Week #18 of my NEW52 life ...

Bear with me friends (and loyal readers) for I'm breaking myself back into the NEW52 habit gently. It's been a number of weeks since my last "new" post, in fact I think I've missed 4 weeks in total ... yikes!!! So for my return to the fold, I'm starting out with a new book ...



I love to bake! And not just sweet cakes and biscuits (though that does tend to be what I bake most), savoury pastries and pies are just as welcome in my oven!

This particular book appealed to me for a couple of reasons; firstly, I'd seen some of the corresponding episodes on BBC2 and therefore seen some of the recipes being made. Now I don't know about you, but I think seeing the dish being made really helps to understand how the ingredients come together, know what I mean? Secondly, the book has a great mixture of sweet and savoury recipes to try out. In particular I'm looking forward to baking the Whisky & Chilli Tiger Prawns, the Cookies & Cream Fudge Brownies and the Pumpkin & Rosemary Muffins ... all of which sound truly scrumptious!

Well, I guess we all know the subject of at least three of my future NEW52 posts ... my attempts at making [hopefully] tasty morsels from this book.

Ladies that lunch (part III) ...

On Thursday, exactly one year to the day from our first "Ladies That Lunch" date and 5 months since our last reunion, I got to meet up with Selena & Lorraine for lunch again ... yeah! It's always fun getting together with this girls, not least because we try to come up with inventive ways of photographing the three of us together. No mean feat when you consider just how camera shy these ladies are (not me I hasten to add, lord knows I'll jump in front of the camera anytime!). Last time is was our feet ...


This time is was our hands ...

I meant to take a photo of us toasting our get-together (& Lorraine's birthday) with the champagne / Kir Royale drinks we'd ordered, but alas I forgot .... so it's water filled tumblers instead!

I never under estimate just how lucky I am to live close by to these ladies and I'm so grateful that we get the chance to meet up a couple of times a year, to celebrate our friendship, our love of all things digi and of course to catch up on all the gossip!

Ummmm, hello?

I wouldn't blame you if you'd given up on ever reading anything here again after all, it's been WEEKS ... and nothing, not even so much as a "hello". Believe me, I'm hanging my head in shame here. I wish I could say that it was because my life is just so full of thrills and adventures or that I'd been whisked away somewhere exotic, but alas that's not the case.

I have been busy, but then again who hasn't? I have to confess that NEW52 has fallen by the way-side, but I remember where I dropped it and I intend to go back and pick it up and start a fresh.

So let's start this new month with a new focus and energy shall we? And talking of fresh new starts, did you watch any of the wedding on Friday? With DH being away visiting his family, I took advantage of his absence and thoroughly indulged my inner fairy-tale princess fantasies. I made Union flag mini-bunting using Angie Hinksman's Cool Britannia kit ...

I'd taken the bunting into my office the Thursday before the wedding and strung it across my monitors. On the actual day of the wedding, I strung the same bunting across my TV at home.


I had a great time watching the wedding, scrapping and Tweeting all at the same time, multi-tasking to the extreme, oh and yes that is a photo of the "first kiss". It's almost like being there ... in fact, I probably got a better shot than most people who were actually there!

Here's one of the LO's I completed during the wedding too, again using Angie's Cool Britannia & Cool Britannia Chrome Alphas kits ...

click here for credits

So there we are folks, I've got tomorrow off work for the May Day bank holiday, then it's back to the office on Tuesday ... but then I'm off again on Thursday and I'm heading into town to meet up with Selena (aka Bush Girl) and Lorraine (aka Neat Freak) for lunch again. Can you believe it's 5 months already since I last saw these girls? Let's just hope there's no freak weather event this time ... a snow storm on Bond Street, I ask you!!!

Creativity abounds ...

They say "things" (good & bad) come in threes, and that certainly seems to be the case for me so far this month.

Good thing #1
Ange Designs (for whom I was a guest CT member last year) has asked me to be a permanent member of her Creative Team and of course I couldn't say no! Her designs are so charming and I jumped at the chance of re-joining her & the rest of her team. If you want to check Ange's creations, then now is a GREAT time to do so as she's offering an amazing 50% off her kits at Digital-Crea.fr this weekend.


And whilst you're over at Digital-Crea.fr, just have a look at who they've got as guest designer for April ... it's none other than Shaui of Fei-Fei's Stuff!!!!


