Nayu's Craft Time #300 I'm being brave

Found this quote online (& cute picture) & it's very relevant to today's post.

For the first time in what I think is forever I'm actually being an idiot and going to a Boxing day sale because Boots has some cute Disney items that I hope get reduced. If they haven't sold out. I am only going to one shop, as I hate crowds with a passion so the experience needs to be as short as possible. I hope I can find something to make it worth while. If you sale shop, I wish you luck!!! (& yes I plan to rewatch Tangled very soon!)

No idea where I got this Rapunzel fan art, but it makes me feel like this is the attitude I need to have when facing the sale crowds!

Hope you're having a good day!

Credit to whoever took this photo

I'm getting back to normal but this is a pre-scheduled post of someone's adorable Ragdoll kittens. Ragdoll cats are my ultimate breed that I hope to own one day. Having more than 1 would be blissful!!!

Nayu's Craft Time #299 The wonderful distractions of gaming

A random picture from online that I discovered on my laptop! I love silhouette pictures.

When this post goes live, I'll be in the middle of recovering from my mega strong medicine which I had Tuesday night. Staying horizontal, still, and quite is a must, so craft is out of the question. This is a post kind of more suited to my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, but I want to explain a bit more here, and the game I'll be playing the most is all about crafting items! I've recently found that gaming during recovery is a really good distraction. I have to be careful which game I play because playing the wrong game can make me feel worse which include: 

• any fast paced game (brain can't keep up) like Splatoon 2 (which I featured in my previous post because I found a cute keyring in Aldi) 

• any game with fancy loading screens that zoom in/out Animal Crossing (which seems an obvious slow game choice, but trust me it isn't) 

• any rhythm game because you have to concentrate (which are usually my 'go to' games of choice) 

• any game whose graphics can be a bit weird and wonderful 

Thankfully I have a few slow paced games which I can work on - yes they are on my Nintendo Switch, which is extremely handy at times like these They include: 

Cattails

Try and bring 3 warring cat colonies together: not for squeamish people as you do have to hunt and kill a lot of animals to survive. There's no blood or anything, but it's a large part of the game. There's lots of explore and collect, and it's a bit like the following game, Stardew Valley

Stardew Valley

Found the picture online

Not my picture but my stable is in a very similar place

A fun farming simulation game that I didn't think was for me for many months, but then I got kind of hooked on it. The simple graphics make it ideal for me.

The main game I'm now playing because it's out on 20th December in Japan (I have a Japanese account) is...

Dragon Quest Builders 2

This game is ideal because while there are monsters they are fairly simple to complete, the building is therapeutic and I'm sort of in control in what I see happen, the camera movement isn't too crazy and the repetitive music is soothing.

People build incredible structures, this one was including in the promo pics before the game launched

The first game in the series is my most favourite game of all time, and I know this will take it's place with the incredible new features that I'm eager to try! It's all I'll be playing for a while ^u^ Yes it's in Japanese, the English version should come out next year, but I couldn't wait, and can understand some Japanese so I'm going for it! It will be slow progress especially while recovering from my mega meds but totally worth it. 

Find out more about DQB2 in a post about my impressions of the demo here. 

Nayu's Product Review #10 Splatoon 2 keyring found in Aldi!

Please ignore the cat hairs!

Honestly this was the last thing I expected to see in Aldi. Aldi is known for having random items (some are branded, not that that matters to me) on the shelves, so I was shocked to find this Inkling in Squid form Splatoon 2 keyring. I'm enjoying the game a lot, more so now I'm finally doing the solo adventure portion instead of just Turf wars. That probably doesn't make sense to a lot of you: in a nutshell Splatoon 2 is an electronic version of paintball! Inklings have a human like form, 

This is the inkling girl amiibo (picture from online, I don't have any of the figurines)

and a squid form, exactly like the keyring. They are allegedly enemies of Octolings, who have a human form and who turn into an octopus.

This is the ocoling amiibo  I love the octoling girl so much! Their ink form is adorable (the pink octopus). Wish I could play as an Octoling permanently, but it's so far only available in the expansion pack (which I have).

  It is heaps of fun, I think it may be a Nintendo Switch exclusive, but don't quote me on that. 

I'm not going into detail about the game because that's a post more suited to my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, but I do want to chat about this keyring. I unfortunately don't have the packaging any more, but it was a blind bag gift, meaning I had no clue what the colour would be.

