Whoops…. IMDB 250 in 365 Challenge

Sunday, May 9th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

So after doing so well… I totally forgot about this and haven’t watched any movies for about 2 months!  I’m not behind but I need to get in 20 movies or more  a month if I’m to be in with a shot of finishing this challenge.. best get going again!

You can see  where I’m at HERE

Birthday Muffin Cup cakes

Friday, April 16th, 2010 | Birthday Cakes, Cooking, Cupcakes | No Comments

I like to try and make the little one a Birthday cake,  I think it’s nice to put in the effort, well maybe not when I’m up at 3am trying to get it sorted. But the finished result is nice. This year, however, I needed to follow a slightly different tact.

We had decided on a party that involved very little preparation. This was due to the fact that we were away in the run up to the party and didn’t want to be all stressed out the week before running about getting things sorted.  So indoor play centre here we come, safe place for the children to run about and burn some energy. Food provided for a reasonable fee, no setting up or clearing away required. Turn up, kids have fun, eat and leave.. bliss!

Now although this was all great, one of the difficult things at these places is Health & Safety.  You could being a Birthday cake in and cut it but the children couldn’t eat it on site. Hmmmm, I really didn’t fancy having to cut and wrap up 17 bits of cake!

*light bulb moment*  I know I’ll make individual cakes all ready to go, no hassle just pop them in the party bags!

All wrapped up

For some time now I have been searching for the ultimate muffin recipe… Ideally one you can freeze, that tastes great once defrosted.. well I’ll only eat them otherwise!  I think I have cracked it now, I’ve mixed it up a bit and made it my own so it is a closely guarded secret. Don’t even think about asking for it!  But it’s not just the cake… It’s the icing too, and I could never get it just right like it is in the stores..

Perfect

Butter icing, the stuff they put on those nom swirly cakes!   When ever I attempted it, it was always too soft and buttery… too sickly.  I finally found the ultimate white chocolate butter icing. It handles really well and tastes delicious…

Pink for girls, blue for Boys

But what about the Birthday cake I hear you cry! Well I had a plan for that too… A stack of 5 muffins to make the main cake!  Candles on, blow candles out, take cake home – easy!

Muffin Cake!

Top of Muffin Cake

They looked great and tasted amazing…. even if I do say so myself!

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I passed my kick boxing double grading!

Thursday, April 15th, 2010 | Uncategorized | No Comments

YAY !

Purple and Yellow belts

I passed, nothing to worry about.. The examiner actually thought I was going for orange and apparently said I would have passed orange easily!   WOOT roll on the next grading session.  Only just got the belts tonight, as I haven’t been able to do kick boxing due to injuries :(

Allotment | All dug up!

Saturday, April 10th, 2010 | Allotment, Environment, Money Saving | No Comments

Well I was away at Easter for a week and on my return I found a fully dug over allotment. My dad had been down working hard and done all the donkey work.  We’d been to collect some horse manure the week before I went away and not only had Dad dug the plot over he had also dug in the manure!  So guns blazing we went all out and got our first lot of produce in… The potato. First Earlies, Second earlies and main crop (three rows) all in and ready to go!

The potatoes

The strawberries were weeded and had some time to breath and fourish. As you can see from the picture below the raspberries and strawberries take up a fair section leaving only half rows to the left.  Not the best use of the available space!

Breathing Strawberries

The full plot turned over weeded and manure dug in… Just begging to be planted up now!

Ready for planting

While we were at it we decided to make use of some wood chippings that had been left for general use by the gates… Just really to tidy the area up under the tree. Looking a lot better don’t you think?

Tidy tree

Just behind the tree we made a patch of allotment especially for the little one… we planted some Creepy Crawley flowers to attract the good garden animals, a potato and a sunflower. There is room for more at a later date.

The little ones private allotment

The little ones private allotment

Time to get some seeds in, Parsnip and Spring onions.. All that we had time for today, but the next plan of action is to get some onions in!

Three rows of Parsnips, one row of Spring onions

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Allotment | Digging has begun

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Allotment, Environment, Money Saving | No Comments

Along with my little helper the digging has begun!

The little helper

I’ve decided to dig it over bit by bit and plant as I go,. I think this year it will be a case of just getting stuff in the ground, and the I can start planning properly what I want to grow where. the first bit will be for the potatoes.

The first section

There are quite a few weeds growing, clumps of grass etc.. but it all seems to be pretty free and easy to pull up.  The strawberry’s need a weed and today I weeded around the raspberries and pruned off the dead wood.

Raspberries and Strawberries

For some reason the Raspberries seem to have been planted down one side of the allotment. This isn’t really very good, so I am planning on moving them so that they go across the allotment. I also have some Raspberries in the garden that I will be planning on moving over. I need to read up on the best time to do this, which I assume will be winter when the canes are dormant.

