Another day out in London town!

This weekend my sister-in-law and her boyfriend came to visit. We thought that it would be fun to head into town and visit a couple of museums.

Mr Plum was keen to head to the baby friendly areas. The Science Museum had an area called The Pattern Pod which was aimed at 5-8 year olds, Baby Plum had fun chasing fish on the interactive floor!  There was a whole area called "The Garden" aimed at under 5's so Baby Plum spent some time in there with her auntie and uncle. 

Next we popped next door to the Natural History Museum. Baby Plum was fast asleep in her pram, so auntie and uncle had a look round the museum while we had a cuppa in the cafe and a wander around the shop!

What a lovely day!!

Baby Plum enjoying a pain au chocolat on Sunday morning!

Oh I Do Like To Be Beside The Seaside!

On Tuesday I headed into London to meet a friend for lunch. This was one of those exciting last minute-ish things as my friend was on a flying visit back from New Zealand and was only going to be in London for a couple of days! It was lovely to catch up with her. I hope she comes back home again soon.

There is always something interesting going on along the Southbank. If you find yourself in London and at a loose end - head down there! You won't be disappointed. 

As I headed towards Giraffe I was greeted by this ...

and these ...

deckchairs outside Foyles? What is going on??

The seaside theme was all part of the Festival of Britain and the "Summer of Fun".  There were exhibits inside the chalets, but it was a bit of a tight squeeze to get me and Baby Plum inside along with all the tourists! 

 A lovely sunny afternoon ... yummy food and fun with Baby Plum!

Strawberry Jam

I forgot to tell you about my jam!

I made strawberry jam with the first batch of berries we picked from the allotment.  

Unfortunately I didn't add enough lemon juice to the jam so it is very runny at the moment.  My mum found some remedies to sort out runny strawberry jam, so I will be having a go at thickening it up soon!

We picked about 10lbs of strawberries from the allotment! Our allotment neighbours even commented to Mr Plum that they thought we had the best patch on the site! Hmmm...I bet she pinched a couple! ha ha!

Our freezer is bursting with more strawbs ... I'm planning on making some more jam and some ice cream. Yummy!

A Work In Progress

I have been knitting Baby Plum a little pinafore dress since February!! It's taking ages as I'm finding it hard to juggle Baby Plum and my crafting, but I had a good go at it last week while staying with my parents. I have now completed the back and two pockets! I will shortly begin casting on the stitches to begin the front of the dress.

It's a lovely pattern from "Vintage Knits for Modern Babies" by Hadley Fierlinger and I am using the wool I picked up half price at the Stitching and Craft Show earlier this year. 

I'll keep you posted with it's progress!!

Girls in White Dresses ...

On Friday me and my parents went to Woodstock for the afternoon. After a lovely lunch we had a stroll through the town and popped into a lovely shop called Perspective.

Nana Plum treated Baby Plum to some beautiful dresses! We got a bit carried away and couldn't resist them! The dresses are a little big for Baby Plum at the moment, but will be perfect for next Summer!

I thought that you would like to have a little look ... 

Nana Plum can't resist a sailor style collar!

I just can't wait until Baby Plum can wear them!

Of course, I will be knitting a pretty pink cardie to wear with them ... and maybe making some lovely little hangers to hang them on! If I have time!!

Can I have a pea, please?

Hello!

Thanks for all your lovely comments...I think I was just in a bit of a funk :) A holiday in Kent and a week in the Cotswolds (with my parents entertaining Baby Plum lots while I had a rest!!) has left me feeling refreshed and ready to get back on here!

Mr Plum has been busy on the allotment.  I have to admit that when we took it on I had a romantic vision of spending my maternity leave down at the allotment with Baby Plum in her pram sleeping or playing. Unfortunately that wasn't to be as it has managed to coincide with Baby Plum going through the "separation anxiety" phase (and how long does this last?!). It has meant that we have found it very hard to keep on top of the upkeep of the plot as we have been away a lot.  While I went to my parents last week, Mr Plum was down the allotment each evening digging, weeding, weeding and more weeding!

But, we are starting to see the fruits of our labours! We have had about 10lbs of strawberries from the plot! I have made a batch of jam (more about that tomorrow!), my mum whizzed up a couple of jars of strawberry sauce yesterday and I have stacks of berries in the freezer (ice cream?)

We have also had some peas!! Eaten last night for dinner. Delicious!

Gratuitous "baby eating homegrown strawbs" picture!

Bloggywobbles

Hello!

I know that I have said it before, but I really don't know where time goes! 

I barely get time to read blogs let alone write posts anymore! I just haven't been inspired to write about anything, and I couldn't put my finger on why ... and then I realised - I don't think that I do very much worth blogging about anymore. I've banned myself from baking as I was putting on too much weight, I hardly get the opportunity to pick up my knitting needles as once Baby Plum is in bed I am generally passing out in front of the tv with exhaustion, I started a bit of sewing back in March ... I burnt some jam in April ... I went out for afternoon tea a couple of weeks ago.

