A Sunday at home in the countryside🌲🪵 Gardening, Baking Cookies & Home Projects

The time has come to finally get these broccolis and cauliflowers and lettuces in the ground. If you'll remember a couple of weeks ago I did have a bit of a disaster where some sort of bug came and basically cut a lot of my broccolis and cauliflowers in half and I kind of massacred them all and here we are now. These are massive, they have grown so much and I'm so pleased. They have well and truly outgrown their pots and they need to get into the ground so this is my first veggie garden bed and it's the only one that I've sort of prepared so far so I thought I would tell you about what is going in this veggie garden bed. We have got two broccolis and cauliflowers, we've also got down here some brussel sprouts which are probably a little too early to be going into the veggie garden bed but I'm going to give it a go and then we've got our lettuces which as you can see they're not in the best shape because they really need to get into the ground. Also to this veggie garden beds we have got our direct sow seeds so we have got some beetroot, some radishes and two different versions of beans. Now I also want to add in some things like some kale and some flowering plants as well but I don't have those at the moment and I'm probably going to need to buy those from the nursery because my kale is just nowhere near ready to get into the ground. So let's get these in the ground for now and then we'll do the rest soon. Good morning, I hope everyone has had such a wonderful week. Anybody else feel like this year is just absolutely flying by, like I feel like I've blinked and it's already basically halfway through the year. I actually got told when I was turning 21 many years ago, I got told that after you turn 21 the years just go by so quickly. I remember thinking back then how ridiculous that is but it truly is. I feel like, I don't know if it's just me but I do do feel like time is just going by so much faster than it used to. Like the weeks are all just blending into one. I also feel like I've got so much FOMO at the moment because all on my social media feed is everyone in the UK and Europe and America and they're all coming into spring and they're all going on their like summer holidays and things like that and I just feel like I'm missing out on so much because in Australia it's obviously we're coming into winter and whilst the rest of the world seems to be waking up we seem to kind of like slowing down and going into winter and I just, don't get me wrong, I absolutely love winter and I think winter is such a beautiful time of the year especially here in Australia but I just feel like I'm missing out on so much. I've actually really really missed the UK so much this week. Both of us have, Jessie and I, we've been talking about how much we miss it and we're so excited for our trip which is coming up in the end of August so we'll be there for the tail end of the summer and at the beginning of autumn and I'm so excited for it because it's just, yeah, just so really really looking forward to going back. I've had such a good week. I actually was saying to Jessie sometimes living here I feel like I'm sort of in like my own little David Attenborough documentary like some of the things that I witness with the wildlife it's just insane. We had this little resident spider on our door and I love her, we named her Charlotte. She was kind of like living on the outside of our glass folding doors and she'd built her web there so then when we had the lights on in the evening all the bugs would be attracted to the light and they would get caught in her web and it was just insane watching her do some of the things like, you know, catching her prey and spinning its web and stuff but we actually did have a bit of a, a little bit more of a terrifying experience this week. If any of you guys follow me on Instagram you would have seen I shared to my story that we had these, it was like a huntsman's nest and so if you're not familiar with the huntsman in Australia we have these big house spiders called huntsman's and some of them can be like the size of your palm and some of them even bigger and they're harmless like they're not poisonous but they are scary. They are scary, big brown scary spiders. Google it if you're not familiar with them because they are big and scary and what we had was that night Jesse and I were cooking in the kitchen and we saw a really big huntsman underneath the sink. We managed to get it outside because we don't want to kill them. We managed to get it outside and then we finished our dinner and everything and I've gone into the bedroom and I just see this big black mass like this black mass like all on our bedroom wall and I've gone close and I've realised that they are baby huntsmen. Huntsman's nest on the wall and it has hatched and there was about a hundred baby spiders all on our wall. It was, it was terrifying. It was absolutely, it was so scary and they had sort of like, they must have just hatched because most of them were congregated all in like the one spot but some of them were like making their way down the wall and I just, I need to really emphasise the fact that Jesse and I, neither of us are really, I guess, adept at dealing with bugs. Both of us are so scared of bugs. We're actually, sometimes we question why, like we, we adore the countryside but like when it comes to bugs we are just so, we're absolute babies and we're like, how, how do we deal with this? There's a hundred baby huntsman spiders in our bedroom and we're like, how do we deal with this? It was really scary. Jesse was like, I'm packing my bags and going back to mum and dad's. I'm like, I'm burning the house down and I'm moving back to England. It was, yeah, oh my god. Yeah, so I feel like I've been