what's in a name?

look what i found at the shops!

i'm not sure why they have re-branded pocky into mikado but they are delightful nonetheless.

they also come with a fun advert.

suggestions

happy valentines!

1. make this apple puff pastry tart. everyday can be valentines with this treat! this recipe makes 4 tarts.

pack of puff pastry at room temperature
flour for dusting
1 pink lady apple
4t of caramel sauce
1/4t cinommon
1T icing sugar
whipping cream (optional)

preheat the oven to 200C/390F.
roll out the pastry until 4 8x10cm hearts will fit. the recipe suggests making a template but i just guessed.
quater and core the apple and slice each quarter into 6 pieces.
lay out 6 apple slices in a heart shape on the pastry.
cut around the apple heart leaving a good sized (1cm) boarder (repeat for all 4 tarts).
spoon 1t of caramel sauce over each pastry heart and spread around leaving the boarder free of sauce.
arrange the apples on top of the sauce.
dust all 4 tarts with the the cinommon and icing sugar.
place on a large baking tray and bake for 12-15 minutes or until golden and bubbly.

whip some cream and swirl with some more caramel sauce, if you want.

eat warm! yum.

2. if you live in london go and see la clique, a melange of cabaret, new burlesque, and circus sideshow. for your pleasure are the talented..

Captain Frodo, Norway’s outrageously bendy man, hula hoop’s finest exponent Yulia Pikhtina, the PVC-clad Miss Behave who has a penchant for swallowing pointy objects.

not mentioned was my favourite guy, mario queen of the circus. a leather clad, juggling, queen fanatic. and miss behave didn't swallow anything for our show, but she did reveal some lovely crystals she had been hiding upon her person at the end of the act. she was naked save 3 small strategically placed hearts, a treat for the valentine's show. there's also the wet rope dancer as pictured above. yum.

la clique was fantastic! i would like to go again as i think each show is probably a little bit different.


3. if you live in bath go to jamie's italian, jamie oliver's new restaurant. i cannot gush enough about how much i enjoyed this restaurant. it was a tough decision on what to eat as the whole menu made our mouths water. there are a few locations, if you live near one you must go! if you're visiting england factor this restaurant into your plans. check out my flickr for the meal play-by-play.

i woke up to a snow day

building a snowman is harder than i remember.

buddy the snowman.

jack frost nipping at your nose

it's the real jack frost!

look what i bought

this my friends is a spider catcher. i am irrationally afraid of spiders. i cannot even play with fake plastic spiders during the 'minibeast' topic at school. i cannot bring myself to kill them or catch them, choosing instead to quake in fear if a see one. but those days are past me now!

you simply pull the trigger which opens up the plastic bristles at the other end. you place the bristles over the spider and release the trigger. the spider is caught and easily released outside as the bristles hold but don't squish. and it's all at arms length.

they give you a fake plastic spider to practice on, but i threw it out as i didn't like it. so i practised on my snail door stop. luckily i haven't had to use this on a real spider yet but i know there are 3 big ones lurking somewhere in the depths, i've seen them.

i'm not a fan of zoos

but i sure do enjoy a safari park. who knew lions and zebras and giraffes lived in england? alex and i ventured to longleat safari park on the way back from glastonbury a few weeks ago and i just realised that i didn't tell you all about it.


you basically drive around this HUGE estate for a couple hours and see all the animals. you can walk around a small bit but for the majority you have to drive which is slightly unfortunate. you can have your windows down for everything but the monkeys and big cats. the monkeys climb all over your car *and in your car if the windows are open* and the lions could eat you if your windows are open.


it's really alot of good fun. i'm not sure about the ethical issues behind keeping animals in a colder climate than they are used to but they really have vast areas to wander in and that makes me feel better about it. it's something i suggest you see if you're in england. check out flickr for some more animal photos.

a little life in my life.

on the weekend, alex and i went to a garden centre so i could spruce up my flat with some plants. i purchased a lovely trio of foliage.

a tall dragon tree with 3 levels of leaves.

a purple, fuzzy prayer plant. the purple side feels like velvet.

a stripey, green prayer plant.

