My baby is one month...

Struggles:

• Nothing can prepare you for that lack of sleep, even though we have been sharing the feeds, plus since my husband also teaches he has been around for the whole six weeks holiday. Pampered much?
• Recovering from the c-section and having to have the c-section in the first place. It was an emergency...
• Not being able to nurse him, as I had intended, due to struggles. I was really disappointed and have felt much judgement and condemnation from people (mainly women of course) due to this. Plus I have felt the need to justify why I am bottle feeding him every time someone asks. And why would you ask. Especially men.
• When he won't go to sleep after a night feed. No matter how much you rock him. Sing to him. Stroke his little face. Sure he sleeps in my arms. Then you put him in his moses basket and his eyes shoot open. "Hi mum, ready to play?"
• Those "it's your turn" squabbles at stupid-o-clock in the morning. All forgotten in daylight. Just about...

Highlights:

• The time in the hospital and all the lovely midwives - it felt like leaving family with some of them.
• The wonderful support of the Belgian during my ordeal in hospital - I am contemplating writing my birth story in a post as I have been a bit obsessed with reading people's birth stories at the moment. Funny considering I refused to watch One Born Every Minute before. Would you want to read it or is that TMI?
• In the last week or so he has started smiling and its gorgeous. Makes my heart melt.
• Our friends and families reaction to him - everyone is smitten and fb and IG are buzzing with positivity for him. Like, like, like...
• When he clutches my finger when I am feeding him. Cute.
• Taking him out in his pram every day for an outing. Very proud parents.
• Snuggling with him. He's so snuggly when he sleeps.
• Bathing with him - he is going to be a real water baby. We plan to take him to 'water baby' lessons.
• The little noises he makes when feeding and sleeping. Mew, mew... Hold on - he's not a cat!
• His soft skin and baby smell. They should bottle it and sell it. In fact my husband said he missed him so much when he got home from the hospital and could smell him on his shirt. Cute.

What do I have to look forward to in the second month? 

Storytelling Sunday: Confused(baby).com

Grandson delivered
Change of clothes not provided

Granddaughter picked up

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Linking up with Sian at High in the Sky.

Meeting her request for a succinct story by writing in the style of a Japanese haiku poem.

Scrapbooking layout to follow if nap time, nappy changes and feeding schedule allows!

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

Our little bundle of joy...

Proud to announce the arrival of Ellis Julien Arne
Born July 25th (our 4 year wedding anniversary!)
At 4:42 a.m by emergency c-section.

These past five days have been intense, really emotional and everyone who meets our baby is totally in love.
Everyone warned us about the huge surge of love you have for this little person and for each other but *wow* it is indescribable. I want to eat him up, drink in every moment and...oh yes, some sleep would be nice!
I am recovering well from the insane birth and he was worth every moment and every struggle.
At the risk of gushing too much I will leave you with the pictures.

 

Waiting for the world to change...

I thought that this layout would be apt for my current situation.
Almost 41 weeks pregnant and sweating it out in this crazy heat wave.
Hello England! Where has this heat wave come from? It normally rains at this time of year.
I have an appointment on Monday, but hope things happen naturally before then.

This picture was taken on our three year anniversary break to the Lake District last summer.
I was sat waiting for the miniature railway train to arrive.
The journalling is about how in 2012 we learned the art of patience as we struggled to get and stay pregnant. The story about this is here.

I made the chevron mask using cardboard packaging from other supplies and thensprayed with bronze mist. It only lasted one spray as the cardboard went soggy and the lines weren't as crisp.

 

It was embellished with cute heart washi tape and an Amy Tan Stamp. Plus I created a tag for the journalling and added some cute flair to give the layout some more dimension.

And the wait continues...

We are team yellow!

This layout is an ode to how we decided not to find out the sex of our baby.
I discovered that its referred to as 'team yellow' and so decided that it was a great title for the layout.
I used lots of Amy Tangerine and some paints to shade in the heart photo mat.
Here are some detail shots:

I've been doing plenty of internet browsing (as its ridiculously hot outside - much too hot for a heavily pregnant and overdue lady!) and have been getting very excited about some of the new ranges that are out over summer at CHA.
The story time range from Studio Calico will be perfect for our new baby album.
I love the pink 6 by 6 paper pads in 'team pink' and 'team blue.'

