Not so much the domestic goddess

So today was The Birthday Party and true to second-child form, young Sekkie had to be content with a much more informal celebration than her sister enjoyed. This was mainly for the sake of maternal sanity, which got a little stretched today. I spent last night making tiaras while continuing my mission to catch up on several years' worth of Dr Who (Christopher Eccleston is growing on me although I keep flashing back to Shallow Grave), failed to finish and reassured myself I could do a couple this morning after making the cake. But I forgot that baking a cake in the morning would require the participation of both children, which extended the time required by a factor of, ooh, 500 or so. Then I'd forgotten there was a playgroup meeting in my living room at 8:30, which meant seven toddlers talking over their mothers in increasingly loud voices while JJ, who was late for school by now, attempted to attract attention by being even louder.

By this time I already had that sort of pounding-temples feeling harassed mothers always get in ads for Grandpa Headache Powders (remember those?) So anyway, the pleasant 45mins or so I'd expected to spend crafting in the car while waiting to do a case study interview turned into none, and the case study took an hour and a half instead of an hour*, and then I had to go queue in the bank to raise my cash withdrawal limit so I could pay the painters who'd turned up at 7:15 while I was still shamefully in bed, then I had to rush around the Rosmead Spar finding ice cream cones for the cake, so by the time I got home it was lunchtime and the toddlers were due at 2. I'm very proud to say I not only managed to make the Nigella Lawson marmite sandwiches without which a party is not complete:

I even got the cake done more or less to specification, and had icing left over which never happens. As you can see my style of cake decorating is distinctly handmade. A little wobbly, even. And I'm not so great with the food colouring, this was meant to be a pale purple:

But it had fairies and turrets on it, Sekkie was very proud and it did taste good. That's it for me and domestic goddess-hood for the day, though, which is why we ordered pizza for supper and I'm now closeted with my computer while their daddy puts them to bed.

*For the best of all possible reasons, which is that it's a fabulous case study for a fabulous product. It's VERY nice to write for clients when their own clients love them so much. If my work involved consistently wrestling large bodies of data I would turn my budget upside down and shake it for every last cent to get Qlikview. I'd hold cake sales every Friday if that's what it took. I haven't been so turned on by a piece of software since 1990 or so.