Time to Empty the Pot!

For my birthday in 2012 Laura bought me a 'Pamper pot' It was a pink pot with a slot for saving money, with no way of getting at the money until you smash the pot. Well today was pot smashing day. We planned to do it before we went on holiday, putting the money towards our spending money. We planned to smash it the week before we went, but we weren't able to get anymore in so we decided to smash it now. 

We all had a guess at how much money was in there, we had predominantly saved 20p pieces, although right at the beginning we were undecided so we knew there were some 50p and 10p in there as well.

We just couldn't get anymore in the pot!!

So we put the pot in a carrier bag and I gently tapped the top to see if I could remove the top and keep the main part of the pot to put flowers in afterwards.

In the end I was able to tap the top off and get at the money!!

There was a huge pile silver to count. Our guesses ranged from £100 to £200, it was hard to tell just how much was in there. 

In the end we counted it all and bagged it all up to take to the bank and we were amazed to find that the pot contained a massive £249 !!! We have already bought ourselves another one because you simply don't notice the odd 20p going missing from your purse, its a great way to save up for a special treat. 

The next pot was a bargain one from Tescos sale, they were selling them off after fathers day for a couple of quid. I hope the next one will fill a bit quicker!!

A Trip to London.

Last week I had the pleasure of attending a course in London, in the Euston Road. Its an easy train trip to Kings Cross and a small walk to the venue. I like to visit as the building has the most wonderful views all over this part of London. The BT tower is still impressive, looks like something out of Dr Who !! The spire is St Pancras Church. 

This very ornate building is St Pancras Station and The Renaissance Hotel. The flat ugly building on the left of the photo is The British Museum. 

This is looking to the west, the roof garden below is lovely on a summers day, I popped out there and the planters were full of herbs, they smelt gorgeous!

I took the photos from the board room at the top of the building, perhaps one day I'll be chairing a meeting in that board room!!!! I was lucky enough to be able to stay over for the night at a Premier Inn jut over the road. It was a typical Premier Inn with an exceptionally large flat screen TV!!

We have had a bit of hospital orientated few days. Beth went out with her work for a 'fun' evening at the Hemel Hempstead Snow Centre. She actually had a good time right up until the very last down hill run where she lost control of the ring that she was on and ploughed backwards through a small gap in the safety fence and clobbered her back and neck on a metal pylon. She damaged her back and had pain and numbness in her legs and her neck. We ended up going over and an ambulance was called and she was taken to Watford General Hospital.

The First responder was very good and got Beth settled and gave her pain relief (gas and air) We then had to wait a fair while for an ambulance to arrive to transport her to hospital . Thankfully after Xrays they gave her the all clear, no broken bones. She does however have whiplash and a very bruised back, hip and leg. I think it may be a while before she risks any down hill exploits again!! I am just so thankful that it wasn't any worse. 

Mum went into hospital today to have a knee replacement, we took her in yesterday for a load of pre-op blood tests. She went into the hospital by ambulance this morning, but at lunchtime Dad got a call to say that they were not operating because she had a urine infection and it wasn't safe to do so until it was sorted out. So this evening they gave her IV anti-biotics and we collected her and got he back home. She is pretty fed up as she was hoping that by now she would be recovering from the op and not waiting for a date to have it done again. She realised that it was for the best but upsetting none the less.  

This week I am hoping for less hospital involvement!!

Have had a very 'average' week and weekend

This week has seen the end of the summer, it has been horrible weather wise, cold windy and wet. None of those lovely mellow autumn days, last warm days of summer easing you into winter, just full blown cold and wet. I don't seem to be able to cope with the cold anymore and I am freezing. During the week I had to resort to my hot water bottle, in fact two hot water bottles were required I was so cold. I now have to dig out my winter gear. Having done so I realise that I don't have any woolly pullies to keep me warm. This morning I put in an order at everything £5, as it says everything is five pounds and there are some great bargains on there!! I am now waiting for  my parcel to arrive!!

Today has been a washout added to that I have not really felt like doing anything I feel like I have wasted my day. I have made some 21st Birthday invitations, so I do have something to show for my efforts. I hope that the lady who ordered them likes them. (she liked the prototype!)

It was a nice feeling to have the stack finished and piled up ready to go. 

This week is going to be a busy one with a trip to Cambridge and an overnight stay in London for a course. I need to start thinking about my forthcoming hip op. I have finally been told that they will do the operation in the first week of November. Its a huge weight off my mind to finally know that its planned. I just need to get from now to then!! I hope you all have a great week.

Top Tip of the Day

When taking your morning tablets, make sure that you don't drop any accidentally  into your morning cup of tea, I searched everywhere for the capsule that I knew I had dropped but couldn't find it and then took a mouthful of tea only to realise the most foul taste was my missing medicine PUKE!!!!!!!

Impulse Buy!!!

