2011

It's almost upon us, 

comes but once a year. 

Time to raise our glasses

and wave goodbye to the year.

Look back on all that's 

been and gone.

Memories good and bad.

Plans to look forward

to what before us lies.

Resolute to all good things

onward, upward, fly.

So farewell to 2011

Strangely i'll be sad to see you go.

No doubt i'll shed a tear or two but no one needs to know. 

Don't wait up!

Griddle Pan Waffles/Epic Hot Chocolate

Well this morning seemed like a good day to try Jamie Oliver's Griddle Pan Waffles. I have been back time and again since watching the recent festive episodes and tried the Epic Hot Chocolate also pictured above as well as the semifreddo. So as you can see i pulled all the ingredients together and let them rest as suggested and once hubby was up got on with cooking it. It seemed to be doing quite nicely until i tried flipping it as suggested. Our pan sat to one side slightly which mean't one side was more than ready but not so much the other but we split it in half and got by. So out came one half in one complete piece whilst hubbies half came out in kinda odds and sods lol. I sliced mine into pieces like Jamie did but refrained from dipping it in the hot chocolate.

My first impression of the waffles is NO to salt. If you're going to eat these with a fried egg or bacon on top then i'm sure that's nice but not when you prefer as i do a sweet topping. I pretty much never used salt and my taste buds were like, what is that all about. So i would make it again without salt if it's for a sweet breakfast. As for the Epic hot chocolate, in all honesty i just don't feel it's that 'epic'. I struggle to get the 70% cocoa solid chocolate to melt thoroughly and am aware of the texture of all the ingredients if that makes sense but i'm pleased I've tried it now, it's all experience. So the countdown continues, New Year is just around the corner. Do you have plans?

That time of year

‘It doesn’t feel like Christmas’.

   Is what I say each year.

‘But what does Christmas feel like?’

   replies mummy dear.

It doesn’t feel like Christmas.

   For all the time we spend.

Preparing for that special time,

   and hoping it won’t end.

Each year I try to recapture,

   those memories so dear.

When a small glass of sherry

   was a treat once a year.

When on the bed each morning

   a stocking would be found.

Brimmed with lots of goodies

   that cost less than a pound.

No tiptoeing at the crack of dawn

   to look under the tree.

A quick squeeze and a shake,

   ‘Oops that’s not for me!’

We’ve put up decorations,

   tinsel and our tree.

The house is covered in fairy lights

   as far as the eye can see.

‘But Christmas is for children’,

   is what I’m being told?

But I still want that excitement

   even though I’m getting old-er.

It’s getting too commercialised.

   The true meaning been forgot

but you don’t have to jump on the wagon

   and get the lot.

So when this Christmas comes around

   we’ll enjoy it all the same.

Because although each Christmas is different.

   The memories remain.

Kerridwen Jeffery

I wrote this some years ago now but each year the same thoughts run through my head, what does Christmas feel like for you? My mum said yesterday we base our thoughts of Christmas on old memories and hope that each year will live up to them, but some of those memories are from childhood when the stress we put on ourselves as a grown up don't exist, the magic still prevails.

I don't know how much longer i shall be adding to my blog, i love to share my thoughts but sharing is what counts where blogs are concerned and it's so nice when someone stops by and leaves a comment. So if you stop by and have a read and have a moment, please say hi.

Happy New Year 2012, i hope you bring with you some good cheer :)

Foot note! These are my thoughts and feelings please do not steal those and claim them as your own but better still find a quiet corner with pen and paper and see what thoughts come to mind and before you know it you may have your own festive poem :)

More Festive Delights

Ok so it's been baking, baking and more baking. Today i made Merry Berry Cheese Bars. I found this recipe over at Silver Boxes and saved it as you do with a view to trying it and today was the day. Fortunately i had all the things i needed although i did think maybe i wouldn't. I swapped cranberries for blackberries and was slightly confused about the jellied variety so used just the juice from the tin which of course gave a lovely marbled effect to the cheesecake layer and gave that layer time to set before trying to crumble the remaining mixture on top to which i added some packet crumble to fill out the gaps. Well i have tried a little but am looking forward to a proper piece with cream later :)

These cupcakes are just a basic vanilla cake with buttercream icing to which i added some Mocha spread (with coffee beans pieces) found at Lidl which made for a lovely tasting buttercream and then added the orange cinnamon stars on top for decoration. Got to play with another of my nozzles too :)

 The Christmas trees here were vanilla buttercream piped on with very little green colour added, was a bit concerned when i saw all the E No's that were in it. Pastel tree's, less predictable lol

 The following two cupcakes were made using rolled out fondant icing. I topped the cupcakes with buttercream and then cut out the shape with a traditional cutter. I pre-made the snowflakes using the same fondant icing adding a touch of blue and left them to harden over night and added the silver balls. 

