2013 Round Up

1. What did you do in 2013 that you'd never done before?
Lots of little things, this year I was forced to live a little outside my comfort zones
2. Did you keep your new years' resolutions, and will you make more for next year?
I didn't make any formal resolutions I did make a list of things I would try to do/be better at so I’ll continue with that.
3. Did anyone close to you give birth?
Quite a number of acquaintances and friends gave birth in 2013. Two of my dearest friends gave birth to gorgeous little girls
4. Did anyone close to you die?
A friend’s husband sadly died after a long battle with cancer.
5. What countries did you visit?
No new countries in 2013
6. What would you like to have in 2014 that you lacked in 2013?
The same answer as last year stability
7. What date from 2013 will remain etched upon your memory, and why?
3rd August – Sarah & Andy’s wedding
8. What was your biggest achievement of the year?
Surviving, there have seemingly been lots of challenges this year and times when things seemed a bit bleak but I’m still here and reminded regularly there are lots of blessings too.
9. What was your biggest failure?
I’m deliberately choosing not to answer this one because if I open that door it might trigger all sorts of things I have worked hard this year to silence.
10.Did you suffer illness or injury?
Nothing major
11. What was the best thing you bought?
My diary- This year it’s kept me focused on getting the important stuff done and in the right place at least 90% of the time
12. Whose behaviour merited celebration?
Lots of wonderful NHS workers especially the nurses in the rehab unit.
13. Whose behaviour made you depressed?
I can't really think of anyone in my personal life whose behaviour made me depressed. This year though I have been disgusted by the behaviour of Katie Hopkins who seems to be making a career out of being as offensive and cruel as she can be.
Similarly I found myself depressed by many of the opinions expressed by ex UKIP MEP Godfrey Bloom. The best description of him in my humble opinion comes via Charlie Brooker – ‘Bloom, a sort of blustering sitcom colonel from a previous century who’d fallen through time, wound up here and was furious about it’
14. Where did most of your money go?
The usual day to day life stuff mostly and planning a few surprises for a couple of friends who’d been having a horrible year.
15. What events did you get really, really, really excited about?
S’s hen party & wedding, the birth of EW,
16. What song will always remind you of 2013?
Lana Del Ray - Young and Beautiful (also lots of the Gatsby soundtrack) Oh and “What does the Fox say” because you couldn’t escape it.
17. Compared to this time last year, are you:
i.happier or sadder? About the same
ii.thinner or fatter? Right now- fatter (my father’s christmas dinner was designed that we wouldn’t get thinner)
iii.richer or poorer? Again about the same
18. What do you wish you'd done more of?
Laughing, relaxing and enjoying life while catching up with friends
19. What do you wish you'd done less of?
Having to let people down at the last minute, there were a couple of personal events and a few other responsibilities that I had to back out. They were all for very valid reasons, but for someone who was brought up by a mother who believed in being more prepared than the average boy -scout and who valued being reliable, I always feel I’m letting people down.
20. How will you be spending Christmas?
I spent a quiet but lovely day with my family.
21. Who did you spend the most time on the phone with?
I didn't do an extensive amount of phone-chatting this year but I when I did it was with far-away friends
22. Did you fall in love in 2013? No
23. How many one-night stands? None
24. What was your favourite TV programme?
I enjoyed the Wrong Mans & The Bletchley Circle
I also spent a couple of mornings and evenings one weekend watching ‘The Lizzie Bennet Diaries’
25. Do you hate anyone now that you didn't hate this time last year?
Hate is a strong word. I try not to hate anyone.
26. What was the best book you read?
A tough one, there have been several this year. I very much enjoyed ‘Codename Verity’ by Elizabeth Wein
28. What did you want and get?
I’m grateful for the opportunities I got to meet up with friends and family this year.
29. What did you want and not get?
There were times when I didn’t take care of my health/body as well as I would have hoped to- odd meal times etc
30. What were your favourite films of this year?
I really enjoyed ‘Oz:The Great and Powerful’
31. What did you do on your birthday?
The weekend before my birthday I went for a meal and to see the musical Wicked with some friends. Then on my actual birthday one of my wonderful friends surprised me with tickets to see the UK tour of ‘Singing in the Rain’ in the afternoon.
32. What one thing would have made your year immeasurably more satisfying?
Less Schrodinger’s Cat sensations
33. How would you describe your personal fashion concept in 2013?
This year I would probably describe it as sensible yet random- usually because the weather has turned gangster or is threatening to when I need to be somewhere or because I’ve tried to get ready in approx 5 mins (lots of doing make up on car journeys too.
35. Which celebrity/public figure did you fancy the most/least in 2013?
All the usual suspects
36. What political issue stirred you the most?
I’m still very cross the government thinks it’s acceptable to make lots of cuts to vulnerable people and simultaneously verbally blacken them as “scroungers” or “villains”. I’m not going to expand any further though in case I fall off my soapbox and start frothing at the mouth
37. Whom did you miss?
All sorts of people
38. Who was the best new person you met?
I’ve met lots of new people this year but it’s been an absolute pleasure getting to know my friend M’s new partner Matt. He’s a bit of a star generally and makes M very happy, which in turn makes me happy.
39. Tell us a valuable life lesson you learned in 2013:
40. Sum up the year in a song lyric/quote

