Grumpy

Yes that's me , I'm afraid

Pretty photo to make my grumbly post more palatable!

You see I have hurt my back

a flare up of a previous injury

I have been laid up for over a week now

I can't sit for more than a minute or two

my patience and positivity are waning

On the plus side I have freed up about 80% on the sky+ box

I have enjoyed the Gilmore girls...they have kept me sane 

thank goodness for sweet family, lovely friends and blog land

I have also learnt the tricky art of laying down crochet

So much for focusing on my shop this week!

So if I am absent for a while please don't worry

I am still here

...grumbling away!

Please enjoy your weekend and hop, skip, jump and sit on mybehalf

x

more soon

j x

Mary Mary quite contrary...

....how does your garden grow?

with sugar snap peas

and rainbow chard (splashed by the rain!)

and pretty carrots all in a row..

..row row

and pretty carrots all in a row

(I have now run out of rhyme..sorry)

little baby leeks

pak choi

sweetcorn

lettuce

asian salad leaves

raspberries (obviously!)

Mmmmmmmm

bramleys

hope all is lush in your garden

more soon 

j x

It's been a cakey week...

 * Hello *

It has been a bit of a birthday bonanza here lately

Here is my week in cake...yes cake!

FRIDAY...Blueberry, lemon & almond cake

This was my birthday cake made for me by sweet B

It was absolutely amazing

MONDAY...Lime & coconut cake

This was my lovely Pete's cake of choice

TUESDAY... lemon drizzle cake

This was for my mum 

a little extra birthday surprise

She was so delighted

The roses are from the garden and they smell divine

THURSDAY... milk chocolate cake

This was for my lovely G to take to work

(well, work experience actually)

He has been at an engineering company for the last two weeks

It is run by a lovely friend of ours 

he had an amazing time and was quite sad to leave today

I made this cake to say "thank you" to all of the men

who have been really kind and helpful

lovely G came home with an empty box

he told me how they cut the cake into six, yes SIX pieces

and ate the lot in one go. Made me laugh

FRIDAY... ginger cake with lemon icing

This is for my father-in-law for father's day

but we are seeing him tomorrow
hope he likes it

and there we have it

I am well and truly caked out!

The garden is going bonkers at the moment

(must be all this rain!)

 last night I made a lemony chicken risotto 

towards the end of cooking added some sliced sugar snap peas straight from the garden

it tasted so fresh and summery and had a lovely crunch

for dessert we had strawberries and raspberries freshly picked

What a feast

My poor shop has been neglected 

while I have been making whoopee

(and cakes!)

I am hoping to get back into the swing of things next week

focus focus focus

Have a wonderful weekend where ever you may be

more soon 

j x


P.S Thank you so much for all of your lovely birthday wishes and kind words
also I just want to say that I love receiving your comments so much, they make my day
they really do
thank you 
x 

In the bag ...

Before I show you my goody bag contents

I just have to say a BIG 

*** HAPPY BIRTHDAY ***

 to my lovely Pete for yesterday 

&

*** HAPPY BIRTHDAY ***

to my wonderful wonderful mum for today

(I like making these little multi coloured wishes...think I may be addicted!)

Well it is quite a birthday-a-thon here

with still more to come!

I need to keep my energy up, all these birthdays are jolly exhausting

Mid-morning energy boost!

In my last post I nattered on about my London trip 

and an exciting visit to Loop

  

I showed you my little shopping bag

Here is what it contained

Although this yarn is luscious I know it is nothing out of the ordinary 

but it is what I needed

I have an urge to knit socks

soft snugly pink socks to be precise

I have tried on circular needles

I have tried on four needles

but to no avail

I seem to have a sock blockage

anyhow a while ago I found a pattern booklet

and in it a pattern for socks made with two needles

HOORAY!

Although I still want to learn the 'grown up' way to knit socks

(well I am 40 know you know :o)

but that is not all.....

I picked up this amazing book all about Julie Arkell

She made the cutesome bunny eared girl in the Loop advertisment

I adore her work and want to find out more about this lady

Guess who's in the shop window? (sorry about dodgy photo)

It is a wonderful little book 

makes me want to get the newspaper and glue out

maybe I will ...


more soon 
j x

The BIG 4 Oh!

