Snow joke!

I'm not the messiah or a boy but I am a very naughty blogger!

I have posted nothing for so long, it isn't because I tire of typing all manner of happenings, but simply because I have been so busy preparing for our very first vintage stall...or was. Well, this and the fact that I lost every fight with my kids to the laptop recently, no more mention of that!  Any hoo, on Sunday we were due to trot over to a village roughly 20 miles away, not far is it?

For weeks we've been sourcing lovely crockery, admiring it, washing it, admiring it, packing it carefully away, getting it out to play with it, admired it some more and set up our stall for a practice run then admired that too. I made a few felt crafty bits and bobs, we painted some shelving for displaying our wares. We spent Saturday baking cakes to scatter around our much admired crockery and, then...it snowed, *$#&*$£"*&^%$£"#! I have no idea what that is actually meant to be a substitute for but believe me it is a profanity worthy of  prosecution! A new swear word if you will.

So, after a phone discussion with my cousin and partner in crockery accumulation we decided that it wasn't worth trying to get to the village where it was to be held, the main roads were pretty bad (the one we live on has been closed for two days), and more snow had been forecast.
But what to do with so much cake?! Well, being the giving souls they are, my cousin and her husband said they would walk to our house and help us to sort out the plethora of cake we were in possession of. Isn't that just the kindest offer? Indeed they came and we polished off a rather large amount of our baked goods by which time the sun decided to appear and clear the roads. Fortunately we were in our happy place having consumed so much sugary fayre and so we simply laughed.

Yeah right, believe that last sentence and you'll believe anything! We did eat plenty, but laughing came after the disgruntled mutterings and tiniest, most ladylike usage of swear words, of course.

So, let's try to get back on track and fill in a couple of happenings.

Our latest Cake and Bake Club offerings.

My Aunt's veggie pasties, courtesy of The Hairy Dieter's cookbook.
We ate these alongside her homemade White Bean Soup, very tasty. 



We were two members down last meeting but we still ate more than was necessary.




 Cherry Cheesecake Pie, soooo nice, I'm very tempted to make this again for the next meeting
purely so as not to deprive our two missing members of it's deliciousness you understand.



We have acquired the habit of partaking in a healthy bowl of soup at kick off. At our first meeting we had only sweet entries and were all feeling extremely overindulged and fed up of cake. So now we have it in turns to produce a savoury dish whilst the host of the month supplies soup before we commence. We still overindulge though, naturally.

Top layer are my Espresso Cupcakes, wow, they give such a caffeine kick!
Bottom is my Husband's Honey Cake, a new favourite.

My sister's Chocolate and Pistachio Fudge, corr!





 

Here are a few little bowls for our stall, if I can bear to part with them!

I just love these bowls, I love roses and I love blue, what more could you ask, I ask yer?

 Pink and white prettiness.




 

We are booked at another Vintage Fair in a couple of weeks, all is not lost.

So, there you have it. A little catch up, boring it might be but I like to gaze upon tasty cakes and pretty china and so should you!



T.T.F.N

X

Check out me Booty!

I have some smashing (bad choice of words) lovely china to show off about.
These beauties are supposed to be going on our Vintage stall in a few weeks but whether I can part with them is another matter. 
That's the trouble I'm having right now you see. I have to part with it. I'm used to buying bit and bobs for home but the other week my lovely cousin told me that she was going to book a stall at a Vintage fair in the village where she works and would I like in on it! Well, I think she already knew the answer to that. We've talked about it for long enough but never actually got around to taking the plunge.
We visit the fairs, ooh and ahh, buy stuff and then daydream about our very own little stally type empire. In fact it's a dream of my sisters and mine to sell the stuff we make too. As my sister has a feisty two year old she will be jumping in when she can. So, here we are, attempting to take the first step towards our dream of even bigger and tastier stuff!


Who doesn't love a cake stand?
 Please ignore the wires and pipes behind my mixer, we're in the midst of installing new kitchen units and are umming and ahhing over wall tiles, anybody's guess when that'll be decided!



Johnson Bros. serving dish, always useful.

I just really like this glass dish, I can shove all manner of things in this and they'll look pretty :)
Probably bon bons as my cousin has an urge to plonk bon bons in any vessel she gets her mitts on!

 
I have more prettiness to share in the form of crockery, but for now that's all folks!

These bits I get to keep, these are my own so all is not lost. I do have my eye on a glass jug that's supposed to go on the stall but I need to twist my husband's arm about that, it'll look right at home amongst this lot too!
 
 Oh, I made this Honey cake today, it's out of this book I bought from The Works a couple of weeks ago and it slips down a treat with a steamy mug of tea (the cake, not the book) that would be just silly.

 T.T.F.N
X

 

Thrifty findings!

I thought I'd kindly share some of my latest charity shop booty with anyone whom may stumble across my daft blog!
Unfortunately the clothing isn't mine as I rarely find anything that would suit me anywhere close to my gargantuan size.


Beautiful Boden dress

Lovely Laura Ashley skirt (need two of these to fit my child bearing hips!)

Fatface blouse (if only this would fit my ample bosom)

Cute spotty Boden blouse with sequin detail on the sleeves.

So there you have it, great finds but sadly none for me, my daughter made out like a bandit as usual, much to her delight!

I have some smashing (bad choice of word there) china to post too, ooh, it's like winning the lottery when your stumble across a great find isn't it?

T.T.F.N

Cake! That's all really.

Warning! Do not attempt to read this post if you are abstaining from cake!




Our September offerings.

