Song of the day 9th May plus cake

Two posts in one today as i have had a Migraine since this morning and that's made me feel all yucky and generally not in a posting mood.


My oldest daugher did the nicest thing yesterday and turned my kitchen into world war three, well actually she did do something very nice. She baked her brother a huge Minstrels chocolate cake with vanilla icing for his return from Army Camp. It is gorgeous and well worth all the mess she made.

It is really moist and has chocolate fudge icing in the centre, decorated with vanilla butter icing, chocolate sprinkles and minstrels. Honestly i'm one very proud mum. At 12 years old she can create this all by herself, So in a few years time you had better watch out Nigella Lawson!

As for the song for today it's from one of my favourite singers who has been mentioned on my blog before as one of her songs was the inspiration behing my blogs name. This singers name is Leddra Chapman.

This song is just beautiful, as is she. I guess it's ok to say that about another woman now i'm all grown up.

Have a listen. Hopefully you will like it just as much as i do.

Song of the day 8th May

Loads of people seem to dislike this song but i really like it. Ok i know that it makes no real sense and i suppose i do see how it could be classed as annoying but i find it quite relaxing and yes i admit it..I like the tune!

Mind you if i received so many hugs from any kind of bug you will probably here me screaming from wherever you're sat.


Like it or loath it. Owl City- Fireflies  is my pick for this evening.

Ecover comes to the aid of mucky pups

I thought today as i have been mainly doing housework that i would review two Ecover products.

I will add that any reviews i do are totally honest. I don't like reviews that are made up by someone who has never tried the product and i have also included some before and after photographs of the Multi Surface Cleaner with this review.

The products i have used today is the Multi Surface Cleaner that comes in a spray bottle and the All purpose cleaner which comes in a normal ecover shaped bottle. The Multi Surface cleaner i used on my cupboards,kitchen sides and the sink as i like the fact it's in a spray bottle and is ever so quick to use and get things clean.

The All purpose cleaner i have been using for a few years and it involved me putting two capfuls into my mop bucket and then i half filled the bucket with warm water. I haven't included photographs of the floor as the photographs didn't come out too well with the low light we have outside today and even with the flash it doesn't show it properly but it did bring my floor up to a lovely clean shine and i am going to be buying this again in the future.

Now for the Before and After photographs. My Kitchen sides and sink aren't usually this dirty (Honest guv!)  but for the  purpose of this review i left what was spilt yesterday so i could see just how good Ecover performs on dirt that had been left for a little while.

This is ketchup that my youngest had spilt when trying to eagerly shake it from the bottle onto her plate.

 

This looks terrible and it was! *Looks down in shame* Apologies for the poor picture quality but this was on the kitchen side next to the kettle. It's coffee cup rings, sugar and spilt tea.My lot are mucky pups!

 Next is my kitchen sink, that looks very marked and often has left over cold tea and coffee poured down it which seems to stain the sink in a very short amount of time.

 

Now for the after photographs. I used the Multi Surface cleaner with a normal blue throwaway kitchen cloth. I didn't need to scrub too hard and the dirt lifted much more easily than i imagined. Especially for a product that advertises itself as "powered by nature" and another bonus is their products have minimum impact on the environment. I'm just loving it more and more.

This is my kitchen side which had the ketchup mark on it. It came up lovely and shiny and more importantly clean. I love the smell of this stuff too, it's a fresh, clean scent that lingers for ages afterwards. Ignore the fact that the all purpose cleaner is pictured. I used the Multi Surface cleaner on the sides and only used the All Purpose cleaner for the floors after i had done everything else.

Next up is where the kettle is and which had those awful coffee, tea and sugar marks. I took this photograph as soon as i had cleaned it and i am impressed that i only needed to wipe it over with minimal effort and the marks were removed.

 Last but by no means least is the sink. I will be giving this another going over with something more hefty that a thin kitchen cloth but i was very impressed with how it brought my sink up on the first attempt.

I was very happy with how the Multi Surface cleaner performed, as i said before i am a long term user of the All purpose cleaner and both these products will forever be a firm fixture on my shopping list. 

To check out the range of products for yourself you can click the link below.

http://www.ecover.com

Song of the day 7th May

I am pretty sure that Total Eclipse of the Heart by Bonnie Tyler was my first ever vinyl purchase and from what i remember it was purchased in the sale in Woolworths for about 25p.

At the time i was a little girl living in Milton Keynes so buying this probably had an awful lot to do with her being Welsh and i just loved her big hair! How i really missed Wales when i lived in MK. Even though i did get to see many of my welsh relatives in the holidays, it just wasn't the same. Wales was and always will be "home" to me.

Anyway i loved this song and used to play it as often as possible. I'm pretty sure i knew all the words off by heart within weeks of purchasing it.

So that is my choice for today. Another song that features as one of my more vivid childhood memories.

Enjoy!

Do you know where your children are?

Today we needed to take a trip to the local supermarket. Not very fun but much needed when you have mouths to feed.

