Foodie Friday: Afternoon Tea with a twist

 

So England is famed for its traditional afternoon teas.
Normally a nice one in a posh hotel was just for tourists or special occasions.
But thanks to groupon and other voucher websites us mere mortals can now enjoy the indulgence for a much more reasonable price.
Pre-baby my sister got us a voucher for a chocolate themed afternoon tea at The Hilton.
The little sandwiches were delicate and mouth watering.
The little cakes and treats were really fun and shaped like butterflies, lollipops and candy floss.
We just about finished it all - or at least had a taste of each of the delights.
My favourite sweet treat were the chocolate chip scones with chocolate spread.
Although just the plain scone with clotted cream and jam was pretty delicious. Sometimes the simplest things are the best...
We washed it all down with some extra special peppermint tea.
Now as I am bleary eyed from night feeds and alone time or indulgent treats are seeming like a distant memory I am glad to have this layout to remember that special day out by.

Layout created mainly using: Crate Paper's Birthday Cake range

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Have you ever had an indulgent afternoon tea?

What is your favourite part of an afternoon tea?

Foodie Friday: Yo Sushi

So now I am on maternity leave I am planning to sort my blog out (with all my spare time - ha!) A year ago I started a food blog called Yummy in Yorkshire where I reviewed local restaurants. However I never really dedicated the time to it, one blog is difficult enough to manage let alone two blogs, so have decided to do a new feature on this blog called Foody Friday using some of the content from this blog and new reviews too.
As a couple, and now a family, we don't drink or smoke and so eating out has always been our main form of 'entertainment.' We often go for lunch on a Saturday and so I thought that I would share some places we enjoy eating at. Sometimes I will share recipes as well.

I had always avoided Yo Sushi as I don't eat meat or fish and so I thought there was nothing there for me.

However my OH convinced me to try the one in Sheffield and I found that there were lots of dishes I could enjoy.

My favourites are:

• unlimited miso soup
• avocado maki
• cucumber maki
• Inari mini iso
• Inari pocket
• Pumpkin korroke with plum sauce (hot dish - my very favourite)
• Vegetable gyoza
• Mochi for dessert - it is an acquired taste but a real taste of Japan
• Chocolate mochi - this is so delicious  

It is a fun dining experience as the colourful dishes whizz around the conveyor belt and you grab what you fancy. On Monday's they do Blue Monday's where all of the dishes are a certain price and so this is a great time to go and try a few out and then decide upon your favs for full price days.

I have eaten at the Finchley Road branch in London, Sheffield and the Harvey Nichols one in Leeds and now Leeds Trinity. My favourite and the best for service is the Harvey Nichols branch. The service throughout can be variable and sometimes in some branches the belt isn't well stocked and that detracts from the experience.  

I have seen young kids eating here (mainly picking out the dessert dishes) and I think it is a good way to introduce them to sushi and to Japanese food.

What are your opinions on sushi and Japanese food?

Sunday Scrapping

I loved this shot of all my family (bar my forever travelling little sis and bro-in-law) enjoying a Sunday roast at our house on the May bank holiday. I wanted the photo to be the focus and to build lots of layers around it. I mainly used Amy Tan and American Crafts supplies so that it all coordinated.
Plus I used some of my new black and neon pink star washi - I'm a little bit in love with it. Expect to see if on future layouts - lots!
To embellish the left hand side I layered up punches and used the negative of my heart punch to build layers and interest. This was inspired by Shimelle's challenge here.

Secondly I made this layout, with a picture of my sister and I by the canal, from that same bank holiday weekend. I used a challenge of Shimelle's from UK scrappers and then didn't upload it and edit it in time to enter the challenge so was so pleased that as part of her scrapping challenge weekend she said to chose an old sketch challenge to enter - perfect!
I love, love, love these glitter thickers that my sister picked up for me in the US and am already running low on vowels and all the usual fav letters like 's' and 'l'. I embellished by fussy cutting these floral circles from an Amy Tan 12 by 12 sheet of cardstock. Excuse the poor image - click on it for a closer look.

Do you all find that you scrap / craft less in the summer as you are too busy making the memories rather than scrapping them?

Sticking with stickers...

So you may remember that I had a great day out at Saltaire Arts Festival and wrote about it here.

Well now I have scrapped some of the pics using Shimelle's prompt to use lots of stickers.

Lots of Amy Tangerine, letter stickers and American Crafts stickers used here and even some really old ones.

Storytelling Sunday: Precious little bundle

In case your not a regular reader and missed out on the birth announcement - check out this post here.
He was 15 days overdue and it was seriously beginning to feel like he was never coming.
We'd waited to find out what we were having, but the doctor said she would put her mortgage on the fact it was a boy.
Perhaps because boys are lazy? Or maybe statistically they are more likely to be born overdue?
So my precious - other than our little bundle of joy and all of the gorgeous pictures of him - are the little things which I plan to keep in a box for him.
So far we have...

1) The card from his cot in the hospital. I love that it is blue and that it has some of the key facts from his birth day on it.

 

2) The little tag that was round his ankle to show that he is all mine! Doesn't he have long toes?

3) A Belgian tradition - the mother-in-law made these cute little boxes for us to give to guests when they come to visit the baby. They are filled with chocolate covered almonds. I am definitely keeping one for the baby's keepsake box.

 4) And lastly his first little hat, which says, "Hello World!"

I am sure that he will enjoy looking at these bits and pieces as he grows older and we can tell him all of the stories attached to the objects and about all the lovely midwives and how in love everyone was with him at the hospital!

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Linking up with the lovely Sian over at From High in the Sky