Our day that was

I'm not sure what it is about being at home all the time but I seem to get far less done that I did when I was working.  Especially when the weather has been so grim.

However we shouldn't moan.  We really need the rain and all this water has given my strawberry plants a growth spurt and in the brief moments of sunshine the garden is looking good. 

Today I have 

Removed countless socks which have become trapped in the washing machine door.  In what must be the most annoying washing machine ever.  

Refereed between Mimi and Maddie (my mums & dads dog) and removed countless items from being eaten.  

We had Mimi's little friend M over to play for the morning.  But Mimi was seriously grumpy and she took herself off to bed!

I did some baking with Mimi and made a chicken and mushroom pie for dinner.

Played paper aeroplanes in the garden with Daddy and Mimi

Lastly my strange baby has fallen in love with a stuffed door stop in the shape of a dog which has been named "Brother Doggy" (I think she is trying to tell us something!).  Brother Doggy gets taken to bed and pushed around in her buggy and is quite loved.  This afternoon disaster struck and his head fell off!!!!!!

Grow your own apple tree.

Three weeks ago for Week A of our ABC series we planted a couple of apple pips which have started growing.  I can't believe that they have started to grow so quickly.  Only problem is I can not remember 
what variety of apple we potted.    

Re-motivation.

Today I have:

• Been to weight watchers to be told that I have gained half a pound this week.  The blimming silver 7 is eluding me!!  Since Christmas between my exercise classes and weight watchers I have lost 6lb and I can definitely feel it.  However my motivation has started to waver somewhat.  I think I was expecting some instant hit and slowly the naughty treats have started to creep back in.  This is not being helped by the endless amounts of baking I have been completing with Mimi lately!!!  My problem is that I track what I eat for a couple of days but I find it so difficult to keep within my allocated pro-point allowance that I become demoralised after a few days.  Also I really struggle with snacking.  This week I am feeling a bit more motivated and I brought a new recipe book.  I think it is new out this week as I couldn't find a link for it.  Its got some really good looking recipes in it like, butternut squash rolls and Sri Lankan pineapple curry which I am going to try this week.

• Spent some time in the garden with Mimi.  With the weather being so beautiful and the first signs of spring and the daffodils coming up I decided we would start potting up some seeds ready for our vegetable patch.  Today we planted two types of beetroot and some tomatoes.  I expect we will have hundreds of plants which I will be desperate to give away in a few weeks!  Every year I get carried away with the tomatoes - forgetting what a pain they are to look after and they always end up falling over.  This year I am planning on being more organised, I am going to order some bamboo.

1: Boltardy; 2: Alto F1 Hybird; 3: Pomodoro Ciliegia; 4: Pomodoro San Marzano

• Listened to Mimi witter on endlessly about her ever growing Birthday wish list which now includes:

1: Toyota Aygo; 2: Teacup Piggies; 3: Fifi the Flower Tots

• Shouted at some bl***y woman who's dog was in our garden.  I was so incensed by this woman I stormed outside.  To set the scene:  Our house and garden open out directly onto a field, this field has a set of regular dog walkers who walk the perimeter on a regular basis.  We have since moving in put up a fence to prevent the dogs getting in (one once punctured Mimi's paddling pool) and Mimi getting out.  Today a woman and her son were walking their dog when it managed to slip under the fence and was eating the bird food which had fallen off the table.  The poor dog got stuck in the garden and couldn't work out how to get back out.  It was not so much the dog that p***** me off but the dog owner who walked off and left her dog in our garden.  I went outside and shouted down the road after her asking her to come and collect her dog rather than just walking off.  Her response was to shout back telling me that there was no point running towards her dog as it would make the situation worse.  I explained that I have a child and that the dog was in MY garden to which she replied she couldn't do very much about it.  I told her that she was on private land and that in future perhaps she should find somewhere else to walk her dog.  Bloody woman - No mention of an apology.

• I have finally got round to uploading my new banner (Number 37 of 101 to re-design my blog).  I am really pleased with the new look.  I am considering moving over to Wordpress (Number 13 of 101) where there is more freedom in terms of the design element.  I have got it up and running you can check it out here.  However it is taking some time getting my head around the technical element of wordpress.  I have got some HTML knowledge however it is still proving a bit tricky. 

