Spring has sprung...let's Countdown to Christmas 2024 (Thread 2)

[NoWordForFluffy]

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For the forgetful of thinking AKA me tomorrow, repeating the countdown!

Birthday cakes are sent to try us. I'm just glad we're past me making fucking character cakes, tbh. The year of the twatting Ubercorn will never be forgotten!

I've made bog standard chocolate cake this year. 3 layers, piñata with Smarties, chocolate buttercream and giant buttons on top. Still caused hassle as I had less icing sugar than I remembered, so had to do a dash to Sainsbury's. Thankfully I needed to go to that retail park anyway as I ordered a new cake board from Hobbycraft (plus some DMC threads to make it up to £15 to then use the discount!).

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I made a chocolate cake for DD ( to be eaten tomorrow ) the BBC Food Easy Chocolate Cake recipe . Most are too dry , but this has oil not butter , quite a hefty amount of sugar and the batter was very liquid but it cooked a nice spongey cake , which we covered in some rich chocolate icing and some Flake . It's resting overnight .

Boiling here!

I feel a bit deprived reading this. No one in my family bakes at all so I've never had a home made birthday cake.

We're an ill household here. I'm suffering with a 2 day (so far) headache and DH is still dealing with the cold which has become a chesty cough to boot.
He looks dreadful so I've sent him off to bed while I cross stitch for half hour.

Fingers crossed this headaches sods off tomorrow because it's a heavy work day and tbh it's getting on my nerves.

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Morning!

Sorry you're an unwell household, Meeces. I hope you're both better soon.

70, my chocolate cake dried out a bit quickly. Could you send me your recipe please?

Office day today. Way too hot for public transport. Luckily the issue with the office air con was fixed yesterday. Bet it was grim in there for most of the day!

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Morning.

Boiling here already. And the cat is trying to sit on my knee, no thanks!

My cake looked dreadful but tasted quite yummy. I used some bought (Betty Crocker) buttercream and chucked loads of strawberries in it.

Warm here too. The dog was actually sensible and walked for some of his usual run / jog this morning. I made him go through the cemetery as there's a tap in there, so I could fill his bottle of water up (I have a collapsible dog bowl so he can have water while we're out) as I knew he'd be thirsty.

We're having BBQ no 2 of the week later on as it's so nice!

I'm en-route to the office this morning. It's very warm. The guy stood near me has overdone his aftershave and it's making me feel a bit 🤢

Hope your ddog is more sensible than mine was Fluffy - we gave up on collapsing dog bowls as he seemed to have decided they were toys so he'd wait until we filled it then pick it up and run 😂

We were all pleased that our office day is Tuesday with the temps on Monday and today, Meeces!

DDog is semi-sensible. He's only knocked it over once, and hasn't ever tried to run off with it. He's firmly tethered to me, however!

Ooooh we missed :

27th June 181

Today 28th June

One Hundred and Eighty ( for the darts fans )

DH has dismantled our old bed and assembled our new one .
He's now watching TV after demolishing a plate of pasta and tomorrow will be complaining about his poor back/knees/hips/other randim joints .

I have to pick up an M&S order and buy some socks tomorrow ( how exciting my life is !)
Take some items to the Charity Shop .

Got my summer clothes out of the attic last week so going through them and washing them.
If it's nice I might be in danger of seeing the bottom of the laundry baskets ....

I wouldn't make the chocolate cake again TBH , it had a load of sugar in it but wasn;t sweet at all. My taste/smell has been royally knackered by Covid , it;s annoying .

I thought I'd lost the Father Christmas emoji there . just had to check !

Oops. How did we miss a day?

I have no real plans tomorrow. I was going to take DS to Liverpool, but the forecast is shocking, so that's not happening! I might take him to the arcades on the front, as he's never been and there are many 2p pieces in the house for some reason. Into the 2p shove machine for them!