I was surprised at how good quality this is. The plastic is sturdy, it has the cute freckles on the 'legs' and features the suckers that are on them too. It feels a bit odd having the keyring in plastic which isn't the sturdiest, considering the chain is metal, but apart from that this is a high quality product which I'm very happy to have found in my supermarket. 

I love Aldi for it's random items that change frequently! Not so much when a food I like can't be found - I'm speaking to you, pink himalayan salt for £1 which hasn't been seen since I bought 1 pot! I'd love to hear what random products you find in your supermarket. 

Nayu's Project Progress #38 Sparkly Minnie Mouse

It wasn't easy to photograph this, it is super sparkly!

I'm sorry it's been a while! Just been resting as the weather hasn't agreed with me. It has mostly been too cold, plus the rain = unhappy body. My cat has sometimes joined me, when she felt like it, and I've been having lots of hot water bottles and using my heated blanket in the evenings.

My winter essentials: cute hot water bottles and blankets

Admittedly I've mostly been gaming because it's very distracting and fun, I managed some reading and....I have done some craft! Feels like it's been ages since I've done any, but when I finally caught up with my craft friend (I'd had to reschedule our original meet in November to December because I wasn't well when I was due to see her). I knew from the previous session where I did less than 40 stitches in a cross stitch project due to focusing on talking that I needed something simpler. So I did this cool little project! 

This is when I was partway through. I'd done the black gems, the pink were the second colour.

I got it a few years ago (I'm slow in doing stuff, ok?), and it's not an official Disney Minnie Mouse, but since I love Minnie that's who this is! I didn't take many pictures of each stage, but basically it's a piece of card, with the stone area being sticky. I was amazed it still was sticky enough to put the gems on. There weren't many instructions, and I don't understand how the included white pencil was supposed to pick up each gem. I ended up using my fingers, which after a while did hurt but it was fun so I didn't mind much. They provided more than enough gems of each colour, so if/when any fall off I can replace them.

This is really bright!

I did it in 2 days, finishing the top half with my friend and the rest the following day. I like the cute flowers on the card which are done in ink. For some reason they made the easel to stand it on bright green....yeah, not the most stylish! It works for now, I may just stand it up on it's own or put it in a frame (I may have a suitable frame somewhere). Until then the easel will do just fine! 

Sorry for the quality, this is what the main puzzle looks like.

I am having my mega meds tomorrow, which is why I'm scheduling blog posts today. After that I plan to fit doing jigsaw puzzles in my schedule (I want to do them & have more than a few...) I would like to finish my Tsum Tsum puzzle by the end of the year but will wait and see how that pans out. 

Over On Nayu's Reading Corner #17 Dragon Quest Builders 2 alert!!

Find out why I'm so hyped about Dragon Quest Builders 2 & why it's influencing what I'm playing on right now.

Nayu's Craft Time #298 Soup overload

This is what I'm having tomorrow (image source unknown)

It's been a fairly quiet week, after seeing family on Sunday just rested as the weather's not been brilliant (my body prefers hot weather). I'm seeing a friend for hot chocolate tomorrow much earlier than I'd like, then will do some grocery shopping. Hope to schedule some blog posts up at the start of next week. 

Delicious soup memories!

I know I was going to do a part 2 to my soup discovery with Abel and Cole, but ended up doing the rest of the soups in a hurry so didn't take photos. Trust me they are all delicious! I now have enough soup and other veg I've cooked in the freezer to last until the New Year so no more soup boxes for at least a month. I'm simply  not looking at the recipes because I know I'll want to try them, and I've got no space! 

Just how do they stay on? Taken from my game.

This afternoon I've got some reading and TV watching planned, then back to Pokemon Let's Go Eevee this evening. Eevee is so adorable! Younger family members enjoyed watching the various ways I can ride certain Pokemon, some look less safe than others. Agreed with young family members that suction pads must be used to stay attached to Snorlax!

This looks so cute! Photo source unknown

Nayu's Craft Time #297 An 'interesting' week

Love Alice, hate the tale including the Disney version, but her being shrunk is a good concept for this week.

The past week was a bit more intense than anticipated. Let's say that having mega strong meds that make me feel all kinds of weird the same day as my flu jab, which can make me a bit under the weather, was a jolly interesting mix of weird! I was fine for the first few days, then not so much. Resting up as I'm busy seeing family tomorrow, so recovering on Monday. 

