A wonderful weekend in Bristol

Last weekend we managed to fit a lot in. We visited one of our favourite people, caught up with a lot of Jamie's family and got to celebrate with Vicky and Graham on their wedding day.

Unfortunately my camera is playing up and my phone ran out of battery half way through the wedding so I haven't got many photos but I can work with what I've got.

We drove down Thursday night after putting Fred to 'bed' in his car seat. Our plan was fool proof, Fred would sleep all the way and then seamlessly transfer in to a ready travel cot when we arrived. Unfortunately he woke up when we got there. That night he woke up a few times and couldn't cope at 5am when it was unexpectedly light. (he has a black out blind in his bedroom) from 5am he spent the next 3 hours in our bed. 

I got pushed out, but I didn't mind. 

He is cute enough to make up for it.

On Friday Fran took us on a whistle stop tour of Bristol. 

I wanted a selfie on the Clifton suspension bridge, it took a few takes.

We enjoyed lunch outside in the sunshine. I particularly enjoyed listening to the conversation of the impossibly posh couple on the next table. Bristol is VERY good for people watching.

Saturday was the day of the wedding.

Vicky (Jamie's sister) wore a beautiful pe-loved gown and her Grandmothers pearls. She looked stunning, and Graham knew it. Neither of them stopped grinning all day.

The wedding was at Goldney Orangery, the gardens surrounding are beautiful.

 Fred enjoyed exploring and playing with his Dad and Grandpa on the grass most of the afternoon.

 

I was kindly lent my dress by one of Fran's housemates. 

It was lovely to feel so glamorous for the day. The only draw back of the dress was that I had to take it off to feed Fred. It was a nightmare!

Fran lives in a massive 5 storey house with over 20 others including two families. They eat together most evenings and are committed to living in unity as a Christian community. It was wonderful to stay with people who are purposfully putting others before themselves and trying to serve each other everyday. I think it would be great to live there as a single person but I really don't know how the couples and families manage, they must be blessed with a lot of patience!

A baby shower celebration and customised onesies

Last Sunday Rachel and Abbie organised and hosted a lovely baby shower for me.

I had a lovely afternoon, there were presents, cakes and games. 

One of the best things was customising vests, onesies and sleep suits. 

People bought various sizes of the various baby clothes. 

Rachel supplied us with templates, bond-a-web, and cool fabric.

We traced a shape on to the bond-a-web, ironed it on to the back of the chosen fabric, cut the shape out, peeled off the bond-a web and then ironed the fabric on to the clothing.

The results are pretty awesome! 

Have a look for your self...

Thank you so much Rachel, Abbie and my lovely friends for a great afternoon!

My oldest friends

Growing up I had four amazing friends. We got up to all the usual crazy teenager shenanigans and supported each other through - first loves, heartbreak, huge changes in family circumstances and what ever life threw at us. Even through our squabbles and inevitable girl bitchiness we always had each other. What is so amazing about these four is that I know they are still there for me even though I only get to see them twice a year, and rarely call (because I am terrible at that!) 

All five of us haven't been together for a really long time! It was so great to catch up, we had a lovely time, so good that I forgot to get a photo of all of us! I know they will all complain about the photos I did manage to get, but that is half the fun ;)

Catherine and Katie - 

Kayleigh and Hayley

We are all going through such different things now, but that doesn't matter. We were joined by Hayley's adorable little girl Isabelle. Somehow I didn't get a photo of her either. She provided much entertainment and made me very excited for our little one!

Super Jamie and his cape

A few months ago Jamie asked me if I could make him a cape out of some old youth event t-shirts for him to use at the latest youth event.

I said yes but I would need some time, so only a week before the event I get handed a bundle of t-shirts.

I couldn't get my head around what to do, so I called Rachel for help. 

Between us we measured, did maths and drew up a plan, so we measured again, cut out squares then sewed them together.

Rachel was a veritable sewing machine!

Once we reached the point of sewing the patch work on to the backing we realised that all of our measuring and planning was at some point thrown out of the window and we had completely gone off piste....

Thankfully all we had to do was add a border to the backing to make it work.

We didn't manage to finish the whole cape in one evening so the next day I finished off and attached it to the top of a t-shirt, I was so much heavy fabric might be a bit much to tie around someones neck, attaching it to the top of a t-shirt worked really well! 

Introducing...

Super youth worker!

I think Jamie is happy with his cape...

An attempt at making Macarons

  My lovely friend Rachel has had the misfortune of being diagnosed as intolerant to Gluten, Dairy and soy. She is also highly allergic to peanuts and some other nuts.

