in pursuit of organised-ness

Today is Halloween - but as it falls on a Sunday we decided it would be best to celebrate it on a night when we didnt have work the next day. I've never been a huge fan of Halloween, didn't go Trick or Treat-ing as a child and don't like the fact that teenagers feel they can put on a mask, come to my house and expect sweets! Last year hubby & I decided we would host a little gathering (fancy dress a must) to celebrate Halloween as there were a few friends we hadn't seen for a while and, well, it was just a good excuse. Everyone really enjoyed, and it saw the start of the 'Chilli-Off' between hubby and one of our friends, Mr M. Anyway, here is a tiny selection of photos from this year's Halloween party. Hubby's (rather happy) Pumpkin My Vampire themed pumpkin Yes - I event dressed up the bears! Bella (as Bella Swan), Edward (as a Mummy) & Sookie (as a Witch) Matthew (my hubby) as Zombie Huw (long story) Me - as The Evil Dri...

The first prompt for the Oui Chef challenge is: Mum's Cooking! I am not a mum, but have borrowed and adpated many of my mum's recipes. I enjoy cooking, have no problem trying anything once but do have a tendency to just chuck stuff in a pan and hope for the best. I have always helped my mum out in the kitchen, whether measuring & mixing or washing up, but I never paid much attention to the actual recipes until I left for university and realised I had no idea what the 'secret ingredients' were for bolognaise, chilli, stew etc. One of the big things I learned from both my parents was to just try it out, to experiment. Once you have the basis of a curry or chilli - try adding other stuff and see what happens. Carrots maybe, a different type of bean, even a touch of cocoa powder. My dad was a big fan of getting out a pan and adding whatever was in the cupboard (hence my tendency above!) - baked beans, crisps, tuna - most of the time it was quite awful, but sometimes...

So last week hubby & I decided that we would try to be vegetarian for a week . No particular reason really, just to see if we could do it & to save a bit of cash. Hubby didn't manage the full week, but I'm not going to go on about it! I did 'cheat' a little - at about 10pm on the Saturday night (we started on the previous Sunday). 10 of us had gone for a Chinese to celebrate a friends birthday. I was determined to stay veggie, but they had all of about 6 vegetable options, 4 of them containing fish. So, it was (very logically) pointed out to me that technically I had managed 7 days, from 10pm the previous Saturday to 10pm this Saturday....so I tucked into Spare Ribs, Aromatic Crispy Duck, Fillet Steak cantonese style, King Prawns, Chicken in Black bean & Special Fried Rice - not all to myself, obviously! :) What did I learn from Vegetarian Week? 1. I 'could' be vegetarian, if I had to. I didn't miss meat - well, not until we went to The B...

So apparently life isn't challenging enough and I need to seek out challenges to keep me on my toes. So far I am in the middle of Lottie's Finishing School and have started a 101 Things in 1001 Days challenge , which fetaures a few mini challenges. I have just finished Vegetarian Week, am trying to read 52 books in 52 weeks, trying to not buy clothes for 3 months ..... um ..... I think that's it for now! Today I discovered beckicklesie.com and their Oui Chef Challenge . I love my food - so how could I not get involved? First challenge is due end of the month - watch this space.

Lottie's next challenge it to look at our current image, write down what image we'd like to have and how to get there. 1. Write down 3 words that describe your image now. Grey : because I tend to opt for dark, grey/black clothes. They are easy to match and I don't have to worry about standing out.  Quirky : this one I actually borrowed from a friend who once used it to describe my dress sense. I quite like it and want to keep the 'edge'. My sister, on the other hand, laughs because I try to match everything - but I put this down as another quirk. :) Casual: I love my jeans and denim skirts, and often get told I'm too casual for work. I suppose this could also be described as sloppy . Often I will dress up only to leave the 'glamour' behind but wearing my Ugg  boots or chucking a chunky cardigan on top, rather than some nice shoes and a blazer jacket.    2. Write down 3 words you would like to use to describe your image. Professional : for me ...

I first came across Cake Balls & Cake Pops via @cakeballsuk and @mollybakes on Twitter. This lead me to the cakey genius that is Bakerella ! A cake ball is cake that has been crumbed, mixed with buttercream (or alternative frosting) then covered in chocolate or candy. A cake pop is a cake ball on a stick! How can you not like them? I decided to have a go back in May, with some chocolate cake & dark chocolate coating. They looked ok [pic below], but had a very strange texture. But I hadn't tried a cake pop/ball myself and didn't really know what to expect. Then, in June, we went to London. I dragged my family to Selfriges where I knew I would be able to get hold of one of MollyBakes cake pops.  Here's my lovely hubby with his. He opened it before we left the shop so had to get a quick photo. They were lovely!  But it wasn't until last weekend that I attempted them myself. Mainly it was down to a lucky coincidence that meant I had 'spare' cake and candy ...

