Progress

After my little rant about the bad weather last week, the sun has decided to make amends and we have been basking in glorious sunshine all weekend.  This is what we have been waiting for and not wanting to waste even one minute of this sunny goodness we spent every possible minute just being outside. Happiness!

  

The setting sun and a very tired Little T did make us head back indoors again at the end of each day, but that didn't stop me from carrying on with this sunny theme. Dinner was a cool and refreshing mix of salads, French cheese, cold cut meats and pitta breads and ended with a bang with a (large) slice of my "Sunshine Cake".

A lemon drizzle cake base, covered in sweet, sharp and mouth-droolingly delicious lemon curd. A second round popped onto that, making the curd ooze out and over the sides. Top that with a generous amount of very cold, lightly sweetened whipped cream and quarters of bright red, juicy strawberries and you have yourself a treat to make the perfect end to the perfect day.

I did have to fit in a little bit of crochet to make this already amazing weekend even better and feeling rather adventurous I took on something I have never attempted before, Amigurumi. I have been admiring these adorable little crochet critters for a while, and now I finally have one of my own! My little bunny is in no way perfect, but I love her even more for it.

The sun is (unbelievably) still shining out there and as we have been promised that these hot and sunny days will last all week, I intend to enjoy every single moment of it, so...
Watch This Space :) 

Make your own sunshine

Summers in the UK are not known for being brilliant, but this year the weather is truly dismal. I can hardly remember what sunshine looks like and all my other shoes are getting jealous of my Wellies for getting taken out every day. These permanently dark and dreary days are really starting to get to me and I find myself sulking around the flat more and more. Something has to be done about this, and as I have no control over the weather I had to make another plan.

A decadent chocolate treat is sure to lift my spirits. Make that my extra special, intensely chocolatey, super gooey brownies and you won't be able to wipe the smile off my face. Just melting the chocolate and butter already made me feel better and by the time I was sinking my teeth into the end result, I had already forgotten about the weather.

As you can see, they went down so well that no picture was taken of the finished product, but you can see one here if you want. And before you even ask, no I didn't eat everything by myself!

My chocolate high didn't last as long as hoped though, so I turned to my box of colourful yarns for some replacement sunshine and hooked up this lovely little hat, complete with a few of Lucy's May Roses.

It probably won't be very good for going out with in the rain, but my blue mixing bowl is modelling it rather nicely until the sun comes out again.

Yesterday I got the biggest cheering up of them all, my sweetheart of a hubby bought me new kitchen shelves! This may seem a bit strange to you, but trust me these few planks of wood made my year. For many years now I have been slowly building a collection of gorgeous bowls, plates, jugs and cake plates. But due to living in a small London flat with limited cupboard space most of these delicate things were safely wrapped up and stored away. Once P had skilfully put them up for me, I spent a wonderful, happy evening taking everything out of their protective wrappings and displaying them for me to admire and use as I please! I am in kitchen geek heaven :)

There still hasn't been any improvement in the weather, but I am most certainly in a much better mood today. Little T is happily playing at my feet while I make these adorable little hearts to decorate my wonderful new shelves.

Here's to you all creating your own happiness :)

Obsessions

I mentioned in my previous post that I have fallen in love with crochet again, but to be honest with you, I have become slightly obsessed with it! If I have a spare moment I immediately go for my crochet hook, or read something on the internet about someone else's crochet project or visit one of my local yarn shops. I even found a local group of ladies that meet every Saturday in a coffee shop to have a chat and crochet, and I had made up my mind to join them this weekend.

 After cooking and eating a hearty breakfast I packed my latest project in my bag and very happily set off to go and meet these like-minded ladies. But, before I even got down the street, the Heavens opened up in all of its glory. I was soaked to the bone within seconds and had to run like mad to get home and under shelter. I wasn't going anywhere, any time soon.

Needless to say, I was feeling ever so slightly sorry for myself and was in need of some cheering up. Lucky then that P came up with the great idea to go to one of our favourite places, the RAF museum! I love this place, giant old hangers filled with all sorts of amazing planes to admire and lots excited kids (of all ages) running around, having fun. There was even a brass band playing under the enormous wings of a plane to add to the wonderful atmosphere. With Little T staring wide-eyed at it all and smiling form ear to ear, it wasn't very long before I had completely forgotten that my morning had started out less than perfect.

Hopefully everything will work out next time and I will make it to the crochet group, but until then I am happy to carry on working on my colourful little granny squares, to play with Little T and I will even make some time to bake something too!

Neglected and forgotten… time for a change

Once again life has run away with me and as a result this blog has become sadly neglected and somewhat forgotten, looking very sorry for itself with nothing new in months. Every so often I will resolve to write a little something, but before I know it another week has come and gone, we've had a hundred and one other things to do, the cake was eaten without a picture being taken and the blog was put on the back burner, again.

This is such a shame though as I love my little blog, putting my rambling thoughts out there for others to read and hopefully inspiring a few people to bake something delicious.

So, to get me to blog more often, to include it in my everyday life and to neglect it no more, I am making some changes. From now on I will not only be sharing my adventures in the kitchen with you, but also all the other things that Little T and I get up to, with lots of pictures to go with it.

To kick things off, here is a taster of what we got  up to over the past few months:
 

 

We visited one set of grandparents and had Easter in Poland,

we visited the other grandparents and got some sunshine in South Africa,

 

we had some cake to celebrate Little T's first birthday 

 

and we had all things British to celebrate the Queen's Diamond Jubilee!

 

I have also, thanks to lovely Lucy at Attic24, fallen in love with crocheting again and have just finished my gorgeous Granny Stripe blanket...

 

and will soon be jumping into this colourful yarn stash for the next big project.

Right now the sun is shining (for a change) and Little T and I are off to the park to make the most of those Vitamin D filled rays and tuck into our afternoon berry treat :)