Romanais Blog

Boots & Pig Cake...

28/2/2013

I brought these boots from Asda when we were on holiday, they were in the sale £38 reduced to £20. I loved them when I saw them as they are leather (great buy!), are flat (I cannot drive in even the remotest of heels plus I walk loads), knee high (keep my legs warm!) and I liked the buckle and strap detail.

My feet are usually a size 5 or 6 depending on the style of shoe so I tried both sizes on. The size 5 fit in the length but are a little snug in the width but the size 6 are huge. I couldn't decide what size to buy so I brought both with the intention of taking a pair (or both!) back.

I still haven't decided which pair I will keep yet but I am leaning towards to size 5 and hope that once I have worn them for a bit they will loosen up. Nice,?

Mark brought me this as I had run out of Soap & Glory Mist you Madly (the pink bottle). I should do a post on fragrances soon as I love them so much and have so many! I love these little travel bottles as they are perfectly handbag sized.

Ok, so as I have linked back to original blog which is here I shouldn't have broken any copyright laws? (Am new to this so not sure whats allowed/not allowed!)

But anyway, how fantastic is this cake! Memo to self, make this for Anais or Romans birthday. I love the pigs bums sticking out of the mud, this really made me smile, I love it!

Anais came home from school a little damp today! They are doing an enterprise project where they have to think of ideas to make money. On Tuesday she took things in to sell. Today she was the target while people threw wet sponges at her, hence she come home damp! She had fun though!

We find out tomorrow if Anais and Jordan get their first choice of school for September. We requested to find out by email which is instant, otherwise we would have had to wait until Saturday via snail mail. Eeeeeek! I am hoping I get the email when I am back from shopping as I arranged to have it sent to my phone. I will be a nervous wreck shopping tomorrow.

Cake Decorating

27/2/2013

Today was week five of cake decorating and after I got back from dropping the kids off at school I knocked up this little batch of pink butter cream icing. I never usually make butter cream as I find it a faff to make and never been good at icing so I usually make glace icing. I think after today I might have the confidence to make some more.

I did this in the food processor as I was in a hurry and also didn't fancy a cloud of icing sugar if I'd used the hand mixer so it didn't mix together too well. I had to beat it in the bowl for a bit too.

Lexi came to have a go too, she made four but ate one so here are her other three.

She wanted to take these home, one for Jordan, one for Dylan and one for Nicolette. I said what about you? She said I've already had one so my mom can have this one! How cute!

Remember the sewing jar post here, I did another today but a button jar instead. My buttons are normally kept in an ugly plastic microwaveable container so this is a lot prettier :-)

Fimo Gingerbread Men

26/2/2013

A miserable and cold day here today. When I had got back from the school run and done all of the housework I thought I'd get my Fimo out, its about time it got used. We used this in jewellery making class last year to make unusual beads and charms and it was made to look soooooo easy so when I saw it on offer I brought two packs, what was I thinking? You only need the smallest amount so these packs are going to last forever!

I have only used it once in the caravan to make some charms, they can be added to keyrings, necklace pendants, bag or bracelet charms or just used as present tags. I don't think you are supposed to use it in gas ovens though as it made the caravan smell fumey. I also let the kids try to have a go when we were in the caravan but they weren't interested as its not as soft as play doh. It is definitely not as pliable, it is HARD!

I thought I'd have a go at making gingerbread men in this little silicone mould and after spending a LONG time softening it to go in, the tricky part was trying to get them out! Their heads kept snapping off or the mould would pop straight through my fingers and launch across the room.

Here they are about to go in the oven. (I attached some eye pins to three of them before they were baked as an experiment. I had to try to force them into the back of the Fimo as they were too thin to push through - it didn't work anyway as they fell off during baking.)

And here they are after being baked. Anais said they looked like nice chocolates could she eat one! NOOOO!!!!!!They are NOT chocolates - do not consume!

I re-stuck the eye pins to the back of this pair using Glossy Accents which I love using as a glue and when it was dry attached to silver earring findings for a fun pair of gingerbread men earrings!

What shall I do with the rest of them though?

If you had asked me earlier would I be making anymore of these little fella's or brought anymore moulds I would have said NO WAY!

BUT, seeing how well they have come out I might be tempted to do some more or buy more moulds in the future...............

