It's Orla neat and tidy in the kitchen.

As I begin to write this, I can hear the sentence forming in my father-in-law's mind - "Oh goody, another one of Bec and David's corners!" And, yes, that is what I'm going to show you. However, with the addition of some lovely new Orla Kiely canisters, they are now very pretty corners.

I've never had a proper biscuit tin. I've always made do with other tins that we've had, or plastic tupperwaresque boxes. However, that just leads to soggy contents, and I was beginning to feel mean feeding them to the children, assuming that they wouldn't be able to tell the difference. So, for Christmas, I asked for a biscuit tin and hinted that I liked the new set of three Orla Kiely air-tight canisters that I had seen in Lakeland.

We've recently realised that we're not making the most of the space in our kitchen - when we moved in over five years ago, we just plonked everything in the cupboards without much thought to how easily things could be accessed, or indeed, what we were actually putting in there.

So, with the help of my new trusty tins, I've re-arranged a few areas of the kitchen and I'm enjoying the new little space I've created.

Originally, the bread bin was underneath the cups on the other wall and I didn't really realise just how much worktop it occupied that way round. In it's new position, it leaves room for the new tin (containing rice), and it also means that there is room on top for four tall storage jars. I'm also pretty pleased with my addition of an IKEA VARIERA shelf insert, which means there's room for the pestle and mortar, salt pig, butter dish AND a small jar of I think, ground coriander. You can also see in this picture, my smart new spoon rest (my Christmas list was so exciting this year!).

I've shown you the rest of this shelf before (it's the one from which our pots and pans hang), so I decided to focus solely on the new tin which does actually contain biscuits (malted milk for the children, scrummy shortbread for me - mmm). I really like the design of all three tins, but I think this one just has the edge on the others and is perhaps, my favourite. I love the way the dusky blue flowers are set off by the tomato red of the lid.

Lastly, here is the third and smallest of the three new tins. This one is currently empty (any suggestions?) but it looks great on this shelf, so it's going to stay there until I can think of something worthy to put in it. 

Hope you're all having a good week!

I'm forever blowing bubbles . . .

We had a lovely time throwing Torin's 2nd birthday on Saturday. The rain held off and the sun even came out for a while too! We spent the morning making the house more party-friendly before the guests arrived at 11.30.

I'd decided to give Torin a party with a bubble theme as he loved blowing bubbles so much at a recent family wedding, and enjoys blowing bubbles when he's in the bath. So, a few weeks ago, I began thinking about decorations for the party and decided to keep things very simple - I bought pearlised blue, pearlised white and transparent balloons and hung them around the house, on the front gate, and in the back garden using curling ribbon left over from Christmas.

I was particularly pleased with the transparent balloons as they really looked like bubbles! 

I continued the bubble theme with the food. We cut up filled wraps into small circles, served vegetarian Scotch eggs and falafel balls along with cheesy puffs, hula hoops and cherry tomatoes amongst other things.

Thanks to Adam for this picture!

Between the main course and dessert, we all went into the garden where it was sunny if a bit breezy, and played with bubbles! Torin and the other children loved it, and I think the adults had quite a lot of fun too - competitions started involving not only who could blow the biggest bubbles, but whose bubble would travel the furthest on the wind!

I gave each child a goodie bag containing bubble wands, and then poured bubble mixture into a bucket for them all to dip into - they all got the hang of it very quickly!

I found the bags in a supermarket and then stuck the same labels onto them as I had used for the cupcake toppers, I simply wrote the letters of their names into the bubbles.

Each adult had a pot of bubbles too, but I think most got stuck in to the different shaped wands belonging to the children!

Thanks to Jo for this picture!

For dessert, we enjoyed chocolate bubbles (Aero bubbles, Maltesers and giant chocolate buttons), Jammy Dodger and Party Ring biscuits, round fruit, delicious fairy cakes (thanks Mum!), and of course, jelly and ice-cream.

Thanks to Jo for this picture!

Thanks to Jo for this picture!

Thanks to Jo for this picture!

Then, after a bit of relaxing and the children dancing, it was time to bring out the birthday cake. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture of the cake before it was brought out, but you can see it from the photo that was taken while we were singing to Torin.

Thanks to Adam for taking this picture!

Thanks again to Mum for making the cake - she made the sponge and brought it with her to our house, and I decorated it on the morning of the party. Teamwork!

Most guests had left by about 4pm, and then it was just family left so we all went out and relaxed in the garden for a while. Torin soon began watering the plants, which is one of his favourite things to do at the moment. 

Thanks to Jo for taking this picture!

Happy Birthday Torin, beauty boy xx

Thank you to everyone who made the day special!

Make do and mend: bubble cake toppers.

Yesterday I spent a little bit of time making some simple cake toppers for the fairy cakes my mum's making for Torin's birthday party. I'm not sure how many cakes she's planning on making, so I made about 30 cake toppers, all in the shape of bubbles to go along with the bubble theme we're having at the party.

These are the finished ones:

They were so simple to make - I found some plain circular labels, drew around the circumferences with a blue felt-tipped pen and then drew a little shape to make it look like a bubble.

I then stuck a sticker either side of a cocktail stick and voilà - 30 bubble cake toppers! I think they'll look great on the fairy cakes as mum's going to ice them in white and blues.

Shopping for stripes.

Apologies for my absence yesterday, but I was out having a lovely time with my mum and Torin. We went to Kent to stay with my parents for a few days while David is in Italy with his work (lucky thing). Inbetween visiting friends and family, mum took Torin and me shopping, and thoroughly spoilt us. We had a lovely lunch at Carluccio's - where we shared the Antipasto di Verdure - a delicious platter of roasted peppers, a green bean salad with mint, caponata, buffalo mozzarella, artichokes and rustica olives and some lovely focaccia bread:

Image from here.

We were absolutely stuffed when we had finished - yum!

We then went to look for a present for someone in Marks and Spencer, and mum ended up treating us to these stripey lovelies:

This flattering striped Autograph jersey dress for me,

and these cute striped socks

and lovely striped cotton knitted jumper for Torin (this isn't him btw).

Thanks mum, we had a really lovely day! x