I don't get together with other crafters to sew, knit or crochet, which does look like such fun.What I have been doing every four weeks since September 2012 however, is meeting up with my sister, cousins and Aunt at one of ours homes to hold our Cake and Bake Club. We all simply enjoy baking and most importantly, eating. We are greedy (even though not everyone will admit it) I will though, I'm a greedy for cake and even though I don't always take the biggest piece it doesn't mean I don't want to, so there! 




My sister's Lemonade cake, want more!

                  

 Any hoo, it's really just an excuse to get together without it having to be at some annual event or other. We have so much fun chatting about our efforts and writing down comments in our 'minutes' book.

 

 

My latest entry taken from the recipe below, delicious!

The host is responsible for writing down our thoughts and comments for each offering so they can be very cutting (get it?) about a particular cake, pie etc. Or they can be very kind and diplomatic depending on the host of the evening.




Salted caramel chocolate cake made by my cousin-yum.



We are becoming more critical as the months go by though, I think you could call it constructive criticism...I think, but, I do worry that we are just enjoying insulting each others efforts a little too much. We share the same sense of humour which I suppose can be a little hard to take if you aren't used to it. However we cry with laughing at each other, it's so exhilarating!  Laughter is such a great tonic, what makes you laugh until you cry?

T.T.F.N

Failed!

I read an article about a family recently who have decided to buy only British this year simply to establish their patriotism and support British producers.

I do like to see our flag on things.

All very highly commendable, I admire them greatly, problem is I took it upon myself to join in and promptly announced to family and friends that I, too would be buying only British produce this year. I have a fairly multicultural family too, so in no way is it intended to disrespect other countries produce in at all. Just purely for the need to support our own industry, Totally Locally and all that.

How funny is this? English breakfast tea blended and packed in Germany
along with a Whittard tea cosy adorned with
Royal guards and Corgi's, made in China!

.

I also admire the patriotism shown by by Americans and Canadians, they fly their flag here, there and everywhere. My cousin in Canada seems to have no problem sourcing gifts for us with the Maple leaf emblem on and I think this is lovely. It is getting easier to find items here but I wonder if this will peter out as royal events aren't at the fore.

Trouble is I have big fat failed already! Typical, I get caught up in a moment and just run with it.
It would be quite an achievement for me to actually think things through before shouting it from the rooftops.

The very day I made the announcement I trotted of to buy a bechamal sauce, made in Poland.
As if that wasn't enough to establish the fact that I am such a flippety jibbet I accompanied my sister to Ikea just a couple of days after, I know! Could I make it any clearer that I am so very forgetful? Probably not.
All I have to do now is come to terms with my conscience and try a little harder...if I remember!

On the flip side I did get a couple of pretty things though ;)

A lovely little sweetie bowl

A pretty box for my daughter's room :)


T.T.F.N

Fox Trot!

Saturday morning surprise!
Foxy Loxy and Basil Brush were at large in our garden.
We see them regularly at the front but not normally at this time of the day and on the back too. It was about 9am when our youngest son casually announced the presence of a fox on our back garden.
But, as we crept towards the back window and peered over to where he was pointing we realised we were under surveillance by another one tucked into a corner!

Peek-a-boo!
Got any Jelly babies?(sorry,I'm a sad old Basil Brush fan)

So beautiful close up, I was desperately trying to get my camera ready without alarming them. I'm not very good at photographing inanimate objects as it is, so you can imagine what a challenge it was for me to get any pics of wily foxes at all!


Foxy Loxy ignoring us.

The first fox, the smaller of the two appeared to have an injured paw and was running to and fro trying to find a means of escape. This isn't easy, even for a fox on our garden.
Our house has been the family home for over 43 years now and until 2009 my lovely Daddo lived here in which time he very thoroughly secured the whole perimeter to keep his dogs in. Luckily foxes are far more nimble than the dogs, so eventually they managed to scramble over a trellis topped fence leading to the side of the house. Now, although the side and front have also received the dog proofing treatment it's slightly easier for them to escape to freedom over the chainlink fencing which is concealed in the hedge, so off they went...after investigating the tyre swing!

Can you see them through the branches?
One to the left of the tyre swing, one to the right.

Basil under the table while Foxy Loxy heads for the corner.

The first fox was through the hedge and away closely followed by the second fox who had another lucky escape as it ran across the front of a car. Due to so much snow on the road the car was travelling very slowly, so all was well.

There you have the tale of Little Foxes on their Saturday morning jaunt.


T.T.F.N!

 

Oh Crumbs indeed!
I can't believe that I have actually got this far with my own actual blog!
I have no idea why I'm doing it other than to amuse myself with my ramblings, I am a rambling gal of the highest calibre.
I've been reading some smashing blogs now for quite some time and they make me smile, laugh and occasionally cry.
I'm not a terribly exciting person, I don't have my own business, I just do day to day stuff which I thought might be quite nice to record on here and read back from time to time. I'll find it funny and my sister will too, I'm sure...if, in fact I pluck up the courage to tell her about it!

I do like stuff, pretty china, quaint stuff, I mess about making bits and bobs for my family and imaginary friends but I'm afraid I wear sensible shoes so you won't be seeing any sparkly high heel winkle picker type shoe on here. Apart from the fact that I can't walk in them I am 5'10" and very clumsy, not a great combination or even a remotely pretty sight.

This is a way of leaving comments on some lovely blogs without feeling like an intruder too, does that make sense? It does to me, I think.

Oh, it's snowing again, wonder if that's a sign that I am indeed making a fool of myself, more than likely is, it's what I excel in.

The thing is, if I don't do it now, while January is still upon us I'll have to wait until some other significant date. Weird? Oh I know I am, but I can't just embark on something like this randomly in the middle of February or March now can I?

I'll leave a snowy image of our garden, simply to be polite and topical and for my own amusement if nothing else!

T.T.F.N