Lazy Days

We have had a bit of a lazy weekend.


Coffee at Cafe Nero at the Ashford Designer Outlet. I brought the muffin to share but we didn't really get much of a look-in!  

Lunch with Mikes Brother and family.  My sister in-law and Mimi's cousin took her out into the garden to collect freshly picked sprouts for lunch.  I had never realised how easy it is to grow them.  I think I will add them to our short-list of vegetables to grow this summer.

Mimi & Mr Doggy had fun playing on their beautiful rocking horse.

Whilst Daddy and the boys had fun playing with his boat in the garden.  They are so lucky.  They have a stunning garden with river and mill-pond.......Perfect for model boats!

A perfect day.  What more could you ask for, great company, great food on a beautiful if cold winters day.

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.

Bargains

GAP:  Red Heart Leggings £3.20; Stripy Top £5.97;
Skirt £3.97; Grey Leggings with Puff Skirt £3.99; 

Earlier this week we met my friend J and her little girl I for lunch and a spot of shopping.  J is heavily pregnant with No2 and both girls played up in typical toddler style!  Mimi managed to destroy the window display in the "orange shop" or in adult language Ted Baker.  (However she is quite right the lights in Ted Baker are Orange!)  

We lunched at the newly opened but hugely popular Pizza Express, which is great as they are fairly child friendly and even better they quite often run offers on Money Saving Expert and you can exchange your Tesco Vouchers.  We both love shopping at the Ashford Outlet as there are always bargains to be found for the girls especially in GAP.  Only problem is the girls often end up looking like twins wearing matching outfits.  

All Change

Friday was officially my last day at work.  I was really nervous about going in to work but actually I had a lovely day, finished with a good evening out - (although I drank far too much and suffered all day yesterday!)  Everybody was very generous and I was presented with some great gifts.  One of them being lovely pink bag (I have a love of handbags - but hey which girl doesn't!) which Mimi instantly took a shine to.

Gosh this was taken quite early on in the evening - I think?

With a new day and a clear head I am looking forward to what the future might bring.  I think top of my list is to sort this house out! I am still working on my 101 in 1001 and I have plenty of craft projects on the go which need completing, and of course I am looking forward to the Brit Mums Live.

My day was made even better when I came home and found my huge box of Jelly Belly's which I won courtesy of Munchkins.

Yesterday when we woke up our kitchen was a balmy 8 degrees and outside it was -6, this morning it is slightly warmer at -4.7.  The wind finally decided to drop off enough that I felt it wasn't too cold to take Mimi outside to build a snowman. I needed the fresh air!  However our snowman became a snow blob because the snow was so powdery that we just could not form it in to a ball.  It is crazy we have now had this snow on the ground for over a week.  Wonder if we will get any more?  I don't think winter has finished with us just yet.  My onions looked like they needed some water but I was a bit worried about watering them in-case the water froze and ruined them.

Here is to change.  One door closes and another one opens.  I wonder what fate will bring us.

Finally here comes winter!!!

I think that February is going to be payback for our recent exceptionally warm weather.  Early January I walked home from town with just my body warmer and a light weight jumper, now our house is so blimming chilly I am contemplating sleeping in my body warmer.

However I do love the snow and it was great to watch Mimi playing in it.  She was very cute, when she went out the front door she kept saying "Crazy", "This is really Crazy", "Help me help me I'm really stuck".  Bless some of the snow drifts up here were up to her waist.

Yesterday was the first time in a week that the temperature has risen above freezing however the wind chill makes it feel considerably colder.  Between us and France is the English Channel the beach and a field so when the wind blows from the East or North East it howls in.  Our kitchen is currently about 11 degrees.  Brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

All this snow is great but with it being so cold outside for little ones means that you have to think of indoor entertainment.

So we made "Pink" (our favourite colour at the moment) butterfly cakes. 

Then we made a cardboard monster and guess what??
We painted it "Pink"!

