The Royal Wedding

 

The last few weeks have been so busy that it was quite a treat not to celebrate the royal wedding by having a big do/street party/getting dressed up. Instead we stayed in our pyjamas, on the sofa with duvets. We ate scones and drank tea for our wedding breakfast as we watched the events unfold. The boy was really only interested in the protective weaponary carried by the soldiers and armed police and wondered how many of the vehicles were bulletproof. The little girl was most put out that the focus of everyone's attention was the TV and not her, so got progressively more disruptive throughout the proceedings! The big girl LOVED every minute of it. She was mesmorised by The Dress, fascinated by the ceremony, pomp and history. Mr Wild Ink and I were bombarded with questions of which we took the answers for granted. These included 'Who was Lady Diana?' 'Is William the Prince of Wales?' 'Are all weddings this long?' 'Was your wedding like this, Mummy and Daddy?' 'How much money does the Queen have?'...etc. It was lovely to be together for such an historical event which we will all remember.

The photos are of our bunting, scones etc. Please note the commemorative royal egg reinactment created by the Big Girl for her school easter egg competiton. The original piece had bunting, flags, and a bantam egg bridesmaid!

Not on the High Street

I'm so excited because I applied to sell on notonthehighstreet.com last week. The first email they send you basically tells you not to get excited. Over 90% of applications are rejected and if you haven't heard in two weeks, you haven't made it. I sent them some pictures of my calligraphy stuff and a picture of the above...a 'stone canvas'. It's my 'whistle whistle...' calligraphy (see earlier post), carved in stone then photographed and printed onto canvas. I'm so excited about it because I think it looks really effective...it really gives the illusion that it is stone. So I took loads of pictures, wrote my ideas down in a carefully worded email (which took half a day to write....)


...and I waited...and obsessively checked my email every hour.


And then it came..they said they 'loved my range'...how exciting!!!!

(Thank for the BRILLIANT card, Lally!)

Oreo Brownies and sunshine

We had such a lovely day today. Big Girl had her friend round for a sleep over and spent all morning giggling about some rather rude outfits which were created for the Barbies. Granny and Grampy popped by for a cup of tea. Poor Granny spent much of the morning as Little Girl's horse, remaining 'tethered' to the table whilst Little Girl ate her lunch! No need to report this to the NSPCG as I think that Granny was quite compliant...! The Big Boy spent much of the day raising the height of the tree swing so that it is impossible for any one to get on it. Big Girl then planted strawberries and Little Girl watered all the paving slabs in the greenhouse. Margo and Jerry (the bantams) ate my lovely purple crocuses and Mr Wild Ink fell asleep early as he'd spent much of the day drinking real ale... and the sun shone!
The highlight of day, however, were these brownies which Little Girl and I made. I saw them on Lorraine Pascal's Baking made easy and have been meaning to make them ever since. It's a fantastic recipe as the smooth gooey-ness of the brownies contrasts with the chunks of crunchy, dark Oreo.

Recipe for Lorraine Pascal's Brownies with Oreos
165g Butter
200g Dark Chocolate, broken into little pieces
3 Eggs plus 2 Extra yolks
2 tsp Vanilla Extract
165g Soft Brown Sugar
2 tbsp Plain Flour
1 tbsp Cocoa Powder
A Pinch of Salt
154g Oreo Biscuits, broken in to quarters
Icing Sugar, for dusting
20cm square tin

Preheat Oven to 180 c or Gas Mark 6

1. Melt the butter and add the chocolate, stir until melted.
2. In a large bowl whisk eggs, yolks and vanilla until light and fluffy then add sugar in two additions.
3. Pour the melted chocolate in around the sides of the bowl, add flour, cocoa, salt and a third of the oreos, combine thoroughly.
4. Pour into a greased, lined tin and bake for about 25 mins. If you put a knife in the middle it should still come out a bit gooey (unlike if you're making a sponge cake). Turn out when cool, cut then dust with icing sugar. Enjoy and try not to eat them all in one go!

Blog Love

Saw the gorgeous Annie R today looking as lovely as ever in her beautiful, bright raincoat. She kindly told me how much she has enjoyed reading my blog which made my day! We agreed that reading people's blogs is a bit like nosing in a diary...taking a peak into someone's life and isn't it facinating?

Lucy at Attic 24 has written a lovely post about this on her blog and I urge you to go and have a nose. She writes beautifully and her pictures are so colourful they are sure to brighten even the dullest day. She says that her enjoyment of reading the blogs of others lies in the everyday details, sometimes small or mundane but none the less fasinating. (The above picture is one of hers.)

I realised after reading this that that is why I have enjoyed reading the blogs of people who have similar interests as myself. This is mainly generally creative bods with a happily chaotic family life. I take inspiration from ideas they have or things they've made, I love to hear about what is growing in their garden or a mini crisis which has occurred, a bargain in oxfam, a doodle whilst on the phone. In truth these strangers out there in 'Blogland' have become my virtual friends...but they don't even know me! This does sound pathetic, I know, and I do have lots of real friends...really I do! If you've just got into reading blogs try clicking on the blog links of one you like and it will lead you to others you'll probably find interesting. These will also have links..and so on..but be careful as it is extremely addictive!

Sweet-fest!

I regularly look after my neighbour's cat which is always a pleasure. Not only is Barnaby a lovely soppy cat but also my neighbours live in the most beautiful house which, for the 5 minutes I am there morning and evening, I like to imagine is my own! The house was designed by Lutyens and the stunning garden was designed by Gertrude Jekyll. Google image these names and you'll see what I mean...truly stunning! Anyway last week my neighbours went to New York and as thanks for all the cat sitting they presented me with these sweets from Dylan's candy bar. For a connoisseur of the pick and mix (who continues to morn the loss of Woolworths) this was a delight to behold! Turns out that Dylan's is a department store which just sells sweets...nothing else. If I was a rich, socialite (Dylan is Ralph Lauren's daughter) I like to think that I would set up a similar type of business perhaps incorporated with a Willy Wonka style chocolate factory. Yum!

Whistle Stone

I was so delighted to pick up my 'whistle, whistle..' quote today from Judith's workshop. As you can see from the pictures, it started as a piece of calligraphy which I chopped up for the layout then photocopied. Martin then cut it beautifully onto an off-cut of stone. I wrote two pieces; one using lines and one without. This is the one without and both Judith and I agreed it was much more appropriate to the nature of the text..it was 'free', like the little bird. This piece is an experiment and will be put on to canvas and made into a print...so watch this space!

Another card idea for you

Why not stick cardboard faces on things then photograph it and stick it on a card for your loved one? This really is an easy yet great little idea that can be applied to any object, for any occasion. Why not try pairs of shoes, socks, children's tummies, tins of baked beans, fruit... in fact anything! I would not recommend writing a 'comic style' fart noise onto cardboard and then trying to stick it on to a live chicken's bottom as it's nearly impossible and the chicken gets very cross.

In case you're wondering, the idea for this card came to me as a result of my need to hang a 'family' of pants on our washing line every now and again. That is, a pair of pants representing every member of our little family in a row on the line. It makes me chuckle when I walk up the path!