Sunday 31 January 2010

Weekly Challenge




Here is my Jan Wk 4 challenge - don't laugh at the title - it is what the sandwich is called :) This LO will go in my Christmas Album in the traditions section (where recipes are stored)




I;ve also finished one of the title pages and got the sewing machine out to do it ...

Friday 29 January 2010







...and the last pages:

Sign in page - I LOVE this girls!
Mincemeat Cake (Vanessa)
English Madelines (Karen)
So thanks everyone for all your work - I really love it xxx
















And here are the rest:

Lemon Curd Cake (Emma - the RH side unties to unfold the recipe
Melting Moments (Becky)
Chocolate Fridge Cake (Debbie)
Banana Bread (Samm (plus bonus hidden recipe!))
Passion Cake (what else from Irene??!!)















The Return of the CJ
















My Circle Journal arrived home today after a year travelling the UK and visiting my magpie team mates. I am so thrilled with it and all the love and effort thats gone into it. As promised here are the photos of each page (excuse the naff photography!)


Typically I have managed to put these on here in a weird order, so from the top:
Coffee and Cream cakes (Kathy)
Apple Cake (Shirley)
Fairy Cakes (Me)
Rules
Cover





Wednesday 27 January 2010

Raising money for Haiti




Rebecca had a dress up day at nursery to raise money for Haiti and they had a cake sale.

Rebecca wanted to go as Snow white and had a "poisonous" apple with her. The ladies took the children up to the campus to sell their cakes in the square. She was chosen by the photographer from the paper to have her photo taken too. All of the photos at nursery show Rebecca doing completely the opposite to all of the other kids - how embarrassing!

These are the only two non-blurry pictures I managed to get as she wouldn't stand still!

They raised over £400 and Rebecca brought home a bag with a heart biscuit and a chocolate cupcake which she had bought with her cake money - SO sweet.

Monday 11 January 2010

????




What can I do with this item? I bought it so I could "alter" it...any suggestions? (charity shop donation is an acceptable suggestion)

Sunday 10 January 2010

Choc-o-doodles




Another day at home as it is still snowing. Mick was working and was even colder at the shop.




Rebecca and I decided to do cooking and made Choc-o-doodles. We got in a real mess rolling the sticky dough into little balls, so Rebecca took on the special job of rolling each one in cinnamon sugar. They were yummy, looked like biscuits, but tasted like cakes.




Watched the first episode of the new season of Heroes this evening ...we still have the whole last series of Lost to catch up with too! Sat scrapping in front of the fire again, and ended up staying really late as Housesitter (Goldie Hawn/ Steve Martin) was on and I lurve that film.

Saturday 9 January 2010

Do something new everyday?







Today I went sledging for the first time ever. I had never been down a hill on sledge before today! It was great fun, and I was pleased to use Zippy (our sledge) for the real purpose it was built.






Mick was off work and we met Adam and Amy there. Adam did spectacularly trip over a mound of snow but he was holding the phones, so no photographic evidence :( Rebecca loved speeding down the hill with Amy (in her pink hat) too.


We came back to hot chocolate and marshmallows (except Adam who wanted his without "faff"). Chris came for dinner again as it was so cold. Rebecca could only be tempted to eat her dinner when I made each carrot or mouthful 'talk' to her and ask for an invite to the party in her tummy!!
Attempted to watch "Knowing" on DVD, but yet again LURVE:Film have sent us a duff disc. Think we will be cancelling that service ;)

Friday 8 January 2010

Snow Angels







We couldn't really safely drive anywhere today, so cancelled our "play dates".






Rebecca and I played in the garden, trying to build a snowman (but the snow was a bit too powdery), throwing snowballs and finally making snow angels. Rebecca has been desperate to do this since seeing Donald Duck make them on Mickey Mouse Clubhouse. She even practised before we went outside! I didn't take the camera out with us, but took some aerial shots of our angels from the bedroom window. You can just about see them...






Later we watched Chitty Chitty Bang Bang (or 30 minutes of it anyway!) and made a big bowl of popcorn. Rebecca was quite taken with "The Old Bamboo" song :)






Chris picked up some shopping for me so stayed for tea. The road to B'sea was closed due to snow. I was prepared to get the fold out bed for him, but he left about midnight and got home fine.

Thursday 7 January 2010

Out on the Sledge




Another night of heavy snow and I had no intention of walking for 50 mins to the office and back in the freezing cold so took a day off (also couldn't work with Rebecca here and the PC was not working!).




Mick took Rebecca out on the sledge that Grandad (Lawrence) had made for us when we were little. She had lots of fun riding up and down on Zippy.




Managed to do a couple of hours work when Mick and Rebecca went out again this afternoon.

