OMG where is this time gone...????

Ups I did it again! I seriously need to be posting more regularly as this blog is to serve a purpose of an ''online diary'' for my family in Poland and maybe my children when they grow up a little. But there has been so many things happening its maaaaad! 

Firstly we sold our house!!! yaaay !!! We were starting to get a bit impatient to be honest and a bit frustrated having to clean the house when we had all those viewings that only last 15 minutes!!! But the couple that bought our property caught me totally off guard and had an unexpected viewing when the house was a total mess! Anyways whats meant to be its meant to be! 

And only yesterday we got the news that our offer was accepted on the house we fell in love in!!! So its all go go go now! Solicitors, documents flying back and forth! Madness on wheels but good madness:D 

I am already decorating the house! Not that we're going to have lots of money left after the move but we will have to do with what we've got at the moment and then slowly once we settle in we will be changing the furniture and decor. The house is in a very good state, I love my new country cottage kitchen with butler ceramic sink and exposed beams:D I will be hunting for a fireplace surround if I can find any reclamation yards around where we live. I hope this is not going to cause too much tension between me and my husband as his approach is very minimalistic magnolias and browns, I've got more of a creative flair and I absolutely adore period features (not that we're getting any in the house we bought, but I can change it a little hopefully).

There is 1 million thoughts in my head at the moment and it is so hard for me to focus on one thing when there is so many going on but we will get there eventually!

In my blogging absence we squeezed in a little family break in the New Forest and Peppa Pig world. To be honest I don't even know how loved it more us or her:D It is so well made and it has fantastic attractions for children and adults!

Anyways... you are probably thinking gosh this note is pretty erratic but this is how I feel at the moment. I am looking forward to our lives getting back to normal!

xxx

I haven't been here in a while, I had so many things on my mind and my to do list!!! Firstly planning Annabell's second birthday party was quite time consuming, then it seems like I've got to clean the house every day as we keep on having viewings but no offers! Which is very frustrating!!!! And lastly I've been socialising like crazy with my mum friends and rediscovered my crochet and sewing passion:))

So lets start from the beginning. Annabell's birthday was on the 21st September and my little girl turned 2!!! It seems like so much for such a little person, she is amazing, clever and very polite. I love her more than anything in this world and I would do anything for her (of course within reason)! So her birthday party fast approached and we hosted a rainbow birthday party in our garden for her little friends and a day later for family and family friends.

I prepared as much food and decorations as I could to fit to the theme of this years birthday and here are the results.

Annabell ready in her rainbow thighs.

Rainbow balloons and birthday banner

Rainbow pompons

Rainbow fruit skewers

Rainbow cake

And the inside of the rainbow cake

Lots of delicious layers!

We couldn't go without rainbow cupcakes!

Even mama made an effort and had a rainbow iron on rhinestones!

The house situation on the other hand is far from colourful! Not only we've discovered our estate agent is not very good at letting us know when an appointment has been cancelled but also it seems they just don't know how to sell! I found the latter very disappointing. So the decision has been made today that I will be assisting at the house viewings and showing potential buyers around. Hopefully the fact that I know the house so well and all the pros and cons will work in my favour!

Lastly I have been developing some new products for my company Bespoke Babies, making things for friends and trying to think of how can I promote my business on a budget. Unfortunately with the house move on the cards BB is being a little bit neglected. But as soon as we move and Annabell goes to preschool I will be able to focus more and grow it!

I also discovered that my yarn, fabric and anything crafty hoarding is not going to be very well received by my hubby when it comes to the move so I decided to make a dent in my stash and start making things for us and family. I will be making a couple of little girl handbags and I also have crocheted a hat for Annabell for winter. I used this luxuriously soft alpaca and silk mix yarn in dark pink. It feels so lovely however working with it is a nightmare!! It constantly gets tangled! Anyways I still have one more ball of this yarn and I want to make mittens for A to match the hat. We should soon see how that project will progress;))

Here is the hat I made for my baba:D

I am also quite enjoying repurposing the clothes we never wear into something else that will be more useful. So I have made a couple of pairs of leggings for Annabell for winter from my husbands old merino and cashmere sweaters and I have also made a dress for my little girl out of my cashmere polo neck, which I never even worn!

I was very please with myself because as a self taught sewing person and not having any experience with sewing knitted clothes I think I have done pretty well on the project:))

Ta dah! This is Annabell's new winter cashmere dress:)

The dress looked quite simple and plain so I added a satin flower corsage with a real pearl button in the middle. The flower is sewn on a brooch bar so it is easily removable for washing. 