so on edge since because I'm just like looking, everyone like looking in all like my shoes and stuff before I put them on because you just don't know what you're going to find out here. It was so funny. It's actually really laughable looking back on it. I wish someone had filmed our reaction to it because it's just so funny but I did share the photo of it on my story so on my Instagram you might have seen it. But on the plus side, it's not all bad scary news. I have the friend of the local birds. There's this one magpie and he's so sweet. He's actually only got one eye and he follows me around on the deck like a little dog. Like I'll just, I'll be walking and I'll just hear this little tap tap tap tap and he's just like chasing after me on the deck. He's so sweet so I want to get some like dried worms from the bake shop so that I can give him some food because you're not supposed to do like they eat meat and bugs and things like that. They need protein so I can't really go and give him like bread and stuff like that. So I really want to go and get some like dried worms or something like that. Although I have to be really careful because I don't want him to become sort of on me. I still want him to be able to go off and forage for himself and stuff like that so I won't do it too often but he's so sweet. If I can catch it on camera I will do because he comes by every few days. He'll come by and sort of hang out a little bit so if I can catch it on camera I'll either, I will do so and I'll try and include it in one of the vlogs for you guys to see because it's so sweet. He'll actually eat from my hand. That is how tame he is and I think magpies are such brilliant birds. Anyway that was a big tangent about wildlife that we have here at home. I'm slowly making my way through my projects. As you guys saw this morning I got the bed, one of the veggie garden beds done. I still have to do the other bed as well but it's just such a big task and I just need like a solid block of time where I can dig my hands into it and get onto it because I have to take the top layer of soil off and then basically put in new compost and fertilizer and things like that so that the plants are going into really nutritious soil. I am also going to be working on another little project today because a few of you did mention that you'd love to see my DIY projects. I haven't really shared a lot of it on here because I'm not too sure how interested you guys would be but I thought I'll include one of them because it is something that I love to do and that is what I'm doing today. I'm actually going to be renovating this little side table here. It's a vintage side table that Jessie's parents gave to me and I'm going to sand it right back and see what colour the natural wood is underneath and then figure out if I want to stain it or whitewash it or leave it natural but I just think it's got so many beautiful little details on it. I'm excited to get that finished because I've ordered this lamp that I can put here and then eventually I can get some cushions and some wall light and just make this space and coffee table and just make this space really really nice and cozy. So let's get into it because we actually have some sunshine today so it's dry enough outside for me I'll show you guys what tools and things I'm using because you really don't need a lot to flip furniture so let's get into it. So before we get stuck into it I thought I'd quickly show you what I'm using. We've got some acetone and some steel wool pads. This is going to do a really good job at sort of stripping off any varnish or stain that we have on the piece. We've also got my orbital sander. These are some interface pads which I can attach to the orbital sander before putting on the sanding disc to help go around any curved edges and of course we've got our actual sanding discs. I'm using different grits but I've got a few different grits here but I'll be using the 120, 180 and 240. I also have the same grit strength here in like a sandpaper roll that I can use with my hands to get into those really nitty-gritty areas and that is basically it. That is what I'm going to be using for this. My first task is going to be removing the hardware and probably taking off the door and then I'll go in with the acetone and the steel wool pad to really just kind of get rid of all of this orange varnish on there and see what the natural timber Try as I might I cannot get these screws off. These screws are so worn in that I couldn't grab any of the thread and they just it just kept spinning around and around so I'm gonna have to work around it and leave the door on. First going to go in with our acetone and steel wool to get rid of the varnish. Ideally you'd be using some form of gloves here but I of course just don't Okay so I've used the acetone all over and the wire brush to scrub everything off and you can see it's done a really good job of lifting off the majority of the varnish. There's still a little bit of varnish on here but for the most part it has lifted it off and it's going to make it a lot easier now when we go in with our orbital sander. I have encountered like a slight issue though other than the fact that I can't get the hardware off but these middle panels here I believe they're actually veneer so I just need to be really careful though so I don't go through the veneer when I'm sanding. All right we've just finished sanding the top part and you can see what a difference that has made compared to the quite orange varnish on the body of the piece but we do have these sort of I'm not sure if it's going to show up on camera but we do have these black marks where the stain or something must have gone in quite deep into the wood which I can't get out through sanding so unless I'm going to use something like an oxalic acid I don't