjatko), ale ja lubie ten etap kiedy roslinka szybciutko nabiera sil.

I sowed few things three weeks ago, even though I am so busy I just wanted to start a little. I sowed two types of tomatoes, sweet pepper, chillies, dill, basil and chieves. I wasn't expecting anything for some time, but some of the tomatoes started comming up in just a week! Not much..but still..I like this stage where a plant gains strenght so quickly.

Po siedmiu dniach... / After seven days...

Po osmiu dniach... / After eight days...

Po dziewieciu dniach. / After nine days.

Po 11 dniach!!! / After 11 days!!!

Pozniejsze zdjecia pokaze w przyszlych postach...te byly robione komorka wiec niestety sa marnej jakosci...ale mam nadzieje ze te robione aparatem beda ladniejsze!!!

I will show later stages in the future posts...these were taken with my mobile and unfortunately are very poor quality...but hopefully the ones taken with camera will be nicer!!!

Bazylia po osmiu dniach / Basil after eight days

symbioza

Uwielbiam to co kryje sie pod idea chodowania wlasnych warzyw...moze kiedys kur..mmm...Taka idealna symbioza w srodowisku...Mieszkajac w miescie..gdzie w ogrodach wokol mnie co prawda duzo jest zieleni, ale zieleni pod postacia zywoplotow...drzew odzdielajacych sasiadow..im wyzsze tym lepsze...w dzielnicy w ktorej mieszkam..nikt nie mysli o kwiatach..dlatego tez zadko miewamy baki, pszczoly, motyle...bo srdowisko im bynajmniej nie sprzyja...

Ale jesli chcemy chodowac warzywa, bez niepotrzebnych chemikalii...to potrzebujemy motyli, i biedronek i pszczol i bakow, zeby pozjadaly te okropienstwa ktore buszuja zazwyczaj na lisciach....a zeby zwabic te kochane dobrutkie male pary rak to musimy posadzic kwiaty. Kwiaty nam sa bynajmniej niepotrzebne...bo jakbym nie miala co robic tylko sie kwiatkami zajmowac...Ale musimy posadzic kwiatki zeby przyciagnac male pozyteczne zyjatka (taka reklama-chodzcie do nas bo tylko my mamy kwiatki!!!). Srodowisko dba o siebie w taki sposob..pozniej jesli potrzebujemy kompostu, pieknego zynego, kompostu z mineralami i innymi odzywczymi substancjami to potrzebujemy..robali..okropnych obslizglych robali z-pod-ziemi bleee...naszczescie ich nie trzba zwabiac..bo naturalnie w ziemi sa...ale fajnie ze odzywiajac sie naszymi odpadkami, beda produkowaly zyzna ziemie, ktora znow przyczyni sie to pieknych plonow. Ach symbioza...Tylko nie bardzo wiem jak do tego obrazka wiewiorki spasuja...bo one tylko lataja po naszym ogrodzie i w jesieni zakopuja w nim fistaszki a na wiosne je wszystkie odkopuja...wiec z opowiadan tescia...jak zobacza milusie nowiusie warzywka..rosnace w ziemi..to one rzuca fistaszkami i zaczna warzywka nam wykopywac....symbiozy tu nie widze!!!-oprocz tego ze sa takie kochane wiewiorsie.

I love the idea of growing my own vegetables...and even maybe one day keeping hens...mmm...it's this perfect symbiotic environment. Living in the city...where there is a lot of green in the neighbouring gardens...but "green" in a form of hedges and high trees separating one from another. In my area nobody thinks about growing flowers...so we don't see bees and butterflies very often.

However if we want to grow organic vegetables, then we do need butterflies, ladybirds, bees and bumblebees, so they can eat all the horrible creatures that are unhelpful to us. We need to grow flowers (whether we want them or not) to attract them to our garden (almost like an advert). Similar principle with the compost, beautiful homemade compost. Just I am not quite sure where the squirrels fit in that picture...We get a lot of squirrels and they run round our garden hiding peanuts all autumn...so they can come back in early spring and dig it all out. I heard that they may dig our vegetables out...somehow I fail to see the symbiosis in that..other than that I enjoy loking at them!

Pogoda dzis jest taka ladna...ze nie moglam sie powstrzymac przed 5 minutowa przerwa na dworze. Zreszta dzieki temu moge podzielic sie moja najnowsza radoscia (ktora dopiero pojawila sie z poczatkiem tygodnia)!!! W ogrodzie moj maz wybudowal mi ogrodki warzywne!!!! Narazie zaczelismy od dwoch...choc mamy nadzieje wybudowac dwa kolejne, ale do tego trzeba troche wiecej pracy... Poki co sa one puste i czekam na ladniusi kompost od tescia, bo sami jakos nigdy nie zabralismy sie do jego"wyrobu".

The weather is so nice today that I couldn't resist 5 minute break outside. Because of that I can share my newest joy (which appeared in my garden at the begining of the week)!!! In the garden, my husband built raised beds!!!! We started with just two, but are hoping for two more once we done some more work to prepare for it... They are still empty and I am waitning for some nice compost from my father in law, as we just didn't get round to "make it" ourelves YET.

Ale sa swietne!!! Nie mam pojecia o sianiu i sadzeniu warzyw...nie liczac pomidorow, ziol i przypraw... Takze bedzie to niezle wyzwanie, najbardziej to sie boje ze mi nic nie wyrosnie..ale o tym bede martwila sie po oddaniu pracy licencjackiej...bo narazie to nawet nie mam kiedy o tym myslec.

But they are just great!!! I have no idea about sowing or growing vegetables...not counting tomatoes and herbs... So this will be a big challenge for me, and I am concerned that nothing will grow...but I will start to really worry and think about it once I hand in my dissertation...at the moment I don't get much time to think about it.

Wiec juz nie moge sie doczekac...a poki co, jesli chodzi o warzywa, to musze pocieszyc sie salata z parapetu.

So this is something to really look forward to...but for now my window sill salad have to do...vegetable-wise.

To zdjecie bylo wykonane dwa tygodnie temu...a od tego czasu, urosla znacznie i kilka razy smakowalismy jej pyszne liscie :)

This picture was taken two weeks ago..and since then it grew a lot and we enjoy it quite often :)