My Free Crappy Portrait

Way back in the warmer climes of August I saw a post on one of my regular reads A Thrifty Mrs, which introduced me to the fantastic world of Free Crappy Portraits.  The author had had a fab one done and I thought it was brilliant.  I couldn't resist and had to send off a photo so I could get a Free Crappy Portrait of my very own.  This is the photo I sent off, along with a little blurb about me and my blog.

Fast forward four months and on a cold December morning when I was feeling a bit sorry for myself an email from Free Crappy Portraits popped up in my inbox.  The excitement instantly perked me up a bit and I could not wait to see what they'd created for me and I was most certainly not disappointed...

Wow.  I've got to say I don't consider this a crappy portrait at all.  In fact I think it's ruddy brilliant.  The attention to detail is pretty amazing.  The crocheting, the knitting, the cake and the amazingly accurate picture of Mitten. I seriously cannot get over have cool this is.  I'm sending out a huge thank you to my artist.  

If you want to get your own portrait just visit their website to find out how.

Kitchen Progress

Just some of my kitchen

Thanks to IKEA my kitchen was very successfully delivered last week.  My fantasies of it being a Big Yellow IKEA truck with two attractive blonde Sweedish delivery men was sadly scuppered when it arrived in the back of a white Ford Transit van by two chubby middle-aged men.  Ah well, of course the main thing was that it arrived and from what I have been able to determine so far everything is present and correct that I ordered (all 123 items). 

According to the delivery note the total weight was 527 kg.  Yep, over half a tonne of flat pack goodies had to be carted up the stairs and as a result I was a bit achy for the next couple of days.

I spent a good couple of hours identifying what all the items were and maknig sure everything was there and moving the packages to various locations around my home based on the order in which I am likely to need them.  Since then I've been putting lots of the flat pack units together and my poor little hands have seen better days. 

It's all starting to take shape now though which is making it all the more real and exciting.  I've purchased the paint and tested it on the walls and am very happy with the colour.  Some of the wall units are even on the walls so it is starting to look more like a kitchen again. 

There are a few more bits I can do myself but then it will all now be on hold for a few weeks until the builders come in to do all the bits I can't do (i.e. gas works, plumbing etc.) but the end is definitely in sight and I'm starting to feel a bit less stressed about the whole thing and can't wait to be cooking in my finished kitchen. 

Chocolate Pretzel Stars

Hello!  Sorry for my lack of activity lately.  Things have all been rather crazy what with me deciding to undertake some pretty major renovations so near to Christmas.  Anyway, rest assured I have been busy making things when I get a chance so they will be blogged about in due course.  I also have the problem of not being able to get any decent photos at the moment owing to rarely being home during daylight hours at this time of year but I promise I'll be back on form once the chaos subsides.  In the meantime, here is a quick and easy tasty treat for you.

I recently remembered those chocolate covered pretzels that Cadbury used to make several years ago.  They didn't stick around for long so I guess they weren't too popular.  I was sad to see them go though as I am a fan of the combination of salt and sweet.  Salted caramels?  Yes please. 

There's not really much to it - I got a bag of pretty star (?snowflake) shaped pretzels from Sainsburys and some big bars of milk chocolate from Lidl (I wasn't intentionally shopping around, it's just where I happened to be when I remembered to pick them up).  The chocolate was melted in a bowl over a pan of simmering water.  I kept the bowl over the pan but off the heat whilst I worked to keep it melted.  I dunked a few of the stars into the chocolate at a time and fished them out with a kebab skewer, let the excess choclate run off for a few moments and then laid them on a big sheet of baking paper and left to set. 

Using one large bag of pretzels and 400 g of milk choclate I made a big tin full of the treats.  The festive shapes would make them a nice gift too if packaged into little bags. 

Very quick and simple to make and extremely moreish to eat.  I took mine to share around at work but I have to say there were considerably less than I started with by the time they made it to the office.