katy – Page 70 – Apartment Apothecary

katy 3rd April 2015

Sugar free chocolate easter nests

When I was styling my Easter table I realised that I feel a bit left out at Easter because I no longer eat sugar, so no chocolate for me. I decided to try to make something this year that is sugar free but still enables me to join in with the chocolate fun and I’d like to share the recipe that I’ve created just in case you’d like to try it yourself – it really is very delicious.

Ingredients:

(To make four nests)

6 medjool dates

8 level tps of coconut oil

6 tsps of almond or mixed nut butter

4 heaped tsps of cocoa powder

2 1/2 crumbled shredded wheat

Recipe:

1. Finely chop the dates.

2. Put the dates, coconut oil, nut butter, cocoa powder into a saucepan and heat over a low heat.

3. Stir and heat the ingredients until they combine to a loose paste.

4. Take off the heat and add the crumbled shredded wheat and stir until they are covered by the chocolate mixture.

5. Shape the mixture into nests on grease proof paper.

6. Pop the nests into the freezer for about 30 mins until they set hard.

You can fill your nests with blown eggs, chicks or anything else you fancy.

Have a wonderful long weekend everyone!

Katy x

katy 1st April 2015

Styling Spring At Mine – April

Welcome to this month’s very special Styling the Seasons! When Charlotte and I first met to discuss working on a project together one of the things we really wanted to do was meet other like-minded creatives. That’s why our first event Crafting the Seasons at Liberty was born and it was such an amazing success that we just had to organise a Spring event. So when the lovely ladies behind at{mine}, an online community for home and design lovers to share their real homes, approached us about collaborating on an event we jumped at the chance.

Today, we would like to welcome you join in with #StylingSpringAtMine. All you have to do is style a surface in your home to represent what April means to you as you normally would, but we have brought together a special group of at{mine} member judges to each choose their favourite. The judges and the winners will then be invited to our Spring floral workshop at the gorgeous Homemade London on April 29th 10.30-12.30pm, led by Caroline of Wild Rubus who will be teaching us all how to make Spring wreaths with beautiful blooms supplied by Bloom and Wild and May Day posy making with Lou Archell. So exciting!

You need to:

1) Style any surface in your home to represent what April means to you

2) Post a shot of your styled surface on any social media or blog about it by April 15th

3) Use the hashtag #StylingSpringAtMine so we can see your entry

4) You need to be free to attend the workshop on the morning of April 29th in central London.

You can also join at{mine} HERE and post your styled surface in the Styling the Seasons category – Ia and Helena, the founders of at{mine} will choose their winner from this category so get joining! There is also so much wonderful interiors inspiration to be had so I would definitely recommend signing up. The special invite code is StylingSpringAtMine.

Judges:

Here is a list of our wonderful judges (do pop over to see their styled surfaces using Bloom and Wild flowers for inspiration). Charlotte, at{mine} and I will also be choosing a winner each so we are looking for 13 winners in total:

Emma Harris – A Quiet Style

Emily Quinton – Makelight

Teri Muncey – The Lovely Drawer

Cate St. Hill – Cate St. Hill

Jeska Hearne – Lobster and Swan

Heather Young – Growing Spaces

Sarah-Lou Kimmer – Lapin Blu

Lou Archell – Little Green Shed

Olivia – Bloom and Wild

Caroline – Wild Rubus

And now for my April styling. April marks the beginning of Spring for me; warmer days, colour in the trees, in the garden and the parks (no more muddy dog walks and daily baths for Otto!). Coats are beginning to be put away, windows are open and everything feels lighter and brighter. Therefore, I wanted my styled surface to be full of flowers and colour. Unfortunately, I had to create my post a few weeks ago as I’ve had an op in the last couple of weeks but I did break bed rest rules to make a mini-post with my beautiful Bloom and Wild flowers that you can see here.

For this post I popped over to Columbia Road flower market on a Sunday morning a while ago to gather armfuls of Spring blooms, blossom branches and Eucalyptus and came home to make a wreath, which is what gave me the idea to make that part of our Spring event (as I realised it’s more difficult than it looks and I’d love to be taught how to make one properly). Before I made the wreath I wasn’t quite sure which surface I was going to style. I laid out an old sheet onto my dining table, plonked all the flowers I had bought into a big enamel jug of water and made my wreath. I hung it on the wall and as I cleared away some of the debris I walked back to the table and it all looked so pretty that I decided to photograph it as it was. Even though it is relatively ‘un-styled’ this table of cuttings, pots, secateurs and colourful flowers rather does sum up the way I see April – it’s all about a new lease of life, colour and pottering about with seeds, flowers and plants.

Styling the Seasons - April | Apartment Apothecary

Spring flowers are so beautiful – I love the colours..

Flowers ready for wreath-mkaing.

My Spring wreath.

I cut the heads off a few of the flowers to stick into the wreath. As they wilt I can easily remove them and replace them with new flowers.

A rather ‘un-styled’ Styling the Seasons post but I do spend a lot of time in April trying to bring the garden back to life.

I love the different stages of Ranunculus.

A big enamel jug of Spring flowers – is there anything better?

I just love Parrot Tulips.

What does April mean to you? We can’t wait to see (and hopefully meet you!) …

Katy x

katy 30th March 2015

March – a review

Your lovely March Styling the Seasons blog posts and photographs have poured in this month – we have loved the colour, nature and joy in so many of your styled surfaces.

