Thank Crunchie It's Friday

This week has absolutely flown past and I've struggled to keep up with everything I had to do so nothing new there then LOL. Today Jim went out for lunch with his sister (Evelyn) and although he enjoyed it he was so tired when he came back that he had to go to bed for a couple of hours. While he was snoozing Laura and I were gardening. She really likes to help with the digging and planting but not so much when I ask her to do some weeding LOL. I bought her a couple of strawberry plants so that she can grow her own strawberries and she couldn't wait to get them. I'll need to get some wire netting or a little poly tunnel for her to keep the birds away though!

Here is a layout I recently completed of the girls (Laura, Sophie and Jenny) playing in the sun. They had a ball just running around barefoot, climbing trees, squirting water at each other, etc.

Gotta go now duty calls!

Fee x

Fun in the Pool

Another busy day today and I fell asleep for an hour when I came home. I must have needed the rest but it meant that we were eating dinner at 8.30pm which is a bit late for us.

This photo on this layout was taken in Florida 2008 when Laura was having fun in the pool at the villa. The paper is from the Baby Safari Baby Girl range of papers. The backgorund paper is by Doodlebug and has embossed flowers on it (although you can't really tell from this photo). The letters were cut from chipboard using my Sizzix dies and covered with Posie Pink Bazzill then stamped with Versamark to achieve a watermark effect. I hope you like it.

Till tomorrow.

Fee X

Blog Candy Giveaway

I thought it was about time I had a giveaway. The papers shown here are from the My Little Yellow Bicycle Baby Boy Safari range and they are absolutely gorgeous to scrap with. To be in with a chance of winning all you have to do is to leave a comment about anything at all here on the blog before Sunday 14th February. The winner will be drawn at random. Good luck everyone.

Not a lot of scrapping mojo around today I'm afraid but I was busy with household chores instead but tomorrow is another day LOL. I did however find the fruit loaf recipe that I was looking for earlier this week and I hope to do some baking tomorrow - watch this space!

Fee x

Project Number 2

After covering the organiser box I was left with some pink paint and a lot of scraps of cardstock and I decided to be thrifty (for once) and use them up. I bought this little bank at the same time as I bought the other box and I thought I might as well do something with it. As you know, we had a fab time at our Scrapbooking Weekend at http://www.southlittleton.co.uk/ and we have booked to return again in October. I thought that if I made this little bank it might focus my mind on saving up for this. I hope you like it.

I've made some more carrot cake tonight and I'm impatiently waiting for it to cool so that I can taste it. As my last effort didn't require any hospital treatment I thought I would post the ingredients in case anyone wanted to try it out. There are many recipes available on-line but this is the one I used.

8 oz Self Raising Flour

4oz Muscavado Light Brown Sugar

4oz Finely Grated Carrot

2 Ripe bananas (mashed)

2 oz Chopped Walnuts or Pecans

2 teaspoons Baking Powder

2 teaspoons Cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon Nutmeg

2 Large Eggs (beaten)

5oz Sunflower Oil

Method

Preheat fan oven to 175 degrees . Lightly grease 8" non stick square cake tin with butter.

Sift flour, sugar, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking powder together in a mixing bowl and stir to blend. Make well in centre and add beaten eggs and oil together. Using a mixer on low setting mix until smooth consistency forms.

Stir in carrot, banana and nuts until blended. Pour mixture into tin until half way up side. Bake in oven (middle shelf) for 45 minutes or until firm and skewer in centre comes out clear. Remove from oven and leave to cool completely before removing from tin.

Topping

6oz Soft Mascarpone Cheese

6oz Icing Sugar (sieved)

1 teaspoon Vanilla Essence

2oz Soft Margarine (I use Stork)

Method

Beat Mascarpone cheese, margarine and vanilla essence then add icing sugar a little at a time. Blend until thoroughly mixed and smooth. Spread icing over top of cake and refrigerate for an hour to set topping. Decorate top with walnuts or pecans then cut into squares and serve.

Enjoy! I'll post a photo of my efforts tomorrow.

Till then.

Fee x

An Extremely Productive Day

I was very focussed at the crop today and managed to complete two projects. The first one was the recipe/organiser thingy that I started to paint last night. I covered the box inside and out and then covered the inserts too. The challenge for me was using what is really a baby paper on a project that had nothing to do with babies LOL. I chose My Little Yellow Bicycle Baby Safari Girl Thermography cardstock to cover the box and some embellishments from the same range to decorate it. As you will see from the photo I have decided to use the box as an organiser for my Scor-pal projects. I am very guilty of designing a project and then just scribbling out the instructions in pencil on a piece of scrap paper. This is okay at the time but not so good if I have to make the same thing again 6 months later. Hopefully this little box will change all that and I will be able to find my instructions easily. I know Val will be glad I'm doing this because I drive her nuts all the time when I lose things and then she usually has to look for them LOL.

I did hear one very good piece of news today, probably the first piece of good news that I've heard this year. My friend Margaret is going to become a Gran in August - so congratulations Margaret & John. I was so pleased to hear this especially as the news was quite unexpected.

I'm already looking forward to seeing some new layouts documenting the pregnancy (no pressure).

Till tomorrow.

Fee x