Christmas & New Year ... Must try harder!

Wow, its been months!

Life seems to be whats happening when you're not looking I think...

Nothing too major has happened for me not to have blogged, just life etc

Anyway... its almost new year, can't believe its almost 2010! 2009 went so fast!
I hope you all had a fab christmas, ours was ok other than both my children being sick with a stomach bug :( oh and then just before I started cooking christmas dinner I managed to slice open my finger with a stanley blade :( not good but it did get me out of having to cook which was nice in a way, though very weird, i've cooked christmas dinner for the last 13 years since I was 18 so was different :)

This is just a quick post.. just so those of you who might like to know i'm still alive can see I am! lol

Hope you all have a safe and happy new year and a fab 2010!!

Sarah xXx

An unintentional break!

I cannot believe it was the 18th of July that I last 'blogged', I hadn't made a decision to have a break and blogging wasn't the only thing i'd stopped doing, facebook, twitter and all the usual online retreats had also been left a while too.
So I guess now i'm back, anyone missed me? :P lol

Its nearing the end of a generally poor summer here and I can't wait for the winter evenings to stay snuggled in with the family playing games etc :)

I hope everyone else is well :)

A challenge to myself

I know this is probably going to seem a little mad, but this is a huge thing for me!
Whenever I do drawings I always do them way too small, almost as if i'm frightened of making a mistake or if I do it will be so small it won't matter (too much), I rarely colour them in any way, I always stick with safe things to draw
instead of creating something I want and if i'm honest I hardly ever actually finish something either. So the challenge to myself was:

1. To create something completely different
2. Make it large -A4 (I know this isn't huge but believe me to me its gigantic!)]
3. Colour it
4. FINISH it!!

I did all of this for the first time probably ever!! I know its hardly a masterpiece but i'm very proud of myself!

*Tagged* for 10 random facts!

I was recently *tagged* by notesfromthetoothfairy for 10 random facts! I have never done anything like this before so a big ty to her for tagging me and a big breath for me as I try and do this! lol :)

~~~~~~~~~~

1. I really hate tissues being scrunched or their layes being rubbed together - I know I probably sound nuts, but trust me they have layers, layers that to me sound like fingernails down a blackboard! - Kitchen towel and thankfully toilet tissue isn't so bad, its mainly ordinary tissues and some serviettes that causes my goosebumps!!

~~~~~~~~~~

2. I wear too much black, I am trying to change this, but its hard! I recently saw a tv show that 'proved' black doesn't make you look any smaller infact on a test they did - they had boxes of the same weight in various colours and asked several people which they thought was the heaviest box most (if not all I can't remember) chose the black one!! I know! and i'm still wearing too much black!

~~~~~~~~~~

3. I have very small hands, they are quite weak and painful most of the time too, have been to dr's but they don't know what causes the pain etc :(

~~~~~~~~~~

4. Last year I turned 30, I was seriously scared (if scared is the right word) - i'm not even sure what of, its just a number isn't it and I have felt 30 most of my adult life so its not like I suddenly felt like I had to grow up or anything. Not long before my birthday I saw the film The Guardian and in that was the most amazing speech from one of the characters: http://www.moviesoundclips.net/movies1/guardian/old.wav (Found this online)
Incase the link doesn't work:
Senior Chief Ben Randall:"When the heck did we get old?"
Maggie McGlone:"Hell, I've always been old Ben. You know what though, I don't mind. I mean if my muscles ache, it's because I've used 'em. It's hard for me to walk up them steps now, its because I walked up 'em every night to lay next to a man who loved me. I got a few wrinkles here and there, but I've layed under thousands of skies with sunny days. I look and feel this way, well because I drank and I smoked. I lived and I loved, danced, sang, sweat and screwed my way thorough a pretty damn good life if you ask me. Getting old ain't bad Ben. Getting old, that's earned."

Hearing this part of the film changed the way I thought, i've known too many people who have died way too young so i'm very lucky to be 30.

~~~~~~~~~~

5. There is one film guaranteed to make me laugh and cry everytime I see it - The Bucket List
I won't spoil if for those of you that haven't seen it but the seen of 'laugh til I cry' has me in stitches everytime I see it, and by the end of the film I'm always tearful!

~~~~~~~~~~

6.My favourite city is Manchester, love the nw of England generally too. Haven't travelled a great deal, and although I enjoy it when we get the chance I don't have a yearning to go everywhere, there are places i'd love to see though.

~~~~~~~~~~

7.My feet are now smaller than when I was 11/12 :/ - I know thats pretty strange, at least I think it is?! but I am now 1-2 shoe sizes smaller than I used to be!

