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

Yay 50!!!!

I am so pleased today, because I now have over 50 followers. I think of you as friends though!!

I am surprised, because when I started blogging I was sure that nobody would want to read anything about me!!

But I wanted to try anyway, and I am so glad that I did!!

As always you lovely ladies in Blogland have been welcoming, supportive and kind: and kept reading and commenting on my posts - that has been the best bit!!!

So, to show how grateful I am for your support and kindness, I decided to host a 'thank you giveaway'!!!

As you all know, I have been out once or twice lately, and my will to shop has returned, I have purchased with blog friends in mind!!!!

What do you think?


Have your very own afternoon tea with a cute 'tea for one' set and some CK Napkins, there are also loads of treats to make in this little book of English Teatime Recipes!

If you would like to be included in the give away please leave me a comment at the end of this post by midnight 12 March 2010!!!

The winner will be announced on 15 March 2010!!!

Good luck my dear friends and thank you for your lovely comments and love!!!

Kindest wishes and love

To the shops !!

I thought I'd try a little shopping trip a couple of days ago: accompanied by my personal home help and chauffeur, we set off!!!

Inspired by the lovely goodies some of you ladies have found in their local CSs, we thought we'd give ours a try!!!

It was quite disappointing as there wasn't anything remotely pretty or vintage in any of them!!

It wasn't a totally wasted journey though!!

We did stop for a latte and a cake - well we didn't want to feel faint from lack of food!!

Thus fortified, I did manage to find these pretties to cheer me up!!







And this for my Hong Kong holiday



I thought it would be perfect dressed up to go out for dinner or dressed down to go sightseeing or shopping!!

What do you think??

Kindest wishes and love

Hong Kong Phooey

Great excitement!!!!

For a while now Mr Angel and I have been planning a holiday with some good friends!!!

Where shall we go!!!

What shall we do!!!

well, we finally settled on this......

Hong Kong

then.....






Phuket Thailand

and finally....





Bangkok

I am soooo looking forward to it!!!

When are we going???

Later this year!!!

Watch this space!!

Kindest wishes and love