This is the coolest looking cake I have ever made :D
22 May 2011
20 March 2011
Spring!
So, I haven't posted much in a while.. there are two reasons for this (well three* if I am honest). The first is that is has been winter so I haven't been out taking many photographs, the second and more fundamental one is that I am pregnant (due 22 August, excitement!) and have have been suffering from fairly horrid morning sickness and some quite spectacular fatigue (staying in bed all day on the weekend was so exhausting that I'd have to have an afternoon nap to recover!). I am now emerging into the second trimester and am feeling a bit more like a person again - just a very hungry person. So here I am :)
Yesterday was the first really beautiful, warm day of the spring and I went for a walk around the village we are living in and took a few pics which I will now inflict on you :)
The first flowers have been slowly coming out over the last few weeks here in Oxfordshire and watching first the snowdrops and then the daffodils come out has really cheered me up (winter and I don't get on very well). Here are some daffs with the first bluebells I have seen:
This was a really English wall with ivy and the daffodils and showing the top of the wall would have been really nice, but there was a house behind the wall which rather spoiled it so I just cut it out!
I liked this photo for the contrast of the dead brown leaves of the hedge, the bare branches of the tree and the lush green and yellow of the daffodils below with the beautiful blue of the sky in the background. Yum.
The horizon in this one is a bit crooked as I was lying down in some gravel to try and get it all in, and it didn't even turn out that well, but maybe you get the idea:
Another view of the same little patch of water this time with the mini-house which was floating in it in view. Not quite sure what the little house was for, but it looked cute..
I just quite liked this door knocker:
How terribly English, in that very chocolate box-y kind of way:
Anyway, thanks for your patience and I'll try and be a better blogger in future.
* The third reason is that I am just generally a big slacker....
Yesterday was the first really beautiful, warm day of the spring and I went for a walk around the village we are living in and took a few pics which I will now inflict on you :)
The first flowers have been slowly coming out over the last few weeks here in Oxfordshire and watching first the snowdrops and then the daffodils come out has really cheered me up (winter and I don't get on very well). Here are some daffs with the first bluebells I have seen:
This was a really English wall with ivy and the daffodils and showing the top of the wall would have been really nice, but there was a house behind the wall which rather spoiled it so I just cut it out!
I liked this photo for the contrast of the dead brown leaves of the hedge, the bare branches of the tree and the lush green and yellow of the daffodils below with the beautiful blue of the sky in the background. Yum.
The horizon in this one is a bit crooked as I was lying down in some gravel to try and get it all in, and it didn't even turn out that well, but maybe you get the idea:
Another view of the same little patch of water this time with the mini-house which was floating in it in view. Not quite sure what the little house was for, but it looked cute..
I just quite liked this door knocker:
How terribly English, in that very chocolate box-y kind of way:
Anyway, thanks for your patience and I'll try and be a better blogger in future.
* The third reason is that I am just generally a big slacker....
26 February 2011
19 December 2010
Melted Snowman Cookies
So these are kind of morbid and sad (I always cry when I read The Snowman by Raymond Briggs) but totally cute at the same time, if that is possible.
There is a how-to if you follow the link :) Yay for the internet!
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| from Crazy Domestic |
13 December 2010
Kiddie Lit
Well, I haven't posted in a while.. you can blame all 5 seasons of The Wire for that.. But here I am back on the wagon again. But onto the actual subject of the post... kids books.
I love children's literature, I always have. I guess I just never grew up. I still read all kinds of children's books from picture books to teen fiction. I even still know the whole of Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg off by heart. I have always wanted to have my own collection of all the great books I remember from when I was a kid and to keep building it with new additions. It will be so enjoyable to share the books with my kids (although I'm not sure that they will actually be allowed to touch the out of print books!) but also just to have and enjoy myself. To this end I spent an afternoon browsing on Amazon looking up all the books I could remember and linking through to even more books. It may sound weird but I had a really fun time and just couldn't help smiling and oohing and ahhing as I found more and more awesome books.
I put all the books I wanted onto a wish list so that I could keep track of them for future reference.. by the end of the afternoon I had 100 books on the list. If each book cost an average of £5 that is £500. Perhaps I was a little ambitious, but there aren't any books I would want to take off the list... I guess this really is going to have to be a lifetime project!
Anyway, I thought that I would share a few of the books here, please let me know if there are any books missing which you think are unmissable, this list certainly isn't comprehensive, and although I think I am fairly well read in children's literature, I am sure that there are many, many books that I don't know about!
There are loads more but the upload tool has decided that I am not allowed to do anything else today, and it is time for bed. More another day maybe...
What do you think of my list...?
I love children's literature, I always have. I guess I just never grew up. I still read all kinds of children's books from picture books to teen fiction. I even still know the whole of Each Peach Pear Plum by Janet and Allan Ahlberg off by heart. I have always wanted to have my own collection of all the great books I remember from when I was a kid and to keep building it with new additions. It will be so enjoyable to share the books with my kids (although I'm not sure that they will actually be allowed to touch the out of print books!) but also just to have and enjoy myself. To this end I spent an afternoon browsing on Amazon looking up all the books I could remember and linking through to even more books. It may sound weird but I had a really fun time and just couldn't help smiling and oohing and ahhing as I found more and more awesome books.
