Friday Treats #3

Pre kids, before making cakes had to fit around naps and feeding times, I would make a cake and at each stage send a picture to the husband for his approval. I can usually count on him to be honest with me and he would tell me if it was good enough, or if something needed to change. I'm too hard on myself and always see the flaws in my cakes.

Being the ever proud husband he would often show his work colleagues the photos and sometime even get their opinions too. One day when I had sent a picture of a finished cake and got a phone call minutes later. One of his colleagues LOVED the cake I had just finished making, and wondered if I'd be able to do one for the following weekend. He was having a Super-bowl party and a American foot ball cake would be the perfect centre piece for him.

It was a very simple cake to make, but I had to colour the fondant myself to get the perfect reddy brown colour. It's always tricky getting the balance of not too dry and not too sticky as you add the colour gel and kneed in more icing sugar. I think it just about turned out OK! 

Next week I'm showing off a weeding cake and spilling some secrets! As ever you can follow me on Facebook or Twitter.

15 Things I love

When Becky at The Ar-blog opened up her 15 things I love as a link up, I really wanted to join in. I sat down and tried to make a list of all the things I love and quickly discovered coming up with 15 things I love, is harder than it sounds!

The obvious ones were there but after I got those out of the way, I stalled. What do I really love about life? After days of thought I finally came up with my list.

I love my husband,

I love all he does for me and our family,

I love that he has a job he loves, even if it means long hours and he's away for weeks at a time,

I love that he's so supportive of all I do,

I love my girls and the purpose they give me,

I love seeing the smiles on their faces when they're happy,

I love that kisses can make anything better,

I love cuddles with my girls,

I love decorating cakes,

I love Blogging and the opportunities it gives me,

I love Cbeebies and it's babysitting powers when I'm having a bad day,

I love the good days and the fact they're getting more frequent,

I love living so close to a beach,

I love being able to pop over to my mums without worrying about the drive home,

I love When the husband comes home on a Wednesday instead of  Friday.

I'd planned to take a few photos of some of the things I loved to show you, but I've been so exhausted this week I put it to the bottom of the pile and haven't been able to do it, maybe one day I will re-do this with lots of beautiful photo's. That's another thing to add to the 'one day pile'!

I'm linking up with Becky at The Ar-blog, go and take a look at the 15 things she loves and the amazing photography she has on offer.

Health Visitors

I'm not keen on health visitors.

In our last area I had one come and visit me till the monkey was 10 months old. She was convinced I was very depressed and struggling with life. She may have been right about the depressed part, but who wouldn't be after what I had just gone through. (For those of you new to the blog, let me give you a quick run down. Difficult pregnancy, traumatic labour, HUGE baby (10lb 9), having a toddler and a newborn, a CFS diagnosis, a baby who was in constant pain and screamed down the house, a seizure resulting in me not being slowed to drive, being 'trapped' in the house (due to living in the middle of nowhere) all topped of with selling our house and moving 80 miles south.) I challenge anyone to name 1 person who would be unaffected by all that happening at the same time.

I guess if I hadn't have been struggling with my mental health I may have seen the positives to her coming round (her and the Homestart volunteer but that's another blog post!) I may, had I have been in a better place, have even looked forward to another adult to talk to during the week. But I just felt judged and criticised. I wasn't doing enough, the girls weren't being looked after well enough and I wasn't a good enough person or mother. 

Despite knowing all of that was the depression talking, I'm still sat here worrying. I can feel the anxiety building in me as I clock watch, counting down the hours and minutes.

I was hoping to stay away from the health visiting team in this area, just fly under the radar unless I needed them. Unfortunately I didn't count on them phoning me when they received the girls notes. She wanted to do a home visit. All those anxieties from before came flooding back.

So here I am clock watching, waiting for 11.20 when our new health visitor will be visiting. My home is a mess, my children aren't dressed and rather than do something about it I am sat here Blogging.

I really should go and at least get the girls dressed!

So much I should be doing.

I should be making dinner, or tidying up, or working on May's Pinterest Project, or putting another load of washing in the machine, or unloading the dishwasher, or... The list really could go on and on and on!

