The Honeymoon - Part Two - Abydos and Dendera

While we were in Luxor we decided to take one of tours that was a bit more off the beaten track. It was supposed to be a group tour but the other two couples cancelled at the last minute so we were all alone with our tour guide on a lovely air conditioned bus.

All in told we were on the bus for about 12 or so hours that day. Some people actually did this tour in a taxi. The heat must have been unbearable. It was 56C that day.

First we stopped at the Abydos Temple. It was once the Holy City and everyone in Egypt had to make a pilgrimage there. It is one of the oldest cities in history.

Our guide was lovely, but you'll have to excuse me I can't pronounce his name very well, let alone figure out how to spell it. I still have his business card somewhere, he's a bit of a jack of all trades.

This is a view of the entrance to Abydos Temple.

Unfortunately quite a lot of it is still in pieces...

And underwater. There were even fish in the water.


Some of the frescos are still in fantastic condition. This is the Pharoah giving a feather zed to Isis. The feathered zed is representative of the backbone of Osiris.

See what a great tour guide can do for you.


And the engravings were just something else...


Is anyone else getting an idea for a movie, possibly with a follow up series. We could get MacGyvar for the lead and end the series with him and a few others fishing by a lake.

...

There is also a celestial ceiling in the Temple which was just stunning and the head of Bes, protector of women in labour, but they were virtually impossible to photograph.

Back on the bus for another five hours (we left the hotel at 4am) and we then stopped at Dendera. Its the only temple with a roof which you can stand on.

Oh, and its huge...

The roof means that quite a lot of the main building is enclosed and unfortunately, not very well lit. This definitely adds to the atmosphere while there and preserves the interior of the buildiing but it doesn't make for great photos.

I love this one though...

The columns (both above and below) are topped by Hathor capitals, although the faces have been removed.


A photo taken from the roof gives you some idea of the scale of the ruins.

And in the other direction, not very far away at all was the Libyan border. I've no idea who owns the bit of land in between the two fences.

Getting bored yet? Pity, because there's a lot more to come.

Recycleables - Tutorial - Paper Doll House

We were all set this morning, coats, gloves and hats on ready to head out the door until...

Snow...and rain...and icy winds...and...no

So back inside and now I've have a three year old who was desperately looking forward to a walk around the town this morning,

because this morning we were supposed to be going to get her some new ballet pumps.

Ah well, such is life I guess. I'll measure her feet and run down tomorrow while she's with Nana, come hell or high water.

So I needed something to take her mind off, still wanting to go out regardless of the weather.

Hmm, crafts with nothing planned.

A paper dolls house.

All you need to complete this very simple project are 2 pieces of stiff card (or a cardbox box will do).
A glue stick (or PVA or Mod Podge, whatevers within reaching distance)
Some sharp scissors (for you)
And the Ikea catalogue (or home inspiration magazines like Ideal Home)



You need to have a quick flick through the catalogue or magazines and tear our ny pages with a room which pretty much covers the majority of the page (its easier to manage this with the Ikea book trust me). Then with the scissors cut a very narrow slot halfway along the long side of the card and halfway through the card. Slot the two pieces together to look like this.


Then you want to give the three year old a glue stick and swan off into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee. Now you'll need a damp sponge to quickly sponge the (hopefully) still wet glue off the carpet because you weren't intelligent enough to put a mat or drop cloth down first.

Or if you're that way inclined you can sit and watch to make sure she "stays within the lines"
.

It's much easier if you keep the two pieces of card slotted together and then lie the whoel thing flat on the floor, that way all you have to do is make sure that the magazine pages you stick to the two facing sides are both of a kitchen, or bedroom or whatever.

Like this.

Carry on around all four sides (you'll need eight magazine pages in total) and it shoudl wind up looking something like this.

Doesn;t she looked pleased with herself. I cut two small slots near the corners at each side of the "kitchen" and strung a length of silver cord across, before hanging up a little t-shirt and trousers I cut from some old fabric. I'd picked up those tiny clothes pegs to use for hanging cards at Christmas and I've been trying to think of something else to use them for.

If you're feeling particular inspired and creative you could always colour the pieces of card yourself, then cut out individual pieces of furniture, chairs lamps that kind of thing and have fun designing your very own rooms.

I'd love to know if anyone does this their child.

For more great WFMW tips and ideas, head over to Rocks in my Dryer.

The Honeymoon - Part 1 (there could be a few of these)

So I was clearing some old things off the media player and came across some of our honeymoon photographs. 2002, a very good year. Egypt, I fell in love the second I stepped off the plane.

We spent a week in Luxor at the Old Winter Palace and a week in Cairo in the Mena House at the Foot of the Giza Plateau.

If money were no question I would go back tomorrow. I may not come home again.

The Hotel...

Have you ever been treated like royalty. I never had, until I arrived here. Everyone addressed me by name, remembered exactly which suite I was staying in without me having to remind them. The staff at the hotel literally couldn't do enough to make us feel more welcome, even packing picnics for us if we were to be on a tour over lunch.


The room...


The private roof top terrace... and the husband (back when that word still sounded strange) taking it easy...

Owls would land on the terrace at night. The sound was beautiful...


And the view...

I could watch that sunset forever.

I can't think of a single thing I didn't love about the country. Even the hustle and bustle didn't get me down and it can be hectic. I enjoyed every last second.

