The Sad Little Troll

So pleased that this is still going on, it is a lovely way to keep the brain cells working!  For those who don't know, this is a 100 word challenge for grown ups.  There is a story prompt, sometimes a picture, sometimes a phrase or short sentence, and you have to use only 100 words to write a story or poem in response to it.  Here is mine, in response to the prompt:

As the stream flowed gently down, the two friends reached ever higher on their tippy-toes to see over the fence.
"But dad told me it was this bridge."
"Maybe he is sleeping!"
The subject of their earnest discussion sat perched on a rock underneath, wishing he had enough courage to go up and join the girls.  He just wanted to be their friends and play with them.  He knew the voices well enough, Milly and Katie had played near his bridge all summer and he promised himself one day he would pluck up the courage to join their games.

About us!

This post maybe should have come earlier, but am just getting to grips with the new layout of Blogger.  Oh well, a quick remionder won't hurt ;-)

I am a mum of 2 boys, and fiancee of a 3rd (who is nearly 40!)   I am resigned to never having a pink, sparkly bedroom with a tulle canopy, but otherwise love my life! 

My eldest looks like Kipper from the Oxford Reading Tree books, hence the name. 

 And my youngest used to love Dip Dap on cbeebies, but both Mr housewife and me called it wrong, we said Dib-Dab, and he used to respond, so his nickname became Dib-dab, or dibble-dabble or any variation on a theme, and he would answer!

 

So they remain Kipper and Dib-Dab!!!

 

 



enter the timeslip..............

Well, now that the last 2 years have past in a New York Minute you will be wondering where all my extremely clockwork regular blog posts have gone to!  (coughs and looks down embarrassed)  well, my very valid excuse is...life got in the way! That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it :-) 

We shall have to pretend that you know everything that has happened, and I will carry on regardless!

*************************************************************************

So, I have recently discovered Pinterest!  well, thats not strictly true!  I actually discovered and signed up before I left work, but really had no clue what it really was, and never bothered too much to be honest; but as I was discovering, more and more things online have a PinIt" button, and so one day, I pressed it to see what would happen!  Well, what resulted was an afternoon glued to the Internet, and a "ToDo" list a mile long, with DIY crafts, bakes, places to go and lemons to cut in order to clean my grout!!!!!  (yeah, really!)

In essence, it is a place where you can have as many virtual corkboards as you like, and each one can have lots of links "pinned" to it, with reminders of things you like, or need, or want to look at later.  In my defence, since I have discovered it, me and DibDab have played with edible finger paints, home made play-dough, and I am going out to buy co-ordinating fabric swatches, so we can make fabric bowls as gifts. 

Since Kate and I set up our Stay & Play playgroup, we have been looking for pre-school activities for our group, and have found a couple of websites with brilliant ideas, so my "craft board" on Pinterest is getting full with some lovely ideas.

 

 

The edible finger paints were fab, a really strange texture, but the colours were surprisingly vibrant, and it made really good handprints.  The best part was it didnt stain.  Even though little man wore an apron, it naturally ended up all over his clothes (and mine where he patted me to show off his work)  but straight in the washer, and no stains at all.   I got loads out of one batch, and was able to make all 7 colours of the rainbow, and we talked about colours and identifying them as we painted. 

For those of you not on Pinterest (as I know I have a huuuuuuge following, who will all be desperate to rush home and make this)  the recipe is:

 

3tbsp sugar

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup cornflour

2 cups water

food colouring of your choice

Bung everything except colours in a pan, and gently heat till it thickens!   pop into seperate bowls and stir in your colours.  Thats it, as easy as that.  Not quite sure how it stores to be completely honest, as i put it in paper bowls, and so won't store it this time, but some little jars may work. 

 

well, thats it for now.  Time to go pick up Kipper from school and am sure he will want to paint when he sees whats out on the table, so more pictures later.

 

 

 



The indignant Cook!

Week 7 of the 100 Word Challenge
The prompt this week was words which have been removed from the Oxford dictionary. They all had a very old fashioned feel, and reminded me of a cross between Dickens and Louisa May Alcott books.



"Mrs Kittytwizzle!"
The shout came from deep within the growlery.

"Oh but the master is having a brabble with himself tonight" the cook remarked to the scullery maid as she prepared the syllabub for dinner. Nelly nodded sympathetically, glad she wasn't the one on the end of that stern voice.

"Mrs Kittytwizzle!"
The shout came again louder this time.

"Oh and now I have foozled the recipe" and dusting the flour from her hands, Mrs Kittytwizzle went off to the growlery to see what her master wanted, the purple ribbons in her mob cap bustling with her in her indignation.

Baking!

Well, it's official - my budget's about to be completely blown on baking ingredients!

The Great British Bake Off has returned to our screens, and as ever I am following contestants on twitter, and through their blogs and avidly V+'ing all episodes!

