Days Past

A little look back over the past week.

Tuesday was Umbrella Day.

 

I made Nutella milkshakes topped off with little cocktail umbrellas. The milkshakes were disliked unanimously. Oh well, we gave it a go!

S was very excited about Wednesday as it was dress up day at school. I had offered to sew more beads onto the top but she said she was happy with it just the way it was and as it was her costume that was fair enough. I had sewn the skirt of the kaftan to the bottom of the top and to hide the haphazard join we added a belt from a skirt which was in the pile for recycling.
When I went to collect S from school later on that day I noticed a lot of the children hadn't actually dressed up so although it was a challenge to come up with something I'm glad we made the effort and S was pleased with the cobbled together result.

 

We had no firm plans for the weekend but seeing as it was Valentines Day on Saturday there were a couple of things I had planned but they didn't actually happen in the end.

I felt dreadful all day at work on Friday from a bout of IBS and couldn't wait to get home and sit quietly with a hot water bottle. Unfortunately this feeling lingered on into Saturday and Sunday too.

S and G enjoyed a breakfast of heart shaped crumpets 

 

and when I did feel like getting dressed I wore a recent purchase from New Look.  95% of my wardrobe consists of buys from charity shops, car boots and jumbles but when I was in town recently I spied this t-shirt and as I had £3.00 of high street vouchers in my purse I put them towards it and it became mine.

 

Before I go I just wanted to say a huge thank you to everyone who left a comment on my last post about T and his website. T was bowled over by the response, thank you all for your support.

Love and Pride

T has asked me to share something with my good friends in Blogland.
For months he and G have been busily working on his new website and it finally went live a couple of weeks ago.

T told us he was gay in December 2013 but I haven't shared that information on here before as I didn't think it was mine to share, but I'm doing so now because T has asked me to.
Last Spring T found out about a local LGBT youth group who meet on a weekly basis. Through them he has made lots of friends and they have provided him with much needed support.
T wanted to set up the website for others to access in order for them to find online support.
Please share the website with anyone you feel may be interested because as the website states

'even if just one person finds something helpful from our site then we have achieved something incredible.'   

Allsorts

Friday was a day made for Violet Beauregarde because it was Bubblegum day. I chose to mark this day by wearing a pink cardigan and pink necklace to work. The plastic baubles in the necklace reminded me of gobstopper sized balls of gum.

 

We had a couple of options for things to do over the weekend and decided to start Saturday off with a walk. Our destination was Lakeside at Eastleigh. Despite it being quite close by I've only been there once before. This was with my sister and T when he was 3, so quite a while ago! We walked around the lake, the edges  of which were populated by patient fishermen.

The lake is bordered on one side by a small wooded area which is where we spotted this tree. The opening at the bottom most surely be someone's front door. Could it be for a family of squirrels, like this little chap who was scampering around.

I love the texture of these stone gabions providing the border around a herb garden. I remember first seeing them on an episode of Grand Designs.

Back home I used the excuse of it being Ballet Day to make a ballerina from my Pinterest board with S. S went for a blue multi layered tutu whereas I chose the more traditional look for my green one. The blonde ballerina was made by S for a work colleague who loves the ballet and asked if S would make one for her when I told her what I was hoping we would be doing.

Sunday morning G, T and S all woke up not feeling 100% with sore throats and the potential for colds to be brewing. Plans to go out were shelved which was fine as I had plenty to do indoors.
I wanted to complete a couple more crafty ideas from Pinterest to decorate the dining room in readiness for Valentine's Day. The first involved using the hearts from a couple of packs of cards and red ribbon which I then strung across the mirror.

I bought a dictionary from a charity shop specifically to cut up and use for this next one. I cut out definitions of words such as nest, love, embrace, depend,  and adore and using a craft punch cut out a heartshape from each. I then sellotaped them to a length of twine and hung this one from the dresser.
Both simple but effective.

Carrots

I've been baking again.

This time it was carrot and pineapple cake because today is carrot cake day.

I mean, it must qualify for one of your five a day seeing as it's got a fruit and a vegetable in it.

As you can see the topping was a bit runny but I didn't have time to salvage it as I was off to work shortly afterwards and it needed to be cut and put into a cake tin.

Tastes just fine.

 

On waking and looking out the window first thing I did wonder if one of the carrots I had bought was going to be needed for a snowman nose.

This is the first snowfall we have seen this winter.

This was how it looked at about 8am.

By 12pm it had all melted.

 

Grump

Not the most exciting weekend to report on, but it did start off with a relaxing lay in followed by a good breakfast.

When I left my previous job all bar £50 or so of my last wage was deducted, in error, by the tax office. It has taken until now to get it sorted and have the money refunded. When pay day arrived I decided to share the joy and buy croissants to take into work Friday morning seeing as it was croissant day. Most were eaten by appreciative colleagues and the  left over ones I took home and we had them for breakfast Saturday morning.