Our hotel was only a very short distance from the Luxor Temple and we made a point of walking past it almost every night. It was beautiful by day, but something about it lit up at night just drew me in. We didn't go in to the Temple at night, although twilight tours were available, with a warning to beware of snakes.

Um no thanks, we're just fine and dandy up here on the well lit main road...

The faces of these sphinxes were humanised...

And obviously we couldn't visit Luxor Temple without visiting the other end of the Avenue of the Sphinxes.

Karnak Temple...

Osiride Pillars...

The other end of the Avenue of the Sphinxes (the temples were once joined by a road lined with these). These are the ram headed sphinxes representing the God Amon.

Part of the Great Hypostyle Hall...

Those pillars are much, much taller in real life....


I don't even come close to doing the place justice. You recall, ME + CAMERA = BAD.

I'll have a few more of these posts at some stage for anyone interested.

Quick Week Review

Apologies, I've not been around as much as I should have. This Project 365 has sucked me and blew me out in bubbles.

Anyway, I'll get a quick recap of the last week or so out of the way (I'll probably elaborate on a few things later) and then I'll maybe manage to post something worth reading....at some stage.

Right then,

Well, my dad went walkabout last Saturday, just for fun. He arrived at my house at 5.30pm absolutely shattered and in a fair bit of pain. He walked from Newtownards to Helen's Bay then on to Crawfordsburn, then Bangor and back to Newtownards taking most of the scenic routes. For anyone counting thats about 18 miles. He'd left the house at 10.30am and took a short video in a few places just to prove he'd actually walked the whole way.

I pointed out that he could easily have driven between each town and still have taken the videos anyway. Not the way to poke fun at a knackered man, let me tell you.

He used to do things like this all the time, so did I come to think of it but lets just say its been a while (for either of us).

*A quick thing, my dad isn't my dad, he's my step dad but he's earned the title so its his. And even though I didn't meet him until I was 9, he taught me how to walk (really far for no reason)*

Still he enjoyed himself.

I've mentioned above that I'm doing the project 365 this year. The weather hasn't exactly been fantastic the last week or so, apart from a day or two so you can head over to the other blog for a look at random close of pictures of Toots toys, if you fancy? No. Oh, alright you can say here with me then.

We've figured out the hard way that Toots and Aspartame go together like oil and water. That stuff does NOT agree with the kid. So much for me trying to be a good mummy buying sugar free treats for her. Ah well.

She had her first ballet lesson, but thats all I can tell you. Top secret and all that. OR so you would think. It seemed that every other mum with her child enrolled in the class knew the score except for yours truly and two others. So all the kids were ushered into the studio, the three of us were promptly kicked back out again and the door was closed...firmly.

There we were left standing out in the hall like a bunch of numpties while the other mums made a beeline for the coffee shop. How were we to know, its not like anyone bother to tell us.

Of course ours kids weren't a bit happy about this either and promptly started yelling their heads off. Toots even treated me to slo mo crying her eyes out with her arms outstretched in my direction as the door closed. Heart breaking stuff.

Roughly 12 seconds later one of the assistants opened the door to leave in a bag of wings and wands for the class and I could here Toots laughing her head off. Nothing like making mummy worry for nothing kiddo. Thanks.

Still the three of us stood on outside the door "just to be sure" before finally sloping off the the (packed to the rafters) coffee shop.

"So. Who else brought a camera?" I asked.

We burst into fits of laughter.

We were alone.

Turns out I've enrolled Toots in a bona fide theatrical school and I thought it was just a bit of fun.

Again, how was I to know?

All I know is that she appears to have learnt "Ta Da" and something that resembles Jazz Hands but I could be very wrong. I'm assured that I'll be able to take all the photos I want at her RECITAL in nine weeks.

Toots has eaten 12 apples in the last 5 days. I've eaten half a jar of nutella. There goes the New Years resolution.

I'll be meeting up with a bloggy buddy in just over a week, so I'm looking forward to that.

Ikea here we come.

I haven't been in about six weeks and I think I may be getting withdrawal symptoms.

Does the froth at the corners of my mouth give it away or anything?

Oh and I've started to redecorate the entire house, so you might be getting a fair amount of that around here.

Keep 'er lit

She stepped up and looked me square in the eye. The sun was already high in the sky and I could feel the beads of sweat start their journey down the back of my neck.

The glint in her eye told me she meant business, "Go on then, interview me". Frick.

Bugger, now I have to ask MTM of Multi Tasking Mommy and Circle of Life Blog five questions and hopefully at the end of the day she'll still speak to me.

I can be a bit a div at times. The sort of person that will outright ask you what age you are or whether your hair colour is natural when I bump into you and your out on a first date. That lovely girl that will discreetly scream at the top of her lungs over the music in a club to let a friend know her skirt's tucked into her knickers just as the music stops.

Yep, that's me.

Deep breath now...

1. Thinking about holidays and vacations which comes to mind first, your best or worst experience and why?

2. What is your worst habit?

3. If you could be a super hero for a day what would your power be?

4. You have to give away all of your material possessions, not including the roof over your head, but you can keep three things. What are they?

5. Disco or die?

There you go, nice and easy. All you have to do is answer the questions, add the following instructions and come back here to leave a comment so I can come over and read your answers.

Instructions

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."
2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.
3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.
4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.
5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.

