The End Of November

Monday was Lancashire day and I took the opportunity to bake something I have been wanting to attempt making again.

When I made parkin the first time my darling husband, to whom I wasn't as yet married, christened this rope cake because he said that's what the texture was like.

Cheeky boy.

I took the recipe from here and I must admit it was more of a success.

I'm sure I have a recipe where the parkin is made with a combination of golden syrup and treacle as with just treacle it did taste very rich.

Tuesday 28th was the birthday of Saints legend Mick Channon and so I wore my red and white striped cardigan as these are the colours of the Southampton strip.

Although a work colleague did comment on how festive I looked and I realised this would be the ideal thing to wear on Candy Cane day later this month.

I went for a clothing related item on Wednesday for the birthday of CS Lewis. I loved the Narnia books as a child and as an adult I have also enjoyed the movies. I love the costumes the girls wear and so I took a bit of inspiration from Lucy and wore this dark green cardi and floral dress.
You can see them hung on the front of my wardrobe.

Here is a closer look at the floral pattern. I bought this handmade dress at a vintage shop in Bristol last weekend for £1.00.
Yes we've been away and I have a whole post to do about our little trip.

Thursday was St Andrews Day and if there is one thing I love about Scotland then it's the shortbread!
This recipe from the Co-op was just begging to be attempted. We layered the toffee and the chocolate rather than just drizzling and the addition of the popcorn is genius.

Beefy

I was very glad to be wearing this woolly-pully today as there was a definite November chill to the air.
Today is Ian Botham's birthday so my cricket sweater was a must.
Let's hope the England team channel of bit of Beefy spirit and come back home with the Ashes.

The First Ever...............

.................episode of Doctor Who was broadcast on 23rd November 1963.

Watching Dr Who with the children brings back some very happy memories of the four of us sat together anticipating what perils would befall the Doctor and his companion.

I bought this set of stencils from Lakeland a few years ago and in the past they have been used to dust icing sugar over fairy cakes. 
Tonight the TARDIS was used to top off G's coffee with a sprinkling of chocolate.

Hoagy

I'm very late with today's post as I went into town with S straight from work.
She wanted to buy a pair of black trousers for an upcoming dance competition and I wanted to take the opportunity to pick up a couple of Christmas presents.
A lovely time spent with my (not so) little girl.

But back to today and it's the birthday of Hoagy Carmichael.
I must admit that the only thing I knew about him is that he composed one of my all time favourite songs.

I know I have shared this version of the song before but Robin Sarstedt's cheekbones and cheeky smile definitely deserve another airing.

Peanut Butter Fudge

I think that this is quite probably the brownest photo ever to appear on my blog.

Peanut Butter Fudge Day has seen S busy in the kitchen after school today following this simple recipe and creating what can only be described as a brown splodge of fudge. 
I don't like peanut butter so shall be relying on G and S do the tasting.

A W O L

It's been a busy old week around here and if I have taken one thing from it then that is I need to be really tip top on the organisational front regarding my daily activity and subsequent blogging.

With that most hectic month of the year creeping ever closer (yay!) I shall need to step it up a bit, making sure I allow time for that all I want to do.

I left you on Tuesday when it was Pickle Day so we shall pick up with Wednesday and the fact it was Anni-Frid Lyngstad's birthday.

I ask you, who doesn't enjoy a bit of ABBA every now and again.

As long as it is not in the form of the movie Mamma Mia, oh my goodness I never want to have to see that again!

We have had some great fun here when warbling along to ABBA on the Sing Star game. 

One of my favourite ABBA songs is Ring Ring and so I went with wearing my dial phone brooch.

Thursday was Button Day. A month or so ago I selected some buttons for a little project with Button Day in mind. I made them into a bracelet for S.
Incredibly easy to make I shall be making one for myself for sure.

I had been looking forward to Friday and Homemade Bread Day.
My plan was to do some prep for it on Thursday as I had friend coming to visit Friday evening. We hadn't seen each other since my birthday in July so with so much catching up to do there wouldn't be a huge amount of time for bread making.
Instead Thursday evening was spent out catching up with another friend who I hadn't seen since May. If he isn't busy with work he's on holiday and when he was last free I couldn't make it due to G's shifts.
It has taken an age to find a date we were both free so when the chance presented itself on Thursday we grabbed it.

Yesterday was Mickey Mouse day. 
Again my plan for the day didn't materialise. I was going to download some sort of template for us to pose with, but for one reason and another it didn't happen.
S had a good day. She had her friend D for a sleepover on Friday and in the morning then took themselves off into town for window shopping, followed by lunch and then the cinema. G went to work.
I had a lovely day. First thing I took myself off to Homebase to buy a new Christmas tree and unexpectedly found a perfect present for my sisters from the children.
Once home there were household jobs to do then I went and picked up my mum and bought her back here for lunch. We then wandered round to the local church hall for their Christmas fete. We always manage to find a few bits and pieces and this year didn't disappoint either.

Today is the birthday of the wonderful Meg Ryan. 
I love When Harry Met Sally and this would be my first choice for watching but a while ago I found a movie called The Women for 50p in a charity shop and thought I would give that a go instead. 
It was ok but it could have been so much better.
It has gone inside the bag along with my latest batch of donations to the charity shop.

I'd like to think I will do better this week.

In a Pickle

Being the food fuss pot I am meant that for Pickle Day instead of a full on chunky traditional pickle it was just the tangy smooth pickle sauce in my lunchtime cheese rolls.