2014 - make it so!

Hello to all our bloggie pals!! Oh how we missed each and every one of you!

So what have we been up to whilst away from blogland?

Well....

We ate some seed cake...

Slept loads ....

Ate banana cake ...

Slept some more.. 

And generally just chilled! :-)

Can't wait to catch up with y'all!! 

Have a GREAT week and please take care in this crazy weather!

A slice of my inner Bard

Bloggie friends!

What was my most unusual and surprising birthday pressie?


A pineapple slicer! Yay! From my sister who swears it works!

In the meantime - I saw this "Paws for Poetry" competition in Writer's Magazine! Yes, bloggie friends!! Permission for me to release my inner Bard and wax poetically about Charlie! Yay!

Charlie says: I applaud your poetry so long as it's about me!


p.s. my birthday was in July so the cake (also from my sister!) pictured with the slicer has long been consumed! Yay!

Silly August season continues bloggie friends!!

A Bargain, a Big Thank You and Big Hugs to Kim!

Bloggie friends THANK YOU SO MUCH for reading my little story over at Clarity of Night blog. Thank you for all you kind and encouring and beautiful words! Thank you, thank you! You are all THE BEST!

I’m so happy I just had to treat myself to a bargain! LOL!


Charlie says: My treat is extra naps.


Amazing Kim of Musings on a Small Life and Fuzzy Tales is going for an ultrasound scan today and Charlie and I are sending her BIG HUGS and pink macaroons!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!

To all you adorable mums! Me and Charlie salute you!

Today is not only Mothering Sunday but traditionally the time for Simnel Cake! Mine (well the fruit cake) has been soaking in Drambuie since November and should be ready by Easter!! My mama will be most proud!

Speaking of mums: Mamma Maggie over at Love & Hissess has finally given birth to 6 adorable tabby kitties!! She kept us guessing and raised over $500 for Challenger's House - a no kill animal shelter! Hooorah! Yay for Robyn and Fred who are currently fostering mamma Maggie!

Take care y'all!

The Best Things in Life are Free

Bloggie friends!!! The things I do for free cake..

I have a Costa Card - you earn points on it whenever you purchase from Costa. Collect enough points to pay for a free coffee - so about once a month I get free coffee!! Yay!

Today the good people at Costa sent me an email with the heading:

"Celebrate with a free cake" - all I needed to do was activate my Costa Card following a handy link.

Except of course a million and ten other people are trying to do the same thing and the website's crashed. Ahem.

Undeterred, I shall try tomorrow again. I want my free Costa Cake.

:-)

Charlie says: I think this is a shorter way to go next door..



One more day to the weekend! Yay!

Saucy tales

Bloggie friends!!!

There I was thinking I was spreading yummy raspberry jam on my swiss roll cake when half way through I realised it wasn’t raspberry jam.

It was cranberry sauce.

Well the jars were identical!

Anyway, after much squealing, rendering the air blue and manic scraping off of cranberry sauce, I think I’ve managed to rescue this cake.



I was thinking of maybe donating it to my lovely work colleagues. Ahem.

Charlie says: I want to know what happened to the cold white stuff.



Wish me lots of luck bloggie friends, my story submission for 100Stories for Queensland has been long listed! It may still not make it to the anthology though! There's a shortlist to be decided! Oh the torture!!!! :-)

Purrs and hugs to umi_e's Envy and Maximus Spittimus's Bumbles!

Tis and That Hat!

Tis the hour before the cake is done
My eyes are droopy and I’m not having fun
My duvet and hot water bottle are calling
From my bed but I must continue ignoring
As the clock ticks towards midnight, I’m straining
To keep awake -for if I don’t there might be a burning!

Et voila!!!

Behind that brown wrapping inside that tin is the Christmas cake – 4 hours later!!!!!

Charlie says: I kick out your hot water bottle and keep your messy bed warm!

NEWSFLASH!! Charlie is about to be "hatted" today by the adorable Sammy and Andy and talented mum!!!

What does that mean bloggie friends? Wait and see.... *cue twilight zone music* LOL!

Have a marzipan Monday everyone!

Bespoke

These are cakes. Yep, real bona fide cakes.

I didn't make them, Rachel Mount: Cake Artist did.

I don't know who she is but by golly these are amazing cakes.

Now I love baking. And one thing I've learnt about baking is that it's all trial and error and practice making perfect and sometimes it's being creative and taking risks and taking chances and using your instinct with a recipe.

It's one of the most creative skills that I've made myself learn and one that I actually enjoy.

But like creative writing, I know there are a million others better at this than me. Unlike creative writing, I wave the metaphorical white flag to baking artists like Ms Mount.

Yes these are cake shoes.

And I think the going rate is £300 per slice or something like that! And she does business by appointment only.

Charlie says these shoes taste of leather.


Have a lovely Tuesday everyone!

Conversation, Cake, Cuts and Charlie

Me to Daniel (the IT man): I password protected a document and now can’t remember the password. Please help me.

Daniel: Have you tried Google?

Me: Yes.

Daniel: How about downloading a freeware package that does this - there’s bound to be loads

Me: Yes and they end up as shareware asking for $29.99 to complete the process.

Daniel: Really?

Me: Yes.

Daniel: What’s this document anyway?

Me: My novel

Daniel: Have you tried Google?

Bless him, he said he’ll get back to me on this one!

In the meantime here is my Christmas cake turned Simnel cake for Easter (the round blobby bits represent the apostles two of whom I've eaten). I baked the main fruit cake in November 2009, drowned it in Drambuie once a week until last week and yesterday evening, added the marzipan and icing.

And here is Charlie asleep on my bed. The first time he as done so since he adopted me, 9 days ago :-)



I am still at 137 words of my Starting From Scratch Novel and I've decided to cut most of it out. Cos, I’ve just re-read it and have deemed most of it rubbish!

Time to start again.

Have a great Monday everyone!