Well it was my BIG day on Friday

the day I turned 40

I was not really looking forward to this particular day

but as it happened it was wonderful

Blueberry, lemon & almond cake

 

 

My sweet B had told me to stay in bed

as she had "things" to do ... how exciting

When I came down she had made me a BEAUTFUL birthday cake

I think it is now my favourite cake of all time

so light and fresh

perfect for a birthday breakfast!

She even made me a cake bunting...

I was so touched

 it is usually me who makes cakes and buntings for other people

She had been outside, in her pj's and collected flowers 

how sweet is that??

My lovely Pete had even made me a banner

I really think he should start his own banner business

seems a shame to let such talent go to waste!

I joke but it was very thoughtful

and I loved it

x

He had put up balloons

I ignored the fact that they had numbers on them

I had delicious chocolates and fudge from lovely G

I had special cards with sweet words and wonderful gifts
including a beautiful beautiful bracelet from a very special friend

and flowers

lots of beautiful flowers

and this

Just look at this special little guy

I first fell in love with these fairies at 

Origin - a contemporary craft fair in London

this was a few years ago now

The lady who creates them is incredibly talented

I have three of her friends now

(maybe you'd like to see them another time?)

I had lots of gorgeous visitors

A loooong chat with my best friend in Australia

I felt like the queen must feel

Thank you to all my lovely family and friends

I treasure you all

x

Then yesterday, my lovely Pete took me to London to celebrate 

I had such a fab time

I think I tested his love for me BIG time

but he didn't moan

not once

First he drove me to a fabric shop that I had been desperate to visit for ages

from there we went to Islington to visit 

Loop

Gosh I felt like a child in a sweetie shop

my eyes couldn't take it all in

It was so exciting

Would you like to see what's in my bag?

Then we went on to Liberty for afternoon tea

Delish!

We have consumed millions billions of calories over the last few days

but this huge eating fest is not over yet

Oh no...

it is my lovely Pete's birthday tomorrow  

and my mum's on Tuesday

so at least another two cakes to go yet

(oh well, I have had my holiday so no need to bare myself on the beach for several months!)

Liberty flower shop

I guess being 40 is not so bad after all

 Hope you are all having a wonderful weekend too

more soon

j x 

An award... for me?

Oh my goodness

Oh my goodness

Oh my goodness

I have been awarded and award !

my first ever award as it so happens

Thank you so very much to the delightful Emily over at Unravelled

her blog is very inspirational

she is so friendly and sweet too

she made me feel so welcomed into blog land

thank you Emily 

x

 *** Well here it is ***

(in my head there is now a drum roll)

The slight downside to this award is that I need to tell you lovely guys

  ten interesting facts about me

Hmmmm.....

I never realised that I was quite so dull  ;o)

Here goes (please don't judge!)

* I LOVE aeroplane food - I really do

* When I was little (I think around 5) my parents were having some work done on our house

and the stairs were taken out leaving a huge hole (health & safety alert)

my older brother (who should have known better - tut tut) was chasing me

I fell down the hole, divine intervention saved me

well actually a nail in the wall did

as I plummeted down the nail got caught in my jumper

  I was left dangling there, in tears, until I was lowered to the ground 

* I trained as a beauty therapist before having my children

(hope I'm not boring you)

* My favourite chocolates are Anton Berg cherry in rum

you should try them, they are DIVINE and irresistible and marzipany and cherry'y and rummy...oooohhh

(and BIG)

Told you they were irresistible!

 * My favourite colour is pink although I have recently fallen in love with green

and can't actually choose between them, good job they look pretty together  

* I cannot function without good coffee in the morning , two cups.

* My all time favourite film is Chocolat

(...struggling...)

* My brother (the same one who chased me to the big hole) was offered 10 camels for me in Tunisia

I could tell he paused to consider

* My favourite food in the WHOLE world is cake

I'm not fussy as long as it's homemade

(Hungarian goulash comes a close second)

* I love rain

(as long as I am not out in it...frizzy hair and all that)

ahhh...made it

I now have the honour of passing this award on...

I am going to award it to Louise

her blog Poppy is a feast for the eyes

she is an AMAZING photographer and gardener 

and an all round lovely lady

and she makes me laugh alot 

thank you again Emily

x

more soon

j x