Day 150 of 365

Today saw the removal of the truly hideous "Tree" paper from our hall, stairs and landing. We think it has been on the walls for close on 20 years!! Originally we were going to remove it in sections so we didn't have to do it all at once. That never happened. Once we started it we just had to finish it! We started at 9am and finished about 3.30pm!!!

Here is Samuel giving me a helping hand before disappearing into the living room to play x-box with his pals!!

Birthday boy

Another Birthday today - Moss is 7

Days 148 & 149 of 365

Day 149

Bacon butties - My favourite

Day 148

More iron tablets!!

Happy Birthday

Happy Birthday to my sister Ruth. 42 today. Where do the years go?

Day 146 & 147 of 365

Day 146 - More yummy papers to play with.



Day 147 - The Gym is working!!

Day 145 of 365

Look what I've found!!

Day 144 of 365

Beginning to bloom

Rocky Road

I love taking these fancy photos. Put cake on white plate, hold plate up to light of kitchen window, take picture.........hey presto............ Oh yeah, then eat cake!!

Warning - Absolutely NOT for those on any kind of weight loss plan/diet. This is Fully Loaded!!

Rocky Road Bars

Sweet, a bit crunchy and really delicious, make these rocky road bars for all the family, just be sure you hide one for yourself!

• Makes: 16
• Prep time: 15 mins
• Cooking time: 2 hrs 30 mins (2 hours chilling time)
Ingredients
• 100g/4oz unsalted butter (I used salted and they are just as good)
• 225g/8oz plain chocolate, broken into pieces
• 2tbsp golden syrup
• 2tbsp cocoa powder
• 2tbsp caster sugar
• 100g/4oz Maltesers
• 100g/4oz mixed milk and white chocolate chips
• 100g/4oz mini marshmallows
• 225g/8oz ginger biscuits, broken into pieces
• Icing sugar to dust

Method
1. Line a 20 cm/8in square cake tin with baking parchment.
2. In a small pan heat the butter, plain chocolate, golden syrup, caster sugar, cocoa powder and stir together with a wooden spoon. Once melted together leave to cool for 10 minutes.
3. In a large bowl place the Maltesers, milk and white chocolate chip, mini marshmallows, ginger biscuits and bind together with the melted chocolate sauce.
4. Pour into the lined tin and leave to set in the fridge for a minimum of 2 hours.
5. Remove from cake tin and slice into 16 snack-sized rocky road bars.
6. Dust with icing sugar to serve.

Yes Sharon there will be some at work tomorrow!! :0)

Day 143 of 365

Nosey Parker having a look to see if anything took a fancy to his birdhouse. Unfortunately due to the neighbours cat sitting on the back wall nothing came this year. Next year there will be no cat!!!!!!!!!

Do you ever wonder?

Do you ever have one of those days when you wonder what it is that you've done all day? I do and it's mainly at the weekend as before I know it it's teatime and the day is gone. With this in mind I thought today I would take a picture of everything I've done (up till now). So here we have....
1. Making the beds....

2. Putting away yesterday's ironing........
3. Putting in today's washing..........

4. Unstacking and re-stacking the dishwasher..........

5. Using my cheepy bread maker to make a white loaf for the first time. The last machine we bought was expensive and made grey bricks....it went back to the shop!!.................

6. Cleaning the kitchen.................

7. More ironing. This time work/school shirts. I always leave them till last as I hate doing them!!

8. Hanging out the washing. Great to be able to hang it out in the sun.

9. 3 hours later the bread is done and tastes delicious.................

10. Making "Rocky Road". Recipe to follow..............

11. Getting to grips with adding stuff to my new phone. My poor sister got all the test text messages yesterday!! Sorry Sib LOL!

12. A spot of blogging...........................

13. And finally for now a seat and some hooky time. I realised today I haven't hooked anything since the Easter hols!!

What have you been up to today?

Day 142 of 365

A butterfly punch. A JBP today from my sister. I think this is her subtle way of telling me I need to scrap more!!!

"All About Me" Blog-hop

This little hop around the blogs has been lovingly organised by Mel over at I Speak Melsh. She wanted us to have a look at All about Me at Big Picture Scrapbooking and see what we could come up with.
The class was an accordion book in a small tin but I didn't have a tin so I drew around an envelope I got in a Scrapagogo kit ages ago and made an accordion style book to go inside.

I've gone for" less is more" as the envelope will end up as part of my on going Book of Me. I've used the gorgeous Cosmo Cricket Early Bird paper in lime green and turquoise (two of my favourite colours), added a button as a fastener and punched some flowers with some bling added just because.

I've then added a few photos of me this year on the back along with some journalling.

I'm sorry about this photo but no matter how hard I try I can't get it to load landscape!!

Now you should have got to me via Rhinda at Gallo Organico who has a lovely little blog you should really take a look at. I'll now be passing you onto Ruth at Everyday Life of a Suburban SAHM

If you follow the links on each blog you will eventually end up right back where you started!!!

