"Thai"meless dressing

Thailand - that wonderfully exotic country has long been on my "must visit again" list - I last went there twenty years ago when on business in South East Asia and fell in love with the country and her wonderfully gentle people.

I love to travel really light with just a small carry on bag (I lost a suitcase once at the beginning of a long holiday, never again!), so the Anthropologie catalogue is my bible for travel clothes as they are so stylish and versatile.

My staple for stylish travelling is a great maxi dress that can be used for so many different occasions - as a beach cover up, with flip flops for a casual lunch, keeps you cool and covered up for sight seeing, and dressed up with some glam jewellery for dinner.  Paired with a cosy pashmina you might even get an upgrade on the flight for looking like you should be in First Class amongst all those denim wearing tourists!

Skyscape Maxi Dress

My choice for a trip to Thailand where its hot and steamy would have to be this beautiful jewel-coloured cotton maxi dress which will keep you cooler than a cucumber in both looks and temperature.  I'd team it with this wonderfully bright aqua based Goldfish scarf by Amy Sia to keep me cosy on the plane, to cover my shoulders when visiting religious sites and to combat the fierce air conditioning in Thai buildings!

Goldfish Scarf

 This gorgeous pendant will brighten up my evenings (and hopefully dazzle the airport Upgrade Fairy too!)

Circle Up Pendant

OK, now I have my outfit sorted, I'd better get down to booking that flight - Thailand here I come!

Celebrating Family Photography

It's fair to say that I love taking photos, especially of the children and dogs and when Tots100 announced that they were running a competition with Printerpix to celebrate family photography, I knew that I had a great excuse to spend an afternoon trawling through the family photo albums (both hard copy and digital!) :)

 A few (very pleasant) hours and several cups of tea later, I decided that this photo encapsulates some of my happiest family memories of just a simple afternoon at the park.  

Yes, that is me on the other end of the camera as we are being spun round (at great speed!) by W's Dad!  We had a wonderful afternoon in the park that day, we all laughed so much! We'd all been on the swings and climbing frames and then W's Dad suggested the roundabout. I got some pretty strange looks from some of the Mums as I squished my adult frame into the seat but it made me feel like a kid again and W absolutely adored it, he was shrieking with laughter!  We were both completely dizzy when we got off and collapsed in a giggling heap together on the ground!

Life is too short not to have fun with your kids - grab every opportunity and if you can, capture them on camera so you can reminisce in years to come.


This post is Rose's entry into the Printerpix Photo competition   W aged 4

Snaps of Little Chaps!

Zulily is such a great site for busy Mums - they send out an email every day with lots of new bargains to be found for babies, children and (of course!) Mums!  For example, Zulily have a deal where you can buy this fantastic skyline wall art and this gorgeous kids rain gear (perfect now that the snow has been replaced by torrential downpours!).  I've only just become a member - a friend told me about the site, but I know that I'll be looking forward to devouring those daily emails!

Zulily also run some great competitions on their blog and have one at the moment asking for tips on how best to take photographs of children. Now I love taking photos of anything and everything, but especially kids having fun.  I was very lucky in that my Dad loved taking cine film (does that show my age?) and we have a wonderful record of our family growing up which was pretty unusual for the time.  Photos are so important - who doesn't love sitting down on a wet and windy afternoon in front of the fire and browsing through their photo albums reminiscing?

So here are my top tips on how to take great photos of children

1.  Take ALOT of photos - set your camera to "burst" mode if you are able to which will take a flurry of photos one after another.  Often, if you only take one photo, you'll miss the "moment", eg, when they land in that puddle, or they'll be looking a bit gormless!  This is particularly a problem with compact cameras which can have a significant "shutter lag" (time taken to take the photo after pressing the shutter) so learn to click a bit before you think it's "the moment" too. At least if you take a batch of photos, you're likely to have one or two great ones in there!  (this applies to photos of pets too!)

Take lots of photos so you don't miss the "moment"

2.  Get down off your high horse!  Of course, what I mean is, get down to the same level as your child to take the photo - the results will be much more intimate and interesting.

