It's Monday

Too Cute.  Have a Good one! X

Bloggies First Birthday and 'Give Away' Winners

A Celebration is in order and every celebration needs a special cake.  Bloggies Birthday Cake is in honour of my first ever post, one year ago, 'When Life Gives You Lemons-Make a Lemon Drizzle Cake'.  This is no ordinary 'Lemon Drizzle Cake'.  It is complete with Lemon Icing and Popping Candy!

Even the candle is no ordinary candle, only the best for my Bloggie Birthday Celebration, a Number '1' Sparkler!  Very cute but it smoked the kitchen out just a tad!  The kids think I have gone mad but they tucked into the cake any way and enjoyed the Popping Candy.  I love Popping Candy.

Give Away Winners
Drawn by Random Number Generator

1st Prize - Rachel

and three Runners up

Knitting Nix

Hippy Witch

and 

Jane
(As long as I have your address your prizes will be posted out at the end of the week.)

Thank you to everyone for entering and being my Super Duper Blog Buddies X 

A Picture for each Month of Bloggies Existence Collage

Birthday Bloggie and Blog Awards - Yeah!

My Blog is having a very Happy Birthday Week.  It has been lucky enough to have been the proud recipient of not one but two Fabulously Flattering Blog Awards this week.  Blog awards are a great bit of fun and they do wonders for fluffing up the Ego of the average blog.  It is like receiving a sticker at school for 'Good Work'.  They help me to stay motivated and to keep trying with my 'Blog Writing' it is super duper to know that my ramblings are appreciated/ enjoyed by others.   I am very grateful to Hippywitch Crafts for awarding me 'The Versatile Blogger' Award and I would also like to thank Kashi's Corner for my second 'Liebster' Blog Award.  I feel a bit under dressed for a grand award ceremony, so I will quit with the delusions of grandeur and get on with the business of accepting my blogging obligations that go with accepting the awards.

The Versatile Blogger Award may keep me busy for a while....

Here's the rules,

After receiving the award you then need to:

1. In the same post, add the Versatile Blogger Award.
2. In the same post, thank the blogger who nominated you in a post with a link back to their blog.
3. In the same post, share 7 completely random pieces of information about yourself.
4. In the same post, include this set of rules.
5. Inform each nominated blogger of their nomination by posting a comment on each of their blogs.
6. ooh and forward it to 15 other bloggers.

Seven Random pieces of information about myself, huh, Random is my middle name!  How Random can I be!   I did something similar for My First Blog Award, I will try not to repeat myself, but really my life has not been all that exciting (well not the bits I am willing to share with you!  lol)

1)  My Favourite animal is a dog.  (chickens are a close second, and hamsters and budgies and cats and alpacas.)   More specifically a 'Sausage dog' is my favourite sort of dog.

2)  I am the proud owner of a 'Barking' Budgie!  He is barking mad, but he does actually bark, multiple times a day.  My old Sausage dog taught him!

3)  I have been to quite a few 'Rock Concerts'.  I never grew out of my passion for 'Heavy Metal'.  I can't decide if I would like 'Led Zeppelin's' Stairway to Heaven or AC/DCs 'Highway to Hell' played at my funeral.   I am assuming I will have a while to decide!

4)  My first car was one of these:

A Mini Countryman.  Writing about it makes me want another one.  It was a beautiful old banger!  It had fungi growing around the window and a hole in floor that you could see the road through.  When it failed its MOT the list of faults was tragic.  I miss him!

5)  My Mother was a Music Teacher...but I can't play a note.  I have tried the recorder, the guitar, drums, clarinet and the oboe...all to varying degrees of non success!  To be honest I would have trouble playing a triangle but I can remember being enthusiastic about the tambourine when I was a child.

6)  I once met Van Morrison.

He looked a bit like this, because this is him!

7)  The person I would most like to meet is:

If anyone could arrange it I would be awfully awfully grateful.  I Love Ozzy!  I actually would like to Marry him!  Don't tell Sharon.  Ozzy and I would be a match made in Heaven.  He would fit into this house perfectly!

Blimey that is random!

Now I have to forward 'The Versatile Blogger' Award on to 15 other bloggers!  There are a lot of us little Bloggers out there!

These Fifteen are in no particular order but I do recommend you pay them each a visit.  I am sure they will be very pleased to see you.

1)  Kashi's Corner

2)  According to Matt

3)  Simply Life

4)  Teresa Kasner

5)  A Trifle Rushed

6)  Grateful for Crochet

7)  Lally Lou Lou

8)  Mina and Me

9)  Cherry Heart

10) Smile at the Flowers

11) The Smiling Robot

12) Bunny Mummy

13) Chalky's World

14) Nicole and the Bee

15) Knits and Crosses

The rules for accepting the 'Liebster Blog' award are simple and a great way of networking through the blogging community. You link to the blog that gave it to you. You pick 5 blogs of your choice to pass it on to, (they have to have under 200 followers for The Liebster Award). Share a link to your chosen blogs. Then finally, display the "Liebster button" on your blog. Simples.


My Liebster Blog Nominations are:  ( I have done this once before!  here ) 


1)  Daily Dose of Deuce
2)  Gothy and Her crafty Stuff ( a great new Blog, I love Kat's Knitting and Spinning)

3)  Eggbird Designs (Lovely Knitting and Crochet site and a talented 'new' designer.)

