By The Light Of The Moon..........

.....Well.....my kitchen Mr Moon.

The dark and dreary days seem to have landed. Still incredibly mild for this time of year, but the darkness has come. It's REALLY hard to take decent pictures at this time of year....so I'm not really.

It's been so busy these past few weeks. I've been itching to get some crafting done in my spare time....but there doesn't seem to be any. Birthday week gifted me some books that have given me plenty of inspiration. More wanty makes to add to the list. So little time. Oh well.

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So.....Cake....more of it.

I'm trying to eat healthily now, ready for the christmas indulgence (says she, who is typing this with a huge latte at her side (skimmed milk and decaf, but brown sugar, 'cos I can't have coffee without brown sugar)). It's a start.

But cake, well it just keeps on coming. 

Coffee cake this time. 

Cake taken from inspiration here

Coffee cake with Coffee icing, and Cadbury's Flakes and crushed walnuts sprinkled on top.

Man........it was good. 

Oh so good.

The trouble is....I think every coffee cake made from now on might just have to be a woodland coffee cake. For no other reason than I like whimsical. 

Any excuse to get animals on top of a cake. The animal tea party cake I made for my birthday last year was almost made again this year, but I liked this one so it was made. No pics of that as it was made late in the day and tucked into straight away. Rather indulgent, but rather good too. Seriously, the scales are covered up in my house.

This cake was baked and decorated in the early evening, while christmas scents were simmering on the hob and Nat King Cole played in the background. It's my idea of heaven really.

I'm not sure why really , but I seem to be feeling quite christmassy. What's going on? That's not like me. Maybe it's all the little decorations that keep being put in the shopping basket and then taken out and hung (really because I am too lazy to put them away for a few weeks). And....oh....oh....oh.....as I'm typing this 'Winter Wonderland' sung by Michael Bublé has come on (I'm working my way down my iTunes playlist).

Talking of Christmassy stuff. I had tea with Mr Tumnus this week. It was incredibly delightful. I saw a coat a while back. It was utterly lovely. A thing of beauty, and reminded me of Narnia. Anyway, it was way out of my price league, but I did have a try on, and I really felt like I should be having tea with Mr Tumnus. Anyway, to cut a long story short, my lovely Folks bought it for me. So I put it on, closed my eyes, and walked through the wardrobe to the lampost. I was met there by Mr Tumnus who took me to his house for tea and cucumber sandwiches. We had a lovely chat about this and that and then I said my goodbyes, came back through the wardrobe and hung the coat back up. I do love going into stories. When Middle Bear was a really little boy, he came up to me one morning and told me that during the night he had gone into a story. He was so little that we hadn't really talked about dreams, but this must have been his first vivid dream and it was a big thing for him. I thought it was so lovely that he said he went into a story, so ever since, we talk about dreams as going into stories in our house. Anyway, tea with Mr Tumnus was rather nice, and I shall probably pop in and say hello every time I put on the coat. We can have a good old catch up.

Yes, yes. I'm a Brit. A bit of eccentricity is good for the soul.

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So, it's been soft lights in the evening and christmas scented candles. Nothing beats being snuggled up in the house all warm and cosy with the scent of christmas. I bought a figgy pudding candle the other day which was rather nice, although, nothing beats vanilla and cinnamon in my humble opinion. Anyone got any other recommendations for nicely scented candles? I'm always on the lookout. I have some lovely Yankee Candles in Cranberry which smell amazing, but I don't like Yankee Candles for the simple reason that they always burn with a soot flame. It doesn't matter how much I try to sort out the wicks, they do that, so I snuff them out and poo poo the candles for that very thing. Anyone know how to stop the soot flame from a wick? I'd love to burn the candles. They are the huge pots too, so it seems a waste. I just wonder if they coat the wicks in something and that's why they burn like that.

Anyway, No picks of my scarf just yet. I still haven't decided what to do with the ends, and the strands still have yet to be sewn in. Whenever I have a moment, the weather is grey and rubbish, which isn't really motivating me to get it finished. It would be nice to wear it though to brighten up the grey days now.

Right, time to wrap it up. I think I've rambled on long enough and I have a ton to get done today.

Cheerio for now.....

xxx