~~~~~~~~~~

8.I generally send more than 500 text messages per month, I don't know if this is alot or not?! I'm not a teenager (as i've already stated) and I don't have dozens of friends either :/

~~~~~~~~~~

9.I love quotes and sayings especially inspirational ones. I could list alot of them but this blog post would go on forever, so instead I will just put the one that I went to the trouble of printing out and framing, its hanging in our lounge- Ordinary people build worldss within worlds, ordinary people make a good life out of living.

~~~~~~~~~~

10.I'm not as self confident as i'd like to be, or maybe used to be, but in some ways more than I have been (lol yes i'm confused too). In some ways i'm over confident, at times don't care what other people think, yet in other ways i'm always happy to be in the background, never really want to be noticed, for good or bad. I came out of a bad relationship 6 years ago and am now far more confident in myself than I was, so there's hope yet :)


Theres my 10 random facts - oh have just discovered i've been tagged again - 'In My Life', erm will this count for both? or should I do another 10 (help)

I read many great blogs, it was very hard to choose just 10 but these are the 10 bloggers i'm tagging!

Taste of my life

2Kute

Christie Cottage

Create Share Bless

josiebean!

Simple - Yet Effective

Nora's Blog

What Would Suzie Do?

The Craft Floozy

Hooligan Girl

2 boys and a girls birthday!

It was recently my daughters and a best friends 2 sons birthdays, not on the same day but within the same week, we always try and get together for a combined celebration of some sort, this year we went on a lovely picnic together, I provided the food and cake this time, I thought the cake would be fun, until I realised I was short on ingrediants and all icing things I had were pink (not sure the 2 boys would of been too pleased with that lol). With no time to get to a decent shop I used what I had in, thankfully a pack of sugared animals provided enough blue for the boys to be happy and ignore the pink!! I also discovered I had very little icing sugar in, so made a lemon drizzle icing! Phew - note to self, check ingrediants the day before having to bake!!

Smiles

Whilst clearing up after doing some water experiments with my kids the other day as I went to dry the table I noticed this little face staring up at me, and we hadn't deliberately done it either just the splashes had formed this lovely little face - maybe the water had as much we as we did! :)

Lucky close up

On a recent trip out, whilst sat on a bench my son noticed a robin had landed on a fence behind me, luckily I had my camera in my bag and I managed to quickly and quietly get it out and capture this close up shot!
I felt very lucky :)

New blog

I have created a brand new shiney blog- only 1 post so far, but I wanted a place to ramble on about stuff!! Lifeis Daily Ramblings
Hope you enjoy it!

A small drawing

I go through phases of drawing, not really sure why I don't do it all the time, i'd probably be better at it if I did, but life seems to get in the way all too often!
This is a drawing I did recently copied from an image, would love to learn to draw from real live things infront of me, maybe one day!
Need to learn to do the shading better, although probably not totally right on this I was quite pleased with it, stopped adding colour at this point though before I spoilt it!

Tomato plant progress!

Well the tomato plants are now too large (by a long way) to
sit in our 'greenhouse' so they are in a sheltered place next
to it on the ground, and they are thriving! A friend is giving
us another 2 plants soon so can't wait to get them too!

This is only a quick blog just to say hello!
Have been madly busy for the last few weeks, my partners dad has been in hospital, its been my daughters birthday just to name a couple of things and this morning I fainted, great start to the weekend! :/ lol
I am hoping to do some baking this week, and will be uploading pics of my daughters birthday cake :)
Hope everyone who reads this is well xx

I declare the 'greenhouse' open!

Well the mini 'greenhouse' is now in place in our garden, and plants are in it too! I think some of the seeds we had planted earlier (pre greenhouse) might be lost as where we were keeping them didn't have enough decent sunlight and constant warmth, but we live and learn and hopefully from now on won't lose too many more in the future!
We have been given 2 lovely tomato plants that are doing well, can't wait to eat something we've actually grown! Will post pics of our tomatoes as they grow! :)

I have also made myself a small table for doing our potting up and little gardening jobs on, just out of an old shelf and some wooden legs from an old table we had, was rather pleased with myself! :)

A little bit of outside, inside

After what was generally lovely start to the summer the last few days or so has been.... well not great! :( Since I was doing alot of pottering about in the garden i've begun to miss it (quite shocking for me), anyway this morning after putting the rubbish out for the dustmen and getting soaked by the rain covered buddleia as I brushed past it I decided to cut it back a bit (yes in the rain, and yes I know I am mad! lol) it seemed such a shame to just discard the long stems I had cut back so I put them in a vase and collected a couple of other flowers from the garden too and they are now cheering up the fireplace area on a very damp and cold (june) day!

