Cherry Cake and School Crafts

Zoe and I made the English Cherry Cake from Mary Berry's Baking Bible, and I must say it was absolutely delicious!

It was supposed to be in a slightly smaller tin, so should have been a bit deeper (and cooked for a lot longer) but it was still lovely.  It was an all in one cake, so it was really easy to make too - just whack all the ingredients in the bowl and stick the mixer in till it isn't lumpy anymore.  I this would be a good picnic cake, because I think it would survive quite well being carted around in a plastic box very well, as long as Ben didn't eat it all first.  Will definitely be doing this one again.  Not sure what the lego man is doing.  Zoe said he wanted his photo taking with the cake.  As long as he doesn't eat it all, I don't mind!

Towards the end of term, Ben and Zoe have both been doing crafty foody things at school.  Ben had a mini topic on chocolate (don't remember doing anything that interesting when I was at school!).  He brought home some chocolates that he had made in a box that he designed himself too.  I managed to get a photo before he ate them all.

 I'm not sure about his pricing structure though!
Zoe made a bunny basket and chocolate nest, which she was very pleased with.  It didn't last very long either. :-)

Did you miss me?

I've been thinking about resurrecting this blog for a while, especially as Facebook is losing it's sparkle.  I like it for being nosy and stalking people keeping up to date with what folks are up to, but I want something a bit more personal. (and that I won't worry about whether people read or comment or 'like')

I want to keep a record of what I've been doing and making so that's what this is going to become, and luckily the title still fits.  So be prepared for a modest outpouring of cakes, knitting, sewing, garden projects, jewellery, eggs that look vaguely like people (that will be a one-off!) and anything else that takes my fancy.  You never know, I might even sneak some pictures of the kids in, although they're not keen on having their photo taken at the moment.

Chocolate!

I'd like to say that I did not let them eat the whole egg in one sitting, but what's the point of having Easter Eggs if you can't have your usual entire weekly chocolate intake before lunchtime on Easter Sunday!













Whenever she was given an egg, Zoe would walk round clutching the box saying 'chocolate' over and over again, so it's safe to say that she knows what an egg is made of!
























And here we have the aftermath - thank goodness for Vanish :-)

Easter Egg-stravaganza!

I thought I'd update you on our egg-citing Easter, and various creative things Ben and Zoe have been up to, including Ben's egg-cellent entry for the Easter Egg competition at school.

This is Ben's entry for the decorated egg competition. I had to fill in a form to say that it was the work of the person named on the form - can you believe that?! Although he worked under close supervision and with a little assistance with the trickier bits - finding the end of the selotape, peeling the sticky backing paper off the eyes - he did it himself and was very proud of the end result. He didn't win a prize, but I saw the other entries and can honestly (!) say that the judges must've been visually impaired or bribed!












Zoe made a sheep mask at one of her playgroups, which she loved wearing, although Ian and I both thought it looked a bit sinister!




















She looks extremely cute here though!

World Book Day

Thursday 4th March was World Book Day, so Ben was allowed to go to school dressed as a character from their favourite book. Originally, Ben wanted to go as Farmer Boggis from Fantastic Mr Fox, but he soon decided that he didn't want to be a fat farmer who smells and shoots foxes! So, thanks to Asda, we found a Mr Happy costume and he took one of his large collection of Mr Men books. Below, as you can see, whatever Ben does, Zoe has to do as well! Her favourite phrase at the moment is 'Zoe do it!'. Hmmm.

Knitting needle roll & yet more snow!

I really do hope that these are the last snowy photos that I post for quite some time (unless I win the lottery and can afford a holiday to Canada!). But Ben is always pleased to see it snow, and I don't mind quite so much when it snows on a Sunday. These pictures are from 21st February. I think Zoe likes the getting ready bit - putting on her hat, gloves, coat and wellies - almost as much as she likes stomping up and down in the snow.

Ben, as you can see, likes to run around like a mad thing and throw snowballs at people! Still, as long as he's happy, I'm happy.

Not at all weather-related! For those of you that don't know, there are some websites that sell patchwork fabric in themed or colour matched packs. I found this one on the internet and couldn't resist its loveliness. I am going to make myself a knitting needle roll, along the lines of this one here if you want to know what I'm talking about - http://lupinbunny.blogspot.com/2007/02/needle-roll-tutorial.html I will let you know how I get on, so watch this space (but don't hold your breath!).

Big Snow in January

These pictures were taken when we had a lot of snow and very cold temperatures at the start of January. The icicles were hanging from the front of our house, and were about a foot long! I was very nervous about walking anywhere underneath them!























Ben in his igloo that he helped Ian to build.

Zoe moving snow