Archive | July 2012

Delicate

The theme in the Gallery this week is Delicate.

As usual, I thought of a few things I could use to show Delicate this week including flowers, baby feet, baby hands, little creations, soft things….and flicking through my photos I came across one which made me go “ahhhh! Delicate!”

When Baby Z turned one in December last year he was obsessed with Iggle Piggle. I had decided I wanted an Iggle Piggle cake for one of his parties and not being brave enough to make it I went on a hunt. I searched a lot of bakeries around where I live but couldn’t find one that I liked. I also discovered that a lot of bakeries are inundated with orders for Christmas cakes around this time of year so actually got turned away from a few. Nooooooo!

Then my cousin asked if I would go to her to have a look at some wedding cakes in Bolton. Yeahhh why not. It was a long shot but I could look at their birthday cakes too. By now I was convinced no-one could actually create an Iggle Piggle that I actually liked.

As we entered I glanced at the orders waiting to be collected by customers that day. It was then that I spotted this…

An Iggle Piggle sat in his boat, delicate hair, waves lapping and blanket in hand. Sat on a big square oceanic cake.

“I Want That One!!”

And like magic (with a paid deposit) it was mine. Well….she made me one to order.

We spent most of the party putting his hair back on as it kept coming off but it was amazing. I don’t think Z actually cared to be honest but I enjoyed admiring it all day. I enjoyed the chocolate and buttercream filling even more.

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Project 52 – Week 30 / Silent Sunday

Jul28

Street Photography

Jul25

The theme in the Gallery this week is Street Photography.

My friend and I visited Paris a few years back. I’d already been once previously but she had never seen it. My other half never wants to go so I thought why not go with a friend!

This was part of our “mini tour of Europe”, which comprised of Belgium and France. So very very mini. Anyhoo, we arrived at our hotel and kept seeing signs for Roland Gaross. Not being very sporty we had no idea what it was and dismissed it for some local attraction at first. Instead we hurried to the centre to see all the important attractions like the Notre Dame, Eiffel Tower, the Louvre etc.

A day or two later we asked the hotel receptionist what Roland Gaross was. Her answer was a very enthusiastic “The French Open of course!!”.

OHHHHH!!

It turned out we were only staying a mile away from the tennis and the French Open was in its opening rounds. We got day tickets to the games and had a wander around the courts. We particularly enjoyed watching the French Jeremy Chardy and shouting “Allez Jeremy!!!” alot and trying in vain to get his autograph despite not really knowing him nor being a fan of tennis.

Just for the day though, it was a lot of fun!

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Annabel Karmel Organic Purees‏ Giveaway

Jul23

It’s giveaway time on the blog!

Back when we first started the weaning process I bought Annabel Karmels book. I remember regularly referring to the feeding guide just to make sure I was giving Baby Z enough bottles and food. After all, food had now been added to his diet as well as milk and it was a daunting, messy and exciting time all at once. We went through a journey of making good purees, bad purees, trying shop bought purees and then mixing in finger foods and, over time, Baby Z became fully weaned.

Over twenty years after the publication of her first book, Annabel Karmel, the UK’s number one parenting author and expert on baby and children’s nutrition, is launching her first range of organic baby purées in pouches. Annabel Karmel’s organic purées are based of some of the most popular recipes from her books, and made with the best possible ingredients that you could find in your own kitchen.

“Ready made fruit and vegetables purees that taste natural are much easier to make than meat and fish purees, which have always been a bit trickier and can often taste bland. A common mistake when weaning is to continue feeding only fruit and vegetable purées after six months. This diet is too low in calories and lacks the fat and nutrients found in proteins such as meat and fish, which are important sources of iron and essential fatty acids and vital for your baby from 6 months.” Annabel Karmel.

Annabel Karmel

Annabel’s pouches (130g) are perfect for busy mums and dads who don’t always have time to cook from scratch or for those that feel unsure of how to start introducing meat and fish to their baby’s diet.

