Autumn is coming

Hello!
I'm really looking forward to the Autumn season & everything that it brings with it. The UK started doing pumpkin spiced lattes last year so pretty excited about those & then autumn means chillier weather! We've had such an unusual hot summer, we had constant heat for 3 weeks on holiday and then about 5 weeks of sun after returning home - it doesn't seem to be disappearing either! I'm kind of craving my winter layers & wrapping up in hats & scarves! 

My baby sister got engaged a few weeks ago & has set a date for an April 2014 wedding! So excited & luckily we all like her Mr! Hah. So these next few months are going to be wedding crazy. I don't think it will sink in that she's getting married until the day then I might cry a lot!

We had my nephew/godson's dedication last weekend & I made the cake for it! It was a really special day & great to be with so much of my family. I have got sooo much baby fever but it's not my time yet, I'm enjoying just the two of us far too much at the moment!

The night we ate Korean food

Last Friday we went out for my bestie's birthday to Topokki, a Korean restaurant in town. It was my first time trying Korean food & I was NOT disappointed. It was so delicious & so fresh - I'll definitely be going back there again. I highly recommend it if you're local. It's quite a small place & I don't think you'd really go for a romantic meal but just to get out of cooking yourself & enjoying a night on the town this is the place to be.

I had the dish above which was sooooo full of flavour. It was an 'oh my gooooooosh' moment the minute it touched my taste buds! but our friends had this dish below. They bring out a hot plate, fresh vegetables and raw beef then fill the pot with stock, you then put in the veg, dumpings and beef to cook it yourself. I'll definitely be having this dish next time! Once all the veggies & beef are cooking in the stock it really brings out the flavours and makes an incredible stew! My mouth is watering just thinking about it!

^^ rice water drink ^^

Lemon, ginger & mixed berries layer cake

This was a cake I threw together with ingredients that I had in the cupboard. I knew I wanted a lemon cake but I found I had ginger & frozen berries to use up too. This was really really delicious!

Also, I recommend using this cake release spray. I'm the sort of person who hates buttering the cake tins (mostly because I'm lazy) so I use this instead and it does a grand job!

This is the recipe for 2 layered lemon & ginger sponge cake with lemon cream & frozen berry filling!

Ingredients:
Sponge
6oz butter, 6oz sugar, 6oz self-raising flour, 3 eggs, a cup of lemon juice, a handful of stem ginger (chopped)
Lemon cream & filling
8oz soft butter, 16oz icing sugar, 5 tablespoons of lemon curd, frozen berries

Method:
- Cream the butter & sugar together until fluffy. Add flour, eggs, lemon juice and stem ginger & mix well. 

- Pour batter into 2 cake tins lined with greaseproof paper.

- Bake for 25-30 mins on 180 degrees

- Leave to cool. Mix the butter & icing sugar together until soft and add the lemon curd. You may want to keep tasting & add more sugar or lemon curd depending on your preference.

- Once the cake is cool, spread the lemon cream between the two cakes. Add the berries to the middle & then cover the rest of the cake with the remaining cream. 

I put the berries in frozen because we didn't eat it until later but if you're eating it straight away then make sure the berries aren't frozen or alternatively use fresh berries! 

FEATURED! Nail Art - Marble Effect

Hey there,

I'm featured again over at herecomesthesunblog sharing my marble effect nail art. Follow this link to get the full tutorial!

I'm out for some Korean food later to celebrate my besties birthday! Will be so nice to get out and do something fun & different!

Hope you all have a lovely friday! It's the weekend!!

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A few days to feel loved

Sometimes when life feels a little bit hard your good friends have some free time before their holiday & decide to visit you. That's when everything becomes right with the world again! This happened last week!
Our friends Mark & Naomi moved just outside of Brighton a while ago now & at first you don't know whether the move will make you drift apart or bring you closer together but I'm happy to say we're closer than ever. There's more of an excuse to phone each other and make sure we're seeing each other as often as we can. I guess when you take it for granted that you're friends are so close you don't always realise how much they mean to you. I was torn to all sorts of bits & pieces when they left but I'm glad to say we've seen them a good few times since the move.

They visited us last week, the first visitors to stay overnight in our new place! They arrives late Thursday night so we stayed up late chatting & reminiscing before retiring for the evening. Friday morning, Sam went to work, Mark went to study at the library & we ladies of leisure stayed in our pjs until past 11am! Poor men, hard at work while we spend their hard earned money. What you gonna do!? After bacon sandwiches & countless cups of tea we got ready to go out to get Naomi's wedding & engagement ring cleaned in town - the best thing about that was the guy in the shop cleaned all my rings free of charge too! I felt like a new bride! What a treat! We celebrated (bit extreme I know..) with chocolate milkshake (for naomi) and green tea chai frappe (for me) before heading home to greet the boys. Sam finished work early & Mark had finished his studies just at the same time. We headed over to the Lickey Hills Country Park for a spontaneous walk/hill climb! It seems to be becoming a tradition for us when we get together. It rained & my feet got wet but I'm not complaining. Sam & I have decided since that we'll do it more often just the two of us, exercise & quality time!
All good hill climbs deserve to be finished off with a good beer or cider don't you think? And thank you England, there is always a good pub around the corner somewhere! We ended up staying there late before coming home & sitting down to dinner at 9pm. Ooops. 
Then booohooo they headed off on holiday on Saturday morning. It was so refreshing to be loved that weekend by such good friends! Miss you already guys!