This was made the same way and the snowmen were bought as they were. These are also pretty tasty if i do say so myself  :)

Can you tell what i spent Saturday doing....details to follow when it's not so late :)

Chocolate Marshmallow Muffins

 Gingerbread Mincemeat Crumbles...

 Gingerbread Snowflakes

All behind!

It's my Blogoversary, thanks to Teena in Toronto for pointing that out. Happy Blogoversary to me :)

So over at Christmas Cards All Year Round you will find the final challenge for this year and my final challenge as part of their DT. Sadly i declined from continuing due to new job obligations of which there are now none as i gave up one job to be more flexible for the other and then lost the other. That's a story for another day...

So the challenge for this month was Anything goes and so i adopted a card technique found in a magazine which i will add when i find it to make funky trees. Here are my three (yes another month where i only manged three, that said i made quite a few others it's just that a friend bought them from me. Anyway here are my three funky trees.

I really like how these turned out and the are pretty simple to do and use up lots of bits of paper so keep them for other trees.

I have been baking as is the norm for me, surprisingly i haven't been put off. Today's baking was some Tangy Lemon Squares. Why is it you never have the right size tin...hey ho improvisation seems to have worked and if there is a next time i will endeavour to try something smaller.

Also this month i have been going gingerbread mad lol

I have made and love gingerbread mince pies, never will i be tempted to just have pastry for my mince pies again lol. Also cheesecake bites borrowed from created by Diane

This is my gingerbread mince pie with crumble topping, i have done bother ordinary tops for them and crumbly ones and the crumbly ones are my favourite :)

These are Diane's cheesecake bites but instead of using a ball of gingerbread i rolled it out again like i did for the mince pie and piped the cream cheese in. The gingerbread rose leaving a bit of a gap from filling but they still got eaten lol

Well that's me for today. Wishing you all seasons greetings :)

Reindeer Embroidery Hoop

Just a quick post this morning to show you my Reindeer Embroidery Hoop. Having seen lots of use for Embroidery Hoops this last few months i bought two of a local lady and up till last week hadn't made any use of them but after seeing the Reindeer in Simply Homemade Issue. i couldn't help but have a go. This took no time at all to do. I cut the reindeer out one day and pretty much sewed it all up the next. I am pretty pleased with the way it turned out. Linking up with Jennie over at Craftomatic for her Monday Link Party. Stop by and see what everyone else has been up to :)

November has arrived

and with it a new challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round. The challenge this month was to use a sketch and I'm glad my sketch appears the same as Claires because my programme implied differently lol.


So here are my high five for this month :)

These were made with help from the freebies that came with Creative Cardmaking issue 33. Great freebie thanks :)

Don't forget to check out all the other inspiration made by my fellow DT members :)

Gosh my postings are getting few and far between of late. So much to do and so little time lol. I shall be back in a few days with Novembers challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round :)


So we've almost finished half term, pity Halloween is the first day back at school but what can you do. My son keeps asking when we're going to put the decorations up and i keep telling him that what we have is up. We have decorated the Owls...

We have decorated Pumpkins (as of the night before last)...

 My hubby did the one above...

I did this which initially was supposed to be an Owl but ended up just being a rather strange face lol...


We have odds and ends around including some toilet rolls that we decorated...

this was supposed to be a crafty project with my son but soon became mine with some help from hubby...

Also this week we've been to Stratford for a viewing of some photos that i had done as part of a 'Model Experience' makeover. I managed to whittle the choices down to two which came as part of the deal but am now awaiting their arrival. I took the chance to take some more pictures in Stratford and then played around with them using Picnic...

Here is Mr Shakespeare himself ;) 

and a spooktacular view across the river...


We've been to a Halloween party where my son took great delight in dressing up as a Vampire!

and lastly i got a job! 

Or another job i guess. I have been searching for that illusive job that inspires and full fills ones needs. I still do a bit of hairdressing, i deliver leaflets two mornings a week which has done wonders for my weight but come rain or shine or snow i have to go, i write poems for e-cards but now i am helping out in a kitchen for The Jolly Good Pud Company who makes all kinds of wonderful baked goodies for weddings, special events and they also sell on our local market. You know how i love to bake and bake i have already and I've only been in two days this week, or three if you count yesterdays Cup Cake Basics class but that was more pleasure than work. One thing i had to master was decorating cakes using icing bags and nozzles and i was pretty pleased with what i turned out yesterday...

