pretty paper. true stories. {and scrapbooking classes with cupcakes.}

Although Sunday has become official baking day here, it does seem there is a trade-off. Like Sunday is the day when one cannot make custard. Or at least I can’t make custard or anything resembling custard. I tried. A carton of egg yolks later, I had the worst custard I had ever made. With no eggs left, I decided to cheat and use semi-instant custard powder. Clearly been in the cupboard too long and set a new record for my worst custard. Then thought I had found a packet of truly-instant custard in the cupboard, only to find we had clearly put a pretty-much-empty packet back in the cupboard for some reason.

So this cake was supposed to have a layer of thick almond custard. But the gods of custard say no, so no it is.

Which leaves two layers of almond cake and two layers of meringue (one soft, one crunchy) and a bunch of almond pieces on top.

Sickeningly sweet and nowhere near as nice as the proper cake from Rhodes, a newish bakery in Greenwich for which we have fallen head over heels.

Oh well: if the worst thing I can find to whine about is a lack of almond custard, I think things must actually be pretty darn good.

xlovesx

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So glad we have a three day weekend to coincide with {inter}National Scrapbook Day! Only managed to make this today because it needed to be delivered today!

But got the perfect dose of sunshine today and am ready to scrap away for the rest of the long weekend.

xlovesx

PS: You know how I love free digi kits! There is a special NSD kit here by The Queen of Quirk, so share the love with anyone you know who loves a free kit to download.

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Wow, what a week it has been! Definitely looking forward to the three day weekend to chill and breathe after a very demanding week back at school. Even better that I finished all my marking this morning so I can really scrap without guilt for the next three days! Well, if I also manage some housework that would be true scrapping without guilt. We’ll see how that goes.

I think we’ve all decided one day for NSD (National Scrapbook Day) just isn’t enough, so Two Peas is throwing a three day party—today, tomorrow and Sunday are filled with prizes, challenges and inspiration for scrapbookers.

Check out:
Pages inspired by other scrappers in a special NSD gallery (I got to take inspiration from Candice Greenway and ScrapTigz—loved it!)
New layouts in the garden featuring die cuts and the latest product releases
My NSD challenge—go circle crazy on a project! (Go on – there’s a chance to win a prize from one of the NSD sponsor manufacturers!)

...and there might just be a bit more blog posting here this weekend as I recover from the shock of working for someone other than shimelle.com!

Hope your weekend is a lovely one!

xlovesx

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This Sunday’s baking was decidedly not photogenic. But it disappeared in just a few minutes, so I’ll take yummy-if-ugly for this week, I guess. It was also a total cheat: when I travel, I look for mixes in the baking section to see what an instant national classic is like. It’s normally nowhere near as fabulous as making it from scratch, but it’s a strange compulsion just to find something I can’t find here and see how it turns out. So this was a cherry clafoutis mix bought for the princely price of €1.49 in a corner grocer in Paris. Just add milk and cherries and bake for the better part of an hour. (Or be a rebel and add amaretto because if something has cherries, something should have amaretto. That’s what I believe, anyway.)

I am sure this clafoutis recipe would be far more fabulous (and it is obviously very pretty!) but reading the directions in every language but English made this simple mix enough of an adventure for this Sunday.

The bigger event on Sunday was the London marathon—we certainly aren’t running but it starts so close to home that we’ve made it a bit of an annual event with guests for a big breakfast, watching at the starting line then shortcutting over to the six mile mark to cheer some more. We managed to catch a few pictures of Ed – the only person we actually knew who was running – and yes, Peter Andre and Jordan, for a laugh.

Surely her shoulder was in agony by the end of the marathon if he ran like that for the entire race?

xlovesx

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Just a quick Saturday night thank you to all the ladies that scrapbooked with me today at the Scrapping Angels retreat at Wyboston Lakes! It was lovely to spend an hour with you working on a project with lots of punches, die cuts and stamps as well as some natter time in the crop room! I hope you all had a lovely weekend.

That’s Annie scrapping away.

And that’s Anna with me—Annie and Anna host the weekend along with a few other Scrapping Angels, one of whom kindly took our photo.

Thanks again!

xlovesx

PS: My apologies to a few who had emailed me earlier about class kits—I didn’t come home with any spares this time! I do have some spare kits from the Paris classes that I will get online very soon.

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_{Supplies: Spring by Crystal Wilkerson and Scrap Canvas 4 by The Queen of Quirk}

_{Supplies: Spring by Crystal Wilkerson, 2Organic by Rhonna Farrer and Antique-It Photo Overlays by Jen Allyson (and I’m under strict instructions to give The Boy photo credit!)}

The sun is still shining here! The kind of days when I don’t mind getting up early to make the most of real springtime weather. The set up for the London Marathon has started—the starting line is just metres away from where we live and the village becomes insane on race day! Just packed with people. Hoping this lovely weather sticks around for Sunday so the marathon can run smoothly. I am so not a runner but I have so much respect for those who can finish a marathon. My brain can hardly fathom such a thing, and my muscles definitely don’t want to imagine it!

Loving the papers in this free digital kit this month. Just printed some out for some hybrid happiness to share with you tomorrow!

xlovesx

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Beautiful weather + a class who picked up right where we left off two years ago + two big scrapbooking deadlines = not enough time to blog!

But I’ll be back here tomorrow! Working on a little something now, but need to head to bed so I can get up early for school tomorrow!

Hope you’re having a lovely week!

xlovesx

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Today was a day with a little something old, a little something new. Back to a traditional classroom, just for a while.

Without a doubt, the most difficult thing about leaving full-time teaching was the terrible feeling that I would be abandoning my students. I had two classes that I had taught for several years, so of course I was a little attached to them. I lost a great deal of sleep over those two classes, but by the time my last day arrived it looked like they were all set and things were in place and everything would be fine.

Long story short: everything didn’t go quite so well as I had hoped.

Not long ago I got a call with the conundrum that my class was short a teacher for the few weeks before their national exams. So today I went back and returned to whiteboards and exercise books and a group of students who I swear are much taller than I remember.

When I was teaching, I could never sleep the night before a new term. Even if we only had a week off, I would be convinced that I would go back on Monday morning and not remember how to teach a lesson. If I had that fear then, you can only imagine what I felt like this morning. But sure enough, class started, they picked up their pens and we actually accomplished what I had planned.

Thirteen lessons to go until their big exam. Still hoping I can remember how to do this.

xlovesx

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