My First Resolution

I WILL be organised this year!!! Now those that know me well, will be a bit shocked by this – normally I make the character Monica from Friends look disorganised, but I really don’t know what happened to me last year. I felt like I was forever chasing my tail – well, this year things are going to change. In fact, I’ve signed up to do the Ali Edwards, One Little Word, and “CHANGE” is the word I’ve picked. Anyway, more on that in a later post, but for now, an organised me, is the first of my resolutions. So with that, I decided I needed one place to keep everything I may need in a month – so I bought a file from Staples at the end of last year, and made a start.

Each month I’ll pick my favourite photo from the month before as my cover ... this months’, I loved the snow so much on the logs for the wood burner, I couldn’t resist photographing them. Now everything I need is in one place, and as you can see – I’ve printed out the calendar for January from Outlook, which we can both write what we're up to and where we are; so nothing is forgotten! Next is a list of the birthday’s for the month – and the cards I need to make or buy and when to post them. Next comes my menu plan for the week (along with my shopping list, which is left loose). The following pages hold all the recipes I pull out of magazines or get from the internet that I want to cook in the month. Next are all the documents we might need, for instance, eye test and shopping vouchers, take away menus etc.  And then right at the end – I’ve stapled two envelopes, and stamped “stamps” and “receipts” on each.

So there you are! This year I WILL BE better organised ... (fingers crossed)

   

The smell of Baking

The smell of hot muffins just out of the oven is wafting around me as I type this ... and the reason I'm blogging is to try and be good and let them cool before I dive in.

Last year, through the wonderful world of blogging, I came across the very talented Cath, now at, (Living in the Moment)... she can do it all!  Her last years, blog "The Year for Change" had some really good recipes on it, quite a few which I've tried - but my favourite so far has been the one for Banana Muffins ... trust me, they're gorgeous, and far too easy to make and eat - so you find yourself making them again and again. 

Her recipe,

200g (7oz) Plain Four
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1/2 tsp of Salt
1 tsp Bicarb of Soda
3 Bananas, mashed
150g (5oz) Caster Sugar
1 Egg
75g (2 1/2 oz) melted butter

Preheat the oven to 180c/Gas mark 4
Sift the flour, baking powder, bicarb and salt together and leave to one side
Combine mashed bananas, sugar, egg and butter together, fold in flour mixture until smooth.
Spoon evenly into 12 muffin cases
Bake in a preheated oven for around 25 mins or until springy to the touch.

Now, this is one way I just love getting one of my 5 a day ... I'm sure by now they'll be cool :)  Thank you Cath.

Happy New Year

Wishing all my friends a very happy New Year .... and I promise to be a better blogger in 2011 (well that's just one of my new year’s resolutions).


Cheers ... and my this year bring you every crafting happiness.

Party Invites

I'm a fan of gadgets ... that's well known.  So I really enjoyed making the invitations for a family party that we're having at our little house.  It's partly to celebrate Christmas, and partly to celebrate the house being loved again.  Anyway, these invitations were cut from a download from SVG cuts and have been sent out to family groups rather than individuals ... which may actually mean that we've got a little over 40 people coming!!!  I'll panic nearer the time as to how we'll get everyone in LOL.

Anyway, I really enjoyed making these - mind you these were the 2nd try - the first lot my mother in law didn't feel were christmassy enough - she likes traditional colours and wanted holly leaves, so now that I know how to fill a page with the same cut, which means I have so many holly leaves that I can do the invitations all over again .. and again ... and again.