Bake off and tantrums

This year I am trying to cook something from the bake off every week. 

First week- cake week I made a Victoria sandwich. 

This was specially for my hubby. When we first started going out I made a Victoria sandwich with fresh cream and strawberries. I feel that I may have given him a false expectation that he could expect this regularly throughout our entire relationship! 

 Nemo "helped" me bake this cake and has a innovative way of cracking eggs- just squeezing them until they broke in his hands!

This is my special teapot- probably the most silly thing I've ever bought but I love it.  The tea cup only holds 1-2 mouthfuls of tea but I don't care!

Second week-biscuit week I made lavender biscuits and double chocolate cookies

I chose the lavender ones because they seemed like a 'proper' biscuit. I made the chocolate cookies as well as the lavender as I knew Hubby wouldn't get very excited by the lavender ones!

Nemo helped me this week too!

I found myself when I got to more tricky bits putting the mixture in the fridge and telling Nemo to come back in a few minutes as he just wanted to do everything! 

I'm sure Bing's Dad Flop wouldn't do that! (If you have young children you'll know exactly what I'm talking about!) 

Broccoli/ cookie/ broccoli/ cookie- I think you can guess what she picked 

(Before I get parent judgement it doesn't count as bad parenting when it's bake off day!)

To prepare for our biscuit baking I had to buy 3/4 items from the supermarket. I stupidly thought I could just pop to the supermarket take a basket and NO trolley or pram. 

I periodically have moments where I get some image of me walking around with a basket whilst the children calmly follow me around and we are 15 minutes max. Oh no, of course first it was the battle over who held the basket. 

Pebble has a new found sense on independence and didn't want to hold a handle each on the basket with her brother. She threw herself on the floor and had a tantrum so I ended up carrying a screaming Pebble whilst Nemo carried the basket. Pebble calmed down and she had a turn of holding the basket and we had a brief period of calm

But of course Pebble was taking an age so I tried to help her and she again threw a massive tantrum! 

I think terrible twos are misleading. I used to think there is a difficult year of tantrums. So far I have found that it must be at least closer to two. 

I think tantrums evolve- with Nemo and Pebble at opposite ends:

Pebble is in the physical stage of tantruming- she is an expert at arching her back and making it nearly impossible to do anything with her- she is also very efficient at falling to the floor and rolling around in dramatic fashion. 

Pros are that you can diffuse most situations by letting her tantrum it out or putting her in a pram. Cons are that she is unable to communicate thus causing frustration on both parts and her screaming penetrates the very core of my brain and renders me useless.

Nemo is at the verbal stage of tantruming- he is very capable of telling you exactly what he wants and will do very frequently- he doesn't have any qualms in telling me how unfair I'm being after telling him I'm not reading him his 9th book!

Pros you can explain things to Nemo and diffuse most meltdowns by telling him what the consequence will be. Cons I feel that I am employed by a micro managing dictator who allows me no coffee breaks.

However I'm not trying to complain for every moment of stress there are so many wonderful moments- but I definately think I'm on a patience development crash course! 

Bank holiday weekend

My poor hubby has been unwell this weekend so we've not been too adventurous this weekend. We popped to Alnwick gardens on Saturday morning just as hubby was starting to feel not too great. We first stopped by a baby shop having a sale on and I found the most awesome bargain.

 We got these really cute shoes for £5 (usually £27.50) I wish I had grown up shoes like this! 

It was a really sunny day so the kids got into their swimming costumes to go in the fountains.

Unfortunately Hubby got really unwell on Saturday and had to go to hospital but luckily he was patched up and sent back after not too long! So staying in more I have gone a bit jersey mad and have been finishing off the clothes I'd planned for the children. 

So this week I have finished 2 pairs of leggings and 3 tops for Nemo and Pebble. 

Here are the fruits of this week's labour:

I love this material with the foxes and squirrels- so cute! They're made for Pebble but I think I could have also used this for Nemo.

These leggings I think are so cool for Nemo! 

Top for Pebble 

Fox top for Pebble (you can see it came after the light green top as its a bit neater!)

And finally... 

This time I did a little kangaroo pocket for Nemo

I think this is Nemo's favourite top 

Nemo is at a stage where if you ask him to smile he will give a very cheesy grin!!

And just for the laugh here are Nemo and Pebble in all the handmade glory! 

The star of the weekend has definately been Poppy who won 2nd prize for the happiest dog at a local dog fair! Here she is with her lovely rosette!

I have to show you this photo of Poppy- she always manages to find a patch on sun to lie in- she has always done this even before we got her at 8 weeks. 

This week saw me pick up a pencil for the first time in years. I drew a lot before children but sitting outside watching the children play and being unable to bring my sewing machine out I decided to draw a kingfisher instead. 

The lovely thing was when Nemo saw it he said it was "Beautiful" it was so sweet I said thank you to him and he said "your welcome"! Sometimes he is so grown up! In balance he's spent most of the weekend moaning but you take what you get from Nemo! 

This week's walks and sewing!

So this week I have continued by journey into jersey materials. I have 1m of several different stretch materials and worked out I could make a pair of leggings and a long sleeved top from each meter. So today I did my first long sleeved top for Nemo

It's nearly impossible to make Nemo stand still for photos and not pull any faces!

