I intended to...

I was all set up yesterday to write another post with pictures, but I made a mistake in uploading the pictures. As it already was quite late I could not be bothered to try again, so here is my Friday the 13th post then. Does anyone actually know why a Friday 13 is so particularly bad?
To add some cheer to a particulary wet and miserable (well, weatherwise anyway) day, I wanted to show you the flowers I got from my colleagues for my birthday. Aren't they gorgeous. They are pink, and pink is for girls. My colleagues thought that this was a particular " Caroline" arrangement and I must say... I agree.
And look at these brave things that are popping their heads up in the garden, it may well be that we are in for another 4 weeks of winter, but spring is definitely on its way!

As I had to so some food shopping this afternoon, I popped into the junktique (great word) shop around the corner from where I live and bought another 2 Christmas brooches, I just think they are very pretty. The lady in the shop told me that the other day there were people from a completely other part of the country that came into her shop particularly for these pins. She sells them at a good price (at least it is the price I am prepared to pay for them) and they always make me smile, they are very twinkly. I reckon they will make a great collectors item.


Aaaah, forgot to put the picture the right way round, but maybe you will get the idea of them. The heart is something my mother gave to me, I intend to make a few more of these and will try to sell them, as they are actually really fun to display a collection of brooches or pins on.

In my next post I will try and show you some of the things I am working on, for the moment a lot of things are just in the planning stage.
Doing this post has really cheered me up, I started it after I had written two more job applications which somehow always depresses me. Thank you all for bearing with me so far and for inspiring me with all your wonderful blogs and friendly comments. This could actually really get addictive.
To finish this post I have added some photos of the food I cooked yesterday, cooking always makes me happy as I feel I can be quite creative with it. The soup was some spruced up left-over Brussels sprouts soup I made last week. I put the left-overs in the freezer, where would I be without it? The stock I used was turkey stock, which I made from the carcass of the Christmas turkey. I got about 8 litres of that ( again, long live the freezer), I really get a buzz about doing stuff like that.
The salad was a recipe out of Good food's February issue. However, as I have been practically incapable to follow instructions since... oh, probably since birth, I spruced it up. I did not have spinach as was required in the recipe. As the carrots had to be roasted in the oven, I though therefore I could as well roast a few different kinds of vegetable with them, so I added some celery stalks ( they actually roast really nicely) and some onions. I also added some chilli flakes to the mix to liven it all up. The dressing was very nice and I must say it all added up to a lovely meal. Sometimes you really do not need much.