These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things

These crafts which get us sat around the table together are something we are all enjoying very much.

27th March is the anniversary of the death of Maria Von Trapp.

How to mark this date?
Find a mountain to climb?
Run up a batch of matching outfits from the curtains?
Befriend a lonely goatherd?

Make a kitten and mitten garland is what we decided to go for.
After all garlands are one of my favourite things.

S supplied felt tip pens so we could decorate the mittens and draw the whiskers and faces on the kittens.

G decided his cat was called Cuddles.

S decided hers was called Electrocution?!

 I went for naming mine Milly.

I used sellotape to attach them to a piece of string and the garland is now decorating the mirror in our hall way.

A Busy Week....

..... can only mean one thing.
It's back to the wardrobe for quick and easy assistance.

Yesterday was Independence Day in Bangladesh.

The colours on their flag are dark green and red.

I chose to wear the cherry scarf which my lovely friend Jo from Through the Keyhole gave me in our 12 days of Christmas swap.

The stalks are dark green and the red cherries echo the red circle on the flag.

Today is the birthday of Sylvia Anderson who along with her husband gave us Thunderbirds.

I wanted to go the Lady Penelope route but just couldn't come up with anything suitable.

The Thunderbirds would say  F A B to each other as short hand for 'message received and understood' so in the end I went with wearing my Fab lolly brooch.

Friday to Sunday

What better way to relax into the weekend than with a bowl of crisps and a couple of tubs of dip to mark Chip and Dip Day

G and I spent a huge chunk of Saturday starting and finishing this jigsaw. It's 750 pieces and we got the edge assembled in just a few minutes. Parts were very easy to piece together and others were a nightmare, pretty standard for a jigsaw really but once we had started we were determined to complete it in one sitting. My sister gave it to me during the week and said there was one piece missing, in fact there ended up being two pieces missing. I shall donate it to the charity shop next time I have a bag of items to take and leave it up to them if they want to sell it or bin it.
None of this has anything to do with Saturday's activity though which was National Tree Planting Day in Uganda.
For this I chose to send a donation to Tree Aid which helps communities in Africa.

Silly glasses were at the ready this afternoon for our tribute to Elton John on his 71st birthday.

To round off I thought I would share G and S's evening meal as they both loved it.
It's another recipe from the free Co-op magazine, this one is called Cheeseburger Pasta and it can be seen online here.
The recipe states it serves 6 so I only cooked 150g pasta instead of the recommended 250g. 
The quantity made gave G and S a good sized portion each with leftovers. I thought G may like to take this to work tomorrow but S liked it so much she had some of it!

Being Happy

Tuesday was the International Day of Happiness.

Lots of things in my life make me happy.

It goes without saying that top of the list would be my family and my friends, but I thought I would share a photo of something else that makes me happy.

Clothes.

And finding clothes I like, and which fit, at bargain prices.

I realise this may seem a bit shallow.

I have never been a follower of fashion, but over recent years I have begun to enjoy the buying and wearing of clothes more and more.

Finding this outfit made me happy.

Both items were purchased at an end of season £1 clearance in a Cancer Research charity shop.

The skirt is clearly mis-labelled as it states it's a 12 and yet it fits me.

A new outfit consisting of a gorgeous book patterned skirt, with a pretty plain top to team it with and £2 donated to a great charity.

What's not to love.

For World Poetry Day I shall share a poem I first read in a magazine over 20 years ago, I cut it out and pasted into a scrapbook which I still have.

I wanna be your vacuum cleaner

breathing in your dust

I wanna be your Ford Cortina

I will never rust

If you like your coffee hot

let me be your coffee pot

You call the shots

I wanna be yours

I wanna be your raincoat

for those frequent rainy days

I wanna be your dreamboat

when you want to sail away

Let me be your teddy bear

take me with you anywhere

I don’t care

I wanna be yours

I wanna be your electric meter

I will not run out

I wanna be the electric heater

you’ll get cold without

I wanna be your setting lotion

hold your hair in deep devotion

Deep as the deep Atlantic ocean

that’s how deep is my devotion

John Cooper Clarke


Today is As Young As You Feel Day which seeing as I'm doing this year of celebrations because I'm coming up to the big five-O is quite fitting!

Being a huge Marilyn Monroe fan this evening I shall be watching the movie As Young as You Feel  MM doesn't have a huge role in it and it was never going to be a movie to win any awards but it's just the kind of nonsense which helps to while away the time spent at the ironing board.

Oscar, Patrick and Tommy

The 17th Academy Awards were held on 17th March 1945 and the film Going My Way won 7 of the Oscars.

As this is a movie I have never seen before I ordered a copy to watch on Thursday evening.

G had to go and collect S from youth club and so missed out on watching about 30 minutes of it. For once I wished it had been my turn to do the collecting so I could have missed some of it instead.

Definitely one I won't be watching again.

