Domesticali

February Mosaic

That's two months in a row I've remembered to make a mosaic. Three, and it's a habit. Or so they say. Happy pictures - perhaps February isn't as grim as I've always assumed it is - birthdays help. And the odd sunny day.

 

 

It's good to join in

By now, you might already have read about the Red Nose Day Dolls project in aid of Comic Relief.

I'm so happy to be able to help Emma and Ros with some Lavender Cloud Pillows for the dolls to rest their sleepy heads on after a busy day. Hopefully there will be no squabbling about who gets which one!

Details of the auction  are on the dolls' Facebook page - bidding begins March 7th!

And Mac - the flannel tartan might just have your name on it! All campers know your own pillow makes all the difference to in-tent comfort.

 

This week

A van, backing down the driveway, left a branch dangling off my Magnolia tree. The sadness of those furry buds which would not be able to flower was too much. The branch is now residing in a milk bottle in the hallway to see if it is possible to force Magnolia.

Did the Typepad spam filter have a breakdown? I'm being overwhelmed with comments of the wrong type. Which is ironic, because comments of the right sort seem to have been in much shorter supply. Entirely my own fault as I have been guilty of reading and running elsewhere. Bad.

Spent a happy half hour making up 'in-lieu-of-party-bag' parcels , wrapped with road atlas pages. They contained books (and obligatory sweeties). I may abhor plastic tat, but I'm not a complete monster.

Usually the party bag is a gesture to say thank you for coming and the pleasure of your company. And this time I really did mean thank you to those kids. Usually, parental party responsibilities end with providing food, drink and some sort of entertainment and then clearing up afterwards. But this party? Best I've ever hosted by a country mile.

See, one of the guests sprained his ankle on the morning of the party and couldn't make it. So what's a mother to do? Join in and shoot people with a laser gun in the woods, of course. Highly recommended.

Found

Johnny was chatting the other day.

"When I learn a new word - read it in a book or something - and find out what it means, I hear it all over the place after that"

I understood exactly what he was getting at. It happens to me too - less often with words nowdays (my vocabulary probably reached it's zenith when I was about 17 and has been in serious decline ever since). But visually, it is certainly the case. When Monica began posting photos of lost items, I started to notice them too. Lying about all over the place, forgotten and forlorn. 

And something compelled me to begin photographing them.

Even if it makes my family think I'm a bit odd. Doesn't stop them pointing out the ones I've missed spotting though!

Birthday Boy

Somebody has a birthday today.

How old, Johnny?

And my prayer to the baking gods worked out, because after looking for a while like my first go at an Angel Food cake was never going to exit the tin, it finally eased out intact. And proved the perfect vehicle for whipped cream and berries (two things high on Johnny's list of favourites). Sweet boy.

 

Hearts and pancakes

This is a good week, if you are fans of seasonal celebrations. Shrove Tuesday and Valentines Day and during half term too - enough to get anybody's creative juices flowing. However, some of our efforts to mark the occasions have been more successful than others.

I'd seen a cute idea over at Pinterest and armed myself with my foolproof Delia's classic pancake batter recipe and a squeezy bottle, we set to.

The idea is, you put your batter in a squeezy bottle and then you can make doodle heart pancakes. Look how cute those things are (images from the Bite delite blog).

Okay, want to see mine?

Hmm - not really as attractive, is it? Thise suckers are more difficult to do than you'd think. Plus lacy looks nice, but isn't as filling, so I'm afraid we abandoned all efforts to be chic and just had round pancakes instead. Greed 1 - Style 0

Thankfully, there are other ways to celebrate the festival of love. Our antlers got a little seasonal makeover.

And we thought we might try our hands at making a celebration of love film - me and the boys. We've begun, even though it is highly unlikely to be ready in time. The photoshoots have been fun, but they keep getting hijacked by play dates and games of football and cat sitting duties. I'm sure Sam Mendes doesn't have these problems.

 

The proof of the pudding

Sometimes, it doesn't take until the end of the cooking time to know you are onto a winner.

In fact, when Laura posted about baking peanut butter and choc chip cookies, I was salivating before I'd even turned away from the screen. And the bowl lick test showed very positive signs.

One half-batch later?

Cookie heaven.

I used the Hummingbird Bakery recipeLaura pointed me to here, halved (with extra choc chips though). On the grounds that you can seldom have too much of a good thing.

Reluctant model

Gina knitted a baby hat recently, which I knew it would be the perfect little gift for a friend who is about to pop! It was on and off the needles in a day. Even if I had to substitute a chunkier weight yarn for the green bits. I sort of like the lumpy leaf look though.

My model, Reggie, is less convinced.

I didn't want him to get too puffed up with all the comments the other day about how lovely he was. Truth be told, he's a bit of a git. Likes nothing better that to swipe at me from between the banisters when I am going downstairs with an armful of laundry and am defenceless. Call this my revenge.