Ashley Pouch

...so much to do and just not enough time to do it in, and it seems that the things you really love doing are the first to slide. This past year has been a disaster for me when it comes to alone time to potter and make, although I've collected some amazing new vintage trims and stuff...all I need now is that precious thing, TIME.
There are some new 'Ashley Pouches' in the making...

dishcloth LOVE

I've just finished packaging the handknitted washable dishcloths that my wonderful Mum knitted for me back in Somerset. 

I love these dishcloths I received my first handknitted dishcloth back in 2002 and have been a strong user ever since. What a wonderful alternative to the  blue/red/orange Jaycloths that too many kitchens home.

Evergreen

This weekend we had 3 dinner invites, so rather than the usual biscuit & wine offering I popped to the garden centre then creative on our kitchen table. All those tins and containers I've been saving came in very handy. 

blundstone obsession

I've never written about a particular product on my blog, so I thought I'd start writing about products I really like, but also those that I feel are relevant and reflect Yeomans Smock.So with that we have my new comrade for the winter season, my Blundstones...

An Australian brand since 1870 Blundstone's proud heritage stretches over three centuries, so it's no new trend, but they certainly reflect everything that is trending right now. But I hope I'm not just caught in the current trend , but that these boots reflect my love of Classic functional design.

This is not my first pair of elastic sided boots, my first pair (although not Blunstones) entered my life 22 years ago, whilst I was desperate for the classic knee high rubber riding boots my growth conscious  parents thought the second hand, leather soled jodphur boot was more appropriate. Love them, I didn't, I loved the idea of them the used leather and vintage feel, but mostly I was self conscious at the riding school because I look different to everyone else.

Fast forward 22 years (& yes occasionally I look different to everyone else, this is not hard when you live in Italy) and I LOVE my Blundstones! I haven't taken them off for over a week, I've been to the mountains in the snow, my yoga class, torrential rain, the bar, on my bike. I love them with jeans rolled up and some sock showing, today I'm in a skirt with chunky socks. Not only do they look great with everything they are SO comfortable. But don't panic Hunter and L.L Bean there will always be a space for you too.

Rugby

With friendly matches being played all around europe, we decided  - 1 aussie, 1 american, 1 italian, 1 polish & 2 british to take ourselves down to Firenze for the Italian vs Australia game.
With kick off at 3.00pm there was time to have a couple pints enjoy a much needed hotdog and remind ourselves of why we love the game of Rugby!
We had such a fun day, the company wonderful, the game ok...the thighs BIG, the food always delicious.

At the game

The 2nd Sunday of the month takes us to Villa Franca flea market a 20 min drive from Verona, we can go there and back and still be home for lunch. The choice here isn't great, it's definitely better for smaller finds, glassware, buttons, the stamps featured above were beautiful but the price point too high for me. The furniture is over priced and over refurbished.  We did find some great pieces which I will post this week.

Bread & Butter Pudding

After a shaky start with my bread maker, things have settled down in our relationship...at least 2 loaves a week & possibly one for the freezer. This week I ventured a little too far though...I went XL! so come today the bread is going stale, not wanting to waste it an Emergency Home dial is made..."Mum I need your Bread & Butter pudding recipe" As a child and even up until the point of making it in my adult life, baking always seemed like such a fiddle...I also associate yummy food to being complicated to make...how wrong could I be.

Sunday Roast

I miss England, I miss the the USA, I miss my friends, I miss my family, but mostly I miss living in a country where the language is my mother tongue. It's easy for Italian speakers to say you should live in Italy with Italian friends...its hard...really hard. So your natural instincts kick in...find others like me.

We all do it, I don't know if it's some sort of homing device but we find others like us. I'm not saying my Italian is non existent, I work in Italian I've lived here for 3 years! but sometimes all you need is a simple, fun conversation where the intricacies of a different culture & language are not disabling.

So Sunday was a day for Roast dinner with 4 lovely friends, it all went amazingly well,  I however unfortunately I do not have the skill of cooking a Roast dinner down to a fine art like my Mum. It takes me all morning to prepare, there is a little stress, the oven is on for what seems like hours, only having a one door oven didn't help the timing situation...but we made it and having friends over is always the best way to spend a rainy Sunday afternoon.

the table

the flowers

LUNCH

Roast Beef - bought at Butchers YUM!

Yorkshire puddings - not so successful, but nothing was left over.

Brussel Sprouts - don't think you can go too wrong.

Carrots - simple is best.

Roast potatoes - roasted with garlic, rosemary, thyme & slices of lemon...Delicious!

Cauliflower cheese  -  cheat use Besciamella sauce & adding  Parmesan/Provolone cheese mix.

Butternut Squash - Roast with rosemary, garlic & oil.

Horseradish sauce.

Rhubarb crumble - rhubard from my parents garden & my Mums recipe

Baked Apple with mince  - Mums recipe, got slightly burnt....

but all whoopsies were hidden with lashings of CUSTARD!

Flowers - probably the 2 most expensive twigs/stems I have ever bought (the roomie helped out) but they are oh! so pretty.

Wine - 2005 Chianti, Colli Fiorentini, Riserva - bought on our trip to Tuscany in July.

tom tart

I love halloween...

this love of halloween really came when I moved to the USA, they LOVE it!! I don't really have any memories of really getting dressed up on Halloween as a child...it was all about Guy Falkes Night in our house, and I loved it! Off we'd go all bundled up to the fireworks display possibly having a few sparklers in the garden before we went. But not having lived in the UK for a number of years now and Halloween going global it's all about the 'Jack o Lantern'. After several trips to various shops in & around Verona I finally found my pumpkins! they maybe small but the excitement in our house last night when they were lit and put on the window sill...size really didn't matter. I have one more to carve, hoping for a flash of inspiration for that one. 
Doesn't look like I'll be getting dressed up this year, Italy just isn't the place to find good Halloween costumes or parties for that matter, so next year hoping that we'll be in a bigger place I'm gonna bring halloween to our house.

sunday

                                                         lunch

For my second trip to the garden centre this year I was definitely feeling a little more confident and prepared.