‘You can’t always get what you want
But if you try sometime, well you might find
You get what you need.’
Rolling Stones

Things I Love Thursday

It’s been a busy month but I do love to come back with a Tilt list so here’s my final list of things I Love for 2013.

Source

Definitely topping my list this time round is that I was able to spend Christmas with my parents. My mum has been back in hospital again but she was allowed out for a few hours for good behaviour Christmas. I have been joking to people all week that it’s like prison- “she’s got day-release luckily or we’d have had to spring her” but I am so grateful that she is being well cared for and I know she’s in the right place at the moment. I’m still super glad that she was allowed to come and spend the day with us though.

Also last weekend I attended a friend’s wedding blessing. He and his beautiful wife got married in China earlier this year so had a blessing at his home church so his UK friends and family could share in his joy. It was a beautiful ceremony. Both the bride and groom looked amazing and so happy too. It was also a lovely opportunity to catch up with friends. Life gets so busy and many of us live scattered across the country so it’s always time I cherish when we all get to be together.

Speaking of catching up with friends tomorrow I am meeting up with a dear friend who I haven’t seen for months for lunch. Then later I will be out celebrating another friend’s birthday. Timings have had to be planned with almost military precision to ensure I’m also able to visit my mum and fit in the grown up life responsibilities too but I am feeling excited and very grateful for opportunities to be able to catch up with K and be able to share in S’s celebrations too.

Stocking fillers:
Twinkly eyed old ladies who envelop me in a hug during the Peace at church, You are good enough, Christmas cards (and special envelopes marked “not for Christmas open me now”), Ann Voskamp’s The Greatest Gift, that feeling of being out in the cold and entering some place warm,

Right that’s the end of my list for now, although there are probably so many other things I could or should add. Thanks for reading, may you have a bright and shiny end to 2013 and I’d love to know what the icing on the Christmas cake of your life is this week...

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

Yesterday, November 21, would have been Vivian Blaine's birthday. An American actress and singer with an acerbic sense of humour famous for her roles, among others, in State Fair, Doll Face and Three Little Girls in Blue. She is perhaps best known though for originating the role of the long-suffering, perpetually engaged chorus girl Miss Adelaide in Guys and Dolls. Indeed it is this last role that I will always remember her for. Today then, as a tribute to Ms Blaine I wanted to share a couple of 'Adelaide's' finest moments:

Take Back Your Mink


Adelaide’s Lament


Sue Me

Thoughtful Tuesday

Be soft. Do not let the world make you hard. Do not let pain make you hate. Do not let the bitterness steal your sweetness. Take pride that even though the rest of the world may disagree, you still believe it to be a beautiful place.
- Kurt Vonnegut, Jr

Thoughtful Tuesdays

Always worrying about things you can't control? Me too- Now repeat after me...

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Things I love Thursday

How’s your week going reader? Feeling like you just want to skip the daily grind and head for some lighthearted fun? Me too reader, moi aussi. Luckily for us it’s Thursday and that means it’s the perfect time for a love list. It’s always good to spread the love, right?

Source

Top of my list is losing track of time over a lovely lunch with a friend and her gorgeous daughter. Seriously folks, I am so lucky to have her. We can put the world to rights over a big mug of tea, she puts up with my rants (and helps me put things in perspective), she makes me laugh and she’s coping brilliantly with being a new mum too.

Also high on my list is a new Poirot on my television ‘The Big Four’ features the return of old friends (Capt Hastings, Miss Lemon and newly promoted assistant commissioner Japp), is beautifully shot and is a clever adaptation by Mark Gattiss and Ian Hallard who of course had to deal with the constraints of adapting it for the small screen. Their version was a story that very much suited the Poirot canon. That said personally it does rankle me when screenwriters change a story so much from its original source.

Other:
applying ballet to daily tasks, Smiles and kindness, adorable paper adventures

Thanks for taking the time to read my list. What about you reader, what's are you loving this week?

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

It’s the 142nd anniversary of the death of Charles Babbage.
The man is a renowned mathematician and philosopher but what I like best about him is like all great men he was a little bit eccentric. It would be fair to say that my favourite story about Babbage is when he trolled/contacted Alfred Tennyson. In response to Tennyson’s poem "The Vision of Sin" Babbage wrote:
"In your otherwise beautiful poem, one verse reads,

Every moment dies a man,
Every moment one is born.

