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Friday Night Supper #project366 Day 6

2012-01-06T23:37:00.000Z

The Last Bear Standing #project366 Day5

2012-01-05T21:37:00.000Z

Chillin #project366 Day 4

2012-01-04T22:52:00.000Z

The husband bakes banana bread #project366 Day 3

2012-01-03T23:14:00.000Z

Hanging out #project366 Day 2

2012-01-02T23:14:00.001Z

2012 - A Year in Pictures - Project 366 Day 1

2012-01-01T22:58:00.000Z

Silent Sunday

2012-01-01T10:09:00.000Z

Silent Sunday

2011-09-25T15:22:00.001+01:00

New Term

2011-09-05T13:42:00.000+01:00

I always loved the start of a New Term. In particular the September term with the new uniform, bag, shoes and stationary. Ahhh I can just smell the dreamy aroma of a new pencil case as I type. Yes, I was a bit of a geek and I loved going back to school. And I loved the promise of a new start with the new term. Even more than January New Years resolutions. I think that September as the start of the new academic year is a better time for new starts and resolutions.

So, while I'm not starting back at school myself or even have a school age child (as yet, although I feel that time approaching rather too rapidly!) I don't have the new uniform or bag (although I'm working on that one!) I do have a lovely new academic diary and pink fluffy pen!

Therefore it seems only right that I should make some resolutions for the New Term. I jotted down some ideas (with my pink fluffy pen of course) and the list was getting quite extensive. Looking back over them I realised first of all that I was being a bit hard on myself (be a better wife and mother? don't I strive for that constantly anyway?) and secondly for the majority of the rest of the items on the list I could sum them up in just two words. As it happens two of the basic education principles:

Read and Write

(I'm not doing the third basic education principal too, I'm not that crazy!) I just need to do these two things more and I'll be working towards all of the other things on my list. Wish me luck!

Now, what are your New Term resolutions?

Silent Sunday

2011-08-21T05:22:00.001+01:00

Black and White

2011-08-16T23:02:00.000+01:00

I love how just in editing a photo into Black and White you can totally change it's look, and somehow they seem all that more professional. Some of my favourite photos to give the black and white effect to are those from my favourite city of New York. We are so used to iconic black and white images of this city that it just feels so right to edit them in this way. I think it also adds to that nostalgic feel and makes them all the more timeless...

And then there's the very different looks it gives to my two favourite subjects;

Hubby goes retro:

Daughter looks dreamy:

Not forgetting the original theme to my first Black and White post, which as far as I can tell from my very limited understanding of my stats is the post most found from search engines;

The Black and White Cat:

This post is for week 70 of The Gallery, for the theme 'Black and White'. Head on over to see all the other entries this week!

Silent Sunday

2011-08-14T07:26:00.002+01:00

Vanilla and Strawberry Cupcakes

2011-08-11T14:11:00.003+01:00

My cakes in my Silent Sunday this week got a lot of lovely comments, thank you all for those :) And as well as pretty they really were rather delicious, even if I do say so myself! So I thought I'd share the recipe incase you'd like to try them out. I've recently discovered organic flour and caster sugar in M&amp;S which is about the same price as the regular variety and I'm really liking the results. I also like their butter, or Lurpak (unsalted) and good quality organic free range eggs.

Vanilla and Strawberry Cupcakes

120g plain flour
140g caster sugar
11/2 teaspoons baking powder
40g unsalted butter
120ml whole milk
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract

Strawberry Frosting:

250g icing sugar

80g unsalted butter

25ml whole milk

couple drops vanilla extract

a handful of strawberries, pureed

Some pretty cake decorations

Add flour, sugar, baking powder and butter to food mixer and combine on slow speed.
In separate bowl whisk together egg, milk and vanilla extract.
Add gradually to the base mix on slow/medium speed.
Once all combined mix on high speed for a couple of minutes but be careful not to overmix.

Kitchen Assistant

Spoon into cake cases and bake in preheated oven at 170 for 20-25 mins

Meanwhile prepare the strawberry frosting. Combine the butter and icing sugar on a slow speed. Gradually add the milk and vanilla extract. Puree a handful of strawberries and add into the mix. Once all incorporated mix on a high speed for at least 5 minutes until the frosting is light and fluffy.
I put some of the frosting in a separate bowl and added a little food colouring to this half for effect.

Once cooled, use a knife to shape the frosting onto the cupcakes and decorate with whatever pretty decorations you can find. I had white chocolate star sprinkles, metallic coloured balls, hundreds and thousands and glitter!

Yum, Yum, Yum - Enjoy!

