Tuesday 18 July 2023

Heartfelt ❤️πŸ’•πŸ’—πŸ’“πŸ’– 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 


18 comments:

  1. CONGRATULATIONS!!!! For winning all those lovely prizes, and for getting another photo in the newspaper! And I love your hearts, so beautiful. Have a great day, take care, hugs, Valerie

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    1. Thank you. Yes, the prize was very unexpected and going to be very useful. Have a good week Valerie.!

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  2. What charming hearts. You have quite a collection.

    I loved the sound of your oaty bake - must give that a whirl here. I don't enter raffles any more. The only prize I ever won was, wait for it, a bottle of Aftershave . . . I am not lucky in raffles!

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    1. The oaty bake is quite forgiving. You can add more or less depending on how. depending on how you want the texture to be. I'm sure Keith enjoyed the aftershave..

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  3. Don't stop sending your photos in - it's good to share them and well done on the winning - and all the prizes.
    Even in a tombola where every ticket was a winner I would still get something totally useless!!

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    1. I think we've all had our fair share of useless prizes. You even find one prize, usually a gift basket of inexpensive toiletries. or a rubbish bottle of wine, that keeps showing up in every raffle because it keeps being re donated.

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  4. Deb, thank you for sharing more of your lovely hearts! I hope you will show us how your heart bunting comes along--love how there are hearts in a heart. I remember a couple of your original heart paintings and I sure do enjoy seeing them again.
    Your oat recipes sound delicious! Congratulations on your win. Is the deodorant aluminum free? You are quite the lucky one, my friend.
    Have a happy heartful evening!

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    1. Thank you Martha Ellen I have always enjoyed hearts. I remember when I first joined Facebook years ago now. There was a thing for collecting hearts and we were all sending them back and forth to each other. I had over 100. some of them were very pretty. They brightened my day.
      The deodorant ticks all the boxes being all natural, aluminium free, refillable, propellant free and so on. https://saltoftheearthnatural.com/

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  5. I do like all the hearts here, they look beautiful.

    All the best Jan

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  6. You are incredibly lucky! And what a "love"ly post! I do love your hearts.

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  7. You have a lovely collection of hearts and the sea glass one is very special indeed. Well done on winning the competition and getting another photo in the paper :) I do like the look of your recipe - thanks so much - and I will certainly be trying it :) Take care Debbie.

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    1. Thank you Caroline. Do let me know if you tried the recipe and what you think of it. It's very easy to swap things around: change the fruit; add different toasted nuts; change the type of milk; add some cream to make it extra rich. Naughty but nice!

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  8. Oh, such beautiful hearts! I'm a fan of hearts and these made me smile. Thanks for such a lovely post.

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    1. Thank you my friend. It's gladness my heart to know that I have made you smile today!

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