... If this were true, the population of the world would be at a standstill. In truth, the rate of birth is slightly in excess of that of death. I would suggest [that the next version of your poem should read]:

Every moment dies a man,
Every moment 1 1/16 is born.

Strictly speaking, the actual figure is so long I cannot get it into a line, but I believe the figure 1 1/16 will be sufficiently accurate for poetry."
(Doran 2001: 77)

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

A quick disclaimer before I begin: I’ve been fighting hard with myself over whether to write this post and then over whether to actually share it. The decision to share it was prompted by two things. The first is accountability. If I tell you reader and make a commitment to shaping up then I have to stick to it. Reason two is that while this blog is about possibilities, creativity and fun things I also wanted to be honest with you, lets be friends reader, to share a bit of myself. Just in case it appeared I project a perfect life here, that would be phoney, a big fat phoney. I’m aware this could come across as a self-pity party and if you want to skip it I’ll understand.

Lately, I’ve been going through the motions a bit. Knowing that I felt “down” (sorry reader that’s such a cop-out word but its all I can share at the moment without disappearing down a rabbit hole) and hoping that if I just keep coping one day/week/month more the cloud will lift. The old ‘fake it till you make it’ nonsense.

Added to this I’ve been getting so frustrated so easily lately. I wish I felt more in control. I’m tired of feeling like life is happening to me and I have no say in the matter. Most of the time I just feel like a giant fraud because I’m okay and I’m still able to live my life, do the things that need to be done each day.

Praying God would awaken some of the passion I used to have, the desires and dreams to live for something greater. I've been getting so frustrated with myself without really acknowledging how drained I feel or how ludicrous it is. I’m not really one for cars but it almost feels like trying to race across the country with an empty tank then kicking the tyres when it doesn’t work.

At the base of everything though I still have an unstinting belief that things will work out, though maybe not in the way I expect, the long road has a purpose. I hold on to this reader. I want the whisper to become a battle cry once more but maybe I need to accept that at least a whisper is a voice. That’s it I think for the moment chin up, head down and be kind to myself. Things can change, this too shall pass. The light at the end of the tunnel is there, I know it, I just can't see it yet. That’s life sometimes though isn’t it reader? You just have to keep plugging away until you reach the light and hope it isn’t a train.

Friday Find

This weeks Friday Find is this acapella arrangement of ‘I need thee O I need thee’ mainly because I have been playing it over and over again this week. His rendition of ‘How Great Thou Art’ gives me goosebumps too:

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

‘Water, water, everywhere’

Today is National Poetry Day in the UK. A campaign to celebrate poetry in all of its diverse forms, to encourage people to take an interest in and hopefully enjoy poetry, held every year on the first Thursday in October. The theme for National Poetry Day 2013 is 'water'.

To mark the occasion I thought I’d share a couple of water poems. If you have the time to spare then, on this chilly Thursday, pour yourself a nice mug of tea or a glass of something lovely, no judgements here reader, sit back and join me in soaking up every syllable and if you do have plenty of time I would certainly recommend Coleridge’s ‘The Rime of the Ancient Mariner’ too:

Mermaid’s Lament Rachel Rooney
Water Ralph Waldo Emerson

In addition reader, if you have a smart phone or tablet, there’s a new app being launched for the occasion. It’s called “The Love Book” and features readings of love poems from Ovid to Carol Ann Duffy, read by some of our brightest current stars such as Helena Bonham Carter, Damian Lewis and Tom Hiddleston.

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

This week's Friday find is the Lip Sync Battle with Joseph Gordon Levitt, Stephen Merchant and Jimmy Fallon. A friend of mine, who is a huge fan of Joseph Gordon Levitt, excitedly shared it with me and we both chuckled over it so I wanted to share it with you reader:

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

This weeks Friday find is this "Tomorrow" typography poster by the poster guy.

I can definately empathise with the truth of this one at the moment.

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

A man recovering post-surgery forgets who his wife is and sees her "for the first time again". He'll never have to remember another anniversary after this.

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

Source

Things I Love Thursday

Well reader it’s Thursday again and I am thankful this week for the ordinary and extra-ordinary so here’s my list:

Source

Top of my list - Lovely things happening to lovely people: One wedding and two babies. Yes I know that sounds like a terrible parody film title. The last few weeks have been very busy for my friends and I’m so grateful that the wedding went so wonderfully and the two babies were born safely and that both mothers are doing well too.

Dear 2013,
You and I have had our, many, differences but you’ve really redeemed yourself with August. Thank you,
Love Me

Incidentally those two babies were born within days of each other though geographically approximately 1000 miles apart.

