A Halloween Pumpkin Treats idea

Halloween Pumpkin Treats!

Take a look back at my blog post from last October for a great trick or treat creation!  I have to admit I've been a little busy this year and due to the fact that both DD and DS are getting older and growing out of the whole Halloween thing we've not been quite so organised!  Never the less, 'A' will be off out tonight with her friend and I'm making a last minute dash now in a futile attempt to find a pumpkin.  Mother of the year I am ;)

The Gallery - Winter White

Yes, I know you'll all be cursing me for this one especially with Tara's pic of the exact opposite but for my Gallery 'Colour' theme, I've chosen Winter White brrrrrr.

I guessed most people would take advantage of the beautiful weather we've been having over the last couple of weeks and post scenic shades of blue and green so I thought, not for the first time, I'd be different.

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This picture was taken shortly before Christmas last year when we had week upon week of the snow.  Our Border Terrier Arnold didn't know quite what to make of it!  Consider me evil for even mentioning the 's' word but I do love it.  Don't get me wrong I love the Summer too and was quite happy to give my sandals one last airing but I'm one for the extremes.  You see, I'm a weather fanatic - you can keep your murky, drizzly rain and your average temperatures, for me it has to be baking or freezing, hail showers or thunderstorms, blizzards or hurricanes!  I guess I just like the excitement, although I'd probably feel differently if I lived anywhere other than England, where our extremes only stretch to a tornado swiftly relocating your peg bag or a heatwave that lasts just long enough to get the barbecue fired up! ;)



 

My apologetic return to blogging.........

What is it about taking a break from the blog?  A week off over Christmas, turned into a chilled fortnight, which before I knew it turned into a neglectful month!  The trouble was, the prospect of getting back into blogging became like that 'thank you' phone call you should have made a month ago that you know you still need to make but now somehow seems somewhat embarrassing as it's taken so long! (Does that makes sense?)

So, before I unleash my first post of 2011 upon you all, please accept the above ramble as my sincere apology and rest assured I am now back to full posting health!

Where to start? Well, Christmas was quiet but lovely (as always!) with Christmas Eve spent with family, Christmas Day at home and New Year at Steph and Dave's.

[caption id="attachment_494" align="alignleft" width="150" caption="Hydrotherapy Pool - Lion Quays"][/caption]

P and I also had a lovely night away at Lion Quays in Chirk, Oswestry just after Christmas.  This was our first visit to Lion Quays and we were very impressed.  Our room booking included use of the main pool and gym but for an extra £15 each we were also able to use the Lion Quays Spa.  I have to say this is the nicest spa I've ever visited and our afternoon there was complete heaven.  The spa included a hydrotherapy pool, steam room, sauna, warm room, experience showers, snow cave (yes, I was brave enough to give this a try) and sun meadow.  There were also many treatment rooms, a bistro and relaxation room with complimentary herbal drinks etc.



[caption id="attachment_497" align="alignright" width="137" caption="Lion Quays"][/caption]

We ate in the main restaurant on the evening and once again we were impressed with the service and quality of the food.  Lion Quays is definitely one for the hot list and we will definitely be visiting again, hopefully in the not too distant future.  Rest assured the seed has also been planted with 'the girls' ;).

The new year routine has now kicked back into action with our first choir rehearsal for both the school and ladies choir last Tuesday.  Both went really well, especially the school choir where we now have quite a few new members.  We've introduced some new choir rules where the children compete against us as leaders to win chocolate at the end of the term.  Week one saw excellent behaviour from the children and concluded in a point to the them but I remain confident that the choir leaders, ie, us, will reign triumphant and the chocolate will be ours :).  The ladies choir went well on the whole but 'Somebody to Love' was a little rusty after the Christmas break.  A little work on this over the next couple of weeks should have it polished and ready for April's concert.

Work is steady but mainly spending our time tying up loose ends before our trip to................wait for it..................Florida! Yes, Florida!  This requires a separate post of its own, but our much awaited holiday to Florida is now only 4 weeks away and I'm so excited I could vomit!  Florida preparations to follow shortly.