I've been gaming loads especially on the new Let's Go Eevee Pokemon game which I'm in love with, I've played a little on the much anticipated and finally arrived from Japan PS4 game Crystar which is quite dark and I don't fully understand what's going on (It's not in English), but absolutely loving it. I'm thinking up of a few post ideas which I'm looking forward to writing in the not too distant future that I hope you'll like.Thank you as always for being patient with my lack of posts - it is winter time which is equally as 'interesting' as this week has been. 

Over on Nayu's Reading Corner #16 Time for new Pokemon game!

Head over to my other blog, Nayu's Reading Corner, to see a very excited post about the new Let's Go Eevee game!

Unscheduled break

Cute kitty chilling out!

 Rather than not posting until I'm back blogging, just a quite note to say I hope to blog on Thurs/Fri, wasn't well on Sun so rested yesterday (had to reschedule seeing my craft friend). Be back very soon! Stay well ^u^

Nayu's Recipes #14 Souptastic Part 1!

I made this!

Apologies to those who follow me on Twitter - link is on the right if you don't follow me. This post is a longer version on the weekend's tweets. For the benefit of those who aren't Twitter followers (I honestly don't mind if you aren't), over the weekend I was busy soup making, using the soup boxes from Abel and Cole, who don't sponsor me in any way. I'm loving the variety of their soup boxes, which includes 2 soups that for me provides 3 meals per soup recipe. The recipes are easy to follow, prep time can take a long time for me because of my general fatigue level and hand/arm weaknesses, so I do it all first rather than between steps of the soup as is suggested in the recipe.The post took a bit longer than anticipated to put together so it's in 2 parts as I  need to rest today. 

Whereas my recipe food usually has a recipe, because this was provided for me I don't think I'm able to share it with you. It may be on their website though!

Usually I do not cook 2 days in a row because it is super tiring (or should that be souper tiring?!) which is why I haven't blogged this week, but on that occasion it was simply easier to do it. Be warned tumeric can mildly stain your blender jug! I'm careful to take it out quickly but on this occasion the jug didn't fair so well. It's fine though, still works the same. 

Let's start!

The first soup was Persian Herb and Golden Beet Broth with salted yogurt. The melon isn't in the dish so please ignore it! The prep time was on the long side because there was so much to cut up. I think it said to grate the ingredients, but because I was whizzing it up in the blender before serving I didn't bother. A lot of the soups aren't blitzed but I hate lumpy soup, it makes me think it should be a stew or something, so I blitz it. I didn't think the golden beetroot would stain, since it's not the usual purple kind, it did a bit but nothing that couldn't be removed. 

 The tumeric is on the foil - to reduce staining and smells I always cut tumeric and garlic with foil on top of the chopping board. The cooking time was quite reasonable despite all the veg being small, because it needed a lot of simmering to let the flavours develop. It did give me inklings of ideas for future soup 

Not the Splatoon 2 kind of inkling girls!

Next up is what it looked like before blitzing: 

Yummy! Wish technology could provide smells....

then here's what I ate -- the yogurt dressing made it sublime! Next time I will add more beets as it was quite thin, but this is expected because it was meant to be veg in a broth, not a traditional soup. 

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G!!!

 I reused the herb bags for the soup destined for the freezer.

I fully recommend these soups, they are teaching me which flavours go together which is useful for future creations. I mainly stick with recipe boxes in the winter because it although it takes me energy to cook, I know the ingredients are high quality, providing lots of vitamins that everyone needs. That's also why I have the smoothie boxes too, which create 3 smoothies per box. More on them in future posts - I hope you look forward to part 2! Let me know if you've made soup recently, and/or if you've ever tried similar soup organic boxes! 

Sort of here...

I'd love a bed like this!!!

...and sort of not. No blogging until Sunday. I'm a bit under the weather with potentially a cold (family have it), I've got a routine appointment tomorrow that I need to go to so I'm saving all my energy for the drive both ways & the usual hospital wait. Sunday is a blog tour though and it'll be worth it! Thanks for being understanding.