I’ve also been enjoying this video where Cookie Monster learns all about delayed gratification from Tom Hiddleston, perhaps my favourite thing is that this video comes with the hashtag ‘Tomnomnom’:


Noteworthy nibblets:
Homemade scones with clotted cream & jam, Autumn is coming, sampling unusually flavoured vodkas brought home by a friend from her honeymoon, new ideas,

Thanks for reading my list reader now its over to you. Whether you’ve got a lot or a little to smile about, don’t be shy, please share the things you love this Thursday in the comments.

Thoughtful Tuesday

Nine times out of ten, you probably aren’t having a full-on nervous breakdown—you just need a cup of tea and a biscuit. — Caitlin Moran in a letter to her daughter

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

This is just so clever...

Have you met Mr & Mrs Jones?

My beautiful friend S & I

S and I have been friends for the best part of 15 years and she tied the knot a couple of Saturdays ago! I'm hesitant to type too much because I'm not sure I could do it justice but I feel it needs to be recorded at least a little bit for posterity she couldn't be there *ahem*

With the groom and our friend M

S & A have been together for 10 years now and have been engaged for getting on for five years and the wedding that seemed so very far away when she first started planning it finally happened on a gloriously sunny day. S was such a beautiful bride and her now husband (eek!!) looked so handsome! I had the privilege of being maid of honour and was so proud and unbelievably happy for them both. It really was a wonderful day. I'm so pleased it all came together for them as they put so much effort into the planning. All of the little details reflected their style and personality. From the personalised wine charm place settings to the Jenga guestbook it really felt like their day and not just some generic wedding where you could just insert any random bride and groom. S's dad also planned some little extra surprises for the happy couple including a Stormtrooper (S & her dad are Star Wars fans) welcoming people to the reception.

So, I invite you reader to raise your virtual glasses [mugs/teacups/] and join me in a toast of love, joy and a life full of happiness to the new Mr & Mrs Jones.

Thoughtful Tuesday

One of the advantages of being disorderly is that one is constantly making exciting discoveries.
-A.A. Milne

Friday Find

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

The Art of Coffee

It wouldn’t take a genius to work out that I’m a gal who likes a brew, whilst tea is most often my beverage of choice, I am partial to the odd coffee. Yesterday a friend texted me about a previous conversation we’d had discussing Japanese “kawaii” characters. I know that sounds like a tangent but stick with me reader, as I sat watching the milk settle in my coffee earlier today and thinking about the shapes it settled in I realised there was probably heaps of Kawaii milk foam art. A quick search confirmed it so I thought I’d share with you a few of my favourites:

Source

Source

Source

Source

Well, time to pop on the virtual kettle again. What will it be reader, tea or coffee? Will you use a mug or will only a cup and saucer do? Does your coffee have to be a skinny soya decaf cappuccino with an extra shot from only fairtrade beans or will instant do?

Things I Love Thursday

Well, it’s been a while since I made a tilt post but we all know that it pays to turn your mind to things that make you grateful. Here are some of the things that have made me smile recently, especially when I’ve felt like everything was just a bit too much

Source

Tonight I am very excited for an old school friend. Jason Manford is going to her house for his supper. He put a request up on his facebook account asking if any Muslims fans fancied sharing their Iftar with him tonight. She replied and after a brief chat she received a message from his PA saying to send her the address and he’d be over about midnight. She’s really looking forward to it so I hope he shows and that he’s everything she wants him to be.

My gorgeous niece and nephew deserve a special mention. They both did very well in their end of term reports and I love receiving lots of fun pictures of what they are getting up to on their summer holidays.

Also on my list is sneaking film quotes into day to day conversations. In truth I’d actually be equally happy, if not more so, if anyone recognised the quotes but for now I shall just be amused by their reactions. The perhaps most blatant opportunity arose while trying to get the youthlings I work with back onto the topic they were meant to be discussing. One lad in particular just kept piping up with random facts (it later became apparent he’d been watching a lot of QI on Youtube since finishing his AS level exams) and was finally interrupted himself by another lad:
Other lad: What’s with you today?
Me: Yes, Yesterday you were normal and today you're like the Chinese guy from the Karate Kid.
On an Empire Records theme I also managed to sneak ‘Does Axel have a jack’ into a conversation a couple of the girls were having about Connor Maynard & Justin Bieber and their many demerits.

Postcards from wonderful friends- I’ve always been a big fan of snail mail but I’ve received some especially brilliant postcards recently.

Honourable mentions: Cranberry & Camembert burger, ‘You are My Vision’, Summer sunshine finally (yes it’s been hot and yes reader sometimes it felt like I was melting but I refuse to complain about it), Benedict Cumberbatch eating his own cake head in Tokyo.

What about you reader? What’s making your list this week?