WFMW - Saving on Art and Craft Supplies

Toots received an easel from Ikea for Christmas. So far its been a big hit, she uses it every day without fail. It has a white board on one side and a chalkboard on the other, which is great because it means no paper.

Well in theory. We all know kids love to paint and Toots is no exception. She can happily pass an entire afternoon splodging paint onto paper.

The problem is that providing a constant and unending supply of paper for her to use can get very expensive. Also if she isn't producing masterpieces each and every time, I hate to say it but its kind of a waste of paper.

The easel is designed to hold a roll of white paper and conveniently enough, Ikea sells the rolls of paper under the same design name as the easel. The rolls are 40 metres long and £3.91 each. Now that actually isn't too expensive, it'll take her a while to get through a 40 metre roll.

Still if I can think of a way of saving money I'll certainly have a go.

The husband picked up two of these at the weekend.

They're rolls of lining paper, normally used for lining walls before painting or decorating. They're 60 metres long, £1.89 each and a hell of a lot thicker than the rolls in Ikea. Also they're recycled paper and can be recycled again. Plus because the paper is so thick she can easily use both sides.

Now the only problem with using these is that they're about 8 inches too wide for the easel. The husband took a saw to ours and cut through them in a couple of seconds, leaving me with two large rolls of paper for the easel and two smaller rolls which I'll eventually cut down into sheets to use when she's forced wants to sit and practice her handwriting.

Now if I can just get her to produce that masterpiece, we'll be set for life.

For more WFMW tips head on over to Rocks in my Dryer.

For all the things you desperately wanted to know but were too afraid to ask

Oh lummy I've been interviewed by Jason of The Jason Show. I asked for it so I'm completely the author of my own misfortune.

Ok the rules are as instructions to play along are as follows;

Want to be part of the interview fun?

1. Leave me a comment saying, "Interview me."

2. I will respond by emailing you five questions. I get to pick the questions.

3. You will update your blog with the answers to the questions.

4. You will include this explanation and an offer to interview someone else in the same post.

5. When others comment asking to be interviewed, you will get to ask them five questions.

Alright then, here goes;

1. How do you feel after an episode of The Jason Show?

That depends on the post. The Jason Show covers all my bases. I've laughed, often to the point of hurting myself. I've cried, more than once. I've sometimes felt angry. Although more often than not, I feel very uplifted after an episode.

2. When making a sandwich, do you butter the bread or not?

Always, even if I'm having mayo. I guess I'm just a bit greedy.

3. When your nose is running, and you don't have any tissues, what are you inclined to do?

I sniff. I'm a sniffer and it bugs the husband, he's a total hanky man. I don't cover one nostril and blow a stream of snot onto the ground like a footballer if thats what you're getting at, because thats just disgusting.

4. Which three blogs do you enjoy the most ? (besides The Jason Show, of course)

Only three? Sure make it difficult why don't you.

I suppose the three I enjoy the most, and by that I mean I'll go nosying before the reader has had a chance to update and I miss reading when they haven't posted that day are:

Welcome to my World JanMary.

Tales from the Dad Side

Circle of Life/Multitasking Mommy. I know technically thats two, but shh.

There are dozens more I love, but these are the three I enjoy the most (and The Jason Show, obviously).

5. Describe the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten.

Easy. Tripe. When we were kids, my mum's best friend loved the stuff and was determined we would all love it to. It never caught on. Everything about it is revolting, the smell (especially when its cooking), the taste, the texture. It's just nasty.

Oh and once I was playing with Toots and she put her fingers in my mouth, straight after picking her nose. The husband told me, through tears since he'd almost wet himself laughing.

She's always doing things like that. The husband has a video of Toots and I sitting watching TV, except the entire time she's picking her nose and wiping it on the leg of my trousers. I good 3 or 4 minutes goes past without me noticing.

That wasn't too bad actually, I was expecting worse. Some people take advantage of these things but it turns out Jason's lovely.

Go on then, play along. If your interested in being interviewed by yours truly leave a comment after the beep.

And if you have any suggestions for questions drop them in there as well.

BEEP

Tu Tu Tutorial

I finally managed to finish the tutu/skirt for Toots preschool ballet classes. She doesn't start the classes until this coming Saturday so for once, I haven't been rushing to get something finished at the last minute.

You'll have to excuse me, but this is my first tutorial of sorts. I'm actually not much of a seamstress. Actually, I'm nothing at all like a seamstress. I just wing it, sometimes things work out, quite often they don't.

For this skirt I started off with a metre of pink mesh like material, two metres of inch wide pink ribbon and some narrow elastic to use for gathering the fabric. To find out the length of elastic I needed, I just wrapped it around Toots waist and cut it to length. I allowed just over an inch of overlap.




I cut the pink fabric in half and laid the two pieces one on top of the other before using the narrow elastic to gather. Basically I sewed each end of the elastic to opposite ends of the fabric. I pinned the fabric out stretching the elastic out to the full length of the fabric before quickly sewing along the length of the elastic. Don't worry about this part being pretty, you'll cover the elastic and any wonky stitching with the ribbon.

Once I'd finished doing that, it looked like this.

I then folded the ribbon and skirt in half along the elastic to find the center of both and folding the ribbon in half pinned it over the elastic, creating the begining of a waistband.

Something like this.

Then carry on pinning the ribbon over the elastic out in both directions until you have completely encased the elastic with pink ribbon.



