Another year older

It was my birthday on Saturday and DH ensured that I was spoilt. It was a 'significant' birthday and we'd always planned to go abroad for it but due to a number of reasons including the fact that it was Easter Weekend we decided to stay at home. My main present was an upgrade to my sewing machine:

I've already been playing and LOVE it. In addition I've got a second hand Embroidery machine which I've no idea how to use but am looking forward to learning.

We went to York for the weekend and visited the 'Quilt Art' exhibition at the The Quilt Museum which I loved. The weather was like high summer so sun glasses were worn. We later went out for a meal with friends to my favourite vegetarian restaurant which was great fun.

I was also spoilt by my Secret Santa: :


Birthday gifts including

This thoughtful package included a little package that Oscar was extremely interested in and he was very helpful in removing the tissue paper.


Oscar enjoying handmade dog biscuits

I hope he'll still accept the supermarket dog biscuits that he normally gets as his bedtime treat or am I going to have to start baking dog biscuits myself?

Cornflake Slices

We haven't made Cornflake Buns for ages so I thought I'd treat DD.

First the Mars Bars were sliced up:

Then they were melted & mixed in with cornflakes & put onto a plate:

As our new kitchen is smaller than our old one we haven't unpacked all the boxes yet and so I didn't have any paper cases to hand thus they ended up as Cornflake Slices.

I always use eating rather than cooking chocolate & sometimes add mint flavouring or orange essence to give them a bit of a kick.

Mmmmmm

I'm so excited...

we've found our perfect house It doesn't need much work apart from decoration as it was owned by an elderly couple previously. So now we've got to sell ours quickly - I'm sure the estate agent is fed up with me as I've spoken to her nearly every day this week - here's hoping......

Don't you just love him.....

My life is so hectic nowdays that the batch cooking New Years Resolution has become vital. This was proven beyond all doubt when we were both ill a few weeks ago & still managed to feed DD healthy home cooked food every night. DD is currently swimming 4 times a week & I swim the 5th night so am hardly ever in.

Sometimes I'd love to just be able to veg in front of the TV but then I hardly ever watch TV. Is that because I'm never in or because I don't like what's on? It's a bit like the chicken & egg question. It's really convenient being able to come home from the school run, grab a couple of meals out of freezer & shove them in the oven, preparing something quick to go with them whilst they cook. I started doing the batch cooking but slowly & surely DH has made it his 'baby'.

Look what he created on Saturday afternoon whilst I froze outside in the garden for the first time this year, pruning the hedge & removing the dead climber that I hacked to death at the end of last year & then carried on my frozen state by walking the dogs in freezing wind:


Chilli


Thin Crust Pizza


Deep Pan Pizza


Herb Bread

The Chilli is now frozen in individual portions, the thin crust pizza & half the deep pan were demolished on Saturday night with the herb bread. The rest of the deep pan pizza was enjoyed by DD & I on Sunday. She had an away meet & enjoyed swimming in a 50 meter pool for a change. I took the opportunity to work on a surprise knit only to discover after a couple of hours that I'd been using the wrong size needles so all my work was frogged when I got home

Whilst I'm writing this he's also throwing together lunches for all of us tomorrow. Normally I have a production line going at night & make up 3 of everything but tonight it's his turn

Finally - Tia has been moaning that Monet has been getting all the limelight so here she is again in her usual position. She gets up to eat, use the tray & scrounge for milk & cheese but at nearly 19 she deserves to be pampered


Tia

Domestic goddess? - I think not

DD's school held a summer fair today but she was already entered for a swimming gala. The school asked for parents to held man stalls etc. I didn't offer anything for obvious reasons but when another letter was sent out saying that the fair might not go ahead due to a lack of parental support I offered to bake some cakes.

I was really busy yesterday so didn't start until very late.


lots of cakes

First to be finished was the


Crunchy Top Lemon cake

followed by the


Iced Orange sponge

Then a wait whilst the chocolate cake cooled before it could be iced.


Death by Chocolate

Whilst it was cooling I threw together some chocolate cornflake buns with a bit of peppermint essence & named them


After Eight Clusters

DD was gutted that she couldn't have any chocolate cake but I did save her two clusters.

But don't get the wrong idea & presume that I'm some sort of Domestic Goddess - not at all. Our house is in the process of being extended by DH (since July 04) & things are all over the place. I do my best but sometimes it's so depressing that I don't have the inclination to clean it up.

DD did really well in her gala this afternoon & came home with 3 medals - 2x 4th & 1x 6th. She'd never swum 200m backstroke before & came 4th in her age group. There were 6 girls in her age group that swum it but 2 were disqualified so she did really well (it's REALLY easy to get disqualified in competitive swimming). She also beat a girl who wins everything, in the 100m breaststoke, by a full 2 seconds. So she got to chose dinner tonight - Take Away pizza with
a cheese stuffed crust, garlic bread & chips.

Last week I mentioned that DD racing up to the loo fell on the bare stairs & hurt her legs - look at the state of them 6 days later.


My DD's bruised legs

She's insisted on wearing a short skirt all week to school as it's warm - I'm worried people are going to think that we've beaten her up. DH has been calling her the Zebra