Thoughtful Tuesday

Maybe all one can do is hope to end up with the right regrets.
 - Arthur Miller

Thoughtful Tuesday

We’re our own dragons as well as our own heroes, and we have to rescue ourselves from ourselves.
— Tom Robbins

Thoughtful Tuesday

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the-scenes to everyone else’s highlight reel.
- Steve Furtick

Thoughtful Tuesday

True strength is keeping everything together when everyone expects you to fall apart
- Henry Miller

Thoughtful Tuesday

Frances Hodgson Burnett
 Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Hardships often prepare ordinary people for extraordinary destiny.
- C. S. Lewis

Thoughtful Tuesday

It’s a terrible thing, I think, in life to wait until you’re ready. I have this feeling now that actually no one is ever ready to do anything. There is almost no such thing as ready. There is only now. And you may as well do it now. Generally speaking, now is as good a time as any.
- Hugh Laurie

Things I Love Thursday

I’ve been sans internet for a couple of weeks but what better way to return than with a gratitude post so here are some of the things that I’ve been loving lately:

Source

Definately top of my list is that after nearly five months in hospital/rehabilitation my mum has finally been discharged and was able go home.

Two totally unconnected friends are due to have a baby within the same week (and both will be first time mums –exciting)

Last weekend we celebrated the hen party of one of my closest friends. A friend and I had the joint privilege of organising it. Hopefully it was a lovely weekend of chilling, celebrating, laughing, fun and frolics with some of her favourite gals. A few little issues, time constraints & my lack of internet access, meant that a couple of the finishing touches we’d wanted didn’t quite get added but I think a fun time was had by all who attended and especially by the bride-to- be so that’s all that matters.

If that wasn’t exciting enough the weekend before another of my favourite friends got baptised- just wonderful. You can read all about it from her perspective here or just check out her blog anyway because it’s brilliant (it is! In spite of the fact I’m a teensy bit biased).

Will & Jaden Smith rapping on the Graham Norton show featuring DJ Jazzy Jeff and Alfonso Ribeiro (so much nostalgia)



Noteworthy Niblets:
“You were in the pub at lunchtime- what do you think this is Life on Mars”, postcards- Amsterdam looks gorgeous, Paco the sad jalapeno,

Thanks for reading and sharing in my love list this week, now over to you reader. What’s sweetening your life at the moment?

Friday Find

Things I love Thursday

Good morning! Oh reader, I am so very tired today I feel to be surrounded by it like I’m wearing a treacle trench coat. Let's make coffee and eat cereal and shuffle around in our slippers together. In the words of Jack Johnson I’ll ‘make you banana pancakes, pretend like it’s the weekend now’. There are so many things that I am grateful for and loving this week but somehow I can’t seem to get it down on paper computer screen so please bear with me if this weeks TILT list is a tad incoherent.

Viennese Whirl biscuits revelations –Revelations is too big a word really it was more a reminder to be honest. Last night/ early this morning, I made a semi -disastrous batch of Viennese whirl biscuits [the reason for this mad late night baking is a whole other story]. As I stood in the kitchen like a culinary goldilocks- ‘the first batch is too soft, the second batch is too hard, this batch is just right’- looking at my precious uber- delicate treasures my sleep-deprived mind drew parallels with life. It is so precious and fragile. We go through our days and are buffeted by so many external forces. There are some things that sometimes may break us down and make us feel we are too vulnerable for this world. Other things make us feel we want to wall parts of our feelings off, keep people out for our own protection. Then there are those times, things, people that make us feel like we are where we’re meant to be, make us feel safe. We still know that we’re fragile [yes I promise reader, I know the biscuits aren’t self aware but please stick with me] but we’re able to keep battling on. I’ve always been a champion of enjoying simple, small things and last night I was reminded that I am so grateful for the things and people that keep me on that even keel because life may be beautiful, but sadly it isn’t forever.

Helpful shop assistants- My father and I are in the process of turning the dining room of my parents house into a bedroom for my mother. This week we headed into one of the chain diy shops to get some flooring. After looking around for a while we discovered the options we were looking at wouldn’t fit in our car and delivery would take too long. This was the moment that the assistant told us that there was a small business nearby that also stocked the floor, would fit it for you, would probably do it the next day and it would be cheaper. Obviously she didn’t need to tell us that and in a sense it lost her a sale so three gold stars for that kind lady.

Little loves: Spring sunshine, the point when migraines get better, magazine articles that feel like letters directly to my soul, old re-runs of classic sitcoms

What about you reader what’s the glitter in the artbox of life for you this week?