4)  Aurora Blythe ( A very pretty blog) 

5)  Knitting nix (More great knitting and other stuff and to prove I have not fallen out with her over the squidgy Cinnamon Rolls! lol)

If I were you I would bake a nice cake and find some time to relax with a cuppa and your feet up so you can peruse these lovely bloggies!  Enjoy.  X 

Pie Day Friday - Cheese, Potato and Onion Pie Mmmmm

I like the left over pastry snacks on Pie Day Friday sometimes more than I like the pie.  These are Cheese and Marmite Pinwheels.  (The little Bart Simpson plate says 'I do what I want, when I want!'  Very apt!)  I topped the Pin Wheels with a three seed mix and they were delicious baked.  Enthusiasm is certainly dwindling for 'Pie' in this house.  My brood are fussy little 'so and so's'!    I took it upon myself to consume almost the entire 'Cheese, Potato and Onion Pie' single handed, it does keep for at least three days well!  It is also delicious cold.  I love the simple combination of cheese, potato and onion. It's a good job too when you are eating it for breakfast, dinner and tea, for three days!)  I am amazed three simple ingredients can make such a delicious flavour.  Obviously I am on my own in that opinion in this house. They thought that it was an 'Apple Pie' and never got over the shock or disappointment.

I made a batch of Shortcrust Pastry.
Ingredients for the Filling:
200g of Grated Strong Cheddar
2 Onions peeled and Finely sliced
3 medium potatoes, peeled and thinly sliced
200ml cream
1 egg

Method
Line a pie plate with half of the pastry.  Layer the base with the potatoes, onion and cheese.  Beat the cream and egg together and pour it carefully over the filling, reserve a tablespoon of this mixture to brush on the lid of the pie before baking.  Put the Pastry lid on the pie.  Brush with remaining egg and cream mixture.  Bake in a medium oven for 45 minutes.  Voila, one magic pie, made from very simple ingredients.

I am sure these boys would eat my Pie!  They don't look fussy!

Hope you are all set for a relaxing weekend.  X 

Forest Dwellers (2)

Today I survived the second of ten 'Forest School' sessions.  It was great fun.  The crackle of a camp fire and the sting of it's smoke in your eyes.  The children lit their fires first time this week.  They must have wanted the Hot Chocolate and cups of tea pretty bad.

'Our' camp is just for us, one day a week for ten weeks.  This week was spent on home improvements.  A rain shelter that got called the 'annex' or the 'extension'.  The children also wanted to build a tree house off the ground.  Today they got the base/floor made and attached to the trees, they also made a ladder to climb up to the house.  The tree house doubles up to keep the wood supply dry underneath.  It is all getting pretty sophisticated.  The kids use saws sensibly and really get empowered with the freedom.  They loved the rope swings again and enjoyed tree climbing.  My photography was hopeless this week I will try much harder next week. They spent a good couple of hours pretending to be Ewoks.  A couple of boys role played magicians around the fire conjuring flames.  One boy tried to get comfortable under the 'table' for a sleep but the others were making 'too much noise'!

We all ate an 'Al Fresco' lunch and then we made toast on the fire, which tastes much better than toaster made toast of course.  I had just finished my second coffee of the day when I took the most spectacular fall.  Somebody put logs all over the floor in the forest!  I trod on one, it rolled and I went flying.  I did not hurt anywhere in particular because it was one of those falls where everywhere hits the floor at once.  Due to the unexpected nature of my tumble, the speed I was travelling and momentum I rolled too.  I came to a stop at the feet of a small, shocked looking boy!  I was really pleased that he didn't laugh but immediately and out of genuine concern asked me if I was ok.  What a gent!  I got up rather quickly and still had my coffee cup in my hand!  My trousers and coat were pretty filthy though!  I am really getting to old for this falling over at speed lark!  I am definitely too old for rope swings!   I think I am also too old for ladders and tree houses.  I am not to old for sneaking up on unsuspecting Ewoks though and scaring the daylights out of them with a loud roar!

Ta Dah 'Par rappa ta dah!' Ripple Blanket!

 Do not adjust your sets!  I have been really looking forward to this post.  It felt like I had bitten off more than I could chew at times.  Completing this ugly ahem unique ripple has been quite a task.  I do love it.  Like I would love a three legged dog or a one eyed cat!  Anyone who knows me would know that means I love it a lot!  It is not everyone's 'Cup of tea' but for months I have become very fond of it, it has kept me nice and warm while I have worked on it.  I have made this analogy before, these blankets are like our children, we all love our own!  I finished it at 11pm last night, sewing in the final end.

Triumphantly I lay it down on the floor to photograph, to 'show off' and I had to laugh out loud in a hysterical, ironic sort of way.  Being the first time I have lovingly 'straightened' the blanket out to view it as a whole, I discovered something I did not know about my beloved blankie!  It is in fact the most fantastic Trapezium shape!  Yep that's right!  Not a rectangle, I squished it for the photograph, I did not want you to laugh at mine or the blankies expense!  Not rectangular but a great fat Trapezium!  Darn it!  Where did those stitches go?  I must have lost some along the way and did not notice!  Doh!  Will I frog?  Will I heck.  I can learn to live with a Trapezium.  It was just a nasty little surprise but now I am over it!  I will be blankies forever home and it will always be loved, by at least one person.  Moi!

Lacey had been for a long walk and was very tired, she would not move for the photograph and her bewilderment at my late night photography is apparent in her expression.  She had just woken from a deep 'Rabbit Chasing Slumber' and I think the bright wavy lines triggered her a migraine!  Jeepers I would just love to have a proud, trouble free 'Ta Dah' moment.  Is that too much to ask?  This is my first finished item of the year and I sincerely hope things improve from here on in!