Welcome 2013 It's been a Long and Bumpy Journey!

I can't quite believe another year has gone by without me blogging here - well I can, but.... It has been a year of big changes and preparation and getting ready and waiting and waiting and waiting. It has tested me and pushed me to the limit. Almost. At times. A year of uncertainty. The doors I pushed in 2011 finally opened in 2012. A dream finally fullfilled in an unexpected way. My excuse for not blogging here? I am finally a Mum and loving it. I have been pushing the doors of adoption for the last 2 years. It has been rather all consuming it has to be said and most of my free time was taken up with form filling in, visits with professionals, compiling files ready for approval. At times I felt as if my creativity was being stifled, although I did my best to keep my creativity going. It has been in the writing for the assessments, where you spend hours and hours each week pouring out your heart and inner being. Months of preparing files with photos of evidence of childcare experience, which I scrapbooked! Further months getting the room ready and preparing a scrapbook of photos to introduce my little girl to her new home and surroundings - and of course the cat! More of all this later! Anyway, finally, here we are. It has been a long journey and lots of uncertainty and a very bumpy ride. Finally we are now both home and doing well. I am loving it but have been too knackared to do much creative in the last few months since we both arrived safely home. The creative things I have done over the last 2 years: scrapbooking, decorating, have all been kept a little quiet as there was so much uncertainty surrounding the process. Getting the room ready:

The cat is adjusting well to having a wee girl chase him everywhere and runs and jumps fast to escape.She, shrieks with delight when he sits on her artwork - usually on her glitter glue!

Joining in Just for Fun

I saw this idea.
It seems to be going round bloggyland.
I also found it happening here and here.
They found out about it here but it might have started somewhere else. Was it you?
Look at your photos and find the 8th folder. then pick the 8th photo in that folder to post.
Just for Fun.
so, I am joining on, just for fun.
My 8th photo from my 8th photo folder is this one.

What's yours?
Where did you first see it?

Last Weekend I Made These Yummies.

Last weekend I made these Strawberry Scones. Yummy.
Can't belive that it has taken me a whole week to write about them for my blog.
Better late than never, eh?
Anyway, here are a few pictures of them and the recipe for you. Enjoy!

50g/2oz c.sugar
284ml buttermilk
50g/2oz butter
400g/14oz sr flour
125g/4 and 1/2 oz strawberries
egg yolk
1 tbsp milk
clotted cream and strawbeery jam to serve.

oven 180 C fan / 200 C/ 400F for 10-20 minutes.

1. add sugar and butternmilk together and rub butter into flour and then combine.
2. add chopped strawberries to the dough and pat out dough onto floured surface 2cm thick.
3. cut out scones and turn upside down onto lightly floured baking tray. Brush flour off scones and brush egge and milk mix onto tops of scones. Leave to rest for 6-8 minutes and bake for 10-20 minutes until golden.I used the recipe from my magazine that I am gradually making some of the inspiring recipes from.And afterwards, the washing up.If only I could train Tudur to do it, rather than just watching it being done. Do you think I have any chance?

project 365 week 7

A great mix of rest and play this week as it has been half term.
Let's see, what have I been up to?
So nice to kick back and take it easy!
February half term!
Monday - day 46/365
Lazy morning, meeting my sister for lunch and then finally got to finish the ironing!

Tuesday - 47/365
Pancakes for Lent. Thought about what to give up - more of a re-aligning, focusing. I am going to give up channel hopping. I gave up TV the other year. It nearly killed me - although the fruits of this sacrifice were amazing. Am hoping to still achieve great things to satisfy and fulfil in the gaps left without channel hopping time these next 40 days.

Wednesday - 48/365
A really lazy day!
You wouldn't believe that this cute kitten, Tudur, woke me up at 3 am with a thud on the door and lay on top of me purring, would you? When I ignored him, he biffed me on the head repeatedly. The discussions about this went on til 4.30 am. He won. I got up and he ran downstairs and hid. When I found him, I shut him in the kitchen and slept peacefully. We became friends again, later and we have had a lovely chilled day. Tonight, he will sleep in the kitchen. He has cooked his goose with freedom of the house at night. I guess I win.

Thursday - 49/365
A day of discovery. My sister and I met with a lady who told me a little more of my history. Amazing what has been hidden, secret all these years. A great day of surprises! More to be revealed!

