preparations

grating carrots for cake

(ellie's favourite)

guess what's in the saucepan?

for her birthday breakfast

(ellie's favourite)

priorities

it is your daughter's 16th birthday and you are working on the actual day as it is a weekday, so you promise to take her out on the sunday prior to make up for it

do you:

a) don't get back to her, don't reply to a text when asked, post on facebook that you have bought yourself a new football shirt ready for the big game on the sunday you are supposed to be taking her out, go to the pub to watch that game and ignore your daughter?

b) get back to her telling her what time to be ready, collect her at that time and take her to lunch as promised?

c) be a real man and admit there is a football match that you cannot possibly miss and ask her if you can do saturday instead?

if you answered b or c then that is the mature and correct response

if you answered a, you are as selfish as my firstborn's father

rant over

oh behave

ever need to listen to something that just makes you grin?

this is it and yes, it is groovy baby

just £1.50 for 17 songs of sunshine

uses for a vanilla pod part 2

wash out your last big jar (mine was a coffee jar)

put the vanilla pod that you scraped the paste out of, inside the empty jar

pour sugar inside (and onto the worktop if you fancy) until the jar is full

and you've got this!

great to use for cake-making and ice cream making

sugar infused with pure vanilla

heaven

uses for a vanilla pod part 1

lottie bought a vanilla pod for £1 with her money last week at a groovy health food store in lewes where all the spices were in giant glass jars on the shelves (she also bought a nutmeg and a liquorice root but we haven't used them yet)

we got this book ages ago for 50p because we love those vermont men

we saw this recipe

we made this with the vanilla paste that is trapped inside the pod and has to be scraped out

best vanilla ice cream i ever shoved in my big fat gob

snails and slugs

this is the extent of our radish crop

 slimy creatures had the rest

the parsnips seem to have taken an attack as well

i am not happy

notepads

saw these eons ago on the crafty crow but have only just got round to making them

paint sample cards folded into 3, pages of paper stapled inside, decorated on the front

cute little noties for free!