Twiggy & Twiglet makes.

Evening All.

The Twiggys have been doing a bit of making and baking.

On my days off work I do like to do a spot of baking for the boys, its lovely having something waiting for little Twiglet when he gets home from school.

Here are my very old bun tins, they used to be my Grandma's  - she died in 1977, so I love using them and thinking about her.

I loved it when I was a young  and I'd come home from school to a lovely warm house full of delicious baking smells.

A yummy lemon drizzle cake and some enormous chocolate buns.

Twiglet attended after school Cookery Club tonight and created this  Sonic the Hedgehog pizza, isn't it fab?

Tasted lovely too - I had a little nibble!!

Ooo and to finish  colourful stir fry for me and Mr Twigs, bit of turkey, whatever was in the bottom of the fridge, carrots, red peppers and celery.  Half a bag of straight to wok noodles from Aldi and half a jar of my home made chilli jam - ding dong it was gorge !!

Warming stuff on a cold Winter's night, you cant beat it.

Now LOOK AWAY ANDREA OF INDIGO BLUE BLOG.

Has she gone?

Here is the card swap I made for Andrea and posted yesterday.  

I received Andrea's yesterday( it is gorgeous), and will blog it soon as the flippin batteries on my camera have charged up they have currently given up the ghost.

Righto, quick soak in the bath then a bit of Xmas stitching and the last episode of Missing.

Have you watched it ? crikey it's gone on a bit, but although the subject matter is deeply disturbing, there are some great performances and I really do love the french policeman.

Oh la la 

Twiggy x

Twiglet meets a TV Star

Look who Twiglet fed today (only viewers of Look North will have a clue what I'm talking about).

Here's a link to his studio interview.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-30422177

Only little superstar and orphan goat Benjamin, what a pair of cuties.

Twiggy xx

Alternative Christmas Traditions

Evening all.

Twiglt has asked me to include a photo of Digger, as Digger tripped when he was walking down the stairs and is now feeling under the weather.  

Twiglet has bandaged him up with toilet roll and wrapped him in a blanket, he is a very good nurse.

Well Twiglet's Christmas play was fantastic as usual, he played a Spaniard (it was very international) and had a couple of singing solos, we were very impressed that he hit some very high notes.  

All the children did very well especially as they had 3 performances during the day and the littlies in Reception in particular, must have been very tired.  

It's Twiglet's last Christmas play before he goes up to his next school next year, awwww bless !!

Would you believe that the young man went down the pit today with his Daddy to meet Father Christmas at the National Coal Mining Museum, only in Yorkshire folks!  

He had a great time and we have a very funny photo to prove it !!

So today we did another of our Christmas traditions and took a wreath up to my Grandma and Grandad's grave in Streethouse - this is the little place my Grandma was born in many years ago.

As ever it was a crisp, sunny Winters day, twas flippin freezing and as usual I saw my first Christmas robin, having a good old shout at us as we laid our wreath.

We then popped to a nearby garden centre and picked up a few bits and bobs for Christmas makes.

As this is a yearly Christmas tradition, I was thinking about a few other unintentional , alternative Christmas traditions that I/We do every year.  

Here we go:-

1.  Carry around a handful of Christmas cards in my bag for 2 weeks that need posting, forget to post them.

2.  Find Christmas cards under car seat that were addressed and stamped but have managed to fall out of my bag and remained hidden until February.

3. Always receive a card from someone I've either forgotten or lost their address.

4. Find a gift, usually a book for some reason, I've hidden away for Twiglet, a couple of months after Christmas.

5. Buy the same annual twice by accident as I've seen them at a bargain price and stashed them somewhere, forgotten and bought them again.

6. Find chipolatas in freezer on Boxing Day OR alternatively cook chipolatas and forget to serve them.

7. Admire Mr Twigs way with sprouts, he always does something creative, last year they were stir fried with pancetta and chestnuts.

8. Buy a Christmas pudding, then everyone states they are too full for pudding.  Eat pudding 3 - 4 days after Christmas Day.

9. Say no, no I won't drink anything much on Christmas Day, then burn the vegetables a bit cos I've had 3 glasses of sherry while cooking.

10. Only drink three glasses of sherry on Christmas Day morning and then leave sherry bottle on top of fridge for a year.

11. Get peeved at naughty Mr Twigs eating After 8s and then PUTTING EMPTY PACKETS BACK IN THE BOX !!

12. Completely forget to finish off something I'm making for Christmas, finish project in January instead. 

Last year it was a cake band with reindeers on it, this year it will be a fabric advent calendar.

13. Say I'm definitely going to make lists and plans and prepare for Christmas throughout the year next year.  Leave everything until December again the following Christmas and do everything exactly the same way.

14.  Have a really lovely time with my fantastic family and that is what it's all about !!

How about you? what are your alternative Christmas traditions?

Twiggy xx

Cripes !!

It's blowing a gale up here and bucketing down with rain - just started as I walked back up from the school run this morning - urgh!!  

It's that nearly Christmas time of year so I have my traditional pre Christmas cold, smashing.  I was going to clean the guinea pigs out today but think they might have got away with it for another day.