Sewing Jar

25/2/2013

Look what I made today, I pinched this idea off Jenny! It is a sewing kit for my caravan. I have one of the small plastic box travel ones from the poundshop in there but it is not pretty at all, this one I can leave on display on a shelf :-)

This is just a jam jar that I filled with sewing things most of which came in a set from Home Bargains for £1.49, I have re-used the box they came in to keep silver jewellery findings.

The only things I have added to this are the wonder web, a spare seam picker I had and put all of the needles in a test tube as the carrier they came in was too big to fit in the jam jar. All the other small things that came with it I put in little resealable bags which Nicolette gave me last summer so they are altogether instead of falling to the bottom.

The pin cushion is a brillo pad which I cut in half glued to the lid and covered in pretty material and secured with a ribbon. To finish off I glued some red polka ribbon to the jam jar and added a label with silver stickers saying "SEWING JAR" (I didn't trust my hand writing!) This is going to live on the shelf in my caravan

CONTENTS - a seam picker, wonder web, small scissors, elastic, a small white and black reel of cotton, a large red, black, white, green and brown reels of cotton, various sizes of buttons, latches and catches, press studs, safety pins, a thimble and threader, a tape measure, various needles and in the pincushion red and white pearly pins (it did come with various colours of pearly pins but I swapped them for these red and white ones Jenny gave to Mark for modelling so they match the fabric!)

I also brought these today from Wilkinsons
1 - pretty twine for card making and wrapping presents up, such pretty spring colours, pink, yellow and green, I also want a red one now for Christmas - candy cane colours!
2 - These tester pots of paints were reduced to only 5p each so I brought them both as they will come in handy for something, Marks dolls house perhaps?

1

2

Playing with blog....

24/2/2013

I am playing my blog before I go to bed as I wanted to inject a little personality in it, pretty colours and fancy writing!

Please let me know what you think as I'm not sure about this one as it makes the photos smaller, I suppose I could put less photos on each line? Also not sure about this writing as the I looks like a J.

Criticism welcome, colours, fonts etc........ :-) I might have lots of changes over the next few days!

Anyway, off to play more.........

Cinema & belated pancake day!

24/2/2013

We went to the cinema today to see Tinkerbell and the Secret of the Wings on the Kids Club. We haven't been since Madagascar 3 on 19th January as we have already seen all of the films since, as they tend to repeat them every few months.

I haven't had time to make anything today so here are two cards I made the night before we went on holiday using tags from the Birthdays closing down sale
1 - a kids birthday card, embossed using my Shapeboss Christmas embosser stencil, it is supposed to be a candy cane embossing but I thought the candy cane also looked like the tread of a tyre so I embossed the outside, and stuck the Lightening McQueen tag to some birthday paper and stuck in the middle of a card
2 - I used the shapeboss again with corner straight line embossing and stuck a tag in the middle with a bow on the present and a sequin gem in each order corner to "bling" it up a little!

1

2

Roman has been moaning for nearly two weeks now - since pancake day, that we never had any pancakes!

So I made pancakes for pudding today and they loved them yum :-) bonus was I never set the smoke alarm off! Hurrah!

This orchid lives in my bathroom, its so pretty, but it must have been so cold in our house last week with no heating on when we got back yesterday all the petals had wilted :-( I was worried it had died but it has been left in front of the radiator now for almost 48 hours and has picked up loads already being kept next to the warm so I am hoping it recovers properly. I love orchids they are so delicate and pretty!

Someone put this on their facebook earlier so I pinched it as it made me laugh, it reminds me of my mom buying fleece jackets, she needs one in every shade much to dads exasperation! (They know I jest!)

PROJECT SCARF

I pulled this out today and want to get it finished sometime this year ha ha! It was wool brought with the intention of making Mark a scarf for when he climbed Mount Snowdon in October 2012. When I brought the wool though I knew I'd struggle to get it done by then so I set myself the target of Christmas 2012 instead.

Its very thin wool though and 4mm knitting needles so progress is ssslllooowww! I figure if I leave it out and do a row here and there and also take it to the caravan I might have a chance of finishing it by Christmas 2013. It will only be 12 months late but better late than never right!

