Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Just because I can: photos!

Well, the robbery incident turned out better than expected, in that I have been reunited with my camera and phone, albeit after an exchange of a moderate amount of money...yes, thanks to a boyfriend with a good hardman act and a reasonable knowledge of the area's seedy underworld, and the incredible stupidity/guilt of the kids who robbed us (seriously, who steals a phone and then answers it?!), we managed to buy my things back. From a lad who said he bought them and then felt guilty after seeing the baby photos on the camera, and claimed he was selling them back at what he paid for them, although we have our suspicions that he did in fact steal them himself, and got a nice £45 for his troubles. But still, £45 is a lot less than we would have had to pay to replace them, and I am so grateful to have all my phone numbers back, because that would have been a tremedous pain in the arse to deal with. It was a weird little turn of events, but I guess it turned out as well as being robbed can do, really.
I'm horribly full of cold now, and Cara's little nose is pouring with snot. But this has not dampened her happiness at finally being able to crawl! On Friday, after so many months of looking like she was about to do it, she finally decided enough was enough and now she is unstoppable. I am really regretting how anxious I was about her being a late crawler-firstly because it was such a silly attitude to have when she is clearly developing perfectly, on her own timetable, and secondly because now I have a bazillion times more tidying up to do as she can throw everything everywhere, and very much enjoys doing so. It's lovely though.

I have been on a serious bread baking kick recently, mostly due to the fact that with Cara still being less than 12 months, we are trying to keep her salt intake as low as possible, and it's pretty much impossible to buy bread with no salt in it. And damn, she loves bread. But bread making can be really time consuming (I don't have a bread maker), and I'm often quite disapppointed with the finished result (my oven is really really crap). So I've been trying some easy, no knead, bread type recipes. This week I made oatmeal soda bread on Monday:
And yesterday, Pepper and Pesto Buns (with homemade vegan pesto!):

The soda bread is very good, although a little bit soggy (my fault), and the buns are fantastic, although I can barely taste them thanks to my cold. They were so easy to make, and yet they taste like a proper posh bread thing. Cara loves them with hummus (extra garlicky hummus). Err, if I were a real blogger I would now post the recipes here, but I really don't think that enough people read this for it to be worth doing that.

OK, I'm gonna go and make popcorn and watch Desperate Housewives now, my weekly Wednesday night ritual whilst Mark is at a band practice. I am becoming worrying addicted to popcorn. So cheap, so easy. so smothered with butter and salt. Mmmmmm. I love it.

One more photo, because I want to. Me and the lil'un snuggling on the sofa after her nap yesterday:

Look-she's a real person now! A bald person, but so much a person rather than a little baby. Awww.

Friday, April 11, 2008

Grrrrrr

Wow, I've not posted anything here for ages. Or on the internet in general really-I've still been reading plenty, but I've been kind of feeling that internet discussions and blogging aren't the greatest use of my time. I have been crafting and cooking plenty though, and I was feeling the urge to blog some of it with lots of pretty pictures...and then my camera got nicked. And my phone. And 2 bags of Mark's filled with books and random stuff. We are stupid, we were really tired and went to bed without checking that the front door was locked. The area we live in is more than a bit dodgy, so unsurprisingly, someone walked right in whilst we were sleeping, and took what they could see. Actually, it could have been so much worse, they left all the big things (TV, stereo, DVD player), and several shelves of DVDs and CDs, and my house keys and passport which were on the coffee table, and they didn't come upstairs and murder us in our beds or anything, so we were lucky. Lucky and stupid. It was just silly opportunist kids, so it's more annoying than anything. Especially because all my phone numbers are lost, and a load of photos that hadn't been uploaded. And also, we are skint beyond belief so I don't see how we are going to be able to replace the camera. Which is a right pain in the arse, because it's somewhat useful.
Oh, and it was Mark's birthday. Yeah, we got robbed on his birthday. He was a bit upset. But, I did make him a gigantic vegan fry up (veg sausages, veg bacon, scrambled tofu, baked beans with sauteed red peppers, fried bread and hash browns, mmmm) for his breakfast, and then an enormous feast for dinner (Sweet potato fries, fancy garlic bread, homemade vegan pizza, spinach salad, vegan choc mousse AND vegan cheesecake). I would like to post photos but never mind hey. It was nice, anyway.
Ah well, we'll see if I can somehow get my hands on a camera before too long. Cos if I can't constantly bombard the internet with pictures of my kid and my cooking, however will I cope?