A Freezing Cold Picnic

Hello lovely blog readers.
Here in sunny little England it is fair to say that we are now very much feeling the winter chill after several lucky months of mild autumn. However, being the brave, if a little fool hardy, adventurers we are, Daniel and I decided to brave the biting January cold and spend yesterday's sunny afternoon going for a lovely long walk through the Westonbirt Arboretum with a picnic.
It was lovely. We had a nice time wandering between the trees and following a seasonal trail that had been set out to show all of the best winter trees. We both decided that by far our favourite was the Chinese Witch Hazel which boasted bright yellow flowers that would have looked at home on the sea bed.
It was really nice to take my much loved Nikon out for the afternoon too after so long. I managed to get some interestingly lit photos of trees, some lovely photos of Daniel and even some cows we found wandering around. I cant really think of a much nicer afternoon... especially when it was rounded off nicely with a big cup of soya milk hot chocolate :D
What did everyone else do this weekend?

Annie x

Pixlr stole my heart

Hi once again.

Being the wild party animal that I am, I have found myself curled up on the sofa on this cold Saturday night playing around on my laptop. A few days ago I read a blog past boasting the brilliance that is pixlr and as a photography lover myself I thought I'd use the evening playing around with the online program. 

I have to say, I'm sooo pleased that I did. I have found a new love.

The online program lets you upload any photo from your computer and then from there works in a similar- but easier to use- way as PhotoShop and lets you do all sorts of great things. I have PhotoShop elements on my laptop but the pixlr program allows you to do more.

As well as that, they have the "retro vintage effects" option that you upload your image onto and choose from their selection of retro overlays, effects and frame styles to apply. I had great fun doing this and managed to make the lovelies. Seriously, have a go, its sooo fun! Annie x

Mexico!

¡Hola Amigos!

As you know, last summer I went on an amazing trip around Europe with my lovely fiancee. We explored so many amazing places and saw so many wonderful things and I loved every minute of it.
This morning I have been looking through the hundreds of photos that were taken on that trip and it has inspired me to get out there and book the trip to Mexico that I have wanted to book ever since getting home.
My question to you though is, how do I choose the right trip for me? I've been looking online this morning and found this one on the Trek America website and it sounds amazing but being the Cautious Carol that I am, I worry that it will all go horribly wrong for me and be a scam or something crazy. Has anybody else used Trek America before?
Any advice and personal experience is much welcome!
Annie x

Falling Star

Hello there,
Whilst I have been enjoying my new found freedom since promising myself that I would spend more time relaxing I have found myself spending hours at a time sat reading from my kindle. And I love it.
I've never been ashamed to say that I enjoy a bit of chick lit and wonderfully, I have found that in the kindle store on amazon because, I assume, that much of it is classed as trashy and very low brow, you can pick up a good chick lit book for very little, some are even free to download which suits my small budget perfectly well!
The other day I found myself downloading a free edition of "Falling Star" written by Diana Dempsey. I figured that as it was free it would be worth a shot, however, I found myself really enjoying it. The story revolves around Natalie Daniels, a 40 year old news anchor working in LA who finds herself at risk of loosing her job to a new, younger, sexier model due to a new company manager. On top of this she is battling her way through a tough divorce from her cheat of a husband.
All I can say is that, despite sounding less than inspiring, it is well worth a read, especially for no cost; what is there to lose? I particularly liked the high level of description the author gave throughout the book and found it really interesting reading about the workings of a television studio. The characters were pretty addictive too!
Read it and let me know what you think :) I'm off to see what other bargains I can find on amazon.
Annie x

Lampy's Place

Hi, I'll start off by saying once again that I have been a bad blogger and neglected my blog for too long, Christmas is just too exciting and distracting clearly! I hope you all had a great time, I know I did. But now that all of the festivity is done and dusted and just a few lonely chocolate reindeer that the New Year diet forbids us to eat remain, it is time for things to go back to normal.
This, of course starts with the obligatory New Year's resolutions. Every year we make them and every year we break them. So I decided that this year, instead of torturing myself with the promise of happily slipping into size 8 jeans by this time next year, I would do something worth while that would actually do me some good. For this reason, I have decided that my New Year's resolution is to bring some calm and order to my overly hectic life. These last few months have been crazy and its time to slow things down a bit and rest.
Sadly, that means I have closed down my lovely little folksy shop. Unfortunately I just haven't been able to find the time to craft things any more so my little shop was being even more neglected than my blog and without the time to advertise, the sales just weren't coming. So for now Lampy's Place has closed its doors. Maybe one day it will re-open.

On a more positive note though, this does mean I will have more time for baking, blogging, sleeping and relaxing which is a lush way to spend time between work, commuting between Bath and Canterbury and writing essays :)
What are other peoples resolutions this year?
Annie x

Chocolatey Loveliness!

Hi again.
I can happily say that I am finally getting over my tonsillitis and am feeling human again today! Yay!
To celebrate I dug out one of the recipes that I had stored to make on pinterest and I have to say that it is delicious!
I'm a fan of everything sweet and cookie like so I was excited to find this recipe as it fulfills my sweetness requirements but as it also contains two cups of oats, honey instead of sugar and peanut butter to hold it together, it isn't anywhere near as sinful as most recipes out there!
So here it is, a lovely, chocolatey snack bar recipe!

Ingredients:
3tbsp smooth peanut butter (could use crunchy to add extra texture)
3tbsp runny honey
25g butter
2tsp dulce de leche (optional for extra sticky, richness)
1 bag milk chocolate chips
2 cups oats
handful of dried fruit (optional)

Method:
1. Pour the peanut butter, honey, dulce de leche and butter into a microwaveable bowl and heat for 30 seconds. Stir and then heat for a further 30 seconds or until the butter has fully melted.
2. Remove and add the chocolate chips, stirring until mostly melted into the mixture.
3. Add the oats and blend in fully so all are coated in the chocolatey mixture.
4. Stir in the optional dried fruit before tipping into a tray and cooling in the fridge to set for 1 hour.
5. Enjoy :)

I can promise that these treats are definitely worth making, and because they're nice and easy. they are a great, slightly healthier choice to make with children.

Give them a go and let me know what you think :)
Annie x

Festivity!

Hello-ho-ho!
So, today I am feeling amazingly festive. I know its scarily early to be as excited I am for the christmas period but after a day like today I just can't help it :D
After a week of feeling rubbish due to tonsillitis, I decided to climb out of my pit of illness this morning and do a spot of baking to cheer myself up. The result? A beautiful, fruity, nutty, cinnamon filled christmas cake!
There is nothing more festive than baking a christmas cake I have decided. The smells are wonderful and the ingredients that have to, of course, be bought specially for the occasion each year just scream out winter to me.
I'm now ready to start my shopping, put up the tree and dance around in wooly clothing listening to Slade although I fear that this sort of behaviour may not yet be acceptable. Indeed, my fiancee does not share my enthusiasm at all and insists that celebrating is not allowed until after his birthday on 22nd November. So instead I shall content myself with counting down the days until then and changing my blog background to something a little more festive than should perhaps be allowed this early in November :)
Is anyone else feeling the christmas vibe yet?
Annie x