Arriving Home

I had a difficult day yesterday, trying to reconcile my work’s(1) bank statements. One of my bosses and not to point fingers, I won’t let on whom. Has tried, to be very helpful and pay some suppliers on BAC’s, a system I have used for years. However, I have 20p missing here and 20p missing from there and £14.90 missing off another account *groan* but to track these amounts down to a single invoice(s), is hard work and tiresome.

I am going to have to have a quiet word, to say "really could I just carry on doing all the supplier payments" and be ready for the ‘why’ question!

The consequence was I went home much later than usual (had still not finished that day's work) *another groan*, however when I got home ... upon opening the front door, there was this lovely smell and in the kitchen was Poppy and her dance college friend; Lizzie, they had made these:

They had chopped up Green & Black Dark chocolate and put the bits into the cake mixture, quite simply, cup cakes to die for :o)

However, on the way to the kitchen I passed my bulbs, and thought I must photograph them but the cakes had the first calling. I am so glad I waited till this morning because with the lovely cosy smell of cakes now gone, I could smell the lovely Hyacinths' smell – just lovely and look at that colour pink.

I have made my choice, for my first book download from Audible :

The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

I have owned a Shuffle for quite a few years; it was given to me by Toby as a present when he had been on tour and had returned safely from Iraq. Well, I have never properly used it, I wanted to but for some reason I just could not get my head round to using it properly (embarrassing, I know). Well having set up an iTunes account and then downloading the book, it took me some time before I worked out how to get the book from iTunes on to my Shuffle; answer: drag and drop – so simple, why I just didn't do that in the first place, I do not know.

I have yet to listen to the story a part from the first few seconds, however, the Shuffle is sat there waiting for a quiet time on my own. Ready for either listening and sewing or listening and knitting, what could be better? For me, this is far better than a bubble bath. I will let you into a little secret; I don’t like bubble baths, the whole candles, music, book sat in water just doesn’t do it for me, not at all.

Moving on ...

A little bit more of the wedding sewing:

The sewing is going well, but I am so tired and starting to get very slightly stressed ....

Therefore I must ... eat cake while looking at my beautiful flowers ...

Audible Books

I have joined Audible.co.uk today they have a half price offer on. I have been wanting to join for a very long time and today with a little bit of my Christmas money (no I haven't spent it all yet), I decided to join up. I will review it all in three months time and see if I feel I get my monies worth from the half price offer before I pay for a full price month.

I have placed lots of books in my wish list but as yet have not decided what my first book will be ...

I will let you know when I do!

Happy Endings

Not quite the story I was going to tell you, but this one seems to have a good ending.

A peep at wedding sewing.

My friend (and I feel a name is not appropriate), has had a right shitty time just lately, firstly she works for a big corporate company as a top flight PA. There have been many tears!

Then last week she found a lump, she was devastated as you can imagine, she just thought what next, why me. This even for the most optimistic amongst us would probably ask at least once.

Even more tears resulting in lots of hugs.

Yesterday I accompanied my friend to the hospital; we had practised several conversations because for the past 10 years, my friend has been treating her body with homeopathy remedies and takes her advice from this very professional and knowledgably lady; Henrietta Wells.

She didn’t want any invasive treatment, i.e. mammograms or biopsies but she was nervous about telling an allopathic doctor. However her reservations were unfounded, her doctor was a very gentle man showing great empathy and when he suggesting having some fluid drained from the lump and then with a gently kick from me. My friend said this was not what she wanted and the reasons why. The doctor was excellent in his answer, he confirmed that he was more than comfortable for her to go away and take further advise from Henrietta and ‘if’ my friend felt that a fluid test was required further down the road then she was more than welcome to make an appointment when required.

We left the hospital very happy and we went back to my home and celebrated with beans on toast with a special treat of grated cheese on top.

What more could I give a friend LOL

After our very filling lunch we both returned to work and my friend was notified of a new job with a lovely new boss and a hand over period next week.

Yesterday was a day of big grins.

My friend had said if she felt up to it, she would come round in the evening.