Happy Days

Damm, whilst I am sitting here wondering what we have been upto all day I have remembered the bread I left to rise about 3 hours ago!!!  Just gone to check on it..........I think its a gonna!

We haven't really been very far today, however we have been fairly busy.  When I was looking for my box of seeds at the weekend I came across a bag of Allium's and Hyacinth's that I think Mike might have been given earlier in the year.  Anyway they had started to grow and despite the bags saying plant in the Autum I decided we would pop them in and see what happens, otherwise they will stay there - forgotten indefinitely.  So we spent a few hours in the garden and what a beautiful few hours it was - the sun was shining and in the shelter it was really warm.  We also made some more birdcake - Mimi loves making these especially the bit where she packs it into an old yogurt pot.  We attempted bread which needs no further comment!

Then traditionally as today is Shrove Tuesday / Pancake Day we had Pancakes for dessert.  Mimi had "Pancake Pillows" - These are rolled up pancakes with raspberry sauce.  She ate so much I was a bit worried she might pop!  Mimi took it all very seriously and made Mike flip the pancakes just like Daddy Pig, luckily ours didn't get stuck on the ceiling!

Mimi has played non-stop with the new play-doh (the old stuff had all dried up so I replaced it at the weekend) and is slowly driving me a bit bonkers.  I keep finding it everywhere including in my shoes and wrapped around the dolls house chimney.  I was sitting down earlier when a spoonful was thrust towards my mouth.  It is a nightmare to collect all the little bits up and I am thinking of hiding it for a few days.  Or is that really mean?!?!

A bit of colour on a winters day.

Check out those colours !?!?!?

This morning we took a trip out to Mama Feelgoods with my friend A from work.  We stopped for an expensive coffee in their deli cafe (£2.95 - more expensive than Starbucks!) however whilst we were there we became inspired by their beautiful bakery shop.  With Mike away on business Mimi kept asking to bake a cake for his return.  Having spoken all morning about "Pink" icing we finally settled on an attempt at making a "Rainbow Cake".

I think I made it sink!  I think I added too much baking powder and opened the oven too soon!  Hey ho!  I was impressed with the vibrancy of the colours and think I will give it another go, but next time I think I will try and do the layered versions I have seen.

Like this one I found on Whisk Kid

I used the following recipe:

Rainbow Cake
Food Colouring of various shades, (we just used the primary colours and mixed them together)
175g Caster Sugar
175g Self Raising Flour
175g Butter
2 eggs

Cream the butter and sugar together
Add the eggs slowly continuing to beat the mixture
Add the sieved flour and fold the mixture together.

Divide the mixture between a number of dishes depending on the number of colours you want.  Mix in your colours and spoon the mixture into the tin.
Bake in the oven at 160 degrees for about 30mins.

When I left work I was lucky enough to be presented with some lovely gift vouchers for Fenwicks.  I am going to keep these safely and add them to my wallet fund.  35 of 101.

Mulberry Long Locked Purse.

No 35     Save up and buy a beautiful wallet (maybe a Mulberry)

Keeping up with my 101 in a 1001 Mimi and I have been to the local hardware store where we brought a bag of seeding potatoes which we are going to carefully set out in a tray tomorrow.  Having learnt from last years experience where Mimi muddled up the different varieties I brought; this year we just opted for one the "Winston".  Apparently they can produce show winning crops!!!

Now we just need to sort out the vegetable plot and decide what else we want to plant!

My first week as being a stay at home mum has gone reasonably well.  Mimi and I have sat down to eat together 4 nights this week and tomorrow I am going to implement my reward chart - smiley faces and black clouds!!!  I am looking forward to next week when Mimi is back at play-school.

