Category Archives: Simple Living

Our everyday life: week 10

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After days of rain (most unusual here) the room we had stored our packing flooded…great start to the week ;)

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C’s first taste of lavashak

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C loves to hide toys under things and then ask you to fetch them. Of course Mama humours him!

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Hazelnuts, pre-roasting.

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Post-roast and lazily peeled. There were so many!

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C in love with his reflection…

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…and also in love with the dog!

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It was Mother’s Day in the UK on Sunday, but it’s in May in France, so technically I miss both. However, I did get a sweet little card (with some help from Papa!).

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Hazelnuts used in this birthday cake, as well as two jars of nutella (notella?)

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I think he enjoyed his birthday cake :)

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Bake

xoxo

Favourite posts this week

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:: Instant banana sorbet – looks easy and uses those very ripe bananas that lurk in the fruit bowl.

:: This looked like an amazingly sweet Camp themed birthday party.

:: Easy caramel sauce, could be a nice addition to that banana sorbet?

:: Body scrub that looks good enough to eat

:: Sweet photos, what a special moment to capture!

:: More lavender, this time to eat. Yummy.

:: Really fancy a waffle iron now after seeing these.

It’s C’s birthday on Sunday, other than celebrating that I think we are packing some more and spending some family time.

Wishing you all a happy weekend!

Bake

xoxo

Home is whenever I’m with you

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I’ve been avoiding writing this for a while now, but I guess now is the time.

We are moving. We’re going back to the UK for the short term, but we don’t know how long for.

Plans are funny. You make them, then you live them, and for whatever reason (and sure, there are many) things just don’t happen as you expected.

So we are off in just over two weeks (urgh packing!)

We’ll keep you updated on what we are up to.

For now, this is keeping us going:

Bake

xoxo

Our everyday life: week 6/7/8

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We are back from the UK! As I suspected, we were busy bees.

Here’s what we have been up to:

Our luggage – with several kgs free!

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M25 traffic – we have not missed you.

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Day 1 – granola and coffee at Pret

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Baby’s new hiding place ;)

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Making cottage pies for my friends with a gorgeous new baby

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Our nephew’s 4th birthday celebration – so many cakes!

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Baby’s first balloon! Love at first sight :)

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Baby spent hours playing with this kitchen, trying to eat all sorts of (wooden/plastic) foods

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They sure do! So much lovely family time these past few weeks

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Baby’s second balloon experience – penguin style

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Snow!

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It didn’t last long enough to play in…

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Friends with babies = dinner with wine :)

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Ottolenghi’s – should could have bought one of everything…

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Industrial Whole Foods - had a very good hot chocolate here…

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…surrounded by babies, buggies and yummy mummys

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2 of our Ottolenghi purchases, squished :( Delicious lemon, pistachio polenta cake and a white chocolate raspberry tart. Not picture (already eaten!) banana toffee tea cake.

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Perfection!

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Peek-a-boo!

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Apparently we don’t enjoy the taste of mud…

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…and we wonder why Daddy put us in the basket

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No one listening to the bedtime story

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A rare treat – we went out together, just the two of us (!!), to watch the stars

I accidentally annoyed all these people by taking this photo with flash – oops…

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Bake

xoxo

Travelling tales

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Tomorrow we fly to the UK for two weeks to visit friends and family.

We decided not to pay for the luxury of taking a suitcase, so what you see above needs to fit into our hand luggage.

HELP!

Not pictured: toiletries (will have to be minimal), laptop, kindle, passports. Hopefully that’s it.

Wish us luck. Oh, and any tips for flying with an 11 month old would be appreciated…

Will try and keep up with posting but if it’s quiet here you know we are having too much fun :)

Some more travelling tales for you to enjoy. 

Bake

xoxo

Our everyday life: week 5

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The only place poor cat can have some peace (i.e. baby can’t reach her)

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Favourite book this month – thank you dear Godparents. 

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Nappy free afternoon – I can’t get enough of those thighs!

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Very lazy dinner. Bread in proving basket, salad still in spinner!