I have chosen four favourites from Instagram because of the gorgeous use of nature and the earthy quality to them all; they all feel so natural yet styled so beautifully. I also love how they look as though they are ready to burst into life and colour as soon as Spring is officially here!

Styling the Seasons - March review | Apartment Apothecary

All images from Instagram. Top left: @rhythmofseasons Top right: @_apothecary_ Bottom left: @ofheartandhome Bottom right: @allenandbear

My favourite blog post this month has to be Lou’s from Littlegreenshed. I love every single thing about this corner of her newly decorated bedroom – the colours, the basket, flowers, plants. Love, love, love.

Littlegreenshed

There is so much more inspiration to be had from all of the other wonderful blog posts that were styled and written this month and so many new bloggers have joined us this month again, which makes my heart sing:

Capture by Lucy / Borrowed Light / Littlegreenshed / The Vintage Good Life / Makelight / Claireabellemakes / Lobster and Swan / Allt Om Kerstin / Really Pretty Useful / KT Robbins Ceramics / Beak Up Crafts / Gathered Cheer / A Quiet Style / Lapin Blu / Growing Spaces / We Made This Home / The Villa on Mount Pleasant / Sew Simone / Afkes / thevintagehousethatcould / Becoming Gezellig / Coconut Bloom / Geoffrey and Grace / Camellia Rose / Sprunting / Cate St. Hill / The Lovely Drawer / Tea with Ruby / The Cabinet Maker’s Love Tale / Mummy of girl boy twins / The Ordinary Lovely / The Fairytale Pretty Picture / Living in London / Something I Made / Lotts and Lots / Apartment Apothecary

There are now 250 blog posts on our Styling the Seasons Pinterest board – you must take a look!

Do make sure you pop by on April 1st for next month’s styled surface and to find out more about our Spring event and how you can join us! All the details on my blog and Charlotte’s blog on Wednesday (we’re very excited!).

Katy x

katy 28th March 2015

Bloom and Wild

A bit of floral inspiration for the weekend courtesy of the bloomingly gorgeous Bloom and Wild.

If you follow Charlotte and I on Instagram you will have seen our special announcement this week about our second Styling the Seasons event in partnership with at{mine}. We have eight at{mine} bloggers ready to judge a competition we are running to win a place at the event and the judges’ invites were these beautiful flowers from Bloom and Wild. These cleverly designed letter boxes can be popped through your door so you do not have to be at home to safely receive your flowers – genius.

The other added bonus of these flower boxes is that they are not an arranged bouquet, which never look quite as good once you have unwrapped them and put them in a vase. With these boxes you can faff around with your flowers and split them up into however many vases you wish. Or make a little Easter decoration like I have.

All will be explained about the competition and event next week in our Styling the Seasons posts for April. But if you want to get a head start here’s a tad more info…

Katy x

katy 27th March 2015

Easter table

In a funny sort of way, I think me and my sisters used to get more excited about Easter than we did about Christmas. We would always go to my grandparents’ house in Devon and the anticipation for our Easter breakfast was feverish. We would wait on the stairs until we were finally allowed into the breakfast room (surely only grandparents have breakfast rooms?!) to see the Easter table for the first time, which my mum, Aunty and Grandma would have prepared the night before. My Grandmother always kept the homemade Easter decorations that we made each year and these would adorn the table proudly as well as the most ridiculous number of eggs you have ever seen. We would have our own place setting and it was only then that we could figure out just how many eggs we had been given (I mean, we’re talking one from our parents, each sister, grandparents, Aunty, school friends – there were a lot!). We would then gorge on chocolate and hot cross buns and begin the competition to see which sister could make her eggs last the longest (Juliette always won that competition). Just such lovely memories.

When Furniture Choice asked me to style up one of their dining tables for Easter, I didn’t need to be asked twice and it brought back all those lovely memories (minus the mountain of eggs!). I had £150 to spend and I totally splashed out on some beautiful ceramics from Tea and Kate, a House Doctor jug from Royal Design and some gorgeous flowers. All the pretty pastels for a lovely Easter breakfast…

I bought white eggs, knocked off the tops, emptied out the eggs and rinsed the shells. I then filled them up with water and made sweet little vases for the table.

Furniture Choice gave me their Lombard dining table to style up. Loving the shape of the legs.

Im obsessed with pink and gorgeous ceramics at the moment so that was the theme for my table setting. I bough the Tilda hand thrown teapot and Tilda hand thrown tea mugs from Tea and Kate.

I made a runner for the table from an old bed sheet. I didn’t iron it so it looks more like linen 😉

I have been wanting this hand thrown teapot and cups for so long and this was the perfect opportunity to finally buy them from Tea and Kate.

A few little Easter-themed treats from Thornback and Peel for the table. Love this Rabbit and Cabbage print notebook and there are all sorts of beautifully printed napkins, cushions, placemats and cards over there to check out for your Easter table.

A gorgeous jug from House Doctor that I bought from Royal Design.

How amazing are these mini Ranunculus?!

That cloche full of hot cross buns did not last a second after I had finished photographing this post!

Katy x

*This post was written in collaboration with Furniture Choice but the views and opinions are my own.