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.