The reason for this mad fanaticism is I love baking, I find it really therapeutic to disappear into the kitchen, my iPod on a really dodgy playlist that no-one else likes (just to ensure no other interruptions) and bake away to my hearts content, or my ingredient cupboard is empty, usually whichever comes first. But here is my startling confession....... I only follow recipes, I could no more start to make my own cakes than I could fly to the moon!

I love recipe books; one of the contestants of the GBBO on her blog describes recipe books as "food porn" and I know exactly what she means. I could read a recipe book from cover to cover, and frequently do so tucked in a comfy chair with a cup of tea whilst the other half is watching match of the day highlights with 2 random football teams that I have never heard of (but that is a rant for another day!)

My mum has always said, if you can read, you can cook/bake and I know what she means, if you can read the recipe, then you can follow it. I do think though that a certain amount of common sense and baking acumen has to be involved too - otherwise I am talking myself down. Anyway, I do follow the recipes, and then stick little post-it notes inside the pages with little notes of my own (even though the books belong to me, I couldn't go so far as to actually mar them with my own writing). But I long to be able to just carelessly throw things together with an "I don't care if it works or not" attitude. Randomly selecting ingredients from my cupboard and throwing them over my shoulder like a deranged Mary Poppins where they land effortlessly in my Kenwood bowl and then come out of my oven beautifully cooked (and sometimes in my wildest imaginings iced and decorated too) so I can whirl them to the table to gasps of admiration from my waiting family and friends. Yeah right!

Anyway, I now have even more recipes to follow and try and I am determined that I am going to create my own signature dish whilst I am off work. It may take a while, and once I create it, I will be making it until my friends and family are completely sick of eating it, but until that happy day, I remain all the gear, no idea!

Just one more...

Week 5 of the 100 Word Callenge for Grown-ups!
Inspired by a picture, don't know how I got swimming from it, but it just reminded me of utter exhaustion. I actually do love swimming, but haven't been for so long, I would be the one flopped down like this!

As she pushed the water away from her, she kept repeating "one more lap, just one more!" Like a mantra, it kept her going. She didn't enjoy swimming, but she had that little black dress she was desperate to get back into, and that day of reckoning was getting closer!

Her limbs were stiffening up, and she felt like she was ready any moment to lay in "dead man's float" but no, the image of her in the dress, and the smile of appreciation on his face just kept her going.

"One more lap, just one more!"

She swam on!

Enjoying the holidays!

Well despite the weather, the summer holidays are great.

We have been having loads of fun. The other half took a week off work to celebrate little man's first birthday, and we have all had a week of days out. You know the kind where you could probably have gone abroad for the same amount!

Following an excellent but expensive trip to the Design-a-Cake outlet at Washington, I bought the stuff to do little man's first cake. I had done the same for my eldest on his first birthday so wanted them both to be the same, and I still had my number 1 cake tin. I got the cake baked, and my friend Kate was coming over on the Saturday morning to help me decorate it. (we were winging it together!) Despite a couple of false starts, we got the cake cut, filled and iced. Looked fab, if I do say so myself. A big light blue number 1 with dark blue stars all over it, and his name down the middle in fancy letters.

On the Sunday, we had friends over for the first couple of hours, where despite the rain they still managed to get outside for a little while on the bouncy castle and trampoline, and gorgeous boy no. 1's "hide me Scooby Doo" came in very handy. After cutting the cake, and singing happy birthday, they left, while we had a very quick turnaround before the family came for a BBQ on the afternoon. I have been with Col for nearly 8 years now, and apart from our engagement party in a function room, I think that was the first time we had both our entire families, including aunts, uncles and cousins in the same room at the same time. Good job we have a bigger house now! Cramped wasn't the word! Was nice though.

Monday was the actual birthday so we went to Whitby for the day, just the four of us, and got the best weather as it rained all day at home, and we had blue skies and ice-cream! A gorgeous day. Then followed a week of days out and lazy times in, playing in the garden. We finished off with a day at Lightwater Valley on Saturday.
Top Tip: Check in on Facebook to Lightwater Valley on your phone, and if you can show the cashier the link, you get a discounted entry fee!

Last year we went there, and I was 2 weeks post-section, having just had little man! Going round there this year and seeing what I did, I must have been mad! Still I did manage to get on some rides this year with my sister-in-law.

So there you go, back up to date again. We had a christening on Sunday but other than that it's back to quiet times again. col went back to work this morning, chuntering and bumping his gums about being the breadwinner! Got quite a lot of cakes to bake now, as my mother-in-law is doing a little party for my eldest on Tuesday as she will be away for his birthday and asked me to do some little petite four cakes, as they are just the right size for little mouths. And then my niece gets christened on Sunday, and I am godmother. I have promised my brother and his wife I will do some pink cupcakes for them, with little teddy bears and butterflies on the top. Pink and sparkly will make a nice change, as most of my cakes for my two are blue, or at the very least Lightening McQueen red!

Still can't quite believe I won't be going back to work in September!