Wednesday 16 November 2011

Wednesday 16th November 2011 - It's Christmas!

Well not ACTUAL Christmas, but our early Christmas! I was excited about the weekend, the whole family got together for the first time since both buba's and all boyfriends/girlfriends/husbands... SO today's 3 revolve around the excitement of the weekend!

Today's 3!




1. Happy smiley families together - our family trip with all the gang was just amazing! It was so spectacularly perfect. We all stayed in a beautiful forest in little log cabins, which were just brilliant. Loads of cycling around the parc, there were real reindeers, fake snow and even a REAL roe deer on our patio! We even had Christmas dinner together on Sunday - DELish!

2. Edie's first birthday was just lovely - everyone together on her birthday, lots of amazing presses, cake and 3 renditions of Happy Birthday because she laughed and giggled so much - AMAzing!

3. What its all about - times like these re-enforce how lucky we are to have such a superbly brilliant and loving family, who all make such an effort to make each other happy, which is a very rare and very special thing...truly happy and cherish able moments - thanks everyone :)

Tuesday 15 November 2011

BELATED - Thursday November 10th - Pickles, Poseys & Plates...


1. Neighborly love - yet again my adorable neighbors have given us treats, dearest Roland arrived yesterday with a pot of marrow chutney and pickled onions which will be ready for Christmas - human kindness is a remarkable thing...

2. Bloomin' marvelous flowers - My lovely grandparents popped over last night with a lovely pot of Hyacinths - my favourite bulbs, I keep meaning to pland some in the garden, so this is a wonderful treat to brighten up the house.

3. DIYed Plate - I've been making some decorative plates for people as gifts for special occasions (weddings, children's birthdays etc..) and I've just finished one for my grandparents. The family home that my mum and her 5 siblings grew up in, and the subsequent 13 grandchildren and now 2 great grandchildren have known all our lives, was 100 years old this year and they organised a big family party to celebrate family life in the home. Unfortunately they had to cancel it for various reasons and I know they were so disappointed, so I thought I'd give them a plate to keep and remember :)

Tuesday 8 November 2011

Meet Herman


Herman is my new friend. He is a sourdough cake. My lovely friend at work gave me a Herman starter. It was a very odd thing. In a ziplock bag he arrived. Pale and creamy and bubbling away. I looked after him, by stirring and feeding him. After 10 days he was ready to be split into 5 portions and given away apart from one, which was fed again and lovingly baked into a delicious cake!

Above is Herman #2. I posted a portion of the first to my mama in London...and 10 days later she sent me another one back, he is DELicious and filled with apples and pears...and there is another batch bubbling away in my kitchen.

Monday 7 November 2011

Monday November 7th 2011 - Cheerio Choo Choo..

Charming moments of the weekend were...


1. Charlie's cheerio's Choo Choo train. So funny watching him discover a way to transport his cereal around the lounge. I just love the amazing imaginations that children have - magical!



2. Took this pic of lil' Edie Rose off the camera from Halloween - a perfect plump little pumping - ahhhhhhh!

3. Chilly Crisp Sunshiney Mornings - So frosty this morning - it was BEAUTiful on my early morning walk to work. Ahhh winter is coming, and so is Christmas!

Sunday 6 November 2011

Sunday November 6th 2011 - Organise-Mania - Fail to prepare, prepare to fail!

I have high expectations of what I want to be achieve. Sometimes my ideas are unrealistic. I'd rather be this way than not though...

One of my best friends once dropped the phrase "Fail to prepare, prepare to fail" into our conversation. I liked it alot. So much so infact, that I think about this phrase all the time and try to apply it to to my daily rumblings of a routine. I know that I'm not always going to be able to do EVERYTHING I want to do, time is very precious and in short supply, but if I don't give it my best shot, then that I will regret.

1. My Love of Lists - In the spirit or trying to be super dooper organised, I've started a mega Christmas TO-DO list. This has been arranged in spreadsheet form (what a geek I am), including separate tabs for Presents, Food, Decorating, Cards. This is the first attempt and I'm sure it may need revising ALOT, but I hope that I may be able to use this as a basis each year and take a little stress out of the happy time!

2. Christmas Cake Bake-Off - I decided that this year, as the whole clan aren't going to be together, that I wanted to make a Mini-Christmas Cake for everyone from the same batch, so that we can all share a piece of Christmas cake on the day, even though we aren't all together. Today was the day, turned out rather nice, now time to feed the cake...pass the brandy :)

3. Mega Meal Planning - I am in love with the life is messy planner by mayi carles. ESPECIALLY the meal planning. I really believe that you will not use something that you don't like the look of. However I love the look of these and have found that I am using it to the letter, wonderful to find things that make life that little easier :)

Happy Days

Saturday 5 November 2011

Saturday November 5th 2011 - Bonfire Night, Baking and Cloud Dough?!

Yippee its the weekend! A long old week, this week, so so glad to have a couple of days off work to enjoy the best things...




1. Fireworks Fun - watched a firework display at a friends house last night, Charlie surprisingly liked the spectacular views and noises, while little Edie was not convinced!

2. Bumper baking - some River Cottage Booster Bars today (click for the adapted recipe), rather de-lish looking, honey, oats, peanut butter, dried apricots...mmmm...Charlie has just help dig a couple of potatoes from the garden("they're very tiny potatoes mummy")and its rather chilly outside, so we're looking forward to them cooling down before we tuck in!

3. Cloud Dough - saw this lovely idea on pinterest which mixes flour and baby oil to make a lovely sensory dough. Charlie and I made it today and he absolutely LOVES it. He's been hiding dinosaurs all day - so adorable!

Thursday 3 November 2011

Thursday November 3rd 2011 - Spooksville

Its been a MEGA busy week! Poorly babies, loadsa working and not much sleep! Still time for a load of lovely things though..of which here are a lovely three...




1. Happy Halloweeeeeeeeen - a super spooky lunch and a halloween party - so much fun and far too many sweeties and spidery cupcakes!

2. Baking Bonanza - River Cottage Cookies, loads a lovely leek and potato soup, halloween cupcakes, pumpkin puree, oh and the aforementioned spider cupcakes. Much more to come this weekend with Christmas cakes and homemade apple sweeties on the agenda...Nigella, eat your heart out!

3. Bloomin bloomers - not got around to the Etsy pics for the bloomers yet, but a sneaky peek...