Fire Lanterns at Tessa's birthday celebration

Last Saturday a crowd of us got together to celebrate my sister, Tessa's, "ngrdieth" birthday! Much fun was had by all, fabulous food, brilliant games and culminating in a walk down to Felixstowe seafront to light some Chinese Fire Lanterns - here they are....just taking off. Beautiful!

Little M's castle cake - school project

Little M's history project - a castle in any medium. Like mother like daughter....she chose cake! We cheated a little bit, using ready made swiss rolls, and then she had fun with the chocolate butter icing and cutting the windows out of wafers. The ice cream cones were a flash of inspiration although she didn't have time to decorate them. A definite success - 20/20 mark and every morsel wolfed down by the class!

Helena Bonham Carter

How completely fabulous and effortlessly cool is Helena B-C? I adore her slightly dishevelled, gothic sense of style. I am SO looking forward to Tim Burton's forthcoming Alice in Wonderland movie, due for release on 5th March. Go check out some of the trailers if you haven't already caught a glimpse!

Weekend fun with Alex, Sam and Lola

This is the adorable little Lola May, dancing to some wicked drum and bass courtesy of the Puzzle Factory ( http://www.myspace.com/thepuzzlefactory). We had a lovely weekend with our friends from Bristol, made lots of scrummy edibles and managed a well-wrapped-up wild and wintery walk along the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze, even though the temperature was just 4.5 degrees - brrrrrr!

The latest batch of Colchester Harriers results were issued and Little M was delighted to discover that she had come 2nd in her age group in her last cross-country race - fantastic result Lulu!!

Bee's chocolate brownies

A platter of brownies made for our friends' weekend visit, using the simple recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery. Next time I think I'll use a smaller tin to make them a bit chunkier, and perhaps bake them for a little longer than the recipe suggests, as they were maybe just a little too squidgy in the middle. My bee stencil is a work in progress too, as this prototype ended up looking more like a fossilised flying fish or some mystical and ancient cave drawing!

It's in the can

I loved the design on this soup can so much I couldn't bring myself to send it to recycling. I'm still not sure what to do with it though so, at the moment, I've filled it with crayons. Maybe I'll plant up some herbs in it in the spring. Soup cans huh? Guess Mr. Warhol isn't the only person to have been inspired.........

Marmite - Do you? Don't you?

Well in our house we absolutely DO !! The Boy introduced me to the wonders of hot toast slathered in butter topped with marmite followed by crunchy peanut butter....oh my goodness....nosebag heaven!! And how fab is this special Valentines jar, with an added touch of champagne? I am already starting to feel that loved-up glow in anticipation of Feb 14th, so will be scouring the shops for a jar this weekend.