We are due to do our weekly grocery shop at Aldi tonight but after walking down to school and back this afternoon, I think I might want us to put our jim jams on and hibernate instead!!

Oooo did anyone watch the final episode of Remember Me on Sunday night?  I thought it was great, I love a good ghost story. (Managed not to jump and throw tea down myself this time too).

So are you getting into the Christmas groove?  although I'm a miserable git today, I've done a bit of Christmas stitching and made a batch on mince pies, written some more Christmas cards and we are looking forward to the Christmas play at school tomorrow.  

I suppose I should beggar off  and do some studying now, which is what I'm supposed to be doing !!

Keep cosy.

Twiggy 

Less is more...................

Well not in our house.  

(photo heavy post)

 Ha ha we overload the Christmas tree every ear and I flippin love it.  

You can keep your colour co-ordinated designer Christmas trees, fancy a trip around our mostly homemade and very colourful tree?

 Oooo firstly here are Marcus the urbane fox and Bob Ambrose having a seasonal snifter, note empty sherry glass....

 Knitted guinea pig, doesn't everyone have one of these?

 Twiglet made this salt dough ornament at school this year, just lovely.

Gorgeous handmade tree from lovely Vicky at Anglesey Allsorts.

 

 A bit of festive stitching from a few years ago by me on the left, and a snowman made by Twiglet when he was in Year 1 - awww....

 A lovely little dangly from Jennie @ Falling Down the Rabbit Hole, where have you gone Jen, we miss you ????

And another pretty tree from Vicky !!  lucky me!!

 A gorgeous peg fairy from another lovely blogger.

 A little fleecy heart I made from one of Twiglet's baby fleeces.

 Twiglet's baby mittens and a pom pom decoration he made at school this year.

 Some more decorations he made, the one on the right way back before he started school, we made it from a crafting kit that came with his CBeebies comic ;)

 Another Year 1 Christmas decoration.

 A peggy fairy that I bought from our village church Christmas Fair last year.

 And R2D2, I wonder who put him there :)

Well, I hope you enjoyed the trip around our tree.  

Homemade by us and our very lovely friends, I love getting all the decorations out and remembering the memories attached to them at this, my most favourite time of  year.

This for me, is what Christmas is all about.

What objects do you have,that recall special memories at this time of year?

Twiggy x

What's that smell?

(I tried to capture the gorgeous sunset the night before last!)

Evening all, crikey it's flippin cold up here today.

Just back from collecting Twiglet from his Christmas art club at school.

On rota this evening to make Chrimbo cards with the Cubs, craftastic!

So what is that smell? It's a batch of chilli and tomato jam for Christmas. It's always a winner as not only is it very delicious, it also clears the sinuses a treat.

Had a very nice stitch and bitch session with my pal this afternoon, with a lot more bitching than stitching :)

Oooo hello always time for a bit of baking, Twiglet likes to come home on a Thursday to a plate of these!!

Righto off to throw a stir fry together before we brave the cold and dark and journey on over to the Scout hut.

Stay cosy

Twiggy xx

Advent traditions......What are yours?

 Hello peeps!

I'm in a much better mood today after a good nights kip.  

Just had to pick poor Twiglet up from school has he has a touch of the lurgy, so he's tucked up in bed with a pile of comics and I should be ironing but I'm on here instead, much more fun.

We are disappointed that we haven't had any snow up here yet, so here are some of my photos from December 2010, up on Royd Moor, we had gone up to sledge, but the roads were all blocked by snowdrifts!! , I love these, look how tiny Twiglet is - soooo cute !!!

.Anyhoo, I flippin love December and as it was the 1st yesterday thought about my little Advent rituals.  I would like to say we lit our Advent candle  but we ahem, have put it somewhere safe, but can't remember where!!!

Here's what we are doing.

1. Twiglet is enjoying opening his Lego Star Wars advent calendar that his lovely Auntie bought for him - lucky boy.

2. I've started my December ritual of reading A Christmas Carol, see this link where I've mentioned it before. Link

3. Enjoying a rollocking good, ghost story, is anyone else watching Remember Me on BBC1 Sunday nights, flaming Nora I love it.  (I jumped so hard the other night I spilt tea down my jim jams).

It's also nice to see such atmospheric shots of our neck of the woods and lovely Scarborough and I LOVE Michael Palin.  

If you've not seen it, iplayer it.

4.  We are feeding brandy to our Christmas cakes every week, Twiglet has a spoonful, screws up his face and proclaims, hmmmm lovely.  I remember when I was a tiddler having a taste of my darling Dad's whisky and doing the same thing.  My Dad always said `see you think we're enjoying ourselves !!'.

5. I'm doing a bit of Christmas stitching but more on that later...........

(I adore this photo of little Twiglet !!)

6. I plan to make some chilli jam, as several people have put in orders.

If I pictured my perfect Wintery evening, it would involve a good ghost story (book or film), a nice glass of vodka or a pint of  good real ale, some homemade Christmas cake and Wensleydale and a bit of stitching.  

Simple pleasures, that's what my life is all about.

How about you? do you have Advent rituals that you do every year?

What's your perfect Winters afternoon or evening?

