Nachos

This was our take on Nachos Day and what a success it was.
Definitely a meal I shall be cooking again.
Part cook chicken breasts, remove from the oven and top each one with a tablespoon of tomato salsa, then a tablespoon of soured cream followed by a good sprinkling of crushed tortilla chips then finally top all that off with a handful of grated cheese. Bake for a further 10-12 minutes. 
I served these with Mexican spiced rice, peas and sweetcorn.
The plates came back clean.

Remember, Remember

Thursday was All Soul's Day.

A day to remember those we have loved and lost.

A candle on the mantle was lit for both mine and G's dad.

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Friday was Fountain Pen Day. 
Last year I bought one of these disposable fountain pens in Peacock Green for writing out my Christmas cards.
I like to make card writing into it's own little occasion.
There should be nibbles and a Bailey's to hand and Christmas music playing, all helping to create the right kind of atmosphere.
I have a set of alphabet stamps and some festive stamps for addressing and decorating the envelopes and for this year I have chosen a new pink ink pen. 

Saturday was the birthday of Marguerite Patten. My brother-in-law bought me this set of cookbooks for Christmas a few years ago and they really make for interesting reading. I have made a few things from them and they really came in useful when both the children needed to take in food for a WW2 tea party when at junior school.
My plan had been to do a spot of baking yesterday but I'm trying to do some decorating as well as everything else and, well, something had to give and in the end it was the baking.

Talking of decorating I was painting our bedroom floor today and in the background I had on the movie Leap Year, which I know I have mentioned on here before.
Today is Love Your Red Hair Day and as Amy Adams is a natural red head and I love this movie it seemed like a good choice to go with.

Empress of India

On 1st November 1858 Queen Victoria's government issued a proclamation citing that

Following the 1857 Rebellion, the East India Company's rule in India would come to an end, thereafter India would be governed by and in the name of the British Monarch through a Secretary of State.

It wasn't until July 1947 that India gained it's independence from Great Britain, nearly 90 years later.

I took India as my theme for today and decided it would be a good idea to try one of the recipes from my Pinterest board. I chose Indian Sticky Chicken for it's simplicity, an essential requirement for a midweek evening meal.
S gave this a thumbs up. G is yet to try it as he is still at work.

Halloween

Compared to recent years this Halloween has been a much quieter affair.

With T no longer living at home, G on a late shift and S out for an hour trick or treating with a gaggle of girlie friends from school it was just me left at home handing out sweets.
We had in the region of 80 callers this evening.
Most arrived in groups of 5, 6 or 7 at a time and the last lone caller was just before 7.30.
This was ideal as it gave me plenty of time to be sorted and sat down in time to watch The GBBO final.

I didn't put up many decorations this year.
Although we did have pumpkins, which as tradition dictates were all carved by G, I don't have photos as by the time I came home from work it was already too dark.

Instead this post will just have to make do with the dress I wore today. 
To my way of thinking the black and white pattern is very reminiscent of spiders and so I thought it would be ideal attire for Halloween, teamed with my pumpkin brooch.

Making A List

And checking it twice.
And then many more times after that.
For this is the book which contains my Christmas present to buy list.
I have updated it today because today is my kind of day.
It's Checklist Day.
Oh how I love a list.
I don't always like having to do all of the things on my list and very rarely does a to do list get completed.
The undone things just make it onto another list.
I need a list to give me structure, otherwise I get side tracked and then frustrated that nothing is achieved.
Also I have a dreadful memory and if I don't write things down when I think of them they slip my mind.
Being a list addict also allows me to indulge in my love of pretty stationery,
And I know I'm not alone in this.

Seeing as I have already mentioned Christmas in this post I thought I would also share this new bedding I bought in Asda recently. 
Of course I hadn't gone in to this store with the intention of buying any bedding but this Scandi Winter Scene design had been reduced to half price. It will be perfect to use in the winter and during the lead up to Christmas as it isn't overly festive. I bought three sets, one for me and G, one for S and one for T's old room in case we have overnight guests over the holidays.

I was Sabrina

Let me explain.
When we were little girls my sisters and I would play at being Charlie's Angels
C on the left being blonde was the Cheryl Ladd character Kris, T was Jaclyn Smith's Kelly and I was Sabrina played by.Kate Jackson. Ms Jackson's birthday is 29th October.
I think this was due to the fact she was the one who seemed to be the most senior angel and seeing as I was the eldest sister I got to be in charge!
This photo was taken at C's on her birthday. 
As a first attempt it's fine but I'm not 100% happy with it and there is room for improvement.
After placing C and T (see there's me still being in charge after all these years) I took my position and I haven't quite got the stance right, my elbow needed to be more at an angle for one and I should have been looking straight on to the right more.
We are due to meet up again at the end of November at my house and I'm hoping we can have another go at getting it right.
As you can see in the original show logo Kelly and Sabrina are holding guns but I asked T to bring something which said something about her. She chose a Snickers bar! I went for the notebook I am using for jotting down all of this year's challenges in.
It gave us a laugh though.

Caroline's Presents

It was my sister's birthday on 24th and so you know what that means.

A post showing all the items I managed to buy for her with our budget of £10.

I am going to start off with my favourite buy of the lot, a grey sweater with robin motif.

One of the cutest things ever.

As well as wishing the robin sweater had been in my size I would have been happy if this old fashioned rose print top had been too.

My sister has to wear a company issue blouse to work which can be teamed with black, grey or navy. This grey jumper will be an ideal addition to her winter working wardrobe.

If you are a long time reader then you know the presents we buy are all from the charity shop/jumble/car boot. 
Well, just occasionally, we do stray from these rules when the perfect gift is found in a 'proper shop'.
I saw these Bella and Boo gift boxes in TK Maxx reduced to £3 for the set and I know she loves these illustrations so they had to be bought.

To make up for this breaking of the rules I made sure the gifts I placed inside were all pre-loved.
I popped in the (unused) candle in a tin and two polka dot mugs. As well as the brown and cream one pictured there was another in red and white. The glass candleholder was the least expensive of my buys at just 10p.
The polka dot jar is something I could have easily found a home for.

As well as the boxes this item was also bought brand new. This fleecy cushion was £2 from Poundland and it's actually a lot bigger than the photo suggests.

There were 3 of this glasses, my sister liked the shape and thought they would make pretty miniature vases.

The next two gifts she knew about as she was with me when I bought them.
Both were spied as we ambled around the car boot sale on different Sunday mornings.

I wouldn't normally buy her black clothing but the floral band on this top caught my attention and I'm glad I did pick it up as she really liked it.

My least favourite buy are these trousers. They really aren't my thing but I was pretty sure they were hers. They are originally from Monsoon and cost me 30p at a jumble sale.

The final item is this simple photo frame with an added length of twine and two wooden pegs. My sister has a number of postcards and photos she likes to display and so this will be put to good use.

I can't remember the price of each individual item but the combined cost of the set of 3 boxes and the cushion was £5.00 and so everything else was purchased for an additional £5.00, making £10 in total.

Now none of that has got anything to do with today's occasion of No Day in Greece but I needed to slot the post in somewhere!
I could have gone down the food route with a Greek salad or maybe a moussaka or souvlaki but I am pretty sure none of these would have been very well received and so I took the easy route and decided to wear a blue and white jumper as these are the two colours of the Greek flag. I'm glad I went for this clothing option as although the sun was out there was definitely the need for wearing something a little chunkier.