Baking like mad!

I used to do a lot more baking in the pre-baby days, when I could take all my baked goods into work and hand them out to avoid eating all the calories myself. Then Athena came along and apart from her Christening and Birthday cakes I reckon I’ve only baked once a month at best! Sam is sad because he…

Back to School

  Clearly I am not heading back to school, but getting a new rucksack has made me feel a bit like I used to at the end of the summer term. I had 6 weeks ahead of me stretching out… yet I used to get a new bag, shoes, pencil case and stationery in the first week of the holidays!…

body-confidence

Thoughts: Body Confidence

 I can’t work out whether I am more or less body confident than I was pre-baby. I think I am more confident, well, most of the time. My body is definitely different, I have bigger boobs and a saggier belly. My legs are much the same size wise but I have faint stretch marks on my thighs, and my upper arms…

Right here, right now

Currently I Am: Sat on the sofa with my laptop. The windows are wide open and I’ve just put up a new pair of curtains! Sam is out at a friend’s house and Athena is fast asleep. Reading: I’ve just started reading a new book, The 100 ft Journey. I am mega behind on blog reading, but will try to catch up a…

Book review & giveaway: Vanilla Salt

Vanilla Salt is the debut novel from Ada Parellada, a respected chef. It follows the story of Annette and Alex, their past and their present, and their struggles to keep their restaurant afloat (but for different reasons!) The character of Alex is a typical chef (I should know, I’ve worked with lots as a hotel manager!) he is fiery, rude…

Cosatto Giggle travel system review

    On Easter Monday after suffering from three days of excruciating tooth ache I was gobsmacked for another reason, I found out I had won a Cosatto Giggle on Frithas blog Tigerlily Quinn ! I was over the moon, as you can imagine! We’ve now been using our Giggle for three months so I thought I’d write a review…

Planning: Birthday Parties

We had a fairly small gathering for Athena’s first birthday, to be honest she didn’t really know that it was her birthday or that everyone was gathered for her! We’ve decided to push the boat out a little bit more for next year as she’ll have made friends at nursery and all her other little chums will be old enough…

Brighton on the Beach

If you follow me on Instagram or twitter you will probably have seen me majorly making up for my social media absence of late on Friday night and Saturday morning! If not then you missed this delight: I was super lucky to have been invited to an amazing night and day thanks to OnThe Beach. Along with thirteen or so…

My blogging history and tips for new bloggers

I started blogging publicly on Blogger in 2011. My online presence started way before that though with a Diaryland diary, then moving to Live Journal in 2000. Sadly that is no longer available as I didn’t log in for over two years, I would’ve shared a few teenage-angsty posts otherwise! I began reading blogs and watching youtube ‘gurus’ in 2010.…

A simple sunset

You know when you’re casually strolling along and then a glorious sunset stops you dead in your tracks and you have to scrabble to get your phone out and take a photo? This is what happened to me a couple of weeks ago, and when I was doing the end of month dump of photos from my phone to my…

Sunday catch up (one)

I’ve had a busy (but hugely enjoyable!) week and am now suffering with mouth ulcers and an IBS flare up, serves me right really. I always get mouth ulcers when i’m about to get ill or am just run down and tired, so today is all about staying under the patchwork quilt and hoping that Athena is happy to play…

Current Favourite: Lip balms

  I have a slight addiction to lip balm. I have at least 4 on the go at any one time; by the bed, in the living room, in my handbag and in the car as minimum generally! I always seem to have dry lips, even in the summer so need to apply liberally at regular intervals! I thought I’d…