Pucker Up

6th July was Kissing Day so S and I started off the day with a bit of sweet silliness with these cherry jelly sweets.

Macaroni Day on Saturday was marked on Thursday instead when S wolfed down a dish macaroni cheese. She was more than happy to do that as it's one of her favourite things to eat.

Staying with food for Sunday.

8th July was Kevin Bacon's birthday.

I have enjoyed many of his movies, but honestly those phone ads are just dreadful.

Anyway lunch in the garden included a handful of bacon crisps and crispy bacon and maple syrup popcorn was sampled whilst watching Poldark. 

Today is Barbara Cartland's birthday. My plan had been to wear a pink outfit as it was Ms Cartland's trademark colour.
But I am admitting defeat due to the weather. I don't have many pink items in my wardrobe and the ones I was planning to wear would have just made me feel too darn hot so instead later on this evening when I sit down to relax with a cuppa I'll nibble on a pink fancy.

In The Pink

When I was planning my schedule of April days I decided I would give myself a little time off over the Easter weekend.

Thursday was another easy brooch day to mark the date in 1886 when John Pemberton brewed the first batch of the drink which would become known the world over as Coca Cola.

Having taken Friday off it was then onto some heavy construction work on Saturday.
Pink wafer biscuits and icing sugar were pressed into action to help us build our own version of the Eiffel Tower. This was to celebrate the date when after more than 2 years of building work Paris' famous landmark was complete.

Easter Sunday I took myself off for a walk over the bridge to St Mary's church.
As I mentioned a post or two ago I have been researching my family tree.
I decided to start with my dad's family and the earliest relatives I can find are George and Sarah both of whom were born in the late 1790's. 
They had a son George, who in turn had a son named Henry.
Henry had a son name Albert and his son William was my grandad.
I found out that Sarah was buried on 01/04/1838 and so I decided to go and leave some flowers for her. The church which stands today is not the one she would have known as that one fell into disrepair.
It would seem so many of my relatives lived and worked in this area of the city and so by leaving the flowers I wasn't only remembering Sarah but all those whose lives I am slowly uncovering.

If you read yesterday's post about the chocolate mousse then you'll know that we had my family over on Monday for food and games.
With G's help I was able to recreate the Pinterest plastic umbrella and pom pom idea as a little April showers display above the buffet lunch I had set out.
I was really pleased with the way it turned out.

Frozen Food

Frozen Food day is exactly what it says on the tin.
Though I suppose it would be more fitting to say box or packet rather than tin in this instance.

Given that Clarence Birdseye was so instrumental in the development of frozen food I suppose we should have gone for fish fingers for our evening meal, but instead I have turned to Aunt Bessie for assistance.

We have another one of our family therapy sessions tonight and I need something easy to prepare. It can be quite a quick turnaround time wise from when we are all home from work and school to when we need to be on our way out the door again.
Served up with mash, peas, sweetcorn and carrots I know it will be enjoyed and a fuss free meal.

I know that Toad in the Hole is a pretty quick dish to cook from scratch but sometimes a-take-it-out-the-box-and-throw-it-in-the-oven meal is what's needed and who am I to argue with frozen food day?

Staying with the food theme let me round off this post with what should have happened on Friday evening.

Theodor Seuss Geisel, better known as Dr Seuss, was born on 2nd March 1904.

G spent many happy hours reading these stories to the children and as a family we would enjoy watching the Cat in the Hat movie.

My plan was to layer strawberry jelly and vanilla yogurt in glass dishes as a nod to the Cat's stripy hat but, as I previously posted, S was sick at the tail end of the week and so this kind of food was best avoided.

Instead they were eaten last night, not in the intended layered way, but they were enjoyed nonetheless.

O (Canada) Go On Then

Did you know that the Canadian flag with it's red maple leaf has only been in use since 1965.
15th February is known as flag day in Canada as this is the date of the flag's inauguration. 
Think of Canada and the words maple syrup are never far away, well in my head that's the case anyway.

Yesterday I dropped off a birthday gift to my friend G.
Her son has a part-time job in the food hall of a much loved retailer and had bought home a bag rammed full of ready made pancakes.
They had more than enough to fill up their family of five and so she very kindly offered us a couple of packs. 
How could I resist.
That's pancakes twice this week now.
Being Canadian flag day I dowsed mine with the remaining maple syrup.
A much better option for today than my original plan of reflecting the flag colours in my choice of outfit.

A Day For All....

....to join in with.
Whether you realise it or not, thanks to the weather today you'll be joining in with celebrating Umbrella Day.

Loved this little idea on Pinterest so made sure there were Babybels available as an addition to lunch today.

Whilst on the subject on brollies, I was thrilled to find a clear domed umbrella in one of the multitude of pound shops when in town last week before our music event.
I have been wanting to use one as a decoration at Easter time after being inspired by this image on Pinterest.
The idea was originally used for a bridal shower, but the pale pastels reminded me of Easter and seeing as Easter Sunday is on 1st April, the month for showers, I am looking forward to cobbling together something especially if we have another family afternoon like last year.