think I'm going to get those out so I can either just leave them as it is or and accept it as character or it might like lighten up when I put on a varnish or a stain or something. Okay so this is what we ended up getting done today there is still so much sanding to go as you can see these legs need a lot more work and I didn't even get started on the back two legs and on the front door here and the sides I really need to sort of get onto the veneer properly but end up getting quite a bit done today and I'm really pleased with it. So now the question is do we leave it natural like this or put a sort of lighter stain on it maybe like a white wash or do we stain it darker more of like a walnut colour? I can't quite decide so let me know in the comments what you think I should do with it in terms of the stain. I did manage to get the hardware off on the front and I think it's really really cute so I might actually try and restore that a little bit as well so we're going to leave that here for today because it's also about to start raining and I think I'm a little bit tired. Right everyone we are back inside and we've put the tools down for the day and I think after having such a big day in the garden and doing our DIY we deserve to just sit down and relax but not before making some of these cookies. I've honestly been making these cookies on repeat they're probably the quickest and easiest recipe to come together they are so delicious I think it's only around like six ingredients or so and they honestly come together in around like 15 minutes including baking time which is actually a little bit of a problem because I find myself even when I'm like sitting there and I've got nothing yummy in the house to eat I will just like remember at the back of my mind that I can whip up these cookies so quickly. They're probably the yummiest cookies I've ever made they're just so chewy and gooey on the inside but nice and crispy on the outside. It's also about to start raining so a nice afternoon cuddled up on the I think that sounds like the most perfect afternoon to me so let's pop on the lights and let's make some cookies. So all you need is flour, some chocolate chips or chocolate chunks or whatever chocolate that you're using, some coconut sugar, baking powder, you'll also need some olive oil and some plant-based milk. I'll be using soy milk but you can use oat milk, almond milk, whatever milk you want to use. 100 grams of plain flour, 90 grams of coconut sugar, we're going to need a teaspoon of baking powder, one and a half tablespoons of oil, I'm using olive oil but you can also use coconut oil, and then two and a half tablespoons of whatever milk you choose. This is about 70 grams of chocolate chips. I'm just gonna mix all of this together. Okay so now these now go in the oven for 10 to 12 minutes. Look who has come for a little visit. Hi, hi, hey, you know what I've got some egg if you want some. Hi, okay just give me a sec. I've cooked him a little bit of egg. It's just plain egg, nothing in it, it's just a bit of scrambled egg. Can you see he's only got one eye. Do you like that? He's so sweet. These look and they're still a little bit soft on the outside which is what we want because then they're going to crisp up on the outside but stay nice and soft and gooey on the inside. Honestly these just... I'm going to let these cool down while I make a cup of tea and then we'll dig in. Those cookies are just so good, you have to try them, they're actually the easiest, yummiest recipe I think I've ever made. When I was on a run earlier this week I actually found some trail paths through the forest and I've been really wanting to explore them a little bit more so I think what we might do is head out for a little walk because I think that'll be a really nice way to sort of end the weekend by going for a nice long walk. I'm actually so sore from that long run. I've just started getting back into running these last couple of weeks and if anyone has ever been into running and then taken a break and gotten back into it you'll understand the challenges that I have right now. My legs are so sore and mentally like I'm so much slower than I used to be so I'm just trying to be a lot like quite patient with myself and ease back into it but yeah I've really been enjoying getting back into my running lately but where we live is really hilly so going for a run here it's like up and down and up and down and god I am so puffed going up those hills but yeah I found these really lovely trail networks and I think people actually take their horses through there because I did see some like hoof prints and things like that and Jesse actually when he was riding his bike saw like a whole flock of deer going into these trail networks so I'm hoping we might see some wildlife but yeah let's go for a walk so I think that'll be a really nice way to sort of like end the evening and the weekend. So I was just about to go for a walk and I've looked outside and it has just started pouring down like absolutely pouring down so I don't think I'm going to go for a walk and instead I might just stay home and just have a really nice relaxing Sunday afternoon and evening at home. I've actually been watching that off-campus TV show on Prime and it's so good I'm just an absolute sucker like a feel-good romance TV show especially those sort of like coming-of-age ones that are based in like high school and college and stuff I just absolutely love it and even though it's so predictable and we already know what's going to happen it's just really nice to watch so it's just like a really nice easy easy watch so I think I might just stay home and curl up and watch that and just have nice early nights. So on that note I might just leave this vlog here thank you so much for watching and I will see you guys next week.