Yey it's my blogiversary today :0) and it's mild and sunny.
How fitting that my 1st bloggy birthday is the same day as the 1st day of my new life! Oh yeh, last nights celebratory wine and pizza were GOOD.
I'll be doing a proper post later, but in a rush just now so as an intermediate thing I'm posting the blue sky. I'm all about the bluey colours so I'll be posting lots this week, and I invite you all to do the same, got a nice sky today, or some ocean? Maybe some blue fabric or some turquoise signage, I'd love to see.
This is the expanding, cedar shingle covered Dragspelhuset (Accordian House) by 24h architecture as seen here. You know how much I want my house covered in cedar shingles, and this organic curvy look is right up my street, though obviously my house is geometric, but I can wiggle them so they are laid in a wavy way. Meant to post this weeks ago but never had the time... 'til today - I'm officially free of my hideous job!
They suck big time in their, never even left a note to say goodbye or anything. At my official redundancy meeting I joked that I knew the 120 staff from my department were hiding in a darkened room with flowers and cards - joke didn't go down well. Such a humourless manager. And incompetent. And rude. It costs nothing to be polite, or at least civil.
This is very exciting as it means pizza and wine for me tonight. I've been so good, not had pizza in years, but I used to say that if I ever left work I'd celebrate with pizza so I can't wait for this evening.
Now I can concentrate on my health, my home and - hopefully, my own business (longer term). That's got to be a good thing. Thanks for all the messages of support from you lovely bloggers. You are the best.
I like this faded hydrangea*, it has a calmness that I'm hoping I'll feel when I finish work, which I'm hoping will be after my next shift (as long as I get my holiday time that I'm due). Feels so strange to be leaving so suddenly after all these years. I've loved and hated it. So many good people, so many bad managers.
I'll still not have time to catch up on all my emails just yet as I have a LOT of things to sort out over the next few weeks, but I will reply to everyone eventually. Until then I'll keep my camera with me and continue to post snaps of my day... got some lovely romanesco shots today but can't hook up to a working Mac till tomorrow.
*Why does blogger scale down so many of my photo's? This looked gorgeous at proper size and rubbish now I've had to stretch to fit. I always have the same setting, a 10cm wide, 72dpi pic saved at Quality 6 in photoshop and imported into blogger on the medium quality setting. I never change that, yet many come in tiny, even when I increase the actual pic/quality/compression sizes. Such a shame as it's often ones that had great detail so they get all pixellated and look bad when I scale up withing the post. If you know how to avoid this then I thank you in advance for your advice.
These are not fake cakes, or shop cakes, or show cakes. They are real cakes that Alicia made!
I cannot begin to describe the exquisite torture of seeing these beauties and not being able to eat them. So, in the spirit of 'a problem shared is a problem halved', maybe my tastebuds will feel less under pressure if I'm getting all of you to have the same problem.
Thanks Alicia for letting me post this. And for those of you (Anna etc.) who are true baking gals, Alicia has posted the recipe and MORE pictures of 'the making of' here. Enjoy.
(did I mention that I have already sinned this week - tiramisu, family size... TWICE!!! losing your job is just such a great excuse for that kind of thing. My skin looks atrocious now, but the memory of the taste lives on happily)
Another busy day, thought I'd post some black and white. Enjoy your weekends everyone.
Busy day, no time to chat. The berry bush looked utterly stunning in real life, so red.
Mmm-mmm. I love that muted gray green you get when paint fades or things get frosty. I really wanted a high quality pic of the hand print on the frosty car window but I could see the man over the street looking like he was about to call the police (not my car).
It's funny the different reactions people have to photograph taking. If your not snapping a person, a view or a landmark they can get very suspicious and act like they think your either crazy or criminal!
I managed to access quite a few of your lovely comments but couldn't get the connection working to reply, but thank to all who typed me a message, I really do appreciate you taking the time. I'm gagging to have regular broadband access back so I can begin to read and comment more on all your blogs again, I really miss that.
12 hours later....
Blimey, what a day. I wolloped my finger the other day so typing is hard, but dog walking is harder. Marley was a dream on our sunny lunchtime walk (those frosty pics are from last week). But I'm finally back from his latest walk which was an absolute trial.
He was utterly hyper, as if he'd eaten too many red M&M's, or blue Smarties or whatever freaks kids these days. And then when I got him home he was dreadful, jumping, slightly biting, barking...no idea what was going on - he's never like that with me though he does it with L a lot.
I think possibly he's trying it on with me as the dog training lady was here yesterday and worked ahrd with M and L to get him to recognise her dominance. I reckon he thinks if he can't dominate her he'll try and dominate me. Forget it dog (says I, heart going 500 beats per minute, sweat pouring down my brow, hand shaking and voice GONE). But I did 'win' in the battle for top dog eventually.
When I left my brain was so addled that, in the dark shadow of the tree I mistook a small round Hebe bush for MrP's cat! I was chattering away to it in a hoarse whisper. It was only when I leaned down and stroked it I realised my error. Thankfully no-one saw!
Finally, before you ask, no valentine's cards, well, not real ones (Ruthy, thanks for the one you sent me, it was a hoot though I was freaked that I looked like Ivana Humpalot, from Austin Powers, in that outfit!).
I've only ever had 1 proper card in my life in Primary 6 (5th Grade) from a boy called Craig. I know it was him because he had very distinctive writing - his 'e' was always back to front! Wish I still had it, but my mum always chucked my things away.
Here are some cakes I saw in the bakery last week for all you romantic (or just plain cake lovin') types. And some berries for the rest of you...
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