Heartfelt ❤️💕💗💓💖 With Love

Hello Friends!

I hadn't realised until my dear friend and fellow blogger, Martha Ellen whose delightful blog you can find here, mentioned in her kind comments on my last blog entry about the number of hearts showing up across my artwork lately.  Now I have a thing about hearts. I have a small collection of heart shaped items, mostly fabric, some painted wood, and some ornaments with heart shapes on them. Of course, as you know, the most important heart of them all is the sea glass heart I found and for those of you who don't know it, if you scroll down about halfway on this blog entry you can read all about it if you wish.

I thought I'd share a few of my small collection of hearts with you today. I hope you like them.  Some gifts from special friends, Some are. handmade.  Some I made myself.  They are all treasured and loved

A much treasured gift from a friend

A precious handmade gift

Hand painted by me

A CalicoKate original

Two papers WiP's for a bunting I'm making

Murano glass heart from my Dear Daddy

Random gift with purchase

Another CalicoKate original

Hand painted by me

Handmade gift

A 60th birthday card painted by me

Handmade Valentine

Handmade by a friend

Handmade by a friend

Handmade by another friend

and, of course, the most special one of all

At this point, I'm not going to even mention that I've had yet another photograph selected for the picture of the day on my local newspaper. It's beginning to get more than embarrassing now. I think I'll have to stop submitting photos to the Western Telegraph Camera Club on Facebook.

You may recall a few weeks ago I started experimenting with my cake flavoured range of overnight oats. Some of the variations I experimented with can be found at the end of this blog.  Well, just the other day I decided to experiment with baked oats. Ohh my!  have I discovered another something else delicious. and not particularly unhealthy either. They're really quite simple as well. I read a few recipes and here's my take on it.

Grease an oven proof dish. You can use butter, I used coconut oil.  Place one large or two small mashed bananas in the bottom of the dish. Sprinkle lightly with cinnamon, optional. Cover with porridge oats. Pour over enough milk to cover the oats and bananas. I use oat milk. Stir lightly try not to disturb the banana. Sprinkle over lightly with seeds. I used a milled mix of mix of sunflower, pumpkin and linseeds.  If liked, you can lightly sprinkle over with some dark brown sugar or drizzle with a little honey. But don't overdo the sugar. You can always add more later.  Add a small handful of berries of your choice. I used cherries. Finally, a light dusting of ground almonds or desiccated coconut, then bake in a preheated oven about. 200C. for about 25 to 30 minutes until hot through and the oats have absorbed the milk.  Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or low fat yogurt for a healthier choice. Optional: sprinkle with toasted nuts and a little toasted oatmeal for some crunch.

I think it would work well with other fruits, such as apple, pear, peach, or mixed berries.

As I'm sure quite a lot of you do, I frequently throw my name into the hat with online prize draws. with reputable companies. Over the years I've won quite a few things from £200 worth of National Garden Centre vouchers to a £50 Lakeland voucher, a lovely hamper of Seed and Bean chocolate and a hamper full of olive oil and olive products to mention a few.  My most recent win was this, courtesy of Ethicalsuperstore.com and Salt of the Earth Deodorants.  It comprises. their latest narrowly and orange scented spray on deodorant, with a 500 ml bottle of refill for the spray, and a lavender and vanilla foaming hand wash. The prize value is over £40.00! I shall be well set for deodorant for several months now I am sure.

{Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but my tremors are getting worse again}

Until next time 

Stay safe stay well.

Debbie xx