January/February Newsletter

Hi everyone,

How are you all? It’s been a while since I caught up with you and I wanted to tell you about my new mission (more on that in a minute). For the time being new blog posts will be taking a back seat, but I think I’ve got an alternative until I’m back to normal output.

I thought I’d do a monthly catch up with you, and direct you to some older posts that might be relevant each month – Things like celebrations and awareness days, useful tips and some recipes, etc.. And maybe include a round up of what books I’ve read, and what tv and movies we’ve watched the month prior.

What do you think?  Do let me know, but I’ll presume it’s a yes for now 😉 so get the kettle on and settle down with my January/February newsletter. You can access all the posts by the blue clickable links.

I’ve finally joined Pinterest

My friend, and every blogger I know, has recommended joining Pinterest for as long as I can remember. I’ve always held off even though it might increase traffic to my blog. Despite having endless ideas, I’m not great at graphics and I didn’t have the time, but this year I’ve taken the plunge. I’m working my way through all my old blog posts, creating pins, new images, updating for SEO, etc.

As I have almost 300 posts, it’s going to take quite some time, so that’s what I’ll be concentrating on but I hope you’ll enjoy these newsletters for now.
You can join me on Pinterest at @teaandcakeforthesoul but be gentle with me until I get the hang of it.

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This month you might enjoy

There are now 100s of celebratory and awareness days each month – some of them quite bizarre, but some of them relevant to Tea and Cake for the Soul.

Send a card to a Friend Day

My friends and I often send random cards to each other. It’s always such a joy to get something unexpected through the post.

Random Acts of Kindness Day

If you need some inspiration, I’ve got 50 Random Acts of Kindness that includes ways to be kind to others, yourself, charities, and the environment

Robbie Williams birthday

Ok, so not a national day, but it’s always a good opportunity to relive my fan moment with Robbie Williams. Even if he’s not your guilty pleasure, he talks a lot of sense about mental health so I can highly recommend this podcast and video HERE.

Galentine’s & Valentine’s Day

I must admit that we don’t bother with Valentine’s Day, but I do love the more recent creation of Galentine’s Day on the 13th, a day to celebrate your female friendships. You read about how my colourful bunch of friends deal with menopause here in the Change The Face of Menopause campaign.

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This month you might like to make

There are so many food related awareness days in February including:

National Eat Ice Cream for Breakfast Day

Can you believe there are two different national days to eat ice cream for breakfast this month?  Both on different days too. Try my recipe for homemade strawberry ice cream – it’s very easy and lots of fun for kids to make. You might be able to plan it into your home schooling curriculum! I’m sure it could be classed as science.

National Carrot Cake Day
& Pancake Day

I’ve got a new vegan carrot cake recipe to share in the future, but for now you might like to try out this carrot cake pancake recipe if you fancy something a bit different.

National Homemade Soup Day

This is one of my favourites and something I always have on the go in winter. This recipe for homemade chicken noodle soup has been handed down from my nan. It is extremely cheap to make using leftovers, so is useful if you’re watching your budget, or meal planning and working towards waste free living.

Dark Chocolate Day

Mmmm, my favourite, and I have numerous chocolate recipes, but this one for rich chocolate brownies is especially suited to dark chocolate.

National Want Butterscotch Day

What could be better than making this old school dinner recipe for butterscotch tart – it came straight from our old school cook.

Strawberry Day

As well as the strawberry ice cream listed above, I have a lovely recipe for strawberry paradise pudding/cake. It makes a light fluffy sponge that is nice as a cake, but even better served warm as a pudding with custard or ice cream.

It is also both Sugar Free February and Lactose Intolerance Month. I’ve a couple of sugar free recipes and lots that are dairy free so head over to the recipe section if you are looking for some more ideas.

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This month we have watched

You may remember an old post a few years back where I told you about How I saved £5,000 in one year. Getting rid of our tv package and tv licence was amongst those savings and now we only watch Netflix and Prime. There’s plenty to watch and it’s good to get recommendations. Here’s what we recommend from January.

Military Wives –  hankies at the ready girls!
Big Game
Day After Tomorrow
Jumanji
Two Weeks Notice
Mission Impossible
Jack Reacher
The Tourist
And we are binge watching Justified. It won’t be to everyone’s taste but if you take it with a tongue in cheek, it’s a good watch.

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This month I’ve read

I’ve read and reviewed 10 books this month! My favourites being:

* A non-fiction book about Surgical Menopause
* 4 by Shari Low (I only discovered her last year and I’m binge reading her back catalogue atm)
* The Husband’s Secret by Liane Moriaty 
* It Started at Sunset Cottage by Bella Osborne

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At this point, I will sign off and extend my gratitude to all those working in the health service and key services throughout. I bought this downloadable sign from artist I.am.Sprite.  It’s a cute way to show appreciation in your home or car window. Both are only 50p at  i.am.sprite ‘s Etsy store.

I hope there will be something here that you’ll want to read more about. 

So what do you think? Is having a monthly newsletter like this of interest to you all?

I’d love to hear of any Netflix and Prime box sets you can recommend.

Or perhaps there is a national day in February that you’ll be celebrating that I haven’t mentioned?

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