This is what we got up to on Friday for Panda day and then Saturday I was in the kitchen for St Patrick's Day.
Ages ago I saw a recipe in a free magazine for a cake made with Guinness and I thought I had torn it out and kept it safe but I couldn't find it so I went with Delia instead.
What is it with me and cake toppings?
I think I get so pleased when the cake looks vaguely like it should that I just don't concentrate on getting the measurements correct when whipping up the topping ingredients. It was a bit runnier than it needed to be, but it was flavoured with Baileys so really any consistency was acceptable.
Never mind, it tasted good enough.

Snowy Sunday saw us going into town and brings us to Monday 19th March and the birthday of Tommy Cooper.
He only had to appear on the screen and my dad would be laughing.
And so in tribute to Mr Cooper we hope that by donning his trademark head gear we can generate some laughter too.

Poetry in the Snow

As had been forecast we woke this morning to find the world outside our window under a blanket of snow.

We weren't going to let the weather conditions get the better of us though as we had something very important to do.

The 3 of us bundled up in coats, scarves and wellies and set off into town.

Buses were running as the main roads were clear but we wanted to walk and besides you can't have a snowball fight if you're sat on the bus.

Once in town we stopped for brunch, picked up the few odds and ends we needed and then headed to carry out the main purpose for our trek.

The Cenotaph in Southampton is situated in Watts Park on the opposite side of the road to the memorial to the engineers who lost their lives in the sinking of the Titanic.

Edward Lutyens designed the Cenotaph and it was to heavily influence the final design of the Cenotaph in Whitehall.

18th March is the birthday of WW1 poet Wilfred Owen and when I was putting this year worth of activities together my idea was to visit the Cenotaph in remembrance of all those lost during the war.
Since then though things have become more personal as I have begun to research my family tree and one of things I have found were some details concerning a war record for my paternal grandad's uncle Percy. 

Percy Murrey joined the army in 1911 and at the outbreak of the war he was sent to France. He took part in the Battle of Mons and did valuable work in the Battles of La Bessee, Ypres, Loos and the Somme. I believe he was an ambulance driver.
He survived the war but it does make you wonder what he would have seen when he took the wounded soldiers away to be cared for.

G's brother has been doing some research into their family tree too. Their mum's maiden name is Dimmer and by clicking on this link you can read about the extraordinary bravery of one of their distant relatives John Dimmer. He was awarded the VC and the MC for his astoundingly courageous acts.
Sadly John Dimmer did not come home. He was killed in action on 21st March 1918.

This morning I wrote Percy and John names onto two plain luggage label style tags and we tied them to these red roses.
At the Cenotaph G read a poem by Wilfred Owen and we laid the flowers down in the snow.

A Trio of Pandas

This is what was keeping us busy the other evening.

Paper plates transformed into panda faces for

Panda Day.

Fun family time.

Mario, Mothers and More

A busy few days means it's another 'round up to bring us up to date' post.

Saturday was Mario day.

There have been occasions in the past when I have attempted to play Mario kart but each and every time I have been very bad at it.

The children used to find my ineptitude hilarious.

 I never minded because it was good seeing them laughing together.

I had a distant memory of toadstools featuring in the game somewhere so I went with wearing this brooch.

As we all know Sunday was Mother's Day. 
I received a lovely bunch of flowers, some chocolate

and the next two installments of the wonderful Maisie Dobbs detective series.
My sister T had invited us all round to her for lunch time cream teas.
She hadn't planned on S teaching us some dance moves in her kitchen, that just happened and proved to be very entertaining for those of us taking part and those sat watching.

Due to the rain on Monday when it was Plant a Flower day I cheated and decided to change the name slightly and instead go for 'buy a flowery planter day'. It was either popping a pretty container into my shopping basket or going out in the unrelenting rain, so for a fair weather gardener there really was no contest.

Last Friday we had Barbie day and Tuesday was Ken day. 
As with Barbie Ken's first outfit was beach related. 
He wore red shorts and a red and white striped shirt.
With this in mind I went for a red skirt and teamed it with a blue and white stripy jumper. My beach hut brooch completed the theme.

So all that brings us slap bang up to date with today and Potato Chip day. 
Oh. My. Word.
This is my kind of day.
I know they are so not good for you but I do love them.
I wanted us to try something we haven't had before so I went with a bag of these fairly new Max Strong Hot Chicken Wings. I chose these because G and S like a spicy crisp. I could only tolerate one small crisp so they demolished the rest of the packet between them.
The Chip Shop Curry Sauce flavour were only purchased after leaving work today when I had to stop in the local Co-op for cat food. 
The fact it's potato chip day and these were advertised as chips meant I had to pick up a packet. 
We (well mostly they!) munched on the crisps as we sat at the table, each of us working on our own little craft project in readiness for Friday.
Hope to see you then.

I'm a Barbie Girl

Well actually I was a Sindy girl when I was younger, but it's Barbie's birthday today and she's one who got a song named after her.

Did you know that Barbie's full name is Barbara Millicent Roberts?
No neither did I.

