Tres Chic Dresses Black Border Birthday Card

Here's a quick make using some stickers - I can never remember the brand names of products though so am going to have to do a better job of keeping track in future! I covered a blank card with some small pieces of pink patterned paper which I overlapped, and then used a black frame sticker from a pack of outline stickers in the middle to create the focal point. I added three dresses and a sentiment 'tres chic dresses' from another pack of stickers,...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 17

It's my birthday this week! I am out in Covent Garden in the afternoon on the day itself - Saturday - and going out for dinner with my husband in the evening, then the next day I have a couple of friends visiting and we are doing a room escape game which I'm looking forward to, then going out for dinner - then Monday is a bank holiday so I have that day off as well! Monday chicken curry Tuesday Starting a new weight loss programme in the evening straight after work which means I won't get to have dinner until late as I won't get home til 8.30!...

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Chocolate Star Wars R2D2 40th Birthday Cake

My husband was very lucky for his 40th birthday. As well as some great presents including a 'carvolution' framed picture of all 9 cars he'd ever owned  - interestingly, they seem to have put their prices up quite a bit since I bought it a few weeks ago - and a meal at Hawksmoor, he had two birthday cakes. We were spending his birthday with some of his family - more on this in another post as I will do a restaurant review.  In the...

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Chocolate Marbled Easter Meringue Nests

Dr. Oetker came up with some great new recipes this Easter, which you can see on their website here. I liked the look of the tear and share hot cross buns but I didn't really have the time. Instead I made this - I actually thought I'd shared this post over Easter, oops! Dr. Oetker sent me a selection of their products to try and I was intrigued by the powdered egg white as I don't think I have used that before. It replaces fresh egg...

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Red Gingham Mothers' Day Card

This sweet little card was a super-quick make, as most of the elements came from the same pack. I think it was a free gift with a cardmaking magazine and contained the backing paper - which looks like three different papers but it is actually one! The sentiment in a little frame looks cute - this came from the same pack and I stuck it into the middle of the card. I had some 'happy Mothers Day' sentiments in red in a pack of stickers and placed...

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Restaurant Review: Hawksmoor, Commercial Street, London

For my husband's 40th birthday there was no hesitation when it came to a restaurant for dinner. He absolutely loves Hawksmoor, and since his birthday was a Saturday and we had plans with his family, I offered to take him to Hawksmoor on the Friday night after work. We've been to Hawksmoor in Air Street near Piccadilly a couple of times; you can read my review here. This time we decided to go to the one in Commercial Street, near Shoreditch, as it...

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Follow Your Dreams Shaker Card

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 16

Monday; bank holiday Lunch- bacon sandwich Dinner- vol au vents with leftover lamb and pomegranate. A slightly odd recipe as I've had some vol au vents in the freezer for ages that need using up and found a recipe for fatayer - spiced lamb pastry parcels with pomegranate - that I thought I could adapt for vol au vents! I think they would go well with salad.   Tuesday Lunch - leftover lamb and pomegranate flatbread Dinner - out at an event, will grab something en route Wednesday Lunch leftover vol au vents with salad Dinner - potentially...

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Easter Meringue Nest with Passion fruit Coulis and Cadbury Creme Egg

Passion fruit - indeed fruit of any kind - and Cadbury Creme Egg are two things that I wouldn't have thought particularly go together, but I have been proven wrong. Cadbury sent me several Creme Eggs just in time for Easter, along with four recipes where they have teamed up with the Rinkoff bakery. I already made these mini s'more brownie cupcakes with Cadbury Creme Eggs which were really good, and I mean really good. On Easter Sunday...

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Fishcake and Poached Egg in a Tarragon Sauce

This dish was inspired by something I saw in a restaurant that made me think 'that's a good idea!'. I like fishcakes but don't have them that often - the idea is often better than the reality. This dish is a bit different, really tasty and very filling, so you only need one fishcake per person and it goes well with some green veg like broccoli on the side. The fishcake - I used shop-bought ones but you can make your own - is topped with a...

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Eggs Bunnadict

Here's an Easter twist on one of my favourite breakfast or brunch dishes, eggs benedict - it uses hot cross buns, hence the name eggs bunnadict! The name comes from a dish served by the ETM bar group, which owns bars like the Botanist in the City of London - I haven't actually been to them but read in the Evening Standard about a dish they were serving over Easter: strawberry marshmallow and vanilla and coconut panna cotta on a hot cross bun base....

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Mini S'more Brownie Cupcakes with Cadbury Creme Eggs

I now have an answer to the question from the famous Cadbury Creme Egg advert: how do you eat yours? I like mine crushed up on top of toasted marshmallow and chocolate brownies! Cadbury sent me several packets of Creme Eggs, an apron and some recipe cards, and asked me to recreate some of their recipes. One was based around a banana split and neither my husband nor I like bananas, but my eye was immediately caught by these. They have a chocolate...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 15

Another busy week where I am so late in planning this week's meals it's Monday already and I have no idea what we are eating this week! Of course it's Easter this weekend as well; in the UK we get two public holidays which makes a four-day weekend. I don't have any plans at all at the moment other than a lot of jobs around the house! Monday Lunch - macaroni cheese (working from home as I had a doctor's appointment Dinner - salmon fillet with cous cous and cauliflower rice for me, chicken breast and mash for him Tuesday Supposed to be...

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Rapunzel Cake and Free Cakes for Kids

Have you heard of Free Cakes for Kids? No, it's not a company handing out free samples - it's a charity that helps disadvantaged youngsters have a bit of a treat on their birthday. For many children a birthday cake is a luxury they don't get - or at least not a home-baked personalised cake with their favourite animals or characters. These days so many children seem to expect that and parents spend a great deal sometimes on their child's cake. But...

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Mums Are Like Buttons Box Frame with Buttons - Mother's Day Gift

I've been seeing the phrase 'mums are like buttons' everywhere recently - or at least in the run up to Mothers' Day, which in the UK was March 26 this year (it falls later in the year in other countries including the US). The whole of that phrase is 'Mums are like buttons - they hold everything together'. I thought that sounded lovely and wanted to make my mum a Mothers' Day card with it on. In fact it started out as a card and turned into a gift! I...

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Meal Planning Monday 2017 - Week 14

I've had a really busy week and only done one blog post since the last meal plan, of some Easter cards I made with my friend's daughter. It's been a really busy week - I made a cake for a charity I now volunteer with, and baked my husband's 40th birthday cake, and had a busy weekend of activities for his birthday. I've just sat down on Sunday night - with the weather still gorgeous but apparently getting much cooler in the next few days - to try and figure out what we are eating this week. I've done no food shopping this weekend as we were...

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Easter Cards 2017 - How to Entertain an 8-year-old

  This week one of my closest friends asked if I could babysit her eight-year-old so she could go to a work event that ran a couple of hours into the evening. I was happy to help - this is the first time I've ever babysat on my own before but it hardly counts as babysitting when you're just hanging out with an awesome eight-year-old - she was flower girl at my wedding and we get on really well. I'm sure we would have had no problem finding...

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