Another lovely award!!

It is with much gratitude that I thank the lovely Debbie at Beautiful Dees for giving me the above award!!

Pop over and say hello to her she is so lovely!!

Now I have to follow the rules of the award.

I have to:

1. List the top ten thing's that make me happy.

2. List 5 trivia thing's about me.

3.Share with 5 people and ask them to do the same.

4. Link the blog's you choose and link the blog of the person who gave it to you.

Although it's been really difficult, I have chosen five ladies who follow me, whose blogs really cheer me and who leave me such lovely uplifting comments

But before I do, I want everyone to know how much I appreciate you all very much.

I have chosen the following lovely ladies, and cheated a bit too because I want to award it to six :

The Duchess of Tea at Rose Tea Cottage

Koralee at Bluebird Notes

Maggie at Just between You and Me

Claire at Are we nearly there yet?

Della at Della Grace's Life

Hannah at Deer that find no pasture


The ten top things that make me happy are:

1. When I see my children happy

2. Spending quality time with my family

3. Family holidays

4. Holidays in general

5. Seeing good friends

6. Blogging and my blog friends

7. Beautiful scenery

8. Beautiful flowers and gardens

9. Having a pampering session

10. Baking

5 pieces of trivia about me

1. I took adult tap classes, and the exams too!!

2. I didn't fly for over 20 years

3. I never go on any theme park rides - hate them, but love the parks!!

4. I finally learned to swim at 35

5. I love romantic films and books , they are my all time favourite

Well thats it!!

Kindest wishes and love

101 ways with Ripe Bananas!!!!

Yes, I've done it again!!

Bought some lovely bananas, not ripe enough to eat, so I put them in the fruit bowl to ripen, and promptly forgot about them!!!

So I here I am left with 4 really ripe bananas, again!!

What shall I do with them? Throw them away - no!!

Banana muffins again???

No, don't fancy them!!

Something more healthy.... now that's an idea!!!

I had a trawl on the internet and came up with these!!!

Healthy Banana Flapjacks

So I weighed out the ingredients




Melted the butter and margarine (actually I used all butter, but you could use all margarine)

To the melted butter I mixed in the sugar and honey




Then the porridge oats




I mashed the bananas, and added them to the oat mix (I used double banana as I had so many!!)




Mixed them in well and put the mixture into a baking tin



Baked them for 15 minutes




Yummy, scrummy banana flapjacks!!!

I thought I'd better try them to make sure they were ok!!!!

Kindest wishes and love

Such kindness!!

Today I must say a very big 'THANK YOU' to the lovely Louise of Handmade in Gibralter

(if you haven't already visited her blog please do, you will be in for a treat!)!!

Anyway, a couple of weeks ago Louise posted about some lovely spectacle cases that she had made!!

I left her a comment admiring them, and jokingly said that I could do with one myself: as I had just bought some new reading glasses that did not have a case!!

She very kindly offered to sent me one!!!

Now, that was an offer I couldn't refuse!!

And this morning my close friend Mr Postman left me this...








I was delighted when I opened it!





The case is really pretty

And my specs fit in perfectly!!




Isn't it lovely???

Thank you again dear Louise!!!

Have a wonderful weekend.

Kindest wishes and love

Happy Birthday to you!!!

Today is my lovely daughter's birthday - you all know who she by now!!

I just want to say Happy Birthday Kelly!!

Have a really great day, and an even better year!!




I love you!

from

Mum

X X X X X X X X X X X X X

Another treat!!!

After all the lovely things I have been sent recently, Mr Postman has been good to me again!!!

He dropped the latest copy of my favourite mag through the door!!!

One of my birthday presents from my sister this year was a subscription to this great magazine!!

I love everything about it, the very handy household hints, great recipes interesting features!!

I'm not a big UK magazine fan but I LOVE the American ones!!!!



I thought you might like to see my treat!!

I'm off to read it with a lovley cup of coffee now!!!


Mmmmm heaven!!

Kindest wishes and love

Surprise!!!

Good morning!! Welcome to my new look blog!!

It is a surprise for me too!!

I had been wishing for some changes for spring, with my blog genie and this morning my wish has come true!!!

I love it!!

So a big, big thank you to my blog genie!!

You all know who she is ....

of course it's Kelly!!!

What do you think??

Kindest wishes and love

We made it!!!

Do you remember the post about the trip Mr A and I had booked to go to France for the day in December with our friends John and Yasmin?

The Euro Tunnel was at a complete standstill that day, as was the motorway!!!

Well, we finally went on Saturday - Yay!!

We left home around 08:15



Our train was booked for 12:00

But we were lucky enough to get there in time for an earlier train!!!



When we arrived in Calais we went to check out some hotels near to the terminal as Mr Angel and John are off on a little jaunt in June with some friends on their Lambretta and Vespa scooters!!!

From there we went to Cite Europe to buy wine and to look round the gorgeous shops there!!

Of course we had to take a break for lunch!!!







Then we were off to do some more shopping!!


We went here...




and bought...





Then we went here



and bought




Yes more wine - none of it was for me!!! Yasmin does not belong to AA contrary to what you might think after seeing the photographs!!!! She stocks up!!!

We stopped off for a lovely french coffee!!


Before heading back to the Eurotunnel terminal and home!

We didn't have time for dinner in France too, so we went out for a late meal when we got home!!

We had a fantastic day - but we always do with John and Yasmin!!!

Thank you Yasmin for organising this great day out!!

Thank you Mr A for driving!!!

Kindest wishes and love

Award!!!

