Happy days ....

♥

This last week has been busy, busy, busy 

with lots to squeeze in before the weekend.

 It has all been 'fun' busy though so I'm not complaining

 - it's just sometimes it would be really helpful if you could cram a couple 

of extra hours into some days !

For starters it was my turn to do the village church flowers.

I love doing these.

It's such a beautiful old church and the calm and quiet surrounds you 

the minute you walk through the door.

Next job was to hire some cake tins to make a rather special Birthday cake for my Dad.

A bit of a shindig was planned for Saturday and a cake would definitely be needed.

It has to be said that just lining the tins was a job-and-a-half but there was no way

 I was going to risk this one either getting stuck,

 or disintegrating in to a pile of crumbs when the time came to take it out of the tins.

The smell of chocolate cake that filled the house whilst it was cooking

 was truly intoxicating.

I found the recipe on the BBC Good Food website, and rich 

doesn't even begin to describe it !

A long overdue trip to the hairdressers was squeezed in mid week 

- and I can't lie - 

that bit of the week really wasn't hard work at all.

Infact, it was 2 hours of sheer heaven, 

I went for the full works and made the most of every self-indulgent minute of it.

But I did make sure it wasn't all completely me, me, me 

as I left with three goody bags for three daughters,

 to get three lots of wedding beautiful hair for August.

Cake cooked, it was time for Ganache icing and then more chocolate overloading,

well ... you're only 80 once aren't you ?

And then, a quick trot down the road to get the village hall all ready for the big surprise.

Being 1 of 4 siblings and with each of us having produced several 

more family members we total about 30 when we all get together these days

 and for the grand sum of £40.00 hiring the hall for the day seemed the perfect option.

And the best thing of all was that it was a complete surprise for Dad,

he thought Mum was taking him out for coffee at the Garden Centre !

Once back home, full of bubbles and cake, there was still plenty of time to give Lilou 

lots of extra tummy tickles and hugs as it was her Birthday too ! 

She has reached the grand age of 8, 

and since Otto arrived she has definitely taken on the role 

of 'older, much more sensible dog.'

By the time yesterday came it was really lovely to have absolutely nothing planned at all,

 other than a little bit of blocking ...

and lots of tea drinking around the kitchen table, 

where there are two beautiful reminders 

of happy days spent with family.

I hope you and yours have had just as lovely a weekend.

♥