Decorating begins!!! Room 1 'Amelia's'

Now the plasterer has been and skimmed several ceilings we can begin decorating! Even though he was very clean and tidy plaster still get everywhere so after a mammoth clean decorating has begun in the 'Amelia' room. To be honest we need to get rid of her face! All holes have been filled (believe me they were quite a few) and all woodwork has now been sanded - skirting boards, door frame and windows. We are now ready to whitewash the ceiling and undercoat. It is going to take a few layers of paint to cover her face, mainly because it has been painted on in black and is massive!

Here is my photo log of the room transformation - doesn't look like much at the minute but it takes a while to prep the room ready for painting!

Say goodbye to that mural!!!

Wedding 3 - The Crossland's

Wedding 3 was The Crosslands - Tom and Claire. This was the wedding where Daniel was best man and of course he did a fab job. Everyone commented on how good his speech was, clean but funny. Needless to say it was another lovely wedding. The meal this time was a nice change of soup, sausage and mash and cheese cake and the theme was cartoon couples. I was sitting on Fred and Wilma with Zara and the ushers and the little table treat was a very nice looking cupcake - I've not eaten it yet though.

Just like any wedding where you are there for the whole day, it is a very long day! Too much wine was flowing and as probably guessed I had a very sore head the following day...and the following day after that!

Here's the happy couple and our table treat!

The Bake Off is Back!!!!

As you can probably tell I am very excited about the new series of The Great British Bake Off! We didn't even know it was coming back on and luckily noticed it just before it began!  I'm looking forward to seeing what they will make this series.

Over the summer hols I have been baking, first a cream tea for guests, then tweaked the cakes from the cream tea to take back to London when I visited. They are lemon and elderflower and are lovely. Then I thought I'd make some quiches, this was really to use up the goats cheese as it was towards the end of its life. Turn into a delicious goats cheese and onion quiche. Have since made some small individual vegetable and cheese quiches too for packed lunches.

Oh we got given a bread maker as Daniel's parents no longer use it so have been trying that out too. It's OK, makes nice bread though the loaves are quite small so only do for a couple of days. That's OK I guess for now but might need to supplement the home made loaves with bought ones when I go back to work as we'd be baking them every day!

Not sure what to bake next - maybe coffee and walnut cakes. Or I might wait for inspiration from the next GBBO episode!

Wedding 2 - The McNaughton's

Wedding 2 saw us driving down to Essex for the marriage of Vicki my flatmate from Uni and her hubby to be James. The weather was not looking good for their special day as we drove through rain shower after rain shower and torrential down pours! When we arrived at the venue, which seemed like it was in the middle of nowhere, it began to rain...again. In went all the guests as quickly as possible but poor Vicki was sat in the car waiting for it to ease before getting out so the bride was fashionably late!

The venue was stunning, a converted barn whose only purpose is weddings. The outside was set up for the ceremony as well as inside but unfortunately the rain was so heavy it had to be inside. We sat down thinking well we don't really know anyone here, except the ladies I've met before or on the hen do then a little voice from behind started calling me. I turned around not sure who it was then the penny dropped and I realised it was our other flat mate from uni's brother! Long time no see!!

Luckily the weather broke and the sun came out for the photo's outside and only started raining again when we went in for the meal. Our table was guessing at what the meal was, Daniel hit the nail on the head with chicken in bacon, which was the same as Lesley's wedding. Standard wedding meal I guess. It was lovely though, and the pate for starter's and trio of desserts were yum. As were the canapes we got during the drinks reception prior to the meal. Very good wedding venue but I guess if that is all you do you do it very well indeed!

This time the theme was snowboarding! Tables were named after ski resorts they had been to, the top table was where they were going on thier honeymoon and the cake was a mountain with them at the top! Very cool! Our little table treat this time was a little different as they were flower pots with seeds and a little poem to remember thier day, very cute, we need to plant ours now.

So here is the happy couple and the mountain cake!

Vicki's Hen Do - Cardiff

It has been an extremely busy time of late at school and at the weekends as we are trying to sort the house out but this weekend is reserved for Vicki's hen do in Cardiff. When everything has been so busy Cardiff seemed so far to go but actually from Derby it was a straight train and took 3 hours, I was there way before everybody else! Luckily the hotel let me check in to one of the room as I was getting harassed by some drunken men in reception - I think the hotel took pity on me!