Friday - 50/365
I love the way this little elephant is making a run for it in the snowy rain at the zoo, when I visited today!

Saturday - 51/365
Scrapbooking Day with friends from church. I got a chance to use my new photo cutters that my niece sent me from Boston, for Christmas. Thank you Rachel - and thanks to Diana who helped me learn how to use them - and the all important see through guides... that I nearly threw away! Oops.

Sunday - 52/365
Snow joke! Woke up to snow - the slushy and crunchy kind, so it was definitely a day for wearing wellies to walk/skid to church! I love my wellies!

Back to work tomorrow!
How long 'til Easter?

Happy February, sweet dreams?!

Happy February everyone!
It is nearly valentines Day and I love hearts.
I was woken up by my neighbours canvinced somone was knocking on my window.
I crept downstairs in the dark.
Tudur purred, happy to seee me and snuggled close in my arms.
My fearless kitten.
Their kitchen door is now open.
Their lights are on.
And their garden sensor light.
looks a bit smokey.
Probably burned toast.
And they woke me up.
bah!
Not a great start for the month is it?
Now I don't feel very loving.
Maybe I should take round some butter for the burnt offering?
It is late - or early.
humpf.
Tudur is now asleep next to me.
Alright for some.
I shall try and go back to sleep again.
Sweet dreams.
Sweet February.
Will try and have more grace and be more loving...
Tomorrow.

Tails of Tudur!

I think Tudur liked his Christmas present...
I got him some treats - a packet of small biscuits - supposed to contain omega fish oil. I had been adding a couple each day to his food.
I knew he liked them...
but hadn't quite realised how much...
until...
Today,
he climbed into the cupboard...

knocked them down...

he found them...and ate the rest!!!

Then...
He nicked my seat!!!

A Relaxing New Years Eve!

A bit of tidying up and cleaning and re-cycling, relaxing, TV, sorting through the lovely Christmas cards, catching up with emails, updating address books and my new calendar and diary for 2010.
I put away all the Christmas decorations and chopped up the Christmas tree for re-cycling!Tudur watched the proceedings, carefully. I usually throw the tree into the back of the car and take it to a park where they chop it up to re-cycle. After I did it last year, I heard that they had apparently stopped it. Oops. So this year, I am attempting to re-cycle it with our usual re-cyling scheme with all the weekly rubbish collection. I hope that my tree counts as "twigs and small branch" for the re-cycling criteria!
I have also been chasing the air in my radiators around the house. I tried to bleed them the other day and obviously didn't do it right as this morning was woken by monsters making lots of noise in the boiler and the radiators. It scared Tudur!
I am writing down thoughts and reflections of this last year 2009 and some hopes and dreams for 2010 in my journal and praying about some things too as I go. It is all good, which I will share in 2010!
Which is very soon!
It is proving to be a fab pyjama day to watch Murder on the Orient Express and Madagascar... and now there might be time to watch a few more classics! I love movies to relax to. don't you?Tudur is really enjoying time to relax too.
I wonder how you will be reflecting and celebrating the end of one year and the start of a New one?

How to make a cake impression

My friend Rachel from myslightlycrazyworld.blogspot.com sent me a message and link today - about a fabulous picture of an amazing cake she saw here...
I am impressed, are you?
Monet eat your heart out! Literally, I guess.
thanks Rachel for the link!
I am beginning to relax now for a few days. Hurrah!
Today was the last day in my other job I have had recently, in the "bling shop" as I have been calling it! When my shift was about to end my niece and her husband and 3 children came in to the store. They were all very excited and pleased to see me at work! They then came back to my place for a while to play with the growing kitten, Tudur! They love him but he is a bit overwhelmed by their eagerness to make friends with him. Especially the youngest,Rebecca, who is 1. She is very mobile now and can corner Tudur very well indeed! She shrieks with joy as she tries to stroke him. He tries to oblige and not move backwards. Good boy. The eldest,Luke, 8, loves to throw things up and down the stairs for him to chase, which he loves. It was going well, until he nearly slid down the stairs with his socks on. Then the middle niece, Hannah, 5, just likes to follow him everywhere too.
They did try and follow him out of the cat flap at one point!

