Re-motivation.

Today I have:

• Been to weight watchers to be told that I have gained half a pound this week.  The blimming silver 7 is eluding me!!  Since Christmas between my exercise classes and weight watchers I have lost 6lb and I can definitely feel it.  However my motivation has started to waver somewhat.  I think I was expecting some instant hit and slowly the naughty treats have started to creep back in.  This is not being helped by the endless amounts of baking I have been completing with Mimi lately!!!  My problem is that I track what I eat for a couple of days but I find it so difficult to keep within my allocated pro-point allowance that I become demoralised after a few days.  Also I really struggle with snacking.  This week I am feeling a bit more motivated and I brought a new recipe book.  I think it is new out this week as I couldn't find a link for it.  Its got some really good looking recipes in it like, butternut squash rolls and Sri Lankan pineapple curry which I am going to try this week.

• Spent some time in the garden with Mimi.  With the weather being so beautiful and the first signs of spring and the daffodils coming up I decided we would start potting up some seeds ready for our vegetable patch.  Today we planted two types of beetroot and some tomatoes.  I expect we will have hundreds of plants which I will be desperate to give away in a few weeks!  Every year I get carried away with the tomatoes - forgetting what a pain they are to look after and they always end up falling over.  This year I am planning on being more organised, I am going to order some bamboo.

1: Boltardy; 2: Alto F1 Hybird; 3: Pomodoro Ciliegia; 4: Pomodoro San Marzano

• Listened to Mimi witter on endlessly about her ever growing Birthday wish list which now includes:

1: Toyota Aygo; 2: Teacup Piggies; 3: Fifi the Flower Tots

• Shouted at some bl***y woman who's dog was in our garden.  I was so incensed by this woman I stormed outside.  To set the scene:  Our house and garden open out directly onto a field, this field has a set of regular dog walkers who walk the perimeter on a regular basis.  We have since moving in put up a fence to prevent the dogs getting in (one once punctured Mimi's paddling pool) and Mimi getting out.  Today a woman and her son were walking their dog when it managed to slip under the fence and was eating the bird food which had fallen off the table.  The poor dog got stuck in the garden and couldn't work out how to get back out.  It was not so much the dog that p***** me off but the dog owner who walked off and left her dog in our garden.  I went outside and shouted down the road after her asking her to come and collect her dog rather than just walking off.  Her response was to shout back telling me that there was no point running towards her dog as it would make the situation worse.  I explained that I have a child and that the dog was in MY garden to which she replied she couldn't do very much about it.  I told her that she was on private land and that in future perhaps she should find somewhere else to walk her dog.  Bloody woman - No mention of an apology.

• I have finally got round to uploading my new banner (Number 37 of 101 to re-design my blog).  I am really pleased with the new look.  I am considering moving over to Wordpress (Number 13 of 101) where there is more freedom in terms of the design element.  I have got it up and running you can check it out here.  However it is taking some time getting my head around the technical element of wordpress.  I have got some HTML knowledge however it is still proving a bit tricky. 

A busy day.

I am starting to think that perhaps I have an actress on my hands.  I was eating my breakfast when she appeared looking like this!  She made me laugh lots.  What you can't see is the magic wand which keeps turning me into a FROG!

I haven't been feeling too well today.  I think I might have a cold coming, but it didn't stop me from going spinning with K first thing this morning.  It was fairly tough going and I did feel better having done some exercise.  I managed to get a couple of jobs in before picking Mimi up from play-school.  She is so funny about play-school, she was fine on Monday although they said she cried a little bit after I had left, today Mike took her as spinning started at 9.30am and apparently she was hysterical.  Pick her up and she can't stop talking about what a lovely time she had.  Today they had done painting/printing with Lemons.

I attempted to put her down for a sleep but she was having none of it so instead we set about planning our vegetable patch for the summer and I made a body scrub, something I have been meaning to make for ages.  

Previously I have used the Aveda Body Scrub and the Soap and Glory Scrub.  Both of these are excellent however having left work I am on a bit of an economy drive and decided that it was time to try and make my own.  Also it is Number 77 on my 101 in 1001 list.  I got the idea from Pininterest.  

My home-made sugar body scrub.

It was really easy to make.

225g sugar I used light brown sugar

200ml of oil (having gone into the local health food shop they suggested that for dry skin I could try sesame oil)

The grated zest of a lemon.

I mixed it all together and popped it into a jam jar.  I haven't tried it yet, I will let you know what its like in the morning.

Finally we topped the day off by taking Mimi to the Fish & Chip shop for tea.

I think that my first week at home has gone well.  I have loved every second of it.  Now I look back I am not too sure why I didn't do this sooner.  Only downside is that I need to work on my budgeting skills.

A week of dusting to come?!?

Jobs for today:

• A little bit of washing
• Recover from a slight over indulgence last night
• Attempt to tidy the house
• Pitch the tent for Mimi to play in.

Additional jobs which crept in

• I made some fab focaccia bread for Mimi's tea which using Annabel Karmel's idea I then turned into mini pizzas.

Just before it went in the oven.

The finished bread fresh from the oven.

• Started to dig over the vegetable patch and weeding of the garden - the bindweed was strangling all of the roses.

