100 Happy Days-Day 10

Home brewed spiced apple cider. Yum yum!

100 Happy Days-Day 9

Finally got round to ordering a new copy of this DVD and it arrived today. Definitely worth a watch! Colonel Brandon can give Mr Darcy a run for his money!

100 Happy Days-Day 8-New Project

Supplies for a new crafty project have arrived, watch this space.

100 Happy Days - Day 7 - Running, Crochet and Chocolate Orange.

Today was a lovely last day off before a busy run of shifts over the next 10 days (broken up by a day off on Saturday too visit my new puppy, eek, so excited).   

I managed to drag myself out for a 4.5 mile run this afternoon.  I've been trying to push myself lately to get back into exercising regularly having not done so much over the last couple of years for one reason or another.

For Christmas my husband brought me a GPS triathlon watch (triathlons are what I do inbetween the knitting, crochet, sewing, craft fairs and a full time nursing job).  It's really been pushing me to get out and do more exercise though I've only used the running function so far it also acts as a cycle computer and can be used for outdoor swimming (when it's a little warmer).  I'll try and write a proper review of the watch once I've used some more functions but so far, so good.  (Sorry for the horrible picture of my hand, I blame the never ending hand washing in the day job for the state of my hands).

My little reward for going for a run (I didn't eat the whole thing, though if I'd run 12 miles I could have run off enough energy to eat it all and still be in negative calories, not that I'd recommend that as a healthy life choice). 

 


Of course any happy day should include some crochet.  I'm loving this bobble blanket pattern at the moment.  The pattern can be found here, note it uses American crochet terms. I've used a king cole value double knit yarn which comes in gorgeous colours and is available here,  and a 4mm crochet hook.  I'm making it to my usual baby blanket size 70cm by 90cm. I'm completely in love with these colours!

100 Happy Days - Day 6 - A new board game with my hubby.

I feel rather blessed that there's not much good on TV at the moment because it becomes easier to turn off the box and do something else.  So last night Matt and I thought we'd try out a new board game I was given for my birthday, and of course I had to have a little drink to accompany it.

Top tip: Buy some lemons and limes, chop them up and put them in a bag in the freezer then you always have a slice ready for your chosen tipple

This is just a little photo to demonstrate why I always split the snacks up into separate bowls otherwise I get left with nothing! Mine is obviously the bottom bowl! We hadn't evern started the game yet!

So the new game we were playing is called Zombies.  It's designed for 2-6 players which is great as a lot of board games can't be played with 2 people meaning you can't play unless you have other people round. You gradually build up the board by laying tiles and make your way round battling zombies, the first person to collect 25 zombies or escape via the helipad wins.  I love games where the board is made up of tiles meaning it's different every time.   This game is definitely worth giving a go if you're looking to branch out from the traditional games such as Monopoly (not that I don't love a game of Monopoly). 

 

If you're thinking "Board games, yuck!" you might find this blog post interesting http://www.cracked.com/blog/6-board-games-that-ruined-it-everyone/  I don't entirely agree with it because as I said I still love some of the traditional board games such as Monopoly but there are some great alternatives out there is you find yourself in need of a change.

 

 Guess who won...

A view of the board.
 

100 Happy Days - Day 5

Today's happy photographs of these goregeous little peeps, my Godson and his 2 sisters, can't not be happy when they're about!  
 

100 Happy Days-3&4

I went out straight after work yesterday so I got home a bit late and didn't have time to upload my happy photo for yesterday so here it is, eton mess cheesecake.







I see a theme emerging here because today’s happy photo is also of food.  I know it doesn't look like anything special but this is a biryani cooked for me by my husband with a kit from a subscription we were brought for Christmas from here - http://www.thespicery.com  It was simply one of the yummiest things I've eaten in a long while (and I've eaten a lot of yummy things).  So if you're looking for a present idea and the recipient likes cooking this is a great gift idea.  

100 Happy Days - Day 2

So day 2 of being happy…

I normally work long 12 1/2 hour shifts but I’m doing a different job at the moment meaning I work some 9-5 shifts which is completely alien for me.  Of course it means I get less days off but to compensate I’m trying to make sure I make the most of my 9-5 days by getting up early and making the most of the day.  So these first 3 photos are of the sunrise as seen from my back bedroom window after my run at 7am this morning, getting up early for a run makes you so smug you just can’t be sad for the rest of the day!

For a second happy point for the day, after work I had a chance to do some baking. Is there anything better than warm gooey cookies?  This is a Nigella recipe and is by far the best chocolate cookie recipe I've ever found.  It can be found here http://cook-taste-live.com/2013/05/23/nigellas-double-chocolate-chip-cookies/

I've made a few adjustments though - I find you can split it into about 20 portions, if you go with the 12 it recommends they'll be enormous (not that that’s necessarily a bad thing…)!  I therefore adjust the cooking time to 14 minutes, they'll still be really gooey when you take them out of the oven so let them cool on the baking tray before moving them to a cooling rack, if you try to move them sooner they'll fall apart and if you bake them for longer you won’t get the lovely chewy texture.  The other adjustment I make is to replace the chocolate chips with white chocolate cut into chunks, I find this gives more satisfying size bits of chocolate and the white chocolate is a great contrast.