Journeys Are My Diary

Life, Adventures, Entertainment and more - A little bit of everything blog!

Week 45 – Monday Round-up

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Back to work and back to being miserable! That pretty much sums up last week. Luckily that’s a bit melodramatic, but you get the idea…

Monday to Friday was work and school for all of us. It was the first week back after a few weeks off too, which is always the worst. Work is still up and down as always, except since the chef left at the end of last term, we now have an agency chef – which brings with it, several pros and cons! Anyway, work was meh some days and okay the others.

In all honesty, I don’t remember a lot of what happened this week. I remember that Monday I felt pretty miserable and that it was work related, but otherwise I have no idea what I did in the evening – other than I probably watched TV with Chris and/or wrote blog posts. The girls had Singing Stars after school, that’s pretty much all I know! Tuesday I know the kids were with their dad after school so Chris and I spent time together. Again, sadly I don’t really remember much more. I think I had a blog catch up night though! Wednesday I know Chris was working and the girls and I were at home relaxing. In the evening I had a Lush bath and it was heaven. I tried out loads of new products – all of which I’ll be reviewing on my blog soon.

Thursday Chris was working again and the girls were home so we just chilled out. In the evening, Nat came around and the evening flew by way faster than expected. Amy also sent me a box of Lush which was much appreciated, especially as it had all my favourite things in it! When Chris came home, it was his last shift of his current job. Next week he starts a new job at BT and I think he’s looking forward to it.

Saturday I’d agreed to help my brother move house so Chris and I dropped off the girls at my mum’s at 8.45am and then drove to the storage container to unload all the stuff my brother and his girlfriend wanted. It started to rain midway through and we all got soaked but really it was just the beginning of how the rest of the day would be! We drove to our house and swapped dinning tables, then my brother’s new house to drop stuff off. We went for dinner at Subway (my brother’s treat) and then back to his old house to collect more big furniture. We then headed to his new house one last time to unload everything, before Chris and I headed off. Luckily we weren’t responsible for moving everything, just the large pieces of furntiture. It didn’t take too long and I did catch a few amusing pictures while Chris hoisted my brother up so he could look in the loft!

After dropping off the van, Chris and I headed to mum’s to spend some time with the girls before they were going to their dad’s. I was incredibly tired and really just wanted to go home, but I also wanted to spend some time with Megan and Lily. It was about 6pm when their dad came for them and Chris and I headed straight home. He ordered takeaway and we sat down with a bottle of wine and Indian, to enjoy our evening. We caught up on “The Flash” and “Arrow” but midway through an episode I started to drop off so Chris suggested it was time for bed. It was only 9.30pm and it went so against the grain to go that early, but I agreed, knowing I needed it.

In the morning, we didn’t have much of a lay-in but it was no surprise given what time we went to bed. However we had a nice relaxing morning and just took it easy. I spent majority of the morning planning the next two party’s food and then went to Tesco to pick up a few essentials. In the afternoon Chris and I put up a huge mural on our bedroom wall and then I sorted out all of the Christmas presents I’d already bought and still need to. The girls got home at 3pm and I then hung out with them, caught up on the X Factor and just enjoyed time with them, all before they went to bed. Once Lily was asleep, Chris, Megan and I watched the Finale of “Next Great Baker” and we were pleased with the results. Once Megan was in bed too, Chris and I watched loads more Arrow until we tired enough to go to sleep.

This is the basic round up of my week, but what I do feel like overall is that November is not turning out to be as good as October. I wrote about my dieting issues over at Twice the Mum, but it goes deeper than that really. All the organising, all the motivation, all the blog plans I had during October have stopped now I’m into November. I feel like work, my emotions, everything is effecting my mood and how things are feeling now. I don’t quite know how to get back to the place I was in, but I know I want to.

Week 18 – Monday Round-up

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So its that time again! Trying to do it on time this week. I’m also going to try and make it quick as I’ve got a lot more to do than originally anticipated.

Last week was a good week for the most part. I full week of work and school, unlike the week before, but good nonetheless. There was nothing particularly notable about the beginning of the week, other than another Disney Princess picture from Megan.

My brother came around Tuesday night to catch up on OUAT and the rest of the week, evenings were spent either watching TV with Chris or doing stuff for my blog or the upcoming Murder Mystery. Thursday night I worked, which was both tiring but also nice because between work (ending at 2.30 and starting again at 5) I had the opportunity to wander into town which is rare these days. I picked up a ghastly dress for Saturday night’s murder mystery at £1.99 and also a cake book for £3. I also treated myself to a copy of Elle, because it had a free Benefit Porefessional sample with it. I popped into see Chris at work too (which has been a while since I did) taking him a chocolate love bird from Thorntons.

I was glad to see Friday as this week has seemed very tiring, probably because of working the extra shift on Thursday. Friday evening Megan and I made stained glass windows, ready for the Murder Mystery the next day and I have to admit they turned out good.

Friday night, Nat came around. We had a good chat and a catch up, also starting on baking the cakes I needed to make Erika’s cake. She stayed until pretty late but it was nice, despite the fact I was desperate to crawl into bed.

Saturday was a busy day. Needed to pop out to the post office, start making food for the murder mystery and occupy the kids all until my mum arrived. I baked some fresh bread which turned out beautifully too. Mum came for the girls around 2pm and when she left I went food shopping. The rest of my day was then spent baking, cooking and making food for the Murder Mystery that night. On top of that, I also finished off Erika’s cake, as you may have seen in my post yesterday.

