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:

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

Fishy fishy

Whoop my boss let me put a fish tank on my desk at work! I wanted to put our spare fish tank from home on there. I really didn't think he would say yes! I think he was more amused I had asked than anything else!! I have always wanted a fish tank at work! I have had sea monkeys at work before but that was as good as it got! Needless go say they were pretty boring to look at!

I work better when I feel at home in my environment. When I have to move desks or use someone else's desk I always struggle to settle into my work!

I set up my tank this morning and bought done sand (first time since we got out first gold fish a few years ago) and a new filter and two plants. I also bought 4 black phantom tetras to get the tank set up. The sand has made the water very cloudy but that will settle down by the end of the week!

When it is set up fully I would like to get a male Siamese fighter fish and a pleco.

Honeymoon

So, Mr E and I got hitched last week. The weather held out for us thank goodness and other than my Grandpa collapsing whilst we signed the register and getting an ambulance called out for him all was ok. After an ECG he was left to enjoy the rest of the day in the hotel bed. The wedding reception was great fun. My old sixth form friends turned up as did my best friend from when I lived in London. Everyone's speeches were great and the guests enjoyed Mr E's bouncy castle!
A success.

Ok in the end I didn't sew my own dress or the bridesmaids. The most action my machine saw was sewing the order of services together. I did however manage to sew in the day when my dress got ripped twice (just the button hole holding the train up)!



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Location:Italy

Wedding....

Doug proposed to me last October and we have decided to get married in August this year as it is quite a turning point in our lives. My contract at work runs out and I need a new job and Doug finishes university. We thought as we have been living together for a while it would be nice to get married this year. I have always wanted to make my own wedding dress but I don't have enough confidence in my sewing skills so think it is best to buy the dress. I was planning on buying my bridesmaid dresses too that was until we went shopping for them! I have two bridesmaids and both a very different shapes and sizes and personalities. So to make dresses which fit both beautifully I thought I might try to sew them. I am meeting Beka today in Nottingham to choose a pattern. First I want to try making the dress in calico or similar then I want to perfect it and eventually I will either make the real thing or make her a summer dress in floral fabric first before going onto the real dress. We shall see how confident I am feeling.

I am really looking forward to choosing the pattern with her. It'll be great fun giving her a dress that fits well. Hopefully she will like it :-)


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

After years of sewing, perfecting my cake recipes and trawling the internet for inspiration I felt the time has come to record my discoveries somewhere for myself and others who may benefit.  Most of the females in my family can't eat wheat and fortunately while I can dig into a nice chunck of freshly baked break I can't eat dairy so I have learnt to cook without these ingredients. My mum and I have been adapting recipes, making minor changes to being just plain adventurous.  I would like to pass these onto other people who struggle to find a good victoria sponge cake or a nice chocolate brownie recipe!  So  I hope that you enjoy my new blog as much as I enjoy creating it :-D

Clare x