I would like to say a very big thank you to TWO of my blog friends who both awarded me the fabulous sunshine award!!

The two lovely ladies who gave it to me are:

Emma from Ems Shabby Shack
and
Hettie of Hettie DeHora

Thank you so much ladies I am delighted!!




It's such a cheerful award, thank you again!!!

I have decided not to pass it to anyone in particular, but to offer it to anyone who would like to take it, you all deserve it!! You are wonderful!!

Kindest wishes and love

Mothers Day and Yay 50 Giveaway results!!!

I hope all you mums out there had a wonderful day!!!

I had a lovely day, with some beautiful surprises!!

Firstborn Angel aka Kelly from Kelly's Recipes For Life

gave me these gorgeous goodies!!




The button necklace was made for me by Kelly!!! I particularly love the pansy buttons!!!

Look




Second born Angel, my son Lee gave me this lovely card and brilliant cd by the Noisettes!!!




As usual I have been really spoiled, with so many lovely things!!!

Thank you both, my darlings!!


'Yay 50'

Now as promised here are the results of my 'Yay 50' giveaway!!

I used a random number generator to choose the winner!!!!

And the winner of the cute teaset for one, the Cath Kidston serviettes and the tiny English Teatime Recipes book (plus an extra surprise!!) is:

the lovely Saskia of Join My Joy

Well done Saskia, please email me your details and I will post the parcel off to you!!!

Kindest wishes and Love

Giveaway and swap!!!

Back in January I entered the One World One Heart give away hosted by the lovely Sherry of

If I could set my soul free.

Much to my surprise I was announced as one of the winners!!!

The prize was a potholder and two dishcloths very cleverly made by the talented Sherry! We even had a choice of colour!!!

Sherry was a very good sport about posting from the US to the UK - Thank you for doing that.

On Tuesday morning Mr Postman dropped this through my door.





I was very keen to get it open!




Look what Sherry sent.....




Not one but two potholders, and the promised two dishcloths!!!

They are really lovely, made from gorgeous fabric and sooo well made!!!

Thank you so much Sherry, I love them, can't wait to use them!!!

Then on Wednesday the dear postman (I can call him that 'cos he is - a man!!)
left me another parcel!!




It was my swap parcel from the lovely Lydia of Waving or Drowning.

She told me secretly (You won't tell anybody - will you??) that this was her first swap and she was a bit nervous!!

I can say now - I have no idea why!!!

The parcel was fantastic!! So pretty when I opened the box!!





I almost left the gorgeous gifts inside so as not to spoil the wrapping!!




Anyway, I forced myself to open them, and I was absolutely delighted with what I found!!!

Look.......




There were two - yes two, large bottles of scrummy shower gel, one in wild cherry and the other in mango they smell really good: a large pack of mango tea lights, that smell so lovely too!! Then a large tub of satsuma body butter, and a pot of satsuma shimmer lip balm - called Born Lippy!! At this point I have to ask Lydia if she knew my mum - this was what she used to say about me!!! It's just not true!!!!
Last, but by no means least there was a bar of yummy, yummy dark chocolate with whole cherries!!!

I might have had to open it right away!!!




Well it was Lydia's fault, she sent it!!!

All I can say to Lydia is thank you so much - I loved everything!!

So you can see that this week I have been really spoiled by both Sherry and Lydia!!

Thank you very much again ladies!! You are both so generous!!

Kindest wishes and love

Pampered!!!

Last week I booked a facial to be carried out at my home!!!

Alicia - my friends daughter is a fully qualified beauty therapist!!

She uses Decleor products, and I have to say they are delicious!!

Well yesterday was the day!!!

She arrived promptly, and set up her bed and other equipment!




She put on some soothing music, and began with a fabulous back massage to relax me!!!






Then I was fully pampered and spoiled for the next hour or so!!





I could have laid there all day - Alicia is so relaxing to be around and very, very good at her job!!!

My skin felt wonderful afterwards!!

So of course I had to book another!!!

Well wouldn't you???

Kindest wishes and love

Waste not....!!!

On Friday I found some very ripe bananas in our fruit bowl.

I didn't want to throw them away so I decided to make some Banana Muffins!!!


I knew that my nephew was coming to me after school because his Daddy was going out: and I thought he would enjoy a muffin and a glass of milk.

I sifted together the flour, baking powder, bicarbonate of soda and salt into a large bowl.


I mashed together the bananas, sugar, egg and melted butter.



Then I mixed the wet ingredients into the dry.



Popped it into the muffin cases, and baked it at 180C or 360F for about 20 minutes!!


They came out really well and were very moist and light!!



While I had the oven on I decided to make little Flea (my nickname for my Nephew) his favourite dinner!!

He loves Pasta al Forno!!

To make it cook 250g of your favourite short pasta
I chopped and fried some smoked bacon and mixed it with homemade tomato sauce (we always have it available in the fridge) and the drained pasta. Pour this into an ovenproof dish.

Meanwhile in a jug or bowl heat 1pint of milk with some fresh thyme, a piece of onion, salt, pepper and a pinch of grated nutmeg and allow to infuse for a while.
Strain the milk and use to make a white sauce (I just used some cornflour) but you can make a conventional white sauce with butter and flour if you wish.
Pour the sauce over the pasta in the dish and top with grated cheese.
Bake at 170C or 340F for about 40 minutes or until golden on top.



Serve with a scrummy salad!!

After all that I thought I deserved a little treat!



Well that was our dinner on Friday night!!!

I hope you enjoy it, if you decide to make it!!

Kindest wishes and Love