When she come round about 7:30pm she brought this with her, it doesn’t help my diet but she put an even bigger grin on my face and probably an inch (2.5 cm) on my tummy :o)




...and finally this beautiful lady has become a very special member of our family xOx

A little more of why I was sat in an airport ... tomorrow xx

18th Birthday

January was a busy month for us, there was packing away of Christmas decorations, which I like to do over a few days. I love decorations up and for me the putting of them away makes the home look so bare. By putting a little bit away each day, I get use to my ornaments missing.

The cutting out of dress patterns and then the full sized linings, add in a bit of figure fittings and alterations.

The process of getting back to work and all that in tales; getting up early, squeezing in jobs before and after work. The catching up of paperwork and the Christmas stories from my work colleagues and workshop visitors.

But we also had two very important dates in January, first being the 18th.

It was Poppy’s 18th birthday on the 18th January.

We had a cake to make .... we had a cake to make because I forgot to order a cake, so I decided I would try my hand at decorating a cake:

Firstly I tracked down a cake tin from Sugar Celebrations in Swindon; to hire this cake tin cost just £2.00 for two days. A lady called Shelley was incredible helpful. I had no idea how much mixture to even make. So for those of you like me who have no idea and a record for me:

Weigh 6 eggs in their shells = EW
EW = Margarine i.e. Utterly Butterly or Spreadable Stock (not packet),

reason so I am told, butter has salt in and can damage the tin.
EW = Castor Sugar
EW = Sieved flour
A bit of vanilla flavouring

Mix in normal way, (happy to help if you need to know more).

Prepare the tin by giving a covering of margarine over the inside of the tin and then shake a tablespoon of floor over the butter, for easy removal.

Do not overfill, the above picture there is too much mixture in.

Please ignore the not so clean oven ...

Cook at about 180 degrees for 50-80 minutes; check at the 50 minute mark.

Shelley helped me with the ‘rolley’ icing and how much to buy and what to do with it.

I didn’t like the pink colours, so asked if I could mix them and she told me how.

I also put a call for help on the forum and Lobbyj, came to my help and gave me all this advice:

These were my questions (more for my information, than yours);

I do know there are some cake people out there i.e. Loobyj, I need tips for laying 'rolly' icing on top of sponge please.

I am going to chop off the bows, who has bows on their ballet shoes

Do I place it straight onto the sponge?

Also can I cut this difficult shape in half so that I can still put jam and butter icing in the middle?

Loobyj’s answers, for all of us;

Okey doke. Nice tin - but from the measurements it doesn't look that deep, and given the complicated shape of it I think you'd need to be quite brave to cut it in half I don't think I would.

You need to make sure the icing can stick to the cake surface. To do that melt some jam in a bowl and then sieve it to get rid of the bits. It's traditional to use apricot, for the pale colour, but you can use a red jam if you'd prefer. Brush it generously all over the cake - this will help with the moistness too if there's no filling.

Knead the icing so it's a bit pliable, then roll it out on a mixture of icing sugar and cornflour until it's a circle a good five inches bigger all round than the cake.

Lift it over the cake ( I find it easier to use the rolling pin to support it) and lay it down gently. Lift and ease it into all the crevices - I'd start with the insides of the shoes. Try not to push out and down as you do it - rather push in and up using the excess to ease it. - smoothing as you go, smooth from the top rather than the bottom. You'll see the shape of the cake start to appear. When you're happy that the shape of the shoes shows well trim the excess icing off from the base of the cake.

Some useful tips:

- if you see an air bubble after you've done your smoothing, prick it with a pin and rub gently to get the air out
- cornflour on your hands will stop you and the icing sticking together, and does a good job of polishing
- any cracks that appear can be gently smoothed until they disappear
- you'll be the only person who notices any imperfections when the cake's complete - everyone else will be wowed by the complicated shape and the bling, bask in the reflected glory

I know you probably don't need any advice on styling - but raising the cake up on a tin or stand always makes it stand out - cover the raiser with some gauzy fabric and scatter sparkly bits over that, it lifts (groan) it out of the ordinary!

Phew - mammoth answer, hope it helps

Toby and Louise came down for the weekend to help with the celebrations, just as well because Poppy’s babysitting job got cancelled which meant she didn’t go out for the evening for me to bake the cake, putting the whole schedule behind. So on the Saturday afternoon with the bribery of a new dress (this cake is beginning to cost a lot of money now). Louise and Poppy went into town, which left Noel, Toby and I.

