7 years young

Why hello there lovelies! Just a few short days ago my Mr. and I shared our 7th Anniversary (not wedding anniversary, no no that's still to come) but the day we decided that he was for me and I for him. From that day to this, I have spent almost every day, with my best friend, getting to know and love him to bits!

We decided to mark the occasion by first going out to dinner at a local place called Priory Farm, it's set in a ruined Priory and is incredibly quaint. To add even more to it's charm, they have llamas out front! I adore llamas so it was an extra treat for me! 

After dinner and feeling more than full we went home to create cocktails! We bought in all kinds of liquers, mixers and fruit and just had some fun! The idea was to invent some signature cocktails that we can serve at our wedding. It was so so much fun and lots of taste tasting was done! I'm not sure we decided on definite favourites but there were some super tasty concoctions! The best bit is we have lots of bottles left to do it again sometime soon!

Cheers!

Love Danielle 

xxx

Wedding Inspiration: Glass Bottles

I don't know about you but recently I am obsessed with all things glass, and vintage bottles and jars are no exception. As you probably already know, Pinterest is a vast source of beauty and inspiration (you can also easily lose a couple hours too!) and I came across this amazing arrangement, and it got me thinking about how I can incorporate my love of glass into our wedding.

found here

How simple and elegant! I defiantly want to feature jars in my centrepieces and also took inspiration from the flowers that were used. I have never been sure of what flowers I love, but recently I've discovered Gerba's 

which are truly breathtaking and I also love the idea of using wildflowers like in this pretty arrangement!

found here

It's just beautiful and has got me totally in the mood for planning a spring time wedding!

Maybe, just maybe

Love Danielle 

xxx

Pretty perfect day

Hi all, you know sometimes you just have an unplanned, off the cuff perfect days, suddenly the weather is gorgeous and the whole day just comes together. I love those kinda days.

It started off by watching my two boys out in the back having a waterfight. It was great they were laughing so much as I got the rest of the washing up and cleaning done, so we could have a day out!

Then while the Mr did a little last minute bit of work I took Haydn and his Grandad over to the park next door. We originally went to play skittles but after we took the next shot, Haydn ran off and all the skittles blew down. 

We just ran round for a bit, played hide and seek, ran through some rose gardens. Haydn got incredibly muddy legs and kept taking off his shoes.

Can you believe that I climbed a tree??I know, right. A year ago I wouldn't have even considered it, I would have been way too self conscious but I just got right on up there!

(and just a little note here, Haydn wasn't hanging off my foot, he was actually stood on the ground!)

So we pretty much played the morning away and then drove into the City to meet up with a lovely friend of ours for some lunch. I've been trying to get the boys to venture out of their foodie comfort zones and try to do some different things and I'm proud to say they have been really brave. I took them for Sushi a few weeks back and this lovely day we tried out Wagamama. I could see from the look on Sharrys and his Dad's face that it was way way past the line of comfort for them but they did really well and oh my gosh was it yummy! I ended up with chilli squid, sticky white rice and some steamed edamame. Such good food!

I think the expression says it all! So after lunch, we decided we still weren't done for the day and went to see my mum and dad for the evening and ended up going for dinner (again) and I managed to stay on plan both times. Hurray me!

It really was such a sweet and lovely day. No tantrums either which is always a bonus. Don't you just love days like this! 

Love Danielle

xxx

The best start to the day

How good do these look? And you had better believe they taste as good as they look! For anyone that doesn't know I became a Slimming World consultant almost a year ago after discovering the plan for myself several months earlier. I know it's already the number one plan in the UK and I am so so pleased that it has recently made the transition abroad to the USA. If you haven't discovered it yet then please go check it out. I can't even begin to say how much it's changed my life, but that's not what this post is about. You want a healthy but oh so easy breakfast like this? Then read on for the recipe and how to:

You will need:

30g porridge oats 

1 Vanilla Mullerlight (175g fat free yogurt)

3 eggs

What you need to do:

Add the yogurt and oats together in a bowl. Add 3 beaten eggs and whisk well. Get a frying pan really hot and spray well with fry light (any 1 cal spray) and pour 1/4 of your batter into the pan. You need to make sure its really well cooked on the bottom before you flip it (or you may have a scrambled egg situation) once its cooked well flip it and brown the other side. Repeat with the rest of your batter and stack em up. Top with loads of fat free greek yogurt and tons of fresh berries!

I love this breakfast and so do my boys. Let me know what you think.

