Sunday 28 March 2010

Pesto Pepper Egg Bread

Happy Sunday one and all! It's very grey and drizzly out here but we have been having a lovely day seeing an old friend and generally eating a lot. Good times.

This morning I made our usual Sunday breakfast which is something I have been meaning to share for a while now. It's my own creation, born out of one of those times when the cupboards seem to be bare aside from the odd egg or onion and dried herbs. It has been adapted a little over the year or so I have been making it and is now, I think, nigh on perfection - if I do say so myself, ha!

I am no food photographer and it doesn't look particularly attractive, but honestly guys, it's awesome:
Anyway, it has no official name in our house and is referred to as Pesto Pepper Egg Bread and here is how to put it together for maximum tastiness:

Serves 2 (or 1 hungry peep)

You will need:

1 Red or yellow pepper sliced into strips
1 red onion sliced into strips
Lea and Perrins Worcester sauce
A couple of blobs of olive oil
2 slices of bread (a seeded brown bread is nice for this)
A sprinkling of both dried oregano and chilli flakes
2 eggs
A little red pesto
Handful of grated mild or medium cheddar cheese.

Heat the olive oil in a frying pan and add the pepper and onion. Stir fry them until they are just starting to brown then blob in a few drops of Lea and Perrins and keep stirring them until they are browned at the edges and soft. Take them out of the pan and put to one side.

Using the same pan to save on the washing up, fry your eggs in a bit more oil and while they are cooking 'butter' the bread slices with the pesto and then sparingly sprinkle some oregano and chilli flakes all over them. Divide the cooked pepper and onion between the slices of bread, take your cooked fried eggs and put them on top, then top the whole lot with a sprinkling of the cheese.

Et voila! Pesto Pepper Egg Bread!

You can also try different combinations of vegetables...I have found in the past that thin strips of carrot and courgette work well together too. Enjoy!

Saturday 27 March 2010

What is this newness?

I have been spending a lot of time in the studio lately conjuring new jewels...It's going well I think and it won't be long before the new collection hits the Bonbi Forest virtual shelves.

I am keeping things under wraps for the moment while I make my decisions and creations are being worked and re-worked. I think you'll like them. I am finding myself inspired by natural elements and geometric shapes which is making the pieces a slight departure from my usual style and something I am enjoying very much.

A peek --> Curios:

Wednesday 24 March 2010

Inspiration can just hit you from nowhere...

Sometimes I buy beads with no idea what I am going to do with them. The only reason I buy them at all is because they are just too cute to pass up, especially if they are vintage and in limited supply.

That's what happened with these little vintage plastic shells. The colours were too good for me not to have! For two years now I have been wondering what to do with their prettiness and I have had no ideas at all. Until today.

Things just came together and the shells found their purpose...

I don't have many shells and only a small amount of these new necklaces. they'll be in the shop tomorrow...

EDIT: They are now in the shop and available HERE!

Monday 22 March 2010

Print marathon

As I mentioned in my last post, I have been slow on the blog the last couple of weeks because of super hectic busy times recently, and also because of that I have some new things to show and tell...hurrah!

One of the projects I have been working on is an exclusive tour tee for Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip as well as the two exclusive online designs I made for them. Their album is called 'The Logic of Chance' which is the title of a book written by John Venn, he of The Venn Diagram fame - the idea being that Dan's music and Pip's words are both sides of a Venn Diagram coming together in the middle as Le Sac vs Pip - and they asked me to create a tee design featuring one of these diagrams somewhere...
I came up with the sweet idea of opposing bears speaking to one another with their speech of music and alphabet over lapping with the band's name in the middle as the Venn Diagram...and of course they also have some twinkling magic between them.

So, the tees were ordered and (bar a few hiccups with delivery timing which was a lot later than expected) 400 were printed to go on tour! (That's 800 bears, eee!) Orchid for the ladies, above, and brown for the guys, below...
I tried to document the printing marathon that ensued:

Screens:
The boxes arrived. I expected a few but not 5 super heavy ones stuffed to the brim!The tees piled up...a mountain:
Practice print...I do these on old tees and they can get quite busy with other practice prints...the little patterns and the date in the background here are one of the practice prints for our wedding invites (more on them soooon)
...and then I got printing! As I am printing the first colour, I lay all the tees out, they don't take long to air dry but I print much faster than they dry and while they are still wet they can't be laid on top of each other. When the second colour goes down they can go under the flash dryer which heat sets the ink into the fabric so they can be machine washed...
Here they are with the second colour down:
I like how they look all laid out next to each other all pattern-like:
I send them out all rolled in a Bonbi wrap with the shirt size on the outside. Nice and easy for the band's merch peeps to find and give out to their customers at the shows...Unfortunately I didn't get a shot of the big boxes all stuffed with tees and ready for the off, but here are a few on the go:
So there you go...a tee printing marathon. These tees are only available at the Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip shows on their current tours of the UK, Ireland and Europe...very limited edition indeed!

Sunday 21 March 2010

Long time...

Apologies for the lack of blogging of late...I have been a very busy bee indeed which was followed by a short holiday break with friends (which you may have seen noted in the Bonbi news on my website).

I have some things to share with you over the next couple of days but for now I just wanted to say that it is business as normal here at Bonbi Forest (orders will ship tomorrow!) and leave you with a peek of a Moorhen I spied in the woodland whilst I was on my hols:


Thursday 4 March 2010

OK Go - This Too Shall Pass

This video is utterly wonderful, a feat of creativity. I love how the chain reaction and imagery gets bigger and bigger as the video continues...I wonder how many takes it took given the band's 'Is it done yet?' faces at the end when everyone else is cheering!

Monday 1 March 2010

So this is what I've been up to...

I have been a little quiet on the blog of late as I have been busily concocting some brand new tee designs for Dan Le Sac vs Scroobius Pip. This time around I have created two online exclusive designs which went live today and I am making another (with bears and magic!) for their tour which starts on the 12th...it's certainly been a printing frenzy in the studio with more to come!

Both of these designs are available in mens and womens sizes HERE!

The busy time of it lately has meant that my monthly project took a bit of a back seat last month (I know, I know! Falling at the second month!) but I have some pieces in the works so I'll be carrying February's theme of Camping and the Great Outdoors over through March and will be releasing a few new bits on the site over the next week or so...Keep your eyes peeled!