When I started this blog in 2008 I was a very bored civil servant who sat at a computer 9-5, Monday to Friday and felt that any bit of creativity I had once had had been beaten out of her by "the system".  Starting this blog and writing about the stuff that I love to do (pretend I live in a lovely little village, baking, knitting, gardening etc) made me realise that there is so much more to life than sitting in an office, day in, day out. I felt inspired by other crafty blogs to get on and make stuff!

I have been on maternity leave since mid July (oh no ... due to go back to work in August) and my days are spent looking after the beautiful Baby Plum (now 9 months old - can you believe it?). My days are a mix of fun baby clubs (rhymetime and lots of coffee mornings), play dates with other babies, trips to the swings ... being a full time entertainer! I don't really get much time to do anything else.

Do you want to hear all about my day to day life with Baby Plum? Therein lies a problem itself as I'm a bit weary of the internet and don't like too much personal information 'out there' and by telling you all about me and my baby just seemed a bit too personal and how could I remain anonymous with more and more detail about my life going out?

The blogs that inspired me back in 2008 were the crafty ones and now more and more I find that I am drawn to the Mummy Blogs and the Baby Led Weaning blogs...I had always felt that my blog, although a happy mix of all kinds, did tend towards to crafty side of life...should I now rebrand?

But tonight I made some jam! Strawberry jam with berries from our allotment!

So I now have something to tell you all about, if you are still interested? I hope so!

Is someone getting married?

Love them or hate them ... it is hard to escape tomorrow's nuptials!

I'm very excited! If we didn't have Baby Plum in tow, I would be tempted to hop on the train into London and have a look! 

The Plums will be celebrating the Royal Wedding with a champagne breakfast at home and then onto friends for a BBQ in the afternoon.  I promised the hostess that I would bring along something Royal Wedding themed ... do you reckon my Victoria Sponge with Berry topping will go down well?

Hurrah! Congratulations to William and Catherine!

How will you be celebrating the Royal Wedding?

I've been neglecting an old friend ...

My garden.

We've been busy working on our allotment and I am sad to say that my poor little garden has been a bit neglected.

I was out there this evening planting some more seeds (courgette and purple sprouting broccoli) in the greenhouse. I wish we had smell-o-vision on the computer as the aroma was amazing! The air was thick with the scent of lilac. It was so so beautiful.  Mmmmmmm

Here are a few pics 

Lilac and cherry blossom

Apple blossom

More competitions!

Yes, I have recently won two competitions! I never win anything (and will be choosing my third competition carefully, I tell you!)

This was another twitter competition where all I had to do was retweet! And I won! hurrah!

This is a lovely lovely book, full of yummy recipe ideas for little people.  So far, Baby Plum has enjoyed roast vegetable fingers, guacamole and will demolish a whole bowl (baby sized, of course!) of delicious hummus.

We are looking forward to trying out other recipes as Baby Plum gets older!

You can buy Jennie Maizels "Finger Food For Babies and Toddlers" here and can also follow Jennie on Twitter

Baby Led Weaning: Our adventures so far!

April already! Hellooooo!

Well, Baby Plum is now 33 weeks and we have been enjoying weaning for the last seven, or so, weeks.

I hadn't really given weaning much thought but as she hurtled towards being 17 weeks old and my other Mummy Friends began to give their babies purees and baby rice - I started to look into it!

I don't know where I came across the term "Baby Led Weaning" first. Probably a blog. But it made sense to me.

The basic premise is to hold off weaning until your baby is 6 months old (and their digestive system is more developed) and offer them food. No, not purees and mash. Your food, the food off your plate. Some broccoli? Mmm. Roast vegetable fingers? Yes please! Some fajita veg in Chiquitos - YEAH!!

I didn't know when to start. But Baby Plum knew when she was ready for food. It was the day she grabbed a banana out of my hand and shoved it in her mouth!

I love banana!

Not the best self portrait - but here we are enjoying fajita veg salad!

I'll have a full English, Mummy!

I love Mexican tortillas! Can I have some more guacamole please - it makes a lovely face pack!!

I do spoon feed Baby Plum her breakfast as I can't cope with porridge being spread around my kitchen each morning!

The thing with BLW is that food should be fun - Baby Plum will play with most of her food rather that eat it all up. She does eat some of it (her nappies are proof of that!) but her main source of nutrients continues to be her milk feeds. She sits at the table with me and Mr Plum each evening and has some of whatever we are eating. She has tried so much food! It is great fun.

Spring is here!

Well, Spring is here, so it is time to get out into the greenhouse and plant some seeds!

The Plums spent the weekend down on the allotment - you can read more about that on Allotment Plot 7A

But what is the point of a weekend of digging and soil prep if you haven't got any plants to plant in it?!

Above is my afternoon's work. We have:

Tomatoes

Peperone, Money Maker, 100 & 1000s, San Marzano, Roma & Ailsa Craig (I do like to try a variety of tomatoes!)

Aubergine

Red Marconi Pepper

Looking forward to waiting for the seedlings to appear!

