Beards, Moustaches and Sunnies

I've been looking for some new sun glasses and love the photographs from Karen Walker's Masters of Disguise collection, the beards, moustaches and wigs are genius.

Cake

We celebrated my mum’s birthday yesterday, she is very lovely and special (not to mention a little crazy and lots of fun) and I figured deserved no less for her cake. I put aside my fears of cooking sponge cakes and had my second-ever attempt. It must be something that falls under the category of practice makes perfect and was a vast improvement on my first attempt. This time the eggs were fully at room temp, the oven was warmed and the mix master was doing it’s thing. The recipe is by Stephanie Alexander (via Maggie Beer).

I made two cakes (separately) and joined them with a mix of stawberry jam and fresh strawberries (so excited they are available again!) and whipped cream. It was sooo good (if I do say so myself! Watch out cwa ladies!)

Flat Tour Pt1

I am so pleased with my new little flat, here are some pictures of the hallway and the living/kitchen area. It's not massive but it suits me perfectly. The hall is lovely and wide and has those big windows at the end, in summer I can image I will be spending plenty of time in the sun on the front stoop.

The living area is slowly getting there, I still need a side table/coffee table and the tv cabinet (which my brother kindly made and painted for me) holds some storage boxes that I'd like to cover. It's been so much fun working it all out, and it still feels very new which is exciting. I love the high ceilings, and the picture rails are definitely an added bonus for a rental.

I will share some more pics at a later time of my bedrrom/study area, they are still a work in progress : )

mmm mimco....

All I can say is how did I not realise they had shoes until just now!
Very dangerous, so exciting!

Today

Today:
The view walking to work this morning, the sun was out and so was the cherry blossom.
Some colourful graffiti, (I guess that's what you'd call it), lots of bright paint chips stuck to a wall.
Afterwork snack, there's something about freckles that remind me of childhood birthday parties.
Cauliflower for dinner, my favourite winter vegtable.

Red Accessories

Spring is on its way (two weeks and counting!), there are so many gorgeous red accessories out there at the moment that seem perfectly fitting for this time of year, nice and bright and definitely cheerful. Red is definitely not normally a colour I would go for, rd says it's rebel red. I'm not sure what I'm rebelling against but it sounds good to me.

necklace, shoes, purse, diary and cushions

I am sitting at my new desk watching the rain fall for the umpteenth time this week. It’s been a good week, a busy week. I got a promotion at work, saw a reggae band, went to a party, slept in and bought a pretty pink cyclamen for my kitchen table. Beck is playing on the radio; I quite like the new stuff.

Brrr is all I can say! It's freezing here and it's been snowing too (not settling sadly). I love watching the snow flakes, even in the dark, they are so magical.

I'm back at my old house this week kitty-sitting while my parents are away, and it's such a funny feeling back in my old room but not having any of my things here. I don't think I've got my head around it quite yet. Am having a lovely time playing with Angus (strips of paper are a winner for even his grumpy self) and lots of cuddles with the ever purr-y Lola.

I've been trying to work on some new ideas for cards lately, and I'm slowly getting there. The inspiration has been slow coming but stumbling across things such as these super cute jars does help. I love the colours of the tops, the pink on the walls is gorgeous too.

Blue Song

I love this, well what's not to love about Noel Fielding. Cool tune, good to cheer those monday blues.

Sunday

I've had such a wonderful sunday, I'm sad it's going to finish.

Lying in bed warm and toasty listening to the Flight of the Concords radio show
Stocking up on frames for beautiful new sugarloop prints - by the very talented and generous Bernadette
Exploring my new neighbourhood (taking an extended walk)
Spotting some blossoming blossom (brilliant!)
left-over chocolate pudding....

Hi there,
Well I am finally all moved in and almost organised, it's been a process that's for sure and I seem to have accumulated a lot of 'stuff' over the past few years.
Luckily I had a few days off work to recover which was wonderful and invited my grandmother up for afternoon tea. I baked some scones with strawberry jam and cream which made me quite reminiscent because I grew up in the house over the back fence (from where I now live) and can vividly remember my great grandmother popping in for afternoon tea. There seemed to be a symmetry it all that I really enjoyed.
Have a wonderful week
Catherine x

(sadly these aren't my scones but don't they look amazing! from here)