Toots is only 3, so using two metres of ribbon left plenty at each end to tie the skirt around her waist.



Once the ribbon is pinned in place, backstitch using small (ish) stiches along the length of the ribbon about 1/4 inch from the long edge of the ribbon.

You should wind up with something that looks like this.

I decided that I wanted the skirt to be a wraparound rather than a step through skirt because this set of lessons will last ten weeks> There are another set of lessons a bit later in the year over the summer and then a further set of lessons at the beginning of next year. I'm hoping that this way the skirt will last 18 months or so.

I'll post a photograph of Toots wearing the skirt for Project365, just as soon as she comes home from her Nana's house.

Actually, I forgot to mention that I'm having a go at Project365 this year. Hopefully, I'll learn how to use my camera because I just don't have a clue at the minute.

If I'm honest that thing scares me a bit.

Our Little Ballerina

We managed to get Toots enrolled in some preschool ballet classes in the Web Theatre. Its a ten week and she'll go on Saturdays to the Twinkles Ballet Class.

She just can't wait. When we called in to enroll she saw some photographs on the walls of children dancing and she'ss been copying them ever since with her fingers locked above her head, spinning around in circles.

The tutor of the class encourages the children to wear the traditional pink outfit complete with a little tutu. We took a quick nip around the town to see about picking up a skirt.

She tried on two cheaper ones, both were very unfinished looking. They were little skirts with an elasticated waistband that she would need to step into. They had very narrow elastic at the waist and she complained withiin seconds that they were uncomfortable. The more expensive one we found was £12 and had a lot more fabric gathered for a fuller looking skirt and a ribbon waistband. She liked it straight away.

£12 though. I can do better than that. We went to the local fabric shop and bought a metre of fabric exactly the same as the fabric used n the expensive skirt and 2 metres of ribbon a shade lighter than the fabric. I already have the right shade of thread and some elastic I can use for gathering the skirt so all in the skirt cost £2.20.

Not bad if I do say so myself.

I'm in the middle of making the skirt now so I'll post a half assed tutorial in the next day or so.

A gift of inspiration

I'm in love with this layout. It was a gift from JanMary of JM Digital Designs. She's a fellow blogger from Northern Ireland and also blogs at Welcome to my World JanMary and I'd encourage anyone to take a look. Her layouts are to die for.

I really like the simplicity of this layout, although having recently had a bash at digital scrap booking I know how much effort went into making this and how time consuming it was.

I always start of with an idea in my head of something ending up looking like this. My problem is that, being a newbie, I'm like a toddler let loose in a sweet shop with a £20 note. If an embellishment comes with a kit you can be pretty sure I'll cram it in there somewhere and the photograph ends up looking like an after thought that I've had to make room for. Not really the idea behind digiscrapping as far as I can tell. I would imagine the plan is to show off the photos to their best.

I plan on using this as part of my mum's Mother's Day present. She enjoys receiving photographs of Toots. She doesn't often take many photos herself. She claims to be allergic to cameras.

I'm still not sure though whether to print the layout and have it framed or try to make a few more myself using older photos of Toots, maybe a couple for each year and put the layouts in a huge photo album I bought a couple of years ago and never got round to using. That way I can leave part of the album empty and add to it with things like her first day at school and some day trips we're planning on taking during the summer.

Now if I could just restrain myself enough to be able to produce something even half as good as this layout I'll be happy.

I'll let you know how it goes.

WFMW - Getting kids interested in school

We've spent the last few days here getting Toots registered for primary school.

I have to say that I never thought it would go just as well as it has.

We've mentioned the idea of school to Toots on a number of occasions before and lets just say it didn't go down well. Usually any mention of school ended in a full on tiny tantrum.

However, the last few days have been a lot more promising.

The trick. Just take her to visit the school. As simple as that. We went to the school on Monday to collect a copy of the prospectus and some registration forms. She immediately fell in love with the place, looking at all the kids artwork on the walls and asking to be allowed out to play in the enclosed courtyard filled with toys and climbing frames for the P1 and P2 playtime.

On our second visit to the school on Tuesday, we left the forms and copies of her birth certificate back with the secretary. I asked if it was ok for Toots to have a quick (quiet) look around. The secretary told us that the P1 class were having playtime and Toots could go into the courtyard to play with the other kids if she wanted.

Of course, she jumped at the chance and played on a space hopper with two girls who were more than happy to play with her and tell her all about the school. When the teacher told all the children that playtime was over and it was time to go back to class, one of the girls Toots had been playing with asked if she could come and sit in the classroom with her. The teacher said it was fine if it was ok with me and I was happy for her to sit in for a few minutes. I didn't want her to disrupt the class for too long.

The teacher was fantastic and obviously more than happy to have her there. She started off with simple things like having the class count out loud and say their alphabet and which animal's names started with each letter, all of which Toots could participate in. We only started for around 15 minutes in the class and then we left to do some shopping.

Toots has talked about the school constantly since then, asking when she can go back again to see her teacher and her new friends. The teacher also gave her a few short worksheets to take home with her and she's completely addicted to them. I've had to photocopy them and I'm trying to find similar sheets online.

She'll go to the school again for an open night next week and then there are two planned easing in days in March and May. The teacher said that she can come down to visit any time she likes and I have to say its definitely made all the difference.