Thoughtful Tuesday

Source

Friday Find

Owing to the fact that I am a tad excited for the new film  (Into Darkness)  and overexposure to all sorts of photoshoots and other promotional paraphenaliaon, thank you Tumblr, over the last few weeks has made me fall in love with the cast a bit more than normal. This weeks Friday Finds are some adorable & very silly moments from interviews with the cast. First Simon Pegg & Alice Eve:

Also Chris Pine and Benedict Cumberbatch, along with fellow guest Kim Catrall on BBC's The Graham Norton show:

Finally the great bromance that is Zachary Quinto and Chris Pine in a vocabulary battle:

Things I Love Thursday

Hello reader, so it’s been a while since I posted a tilt list. Lets sit down, take a deep breath, and remember some of the little things that bring sunshine to the world.

Source

Top of my list a wonderfully uplifting catch up with Jen & Rach. Hey ladies, ‘You know that feeling when you get out of a warm bath... well... you make me feel like a bath?’

Also high on my list is the news Fox has secured the rights to remake Guys and Dolls. I’ve seen it staged in the theatre several times (mostly am dram) and I’ve watched the 1955 film adaptation that starred Frank Sinatra and Marlon Brando more than I’m prepared to admit so I’m excited at the prospect of seeing it on the big screen. I’m not convinced about the new casting yet, apparently they are pursuing Channing Tatum and Joseph Gordon-Levitt both actors with great potential but I’m just not sure, I’ll be very happy to be proved wrong though.

What about you reader? What’s brightening your day, week, month, life?

A few weeks ago I made Cadbury Crème egg Brownies based on a recipe by my ace friend Marc, in turn inspired by a recipe from French pastry chef extraordinaire Eric Lanlard. I didn’t try them myself as I made them for a coffee morning during lent but they went down very well with everyone who tried them so I thought I’d share Marc’s recipe:

Source: photo my own

Ingredients
 185g Unsalted Butter
185g Dark Chocolate
85g Plain Flour
40g Cocoa Powder
3 Large Eggs
275g Golden Caster Sugar
6 Cadbury Creme Eggs
[I also added a couple of tsp of Vanilla essence]

Method
 1) Pre heat over to 160 degrees.
2) Melt the butter & dark chocolate together.
3) Break 3 large eggs into a large bowl and add 275g of golden caster sugar. Whisk the eggs and sugar until they look thick and creamy.
4) Gently fold the cooled chocolate mix over the egg & sugar mixture.
5) Add the flour and cocoa to the mix.
6) Pour the mixture into a baking tray and cook for 15 minutes.
7) Halve the Cadbury Crème Eggs.
8) After 15 minutes remove from the oven and gently press the crème egg halves into the mixture, spacing them evenly apart.
9) Place back in the oven for another 10 minutes.
10) Leave to cool before cutting into squares.

Thoughtful Tuesday

There are two ways of exerting one’s strength; one is pushing down, the other is pulling up.
 - Booker T. Washington

Friday Find

This weeks Friday find is a video from part of cosmetic company Dove’s Real Beauty campaign. There are a few flaws in the experimental design and it’s more than a little schmaltzy. Most importantly you’re true worth is of course based on so much more than your physical appearance. However from personal experience I know we are own worst beauty critics so I wanted to share this and to encourage you reader. YOU are more beautiful than you think!

Brilliant Things My Dad Says...

This evening whilst visiting my mum in hospital Hollyoaks was on the television in the shared lounge:

John Paul Mcqueen: [to his sister] Whenever I go through difficult situations I stop and think what would Jacqui do and it always gets me through.
My dad: I think you misread your bracelet fella

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Be courteous to all, but intimate with few and let those few be well tried before you give them your confidence.
- George Washington

Thoughtful Tuesday

We must try to contribute joy to the world. That is true no matter what our problems, our health, our circumstances. We must try.
—Roger Ebert

Friday Find

This weeks find is a re-find. I’ve been tidying through lots of stuff this week and came across a sheet on which I had scrawled a note to myself with the words “important, remember this’ on the top. Needless to say reader that in the subsequent years I had completely forgotten what it was about. The note in question was amidst a bunch of paperwork from my sixth form days, that has been sitting in a box in a cupboard- not quite a locked filing cabinet in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying "Beware of The Leopard but not far off, anyway I digress. This sheet of paper upon which I had written had two names and a date. A quick Google reminded me that on 16th February, 1820 Rev. Sydney Smith wrote a Letter to Lady Georgiana Morpeth filled with prescriptions for low spirits. The letter is wonderful, a much needed reminder this week and I’m glad all over again at reading it.  I'm thus choosing to share it with you reader in the hopes the possible remedies contained help keep the grey clouds from your door. Here then, is the letter:

Dear Lady Georgiana,
Nobody has suffered more from low spirits than I have done — so I feel for you.