Spring Flowers

Baby Plum has been poorly for the last week with a nasty bug. She has perked up over the weekend and has spent the afternoon sleeping in her pram in the garden. She is now awake and demanding my attention, so I had best be off!!

Babywearing: A Review of My Wonderful Snugbaby Sling

Those eagle-eyed readers among you may have noticed this logo appear on my blog a month or so ago ...

Well, I entered the competition and I won!! Yes, I WON A SLING!!!!

Here we are in front facing mode ... Baby Plum is mid raspberry blow ... she really likes to blow raspberries!

I bought myself a bog standard Mothercare sling when pregnant. I knew that I would want to carry Baby Plum this way sometimes, but didn't research the whole sling thing as much as I should have. In fact, although a very good friend of mine is a self confessed "breastfeeding, baby wearing, cloth nappying mama" it didn't even occur to me to ask her advice on which sling to get .... anyway, a few facebook whinges about my sling later, and my friend suggested I look at all the different slings in the market, and maybe visit a local sling meet to try them out.

I did look at the different slings, but was put off by the fact that the baby is only held in by a couple of knots ... and the price, having already forked out for one sling, I couldn't really justify the £60 odd quid being charged for other slings.

Well, that was a mistake as it would have been £60 odd quid well spent! I have worn my new sling quite a bit since collecting it from the Post Office depot last week. I have tried baby Plum in the front facing and inward facing positions (but not on my back yet!) and it is so comfy for me and the babe. In fact, it does not feel like I am carrying 16lbs of baby on my front!

The material is lovely and I was able to choose my design (I went for this lovely Blossom design), the sling is reversible if Mr Plum fancies wearing it, but doesn't want the blossom design!

I would definitely recommend this kind of sling to anyone who is looking to try out a spot of babywearing!

Baby Plum is a bit poorly at the moment, otherwise I would have tried her out in the hip wearing position and be in the greenhouse!

Allotment Plot 7A

The Plums are very proud to announce that they have finally reached the top of the local allotment waiting list and have a plot of their very own!

Yes, we have an allotment!!

I know that I vowed NEVER to grow tomatoes again ... but I think that I just don't have the space or the sunshine in my little garden and am hoping that I will have more success over at the plot.

Follow our adventures over at our new blog where both Mr Plum and myself will be writing about our digging and building (Mr Plum) and delicately planting seeds (me!)

Spread the word, allotment themed giveaway once we have 50 followers!

I'm back and I'm making stuff!

Helloooooo-ooooo!

Hope everyone is fine and dandy!

I'm back!

I've been very busy lately - but have been keeping up with all of your lovely blogs, and even finding a moment to leave a comment or two! But, I have decided that it has been too long since I last posted a blog ... so here I am!

Here is a little birdy toy I have made for Baby Plum ... I am planning on making some more with different fillings (sand, rice, beans, bells...). She liked it and put it straight into her mouth! I used a cute little pattern from CK's "sew" book.

Where does the time go?

Apologies for the radio silence on here! I really don't know where the time goes ... well, I do have a pretty good idea ... she is now 6 months old and an absolute darling!

I have so many blog posts drafted in my head! I'm off up North for the whole of next week to stay with my inlaws - but once I am back home normalish blogging service will be resumed!

Coming soon to a computer screen near you ...

My adventures with Baby Led Weaning

The Plums Walk the North Downs Way

The Monthly Make Challenge

52 Makes Madness Challenge

More Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

I won a Competition!

Possibly a review or two ...

See you soon!

Jamie's 30 Minute Meals

At 5.30pm, me and Baby Plum settle down in front of the TV to watch Jamie's 30 Minute Meals!

My parents bought me the cookbook which accompanies the series for Christmas and I finally got around to trying out one of the meals.

There are a lot of non-believers out there! But as Jamie explains in his book and on the TV - you need to get your into your 30 minute mind set!

Do you have all your ingredients ready?

Have you got your food processor with the coarse chopper ready? Kettle boiled? Knives and chopping board?

Pans ready?

30 minutes (and 4 seconds!) later ... Spagetti Alla Puttanesca (with quorn instead of fish), crunchy salad, garlic bread and silky chocolate ganache. Delicious!

(Apologies for the photo - I really should have unwrapped the garlic bread a bit better before taking the pic!)

Giveaway Winner!

Congratulations to Lissylou ... you are a WINNER!!

Lavender Cupcakes

Again, not the best pic - but here are two of the lavender cupcakes I made for the girls at my Baby Massage class this week!

I was a bit dubious at first, but have to admit that they did taste rather lovely!

January Monthly Make: Pixie Hat

Here is another pixie hat I have made for a friend's new baby ... apologies for the quality of the photo but I am having issues with iphoto (and along with feeling a bit snotty, having just eaten a disgusting meal cooked by my own fair hand (I forgot about the pasta while trying to calm a fractious baby!) I have lost all patience with it!!)

This hat is my January entry into the Felt Fairy's Monthly Make Challenge!