Carbon Neutral Blogs!

Good morning! A very early post this week before I zip off to a recycling and waste management show for work...! Before I go, I wanted to tell you about Carbon Neutral Blogs - a completely free initiative with the aim of helping to make as many blogs carbon neutral as possible by planting a tree on your behalf.


From their website:
'The UNFCC calculates that each tree helps to remove around 10kg of carbon from the atmosphere every year. This means that by adding the button, and having a tree planted, your blog will become carbon neutral, moreover, it will actually be carbon positive! In fact, if all 200m blogs in the world signed up to the initiative, rather than contributing 700,000 tonnes of carbon, the blogosphere would actually help remove 2.1m tonnes of carbon from the atmosphere each year!!'

The trees are currently planted trees in four forests in the US, where there is the need for reforestation as a result of global climate change, drought and forest fires:
- San Bernardino National Forest, the Butler II burn.
- Plumas National Forest, the Moonlight fire.
- Huron-Manistee National Forest, Kirtland Warbler nesting habitat restoration.
- Ocala National Forest, longleaf pine restoration.

Sound good? It's really really simple to join in...
1. Add the button from this page to your blog’s sidebar, header or footer
2. Write a new blog post about signing up to the initiative (this is mine!)
3. Email carbonneutral@stockdisplays.co.uk to tell them about it
4. They'll send you an email back to confirm when they've planted your tree!

Let me know what you think - I'd love to know if you've done it too!

Right! I'd better make sure I've packed my crochet bag! Have a lovely week and I'll be back reading everyone's blogs on Thursday!

Sounds of Sunday!

Unfortunately for you today, I've not been listening to any music...but I have spent this evening crocheting whilst watching Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves *coughwhichIsecretlylovecough* so today, I bring you...


lolz!

What have you been up to today?

Etsy BNR!

Happy Saturday! Today I'm taking part in Craft Britannia's 24 hour Buy N Replace sale over on Etsy - a Buy N Replace sale means that when you purchase something from the shop, your own item replaces it (and hopefully someone will buy that in return!).


Go and have a little peek at some of the gorgeous (and ever-changing!) items in the shop today :) let me know what you think!

What are you up to this Saturday?

A Very Musical Folksy Friday!

We've had a very musical week here at Casa Wrapped Up With String...we were at Bingley Music Live last Saturday and Sunday, Hurts' amaaazing début album was released on Monday (and has been on repeat pretty much since...I love love love it!), and we went to see the stunning Jónsi on Wednesday night - none of us were sure quite what to expect, and we all had a fantastic time - definitely definitely go see him if you get the chance; it's a fantastic show! So it seems natural this week's Folksy Friday to follow in a music fashion! Click the images for the items' Folksy pages :)











And just to finish...



Heehee!

A Delicious Meat-Free-Monday Recipe!

I posted aaaaaaaaaaaages ago about Meat Free Mondays and had half-planned a regular veggie-friendly recipe post...however, I quickly realised that I don't actually cook particularly interesting for myself food very often (lunch today? cream of tomato soup and a roll...dinner today? pasta, pesto and sweetcorn - and I just realised I forgot to add sunflower seeds...damn!) so that fizzled out somewhat...ANYWAY I (with Oliver...much credit to Oliver!) did actually cook a delicious Meat Free Monday-tastic dish on Monday that I must share! It's from the New Covent Garden Soup Company's Book of Soups and I whole-heartedly recommend!

Roasted Red Pepper, Corn and Chilli Chowder

Serves 6 (or 4 hungry folk!)

3 medium fresh chillis
3 medium red peppers
3 fresh ears of corn
3 pints of vegetable stock
1 tbsp olive oil for sautéing
1 large onion, finely chopped
1 medium leek, white part only, sliced
2 garlic cloves, crushed
2 medium potatoes (about 350g / 12oz), peeled and roughly chopped
150ml / 1/4 pint single cream
salt and pepper to taste

1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas Mark 6
2. Put the chillies and red peppers into a roasting tin and bake in the oven for 30 minutes. Put the ears of corn into a large saucepan with the stock. Cover, bring to the boil and simmer for 30 minutes.
3. Meanwhile, melt the butter a cook the onion, leek and garlic gently in a covered saucepan for 10 minutes without colouring.
4. After 30 minutes, remove the chillies and red peppers from the oven and skin and de-seed them. Dice the chillies and chop the peppers into small, even pieces - keep them separate. Remove the corn from the stock and keep both. Remove the corn from the cob (this took a right age but it was so tasty and worth it!).
5. Add the onion, leek and garlic mixture to the stock with the chillies and potatoes and simmer gently for 15-20 minutes until the vegetables are tender. Add the corn and red pepper pieces. Purée half the mixture in a food processor and return to the saucepan. Add the cream just before reheating.
6. Serve with plenty of warm crusty bread, cheese, olives and hummus.
7. Devour!


It's a perfect warming soup with just the right amount of spice, crunch and dipability - always very important where a soup is concerned! Yum :)

8. Plonk your satisfied self down and don't move for the rest of the evening...

Sounds of Sunday - Frightened Rabbit!

Hi there! After announcing the beginning of autumn on Friday like it was practically Christmas already, I've spent a beautifully summery Saturday (and hopefully Sunday!) listening to music, dancing, picnic-ing, cider-drinking and trying our best to avoid the ming-ming-minging toilets at Bingley Festival! One band that stood out on Saturday were Frightened Rabbit - very Mumford and Sons and perfect for a sunny weekend drinking cider with friends! What do you think? What have you spent your weekends doing?

















Lovely!

Folksy Friday - Autumn!

Typically, the weather was absolutely glorious as I planned this post, but the trees are definitely turning and there are gold, red and brown shades all along my cycle to work (...and the shiny jet black 4x4s of the middle-class mothers dropping their children off at school *rant*)! Anyway! It's a lovely lovely colour palette, and one I'm going to celebrate in today's Folksy Friday...what do you think? Click the images for their Folksy listings :)

Summer Memories and Crochet Throw Update

Hey there! Although the summer seems to have been pretty crazy busy, I don't seem to have much to show for it craft-wise...I do have these lovely summer memories...















Aww (that hard-hat stunner is from the Carnglave Caverns in Cornwall, where we escaped to when it was pouring down - besides the amazing headwear, I'd recommend!)! But the summer has been disappearing over these last couple of weeks and September is now upon us...September?! What? Where on Earth has this year gone to...?! Anyway! September is now upon us, and the recent chilly evenings have meant some cosy evenings watching films, and finally getting on with my crochet throw! Wanna see my new squares?








I've just got a new photography 'booth' with lamps, and I'm still working out the best way to use it, so please forgive the ever-changing (and slightly old-school-looking) background colour - I was trying to get the yarn colours to show up! I've now finished 21 squares (I'm not sure how many the total will be...!) and the throw is too big to fit on any surface flat enough to show you, but I'll work something out and give you an updated photo of the throw so far as soon as I can!

Are you looking forward to autumn? Although the evenings get shorter, I still seem to get a lot more done because I can't get in the house fast enough after work! What will you miss about summer?