Ta ta for now.

Twiggy x

Flippin heck

I'm in from work I'm totally knackered, wearing my pjs already and glad I made tonight's dinner yesterday.
I have nothing further to add.........

Twiggy

Hooray it's Friday !!

What a busy day, I only work 2 full days a week and have to cram an awful lot in, I'm flippin banjaxed.

We had our school Christmas fayre last night, no idea how much we made yet but we had a good turn out.  

Here's a pic of one of our crazy guinea pigs, Dom, he's quite an old lad now, 5 years old, a great age.  

When I was cleaning out their cage, he decided to hop up on the windowsill out of my way, he's quite agile when he needs to be.

Mr Twigs and I managed to sneak out last Sunday night and went to the Leeds Arena to see James and Starsailor (remember them, pop pickers?).  It was good fun but felt a bit naughty to be out without child and on a school night!!

Apart from work and catching up on course work and boring day to day stuff, I can't think where my week has gone.

Did find time to make these for the Chrimbo fayre though, they seemed to sell ok.  Also made a fish pie and made my own parsley sauce from scratch it had the consistency of school custard, yummy.

Righto, me and Twiglet managed to have our jim jams on since 4.30pm, what else can you do after a dark and rainy walk home from school. 

 Looking forward to watching Ripper Street later and seeing my lovely Mum tomorrow.

Twiglet has a Cubs Winter Wonderland thingy at Bradley Woods on Sunday, hope the flippin fog and rain beggars off by then.

Have a lovely weekend.

Cheery bye

Twiggy x

Experimenting in the kitchen.

(Twiggy's first ever attempt at pastry).

Well hello there, long time no see.  

I blame flippin Facebook and the fact I can't blog on my Kindle.  

Anyway I've fired up our ancient laptop and here I am. 

 So how have you been?

Not a lot to report from Twiggy Towers, still here despite new estate agent brochure, I think we are going to change agents soon as they are pretty ineffectual.

Still working at Twiglet's school, he's due to move up to middle school next September, I did sigh a lot while I was completing his transfer form, where on earth has the time gone?

Now here is something very lovely and exciting, my gorgeous niece's baby boy decided to appear 3 weeks early and what a total poppet he his.  

He is a lucky little boy to have such fantastic parents and Grandparents.  I can't believe old Twiggy is now a Great Auntie - blimey.

Here we are, having a snuggle!!

I am desperately searching for my crafting mojo, so if you find it post it back to me will you?

(I bought a baby sampler kit and haven't even started it yet!!)

My pal came over the other day and we got out our cross stitch that we haven't touched for ahem about a year, however, I'm hoping a bit of blog hopping and new interest in Pinterest might give me some inspiration.  Do you think I'll just look at pretty pictures and do nothing :)

With a view to motivating myself, I thought I might start doing more craft projects and blog them, so I have to finish them off !!

I have been playing in the kitchen recently and at my ripe old age made pastry for the first time, I've tweaked the recipe a bit as I used lard and marge initially and all I could taste was lard - urgh!  Today I've made some mince pies and jam tarts and some pastry for Mr Twigs to make a pie, but only used marge, so will let you know how that goes.

What are your tips for good pastry?  Any suggestions greatly appreciated.

I also roused myself enough to make 2 Christmas cakes last week.  They smell lush, I am feeding them with brandy every week as I do like a boozy cake!!

The slow cooker is back in use again, we had this scrummy lamb hotpot the other night, I blimmin love Winter a great excuse to have warming, comfort food.

Coming home from work to this was nearly as good as living at home when my lovely Mum used to always have something tasty waiting for us for dinner. (Notice I said nearly as good, our lovely Mums can never be bettered can they?)

Oooo crikey more baking, carrot cake and home made hob nobs anyone?

I promise this is the last food photo, hand made wholemeal loaf, super yummy!!

We had lovely half term hols at the back end of October, wasn't the weather brilliant?

We didn't manage a bumper crop of pumpkins like last year, but as you can see, we didn't do too badly.

Here are our Halloween efforts, traditional, Minecraft, Psycho (yes that pumpkin really does have a knife sticking out of it's head) , can you guess which of us, made which???

Here's the inevitable vomiting pumpkin :)  It's the first time I can remember sitting in the October sun in t.shirts to carve our pumpkins.

We caught up with our old mates, I love this bench our crazy boys are resting on!!

Took Twiglet and another pal to Kirklees Light Railway, top fun.

In fact we crammed an awful lot of fun into a week, it was great.

We even took Twiglet to Blackpool for the first time ever to see the illuminations, he loved it.

It amazed me that I was last there in 1982 and I swear apart from new lights and some lovely artworks it's just how I remembered it - tee hee !!

Here's a pic of the lovely old north Pier, I really want a Ventian double carousel like the one Twiglet had a ride on there, totally gorgeous.

Righto, that's me for now, I have a poorly boy full of cold on the sofa :( so off to tend to him and get ready for Strictly. 

I won't leave it so long next time, so my post won't be soooooo long :)

 I do like dark Winters evenings, any excuse to have our jimjams on, we managed it by 4.40pm lst night ;)

Take care

Twiggy x