I've had great success with my Basil & Sage this summer and will hopefully get one more batch of pesto made before it dies off.

With the enivatible about to happen to the basil I needed some new colour for my window sill...

Mum inspired me with the planters she'd just done for The Cottage with some winter heathers - I'm slightly nervous about how to care for them...but right now they look wonderful, we also picked up 3 new herbs which seem to be a little sturdier for the winter months ahead. We found a super red container for them.

The start of Autumn

Will I ever have a lie-in again...

Saturday morning we took ourselves off to Molina for a walk with a small group of friends.
We managed nearly 7 km not bad for a morning of stopping, chatting with the locals and generally dordelling. 
There was no escaping the tones of brown & grey Autumn is well and truly on it's way. Lots of fun was had funghi spotting although one or 2 were lost underfoot unfortunately the red & white fairy toadstool is still a mythical figure to me, luckily the donkeys where there to brighten my spirits! 

home comforts

Being home always brings a sense of relief...the familiarity of it all and the comfort of not having to do anything...my weekend was spent catching up with old friends, picking fruit, cooking fruit & eating.

It was a little late in the season for blackberries but Dad & I scavenged the hedgerows and found enough to make Jam...we  bulked it up with an apple or 2...next on the list of things to try is piccalilly Mum has given me the recipe her Mum used to use so I'm super excited to try it.

 Woody decided to help too.

homeward bound...

A weekend back to the home comforts of Somerset...

- make Jam

- walk the dog

- buy tea, crackers, and jelly!

- see friends

- have a pint

- eat Indian food

Toasted.

The new Toast Autumn House & Home catalogue (http://www.toast.co.uk/content/catalogues/house+and+home.htm)
is out. As always I dream of creating the looks found in the catalogue but find it difficult to commit to purchasing anything, the product is beautiful...it's in the basket...then it's out, or I get to the check and leave...I know what it is...to really pull this product off you have to live the Welsh Farm House life! 
I'll keep on daydreaming...

In & around Verona.

This weekend was spent in and around Verona, which hasn't happened too often over the last couple of months and the fact that the roomie & I were both here together made it much more fun!
The rain hardly stopped Saturday but we did sneak out for lunch at GustoBio where they had Chicken Tandoori on the menu! This was received with a little too much excitement (it's the little things in life that get you through being an expat)  2 orders of the same is not a common accurance for us but we couldn't resist...it wasn't bad either, nice effort and we're desperately hoping to see more non Italian dishes on the menu.
If you hadn't notice I'm also ready for my Fall wardrobe, I've had enough of the cut of denim pants and tank tops I want Layers!!
Sunday was spent rummaging through the flea market http://yeomanssmockhomestead.blogspot.com/ and finished off with a delicious lunch with friends, Bigoli x6 + 2 litres of wine. 

The OK Corallo

Well not quite, it fact it's not really OK.
About 25ft from my house is the cinema Corallo which reopened it's doors as a cinema in 1947 having been bombed during WWII...the movie playing 'Blood in the Arena'
This cinema has been closed for at least ten years with eerie rat traps surrounding it's front doors.
Last night however it's doors were opened, they're open for the month of September sadly there'll be no movies playing, you can do a tour, view an exhibition, but a film projected? that we'll never see again in this beautiful cinema, instead all us city dwellers have to drag ourselves out to the giant multiplexes.
I know this is old news, no room for the small independents but you always wait in hope, there is no hope foe the Corallo, after it's opened it's doors for the final call the supermarket is arriving, soon I'll be able to buy my dried pasta and tea where there was once lush velvet red seats. 

...found there way home

- A Suisse watch with a wonderful Yellow/Gold face

- 2 vintage thimbles

- 2 Pastille tins

- Robert Redford

- A tub of fresh figs

it's the little things...

Some of what was on offer at this weekends Flea Market...

it was a little disappointing this weekend hoping they will pick up in the Fall. 

a perfect day

As you all know I have been getting increasingly excited about the up coming nuptuals of the beautiful & super talented Natasha and the beyond amazing Stefan.
Well that day came and now sadly has gone, but I can only describe the weekend as truly magical.
The setting was at the pretty Gorse Hill near Woking.....where we were all looked after for the entire wedding weekend.
With half of the party coming from all over the United States and the other half splattered from around the UK not of course not forgetting the Danes. It really was an International affair.

Fabric Works.

Louise Bourgeois is my favorite artist and at the time this exhibition opened living artist, sadly the art world and normal folk like me lost the vision and creativity of LB in May 2010. With only 2 weekends left of the show at the Fondazione Emilio e Annabianca Vedova Venezia it was time I took myself to Venezia. Always weary of visiting Venice on the weekend and it's still summer here, I braved the mass of American tourists and snuck in around the back. 
A small galley style space with exposed brick walls and beams, although small the curator (Germano Celant) had...well it's easier for me to say I honesty can't remember the last time an exhibition has moved me with so much excitement and anticipation for what I would lay my eyes on next. It was pure delight, eyes wide open not wanting to miss a stitch, embellishment, colour, fabric or texture.
My stomach aching from holding my breath and forgetting to breath yet feeling totally calm and inspired.
Spirals, marble beads, weaved spiders and orbs. Envelopes intricately stitched together from netting to create envelopes of intimacy.
The exhibition is moving to London next maybe I'll treat myself to another afternoon of LB and her beautiful mind.