If you have the opportunity to take your pre-schooler along to school or kindergarten for a visit or two before they officially start I would highly recommend it.

Everyone at the school Toots will be attending have been lovely and very understanding and the children she's met so far have been a complete credit to the school, taking her under their wing and being very patient with her.

For more WFMW posts head back over to Rocks in my Dryer.

Skool Dayz

Today was a lovely day.

Today would normally have been my first day back to work and Toot's first day back to daycare after the Christmas holidays, but instead we were at home.

This is the first of many days home together.

We had an early morning getting dad organised and off to work. It's going to take him a while to get used to his new routine but I don't think he'll mind too much. Usually he would have to drop Toots at daycare and then he very kindly drove me to work, before working all day and then collecting both of us again on the trip home so already us being at home shaves about 90 minutes off his day. He arrived home today just after 5.30pm. Completely unheard of.

After having some breakfast we both got organised and walked to the school I want to enrol Toots in. We collected the forms had a look around, posted some mail and headed home again.

As I sat myself down with a cup of coffee and watched her play, it struck me.

My little girl's going to SCHOOL. In a uniform with a school bag and everything. Ok so she doesn't actually start school until August this year but I know that time is just going to disappear in the blink of an eye. It'll be August in no time.

She's definitely ready for school, she's already declared the school hers, she's touched everything, played on the games marked out on the ground in the playground and basically marked her toddler territory.

I'm not sure I'm ready for her to be starting school yet though.

Sometimes when I look at her I still see the tiny little baby I brought home from the hospital.

The baby I fought so hard for.

The baby who refused to cry for what seemed like an eternity when she was finally born.

The baby who finally let out the littlest of squeaks and shattered my heart into a thousand tiny little pieces that only she possessed hands small enough to hold.



She quickly proved she was made of sterner stuff than we could ever have hoped.

At five months grasping on to a stuffed rocking reindeer at least three times her size and enjoying every minute of it.


After only one short year with us, watching us and taking everything in we could only just keep up with her.

At two with a personality all of her own she still has determination and perseverance that knew no bounds.

Still something about the next picture should leave no doubt in any mind that she is definitely my daughter.

And now almost four years on we have our defiant little miss. Adamant that everyone else is doing it wrong, you are absolutely supposed to go down the slide backwards and on your belly.

There's just no telling her these days.

She knows it all.


Still sometimes a part of me wishes she would just stop for a second and let me look at her. Just for a second.

I need to take more photos.

Testing my Christmas Pressie with Chocolate Cake

I didn't bake a lot over Christmas this year which is something I regretted because I love to bake, even more so at Christmas. Something about always having homebaked cakes, buns, bread and cookies around the house just makes it seem more like the holidays.

My Dad always made fun of my pathetic attempts at baking and cooking when I was younger and for good reason. Coconut ice anyone? Even I couldn't force down a piece of that anymore.

But in the last five years or so, he's had a complete change of heart. Something about me actually being a pretty good cook when I put my mind to it. Nothing like blowing your own horn eh?

Still it seems once I got past the idea that food had to be expensive, elaborate and slaved over I started to cook well and more importantly, bake well.

My Dad is a baker. He works in a bakery. So he has really started to enjoy the things I make. I tend to make far too much as there are only three of us in the house so at least half of everything makes its way to his house.

My Dad has made a point the last few years to give me kitcheny items for birthday and Christmas presents. This year was no exception. He gave me a very large (I get the hint dad) cake tin. It's 28cm across and comes with two bases, one decorative ring mould base and one plain flat base. It would be about the size of the bottom layer of a pretty big wedding cake if I used the flat layer, so I didn't.

I've never baked in a decorative tin before, apart from Toots little teddy bear and butterfly silcone moulds, but nothing this size and I wanted to make sure the cake would come out of the tin in one piece.

It did.

Doesn't that just look (almost) too good to eat. Notice the huge slice taken out of it before I could even take the photo.

It's the simplest recipe to make as well.

One Bowl Chocolate Cake

Taken from a recipe on zaar called The Absolute Best Moist One-Bowl Dark Chocolate Bundt Cake. I can say that it definitely more than lives up to its name.

2/3 cup cocoa, sifted (I didn't bother)
2 1/4 cups plain flour
2 cups sugar (I used about 1 1/2)
1 1/2 tsp baking powder
1 1/2 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt (I didn't use any)
1 1/2 tsp instant coffee granules
1 1/2 cups unsweetened orange juice (I only had sweetened and thats why i reduced the sugar and I used half orange and half water)
3 eggs
1 1/4 cups vegetable oil. (Actually you could probably replace some of this with apple sauce if the thought of all that oil puts you off)

Pre-heat oven to 180C (350F)

Generousy grease a bundt pan. (I would say this recipe would do three 8 inch cake tins or a 13 x 9 inch tin)

Put all ingredients in one large bowl and beat until well conbined. Pour into cake tin and bake for approximately 1 hour until done. Mine took just a little less than one hour, so probably best to test from about 45 minutes onwards.

If your using a 13 x 9 pan I would test from about 35-45 minutes and for the smaller 8 inch tins from about 25 minutes onwards.

Its best if you have moist crumbs left on the toothpick when testing for doneness, like brownie crumbs.

The recipe oon zaar also includes a recipe for a struesal, half fill the pan, sprinkle over the streusal and pour the rest of the batter over, but I didn't use it.