When everyone else did turn up and we established that our rooms were actually above a night club - not a few floors above but directly above it, needless to say a few peeps were not too pleased but we got ready and headed out for a Chinese. A few of us thought after the Chinese we'd go into town to get some drinks then ended up in the casino. Not that I gambled, but I now have membership to Gala casinos!! It was funny really watching hard core gamblers bet on every number on the roulette wheel on the off chance they would win. In the end they actually must have been losing out as although they won on one number they put so many chips down they must have been out of pocket! One guy gave us a chip so we placed our bets on the off chance to win Vicki some cash - we did about £45!

Luckily we arrived back at the hotel after the night club closed as apparently the entire room vibrates when the music plays! So we got some sleep then up at a reasonable hour for breakfast then some went off to the spa but we went into town shopping. The shopping area in Cardiff is awesome, it's massive, we got lost several times! Thinking we were on the right road to get back, in the tipping rain, turned out we were on an identical street to the one we started on! Made it back eventually in time to get ready for our murder mystery night!

Vicki had no clue, she donned her gold dress and wondered why I was dressed in double denim, and others were in tennis gear, black dresses etc. She soon discovered that everyone was dressed as a different celebrity for the murder mystery and she was none other than Paris Hilton!

It was a good night, we all had scripts and parts to play. There was some chasing done by some celebs and a little bit of scrapping too. It was a good evening. We decided to go to the nightclub that vibrates our room to check out the scene...hmmm shouldn't really have bothered. The clientele were oldish or weird, though we were dressed in our fancy dress still!! We just went to the bar, some people got changed and went back into town but we didn't see the point.

The weekend flew by, though little sleep was had it was a fab time, only a couple of days and its down to Croydon for Lesley's wedding! No rest for the wicked though then it is holiday!!!!

We've Moved!!!!

So after a little while of waiting we finally moved!!! We collected the keys (in a home made box saying our move in date made by the previous owners) on Friday as I had the day off work and was informed that they were running a little behind. I wasn't very well so we went home after collecting the keys, then returned late in the evening with a car load thinking that they would be gone...they weren't! Stuff everywhere. We weren't sure what to do so we unloaded the car into a spare corner and left a little bit of a shirty note!

The next day we received a text message apologising, saying that they had some family drama but they've cleared everywhere now except the garden and shed. OK, that's a little better, though still wondered what state the house would be in! So we went to collect the van, my car wouldn't start - grrr, straight to the garage it went next door for a new battery and off we went in Daniel's car to get the van.

Van collected, Claire and Tom turned up to help and we were on our way! It's surprising how much stuff you accumulate! After a long day of moving and a KFC we were in, boxed up everywhere and a few bits left at the old house to collect later but we were in!! Yay!

Our new home, hope it's a happy one!

Earth cake!!!

For my Year 11s last lesson I made them a geographical cake! One of them suggested that I should make them an Earth cake and as they have worked so hard and are a fab class I'd thought I'd give it a go. The result was awesome!!! Not to blow my own trumpet too much, it was a lot of work and I was very pleased with the final cake. The cake itself was chocolate Victoria sponge with chocolate butter cream. The 'earth' icing was originally white, I had to dye it blue and green, kneading the food colouring in was not easy I tell you! But the end result was worth it. The countries were cut free hand too. The kids were very grateful and gave me a round of applause, bless, they also said the cake was yummy - I don't think they would have said even if it was awful! Here is the completed cake - I hope Cake Boss would be proud!

Puttanesca Pasta

Many people i speak to rave about this pasta dish, saying how delicious it is. I'd never tried it as i thought it would be too salty due to the ingredients but i thought I'd make it to see what the fuss was about. It was nice - i adapted the recipe a little and made it spicier as we like chilli and as the breadcrumbs at Jamie's Italian were meant to be awesome (so I've been told) i thought I'd add those too!