Sponge and frosting recipe taken from The Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook and adapted by me :)

Water

2011-08-10T11:13:00.003+01:00

I have always loved water, and especially the sea. Growing up on the coast I couldn't imagine what it would be like to have never seen the sea. I find it so peaceful to just sit and look out and as a keen traveller I love to think of the possibilities of where it can take you.

I always think of water as such a healer too. I've always loved to go swimming to clear my mind and it's definitely my favorite form of exercise. I'd hoped for a water birth until I was overdue and had to be induced meaning it was no longer possible. And of course there's nothing like a long bubble bath to relax and make you feel better.

I think that my little water baby feels the same way as me!

This post is for week 69 of The Gallery, for the theme 'water'. Head on over to see where all the other water themed posts may take you!

Potty Training Triumphs

2011-08-08T15:17:00.005+01:00

So I thought it must be time that I shared the adventures leading to our potty training triumphs! We were so proud of our big girl when this weekend in Starbucks she asked to go to the toilet and even though we had to wait for her daddy to get back she did and then happily went back with him (hand driers in public toilets are a whole new obstacle though, she does not like them at all and infact went with daddy on the promise that they didn't have to use one, obviously evil mummy had put her under one the day before!) I apologise in advance for all the attempts at toilet humour but if this isn't the place for it then really where is?!

It all started just over two months ago now, a week before V's 2nd birthday. She had started getting uncomfortable in her nappy, fiddling with it a lot, and asking for a new nappy whenever she'd had a wee. So on the Sunday I popped out to the shops and came back with this all singing all dancing 'mini toilet' (whatever you do do not mention the p word in front of V, in her words which she has to explain to Grandma all too often "It's NOT a potty, IT'S A TOILET!" *stamp of foot*) She was so excited to get it out of the box and we couldn't believe it when lo and behold she got straight on and had a wee!! Even more amazing was an hour or so later when we were sat around the table having her dinner she announced "I need to have a wee now" and climbed down and went to her 'toilet' and HAD A WEE!!!!!!

We couldn't believe it. Our daughter was officially a genius, potty training accomplished in a matter of hours! I didn't blog, not wanting to tempt fate. Just as well really as then I would have had to print a retraction.

She was still quite good the next day but it was a case of bad timing really as three out of the next four days I would be at work for long days so V and her 'mini toilet' were transported to different environments. I think there was mixed success these few days but then when we were all home for the weekend again her love for her special toilet seemed somewhat diminished. Obviously it was already proven that she knew what to do, she just seemed to not want to do it at all and got angry at us for even suggesting that she use it! So after a couple of days of constant accidents I decided to stop asking and put the pull ups back on. I was disappointed. I didn't want to be going backwards but I also knew how important it was not to pressurise her into something she wasn't ready for.

We left her toilet next to ours in the bathroom and carried on as usual the next few weeks. Then once again she started fiddling with her nappy and just seemed so uncomfortable in it so I decided to go for it again. But this time I was armed with a secret weapon. Something my grandma had mentioned when I'd spoken to her in those initial few days but by the time I'd bought them were to be left languishing in the back of the draw when attempt no1 was abandoned. What is this secret weapon you might ask?

PEPPA PIG PANTS!

As soon as I presented her with them she was thrilled to bits. She loved her big girl pants and wanted to put them on straight away. I explained that she would need to let us know if she needed to use her toilet or to just go and use it. And that is exactly what she did! I should have known that grandma knew best! I also think it was the fact that we just let her get on with it instead of asking her all the time. We should have known really as she is fiercely independent and most of what she does has to absolutely be on her own terms!

Of course that was no1s taking care of but no2s took just a little longer. For a while she has been quite self conscious about them and liked to take herself off and crouch down behind somewhere until she had finished. So I spent some time trying to spot when she needed one so I could direct her to her toilet or get her a pull up as she didn't want to come out of her hidy hole! One particularly pleasant day when I was making her lunch in the kitchen she came to grab my hand and take me back into the lounge "look Mummy, look!" she said excitedly pointing to a great big poop in the middle of the rug.

"How did that get there darling?" I ventured. To which she responded with one of her favourite phrases of that period:

"I don't know"

I didn't know how we were going to sort this one out, but in the end it just happened by happy accident. She had called me into the bathroom to hear her toilet singing after she'd had a wee and was happily sitting there singing along when we both heard a 'plop'. She looked surprised got up and had a look down. "Mummy, I had a poop!"

I was very excited and started heaping on the praise which went something like; "You're so clever having a number two on your toilet. Daddy will be so proud of you, I'm sure he'll buy you a present. And grandad (who had never changed a nappy until he became a childminder to his grandchildren) will be so pleased he'll probably buy you a great big present!"

V was beaming with delight and sat back down on her toilet. "Daddy and grandad will be so proud. Now I'm going to have a Number Six!"

Silent Sunday

2011-08-07T07:05:00.002+01:00