Weird finds

I found this on the pavement on my way home.
Such an odd thing to find.

Thankfully no certificate. Just it's house.

Ice cream

Halloween costumes

Clifdon hampden

Today was a super busy.one! I went for lunch with tracey at patisserie Valerie (I know, but it is my birthday week!) And for dinner with soph at the barley mow in Oxfordshire.

I left my house with a few hours to spare, so stopped off at milletts to see the xmas display and the goats. It was insanely busy so I curtailed my pumpkin buying and drove on to the pub.

Clifden Hampton is really pretty and really prone to flooding. It has a raised wooden footpath through the village to allow you to.avoid any standing water. It also has it's church high up on the hill, which makes a very pretty landmark.
I exploded the churchyard and view before walking along the towpath towards days lock.
I took some lovely autumnal photos. I almost fell in the thames in pursuit of the perfect low sun photo.

I met soph at 6 (and was pretty muddy and hungry by then). We had a really good catch up and I'm really pleased we went with her recommendation for the pub, the food was amazing. I had battered fried herby halloumi and chips (and peas, but who cares about them?) And it was amazing.
I also had cherry bakewell roulade, followed by food envy because soph had the salted caramel sundae which looked awesome.

We even got to see the stars after dinner.
🌠

Using up the heritage carrots- Carrot cake (Autumn activity 4/26- halloween cake)

• 175g light muscovado sugar
• 175ml sunflower oil
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
• 3 large eggs, lightly beaten
• 140g grated carrot
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
   (about 3 medium)
• 100g raisins
• grated zest of 1 large orange
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
• 175g self-raising flour
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
  
  

  
  

  
  
  
  

  
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ tsp grated nutmeg (freshly grated will give you the best flavour)

For the frosting

• 175g icing sugar
• 1½-2 tbsp orange juice

1. Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4/fan 160C. Oil and line the base and sides of an 18cm square cake tin with baking parchment. The easiest way to do this is to cut two long strips the width of the tin and put each strip crossways, covering the base and sides of the tin, with a double layer in the base.
2. Tip the sugar into a large mixing bowl, pour in the oil and add the eggs. Lightly mix with a wooden spoon. Stir in the grated carrots, raisins and orange rind.
3. Mix the flour, bicarbonate of soda and spices, then sift into the bowl. Lightly mix all the ingredients – when everything is evenly amalgamated stop mixing. The mixture will be fairly soft and almost runny.
4. Pour the mixture into the prepared tin and bake for 40- 45 minutes, until it feels firm and springy when you press it in the centre. Cool in the tin for 5 minutes, then turn it out, peel off the paper and cool on a wire rack. (You can freeze the cake at this point.)
5. Beat together the frosting ingredients in a small bowl until smooth – you want the icing about as runny as single cream. Set the cake on a serving plate and boldly drizzle the icing back and forth in diagonal lines over the top, letting it drip down the sides

I've decided to make mine into cupcakes, and top them with betty cromer frosting and eyeballs, because it's halloween. :)

I will never again spill my gin

The perfect dress

Admittedly, the perfect dress is usually "in the right colour, in your size and in the sale".
Not bright green and 50 quid.

I have decided that this is the perfect birthday dress because it's my favourite colour (forest green), it's unusual and I can wear it to Christmas parties.

I didn't mean to buy it. I just loved it too much to put it back on the rail!

Coffee and records

Today I had physio for my wrist and an osteopathy appointment, both an opposite sides of the town.
I stopped off at baila for a cuppa and some macaroons to kill time and hide from the weather. Well Earned too as I walked 17,000 steps today, my poor feet deserved a break.
Baila also sells records, they have some good looking 90s grunge records so it's lucky I haven't been paid yet or I would have been really broke.

Ray and I spent the evening watching harry potter and party prepping. We split the responsibilities up. That's pretty much as far as we got tbh...

Autumn activity 6/26- jump in leaves

Coate water park

Sunday is adventure day!
I'll be honest and say that i'm a bit out of sorts today.
I found out from facebook that a friend of mine had died. After lots of research I found the report in the paper of how he met his untimely demise.
That is the problem with living in the internet age.
When I die, please can someone just update my status with exactly what happened, after texting everyone in my phone?
It would be kinder.
http://www.thisisoxfordshire.co.uk/news/14817910.UPDATED__Man_dies_after_car_smashes_into_bus_shelter/

Anyway, Traff's recipe for cheering up is largely fresh air and crazy golf based. And I do feel better for hitting something hard with a golf club.
Although I did lose 70 to Traffs 62.

In the theatre

Watch this space,but I might be rather more busy than usual soon- i've been offered a sound engineering opportunity.

Now I just have to figure out how a whole theatres worth of kit works.

I always did enjoy a challenge. Or something like that.

Haunted chromatography?

Spooky!

Can I wash these?

Traff washed his fluffy wrestling boot covers in the machine with his kit today after his match last night.
Normal he hand washes his accessories as they're pretty niche so they're mostly handmade custom bits of kit and therefore a bit delicate.
He came running upstairs wetting himself laughing with them out of the machine as they looked really sorry for themselves "like when a cat falls in the bath".
Fingers crossed that they recover when dry...

The farmers market

Traff and I are having a leisurely day today as tomorrow night he is going to see Rob Zombie in Camden, so Ross (who's going too) is arriving from Cardigan today.
As he's at the mercy of rail replacement busses we really don't know when he'll get here so,our Sunday adventures were limited to the farmers market by the shopping centre.

I got some heritage carrots, which probably taste like normal carrots but look awesome. I think i'll have some as a work snack with hummus and make an epic looking carrot cake with the purple ones for the Halloween party (or the party prep gathering).
I considered buying a squash to make adorable Halloween lanterns from but decided they would be better for eating. I will get some next time and make roasted vegetables as per my Autumn activities list!

I also got a peanut butter and chocolate cupcake, which looked fancy but did not meet my exacting expectations.
It was a vanilla cake with chocolate and peanut butter frosting. I think I could do it better with a chocolate cake and peanut butter frosting. I.might try it and see if i'm right...

The search for Katie's wedding dress

To the gym!

Right, i'm going to be good, and start rebuilding the muscle strength i've lost whilst my wrist has been recovering.

This is my new gym routine. Fingers crossed it helps me to get fitter stronger faster quicker!

Foggy morning

The first proper fog of the year! It feels a bit like we skipped Autumn and went directly to winter.

Coaching course

Today I spent the day on a course, learning how to coach others in order to support them in making progress and unlocking their own potential.
It was really interesting but I do feel a bit information overloaded.

Coaching is all about listening to people and teasing out the solutions from them. Then identifying their next steps to meeting that long term.goal.

Just listening and not offering a solution or comment is really difficult. Honestly, try it. It's totally alien. It feels really rude.
But strangely if you give people time they kind of untangle things mentally and can identify what would help them.

I'm looking forward to trying it out at work!

Autumn activities 3/26 Halloween crafts

I got roped into making examples for my mum's rainbows.

Halloween party prep!

I'm so excited for Halloween (As always). We're so excited as we're having a halloween party- and as we have a whole house we have room to really go to town!
:)

Heres the best of the pinterest highlights- nice easy crafts that look awesome and don't need any expensive materials.