Just An Other Day In Paradise

 

Saturday was baking day for Lilly and I. A planned morning of cooking delights, Devils Food Cake, Choux Buns...oh yummy, paradise. But paradise is hard to achieve, believe me, especially in this house.

My little chef and I did really well...cake mixed and in the oven and the choux pastry mixed, warm and in the piping bag all ready to go. It was all going so well. I was confidently explaining we had to use the piping bag to get the choux in nice shapes for the buns and then when they were cooked, we could fill them with cream. Looking back I must have sounded like Jamie Oliver on a really bad day. But my commentary came to an abrupt end as the piping bag exploded.

Truly, it did and it left in it's wake two really silly looking people wearing warm choux pastry!! You would never believe how far that stuff goes, it should have been entered in the long jump and the high jump at the Olympics!! Two gold medals for sure, not sure what National Anthem they would have played at the award giving though, lol.

It didn't even taste good, I know... I tried to lick my fingers and it was horrible. If it had been the cake mix then Lilly would have gladly licked it up...but this...was yuck, so no volunteers there. I lie, Charlie was extremely keen on helping. His tongue was everywhere trying to grab as much as he could before I chased him back to his bed. It really proved to me that dog would eat anything no matter how bad.

Needless to say it took an age to clear up and in the process we almost forgot the cake. But I remembered in time and an other major disaster was averted. All was well until I decided that as we were not having Choux Buns we would go to town and really dress the cake up. A little difficult without an icing bag but you know me...talented, imaginative etc. I know, but at least the imaginative bit is true.

As chocolate is a favourite, we had to include some melted chocolate into the finery of this soon to be wonderful cake. It didn't take long and everything was assembled and the chocolate melted. A certain young lady was now only interested in bowl licking, the finer points of getting it on the cake were no longer of any interest what so ever to her. I calmly explained that we needed to put some of the chocolate on the cake before she started licking.

But never fear..Super Grandma is here! A few sweeps with my palette knife, a couple of flourishes and hey presto...it would be done. In my dreams!!

It was at that point my mother rang. Her phone had been out of order all week and she was celebrating by calling me every couple of hours to tell me it was working again. Not really what I needed at that moment, but when mum calls it's really not easy to hang up quickly. But on this morning I did. It was the loud crash from the kitchen that told me that I really, really needed to hang up NOW!

Well, the dog looked guilty and the kid looked guilty.....and both stood in a mess of chocolate. Thank goodness the bowl was plastic!! The kitchen looked like it needed a hose down and the two culprits were not a lot cleaner. It's at times like this that  temperament shows....if your bad tempered you yell loud and long.... if you good natured you ask calmly what has happened. I chose a middle road, I yelled loud and long at the dog and asked Lilly what had happened. I won't bore you with the blame game dodging that ensued, but I will assure you that no dog or child were injured in the making of the mess, or afterwards.

Perhaps I should have stuck to Friday as our baking day....could be Saturdays are just unlucky. No, I didn't take any photographs of this chaos. In the midst of true chaos the camera never appears....I don't want that ruined as well!!

See you all at the end of the week with an other update and gift. Have fun and take a tip stay away from the baking!!

Technorati Tags: Lilly,baking chaos,Charlie,dog fun

Photoshop Fun and An Other Oops Moment

After yet an other busy day, full of elderly ladies, four year olds and too much driving, I rushed in and after grabbing a cup of tea I checked my emails. My head was still going at a thousand miles an hour, stuffed with too many thoughts...yep, I was in overload again. I felt like I was hovering about 6 inches above the ground and was still waiting for touch down.

I noticed that my lovely hubby had sent me an email telling me he had done some of the chores before going to work. What a sweetie!!! This deserved a thank you...so I sent him an email telling him how great he had been and thanks. But, me being me I didn't stop there. I told him a little about my day and that I had bought Charlie (the dog) yet an other new dog bed, but I wasn't sure if Charlie liked it as it was chasing around the room (as if hubby cared at that moment in time, lol).

I was really surprised to get an email back asking me if it was "a real one". What a real dog's bed? What did he think I had bought him a Puppy playhouse? I read it twice and couldn't make any sense of it. I must have missed something in his first email. So I checked his and then my answering email.

And yes...I had done it again. Here's what I had sent to him:

"I got the dog an other dog and he is chasing it around the dinning room at the moment in his usual insane manner. Could mean he likes it..or it could be he's trying to hide it, lol."

Missed out the little word bed and almost gave him a heart attack!! Poor long suffering man thought I had brought home an other waif or stray. I need to slow down and take more care!!

Okay, now something sensible and I'll try to keep the typos to a minimum here, lol.

One of the hardest things I've done recently was trying to remember all the twists and turns of Photoshop CS2 and as if that wasn't enough I tried to take in CS6 too. It took time and a lot of my hair! I am so glad that I was alone whilst I struggled to do the simplest of things. Scream? Me? Of course I did, very loudly and without restraint. But you know me.....never give up, just smack the keyboard, thump the screen and hang in there. My attempts resulted in frustration, disasters and believe me, some really hilarious results, but I can now say that Photoshop and I have become friends again. Well, at least until my next "how do you do that" moment.

I did find a positive in my battle to tame the pesky software, it made me think what I really wanted to design and what was my style. I have to admit that I'm still searching to redefine my style, it's definitely a "work in progress". But from little acorns great oaks grow, so I'm hoping that a "me style" will develop as I work. If it doesn't then I'll just enjoy the journey of working with Photoshop and see what inspiration comes along.