DD needs a trip to the bank to pay her birthday money in. She's richer than I am now! 😩🤣 Then she's going online shopping for books!📚

Suitable gif!

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Into the one hunfred and seventies

Loads of people saying to me last week Oh it's July on Monday , into the second half of the year , I did refrain from telling them how many days till Christmas , they might not appreciate it Ha Ha .

Sunny here . Washing to go out .
Fresh loaf from the breadmaker
Plants to water .

Have a good Saturday .

Morning!

We have rain forecast until this evening. It suits us, though, as we have a new water butt to fill (it's at about half way now, so 100L). DH went and connected it at about 9 yesterday evening so it could fill! We're doing two loads of washing so they're ready to go out overnight.

We also had fresh bread from the bread maker and had bacon sandwiches! 😋

We did have sun earlier but it has vanished. I am about to put a load of washing on and hope the weather stays ok.

DN will love shopping for books bless her Fluffy. I 'accidentally' bought some the other day in the Harper Collins flash sale. One of them will probably be for my friends' birthday later in the year though.

Morning all!

Very envious of your fresh bread what a lovely way to start the day.

I went to pilates and then ate Weetabix crispy minis (very tasteless but i also have knackered taste buds from previous covid).

Second load just going out - i have very quickly gone off the Persil Wonderwash think it smells a bit funny now.

Also did we miss Rudolph day on Tuesday? Yikes, I really meant to do something christmassy too. The days are all blurring into one.

Enjoy your Saturday. ☀This is a sunshine.

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I'm in London after watching a gig last night (Greenday). Our hotel is hotter than the sun so we're having cold showers then going out in search of breakfast before getting the train home.

I love the idea of making my own bread but we have no room for a bread maker and I'm a bit crap at it by hand.

No real thoughts of Christmas right now - it's too hot 🥵

I occasionally make bread Meeces but haven't for a while. My hands don't work well enough any more. Hoping for some miracle treatment once the rheumatologist works out what else is wrong with me so I can make it again. I like making iced buns.

I bought three more Christmas presents yesterday as I wanted some board games for my daughter and son in law.

In other news my daughter got engaged last week which is exciting.

Congratulations to your DD why 🥂

The nearest I've got to Christmas this week is freezing some duck skin. I'll render it down to make duck fat for our Christmas roasties. I'll obviously post about it on the Poncetastic thread when I do it.

Has anyone made bramble whisky/gin with frozen fruit?
I still have tones from last year an though maybe use for an early Xmas start

Congratulations whydoesDD

@Lalanbaba

I haven't done but my sister used to make SloeGin and if there hadn't been a frost the recipe called to freeze the sloe berries .

You could do a trial run with a small amount and see how it goes ?

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Congrats to your dd why 🥂
Is she the type to have the wedding pretty much planned in her head or will she figure it out as she goes?

Rendering your own duck fat is very poncetastic woolly and will be a great addition (and inspiration) for the thread when it starts

I made fruit flavoured (and skittle flavoured) vodka a few years ago and that seemed to go down well. Was no real faff either - just plonked it all in a bottle and left it, just remember to shake it all up very so often.

I don't know whether she has an idea or not yet. She might have. She is the type that would have a Dr Who themed wedding or something like that. Hoping I don't have to go as a Dalek. As much as I detest shopping for a wedding outfit that is not something I could imagine wearing.

Just sliding back in as though I haven't been AWOL for most of the year so far 😳

Making your own duck fat is possibly the most poncetastic thing I have come across, ever, Woolly!! I am in awe of your dedication!

Congratulations to your DD why. Have they set a date or is it likely to be a long engagement? Along the Dr Who theme, you could wear a dress like the weeping angels. Most people wouldn't guess, it's just a Grecian style - it could be an in joke between the two of you? Better than a Dalek...

Firefly it sounds amazingly poncetastic but it is just bunging the skin in a pot on a low heat until no more fat comes out and then freezing the fat until Christmas Eve. I did it last year too and my roasties were banging <modest>