The Childs Eye view

From the "High Horse"

3.  If you are trying to get an intimate shot of a child when they are engrossed in something, try to avoid using the flash as it will distract them and spoil the moment and your shot.

Hopefully, by following the above, your photos will get better and better with time and you'll be proud to show them off to friends and family, or even enter some competitions.  Zulily are also running a photo competition on Instagram where they are looking for the biggest grin, there have been loads of great entries, all really cute - I wouldn't like to be the judge on that one!


Happy Snapping!

My Grand Adventure

Moneysupermarket set my imagination alight with their brilliant competition - "A Grand Adventure".  They have challenged bloggers to write about where they would go on their own Grand Adventure and how long they could make £1000 last!  This was definitely right up my street - I live and love to travel so I got thinking about all the destinations I could visit.

Once I'd had my thinking cap on for a few days, my choice was obvious....
India

Now India must be one of the cheapest and easiest  (once you have learned how to buy tickets and work the reservation system!) places in the world to travel by train.  I took a look at Seat 61 and found that I can go from Delhi to Bombay, a journey of over 900 miles, on the Radjahni Express, a premier sleeper train with meals included, in first class for just £47, or if I travel in third class, a mere £19.  Train travel in India is fabulous (some may say fabulously daunting!) and a great way to get to meet people, so it will form the major part of my travel plans - after all, you only get to see clouds and a few mountains from the sky.

Getting around in cities will be easy too with so many cycle rickshaws available and even taxis and auto rickshaws (tuk tuks) will be well within my budget.

Now, I've got to an age now where backpackers hostels just don't do it for me, I like my own room and my own bathroom, but fortunately, that doesn't come at an extortionate cost in India, even when staying at Heritage hotels.  For example, the wonderful looking KS Palace in Delhi is only R2000 per night, around £23!  It will be a haven to get back to after the hustle and bustle of downtown New Delhi.  Similarly, the Dayal Hotel in Udaipur offers clean modern facilities for just a little more (R2550).  I can even stay in a hotel in the 13th century fort walls at Jaisalmer for even less!

One of my favourite things about travel is food and tasting all the local delicacies.  Now I'll be doing my best to avoid Delhi Belly at all costs by drinking only bottled water, but eating street cafe food won't be off the menu, I'll just be making sure that what I do eat is freshly cooked.   Just like at home, I'll be tucking into lots of fresh fruit and veg bought at markets but at a fraction of the price I pay here in the UK.  Eating out every day won't eat into my budget either, with great meals costing between £1 and £5, for example, at the Cafe Madras in Bombay and Spicy Tadka in Varanasi.  

Entrance fees will tot up a bit but the biggest one, the Taj Mahal, is still only R750 which is under £9.  St Paul's Cathedral in London costs £15......

So, how long will my Grand Adventure last?  Well, with average daily costs for food and accommodation being £28 per day, and using trains to travel long distances, I reckon I'll be away for at least a month!  Bring it on!

Home Spa-un fun in January

January is here, there's rain, snow, ice and wind all taking its toll on me and my skin and I'm battered and bruised from chucking snowballs and sledging with the kids - what I REALLY would love to do is escape to a spa for a day (minimum!) but with all the bills from Christmas hitting the doormat this month, the likelihood of that is zero!

So when Tots100 suggested having a bit of relaxation at my own Home Spa, I couldn't resist trying it out!  I had a look on the internet and found loads of ideas for homemade spa treatments with things that I have in my store cupboards so wouldn't cost anything.  I was lucky enough to be given some lovely Cowshed products and one of their delicious scented candles for Christmas, so I set the scene by having a relaxing bubble bath and lighting the candles (having first persuaded Grandma to have the kids for the afternoon!).

I'd already got all the ingredients out of the cupboards ready for my treatments so I was ready to give them a go when I got out of the bath.

First, I wanted to give my feet some pampering - those freezing temperatures were beginning to take their toll, so I mixed some coarse sea salt with olive oil (no need to bother using extra virgin!) - about two tablespoons of each, and rubbed that over my feet for about five minutes - paying particular attention to the rough skin on my heels.  My feet felt wonderfully soft afterwards when I rinsed off the mix in a bowl of warm water with scented bubble bath.



