10 things!

Oh yes, it's 10 things time again! This week the boys said they no longer wanted to hold onto their old school backpacks, so we have 2 of them, a pair of outgrown trainers (these may go to my nephew) a baby raincoat, a pair of mittens, 2 pairs of socks, a hat, a pair of heart handwarmers....10 things!

I feel like I am doing well so far with this challenge! It is clearing the way...what for I am not sure though....more stuff probably....although I am going to try and keep the amount of junk we have to a minimum....is anyone out there going to try and do this as well....let me know if you are and we can compare!

Fishcakes

The kids all like and eat my homemade fishcakes! To make you simple boil up and mash some Maris Piper potatoes....I have always found this variety to be particularly good for mash! and roast!

Once you had well and truly smashed the potatoes you drain a tin of tuna. I always use the tuna in spring water...I think if it was in brine the flavour would be too heavy. Once it is drained you add and mix into the potatoes....

Then I simply fill a plate with some homemade breadcrumbs and pat the fishcake out to a fishcake shape and press down so it gets coated in breadcrumbs....

As you can see we get through a fair few of these!

Then you lightly fry them....everything is cooked and edible anyway so it does not matter how much time is spent frying....just till they are golden brown....you do have to be careful lifting them out that they do not break up...but they are pretty hardy!

Yum Yum....this is how the kids like them....served with oven chips and a load of veg...

I hope you enjoy this simple receipe...it really is very easy to make.

More Sale buys!

As I said before I don't usually go into the shops looking for sale bargains....(I cannot believe there were still Christmas sale products on display!!!).it is only a bargain if you really want or need it after all! However, I needed to go into the 99p shop to get some more envelopes and I just happened to notice that they had an isle of reduced Christmas stock....all 50p!!! I could not resist a looky and this is what I got....

The 20 Clear Fairy Lights are battery operated and will go nicely on my Christmas stalls, also I saw people wearing them!!!!! FANTASTIC IDEA! The candle snowmen and Father Christmas's were very cute at 10p each candle a bargain too! the Giant bells I am not sure what I will do with but they look great.

And if I get into gear to make Cards this year these may come in handy....I do like traditional colours at Chrsitmas, or just red and white. If I do not use them I will let the kids and their friends make some cards on a playdate.

The wreathes are great, although they are not huge once I take off the snowman and the sign I will embellish to my hearts content. I may even keep the snowmen and signs as they are wooden and are quite cute again.

More small jingle bells and some crafting shapes for the kids to use.

All in all, more expensive than I planned my trip to the 99p shop to be, but what a lot of bargains!

10 Items to go!

Its Friday again and I have another eclectic selection of bits and bobs that we no longer need or use....a rain cover for a buggy, a cosy toes for a buggy, a plastic handbag ( the Diva is 4 and already has far too many handbags....and she does not get it from me, I own 1 handbag!), a pair of the Divas old shoes, a Tap Tap game, a firemans costume for 4 year old boys, a hat, a pair of gloves, a pair f socks (under the hat!)  and a peg board.  

I have put the toys on the local Facebook page and if they sell they sell, if not they will go to our charity shop by the end of the week!

I love clearing stuff out!

Sale shopping

Am sooooo sorry that I have missed a day! and its still only January...in my defence, on Friday last week our old computer finally gave up the ghost and died...so we spent the weekend looking for a new one and then installing it on Monday.Anyway, am back now and have been out and about this weekend.

As a rule I do not generally go looking too much in the sales after Christmas, I figure that if you really wanted it you would have brought it or ordered online on Boxing Day! However, after my daily Curves workout I went for a little stroll around the local shops, one of which is Clinton Cards. I used to manage the one in town (not that anyone working there now is the same....it was about 12 years ago now!!!). I believe they have been taken over by an American company, and I must say I am not overly keen on most of the gifts now. I do like Yankee Candles though....I never buy them as they are soooooo expensive. But at Clintons they had a couple of boxes of these little ones left in the half price sale....not £21.99 but only £10.99 for 12 of their Christmas smelling candles.....I HAD to have a box....

I have already taken them out of the huge box that they were in for easy storage till next Christmas!

They all smell most divine. My plan is something along the lines of either making candle holders myself or getting the kids to decorate some glass ones and either sell them or give as teacher gifts.....mmm....I really should have brought 2 boxes shouldn't I?? Maybe tomorrow I will pop in after my workout and see if they have any more stashed anywhere.

