Last bake off (and some hedgehogs too!)

The last bake-off is here! This is a sad time as bake-off won't be the same after this year :( 

However I am also just a touch relieved that I don't have to do my usual mad rush on a Wednesday to bake something after the preschool and swimming lesson run.

So this week I had a blank canvas for final week (no theme announced last week) so I gave it some thought and decided to bake my husbands absolute favourite- chocolate cake!

It won't be the end of my baking yet though. I've decided to try a Christmas pudding recipe with chocolate in so have had dried fruit and cranberry marinated in lemon and clementine juice for the last 2 days. It smells beautiful!

My other little projects this week have included a bit of a spontaneous autumnal display in our area. It was inspired my Nemo's love for the hedgehog I did for my Autumn wreath 

So I did Nemo, hedgehog 

He loved it so much he took it to bed. Nemo of course then requested a Daddy hedgehog, then of course a Mummy and Pebble hedgehog. I'd bought two small pumpkins with the intention of the children painting them. But I was then hit by inspiration and this happened instead!

Daddy

Mummy 

Pebble

Nemo

Of course I needed to make some nice leaves for them too and I used some drift wood to make them a comfy home :) 

Nemo has now requested a Grandma and Grandad hedgehog but hubby will need to buy me more wool for that! 

Yesterday another inspiration struck. I have some fairy lights that I haven't put up in the new home because I have nowhere to hang them where I can disguise the black wiring.

 I decided that could try and crochet over the wire and do decorations to make it look like a plant vine. 

So yesterday I spent hours crocheting two different colours of green wool to the wire. It now looks like this 

So ok I've now got stuck. Originally I was going to do some green leaves and flowers but now I'm wondering should I go more autumny or even Christmassy? I could do some lovely autumny leaves acorns etc (similar to the wreath) or I could do holly leaves and berries. I could hedge my bets and do some flowers but do them in more autumnal colours (reds, purples etc). 

So genuinely need some opinions here what should I do??

Now just before I leave you, me and my lovely friend were discussing our inability to keep on top of everything in our lives as I explained that last week's good baking meant I had been a terrible house keeper! So in the name of balance I thought I'd share a photo of the carnage I was left with after I finished my wreath a couple of weeks ago! 

This mess wasn't cleaned up until the next day I was so tired when I finished! 

My most favourite season :)

Autumn is my favourite season, Hubby loves it too and that's why we got married in October. 

I think both having pale skin that burns super easily (and now two pale skinned children who burn super easily too) I'm not a massive fan of the really hot weather in summer. I love getting coats, hats and scarves out and wrapping up warm. I love the way the leaves change colour. As a child we always used to holiday in Northumberland in Autumn and I think Northumberland suits the colder weather. 

Of course there is one massive super plus to our new house- we have a gorgeous fire place with a wood burner. I have spent all summer ogling over it waiting for an opportunity to use it and the last couple of weeks have given us ample opportunity. 

Over the last couple of weeks having realised that we have hit Autumn I have been desperately trying to complete my autum wreath. Another attic24 I'm afraid! 

http://attic24.typepad.com/weblog/2013/11/autumn-wreath-ta-dah.html

I made one for my sisters birthday in June so I think I lacked some motivation to do another one! 

(My sister's)

The project involves a lot of tiny parts as well as a making a cover for a polystyrene ring

 

Half way through

Here are all the bits when I'd completed them and sewn the threads in. After you've done this you have the tedious job of sewing them all onto your wreath so after a night of sewing here it is 

Yay! 

Originally I had a pair of acorns hanging down from the top into the middle until I realised (and Hubby confirmed) that they looked like a pair of testicles hanging down!

It looks lovely against the stone fireplace and has replaced my spring/summer wreath

My favourite thing about the wreath is definately the little hedgehog in the middle- she is so cute and enjoyable to make!

  

Now my other motivation to complete this wreath was that Hubby very kindly brought me a overlocker from lidl. I decided I would never finish it if I opened my overlocker so I haven't allowed myself to open it! I have 1m of this cute whale jersey fabric so think I might make something for the children with that.

So exciting!

Just in case you were wondered why our fire in an above picture was covered in wood and sticks it's because we did a wood collecting trip to the beach today. Our local beach is really good for washed up drift wood which we use for kindling. We went today and the stormy weather meant that massive amounts of wood had washed up there. The weather was pretty foul though! 

You can see a bit of the massive waves in the background. Nemo wasn't impressed because he wanted to go to the park so at the end of our wood collecting trip me Pebble and Poppy headed back got here car and Daddy took Nemo to the park in the pouring rain!

Here is our collected wood to be dried out. If you're wondering about the orange peel, I read somewhere on the Internet that when dried it makes good kindling and smells nice when burnt. Well it burnt well but I have to admit I didn't notice any smell. 

