Ooooooooooooooooops!

A book just 'accidently' fell into my Basket on Amazon, can you believe it? No didn't think you would believe me, in my defence it looks amazing and I can't wait for it to arrive!

Earth Hour 2011

On Saturday 26 March 2011 at 8.30pm, Switch off for WWF's Earth Hour.
Show you care about tackling climate change & protecting the natural world

Turn off all of your lights for just one hour, light some candles, open some wine, relax and chat with your friends or loved ones.

We have been doing this for a number of years and not only switch off the lights but also the TV, Music and Phones. We always enjoy it so much that it all remain off for the entire night, it's so peaceful and a lovely opportunity to just talk to eachother.

Register here

Spring has Sprung

I love Spring, its my Favourite Season (closely followed by Autumn) so I am so happy that it was Officially the First day of Spring yesterday, here are a few images of Beautiful things for us all to look forward to in the days ahead.

Friendship Cake

I just love this cute little recipe I found whilst catching up on a lovely new blog I've found.

The blog is by a lady called Dee and can be found here and I am definately going to be baking this one! Today I did do some actual baking, Banana Loaf and a Blueberry Loaf, both Yummy!

I'm a Happy, Shabby Girl!!!

It has been a beautiful day here, Chris took Aidan for a play in the park as I had some chores to catch up on. I went and did some food shopping, filled the car with petrol and topped up our gas meter. Whilst out I popped into my Favourite Three Home stores, it's a risk normally as I always see such lovely things!!
Between the stores I came away with:

This Cute Biscuit Barrel

These lovely Mugs

And 2 of these wonderful Cushions

I also got a lovely ceramic red polka dot Bread Bin.

I LOVE all of my purchases especially as they were made with some Christmas money I had forgotton I had.

It is so nice to have useful items that make me smile around our home.

St Patricks Day

I hope you had a lovely St Patricks Day, I must confess to a slight headache this morning! We had a party as it is also my Dads Birthday and I made an Irish Stew with Colcannon and served it with Homebaked Soda Bread.

The huge stew pot was emptied!

The Guinness cake turned out lovely and was moist and delicious, I had a few problems with the topping though as it didn't seem to want to set and was a lot thinner than I was expecting.
I used some green glitter sugar sprinkles on top as Leprechaun dust!

After our meal we played Irish Music and all enjoyed Dancing and Singing,
Aidan loved it.

My Dear Friend Em

This is my Beautiful Friend Emma. She is 29 and today lost a long battle with Cancer. She first discovered she had breast cancer a few years ago, she had a mastectomy when she was in her mid 20s. Last Year her cancer returned this time with 3 tumours in her brain, she was told there was nothing they could do to make her better. I never once heard her complain, moan, "why me?". I only ever heard positivity from this inspirational lady.

I wish I had told her while she was still here.

Be a SWOT!

Are you facing a difficult decision?
Not sure what to do for the best?
Simple Pros and Cons list not really helping?

Can I suggest a SWOT Grid.

A SWOT Grid helps break down your thoughts and put them onto paper. Draw a line down the middle of your page lengthwise. Then draw another line across the centre of the page widthwise.
In 1 quarter write Strengths, in another write Weaknesses, in the next write Opportunity and in the last write Threat.

It should look a little like this:Now considering each topic in turn write your thoughts. It will hopefully help you to see things more clearly.

I am currently having to decide if to take Redundancy and be a stay at home Mummy or redeploy to another site over an hours drive away, missing valuable time with my 2 year old. With him being so young it is a very tough choice with no easy route. I have done a SWOT Grid for both scenarios and I am not saying it has made me see the wood for the trees BUT it has helped to put things into perspective and make me see where small issues were being blown out of preportion in my head.

Good Luck with your decision making x x

St Patricks Day

Cant wait to make this for My Dads Birthday on St Patricks Day!
Found it on a lovely Baking Blog here: http://thegoddesskitchen.blogspot.com

Chocolate Guinness Cake

Makes 12 slices

Ingredients
For the cake
250ml Guinness
250g unsalted butter, cut into pieces
75g cocoa
400g caster sugar
142ml sour cream
2 eggs
1 tbsp vanilla extract
275g plain flour
2 ½ tsp bicarbonate of soda

For the topping
300g Philadelphia cream cheese
150g icing sugar
125ml double or whipping cream

Preheat the oven to gas mark 4/180˚C, butter and line a 23cm springform tin.
Start by pouring the Guinness into a large, wide saucepan and add the butter; heat until the butter's melted, at which time you should whisk in the cocoa and sugar. Beat the sour cream with eggs and vanilla and then pour in the pan of brown, buttery, beer and finally whisk in the four and bicarb.

Pour the cake batter into the prepared tin and bake for 45 minutes to an hour. Leave to cool completely in the tin on a cooling rack, as it's quite a damp cake.

When the cake's cold, sit it on a flat platter or cake stand and get on with the icing. Lightly whip the cream cheese until smooth, sieve over the icing sugar and then beat them both together. Add the cream and beat again until it makes a spreadable consistency.

Ice the top of the black cake so that it resembles the frothy top of the famous pint. Sprinkle with shamrock sprinkles or green glitter or sugar (optional).