Typecast

You may have seen on my Instagram that I received a surprise bouquet of flowers today. I had absolutely no idea who they were from. Then, checking my email, I found a lovely note from The Flower Council of Holland explaining " The Flower Effect " - a way to spread happiness through a random act of kindness (and we all know how I adore that). This bunch of flowers has definitely brightened my day up especially as sunflowers are my favourite! Sticking with the theme, I requested that two bunches of flowers be passed on to two great people [ 1 | 2 ] who I know deserve them this week. Just my little way of continuing to spread happiness. Hopefully they've received them by now or I've just ruined a great surprise...  ¨¨°º©©º°¨¨ To see more about The Flower Effect, here is a short film produced by Basha de Bruijn for the Flower Council of Holland. Only the two main characters are actors - all the reactions from passers-by are genuine. The idea b...

A pack of vintage postcards of London arrived in the post this week. Sian found them at a car boot sale over the weekend and knew I would love them. I have scanned a few of them in here (see below) but you can flip through them all with me in this video . There is another postcard (featured at the end of the video) which has actually been written and sent through the post many years ago. I am going to write about that one separately so stay tuned... A Beefeater (Yeoman Guard) at the Tower of London The Bonnington Hotel, Holborn, London Charing Cross and The Strand St Paul's Cathedral Trooping The Colour at Horse Guards Parade

The Gallery is one of those blogging comfort zones.  It's a place that led me to enjoying taking (and sharing) photographs and helped me to make great blogging friends.  I was there at the start - you can see my very first post for The Gallery here - and now we're on week/prompt number 200 . I haven't joined in with every single prompt but I've loved joining in when I can and seeing entries from other people on all the other weeks. I've discovered new blogs, rediscovered forgotten blogs and revisited regular reads.  Of course I had to join in with this milestone week which has a prompt of... 8am At 8am, during the week, I have usually managed to push a teenager out of the door  on time for school .  Until recently, I would have been heading out of the door myself but now I work from home, so I make a quick cup of tea in my "Super Nan" mug and head off up the stairs to my office.  I open my laptop, check my emails and diary and ...

When I was in my last year at high school there was a definite trend with school bags. The girls used a green canvas messenger bag which could be purchased from the local camping shop.  The strap was kept as long as possible so the bag hung near your knee somewhere and the bag material was ideal for writing friend's relationship statuses on (yes, even before Facebook was invented we flaunted our love life in public) in black marker pen. The boys preferred to use the largest bag available - an Adidas sports bag - with the shortest straps so it could only be carried with the handles clenched in the fist and slung over the shoulder. You quickly learnt not to stand behind one of the boys whilst waiting to get off the school bus as they flung that bag over their shoulder with great force. Photo Credit 1 | Photo Credit 2 To celebrate what is the last ever "First Day Back At School" in the O'Hara household, JD Sports sent Jake the pick of their school bag ra...

More about Silent Sunday here

This would be the best Come Dine With Me ever. Fact. But you would have to watch with your eyes closed. --------------- Alan Dedicoat  ( the voice of The Balls ) Peter Dickson ( the voice of X-Factor ) Dave Lamb ( the voice of Come Dine With Me ) Marcus Bentley ( the voice of Big Brother ) I will fill in for Dave Lamb as the voice-over. I'd even write my own script. --------------- Who would be at your dream CDWM table?

You can watch what happened in this video as I demonstrate how to make Peanut Blondies from the Hungry Student Easy Baking Book .  It's worth it, I promise...  Ingredients Vegetable oil or butter, for greasing 100g white chocolate, broken into squares 60g butter, softened 100g caster sugar 150g light brown soft sugar 2 medium eggs, beaten 1tsp vanilla extract 150g peanut butter (crunchy works best but smooth is fine too) 80g plain flour 1/4tsp baking powder pinch of salt 20cm square cake tin non-stick baking paper Method Preheat the oven to 180C / Gas Mark 6. Grease a 20cm square cake tin and line with non-stick baking paper. Melt the chocolate (traditional or microwave method).  When the chocolate is melted, set it aside to cool for around 10 minutes. In a mixing bowl, beat together the butter and both types of sugar until pale and fluffy. Combine the beaten eggs and vanilla extract and add to the mixture along with the peanut bu...

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Here's a short (!) video where I talk about my "August Favourites" - products I've bought and/or used last month that I really loved. Links: My phone is the Nokia Lumia 520.  The Windows Phone update was the 8.1 Bare Minerals Lipstick (Debenhams website) in the shade "make your move" The Thomas Cook Emporium duty free magazine can be  found here  and I bought...  Tangle Teezer  (page 66) |  Ghost Perfume  (page 14 - oops, it was £32 for the pair) |  Medley Boho Watch (page 60)  | Smirnoff Vodka with Lime (page 78) Zatchels Spring Green 16" leather satchel

This is the last time I'll ever be posting a "first day of the new school term" picture so humour me, please. Every September since 1995 I have waved my child(ren) off to start a new school term and today was the last time.  My youngest set off on his Year 11 journey today.  He actually has another compulsory year of EET ( employment, education or training ) but this will have to be away from his high school as they don't have a sixth form/Year 12-13.  He's got plans anyway... plans that involve something non-academic and fun and that will incorporate all his vocational GCSE's - music, drama and catering. It doesn't seem that long ago since I was starting the top class of high school and yet it was a full generation away. I was full of dreams and expectations and had ideas about the career path I was going to take.  Nothing much changes, does it? I've linked this to Tara's Gallery this week as she has a "Back To School" th...

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