I now have a few days off before starting my new job in the New Year.
New Year - that is soon!
I am planning a quiet new year. I want to do some scrapbooking, watch TV, catch up with cleaning and laundry and tidying the Christmas decorations away and any other things I can find time to tidy away or throw out!
After reading that list, it could be quite a bust few days, after all!
Either way, it will be quality me time with me and Tudur and my new slippers from the bling shop. Aah. goodtimes.
Have fun in whatever way you celebrate the new year.
Happy 2010!

Happy Christmas Time.

I hope you have been having a good Christmas time?
I have.

Walks in the park on Christmas Day complete with a smattering of snow,

busy shoppers at work wanting bargains in the sales, cards, emails and letters from friends, gifts in the post, time to relax with friends, time to watch TV and to cook and taste yummy food.
Tudur has enjoyed hiding in his home made den of drying laundry hung over the stairs!

Yesterday it was time to spend with family.
We had our family Christmas Day yesterday - with those of us here in the UK gathering form various locations from England and Wales for the day. There were 14 of us as some of my family are in Boston, USA.
It was a really lovely day and as we all get on well, it was a very relaxing day.
I am very thankful for that.
Food, chats, laughter and gift exchange, in between children playing with toys and chatting and wanting you to play with them.
my family all liked the look of their jams and chutneys and my brother liked his mini Christmas cake. I used edible glitter on this one!

I still have to finish decorating the cake for my sister, but she lives nearby, has a big Christmas cake to eat and so is in no rush for her mini cake. I am looking forward to having some time to enjoy decorating it.
I will be finishing my job in the bling shop tomorrow, so will have the last few days over new year to relax and get ready for my new job.
Exciting Time!

O Christmas Tree!

O Christmas Tree,
O Christmas Tree,
Oh how I love my Christmas Tree
Is that wrong?
I hung lots of decorations.
White lights, gold and silver bells in a garland, the cheapest plastic shatterproof gold baubles I could find, some hand decorated pine cones with oodles of colourful glitter glue and my collection of very loved decorations. This one is one of my favourites, a gift last year from friends in Scotland!

Tudur seems to like it too...

He thinks it is a great place for hide...

and seek!

To tree or not to tree?

I love Christmas trees and the opportunity they bring to have fun decorations to hang and lights and sparkle and bling. My kitten, Tudur, is 7 months old and loves leaping around, especially whilst he is hidden in a big yellow bag. This causes him to fly across the room at great speed.

The other day, I discovered the big yellow bag upstairs!
So my dilemma has been this: to tree or not to tree this year....?
I have visions (nightmares) of the tree, lights, decorations and kitten flying around the room and landing with a crash in a heap of broken mess.
As an alternative, I have some precious old vintage baubles that I really don't want broken, so I have put them in a big glass cylinder and they look lovely.

I am very pleased with them and everyone thinks they are great too.
I then hung some of my non-breakable decorations on my lighted twigs...
and thought that would be it.

But it's not the same.
I miss my tree...
and half the lighted twigs are now considerably more light less as most of the lights are broken and irreplaceable as I have had it for several years now.
I have now lived with my alternative half lighted twigs for over a week I realised that I really miss having a tree...
So, to add to the festive spirit of joy and fun and merriment, last night I went out with my friend Abbie...
and brought this...

My Christmas tree!
A 4ft high Norway spruce.
Isn't it lovely?
Sitting beautifully in it's stand with water and just waiting to be decorated - or leapt on - whichever happens first!
Today, I aim to add my lights, some extremely cheap plastic non breakable baubles I found in a local store and move my decorations from the half lit twigs. I will hopefully make some more and get some photos before the tree and afore mentioned contents go flying!
Ah. My Christmas tree.
I love my Christmas tree.
I am very happy.
I wonder what Tudur thinks?

Our Thanksgiving meal

Yesterday, we, the groovy girlie cake chicks did the most fabulous Thanksgiving meal together :-) for some of our friends.
Tudur helped me decide which table cloth to use...

and I used the wreath I decorated with pine cones, orange slices and cinnamon sticks as my centrepieces, with a candle in the middle.

