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!

Cobblers to your cookie cutters

Ok, I may be slightly obsessed with my bargain cookie cutters. I like to get my money's worth out of things but I may be going too far now!

Last week I decided that L might like to try some plums so I bought a MASSIVE punnet from the shop. She loves grapes, eats nectarines whole so I kind of thought that plums would be a good idea. Anyhow, she didn't like them. In fact, every time I chopped one up for her,

Wonderful tactile play idea

I just absolutely had to share with you this wonderful idea from Anna at Imagination Tree. Anna has some absolutely brilliant suggestions to keep your little one's amused while developing things like language and social skills. Her Snakes in Jelly has really inspired me try it out. I'm sure L will love it. And I know for a fact that if she doesn't enjoy it that I will probably have a great day and hey, who doesn't like jelly!

Freckle Veggie Patch

This week our parish council has given us our very own allotment! We are very excited. Unfortunately our house does not have a garden, but now we are a 5 minute walk away from our very own veggie patch. There has already been talk of growing beans, potatoes and peas. But there is a lot of work to do between now and spring when the planting can begin.

Making use of my new cookie cutters

Following my recent post about my Christmas biscuits and bargain cookie cutters, I thought it might be nice to use the cutters to make some or L's food look a bit more interesting. She is usually a very good eater (a little too good, like me!) but recently she has been a little monkey. So in a Lemsip induced dream, I decided that mini puff pastry pizza's cut into shapes would be a great idea! They went down