It's hard to choose favourites but you can see all that i decorated in the top picture and some close ups of a couple. They are going down quite well so far and i have baked some more cupcakes of my own to decorate later. So as you can tell it's been a pretty full on week and golly it's Monday tomorrow and most things return to normal...or do they ha ha ha ha cackle cackle lol...

Play Time

Well for the last few weeks i have been stopping by the Play Date Cafe and admiring their weekly challenge but what with one thing or another i haven't had a moment to take part. Today i got a bonus day off and as is me i was actually like 'oh what to do', not for a lack of things just making a decision. Anyway i had a look through one or two draws and thought, oh yes the Thanksgiving print outs from last year, look at the colours they pretty much fit the theme so i went with it. Three not my monthly five but three is better than none although i may need to make more but I'm happy i got to play, got to take part and got to use something that may well have stayed in my draw. Please stop by the Play Date Cafe and see the other creations inspired by their colour theme :)

Whoooo knew lol

Here we are and it's October all ready, gosh all of a sudden time seems to have picked up speed. Anyway a new month meant a new challenge over at CCAYR and this month the challenge was


 'So...  your Christmas cards this month need to have at least one of what are considered Halloween colours (orange, green, purple, black).  We'd also like to see a punch or die cut somewhere on your card and this can mean regular punches, Spellbinders dies, border punches, something that was purchased pre-done, etc!'


So here is what i came up with...

I introduced green as it seemed the most appropriate colour for both Halloween and Christmas and fortunately i had these lovely stickers which i think i bought from a £1 shop and had never used along with the metallic paper clips which would have been wasted for fastening things together but add more of a festive feel and finish off the cards nicely. I have used a punch on the papers although i suspect it should have been what was punched out rather than the shape which was included but penny has only just dropped lol. Anyway if i do say so myself i love these cards, the colours and the simplicity and it helped me use something that would have otherwise stayed in the draw. Here's to the festive season and all that follows :) Don't forget to stop by and see all the other lovely creations made by my fellow DT members :)

Here comes September

Well can you believe another month is over and September starts, by next week the hols will be over with and the kids back to school. Strangely the end of this holiday crept up on me, i thought we had another week to go and part of me will actually miss having my son around although I'm sure i will soon fill my day.


Anyway a new month and a new challenge over at Christmas Cards All Year Round. This months challenge involves your 'stash' and you can do whatever you chose providing what you use is over a year old!


So here is my inspiration for this challenge and it was a good excuse to look at things that have been sat around for sometime now doing nothing...

I made this months challenge using some Debbie Mumm 'Gingerbread' punch outs. I'm not sure how long I've had these but it's a long time so it was really nice to finally make use of them. The cards were mounted on cream card and distressed (as is my thing lol) and then re-mounted on some festive paper from a gift I was sent early last year that also had gingerbread men on but I didn't use enough of the paper for that to be apparent. Finished touches with gold stickers also coloured with markers and bits of ribbon and rub-ons. Another five in the bag :)

And here is my newest canvas, i made two of this type of thing yesterday but the other one is for a present so I'm keeping it under wraps. I like the idea of being able to enjoy the look of a card but keep it up all year round or seasonally accordingly :)


Have a great weekend :)

Choc Chip Muffins (with the choc chips lol)

So once again when browsing the blogs i follow i found this recipe over at Bakerella for Choc Choc Chip muffins. This recipe involved sour cream which to be honest i had no idea about and nor do i now either but i had a go. I got a recipe book out which gave me some idea about converting cups into grams. I do have cups but 'cupping' marg or butter isn't easy and so i began. I have to say this followed a sponge which i shall be jamming and creaming in the not too distant future so it's been a baking morning. Anyway the only way my recipe differs is that i didn't add any salt. Rarely do i add salt because i nearly always use butter (with salt), infact bar chips i hardly ever use salt on anything. Anyway i mixed up the ingredients as directed and popped them in the oven, tick tock, tick tock...