DIY mini greenhouse?

After trying and slowly failing with some seeds recently i'd been looking at the mini greenhouse type things you can get these days (A metal shelving unit with plastic zipped cover). After a bit of shopping around and looking at various options (and prices) I decided to use a metal shelving unit I already had and my parents gave me some bubble wrap... so quite a lot of bubble wrap, duct tape and time later this is what we've got.... (i'm rather proud of myself!). Now just to sort my seeds out and get them in there, and my tomato plants! Watch this space!! :)

Necklace :)

I have been sorting out some more jewellery i've made today,

am planning to try and sell some if anyone would buy it :/

This is one of my favourites so far, not the most complicated
i've made but I really like the combination of beads!

I love the way the different styles and colours blend, sometimes some of the least likely of beads and patterns can go together.

Sorry this is quite a short post again, have my head all over the place doing lots of things at the moment, will hopefully blog about some of them very soon! :)

Red

I am planning on doing a more creative post later today but for now just wanted to share this, I love this song at the moment :)

Ah its ok!

Phew, must of just needed to wait a minute - panic over!!! :)

Oh No whats happened?!

I've just got back in and noticed that my dashboard says i'm not following any blogs?! HELP
Has anyone else noticed this has happened to them or is it just me?!

:(

Is it just me or are there rarely enough hours in the day? I'm sure i've mentioned this before but its something that still bothers me, so thought i'd mention it again!
It doesn't even seem to matter how early I get up!
I seem to have this neverending list of jobs to get done but each day they are still there - I don't mean housework stuff, but website/blog/craft type things, I need to be able to surf the net/work on website while I sleep I think lol.

Signs of summer

The weather has been gorgeous the last couple of days and we have been
out and about a bit, we had bought my son a kite a while ago so took that
out for its first fly! It was great fun! We also found some gorgeous flowers
and things so thought i'd blog them! :)

I love this summery scene of the bench in a field of daisies!

Small sketch

This is a small sketch of my eye I did from a photo a while ago, was very pleased with it, overall :)

Apple pie!

Apple pie is always a favourite in our house, I haven't made one for a long long time, but my partner had got some cooking apples in and I decided to make one!

This recipe is going to be a bit vague so apologies for that! I didn't count how many cooking apples or what weight they were before I started just peeled what we had and that was it! :/

Apple pie filling
Cooking apples
Sugar
Water

Apple Pie Pastry

8oz Flour - I use either self raising or plain - both work.
40z Margarine
Water - to mix
Milk to brush pastry

I peeled, cored and chopped the cooking apples into big chunks, put them in a saucepan with a little water (just enough to cover the bottom of the pan) and sprinkled sugar over the top. Started cooking them on a low heat - increased the heat once the apples started to release their own juices and soften. Once they were completely soft and stewed I left them to cool slightly for a short time.

Mixed the flour and margarine into breadcrumbs and slowly added
the water til it was a dough like mixture.
Floured a board cut the pastry mix in half rolled one half out then laid it in an enamel plate.
I spooned the apple into the pastry, then rolled out the other half of the pastry mix and placed this over the top. I pressed the edges of the pastry down with my thumb to pinch it, then cut off the excess pastry with a knife.
I brushed the top with a little milk.

Baked for 40mins (approx) on Gas Mark 6.

I then sprinkled a little sugar over the top and served! :)

Apple turnover (sort of!)

This time I had a little pastry left and some of the stewed apple so I made my own turnover!

Just rolled out the remaining pastry spooned apple onto half and folded it over! pressed down edges and baked in a cake tin alongside the main pie!

When pie and turnover had baked I sprinkled a little sugar over them both!

I plan to make all little turnovers next time I have some cooking apples in! :)

Website woes

After some major technical issues over the weekend I have been 'trying' to rebuild my site (lifeis.co.uk) things aren't going as smoothly as planned and sadly my site is still down, hopefully will be back soon though, will post when it is!

Egg fried rice

After seeing Taste of My Lifes' recipe earlier today I decided to try and make my own version of egg fried rice, I was thrilled with the result!

I used:

1 cup of rice (didn't want to risk wasting too much if it had been awful! lol)
1 Egg
1 cup of sweetcorn (frozen, defrosted)
2 small onions quartered so they were still nice and chunky
1 large mushroom, chopped

In the first pictures you'll probably notice that the onion and mushrooms aren't in the wok - this is because I cooked these seperately and added them after
I had dished my daughters dinner as she doesn't like either of these.