Tuesday to Sunday

Well that was a week I don't want to repeat again in a hurry.

I haven't been able to get on the www at home as we stopped with one internet  provider to transfer to another and in theory we know these things should go smoothly but we also know that that isn't always how it goes.

Plus we have had a minor blip of an incident with S.

All sorted now.

I have been keeping up with my daily activities but with no internet I haven't been able to post so this is a little round up.

The post will be a little photo light as two days were based around edible delights and they were consumed before photos were taken!

Tuesday was chocolate milkshake day.

G concocted this for S.

Wednesday was peanut day and so I took the slow cooker out of the cupboard, dusted it down and made this chicken meal.

Thursday was a celebration day in India called Hindu Divas. 

I went with reflecting the design of the flag in my outfit.

Friday was International dot day.

My love of polka dots has been documented here over the years.

Dots feature on a multitude of items here at home from china, the tablecloth, our bedding and of course my clothing so it was easy to find something suitable to wear to work.

Yesterday was Gymnastics day.

Now my gymnastic abilities have always been pretty much limited to forward rolls, I could never do a cartwheel or a proficient handstand so this activity needed us to get busy with the chalk again.

Now it's Sunday and we are at Wife Appreciation Day.
According to the blurb it's a day for husband's 
d this is a this is a chance for husbands to look back and remember all the big and     l to look back and remember all the big and little things that add up to so much.

I have to say that G does make me feel appreciated pretty much most of the time. 
Of course we have our moments like every other couple, life isn't perfect and neither are we.
We do spend a lot of time laughing together.
Take for instance earlier this week.
I had ordered a necklace.
It was in the shape of a badger's face.
The necklace arrived and it was much bigger than I thought it was going to be which actually was just fine.
But the chain it was attached to was hideous.
A great big thick chain.
G took one look at it and said 'who do you think you are MC Badger?'
The next thing I knew he had thrust his baseball cap at me and said 'pose.'
Ridiculous behaviour, but fun.

Please bear with me over the coming week as I start to visit everyone and catch up with posts to see what you've all been doing.

Say Cheese.....cake

My dad would have loved today.
He enjoyed eating a good slice of cheesecake so Cheesecake Day would have been a winner in his book.

This one was quick and easy to make, like my favourite kind of recipes are, thrown together whilst listening to a little bit of vintage comedy on the Radio 4 extra Iplayer. 

The base was made from digestive biscuits and melted butter and on top of that was spread a couple of teaspoons of jam. The topping consisted of cream cheese, icing sugar and Greek yogurt flavoured with a dash of vanilla essence. To finish off fresh strawberries were sprinkled on top.
Yummy.

A Years Worth of Days

Yesterday was my 49th birthday.
So this means next year I'll be 50.
Golly.
I'm not sure quite exactly how I feel about that.
It does seem like a very large number.
Does it mean I should feel like a proper grown up?
Because, well, most of the time I don't.
I do, however, have a plan.
Each day of the year means something to someone.
Be it a birthday, an anniversary, a national holiday, a raising awareness for a charity day, a day important to a particular religion.
You get the idea.
So every day between now and my birthday in 2018 I shall mark each day with something that is pertinent to that date.
It's something I have done now and then and if you have been reading for a while you may remember S and I crafting for ballet day, or the cake I baked in honour of Rick Astley's birthday, or something as simple as wearing a brooch for sunglasses day. 
I've spent time over the past 6 months researching this little project and have a very long list of ideas of things to do.
Of course this is going to have to fit in around everyday life and so some days it will have to be something which doesn't take too much time. 
Therefore it could be something as straightforward as my choice of clothes that day or what I cook for our evening meal. Other days I may try something crafty or bake something I've never attempted before.
Each and every day is special and in some small way I want to show that.
I would like a whole year worth of everydays each with a little bit of extra ordinary in them, something extra added to each as we head towards my 50th on 21st July 2018. 

As each new month begins I plan to list all celebrations right at the start and if anyone would like to join in with me on any given date then please do, it would be fab to see what ideas others come up with.
As we are near the end of July here's what's up coming for the remainder of the month.

22. Mango Day
23. David Essex's birthday
24. Lynda Carter's birthday
25. First woman to walk in space
26. Coffee milkshake day
27. 2012 London Olympics opened
28. Union flag adopted in 1707
29. Tiger day and Lipstick day
30. Cheesecake day
31. Shredded Wheat day

Let's kick things off with something nice and easy for Mango Day. 
Two things I've never tried before.

A delicious Mango smoothie was how G and I started the day.
One cup of mango, one cup of pineapple, one banana blended with one cup of vanilla yogurt. Delish.

Then to end the day we will be indulging in a bottle of this mango and raspberry cider.
Cheers.