One of my efforts whilst playing was a flower. I made the flower and took great care that I started by making quality control a high priority. I hope I succeeded!!!

Anyway....I have decided to share my little doodle flower with any of you lovely people that feel you could use it. I have included a brush with the flower to make it just a little more versatile. I hope someone can find them a home.

You can download them from two places:

by clicking on the preview above (4shared)  or here (Dropbox).

They should both be direct downloads...should, but your talking about a woman who can't write an email without inflicting panic, lol.

Any problems with the links please let me know, again it's my first attempt for so long...I hope I haven't screwed them up!!

Have a great day and take care! See you soon.

Technorati Tags: freebie,personal use,commercial use,photoshop,brushes,flowers

 

Miss Lilly's Charming Little Mouth

Time has past so quick in the last three years, not just for me but for the lovely Miss Lilly too. She has grown into quite the little lady, not only has she started school but she has also become an expert in the art of conversation. That girl loves nothing better than a good chat, so much so that if she could type she would have her own blog. But be warned...don't tell her your secrets!! Just let's say "her lips are not sealed", in fact they are like an open  tap everything flows out!
Believe me Lilly has caused a few red faces with her innocent chatter. Do you remember the doll Chatty Kathy? Okay, I can hear you all saying.....before your time, but believe me I swear Lilly shares some of that dolls genes!! So as soon as I hear her say the words "Grandma, do you know...", my ears start flapping and she has my undivided attention. I know I shouldn't listen but the temptation is to much, you never know what delights she may impart, lol. She is a real font of information...never underestimate a child when your having a conversation....they may look disinterested, but it's just a clever ploy. Really, their ears are like sonar and despite that innocent look they are filing it all away incase it's useful at a future date.
But be warned it's a double edged sword that can come back to bite you. There are certain signs that you should go into alarm mode, like when a little voice joins the conversation with the phrase "Grandma said...".
Red alert, red alert!! My gagging hand twitches, I brace myself to pounce ...... too late.... "Grandma said that if you had any sense then you wouldn't have done that" Aaah!! She has done it again!!!
I swear instead of all those fancy listening gadgets James Bond should just positioned a seemingly cute and innocent 4 year old to play sweetly next to the target. Better results and so much cheaper!!
On reflection I think a good Christmas present for Lilly would be a nice warm scarf...one that sits cosily around the neck and mouth region....well, more around the mouth than the neck really. I think I need to start knitting.
That's all for today folks but check back on Thursday when I'll have an other post and a little gift for you all. See you then.

Back in the Blogging World and Feeling Continental

Just when you thought Cen's Loft was gone and finished....and you were safe....it's back. I finally remembered how to do a blog post. How sad is that? It's amazing how quickly we forget skills if we don't use them.... is that a me thing, or worse still, is it an age thing? It'll take me a while to get back in the swing but bear with me in my struggle and hopefully we will have some fun as well as screams on the journey.

I have to admit that if remembering how to post on Blogger was a challenge, then my wonderful idea of trying to update Cen's Loft was a task too far. As usual it seemed such a good idea...at the time. I had some wonderful design thoughts that would result in a stunning blog makeover, tasteful, elegant and chic. No, stop laughing....my idea was chic, honestly it was. Ideas however are one thing, putting them into practice is a whole different kettle of fish, as I was to find out. I got everything organised and ready. I very thoroughly checked and double checked what I was going to do, a bit like a pre-rocket launch. All systems ready to go........fire!!!

To be truthfully I was right and I was pretty stunned when I saw what I had done but not quite in the way I had intended to be. Let's just say I ended up being really grateful that Blogger had the facility to let me back up my template before the attempt! The restore of the old template was performed faster than fast by a very panic stricken and red faced me. It wasn't just a matter of tweaking things to make it work. It was so bad that even if I tipped my head sideways and screwed up my eyes and sort of squinted at it...it still didn't look like a blog page. More like a Picasso on a bad day.

It was then I realised blog design never would be one of my talents and actually I was more a blog wrecker.  So, feeling rather stupid I once again I gave up and put my return to blogging on the back burner.

All was not lost though, not long afterwards my luck changed and I won a blog template and installation from the lovely Louise of Louise Franks Blog Designs. Cen's Loft had a reprieve and was saved from my strange and wonderful methods of blog design. I left that it in Louise's capable hands to work her magic.

The template I picked was called Parisian. I am after all just across the channel from France and I visit there quite often, so I could almost be French.....alright I know I'm pushing it. But now I feel updated and very continental and "tres" chic!

Ok, I admit that I got rid of my cycle a few years ago and my hair is shorter than in the header...but I'm still continental, truly I am, plus I'm working really hard on the chic bit too. I can almost feel the wind in my hair as I freewheel downhill on my cycle with my feet off the pedals, mm...that might not be so chic, but it is so me...or should I say how I would like me to be, lol.

Well, that's all for today but for those that are interested I intend to blog more often than I used to about life and me, but I will still have a weekly post with a freebie of some description for those who are interested to adding to their collection.

Remember if you want a great choice in premade blog templates or a custom makeover then check out Louise Franks Blog Designs

Take care and see you all soon.

Technorati Tags: blog makeover