I boiled the rice as normal and left to cool.I heated a small
amount of oil into the wok and heated it thoroughly, before adding the rice I stir fried this for a few minutes before adding the sweetcorn.

Again I stir fried this for a few minutes to ensure the sweetcorn was thoroughly heated.

I beat the egg in a cup and added a little olive oil.

I moved the rice and sweetcorn over to one side of the wok then poured in the egg, I mixed it up as it was cooking so it broke into pieces, then as it was virtually cooked through I mixed it thoroughly with the rice.
After dishing my daughters dinner I added the mushrooms and onions i'd already cooked and stir fried it all together for a minute or two.

Springtime!

We had a really nice spell of weather here recently, it really
felt like summer was arriving early, all the spring flowers
were bursting out of the ground, the birds singing happily
and thoughts of trips to the beach in the summer weren't
far from our thoughts! Now however I am currently back
to wearing jumpers and a scarf else I feel chilly!
Anyway a few weeks ago during the glorious springtime
we went out for a walk and saw some lovely bluebells, I
need to try and sort out the macro setting on my camera,
but got a reasonable shot I thought i'd share with you :)

Yum!

Wanted to make a cake for a friends visit today, I usually make Victoria Sponge but wanted to do something different this time, so made a Lemon Drizzle Cake!
I found it in an old book of recipes i'd written out years ago now, so can't remember where it came from, but it was lovely!

~Lemon Drizzle Cake~

Cake
4oz Margarine
6oz Sugar
6oz Self Raising Flour
1 tsp Baking Powder
2 Eggs
4 Tblspns Milk

~~~~

Grease and line 2 loaf tins, put all cake ingrediants in a mixing bowl, you can sieve the flour if you want to but for this cake I don't bother.
Bake at 180c (Gas mark 4) for 30 mins.

Drizzle
4oz Sugar
2 Tblspns Lemon Juice

Mix up the sugar and lemon together and pour/spoon over the cakes whilst still hot!

I removed the cakes from the loaf tins first and placed them on a sheet of greaseproof paper.

~~~~~

Enjoy!

Green fingers?

As I keep posting here we are trying to sort out our front and back gardens at the moment, growing seeds etc too. Today went on a trip to some garden centres and was treated to a lovely Clematis from my parents, I've wanted one for years (We had one outside my bedroom window, climbing the wall when I was little, and I've liked them ever since!) It is the most gentle shade of pink, i'm thrilled with it, can't wait to get it planted now!


Was also bought a propergator and given some cuttings of honeysuckle and another type of clematis (I think lol).

We have a moth!

As we've been doing so much gardening this year we've been keeping any caterpillars and chrysalis we've come across in a big container with fresh soil and leaves in, and yesterday one finally hatched!

It was an angleshade moth, we released it safely into a plant in the garden. Will blog about any others we have :)

Bank Holiday Weekend

Today has been a gorgeous day, definately one of the (if not THE) warmest day of the year so far!
Have been out in the garden today, digging, planting, weeding etc, forecast is good again for tomorrow so am looking forward to another day outside!

I am hoping to make some jewellery this weekend, and do some baking but if the weather does stay as nice as it has been it will be difficult to stay in and not be gardening!

Got some cooking apples in today so will making an apple crumble soon too! Will take pics :)

Not really got alot to say today but had 5 mins so thought i'd post before it was 'days' again!

Getting ready for the weekend!

Its been days (Again!) since I last posted, have kept sitting down to post then getting called away!

It was a friends daughters first birthday last week and I wanted to make her something special that could be kept so designed and made this:
I was really pleased as i've never done anything like this before (designed and made) and over the years i've rarely finished anything either so was pleased to get this done!
Also made her a card, which doesn't show up so well on here, it was smothered in very fine glittery stuff :)

Have my partners mum to make something for next, since beginning to make most of the birthday cards and gifts that we send the birthdays seem never ending!

After a really good run of sunshine recently, yesterday was quite a shock to the system with rain virtually all day! The sun is out again today though, and I have some plants to put in the garden this afternoon!

Mind has gone blank so going for now!

Love this song!

I love this song at the moment, so thought i'd share this video I found on youtube, as there is an embed code i'm assuming this is allowed?! I'm sure someone will soon shout if its not?! Its not my vid, but a great song :)

I like!

After discovering myself again i've started noticing things that really make me feel good/smile so thought i'd make a list! Seeing my children happy comes right at the top of the list obviously but I want this list just to be 'things'....