1st. Live as well as you dare.
2nd. Go into the shower-bath with a small quantity of water at a temperature low enough to give you a slight sensation of cold, 75° or 80°.
3rd. Amusing books.
4th. Short views of human life — not further than dinner or tea.
5th. Be as busy as you can.
6th. See as much as you can of those friends who respect and like you.
7th. And of those acquaintances who amuse you.
8th. Make no secret of low spirits to your friends, but talk of them freely — they are always worse for dignified concealment.
9th. Attend to the effects tea and coffee produce upon you.
10th. Compare your lot with that of other people.
11th. Don’t expect too much from human life — a sorry business at the best.
12th. Avoid poetry, dramatic representations (except comedy), music, serious novels, melancholy, sentimental people, and everything likely to excite feeling or emotion, not ending in active benevolence.
13th. Do good, and endeavour to please everybody of every degree.
14th. Be as much as you can in the open air without fatigue.
15th. Make the room where you commonly sit, gay and pleasant.
16th. Struggle by little and little against idleness.
17th. Don’t be too severe upon yourself, or underrate yourself, but do yourself justice.
18th. Keep good blazing fires.
19th. Be firm and constant in the exercise of rational religion.
20th. Believe me, dear Lady Georgiana,

Very truly yours,
 Sydney Smith

Thoughtful Tuesday

To reach a port, we must sail- sail, not tie at anchor- sail, not drift.
 -Franklin Roosevelt

Happy Easter!

“Wrong will be right, when Aslan comes in sight, At the sound of his roar, sorrows will be no more, When he bares his teeth, winter meets its death, And when he shakes his mane, we shall have spring again.” C.S. Lewis, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe

Thoughtful Tuesday

Love is the only force capable of transforming an enemy to a friend.
- Martin Luther King Jr

Friday Find

Thoughtful Tuesday

It was always the becoming he dreamed of, never the being. - F Scott Fitzgerald ‘This Side of Paradise’

Thoughtful Tuesday

The best thing about the future is that it comes only one day at a time.
 - Abraham Lincoln

Friday Find

This weeks find comes after I read this article in The Metro earlier this week. A church in Florida has seen its visitors increase after a photographer pointed out that their place of worship resembles a character from the Angry Birds.

Source

Thoughtful Tuesday

Everything can be taken from us but one thing—the last of the human freedoms—to choose one’s attitude in any given circumstance.
 –Victor Frankl

Friday Find

Today wonderful comedian Mark Watson is doing a 25hr interactive comedy marathon gig in aid of Comic Relief.
Should you wish to reader you can watch and donate here:
http://www.rednoseday.com/whats-going-on/mark-watsons-25-hour-comedy-marathon

Thoughtful Tuesday

The more I want to get something done, the less I call it work. –Richard Bach

Friday Find

Winston Churchill's failsafe hangover breakfast included a pint of port. Yes reader, you read that correctly a PINT of PORT to CURE a hangover.
I’m a great fan of the restorative powers of port, not sure it’d be the first thing I’d want to reach for at breakfast, maybe I’ll give it a try one day. Still think I’ll keep the bananas and ‘fizzy good, fizzy make me feel nice’ on hand too just in case.
What about you reader? Any failsafe hangover cure tips?

Thoughtful Tuesday

I myself am made up entirely of flaws, stiched together with good intentions.
 - Augusten Burroughs

Friday Find

I know reader, I know, all these parody videos of Call Me Maybe have been done to death but I only came across this one this week and it made me chuckle. Today's friday find then- U.S. Troops perform a cover of “Call Me Maybe” based on a version performed by a bunch of Cheerleaders & it is brilliant:

Thoughtful Tuesday

Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of theshore. -Andre Gide

Things I Love Thursday

I had planned to do a proper things I love Thursday post today. Earlier in the week I'd even begun to plot it out. However over the last couple of days I've recieved several pieces of news including the death of an old school classmate and I'm afraid my tilt list has since left my brain and fluttered away someplace else. I only hope that wherever it went it was appreciated as much as it would have been if I'd remembered it and written it on here.
There are still lots of things that I am very grateful for this week, not least that the review meeting for my mum's progress at the neurorehab unit was all positive stuff. Yet instead of rehashing my tilt list I felt much more drawn to sharing this little clip with you. The song is entitled 'Life Has Its Funny Ups and Downs' which feels very appropriate. It's taken from a film called 'I Love Melvin' and features Donald O'Connor tap dancing on roller skates:

Thoughtful Tuesday

The reason we struggle with insecurity is because we compare our behind-the- scenes with everyone else's highlight reel. - Steven Furtick.

Things I Love Thursday

It’s the last day of the first month of 2013. Time is marching on so here’s my contribution of things I love this week just in the nick of time:

Source

Top of my list this week -Beautiful, beautiful friends, whose hearts are worth their weight in gold. Inside and out. I’m honored to call them my best friends, my chosen family, my soul mates. Last weekend I met up with 3 of my favourite people (though we were missing a certain particularly lovely sparkly goth). We didn’t do anything particularly special just caught up, drank oodles of tea and spent time in each others company. Sometimes it’s just nice to stop and let the world go by some. Plus I find spending time with my kindred spirits always gives me a boost.