 

These journalling cards are too adorable and perfect for the smaller layouts I plan to make.

 

Those onesie wood veneers are too adorable, right?

 

I love these stickers too and these would be perfect for complimenting layouts.

 

So fellow bloggers place your bets now - team blue or team pink? It could be on its way this weekend!

Baby bump layouts on 'due' day...

I felt it was apt to share some baby bump layouts on my official due date.
The room with the best light in the house is now the nursery and has ugly blinds - which do not make a great backdrop for a photo shoot.
So excuse the dodgy pics.
I have tried to edit them as best they can.

In other news have just had a curry for my dinner.
No sign yet.
Next post could be a birth announcement.
Fingers crossed!

Pick your precious: we all scream for ice-cream!

On a scorching day like today...

Being heavily pregnant...

It seems only too right to follow Sian's advice...

Keep it short, but sweet...

With an ode to ice-cream!

Freezer meals for the frugal...

So in order to get baby ready and also to prepare for the inevitable drop in our incomes (due to my maternity leave) I've been doing some research into ways to reduce the costs of our weekly shop.

Step 1: Change our way of shopping and possibly our supermarket
We'd got into the habit of popping into our local Sainsbury's every few days to stock up for a few meals and this is a costly way of shopping as you end up picking up lots of non-essentials. Plus Sainsbury's isn't the cheapest supermarket - but it is the biggest in our town and the little Asda often doesn't stock the fruit and veg I needed. We reasoned that we were collecting Nectar points and they do lots of vouchers and money off coupons.

So we decided to check out the local Aldi after work one night. Surprisingly it wasn't always cheaper.

The best deals we found were the packets of ten individually wrapped pain au chocolates for a pound - we often used to get these fresh in Sainsbury's two for 79p at the end of the night on 'sale.' The Belgian is fond of his pastries you see...perhaps the cheapest option would be to make them. One for the summer bucket list methinks.

 Also they seem to be winning the competition for cheapest nappies - only 7p each for the newborn size, whilst the Asda Little Angels are 9p each. Shame we had already stocked up at Asda!
There were things that were cheaper in Sainsbury's though, as these basics tortilla chips are around 45p there and Aldi was selling a similar pack for a pound.

 

However I think we cannot deny that in the competition to be the cheapest Asda is the winner and so to stock up for our big freezer meals shop we travelled a bit further to the biggest Asda superstore in Pudsey Leeds.

Step 2: So onto the part you've all been interested in...freezer meals. Bulk cooking and bulk buying with cheap ingredients and deals.

The Belgian spent a few hours on a Saturday and he made:

 8 spiced pepper pilafs

 5 mini (portions for two for a meal) golden veggie shepherd's pies

 12 meatballs with spaghetti sauce

 Six portions of spiced carrot and lentil soup

Then I spent an hour making a Macaroni and Beef cheese bake which I bulked up with some grated carrot leftover from the soup and it made three portions for the two of us.

Storage ideas:

• Ziploc bags with cooking / reheating instructions written on with a sharpie
• Ice-cream containers
• Tupperware
• We found some good disposable foil containers in the home section of Asda

  
Some other useful recipes and links:
Joyful Momma's top 5 freezer meals
Joyful Momma's Quesedilla Casserole
Joyful Momma's 10 more freezer meals for fall
Frugal Foodie's pinterest freezer meals board

Overall benefits of freezer meals:

• An afternoon or morning of cooking and you have meals for a week or fortnight
• These recipes all use cheap ingredients like beef, tinned tomatoes, carrots and onions and these can be found in bulk to get a good deal
• You can make a recipe for tea that night but double it and freeze the remainder
• Soup lasts about a month when frozen the other meals last about two to three weeks
• When you want the meal you just put in in the fridge for a day to defrost or you can use the microwave
• You don't have to think of ideas for dinner every night

We are definitely converts and I think that once you have a bigger family it makes sense - but even for a couple like us we're noticing less waste and cheaper food bills.
So...do you freeze meals? What ideas do you have for reducing food bills?