I am not the worlds best house keeper, I aspire to have a nice house but with working full time there is always something that gets in the way. I have lots of ideas but usually run out of time before I get to translate them into the real thing!! This year I plan on swapping some of my furniture. Carl will be moving into a new flat so its a great time to look at buying some furniture that I have had my eye on for a while!

I have started by buying a new kitchen table, the one I have had for an age was perfectly fine but for years I have been battling with getting the chairs around it. The table I had was a round one that converted into an oval, but even as an oval you could only get 4 chairs around it (you could seat more but the chairs stuck out). So I decided to look for a rectangular table. When we visited Fran and Pete a few weeks ago they had a lovely rectangular table and chairs exactly the same as mine except they had painted theirs and they looked lovely. So this week I bought a table off of The Bay I am thrilled with it I can get all six chairs tucked in under the table which seems both bigger than the last one but takes up less space!! I now plan to buy some ESP (easy surface prep)  as suggested by Fran and change the chairs into something far more beautiful.  Strange thing about the new table, when I rung the lady to arrange to collect it I thought I recognised her voice, it turns out it was a lady I used to work with a few years ago, its a small world!!

Anyway onto my impulse buy. I popped into Aldi to pick up some cereal bars when they had an electric mini cake maker on offer. So I came out with the machine and grand ideas of what I could do with it. It has turned out to be a really useful machine and I have used it lots already. I am not usually a cake maker as it takes a lot of effort and seems to make a load of mess. But I decided to try this maker with a packet mix just to give it a go. I have been most impressed. The cakes are bite sized and cook in less than ten minutes. 

They only had pink ones left and at £7.99 I thought it was worth a go.

I have found that Petit Four cases from Asda are the perfect size. You can only cook 7 at a time and whatever mixture you use you can only get one teaspoon in the case.

Yesterday I made a couple of batches some fruit cakes, which was dried fruit and mixed spice added to a basic Victoria sandwich cake mix!! I also made another batch using left over bananas mashed down and mixed in with the basic packet mix. I know that this doesn't make me into a Nigella, but for a quick and easy cake which because of its size must be better than eating a full sized cake calorie wise, I am pleased with how they have turned out.

I have even pushed the boat out and added proper swirly icing to the top of some of them !! I have started to look on line for other recipes and it seems that you can make mini tarts in the machine as well, so I can feel some experimentation coming on!!

So as I said quite an impulse buy when  I was only planning on buying some cereal bars!!!

Finally I have had a bit of a week and I am glad that it is over so I can move onto a fresh week, Beth has been very helpful and she knew I was feeling a bit fed up with everything, so she surprised me a beautiful bunch of flowers to star on my new table!!

I hope you all have a lovely week make the most of the last of the lovely weather, you can definitely feel a change to the air first thing in the mornings, we are heading into autumn, my favourite time of year!!

Busy Times!!

I have neglected my poor blog and I have been reminded by several people, so I'll take the slap on the wrist and get my finger out once again!! Beth appeared in the local paper after they did an article of her hair cut and fund raising efforts. She was thrilled to have made the cut and loads of people seem to get the paper as we have had lots of comments from people noticing her!!

In the past couple of weeks Beth has had her GCSE results and she obtained enough A to C grades to start her college course at Oaklands. She is studying early years learning and she is so excited!!!

After enrolling at college we all went out for a celebratory lunch!!!

We have harvested our potatoes and this year the amount was just a tad disappointing. I think that we have something going on in the container as they all appeared to be small and scabby and not in a very nice way!!!

Next year we'll try some in a different container. The weather is still fantastic so we are making the most of the last beautiful days of the summer. 

I love the way the air smells as we approach the autumn, because of the children were born in October and November its a smell that reminds me of a very happy time of year. Going into hospital and coming out with a lovely baby, going into hospital in the warm balmy weather and coming out with a frost and the start of cooler weather, before we know it, it will be Christmas.

I am enjoying doing my sewing again. It is amazing how good it feels to be able to put pieces of cloth together and producing a dress. I have treated myself to a new sewing machine, Beth had loaned me her little one, but its not really able to do the full range of things. I need it to be able to do straight stitch and zig zag, also I need to be able to change the foot and put in  a zipper. I tracked a beautiful Elna machine on EBay and managed to win it. Tom and I took a trip into London to collect it and I have given it a bit of a run out. So far all seems to be fine. So I am looking forward to putting it through its paces this weekend.

I am also enjoying a bit of card making using an on line word program. I am quite proud of myself I have made my own colour combinations by using hexi-decimal codes!! (I am not even sure I know what that means!!!) But it works for me!

Today Mum had an appointment at the hospital, a pre med for her knee replacement operation which is planned for later this month. Everything seems to be OK so its all go for the 24th of September. I hope the knee makes a difference and that she will soon be back on her feet.