 This is a problem as Cakes and treats made without proper flour are often a little gross. I tried to make Rachel a gluten and dairy free birthday cake- it didn't go well. It was a bit like a large biscuit. 

I expressed my concern that her intolerance is limiting her treat and cake intake and I like making cakes for my friends, So we came up with a plan...

Make things that are naturally gluten and dairy free first then move on to using gluten free stuff.

We started with Macarons!

We needed egg whites, ground almond, caster sugar, icing sugar. vanilla essence, gel dye and we cheated by using Betty Crocker icing for the filling (it is shockingly dairy free!)

I don't have an electric whisk so we used a hand whisk. Rachel was very impressed with my whisk - it has a little cage and a ball inside it.

 We got a little confused when making the first batch and made it far to runny, 'pipping it' didn't really happen, it was more of a pouring action

 We gave up trying to make them neat and just flooded the tray.

It was very funny. We just kept laughing - which probably didn't help!

 It was not good - We threw it away and tried again.

(the best sad face ever)

 Our next batch was MUCH better!

 We left them to rest for over an hour, we forgot about them whilst we were chatting. 

Baking with a good friend is great. 

Chatting over a cup of tea whilst baking is even better.

We eventually baked them and the turned out like this...

 They aren't very uniform or as shiny as they are meant to be, but we still felt proud of our creations.

 They didn't crack which I think is down to the excessive resting.

Rachel liked her's best dipped in a cup of coffee - we couldn't eat too many they are very sweet!

We will continue our baking adventures soon. It is really fun to have baking plans and to experiment with a friends, if it all goes wrong we can laugh and start again.

Playing in the allotment

I have a cold. and i'm feeling sorry for myself so i thought i would share some photos i took whilst helping James and Hannah weed and dig their allotment.

 It was one of the last really warm days this summer.

The four of us spent the day chatting and working, it was really enjoyable and i'm hoping we will be rewarded with some veg next year! 

It was lovely to spend time outside in the sun.

We are going to Cambodia!

We have just booked our tickets so it is official... 

We are going to Cambodia!

Our friends Jane and Greg are living just outside Phnom Penh, the capital of Cambodia, for a year.

(I didn't take this photo I borrowed it from facebook)

They are awesome people who among other things have taught us to appreciate board games. (we are geeks and we love it)

They are in Cambodia working for a church and helping to teach English to enable people to get better paid jobs and to help them change their situations.

Amazingly we have the opportunity to visit them.

Neither I or Jamie have ever visited such a different culture, flown so far, had to buy a visa to gain entry to a country, spent Christmas abroad or dealt with the sorts of weather that is normal in Cambodia.

It may be a bit of a culture shock which is why I am so glad we are able to visit Jane and Greg, rather than travelling completely independently. 

We will be spending the first half of our time Living in Jane and Greg's apartment and helping out in the centre. (I have never successfully taught anyone anything so I am a little nervous about attempting to teach English)

And then we are going to go exploring a little further afield.

We are fortunate that Jane and Greg are able to have a weeks holiday whilst we are there.

We aren't exactly sure of our itinerary, to some extent we are going to go with the flow. 

I am beyond excited.

Croquembuche (30 before 30)

Croquembuche- from the french meaning 'Crunch in the mouth' is a desert that consist of Choux pastry balls filled with flavoured cream, piled in a cone shape and held together by caramel.

Before embarking on this challenge I had never even tried making choux pastry and had never made a successful caramel.

Thankfully my friend Alison came to stay for the weekend, Friday we went for a wine tasting, Saturday we ran a sponsored Dog walk in the beautiful sunshine then Jamie and I went to a wedding reception in the evening and on Sunday after church we made the croquembuche. 

A pretty epic weekend! 

Thankfully I own the great British bake off recipe book from last year which has brilliant step by step instructions on how to make a croquembuche.

 

First we combined the pastry ingredients on the hob, Alison is good at stirring 

After leaving the mixture to cool and adding eggs, I piped little balls on to baking sheets. 

 The cooking instructions for Choux pastry is really complicated We had to wave the door of the oven to let steam out and then had to pierce each ball during cooking. (I sometimes wonder how people come up with this stuff).

It worked.

 We then made the white chocolate and lemon cream whilst the balls cooled.

 It was yummy!

 Piping the cream into the balls was surprisingly difficult, but we managed.

 The first attempt at making caramel didn't go well.

 Neither did the second, but Alison had the right touch with the third batch. 

I can see why they worry so much about it on the Great British bake Off!

Once we had managed to make the Caramel we assembled.

 We both took many photos! We were proud.

 Very proud...

I can happily cross off another one of my 30 Before 30 aims.

I have now completed 5 only 25 left to go!