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Tuesday, 7 April 2015

April 7th 2015 - Bearded Dragon Harness

April 7th 2015 - Bearded Dragon Harness

The other week I ordered a Harness for my bearded dragon so that we can take him outside in the sun without him running off.  Well it arrived today and I tried to put it on him, 1st he puffed up at me and then he tried to eat it, so I don't think this option is going to work! LOL!

Monday, 6 April 2015

April 6th 2015 - Birthday Wishes (and garlic)

April 6th 2015 - Birthday Wishes (and garlic)

Birthday Wishes

Random title for today I know, but I  have my reasons.  Today would have been my Mum's 66th birthday had she still been with us.  Happy Birthday Mum, RIP, love you always. x   I thought these 2 pins suited this bit quite well - for my Mum in Heaven and words and tears.


Growing Garlic

Lil man is loving the idea of growing his own veggies, we have carrots, sweet corn, snap peas and potatoes in the garden already, the blueberry and raspberry bush we bought from £1 shop have both died so need get more expensive ones.  And we have rocket, lettuce, corriander and basil growing in a tray indoors.  He asked if we could grown garlic as we use it in dinners.

So I looked it up, the first thing I found was placing it in fridge and leaving it for a week as it will start to grow - well it was in the fridge for 2weeks and doing nothing!  So I looked to see if I could find another way to get it to grow, and I found a way of growing it in water.  So Yesterday we opened the garlic clove and placed the individual bits in a shallow bowl of water on the window sill.  This morning we have woken up to them looking like this:


So I think a few more days for them to grow bit taller and we will be able to plant them outside in the vegetable planter.  And I think we will wait a few more weeks and then root another lot so we have more growing for later in the year.  I'm not sure how long they take before new cloves have fully grown.

Sunday, 5 April 2015

April 5th 2015 - Easter Sunday

April 5th 2015 - Easter Sunday

Happy Easter to all, whether you believe the church teachings that Easter is linked to the resurecction of Jesus or if you follow the Pagan/Wiccan ways and believe that Easter is linked to Ostara and the fertitilty Goddess Eostre or if you just enjoy the weekend off work, I hope that you have a nice day and don't eat too much chocolate and up ill.

I have spent the day getting back into my Family Tree thanks to a conversation with a friend yesterday who said about trying to find her family but having no luck.  I said I would help her if she could send me all info she knew, which isn't much, but there is enough to make a start.  As I was looking for 1 of her rellies I realised that I could actually view records on the site (something i've not been able to do in ages) so I started trying to sort the 1000+ hints that I have on my tree.  And the pin link is right for what happens.

Sadly I have hit a wall on my friends tree but hopefully we can sort this if we can get a copy of the marriage cert as this *should* tell us which of the 2 charles is the father!

Saturday, 4 April 2015

April 4th 2015 - Lovely day

April 4th 2015 - Lovely day

Today has been a lovely day, the sun is shining and we've all been outside.  I would like to think this weather will continue but who knows, it will probably be raining tomorrow!

Tonight is meant to be the Red Blood Moon, but according to reports they don't think the UK is going to see much of it, which is a shame.  A friend of mine in Australia has added some pics of it from what she saw.  I will be keeping an eye out this evening to see if we can see anything and get some pics if we can.  I hope we do see part of it as we missed the eclipse due to cloud and rain.

Friday, 3 April 2015

April 3rd 2015 - Making Army/camo cupcakes

April 3rd 2015 - Making Army/camo cupcakes

As part of his homework over the holidays my eldest son had to make some cupcakes and take photos of him doing it, well having 3 boys they "all have to do the same" or I end up with a big argument, so we all made cupcakes.

We made Army/camo cupcakes, we have made them before and they work really well.  Sadly I didnt have fresh ingredients but packet mixes.  My youngest son made the green mix, middle son made the chocolate mix and eldest made the white mix.

As you can see all 3 colours are made in seperate bowls.   From here you add a spoonful of each colour to the cake cases and then give them abit of a swirl with a cocktail stick - you dont have to mix them - if you don't you end up with 3 blocks of colour instead of them mixed more like camo effect.
 

They then go in the oven for 15-20mins or until cooked.  When they come out they look like this:









We have just got to ice them with 3 colour icing as well.  Will add a pic once they done.


 The inside of the cakes are sort of marbled and 3 tone - each cake is different, this is the 1 I had:
 The icing on them is green, white and brown but not as I had hoped - I wanted the colours mixed but didn't know how to do it so I did them each in own pipeing bag in a row.

Thursday, 2 April 2015

April 2nd 2015 - Bit of everything today

April 2nd 2015 - Bit of everything today

Today has been one of those days!  It started off with a trip to docs as 1.I needed medication review and 2. My sore throat and asthma problems of just over a week ago have returned - im now on antibiotics, which doc said I should have had with the steroids a week ago.

From here me and lil man hit the shoe shop in the hope of getting him new school shoes, Bran**** had 2 pairs in sons size, 1 of which he couldn't get the velcro to do up and the other pair the stitching was ripping on it, so we left them.  I was going to go down to shoe zone but was feeling dizzy so we bused home.

Then this afternoon I got the sewing machine out (not used one since school and then I got kicked out on week 2!)  My eldest son has recently been doing textiles at school so said he would be able to help me.  Well he took 1 look at my little machine and asked what it was - nothing like the big ones they use at school!  Oh well its me on me own then.  As I have less than 2 weeks to get middle sons clown top made!

So I had to work out which way the pins went in the material, good job I checked as I had them pinned the wrong way, I had them how I would sew by hand.  I then had a play on a piece of material and seemed to go ok, so I put sons Clown tops (2 tops cut in half) under the foot and set off.

 Well I managed to sew the front and back together without too many problems, it got stuck trying to go through the collars and the bottom hems as they quite thick, and in a few places I ended up with some gaps where it didnt seem to pick up the thread:
I have gone over the gaps by hand, as have no idea why it has done it or the best way to sort it with the machine.  Had I noticed when stitching I could have gone back over it, but it wasn't until the end I noticed it.  But overall it has worked, I have managed to sew the 2 tops together, not sure if it will be strong enough and withstand daily wear but it will do for the clown party.



Wednesday, 1 April 2015

April 1st 2015 - Making fairy wings

April 1st 2015 - Making fairy wings

9months today will be January 1st 2016!  That is crazy, time is going to quickly.

For today's pin I have had to make it myself as I couldn't find 1 that linked to my idea.  I am in the process of making more Halloween Potion Bottles/Jars - this 1 is for Fairy Wings.  There are lots of threads about making them from plastic and celophane etc, all of which you have to buy and then buy the special paints, my way you only need go outside and find the bits.

First off you need to find some of the "helicopter leaves" - I have no idea what tree they are from, I don't even have any trees in my garden but have loads of the "helicopter bits".  Not sure what I mean,  well these things:


Unfortunately I haven't got any that are still joined together mine are all individual, but this will work just as well as "snapped fairy wings".  From the above you need to make sure they are dry (I left mine on the lizards tank for couple hours).  You then need to get some pens, I used sharpies and carefully coloured the "wing part" on both sides, some did fall to bits whilst colouring so I just binned them.
There isn''t any pictures of the coloured "wings" but once I had coloured them in on both sides, in pairs, I started with the silver glitter nail varnish and very carefully applied it on both sides, one at time allowing time to dry.  They are very delicate but the nail varnish gives them a bit more strength.

I think they look really effective and my kids said they look as though they "could belong" to fairies,  which is what I was hoping for.
They still need to go in a jar, but they are nearly done, need to get a few more made as well.