There were 11 of us in the end and everyone brought something!
We had time to share some things we have been thankful for each over this last year. It was good to reflect on things we are thankful for and also to hear more about each other's lives too.
We ate turkey, mashed potato, stuffing, sausages, fresh greens, honey glazed carrots,sweet potato casserole with oats and marshmallows on top, roast parsnips. We also had stuffed bread as a vegetarian option.
For the stuffed bread I sauteed red onion, garlic, carrot, celery, green pepper, mushrooms. I used fresh cranberries and chestnuts for a lovely Christmassy flavour. Season with salt and pepper and mixed herbs. Simply carve off one thin slice from one end of a small loaf of bread and scoop out the centre of the bread.(One of my friends actually ate all the centre of the loaf!) Stir in some grated cheese before adding to the centre of the loaf and then place the end slice back. You can you small cocktail sticks or kebab skewers and heat in a moderate oven for about 20 minutes.
We then ate pumpkin pie, apple pie and chocolate cupcakes. Yummy.
I also got to wear my red shoes too.
Delicious. Great food and great company with my fabulous friends.
Thank you friends for a wonderful evening.

It's beginning to look a bit more like Christmas!

It really is beginning to look a bit more like Christmas in my wee house!
On Thursday I went shopping with my sister. I love spending time with my big sister and we had lots of fun looking at some great ideas for Christmas decorations this year. We went to a florist wholesaler and shared the cost on some bits and pieces: cinnamon sticks, dried orange slices, pine cones. I have put some of them in a couple of square shaped glass vases for instant seasonal pot pourri effect.Simple!

I decided that to do a tree this year would be asking for trouble this year with my kitten, Tudur. He likes to leap around and has sometimes set the burglar alarm off(he is clearly a cat burglar!) I have some lovely, treasured glass baubles for my Mum and Dad's tree and my Gran's which I would love to be able to continue to use for years. I have had visions(or would that be nightmares?)of Tudur leaping and swinging from the top of a tree... So, instead of a tree, I bought a big glass cylinder and put all my glass baubles in it. I love it and it was much easier to do.
At the moment, all baubles are still intact and beautiful.
My Christmas cards have all arrived! I only ordered them as postcards the other day! VistaPrint were very quick. The printing is great so I am very pleased and impressed. I need to put them in envelopes and post them now.

My marmalade has worked, for the most part!
The fruit peel seems to have risen to the top, though, presumably that is because I poured it into the jars too quick?
I really love the funky shaped jars I got from the jam jar shop!
My big wooden spoon arrived too, so now I can make more yummies for Christmas gifts!
One of my friends suggested that the difference between marmalade and chutney is marmalade gone wrong. We'll see, Richie!

Today I made yummy things!

I have had a very productive day today!

First I made bread in my lovely breadmaker. Today I followed a softgrain loaf recipe and just used 1/2 white flour and 1/2 wholemeal flour instead of softgrain flour. This works and produces a soft and light loaf.

Then I made some more cupcakes!
I had some of the pudsey bear cupcake holders that Rachel gave me, left over from the cakes I made for Children in Need day on Friday. I will take them to my local church tomorrow and see if any of my friends wish to make a donation to Children in Need. For these cakes, I used a gluten free recipe from cupcake magic book.(apparently!)It was a cherry bakewell cupcake type recipe. I used ground almonds, egg whites and yolks separated and pushed a cherry into each one. I still have to ice them in the morning.Quickly.

Then I made jam.
I used an old recipe of my Mum's for apple and blackberry jam.
I used 3 lb apples, 1 and 1/2 lb blackberries, 3 lb sugar.

Tudur supervised, of course. He patiently watched the softening of the fruit, waited for the sugar to dissolve whilst I stirred it in and then seemed fascinated to see the steam rise as it boiled for 10 minutes.Test the jam is setting, by putting a small blob on a plate.(It will form almost a skin quite quickly.) Put the fruit jam quickly into sterilised jars. I use a jug to do this. Add waxed seals and seal the lids. Wipe jars and any spillages quickly with a clean cloth. This will save having a sticky kitchen. Wash the pan immediately in warm soapy water.It was enough to make 5 assorted sized jars!
I didn't have many jars and lids that matched!
I have just placed an order with this jam jar shop that sell jars! Thank you Abbie for telling me about them.

Some of these jars of jam will be some delicious Christmas gifts! Others might just be for me!