My Instagram Week: Double Edition!

Hello friends! We just got back from our holidays today and I thought you might like to see some pictures of what we've been up to. This is a special double edition since I got so many pictures I love when we were at the seaside I wanted to share lots of them with you. The weather wasn't great but we made the most of a sunny day on Tuesday to take baby Joe to the seaside for the first time. All the pictures above are from our afternoon at Lulworth Cove, which is a beautiful little seaside village with a fantastic sheltered beach. As you can probably tell, the pictures above also gave me a chance to try lots of iPhone photo apps for different filters and effects. I am always amazed at the great photos you can take on a phone these days, and since we lost the battery charger for our camera, my phone became our only source for holiday pictures.

1. Lulworth Cove beach
2. Locally caught crabs on sale at the beachside fish shop. We bought freshly caught local plaice and had them for our dinner that night.
3. The fish shop blackboard
4. Me almost getting my feet wet in the sea.
5. You can't go to the seaside without getting an ice-cream cone. I hadn't had mint choc chip for years!
6. The amazing cliffs at Lulworth, which is part of Dorset's Jurassic Coast. The scenery is incredible and there are lots of places to go fossil hunting - I think Joe will love this when he's a bit bigger.
7. The Lulworth Bucket Tree. I have no idea of the story behind this tree but I love it! They have a collection box there to raise money for charity as well.
8. A scallop shell found for me by my two boys.
9. Those same two boys having a paddle in the sea. What a handsome pair!

1. The picturesque village of Corfe Castle. I put this through a miniaturise filter but even in real life it looks like a model village.
2. Corfe Castle, an amazing ruined castle you can visit. We come here every time we are in Dorset, it is so brilliant and atmospheric.
3. Dan and Joe exploring Corfe Castle.
4. It was a rainy day on Wednesday so we took Joe to a soft play centre in Dorchester. He is only little but he loves to climb!
5. Swallows Cottage in Bere Regis, where we were staying.
6. Joe in the ball pool at soft play. It was nice to do something just for him, so we all got to do our favourite things on holiday.
7. On Thursday night we banned TV and laptops, so we listened to Adam and Joe Show podcasts from their old BBC 6 Music show, which never fail to make us cry with laughter, and did this Kings and Queens jigsaw puzzle! It turned into a really funny night and reminded me that it is good to force yourself to have some screen-free quality time together.
8. Joe has started really walking properly in the last few days. This is him in the pub with Dan's Mum, having so much fun walking like a big boy. We left Dorset on Friday and had a few days with Dan's parents, who live in the neighbouring county of Somerset. The pub up the road from them is the Five Dials in Horton. It is really great and family friendly, Joe had lots of fun meeting all the regulars and trying the local cider! They also do great food, including probably the best triple cooked chips I've ever had, I would definitely recommend a visit if you're ever in the area.
9. Milk and Alcohol! (Do you know the Dr Feelgood song?)

We had a wonderful time on our holidays but we were all glad to get home today and back to normal. I have been brainstorming lots of ideas for this blog over the coming months, and am in the process of a move from Blogger to Wordpress. I'm still working on getting to know WP, but I'll let you know once we're ready to make the big transfer. Have you made the move from Blogger to self-hosted WP? I love to hear any tips you might have!

We're All Going On A (Not Quite) Summer Holiday

I just thought I'd let you know that this week the Warner family are on holiday in Dorset (at the same cottage we went to for our honeymoon, did you see this post?). I'm so excited about our break, and I'm hoping we'll have good weather and can take baby Joe to paddle in the river and build sand castles at the seaside. Last time we took him there he was only a couple of months old, hopefully this time he'll be able to appreciate things a bit more!

I'm planning on posting about what we see and do (and eat!) once we're back, but in the meantime I have got this week's posts all done in advance so you will still have lots to read and look at while I'm away. I wanted to keep you in the loop so you know that replies to blog comments, emails and tweets might be a bit more delayed than usual - I am not sure I have the strength to go totally internet free for a whole week, but I won't be online as much as usual, which is probably a very good thing for me! I will try to catch up with everything I miss ASAP once we get back, and I should think I will still be posting photos on Instagram if you want to see what we get up to on our travels (I'm @heynicecardigan if you want to follow me).

Have a great week! Bon Voyage!

My Week in Instagrams

It's Saturday, no school today, here's what we're gonna do... Look at my Instagrams from this week!

