Quick answer to a comment

Yes to Juliab  he did like the cake- 24 hours later it looked like this!

The slodge underneath is chocolate spread- I used it to stop the cake moving about on the board!

Cake and crochet- yeah!

Who could top a day of cake and crochet?

Wanna see some pics???Course you do!

Use cornflour to roll out icing- less sticky than icing sugar.

My method to get cheap character cake which is wheat-free( so I get some!) and the kids seems to like

1) trace an image ( mine is from the computer) then use a pointy stick to trace image impression on freshly iced cake( err bought icing of course...but I did roll it out!).

2)Colour in outlines with icing pen and food colouring

3)Paint colours on with food colouring and paintbrush

4)Remember to open food colouring bottles with a cloth or your hand will look like this!

5) Put on matching theme table cloth to remind everyone what it is supposed to be!

Where is the crochet I hear you ask?

Note to self, put pics in chronological order

I think I like the colours

 I like the colours more ,the more I go on...not frogging anything though so I had better get used to them! First I wasn't sure about the denim blue, then the green, now the yellow..yet somehow together I like them!

The Mersey

Just  quick pic from our staycation, this is the Mersey waterfront world heritage site

taken from Seacombe- by Spaceport

Hmm it may come out rather small but you get the idea- oh and click it and you get a bigger version- you will also get the idea that I stood there are took a few pics with my little -non posh or exciting but does the job-camera!
I so totally love this City you know!

A day in the life of Amareke

Renaissance Mama 
showed us what she did in a day so I have followed suit!

 My day started at 7am with a wonderfully warm greeting from my youngest!

 Ok onto the washing up- I hate washing dishes with a passion, so refuse to do it more than once a day! But I get to look at this wonderful stained glass panel by the talented ( and my school friend)Claire Seely

 The trouble is, when you lift the blind, you get this! But the garden is a playroom really, AND we've been having a huge clearout( I mean a once-a-decade type clearout!) so it isnt exactly magazine perfect ( ha ha as if it ever was, or  would I want it to be!)

 Oops forgot brekkie and it is 9 already- But ( forgot to mention) I have done an online grocery shop( half the products bought compared to what mysteriously ends up in the trolley when the kids coming with you)
So, Mrs Crimbles ginger cake and hot chocolate- healthy start eh? But see the lovely picture my littlest did for me?

 930, time to hit the shops...designer bags? new nail polish? yarn/beads/ gorgeousness? Nope, it is middle fella's birthday party tomorrow so I buy a pinata, wrapping paper, party bag gifts, pinata filling stuff, and little cakes to take to school on Monday! A well ,I am a bit nearer to being organised for the party! 
1030 Homework time- I hate homework in holidays- sorry I just do, I don't want my children to get lazy ...but I want a break from homework helping too! Anyway, reception spellings, yr 3 comprehension and Maths done.

 Also some stencilling! I hate my doors- cheapy ones with the plainest of plain surface and that cardboardy filling inside...but I also havent got the spare money to buy 7 new decent ones I would like sooooo we stick lining paper( the wallpaper stuff) on them and draw on them! Great fun for the kids and distracts from the door ugliness! Also good for height measuring...but the front room one has animals and dinosaurs on it now!

 STOP PLAYING AND GET SOME LAUNDRY DONE WOMAN! Well I have been on "holiday" for a bit! ps the orange bag is the clean stuff!

 New rug! yay I love it, even worth hoovering for( not keen on that either ,but I like it once it is done!) How fun is this( Ikea) rug? Also distracts from " death by beige" ( as named by my best mate) carpet underneath ( no point replacing with 2 young boys!)

 Lunch! at 12 noon- I get hungry ok? Jacket potato, garlic cream cheese and fried onions that were supposed to go into home made hummous but looked sooo goood! Oh and a big pile of watercress, which 1)I love 2) I am craving- must be needing iron and 3) slightly offsets the cakey breakfast!

 Now another reason I eat early might just be because I have found a series of House reruns starting at 1220! No big surprise what I did for a bit! But I managed some hooky goodness...having chosen all yellows ( see lunch pic!)and hooked 15 granny square middles...I decided ( with help from daughter- my artistic director!) that these colours were nicer! I have now done 25 middles, but I will show you them another time.
Hungry hubby at 3pm( night worker so mealtimes are rather fluid round here!) but after half an hour I realised the oven really wasnt working well- the top element is dead, so popped out to the takeaway ...which was shut due to water damage!...so to the local ( award winning) butchers and got some precooked stuff, which was dutifully scoffed at great speed by the troops!
After that was attempted negotiation by middle fella to stay up late , then stories/bedtime routine including 3 stories for youngest and a chapter of a book for middle fella. That takes me over the 12 hours!
Watched a bit of telly later including "New Tricks" which I like because it is about police detectives who are all older, but use this to their advantage as experience and contacts help. I love seeing older/ordinary looking people on screen, I am getting a bit bored with the airbrushed look!

Ok ,I am off now, have to find someone with a working oven to bake middle fella's birthday cake and my granny square middles are calling! 

What have I been doing?

 I am strangely not surprised yet astonished that I have spent an entire week tidying the living room and the boys' bedroom! BUT the living room needed to be free from the huge (Ikea Expedit 5x5 cube size) shelving unit- as seen taken apart in the hall( taking up most of the hall!) PHEW! thankfully now stored in the garage for future reuse ...maybe shelves for crafty books- in negotiation with himself.

Meantime we have been having a "staycation" i.e. a stay at home holiday, so pics time- dd drawing on
Formby Squirrel woods and beach A National Trust owned woods with a duney beach too- perfect for all the family.

 Miles of beach- my family are those blobs...err not in a rude way, in a "can't see them they are so far away" way!

 They must do some shelter making sessions as we saw a couple of these. The kids were half expecting to see a hobbit or two!

 Ever had trouble seeing your camera screen in bright sunshine? Well I did, so this is a shot of actual seagulls playing in the therms, rather than one of many blue sky shots when I missed the birds!

 Obviously they need to manage the woodland, so there were some trees cut down- fair enough...but how weird is this cross section, we think it looks like a surprised cat- what do you think?

 Day two staycation was at Spaceport at Seacombe   
Wallace and Gromit went down especially well with L who adores everything Nick Park  at the moment.

 This here is ferns at Thurstaton Common
Here are some more views.

 Ok Can't resist some more Wallace and Gromit pics- such a fab day!

TTFN

Belated Mother's Day Post!

This is a photo of a photo so sorry if it is skewy! L-R, My Grandad, Mum, Aunty Liz, Gran. I think it would have been taken in the 40's .I just wanted to share 2 Mums in my family I love dearly.

Also ...what a jazzy jacket my Gran was wearing! I have some shoes not unlike the ones she is wearing too!