Good Intentions!

I've been full of these lately, plans to get the house show home clean, keep on top of the ironing, start more cooking from scratch, healthier eating, in fact eating at all in the day would be a start! Also it's been my intention to bake more, sew more and blog more. I have quite a good baby who will happily sit in her chair with a toy, and will play alone in her baby gym. I think it's me with the problem, mummy guilt! I feel guilty leaving her to play with no attention from me, so instead I'm trying to cram everything else in while she sleeps, which isn't a lot during the day anymore. I shouldn't complain as this means she's sleeping at night instead. Still, it would be nice to do some of the 'me' things. 

So I guess this is an apology to any readers still out there, and anyone who was hoping to start reading about the baby's adventures, as that's another good intention that never became anything! My hope is to be back to regular blogging soon, with some recipe testing, some campervan adventures, and a new topic - baby product reviews. 

I'm Back!

Or at least I'm going to try and be back. With a new baby, housework, baby groups and a desire to get Sock Creations moving again, as well as a new project, I aim to try and find some time to blog too. 

I didn't realise I hadn't updated at all since my scan at 11 weeks. A lot has happened since then as you can probably imagine. To cut a long story short (to save boring you all and to post before baby wakes up!), I am now mummy to 11 week old Alex, a beautiful baby girl. She's also a clever little girl, who is about to also get her own blog so that her relatives who don't live locally can get to share her adventures and catch up on what she's been up to! For anyone who is wondering what it is that a baby does, you can find the blog here. She's still in bed so hasn't written anything as yet, but she's going to start later by telling you how cool her cloth nappies are. 

Here's a newborn shot of my beautiful girl, although she's not this tiny anymore, nor does she look like this anymore! 

Tasty Pancakes

Today is Shrove Tuesday, or as most now call it, Pancake Day. This morning I made a comment on Twitter about how Shrove Tuesday, among other days with Christian origins, was becoming better known for pancakes other than the religious meaning. I'm not a regular church goer, but I do think it's sad that a lot of people don't actually understand the real meaning of Shrove Tuesday, Easter or Christmas. I wonder how many people realise that tomorrow is Ash Wednesday, and how many know anything about lent? As I said, although I have beliefs, I'm not a regular church goer, and I also don't have the willpower to give something up for lent. I just think it's sad that's all. Anyway, my comment this morning provoked the thoughts of a fellow blogger, and I got my first ever mention in another blog. Mother & Other has written a great piece about the meaning and her feelings about Shrove Tuesday. 


So back to the pancakes, it was my intention to try out several filling ideas tonight, take photos of them all and  share the recipes. Unfortunately I forgot to buy chocolate chips for one of the fillings, and I got a bit carried away with the eating and forgot most of the photos. So I'm afraid you'll just have to make do with the recipes. 


Pancake 1&2 - Savoury


Melt a small knob of butter, add 2 handfuls of spinach and leave to wilt. Stir in 2 dessert spoons of mascarpone & heat through. Spread over one pancake, grate some cheddar cheese on top and cover with another pancake. 



Pancakes 3, 4 & 6 - Honeycomb Butter

In a bowl, bash a 40g Crunchie bar with the end of a rolling pin into chunky crumbs. Add 50g soft butter, 1 tbsp honey and a pinch salt, then tip mixture onto a sheet of cling film and roll into a sausage shape. Twist the ends to tighten, then chill for 30 mins. Top 2 warm sweet pancakes with a slice of Honeycomb butter and an extra drizzle of honey.

Pancake 5 - Strawberries with Haagen Dazs Strawberry Cheesecake icecream. 


Husband had strawberries with clotted cream. 


Now I'm feeling like the size of a house, and will probably need to be rolled to work in the morning! 


I'll leave you with the recipe that was never tried, and I'll be back to upload photos from my phone in the morning. 


Night x 

Recipes taken from BBC GoodFood

2 Months!

I'm finding it hard to believe it's been over 2 months since I last blogged. So much has happened since then. It's probably going to take days to write a complete catch up. 

This week I was invited to join a bloggers' network on Facebook, so as well as catching up today, I'm going to take the time to look at and add each of the great blogs to my reading list. 

See you soon with the first catch up blog.............

Thankful Thursday

Inspired by a fellow blogger, I thought I'd share the things I have to be thankful for this week. 

1) My husband - For being there for me, for listening to me getting upset over silly things, and making me see sense. For cooking my tea 2 nights running, and doing the shopping this week so I can get on with making some Sock Creatures. 


2) My friends - I'm talking about my online friends who have also been supportive this week, and also have been helping me find new fans for my Sock Creations facebook page. 


3) My bosses - For seeing the potential I have to do bigger and better things, and for putting measures in place to allow me the opportunity to move into a more involved job role. This makes me feel very appreciated and valued. No boss has ever made me feel like this before, and this has given me a much needed confidence boost. 

What do you have to be thankful for this Thursday? 

Return to blogging

It's been over a year since I last wrote in a blog, and it was quite a difficult decision to start up again. I don't have enough time to do all the things I want to do as it is, without trying to squeeze in some writing too. I also have no idea what I will be writing about, last time it was all about my wedding planning, but now I've been happily married for almost a year.

So, why exactly have I started writing again, and why a new blog? The reason for writing, I'm not too sure about. I'd quite like to improve my writing skills. It's also quite nice to keep a kind of diary about my thoughts and activities. I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up for, but hopefully a lot longer than the last one. As for the new blog, well I guess that's just an image change, a new me, the married me. The old blog is still there for anyone to read, if they don't mind wasting an hour of their life doing so, but I'm hoping the new blog will be much more interesting. So it's goodbye to the Zipster and hello to Sock Lady.