Happy Mother's Day (UK)

Happy Mother's Day!

Mother's Day differs around the world.  Here in UK it usually falls in March and before Easter.  Some countries have Mother's Day on the second Sunday in May - no idea why there is a difference in dates.

Anyway, thought I'd take this opportunity to share with you both my babies...

We had an addition to our "Leaf Family" on 21st Februrary.  Chung was born at 2:10pm at a weight of 3.080kg (6lb 12.5oz).  He was 6 days early and was considerably lighter than his big brother when he was born.

Now I REALLY have my hands full! :p

Happy Mother's Day to you all Xxxx

Sew Crazy - Reusable Groceries Bag

Strong padded handles - no cutting into hands

I haven't blogged for two weeks!  It's not through lack of material.  I could tell you about the Peach Upside-Down Cake that I've baked (TWICE!) and not shown you; or the Cherry Cake that I baked last week 'cos that is what I fancied; the Christmas cake that I baked and fed with brandy as a cake order for a work colleague and even the Hakka Dumpling (? not really sure what they would be called in English) with the shredded white radish filling that my mum made....

There is always so much I want to do...to make...to bake...  Even though I'm still on Maternity Leave, it's hard finding time to do these things.  I stay up rather late to do Minh's 1st night feed at around 1am, so inevitably I sleep in (where I can) until around 9:30am - 10:00 if we don't need to be anywhere that morning.  Still, that leaves me part of a morning and an afternoon before the evening sets in and I need to think about making the evening meal.  Time flies extremely quickly when you're a mum.  I only manage to slot in little snippets of time to myself in between Minh's naps.  These days he's spending more time awake and wants entertainment.  When he was younger, it was more frequent feeds, now he can go four hours, sometimes five but he's not always sleeping in between these feeds.  Sometimes it's the time when I think "Right!  Better get fed myself.  Or, let's do the washing up."  It can be a weary task but you are paid back in sweet smiles and chuckles of laughter that take your grumpiness away.

After dusting down the sewing machine to finish the baby quilt for our niece, I set to work on my first bag.  I've been following Lisa Lam's blog - U-Handblog for a little while now and have bookmarked some projects to make.  I even splurged on some wonderful goodies from her online shop in the Summer with the intention of making something before the baby arrived.  I thought I might get bored waiting you see - no chance of that!

I was pleased to complete this for my mum on Monday.....

Plenty of room for your shopping

Handy trolley token

It's one of Lisa's designs for a reusable groceries bag but I made mine with a square base opposed to her curved gusset.  I figured it'd be easier to sew and the shopping might stand up better in the bottom of the bag.  I used thick cotton fabric - I think it's probably curtain material so I should've made the bag cosy a bit bigger.  I also included a supermarket trolley coin - I hate it when I need a coin to get the trolley from the trolley park and I've run out of £1 coins!  These trolley tokens do just the job.

It was simply to put together even for a total newbie like me - her instructions are clear and plenty of photos to show you the steps.  I've got quite a few of her bags bookmarked to make all I need is the peace to do them!

Baking Frenzy

Not been up to much of late - spending far too much time facebooking, blog hopping and chatting on mother and baby forums!  Oh dear!  I do feel I ought to be using my time more constructively!

Anyway, on my blog hopping travels I was inspired to do some baking - maybe blog hopping all day isn't so bad after all! ;0)  Hearty Bakes is a new blogger that I have come across and I have attempted to recreate some of her blogged successes to share with my work colleagues.  The first cake I made was Lemony Butter Cake.  I followed the recipe more or less to the T.  Only difference was I used the grated zest of a whole lemon and used the squeezed juice from half of it.  The yoghurt I used was a low-fat organic Mango and Passion fruit one, but I guess it's personal preference.  I interpreted 5tbs of ground almonds as being 125g of ground almonds. 

The result was a beautiful loaf cake, well risen with a slightly cracked crust but on cooling, the dome does go down slightly.  The cake was wonderfully lemony and had a slight sharpness from the yoghurt and lemon juice which I thought made it quite refreshing.  The ground almonds and yoghurt make the cake slightly dense yet moist.  I saved half this cake for my hubbs and the rest I took in to visit my work colleagues with (I have finished work due to starting maternity leave).

The other creation I baked was Fruit Pastry Cake.  I think this cake has been doing the rounds on people's blogs for a couple of years now.  My version closely follows this recipe from Baking Mum.  I didn't use as much fruit as Baking Mum but used around 70g each of the following which I had at home, ripe peach, cherries (sliced in half and pip removed) and raspberries.  I decided to make this in a square tin for ease of portioning later.  It looks beautiful before and after cooking and so easy to make!  I didn't bother with the citrus zest in this cake and just added vanilla essence.  I would definitely increase the quantity of fruit though but would struggle to find room on the cake surface to put them?!  Maybe cut the fruit into bigger pieces?

Despite my criticisms of my own baking, the cakes were well received at work!  It was nice to pop in and say "Hello!"  I have even had a colleague mention that their favourite cake was the light and airy cake with fruit and cream that I made.  Thinking back on it they mean this one.  I made this orange flavoured chiffon for my manager's birthday and it is a time-consuming one to make too!  Hmm....that's a special occasion cake - too fancy to knock up for saying "Hello!".

Start of a year long holiday....

W-e-l-l...I doubt if it really will be a relaxing and refreshing holiday at all!  More like time away from the money-earning aspect of my adult life.

Friday was my last working day for a while.  12 months at least.  I am currently on 2 week annual leave before I officially start my Maternity Leave.  As I won't be returning to the office after annual leave, it means it was my last working day.  It was a busy one too!  One colleague was away on their annual leave, another was off-sick and not having any relief staff to cover absences meant we struggled with the busy workload that Friday brings.  Coupled with the fact that month end and start are our busiest times too it was an exhausting day!

We had an evening of fun to look forward to though.  Had I not been so tired after work these days I would have made a cake to indulge my colleagues with - but as it was I've been trying to put feet up in the evenings to alleviate my puffy ankles and swollen feet (no joy there though).

We went to a Chinese restaurant with an 'All-You-Can-Buffet' - the price was extremely reasonable at £12 a head.  There was sufficient choice and as with most places, some dishes well prepared, others you would quite happily live without sampling.  The main reason for going there was the evening entertainment on Fridays.  There is a DJ that organises a karaoke evening which I was looking forward too!  The venue is spacious and managed to accommodate a child's birthday party, another party (adult's birthday?  have no idea what the occasion was) as well as my leaving party.  There still were other tables available for other guests and was not dominated by the groups.

I had a great time and I think so did my colleagues - I made up some party bags for fun which had party poppers, games, balloons, sweets, chocolate and squawkers in them.  I think we made more mess than the kids table!

So, I've time off to relax, enjoy some sun and to mentally prepare for our biggest change in our lives - PARENTHOOD!  At the moment, the realisation fills me with fear and dread, but am glad that I have the time to try and relax about the birthing process and get myself focused and ready.

So, hang on in there Junior!  Let mummy enjoy her last 4.5 weeks of free time before you say "Hello!".