Raisie Bay - A Family and Lifestyle Blog

My Sunday Snapshot – in The Pink (or is it?)

Today I was going to share a photo of my latest crochet hat but it caused a bit of a stir on Facebook yesterday. I’ll explain more later but first I want to show you the pink sky we saw this morning. Maybe not that special but my Little Man seemed impressed so I took a photo. My Mom used to say, Pink Sky in the morning, Shepherd’s warning. (Red sky at night Shepherd’s delight.) It was a weather indicator, if it was red at night the next day would be fine (for grazing sheep) if it was pink in the morning the weather would not be so nice. It’s raining now.

The Crochet Hat

I took a photo of my latest crochet hat on the table in natural light. I thought it looked good so I posted it on Facebook. A local friend joked it would look better in blue and white. I live in Birmingham and the two main football teams are Aston Villa, claret and blue, and Birmingham City, blue and white. He had obviously thought my hat was claret and blue. I’d not even noticed! The hat is in fact cinnamon and grey, so I took another photo in a different light. Here is the same hat photographed in different lights, no filters.

The same hat photographed twice looking very different.

It’s certainly made me think twice about taking photgraphs for my Etsy shop. I would hate to think that someone was expecting a colour that was different to the one they’d ordered from my pictures.

Anyway, the correct colour is the one on the left cinnamon and grey, and it’s a kid’s sized hat (age 5 to 10) I’ll be putting it in my shop soon. I’m already working on my next hat which is a different pattern and very different colours.

Word of the Week 43 – October

by Anne Sweet 5 Comments

Hello and welcome to the home of Word of the Week. A nice and simple weekly linky, with everyone welcome to pop by and share. The idea of the linky is to reflect back on your past week and share it with us. It’s great if you can sum it up in a word or phrase, hence giving us your Word of the Week. My word this week is ‘October’ and you can read more about that below.

I’m not totally strict on using just a word or phrase. But please try to stick to the theme of summing up your week. There are not too many rules with this linky, just remember to read at least another couple of posts in the link up after adding your link. I will read and comment on all posts and tweet them out for you. I also have a Pinterest board devoted to Word of the Week and I will add posts to Mix Please add the badge below to your post so that others may find us and join in. If you comment or tweet then please use the hashtag #WotW

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

My Word of the Week – October

I have been informed by my internet company that my service may be a bit iffy for the next few days so I’m writing this post early and scheduling it. I hope that the improvements they are making will be good to be honest, the service currently is rubbish. We are always losing connection and when I call it’s always the same story, we have too many devices connected. I just think I pay way too much money just to be online. I hope they get their act together.

Anyway, because I’m writing this early I couldn’t think of a word to sum up my week. I could use pain because there has been a lot of that. Or I could use arguments as we’ve had plenty of those. I could use rain, miserable, tired, fed-up etc etc etc…but you don’t want to hear my woes. Plus you’d be here all day if I started!

So, I decided to go with October. I’ve been taking part in Blogtober21 which encourages bloggers to write or at least share a blog post every day during October. I love doing this, it’s a real challenge. I couldn’t put that much effort in every month but for one month a year it’s fine.

October is also one of my favourite times of year, a time of changes where everything gets slower and darker and winter draws near. I like the changing seasons like Autumn and Spring. I’m not so keen on the heat of summer (if we get one) or the freezing cold of winter. I’m very much an in-between type of person.

I’m not a huge fan of Halloween but it’s nice to see the kids dress up and come calling for treats. My kids don’t take part anymore, but the two youngest love to answer the door and give sweets away. I’ve already started collecting my stash. We used to go pumpkin carving but the kids are too old for that now. I’ll just take them to get some pumpkins and we can visit the farm shop.

I’m a big fan of October half term. The first term of school is always the most gruelling, so half term is really looked forward too. We can have a week of not having to get up and rush around in the mornings. And I can put away the school uniforms for a week. We don’t have many plans but that’s ok we just need a rest.

October is also the time I get to speak to my neurologist. I only get to speak to him twice a year, April and October. I have written pages of things I need to say. I’m not keen on telephone appointments but hopefully by next April things will be back to normal.

I hope you all enjoy the last week of October. I know I will be. (pain permitting)

Now, it’s over to you, what word or phrase sums up your week this week.

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Sweet Treats for Everyone to Enjoy

by Anne Sweet 3 Comments

We love making sweet things here in the Sweet household, it wouldn’t be right if we didn’t. I’ve made some real sweet treats with my younger ones over the years and shared on this blog. I recently posted a round up of some biscuit posts.

Today I’d like to share some of my sweet recipes as well as a few from other blogs.

As it’s October and the month of pumpkins I’ll start with this delicious Pumpkin and Orange Cake that I made with the help of my children.

Sweet Puddings

Not all my recipes go to plan. These chocolate molten puddings which were inspired by the Great British Bake Off, tasted better than they looked. I don’t think I’ve tried to make them again….that’s a challenge!

Cakes

I’ve made so many cakes, too many to mention! But I will. First up, enjoy my Toffee Apple and Pecan Cake, again inspired by GBBO.