I'm actually pretty pleased with it. It would definately help to have an over locker (although would definately not help our purses!) I didn't buy any ribbed material for the neckline but managed to get away with the jersey material. 

This week I also made the apron

I love the lining but my husband can't get his head around having the plain material on the outside and the pretty material inside!

I ventured into embroidery for the first time and did my first little picture on my apron. I feel that my transformation into a proper housewife is nearly complete! :-p 

Actually having said that bake off starts this week and I'm endeavouring to complete a baked good for each week (I managed some weeks last year) so my stereotypical housewife points are stacking up!

We ventured to St Abbs on Friday for a local market they do. At one point whilst talking to someone Nemo and Pebble started moaning and got given free samples of biscuit from a stall lady which of course meant I had to buy them something! 

Also came out with some yummy local jam we've had before. 

Banana jam... You might think I'm mad but if you like banana on toast you'll see where they're going with it- it's surprisingly yummy. 

The weather wasn't amazing but St Abbs is still a gorgeous place to go.

We popped into Etal this weekend as well. We didn't actually go on the train ride which I've heard is amazing for children but instead went for a cup or tea in the tea rooms and a walk by the river. It absolutely tipped with rain during our walk but I actually love heavy rain and the children were pretty cosy!

Poor sheep!

These cute little birds were more like seagulls in their blatant scavenging crumbs from the floor!

When we got back we watched a murder mystery and I was very proud as Pebble popped herself onto the sofa to watch it with us!

Nemo reached a potty training milestone. 5 minutes into the service on a new church we hadn't been to before when the whole church was very quiet Nemo announced loudly "I need a wee wee"! 

Comical and embarrassing as it was it was great progress for Nemo who's potty training has been very slow and steady!! 

Sunday saw the end of Poppy's month of confinement whilst she has been on season. Now poppy actually escaped during the month but we're pretty confident (/hoping like mad) the patter of paws are not coming! Having commented how much Poppy would like the Etal river walk we went back there.

She's free!!

The children walked the first half of the walk (maybe just shy of 2 miles) and we walked back. Of course it took us over an hour to walk the first half and then about a third of the time to get back! Pebble is still finding it a novelty to walk by herself and had to stop every 10 seconds to pick up a leaf of stone which she would carry very briefly before proudly throwing it back on the floor! 

I'm going to try my hand at some more sewing as my lovely husband has kindly put the children to bed and has plonked himself by his Xbox! Bye! 

Keeping the sewing machine ticking over

I always find that I am constantly trying to get a perfect balance of lots of things and whilst I am nearly always succeeding at some of these things I am nearly always failing at something else. 

These things being:

- doing meaningful, stimulating and educational activities with the kids,

-keeping on top of the housework,

-spending time on my faith,

-feeding the family with nutrional, home cooked unprocessed foods,

-being and kind and attentive wife,

-doing enough exercise, 

-doing things for myself to make me happy and fulfilled. 

Of course there are a million other things that could go on this list and some are important than others but I do sound a little like a 1950's housewife. 

Especially considering I have myself a sticker chart for housework (I honestly kid you not...) 

This week i have managed to take the children out lots, and have done lots of sewing and score half points on most other things. 

I have made some things I can't show you yet but am particularly proud of yesterday's achievement. I managed to source some jersey material cheaply on the Internet (though it took a while to arrive from Germany) and yesterday I managed to make my own pattern for Nemo and Pebble leggings by looking at a pair of leggings they already had. 

(Pebble's pair were my first so they are a bit wonky!)

Nemo not wanting to model them. They aren't as tight as they look here but I still make make the next pair a little bigger for future growth. Shortly after this photo was taken he weed in them....I love potty training....

Definately made room for growth in Pebble's! She has been in a much better mood for modelling today!

The weather has been glorious here in Northumberland and we have been going for nice long walks. We've been visiting Ross Sands quite a bit but have been shocked to find up to 20 cars parked. It's usually very quiet as you have about 1 mile walk to get to the beach so you will always find it deserted but this years appears to have been discovered :( 

Nemo and Pebble love the sea so much it's crazy. Pebble will just walk straight into the sea up to her tummy without even seeming to notice the temperature. Nemo loves running in and out chasing the waves. 

Nemos potty training seems to be stalling a bit, he's struggling with number 2's and at times he's reluctant to go to the potty even though we know he needs to go. I rang up the health visitor who seemed very sensible and practical p for some tips. Of course she's on annual leave so I ended up talking to another lady who told us to (and I quote) "bin it" to go back to pull ups/ nappies and try again in 3 months. 

I really do wonder sometimes why I bother asking for advice sometimes, we've been doing this almost a month and have made a lot of progress I really think it would confuse Nemo putting him back in nappies now. 

This morning I received a very exciting package, this is my material my Mum kindly sourced for me for my apron. 

My mum has made one and the idea is that you make the apron and then use embroidery to make it all pretty. (The plain fabric goes on the outside the pretty one is the lining.)

This will make me even more housewifey then before-eek I'm only 27! It will also mean some more evenings sewing!

Luckily with the luxury of having a craft room (which my husband calls a study...) I can do some sewing whilst my hubby works on his laptop or plays on his Xbox. This actually means we've been spending some lovely time together chatting away in here 

Well I'm off now but just in case you didn't believe me here is my sticker chart (it's my third I've been doing this 3-4 months now!)