If anyone would like any advice on how to bake rainbow cakes or for patterns I used to make all the stuff please drop me a message or simply comment:)

Hope you enjoyed my very overdue and very hectic post:)

Mirror Nails

Today I am going to write a little bit about nails, specifically nail polish because I love buying different colours and having my nails painted! As a mum, who has put a few pounds since the baby was born this is something that makes me feel good and gives me a bit more of confidence, even if I'm not wearing any make up:P

 My favourite colour has to be deep red and purple pink but as soon as minx nails have come out with their silver chrome foils I became obsessed! I mean, how cool does it look!!?? I went to the salon to have them done but then changed my mind after hearing they only last a week or so that is if you have a child! I knew it wouldn't be for me, I hate chipped or damaged nail polish/ foils!

                                                                 Those are nail foils!

So my search began for a close enough effect nail polish. I've looked all over the web, ebay, little shops etc. and stumbled across a Chanel silver chrome nail polish. It looks gorgeous, however not only it was sold out everywhere, ebay prices for it were astronomical!

So I looked some more and ended up on a beauty forum. There people were saying how amazing Maybelline Mirror Image is. I had to get it! I found this little online shop that looked like it hasn't been updated in ages, but I thought it was worth a risk.

A few days later my Mirror image came and my gosh was I happy with the effect??!!! YES!

After testing other brands I can say that Mirror Image is as good as it gets! I think it is something to do with their base coat which evens the surface of a nail, but anyway, every time I've got it on there are lots of people commenting how good it looks!

This is a picture from my phone so it doesn't do the polish it's justice!

                                              Do you have any cool/ favourite nail polish?

Baby stuff

We had a lovely catch up with my friend and her little girl. It was nice to be back to our routines and have a little browse in the shops! 

Of course Zara had to be on our list! I am obsessed with their clothes at the moment, I love the pastely and neutral colour scheme! Here is Annabell wearing top to toe Zara summer collection.

Here are clothes I found today I absolutely adore. I think it's safe to say that this autumn/winter colours are pastels, neutrals and greys! And it couldn't look more beautiful!

                                                               

We went to many other shops and The White Company never fails to deliver at least one thing I love. We've seen this gorgeous sweater in pink with light pink heart which was a little too big for Annabell so I decided I will try and make one. I know it won't look as good as the one in the shop but I think it's the effort that counts!

While we are still on the subject of babies I have come across the funniest blog post in ages!!!!

I encourage everyone to come and read it as it is super hilarious, I cried while reading it, especially number 10!

http://www.pregnantchicken.com/pregnant-chicken-blog/2010/9/23/happily-after-giving-birth-10-things-they-dont-tell-you.html

I'm signing off now, hope you all have a good day! xxx

Viva Espana!

As you can see from the pictures, we had amazing holiday in Spain! We spent 7 wonderful days with my husbands family. 

We stayed in La Manga Club in Murcia, Spain. Although it is a beautiful place, most villas have their swimming pools and local shops are not too far away, we found it to be a little too remote for what we would have liked.

Only on one occasion we went to the beach and that is because the cab ride to the beach and back for all of us would be over 100 Euros! 

Local restaurants served good variety of foods. Prices including main dish, dessert and drinks varied from 50-70 euros per couple.

We have also found a small supermarket that was reasonably stocked, however it was very expensive comparing to bigger shop that was further away.

Next time if we decide to go there again we would definitely hire a car!

The temperatures we couldn't complain about as it was scorching hot! and a dip in a pool to cool off felt blissful :))

Anyways those were only little things, on a whole we really enjoyed ourselves and had well deserved relaxing time!

It's back to real life now.

Our house is still on the market, we had a few viewings but no offers yet. The house has to be kept really neat and tidy which is a hassle sometimes...but we always find something to do outside the house not to make to much of a mess.

Today we had a playdate with Annabell's friends which was lovely, and mummies had a good old girlie chat:))

One other thing I wanted to mention is: whoever has Pound world near by pop in and check out their cosmetics isle. I found amazing Nail Prism nail polish by Sally Hansen!!! So grab a bargain while you can, they go for as much as £13 on ebay! 

It's called blush diamond but I also bought one in white ruby.

picture from http://polishedclawsup.blogspot.co.uk/2011/08/sally-hansen-nail-prisms-in-blush.html

That will be it for now:) Hope you have a good day. xxx

Long time no see...

Precisely, it's been a while since I had a chance to sit down with my laptop and put a few words down.