Our obsession with dresses and tights continues and is continuing to stress me out especially when the weather is so cold.  I took Mimi to have her feet measured yesterday for new slippers and ended up buying slippers and shoes.  We ended up choosing the most hideous coloured pair of Kicker Boots ever.  We have had Kicker Boots before and they were great, so its not the choice of shoe just the colour.  The thing was they were in the sale (probably for good reason) however for little feet you just want something warm and waterproof.  Slippers were much easier as there was a limited choice but we decided to go for a lovely pair of pink flowery ones by Startrite.  We have had a pair before and I having tried others I have concluded that the little Startrite ones are good value for money.  They have a firm sole with tread which means if they go outside its not the end of the world and much more importantly they have support around the heel to prevent them from walking on the side of their foot.

New Slippers - Guess What?
They are Pink!

    

New Shoes - Check out those cool colour!!!

At least they go with the dress.
Jury's out on leggings and socks!

 Yippeee I have one day left at work.  For the first time ever I am hoping that we don't get more snow tonight as we are planning on going out tomorrow night for a few drinks and I would quite like the school to be open.


 

At a loss - modern technology!

How did we all survive before the internet and even more so pre-broadband?  Our connection went down on Friday.  We finally managed to get it reconnected last night!  My poor husband is trying to run a business from home which is internet dependant.  So much is done online these days that I too have been at a bit of a loss.  I couldn't book in for spinning at the FitnessMix, check my Weight Watchers pro points or most importantly ensure that I had transferred enough money into my bank account to cover the bills.

Whilst I am on the point about technology I really considered all of my options when choosing my new phone.  After much deliberation I finally opted with the HTC desire as it seemed like the best option for the money.  However just lately I have become very jealous of iphone users and wish I had shelled out the extra money.  Whilst I think the android app market has improved it is seriously inferior to the iphone.  What brings me to this conclusion is that there are several apps I would like to download but they are all only accessible on the i-phone.

Instagram allows you to take photos with filters on
your phone and then share them online

I would really like to use instagram (just think how good this would be linked to my blog), the weight watchers app and the Annabel Karmel app but unfortunately I can't and I am feeling increasingly frustrated.  According to the online forums instagram is coming to the android SOON!!   I think that Weight Watchers could make far more use of their website and apps and I am surprised that they have not created an app which lets you scan the bar-code of a product in the supermarket which tells you the pro points value.  I have emailed them to complain and they said that they have a team working on it!  However I have now been waiting a year!

Modern technology aside life in our house has been fairly busy.  Saturday I had a morning on my own - it was amazing and I had totally forgotten what that feeling of "me" time felt like.  I went to have my hair done at The Chair then on to meet K for coffee.  I truly believe that my hair has never looked so good since I have been going to The Chair.  Over the years I have struggled to get a good haircut as my hair is so curly but Katie is just amazing.  I would highly recommend having your hair done at The Chair.  Sunday we had a two back to back birthday parties.  Good job I went shopping in the Christmas sales and stocked up on a heap of birthday presents.

Mimi is becoming fairly independent and will only wear what she wants to.  It is becoming a little stressful and I may have to start hiding some of her favourite outfits.  Not because I want to be mean but because they just don't fit any more and its a bit too chilly to be wandering around with leggings up to her knees.

I just found her neatly lining up her shoes with Mr Doggy on the naughty mat.  I asked why he was on the mat and apparently he had touched the orange shoes hence why they are not paired up!

We made some gorgeous birthday cakes for my Mum.  Mimi had as usual a lovely time baking and I think even more fun eating the end results!!  I asked her last night what she would like to do today and she said "make something".  I suggested a cardboard monster but that idea was dismissed.  "No mummy I want to make a big cake with pink icing."

Birthday Cupcakes!  Yum Yum. Goodbye Diet!

So we have made scrummy brownies from Fay Ripleys book (no wonder it is taking me so long to loose some weight!) and done some painting.  No pink icing but someone had fun!!

How messy?!?  I think that there is more on her face than in her mouth!

Different types of markings using a comb in paint.