I put all the books I wanted onto a wish list so that I could keep track of them for future reference.. by the end of the afternoon I had 100 books on the list. If each book cost an average of £5 that is £500. Perhaps I was a little ambitious, but there aren't any books I would want to take off the list... I guess this really is going to have to be a lifetime project!
Anyway, I thought that I would share a few of the books here, please let me know if there are any books missing which you think are unmissable, this list certainly isn't comprehensive, and although I think I am fairly well read in children's literature, I am sure that there are many, many books that I don't know about!
 |
| You can't have a list of children's books without Where the Wild Things Are |
There are loads more but the upload tool has decided that I am not allowed to do anything else today, and it is time for bed. More another day maybe...
What do you think of my list...?
29 November 2010
24 September 2010
21 September 2010
Tasty yarn
I have come to the conclusion that I am not really a knitter, mostly I think I am just a buyer of yarn who occasionally does some knitting so she can justify her purchases (at least a little bit). I think this might be my next purchase.. it is just tasty.
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| http://www.straw.com/cpy/index.html |
19 September 2010
What to do with earings?
I'm sure it is a question you ask yourself daily.. or maybe not, but it might be something that comes up occasionally. Mostly mine sit around on whatever surface is nearest when I take them off - which can end up being almost anything! Perhaps having somewhere sensible to put my earings is what is missing from my life... If you too are missing somewhere to put your earings and are of a crafty bent maybe you can make use of one of these ideas.
Wire backed frame with step by step instructions? Yes please!
Wire backed frame with step by step instructions? Yes please!
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| http://www.kevinandamanda.com/whatsnew/our-home/tutorial-shabby-chic-dangly-earring-display.html |
Home made fabric backed frame by my lovely friend Coley
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| http://coleytangerina.tumblr.com/ |
Or put everything in cute retro teacups
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| photo via marthastuart.com, argh! |
5 September 2010
27 August 2010
Best carrot cake recipe!
At my old job the kitchen used to make the absolute best carrot cake ever, it was amazing! The cake was so moist and the icing, perfect!
I managed to get my sticky little hands on a copy of the recipe (thanks Carmen!) and so I thought I would share it. I'm just the giving sort.
Carrot Cake8 oz plain flour2 tsp baking powder1/2 tsp baking soda4 eggs8 oz caster sugar6 fl oz vegetable oil8 oz grated carrots8 oz tinned crushed pineapple
Sift together the dry ingredients. Beat together the eggs and add sugar and oil and beat well. Add carrots and pineapple. Line the base of a 9 inch spring clip cake tin, and bake well at 180*C for 40 mins. Test and leave the cake to settle for 15 mins at least before removing from tin.
FrostingBeat together:4 oz butter4 oz cream cheese (Philadelphia)4 oz icing sugar1 tsp vanilla essence
Keep in the fridge, does not keep well after a week, too soggy (not that it should ever last that long anyway!).
20 August 2010
Jar art supply storage
I want a house to decorate so bad! To quote my friend Coley: crafting fo' life
Found at: http://weepingcherries.wordpress.com
18 August 2010
Hilaire Belloc - Tarantella
Do you remember an Inn,
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,
And the wine that tasted of the tar?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
(Under the vine of the dark verandah)?
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,
Do you remember an Inn?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteeers
Who hadn't got a penny,
And who weren't paying any,
And the hammer at the doors and the Din?
And the Hip! Hop! Hap!
Of the clap
Of the hands to the twirl and the swirl
Of the girl gone chancing,
Glancing,
Dancing,
Backing and advancing,
Snapping of a clapper to the spin
Out and in ---
And the Ting, Tong, Tang, of the Guitar.
Do you remember an Inn,
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
Never more;
Miranda,
Never more.
Only the high peaks hoar:
And Aragon a torrent at the door.
No sound
In the walls of the Halls where falls
The tread
Of the feet of the dead to the ground
No sound:
But the boom
Of the far Waterfall like Doom.
- Hilaire Belloc
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
And the tedding and the spreading
Of the straw for a bedding,
And the fleas that tease in the High Pyrenees,
And the wine that tasted of the tar?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteers
(Under the vine of the dark verandah)?
Do you remember an Inn, Miranda,
Do you remember an Inn?
And the cheers and the jeers of the young muleteeers
Who hadn't got a penny,
And who weren't paying any,
And the hammer at the doors and the Din?
And the Hip! Hop! Hap!
Of the clap
Of the hands to the twirl and the swirl
Of the girl gone chancing,
Glancing,
Dancing,
Backing and advancing,
Snapping of a clapper to the spin
Out and in ---
And the Ting, Tong, Tang, of the Guitar.
Do you remember an Inn,
Miranda?
Do you remember an Inn?
Never more;
Miranda,
Never more.
Only the high peaks hoar:
And Aragon a torrent at the door.
No sound
In the walls of the Halls where falls
The tread
Of the feet of the dead to the ground
No sound:
But the boom
Of the far Waterfall like Doom.
- Hilaire Belloc
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