Hello forty!

It's happened, I've had a 'big' birthday.  If you look at the traditional views this occasion seems to be a big deal, a major phase in life, something to be massively depressed or upset about or to celebrated in some grandiose fashion.

For me, well the actual day itself started off with some lovely gifts from my family, then a shopping trip, then some visits from friends with some more lovely gift followed by a meal with extended family and ended with them all coming back to ours for a natter. It was a busy, but lovely, day and I was a very lucky girl given the amount of gorgeous gifts I was given. 

But it all seemed a bit anti-climatic, I don't know what I expected to happen or feel but I woke up the next day and felt ......... exactly the same!!!  And I'm perfectly happy about that.

I was very lucky with my gifts, I got this fantastic red (and very shiny) food mixer from Pedro, I've been debating over getting one for a couple of years, not knowing if I would actually use it but I decided well if I've got it, then I've got to use it!  I also got a few book and some baking things from the kids.

  My dad obviously knew about the mixer as I got a load of cake making/decorating accessories and a cheeky wee book about turning 40!  Oh and he got me my fabulous birthday cake, which I'm not sure I actually got a photo of before it was cut up but it had a funky wee handbag and shoe decoration on the top.

So the day after my birthday me and the dude had our first shot at using the mixer and tried out the number cake moulds too.  40 for me obviously, 1 for Little Miss, 5 for the Dude and 2 for Pedro because he was 42 (he's 43 today) and we didn't have two number 4 tins, so he could share my 4!!

 From the lovely and generous Lynz I got these fantastic little dragon prints, which are essentially my kiddies in dragon form, aren't they just the bestest, cutest little dragons?  I lurve them muchly.  She also made the gorgeous cushion for 'my' chair and the funky throw too.  The cushion has a feather insert and I swear it's the most comfy cushion I've ever had!  No word of a lie.  Thank you hugely Lynz :)

My friends at work got me some wonderful jewellery from a wee local place which had a few artist studios and a cafe in the middle of it (which sells the most amazing food and the biggest scones I've ever seen!) which also has space to sell the good of the artists who are based there.  I got a fabulous pair of angel wings earrings and bracelet but also these gorgeous earrings which I just love

From my brother I have been well and truly spoiled, he asked me what I would like a little while ago and I came up with a suggestion which, if they wanted to, I was more than happy for the gift to be from my brother, sister and dad, which is what we have done quite a few times in the past normally for my dad - joint gift of higher value that is particularly asked for rather than a 3 jumpers or whatever!  But he outdid himself and bought this all by himself.  I'm still a bit stunned and very, very appreciative.

(I used it to take all these photos and I'm still having a play with it but did realise that you can't take a photo of a camera when you are using the said camera so a crappy photo of the box is all I could achieve!)

I got quite a few other gifts but there are enough photos in this post tonight as it is and if I include everything in the one post I'll have nothing else to post about for ages!!  Well that's not strictly true as I've a massive amount of sewing to do/catch up on, but that's for another day.

Purely in the Interest

.... of science I ate some cake.

The other week the lovely Susan at Canadian Abroad blogged about an awesome cake.  Now I'm no Mary Berry but I like to think I can pull off a decent cake when I try and I like to try different things.  I have never baked a cinnamon roll cake before so throwing diet caution to the wind I decided to have a go.  Now a couple of people have tried this before and apparently not been successful so I wasn't overly keen I'd be either.  But a quick trip to the supermarket to make sure I had the necessary ingredients and I was ready to go.

  

So a little weighing, measuring and mixing (by hand! I never mix by hand but couldn't be bothered plugging in my hand mixer) I ended up with this

It smells amazing!  I made it last Thursday night and it still smells fantastic every time you open the cake tin.  Everybody loves too, including Pedro and he doesn't really do cake so it must be good.  My only issue with it is that I feel it's a bit underdone in the middle but the cake tin I used wasn't quite 9x13 so it's not as shallow as it probably should be so that's why it's not as cooked as it should be.  It is still really, really good though, even being a bit squidgy.  Definitely one to be tried again, even though it plays havoc when your supposed to be dieting!!!!