I always have so many amazing ideas about making all these incredible presents for everyone and wowing everyone with my DIY skills, unfortunately every year my DIY efforts are more like DIYfails…

This year I’m as un-organised as ever (if not more so) and frantically knitting away some Christmas stockings, baking like a crazy woman and trying to cross things off my list.

That’s my token (yet unfinished – how timely for this post) gingerbread house for this year, next year – use a template! Cut more carefully! I’ve finished a ginger and cherry panforte and need to complete the white chocolate fig version as part of my handmade Christmas efforts. Then, some jarred mincemeat and mince pies…… oh yeah, need to buy presents too!

I’ve had some of the best two weeks of my life. I feel so blessed to be in New Zealand with my baby, relaxing, catching up with old & new friends and generally just loving my life. Time passes so quickly especially when you have a baby and responsibilities and it’s too precious not to love every moment of it and everyone in your life.

This face. I love. So much. What a freaking cute boy.

Over 2kgs. I am the queen of gaining the last 5kgs, losing it, then gaining it.. getting pregnant etc etc I feel I should document how I do it.

I figure I’d quite like to lose 6kgs before we start TTC (trying to conceive) again. It’d be nice to start from “my ideal” place.
Also my ideal health. I’ve been feeling less than 100% basically since I stopped breastfeeding Reuben and my diet went down the drain like you can’t even imagine. My post-shower-crazy-itching is back with a vengeance which I can only assume is down to too much refined carbohydrates (basically what my diet consists of right now). My skin is not good and there’s only so much makeup you can put on to hide it. I’m just sick of being not 100% with how I feel and how my clothes fit, and not doing anything about it.

I feel like I kind of forgot that no one was gonna do this for me, and it’s a bit ridiculous that I have all this knowledge and experience on what to do and how to do it to not just dominate it. It’s getting me down dwelling on it. What a loser.

So lets do it!

Starting with tomorrows breakfast: 2 eggs, salad and beans! Whatever kind of beans you feel like. For me – it’s whatever happens to be in the cupboard, in a can . A cup of black coffee, and lot of water.

And then, for snacks/lunch/second lunch/whenever:
*more eggs
*hemp protein shake (spinach/berries/yog/water)
*frozen fish either pan fried or oven baked
*sachet of tuna (flavoured)

I’ll update with my actual diet tomorrow. But for now, its past midnight and I’ve got washing to hang out. Time for bed.. nighty night. Please share with me what’s worked for you if you’ve lost weight, or if you are happy with your body, how do you keep yourself happy with your body? xx

Loving lazy Tuesdays… relaxing on the couch with some tea (herbal) and some new cookbooks (Nigella of course).. listening to the sounds of the dishwasher doing dishes for me. Dreaming of hooking up some cushions with  my new found crochet skills.. maybe later.

Interlude to check facebook, watch some videos of the grammys and realise that little man will still  be sleeping for another hour… bliss. If I could block out the noise of the rubbish truck outside I could almost pretend that I am on the couch in New Zealand..

Look at how big munch man is getting… Looking so grown up in his jammies from Aunty Julian too…yes that is the lens cap from my camera :/

I’m back in London after 2 amazing months in New Zealand… what a contrast…
dull and gray from bright and sunny
cold and wet from warm and humid
just us from family and friends.. I guess it’s this last one that makes the most difference. It has been such a fun time having all our family and friends around for the past few months, I miss you guys so much already.

It’s really weird coming home to our flat here, to be honest I had kind of forgotten what it was like after 2 months. It is nice though, Reuben’s room is so bright and cheerful – I just stuck up the R E U B E N letters from Erica too which are super cute.