Wednesday 6 January 2010

Snow Day

We had heavy snowfall this morning. Mick left at 6am to do deliveries in Cambridge and did not see any at all. By the time I got up at 7am the world was white!

Nursery said they were open until 2pm, and Rebecca was desperate to go so we started the car journey. Even the main road was slippery and I had to crawl along. I couldn't get onto the A133 at all, so parked at the Uni Sports Centre and we walked along the Boundary Road to the nursery. Rebecca was in good spirits and enjoyed it until she got a bit cold and wanted me to carry her. There were only 8 children in, and about the same number of staff. After I'd walked back to the car (witnessing two cars sliding across the road) I very slowly drove home, only to get a phone call 30 minutes later asking me to pick up as they were closing. They'd given the children sausage and mash at 10.30am!! My car got stuck in the car park and I had to abandon it. Luckily the nursery nurses came out with buckets of grit and gave me a push. This was the highlight of Rebecca's day :)

Mick was home early but off to darts again later. Spent the evening doing a layout in front of the roaring fire and sobbing along watching The Karen Carpenter Story...

Tuesday 5 January 2010

Parking Arrangements

Today was the first day back to nursery for Rebecca. She was very excited about seeing her friends. She was a little bit clingy when I dropped off but the Cedar ladies reported that she'd been really good and very helpful.

It was also my first day of parking at Britannia car park instead of outside the office. It was very cold this morning and took me 25 minutes to walk in. I was decidedly moody when I walked into work (and cold - even though I was wearing a geeky hat and my new gloves). Morale is pretty low, and I did not have one non-moany conversation today. Ate lunch in the rest area instead of at my desk and I did prefer that. Luckily I got a lift to the car park on the way home which was a bonus! I will be working two days from home now instead of one.

Monday 4 January 2010

Working From Home

Today was my first official day of Working from Home (or WFH as we shorten it to). I found it strange, but there were less interruptions. And I got my washing dry - hoorah!

Sunday 3 January 2010

The Official Tree Photo


Today we took down the Christmas decorations so I thought I had better take the "official" Christmas Tree photo for our Christmas album. Each year I have taken a photo of Rebecca in front of the tree, which will go in the back of our album so we can see her growing up year by year.


I took 41 photos to try and get one right. I realised when I put them on the PC that the first 21 feature a huge, unattractive drip from one nostril! This is most annoying as one of the pictures is lovely, but I wouldn't know where to start to edit it out! So, here is the very final photo....this reminds me of myself as a child and Rebecca's hair looks a little auburn in it too.


We played some proper games of cards with Rebecca today, and she can pretty much understand the concept of Super 8's Animal Card game.


I have spent the evening with my scrapbook supplies laid out all over the lounge mats while we watched Quantum of Solace - there is glitter everywhere...

Saturday 2 January 2010

Pudding makes everything feel good again


Woke up this morning feeling a bit deflated, Christmas is over, Mick was back at work for a full day and it was all back to normality. I had a bowl of trifle for breakfast and felt much better!


Rebecca helped me wash my hair this morning after I did hers. She borrowed my new hair wrap afterwards and felt quite grown up.


This photo is adorable, I could stare at it for hours...


Chris, Rebecca and I took flowers to the crematorium today and then Chris stayed for lunch. Rebecca and I had an afternoon of watching Muppets from Space, playing with the puppets in her bedroom and playing Little People.


Friday 1 January 2010

Happy New Year

2010 has begun! I had a morning of sorting out the house, tidying away, sorting washing - all those exciting tasks that get left over the Christmas period. Boring, but essential (and secretly satisfying once its done).

I spend most of the rest of the day in the kitchen - so I was very happy. Everyone was coming round for tea so I cooked a ham joint in CocaCola (a la Nigella) as I do every year. I made fresh sausage rolls (Jimmy's Farm Sausages - very nice), marmite whirls, cheese/onion filo parcels and all the usual! Rebecca enjoyed having a "picnic" sitting on the floor.

We pulled musical crackers with music hats, jokes and a "trumpet" in each. Each person has a different note, and there is a conductors baton and "music". It was great fun and Rebecca even did it properly and had a go at conducting too.

Rebecca was excited about trying the trifle she helped to make, but was disappointed that the cake was a bit fluffy (!) and only ate the icing out of the middle, wouldn't eat the fruit and only a spoon of the custard! She was happier with a Bourbon (the biscuit, not the alcohol!).

Chris had prepared a quiz for when Rebecca had gone to bed so we did a events of the last decade one and a songs (guess from the intro). Adam and Amy won both quizzes, Mick and I felt old as we didn't know a lot of the modern songs and Carly and Jamie (team name Quizzy Rascals) did a lot of guessing... we had a good laugh.