September 2014 - Running in Lavender

HeleddSeptember 30, 2014

My Style : At A Baby Shower

Yesterday I had a ‘day off’. My husband took the girls to a birthday party, while I got dressed up and went into London for my friend’s baby shower. It’s been a while now since I finished work, so getting dressed up and making my way into ‘town’ took a new, more exciting spin. I was planning on wearing jeans, a top and a blazer but the weather was so warm that I had to rethink my outfit. Instead I went for a lighter top and a big statement necklace I’ve had for a while.

1. Top – River Island

2. Necklace – TopShop

3. Jeans – River Island

4. Pumps – Next

5. Bag – Marc by Marc Jacobs

It was so lovely to catch up with my friend and celebrate this magical time in her life. We drank tea (and champagne for us non-pregnant ladies), ate sandwiches, scones and cakes and played fun ‘baby themed’ games. For me, it was a fabulous day off!

Linking to:

#Reasonstodress

Fashion Friday on MummysGotStyle.com

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HeleddSeptember 29, 2014

My Power Smoothie

Every Sunday we start the day with a delicious power smoothie – it’s our ‘Smoothie Sunday’ ritual. On Saturday mornings we have pancakes, courtesy of my husband and the girls (which is great way of getting the kids interested in cooking – and I get to lie in) but of course they’re not very healthy. So come Sunday morning I’m ready for a healthier option, that’ll keep us going until lunch time.

This Strawberry Power Smoothie has to be our favourite. Frozen berries are a thrifty way of creating this healthy smoothie and I pad it out with oats to make it extra filling!

Ingredients
1 Banana
1 Handful fresh or frozen strawberries
50g Oats
1tbsp Clear honey
100ml Greek yogurt (low fat)
100ml Milk

Method
1) Peel the banana, and hull the strawberries

2) Put all the ingredients into a blender and blitz together

3) Pour into a glass and enjoy!
Tasty Tuesdays on HonestMum.com

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HeleddSeptember 27, 2014

We’re going on a conker hunt…

Today was what I would call the perfect Autumn day, warm, sunny and lots of beautiful colours. We’re lucky enough to have a stunning park literally on our doorstep and this afternoon we decided to go on a ‘conker hunt’ – after spending some time at the playground first (of course). The trees in the park were the picture of autumn and it was fun to be free, run around and play in our ‘extended’ back garden.

The girls were very excited about collecting conkers, although I’m not sure if they knew exactly what they were or what we’d do with them, so dad had to explain a few things first…

Once we’d collected all those conkers, we had to think what we could do with them. After a quick look through Pinterest, we talked about painting them in the garden but the girls were too tired once we got back, so I made do with this little autumnal decoration idea…

Maybe we can get our paint brushes out tomorrow? What do you do with your conkers?

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HeleddSeptember 23, 2014

My Banana Cake

This is a cake I’ve been making for years and is an evolution of a Nigella Lawson recipe. I’ve taken away the nuts and soaked sultanas (that were included in Lawson’s version) and added chocolate chips. Lets face it you can’t beat the combination of chocolate and bananas! My daughters both love this cake and as you can see from the pictures, they also enjoy making it!

Ingredients

175g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
½ tsp salt
125g unsalted butter (melted)
150g caster sugar
2 large eggs
3 large, ripe bananas (mashed)
1 tsp vanilla extract

Optional: 100g chocolate chips

Method

Preheat the oven to 170ºC/ gas mark 3.

Put the flour, baking powder, bicarb, salt and chocolate chips (if using) in a medium-sized bowl and mix with a spoon.

In a large bowl, mix the melted butter and sugar until blended.

Beat the eggs into the butter mixture one at a time, then add the mashed bananas and vanilla extract.

Add the dry ingredients into the wet ingredients a third at a time, stirring well each time.

Pour the mixture into a prepared cake tin and bake on the middle shelf for 1-1¼ hours.

When it’s ready, leave in the tin on a rack until cool.

This cake is incredibly moist and full of flavour, it also stays fresh for a good few days. Not that it ever lasts for that long in our house!

Tasty Tuesdays on HonestMum.com
Also…

Linking up to #CookBlogShare

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HeleddSeptember 21, 2014

Summer Loving

On these cold winter days, I love looking back on summer pictures. They bring a little sunshine and warmth into these gloomy grey days. I know this one is black and white (so not so bright and sunny) but it’s one of my favourites. Wish I was there now!

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HeleddSeptember 20, 2014

Our day on Box Hill

Last Sunday, the sun came out to play and we headed out to Box Hill, in Surrey with Miss Marnie from MamasVIB. Box Hill has long been one of our favourite nearby beauty spots but it now offers even more opportunities for outdoor fun with a new ‘Play Natural Trail’! This circular trail starts and ends at the top of the hill, close to the shop and café, where we managed to park and pick up a free trail map to help us find our way round.

box_hill_1
The fun trail includes a series of stop-off points, where the kids (big and small) can play in wooden shelters, climb bridges, jump across stepping stumps, swing on ropes and balance on logs. Everything on the trail has been made from natural materials and has been built to withstand some serious ‘hard play’. We really enjoyed the trail, the girls excitedly ran from one attraction to another and spent time climbing, stepping and playing at each stop. The trail took us (with all our playing) around 90mins. We then spent some time relaxing, playing and rolling on ‘the hill’.