1. Last weekend we had our first night without baby Joe. He stayed at my parents' house and we had Whisky Sours - and a lie in!
2. Croissants for breakfast the morning after, though the most priceless part of this was not having to feed a baby at the same time.
3. With cocktails, you need nibbles for a real party.
4. Last Sunday it was Dan's Grandad's 90th birthday so we drove down to south east London on Sunday. This is the view as you go into the Blackwall Tunnel, which takes you under the River Thames and into South London, where both Dan and my families originally came from.
5. The view from bed on a sunny day.
6. Dan and I managed to get a coffee date just the two of us this week as well, so lucky!
7. All the blossom's on the cherry trees this week, so pretty.
8. Dan is an amazing baker - I might try and get him to do some guest posts on his bread some time - and this is the type of bread he makes for our family just for every day. I don't know how I managed to get so lucky with my wonderful man, he's the best!
9. I saw these pretty forget-me-nots on a walk yesterday, I love that sweet blue shade.

So there we go, a visual guide to the last week as I saw it. I hope yours was wonderful and that you have a great weekend planned. Rain, rain, go away!

An Attitude of Gratitude

Font: Kraft Nine

I have been thinking a lot recently about how lucky I am. I know it sounds a little cheesy but I often find myself thinking about this recently. I feel like at the moment my life is so lovely I can't quite believe it, and sometimes find myself thinking "surely no-one gets to be this lucky, something must go wrong some time soon".

I know this is a crazy way to think and it is mad to find something to worry about even when things are so good, but in the mean time I think it never hurts to appreciate what you have: I am young(ish!!), strong and healthy, I have a wonderful husband who I love very much, a beautiful little baby who was concieved without any trouble or stress, a nice house to live in in an area we came to live in quite by chance but absolutely love. I have a fantastic family who mostly live relatively nearby and parents who help us so much with baby Joe, babysitting and looking after him so Dan and I can get some time to ourselves. Because Dan works from home, it means we get to spend tonnes of time together as a family, and I don't have to deal with the loneliness and isolation that lots of stay-at-home mums do. Dan helps me so much with Joe, which is great for me and great for their relationship. A few years ago I could never have believed that I would be where I am now. Somehow I have managed to get everything I ever wanted. Now if that's not a very lovely and fortunate life, I don't know what is.

Lots of people don't have half as much as we do, and plenty of people who are richer in financial terms wish they had the time and happy family situation that we have. Sometimes when we visit friends with larger houses and fancier holidays than we have it is easy to wish we were wealthier and had more, but we are so amazingly rich in time instead, and most of the people I know with more money than us have paid for it in the time they have. I don't mean to sound pollyanna-ish about things, I am very aware that these are tough times for many many people, but there is so much to be grateful for, and it is all too easy to lose sight of the good things we have.

I hope this doesn't come across as horribly smug, I really don't mean it to. One of the things I was always sure about from the outset of starting this blog is that I really want it to be positive, optimistic, creative and inspiring. This doesn't mean that in real life I am always positive or optimistic - anyone who knows me will tell you I can be as cynical and pessimistic as the next person, but that isn't something I want to put my time and energy into sharing or developing, and it isn't something I imagine many people would rush to read.

I think that cynicism and negativity are often falsely perceived as cleverer and more intellectual ways to see the world, with the idea that the optimist is simply naive and doesn't perceive the problems an pessimist can see. I don't mean to blow my own trumpet, but I am an intelligent person with a degree from one of the UKs top universities and I really strongly disagree with this idea: I find it is much more challenging to work on being positive and constructive than picking holes in things and moaning. These are often just the lazy alternative to trying to really do something, or risking failure or ridicule (which, as Adam Ant taught us, is nothing to be scared of!). In writing this blog, I am trying to work on living the most interesting life I can and being more positive, more inspired and more creative. If I can help other people do the same by sharing what I know and do then that is a wonderful thought.

This is a different kind of post to the ones I usually post, though don't worry, there will still be pretty pictures and cheerful chat again soon! I hope that maybe this post will inspire you to look at the little (and big) things you have in your life to be grateful for. And if you are currently feeling that you don't have much to be thankful for at the moment, then I hope things turn around for you soon.

