Things That Made Me Smile, and Resolutions for 2010

Hello all.

In my renewed enthusiasm for my blog, I have decided to ensure I post at least once each week. This is 2010 resolution Numero Uno.

Resolution Two is the big one.

I will learn to drive.

At the age of 24 it's high time I had independence of movement. Plus, it will greatly facilitate me (eventually) moving out of home. These are currently my only resolutions for this year. I have other things I'd like to do, but they're not resolutions, as I don't want to set myself up for failure.

So.. the things that are making me smile at the moment..

Pretty pink hyacinth.. looks very vibrant. I'm hoping it retains that level of pinkness, and doesn't fade as it opens. There's another one sat beside it on the windowsill, slightly behind in terms of development. I can't remember what colour it is.. I think it might be white. I'll find out soon enough!

The next thing to make me smile is this Muppets videoclip. The bit I really love is at the very end. There are many many more, but it was this one I stumbled across first.

The thing that I'm expecting to make me smile shortly is the blackcurrant crumble that is currently in the oven, to be eaten with custard, and a great big smile... Ooh, I hear the oven timer.. must dash!! x

*Edited to add - yep, the crumble was indeed worth a smile or two.. very tasty indeed, with a good dollop of Ambrosia!*

Walkies!

Did you know that Sloe gin and orange juice mixed together comes out the most disgusting colour? Me neither, until now.

I can't believe how long it's been since my last post! Especially as I had last week off work, I hardly posted at all.

Anyway.. I cooked a lovely meal tonight (if I do say so myself!), following a recipe from Attic24. It's from October 2008, so you might have to rummage around a little to find it, but it's exceedingly yummy!

It's all cheesy and lentil-y and vegetabley, and exceedingly healthy! The colours are fantastic, see?

Earlier today I did something I've been meaning to do for a long time.. I walked to the Garden Centre. It's quite a long walk, which is why I didn't do it before, but the weather today was beautiful and I need some more daffodil bulbs and preferably some autumn bedding plants. Unfortunately payday is tomorrow, and I have NO money left, so didn't actually buy anything. I will do tomorrow, but I have to work.. maybe I'll go again on Sunday.. will see what the weather does! It was a beautiful walk.. but I don't reccomend walking on narrow pavements along the side of the A38! Occasionally scary. Would you like to see some of my pictures?

This is Wellingtons very own Balamory street.. there's a lilac one that you can't see, coz it's behind me. I know the lady who lives in the orange one.. apparently it's Etruscan Sunset. Myself, I think she's been Tangoed.

Fabulously crunchy, kickable leaves. I swore I saw a driver laughing at me as he passed, but that could have been because I nearly fell over trying to take this picture.

There's an aviary at the garden centre.

Now that is a budgie with attitude. That's some serious evils he's giving me.

Oh, and they have a cat there..

Button-y Joy!

I just got home from town. I's had fun.

Got something to go with the veggies for tea, but that's rather less exciting (I chose little stuffed chicken parcels from the butcher, if you're wondering)

I also had a quick foray into my favourite charity shop (we have many). I found a crochet hook, size 6, a pair of nice knitting needles, size unknown, a crochet pattern book, a novel-ly book and bestest of all, buttons. Would you like to see my buttons? That's not a question I ask everyone, I can assure you!

I especially like the gold military style ones, the way the gold is wearing off looks very shabby-chic. Not a clue what I'm going to do with them, but they make a lovely addition to my button jar. I have a bit of a love affair with my button jar at the moment. I keep adding random buttons to it. Which is exactly the way it should be. But I am finding it very strange when I go shopping and am more excited by buttons than by actual clothes. I'm a confirmed shopaholic, and clothing addict, so it's just plain weird to feel this way. These here are my most recent additions. The gold one came from todays haul, the others are from last week, and were bought from the habadashery shop. Oh well, the small joys are the easiest to come by!

Flowers and Veggies

Do you remember I showed you that sunflower in the council flowerbed the other day? Well, it's flowered in spectacular fashion.. beautiful. It makes me smile every time I walk past it. The other flowers are largely over now, so it adds a lot of colour to the road.

I got my vegbox today. I Love getting these boxes.. the veggies are so fresh.. look, the mud is still damp on the carrots!

Other than carrots I've got a bag of rainbow chard (so pretty) french beans, calabrese, two leeks, red peppers, onions and salad spuddies. What shall I cook for tea tonight? I dunno. Shall update you later.

Happy Dayses.

This has been a couple of days of simple pleasures.. which are the best kind of pleasures, as they're the easiest to come by. First off, a beautiful flower bed. I don't know where the sunflower came from.. it's hardly the councils usual flower of choice. I can only assume it's a matter of guerrila gardening by the residents of the street in question. I'll go back that way again on Sunday, and take another picture. Hopefully it'll be flowering then. The colours in the flower bed are fabulous, even without that, and they're all pompom flowers of various descriptions, and I love pompom flowers.

Simple Pleasure number 2. Veg box arrived on Thursday, and it was full of the type of goodies I like. Carrots (taste SO much better organic.. one of the few things that truely does), Broccoli, runner beans, salad mix, red peppers, onions, spudatoes.. yeah, think that's it. Oh, no. A pointed cabbage. That's it. The carrots and broccoli got ate on Thursday with faggots.. still got the rest of it, bar one onion. Oh, and I had some salad today for lunch.

Final thing for now, I got my first ever Boden catalogue in the post, and OH! It's beautiful! I'd never had a real look at Boden before.. and now I want it all.. ALL! There is nothing in here I don't want to own. Part of me wishes I hadn't bothered, I have enough problems resisting Joules, without adding this into the equation. But.. daydreaming is a fabulous occupation, and dreaming of Boden is a good way to spend time.

OK, so it wasn't quite the final thing.. I had fun shopping in Sainsburys and Homebase today.. pictures will follow. I bought some fabulous things today, oh yes indeedy I did!

Cookies!

I'm baking cookies! Chocolate Chip ones. The recipe came from Attic24, (see my list of sites) and I am very grateful! Above, you see the dough in its final stages of preparation, and below that, the balls of dough ready to go in the oven.

Of course, the best bit of the making was The Licking Of The Bowl. Seeing as I have no children, this arduous duty falls to me. :)

They are in the oven as I type, and will hopefully be out, lightly golden and beautiful in a minute or two. To be taken with a mug of delicious hot chocolate just before bed. Fabulous.

Edit: I can confirm that they are indeed delicious! I made 18 and have had 5 of my 6. I'll definitely make these again soon.

In October 08, we (Parents and I) went on holiday to Evesham. We were aiming for the Cotswolds, and overshot a little, but no worries! This is a picture of a Winter Cobble, (recipe aquired from Something For The Weekend) that I cooked with the contents of my Riverford organic veg box, plus a bit. It was fab, and have made it a few times since then.

We visited Witley Court, which is a very nice ruin with a fabulous fountain, and also Blenheim palace, which was very nice indeed, but slightly over Churchill-ed. It also snowed, while we were in Ashby-de-la-zouch visiting an Auntie of mine. This was bizarre for October, and very worth commenting on. It was very pretty next morning, for the drive to Blenheim now I think of it. The maze at Blenheim is well worth visiting.