Freestyle baking

I love baking and I particularly like making new recipes up. This weekend, I bought some brown bananas that were reduced and wanted to make a kind of 'breakfast loaf' type thing which would be handy for chucking in my bag for breakfast at work.
I didn't have a recipe but I gave it a go. Also, in my head was an old recipe I once knew for a fat free tea loaf. I gathered together:

Flour
Bananas
raisins (soaked in tea)
Mixed Spice
Eggs
Milk

As the bananas were sweet and so were the raisins, I decided against adding sugar. I simply mixed all the ingredients together and hoped for the best.

 It came out rather well

It is very tasty, not having any sugar turned out fine- it is not a sweet cake, it tastes more like a breakfast muffin which is what I wanted.
It is a little dry, which could be the lack of any fat, but it tastes lovely with a cup of hot tea.
I was very pleased with myself.

Spooky Friday

Having been on the Jack the Ripper walk around Whitechapel a few Hallowe'ens ago, I was very interested to go to this talk. It was really interesting and gave a whole new look at some aspects of the Ripper mystery. Well worth a look if it comes to a town near you!

Ticked off the list

 This local (very) retro place has been on my list of places to try for the entire 12 years I have lived in Worcester. This Saturday, I finally went for breakfast.

A very colourful menu,  the waitresses all wear black and white.
It was absolutely packed on Saturday morning and everyone was friendly. There were a lot of people there who were regulars.

I had a lovely coffee and a ham and pineapple panini. How exotic of me!

Well done Poppins, I shall definitely come again.

Colour Combination

I have this lovely Hydrangea bush and its smaller cousin in my front garden- it is lovely.
I really want to try and capture the colours in some art or craft project but I am not sure how.

Best Find Ever!

The other evening, I was browsing my top secret and highly magical charity shop, a messy jumbled Aladdin's cave full or things I love, when I heard a lady near me say to her husband
"It's a Jesus from a church nativity"
My heart skipped a beat and I tried to remain calm whilst also getting close enough to grab him before anyone else.

Best charity shop find ever!

Planner Obsession

Stationery. I love it.

Diaries and Planners are my thing and I have had many different types. I have tried loose leaf and it did not quite work for me and so this year, I tried 'The Life Book'.

A perfect diary for me has to have:

A month to view page for clear planning

A week to view with lots of space for day to day lists

Plenty of pages to stick images/ receipts/ tickets etc ( I like a diary that is a 'working' diary and also a diary that captures the year in memories)

Pretty pages

'The Life Book' has most of these and although it initially did not have colourful, pretty pictures, I added them.

It is becoming very full and heavy to carry around now though!

Pretty pictures and sayings all stuck in

Tickets

Craft ideas

Book reviews

Seasonal pictures throughout

Lists!

Trip journals

Monthly planning

My favourite section- behind this are lots of secret lists and plans!

 Handy back pocket.

I love it!

Weekend in Brighton

Sister's birthday celeb in Brighton this weekend: shopping, coffee, shopping, laughing, shopping, dinner, shopping, chatting, shopping.

Homemade

This year, I set myself the challenge of making homemade gifts for everyone. I have generally stuck to it- there have been a couple of exceptions due to gift lists and such, but I have found it really rewarding. I am still working on the crochet blankets to be given at Christmas, and have rediscovered sewing. At the moment, my sewing machine is out of action and so I have been hand sewing. I had forgotten how much I like doing this, watching a film and sewing away (Oh dear I sound about 90!)





Here is the latest homemade gift, I am really pleased with it.

It is for a close friend who has wanted to begin 'envelope system' cash budgeting

She really likes the sort of 'country cottage' fabrics and prints so I was happy with the choice of fabric I found

Inside the pouch there are 4 coin purses with labels for her to write on so that each purse is a different budget area

And here is her card- very retro and a bit mean as she hates birds!

I have also recently made some seasalt and chilli chocolates for another friend which went down really well but I forgot to take a photo of those!

Book Reviews

 This was great, an imagined account of Roscoe 'Fatty' Arbuckle's life and career. I enjoyed the insight and it read very well - especially as the whole novel is in first person, something I normally find fairly tedious after a while.

 This was fantastic! I love Anthony Bourdain's travel show 'No Reservations' and really enjoy his narration and this is written in exactly the same wise cracking, arrogant style. It is excellent and makes the kitchens of restaurants seem like war zones and the ultimate playgrounds all rolled into one.

I was dubious about reading this as my initial reaction was that it was a 'misery memoir' packaged in a cleverer way. However, I saw Margaux Fragoso interviewed and I gave it a go. My initial reaction was right- this seemed to serve no purpose- it was not a survivors story in any meaningful way, nor was it fully believable. Parts of it were very graphic but it felt like it was trying to be deliberately provocative. Despite the fact that we follow Margaux from the age of 7 to 22, the book ended and I felt I still did not know her, and that I would be more discerning in my choices in future.

Horror

The recent dark wet days have had me snugged in the corner of the settee with the telly on. 

I have found some really great spooky stuff to watch (Horror is my favourite genre) and after listening to Adam Millard talk recently, it made me even more keen. He was really funny and down to earth and seemed to share a lot of the same experiences with horror as me. I think his books may be a little gory for me, I prefer the 'spookier' or paranormal stuff rather than gore- these are a few of the things I have been watching in the downpours....

Torch

 Last night, the Olympic torch came through the city on its way to London. The air was warm and the streets were packed. It was really exciting...


The yellow relay cars and buses carrying other torch bearers and athletes came first....

This was my favourite, and I envy their job, dancing and waving on the top of an open top bus- what a great way to spend the day...

We were by the changeover, here is the next torchbearer getting his instructions...

The helicopter circled, so we knew it was getting closer.....

Here she comes! Ready to hand over.....

Will it light?? Keep your fingers crossed...

Yes!! A big cheer came from the crowd here....

And off he went.......

Followed by the friendly police outriders who had musical horns on their bikes and waved to us all.

It was a lovely night, that ended with a lovely cool drink in a pub garden. A great summer night.