My Week In Instagrams

1. Last weekend we took baby Joe to the farm shop near us, he loved seeing the chickens and rabbits they have there. It is such a great place to shop since you drive through the fields where most of their fruit and veg is grown to get to the shop. This pretty pink rhubarb caught my eye, it's one of my favourites.
2. We bought a bargain bag of carrots so I made these delicious carrot cup cakes -anything tastes great when you put cream cheese icing on top of it! The recipe is from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess if you'd like to try making them yourself.
3. I drank some of our sloe gin from last autumn with tonic and a slice of lime, delicious! I posted about how to make sole gin a while ago, read up now and get prepared for this autumn's sloe harvest.
4. Easter weekend was last weekend. This is all that remains of my chocolate bunny...
5. I love this sweet sewing box I got from an Oxfam shop in St Albans this week.
6. I met my sister for soup, sandwiches, and exciting chat about working together on some projects for this blog.
7. I was inspired by Emma who writes at Food Coma and A Beautiful Mess and posted recently about her green smoothie challenge. I tried one out myself, made with fresh spinach, frozen banana and pineapple. 
8. On Friday we took a trip to the museum in Tring. It is part of the Natural History Museum (whose main museum is in London) and its full of stuffed animals. It is an amazing place to take children: here is Joe meeting a tiger.
9. I love the pretty pastels that are so fashionable this spring. I thought I would try updating my look (!!!) with these sweet nail varnishes - a flash of fresh colour is always welcome!

So that's what my week looked like this week - very pink and green! I hope you had a great and colourful week too. Have a wonderful weekend,

Yeah, that's my sister!

Some of my favourite blogs are one where they are created by a group of friends. In particular, I am always so inspired by the way sisters Elsie and Emma work together on A Beautiful Mess. I have two younger sisters and I am really excited about hopefully getting them involved in some of my blogging projects. Today I met my sister Sarah (the middle sister) for lunch and we talked about doing some exciting blog projects in the next few months. She was also wearing a particularly nice cardigan and asked if I'd like to feature it here so I thought, why not?

Sarah and I are only 15 months apart in age so we've always been close. But I'm sure lots of you know what it's like, as you grow up and move to live in different towns, get busy jobs and busy lives (and then one of you gets married and has a baby!) it gets harder to spend time together. Sarah is trained in textiles and now teaches food technology at secondary school and works incredibly hard all through the school year. With both of our busy lives we don't get to hang out as much we used to, so I am really excited about the idea of working together on this blog as an excuse to spend more quality sister time together. Also, Sarah is really creative and has her own flat full of lovely things and rooms to photograph, things she and her talented friends have made, and a kitchen for baking tasty sisterly treats! I think it will add so much to this blog to have her involved since in some ways we are very similar, but in other ways our styles differ: Sarah is much more into a co-ordinated look while I am always a little more haphazard, and she is great at arranging things and making them look just so. You just wait, I'll show you soon!

Incidentally, how cool is her cardigan? It is fully reversible, so you can wear it with the grey side or the black side out (without having all the labels and seems sticking out!). She got it from a French Connection outlet shop near to where she lives. It is super-cute and just her style.

I know I keep saying it but I can't tell you how excited I am to collaborate with my lovely sister on some new projects, things are always more fun with two! I hope I will also be able to introduce you to our youngest sister, Rosie, soon too. Look out for some great sister posts in the next few months!

I Am Currently...

Obsessing over: Ways to tweak and improve this blog! I am so enjoying working on my blog and trying to make it the best it can be, but it seems like painting the Forth Bridge sometimes. I will have little phases of concentrating on a certain area - building Twitter followers, working on design, photography, post ideas, or building links with other bloggers - and inevitably it means that at the same time some other area of blogging is getting neglected. But on the other hand this blog's only a little baby really, I've only been working on it a couple of months so of course it will take a while to work out the best ways of doing things!

Working on: Trying to find a balance between being a good mummy and having enough time for myself (think this may be an ongoing problem...!). Everyone warns you about the guilt you feel as a mum, and its true, it can be hard to look after a baby all day, but when you get time off it can be almost as hard trying not to feel like you shouldn't be having time off. It is very strange to go from having worked in a job full time ever since graduating to being a full time mum. Looking after a baby is hard and tiring in a while different way, and it is a job you can't leave at the end of the day. I know that actually having a bit of time to myself helps me be a good mum, and gives other members of my family a chance to build their own relationships with baby Joe, but it is a challenge to leave the guilt behind sometimes.

Thinking about: How to manage my time to get everything done and give enough time to all the people I love. It is definitely a challenge, but I think I need to be stricter about the times I spend with friends and family, the time I give to working on this blog and the time I keep for myself (if there's any left!). I think giving myself clear blocks of time to work on the blog might help to stop me spending too much of my family time on the laptop. And I want enough time away from the computer to work on creative projects so I have interesting stuff to blog about! I am thinking I will have a couple of sessions a week where I take my laptop to a local coffee shop with free WiFi and work really hard on this site without any distractions, and then make sure I have some dedicated time where I put away my laptop and smart phone and have quality time with my boys too.

