Is anybody still out there??

It's been awhile!  I'm sure you've been wondering where I've been...no? Oh well, I'm going to tell you anyway.

Over a year ago I started a blog -this blog.  I was looking for a creative outlet to share my favourite pastime - cooking - from my favourite place in the house - the kitchen.  Little did I know, just over a week later I would spend very little time here, on the interweb.  I tried my best to keep up with blogging, like this Thanksgiving post and this belated Christmas post  - but with very little cooking going on, it was tough.  Things were pretty crazy around here.  At the end of August last year I had an interview for the teacher training programme at university and was offered a place - on the waiting list.  While I waited, W was offered a new job - abroad.  He accepted and two days later I was offered a place on the course.  Let the crasiest, busiest, year of our lives begin (we haven't had children yet - so my opinion could change)!!

 I commuted by train for 3 hours while W commuted by plane for 4.  We'd meet up some weekends but these were mainly spent discussing anything and everything wedding related; the venue, the guestlist, the band, the flowers, the cars, the suits, the colours, the songs, the readings, the favours, well, you get the idea.  Some W took an interest in (cars, band, suits) and for everything else he simply heard "Bridesmaids dresses blah blah turquoise blah..."  Picture the teacher from Charlie Brown - that was me.

When I wasn't wedding planning and crafting, I was laminating, lesson planning and laminating some more.  In February I found time to fill out my British citizenship application form - cause I just looooove paperwork!  It was surprisingly easy this time around.  I had already passed the test (and got 100% I might add - though one of the questions was "When is Boxing Day?" so...) and this was just a matter of filling out the paperwork and waiting - for 6 months.

So...
You can guess that cooking (and sadly blogging about it) was not high on the priority list.  I hate to admit it but I ate a lot of meals for one from the supermarket, take aways, frozen pizzas and yes, sometimes I had toast for dinner!  Nothing to write home about people.  And with a wedding dress to look good in I ate a LOT of salads.  My brother came to stay for awhile and he was a huge help, walking the dog for me and taking over general "boy jobs" like taking out the rubbish and mowing the lawn, while W was away.  But since I'd been so busy and had no one to cook for a lot of the time, I'd given up on my "girl jobs" (we're very divided in household chores 'round here - I don't change flat tires, W doesn't clean toilets - and we're happy that way!) I barely cooked for the kid.  He lived off steak pies from the supermarket and of course, my salads.  He was going to fit better in my dress than I was!  I upped the food intake for him but this just meant bigger pizzas and suplementing salads with sandwiches.  I missed cooking but I really didn't have time to think about it.  And it also helped me to feel less guilty about eating ready made meals.  I wouldn't want to do it again long term but I realised that sometimes it's okay to eat ready made pasta and sauce in a packet (I used to think - who the heck doesn't have time to boil pasta??!!  Well...I didn't!)

The year has flown by!  I'm now a married British teacher (unemployed, but let's not focus on that shall we?!)

Studio 25 Photography

And so, with that little update, I'm going to give this blogging thing another go.  I still take pictures of my food (everyone does that, right?) and have a few posts in the pipeline and I have a few diy projects to share too.  Hey - can't spend all my time in the kitchen!