Bright yellow flowers
Blossom
The smell of freshly cut grass
Crystals
Dreamcatchers
Being 'crafty'
Sitting down after a really long day with a glass of wine
Good photos
Black and white images
Pink
Shiny copper?!
The smell of really good coffee
Freshly baked bread
Cakes cooking in the oven
Completing a job i've been putting off for ages
Wearing clothes I feel good in
Putting myself first just sometimes
Having a pampering evening, just me, the bath, body lotions & potions, and nail varnish etc
The first cup of tea of a morning
A brand new jar of marmalade, before its been used, just the lid off, the sight is heaven!
Being the first to break the seal on a new jar of coffee....

I know most of these are quite random, and even for me quite hard to explain why, but they make me happy so I don't feel the need to explain myself just to enjoy them :)
What things do you like?

I know this all probably seems a bit random

Handmade Jewellery

Over the last few years i've had a few attempts at making my own jewellery, really need to try and get back into this!

These are just a few of the things i've made!


Going to sort out some other items i've made and post some pics of those too :)

New bag

This is a bag I recently made, with no sewing involved apart from the decoration!

It was made using a large square of fabric folded and knotted together, I found the instructions on the net, will have to find them again and put a link up for anyone who wants it :)

Its one of the first things i've made that i've actually used alot, and am really pleased with it!

Getting organised - finding me!

After a bit of a rough time from a previous relationship I have finally begun finding myself again, it feels amazing, I am starting to realise what I like now, instead of always trying to second guess what everyone else wants me to like. I always had a love for windchimes and crystals but had packed these away years ago, I found them yesterday in the loft all knotted together, so I have sorted them out hung the wind chimes by the windows, have had to cut the strings to the crystals as they were just too tangled, so going to rethread them later, but have cleaned the crystals so they are now all shiny waiting to go back up at their rightful place at the windows waiting for the glorious sunshine to penetrate through them and bounce their beautiful colours around the room.

The single one is particular favourite of mine, although not the most fancy of the ones I own it catches the light beautifuly.

Tuesday already!

For some reason more than any other 'holiday' /bank holiday Easter weekend throws me out of sorts, I can't believe its wednesday tomorrow, before we know it, it'll be like the long weekend never happened and we'll be longing for the next break from routine. I love breaks, but find something deeply reassuring in routines, not ridgid ones but just having a regular time/way of doing things. My washing machine appreciates me being in a routine too I think, it sits silent for a few days whilst I enjoy relaxing then goes into overdrive, while I try to catch up and become the perfect housewife that I never seem to achieve.I love other peoples 'mess' in their homes - I say 'mess' because in anyone elses house there never seems to be any, not what i'd say is mess, I can look at something and think that it looks nice yet know in my heart i'd over fiddle or tidy it til I got bored and gave up (I am trying to change this).
The last few days has been a quiet time in the house, me trying to relax, whilst still looking after a poorly family, not exactly relaxing but still - the washing machine is currently wondering whats hit it! I've been working on my website for the past week or so, trying to upgrade bits and pieces and have at last got it done -yay!
Need to do some more baking very soon, have to get some more flour first though, can't bake cakes without that!

Happy Easter

Hi again!

I cannot believe its been nearly 3 weeks again since i've posted!! Where does the time go?!

There doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day again lately, each day I plan to get 'x,y and z' completed, yet on starting one job it seems to present several others with it - still nevermind, 'one day' i'll get it done won't I?

I have made a few cakes lately but haven't taken any photos (d'oh!), i've made http://theidleduck.blogspot.com/2009/03/idle-ducks-spicy-rockcakes.html which were lovely, if not quite as 'rock' like as she makes hers, but were a vast improvement on any rock cakes i've made in the past - my children called them flat cakes, so you get the idea how bad they were in the past!
Have also made a victoria sponge cake again this week, and still didn't take a pic of a slice! I have been given a Betty Crocker Cake tin set, and have yet to try this out, will post pics with my first creation with this as soon as I use it!!

I have a couple of other things to blog about later but thought this would be a start for today, but the washing up and hoover is calling me for now.....

HAPPY EASTER to everyone xXx

I'm back!

After a busy couple of weeks i'm finally back!
Have had my mums birthday and mothers day, been 'crafting' doing stuff for both occasions :)
I have never really made birthday cards etc til recently, and have so far only used scraps of stuff i've had here, I save ALL cards from all occasions, keep the special ones but save the others to cut up for crafts etc
These are my recent cards:

and this for my partners mum:

I also made a small cross stitched thing for my partners mum, the photos are on my other halfs camera so will need to get those later :)