So, I have been rather remiss in my postings of late but being a mum takes up rather a lot of time - who'd have thought?!
But in order to keep everyone up to date with the progress of the boy wonder and just to have a nice record I have started a new blog where I will post a new picture of Owen every week. If you are interested head over and check it out:
www.owenssundays.blogspot.com
30 October 2011
24 June 2011
Baking
So, I have an idea.
I was surfing the net looking for pictures of cakes to send to a friend for whom I am baking a birthday cake and came across this site http://www.thebakeproject.com/
This is amazing!! The blogger is aiming to bake every recipe in a cookbook called 'Bake' which contains 549 recipes. This is an idea I can totally get behind. I often end up making the same few recipes over and over and a project like this would definitely stop that happening!
I am going to have to think seriously about this.. what cookbook to choose? Should I do one I already have or get one especially?
Actually, I am looking forward to the publication of a charity recipe book at my work which will be the result of the Masterbaker competition which is running company wide. Each entrant gets one chance to bake something which is rated by the other bakers in their heat for a chance to go through to the finals (for my entry see my previous post She's playing with the big kids now). I don't know how many entrants there are but there must be over 100 and surely everyone will be putting forward their best recipe. Methinks this will be a cookbook of win! Every cake I have tried so far has been seriously yummy. Yes, folks I think we might have a winner.
The only thing that is lacking is that so far my photography of my baking projects has been somewhat lackluster but the lighting in our place now is much better than in our old place so hopefully there will be many more photos of my baking triumphs (or possibly fails) in future.
More to follow soon folks
(FYI, when I say soon.... I'd really take that with a pinch of salt...)
I was surfing the net looking for pictures of cakes to send to a friend for whom I am baking a birthday cake and came across this site http://www.thebakeproject.com/
This is amazing!! The blogger is aiming to bake every recipe in a cookbook called 'Bake' which contains 549 recipes. This is an idea I can totally get behind. I often end up making the same few recipes over and over and a project like this would definitely stop that happening!
I am going to have to think seriously about this.. what cookbook to choose? Should I do one I already have or get one especially?
Actually, I am looking forward to the publication of a charity recipe book at my work which will be the result of the Masterbaker competition which is running company wide. Each entrant gets one chance to bake something which is rated by the other bakers in their heat for a chance to go through to the finals (for my entry see my previous post She's playing with the big kids now). I don't know how many entrants there are but there must be over 100 and surely everyone will be putting forward their best recipe. Methinks this will be a cookbook of win! Every cake I have tried so far has been seriously yummy. Yes, folks I think we might have a winner.
The only thing that is lacking is that so far my photography of my baking projects has been somewhat lackluster but the lighting in our place now is much better than in our old place so hopefully there will be many more photos of my baking triumphs (or possibly fails) in future.
More to follow soon folks
(FYI, when I say soon.... I'd really take that with a pinch of salt...)
13 June 2011
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
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