A Cosy Snowed-In Weekend

Even though I've just started a new job, they're forcing me to use my Annual Leave allocation by the end of March (hard life, right?!), which means I've managed to fill isn't-winter-over-yet-like-seriously month (aka February) with long weekends off work that I can spend under a blanket, with some craft stuff, eating bowls of warm things covered in cheese.


The first of these was last weekend, and boy did it feel good. I'm so busy at my new job that I worked 40 hours between Monday and Thursday (I know that's not a lot for some people, like surgical interns, but my last job was so easy that having to do a Full Time Proper Grown Up Job makes my brain feel like it's been blended), so having Friday off was awesome. 


I was planning on getting all ker-a-zy and having a weekday lie-in, but for some reason my body woke me up earlier than I normally get up for work (i.e stupidly early). I took it as a sign to do one of my favourite things- an early-morning housework blitz that leaves everything looking sparkly, just in time for breakfast. I cleaned, I sprayed, I washed and dried, I tidied and dusted, and then to top it off shaved my legs AND conditioned my hair. By the time I was ready to make a monster stack of pancakes for breakfast, I looked like a super-sleek balded thing (a seal, perhaps) and the house looked like Mr Muscle* had been through in the night like a weedy, bespectacled Santa Claus. 


After my productive morning and monster breakfast, I finished off my sister's Christmas Craft project. Technically, she's not my sister, but only because we're not genetically related. We both have massive man feet and love Joe Manganiello with a passion that will never die, so who needs matching DNA?! As she reads my blog, I'm not posting pictures yet until I've given it to her, but I'm hoping she loves it as much as I do (but not as much as Joe Manganiello, obvs). 


One other particularly lovely thing that happened over the weekend was a mystery parcel turning up for my other half on Saturday morning. It turned out to be a present he'd bought me "just because" - an adorable bunny night light I've had my eye on for ages. So cute! And the light's not bad either :p 

Adorable, and available from the Cancer Research online shop. Basically a cancer-fighting bunny. 

The combination of cold and snow kept us indoors most of the weekend, so Tom and I decided to try a few new recipes. On Saturday night we made Jamie's puff pastry calzones (which were like Italian cornish pasties), and on Sunday we made Beef/Butternut Squash Wellingtons**. I used a Food For Friends recipe for the Butternut Squash Wellingtons, which was utterly delicious. And made so much I got to have it for lunch and dinner on Monday, and dinner today too. Normally I'd get sick of the same meal so many times in a row, but the combination of feta, spinach, butternut squash and filo pastry was deeeeelicious. 


*Of course I mean the old Mr Muscle, not the new stupid cartoon Superman Mr Muscle. How do the advertisers not get they've destroyed the whole point of their franchise?!


**Sorry- I would've taken photos but everything was so delicious I lost my self-control and scoffed it all before bothering to find my camera.