Anyway, on our trip out we passed a child on a bike who was no older than seven. My guess would be that he was perhaps five or six years old and i'm being generous with my estimate. My husband slowed down to a crawl on spotting this child riding his bike in the road in the wobbly manner that children do and much to our shock he turned his bike towards the car and cycled towards us smiling to himself. If my husband hadn't stopped the car, i really dread to think what would of happened. There were no parents around that i could see and this child didn't seem to care or realise how close he came to hitting the car. Even with us stopped it would of hurt. Yet if we or anyone had of hit this child it would be the driver who was at fault. Where is the sense in that? When do parents have to shoulder some responsibility for their lack of care to their child?

Firstly i couldn't believe that anyone could be that foolish as to leave a child of this age who obviously isn't very sensible riding a bike on a 30mph road. At that age you can hardly blame the child who obviously lacks any common sense going on the way he was grinning ear to ear while peddling as fast as his little legs could go in the direction of our car and it isn't the first time i have witnessed such behaviour from unattended small children.

It's things like this that make me think that there should be some sort of test before you can breed. I wouldn't of dreamt of leaving my children unattended at that age. For starters they don't see danger like we do, maybe in their eyes a big hunking piece of car coming towards them will just feel like Nerf foam when they ride into it or run into it. I also often see pre teens and young teens hanging out in bus stops in all weathers. What's the sense in that? They are normally not waiting for a bus. Sometimes it's boiling hot, but hoodies are up and they are sprawled out in a dirty bus stop like it's some sort of trendy youth club.

Oh and how i hate to hear swear words coming out of the mouth of babes. You know something is wrong in the world when a little child in nappies shouts out the F word to one of his friends or siblings.

Childhood for many seems to have changed, it's no longer about climbing trees, collecting tadpoles, splashing about in paddling pools and enjoying that first lick of an ice cream when summer finally arrives.

Instead it's about how hard they can kick a ball into someones car, how many swear words they can say in one sentence, how they can all say "it's not fair" in Kevin and Perry type voices when they get grounded for one day and other such pathetic behaviour.

As parents it is our responsibility to teach our children right from wrong and to guide them in the right direction so they respect themselves and in turn others.

I hate to give too much thought to how children will behave (or not!) in the years to come.

Song of the day 6th May

I thought i would do a daily song of the day. I have a varied taste in music and understand my daily songs won't be to everyone's tastes but each song i select will hold some sort of meaning to me.

The song for today 6th May is Yazz- The only way is up.

I remember loving this song when i was a child, i'm 32 now and if i'm honest i still like listening to it.  It's a nice song to listen to if it's been a tough day and i'm feeling like things are getting on top of me.

One of the first times i heard this played was roughly just before my Aunt married my uncle or perhaps it could of been shortly after. His parents owned a pub and his dad gave me and my cousins a packet of crisps and a coke (it's funny the things that stick in our memory!) we put this on the jukebox and danced around the room. It was a good moment in my life and we were carefree kids having a great time.

Food Glorious Food

Have you ever watched My Family? If you have then you will know how famous the character Susan Harper is for making up rather bizzare recipes and forcing her family to eat them. Like Kipper balls, some beetroot slop or when they had tuna surprise which from what i remember was just Tuna.  Anyway every episode seems to centre around at least one attempt of her cooking something "different" apart from the odd occasions when the lucky family get to have a chinese takeway.

I don't liken myself to her, i am pretty sure my cooking isn't THAT bad but i suppose i do like to "play" about with food.

A few of my favourite ingredients would be peppers, i love the colours and they can brighten up so many dishes.Courgettes, Balsamic Vinegar, Aubergines,Mushrooms, Honey, and olive oil are also top of my list.

There is some glory to be had when you make a meal from scratch and everyone enjoys it. I will admit i cheat with pastry. I'm just no good at getting it right and the ready made pastry is so convenient.

The ingredients above are what i used to make a puff pastry dish. I made two different ones. The kids opted for chilli cheese meatball pastry open parcels (can't think of what to call them other than that) and we opted with the milder honey chicken and veg parcels. Both might i add tasted lovely and everyone finished every last bit. Ok so it might not look that fantastic but it did taste very nice. Since then i have experimented with gammon parcels and they were by far the best. Especially when you drizzle honey over them before placing into the oven.

I love making fun food for the kids too and mine loved these bagel snakes which were really easy to make, just slice up a bagel and chuck whatever topping on you would like and then add something for eyes and make pattens on the body with tomato, cucumber, cheese or whatever you can think of. I went a bit mad and added a sun and grass but it was all in good fun.

I might start adding my weird and amusing food creations on a regular basis, they will either make you want to try them for yourself or grab a sick bucket but it could be quite fun as i do love to cook.

One of my daughters has the aim of being a chef one day and her cooking is amazing. At 5ft 7 and still not a teenager she seems to show an extreme talent with food. Her favourite things to make are devilled eggs,  cakes, soups in fact anything she spots in a recipe book of which she has a bigger collection than i do.

This is her Potato and Leek soup which she got spot on with her first attempt.

 

Here are some of her JLS cakes that she made and decorated. She made about 26 but they didn't last very long at all!

Anyway that's it from me for now as a strong cup of coffee is needed. I am so glad it's almost the weekend. 

Hopefully the sunshine will come back to us soon.