DIY Home: Handpainted floral feature wall

A few weeks ago I got the itch to paint another wall after enjoying the triangle feature wall project so much! I nipped down to the local DIY home store & picked out a lot of colourful paint.

I had some ideas in mind of what I wanted to do but I brought the colours with the desire to just go with the flow and see where I ended up. SCARY! 

I couldn't tell you what got me started or where I got my inspiration, I just started to paint & it sort of came together.

I do really like the finished wall & it has really brightened up the rest of our bedroom & given it a different feel but do any other artists feel like when they work on something for so long you lose appreciation of the work you've done?? Admittedly, I felt a little like that but I'm happy for it to stay the way it is for the moment. I'm sure I'll get the urge to elaborate and experiment more once I roam pinterest for other home décor ideas! 

Also, I joined twitter! I gave in and got one but I don't really know what to do with it yet. Follow me! I'm @katiejpoursain.

Life lately...

^^ drinks with good friends ^^

^^ enjoying being outside & loving the rain we've had recently. It's been so refreshing! ^^

^^ floral on floral ^^

^^ a lot of painting ^^

^^ camping weekend away with church friends ^^

^^ mega english tea party at Sam's work that I helped with ^^

All instagram photos. Follow me katiejessica

New blog address & developments

Hello everyone,
Just a note to say the obvious - that I've changed my blog address & name. It's no longer Katie Jessica Creations but just Katie Jessica. I feel this blog is more than just my creations because I'm talking about all sorts of things on here and sharing various different posts from crafts, to food & personal things. 
By just having my name it enables me to open my blog up to more possibilities and future projects or collaborations I may be involved in. 

Over the last few months I've had lots of ideas, inspiration and ways I'd like to develop this small little corner of the internet that I can call mine but the 'creations' part of the title felt restricting. I thought for a while about some clever blog title I could come up with, maybe a phrase or quote or lyrics to a song but nothing sat quite right and a began to think what if I get bored of that or it suddenly doesn't fit right so I settled on just keeping my name because this blog is really just 'me and mine'. I'm sharing the things I do, what I make & what I feel and I'll now be able to develop it into anything I want.

I'll be changing a few things in the coming months. I'm not sure what it will look like yet but this is a start. 

If you follow me on bloglovin' then please see the new link  (on the sidebar) and follow me at this new address, if you don't already follow me on bloglovin' go ahead and do it! YAY! Let's be friends!

...AND please spread the word!

Community camping weekend!

Last weekend our church community went on our annual camping trip! We hire out the same place every time which is about forty minutes away from home - long enough to feel like you've gone away for a bit.

We arrived Friday late afternoon, the sun was blazing down and gave the most beautiful glow over the field. We set up our tent (a 6 man tent for the two of us! come on...I needed it!) and then hung around chatting, chilling & playing volley ball while we waited for the rest to arrive. 

As usual we ordered fish & chips from the local and had a mass supper together before heading over to the fire pit to light a bonfire & drink hot chocolate with all the trimmings! We sat late into the night chatting & laughing. 

Also, as most delegated picture takers, I am in none of these photos! 

Thankfully on the Saturday morning the weather stayed beautiful even though there was a promise of rain. We always go to Ragley Hall. It's seriously one of my favourite places to go and holds so many memories for us. The day is spent hanging out, eating grand picnics, buying ice cream, playing in the adventure playground & maze and a game of rounders or volley ball is always on the cards! It's just a heavenly day out! 
We managed to stay around well into the afternoon as the rain held off for the whole time we were there. Thank you!!

On the way back to the campsite we all stopped off at the supermarket to pick up goods for a BBQ. The rain was on and off for a while & then the heavens opened and we all started getting drenched. Good ol' British weather. I love it! Nothing dampened (pun intended) our spirits though as we soldiered on with umbrellas until we were too full to move. 
One thing we tried on the BBQ which was recommended by most people was bananas wrapped in bacon & smothered with honey - now I have to say they were nice...ONCE....but I don't think I'll be indulging again too soon!

Sunday morning was sunshiny & dry. We headed to the barn for a big cooked English breakfast then packed our things away before heading home, putting on a whole lot of laundry and flaking out for the rest of the evening! Boy, was I glad to have my own bed that night!
All in all it was a really fantastic weekend with good friends!