Anticipating: Our family holiday to Dorset at the end of this month. We are going down to the family cottage (where we spent our honeymoon). We can't wait, last time we went was nearly a year ago and Joe was only a couple of months old, this time we'll be able to have so much fun with him, playing i the garden and going to the seaside. We might even take him to Monkey World (have you been there? Its THE BEST!)


Listening to: I've been trying to keep my energy levels up and get lots of housework done by playing some 80s funk and soul, I was loving a bit of Chaka Khan recently!

Eating: The last of my Easter chocolate - its too hard to leave it alone! Think this week will be a bit of a mini detox - I felt really inspired by Emma's post on A Beautiful Mess yesterday about her 5 Day Green Smoothie Challenge, think I might get back into making breakfast smoothies, so fresh and healthy for first thing!

Wishing: I hadn't just eaten that chocolate! And that we get some sunny weather again this week, I was just getting used to the sunshine when it turned grey again. Rain, rain, go away...

A little insight into my current state of mind - clearly a few themes come through there! What are you currently up to?

PS: A confession: this is not an original post idea! I have been inspired by Dani's Currently post on her great blog Sometimes Sweet. She mentioned in her post that she was happy for other people to do their own Currently posts and I felt really inspired by her post to do just that! Please do head over and check out Sometimes Sweet, it's a lovely read.

My Week In Instagrams

1. Baby Joe and I were out early last Sunday, the supermarket car park was a ghost town, we felt like the only ones up and out!
2. How pretty are these pins I found at my Mum's?
3. We've all had a horrible cold all this week so we've been trying to self medicate with a hot toddy every evening!
4. Easter nest cakes go with Easter week like love and marriage, or a horse and carriage. Yum.
5. The main thing.
6. I went on a lovely trip to London this week, without baby Joe! Look at this totally dreamy window display at Laduree.
7. The main purpose of the trip was to see the David Hockney exhibition at the Royal Academy, which closes this week. I'm not sure if you're really allowed to take photos in there but I sneaked this one!
8. Lovely cotton prints at Liberty. If you've never been to Liberty before, I absolutely recommend it. It is the most beautiful shop in the world and sells so many pretty things, it is a London must see.
9. We took a trip to see our friends for Sunday lunch. I love how the combination of sunny weather and those clever Instagram filters can make a drive on the M1 look like a California road trip!

That's how my week looked this week. How was yours? I hope it was fantastic and that you have a wonderful Easter weekend (or Passover. Or just Bank Holiday!)

Old Friends Are Gold

Happy Friday, we survived another week! I hope it was a good one for you. As you may already know, I like to post a quotation on a Friday to give you (and me!) a little weekend inspiration. I thought this week as well as giving you a little quotation about friendship I would also dedicate this post to my dear friend Rosie. Rosie and I have been friends since school, which means we have known each other for coming close to (whisper it!) 20 years. That's a lot of tears, laughter, embarrassing stories, breakups, weddings, birthdays and babies.

She has two boys under the age of three (and a husband, and a dog!). Her youngest boy is almost exactly the same age as baby Joe - it was so fun being pregnant together last year, and has been invaluable to share the experience of our babies' first year since then, and now we are not only fellow mummies but blogging partners in crime too!

 Rosie is one of those people who really doesn't realise how amazing they are. She got a FIRST (wowza!) in business at university, then trained and worked as a professional florist, then a youth worker and now she is running an Etsy business as Rosie and The Boys selling her her paper cut artwork. As you can see from these photos, her designs are so beautiful and intricate, I really love them and am in awe of her talent and determination in developing her business and her blog.

One of the advantages of having a florist for one of your best friends is that when you get married they offer to do the flowers for you! At least, if they are Rosie they do... I absolutely loved my wedding bouquet and we had so much fun going to the flower markets early in the morning and buying all the flowers. Rosie went the extra mile gathering cow parsley from the hedgerows and honeysuckle from her own garden for the bouquets. The end result was totally dreamy and exactly what I had hoped for.

Rosie works harder than I think I would be capable of, while also raising her two adorable sons. She gives so much to her friends and family, is involved in her local community, and is one of the most moral and honourable people I have ever met. No-one deserves success in business (and life) more than her. I love the fact that I can use this blog to share Rosie's work with you, and hopefully get her wider recognition. If you would like to find out more, then hop straight on over to her blog, her Etsy shop, her Twitter account or her Facebook page. I also think it is always worth taking a moment to remember the value of true friendship, it really is rare, and precious when you find it, and something to treasure.

Have a great weekend!


PS. Not sure who originally came up with the Silver and Gold quotation, do you know?

