Preperations

 After our day out yesterday Stephanie asked to do some cooking. I agreed and decided it would be a perfect stat to the next school term if I get some foods organised. So I made a couple of loaves of bread. One for us to enjoy now, others have been wrapped and frozen. We also made some pizza bases and decorated them before wrapping and freezing- perfect for a quick after school meal. We also made some pumpkin soup, perfect for freezing and becoming quick and easy lunches.

Cutting the pumpkins meant that we had an awful lot of seeds, well it was a large pumpkin! half of the seeds have been put on the kitchen side to dry out so that we can plant them next year. The other half  I tossed in olive oil, some dried basil and a little seasalt before roasting in the oven.

Delicious snack!!

Halloween biscuits, made and decorated by Stephanie.

 

Our pumpkin- well we couldn't make soup and toasted pumpkin seeds and waste the shell now could we!

Hello Kitty

Are you looking for something not related to Halloween to do this week end? If you are able to get to London and have  a small Hello Kitty fan (well I don't suppose only small fans can go!) then there is an event you may be interested in.


I had no idea Hello Kitty was so old! I only became aware of it a few years ago when Stephanie began to get into it.

In Hamleys this Saturday (1st November) you can celebrate Hello Kitty's birthday by taking part in a meet and greet session between 12pm and 4pm. You can meet and hug Kitty and have your photograph taken with her. If this isn't enough to tempt you- then how about a slice of Hello Kitty's life size birthday cake- mmm I love cake!

If you want to be a part of this all you need to do is get yourself to Hamleys,

Birthday invitation:

Date: Saturday 1^st of November

Time: 12pm – 4pm, big cake unveiling at 1pm

Address: 2^nd Floor, Hamleys, 188-196 Regent Street, W1B 5BT

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

NB I won't be there as we already have a day out planned for this Saturday, if I was going though I would combine this with a trip to the Tower of London to see the poppies.

 

More organising

I have been busy still organising the house, I have also listed a few things to sell on eBay and on the local Facebook selling pages. Hopefully, some of them at least will sell. Otherwise off to the charity shops they go.

Today I didn't get as much done as I went to a colleagues house to work on some planning together ready for the new term. It is good to have got that done. I now have the bulk of the work completed for the next term, I just need to break it down into the weekly/daily plans. I will do those this week while Stephanie is still in bed as she rarely wakes before I do.

 

I have enjoyed my evenings this weekend. I have found time for a little bit of this;

 

 

 

The back of my jumper is growing slowly. I am almost ready to start the armhole shaping's- it should be complete for next winter at this rate!

 

I am just off now to do some more while Stephanie writes her letter to her pen pal.

 

If you fancy a nosy at what I am selling, or would like to grab a bargain this is my ebay page. Keep an eye on it, the list will be growing throughout this week.

decluttering

I have been meaning all sumer to have a porper decluttering session and well time just runs away, there is always something more interesting to do..

However we have the possibility of a house move in the next month. So I have been busy busy busy getting organised and trying to declutter this weekend while the children are at their dads.

I started downstairs. I know that downstairs doesn't hold as much clutter as upstairs so decided to start there. Through the living room I went, cleaning behind all furniture as I went. then into the downstairs bathroom (we keep shoes in there) to the hallway for the dvd and under stair cupboard. Then finally the kitchen.

These are the items we no longer need;

The bags of old wellies I am going to donate to my school. The old shoes have been listed on eBay, the roller sates are being given to my nephew. Which leaves the old cups and plates to go on freecycle and the dvd's I will try on EBay first, if they don't sell then they will be donated.

Any funds I raise as I clear will be to go towards the costs of the possible move. I'll need a van to start with..

 

What do you do with things when they are no longer needed by your household?

 

Off to start on the upstairs today (wish me luck!)

Just another lazy Sunday...

last weekend Stephanie got up and asked for a lazy day- I am full of cold so agreed. Sounded just the ticket! So I started off with a lovely warming bowl of porridge and a generous dollop of home made jam.

Stephanie then asks if we can make her costume for the Brownie Halloween party. Apparently the thing to be this year is a zombie cheerleader. Off she oges to riad the fabric stash and comes back with her selection.So I get started, all of the items she chose were donated/ leftovers from previous projects.

There we have it a completely free outfit. Justa  few tweaks to take her from princess to zombie

 job done. It was decided that I needed to be made into mummy zombie;

Fetching!!

 

Great now I can sit down for a while I think, must be time for the lazy in todays title surely...

 Nope apparently it was time to sew. We made some cupcakes. Cute!
Then Stephanie wanted to do some real baking, except we hadn't any butter. So we popped to the shop. We then discovered that the keys were still on the kitchen side. So we popped to the park while we waited for Grandad to come and rescue us- good job I had remembered to pick up my phone!

 Finally made it  back in the house and got started on the baking. Cheese straws and sweet tart cases to fill with fruit later.

 

Then was time to do the dinner and suddenly it was bath and bed time. Not so relaxing as first thought the day was going to be, but refreshing all the same!

Pick your own #2

As I promised last week, I took Stephanie to pick our own pumpkins yesterday. I have a stinking cold so I didn't have as much energy as I did last week. However, Stephanie seemed to have a good time even if I felt bad for not being bale to run whilst pushing the wheelbarrow like I had for my niece and nephew last week. I guess she wasn't there last week so doesn't know how much less energy I put in yesterday!

We had a fabulous time, we got lots of pumpkins.

Stephanie loved being able to choose all of the ones we got.

 Having a ride

Beggingn me to help her tip the wheelbarrow- to see what it feels like to fall out! I accidently tipped my niece out last week, who told Stephanie how much fun it is to fall out of a wheelbarrow!

 

I wonder if anyone called Childline when I did it! LOL

 

Help me mum it's to heavy to put back.

 

 

exploring the spooky caravan.

 

Hide and seek in the sweet corn.

And some puddle fun to finish the visit off!

 

We had a brilliant time. We have got a large orange pumpkin for carving, a smaller pumpkin for carving as Stephanie needs one for a brownie party this week. A white one because it is unusual, a mushroom shaped one, 3 small butternuts and 2 corns. All for the bargain price of £10!

 

So my question to you is how do I make the most of all this pumpkin goodness. I will be making some soup as we scrape out the insides. What else can I do to reduce waste of these beauties? What are your favourite recipes?

 

 

 

 

 

Pick your own

Yesterday I went to the annual pick your own pumpkin place with my sister and her family. We had a fabulous time. I only bought a butternut squash this time so that I could make soup for my lunches this week. I will be going again next weekend when Stephanie is home to pick a Halloween pumpkin.

Butternut squash soup in the slow cooker.

Blended ready to go to lunchboxes

 

Recipe.

1 butternut squash, peeled and chopped

2 onions, peeled and chopped

3 cloves of garlic, peeled and chopped,

3 chicken oxo cubes (can use vegetable)

1 dessert spoon of curry powder (more or less depending on your taste

 

bung everything in the slow cooker. cover with water. cook for 4-5 hours on low. once cooked either eat chunky, or blend for a smooth soup.

16 years!!!

Last weekend saw my baby boys 16th birthday. Where did the time go?

 

What a wonderful boy he is too. I am very proud of him.

Home grown

 

We are still eating home grown food from oru garden at the moment. It will become harder as the weeks wear on. Yesterday we had pasta salad for dinner.

 

Today I picked some carrots from the garden to make veggie sticks; this one amuses me!

 

After a long day it made me smile, I have never seen ones like this in the supermarket! LOL