An 'A' update

Couple of good bits of news for 'A'.  The dancing exam she took before Christmas saw her achieving a distinction with 82 marks overall and Friday also saw her receiving the achievement certificate at school.  Her teacher comments were that she's "an all round ray of sunshine".......awww, if only she could see her when she's screaming at her brother or unable to get out of bed each morning.  Seriously though, I am very proud of her and pleased that she's settled back in at school after a rough term before Christmas.

After being introduced to the group through one of our course delegates, she's now also joined the group Youth On Stage who put on shows twice a year in the Birmingham area.  We went to see their pantomime before Christmas and they truly were superb, especially considering they range in age from only 9 to 21.  She's loving every minute of the twice weekly rehearsals although she is struggling with the late nights.  None the less, the prospect of performing 'High School Musical' at the Old Rep in May is motivation enough to keep her going.

An 'S' update

Not much going on for 'S' at the moment although he is coming close to the crucial options choices at school.  He's decided he would like to be a sports teacher as his main love has always been sport.  He's now in the process of speaking to various teachers to assess what subjects he needs and which teachers will accept him for their subject.

So there you have it, first post of the year.  Ok, so it wasn't so painful (for me anyway) and now I've broken the blogging 'seal' I should be ok to spout off a bit more frequently.

Now for piccies..........bye for now!

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Tuesday's Christmas Treasures - Beautiful Baubles!

This week I thought I'd show you a selection of my favourite Christmas tree decorations.

I've been collecting tree decorations since 'P' and I first moved in together and to match our lounge colour scheme they've always been along the gold and red theme.  Some have been expensive from local garden centres or craft fayres, others have been bargain finds from local stores and many have been broken over the years.

'A' now loves decorating the tree with me and we put all the hanging decorations into groups of the same kind before spreading them out on the tree.  She has her favourites as do I and here is just a few of them.........

Tuesday's Treasures - Feathery Feeding Time!

For this week's Tuesday's Treasures I decided to post a picture of something that's very needed by our feathery friends at the moment.

On my birthday wish list this year was a bird feeding station which was kindly bought for me by my brother.  When I was growing up my Dad was a avid ornithologist (and still is!) but to be quite honest I could never see the fascination! Since getting older however I now have more of an interest in all things 'wildlife' and there's nothing I like better than sitting at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning, nice hot cup of tea in hand whilst watching a garden full of birds enjoying their Sunday brunch.

I like to put a variety of food out but the blue-tits, great-tits and goldfinches particularly love sunflower hearts.  Although, I must have got through at least 8 seed feeders in this year alone as the rather annoying squirrel (gun at the ready) keeps attacking them! I've now had to resort to a metal nut feeder but the feathery numbers seem to have dwindled recently so I really don't think they're impressed with the menu choice!

'The Gallery' - Man & Dog

Gallery theme for this week is 'Black & White' and I had just the picture in mind for this.

 

Bude in Cornwall has always been a favourite holiday destination of ours ever since the children were little.  One of our most loved spots is 'Duckpool' - a small National Trust beach a little further up the coast from Bude.  We've spent many a Summer and Autumn day sitting on this beach and this particular photo was taken on a .............Summer day (yes, you wouldn't think it would you!).  The sky was so dark and stormy but the camera just wouldn't do it justice.  I tried a B&W setting and voila!  It captured the scene just as I'd wanted.

Pre December Update!

There's a lot going on recently but nothing that particularly warranted a full on 'post' all of it's own, therefore I thought I'd blog a little 'update'.

Can you believe it's only 30 days until Christmas? It only seems 5 minutes since I was lying on a beach in Majorca - browning nicely and now here I am, hat, scarf and gloves at the ready and precariously plodding my way to school as the dog nearly pulls me over on the icy pavements!  Say what you like though about the hype, but I do love this time of year with the anticipation of Christmas.  Cold, frosty mornings are wonder and especially so when walking a dog - why didn't anyone ever tell me?  We'd have had him much sooner :)

My Christmas pressy buying is not going too badly (for once) although I always seem to make a good start and then my enthusiasm dwindles, leaving me with 26 presents still to buy come Christmas eve!  How are you all getting on?  You're all going to tell me now that you started in July and they're already wrapped aren't you?