alex then suggested we go to the pet shop across the way as he wanted some fish and was trying to convince me that i needed some fish. interesting idea as i have been feeling the urge for some sort of pet. we wandered around the shop looking at the various creatures and i made a slightly impulsive purchase.

may i introduce - yin and yang (a.k.a. the babies), they're chinese dwarf hamsters. they are so cute and tiny and i cannot tell them apart as they are exactly the same down to the last spot and stripe.

they truly live up to their name as one is very active while the other is very lazy. they have a little coconut house - which they adore, a hollowed out log, a running wheel and tunnel for their enjoyment. they are truly amusing to watch. one has fallen asleep in the wheel as i type this. so cute! i'm very excited; they may not be cuddly like cats but as least i can hold them, unlike fish. check out flickr for some more photo sweetness.

oooooo

look what i just stumbled upon! it took me a second to realise why someone would post a picture of crumpled pieces of paper.

go london!

i'm jumping on the blog bandwagon to heap scorn on the new 400, 000 pound london 2012 olympic logo.

lisa simpson giving a blow job.

the people behind it have already had to alter the tv spots because it caused epileptic fits.

graham norton showed me on thursday how you could use the logo as a tangram and create a dog chasing ducks or t-rex having a poo.

amusing.

an optical illusion

there's a magic strip of road in scotland, the electric brae, that will pull your car up hill.

you look out your windshield while your car is in neutral and you'll swear that you're facing a slight downward slope but your car will be naturally rolling up hill.

no one can explain what is going on.

i'm most certainly going to take a road trip up to scotland to check this out.

happy new year!

new years celebrations in london...what can i say? i'm glad i've finally been in the city over new year.

fire works over the london eye were great! alex and i managed to run out of the tube station and get to the river with 50 seconds to spare before midnight. here's the dodgy camera phone pictures to prove it.









today there was a 3 hour parade that wove it's way from parliament square to berkley square. fun! but there were too many american high school bands and cheerleaders for my liking.

the highlight?



when a large, inflated, fierce lion.....







almost tumbled into the crowd when it couldn't quite make a tight turn.

good time, good times.

i wish you all prosperity, happiness and good health for 2007.

kiss kiss xox

who is the queen of crafts?

that would be me.

i just made the christmas card star and it's beautiful. it almost made me cry a few times as the base shape doesn't take into consideration that all the points are going to be ever so slightly bigger than the template because of folding and card thickness. so getting your points to lay flat on the base is impossible, but creative gluing can achieve the perfect star!

here are my tips if you want to attempt the crafting glory...

you don't need 20 cards as the instructions say, you need around 10 as you can get 2 points out of every card front.

glue the base shape onto the back cover of a card and score the fold lines with scissors! scoring is your friend. make this first so it's good and dry when it comes to gluing on the points.

trace around the point template on the back of each card front with a pencil and scrape on the fold lines with a ruler and scissors. this way you score the card and it makes for a perfect fold. remember, scoring is your friend.

hold each point in place to ensure it's really stuck before trying to glue the next one.

good luck and happy crafting!

maybe i'll try the 3D snowflake next.

happy solstice everyone!

i thought yesterday was the solstice (as did erin and michael so i'm not alone) but as luck would have it, it's actually today. so i'm not late in wishing you all a happy december solstice. what are you going to do with your shortest day of the year?

i know what i'm going to do. more christmas baking! i have a batch of eggnog bread in the oven while i type. as you can seen from my previous posts, all i've done for the past 2-3 weeks is bake, cook and knit. but yesterday i changed it up a bit. with all my knitting now complete, i went for a walk and collected some of the branches that fell during the wind storm and made a christmas wreath. what fun!

i might attempt the christmas card star next.

White and Nerdy Weird Al

this video makes me giggle ever time i see it. i'm not usually a weird al fan, but i appreciate this as it reminds me of some of the boys i know.

theft

i stole this link from one of erin's friends...but she stole it from someone so i feel ok about it all.

this site amused me greatly. as much as it made me feel better about the world, it also made me a little sad...

FluidEffect. you need to click on portfolio and then before and after. but the other links are worth a browse as well.

must haves

is it wrong that i want almost everything on this website?

i mean, who doesn't want to nap with half a torso and arm?