And one of the best bits about coming home – My wonderful hubby bought me the best birthday/wedding anniversary/valentines day presents ever… I feel so spoilt. I got  a kitchenaid stand mixer and this amazing kenwood food processor. No excuses now to get out of baking

Of course Reuben is now over 9 months.. I feel like this year is flying by and soon he will be one year old! Can’t believe it. Sometimes I still can’t believe that I have a baby of my own, let alone a crawling handsome little charmer haha. His crawling is still on his belly, and he has just started pulling himself up on stuff. We gave him his first haircut 2 days ago, and he jammed his fingers in a drawer this morning

xx

My baby turned 8 months a few days ago and wow how time has flown. I keep meaning to update my blog but basically I’m too lazy. Anyway… Reuben is now “crawling” (body still on the floor but getting where he wants to go pretty quickly!) which is so exciting, I love seeing how determined he is to get places.

He still is such a good natured baby, always happy and relaxed and just goes with whatever is happening. He still is a great sleeper – although we have had many disruptions recently (to be expected – we are in New Zealand with my parents) – but on the whole fantastic he still sleeps 11 or 12 hours solidly at night and has 2 naps of 2-2.5hours each. I am in the process of weaning him from his third nap although I’m not too sure how ready he is for this yet.

His eating is going well – he has a very large appetite and I nurse him 4 x a day with 3 solid meals. I have struggled while on holiday to prepare homemade baby food like I normally do and we have resorted to using too many jars of organic babyfood. Oh well there is time to fix that.. A sample meal routine/menu for him is something like this:

Breakfast: Breastfeed & Oats/Fruit/Water blended/mashed. Sippy of water
Lunch: Breastfeed & Vegetable/Rice, sometimes fruit/oats
Dinner: same as lunch
Bed: Breastfeed

I pump almost every night before bed too which has been great as his grandparents (my parents) have enjoyed being able to feed him and I have enjoyed having such wonderful babysitters!! I want to write a review on my pump soon because it is AMAZING. But for now it is called Avent Isis iQ duo – Double electric pump – learns your rythm.

Rueben is a very curious and easily distractible baby so our nursing sessions are about 5-10 minutes long now. I haven’t had him weighed properley since we arrived in NZ but I took him on my parents scales and he is over 10kgs now (over 22lb).

All in all I love him an unspeakable amount times a million plus four and I hope he reads this one day and knows how much I love him

00:03 on a school night. So much for that goal! I’m still in the lounge.. not even close to being ready for sleep.

check out what lover boy got me. ohhh yeah. can’t believe Christmas is so close… dude, this is a timely reminder of summertime in NZ approaching YEAH BABY YEAH

DecorPad is amazing.

Lets see if I can set myself some more goals for this week that I shall not achieve or probably even attempt to do…

1. Sell my cross trainer
2. eBay old baby clothes
3. Lose weight
4. Go to bed early
5. do my IKEA returns
6. buy new baby sleepsuits
7. learn to knit
8. get a sewing machine
9. visit H&M

I pretty much know none of those are gonna happen, especially not 3 or 4 lol. dude my life is pretty awesome if these are my top 9 things to do this week

These classic, iconic New Zealand biscuits are very yummy and very much loved by everyone. They are incredibly easy to make and failproof. I found this recipe in the gorgeous – “Ladies, a Plate” by Alexa Johnston. She has researched, baked and tested hundreds of classic “New Zealand” recipes.

This batch is going to my new work – hopefully they like them.

1 cup rolled oats
1 cup dessicated coconut
3/4 cup flour
1 cup sugar
40z/115g butter
2 tbsp golden syrup
1 tsp baking soda
2 tbsp boiling water

Preheat your oven to 180 degrees celcius or 350 farenheight. Line 2 baking trays with baking paper.

In a large bowl combine the oats, coconut, flour and sugar.

Place butter and golden syrup in a small saucepan and heat until melted together, stirring with a wooden spoon.

Place baking soda in a cup, and add the boiling water, stir if there is any baking soda not dissolved.

Pour into the melted butter in the saucepan (it will foam up, don’t be afraid!) and stir together.

Pour the wet ingredients into the dry and mix together until no dry ingredients can be seen.

Form into heaped teaspoonfulls and place on the baking tray with at least an inch (3 cm) around them or they will do what mine did and form a giant biscuit he he.

Bake for 10 minutes until lightly golden for chewy biscuits, and 15 minutes and dark golden for crisp ones.

Cool on a rack and store in an airtight tin. Makes about 36.