Poppy had decided to do a sleep over at Kaan’s the night before so at 10pm the cake was baked, which left us, the cake trio, the afternoon to decorate. We had so much fun; we worked well together, all putting ideas into the cake, from how to layer the pink shoes onto the white base (grease proof paper and doing like the magicians table cloth trick)or to attach the bling bling diamond ribbon round the base (lots of pins).

I forgot to sieve the apricot jam and had to pick out the lumps and the rolling of the icing needed a bit of practise on Toby’s part (it kept sticking to the measuring mat). The kitchen and the three of us was covered and I mean head to toe covered in icing sugar and cornflower. So much so that Toby’s black jeans were pale grey and he had to ring Louise to buy him some new one in town as he didn’t have any clean jeans for the evening and we just didn’t have time to wash and dry them in time.

I used pink edible pink glitter on the pink ballet shoes and peach edible powder paint for the insides of the ballet shoes.

Told you it was an expensive cake LOL

The ribbons and ballet figurines were bought as a keepsake.

The cake was delivered to the pub before the girls got home – just – phew.

Then for 19:30 we all went to The Crown Inn at Broad Hinton, run by our neighbours Dave and Alla. They decorated the ‘library’ beautifully for the birthday girl.

Poppy being given a very special gift by her Godmother Linda, she is sat in her new coat, one of her chosen presents from Toby and Louise.

Inside the pretty package

and inside the box, with Linda looking on.

An opal and ruby ring; Linda decided to give this ring, that had been given to her in the 70’s, when Poppy was about 7 or 8. Neither of us could believe that the time had come and she was celebrating her 18th birthday. Beforehand I was given the task of finding out Poppy's ring size, without giving anything away and then Linda’s husband took the ring to a jewellers in Southampton to be resized and cleaned.

The birthday group and then below is David, Linda’s son and Toby’s close friend since the age of 5. David took his own picture, (so no complaining that you look silly)!

The firework candle lit, Poppy just loved this

Poppy had a lovely birthday, even though the poor thing had tonsillitis and really wasn’t too well.

And the cake, she never wanted to cut it and to date it is still sat on the side of the kitchen, I think we can call that a success.

Within 12 hours, Noel and I was sat here ...

Starting Gun

And another one .... I bet I won’t be able to keep this up :o)

A big day today:

Firstly; I start this

This picture also includes my nice new shiny ‘pink’ Parker fountain pen.

On Saturday Noel took me shopping to Staples and bought me, lots of new stationery for starting my course. A new writing pad, a pink ring binder with dividers, a pink plastic envelope file for the booklets from Open University (OU), a pink insert folder for all the OU letters, a pink canvas case to put my course books and CD-Rom’s in and lastly a new fountain pen. I do like fountain pens and I couldn’t find the last one I had bought a couple of years ago, but good old Murphy’s law; now even though I have searched and searched on Saturday afternoon I had a brain wave to where I had last put it and guess what, of course that is where it was, so I now have 2 nice fountain pens.

My degree is going to take approximately 4 years to complete, however if I never start I will definitely never finish/gain a degree.

Secondly; I start this

Yarn: From; The Yarn Yard a 4ply sock yarn, called Bloke (discontinued).
Pattern: Little Arrow Socks by Sheepish Hand Knits

I have decided I want to earn a star on the Crafty Threads ‘n’ Yarns Forum; you earn a star by starting and completing a project in a month. So I have postponed my January socks to start a new February pair. I sat and searched Ravelry yesterday evening and opted for the above pattern, it took a while to choose but I got there before going to bed too late! The yarn was just sitting on my rocking chair, waiting to be used. I bought it, unused, still in its skein, second hand from a friend on the above forum a couple of months ago. Because the yarn is called Bloke, I am assuming that it was dyed with a bloke in mind; however I like the colours and to me it looks a good winter sock colour to go with my work boots.

This project should and must be, to qualify, finished by the 28 February 2011.

I am more likely to finish the degree LOL.