I have cake, and someone has won the giveaway

And the winner is......

Kitschy Cooooooooo! Lucky girl :)

I too am a winner, as I've had a cracking birthday. Me and mr pickledweasel ran away to Llandudno yesterday for a whole child-free 24 hours. Although we'd been there only a couple of years ago, I had somehow re-invented Llandudno in my head as a sophisticated wine bar and Michelin starred restaurant filled coastal resort with balmy nights and 4 star hotels on every corner, so was a little surprised to find it was a freezing cold slightly run down welsh town full of cheap B&Bs and, bizarrely enough, the Cambrian Rally.

We lived it up. I had a tea while we waited for the film to start.

So rather than wear the satin slash neck dress and purple suede wedge pumps I was planning to stun the north Welsh coast with, I just stuck with my jeans and jumper and we had dinner early at a Mediterranean restaurant, and then went to the cinema to see The Other Guys (which is an hilarious film). We stayed in a crappy hotel where the bathroom smelt of swimming pool and got woken up at 1am by drunk rally drivers, and then this morning we went to a greasy spoon overlooking the sea and had a huuuge fry up, and then did a leisurely promenade walk.

And mr p had a coffee.

Back in time for tea with Munchkin and Grandma Pickledweasel, and just as I was thinking I wasn't getting a birthday cake and I'd have to stuff my face with the jelly munchkin had helped grandma make, mr pickledweasel unveiled this beauty:

Isn't it a thing of skill and beauty? I love the foot :) AND it's all different cakes inside - the top is walnut cake, the side is angel cake and the bottom is Madeira. It makes turning 35 just about bearable :)

Sitting on top of the world

Today Munchkin is a whole two years old. She doesn't quite understand the concept of it all, but she has got the hang of presents and cards and cake :)

I was all set to make her a squillion presents, but I thought about it for a while, and I figured I was probably doing it for me rather than her and I didn't have the time anyway. So I thought about what she would really like, and made that instead. I bought this fabric about a month ago, not knowing what I was going to do with it but at the same time knowing that it would definitely be used and not just sit in my stash. When I brought it home Munchkin took it out of the carrier bag and lay on it, looking at all the different countries, so the obvious choice was to make a floor cushion out of it.

There is a guy down the road from us who makes cushions and curtains and has a shop where he sells upholstery fabric on the cheap. He made the inner for me for £4.50! I told him he should be charging more, I was expecting to pay at least a tenner :)

Munchkin loves it, and I'm hoping it'll be a favourite lounging spot for years to come.