Finding joy in the everyday

I t is Saturday afternoon - the weather is grey, cold and wet and I am all snuggled up in my warm house. I love this sort of weather as there is nothing nicer than being indoors on a wet winters day doing wintry things like reading, listening to music, making jam (yes, I made some more quince jelly), talking to my cat, watching a movie, blogging to my friends (yes, thats you!) or just lying on the couch dozing (I will be doing this in a moment).  It is days like this that I feel all happy and joyful.  Just a quick reminder of my cookbook give away ( LINK ), it closes (oops) tonight tomorrow night .  Did I mention that my dear son shared his cold with me and now I am all snuffly and sneezing all the time.  They are precious things, sons, not colds, who love to share even thing with their mothers!!  He has a little trail next week at a cafe, for part-time work. I pray that he gets the job as it will keep him busy. He is also returning to study ...

Dear bloggers, My mistress is currently relaxing - feet up with a good book and a mug of hot chocolate.  Whilst she is enjoying herself, I have been busy looking after her blog and what a very tough job this is.   So, this is my opportunity to share some fabulous photos of me with you.  What do you think . . . gorgeous, beautiful, magnificent . . . you are probably speechless!    These were taken in the bathtub - I just love to roll around in the cool bathtub, its' so much fun (until someone turns on the tap)!! and the white of the bathtub makes the perfect setting for these photos. OK, not all work (don't tell the mistress about this) - relaxing by the front door. Don't all cats lie on their backs? What does Charlie think she's doing - becoming a flower!! We are now growing cats!! Love from Ruby XX PS hopefully these magnificent photos will end up on Project 365 - they are much better than today's photo of a bolt - who posts a photo of a gate bolt when t...

We have a clock in our bathroom - it is in the shape of a frog and given to me by my DH many years ago.  It doesn't usually tick, in fact it wasn't working at all.  But a few weeks ago I was in the bathroom getting ready for bed and the clock started to tick so Ruby had to check it out (whilst I quickly dashed off to grab the camera with toothbrush in hand).  It gave her as much of a surprise as it did to me. "what is that ticking noise, haven't heard that before in the bathroom" "better investigate"  "that's better, just a little more stretching and now I can finally see the clock"  "Oops, just fell into the bathtub, better not land on the tomatoes!" "mum, don't take a photo of me falling into the bathtub"!! "Still ticking. . . . will have to keep a watch on that" It has since stopped ticking and Ruby is no longer interested in the clock!! In fact she has probably forgotten it is th...

A bit of self indulgent, why not, it is my blog!! I thought I would end the week with some cute cat photos - so look away if you don' t have the same love of cats as I do. Wherever I am you will find Ruby - on Saturday I was cleaning the bathroom floor - this is Ruby "helping".  She was looking of a small ball I had accidentally flicked across the floor with the mop. No success - she wasn't able to reach the ball as was under the trolley.  She finally got it when I moved to clean the floor! Time to relax after helping in the bathroom! Lying on the bathmats. Watching the peas cook - she is balancing on a very tiny space, so far she has never fallen off! She loves it when I cook peas as I always give her one frozen pea which she chases around the kitchen. On day when I clean under the fridge I will find a whole bunch of peas!! Charlie does two things very well - catch mice and sleep! While we are at work - this is all our cats seem to do - lie around on the bed. Wh...

B is for B read The aroma of bread to a baker is like the perfume of a flower to a lady. ~from Secrets of a Jewish Baker by George Greenstein~ This weeks bread is "Milk Bread" ( Pain au Lait ) from my new cookbook " Secrets of a Jewish Baker " - this is a standard white bread, except it has 2/3 of a cup of powdered milk added with the 5 cups of white bread flour.  It is a crusty bread and toasts very well. The recipe recommends removing the bread from the tins in the last 5 mins of cooking and once cooked brush water over the crust whilst still hot.  DH thought he would "model" the bread for you all!! B is for B rownies My son asked me to make him some brownies - his favourite dessert.  I found three fabulous recipes - this is one of them.  It is called the Ultimate Chocolate Brownies with Raspberries ( link ). I made one change to the recipe - I melted 2 blocks of dark (80%) chocolate with the butter in place of the 1.5 cups of chocolate chi...

Are you like me and have piles of recipes that you have cut out of magazines or printed?  I have been building a collection for many years and most I have never used. So over the last few weekends I went through all the magazines I had, cut out those recipes that I would make, tossed out the magazines and them sorted through the pile of recipes. Most recipes that I had been collecting also went into the bin.  What I was left with were those I would make . I bought an art book and made myself a recipe book (see below).  Nothing complicated - the front is for savory recipes and the back is for sweet.  I even managed to decorate the front page!! Being a spiral book, it will be easy to use in the kitchen when I am cooking. For those recipes that I use from the net, I will print and place into my book.  The number of times I find a really great recipe and then forget where I found it can be so annoying, this way I will have a copy of it.  ~oOo~ I have been ...

For the last 2 weeks I have been home on holidays with my DH and this is what I have been up to. Birthday gift for my friend Kathy - as part of my handmade gift giving this year I made Kathy a lavender bag (as part of my beginner sewing lesson) and a paper tole picture which she can hang on the wall or display on a shelf. This is a card and gift I had for my mum for Mothers Day.  I card the I made a while ago using paper tole - my mum has the habit of reusing cards I make to give to special people, so I can imagine down the track someone else is likely to enjoy this little girl!!  I often send her flowers, which, as you know die, so this year I made her a flower picture. I would really like to write a bible text at the bottom, but my hand writing isn't neat enough, so I might need to use the computer. Also part of my beginner sewing lesson I made two heat packs - the green one is my sons and the butterflies I gave to his girlfriend Millie.  They both loved them.  Mil...

We are back from our short get-away. Had a VERY relaxing time. If I was Ruby, this is how I would feel!! Will share with you some photos soon. Will catch up on my blog reading this evening. See you all soon. ~ HUGS ~ P.S. Ruby occasionally falls off the couch when she is sleeping like this. But after a few tumbles she has learnt to hold herself steady with a claw or two. ~oOo~

DH came home on Saturday afternoon with these gorgeous red roses. No reason, he said he was feeling romantic:) "Mum, between me and the flowers - who is the prettiest"? "Ruby, you are the prettiest of them all...." "Mum, do you mind if I lie here for a while and just look at the roses" "that's fine Ruby, but no touching" "of course not . . . " "who me" "RUBY" "yes mum" "what are you doing" "mmmmm . . . .  just having a um, mmmm taste" "is that ok, it's only one petal?" " NO " "ok" "Mum, why have the roses been moved to the kitchen" "becuase Ruby, sometimes you are naughty and play with my flowers at night when we are asleep" "who me???" "yes Ruby, you" "and if you do knock the vase over, it is better in the kitchen than in the living room" "but please be a GOOD GIRL, and leave me roses ALONE...