I’ve made celebration cakes since my eldest children were small, so we can go back over 30 years! I also made my friends wedding cake which was a huge privilege, but so much hard work. One of the fun cakes I’ve made in recent years was this ‘drone cake’ for my brother. He loves his drones and this cake not only had a drone on it, it worked. We took it to the pub where he was having his birthday meal and he was flying the tiny drone around like the big kid he is.

Sweet Fudge

I only recently discovered slow cooker fudge which works amazingly, but I started making fudge many years before I even owned a slow cooker.

Then today I found this recipe on how to make the best Chocolate Orange Fudge…..oh yummy! I definitely want to try this one now.

Christmas Sweet Treats

Christmas is a great time for sweet treats and I loved making these Christmas pudding biscuits with my kids.

I also love these lovely stained glass biscuits that you can hang on your Christmas tree or give as little gifts to your guests.

These Pretzel Christmas Trees are another lovely Christmas treat you can make with your children.

Are you a baker or sweet treat maker? I hope you have enjoyed my recipes. If you are thinking of making a gingerbread house this year you may consider the alternative chocolate one like the one we made last year.

My Sunday Snapshot – Prawn Donburi Take Out

by Anne Sweet 9 Comments

We have a fabulous Japanese restaurant/take out near us and this week we tried it out for the first time. This is what I had Prawn Donburi.

To me, it wasn’t a traditional donburi which is roughly translated as bowl and is any dish served over rice. This was more like a bento box with the little elements served in separate compartments, but the main part of the meal was indeed tempura prawns served over rice and mushrooms. It’s also served with a donburi sauce which is generally soy sauce and mirin based, but it can be different. My sauce was definitely different to my daughter’s pork donburi.

As well as the tempura prawns (which were utterly scrumptious) over rice, there was also a portion of kimchi and a little salad with mayonnaise.

We also had a sushi and sashimi platter which I didn’t take any photos of but it was simply stunning.

My daughter and I have always been big lovers of Japanese food and often used to visit Yo Sushi. We also enjoyed our bento boxes from Mount fuji in times when I was more mobile. For special treats we have visited Myako Teppanyaki restaurant where they cook the food in front of you and the make it into a really entertaining experience. (Egg snooker anyone?)

I really enjoyed the food from Ruga Fusion though and would definitely recommend to anyone local.

I found this recipe for Prawn Donburi on You Tube which looks vaguely similar to what I was served.

All restaurants mentioned in this post are mentioned because we have enjoyed eating there, I have no affiliation, neither have I been asked to link to them.

Word of the Week 42 – Sushi Saves The Day

by Anne Sweet 4 Comments

Word of the Week is open from 6am on Friday Morning to 12 noon on Monday. Plenty of time to join in!

If you are unfamiliar with the Word of the Week linky then please feel free to ask any questions. New linkers are always welcome, we love to hear what you have been up to in the past week.

MY WORD OF THE WEEK – Sushi

I’m struggling to sum up my week this week, it’s Thursday afternoon right now and I don’t know where the week has gone, it’s flown by. But it hasn’t been without it’s drama. So I’m going with Sushi because it saved the day.

I struggle a lot with feeding my fussy family. I’ve tried meal plans but they never, well, go to plan. I try new recipes which generally get the thumbs down. And basically, I have come to dread that time of the day when it’s time to start cooking.

Once upon a time we had a rotation of meals that we would spread over two weeks to keep things mixed up. But it worked. Now, I get moaned at if I try to serve the same meal twice in two weeks, but no-one wants to try anything new. Honestly, I feel like banging my head against the kitchen wall. As for the shopping…well, it’s got smaller and smaller because I’m sick of throwing food away so I just don’t buy it anymore.

We are also sick of take away food, KFC, Mc Donalds, Chinese, Indian, Chip Shop…sick of the lot!

Ok, rant over, now for the good bit. We have a brand new Japanese restaurant that opened up just up the road. I’ve wanted to try it for a while but no-one seemed keen. But last night I got Graham to pop in for a menu and we ordered out. The younger ones were not interested, but that’s ok because Mc Donald’s is just over the road and they never say no to that. (It’s the adults who are fussy!)

We didn’t know what the portions would be like, or if the food would be nice. We’ve only eaten Japanese in restaurants before. And Graham has a fish allergy so he’s never been keen. But we gave it a go. Graham had a beef curry which he said was amazing. Big Son had Chicken Teriyaki Ramen, I had Prawn Donburi and Daughter had Pork Donburi. All the meals were really delicious. Because we had no idea what the portions would be like (And they were big) we also ordered a Sushi platter. Oh My was it a fabulous platter too! It had everything from octopus to clams, cucumber to omelette. There was maki, california rolls, sashimi and nigiri. We made right pigs of ourselves (well not Graham because of all the fish, but he did enjoy his curry!)

In a week of bad school days, arguments, tantrums, and illness, the sushi was really a highlight of the week.

Do you like sushi/Japanese food?

Now it’s over to you, what word or phrase sums up your week this week?

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