Got a busy week this week.  Monday started off with Dancing and Guides for 'A' as normal with an extra rehearsal thrown in ready for her Preliminary Modern exam this coming Sunday.  Yesterday (Tuesday) was our very last school choir rehearsal for the 'Young Voices' concert taking place tomorrow at the NEC in Birmingham.  The kids are really hyped (as am I!) about the whole thing although I think some of the younger members are a little nervous.  They're really in for a great day though if last year was anything to go by.

Tonight I'm off to see my lovely friend Jo playing 'Edith' in 'Allo 'Allo which is being performed by Mayhem Theatre Group.  From the little tit-bits I've heard so far, I can't wait! (More to come on this tomorrow :) )

As I've already mentioned tomorrow I'll be off to the NEC with the school choir.  It's going to be a long but very enjoyable day.  We leave school around 1pm and won't be returning till around half ten.  As much as I love the snow and frosty weather, let's hope it at least holds off to allow us a safe and swift journey there and back.

Friday is a quieter day, although it is the School's Christmas fayre which I no doubt will be attending to test my luck on the old tombola :).  'S' also has a friend sleeping over Friday night as a treat for his 14th Birthday.  Gone are the days of keeping them entertained though, luckily they'll be quite happy with a pizza and an evening of Xbox!

After such a busy week I'm relieved to say the weekend is a quiet one.  'A' has her dance exam Sunday morning but other than that I'm looking forward to a nice relaxing time with a morsel of Christmas cooking and cardmaking thrown in for good measure.

Halloween Pumpkin Treats!

When looking in Mom's latest 'Homes & Ideas' magazine last month there was a cool idea for Halloween treats.  'A' and I had a go at making them this morning and we're quite pleased with the results.  For those of you that want to make them for yourselves I put the piccies below.

1. First take two sheets of orange tissue paper.  Draw a circle around a dinner plate and cut out.

2. In the centre of the circles place a handful of halloween goodies.

3. Start to pull up the sides of the circles to form the mini pumpkin's 'stalk'.

4. Tape around the 'stalk' with green florists tape.

All that's left is for your Halloween visitors to rip open the pumpkin to find the goodies inside!

All things ghostly - sceptic or believer?

Advertised in this weeks local paper was an article stating that there would be a ghost walk in the run up to Halloween.  This was to be held at Haden Hill House which is a local victorian house that is open to the public.  Upon seeing the article I asked my youngsters if they'd like to go, to which I had a mixed response.  'S' finally decided that he wasn't bothered but 'A' was a little unsure. Her concern was "I'm not worried about hearing the stories, but I'm scared I might actually see something!".

I, for one, have always had an avid interest in the paranormal and although I've always been very careful how much information to feed to my kids on the subject, I've always encouraged them to have an open mind about such things.  I can't quite remember what initially spurred my interest in the supernatural but I know it was around the time when I started at high school.

My interest continued and then a few years ago I became involved with a super local ghost research society for a short time.  Part of my membership to the group involved me carrying out all night investigations in various 'alledgedly' haunted locations across the UK including The Ram Inn (Gloucestershire), Woodchester Mansion (Gloucestershire) and Pebble Mill Studios (Birmingham).  I enjoyed this immensely but I think most of the enjoyment came from the humour shared with the other investigators and the actual adrenaline involved in the prospect of maybe 'experiencing' something unexplainable.

Unfortunately, I think it was my lack of 'experiencing' anything untoward (and also my new love of all things Derren Brown) that has now made me more sceptical than ever!  Although, the experience of the investigations was often quite spine tingly at times, I don't feel I once encountered anything that couldn't be accounted for in human terms.  Obviously, there are many stories around, often from credible, trustworthy sources but the truth is I simply cannot believe it until I've seen it for myself!  Of course I still long to be convinced that there are more things in this world than we can possibly explain but up till now I've not come across any!  Nevertheless, Halloween is looming and I will endeavour to put my scepticism aside, just for the fun of it!