Why Autumn Is My Favourite Season

Summer used to be my favourite season when I was at school, purely for the Summer holidays. Summer in the UK is over the months of June, July and August and the school Summer holidays are 6 weeks of July and August. This obviously meant 6 weeks of free time, sleeping in, going on mini breaks and sleepovers on weeknights. However, I have always hated the sun. I hate feeling too hot and not being able to do anything about it. I would never wear a dress, I didn't even own dresses between the ages of 12 and 18. I did own a lot of jackets and jumpers though so I was always warm in Winter.
I think the reason Autumn wasn't my favourite when I was younger was because it was the time when school started again and you have to get back into a routine. After a 6 week break there is homework every night and 7am starts 5 days a week. I wouldn't look forward to it and I wouldn't enjoy it.

I'm 24 now, I haven't been in education for a while and Autumn has been my favourite for the past few years. It's a welcome break from the heat of Summer but it's not too cold outside. I find Winter can leave you with a cold nose and chapped lips and you start to want to stay indoors, but Autumn is nicer.
I love going for walks in the afternoon while it's still light but also being outside in the early evening as the sun is setting.

I love the different colours the leaves change and that it completely changes the way parks look. I find oranges, reds and browns scattered on the ground a lot nicer to look at than just green grass.

I love being able to wear lots of layers, I find it hard to choose which clothes to wear because I have so many, so in Autumn I can wear a few at once! I also love being able to wear scarves and gloves.

There are three main events that I love in Autumn. The first is Halloween of course. Dressing up and watching a horror film with a takeaway is one of my favourite things to do.

The second is Bonfire Night, possibly my favourite night of the whole year. I get to wear all of my layers and watch fireworks and light sparklers.

The third is Christmas shopping. All of the shops start stocking festive products and I start writing my Christmas list and buying things for other people. The Manchester Christmas markets are one of my favourite Christmas traditions.

There is also, of course, my fiancees birthday in November! I love being able to spend the day with her and watch her open presents.

Spring is a close second favourite, because it includes Easter and my birthday and the weather is similar to Autumn, but there is a lot more green!

What's your favourite season? What do you most look forward to in Autumn?

Easter Crafts and Baking

Kirsty and I like to celebrate Easter with a little party, we buy each other surprise eggs or chocolate, bake cakes and decorate the table.
This year I'm going to make a table decoration for the centre of the table and Kirsty is going to make Easter nest cakes. We are also going to make place cards for each other.

Easter Table Decoration

For this craft I bought some ribbon, paper flowers and a small green bucket all from Hobbycraft and all £1 each.
I also had some pastel coloured paper and plain card already, and I collected some twigs from the garden.

To start with we ripped up the pastel coloured paper into thin strips to put inside the bucket to make it look nice and colourful.

Then I used some pritt stick on the back of the ribbon and wrapped it around the bucket in 3 strips. If you don't have ribbon you could draw patterns on some strips of paper instead.

I tied the paper flowers around the handle, they already had wires attached to them (you could use real flowers if you prefer.)

I placed some twigs in the top of the bucket to make it look like a nest.

Finally, I coloured a little happy Easter sign and stuck it to a bamboo stick for the middle of the bucket. You could use a lollipop stick or a twig to stick your sign too. You might want to use a piece of blutack for the bottom of the stick to keep it more steady.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Easter Nest Cakes

Ingredients:
Shredded Wheat - 85g, crushed
Chocolate Bars - 200g
Mini Eggs - 2x 90g bags
Cake Cases

To start with Kirsty weighed the amount of Shredded Wheat and then crushed it into small pieces. This is going to give the cakes a nest-like texture.

She melted the chocolate in a pan. Once it was melted enough she poured it into the bowl with the Shredded Wheat. She stirred it until it was mixed well.

She spooned the mixture into the cake cakes and pressed the back of teaspoon into the middle of each to create a dip for the eggs to go in the nest.

She added 3 eggs to each nest cake and put them in the fridge to cool and to allow the chocolate to set.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Easter Place Cards

We made place cards for each other using twigs, cocktail sticks, tissue paper, plain card and pens.

First of all we cut a piece of A4 card in half and then folded that in half again to allow it to stand and because we only wanted to decorate one half.

Then we glued tissue down to create the background. I used scrunched up tissue on mine to make a sun and a sheep and used twigs for the sheep's legs. Kirsty used twigs and cocktail sticks on hers to create the letters of my name.

I drew her name on in pen and drew around a tissue easter egg. Kirsty drew easter eggs in the background of hers and wrote Happy Easter.

Then we set up the whole display together! (including my wooden chicken that I bought from Waitrose's Easter range)