10 things

Well, I know I missed the first week out but better to start a week late than not at all!!! This is my pile of 10 things that I have found lying around that we no longer need or use....3 plastic fancy glasses, 4 curtain pole holders, a pencil case ( we have soooo many), a toy stethoscope, and a little pink tin. The charity shop will get this lot. We have filled in one of those forms that mean that the Tadworth Childrens Trust shop in town can claim all our tax back on these items when they sell them. They send us a yearly letter letting us know how much our donations have raised for them! I love knowing this....its hard when you take all your much loved items and have no idea if they went in the bin or actually got some money from them.

I am going to try 10 items every week so this should get harder as the year progresses! On a plus it means getting rid or using up over 520 things!

Christmas cake

I always make my own Christmas cake and this last year was no exception....in October I got around to making the cake, however I fed it once with Rum when it came out of the oven, put foil around it and put it in a tin up high .... and forgot about it till 3 days before everyone was due to come around for our Christmas gathering. I make my own royal icing too and went for a Frozen theme this year as I had some snowflake sprinkles that I had found in Sainsburys. I also went through the icing when it was still gooey and drew a snowflake....however I also had a load of those silver balls left and put them on too.....to much maybe???

It turned out quite nice though...even husband said it was lovely...not too dry inside. It has kept very well and we finished it off the other day.

I think this year (2015) I will make one with a red and green theme.

Messy Craft room

I seriously need to get into order and tidy up my crafting space too! What a disaster!!!! 

Admittedly everything does just get dumped in here after my last Christmas fair and the door gets shut and forgotten......till January!

And in the fore ground you can see that my husband dumps his stuff in here too....all the black bags at the front. Will get onto it asap and take a photo when it is looking tidier, as no doubt it will not last too long! Also I am making a start on an idea of getting 'rid of' 10 things every week this year....I can donate to charity, sell on FB or use them to make something to sell at fairs.

Mess, mess and more mess!!!!!

One of the things that I really do enjoy in January is tidying! Much as I absolutely love Christmas in a massive way, once January 6th hits the need to take all the decorations down and clean up takes hold! As you can see, every top, shelf, window ledge...nowhere is left alone at Christmas in our house...and hence not a lot of dusting gets done either!

You  can just about see my reflection there!

Even cupboard doors are not safe from our crafting at Christmas! As for the piles of bits the kids leave around I simply leave them around in the holidays and sort out once they are all safely back at school!

As you can see by the jumper on the radiatior....the kids love Christmas too!

And this was just one room! All the others rooms in the house seem to be the same....Christmas takes over!

Evies last evening...

Yay! I have managed the first week of kids back to school and been up to Curves(gym) three times already and it is only Wednesday! Got to keep it up though the rest of the week and month/year.... I have my Dad coming to visit in a couple of hours so have got to get some beef casserole on to cook for supper....he is going to show us pictures of his Christmas break with my brother in Thailand.

Here is another post that I should have posted before Christmas but things got in the way...

The night before she was due to leave us, Evie, our house elf decided to be a little naughty and got cereal packs and milk out of the cupboard, she also sprinkled oats all over the floor nearby and made lovely oat angels!

A and the Diva were very amused...not so O though....think he may be getting a little old for all this or maybe next year I need to up the stakes in the pranks....I will start googling for ideas in the summer break I think and make a daily planner so I am not left at the last minute trying to come up with something brilliant.

New Year's list

Every New Year, over the Christmas period, my husband and I spend an evening sitting together with a nice fire going and make a list of what we would like to achieve/try in the New Year. They are not resolutions as such but things to try. 

I thought I would start to make a list on here! Lucky you!

1) Learn how to use my sewing machine more!!!!

2) Try out one new meal receipe  every week...any more often and I think there would be a lot of grumpy children around the house! And try to make more veggie food!

3) Try to find some kind of employment that fits in with the school hours ie 10-2! Isn't everyone??

4)Go to Curves ( the gym I use) at least 3 times a week.

5) Sort out the garage

6) Make all my Christmas cards this year...I did a lot last year but needed to resort to brought ones for the last few!

7) Make nice concrete stones for gifts this year....

8) Clear up the study...I use this as my craft room along with husband using it for his chess bits.

9) Get rid of 10 things every week....that would be 520 things gone by the end of the year.

10) Try not to shout as much as I do...it encourages the children to shout too!

10 things to try and get done/learn/do, we will see how I go!

Snowmen biscuits...

And a Happy New Year to all! I still have a couple of posts that I never got around to posting before Christmas so these will appear in the next few days while I nurse my new year cold!

So simple, so easy and so effective!

I made up some sugar biscuits, but you could even use brought biscuits and simply ice them with water icing, plop a marshmallow on top, then get the children to add faces and arms with those tubes of icing you can get for writing! They taste yummy too! All the better for the marshmallows.