T minus 6 days to Annie's Wedding

Eyebrows dyed?  Check

Hair highlighted?  Check

Hair conditioning treatment?  Check

Panic lost 7lbs?  Check

At home facial?  Check

3 pairs of control pants bought?  Check

3 pair of control tights bought?   Check

Eyelash extensions?   Check

New giant beige bra?   Check

Pin down Mr Rose and trim his eyebrows?  OUTSTANDING

Have 1st sunbed?  Check

Have 2nd sunbed?  OUTSTANDING

Pin down Mr Rose and slap some St Tropez on him whilst telling him it is just moisturiser?  OUTSTANDING

Shave legs to within inch of life?  OUTSTANDING

Scrub red bobbly arms twice daily and slather with moisturiser?  Check

Pedicure?  SERIOUSLY OUTSTANDING I HAVE CLOVEN HOOFS

Manicure?  OUTSTANDING – though I am manicure ready thanks to amazing new product

Diary cleared to allow for only protein and veg evenings in at home with early nights?  SORT OF

Overnight bag packed with every make up product known to man?  OUTSTANDING

 

Helpin Annie find the perfect natural but not too natural, long lasting but not dry coral lipstick?  OUTSTANDING

 

Keeping my excitement under control?  OUTSTANDING!

 

 

Rose xx

 

 

 

 

Annie and Mr Annie and a chocolate cake

So in just under 3 weeks my darling middle sister will be marrying her beau, Mr Annie. It only seems like yesterday that we were planning weddings for our many Barbie dolls and the one, polygamous Ken doll.

When she got engaged last year and I told friends and colleagues, their first reaction was always 'gosh how lovely' and then they cocked an eyebrow at me and said 'how are you taking it?'. For as the elder and unmarried sister, a sense of Jane Austen still lives in 2013.

But the thing is about love, that even though you may wish you had what they have, you are so pleased they are happy it cancels out the jealousy. I'm fairly sure Annie is deeply jealous of my BLUE SHED and we are both insanely jealous of Izzy's washboard stomach.

Mr Annie is like the little brother I never had, to see them together is a joy because they are not only soul mate ish, but he relentlessly takes the piss out of her, which helps to keep her grounded ;-)

My mum and dad, as you can imagine have been relishing marrying a daughter from home: dad has done full scale models of venues to work out seating plans and conducted raucous blind wine tasting tests which I thoroughly enjoyed. Mum has been sweet talking the local farmer into lending a field for the marquee, bribing old ladies to do the flowers and you can tell she has really got into it now by sending emails with menus for 4 days worth of celebrations.

So just before the wedding on the day itself, we are having egg sandwiches, sausage rolls and my mum's famous Almond Cake. Just reading the email about it gave me an idea and I got my Baking Tickle. This cake is famous throughout Warwickshire and is known to heal the sick. People who barely know her ring up and ask for one.

As Mr Rose has been such a Trojan in the garden this weekend (he is Master of Weeding whereas I'm more of a Creative Director type) I decided he had more than earned a cake. So I found my recipe book, found the page with it on and lo and behold, next to it was a recipe that belonged to my mum's god mother for a chocolate almond cake. So as he is a chocoholic I though I'd try it and he has given it a big thumbs up.

 

 

As you can see its not giant, but its very rich.

To make it you need:

2oz butter
4oz caster sugar
3 beaten eggs
4oz drinking chocolate
2oz SR Flour
2oz ground almonds
1 tsp almond essence
Chuck it all in a 6" cake tin at 180 degrees for 50 mins.

 

Serve to a hungry man on a garden bench while he admires his handiwork.

And no, none for me- I've got a bridesmaid dress to fit into!!!

Love,

Rose xx

 

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Banko fun

About 6 months ago, Mr Rose and I were aimlessly wondering around Homebase trying to pick which Crown paint was a good enough copy of Farrow and Ball's Dorset Cream to fool Aunty Mame, when I stumbled on the previously unknown concept of shed paint. Shed paint! I know, brilliant huh?

You can paint your shed violet, rose pink, line green, slate, stone, Cotswold fart - whatever you like.

I clocked the shade 'forget me not' and made a mental note to transform our shed come spring. This weekend was the allotted time so we skipped back to Homebase and bought it. I woke ludicrously early yesterday morning and raced outside to get the first coat on.

The reason for my speed was that I wanted to slip outside before Mr Rose woke up. He is the sort of chap that does things properly - if he'd awoken I'd have been made to read the instructions, prepare the area, wear appropriate clothing, cover the ground etc etc. All of this would have totally ruined my impulsive moment!

I forgot to get a 'before' photo but you get the drift here.

And here is the finished product:

Anyone wondering what the effect was of not preparing the area? Well we now have some rather blue strawberries...

Here is Whispa from next door admiring it

We went to Ikea yesterday and snapped up these amazing solar fairy lights to go in the plum tree next to it:

 

It was so easy, and just a flash of colour at the end of the garden has transformed it.

Love,

Shed Obsessed Rose

(I don't know who I am anymore)

Xx

 

Posted with Blogsy

Going, Going, Gone Girl

You have probably seen half of the people on public transport reading this book. 

I don't normally like thrillers, as I'm a total scaredy cat but I am gripped to this book. 

It has lots of twists and turns and has kept me interested on the Northern Line all this week.  A perfect summer read!

Highly recommended

Rose x