The last couple of weeks were a real roller coaster. First we had my family staying with us for almost two weeks. Then we have learnt of a sudden death of a very dear friend of ours, then we decided to sell our house, so as you can imagine frantic cleaning and moving all the clutter into the garage. Then once it seemed like all is settled I had tonsillitis and was bed bound for about 2 days, thankfully I have the most amazing hubby on earth who looked after me very well. And lastly we had a joint birthday BBQ on Sunday and that needed some preparing. I made home made pizza, on top of all the BBQ food and then treated everyone to tiramisu desert.

So having decided we need a bigger house we are looking for some properties in the area. At the moment we have found one that feels great. But we are still looking. We have 3 viewings so far in our house! Scary!!!

Anyways I am gathering lots of pictures and handy tips from the net about home decorating, current trends etc. As it will be our house for a long time we want to do it right.

On another note, yesterday I challenged myself to a french manicure. I am right handed so painting fine lines with my left hand is a nightmare! But its done. Here is the result and the products I've used!

I used Nailtique 1 as a base coat, Essie sugar daddy, Inglot nail art pen and Seche Vite fast drying top coat.

And OMG Seche Vite is my favourite topcoat of all!!!! Not only it gives your nails an insane shine, it really dries fast, it will cover all imperfections and it makes your polish stay on for a long time! Especially on your toes!!!!

We are off on holiday soon, so going to run a few errands.

Hope you have a good day. xxx

Home

We have decided to move houses. It is a little bit of an impulse decision but I think it is the right one as well. We always wanted to have two children, and the house we are in now will only do us for another 4-5 years. We have found a perfect home not far where we live now, it is a house that needs a lot of TLC but it has all the room we need for the future. I am a little scared and apprehensive and a little bit sad that we might be soon leaving a house we have so many amazing memories in but then I am also excited to have a new place where we can spend the rest of our lives in.

in the picture me and Annabell in front of our house 

I have made a homemade tiramisu yesterday but I will upload pictures and recipe tomorrow as today we will just chill on the sofa and watch the olympics:))

Hope you're having a good weekend so far xxx

Start with a pizza

I have started many diaries and blogs in my lifetime but for some reason I could never carry on with one thing. I hope this time will be different. I know this time will be different. I would like this blog to become a cave full of useful tips, recipes, fashion diy's and more! I will be writing about my family's everyday life, about all the ups and downs we come across.

At the moment I am reading Callanetics book and I am determined to finally get back in shape! I never was a skinny person, but after having Annabell not only I put lots of weight on and not shed it but also I did indulge in too many chocolate bars;) I hope I will be able to achieve my pre baby figure:) Fingers crossed.

But not too get too depressed about all the dieting and weight loss here is my first recipe for homemade pizza. It is fool proof and so quick to make!! Plus making it from scratch must mean it's healthier than ready made ones:P

meaty and vegetarian options

ingredients for the pizza:

• 300g flour 
• 20g fresh yeast 
• 1 teaspoon of sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt
• 2 tablespoons of olive oil
• enough olive oil to grease the trays with

In a cup mix yeast with sugar and 3 tablespoons of warm water. Mix until everything has dissolved. In a bowl put flour and salt, add yeast mixture and 2 tablespoons of olive oil and a few tablespoons of water. Mix the dough until its smooth and put aside on a clean plate, cover with a tea towel and wait 30min until it doubles in size. In the meantime you can prepare tomato sauce and all the toppings for your pizzas. If you add too much water sprinkle a bit of flour to take the moisture out and if its too dry add another spoonful of water. From experience dry yeast doesn't work as well as fresh one but if you use dry yeast and the dough doesn't ''grow'' it still shouldn't make a difference when it comes to taste of the pizza. After 30 minutes take your dough, cut in half, sprinkle some flour on the works surface and roll. It should be very thin, even see through. After you've done both pizza bases in this manner, place them on the metal trays, spread tomato sauce and put whatever ingredients you want on it. Bake for 10-15 minutes in 220C. 

Ingredients for tomato sauce:

• handful of fresh basil
• sprinkle of dry oregano
• 3/4 cups of ketchup
• 4 tablespoons of olive oil

mix all the ingredients together, add chilli for a tomato sauce with a kick.

I know it looks like a lot but it takes literally 5 minutes to prepare all the ingredients, 30 minutes of just waiting for your dough to rise, 5 minutes of rolling and decorating your pizzas ( mozzarella, pepperoni, ham, mushrooms, pineapple etc) and 10-15 minutes in the oven.

If you like you can even roll some mozzarella cheese or some bbq sauce into the edges of your pizza.

Hope you enjoy the recipe and make lots of nice pizzas:D

That will be it for today. I think it's not bad considering it's my first post;) xxx