I just checked the ball band, 200grams! What was I thinking when I brought it! Its SMC Bravo Rainbow Colour in Misty by the way.

EDIT - 6 rows done

Barnsdale Hall, Rutland

23/2/2013

We love holidays. It is a chance for us to get away from it all and spend quality time together, to do things that we wouldn't normally do or can't do at home. To spend family time together without the distractions of X-box, Wii, DS's, hundreds of TV channels and computers and TV's in every room.

We were on holiday last week and came home today, we had a fab time despite it being cold since Wednesday. We love Barnsdale Hall and it is the third year in a row that we have been. This year we had a ground floor Stable Mews apartment which had 2 double bedrooms. The living room had French Doors leading to outside so we had ducks most of the day hanging around looking in the glass asking to be fed! We went through far too many loaves of bread!

The kids love it here as the swimming pool is huge so they love swimming in the deep end and jumping in the deep end and seeing who stays under water the longest. We have been swimming everyday! There are other things for kids to do too - a play area, crazy golf, table tennis and tennis courts. It is also on the shores of Rutland Water so we enjoy walking to the water and feeding the ducks.

I will shortly do a review of Barnsdale Hall and add more pictures from the past three years which I will add to the Holiday tab at the top of the page.

Ours was the ground floor apartment

Daily visitors - the ducks!

view from the french doors - ducks!

view from apartment

Kids Bedroom -

Our Bedroom -

Lounge -

Dining area

lounge area

Kitchen -

kitchen/dining area

kitchen

Sunken Church at Normanton

Oakham Castle

Sailing Romans boat

I'm not keen on beaches, I don't like sand or the sea. But I LOVE waters! I just find them so peaceful and tranquil. I love seeing ducks on the water, I love seeing the sun reflecting off the water, I love seeing trees and mountains reflecting off the water, I love the lapping of water against the shore, I just love mass expanses of water, they are so pretty and peaceful.

Another scarf, another cold day...

22/2/2013

We didn't go out this morning as Roman felt ill and spent the morning lying on the sofa. After lunch he felt a little better so we went to play table tennis which the kids enjoyed though they played it like they were playing normal tennis and the ball didn't often hit the table! It has also felt even colder today than it has the past few days.

I have finished the white scarf (1) today. This is Can Can Disco in white and it has silver glitter threads throughout (2).

1

2

Underneath are close ups of all of the scarves that I have knitted this week (the black one was done back in January when it was snowing).

I have been naughty as these were supposed to have been made up while we were in the caravan but as they were in my wool bag they got done this week instead *oooops!* Never mind, it gives me a good excuse to crochet while we are in the caravan as I would love to make a blanket made up of granny squares. I also have another latch hook and a tapestry that I can do in the caravan. It has been quite relaxing this week as most of them have been done on a night time while a film was on so I found it quite relaxing to knit.

Which is your favourite?

Black Can Can Disco with multi coloured glitter specks

Red Can Can Disco with red glitter specks

Purple Can Can Disco with multi coloured glitter specks

White Can Can Disco with silver glitter specks

Rico Loopy Berry Mix

Cold Thursday

21/2/2013

It has been even colder today :-( Roman seems to be coming down with a cold and hasn't felt well all day so we only went out this morning and have spent the afternoon in, in the warm.

I started this scarf (1) last night and as we have spent so much time in today I managed to get it finished. This is Rico Can Can Disco in different shades of purple. It is lovely and shimmery and if you look up close (2) can see specks of glitter!

1

2

EDIT - sneak peek before I go to bed what I have been working on tonight! :-)

Cold & Windy today

20/2/2013

Brrrr, it has been cold today. Not much to say apart from that we have been out ALL day, shopping to stay out of the cold and then doing family things, museums, swimming etc....... we have been very busy.

I brought two new Yankee candle wax tarts, ones that I haven't got already, Hot Cider (1) and Beach Flowers (2). I love Yankee candle wax tarts for making my house smell lovely! I also brought a new cover for my Kobo (3) in bright purple, this one is trimmer and lighter than the brown leather one I currently use which is heavier and bulkier, so will be nice for summer. I also brought some blank cards (4) for card making.

1

2

3

4

I haven't had much time today so all I have done today is make this crochet Dahlia flower in navy blue.