New babies

Click to enlarge.

It's official....Mr & Mrs Swan have 7 new babies. The same number as last year. We've been keeping an eye on them for a few weeks but Mrs S has always been on the nest. Two nights ago she had disappeared and we found her and Mr S on the small pond with her wings outspread. John thought that the babies were underneath. It turned out he was right and last night we saw 5 babies on the water. Tonight there are 7 so I think that the grey I could see on Mrs S's back last night must have been the other two!!

Day 141 of 365

An Autumn tree in Spring!!

That's what it looks like to me as it has purple coloured leaves.

There's a Blog-hop a comin'

Is there now? Oh yes there is. Another blog-hop this weekend and it's All About Me!! Pop back on Saturday to see the wonderful crafty things we blog-hopping, partygoers have been making :0)

Day 139 & 140 of 365

Day 139

Apple Blossom
John's Christmas/Birthday present was a new friut tree and so far it seems to be doing OK.

Day 140

Absolute essentials

It was a trip to Aberdeen today for Samuel's long awaited orthodontic appointment. We had time to kill before going so I popped into John Lewis to stock up on my yearly Estee Lauder cosmetics. The way I look at it is...yes I know they are expensive but I don't drink, don't smoke and I go out to work so I can spend a little on me every now and again. The eye shadow was free so a bargain too!!

Eight of Eight

So, Mel at I speak Melsh is responsible for this post. She suggested that you look in the area on your PC where you keep your photos and select the 8th folder. Open up that folder and select the 8th photo. Post what you see.

Here we have the road through Brodie Castle in Dec 2008. It was thick with frost and VERY cold. Just the job for a hot chocolate by and open fire to thaw out.

Day 138 of 365

New length and no grey!!

Day 137 of 365

A little hooky update - squares 1 - 37

Day 136 0f 365

A good day for hanging out washing

Day 135 of 365

:: A bit of card making ::

Day 134 of 365

My sister Ruth said yesterday I should photograph my daily life as part of the 365 Challenge so today we have a photo of me drying my hair!! A bit fuzzy but that's because it's in the mirror.

This moment

{this moment} – A Friday ritual. A single photo – no words – capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment.

Day 133 of 365

Hot chocolate and homework - a good combination :0)

Sorry about the photo. Having trouble thinking what to take a picture of!!

Day 132 of 365

Never too old for lollipops :0)

Day 131 of 365

:: Evening view ::

Day 130 of 365

:: Tiffin ::

Tiffin is an Indian and British term for a light meal eaten during the day. The word became popular in British India. In South India the term is generally used to mean an in-between-meals snack and it is customary to be offered a "Tiffin" as a courtesy when you visit a Tamil resident. In home baking, there are a number of "Tiffin" recipes, most using broken biscuits and chocolate as the main ingredients. So although the recipe below specifies specific ingredients and quantities - feel free to experiment!

Ingredients:
4 oz (or 125g or one stick) butter or margarine
1 tablespoon sugar (note that US tablespoons are 20% smaller than the UK so if you are in N America, use more for this and other tablespoon measures below)
2 tablespoons drinking chocolate
1 tablespoon golden syrup
2 tablespoons dried raisins (I used cranberries)
8oz (250g) Rich Tea or plain or digestive biscuits (crackers/cookies in US)
6oz (170g) good quality milk chocolate (or half plain, half milk)

Method:
Melt the butter and sugar with the syrup in a large pan. Add the raisins and drinking chocolate and bring to the boil. Allow to bubble gently for two to three minutes to thicken a little.

Crush the biscuits (crackers) with a rolling pin (putting them in a plastic bag beforehand cuts down on the mess). Don't leave the biscuit pieces too large, however, or the finished slab will tend to break up when cut. Mix the crumbs well into the melted mixture, coating thoroughly. Press into a lined 8 inch by 11 inch (28cm by 20cm) shallow Swiss roll tin and level out, pushing down the mixture well.

Melt the chocolate carefully (avoiding getting it boiling) and spread over the top. Leave to set in a cool place then cut into 15 or 24 pieces with a sharp knife. You can cut it into squares or rectangles or

Day 129 of 365

John and Samuel comparing paw sizes!!

Wildlife watch

Another beautiful day today and no time to waste on housework. The way I look at it is...the dust will be back tomorrow so why dust today? !!

Today we decided on the spur of the moment to visit the wildlife park at Kincraig which is the new home of Mercedes the polar bear. It's about an hour away in the Cairngorm National Park.

She was not very interesting and spent the whole time like this!!
Here are just a few of my favourites from the park.....................

The Amur tiger cubs are now 9 months old and just look how cute they are.

A Przewalski's Horse decided to come for a closer look!

A one off shot of my favourite. The Pine Marten. Cute but they never sit still long enough to get a good picture.

Just check out those horns....cool or what? He's a Markhor in case you were wondering

And finally for now the European Elk. There was just something about his face that made me laugh :0)