I have been wanting to try a Giant Cupcake since I first heard about them. But didn't want to fork out on a proper tin pan until I had at least given it a go. Then I found a silicon baking mould in The Works for £6 and couldn't resist! So I made my standard Vanilla sponge mix (175g flour/sugar & 3 eggs) and filled the base and made a 100g/2 egg mix for the top. And this is what happened: Apparently the mix is too light for the depth of the mould and I needed to add some plain flour (about half the quantity of self-raising) to the mixture, thanks to @icemaidencakes . So, here's my second attempt: I did lose a little bit of the top to the mould - because I forgot to grease the pan in my excitement - and the top was a little.....overdone in places. But it was nothing a knife and some buttercream wouldn't fix. Here is the final cupcake. And here it is in comparison to a standard cupcake: According to the box, the giant cupcake is 25 times the size of a normal cupcake, ...

I forgot this was on my list! Thanks to some left over cake & buttercream I made my very own cake pops yesterday. Feedback was excellent and the people I gave them to had never seen or heard about them - let alone tried them. I was very pleased and will be adding them to my minirhi bakes! baking list.

Now, this challenge started on 1st October 2010. Which means that I won't be buying any new clothes until NEXT YEAR!! That's right! So far it has been ok. It has taken some willpower I have had to walk out of shops, but I've done it - with the exception of new tights and a vest I needed for a fancy dress night. But that is all I have bought, and tights don't count anyway! I have every intention of sticking to this in an attempt to save a bit of money and rediscover my wardrobe. Especially as I haven't seen many of my winter clothes for a few months anyway, so as long as I bring things out in bits and pieces, it'll feel like I have new clothes anyway. So, just a couple of rules: 1. Tights, socks & underwear are needed and can be purchased. 2. Jewellery does not count either. 3. If I see a mac I like, I will buy it as I've been looking for one for ages!

I've been a bit rubbish at staying up to date on my '101 Things in 1001 Days' challenge. So will try to catch up a bit this week to let you know how I am getting on. This week, hubby and I have decided to try number 82 on my list - being vegetarian. We have opted not to eat fish, so this is strictly veggie. The week started yesterday and we have so far survived 2 days. Joking aside, I am looking forward to the 'challenge', although I have had a few comments from people who have tried being veggie and never went back. I can't quite see that happening - but who knows? We've planned some meals for the week such as spinach & ricotta canneloni, quesadillas and home made tomato soup, but haven't been shopping yet. So far we've had: Quorn shepherds pie Pasta with wild rocket pesto, spinach & pine nuts Jacket potato with beans & cheese I can see a lot of cheese in the near future! :) I think the biggest challenge will be the weekend,...

I have started taking the time recently to read and comment on other people's blogs. 2 reasons. 1: because I know how much I like it when people stop by and say hello on mine, 2: because I'm actually pretty nosey. So when  @inawelshgarden blogged about her recent visit to Build-a-Bear I felt this was something I could extend an opinion on. Little did I know that this would lead to me being asked if I would like to review the shop too. Ummm. Yes, please! I think I was asked partly because of my small (but growing collection) of Build-a-Bears and partly beacuse I am slightly outside the target market. So last Saturday, me & my mum (also a BABW fan) went to Cardiff. After a quick nose around the new John Lewis (fab!) and lunch at Las Iguanas (also great) we made our way to the Build-a-Bear Workshop in St David's Shopping Centre. After the initial confusion (as the person we were meant to meet was off ill) we had a quick nose around the shop and then got straight...

On Saturday I am going to Build-a-Bear. I am so excited, but I thought I might share with you ny Build-a-Bear history to put the visit in some perspective. When hubby & I got married in 2008 we bought our flower girl (hubby's neice) a Build-a-Bear to say thank you. She was 5. The bear was gorgeous in a very glittery cream & gold bridesmaid dress, and flower girl was really happy with it. But the whole buying experience was great, the staff in Cardiff were lovely, the shop is well laid out and there was SO MUCH CHOICE! It took ages to decide what to have. Anyway - I vowed that one day I would have my own bear. One year later, for our first wedding anniversary, my wonderful hubby got me - yup - a Build-a-Bear, well, Bunny actually. She is named Bella (yes, after THAT vampire film) and has a fabulous 'New Moon' top. Then my Dad turned 60 in the following August, and me, Mum & my sister happened to be in London. Covent Garden just before it and decided to pop...