The glaze I used was just a simple ganache, equal quantities of double cream and dark chocolate. Heat the cream in a pan until just before boiling, add the chopped chocolate, let it sit for a minute or two and then stir until combined.

I should really have let the glaze cool a bit more before pouring it over but I just couldn't wait to try it so most of it wound up puddled on the plate.

Still good though.

The Christmas Post

I woke on Christmas Eve with the mother of all chest infections this year, which is nothing new, I've pretty much always came down with something at Christmas but I can usually function.

Not this year unfortunately.

I haven't cooked a simgle beautiful meal for my family. I haven't baked a single thing apart from some chocolate chip cookies to make Toots some ice cream sandwiches which were to die for by the way.

And I haven't taken a single photograph which is crap.

I still don' feel 100% but I think the main problem is that I've let my caffiene levels drop to an all time low.

Its almost 11.00pm at night, I've had seven cups of coffee in the last two hours and I feel fabulous.

I never realised I drank as much coffee as I do, so I'll have to start a weening process in the new year. I don't like the idea that I need the stuff to function.

Still Toots and the husband have really enjoyed their Christmas this year.

Luckily we were going to mum's house for Christmas dinner this year, so we went up for a few hours and everyone (not me obviously) had a beautiful meal cooked by my dad.

Thanks Dad, you rock.

Toots had her, now traditional, two Christmases.

She woke up around 8am.

A blissful lie in for mum and dad. We had hung a stocking in her room filled the the usual asortment. Chocoloate coins, two rolls of stickers, a clementine and a pink power ranger which was pure hell to find. If your kid likes red or blue your sorted, but pink and your in diffs.

Once we'd all came aroound a bit we went downstairs and she played with her new easle while I made breakfast, croissants, bacon and eggs.

We then made a start opening the presents. I always try to make a point that she plays with each present and spends a bit of time on each one as she opens it, rather than it just turning into a conveyor belt of shredded flyinf paper and empty cardboard boxes. I'm glad to say that this year we had no problems like that. We had only bought a small amount of presents this year and she loved each and everyone of them and we almost had to force her to move on to the next present in the end to try and get the day moving.

Her favourite by far was her new digital camera. Its aimed at kids and because of this the picture quality isn't fantastic. It takes much better photos outside than inside and I'll get her out of the house with it as much as possible but for now, the following for your viewing pleasure.

Her new bike at Nana's house later on Christmas day. Another gift that went down very well. We had to bodily lift her, bike and all back into the house again when her nose had turned the brightest shade of red I've ever seen. Rudolph would have been proud.

Then Dad had the camera connected to the television on Christmas morning so that she could see him taking photos of her with some of the pre-programmed borders which can be added to the photos as you take them. Yes that is him holding a snowflake and yes she is very happy about that.




And one a bit later in tthe day when she was getting ready to go to Nanas, just because it was funny.

I'll have a go at working on some of the other photos with photoshop to try and fix the exposure which seems to be the main problem using the camera inside.

All in all she had a lovely day. A bit of relaxing at home with us in the morning and then some food and playing with friends at Nanas in the afternoon.

I'm really glad we decided to get her the camera now, otherwise this would have been another photoless post.

I hope everyone else had the Christmas they hoped for and a lovely start to 2009.

the catch up and some mental over spill

Its been a strange few weeks here.

Toots finished daycare on 23 December which was very hard on everyone involved. I actually came out of it feeling like a bit of a selfish cow for thinking that the only people effected would be Toots, myself, the husband and my family. I somehow managed to forget about some of the staff in her nursery who have grown very attached to her over the last three years. On in particular, started employment with the nursery the same week Toots started attending. She has moved with her from the baby room, to the toddler house and then to the pre-school room and in all fairness over the course of the last three years, she's spent more time with Toots than I have.

The woman in question was absolutely heart broken that Toots was leaving and made me promise that if I ever need a sitter, I'll call her and I've also promised to bring Toots to the nursery for a visit. Its doubtful that the husband and I will need a sitter as there simply won't be the money for nights out but I will take her to nursery to visit, plus it means she can keep in touch with the friends she made over the years.

Which brings me to my main concern. I was very worried about taking her away from her nursery and all of her friends. She'll be going to school with a lot of them in September but I was still worried that they would forget about her in the next nine months and she'd have to start school as an outsider. I planned to getting her into some dance, art and drama classes held in the local theatre n the hope that some of the kids her age would also be going to the school I've picked for her, but I needn't have worried myself so much.

She spent Christmas day at my mum's house and when she came home she promptly declared that she'd made three new bestest friends in the whole wide world. It seems that the one thing more important than friends that the nursery gave her was the ability to make friends easily. I think its what I'm most grateful for. Toots can start a conversation in an empty room.

I'm unemployed now.

I'm still not quite sure what to do with that one.

I've spent the last couple of months being told by anyone willing to voice an opinion (almost everyone) that I'll be bored to tears at home. Most of these people don't know me very well. I'm actually not that into my job, truth be told. Its just something I fell into when I left school. I'm very grateful for all the opportunities it gave me, but I never really enjoyed it and because of that it was always a bit of a struggle. I think if you really enjoy what you do then it makes it so much easier to get up every morning and just go do it.

Basically, I was just a legal secretary. I spent the first couple of years doing personal injury litigation. You come to conclusion very early on doing this kind of work. Most of your clients are liars and the ones telling the truth get screwed out of what the deserve because of all the liars. That can really make you hate a job.

