In Store

Sunday 23 October 2011

Working, Working Working!

What a week its been. I received a phone call from my previous employer, Rhinegold Publishing, asking if I could do some freelance work for a couple of weeks from home. Needless to say we need the money so I jumped at the chance but Oh Boy what a juggling act it has been with looking after my little 1 year old daughter especially as she wants to play on the laptop and punch all the keys like Mummy! She can be happily playing away with her toys or some little oddity that she has found lying around, out comes the laptop and Pow! she pounces straight away causing all sorts of chaos to happen on screen. I am on the look out for kiddies laptop and Amazon seem to have a lot of choice so will have a browse and choose something for her age group. I have also been selling lots of vintage jewellery through Ebay this week and now have to restock my shop...when I get a spare moment. I am sitting on bags of other vintage jewellery awaiting repair so need to get cracking and learn how to use a soldering torch to fix 'em up as it could help to pay some bills.
Autumn is here and I have been enjoying the best of what it has to offer - hot chocolate, pumpkins and beautiful Autumnal colour - I made some lovely pumpkin and cinnamon cupcakes topped with cream cheese icing which went down a storm. YUM! Very easy to make by simply grating pumpkin flesh and adding it to the mixture. I have about 4 more pumpkins to get creative with - a shame their season is so short as I think they are very undervalued as an edible vegetable. Of course I'll be carving one for halloween and putting it in my window to draw in the trick or treaters. I don't think I'll dress my baby girl up this year but maybe next! I also finished the Christmas cake that I mentioned last time and it all looks great. A bit of an origami lesson though with double lining the tin but it is worth all the effort to stop the outside from burning etc. Now I just need to decide how to decorate it this year and of course feed it regularly with more Rum! The first picture is of the 3 sets of ingredients ready to combine into one - the dry, the wet and then the soaked fruit and the second picture shows off my origami skills!





Sunday 9 October 2011

Celebration Time!

What a busy 2 weeks preparing for my daughter's first birthday and making the house ready for guests as it has been a while....and now it is all over until the next event....Christmas...yes do I dare mention the word? Personally, I love it - the cooking, family gatherings, surprises, giving presents, carol singing and tradition. Feeling in a festive mood today too after soaking the fruit ready to make a Christmas cake tomorrow with lots of rum courtesy of Nigella Lawson's fab cookery book! As we are strapped for cash this year I will be looking for ideas for hand-made gifts to give friends and family that will be appreciated. last year I made lots of chutneys, chocolates and cakes as well as giving beautifully packaged jars of mints and jellies etc with hand-written labels. So this year I will have to think of something different and will probably need to make a start soon especially as things take twice a long with a toddler in tow.

So my little angel is 1 year old now!  We had a low-key affair with her grandparents and a lovely dinner. We had a birthday cake of course, candles and singing which she enjoyed. I came across a great book called Spectacular Cakes in a local charity shop a while ago which has proved to be very resourceful for recipes for various size cakes but I need to start being more ambitious with the decorating. My next project is for fireworks night so will start planning now to do something other than buttercream icing!


Even though the weather changed for the worse last week we still had our weekly adventure as I had the car for the week. This time we ventured to Sissinghurst Castle in Kent which was absolutely beautiful even in October so I will definitely be returning throughout the year to view the gardens in each season. There is an Elizabethan tower set in beautiful formal gardens with lots of separate spaces, views and corridors of hedges with statues at the end etc to draw the eye. So a photo op at every turn.






Now as for this week, apart from making a Christmas cake I am going to venture into the local police station, bus station, ambulance station and the local council offices to see if they would like to host a VIP Christmas Shopping Evening courtesy of Jamie at home. I thought that if they work long unsocial hours then this will be right up their street! So fingers crossed!