Love Danielle 

xxx

On finding the time

Hi there,

I trawl the world of blogs quite a lot in my spare moments, to smile, to be inspired and to learn new things, and recently I have been having a funny feeling recently though and it took a while to realise what it was, but last week it dawned on me that it was a feeling that I was missing something. The thing that I was missing was my own blog, I haven't posted regularly for a long time and at first, it was ok. I had just taken on a new business and things were hectic.

We moved house and I had a family to look after and after weighing up my options, the blog was the thing that had to give...only for a little while I said. The business grew and turned to a second franchise and most recently a third and boy did that mean putting in a lot of hours. I've been very lucky in the fact that I have a very supportive fiancé and family around me to tell me I'm doing ok and keep me motivated to always work harder. Work is still busy and as long as I work hard I hope it will get busier still but I have come to realise that in order for me to keep my passion as huge as it is now I also need to make time for other things. My two boys will tell you that I can often be found in the morning still on the sofa, fully dressed next to my laptop, sleeping or going off to make that next coffee at almost midnight. This has made me think about how to create and maintain a really good balance, with time for family, work, housework (ack) and also me time. It took almost 3 years for me to accept that it was ok to say 'I need some time for me' without feeling like the worst mama in the world! And guess what, life got a lot happier when I did!

I want, so much to return to blogging but I feel like I need to focus it in a different direction. I LOVE handmade with all my heart and it will very much still be a core theme but I don't feel like I have the time enough to do as much crafting as I used to and so I want to blog about things that are important to me right now, so there will still be some handmade but also in the mix will be my family life, food and health and some home stuff too. I'm really excited to get back to regular posting and I hope all you guys that read like here too.

Here's to blogging,
Love Danielle
xxx

Weekend Frolics: Bristol

We decided it was high time we took a little trip across the country to see some amazing friends of ours and also to get a little family fun time too! So after a 5 hour drive (Well done to my Mr, who drove all the way) we arrived at our hotel and all clambered straight into bed and woke up ready for a fun filled day in the city! Considering this, we ended up at a farm!

It was truly lovely to find such an organic, peaceful spot right in the middle of the city! Haydn loved spotting all the different vegetables that were growing, I think that may be a future project for us, to get some growing going on at home!

We saw lots of animals and decided that as a family, we NEED a pigmy goat, before which we may need a garden.

Haydn took charge and led us round, he was so brave and stroked lots of animals.

I got the chance to road test my pretty new shoes and about 5 minutes after this picture was taken, they got covered in mud as Haydn, literally ran across my feet...oops.

The next day we got to go and meet with 2 of the loveliest ladies I have ever met and I was so excited! I'm pretty sure they have both been mentioned numerous times on here before but they are just both such amazing people and I am well and truly in a happy place around them! Say hi to Brooke and Genna!

Aren't they cute? we had a lovely brunch/lunch at an American themed diner and then took a walk down a street full of shops with vintage and pretties galore. I excerised a lot of restraint today in not purchasing all of the lovely things I saw!

We found another (oh yes) cafe and dipped in to sample their cakes and homemade lemonade, and boy were they yummy! My boys were being so silly, behaviour which can be attributed to the copious amounts of sugar that were ingested! To burn off some of which we walked to a park area and found some water to play in.

I think it was decided today that under no circumstances are we to leave it so long again! I simply adore these girls and even though there are 260 miles between us, we need a regular meet up!

We have one more day in Bristol and I get to see the other lovely lady that lives here, but more about that tomorrow!

Good Night All,
Love Danielle
xxx

Haydn is 4!

Oh my gosh, I can't believe how fast these past 4 years have gone! I know everyone says that by seriously, I blinked and they happened!

I think this birthday was the first real one that he actually knew what was going on! We had a really sweet build up and he got super excited and kept asking for all these things he saw on the T.V (thanks Nickelodeon) and, eventually the day came round.

We had a birthday tea the night before and he got spoiled by family and that just geared him up even more!

I'm so grateful for digital photography that let's us cherish memories like these so much!

Look at this smile! Pure excitement...I wish I could bottle this!

On the actual day of his birthday we hoped and prayed for a sunny day in amongst all the rain and, dare I say it, hail we have been having! I couldn't really believe it when we woke to beaming sunshine and a huge smile from our boy because we could go on a day trip to Bewilderwood, an absolutely enchanting outdoor adventure park full of whimsical creatures and tree houses to climb!

He was such a brave boy, climbing trees, swinging on ropes (which I absolutely could not do...no upper body strength at all) and going on huge slides!

It was absolutely gorgeous, and so geared up for kids of all ages, even us big ones!

All in all it was such a fantastic day and I for one won't forget it!

Love 

Danielle 

xxx