Giving thanks

Thanksgiving is primarily an American holiday and isn't celebrated here in the UK, but we have some family in the USA and a lot of American friends so I don't feel like too much of a hijacker by celebrating it each year. In fact, I think we'll make it a family tradition to always celebrate Thanksgiving. Thinking about our blessings and all of the things that we're grateful for seems to me to be one of the best reasons for a celebration.

Here are a few things I'm grateful for...

 

The IT guy- he works so hard for our family

Extended family- everyone's so different and yet I think we fit together quite nicely =)

My slow cooker- anyone who has one will understand completely!

Cheese- I have a dairy intolerance so I can't have it very often, but oh how I adore cheese!

My home- ok, so this isn't a picture of my home, but I love having somewhere I can go at the end of each day that is peaceful and all mine

Good friends- does anyone else have friends that you don't see for weeks or months but when you meet up again it's just the same?

Living in a free country- the news is full of stories about opression, tragedy and unrest. I'm grateful to live in a country where people can work, worship and spend their lives as they choose

Christmas- I'm so grateful for Christmas. I love the way that everyone seems happier and more kind-hearted than usual. I love that it's a time for family, and a time to remember the things that are important in life

What are you grateful for?

Visits from family

Today I'm excited because this weekend my Dad and stepmother are coming to visit. We hardly ever get visitors! (which makes me seriously consider abandoning the guestroom half of the guestroom slash craft room) Hmm, I feel another project coming on =)

They met about two years ago, fell in love and married last June. They're so happy together, and I'm so happy for them! I just adore love stories.

Speaking about love stories, I seriously enjoyed this clip, give it a chance and I think you'll like it too!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eJWlavnM6b0&feature=related

So my Saturday comprises of a mini lay-in (anything is a lay-in when you wake up at 6.30am every weekday), a cooked breakfast for everyone and probably a leisurely browse around the charity shops in the afternoon. Here's to hoping there are some vintage finds and beautiful craft/recipe books for me to buy!!

Happies

People spend a lot of time pursuing happiness in their lives don’t they? Whether it’s hobbies, careers, holidays, families or anything else, I think we’re doing those things to try to make ourselves happy.

I learnt today that I only need one thing to make me happy.

Picture this. It’s a cold, windy day in November and you’re walking through the town centre on your lunch break. You thought thick tights and a skirt would be just as warm as trousers (you were wrong) You’ve been sat in your office alone all morning, and out of the inevitable ‘hand-boredom’, ate your sandwiches much too early. You walk past a well-known fried chicken take away restaurant that you pass almost every day without any temptation and… you practically float away on the aroma like Shaggy in Scooby Doo.

The slightly spicy yet beautifully mellow taste of the popcorn chicken floods your memory, and you don’t even try to resist. Deep. Fried. Poetry.

This is what made me happy today. Popcorn chicken. Delicious popcorn chicken, thank you for your mood enhancing properties, today was a good day for you to land in my stomach. You were the best £4.39 I ever spent. We don’t encounter each other very often, but nonetheless I hope today was as special for you as it was for me.

Wedding stationery

One of my biggest craft projects to date is preparing the stationery and various decorative elements for mine and the IT guy's wedding. There were the invitations, the centre pieces, the the favors, the decorative bunting and some other things. I really wanted to put a personal touch on our special day.

I chose a colour scheme of a pale sage and other autumnal colours. Here are a few pictures...

I made about 80 metres of bunting in five different country-style fabrics...

The centre pieces...

The name places...

And the favors.

It was a bit of a challenge creating everything for 140 people but I had quite a few months to prepare and I managed to rope the IT guy in to help sometimes! It was wonderful to have the opportunity to able to craft on a large scale and work with an entire theme and colour scheme, rather than one individual card, scrapbook layout or gift.

A few words on cooking

I enjoy to bake, and I like to think I'm pretty good at it. I can make a cheese sauce from scratch (which I'm led to believe isn't the easiest thing in the world to do) I can throw herbs and spices into things and it's always a good combination. I can make biscuits and cakes that look like the picture on the recipe.

Until they don't. And I don't take this very well.

I know it's irrational, but when a recipe doesn't go right, it really bothers me.
I feel like being able to cook is an inherent female talent, that everyone has, and if other people can do it then I MUST be able to do it. When I can't I get annoyed with myself and (don't tell anyone) I've been known to shed a few tears.

Tonight I made the most delicious pumpkin tray bake cake. You know those cake's where you think that the cake can't possibly taste any better than the uncooked mixture? Well this was one of those. When it had baked to golden perfection and smelt divine I took it out of the oven and admired my creation. I left it to cool for 5 minutes as the recipe instructed, and tried to take it out of the tin. It was stuck. No matter, I have the tools for such a quandary as this. Out comes the pallet knife and soon it's looser. I turn it over onto the cooling rack and get the oven glove caught underneath the cake. Next thing I know the cake I spent all evening making, is in four pieces and looks like an cracked paving slab. Here's what came into my mind (and out of my mouth)

'That's it. I give up. I can't cook. Why do I even bother trying? What a waste of an evening and ingredients.'
And then I sat on the sofa and watched television for an hour whilst the IT guy made what is bound to be a delicious pumpkin pie.

Perhaps I don't like failure. Perhaps I'm just in a family of pretty awesome cooks that I'm trying to live up to. Perhaps I'd like cooking to be 'my thing' and I just haven't had enough practice. Whatever the reason, I think I need to learn that it's alright for a recipe not to work out or for me to make a mistake. It's not making a statement about my role as a woman and wife, and it's probably not something to still be thinking about (and blogging about!) a few hours after the event.

Maybe if I got some cats, then that could be my thing? What do you think?

 

Money saving antics

You may or may not know that I'm a bit of a bargain hunter. I often have coupons to use when I'm doing my weekly shop, I sign up for free samples of things and get quite excited when there's something good in the reduced section in the supermarket that is 'suitable for home freezing.'
That's not to say that I don't spend money (because I do!), I just like to think that I'm saving money on some things so that I can spend it on something more fun!

As part of this mantra that I live by, I don't buy magazine's. I think they're expensive and I can buy a new book for about the same price. Though I have to admit, there is something very posh feeling about buying a magazine and feeling posh whilst reading it ("oh yes, I can waste nearly five pounds on this magazine, because I'm so exceedingly successful")

Yesterday I broke my rule about not buying magazines and spent no less than £12 on the suckers. Sounds like a lot right? But let me tell you a little about it before you judge me by my own yardstick

• The next three issues of 'BBC Good Food' for £1
• The next five issues of 'Quick Cards Made Easy' for £5. Each issue comes with a free gift and some papers
• The next six issues of 'Glamour' for £6 (does each issue of Glamour come with a free gift too?) They're also going to send me a free Dove haircare set for taking up the offer

Not bad huh? Fourteen magazines, five free gifts and a lovely shampoo set to seal the deal- all for £12- and all delivered to my house.

Almost as exciting as the time the IT guy found a huge New York style cheesecake in the reduced section for £1.
Almost... =)