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.

Tigers and Lipstick

Not a combination you see every day.

International Tiger Day just had to be something we recognised. 

You see ever since we became a family this has been one of the nicknames we have had for our T.

 He shares his name with the Frosties Tiger and when, a couple of years ago, I found this glass I just had to buy it to pop in T's Christmas stocking as a bit of fun.

So it was the perfect receptacle for my breakfast orange juice.

To stay with the tiger theme I went for orange and black in my choice of clothing today. A black shift dress with an orange cardigan to keep out the chill of another cooler day's weather.

I don't wear makeup and so wearing lipstick was out. Instead I went for the easy option of a piece of fun jewellery in the shape of a brooch.

I haven't done any cross stitch for a while and I enjoyed whipping up this quick and easy lip motif. I am either going to turn it into a card or use it as a gift tag for a friend at work who goes nowhere without first making sure her lippy is looking good!

Flags on Friday

On 28th July 1707 the Union Flag was, by royal proclamation, made the National flag of Great Britain.

A nice and easy one for today.
Seeing as I have plenty of red white and blue in my wardrobe I thought trying to incorporate the flag into my outfit was the way to go. 
I had a couple of different options but in the end it was the wet and windy weather which chose for me.
My dress (shown middle photo) isn't made up of the flag's bold colours but is within the red and blue spectrums.
I have heard it said the flag should only be referred to as a Union Jack when used at sea so I wore my ship and anchor brooch on the pocket of my dress. The badge was pinned onto the strap of my handbag.
The last accessory was a scarf which I bought from Primark a few years ago. 
I was thankful for it as I walked over the bridge on my way to work this morning, it really felt like summer had disappeared and I certainly needed it to help keep out that cold wind.

Oops!

As well as yesterday being coffee milkshake day it also happened to be my mum's birthday.

The plan was during the day she went out with my sisters and then early evening me and my brood were going to join them all for a takeaway.

Once back home again G and I were going to be sampling these goodies waiting for us in the fridge and freezer, therefore ensuring a tasty way to end the day.

Only you know what happens when a plan is made.

We arrived at my sister's a bit later than planned and then the takeaway took ages to be delivered.

A lovely evening was had by all but we were home much later than we thought we would be, sadly too late to be thinking of Bailey's and ice cream.

Never mind.

We may be a day late but the occasion will still be marked as G is due home from work very shortly and a coffee milkshake will be waiting.

The activity I chose for today is linked to the Olympics.
On 27th July 2012 we were on holiday in Spain and sat in a bar watching the opening ceremony of the London games.
I'll never forget how astonished and then amused we were seeing Daniel Craig striding through Buckingham Palace off to meet the Queen.
I thought this pin was such a simple and effective idea and thought this would be fun to do with S. 
S measured out the ingredients and whipped up the cake batter in no time and we popped them in the oven. Time came to take them out and well, they looked a little strange. I lifted one out of it's case and it felt hard and heavy. We looked at each other in disbelief. I broke it apart and took a tentative nibble. It had an overpoweringly salty taste.
Realisation dawned. 
That glass storage jar which we thought had white caster sugar in it actually contained salt!
We laughed and laughed and laughed.
Just wait until Dad hears about this S said.
Despite the fact we don't have any fairy cakes to decorate I think we have had more fun because of our mistake.
Sometimes the best things happen when they don't go to plan.

Space

A large proportion of the days I am marking throughout this year relate in some way to women. Yesterday was for a fictional Wonder Woman and today is for a real life one. 
Svetlana Savitskaya was the first woman to walk in space on 25th July 1984.  
Such an extraordinary accomplishment.
What could I possibly do to do justice to something so historic?
Inspired by the space themed photo in this collage G and I set to work with a box of chalk.
And here is our effort.

Not sure going shoeless in space is recommended though.

Wonder Woman in Warminster

For day 3 of my challenge I am marking the birthday of the original 1970s  Wonder Woman the actress Lynda Carter.

I had an idea of something I wanted to make and once I had sourced some ribbon I began looking for an online tutorial.

I wanted to make a rosette like this one so I could wear it pinned to a jacket or cardigan, but I couldn't find any instructions.

Instead I cobbled something together and as it turned out much larger than I had planned I pinned it to the handle of my bag.

Today is the first day of the summer school holiday for S.
What a start it has been. Her friend A was being taken to Chessington by her aunt and uncle as a birthday treat. She was allowed to take a friend along and it was S she chose to accompany her. Off they went at just after 8 this morning. They came home 11 hours later having had a wonderful day.

G was off today and with S out and busy we looked at going out somewhere ourselves. G was on the case and he suggested Warminster.

Normally when we go somewhere I like to do a little bit of research beforehand. As it was G who came up with the destination I thought I'd go with no preconceptions about Warminster and just see what it had to offer.
What it had in abundance was beautiful old buildings. We noticed a couple of them had blue information plaques and had I done some research beforehand I would have found this trail which would have been interesting to do.
Lesson learned.

On the road into Warminster from Salisbury there were a few buildings which were in need of a bit of TLC and if they had that it would make that end of town look so much more easier on the eye.

G was pleased to discover a vinyl record shop and came home with a few goodies. If Warminster was nearer I would consider going back to explore further as what we did see provided me with plenty of pretty features to snap.

Clicking on this link will show you a much better photo than the one I took of this stunning sculpture of a young girl sat on a stack of corn sacks on the site of what was once one of the largest corn markets in the country.

I will have to look online and see if the town hold any events which may be of interest to us and which could entice us back again. I know G would like another look around the record shop!

David and Victoria

This post isn't about either of the Beckhams.

The David I am referring to is David Essex.

Today is the birthday of this twinkly eyed man and Day 2 of my year of days

To mark the occasion I have baked a batch of Rock (On) cakes.
Never baked these before. 
I followed Delia Smith's recipe and they turned out ok.
More than ok, quite tasty actually.

Keeping the Mr Essex theme going today I wore my star patterned shirt with a star necklace.

G and I had planned a little trip down to Southsea today but unfortunately the rubbish weather forecast put paid to that.

As we were up bright and early we took ourselves off to Royal Victoria Country Park for a good long walk instead.

The sun shone whilst we were out and it was a wonderful way to start our day.