July = Cake

July seemed to be full of cake. We started with a rather nice tea party.

Cucumber sandwiches:

Some freshly baked scones:

with lashings of clotted cream and jam, then baby Cornish pasties, chocolate oat biscuits, ham sandwiches, seed cake, etc.  Choice of normal tea or iced,

and topped off with an M & M Cake:

High Tea.  My favourite.

Then we moved on to a Good Luck cake for the Year 6 children at the Primary School Prom.  Mine are well away from primary now but a couple of friends have children in their last year and I made it for them.

On the same day, I was also making a three layered chocolate cake, but in the rush to get them finished, I forgot to take a photo!

Then, after all that, we had the Lemonade Stall at our Annual Charter Day in town and of course I couldn't just stop at homemade lemonade; I had to go with some lemony favourites as well:

Phew, what a month!

People Don't Cross the Street to Avoid Me Anymore!

I am so lucky Marathon Runner likes to bake bread.

He has the weekend off, so you never know, we might get a few little jobs done!  That's when he recovers from Ireland losing their rugby match, that is.  Awww diddums.

Yesterday I had a lovely surprise.  After several years of extremely hard work with the local Parents and Teachers Association at the Primary School, I have finally hung up my secretary's hat and I received these lovely goodies from the new Committee.

Shhh, don't tell Marathon Runner about the chocolates!  I'll happily share the wine with him though.

I never was very good with flower arranging I'm afraid.  Why do they always look like they've just been plopped into the vase, however long I fiddle and fart-ass around with them?

Parents can stop avoiding me now!

However, I will be keeping a wary eye open for the PTA Committee at the secondary school.  Once lumbered, twice shy!

Busy, busy, busy!

There's been rather a lot of this lately:-

My kitchen has displayed a similar level of devastation for nearly two weeks now.

I think I am quite sick of cake (did I really say that?)!

First of all, there were the refreshments for over 200 people at a play with a black and white theme. This was just for the afternoon performance (80 of them!).

Then in the evening there were another 150 (but I was so busy I didn't have time to take any photos!)

Then there was the teacher's birthday:

Last came THE PROM. Even though it's only the primary school, it's still a Big Thing, this Prom.

One has to have the right dress.

But it needs something to cover my arms Mum. So Mum gets knitting.

Doesn't my baby Mad One look so grown up?

Then we made cocktails, and burgers, and hot dogs, and ice cream, and jelly

oh, and more cake

and now I shall collapse in a heap. Oh but Harry Potter is on at the cinema, we must go Mum, we must! So we do; another late night but worth it.

Just one more thing; it is Spanish Girl's last night. So a nice meal is in order. Three courses at least (but no cake thank you).

And we have to get up at 6.00am to get her to the bus on time. Oh joy.

Then we have 4 hours to get ready for German Girl.

It will be lovely to see her again but I hope she doesn't expect scintillating conversation tomorrow night!

Feeling Glum

There is no doubt about it, today is a Glum Day in my house.



This is exactly how I am feeling today.


It is all down to lack of support for the PTA. I am sure many other PTA Secretaries have similar predicaments. We have a two shows on Friday, with over 100 potential guests (nobody seems to know the exact number limit!) at each performance, and only the Chair and I to serve tea and cake (but only me in the afternoon)! Hmmm. I think it best to refrain from saying anything else before I engage in rant mode again.


Even the flowers at the lovely Connaught Gardens did little to revive my lagging spirits.



I know they are a bit municipal, but lovely nonetheless.



This is more where I'm at:

Then I get home to find that I have missed Torchwood!!! I sit down to watch Pierce Brosnan; that's got to be good for the soul hasn't it? However, it turns out to be the most unadulterated load of drivel (that's keeping it clean) I have seen in a long time.

AND I've broken a nail!

Oh dear, the Martians have just cut Pierce's head off! That just about sums it up, I think!

One plus side, I did have all the washing done and no-one was complaining about not having any pants!

Do you really mean burlesque?

Let me introduce you to Henrietta.


Do you think she's cute? I got her at the Exeter Craft Fair on Saturday. I have several already from John Hilder in Seaton. Look at her lovely wings and tail and what do you call those things down her back?



It was a lovely day spent with my Mad Daughter, although she doesn't always share my enthusiasm for all things crafty. The trick is to keep feeding her!





Talking of feeding people, soon my friend and I have to make some refreshments for a play at School. We did it last year and all our cakes and bakes went down rather well so, guess what, we've been volunteered to do it again!



This show has been written by a teacher at the school, so we had no idea what it was about. Said teacher asks my friend very kindly if we could dress up and 'theme' our refreshments. Hmm, she says, what theme? Burlesque, he says. Off she trots, what's burlesque, she asks me? Hmm, says I, think it's a bit sort of can-can dancer. I'll go home and have a look on good 'ol Google.


My face must have been a picture when I looked at Google images. Oh I say, oooh really, have I got this right? It took me fifteen pages to find any ladies with a decent amount of clothes actually on! I don't think they make those tassles in size 36HH! Scary Daughter and Marathon Runner think it's hilarious. Having spoken to him again, I think we've come to the conclusion that what he really means is sort of Gothic Victorian. Damn, I was just getting the corset out!


So anyway, we've decided to go with a black and white theme for the refreshments, so I had a little practice tonight with some (ever so slightly out of date) black icing I found in the cupboard!



What do you think? Will this do?

Maybe I can get some black paper cases.

I still rather fancy that corset though ...