Bird Cakes

For Christmas I was given a bird table.  We originally had it in the middle of the lawn but it kept getting blown over.  I was disappointed by how few visitors we got.  So we moved it and we have had an influx of Robins, Blue-tits, Great-tits and Blackbirds.  Occasionally we see the Lesser Spotted Woodpecker on the tree outside the office.  With Mimi's obsession with baking I decided we would make bird cakes for the birds in the garden.  Obviously you need to be careful with the hot fat but it cools really quickly once it has been added to the breadcrumbs and seed.  I placed a whole heap of stale bread in the food processor, some I put in the freezer for when we are next making fish cakes and the rest we made bird cake with. 

If you don't have a bird table you could punch a hole in the bottom of the yoghurt pot, pull through a piece of string or wool and tie a knot, then firmly pack your birdcake on top of it.  Either that or you could use a fir cone which you have tied a piece of string to and then pack the bird cake into the gaps.

I hope that you have as much fun as we did.

Yay half term!

I feel like there are just not enough hours in the day at the moment.  Work has gone a bit crazy I had to work 4 days this week instead of my usual 3.  The house is a tip, and I have lots of Christmas ideas I would like to complete. There is just so much to do all round.  To make matters worse I think Mimi is coming towards the end of her mid-afternoon naps.  I have come to rely on these and the thought of not getting that couple of hours to catch up is worrying.  I have a new found respect for people who have 2 or more children.  Funnily enough last weekend my mum looked after my nephew and she was saying she wondered how she ever got anything done and she had four of us!!

Again it is one of those weeks where it has flown by and I know I have been busy but now that I sit here it seems to have all escaped my memory!!  Although work is busy I generally have had a better week and I am feeling much happier which is good.

There is a definite chill in the air, I think Autumn has finally decided to put in an appearance.  I had to scrape the ice of my car this morning.  Mimi keeps complaining she is cold and much to my disgust we have had the heating on for the last few nights.

Having racked my brain this week we have:

• Planted our onions ready for the spring

• Been enjoying the beautiful weather whilst it continues

Can you believe it's the middle of October?!

We had a lovely long walk on Sunday, the weather was beautiful.  We were  on our way home, we had just stopped for an ice cream and were happily walking along the promenade holding hands when suddenly a little boy on a bike hit Mimi from behind.  He totally wiped her out, she was under the bike (still clutching her ice lolly) screaming and the little boy was sprawled on the pavement face down.  I didn't know what to do, so having scoped Mimi up I realised that the little boy wasn't moving.  Some really nice people stopped to help and finally the father came along.  He was learning to ride a bike and lost control.  It was a complete accident.  Mimi after a minute or two was ok, a bit of a red mark on his back but nothing too serious.  I think the little boy was in shock.  I was shaking, it really scared me.  It all happened so quickly.  Thank goodness he wasn't going any faster.

• Made some lovely pink heart shaped biscuits

• Started and finished my new snood

This was knitted on size 10 circular needles using 2 balls of Patons Fab Big Wool.  Cast on 131 stiches, working continuously in moss stitch (knit 1 Purl1) making sure you mark the start.  

• Face painting

Mummy's attempt at a Tiger 

Also this week my lovely husband brought me a Kindle as an early birthday present so that I can download some books to take to Venice with me.  It is great and I LOVE it.  I am surprised however to find that it does not have a back-light so reading in the dark is not an option!  Additionally in a lot of cases new books are more expensive in digital format than the books.  But I LOVE it all the same.  It is great because I can make the font bigger as I really struggle with the small font.

I am off to have my hair cut in the morning and to pick up some groovy fabrics for my Christmas Projects.

What an amazing start to October.  How many of us are in denial about the fact that winter is looming just around the corner?
I was woken up to a beautiful sunrise and Mimi clutching a lovely present for our Wedding Anniversary from my fab husband.  I love all things to do with stationary and today was no exception.  Mike brought me a beautiful Orla Kiely note book.

Last night for the first time in as long as I can remember Mike and I went out to dinner, just the two of us and it was great.  I had a truly great evening.  I think that this is something we are going to have to try and aim to do more often.  However we are off to Venice in a few weeks on our own for 4 days and I can't wait, although I am apprehensive about leaving little Mimi behind.

What an amazing sunrise 6.30am:  This is something that people without children might have missed!

Mimi helping put the rabbit out this morning.