Good thing #2
In March I was fortunate enough to be selected as a "Featured Scrapper" over at Mscraps. This in itself was such a huge honour and a fabulous event to be involved in, but to make things even better, I was subsequently chosen to become a guest member of the Mscraps Creative Team throughout April. Woo-hoo! I feel like Dorothy in the Wizard of Oz ... I get to peek behind the curtain and see how things work. Oh and it's great fun too!!!

Good thing #3
Last but by no means least, I can't even begin to tell you how excited I am about sharing this next bit of news with you! I'm pleased as punch to be able to say that throughout April, I'm a guest member the One Little Bird Creative Team (aka The Flock) ... yippppeeeee!!! Peppermint Tweeted me way way back in January & asked if I would consider being a guest CT member and I swear I haven't stop grinning since she asked me!!! Anyhoo, here's the first page I've created using Peppermint's new kit, Vagabond

click here for credits

So far April has been a fun-packed month, full of new opportunities and new challenges ... and I for one I'm loving every moment of it!!!

Week #13 of my NEW52 life ...

A couple of NEW52 experiences from me this week.

First up, I finally got round to buying myself a proper carry case for my laptop. For the past year, whenever I've taken my lovely shiny Dell Inspiron laptop anywhere, I've done so in a rather flimsy, albeit pretty, shopping bag ... #GASP# ... I know, it offers no protection what-so-ever!!! It's not that I didn't want a proper carry case, it's just that I wanted a pretty one, a girly one, a colourful one and whenever I searched for a case big enough to accommodate my 17 inch wide-screen laptop, the only colour was black. Boring!

Until I saw this ...

OK, so it's black & white ... but it's got a really funky pattern ... AND ... the inside is baby pink!!!! (in the image above, you can just see the zipper ends which are the same colour as the interior lining). My laptop fits snugly inside, it has an internal elastic "skirt" to keep my laptop from moving / shifting, a detachable shoulder strap and a front zipped compartment for power cables / USB mouse etc. It's a riot and I love it!

My second "new" this week is the completing of my 2011 census form. Once every 10 years, every single household in the UK is required [by law] to complete a rather l.o.n.g. winded 32 page questionnaire about who you are, what you do, where you work, your ethnic background, your religion, your qualifications etc etc ... it's a heck of a document! Right now you're probably thinking how can this be new? After all, the census is taken every 10 years ... well, the new for me is that this year, I'm completing it ONLINE for the first time!

The official census day is actually today, 27th March 2011 and the idea is that information gathered during the census will be used to help to plan and fund vital services such as transport, education and health.


The other use of the census information is of course in a genealogical sense. The information captured is made public after 100 years. So in 2111, future generations will be able to read about what my life was like, and likewise, I can find out about my ancestors from the 1911 census. I haven't check it out yet, but I have looked at 1891 census and discovered that my great-great- grandfather, William Walton Applebee was born on New Year's Eve in 1845. Wow ... I don't feel so bad about having to give-up all this information.

Week #12 of my NEW52 life ...

Week #12 and I treated myself to some new underwear from my favourite lingiere store, Bravissimo. Nothing to fancy, just a couple of really comfortable, sensible, uplifting bras! Now when it comes to price, this site is by no means the cheapest ... BUT ... when you have assets(!) like I do, then trust me, comfort comes above price every time!!!

Plus, when the box arrives & you open it up, you find they've wrapped each item in it's own cute little tissue paper parcel, so you feel like you're opening gifts someone's given to you ...

You've got to love stores that go the extra mile to make each order look / feel special, don't you? ♥

Week #11 of my NEW52 life ...

Oh boy I'm soooooo far behind on these posts!!!! I've been having NEW52 experiences but totally neglected to tell you all about them ... sorry! There are going to be a couple more posts after this one because I'm determined to have 52 separate posts by the end of the year ... so please bear with me friends, OK?

Week #11 was a new recipe week. I have always loved the flavour of chicken Kiev; crispy golden breadcrumb coated chicken, oooozzzzing with a garlic & parsley butter filling .... yummy!!!! I always thought they were way too complicated to make, so had never tried making my own ... until this week that is! The prep was a bit long winded, flattening the chicken took AGES and I had a headache after all that banging (actually, I think the reason why the prep took so long, was that I wanted to take step-by-step photos for my blog post. LOL!) but it was worth it in the end ... they were surprisingly easy to cook and tasted delicious ... result!!!

click here to see larger version & credits

If you want to try making your own Kiev's I can highly recommend this version of the recipe by The Hairy Bikers (they look scary but really have some great recipes, honestly!). Enjoy.