Next, I wanted to concentrate on helping out the skin on my face which was really taking the brunt of this cold weather so I made a gentle oatmeal mask from four tablespoons of fine oatmeal (if you only have porridge oats in, you can give them a quick whizz in a food processor), an egg yolk and one tablespoon of runny honey.  Mix them all together into a soft paste and apply to face and neck and leave for 15 minutes, then wash off with warm water and pat dry.  The very gentle abrasive effect of the oatmeal sloughed off those dull dead layers of skin and the egg and honey really seemed to replenish my skin - wonderful!

My hands are looking really dry, and, dare I say it, a bit wrinkly, so I searched for a moisturising solution and found that pumpkin does the trick!  Now there aren't many pumpkins in the shops in January, but you can still easily get butternut squash which is the same thing (and usually really cheap in Aldi too!).  I had some that I had roasted on Sunday when I was making the roast dinner, so I mixed three tablespoons with half a teaspoon of honey and a drop of milk.  Slather this over your hands, paying particular attention to the backs where the skin is thin and leave on for 15 minutes.  I suggest you lie back at this stage and put a couple of chilled used camomile tea bags over your eyes and enjoy some quiet music, something like Nora Jones, or, if classical music is your thing, Faure's Requiem.

Wash the pumpkin mask off in warm water - the effect was amazing.

After all that pampering, I jumped in the shower to wash off any residue of my preparations, put on my fleecy jim-jams and cosy dressing gown and sat infront of the open fire with a cup of camomile tea to finish off my Home Spa day perfectly!

The Magic of Christmas

We're feeling VERY Christmassy here this year, having spent last week at the Christmas markets in Cologne, Brussels and London! But these are the usual things that bring that special Christmas magic into our home.

Wrapping the presents - I like to get these done early in the month so there's no last minute panics - and it's best to not sit still toooo long when I'm wrapping....!

We also love to go iceskating - there are so many outdoor rinks now that we're spoilt for choice! Nothing beats slithering around the rink and then a warming glass of Gluhwein!

This is my entry for the #O2GuruMagicofXmas Linky, sponsored by O2 GuruTV – the home of tech help and inspiration http://www.o2.co.uk/guru

Half Term Family Fishcakes made easy with Aunt Bessie!

One of our family's favourite meals is homemade fishcakes, the kids love to help me make them and to decorate the plates when we serve them up, but during half term when we're all so busy with activities and work, I simply don't have time to make them from scratch. It's such a healthy meal though, that I needed to keep it in my weekly meal plan if at all possible.

That's where Aunt Bessie comes to the rescue! Instead of all the peeling, chopping, boiling and mashing of veg, which can take what seems like an age when you've got hungry mouths to feed, all I have to do is get some Aunt Bessie's frozen mashed potato and frozen carrot & swede, and hey presto, the meal is done in a flash!!

Aunt Bessie's Fast Fishcakes

Ingredients

Frozen white fish (I use the value range of coley)
Aunt Bessie's frozen mashed potato
Aunt Bessie's frozen carrot and swede mash
Frozen green beans

Cook the fish with 1 tablespoon of water for 3-4 minutes in the microwave at full power. Flake into small pieces
Cook the Aunt Bessie's mashed potato according the packet instructions (I do it in the microwave). Allow to cool slightly and then add fish and mix well.
In the meantime, cook the Aunt Bessie's carrot and swede mash according to packet instructions and also the green beans (again, I do all mine in the microwave for ease).
Take a handful of the mash mix and shape into a fish shape. Repeat and then fry in rapeseed oil until golden.
Serve like an underwater scene!

Britmums and Aunt Bessie are running a competition to see how you use Aunt Bessie's to make healthy meals that save you time this half term. Why not take a look and have a go yourself as I'd love to see some more quick, healthy and tasty family meals that I can try!

This is my entry for the #halftermfood Linky on Britmums.