Being Mrs C

An insight into the things in life that make me smile

Lily of Love Lane – Carol Rivers

I'm not sure what's made me so obsessed with period based books at the moment, but I keep finding myself being drawn to them. I even managed to pick up (and pay for I hasten to add!) a copy of Lily of Love Lane whilst I was out shopping for onions one afternoon! It is quite simply another good East End saga set between the wars. There's hardship, friendship and romance and a few twists and turns, all written about in a very warm, friendly manner. Carol Rivers' books are probably best described as "historical chic-lit" but there's something nice and ... read more

First shoots

Every year there's something particularly exciting about seeing the first shoots of the year emerge in the propagator. This last week seems to have given us a taste of spring time weather (if you ignore the freezing temperatures that we're still having at night) and it seems fitting therefore that I can see these on my kitchen window sill right now. From left to right I'm growing mixed leaf lettuce, alicante tomatoes (free from Lakeland last year IIRC) and peppers. Looks like I'm going to need to transplant some seedlings soon! ... read more

Featured post: Oven repairs

As a busy mum there is little that upsets our daily routine more than discovering that something in the kitchen no longer works. You've got the week's meals all planned out and suddenly you discover (usually at the last minute when a child is already demanding food) that you've no way of cooking what you planned to give them. Firstly - don't panic! These things are often not as bad as you first fear. Oven repairs can be relatively simple once the exact problem has been diagnosed. It may be that the oven no longer gets hot as the thermostat control is broken, that it's no ... read more

The holy grail of flapjack?

In this house we've always been looking for the hold grail of flapjacks. Something that's got a bit of crunch to it, but is also deliciously chewy and moist. To date we've failed to find it, but I'm not deterred and whenever I see a new flapjack recipe I'm prepared to try it in the hope that this might be the one. Hannah over at Muddling Along Mummy recently posted her dairy free flapjack recipe and I thought I ought to try it too. I did make one (slight) tweak to the recipe though. Not being a dairy free household we don't have any dairy free spread in, so ... read more

The Gallery: Colour

Somehow I've only just discovered The Gallery, but now I have I'm obsessed with it. This week's theme is colour and as soon as I saw that I just knew which photograph I had to include. Meet our colourful crocodile. Drawn by me, coloured by me but artistic direction by Little Miss C. She chose all the colours and also decided that he was to have stripes. I'm not arguing with a toddler's imagination. Please head over to Sticky Fingers' blog to see all this week's other entries on the colour theme. ... read more

The 11 things meme

The lovely Ruth over at DorkyMum has tagged me to take part in the 11 things meme that is currently doing the rounds. It seems that years ago I was being asked to do a different meme almost every day, but recently I've not had any requests at all. Here goes then... The rules of the meme are as follows:1. You must post these rules2. Each person must post 11 things about themselves3. Answer 11 questions the ‘tagger’ listed for you4. Create 11 new questions, and tag 11 people to answer them5. Let each blogger know you’ve tagged them Eleven facts about me 1. I'm originally from ... read more

Cleaning frenzy

Mr C and I aren't extirely sure how, but it seems we've managed to produce a daughter with a bit of a cleanliness obession. Some of her first words included "clean, tidy and messy". From as soon as she was old enough to walk around with a drink she would get into a bit of a blind panic if any drink ended up on the floor. We mainly have cheap laminate floors downstairs, so a quick wipe with a cloth and the problem is easily solved, but she is determined that this wiping up should be done the second the mess is made and seems most put out if any thing else takes ... read more

Elephant finger puppet

We needed a little craft project to fill that slightly awkward gap between a long afternoon nap and teatime today and luckily Little Miss C knocking over a huge pile of my vintage Ladybird books presented me with an ideal project. This little guy is the elephant finger puppet taken from the Ladybird How to make Puppets book that I picked up in a charity shop months ago. I traced him straight from the book and then drew him in felt-tip on the inside of an old breakfast cereal box. Just the right thickness of card and also a perfect elephant grey colour. The hole for a nose is perfect ... read more

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