Nayu's Craft Time #296 Vegetable medley!

a weekend of veggie action! (not my bag)

I've been offline more or less the last few days because I've been busy, rather than being ill. I did the usual groceries on Friday, which is a major task for me so rest is needed. Saturday I then cooked most of the veg for the freezer. While I do buy frozen mixed veg because it's quick and easy to cook, highly important when I don't feel well, I do like to make my own varieties too. I could have done with a pick axe though! Here's the culprit: 

the innocent looking swede! It was for some carrot and swede mash which I used to have a lot when I was younger. Now I know why I don't have it a lot! 

swede and carrot mash looks like this - this isn't my picture. Unsure if it's a traditional English dish or not.

It was as hard to cut as the red onion squash (yes it's really called that) I hacked on Sunday for a super tasty soup. 

It certainly wasn't red, maybe the name is because it has the shape of an onion (just an awful lot bigger than standard onions)

They are so hard to chop up! Will get help cutting them in the future, as it did my hands in, though thankfully not so badly I couldn't game. After 3 consecutive days of activity yesterday was spent reading and gaming - I prefer to alternate activity days with rest days, but it's just the way the weekend turned out to have none. Craft hasn't happened because the squash and swede hacking did my weak hands/arms no  favours but I'll be getting back into it by the end of this week. I've several projects I want to get back into ^u^ 

I usually don't talk about what goes on in the news, but please can you spare a thought/prayer for those affected by disasters of any size, although in particular those in Florida affected by the recent hurricanes. Today I found out a friend who I've known over 10 years now is safe, as is her family,  both human and furbabies, but her  home was completely destroyed in Panama City. 

I didn't know much about it, Googled it and it is absolutely awful. It's hard being a continent away. I can't even begin to imagine how horrendous the situation is, having to deal with the immediate infrastructure issues, trying to get her home rebuilt. She does have accommodation, which is something. Natural disasters have always been something that happens to people I don't know, which is awful to hear about but it's harder when it's personal. 

Nayu's Craft Time #295 Staying Warm

It feels this cold to me!

 I've been feeling that winter's on the way for several weeks now. It's getting significantly colder for me as someone who is always cold apart from during a heatwave. The other week I realised I don't have a hot water bottle which I quickly remedied on Amazon. I couldn't resist getting the adorable Pusheen hot water bottle, even though it's rather tiny as it makes me smile. 

 

I then got a fairly cheap standard sized one which I also use. I can't do a photo yet, but once I change my bed linen I'll show you the pattern which is a bit similar to the non-Pusheen hot water bottle cover. I also recommend using a furbaby for warmth if they like lying on you! My cat makes a great hot water bottle replacement. 

This is when she was lying on my legs several months ago, but she does the same position frequently!

  I'd love to hear what your hot water bottle design is like! 

Be cozy like the Minions!

Over on Nayu's Reading Corner #15 I've got a game to review!

Also available on Playstation 4, Xbox One, and Steam

I did see my craft friend on Friday, but I did less than 50 stitches because I was busy chatting, so I've nothing to show you today. However I'm super excited about my first ever game review (for a publisher who gave me a review copy) so head on over to Nayu's Reading Corner to find out more! It's what I'm doing over the next few days so I can review it when it is published.

Nayu's Product Review #9 Abel and Cole's soup box

As always thank you for being patient during my non blogging phase. Colder weather = much crankier body. I know I made something the other week, possibly roasted veg. I also cooked up a load of fish for freezing. 

This is an Abel and Cole picture - I didn't buy from them.

I had a mix of my favourite fish salmon fillet; rainbow trout which I haven't had for years which my grandfather used to catch for us so it has a lot of nostalgia (he died a few years ago) whose skin does have a rainbow colour (& I'm one those weirdos who enjoy eating fish skin), then a fish pie mix which I didn't put in fish pie consisting of salmon, haddock or cod, and smoked pollock which is absolutely  delicious! Of course I had to give my darling cat some because she loves fish too. She does tend to be unbothered about salmon - I never give her smoked salmon - but she enjoyed what she had. 

I think this is a picture book, but it is certainly how my body feels about the current weather. Although we've barely had any orange leaves on the trees so technically it is still autumn.

Soup seems like an essential winter food, it is warming, filling, and delicious. I make carrot soup, and other plain flavours, but recently I tried out a soup from Abel and Cole as they did their first soup box of the year. I didn't try any last year, and sadly I'm not sponsored by them (I would love to be!), so I thought I'd give it a try. I'll do it whenever the soup takes my fancy (don't think this week or next week does), but the one I've made was relatively easy to make.It was beetroot and apple with horseradish yogurt! 

