Time for a catch-up ... and cake

Officially the best chocolate cake in the world (got the recipe from the best cake cook in the Isle of Wight :) ), and look, isn't that a beautiful piece of patchwork it's sitting on ...

Yes, sad I know, but I had to take a picture of the dinosaurs standing up as they'd been placed with such precision.

Yum, I am eating a piece of the cake you can see above right now, and I must say it's very scrummy. My littlest woke up yesterday in a very creative mood, so we made some more monsters from air-drying clay (which will soon be ready for painting), then after lunch we made a lovely chocolate cake. Exhausted by his efforts he fell asleep, during which time his siblings returned from school and finished decorating the cake as a surprise for him - which is why the dinosaurs are standing up rather than lying down in a haphazard fashion as would happen if mum and littlest had decorated. A family effort at being creative with cookery.

Creativity has been in a mostly non-arty form this last week. We have all suffered in varying degrees with the virus that is circulating, ranging from sniffles and a cough to full on chest infection. Thankfully (for everyone else at least!) I was affected relatively lightly and took on full nursing duties. As my eldest said to me in horror last week - "Mum, what will happen if you're ill? Who will look after us?". Nice to be appreciated!! Presently I'm working on the books again, my least favourite job, although I realized last night that I do get a pang of pleasure at all the invoices being organized in a systematic fashion, but please don't tell anyone. Bookkeeping and pleasure in the same sentence may indicate oncoming insanity.

Do you like the patchwork in the top photo? I've finally started to block my hexagons! I'm nearly halfway there; still have to make the half flowers for the edge, do the quilting stitch and finish the edging, but there's time - this is a labour of love!