I spent the next couple of years working on disease cases. These were different because all the clients were telling the truth, unfortunately the insurance companies know that if they hold out long enough and string the case along the inevitable will happen and the client will die. Families get a much smaller pay out for a dead relative no longer suffering than a person still alive and in agony will get. Again, this makes for a hateful job.

I tried some family law. It always amazed me how many couples turn into complete animals once they're in the throws of a divorce and its a hundred times worse when kids are involved. I only lasted in family law for about six months. I just couldn't take all the vindictiveness.

I tried conveyancing, but that was boring because nothing interesting ever happened. I know.

Then I wound up in employment and media litigation, which is where I finished. Its a sad fact that as soon as the rest of the country is in the toilet and redundancy is on the rise, employment lawyers are swamped with work. I suppose its just the nature of the beast. Still not a pleasant prospect to spend your day drafting redundancies. Still there were nice days when you got to tell a particularly greedy couple of companies that actually no they couldn't sack half their staff and putting the rest on rolling rotas. They were just going to have to suck it up and roll with the punches like the rest of us.

Still at my leaving interview I was told that in a year or so I could basically give them a call and I'd be guaranteed my job back.

Not bad considering I've only been there 14 months. I must have made a good impression either that or I made good tea and cakes to go with it.

And I have to sign on at the Social Security Office in a couple of weeks. Not looking forward to that one bit. I've only ever had to sign on once before when I first left school and that was just a cover period until my training course started. I managed to drag my feet about doing it for so long that I signed on and signed off again 8 days later.

I'm actually pretty confident that I'm not entitled to benefits because the husband works full time but when you work in legal some of the clients prefer the staff to have police clearance and you can only get that if you can account for your whereabouts since the day you turned 16. Plus I think you need minimal police clearance to be able to volunteer for school trips and the like which I would like to do at Toots school if the opportunity ever arises.

I had all these fanciful ideas of doing something from home. Trying to sell more baked goods or something along those lines, but to be completely honest I don't even know where to start, so the ideas will more than likely fall into the pipe dream folder.


I'd say I'll be busy enough keeping Toots occupied. We all know its against the law for kids to be bored these days. Families must have to take out loans to keep their kids busy during summer holidays. I hate to go there, but when I was a kid summer holidays usually involved sitting on a wall somewhere.

That was it, just sitting on a wall.

Occasionally we would have cycled from Belfast to Holywood or Cultra, probably so that when we were in our 30s with kids of our own we could tell them how in the summer holidays all we had to do was sit on a wall or cycle somewhere really far away and that they should be eternally grateful for the trip to the swimming pool.

To which they were driven in a car that they weren't embarrassed to be seen in. We've a Laguna and mum has a Merc so the kid's pretty well sorted.

When I was nine I remember my mum driving a Renault Cleo Elf. It was a 1985 from memory and we all had to get out at the bottom of a hill and meet her at the top or the wee thing never would have made it.

Love of Winter

Image courtesy of curlgirl1

I could get used to these long dark days.

I’ve always preferred winter to any other season.

There’s something more familiar and cosy about winter that I just don’t get from any other time of the year. I can throw on a jumper and a huge woolly scarf and a decent pair of walking boots, happy in the knowledge that if I tried to rock my four inch heels 12 months of the year I would look like the village idiot. I don’t have to worry about the perfect beach body or shifting that last few pounds, trying to buy something to wear when the shops are filled with clothes that would be more expensive than gold if they were sold by weight.

I love to curl up in front of the fire with a book or some work, a glass of wine or even a big mug of hot chocolate. A blanket wrapped around me even though it isn’t cold inside. Call it my snugly if you like but I just love to have a blanket handy.

I’ve spent the last few nights like this and I’m definitely enjoying the laziness of it all. Yesterday I left work a little early (due to lack of anything interesting to do). I arrived home probably about an hour before sunset. I lit the fire, switched on the laptop and settled down with a big mug of coffee and started to order my groceries online. I was a lot more sensible this year, I didn’t get caught up buying silly things, I just stuck to my list and made sure to order all of my heavy items which will save me having to cart those home be myself.

It took around an hour and by the time I’d finished it was almost completely dark outside. I hadn’t closed the curtains yet and the lights from the Christmas tree were reflected in the glass. The laptop shut down for the evening, the only noise left to listen to was the sound of the fire crackling.

I walked to the kitchen and almost without thinking, lifted the lasagne from the fridge and put it into the oven before switching it on. I went back to the fireplace, added some more peat and upstairs I hung some towels near the radiator for Toot’s bath time.

After checking everything was secured, I pulled on a jumper, lifted my coat and big woolly scarf and headed back out into the cold to collect Toots.

We walked back up the hill together towards home, with the constant sound of traffic no match for the volume of her giggle as we slid on the already frosty ground and she tried to “catch” me with the steam she blew from her mouth.

We arrived home and got rid of the coats and boats, heading straight for the sofa and all those lovely cushions. She immediately grabbed a blanket and curled up with it draped across her knee. Her eyes shone and sparkled and the faintest hint of red could still be seen on the tip of her nose and her cheeks, but still completely happy her smile shone brightest of all.

She asks eagerly if it will snow before Christmas and I hope for her (and me) that it does.

