sometimes when there are no words, pies will do....

xoxox

fake illness hair!

As you know, for what seems like an absolute age, I've been trying to sort out this whole henna/peroxide debacle. Well if you don't the short story is that I dyed my hair with henna but then didn't think about the fact that hair grows... The henna isn't strong enough to cover my roots and your not technically supposed to put a regular home hair dye with peroxide on your noggin as it can A-turn your hair pond green or B-sort of, a bit, make your hair fall off. So for a while I've been rocking some very strange two tone striped hair....not my best look! The thing is, I actually couldn't put up with the ridiculous hair much longer, I was making Katie Waissle's roots look subtle, so I dyed it! First of all I would never recomend to anyone to go against the safety instructions on hairdye as you can have ridiculously awful allergic reactions but I did it... and I have never been so terrified in my whole life! I decided a strand test was the way to go as at least if my hair did start to fall out, it would be underneath and no one would see it. A good plan I know. Well from putting it on to washing it off I became a compete and utter bag of nerves and completely convinced that my arms were starting to go numb, that my neck was swelling and that my vision was ever so slightly impaired. I am complete hypercondriac and nothing was in the slightest way wrong with me at all but it was honestly the scariest 30 minutes of my life. Luckily and I think its because I had left my hair for so long that the henna was pretty weak, it was a great success and I am now sporting some glorious un-rooty locks. So hurrah for me really but if you are in a similar henna based situation please do a strand test as so few ladies can pull off bald or pondy... 

xoxox

happier times!!

This week my little Charlie turned 2. Well not "my" little Charlie as I am happily childless and a bit scared of kids as a rule.... but my best friends son. Charlie is one of the few exceptions to my scary child rule and is a joy to be around, I'm going to say 98% of the time...there's just the other 2% where we wonder if we should just sell him and have done with it. Possibly one of my favourite things about him is that the boy likes cake and is a good tester with a definite sense of what he likes, much room for failure, hard to impress. So slightly scary was the task when Charlotte (his mumma and my partner in crime) asked me to bake his birthday cake. Now I know its a child's birthday cake so usually it consists of the old Victoria Sponge malarkey, which is great BUT that 'aint cutting the mustard so i had to whip a little something special out of my icing bag. So I dug out my trusty Peggy Porschen "Chic Cake" book, this is the place where I got my faux wedding cake from and it made a happy return. I wanted to show you all something a bit different, so instead of the Victoria Sponge, we have ladies and gentlemen, a Chocolate Orange Marble Cake. His party isn't till tomorrow so I'm going to try and get you some pictures of everyone having a munch but if it tastes as good as it looks (for my second iced cake anyway...) Im going to be a happy bunny and hopefully so is my little bubs! 

xoxox

the kitchen dream

For years it has been my dream to own a Kitchenaid mixer. I know this is slightly sad, okay I know this is very sad and not quite a Bayswater or a Birkin, but I think they are one of the most beautiful things I have ever seen and bloody Lawson has one in every colour it would seem! I just want one!! Witch!!!  I'm sorry Nigella I take that back as I'm a little bit in lady love with you and never really meant it, but still 3!!! Unfair... but with a price tag of £390 this is sort of the reason that I don't quite own one yet, but a lady can dream right? So whilst doing a bit of kitchen equipment perving this morning I found some other treats that I don't think my kitchen will ever be quite complete without...

xoxox

lack of posting...

So there has been a complete and utter breakdown on bloggy communication for a few days.... Unfortunately my Grandma, my little Betty, passed away last week and it has sort of left me with a bit of a void.... Not a lady for cats; she hated them, not a lady for hairdye; she got to the age of 81 without never going near the stuff, this was a  lady for cakes...and biscuits and cookies and flapjack and a million other things. She was a professional cook and I believe she is the reason behind my incessant feeding of people... No one ever went hungry near my little Betty and she moulded my childhood memories to involve me with some biscuit in my hand and crumbs round my mouth. I think this is something I'm trying to recreate with the man friend or any guest that dare cross my threshold, I want new crumby memories! I fear if me and the man ever do have children as they will most definitely grow to resemble that precocious, chocolate craving nit, Augustus Gloop from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory fame, but with the hair of Annie. Such is my need to feed... So my inheritance came as all her cookbooks and cooking bowls. To me, though simple to some, I have inherited jewels and diamonds. Sadly some of the pages in the cookbooks are being eradicated by 20 years of flour and butter and one of the victims is my ultimate childhood best friend, Chocolate Oat Delight. I have searched high and low through the internet and non match up and most include coconut....THIS IS NOT RIGHT!!! So I am pleading with any family members that could have the recipe to come forth and proclaim "I have oats for you!!!" and hopefully their recipe will match up with some of the tiny bits of visible text left in my cookbook. So for now I bid you farewell, I'm off to try and do a bit of remembering and text deciphering. We shall speak soon! 

things i cant get enough of at the mo....

xoxox

veggie dye- round 2!

I'm just about to attempt to dye my hair with the old veggie dye business.... wish me luck!

Then hopefully I'm going to be attempting to retro style it up a bit as it is paining me how I have let the bad weather affect my hair...bad Becka! 2 feet of snow shouldn't mean an unfortunate head! Pictures later!

xoxox