Pandora and chicks!

I have had a pretty rubbish day today... The stress and strains of the past 6 months are finally being released! But on a positive note I did find my favourite pandora charm which my mum gave me. It's a cupcake!! I found it under the bed, I don't know why I didn't look there originally!!





And I also sewed some Easter cards for mum and dad, my aunt and uncle, brother and his gf and my darling husband! I'm quite pleased with them providing I whipped them up at the last minute!!

Graze Box!

Everyone has a guilty pleasure, or so I tell myself! And mine other than loving singing to Glee is snacking on finger food... Olives, popcorn, munch seeds. You get the idea! So as you can imagine the Graze boxes have naturally appealed to me! So my husband came home with a voucher if which there are many. Normally I would dismiss the idea of trying new things where a freebie is offered to entice you but I cracked the other day and dared to be daring! So I went online and orders my graze box. There was loads to choose from, not to much to be overwhelming but enough to offer variety to regulars. I selected what were my favourites (or what I thought would be) and ticked items I wanted to try very soon in hope my box would contain my choices. So when it arrived I was delighted my four favourites were there! I can't wait to try it tomorrow at work. I unfortunately can't keep it going as its just too expensive but if it ever decreases in price I would defiantly do it regularly based on what I have seen never the less tasted!

Photo editing

After finding a blog with beautiful photos I have decided I want to try editing my photos a little more than normal. So here are my first few:

Christmas is on it's way!

Whoop Christmas is on it's way! My colleagues put up the Christmas tree today which was ordered from Homebase and got delivered yesterday. We aren't decorating it until next week, thank goodness! I think I would get bored of Christmas otherwise!

I have found a new website I like:  http://folksy.com/

On Folksy I found lots of nice gifts, decorations and cards I would like to make. Although my only concern is that making these things can often come out being more expensive than buying them!

I love these felt decorations and the heart garland. Felt is so simple to work with and cheap.

I really like the birds and the reindeer!

Also I think this pop up card is cute and fairly simple.

Although how you would neaty cut the crinkles into the bottom I don't kneweven with crinkle sissors!

This card looks more achievable but again small details worry me like how to contro my machine well enough the mak ethe holly or the wiggle lines. I definatly would turn of the feeder.

My favourite decoration from the website however is this reindeer head made from willow!

Ho ho ho!

Only 32 days, 7 hours, 11 mins and 3 seconds until Christmas!

Amazon Addict

I have recently discovered the amazingly cheap goods on Amazon! I have purchased a phone case recently from there for the bargain price of £3 only to discover it didn't fit the screen protector underneath. I was pretty disheartened! So after buying a new more expensive case from a service station I took another look on Amazon. I ordered a phone sock  for a few quid :-) and all of my advent calender fillers for my other half. I also managed to get 5 back and front phone screen protectors for £1.30... now that is a bargain. Having seen them for £7+ in the past I was sure they didn't cost anywhere near that to produce and they are so disposable! Although a handy note is if you put it on and there is dust caught underneath, stick some sellotape on your fingers, lift up the protector and sellotape the dust away and lay it on again. Sorted! I managed to fix an ipad screen protector by sellotaping the whole thing!

A few years ago I made my other half an advent calender by sewing 25 mini stockings and writing numbers on them with fabric paint and then hanging them on a ribbon. Each one is about one and a half credit card lengths and slightly narrower than a credit card width. I normally put a few sweets or chocolate in each one, a sentimental script, whether a memory and a photo, a line or two from the Christmas story or a joke. I also put in a little gift every Sunday. I find it quite hard normally to find relevant gifts and keeping the total advent calender price under £20 but this year I have managed to get all of his presents before November had even started! All of the presents came from Amazon and they got delivered today. I am really impressed with them! Yay just the rest of my shopping to do now!

Crumpets

Last night I decided to make crumpets! I was craving them all day and said this to my mum who said give it a go as my brother had had home made ones at Chatsworth last week and they were incredible! So I decided to drop in at Morrisons on the way home and buy some Egg/Crumpet rings. In the past I have tried an upturned cookie cutter but it wasn't so effective... lots of leakage.

the mix was simple, so flour, yeast, sugar, warm milk and cold water to get it started. I left it in the airing cupboard (I know the flavour wouldn't be as good for this but i was short of time) and cracked it out an hour later. It should have taken two hours at room temperature. I mixed in some bicarbonate of soda and some salt and left it a further 10 mins. 

while waiting I heated up my pan and greased up the rings. The first two I made were too big. I filled the rings three quarters full and the resulting crumpets were dense, and too big and i felt not cooked enough. So I decided to try another time only filling them about 2 cm full. This worked out perfectly. Holes appeared on the top and the bottom was well cooked but not burnt. They tasted lovely. I tried them this morning with butter and chocolate spread. I love the way that the butter oozes through the chocolate spread as it is cut into. They tasted amazing, the only complaint I can make is I can taste the bicarb. I don't think I put enough salt in (had to use a mill rather than fine salt which I had run out of) and maybe this effects the flavour of the bicarb? Either way I will probably use less bicarb next time so I cant taste it.

Nom nom!

My crumpet dough after rising

The crumpets cooking in the pan

The final yummy products

Gingerbread House

With the Christmas period being talked about, the shops putting their decorations up and the in laws discussing when we are to visit over Christmas I can't help but think about what my Christmas bakes will be this year! My husband has already jumped in with a suggestion of a yule log (something I was hoping to make anyway), however having watched the British Bake Off Gingerbread construction competition I have decided I shall master the art of making gingerbread houses. Now I never start with the basics...a mistake perhaps! So this year I do plan to practice by making my own house as a gingerbread look alike. Once I have mastered this I plan to make my family home out of gingerbread for Christmas. My Mum and Dad are hosting a big Christmas gathering for us and our Aussie family who are coming over for the first time in many years. There will be about 14 of us tops and so it would be a perfect time to crack out a beautiful gingerbread version of where Christmas is to be hosted! Mum and Dad live a beautiful barn conversion in Derbyshire which I can imagine being "cutified" for the purpose of baking!

I have been thinking about what I shall use for each component. Making the structure I can't imagine being too hard. I will take photos of each sections and roughly work out the ratio of height to length for each section of the house. What concerns me is what to make the roof tiles of... cereal, chocolate buttons, homemade biscuits. What about the windows? I could crack up hard boiled sweets and melt these in the oven in my gingerbread "window frames" to make see through windows, or perhaps I should I just paint on some white icing? What shall I bind the gingerbread with, icing or caramel?

What I have come to realise about this baking ambition is that my gingerbread houses are going to require much planning especially if I want a professional looking house rather than one of the instant pack houses from the supermarket!

I love the detail of this house but do not expect mine to look anywhere near as good as this one!

This is simple and sweet, if mine looked like this I would be pleased.

This is one of my favorites, It is so sweet and beautifully done.

Again, another detaild gorgeous house, but I feel it is missing snow! I like the detailing of the wooden paneling the best. My parents home is made of large blocks of sandstone which I would like to think I could replicate.

Again, another one which captured my imagination for the detailed textures. Beautiful.

This one was the first one which made me want to do this. If I could make mine look as sweet and tidy as this one I would be pleased.

If all else fails I will do a simple design like this sweet little house. I like the ice cream cones being used for trees.