Easter

                         What a lovely Easter weekend we've just had.
Starting back on Good Friday me, G and S took ourselves off into town. For ages now we've been wanting to go and have a round of mini golf on the course in one of the parks and Friday proved to be the day we finally got to do it. We were the first group to arrive and had it all to ourselves for the first ten minutes. This gave us a good head start on the people who followed and meant we could just take our time and enjoy each hole and not feel like we were holding anyone up.

S managed to get a hole in one on her very first go but unfortunately things didn't carry on in the same vein for her!

We all had a really good laugh and it was lovely to spend time together.

A Festival of Colour was advertised as being held at the shopping centre so we wandered on over.

Loved what they had done to the steps.

The colour was continued in people dressed as exotic flowers

and the traditional fairground attractions of the helter skelter

and these gallopers.

A couple of weeks back G and I watched High Society. I love everything about this movie but G had never seen it before. I'm please to say he liked very much.

After watching it I commented that I have never seen The Philadelphia Society, the movie on which this musical version is based.

A few days later a copy arrived in the post, G had been online and ordered a copy and we watched this Friday evening.

I'm glad to have seen it (Cary Grant is in it!) but we both agreed High Society will always be our favourite.

We've now passed it on to G's mum to watch.

G had to work on Saturday and as S was busy with a friend I went to Winchester with him. We went a couple of hours before he needed to start work so we could pop along to the Angie Lewin exhibition at the Discovery Centre.

G was in and out within 5 minutes, he said it didn't so anything for him so he went into the library to see if he could find a book he was after.

I thoroughly, thoroughly enjoyed it. I didn't doubt I would. I love her work.
It wasn't until I was nearly leaving that I realised what I had chosen to wear that day by pure co-incidence, wasn't a million miles away from what I had been looking at.

We had time afterwards to sit by the Cathedral and have a drink and a bite to eat before G had to go on into work.

I then had an hour until my train and spent most it it in a shop called Molly's Den. There are several of these locally. Each one a treasure trove of collectables, antiques and all manner of goodies.
I came home with a new handmade brooch

and some of my money which my mum gave me at Christmas was spent on this cute mini desk calendar. 

Easter Sunday was a strange day. G had to work the late shift again and T and S were both at home all day. That hasn't happened in a while. I busied myself with household chores and in between those S helped me to prepare some games, presents and nests for our family day on Monday.
I cheated and bought the meringue nests to which we added a good dollop of melted chocolate and some mini eggs.

We had invited some of G's and my family over to us for lunch today which is when most those meringue nests were eaten.
Everyone was given a chocolate rabbit. Each rabbit sported a tag handmade by S which read 'You're Some Bunny Special'.

Plus there were some games. We had a round of bunny bingo, an Easter bunny left and right game, a guess what's in the golden egg competition and then we rounded it all off with a messy 'make your partner look like a spring lamb' game.
This involved one person in the team wearing a shower cap which was then covered in shaving foam. As shown here by T.

The shower capped team members lined up on one side and the other team members stood in a line opposite. They were given a bag of cotton wool balls which they had to throw at the shaving foam. They had one minute to get as many balls to stick as possible. As shown here by my sister C, my sister's partner A and by G. 

It was incredibly messy, incredibly sticky and incredibly funny. The winning team managed 34.
S was G's partner and she only managed 6!
I would thoroughly recommend this game, but make sure you have plenty of towels handy for the clean-up afterwards and a black sack for throwing everything away in. 

A is for

Argyle day which was on actually on Friday but as I was at work and couldn't wear this cardi then I chose to wear this grey ensemble on Saturday.

It's the first time I've worn this cardigan, it was one of my last buys from the car boot last year and as I was taking the photo I remembered that's where I had bought the dress as well.

Both cost me a pound a piece.

In actual fact the necklace came from the car boot too but that was purchased for me by my mum as part of my birthday present.

A is also for apricot day.

I've mentioned in previous posts my fussiness over food.

It's a taste as well as a texture thing.

My diet is extremely limited and although I am better than I used to be I do not eat anywhere enough fruit and veg.

Which is one of the reasons why G and I have bought ourselves a Nurtibullet.

I flippin' love this new addition.

So far we have been sticking to fruit based combinations teamed with natural yogurt.

Apricots are something I do not eat normally but as it was apricot day I could not let the occasion pass without chucking these into the smoothie of the day.

Along with pineapple and plums.

Delicious.

We need to branch out and try some with veg.

I'm working myself up to those.

And finally A is for avian - well actually Tuesday was bird day but that doesn't fit in with my 'A' theme for this post.

Anyway for that I wore a new brooch. This pair sat on a branch was a gift at Christmas from my sister.

Glitter

Question - when you're missing a bit of Christmas twinkle and sparkle what do you make for Sunday teatime.
Answer- a glitter jelly of course.
The top of the jelly had a sparkly sheen to it like that on a freshly opened tin of lip balm.  
There was ice cream too. Just what Sundays were made for.