Seven

Any parents of babies who are reading this; here's a word of warning. They grow up quick, really quick. Yes, on one hand I can barely remember my life before Lily; life before children is just a distance hazy memory that seems so far removed from life now with two young children. Yet on the other hand ... seven years? Where did they go?

It's really special that Lily's birthday is on a Saturday. Surely that is the best day to become seven on! It's also the first year she has decided not to have a party (much to my relief) and requested to have fun day with Arthur, David and myself.

So what's a fun day to a seven year old? Well it's simply a morning at the bowling complex followed by lunch at Carluccio's who according to Lily do the BEST pesto pasta. Easy. In fact, I've even been looking forward to it.

She's never been bowling before, so was excited: she was pretty good at it too. Unbeknown to her we invited her Uncle Tim and Aunty Lesley to come along too, which thrilled her no end. Having had our fill of pesto pasta, we back home for a cup of tea and some birthday cake. Happy Days.

Happy Birthday Lily Biba. xxxx

I Wish This Was My Proper Job

Have you seen this yet? I'm actually quite excited about it. The lovely people at the online magazine Heart Home invited me to come up with a recipe for their new spring issue. After much consideration, I opted for an Orange and Pistachio Cake which is just perfect for Easter. Baking the cake was more than enjoyable, but what I really loved was the planning; from deciding on the recipe  and writing the copy too sourcing and selecting the props for the photos. The real moment of magic however was the morning that photographer Emma Lucy came over and took these beautiful pictures. Aren't they just lovely?

If you fancy having a go at making the cake, the recipe is on page 107 in the latest issue of Heart Home.

40

What a month! I know we're only just over a week into it, but it has been eventful. I think everyone in the house has been ill with a bug, cold and / or cough plus I had to have a small op at the hospital (unconnected to the illnesses) and then, if that wasn't enough to manage into everyday life, I became 40.

So now does it feel to be 40? Well it's an odd one, becoming forty. I wasn't comfortable about it at all. It still sounds silly, quite ridiculous in fact, but I'm kind of pushing to the back of my mind telling myself I'm not actually that bothered by it anymore. 

My birthday itself was lovely. I was completely blown away (and still am) by the beautiful present my family bought me. David organised a collective of my very favourite people; my parents, my brother, his wife and my niece and my brother-in-law and together with David they all chipped in to buy me a Kitchen Aid. It's a gift that couldn't be more me. I absolutely love it. As a non-driver and a (albeit amateur) baker, the Kitchen Aid is my Porsche.

On Saturday evening, despite feeling not too well, I went out for some birthday drinks with a crowd of much loved friends. It was a lovely evening and the good company certainly took the edge off being 40. In true 'Louise' style, I made some little parting gifts for the evening: Lemon & Thyme Shortbread packaged in some bags that I made using some greaseproof paper and my sewing machine. It was whilst sewing these bags that David looked on hopelessly and declared that he believed me to have a disorder. But hey, everyone loved them and they all enjoyed the very first recipe made with my beautiful sexy Kitchen Aid. Lucky people.

Cheesecake

Image:Romans 12:2

I love cheesecake; I always have. Here are four ever-so random cheesecake stories for you.

My first encounter of cheesecake was as a child. As is often the case when you have young kids, my parents would have friends over for an evening rather than go out. More often than not it would be their friends Jack and Sue. It would be an evening of homebrew and ladies drinks in dainty glasses. Records would be playing and laughter and loud talking would filter up into my bedroom through the floorboards. I liked it when my parents had friends over for an evening. I was too young to be part of it, but there was something quite exciting about it all. That following morning the house would have a new aroma; cigarette smoke that Jack left behind. Egg cups full of vinegar would be placed around the living room working to mask the smell of stale tobacco. In the fridge would be the remains of a cheesecake, that would have been made for the previous evening. It was normally Morello Cherry, sometimes Blackcurrant. It was cheesecake made from a packet with a thick buttery digestive biscuit base. It's association with the previous evening made it somehow glamorous and sophisticated  in my eyes. It tasted divine.

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Years ago, when I barely twenty, I went on holiday to LA with David and his family. We visited a restaurant called 'The Cheesecake Factory'. I can't recall what I had, but the dessert menu was ridiculously extensive and heavenly. Just cheesecake in every variety you could imagine. I wish I could visit again.

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This story goes back probably goes back a couple of decades. A very dear friend of mine had a birthday. He loved cheesecake. A lot. So I went to the supermarket and bought him six frozen cheesecakes of different flavours. He was over the moon. How wacky we were back then.