The murder mystery was fun but that was really because of the people not the murder mystery itself. The food was all good but loads left as usual! At least we all have a lot of nibbles for the week! Yesterday, Chris and I got a bit of a lie in as mum had the kids. However when we did get up, we only bummed around and watched TV anyway until the kids got home. In the afternoon Chris went to see his sister, nephew and gran, all up at his Gran’s house. I was going to take the girls swimming but in all honesty I was still feeling exhausted so I gave it a miss.

We got ready for the girls to go to their dad’s, packed a bag and had dinner. However when he arrived there was a bit of an argument, Megan got upset and didn’t want to go. Because Megan didn’t want to go, Lily didn’t either. I hated that they were both missing out on going to their dad’s but at the same time didn’t want to force Megan if she was feeling upset. Despite inviting their dad in for a coffee while Megan decided how she felt, the girls ended up staying here last night. That means that everything I had planned for today is out the window, but I suppose its actually pretty nice to have them unexpectedly around for the day.

Now, as I said, I have a lot to do so I’m going to leave it at that. However, though I didn’t mention it yesterday, while everyone was celebrating “May The Fourth Be With You” and all that, it would have been my dad’s birthday. It would have been his 60th. I’m usually okay on May 4th, but perhaps with a mixture of everything else that ended up happening yesterday evening, I found myself quite upset. Luckily today I’ve woken up feeling better but it wouldn’t have been right not to at least give a nod to one of the greatest men I ever knew. Love you Dad.

Cakes Recently…

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As you know, last year I sort of got myself into a bad habit of making people birthday cakes! It was definitely accidental and I both love it and hate it all at the same time. This year so far, I’ve made about 6 cakes already, though I’ve only really posted about two of them here.

The first of the year, was for Lily’s birthday party on 1st March. She loves Frozen and so I made her a Frozen themed birthday cake.

Obviously I started Lily’s birthday cake in the last week of February. During that week, very last minute, I was also informed it was someone I work with’s 30th birthday. Of course it was then somehow my responsibility to make the cake! As it was only a colleague and not a friend of family member, I didn’t feel obliged to make some huge masterpiece. Instead I settled for a simple chocolate caramel sandwich cake.

In fact, I say Lily’s was the first of the year, but I actually ended up making a Valentine’s cake too in early February. I’m not really classing this as one of my cakes though, as Megan was the one making it and I just helped out. That said, I definitely had a major hand in its creation, so I suppose that should feature in this list.

Anyway, after Lily’s Frozen cake at the beginning of March, the fun began (I say fun in a very loose way…). Amy‘s birthday was next, in the middle of March. For that I knew I wanted to do something special, not only because she is my best friend but also because she didn’t get one the year before! In the end I settle on doing a Peter Pan silhouette cake.

Despite many disasters, I got there in the end. It wasn’t exactly how I’d pictured it, but it was okay all things considered. Amy liked it and ultimately that was the main thing. You can see my whole post about this cake here.

After all the work and effort I put into Amy’s cake, I was genuinely exhausted. The last thing I felt like doing was making another cake, but in less than a week it was Chris’ birthday. Though he insisted he didn’t want a cake, I didn’t have the heart to not make him one at all. Chris is a bit of a geek and so I decided on a very simple idea (it was actually Megan’s idea) to do a Minion – from Despicable Me. I originally made both a rectangle and a circle cake, but in the end only used the rectangle one. I rounded off one end, covered it in chocolate buttercream and then iced it with blue and yellow. It didn’t turn out too bad, considering it didn’t take very long and it was definitely low maintenance.

Finally, I got a break from cakes for a while. I knew my mum’s was towards the end of April, but otherwise nothing! Okay, so its only a months break, but honestly I was glad for it.

When the week of mum’s birthday swung around, I asked her what kind of cake she’d like. She isn’t the sort to want something in the shape of something, or a certain theme, so I at least knew it would be fairly simple. She said she didn’t mind, something with fresh cream. I know she was just trying to make things easy for me really. I went away to think about it and even have a bit of a google. For some reason Tiramisu came up under one search. I then had this crazy idea to make a Tiramisu cake, knowing that she would love it and so would Chris, my brother and I – all the people who would be there the evening of her birthday.

I plan to post properly about mum’s cake, including the recipe so you can try it yourself – so make sure you look out for that post soon! I’m really pleased with how it turned out and it tasted delicious!

Last but not least, my brother’s girlfriend Erika, had her birthday this week and her party yesterday. I couldn’t let it pass without making a cake. I was originally going to make her a Big Bang Theory cake but changed my mind.She is a huge sweet fan, especially Haribo and especially Golden Bears.

I wasn’t quite sure if it was going to be a box, a bag or a bowl when I first started off. However it ended up as a sort of bowl I guess. I actually ended up putting the lid of my cookie jar on the top, making it look like a cupcake which was pretty cool! Anyway, inside it was pink and white stripes and I was very pleased with it!

I’m hoping my next cake won’t be until the beginning of June. The only birthday in May is my own and I think Nat will be dealing with that cake (current plan is a set of boobs.. don’t ask!). My brother’s birthday is June 9th and I imagine we’ll be having a Superhero murder mystery. As such, I would think a superhero cake will be in order!

Do you make cake? What’s your best creation so far?