easy peasy bread

well, my little munchkin and i decided to make a loaf of bread this morning and i came across this super duper recipe that was so easy and quick that we had it proving within the hour! so not as much time killed as i had hoped but good messy fun all the same!

this is it, served up with poppys soup (also home made!) for lunch.

so here it is... i will also outline it on here to make it even easier -

mix 500g strong white flour in a bowl with 2 tsp of salt and 7gs of fast acting yeast in a sachet. then make a well and add 3 tbsp olive oil and 300ml water and combine to make the dough... then kneed for as long as your little ones arms can manage - preferably until it is satin smooth!

leave it in a warm place for an hour in a lightly oiled bowl to rise (or overnight in the fridge is good as it makes it taste nicer!)

give it a bit of a knock about then shape it and put it on some baking paper and leave to prove for an hour to rise again.

cross the top with a sharp knife and bake for 25-30 mins in a preheated oven at 220C...

voila! delicious!

this is one that is going to appear on the breakfast table a lot in future! 

caravans and seagulls

well, we are just back from a family holiday to a very well known family holiday caravan park... sounds a bit like heaven!! ahhhh, eight adults, six kids and two caravans... who could ask for more!?!?

it was actually a very lovely holiday, if not a bit cramped in places! plenty to keep our little bear entertained - from doting cousins to a massive soft play and swimming pool... and it was sunny!  unfortunately, it meant a very tired girl and often a bit of a grumpy one too (and that was just me!) but i would do it again... i think. well, i would do it again but not while pregnant - that i definitely do not recommend!

we mostly ate in the vans, which was a bit of a logistical nightmare but not half as bad as trying to get 16 meals ordered by 5pm on the dot with out one of our little people wandering off somewhere... or one of the older ones sneaking off to the slots with a pocket full of 2penny pieces.

the pool was the best bit, and the soft play - both of which were free! the joys of having an under 5! we did spend a a few pounds on some rides and a swan pedalo (which is essential for any caravaning holiday, i think)

after an entire week of extreme playing and constant attention from numerous adults and older children, poppy is taking sometime winding down now we are home - i am a slave to her pretend play and book demands. for now at least, until she bores of me and wanders off into her own play world again...

weddings and two year olds

we took a wee mini break to the west coast for a friends wedding a few weeks ago... as guests! i clarify this as being photographers we don't often get to be guests at weddings.

anyway, it was poppy's second wedding (she attended her auntie weezees wedding when she was 6 weeks old) and - as opposed to last time - she definitely seemed to enjoy herself... but boy was it hard work! ...missed the vows, the speeches and most of our meal - in fact i am pretty sure we held up the main course being served as they waited for us to return to the table to actually eat our starters.

as a 'fun' gift we gave the couple a photo booth set up with a box of props for their guests to go wild and let their hair down... always, always results in some pretty hilarious shots! and we even got a fun family shot of our own. did i mention it was fun?

poppy actually stayed up until the first dance - although we did get a lot of 'oh, she's done so well!'s and 'awww, she looks sooooo tired's!

well, needless to say we survived it ...and those wellies she insisted on wearing turned out to be the perfect choice as it rained the entire time.

i love being a mum.

yes, sometimes it feels like it's the hardest job in the world but it is also the most rewarding and satisfying job i have ever done... it's not even a job, in fact.  it's my life now.

today as i sit in the sun listening to my 26 month old daughter sing the entire alphabet perfectly as she dances around the garden i am filled with the most amount of pride and love and happiness... i am overwhelmed by it sometimes.

i made this.

and i am in the process of growing another! and what will this new person be like?

taking care of my daughter at home has never felt to me like a chore or something i have to do, i do get the odd off day where i wish i could just go and do what i wanted to do for once... by myself!  but more often than not i feel privileged to be a part of this little girls life, to help her become a person and to help her learn about who she is and about growing up...  i feel very under qualified a lot of the time, but she never fails to show me otherwise with her sense of humour, her intelligence and understanding and her ability to show so much love and care for everything around her.  she is an absolute amazement to me.  every day.


i feel anxious about having a second child, nervous about the chaos that will surely envelop us - even more so than now!  i feel worried that i wont be able to give them each the time and love they deserve.  but i also am filled with excitement and wonder at the challenges ahead, the joy that poppy brings me each day is about to be doubled.

and how can that not be a good thing?

calm down!

yesterday i went along to a toddler calm workshop and it was fantastic!  now, i cant complain about poppy at all, we don't get tantrums, we don't have fussy eating, she naps well and she sleeps all night.  however, during her waking hours, she is wild.  she talks continually, skips from toy to toy, game to game and she can't sit still for more than five minutes at a time.

so, i cleverly thought i could teach myself some skills to help her wind down a bit in the evenings and help her to fall asleep calmly - instead of the incessant chatter and giggling with her rabbit that goes on in there for at least half an hour to an hour some nights!

i will keep you all posted on that though...

crafty little things

i have been a busy sewing bee again lately... making a new blanket for the little baby in my tummy, out of knitted squares - should be interesting to see how that pans out! its a bit 'different'.  and cross stitching some name plaques for some of poppys little pals -

it is definitely something i love doing and giving, although a lot more practice is needed as my crosses are not as perfect as i would like... but is that not the point of handmade? the fact that you can tell it's hand made? i'll just keep telling myself that, i think! ...i have a few orders waiting too, so they can't be all that bad!?!

so apart from that, i have to get back into poppys 'book' - so far we have photos and keepsakes from birth to about 6 months!! she is now 2 ... so a fair bit of work to do on that! oops!

and a slide-show of images for my mothers 70th ...which was last year ...but better late than never, right?  i make every intention to do these lovely things, but find time just isn't with me on this!

on top of all this we are in the midst of our busiest time at the studio and are pulling late nighters all over the place. i am tired. i fell asleep in front of one of channel 5s afternoon movies yesterday and woke to hear poppy singing away in her cot - who knows how long she'd been awake for! i guess if she'd been up a while i would have known about it... after all she doesn't normally 'beat about the bush' for anything!

travel tears

it has been over two years and we have tried all the tricks in the book to help poppy travel 'better'.  she was a car snoozer when she was really small so we thought - as we tend to travel about a lot - we were set! but it was not to be... as soon as she stopped the long newborn naps and entered into baby-dom, we hit problems.

big problems.

travelling quickly became a real bug bear of hers. she would moan and cry and whinge for the majority of any journey with the odd exception when she would snack or nap. our first family holiday to tiree will always be remembered by one baby einstein cd on repeat and a whole lot of screaming.

now two years on, we have finally and reluctantly, admitted defeat... we bought... wait for it... an in car dvd player. gasp.  now i would always have been a big childless judger in the past. lazy parenting - yup. spoilt child - yup. but it's really not the case, let me tell you. or not so in this case at least - this case is for the sake of pure safety. driving along a quiet road with a screaming, moaning, whining child is hard enough... add in a whining dog and some manoeuvres and you are asking for an accident! so we did it, and although it has not been needed quite as much as we had originally thought - it has changed car travel for us completely!

so that is why we loved 'going places'!! ahhhh, now i remember.