Did anyone see this documentary last year by the brilliant Mary Portas?
If it's on again I recommend watching it.

Barbie has the most extensive wardrobe of any woman on the planet ever so of course I went with clothing option.
Barbie's first outfit was a black and white striped swimsuit and one of the accessories she had to go with this was a pair sunglasses.
So my stripy top with sunglasses brooch were an ideal pairing.

Of course I couldn't not include a splash of Barbie pink somewhere, so tucked round my neck keeping the chill at bay as I walked to work, was this scarf with it's multiple shades of pink.

International Women's Day

For International Women's day G and I watched Suffragette.
Due to G's working pattern we saw this movie last Saturday evening.
As the review on the front says it is certainly an inspiring and unforgettable movie, but at times it was not easy film to watch.
Pair that with all the crying I did during Call the Midwife on Sunday and this meant we had two evenings full of emotion.

Cary Mulligan plays Maud Watts, an East End laundress whose world is torn apart as she becomes more and more involved in the Votes for Women movement.
The poverty, the abuse of and the violence towards women all make for extremely uncomfortable viewing but it is a movie that all should see.

Secret Cereal

Here we have my best girl and the cheesy biscuits we made together this evening to celebrate Cereal Day.

Not the most obvious choice to go with for cereal day I grant you, but these cheese biscuits contain crushed Rice Krispies.

For 14 biscuits you will need
25g Rice Krispies
70g plain flour
50g unsalted butter
115g grated cheddar
large pinch of cayenne pepper

Preheat the oven to 190c, fan to 170c or gas 5.
Crush the cereal with the end of a rolling pin. S was very happy to do that bit!
Rub butter into flour to make fine breadcrumbs.
Mix in cheese, crushed cereal and cayenne.
Shape into 14 balls and place on a greased tray, pressing down on each with a fork.
Bake for 10-12 minutes.
Enjoy.

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.

Patsy Cline and my Dad

The majority of the events I have chosen for this year long project are happy occasions, although that can not be said of today's choice.
On 5th March 1963 singer Patsy Cline was killed in a plane crash.

The main reason I chose this is because my dad really liked Patsy and in particular he liked the song Crazy.
I can't listen to that song without wanting to cry. 
Her voice, the lyrics, memories of my dad. 
Too much.
I much prefer Walkin after Midnight. 
As you can see from this photo Patsy embraced the cowgirl country and western image. I didn't fancy all those tassels so I went for this horsey scarf which echos the pattern on her skirt and is about as way out west as I want to go!

Last Thursday was St David's Day.
I had intended to go out in the garden and decide on where would be just the right spot for my new daffodil to live.
Then the snow happened.
Call me a wimp but I didn't fancy those weather conditions so I will be doing that little task this coming weekend instead.

Last August my sister T paid for a notice to be put in the local paper on the anniversary of when our dad died.
Unfortunately they printed some details incorrectly.
My sister complained and they refunded her money.
She had suggested we go out for a meal one evening, but trying to find a date when the three of us are free has provided more difficult than you would have thought.
So she decided to use the money to buy each of us one of these daffs to have in our garden.
I thought it was a really lovely gesture. 

You Drove Me Crazy

Back in the 1980s I was madly in love with Shakin Stevens.
His show was the first live music act I ever saw.
I think I was 15 at the time.
I remember a lot of people at school laughed at me for wanting to see him, but I didn't care one bit.

Today is Shaky's 70th birthday.
Shaky rocked the double denim look so this had to be my clothing choice for having the photo taken.
S saw me put the jacket on and asked 'Where are you going?'
Quick as a flash G replied 'Back to the 1980s!'

I can't tell you how many photos G took of me as I wobbled around the lounge trying to get 'that' Shaky pose just right, it was a sight to see I can promise you.

Now I'm off to relive my early teenage years and watch Shaky in action on you tube.

Relying on my Wardrobe

Being busy with T and S's birthdays I knew that I wouldn't have much time to think about my daily activities last week so I went with the time saving option of using items in my wardrobe to reflect the occasion of the day.

Wednesday 21st Feb was King Harald of Norway's birthday so I went with the red, white and blue of the Norwegian flag.

Two polka dot items with a red brooch.

Fast forward to Sunday 25th Feb and we have the birthday of Elkie Brooks. Two songs of hers seem to have been played constantly when I was younger, those being Lilac Wine and Pearl's a Singer. 
I went with the pearl theme and wore this bracelet.

Monday 26th was another birthday event. This time the birthday of Levi Strauss. I wore my denim skirt as I don't own a pair of Levi's but I can share this Levi's t-shirt which was one of our birthday gifts to S this year.

Tuesday's strawberry craft can be seen here and then it was back to the clothing theme for Wednesday's floral design day.

Plans for today and tomorrow have been slightly scuppered by the snow and S being sick during the night.
I kept her off school, which ended up being closed from lunchtime onwards anyway, and I'm pleased to say she is definitely brighter this evening. 
We've already been informed there won't be any school tomorrow either.