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Last year David threw a party to celebrate being forty. I played a DJ set that evening. It's something I rarely do, but when I do it is quite enjoyable. I put a hell of a lot of thought in my musical set. It's got to flow, have a variety of tunes and I always like to keep people on their toes by playing the unexpected. I'm sure people expected me to turn up with the Best Of Abba. I started my set with 'The Cheesecake Truck' song by King Missile. It's a somewhat surreal tune that lurks without reason in David's extensive record collection. I just like the fact someone wrote a song about cheesecake.

A Year Ago Today

 Image: Stardaffs Photos

 

It was exactly a year ago today that I wrote my first Buttercup Days blog post. I'm quite amazed that I'm still writing them a year on. It's true that I've never been short of something to say.

When I started writing the blog I was a full-time stay-at-home mum. Yes, I'd work some evenings as you do when you have your own business; you never switch off completely but essentially the main part of my day was spent at home. I love being mum, it suits me down to the ground, but I like to have a creative output of sorts and that is what this blog provided for me back then.

Now, I'm busier than ever doing everything I did a year ago, but also working three part-time work shifts into the week. However, after a year of writing, recording and sharing it would be hard to just stop. I still have more to say. 

It's been a rather organic process. I never set out with a particularly clear idea of what I was going to do, let alone achieve. But scrolling back through the year I've recorded, I think that it  certainly gives a fairly accurate insight into life right now. I try to make my writings honest and to some extent varied. One thing I like about the blog is how it's become a record of the kids year too. I've always been rubbish at keeping photo albums so its a rather nice bi-product of writing a blog of this nature.

I’m no writer and certainly no photographer for that matter. So often much of what I write is done in done very quickly with posts just churned out whilst eating my lunch or having a cup of tea before the school run. The first draft is the final draft. I've had to except that I haven't the time to be a perfectionist when it come to blogging. But whatever I am waffling on about, I'm getting readers and that is just lovely. Over the last year I've had 6,476 hits and I've written 117 posts. It's not huge in the blogging world I know, but I'm quite pleased all the same.

So whatever the reason that drives you to drop by Buttercup Days; the family stuff; the recipes; the craft projects; the tunes or the occasional rants and moans, I'd like to thank you. It’s been a really enjoyable year.

Flower Power

Image: House Plant Guru.

OK, even as I type this I know I'm adding unnecessary pressure by making such an early announcement. But hey, with something to prove I'm more likely to succeed right? 

Well here it is. This year I am going to grow cut flowers down the allotment. Loads of them. Beautiful varieties. Vases of blooms will fill my home all summer long and beyond. I'll give bunches to friends and neighbours if I have a 'glut'. Everyone will benefit (except for my local florist - sorry Lynette, but your beautiful shop has probably gone some way to ignite this passion within me).

I've much to learn. A lot. From scratch. But I've a great starting point. I've ordered my 'starter pack' of seeds from Higgledy Garden. Winging their way to me are no less than twenty varieties of seeds:

Amaranthus, Ammi Majus, Bupleureum, Calendula ‘Art Shades’,Carnation ‘Superb', Phlox ‘Grandiflora Mix’, Cornflowers ‘Blue Ball’,Cleome ‘Violet Queen’, Cosmos ‘Purity’, Cosmos ‘Sensation’, Godetia. ‘Double Crown Mix’, Gypsophilia. ‘Covent Garden’, Helianthus. ‘Earthwalker’,Larkspur Giant Imperials ‘Crown Blend Mix’, Lupin ‘Sunrise’, Aster ‘Ostrich Plumes’, Nicotinana ‘Lime Green’, Nigella. Love in the mist ‘Persian Jewels’, Ricinus, Scabiosa. Pin Cushion Flower Tall Crown Mix. Then I added a pack each of Sweet Pea Beaujolais and Sweet Pea Purfumed Delight as I just couldn't resist.

Higgledy Garden's customer service is second to none. Their blog is crammed full of useful information and tips so you feel you have someone to 'hold your hand' along the way.

It's all very exciting. Roll on Spring; I can't wait to get started!

Happy Birthday Dad

Today is my dad's birthday. Rumour has it had he been born two days later he would have been called Valentine. I'm not sure how true this is, but the fact that my grandmother found the Italian actor Rudolph Valentino rather dashing makes this all the more likely it could have happened. However my dad came into the world on the 12th of February, so he was given the more conventional name of Robert.

So to mark this special day, I'm going to throw the Tune for Tuesday rules out of the window and dedicate the following song to my dad.

Happy Birthday - love you loads! x