A little bit of treasure hunting and cake baking...

Hello! It's been a busy week though with nothing terribly exciting to report (as usual!).

I did manage to make a tour of the charity shops and was lucky in my treasure hunt. First up was the white jug (rather pricey at £1.99) in the above photo containing the remains of the Mother's Day flowers. Note also our extensive Easter decorations - two little egg candles, well at least we remembered to light them!

This is a detail from a lovely linen table runner decorated with wool embroidery in an art deco style. 75p for all that hard work!

Here it is again with a bundle of children's books(10p - 60p each) to keep A & N amused and a little appliqued tray cloth (40p). I also bought a large pure wool throw (not photographed) which I proceeded to wash at 30C which unfortunately has resulted in it felting. It's now on the sofa in the living room and doesn't drape as well as it should, still, at least it's clean. Next time I'll be more careful and less hasty.

Much baking has been done this week. This is the last slice from the first chocolate cake of the week, made for the ladies attending a craft night. It's made using my favourite chocolate fudge cake recipe (very quick and easy but still delicious) which is listed under the recipe section in my sidebar.

I did make an attempt at decorating some eggs for Easter. These are just eggshells stuck back together then covered with tissue paper and glue. A was then going to jazz them up but we ran out of time for this Easter. We will finish them over the next few days then put them by for next year.

And here's some of the other baking I've been doing...

I finally hosted a birthday party on Saturday for hubby. He had a big birthday earlier this year (ummm, back in Feb to be exact - I get round to things eventually!), I made a huge chilli, rice, chicken fajitas, salsa, guacamole, key lime pie, another chocolate fudge cake, birthday cake (with lots of yummy butter icing!), chocolate caramel shortbread and fresh fruit salad. Family members also brought along other dishes. We've all got healthy appetites, just as well! Fortunately the weather was nice so the younger ones were all out in the garden playing football which meant the grown-ups weren't too squashed in the living room!

Much cleaning and tidying also had to happen before this big event, so that's pretty much what I've been up to this last week. No time even for a Saturday morning cycle. On Sunday though we did make a little family cycle along the cycle-path to the loch. The children have recently discovered the otter sculpture there which they enjoy playing on, here's a detail...

This morning I thought A had a birthday party to go to. She got all dressed up (I even remembered to brush her hair!), she made a card, I wrapped the present, we ventured out into the wind and rain, then discovered we were a day early! At least we weren't a day late. This afternoon weather is still not great - the perfect excuse to get out the Nanny Mc Phee DVD I bought recently (it's the first one, we've still not seen it yet), dig out what's left of the Easter eggs and make ourselves comfy on the sofa...