Settling back into the new year.

Looking back Christmas was an age ago, in fact it was last year!!  Our holiday is just fading into a pleasant memory, now my head is thinking about holidays to come. This year we have a few weekends away planned, exploring a few cities in Europe that we haven't tried before, I am really looking forward to exploring Krakow and Warsaw. 

Being back at work takes the lions share of the the day and when I get home I feel that I need to do 'something' I really like crafting, one way and another I have had a go of loads of things over the years. I am in the middle of a crochet blanket that I started back in the summer, its one of those things you can pick up at any time, I have been doing it since the start of the summer. Its very nearly finished I will soon be able to start sewing it all together. I have my good old standbys Scrap booking and jewellery making. Sometimes its nice to have something that you can pick up and do where ever. So this week I have been fiddling with something that I haven't done in a good long while - doodling!! Only now someone has tried to corner the market and has called it 'Zentangling' as far as I am concerned its still plain old doodling, something I find myself doing the minute I am on the phone for any length of time! So I decided to be more focused with my doodling and try and actually produce something, I got my Sharpies out and had a go. 

Trouble is doodling is really addictive and before I knew it I had whiled away a few hours playing with my pens!! You can't really go wrong with it because if you make a 'mistake' you just turn it into a design feature!!!

Thing is since I told a few folk about this style of doodling I have been asked to show people how to do it! so I am going to a little get together with the intention of passing on the addiction!!

One of the ladies at work was raving about her new soup maker, she bought it into work yesterday and gave us all a demo. It was quite amazing, 21 minutes from switching on we were eating a lovely thick soup, it was amazing. Well it made me think, Tom loves soup and will often have soup for lunch. Its a great way to use up left over 'stuff' so I looked into it a bit more and found that it was cheapest at Dunelm Mills. So I chatted it over with Tom and made the purchase. Tonight we have had ham and pea soup.

It was a doddle to make, one onion, a couple of potatoes peeled and chopped. peas and some left over boiling bacon. All you do is dump it all in the 'machine ' along with some water and stock cubes. Switch it on and 20 minutes later you have lovely smooth thick soup! Its a great way to use up odds and ends of left overs. I can't wait to try a few concoctions out!!