Oh lovely cuppa!

A few weeks ago, Grandma R gave me a Twinings Lady Grey tea bag to try. She told me to have it after lunch one day while at work and that it would perk me up a little bit for the long afternoon. I love a good cup of tea but I usually end up buying whatever is cheapest in the supermarket.

Soap Mud

As it was such a horrible wet day outside, L and I decided to try the Sparkle Soap Mud activity from The Imagination Tree. I would definitely recommend trying out some of the idea from their website. I would never have thought in a million years how much you could have by mixing grated soap, tissue paper and glitter!

No tricks, no treats, just pumpkin

We don't do halloween in our house. M and I enjoy the odd scary movie but don't really understand the hype of dressing up children to look really scary and sending them out to collect chocolate. But every year when the halloween stuff comes out in the shops, I always think to myself "what does pumpkin taste like". I like the flavours of

It doesn't have to be pancake day

As I'm having a week of work this week, I wanted to make a nice lunch for me and L to tuck into. We would normally have sandwiches, but it does get to the point that we are both sick of sandwiches!

Pancakes are a big deal in the UK but only on Pancake Day or Shrove Tuesday, as it's also called. I love pancakes and the batter is so simple to whip up that I decided that today would be Pancake Day number 2 for the year and, in a effort to have more vegetables with our midday food, we had them stuff with mushrooms, spinach and ham in a creamy garlic sauce.

Cheesy scones

Doing lots of housework yesterday seems to have put me in domestic goodness mode as I feel to compelled to do lots of baking today. When I woke this morning, I decided I would bake another batch of Christmas Biscuits, make a plum crumble and whip up a batch of cheese scones on top of cooking the usual family roast. My enthusiasm started to wane once I got dressed, so I thought I might just try the cheese scones and see how we go. As the scone recipes doesn't use any eggs, I thought it

Tidy all the things!

Today, M has taken L to Granny and Grandad's to do some work in the garden. This has given me a free day to do some "spring" cleaning in readiness for Christmas. I hate housework, but I do love sitting back and viewing the tidiness. Couple that with a cup of tea and bourbon and I'm in heaven!

My plan is to tackle the kitchen and lounge and these are the two most used rooms in our home. I'm a person who loves a list. In fact I love lists so much that if I have forgotten to write something on a list and have already completed what it was I wanted to write, I will go back and write it on the list only to cross it off seconds later! So here is my list of things to do:

Lounge
Clear out cupboards and shelves
Tidy DVD draw
Sort out behind the sofas
Dust all surfaces and ornaments
Organise Lu's toy's and play pen
Hoover carpet, curtains and sofas
Tie back the annoying bits of string hanging from the top of the curtains

Kitchen
Washing up
Clean and sort cutlery draw
Clean and sort crockery and glasses cupboard
Organise food cupboard
Clean fridge
Organise freezer to make more space
Organise bowls and pans cupboards
Think (that's right only think!) about cleaning the fridge
Clean microwave (bowl of water with a slice of lemon, whack in microwave on full power for about 3 minutes, leave to "steam" for 2 minutes, then wipe round with a clean cloth...one clean and fresh microwave!)
Wipe down cupboards
Clean floor
Clean window sill
Put washing machine on a cleaning cycle (put on hottest wash possible with a load of bicarbonate soda in the draw...one clean and fresh washing machine)

Anyway, there is no point blogging about it, I might as well put my Bryan Adams CD on (always been my favourite for cleaning to, ever since I was a teenager and had to tidy my room) get on and do it.

The Button Pinafore Dress Tutorial

Brrrrr! Winter is definitely on it's way, so I thought I'd better start making some warmer clothes for L. I've had 1/2 meter of pretty pink and white polka dot sitting in my fabric hoard for a few months and didn't know what to do with it. What better item is there for a little girls winter wardrobe than a pinafore dress. Dress it with tights and a polo neck on cold days or on it's own as the weather turns warmer. The dress got it's name from the fact I used the button hole setting on my sewing machine for the first time and I'm pretty chuffed with myself!