Yay – The Bake It! Club is back for January! If you don’t know what it is all about pop over to Cooking, Cakes & Children and read all about it! If you love baking and trying new recipes you should definitely take part each month!

I absolutely love scones, they were one of the first things I started to bake when I was younger so I was delighted to see this month’s recipe – sundried tomato and cheese scones! I had never tried to bake a savoury scone before (nor had I ever tasted one believe it or not!).

The recipe was fabulously easy and the scones came out really well. Gary doesn’t normally like sundried tomatoes so I was worried he wouldn’t like them but he thought they were really nice and tasty.

Here are my pictures of the finished articles. We ate them just out of the oven with proper butter (none of this margarine lark) melted on them . If you fancy making these you can find the recipe HERE!

Mmmm lovely looking scones!

With butter melting on them!

Add a cup of tea = perfect!

I wasn’t going to take part in this week’s Gallery as I don’t have any children. Any “human” children anyway. But then I figured a photo opportunity with new puppy Holly and her big brother Chester was too good to miss. Plus they are my doggy children anyway lol .

Holly arrived on Monday and she is settling in so well. It really helps that we have Chester here as they just spend their time playing, I don’t think she has had time to miss her mum or her litter-mates! She really is a wee darling, and she loves her big brother already. I think Chester thinks she is a new plaything, he loves it. He is not too rough with her though, and if he is she soon tells him off!

So here they are! I love the way Chester is looking at her in this photo.

PS – She pee’d in this bed shortly after… lol

Head over to Sticky Fingers to see all the other entries!

Think again! It was announced during last week that  US astronomer Parke Kunkle has discovered that there may actually be 13 star signs, not 12! He claimed that due to the gravitational pull of the moon, the star signs have “slipped” resulting in them being one month out of orbit. This means that the time periods for the star signs will have changed and it introduces the 13th star sign, Ophiuchus.

Hmmm, all very well but what about the people who have spent a fortune getting their birth chart drawn up etc? Now they are being told they may actually be a different star sign altogether?!

Here is the supposed new classification of the star signs:

Capricorn: Jan 20th – Feb 16th.
Aquarius: Feb 16th – March 11th.
Pisces: March 11th – April 18th.
Aries: April 18th – May 13th.
Taurus: May 13th – June 21st.
Gemini: June 21st – July 20th.
Cancer: July 20th – Aug 10th.
Leo: Aug 10th – Sept 16th.
Virgo: Sept 16th – Oct 30th.
Libra: Oct 30th – Nov 23rd.
Scorpio: Nov 23rd – Nov 29th.
Ophiuchus: Nov 29th – Dec 17th.
Sagittarius: Dec 17th – Jan 20th.

Aggggggggghhhhhhhhh and according to this I am no longer an Aries but a Pisces! Hmmmm. I was never a great believer in star signs anyway. I always think the ones in the newspapers and magazines are made-up mumbo jumbo – anyone can relate to them if they want to sort of thing. Plus the idea that your star sign can dictate your personality never really sat well with me. I used to read the personality profile of Aries hoping that I would “understand” myself a bit better but I never really identified with it. The traits of Aries just didn’t seem to apply to me so I dismissed it all.

However, just for interest I looked out my old star sign book I bought for 99p years ago and started reading about Pisces. Now, this I could identify with. Like, really identify with. It could have been describing me. Strange. So, am a an Aries or am I a Pisces??

I did a bit more research on the internet and the general consensus is that these new star signs only apply in the Eastern world. Bah – and here was me getting all excited thinking I had discovered my true star sign after all these years. Maybe it is a load of mumbo jumbo after all?!

What about you? Does this chart change your star sign? Do you even believe in star signs?

Those of you who follow me on Twitter (@NicsNotebook) will no doubt know that we can’t pick up our new puppy Holly today as planned. Boooo

Our other pup Chester has had a bad tummy bug for the last week or so. We had to take him to the vets and she advised to hold off on getting Holly until Chester is 100% better in case he passes it on to her. Which would not be good. So, we are aiming for Monday now, hopefully Chester will be fully recovered by then. He is not too bad now, but we are keeping him on a diet of chicken or white fish and rice for a couple more days. Plus he has some special paste to have 3 times a day that the vet gave us.

We are disappointed that we’re not getting Baby Holly today but it will be for the best. Plus we could use the extra couple of days to get things done around the house before she arrives! Oooh and just remembered that there is a dog show on in Manchester on Sunday which we will hopefully be heading to.

I will leave you with a pic of all the puppies – I wonder which one Holly is?? I can’t spot her!

This photo was taken this morning on Chester’s walk (he is feeling a little better now!). It was a lovely bright, sunny, frosty morning.

This photo would have been perfect if we were in Scotland eh?

Check out the other entries at Sticky Fingers.

Good things today have been:

• I received the following in the post:

Good Things – literally! I won this in a competition at Fashion Champagne blog and I was so thrilled to get it.  My skin is really playing up at the minute so maybe a new skincare routine is what it needs? These products are all free from Sodium Laureth Sulphate, Parabens, Mineral oils and Animal ingredients and are all made from superfruit extracts. I had a quick sniff of the strawberry & cranberry freshening polish and it smells amazing! Will let you know what I think of all these products after I’ve used them. Has anyone else tried anything from the Good Things range? Good/bad feedback?

• I got up nice and early and did my Davina exercise DVD. I still haven’t got her new one yet but I intend to as I love her workouts!
• I made homemade butternut squash soup for lunch – it was so yummy, and healthy too!
• I got a good bit of tidying up done in the house – always feels good!

Bad things today have been:

• Poor Chester is not well . He hasn’t been eating since yesterday, we thought he was just playing up and being fussy but today he was still off his food and he was sick. He must have eaten some leaves on his walk to Delamere Forest yesterday as that’s what came up plus lots of yucky bile. He is so unlike himself, he can hardly keep his eyes open he has no energy. Poor boy We are going to try him with some bland food (scrambled eggs etc) tonight and if he still doesn’t eat we will take him to the vets tomorrow. Here he is cuddled up to his Daddy on our bed:

• We didn’t get out for our afternoon walk as Chester wasn’t well. It’s surprising how much I miss the walks in the fresh air – really blows the cobwebs away.

Hope you’re all having a good day! x

…Until we get to bring Baby Holly home! Yay, I am actually so excited. The reality will hit me on Friday though of the amount of cleaning up pee I will have to do – but until then I can be excited! Might have a wee look around this weekend for some cute puppy toys .

We went to see her last Saturday and we took Chester too. They had a good sniff around each other when they were introduced and he was so good and very gentle with her. Chester also got to meet his doggy mummy, Daisy for the first time! It was lovely to see them together, they really look so alike.

Baby Holly was just adorable – she was up sniffing and licking round me. And then when we put her back in her crate with the other puppies she was whimpering to get back out to us. I think she knows we are her new family already. Awww .

So here are some more pictures of Holly, Chester & Daisy. Roll on next Friday

Getting kisses from Holly!

Gary & Holly.

Little cutie.

The size of Holly standing up.

Holly trying to get to us from her cage & Chester sitting watching!

Chester & his mummy Daisy (he is almost bigger than her already!).