Seven days to Mothering Sunday.

Is Mother’s day a very important day in the year for you? Is it a day you feel you need to make a fuss of your mum? Is it an ordinary day like any other day?

Personally, I feel it is an ordinary day because every ordinary day is very special in relation to my mother. Many of us are really lucky to have a great relationship with our parents and more so with our mums. What makes this relationship pertinent?

1. My mother has empathised with my aches and pains.
2. She has enjoyed my celebrations and joys
3. She has felt proud she has given birth to a daughter like me..despite my many faults: stubbornness, hot headed, opinionated, …
4. She has treated me as an equal when she needed to confide in someone.
5. Even though I wasn’t her favourite among the children, I saw her world crumble when I was in pain…
6. The list is endless

 

Are you going to make a fuss of her on this day? Of course, make a fuss of her every single day- she deserves it! It could not have happened any other way, she gave birth to me- gave me life!

What about those of us who might not be so fortunate to have a good relationship with our mothers? I like the saying, “be the grown up” one , make the effort, let by gones be by gone. If Nelson Mandela could forgive people who were both mentally and physically cruel to him, surely you can as well. Negative thoughts are so heavy, they really weigh you down and sap your energy- it’s true! Rise from this and make amends with your Mum!!

A small gesture would go such a long way. All the flowers and foliage are from my garden(not the best), however it means that I spent time picking them, thinking about how I would arrange them.  How could I arrange them for Mum to derive pleasure from them? To be honest, I derived a lot of satisfaction making this arrangement!!

 

Still chilly, these are just the objects to feel warmed up!

Ice white candles

http://www.zaliwanaaccessories.co.uk/en-gb/product-category/dining-room/table-candles-small-lanterns

Valentine’s meal on a shoe string budget, however, extremely delicious (serves 2 people)

The spicy borlotti beans and Swiss chard meal can be eaten with bread, potatoes or rice.

For Spicy beans

1. One (400g) can Waitrose essential borlotti beans (undrained)
2. Four table spoons sunflower oil
3. Three quarter can chopped tomatoes
4. One medium sized white onion
5. 2 /3cloves garlic(strength optional)
6. Fresh ginger (strength of ginger is optional)
7. Two teaspoons white pepper
8. One Teaspoon salt

Swiss chard

1. Two packets Waitrose Swiss chard
2. Four tablespoons butter
3. One teaspoon salt

Method

1. Chop up the onion into small strips, then crush the garlic.
2. Heat the sunflower oil on medium heat- gas, 5/6. Fry the garlic stirring well, until they start to stick to the bottom of the sauce pan- do not allow to burn. Add the onions to the sauce pan and continue to fry until they just start to turn brown. Pour the ¾ can of chopped tomatoes into the mixture, leave to simmer for about 5 minutes then add the grated ginger. Add the can of beans, stir well, add the salt , leave to cook for another 15 minutes, stirring occasionally. Add the pepper and allow to simmer for a further 5 minutes. Serve in a bowl

For Swiss chard

1. In their bundles, chop the Swiss chard into medium sizes strips. Heat the butter in a frying pan on medium heat – gas 5/6, and then add the Swiss chard. Season with salt. Continue to stir the Swiss chard for about 6 minutes, until soft. Serve in a bowl.

The launch of our Website…Zaliwana Accessories~ Handmade and Eclectic

We are so excited to be launching our website. Enjoy a 25% discount on ALL our gorgeous products. Type in at checkout the code: 0007.
Happy shopping or just browsing at http://www.zaliwanaaccessories.co.uk

A pile of old wood or art??

I had been thinking hard and  long how I would display my beautiful accessories against a very sombre background. With christmas looming, I had ideas ranging from creating a christmas tree in the form of old shoe boxes- maybe I would paint these green. Although the idea was appealing, it wasn’t strong enough to allow me to sum up the courage and energy to start collecting boxes from the local high street shoe shops!

on my walks through parks and forests, I realsied that the natural display of old wood, branches and plants wouldbe an interesting concept to explore. I had never realised how autumn would be a season I would so much celebrate due to the diversity of its flora and fauna at the time.

The photographs were taken at about 7.50am. The river was quite foggy and misty. I built up the old wood christmas tree in a quite spontaneous manner as the tree branches trunks and longs were all different sizes!

 

 

Old Spitalfields market

Have you  ever been to the Old spitalfields market in Shoreditch? Laszlo and I went to drum up more customers for Zaliwana Accessories. We took out beautiful cushions which were adored by everyone, additionally we carried, children’s toys, candles, lanterns, ceramic art, place mats, napkin rings and brass figures.

It was a busy and lovely warm sunny day, however,  the morning  started off very quiet. Towards noon,  shoppers started trouping in. I heard various languages spoken: english, dutch, chinese, japanese, french, italian, polish and punjabi.

The traders who had stalls near us were very friendly and kept looking into our stall to make sure all was okay! we look forward to partaking this Sunday again.

Ice White candles for those bleak evenings..

I thought, a tired looking table, Snow White candles and some jute, cotton and sisal thread is all I need for this display. Simple, but effective..what do you think?

                                                                                                                                                                         Without the tulips…

And the gorgeous fragranced white clematis…