Four Things: Songs That Remind Me Of My Sweetheart

This week's Four Things is another musical one - I didn't particularly conceive it as a music feature but hey, when the mood takes you you might as well go with it! These are four songs that remind me of my darling husband Dan. We are just coming up for our second wedding anniversary, and will have been together five years altogether this August. When I put it like that it doesn't sound long enough to have done everything that has happened - move house, get married, have a baby - but time is a funny old thing...  I am trying out a new experiment here to add playlists to my blog, hopefully this will allow you to actually hear the songs I'm talking about, and maybe even discover a new favourite of your own! Please leave a comment if this doesn't work for you, its all new to me!

1. P.P. Arnold, "The First Cut Is The Deepest": One of our first dates was when Dan took me to see P.P. Arnold at the Jazz Cafe in London. He is a big mod fan and P.P.'s association with the Small Faces makes her a mod legend. This was a great night, and PP Arnold always reminds me of the early, exciting days of our relationship.

2. Fleetwood Mac, "Need our Love So Bad": Our first dance at our wedding. I think Dan had had this picked out in his head for ages, he was always very sure that he wanted this song for our first dance. My Dad is also a huge fan of Peter Green's Fleetwood Mac so this song reminds me of lots of people I love and lots of happy times. I posted a while ago about the frames we got so that we could display the 7" single of this song on the wall.

3. McAlmont and Butler, "Yes": A real nineties classic here. This song isn't related to a particular occasion, it is just one of Dan's favourite songs, which makes him happy every time it comes on the radio. I can't hear the introduction to "Yes" without also hearing Dan saying "I LOVE this song!" and picturing his smiling face.

4. Flight of the Conchords "If You're Into It": Flight of the Conchords also played an integral part in our early relationship. It was one of the series' that we both loved and I can remember watching this video on YouTube while talking on the phone to Dan (he lived in Somerset, I lived in Hertfordshire at the time so we spent a lot of time on the phone). You can get the full experience by watching the video here. Dan had been in a mission to get tickets whenever FOTC played in London, and he always seemed to be hearing rumours on the internet about it. We did finally get to see them two weeks before our wedding and they were fantastic and so so funny, it was an amazing night (AND we saw Jonathan Ross and his family sitting not far from us, eeek!)

There are lots of others I could add that remind me of Dan - I have told him I might let him do a guest post and pick his own favourites some time. What songs remind you of your sweetheart?

My Week In Instagrams

1. The weather has been so great this week, it feels like spring has really arrived. The sunshine is so good for your mood and its been lovely to spend so much time outdoors.
2. We planted a load of seeds for our vegetable patch this week, I'll keep you updated about how they get on.
3. My lovely husband bought a big bag of onions for £1 and made them into tasty onion marmalade.
4. I saw these abandoned shoes on the street. They are so intriguing!
5. Friday night is always home made pizza night in our house. I'll post more about how we make our pizzas next week.
6. Yellow is my favourite colour, and I love the contrast of these blossoms against the clear blue sky.
7. We made pesto from the wild garlic we picked in the woods. It is great with pasta or on pizzas. I'll post about this recipe soon too!
8. Its been sunglasses weather all week, hooray!
9. How pretty are these anemones? I went for dinner at my friend's house on Wednesday and she had them in vase, the are one of my favourite flowers.

That's how the last week looked for me. How was your week? Good I hope. I hear the weather's going to get colder again next week, but I'll try not to let it let me down. Have a great weekend!

My Week In Instagrams

1. I made chocolate chip banana bread. I'll have to share the recipe for this some time, it's so delicious.

2. The primroses came out outside our front door. It feels like spring is really here now.

3. We bought some apple juice made from apples from the orchards at Shenley Park. We had this on the tables at our wedding reception.

4. I listened to some tapes from the 90s!

5. I saw this lovely mosaic in a garden wall near where my parents live.

6. All the flowers are blooming in the sunshine this week, we've had great weather.

7. This is one of my favourite views in the world, the view from the landing window at my parents' house.

8. On Sunday we went back to Shenley Park, where we had our wedding reception. The walled garden there is so beautiful, we were really lucky to find it.

9. My Mum knitted this beautiful blanket.

That's what my week looked like this week. I hope you had a good one too! Have a great weekend,

A Walk In The Woods

Yesterday we went for a walk in the woods near our house. I love the spring time when everything is green and budding. We went hunting for wild garlic, or ramsons, which are just in season now. They grow all over the woods, whole carpets of them along with the bluebells which will be coming out soon. They are easy to find because or their strong smell! We picked lots of ramsons, and had a lovely walk as well, with lots of chances for photography practice. Baby Joe had so much fun in the baby carrier, he loves being up high with the grown ups!

I'll share our ramson recipes with you soon, just as soon as we have made them!