I have to admit they do look pretty tasty and yes i manage 12 i believe it was in muffin cases (bigger than the usual cup case anyway) and once I'd finished my lunch i tried one...Wow i will definitely be making these again and I'm hoping as they have choc chips in my son will happily eat then too, fingers crossed. Thumbs up from me :)

I am linking up for the second week running over at A Spoonful of Sugar for Weekend Baking :) Don't forget to stop by and see what your inspired by :)

Choc Chip Oat Slice

So while perusing my favourite blogs this morning i came across this post for Choc Chip Oat Slices. I scanned the ingredients and realised that within reason i had most of them and thought I'd give it ago. Now the important bit that i was lacking was the choc chips but hey we can get by without them, better with but beggars can't be choosers. I also didn't have enough coconut but thought i would use up whatever i had left but due to having to leave the house before i baked them that got forgotten. Anyway i made them and they look yummy and if they are as yummy as they look i will make them again WITH choc chips and coconut :)

Hope your Sunday is going well :)

Just a little something...

Here's a little something i whipped up yesterday. I enjoyed the results from the last canvas i did so i was looking forward to trying another one. I couldn't resist using my Owl stamp and combining it with the tree stamp that came free with Simply Homemade and i think the combination works well and with a bit of distressing here and there voila. This is a present for a friend of mine, her birthday has already been and gone, a bit like mine which was a week ago today, time really does fly by but i hope to get it to her before too long. I am taking part in Jennies Craft-o-manic Monday where there are lot of other creative folk sharing there creations so don't forget to stop by and see what they've all been up to :) Happy Monday :)

Garden Candle Jar

It's amazing what you can achieve even with your son home on holiday. I started this on Wednesday and then got side tracked with my Home canvas that i posted about yesterday. Anyway today i was determined to finish this so i can start on the other canvas. I made this with the garden in mind. The evening is already drawing in and so this might be a good time to try and sit out in the evening while we still have some warm weather to sit in. There are quite a few things in the garden that need lighting up including a wire star i bought recently at a car boot so here's to it, joined by a glass of wine too :)

Birthday celebrations and creations :)

Gosh how the time flies almost the end of another week. Well my week got off to a great start with it being my birthday on Monday. We spent the day in Stratford and on arrival it was pretty hot and humid and i was thinking how was i gonna survive but the heat let up a bit and the breeze kicked in a little which eased things. It was just a leisurely wander round after having something to eat and our usual visit to the Christmas shop. Yes on the 1st August on a hot summers day we were admiring Christmas trees and deccies :)


 I had a cake this year too and boy was it a cake and a half.


 Here is is

It's rare that i get a cake and mostly it's because i baked it but this year my hubby really excelled when he got this ordered. You know me and Owls, it's nearly gone now which is just as well really lol.


I had some lovely gifts including flowers, wine, baking book, little handmade felt owl, candle making kit, toiletries, Owl ornament for the garden and last month hubby treated me to some new clothes although typically i still had nothing to wear to a wedding reception this last weekend lol.


This is now the second week of the holiday and hubby went back to work yesterday. I have found a little creative time regardless of my son being home which is nice. Here is today's creation

This was a white blank canvas that i distressed and then built upon the paper pieced home. I like how it turned out and am looking forward to the next one :)


Oh yes and creations of another kind. Having rifled through my sisters Slimming World recipes i couldn't help having a go at a few and this i made for a friends birthday.


Yoghurt Gingerbread (or my version lol)

Pinch Punch...

Well I'm writing this in advance as tomorrow will be a busy hopefully exciting day. Tomorrow is the 1st August, my 39th birthday. Yes I'm working my way backwards now lol. Tomorrow is also the new challenge over at CCAYR and the first month that you will see my cards as part of the new DT. The challenge for August is to use four of the following on your cards.

Chipboard
Hand stitching
Ribbon
Inking
Stamping
Textured paper (embossed is good!)
Metal embellishments
Alphabet stickers or rub-ons for the sentiment
Stripes

I did struggle a little with this but not because i didn't know which to do more to do with the fact that i decided to use black and white as my theme for this set of cards but with a little help from my dear friend Georgina i got there. I hope you like my cards. Check them out tomorrow :)

Here are a few more creations i had time for this month :)

This card and the one below it i made during a craft evening with Tina of Stampin Up. This is only the second time i have joined Tina and some other ladies for a card making evening but it's always very enjoyable and has given me an insight into the SU products. You can check out her blog at Crafting at the little white house :)

This card and the one below have both been made using the free templates that came with Simply Homemade my favourite crafting magazine. I love the way these cupcakes turned out and yes I'm still distressing lol the novelty hasn't yet worn out. The top card was well received by a good friend of mine and the second cupcake will probably arrive with another good friend tomorrow in time for her birthday on Tuesday. Happy Birthday to Georgina and Jo :)

Well i should be in Stratford tomorrow as it's my birthday too. We are hoping to picnic and hubby has something up his sleevy so time will tell. Enjoy the sunshine while it lasts and ttfn :)