To the right of that picture are the strawberries and again they go down the plot rather than across, I have left them in place this year, but in winter I will move them so that they too go across the plot. My plan is to have three rows, due to strawberries having a productive life span of three years, which I can rotate and replace the old plants with the new runners.

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Birthday Card Making

Saturday, March 27th, 2010 | Card Making, Craft | No Comments

March is a very busy Birthday month, well more specifically the 28th of March.. As it is my Dad and my Nan’s Birthday.  This year was a special one for my Nan as she turned 80.

I like to make a little effort and do home made cards for that personal touch. I like simplistic designs and thought I’d share my latest creations with you.

Dad’s Birthday card.. very simple, red base card. Nice and easy to make but very effective. I used a smaller piece of black card and stuck to it a section of black brightly coloured birthday paper. I used a rub on transfer for the word “Dad”

Dad's Boirthday card

Nan’s 80th Birthday card.. I thought quite a lot about this one, as I wanted something simple yet special. I chose a light green paper to go on a white base card. I matched the green paper with the printer and designed and printed the centre. I also used a brass stencil to subtly embellish the top of the card.

Nan's 80th Birthday card

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You know that Allotment?

Friday, March 26th, 2010 | Allotment, Environment, Money Saving | No Comments

Yes that one I talked about a couple of weeks ago.. Well I took it!  It wasn’t in to bad a state, I was expecting a lot worse. It seems it was only just recently given up, and boy am I glad considering there is a plot at the back about three over from mine that is just a complete meadow! Here what I got offered.

View from under the apple tree

My plot goes up to the grey and green bin you can see. The is another plot behind mine and at one time the two would have been one single plot. I lose a fair chunk of my plot to the apple tree.. what with roots in the way it’s not really worth planting underneath it.

The apple tree

But I’m sure that it can be made more attractive than it currently is! There are a few odd onions left in the ground that will be no good now so they will be dug up when it’s all dug over.  There is a half row of something in there, I’m not really sure what it is, but I’ll leave it in for now just in case it turns out to be something good!

From the other end

Looking down towards the apple tree, in the corner there besides the compost bin is rhubarb. Then just in front of the bins are some strawberry plants and raspberry bushes.  now to start work digging it over and getting stuff planted.

Allotment plot reserved

Saturday, March 20th, 2010 | Allotment | No Comments

Finally after waiting all this time, well it was  the 24th November 2008 that I applied. I have been offered a reserved plot, number 38a. I got the letter this morning and I got so excited!

I’m going to go down to the council office on Monday with my Mum & Dad to get the key, £5 deposit needed! and go and have a look at the plot… I’ve already google mapped it, but you can’t really tell as the maps are fairly old.. and in that time a jungle could have grown! watch this space!

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First grading for kickboxing… Continued

Sunday, March 7th, 2010 | Health & Fitness, Kickboxing | No Comments

So I was really nervous, but got on with it.. The warm up was a killer and not being well I was finding it hard to breathe.

My instructor spoke to the examiner and told him that I was double grading. So the examiner put me to one side along with another lady who had her purple belt. When giving instructions the examiner referred to belt colours, and told the two of us that when he said yellow belts he was talking to us as well. This confused me as I was doing purple and yellow, where as the current Yellow belts and I guess the other lady who already had a purple belt would be going on to Orange.

I got even more confused when the purple belts were told to sit down… I should have been with them… But anyway I carried on. I didn’t know hand drill 3 which was asked for, and is required for orange belt. So I just did hand drill 2. Then when asked to do the kickboxing drill I just did part one which is required for yellow belt.

I spoke to my instructor at the end and told him I was confused and that I was being asked to do Orange belt stuff, he came back to me and said the examiner was confused but it was all ok.. So fingers crossed I have got my double grading and I will be the proud owner of a purple and a yellow belt in a couple of weeks!

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First grading for kickboxing

Saturday, March 6th, 2010 | Kickboxing | No Comments

You may or may not know that I do a ladies only kickboxing class, I’ve been doing it for just shy of a year now and I really enjoy it.  I started going mainly for fitness purposes but have been considering getting my belts for a little while now.

The next grading session is this afternoon and my instructor has put me in for a double grading, that means that should I pass I will get my Purple belt and my Yellow belt.  The belt system is as follows:

  • White Belt
  • Purple Belt
  • Yellow Belt
  • Orange Belt
  • Green Belt
  • Brown Belt
  • Brown Strip
  • Blue Belt
  • Red stripe
  • Red Belt
  • Deputy Black Belt

I’m really nervous about it and even more so because I have a cold and I’m not feeling confident at all.

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