 

With it being pay day I needed to spend some time doing my monthly finance admin stuff and there was a bit more to do than normal as I needed to set accounts straight after the refund. No month is good to lose money, but a couple of months before Christmas was definitely not helpful, anyway all sorted now.
Next on the agenda was a trip to the local charity shops. Now this is normally something I would enjoy. But a casual mooch around the shops to see what's to be found is a different kettle of fish to the trip we had Saturday afternoon when we had a definite idea of what we were needing to buy.
Next Wednesday children in S's year need to go to school dressed as a king or queen. This half term is all about the British Monarchy and a royal feast with suitably dressed participants is being arranged. I can usually cobble something together for these dress up days from things we have already, or borrow something from my sister and her extensive wardrobe and maybe buy an odd item to finish it off.
But for this costume we have not got one single thing of any use.
After visiting 10 charity shops these are the three items we came home with.
The first thing we bought was the black v neck top. I thought the pearls and beads could lend itself to a Tudor style. Maybe the addition of more pearls or beads? The item of the left is a huge kaftan with gold embroidery down the front. I'm thinking that maybe I can cut this and sew to the bottom of the black top. The pinky red woolly skirt will be the overskirt so the gold embroidery is seen as a panel at the front. I'm not explaining myself very well, but I've got an idea in my head, I just need to translate it into something which can be worn! The three items cost £4.00 in all so it won't be a financial disaster if it doesn't work, but if it doesn't work I'll be well and truly stumped. Fingers crossed.

The remainder of Saturday afternoon was spent helping S finish off her homework. She had to choose a monarch from any point in history and present some interesting facts about them. It was her decision to go with Queen Elizabeth I.

That was pretty much Saturday. Sunday I had to go and do bit of shopping and then do an online grocery shop, pop to my sister for a much needed hair cut and most boring of all do some housework. I try not to do housework at the weekends but this time it was unavoidable.
So by the end of the weekend I must admit I was in a bit of a grump as I didn't feel I'd actually been anywhere or done anything.
Of course this wasn't true, I'd been out and I'd been busy, just not doing anything particularly enjoyable and weekendy. I had checked online and there wasn't really anything going on locally we could go to and I suppose some weekends need to be this way, the everyday stuff needs to be done, I'd just rather it was confined to the weekdays!

27th January

Today is Chocolate Cake Day. We're going to be marking the occasion with these.

 

The recipe is one of the ones I had been sorting through on Saturday afternoon and is titled fruit and nut chocolate brownies. As the name suggests chocolate bars of fruit and nut are needed but when I went to the shop yesterday there weren't any to be found. So I used 2 bars of Dairy Milk instead.  Next time I will make them with the fruit and nut so I can say I have baked the actual thing I set out to do, but these are pretty darn delish anyway. There are probably thousands of recipes out there for brownies and probably everyone already has their favourite but this is the one I used should you want to have a go.

Happy Chocolate Cake Day.

 

Robin Days

We weren't going to be able to go far on Saturday as G and his friend and work colleague S were off to watch Saints in a cup match in the afternoon.

It was cold but it was bright and we wanted to stretch our legs so G suggested as short walk at nearby Royal Victoria Country Park.

We parked close to where G works and so approached the park from a different route from normal, but no matter which way you arrive the tower can always be seen.

 

We were stood talking at one point when G said very carefully turn round and have your camera ready. There sat on the hedge was this robin, seconds later he flew off but I just managed to click the shutter before he went.

Something I've been meaning to do for a while is to sit down and sort out the many recipes for cakes and cookies I have torn out from magazines but never actually got around to baking and this I accomplished whilst watching a movie I had taped from December. It's a movie I love, not least because Cary Grant and David Niven both have lead roles. Two British actors I would have loved to have met. If you've never seen The Bishop's Wife then I urge you to.
Whilst watching I managed to divide the different bakes out across the months of the year. The plan is to try and make them all by the end of 2015. I'll share as many as I can on here.
One thing we did try that afternoon is something I haven't been able to try before now because we hadn't owned a microwave for a long time. We bought one just before Christmas and I'm on the lookout for recipes which I can cook in it. We did have a microwave years ago but gave it away through Freecycle as it was just used for heating up baked beans. Now we have one again I want to make better use of it.
S used it to bake a cake in a mug. What a success that was. I ate a slither but the rest was shared between T and S. A chocolate cake baked in 4 minutes, I'm not sure if that is a good or a bad thing!

 

Sunday morning saw us out on another stroll. S has a homework project on Queen Elizabeth 1 to do and she has decided to do it by making a poster size timeline of her life and so in order to do this we needed a large piece of card. To buy this a trip to the local branch of The Range was necessary, but we took a detour to the a section of  the Shoreburs Greenway before hand.

 

 

T very kindly let me take his new camera along. I am a bit envious of it actually, it's much better than mine! It has a great zoom and I was able to get a good close up of the fungi on this tree trunk.

It's definitely been a weekend for robins though. This little fellow flew to a branch near us and sang his heart out.

In the second photo he is in a very similar pose to the robin on the mug G bought me for Christmas. I used this mug this afternoon to enjoy a new hot milky drink. Hot caramel malted milk was on one of the pages I had been looking at the day before. If you have a sweet tooth you may like to give it a try too. The amounts in the recipe were  quoted to serve 4. I stuck to them as it was the first time I was making it and found it gave us all approximately three quarters of a cupful. More milk needed next time! Heat 1 and a half pints of milk and whisk in half a tin of caramel flavoured condensed milk. Spoon 1tbsp malted milk powder into each of 4 four mugs and pour hot milk on top.
The article went on to say that a pinch of salt could be stirred into the remaining half of the tin of caramel and then be used to drizzle over toasted marshmallows.