Instead I'm sat here on my net-book working on something that is probably going to make the CFS worse in the long run, something that I have absolutely no time for considering the degree I'm starting in October, the list given above of what I should be doing and my 2 children currently veg'd out in front of Cbeebies. But, and its a BIG but, its something I am really, REALLY excited about, and can't wait to launch. I almost feel like a kid at Christmas and just cant wait! After a floundering few years I finally feel I'm starting to work out who I am again, and what makes me happy.

I'm not actually going to tell you what I'm doing, its not ready yet, I will say that between Facebook  Blogger, Paint.net and Wix I'm just about ready to throw this computer out the window! Why do these things have to be so difficult and complicated!

Now I think I've procrastinated long enough, or that seems to be what the 2 crying children around my ankles seem to be telling me. Time to go and make their dinner, in a minute!

Gluten Free

Many many many months ago, before the monkey was born, we found the husband had some sort of sensitivity to gluten. He found that after eating he was in a lot of pain, he felt bloated and was putting on weight despite exercise and eating a decent diet.

With much trepidation we entered the difficult world of gluten free. Ever thankful to friends for pointing out recipe's, blogs and giving me ideas, I managed to make our evening meal gluten free and I always kept gluten free snacks in the cupboard for the husband. During that time we've had periods where we stick religiously to the husbands gluten free diet and periods where its been more of an ideal than reality! There have been times where I have gone completely gluten free to support him and time where I really haven't.

I've started to notice when I stick to a gluten free diet my fatigue isn't quite so bad, I'm not quite so tired, I don't feel quite so bloated and uncomfortable myself and I eat much better.

So that's it! Last Sunday I went through all our kitchen cupboards and removed everything that said 'may contain gluten' I put any snacks for the girls back in to a snack cupboard and used up, got rid or gave away everything else. The start of next week marks the start of a stricter gluten free diet for me and the husband.

Having been doing gluten free for the husband for over a year now, it actually doesn't seem that scary any more, but if anyone has any recipes they'd like to share, I'm all ears!

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Friday Treats #2

Iggle Piggle

Welcome, to the second post of my new Friday Treats feature. As promised last week, today I am bringing you Iggle Piggle in cake.

This client was actually a colleague of the husbands who overheard him on the phone to me stressing about another cake I was trying to get done.

Evie, her 2 year old was having an In the Night Garden party and she wanted to surprise her with an Iggle Piggle cake. Despite the mathematical challenges of fitting a 10" high figure in to a 8" square tin (it would have been too expensive to make 2 cakes and a lot of waste) this is one of the easiest and most enjoyable cakes I have made. It was just a plain Madeira cake with a vanilla butter cream covered in blue fondant icing.

It was only after I finished I realised I had forgotten his red blanket, but there was no room to fit it on, and lucky Iggle Piggle is always loosing his blanket so it didn't look too odd! Evie really loved the cake, and I was told after that when it was time to cut the cake she cried and cried as she didn't want her mum to kill Iggle Piggle. I think that's a sign I did quite well, don't you think?

Come back next week to see a cake I did for another of the husbands colleague  If you cant wait, follow me on Facebook or Twitter to hear my further ramblings about family life.

Family photographs

When my brother came home, 2 weeks ago (wow, time flies!), my mum wanted to get 2 photo's, one of all her children together and another of all the family together.

We all know how to take a photo, you point and click. Easy...Right? Apparently not if you have 6 adults and 2 children! My mum ended up taking 129 photos and we still didn't get a decent one of us all looking at the camera!

Here are some of the best!

This is my favourite of the sibling pictures, I'm not sure why as Bobbi isn't looking and George looks like he's about to strangle Little Bro!

Then the parents joined us!

We finally came up with this, and still not every one is looking at the camera!

From left to right, Little Bro, Me, Eddie, George, Bobbi, Mum, Dad and Little Sis

We had lots of laughs taking the 129 photo's. But I think in the future, without a doubt, professional help is needed!

What do you think?

Feel free to leave comments below I love reading them, even if I do forget to respond sometimes [blush] sorry! Or give me a shout on Facebook or Twitter, where I always respond!