Hot stuff

Does anybody else out there think that different drinks takes better out of certain mugs? We have a variety of mugs in our house ranging from bone china to more chunky ones. I have one little green mug in particular that no one else in the house dares to use for fear of having something happen to it. It's a mug I bought in a craft shop in Bournemouth nearly 30 years ago and to me, that mug was born to have milky coffee in it. If ever I am feeling poorly, that is the mug I turn to for comfort. It's not the prettiest mug in the house, but it's my favourite.

This year when the January sales were on, we bought a Nespresso coffee machine. The coffee from it is superb, the best home made coffee. But the spout that the coffee comes out of is fairly low and some mugs simply don't fit underneath it. I had bought 2 lovely slim, short, white Sophie Conran mugs from Portmeirion but I've been looking for some more. So today I popped into a new shop that has opened in town. The Steamer Trading Cook Shop. I spent ages looking round the lovely homeware and kitchen equipment downstairs and then noticed that there was an upstairs too. There were 2 walls filled with mugs. And in the middle of them all, were some lovely Emma Bridgewater mugs, duck egg blue, just 3" tall and 3" in diameter with 'white coffee' written in white along the inside and outside of the rim. They called out to me - "Buy me" I walked round the store some more, picked up a few other mugs but they weren't the right size, they didn't feel right in my hand. And in my mind, I could hear the blue ones "Me ... pick me ... take me home" And so I did, I bought two and as soon as I got home, I plugged in the machine, washed up the new mugs, and had a cup of coffee. They were a good choice. I think they are destined to be some of my favourites!

Self portrait Blogtoberfest day

Well Tinniegirl has decreed that today should be a day where self portraits are the focus of the day. Just thought I would explain why I have suddenly inflicted a picture of myself on you for today!

So now we have that over and done with, let me give you an update on the book binding - the class has been organised by the school as part of a well-being programme - offering up the school services to staff at the end of the day so there were only 6 of us there. The papers for the covers are beautiful and we have leather for covering the spines ... but that is some weeks away! Our first job was to choose the leather covering and we all just stood there for a while stroking the silky smooth skins. Picking one up, then putting it down, then choosing another and then going back to the first one - until the teacher saw that we could easily spend the whole hour that way and made us make a decision so we could start on the real work. At this point I think she realised that 6 members of staff could be more trouble than a class of 30 teenage girls!

Our first job was to cut up our papers, fold them into sections and start sewing them together. We have brought them home to complete as homework. (which is what I am doing in my self portrait!) The hour flew by and I think we were all disappointed to have to stop and come home! We learnt a neat trick to make sure you don't pull your thread out of the eye of the needle by unfurling the strands of the thread and twisting the needle through it, so clever. As an example of adults being as troublesome as kids, the person opposite me cut off enough of the waxed thread to do her sewing at home, wound it round 2 fingers to make it tidy, did it too tight, couldn't get it off her fingers, fingers started going bright red and looking a tiny bit swollen, had to have it cut off !

Back to School

Well I was typing up an article for our school newsletter I saw that the art department had run a bookbinding course for our gifted and talented girls. The finished books were beautiful and I said to the art teacher that if she ever did another course, could I sneak in and join in?
So I was thrilled when she told me that they were offering it as an after school activity and staff could sign up. My name was first on the list she put up in the staff room! I have been ticking off the days and after school today is the first class. I'm not sure what is involved, but pretty paper seems to be part of our kit {happy days!} and I am hopeful that if a Year 8 girl can manage it, surely I can give it a go.
Excuse the quality of the picture I've added, I tried to photograph the online version of the newsletter to give you an idea of what I'm doing and it's not been terribly successful. Maybe I need to sign up for a photography course too!
I'll let you know how I get on tomorrow.

A splash of colour

I do love the colours of autumn. Summer colours are lovely too in their bright, happy way but there is something about the autumnal tones that I love. I tend to choose these colours for winter clothing, they seem to suit the redhead colouring that I have.

We've tidied up the garden this weekend and whilst all the vibrant summer flowers have gone, we have quite a few evergreen plants and I noticed that the sedum is so pretty in amongst the greenery. It seems to be spreading around the garden too, every year there is some growing somewhere new. It looks lovely beneath the burgundy leaves of the acer and I know it will be flowering now for some time.

I love these sunny autumn days and I hope we still have a few more in store before the wet and dismal days of November come in. I really am a tropical gal at heart, clearly meant to live in some warm Mediterranean climate rather than the uncertain weather that we 'enjoy' in the UK!

Food for thought

I've signed up for the blog hop over at Amy's - have you?
I've decided on the recipe I'm going to share, in fact I may share two! We had friends round for dinner last night and I fell back on an 'old faithful' dessert recipe that is SO simple and only has 5 ingredients so I may share that too.
I'm torn about whether or not to share an embarrassing story on the blog hop which relates to one of the ingredients in the main recipe. But I still feel my cheeks burning in shame when I think about it, and I still have problems looking the customer service assistant in Waitrose in the eyes when I go in there.
It's a glorious day here today, the Indian Summer days they promised us for the weekend finally arrived, so I may just have to go for a walk this afternoon to make the most of it. Have a good Sunday!

Spot the difference

We're still working out way through all the stuff we have up in our loft ready for the insulation company to come and re-insulate at the end of the month. It's been a tough job, physically and emotionally. I had saved/hoarded every bit of artwork the kids did when they were young, every school project and book, brownie uniforms, dance leotards, cubs uniforms, football kits ... you name it, I had put it up there! So I have tried to be ruthless, and kept one project from each school term, one book from each year, one uniform from each out of school activity etc. That still leaves us with a lot of boxes but it is far more manageable. In one box I found a lot of Barbie dolls that my daughter had played with, along with an old original Sindy doll that I had when I was growing up. I've taken a photo of them in a line up. Can you pick out which is the middle aged lady out of the group?!!!

I like it ....

When I signed up for Blogtoberfest I had a feeling that I might struggle to blog about something every day for a month. Guessed there would be days when only mundane things happened and I would struggle to find something to write about. Today is one of thost days. I've done a fair bit of crafty things in the last week but have now run out of those and don't have time to knit a quick blanket or make a soft toy.
So I wondered if anyone else had noticed odd looking profile comments that were appearing on Facebook? There was a game last year about what colour bra you were wearing at the moment? The purpose was to increase awareness of October Breast Cancer Awareness month. It was a tremendous success and had men wondering for days what was with the colours and it made it to the news. This year's game has to do with your handbag/purse, where we put our handbag the moment we get home for example "I like it on the couch", "I like it on the kitchen counter", "I like it on the dresser" well you get the idea. You just put your answer as your status with nothing more than that. It's causing quite a lot of comments!!! At the moment, I like it under the breakfast bar in the kitchen - how about you?