Bank Holiday. BBQ, baking and bargains

I hope everyone had a good Bank Holiday, weather was a little on the unpredictable side wasn't it? I spent most of Saturday baking. I made a Baileys and White Chocolate cheesecake, it really is one of the best things I have ever tasted. It's the sort of recipe you have once and then you find yourself craving it a few months down the line and nothing else will do! Even though I have made it numerous times before without a hitch, this time it did go hideously wrong. When I was melting the chocolate it separated into one horrible big lump and a load of liquid which cued the worst cooking tantrum since the Butternut Squash risotto incident of 2005, (my big saucepan still bears the dent and the lid no longer fits properly) After protesting loudly about the waste of a good bar of chocolate I got everything under control again and put it into the fridge for the 24 hours of chilling before my sister in law's barbecue. She doesn't 'do' cooking, her cooker is the cleanest I have ever seen in my life and when she opens her cupboards no random things fall out, there is actual space in them. As she was having Boy and Girl overnight it was the least I could do to bake a few things for the evening. I made some Peanut Butter Brownies, a new to me recipe. Oh my goodness they are gorgeous! Definitely making those again. I also made a lemon drizzle cake and some chocolate brownies for the guests with peanut allergies. I think I owe her a few more cakes as her garden gnomes got mysteriously decapitated and Girl was the most obvious culprit. Oops.

So with the kids nicely out of the way I took the opportunity to get out not-so-bright and early to the car boot. It is so much easier just to get myself and the baby ready. The weather was really not looking good at all, I managed to get around in about half an hour and by about 9 some of the sellers were giving up and going home. It didn't look like it was going to pick up so we decided to move on to another car boot which was also very quiet so on we went to yet another which was huge and combined with a market that I couldn't be bothered with, as well as the ubiquitous pirate dvd sellers who always seem to attract hordes of people to them. I bypassed all that to get to the genuine car booters and wasn't disappointed. We got rained on some more then went off for a lovely pot of tea and cooked veggie breakfast to warm up before picking up the kids again.
Oh you want to know what I bought? This pic is a few things I have picked up over the last few weeks from charity shops as well. With the camera problems I hadn't been taking many pics so I gathered everything together to get it in all at once. The plate rack was £4, tapestry frame £2, tin 30p, wool winder £1, egg holder (which i will paint) 30p, Laura Ashley fabric I can't actually remember how much it was as I was too busy talking to the lady. She also sold me the tea set at the bottom of the pic. There are 12 cups and the saucers are plain blue. The colours on it remind me of my gran. The glass cake stands were £1 and 50p and the french salt container was harvested from my Mom's as she was getting rid of it. The wooden lid was broken but I have put a couple of new screws in and it's fine now. I also have a sewing box that needs some new hinges and the varnish removing. I think I need a vat of paint stripper the amount I'm getting through.

I've also been buying furniture on Ebay again, no pics yet as it's at that stage where I'm not sure if it's going to be nice or hideous until I have finished.