For the puttanesca sauce for 2 people you need:
1 garlic clove
pinch of chilli flakes (of a couple of large pinches if you are like us)
6 anchovy fillets
1 tin of chopped tomatoes
Black olives - as many as you like (I'm not a massive fan so we only had a few)
Tablespoon of capers
zest of a lemon

In a pan with olive oil add the anchovy fillets, garlic and chilli flakes until the anchovy fillets break apart, add in the tomatoes, capers and olives, season and simmer for 15 min. For the breadcrumbs i toasted a slice of bread, left it to go cold then blitzed it with some mixed herbs and Parmesan. I then popped the breadcrumbs onto a baking tray and put them in the oven for 5 min to dry them out further and crisp them up but i guess that is not necessary. Before serving add the lemon zest and voila! Toss your favourite shaped pasta in the sauce then top with the crispy breadcrumbs!

Simple and yummy - give it a go!

Tonight as it is the end of the holiday - boooo - I'm making a Chinese feast! Prawn spring rolls, soy and five spiced beef and egg fried rice, all from scratch! The holiday has flown by and yet still no moving date. Shouldn't be long now though and then we can move and think about our summer holiday! Over the last couple of weeks as well as making scones I have also made a second cushion the same as the first to practice on the sewing machine. I'm not brilliant at it yet but I'll try another project before attacking the curtains!

Raining at Anderby Creek

We were offered the caravan for the Easter bank holiday so thought we'd make the most of it! So off we went! The weather was not brilliant - especially since we'd had fabulous weather the weeks preceding the school holiday - typical. Having said that we did have a good time - investigated Mablethorpe, it was OK, nowhere near as bad as Chapel St Leonard's and at least i got my fish and chips at the seaside, though we made a wise decision to eat in as otherwise we would have got soaked!

We also braved Popa's bar this time as we chickened out the last time we visited. It was OK, an interesting lady singer (I'm being polite here) and karaoke - which we decided to give a miss since it was only kids taking part so went back to the van and watched to golf.

We did go for a walk along the beach - only to find loads of sea kill - a seal looking thing, birds, crabs, razor clams, starfish - the dead sea creatures were endless! We were hoping that when the tide comes in they will go back out to sea and become part of their circle of life. But as i say - don't mess with nature! It was good to get away though, now need to start thinking about the summer hols!

Scone attack!!

As it is the holidays i thought I'd do some holiday baking again - this time scones! First round were savory cheese and onion chutney scones followed by normal sweet scones to have with jam and cream. They were yummy! Anyone for afternoon tea?

Project complete!

So I bought a sewing machine! Was taking far too long (though not impossible) to do by hand and have to say I am very pleased with my finished article. Hopefully Kirsty would be proud!































How hard can curtains be?

What is a hotpot not...

As we got a slow cooker for Christmas I've been testing a number of recipes to use it. Some have not been brilliant, for example the vegetable curry that turned to mush - it spent too long in the slow cooker, but some worked brilliantly like the sweet and sour chicken and Mexican meatball stew. Look at the delicious hotpot!



I've also spent some time today trying to finish project 1...i know it's going on a bit but i think I'll invest in a sewing machine soon! One side left to do!

Cushion nearly there!

I'm gradually getting there with my Kirsty's homemade home project but not having a sewing machine means it's taking a little longer than it could. I've now finished the front, my progress of which is shown below, so only the back left to go!

Project 1 update

My Kirsty Homemade Home project has started well. I've sewed the patchwork section for the front of the cushion covers and am now waiting for the rest of the material to arrive. I have to say i think it looks alright, though i might be biased. Kirsty would be proud! I thought I'd document my progress, if anything to prove I've made them!



















Next step is the surround for the front of the cushion cover...stay tuned!

Kirsty's homemade home...project 1 underway!

I'm not bad at making food items and for the last couple of years have made chutney's and jellies for Christmas presents, this year after watching Kirsty's Homemade Christmas Home i thought I'd have a go at making some bits and bobs so I've purchased her crafts book.

Project 1...cushion covers. As our cushions are less to be desired i thought I'd have a go at making some new ones. It's not easy to find material but eBay came to my rescue and i have my patchwork scraps and plain natural linen ordered!

Stay tuned for an update on their progress!