Whilst we were sitting at the table for Mimi's tea the farmer has just turned up with his combine harvester and has started to harvest the wheat in the field in front the house.  To put this into some perspective the field is about 3ft from our kitchen window.  I don't mind as we have fab views out over the field and the sea but just check out the dust cloud it is creating!

View from the Kitchen Window

Yesterday I took Mimi shopping because I had promised her that if she managed to get 10 smiley faces through out the week then she could have a Thomas the Tank Engine.  I have learnt a valuable piece of parenting knowledge - Never promise something like this until you have checked the prices.  I nearly had a fit the first Thomas we found was about £40.  Luckily for me as Mike would have killed me Mimi found some Rabbit ears (in the sale so even better!) which she pranced round the shop in and a little set of George Pig & Danny Dog figures.  These were considerably cheaper than Thomas although I did find a slightly cheaper version for £10 which I will have to remember for future.

Reduce, Reuse, Recycle

Jobs for today

• Pop into work to sort a few bits out
• Tidy the house and put things away
• Continue/finish chair project (when Mimi has her afternoon nap)

We have our first tomatoes of the season!!!

About a week ago I decided that I was going to renovate an old chair that we found in the loft when we were clearing out a few months back.

It was in a bit of a state with a cork pad which had been stuck to the seat and paint that had seen better days.
  

BEFORE

I carefully removed the cork seat sanded it down, gave it a couple of coats of undercoat paint and found some paint in Harbour Blue in the garage (which we brought ages ago to paint the bathroom in France).

I then made a cushion cover using some old jeans we were going to use for rags and some recycled cushion covers (found in the garage) which I dyed china blue.

AFTER

The final bit (which I will complete tomorrow morning when Mimi & Daddy go to the Zoo) will be a coat of clear varnish.

The remainder of the day was spent occupying Mimi.  We went Blackberry picking again and then after Tea and bath we went to the beach to watch Daddy go sailing.

    

Manic Monday

Jobs for today:

• Yet MORE washing!
• Food shopping - carrying on from Thrifty Saturday this involved a variety of stops.
• Cook beetroot and rhubarb (which I brought on Saturday)
• Visit Granny & Grampy
• Continue with the potty training

Jobs which crept in but were not on the original list

• De-heading the roses in the garden
• Digging up the potatoes and putting them carefully in a cardboard box in the garage
• Tidying the house and cleaning the bathroom.

Roses from the garden

Mike dug up a potato in the shape of a heart .

Its been a bit of a manic Monday.  Having started my blog a few weeks ago I am finding it a particularly inspiring part of my life.  I love all of the other blogs I have found, but all this inspiration means that I have lots of creative ideas for both Mimi and I and not enough time in the day to complete everything.

Having got up early by the time I had sorted out all of the washing, got Mimi dressed several times and run to the toilet too many times to count we finally managed to be heading out of the door at about 9.30am.  We had a variety of shops on my hit list today - TKMAX as I wanted some cushion blanks for my chair renovation and some jars for my chutney.  They didn't have what we wanted so we ended up at Dunelm Mill where we managed to get the cushion blanks some jars and a photo frame for my next project for Mimi's bedroom.  

By this time we were running a bit close to lunch so we stopped for a coffee before heading off to Lidl.

Lidl became a firm favourite when we were in France after stopping with G&A.  One lunch time they had the best ham and I was shocked to discover that it had come from Lidl.  After shopping in a few in France I thought we would give it ago back here.  Some stuff was cheaper although I thought that some things were more expensive.  So after collecting the things we wanted we headed off to the till.  I found it a little disconcerting that the length of the till does not give you much time or space to shovel all your things in to your trolley.  Then after being told the amount I put my card in to the machine only to be told in a very disdainful voice with a look as if to say are you totally stupid we don't take credit cards.  Trauma over we got back to the car where I sorted my bags out, then off to the farm shop for vegetables and then home.

I since feel as though I have spent the afternoon glued to the kitchen trying to cook Mimi's tea which has disguised vegetables, and all of the other little tasks I have set myself such as making chutney 2 different types plum and red onion I found the recipe on the internet although I halved the quantities. (I didn't get round to both), cooking and pickling my beetroot (I discovered today that you can use beetroot juice to dye rice pink!), making leek & potato soup for tomorrow, sorting out the rhubarb for rhubarb crumble and the endless trips to the toilet and the little voice shouting OOOOOhhhhhh No I have done WEE WEE Ohhhhhh NO! 

Cooking the beetroot 

OOOO it dyed everything including my hands.

I forgot to add that we also managed to squeeze a quick trip over to Granny & Grampys and Mike finally managed to book himself an appointment at the doctors about his hearing.  I have been on his case for ages and I am sure that it is getting worse but according to the doctor there is nothing wrong with his hearing.  I have concluded that he must just tune out to my voice!

Garden is doing well, we have our first ever crop of Blackcurrants, our first Tomato of the season and a Butternut Squash.  I am very proud of my squash as I attempted to grow them last year but something ate it from the roots up and so it never materialised.

What's for tea?

Wow check out my potatoes.

Yum Yum!

All of these came from just one plant.
I can't tell you the which potatoe plant these came from as I had some help from Mimi when I was planting them and they all got muddled up!!