As you can see we had a fun day out! The trail and the views are free (although there is a charge of £4 for parking as it’s part of the National Trust), which means it was also a very cheap day out. We will be back soon to enjoy another day on the hill – looking down on the beautiful Surrey Downs.

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HeleddSeptember 19, 2014

My Holiday Style

Have you ever noticed that your dress sense/ style seems to change while you’re away on holiday? I realised this as I was looking through our recent holiday pictures. I have what I call my ‘holiday dresses’ that I only seem to wear when I’m away. I’m not sure why this is, as I really like these dresses but for some reason don’t have the confidence to wear them in the UK, as they’re slightly more revealing or loose.

My holiday style mainly consists of a sun hat (again… which I never wear in the UK, even on the hottest days), a pair of dark sun glasses, flat sandals (a must for running after my girls) and a cool, loose slip dress…

Shop the look…

1. Topshop dress £38

2. Monsoon hat £15

3. Ralph Lauren Glasses £111

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HeleddSeptember 16, 2014

The Perfect Pyjamas

As the evenings will now inevitably start drawing in, there is one thing I’m looking forward to more than anything else… and that’s my pyjamas! I am a total sucker for a pair of satin pyjamas but don’t tend to wear them as much during the summer months, usually opting for a light cotton nightdress or vest, if it’s a really hot night!

My idea of the perfect wintery night in involves a sofa, a good film, a blanket and a pair of comfy pyjamas – bliss! In my working days (not that being a SAHM is not working, by the way!) I used get in from work and literally jump straight into my pyjamas before doing anything else. It felt like such a release and the clothing equivalent of a big, reassuring hug. I know I’m not alone in feeling this way! My pyjama heroes have to be these holy trinity of the pyjama world; Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany’s (of course!), Audrey Tautou in the iconic Chanel advert and wait for it (guilty pleasure time) the new pyjama queen herself, Kourtney Kardashian – who seems so spend most of her time in a pair of satin pyjamas.

Holly Golightly from Breakfast at Tiffany

Audrey Tautou in the iconic Chanel advert

The new pyjama queen Kourtney Kardashian

Not only do I love lounging around in my pyjamas, although I wouldn’t go out in them! They’re also one of my favourite things to shop for and are always on my Christmas list. Here are my current top picks from the new Rosie for Autograph range at Marks & Spencer…

Luxurious Satin Revere Pyjamas £35

Luxurious Satin Revere Pyjamas £35

Luxurious Satin Revere Pyjamas £35

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HeleddSeptember 13, 2014

My Flower Girls

If you follow me on Instagram or Facebook you may have already seen a few of these shots but I thought I’d collect them together is this special little post.

This is the story of two little flower girls, one named Lili and the other named Poppy. They love picking wild flowers and sharing stories of fairies and elves. One day they played in the most beautiful of gardens…

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HeleddSeptember 11, 2014

A Week in Provence – Part 2

You may have already read the fist part of my week in Provence posts, where I wrote about our fist stop on this little tour of the Uzes area. Here’s the next instalment…

After spending two beautiful nights in the deep Provence countryside, we moved on to an 18th Century village house, just outsides Uzes. This house had 4 bedrooms (yeah, I know a bit over the top but it was great to have space for the girls to run around), 2 bathrooms, a large living space, a kitchen, a balcony and a private pool. In short it was perfect!

We literally couldn’t believe our luck when we arrived, it was beautiful and so massive! I’d seen picture on the AirBnB website but they really didn’t do it justice.

The kitchen was such a dream to cook in. Normally I like going out to eat when we’re on holiday but having two little ones means that this can be a bit of a chore, especially at night time when they’re tired. So staying in was so much easier and it meant we could spend more time in this beautiful house. Plus I get a funny kick out of using a new kitchen, it feels like playing ‘house’ – if you know what I mean?

For breakfast Dom and Lili would drive over to the local bakery (or boulangerie) while Poppy and I snugged in bed, which meant we had fresh croissants ever morning.

We were staying in the heart of the Provence countryside and it was just as you’d imagine, full of fields of grape vines and sunflowers, beautiful sandstone buildings with grey shutters and vineyards galore! Obviously having the girls with us meant that a vineyard tour was out but we did come across the Haribo museum, which was a big hit!

The town of Uzes is old and so typically French that I felt like we were walking around in an old French movie. Everywhere I looked was a new picture opportunity, a beautiful building, an antique shop, a pretty little coffee shop, a walled garden, a medieval tower – the list went on and on. They had a market on Wednesday morning, which was a real treat and inspired us to have a picnic in the park.

My personal favourite thing about Uzes was all the gorgeous French antique shops, they were just amazing! I literally could have spent all day going from one to another but of course the girls were not as interested, so I had to make do with the odd quick peep.