Baking, Birthday & Bath

This fantastic cake was made by a friend of mine for my son's 21st birthday recently. When my children were small I used to make and decorate birthday cakes for them every year and they were quite happy with my amateur offerings. I had the time to do it in those days and when they had shop birthday cakes from other parties they never liked them. The plaque on the front with the picture of a chef, my friend painted completely by hand. It was very impressive and looked even better in 'the flesh'. We (I & my husband, son & girlfriend, daughter & boyfriend) all went out and had a lovely meal at The Butcher's Arms in Eldersfield, Gloucestershire even though it was a 45 min journey and a week night. My son, being a chef himself, has tried all the decent restaurants in our area and wanted to try somewhere new.

I also did some baking of my own at the weekend and made these biscuits from the book in the picture, which is from Reader's Digest. Inside the cover of the book I've written the date I aquired it - 1983! I have made a few recipes from it but must try to make better use of it. The biscuits are called Cornish Fairings and are much more biscuit-like and crunchy than many of the recipes I've tried.

I bought these lovely soaps recently from Behold the Bath. I came across the site while searching for some natural toiletries. The smell when I opened the box was devine. The Geranium &Vanilla bath and hair bars at the front are for myself as I'm also looking for a natural alternative to shampoo and these are much more eco-friendly in that they don't have plastic packaging. Behind those are Honey & Oatmeal bars which are for my husband to try as he has sensitive skin, and finally the bar at the back is dog shampoo which I will keep to give as a gift.

It might be a while before I get to use these as I have other bath products to use up first.

Although I may run out of shampoo sooner, so I could start using it for my hair only. I am eager to find something natural that works well and doesn't mean having to throw away plastic bottles. Hopefully, it will be better for my hair too so I can save money (and time) by not having to wash it every day.

In my mission to live a more simple, less consumerist life, I've decided to write a list of goals for the rest of the year. Some of them will be simple and maybe obvious measures, some more adventurous but I think that if I get them down in black and white it will help me to remember and stick to them. I'll start getting this together and write a post about it soon.

Bye for now

Teresa x