And just to finished off my blog I'll show you this cute picture of Hubby teaching Nemo how to set up the fire-how sweet :) 

Bake off catch up

Though I haven't blogged about it I have been just about keeping up with my bake off cooking. So I think I have yet to blog about pastyry week onwards. 

Pastry week saw me pull out the apple tart I did last year. Now last time I did it the curd part made out of cooking apples was really sour and you had to sprinkle and fair amount of sugar to enable you to without pulling an interesting face. This year the supermarket didn't have cooking apples so I used normal ones and actually it made the curd part perfect.

Still don't have a nice shaped dish to make it have a pretty edge!€

My sister did a similar tart last year and I liked the pastry leaves she put on top so I copied!

So botanical week we we on holiday in Centre parcs and anyone who's tried cooking in their kitchens will know the facilities aren't brilliant! I therefore played it safe with a banana loaf!

Slightly uninventive but achievable!

Last week I mad chocolate mousse for dessert week. 

 

 I cheated and used bought biscuits but I really struggle for time on a Wenesday as after pre school Nemo has his swimming lesson. 

This week I completely failed to get anything ready for a Wednesday so we had to delay bake off night until yesterday. Totally at a loss as to what to make for Tudor week (and not finding any recipes that I could quickly knock together online) I went for a pie that I've made before. I'm ashamed to say it wasn't even something like game pie or even red meat it was a  chicken pie! So I realise that it was a very lose connection to this week's bake off but there you go I did something!

 

To redeem myself I can say it was very yummy! 

I can't remember what next week is- I'm really hoping its something straight forward! 

6 years of awesomeness

*disclaimer this post may be soppy very soppy- you have been warned*

Today me and Hubby are celebrating 6 years of marriage. I always get a bit soppy around anniversaries- maybe this stops when you've had a whole load of them! I always find myself reflecting on how much our lives have changed in such short amount of time. Since getting married we have had 2 children, 3 houses and 4 jobs between us. It feels like we've been quite busy. 

Yesterday we went to Alnwick gardens in the day time which was where we had our wedding photographs and evening do. We were with my brother with his wife and twins who are holidaying in Northumberland for the week. 

We had a great time and sought to recreate a couple of our wedding photos. 

One of my favourite wedding photos is this one

Not the most polished posing no?

Well the story behind this is that the fountains only came on periodically. We were supposed to do this pose where Hubby was holding me in a reclined position and I was supposed to look up at him lovingly but we just weren't practised enough. This photo is us just looking at the photographers confused and laughing because we have no idea what we are supposed to be doing. Yesterday we attempted to recreate the look 

Not sure we nailed it on either of the attempts- there's always next year!

Here are Nemo and Pebble playing on the same tractors we did! 

There was this photo so we posed in the same spot 

Other photo attempts included the over the water feature one

Hubby and pebble attempted this 

The children wouldn't cooperate to do this one and it ended up looking like this

There's the bench one (like I said definately not a natural in front of a camera- I remember feeling particularly arkward for this one!) 

Vs bench shot now

Yes Pebble is doing that annoying back arch thing as she was unhappy to have her photo taken and yes Nemo is roaring! 

In the evening we went for an evening meal in the treehouse. (Curtesy of my big brother who babysat) This was where we had our wedding breakfast. It's such a magical place with my favourite- fairy lights- everywhere! 

So here's us in the treehouse 6 years ago 

And here we are now!

So 6 years older and 6 years crazier! 

I can honestly say that I married the most incredible person. He is the most supportive, generous and loving husband but he also challenges me, doesn't let me out stubborn him and helps balance out my weaknesses. Just in case that wasn't enough he is also unbelievably hard working and intelligent.

He is the kind of husband who comes home and will always noticed the efforts I've made in the house (he really understands how hard it is to keep up with housework with Nemo and Pebble!). He is also the kind of husband who, if he comes back to house that looks like a bomb went off, will be sympathetic to the kind of day I've had with the children and will of his own accord help tidy up.

When Nemo was first born I initially really struggled breast feeding him which could be painful (he had a tongue tie). My lovely husband would stay up with me during those first hard days, even though he could have just grabbed some sleep, just to be supportive and talk with me. There are a million and one things I could say like that that illustrate how amazing he is. 

I frequently say I feel that I won the lottery when I married my husband. I feel like I've gone in to a car shop brought myself a nice car (maybe a nice Renault Megan) and actually realised after leaving that it's actually some kind of Mercedes Benz (you can tell I'm not a car person). I feel like at any moment someone it going to come running after me shouting "hey! Come back! That's the wrong car!"

My husband is the Mercedes Benz of husbands and I'm not sure quite how I managed to get such an amazing one! 

Anyway so here's to my husband, infinitely patient and loving as both a husband and father! You won gold in the olmpics of husbandry! (And no I don't mean the farming husbandry although I'm sure there's parallels living in our house!)