Not yet taken a picture with the yogurt sauce on top, will show that in another post.

It made a gorgeous coloured soup which has a beautiful flavour. Mine is different to theirs because I whizzed it up - I don't like lumpy soups which theirs was, it feels more like a stew if it isn't blitzed but that's my personal preference.

This fancy version of their logo was taken from here.

I got everything I needed bar some extra seasoning and olive oil. I like how I even got 1 vegetarian stock cube! I know  from the website some are unhappy because the soups are no longer vegan. I don't think it would be economical for A&C to produce both a vegan soup box in addition to the vegetarian soup box because while veganism is more popular it is still a minority diet preference. Offering a vegetarian soup box means they cater to most people. I also read in the reviews that a lot where unhappy about their being just 2 soup recipes, not 3. A&C responded on the website explaining it meant they could do fancier soups. I didn't have any of them last year, and in all honesty I'm glad they made that decision. I can make plain soup flavours on my own. I use Abel and Cole's recipe boxes occasionally (sadly weekly is a bit pricey for me) because I want to try new flavours, and it means I don't have to buy a lot of ingredients I then won't use, so I'm in favour of fancier soups. 

Example of a soup box taken from Abel and Cole's website.

On to the recipe! I can cook, I don't cook lots because it is immensely tiring on my body, but when I do I enjoy it. I know the basics, but I tend to follow recipes literally. This was a minor issue because it said stir a few times in several parts of the recipe, so I did that...but because I didn't keep stirring more frequently food stuck to the pan in the early stage of the soup. Thanks to the pan it was easy to remedy. I did keep putting in water to help it unstick - I took that into account and adjusted the amount of stock liquid that I made up. It didn't affect the cooking of the veg. 

It says it takes about 40 minutes which I believe includes preparation which is done between stages of cooking. I am not the best judge of this because due to a weak body I take longer than a healthy person to prepare food. It took me 40 minutes to prep everything: I did it in advance because I struggle doing more than 1 thing at a time and I hate feeling under pressure of keeping an eye on food while then prepping the next ingredient. Cooking time was definitely under 1 hour but I'm unsure of the actual time. It was a good 2 hours before I was finished. 

I'm super happy with the results. While I cook for myself, my family had a taste and like it so much they plan on making some. There was some amusement when I realised I'd eaten it without the yogurt dip (horseradish mustard, chives, Greek yogurt) so I quickly had a few more spoonfuls with the yogurt mix - it is divine! A brilliant combination. I'm trying to work out how to replicate it: I don't eat horseradish sauce that you buy in a jar because I no longer like sauces like that (at least in jar form. Home made might be ok). I'm fine with buying and using mustard, I need to investigate how else I can get horseradish. I have to stress how absolutely yummy the mix of the sauce and the beetroot soup is. It tastes of beetroot (obviously), I was a bit wary of having apple and celery in but they aren't instantly recognisable because they are mixed in the soup. 

I'm looking forward to making the second soup probably at the weekend, it's a roasted butternut squash which uses coconut milk (I think), coconut flakes for topping in a tiny pot, plus a tiny jar of harissa which I've never used before. I genuinely love the range of food Abel and Cole provides through their organic box schemes, I've tried their smoothie boxes which are a firm favourite: they helped me eat mango more. I only like it in small doses, but trying their smoothies means I eat it more often than I used to (which was virtually never). If there are problems with an order they fix it quickly with a replacement item in the next order. 

Best organic yogurt EVER!!!!! (& I love my yogurts)

 This happened to me for a watermelon this summer which I did mention on this blog, and more recently a yogurt that should have been in date was definitely out of date before being opened. This led to me trying the River Cottage Yogurt which is unbelievably tasty! Give them a go if you haven't already, they deliver to most places in the UK (I think. Definitely in England at least). Their website is here. 

I'm trying to schedule another post in a few days because I then won't be able to blog until the weekend because I'm seeing friends tomorrow and Friday so need Thursday and Saturday for resting up. 

Before I forget, in relation to the first picture of this post I'm planning on making pumpkin pie soon! More on that in a future post. 

Previous Nayu's Product Review posts includes Yeo Valley Baobab Yogurt. Search for the rest using the Nayu's Product Review keyword in the right hand menu!