30 photo challenges for Summer!!

Hi everyone! I have been slacking once again and have found it difficult to get back into blogging since my last post but my dude Laura, found this 30 photo challenge for summer, created by a talented photographer, Christina Greve, where you take a photo relating to each random topic which relates to Summer and it has to be taken this Summer! So I have been using my good old Iphone4S as its just easier when you're out and about and will post a photo a day in September, some words haven been challenging but I'm going to give it my best shot...so watch out for mine and Laura's summer photographs!!

It would be great to hear some feedback from you and if you're interested, why not join us?!

Island Hopping to Parga and Paxos in Greece!

We went on a boat cruise and stopped at two islands, Parga and Paxos. 

It was lovely to relax on the boat and take in the views

We passed a cave, amazing views, I'm sure there's a name for it and
I must find out and there is Parga Island!

 Parga and the surrounding areas have many restaurants and seaside taverns serving fresh fish,unique local recipes and tourist shops. The character of the city is lively and modern but also with intense elements of the past with beautiful scenery of hills of houses, so colourful and pretty. I love this photo and want to enlarge it for my bedroom wall!

Traditional houses in Parga

There was a sandy beach close by so we dipped our toes in the hot sand and relaxed!

Here's me trying to tan my pale legs! 

They are slightly tanned but not much, ended up with mosquito bites instead!

We had two hours to do what we want in Parga and then 

we all had to hop on the boat and hop off again at Paxos Island

At this point we were quite tired from the heat so we just sat on the rocks and dipped our feet in the water.

Mine and mummy's trip to Corfu

I haven't entered the blogosphere for a while and I have neglected my blog, I've been slacking oops..

Today was the first day back to work after a lovely sunny two weeks of holidays, can I have a few more days off please? In my holidays, me and mum spent the long weekend in Dassia,Corfu. I wish we had an extra day now just to relax on the beach as we did do a bit of sightseeing and walking around in 30 degrees and more can be hard and sweaty!

On our way to Corfu!

Telemachos Hotel, 3 star all inclusive, was pleasant to stay in, a bit basic, but the food was nice and their cleaning system was a bit strange, cleaners would come and clean the bathroom only and then next day they'll come in to clean rest the of the room, why not do it all at once! Entertainment was funny and cheesy, a man in a glitter suit and keyboard singing cheesy pop songs and karaoke night, listening to people sing out of tune!




Mum admiring the views at Dassia Beach

Our local beach near the hotel

 We visited Corfu town and I loved the authentic architect

Me and mummy in various places, soaking up the sun and exploring!

Watch out for some more pictures of Corfu tomorrow!

Hello there doggy

I illustrated 'Peeves the dog' for my dude Laura for her witty ranting blogpost about pet peeves, must read! I found it fun to illustrate and wanted to go for the cartoon and naive look.

 I used a biro pen to draw and Adobe Illustrator to add colour! GRRRRR

Illustration Friday: Sweet

This weeks Illustration Friday is sweet, so I have illustrated jars of sweets on a shelf, with few of my fav sweets included; fried eggs, cherry sweets and coca cola bottles! I know they look more like paintbrushes..oops!

What is your favourite sweet?

Magazine Designs of the Samosa Recipe!

These are the designs of the samosa recipe in the lifestyle magazines, Reflect which I work for and our sister company Aspire Magazine which was designed by Aspire's Magazine designer Lucy Crookston. Its amazing how different our styles are and I love how Lucy has used bright bold colours plus the decorative patterns!

This is my design ( Reflect Magazine)

This is fellow blogger Lucy's design ( Aspire Magazine)

Homemade Samosas!

Me and mummy made veggie samosas on the bank holiday weekend, took most of the day to make but we did make 80 so that we can freeze some and have it later at get-togethers. I took step-by-step photographs as it will be a recipe included in the lifestyle magazine I work for, Reflect and our sister company magazine called Aspire...exciting!!

Take a look at the recipe (rewritten by my dude Laura,so it makes sense)...you do need quite a lot of time for this but you can always make the veggie filling a day before you want to make the samosas and you don't have to make 80! The recipe I have included is for 40 samosas, as it is a long procedure you might as well make enough for a party!

Samosa Party Snack Recipe (Makes approx. 40 samosas)

Ingredients:

For the veggie filling in the samosas

7 medium sized potatoes (diced)

3 onions (diced)

2 cloves of garlic

Medium-sized fresh ginger

2 green chillies

2 tbsp Salt

Fenugreek

400g garden peas

Olive oil

For the pastry

750g Plain flour

150ml olive oil

Splash of lime juice

300ml water

Method:

To make the filling

1. Wash the potatoes and dice and wash again.
2. Dice the onions and garlic and fry in oil on a high heat.
3. Blend 2 green chillies and ginger and add to the pan. Chop a handful of Fenugreek and add that in too.
4. When onions have turned slightly brown add two tablespoons of salt, stir it well and let it cook for 10 minutes.
5. Add the potatoes, turn the gas down low and place a lid on the pan. Cook for 30 minutes (make sure you keep an eye on it).
6. Add garden peas and let it cook another 20 minutes and then let it cool.

To make the pastry

1. In a big bowl, mix the plain flour, the olive oil, splash of lime juice and whisk whilst adding a glass of water (more if necessary) to make the pastry. It should become a solid dough; knead the dough with your hands so that the pastry sticks together - add more water if need be. Leave to rest for an hour.
2. To make the ‘pastry glue’ to stick the pastry together in triangular shapes, you need 5 tbsp of self-raising flour, add a bit of water and mix until it turns to a thin gluey paste.

Creating semi-circle pastries 

for the samosas

1. Roll medium-sized balls of dough (you don’t have to use all the dough; you can store half of it in the fridge for later).
2. Flatten the balls of dough with your hands and then roll the dough with a rolling pin (adding flour to it so it doesn’t stick onto the rolling pin) until it’s a big circle shape.
3. Place the pastry on to a pan, cooking only one side for 30 seconds, as the other side, which isn’t cooked, will be where the veggie filling goes in.
4. Cut the circle in half and place on a plate to let it cool.
5. Repeat same procedure for the rest of the dough.

How to make triangle samosas

Now that you have your veggie filling and pastry sheet ready, using the pastry glue, let’s stick it all together!

1. Folding the semi-circle pastry in half so that the straight edges meet, place glue (using your finger or brush) on to the cooked side, at the edge of the straight lined but only halfway.
2. Join the two edges together so it forms a cone shape, pressing down the two edges and the tip of the cone so it’s firmly stuck.
3. Hold the cone upright and add the veggie filling in the cone with a spoon.
4. Spread the glue around the edges of the inside of the pastry at the top and press down the sides together so there’s no gap or hole; it should create a nice triangle samosa shape.
5. Repeat procedure with the rest of the semi-circle pastries.
6. Freeze the samosas you don’t want to cook yet.
7. Fry the samosas you do want to eat, in oil until they turn brown.
8. When taking the samosa out of the oil, make sure you rinse the oil out and place the samosa on kitchen towel to soak up excess oil.
9. Tad da! You have made your samosas. You can eat them with tomato sauce, chutney, salad or chickpeas – it’s entirely up to you.

Enjoy!!

These samosas are suitable for freezing. To make fewer samosas, just adjust the ingredients accordingly.