A spot of deliciousness courtesy of my Great Grandmother Gregory

I love cooking but as much as I love cooking, I love baking twice as much. Unfortunately I'm trying to trim down of late so I have to stop myself from baking. However this afternoon as it rained and poured I couldn't resist baking this recipe that has been passed down three generations to me.

It is so scrummy! My Mum used to bake it in batches at Christmas time and freeze and remainder for the rest of the year, but it is lovely anytime of year either with a cup of tea, smothered in butter or if you're from Lincolnshire with a slice of cheese on top (let me state the latter is NOT my preference but whatever floats your boat!). One of the best things about this recipe is that it is so simple to do. So here it is....

Ingredients

• 2 cups of mixed fruit
• 2 cups of self-raising flour
• 1 cup of sugar (I think caster sugar works best)
• 1 cup of milk
• 1/4 lb of margerine (you can use Stork which is much cheaper than butter)
• 1 egg

Method
1) Line a rectangular tin with greaseproof paper and turn your oven to about 125 degrees celcius.

2) Put your fruit, margerine and milk into a pan, mix together and bring it all to the boil.

3) Add your sugar, flour and egg to the mixture. Mix together really well though be gentle and try and fold the mixture as much as you can.

4) Pour the mixture into your tin and place in the oven.

5) Cook for an hour and a quarter. To test if it's cooked properly put a skewer or knife into the middle. It should come out clean. If it doesn't return it to the oven for a short while but be sure to not let it burn on the top.

6)Allow to cool in tin for a while before letting it cool fully on a cooking rack.

7) Eat and ENJOY!

Queen Liz, what a diamond

I have unashamedly had a day that I will never forget today. Some put down the monarchy as a waste of money and useless, but the electric and party atmosphere that has been particularly throughout London, Great Britain and indeed throughout the world this long weekend has shown the unifying power the British monarchy has over many of us. Millions of people have lined the Thames, the Mall and the London streets this weekend because in our own way we love and admire the Queen for her devotion to her role in society.

Our celebrations began with decorating our house and ourselves in some jubilee bling.

On Sunday me and my hubby tried to make our way to the Thames floatilla and massively failed in our endeavour. We couldn't get near the river despite there being 14 miles of river to line. We eventually made our way down to Picadilly Circus however where we watched the celebrations on the big screen. It also gave us chance to admire how London had been decorated for the weekend.

Last night I curled up with a glass of red wine and enjoyed the big concert which for anyone who didn't watch it was fabulous. Me and the hubby had a few songs dancing round the living room.

Today was the pinacle. My very kind husband offered to indulge me in a day down at the Mall to see the carriage procession. So with a picnic packed we left the house at 8.30 ready to see the procession which didn't even begin till 14:30. Not that we were sat around waiting all that time. We saw all the royals leave for St Pauls cathedral, and then we had a number of marching bands booming down the road, and we even had BoJo (Boris Johnson- Mayor of London) standing opposite us. Finally we had the procession. All throughout the day people were laughing, joking, talking to one another (depsite not knowing one another) and of course celebrating. All this made the time fly by.

Princess Beatrice and Princess Eugiene

The Queen!

 

BoJo!

Prince Charles

Prince Harry, Prince William and Kate Middleton

 God save the Queen!

Vintage style for the jubilee

I am a shameless monarchist and therefore very excited about going to wave at the Queen tomorrow as she passes by on the massive floatilla that is going to be passing down the Thames. Just as exciting (pour moi) is I finally got some time to sew! Whooppeee! And this is what I created....

It is red ready to go with my dark blue and white dress I'm wearing tomorrow and along with my red nails readily adorned. I will be a walking Union Jack.

If you want to create a similar (if less patriotic version of the headband) here is how....

You will need:

• Fabric
• Sewing machine
• Paper for creating a pattern
• Pins
• Fabric scissors
• Paper scissors
• Thread
• Needle
• Ruler

1) Draw and cut out a rectangle of paper 50cmx22cm. Fold the paper in half lengthways. Measure 21cm down the long side of the pattern and make sure you mark this point. Join this point to the corner on the fold and cut along this line. If you open this up you now have your template.

2) Put your template onto your fabric (which should be folded) with the shorter straight end of the template on the fold of the fabric. Pin the pattern down and cut it out. Repeat to make the second piece of your headband.

3) Pin the two pieces of fabric (wrong side to wrong side) together and stitch all the way round with a 1cm seam though ensure you leave at least a 10-11cm gap in order to be able to turn your headband the right way out.

4) Now your headband should be starting to look like a headband though you now need to turn it to the right side out. At this point press your headband ensuring you also press the open edges in to the wrong side. Slipstich these edges closed.

5) If you wish you can then topstich round the edges of your headband. If you wish to make this a decorative topstitch use a contrasting colour of thread (I did topstitch but didn't use a contrasting colour). Et voila- you have your finished handband to adorn your lovely locks!

Happy Birthday hubs!