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Delicious sorbet, possibly made me drunk…

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Raspberry & White Chocolate Cheesecake for my step-dad. It’s lethal!

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 Favourite snack this week, a lemon! Tears in his eyes because we tried to take it away…

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Bake

xoxo

Favourite posts this week

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I’m sorry I missed this last week, but we had our friends here and I was too disorganised to arrange in advance…

:: I am slightly in awe of this woman – wow. Ok, I love her.

:: Brownie sandwich cookies? Amazing! I might even just make them as cookies.

:: Pudding! Butterscotch flavoured! With bananas! Rum too!

:: As a chartered accountant (apparently ;) ) this news made me happy!

:: The planner in me (I love lists!) is fascinated by Dana’s take on dinner party planning.

:: We had some nappy free time this week (thanks nappy rash) but couldn’t say we would be able to go the whole way like these guys. So impressive! Maybe with baby#2, whenever that may be!

:: How many slaves work for you? I have 37 apparently, mainly due to kids toys. Only second hand/fair trade for this boy from us, though.

:: Since he was given a macaron last week, I have been thinking about sugar free treats for our boy. These lemon and coconut bars might work?

:: These photographs are really stunning. I’d love someone to make me those tarts.

Wishing you all a lovely weekend

Bake

xoxo

Right now

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:: learning an awful lot about nutrition thanks to my latest Coursera course

:: tracking my food drink intake as part of the course – insightful!

:: excited to visit the UK next week and meet a sweet baby girl

:: wishing our boy wasn’t poorly and would have a nap today…

:: eating far less than this past weekend. Dear friends from London visited and we sure ate (and drank!) more than usual :)

:: crying whilst watching Parenthood. New to me, but I just can’t stop watching.

:: peeling hundreds of carrots, baby’s latest food obsession

:: staring at a rock that I thought was a toad. I need coffee.

Our everyday life: week 4

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A very foggy walk

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Teddy bear tea party (lasted about 10 seconds)

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Making Ottolenghi’s slow cooked veal – delicious! 

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Ice cream AND macarons on a lunch date out – just what I wanted. 

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Baby’s first sugar…a  gift from his favourite waitress!

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Playing tourist with our dear friends from the UK

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Someone watching over the graveyard

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Raining by the river, not quite the same as in the summer

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House light at the end of the tunnel

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Our view of the Pyrenees

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Raclette night – far too much food (and wine!) consumed this weekend 

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Favourite posts this week

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:: Salted caramel flapjacks and Vinegar cake recipes from The Guardian. I like the sound of a wine and date cake, having also seen a red wine fig cake this week. I shall let you know if/when I give it a go.

:: These cacao nib pancakes sound delicious, especially with coffee syrup. Hello Saturday morning treat :)

:: I hope in time I work out how I want to spend my days, post baby-raising. This post about being a “mompreneur” made me feel more positive!

:: A lesson in juicing. We try not to have too many kitchen gadgets, but maybe a juicer…?

:: Love the photos of this beautiful beetroot soup. I’m sure it tastes delicious too.

:: I’ve only made polenta once and I can’t say we were amazed by it. Joy’s recipe could change our opinion.

:: How to make chocolate bars. So simple, so pretty.

:: Less than a month until Valentine’s Day! Feeling crafty? These magnets are adorable, make them any time of year :)

:: Two lovely mom bloggers, one appropriate (to me) quote: “Comparison is the thief of joy. Just enjoy every moment and don’t compare it to what you expected or what it seems like others experiences are.” Ah, so true right now.

Check out the rest of the interview here.

:: Really enjoying this series on Parents Who Cook, especially when one of my favourite bloggers is featured. Some great advice in there.

:: An alternative to my lemon shortbread, how about something raw with Vanilla and Walnut?

:: Coconut hot chocolate? Perfect for these snowy days and nights.

:: So looking forward to our little guy being old enough to play games with. Shake and I play cards together a lot, but Soulemama has inspired me to look out for board games for my boys.

:: Yet another recipe that makes me want to make my own yoghurt! mustmustmust do it someday soon, especially given the amount our boy is eating these days :)