Also taking a surprisingly high position in the list this week is the hide story button on facebook- my love hate relationship with fb continues apace. I have to say the hide story button though is doing wonders for my blood pressure.

This week I am also feeling very grateful for old photos. There’s something magical about photos I always think, capturing a memory, a moment, a feeling. Snaps that record the important times like birthdays, weddings, Christenings, through holiday piccies all the way to those end of the roll snaps you used up on a whim one sun dappled afternoon. Recently I’ve been sorting through some of my parents photos. I’ve found some real gems amidst the hordes including but not limited to- pictures of my uncles as child choristers (they both look adorable and true to their personalities- one looks super angelic and the other like he’s being forced to wear a surplice as the consequences of a bet), some teenage shots of the great, great- aunties who I only remember as old ladies and though I have seen similar shots before my aunt at my parents wedding looking like Mary Poppins complete with colour co-ordinated parasol.

My friend’s secret project and that for the moment is all I can say about that. Such a tease, sorry reader.

 I *think* that is it for this Things I Love Thursday. Over to you, what’s making you feel rich this week? I hope you have lots of great things to list. Have a lovely day and an amazing weekend reader.

Thoughtful Tuesday

A grain of grace is worth more than a ton of knowledge. -C.H. Spurgeon

Things I Love Thursday

Ghandi once said “Keep your thoughts positive because your thoughts become your words. Keep your words positive because your words become your behavior… Keep your values positive because your values become your destiny.” so without much more ado here’s my tilt list:

Source

Top of my list this week is that one of my friends gave birth to her first daughter this week. I am so proud of her and so pleased for her and her hubby. Welcome to the world Ava Rose, we can't wait to meet you!

Also high on my list this week is Snow. I’m sure everyone’s is getting bored of hearing about the UK’s latest bout of snow but I sort of feel it would be neglectful not to at least mention its presence. After all in the words of Michael McIntyre’s old joke: “Normally you have news, weather and travel… but not on snow day, on snow day news is weather is travel.” - Ok so like most people I don't enjoying cleaning it off cars or digging out the drive. I’m also not a fan of gray or yellow snow or indeed when it becomes slush or worse that half ice stuff. However you can’t deny reader it’s so pretty when it is falling and fresh on the ground, untouched, particularly if you’re observing it from inside with a mug of your favourite hot beverage.

Small loves:
 lovely dreams, Darren Criss- Singing in the rain, highlighters that work, the chorus to Delta Rae’s Morning Comes

Well that’s the end of my list for now. What’s putting a smile on your face this week reader?

Thoughtful Tuesday

Failure is only the opportunity to begin again, only this time more wisely.
-Henry Ford

Thoughtful Tuesday

Reflect upon your present blessings of which every man has many - not on your past misfortunes, of which all men have some. -Charles Dickens

Things I love Thursday

I’m writing this in a haze of sleep deprivation after realising rather belatedly that it’s Thursday today so, in the midst of my grogginess, I want to give thanks for:

Source

The NHS –definitely deserves to be top of my list atm. I’ve mentioned previously that my mum’s had some health difficulties over the last couple of years. She had an operation on her spine just before Christmas and consequently has been in hospital all through the festivities and is still in hospital at the moment.  I am naturally so grateful for the care she has received but I’m also so grateful for the opportunity it’s given me to witness the little acts of kindness not just from nurses to patients but also between nurses and between patients. There are bad stories too of course, but 60 million people rely on it on a daily basis, so of course it won’t be perfect. I am so glad to belong to a country that believes in fair healthcare for all (well for the time being at least).

Source

Also high on my list are my gorgeous new mittens- A Christmas present from my lovely friend Rach. 

The colours are stunning and they keep my hands toasty warm.  They also came along in perfect time as I somehow managed to lose my previous gloves sometime over Christmas week. Still I was given those gloves as a christmas present in 2005 so they don’t owe me anything and if these last me half as long I’ll be pleased.

Today is the anniversary of tea's arrival in England. (Thanks to for that wonderful fact, she heard it from Classic FM so it must be true. Nb reading back that sentence makes me think of that scene from Ferris Bueller’s Day off where the teacher is taking attendance.)

Noteworthy nibblets:

handwritten thank you cards with a super happy cover, the return of Cabin Pressure,  CITV’s Old Skool Weekend,

Well that’s the end of my list for now over to you reader, what’s putting a twinkle in your eye this week?

 

Thoughtful Tuesday

We see things not as they are but as we are. H. M. Tomlinson