My little apple never fell far from the tree.

And so it begins

Well, actually its been in full swing for a couple of weeks now.



Yes I've been faffing with Photoshop again. Just because I'm not very good with it, doesn't mean its any less addictive.

For some reason every year around the end of November I start to behave like the world will end on 31 December. I have to finish everything I've left to one side the entire year, try every recipe I've been meaning to, have a crack at any new hobby or craft that's caught my eye.

All I wind up doing is maybe finishing one or two projects I've had on the go and create another ten which ill sit until next November.

I've started to make a dinosaur play mat thingy which I found here. I've been at It a couple of weeks now and considering my little sewing machine can't cope with quilting felt I've been doing everything the old fashioned way. I've managed to get the mat finished and the zips pinned in place along with a cave and a couple of trees made, still a fair bit to do though.

I've still working on finishing the last couple of Christmas presents and for some reason they're taking a lot longer than I planned. At this rate mum's getting one glove for Christmas and the Jacko look isn't quite as "in" as it used to be.

The husband was on call yesterday and Toots was happily occupying herself at the kitchen table with a bucket of PVA and enough tissue and crepe paper to make the Woodland Trust cry, so I decided to get a couple of wee DIY bits and pieces done around the house.

I've been putting them off for months, little things. I've been meaning to change the light switches upstairs and had to change a couple of the low voltage bulbs in the bathroom.

I grabbed the husband's tool box and the bits and pieces I needed from the garage and got stuck in.

Well the husband arrived home a couple of hours later. Imagine my surprise when he wasn't grateful that I'd done some things it would save him the bother of having to do. Nope instead he was huffy. A huffy bugger because, again, I'd used his tools.

Apparently I have this.

I've had it for four years and stepped over and around it every day for four years because he put it in the larder.

He told me about it four years ago as well, and if I really strain hard I can almost see a fuzzy black and white picture of it in my head. Almost.

The problem. Four years ago I was pregnant.

I turned into a bit of village idiot when I was pregnant. I was clumsy and forgot almost everything instantly. I'd enough trouble remembering how to do my job and remembering to get dressed before I went there everyday without having to deal with excess information.

So Husband, when you showed me a big silver box and mentioned tools four years ago, I zoned you out and didn't hear anything else.

Sorry.

Do you like the addition of the two packs of sand and glass paper. The reason behind those is that he thinks if I have my own sand paper, I'll stop using his belt and orbital sanders.

Sorry again Husband. Not happening.

Stall! Me? No.

Photo courtesy of Journeyevers89

Check that box.

WFMW - When being cheap doesn't work

Just putting it out there, but this is one of those times when being cheap really doesn't work.

I decided that I needed to reorganise Toots toys. She has a large wooden toy box downstairs which is a pain in the backside to get anything in and out of and two pop up storage bags in her room filled with toys. Obviously, she only ever plays with the two or three things sitting at the top of each of these boxes and bags.

So the plan was simple. Smaller, lighter boxes which could be brought out one at a time, easily packed up again and another box brought out to keep the toys in even rotation.

Rather than buy made for purpose toy boxes like Trofast I thought I could make my own using some of the dozens of boxes my office throw out every day and some pretty wrapping paper.

So I bought the paper



And got to work wrapping some of the boxes I brought home from the office.

They look good don't they?

Yeah. Well they don't work. They're flimsy for a start. I should have known they'd never stand a chance against Toots. They've been taped together again more times than I can count in the last couple of weeks and I've finally given up. They may have done a better job if I'd used sturdier, heavier boxes.

Anyway, guess who's saving for Trofast.

For more WFMW posts, check out Rocks in my Dryer. And if you see or have any great ideas for organising kids toys, please let me know.

Bless her little cotton socks

Doesn't she look so calm and peaceful.

Believe it or not, she snores like a bear.

Just like her dad.

Adventures in digiscrapping

I finally fell in. Head first.

My name is Leanne and I am a hobby addict (without a hope in hell of ever being presented with a chip).

I love new hobbies, especially the creative, crafty hobbies and even more so if there's an "Idiot's Guide to being Crafty and Creative" to go along with the new hobby, because I'm anything but. I can copy things easily but don't ask me to come up with a new idea all by my lonesome, because you'll be waiting a long time.

Anyway, I've been seeing a lot around about digiscrapping and I love me a hobby where I can get my hands on everything I need online and for the novice scrapper you can even get a ton of stuff for free.

Now I happen to be lucky enough to have Photo Shop Elements, but you can download some software perfect for the job online and again you can some free stuff. Also I've heard mention that you can use the photo editing software on Flickr.

I've been nosy about digiscrapping for a while now but decided it was far to addictive for me. I only see the the family from the shoulders up at the best of times, but I decided to have a go for a Christmas present for a friend. She loves to bake and always when its my turn to bake she always asks for the same few recipes over and over so I figured I could try and make some recipe cards.

This is what I came up with

Packages by Marie Stones and June Hill

Packages by Marie Stones and June Hill

And I know, I know there isn't a photo included, but I picked up a bundle of offcuts of mounting boards and card at my local framers and I thought I could have this on one side of the card with a photo of the recipe on the other side, laminate them and hold all the cards together with a keyring I found in a birthday card shop with a huge plastic piece of cake attached.

Cutesy, I know, but I'm really starting to like cutesy. Sometimes I even picture myself in a nice apron.