Ho Ho Ho Merry Christmas

So it's our first Christmas as husband and wife, which is very exciting, so I decided to go all out on the food and trimmings.


With a small puppy in the house, we decided not to risk having a tree (especially as we usually have real candles on it)

Christmas 2007

So this year I found an old tree shaped candle holder and sprayed it white, added candles and hung a few of our favorite  ornaments on it.

Not quite as effective, but puppy proof at least!


I did the full roast dinner, with organic turkey from M&S bought with vouchers we received for wedding presents, and as neither of us are that crazy about  Christmas Pudding, I did the Spruced Up Vanilla Cake from Nigella Lawson's Christmas program. I bought the bundt tin from Amazon.

And because it was his first Christmas, Fitz got a bone," the one as big as wot I am"

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas, holiday season etc and a Happy New Year

Rhubarb, Rhubarb, Rhubarb Part 2

 Well I finally opened up my rhubarb schnapps, and strained the resulting mush through muslin

Despite looking rather gruesome, it resulted in the most gorgeous pink liqueur, which not only looks pretty but is also deliciously moreish!

Hugh Fearnley Whitingstall visits and apple crumble

We went to see Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall at Ely Cathedral and as always he was absolutely brilliant. 

We got our books signed and Joe bought me the new  River Cottage Everyday Cook Book

Inspired by both the visit and the book I cooked his apple crumble. He adds oats to the crumble

And cinamon and walnuts to the apples

 

When I took the left overs into work I was told it was the best apple cumble ever!

Happy Hallowe'en

As is customary in the Guynanlife household, we make quite a big deal of Hallowe'en. We dressed the front yard as a graveyard with fake head stones, ghost appearing above the windows, spooky music playing and a smoke machine set to go off as trick or treaters approach the front door. I was chuffed to bits that loads of our visitors said it was the best house they'd been to.

Joe carved his first pumpkin (the rather spectacular skeleton) and I did two, one bat cave to say "welcome" with a bat hovering above and one "happy halloween" tree and graveyard with a ghost hovering above.

On the home front we mulled cider, invited friends and neighbours and watched horror movies in front of our open fire.

All in all a fantastic night.

Pumpkin Panic

Well sadly my fabulous plan of growing my own pumpkins for carving this year, after last years disastrous pumpkin shortage, has gone just slightly awry.

This is the picture on the packet:

This is my pumpkin:

So that small boy in the picture would have to be about 4 inches high to get the same perspective with my pumpkin. Or photographed about a mile behind my pumkin.

Picture my "humph" face!


(oh and just to see if my friend Inge reads this, I will be adding my pumpkin photo-shopped with the Little Mermaid in Copenhagen - actual size!)

I'd Rather Be Blue, Thinking of You ...

... I'd Rather Be Blue-oooh

Cannot rave enough about by morning spend at the brilliant Woad inc learning how to process woad into dye and then use that to dye fabric.

Mine ended up a little "tye and dye" school project but wearable I think. I'd buy the efforts of the other ladies on my course, who were clearly craft verterans, unlike myself.

At the end of the day we not only took home our completed scarf and hankechief, but I also bought some seeds for my planned "Dyer's Garden" on my allotment.

New Arrival ...

Fitzchivalry Farseer, or Fitz for short named for the brilliant Robin Hobb book Assassin's Apprentice (The Farseer Trilogy - Book 1) (I love all her books and recently hear her  read at a book signing.)

He is four kinds of terrier - Lakeland, Patterdale, Yorkie & Staffie:

Something Old, Something New, Something Borrowed, Something Green

Well it's official, we are now Mr & Mrs Happy-Ever-After!

Obviously we were on a tight budget, and also wanted to be as green as possible so we had a DIY Tiffany themed wedding.

My new step-daughter was a very cute and gorgeous bridesmaid - dress from eBay, as was my wedding dress, although I had planned to make my own. (2 points second hand, 0 homemade).

We dressed our little yellow car as a new york taxi and our neighbours kindly loaned us their garden, mini-marquee and fairy lights as well as home brewing beer and wine for the event. (3 points home made, 2 points borrowed)

We catered it ourselves with the help of a trip to Macro ( and a lot of hard work from I & M -thank you) - afternoon tea, smoked salmon, coronation chicken, cucumber and cheese and egg and cress sandwiches, mini cakes and eclairs, savoury canapes, Joe made the scones and I made home made jam, one of my friend C made the most amazing Tiffany blue cupcakes and petite fours and my sister contributed the most stunning wedding cake ever. (Lots of homemade points)

We served Liddls prosecco in champagne saucers for that vintage 50s look and asked for contributions to our garden or wine rack for presents.

I made Joe's solid silver ring myself and engraved it with the word "soul mate" in celtic ogham writing, Joe bought my silver and pearl ring from etsy. (1 home made, 1 craft) I aslo found some vintage Crackerjack prizes in the form of a bride and groom and made them into cufflinks for him.

I designed the save the dates and then found something very similar so bought them from Vistaprint and made home made invites in the form of blue card boxes with Sarah & Joe in Tiffany & Co writing, tied with white ribbon which opened out to show and engagement ring and all the wedding details. (1 point home made)

I found super cheap blue favour boxes on eBay and we filled them with Crackerjacks instead of sugared almonds and tied them with white ribbon to look like Tiffany boxes. Guest were also given button badges to wear, either Fierce Dinosaurs, Lovely Other Dinosaurs (A Lovely Love Story by Edward Monkton was the first book I bought Joe and one of the readings at our wedding) they could also chose The Yellow Taxi of Love or Holly Golightly.

Joe's first wedding cost him over £30K, we brought ours in at a frugal £880 including rings, food, alchohol, outfits and registry office costs, not bad for 40 guests and more importantly the home made touches made it uniquely personal and memorable!

Tybalt King of Cats - RIP

Today would have been our one year anniversary of owning our Bengal/BSH cross cat Tybalt. He was 1 year and 8 weeks old. In fact we were already planning a small party for him and the kitten next door, when he was hit and killed by a car on Thursday.

It doesn't seem possible that the world is still turning.

So here is a small memorial for my beautiful boy, who's adventurous spirit was too big for his body.