Friday Finds: Things I am Loving...

So here are some of the things I have been enjoying reading/watching/pinning lately...

1) This article on ten things that moms of boys must do. Some of them are already apparent (such as loving bath time, making messes and so, so, so much laundry) and some I still have to look forward to (such as 'the grab')! Check it out here. My sister shared it with me on Facebook - perhaps gloating that she has a girl.

 2) In line with my previous post I loved this blog post all about appreciating the little things and seeing the world through a baby's eyes.

3) I have been a bit obsessed with pineapples lately and so when I saw these bad boys on pinterest (thanks Kayleigh!) I was drooling. Plus they are healthy (or maybe healthier) and in the run up to summer that can only be a good thing.

4) We had a date night at the movies last night and this advert came up in the previews and we gave each other the knowing look that only parents of a baby could.

5) And lastly ladies aren't we glad that things have progressed slightly since this.

 Happy bank holiday fellow Brits &

 

                        enjoy your weekend the rest of you!

The Happiness Project...

So today is BLUE MONDAY the day of the year we are supposed to feel the most depressed due to the weather, credit card bills from Christmas darkening our doorsteps, still a week till payday and we feel like failures since we have already quit all of our resolutions and are pigging out on the bar of cooking chocolate from the baking cupboard (oh is that just me?) 

However, I have always been a glass half full kinda girl. (Plus we're both quite careful with money and avoid store cards and credit cards. Enter smug smiley!)  

So I thought that I would blog FIVE simple things that bring light into my life. Feel free to join in. It always makes you feel better to focus on the positives in life and what you have been blessed with rather than what you don't have.

1) How happy something as simple as sitting in a high chair for the first time made my little boy

2) My little sister (she hates it when I call her that) is due on the 4th Feb so The Baby will have a little cousin to play with. This was the spread we put on for her baby shower. We love to put on a good spread.

3) Walks in the crisp January frost with the little one in the sling.

4) Dancing round the kitchen making tea with the radio on in the background. Songs I currently love singing along to:

• Katie Perry Roar
• Pharrell Williams Happy
•  Pitbull (featuring Ke$ha) Timber

5) Blowing raspberries on my baby's tummy just to hear his cute little giggle. When I get my camera upgrade then I will share a video with you.

The Baby's idea of happiness is chewing on his toes - yum!

  So what are some of the simple things in

 life that make you happy?

Foody Friday: Five Christmas Cookie Recipes

As the big day approaches I thought I would share some of my favourite cookie recipes to bake up for your families this festive season.

 Recipe here

 Recipe here

 White macadamia nut cookies - recipe here

 Four ingredient peanut butter cookies - recipe here

Salted chocolate peanut butter cookies - recipe here

What are your favourite type of cookies? 

Please share any good recipes you have...

Life in the fast lane...

So its been very busy round here and so I thought that I'd do a roundup post to share what we've been up to, things we're loving and things to come on this blog...

1) My family came to visit for the weekend as our baby was getting blessed. We were lucky that their visit coincided with Kirstall Abbey Deli Market and that the sun was shining - more information on it here. Yummy Yank peanut butter brownies and onion bajis were my snacks of choice whilst the rest of the crew got buffalo burgers.
Here we are posing with my little sister who is 20 weeks pregnant now and barely showing - but she is convinced she has a huge bump just as I did at 12 weeks!

Mom was delighted by the allotment stall and got giant onions and marrows for like 25p. Speaking of which what does one do with a giant marrow as she left two with us!

2)  My sister came up trumps with this amazing and very tasty chocolate fudge cake. It was the centre piece of the buffet table at the blessing and got gobbled up very quickly.

3) Some more snapshots of the buffet table. I made the sugar cookies and the oreo rocky road and plan to share the recipes this Foodie Friday on my blog. The lemon and blueberry cupcakes are a family fav and I made them for my friend's wedding - the recipe can be found here on Annie Eats. The funny thing was that I asked my sister (of Cupcake Crazy Gem 'fame') to make the cupcakes and she had pinned this recipe ages ago and didn't realise that I had made them before - sisters think alike I guess!

 4) A rare family shot in our garden after the blessing. Its almost the whole family - one of my sisters is allergic to photos! Gotta love pictures like these and definitely one to be scrapped.

5) I am loving this scrapping tutorial by Elizabeth Kartchner. I love the mini album and want to make one with some of my instagram shots of the baby using song lyrics for journalling and titles. I also love the cute little photo printers she mentions at the end - the selphy and the Zinc no ink. What photo printers do you all have? I want to invest in one so I can scrap the here and now rather than always waiting to do a big order with snapfish or photoboxx.

This is a cute sunny mini book and her most recent video can be found here.

6) This video is doing the rounds on social media and Stephen Merchant is just the funniest ever! 

7) October sees a mini series on my blog - proof that I do still scrapbook! Every Monday I will be sharing a different idea for using journalling cards on an 8.5 by 11 layout. Finally some baby scrapping to show you - a sneak peak below. 

So don't forget marrow recipes, tips about good photo printers or just share what you're loving right now in the comments below.