The range comprises of:

Sunday Best Roast Chicken, Cosy Cottage Pie, Scrumptious Salmon & Sweet Potato, Lovely Lentils & Tomato, Tasty Chicken & Butternut Squash, Fruity Apple, Pear & Blueberry.

Suitable from six months, the MSRP for the purees are £1.49 each and they will be available from Sainsbury’s in June and Tesco from July.

Want to Win a Set of Purees?

If you’d like to win a set of Annabels new purees, simply leave me a comment below with some way of contacting you. (e.g. Twitter name or email address). You have until the 30th July to enter.

You can have additional entries in the giveaway by doing any of the following (Leave an additional comment for each to confirm you have done so):

5 winners will be selected at random and contacted after the 30th July 2012.

Project 52 -Week 29 / Silent Sunday

Jul21

Dearest 19 Month Old

Jul20

Hello Baby!

So 19 months already?? You’re going to be my one and a half year old to anyone that asks though. It just sounds like a nice age doesn’t it? And it rolls off the tongue. Kind of.

It’s been a funny few weeks really with a lot of upheaval and changes so that’s why you’ve been getting some extra tight hugs. You seem to becoming a very smart toddler and given some tight lovely hugs back. I do love coming home from work to you! It’s very true what they say, toddlers get more fun as they get older.

So what have you been doing this month? Well, one of your newest things is trying to take your coat off yourself. You soon around trying to shake it off and manage it after about 6 or 7 rotations; kind of like a toddler superman going at very slow speed!

You’ve also developed your sense of humour. You absolutely love laughing and playing little tricks on us. Most of them involve us chasing you in some form or other but it’s so lovely to hear you squeal with excitement. And then when steal our place on the sofa and shout “mine!!!” we have to come and tell you off in a pretend fashion. It’s our regular game now played about 5 times a day.

You still don’t say that much but i think you’re getting there. You just tend make it up if you don’t know the word for it. I know it’s frustrates you because you’ll gesture wildly sometimes and pull my hand to wherever you want to go or to whatever you want. Having said that, this week you’ve learnt “ipak” for iPad which is now yours and only yours. I think that poor talking cat is going to run away from that app soon!

You are, at last, becoming friendly with other toddlers your age, hurrah!!! You won’t quite throw your arms around one yet but you will at least say “ULLO!” (sometimes) and play near them. I’m hoping this means the start of the end of separation anxiety. You also look a lot less scared of your 3 year old cousin. More hurrah!!

There’s going to be changes to our playgroup. Some mums have apparently been making excellent use of the child size kitchen and having a good natter instead of paying attention to their own children (or letting the children actually play in the kitchen). We’re just waiting to find out what those changes are going to be… So you might actually get to play in there soon!

Do you know it’s just a month to In The Night Garden Live? I know! HOW exciting!!

So, until next time baby…. Mmmwah!!

Planes, Trains and Automobiles

Jul17

The theme in the Gallery this week is Planes, Trains and Automobiles.

So basically transport; that can be bicycles, motorbikes, camper vans, motor homes or jet skis.
Interpret it any way you like and then come back and let’s get that motor running (sorry).

A few years back one of my friends asked if I wanted to go to a conference with her to Antwerp. She would go off to and listen to ~~boring~~ interesting Orthoptic related things and I could wander around looking around the lovely city. Our plan was we would jump on the train in the evenings and check out neighbouring cities and be all cultural. And that we were. We gorged on Belgian chocolate, waffles, more chocolate and ooh’d and ahhhh’d at the diamond quarter. And then ate more chocolate.

One evening we made our way to the train station to go to Brussels. And we were met with this…

A double decker train!!!

Despite the fact that the UK is filled with double decker busses, we were amazed, not having seen one of these before, and like civilised adults in their late 20s, excitedly ran to the top! Then proceeded to go back to nattering and putting the world right all the way to our next destination.

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