We have had a great day helping Daddy in the garden and playing in the paddling pool.  About 2 weeks ago our neighbour asked Mike if he would mind cutting back some of the brambles to the side of the house.  They were quite out of control and were starting to infringe on his lovely manicured garden.  As always with projects like this Mike has taken to it like a duck out of water.  What started off as cutting a few brambles back seems to have turned into an earth moving exercise.  Unlike Mike in situations like this I shy away from the hard graft, this is not an area I particularly enjoy.  I am not overly keen on all the creepy crawlies.  I did however go out and help today.  I nearly wet myself when a whopping big frog or as Mike likes to call them a "marshary tap tap" leaped up and nearly landed on me.  Don't ask where "marshary tap tap" originates I still after 6 years of marriage haven't worked that one out!!!  There are a few other weird ones such as dog = noggers woolly, aeroplane = cobwob (because they make the cob webs wobble).

Mimi helping Daddy with his garden landscaping at 7.30 this morning!

Then after popping over to see Mikes parents for coffee we came back for more earth works.  Not wanting to shirk my duties it was too hot for me in the garden and I have the start of a cold so when Mimi went for her afternoon sleep I caught 40 winks too.  I feel really lazy but sometimes what the hell!

When Mimi woke up I decided we would get the paddling pool out.  Can you believe it here we are in October and Mimi was sitting in the garden in 27 degrees playing in the paddling pool.

If I look out in the garden.......What can I see??

I was just thinking the other day about the i-spy books by David Bellamy.  They were great, I had a whole collection.  I used to be able to buy them from the little book club we had when I was at primary school.  Does anyone else remember them?  Anyway I was thinking what a shame it is that something similar doesn't still exist.  For anyone who hasn't got a clue what I am going on about, the i-spy books were nature books with little tick charts of things to look for.

So keeping in a theme I decided it was about time I started to pay more attention to the things around us.  It is so easy when you get a bit older to over look the little things in nature that we see everyday but go unnoticed.

When we were in the garden today clearing away all my end of season courgette plants I really started to notice how many little creatures were running around the garden.

Common Orb Weaver found on the underside of the wheel barrow.

7 spot ladybird.

Common Woodlouse.

Check out how pre-historic a woodlouse is under the magnifying glass.

The other day I was woken up to Mimi shouting woodpecker, woodpecker.  I originally thought that she might be having a bad dream.  However when I got to her bedroom she was hiding behind the curtains shouting woodpecker in the garden.  I was very surprised when I took a look to see the Green Woodpecker sitting there on the lawn.  For a split second I wondered where unearth she had seen/learnt about birds.  Then I remembered it was my dad.  I think it is so cute.  Once a week Mimi goes to my dads for the day, and he takes her on little journeys.  They usually go on the bus to Sandwich to the swings and slides and to see the ducks.  This week they went on the train to Folkestone.  Each time she comes back telling me about the birds she has either seen or heard.

Anyway the long and short of this is that I think it is really important that we slow down and take stock of what is going on around us.  Sometimes it is so easy to let life rush past us, forgetting what is important.

Keeping up with the theme this afternoon when I got in from work, we all went down to the beach to check out the rock pools and to see if we could catch some prawns for tea.  We went down with the idea of catching enough for a prawn curry.

Daddy out in the waves prawning.
Not sure we had the best of nets.

OOOOO check out the prawns.

Not sure there will be enough for a curry!

Lets open it up.  What have you seen this week which you would like to share with us?

I wish this weather would decide what it's up to.  In between all these showers we have eventually managed to get outside to finish potting our planters.  Mimi even managed to persuade me to get the paddling pool out.  When the sun comes out it has been surprisingly warm.

Mimi helping with the planting

Not sure who's taking a photo of who

I think we have finally cracked the potty training.  We have had no accidents for the last few days and she has even started to wake me up in the night so that she can go for a wee wee.

I did find it really hard going but I am pleased that I stuck with it.  Once she realised that she had to use the potty it only took us a couple of days.  However we still have an issue with public toilets so we have to take our portable potty with us.

Today Mimi's little friend came round for lunch.  They were so cute sitting together at the table.  They kept copying one another.

Mimi taking "MR Doggy" for a walk