My hubby turns 25 today! We've already begun celebrating with an early morning bacon butty (which I got up especially to cook as I am currently on my Easter holidays being a teacher) and some cake, but I've organised a few suprises for him this evening as he 100% completely deserves it. I read this quote yesterday on Pinterest which says....

Source: zenscorpion.tumblr.com via Becky on Pinterest

I feel so privileged that already happened to me with my hubs! I'm very biased but I happen to think he's fantastic so HAPPY BIRTHDAY SWEETHEART!

Spring has sprung...

Hubby and I managed to have a perfect afternoon out in London yesterday. The sun was shining, the blossom was out and there was another day between us and work (which is always nice). London is a different place again in the sunshine, and sat having a capuccino out on the street near Convent Garden, it felt like we could be on the streets of Rome.

Rather than taking the tube to every destination we were heading to we took advantage of that reliable form of transport- walking! In the late afternoon the hazy sunshine looked fabulous and perfect for trying out my new camera.

Having uploaded my pictures I have noticed that much of our afternoon revolved around food and drink. We headed off to a gorgeous Lebanese restaurant for dinner called Maroush on Vere Street (for any Londeners who may wish to try it). We knew we were in for a winner of a meal when half the restaurant was made up of Lebanese eating there. Boy talk about hommous from heaven!

We then made the most of one of the best parts of London- the theatre culture. We saw a fabulous play called 'A Walk of Part- The Fall of New Labour' which was very funny, brilliantly acted and also a moving depiction of a politician wanting to be an idealist but struggling to be one. It was interesting as young twenty somethings watching it depict all the significant events in world history and British politics that we grew up with too. It seemed to put a lot of various events into context.

Finally it was off home on the tube for a doughnut and cup of tea! Perfection!

What have you been doing this sunny weekend?

There is little better....

....than a steaming mug of hot chocolate made with proper Belgian chocolate and cream. Enough said.

On cupcake goodness...

It has been far too long since I've been on here. I'm currently in the process of trying to balance out my work life with what should be priorities in my life, unfortunately work seems to take precedent these days. That's not to say that I don't love my job, and most importantly think spending 6 hours teaching teenagers as a privilage (yes many would think I am mad) but teenagers are funny, wonderful , unpredictable and certainly stop my life from being dull. Teaching has however meant I've not had the time to do many creative things recently including spending time blogging.

However, I finally had the money (now I'm no longer a student- woooooo!) to spend on a DSLR camera which makes me very hapy and has stirred my blogging juices again. So here is the product of a new camera and some cupcake making for my dear Daddy's birthday. I'm pleased to say it tasted even better than it looked!

My happy place...

I've been having some family time back where I used to live pre getting hitched so have had the time to go to one of my favourite places in the world, the edge above my old village. If I had a difficult decision to make or just wanted some peace and quiet this is where I used to go. I always felt because you were so high up and looking down on the rest of the world that it put everything else in perspective. Do you have a similar place?

A blessing in disguise

So my immune system did me well for 6 months and then has failed me miserably in the last 1 month having had two stinking sets of colds (accompanied by a sore throat before and a nice long cough after) within 4 weeks. This last bout of nastiness has been in the first proper week off I've had since December which meant I actually rested properly but, being me, after sleeping and watching TV for about a day I started to get bored and realised that being stuck inside on a sofa all day meant I had the time to do some crafting- so this is the product of my cold.....

It's from a kit from a really awesome new magazine called Mollie Makes which is a simply beautiful 'lifestyle and craft magazine'. With the first issue they included the felt pieces, templates and instructions for this phone holder which was ridiculously simple to put together but looks rather lovely! It's made my cold seem a whole lot less worse.

Tomorrow's the big day....

Phew! It's been far too long! I'm on my teaching practice at the moment which has meant barely time to breathe let alone blog. However I'm back though maybe sporadically for a while.
Anyway, it's the Royal Wedding tomorrow and I've been so excited about it this week. Every programme about Royal Weddings or Kate and Wills long romance has been watched on TV, every article in the newspaper we read about the preparations has been read, and everytime anything about the Royal Wedding has come up on the news I've grabbed the remote to turn the volume up. Tomorrow I will be with a small group drinking bucks fizz out of commemorative (and very cheesy) paper cups, eating home made jam tarts, watching coverage of the wedding from 8 a.m. in the morning tilllate in the afternoon and no doubt shedding a tear or two.

Taken from MamaPop

My (slight) obsession with the Wedding is to the annoyance of my poor hubby who is so unexcited about the prospect of the Wedding has escaped to Scotland on a walking holiday with another male friend. I'm sure there are many like him but the country, and it seems the world with two billion watchers estimated to be tuning in, are ready to party. The flags are up in London, street parties have been organised across the country and the bank holiday has now started! The British Royal family despite much bad press in recent years are still loved by many, and after all we all love a good wedding to shed a tear over and raise a smile. The country is still realing from the recession, some say this is precisely why we should not be bothered about the wedding tomorrow as it's a drain on tax payers money. However, it's a good excuse for a knees up and if it brings a smile across the country tomorrow I say cheers to Wills and Kate! I just wonder why my invite got lost in the post....