A pocket of my life

Over the Christmas holidays from school I love to keep Lils entertained with a lot of baking,  we usually share our makes with family and friends. This time we have added a very yummy recipe to the list which is Peppermint creams, these were one of my Mums favourite sweets so will now be a tradition to make them in memory of her. This recipe only has 4 ingredients and is so easy to make and requires no baking.  Recipe 400g Icing sugar 1 egg White Juice of half a lemon 1/2 tsp Peppermint extract  Method 1. Beat egg until a foam appears on top.  2. Add a small amount of lemon and mix.  3. Add the icing sugar and stir to form a dough.  4. Add the peppermint extract and stir into the dough 5. Roll the dough out on an icing sugared surface to about the thickness of £1 6. Cut out shapes and place on a tray.  7. Put in the fridge to set.  These are so good and go down a treat after dinner but just a warning that they are though very sweet. I hope you enj...

This year I have really struggled to find new ideas for the elf and Olivia is fully invested this year. She has been making it her missions to find Ellie every morning before school.  1. Toilet roll snow man - This one is a simple one to do, I used an eye liner for the coal parts (eyes, smile and buttons) then a light red lipstick for the carrot. 2 rolls for the bottom part fits the elf perfectly and slot one on the head to finish the look. 2. Dad's fart - This was one that made Olivia laugh, she was able to read the note this year. We hide the elf in a pint class with her hand over her nose, a note explaining why and a can of air freshener on the side too. Such a quick one to do. 3. All toasty warm - Perfect for a frosty cold night, one slice of toast with some arm and leg holes cut out to make a blanket. I used an apple cover to cut these out as it seems to be the perfect size for that. Another small note from the elf too to finish the look. 4. Poo on the mirror - Oli...

Christmas time is the perfect time to slide into a festive story and take your mind of the pressure for a bit. My book of choice this year is One Perfect Christmas and other stories by Paige Toon. The first story is a novella of another book called One Perfect Summer.  The story starts with and girl called Alice getting ready for her uni friends wedding, and is set in Cambridge. Each character is introduced with a small backstory making you familiar with them quickly.  We eventually meet Joe, Alice's love interest and a huge movie star. They have managed to keep there relationship under wraps but Alice's wonders how long she can keep her normal life before it becomes unravelled. From the first sentence you are sucked into the story, Paige adds so much detail so you feel like you are there. ★★★★★   Victoria x

These cupcakes are so delicious and simple to make, you only need a few ingredients and take 30 minutes. to make and cook. This mixture made 16 - 20 cupcakes. Ingredients Eggs - 3 Medium Eggs Marge - Weight of Eggs in oz Sugar - Weight of Eggs in oz Flour - Weight of eggs minus 2oz Drinking Chocolate - 2oz to make up the flour Chocolate frosting Red m&m's or smarties curly wurly bits Edible eyes Method 1. Preheat your oven to 180oC / Gas mark 5 2. Cream the sugar and marge together until it resembles whipped cream. 3. Add 1 egg at a time, if starts to curdle add a small amount of the flour. 4. Once all eggs are mixed in slowly sift in the flour and drinking chocolate and slowly mix. 5. Separate your mixture into cupcake cases evenly and place in the oven for 15-20 minutes, until springy to touch. Once cooked and cooled its time to get decorating: 1. spread your chocolate frosting evenly over the cakes. 2. Add your eyes and nose to the cakes 3. push your curly wurly ...

Every story holds a memory of years gone by and I absolutely love to tell and retell these stories as my children grow. This is just a selection of Christmas/festive books that we have but these are also our favourite ones too. The dinosaur that pooped a reindeer - This story just makes us laugh and adds to our dino that pooped collection.  Kevin and Katie's Christmas adventure - We have many of the Kevin and Katie stories from over the year thay we love to read.  Santa comes to Hastings - A special one for me, my Mum brought this for Lilly and it always brings back a moment in time. Squirrels Snowman - We love a bit of Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler in this house so this is a story we enjoy.  Mogs Christmas calamity - This is a bit odd but I love that it shows that Christmas isn't about it being perfect but about who you spend it with. The Snowman - A classic story that we love both in book version and film. Betty and the Yeti - A lovely story if not judg...

So here I am trying out blogmas. I do vlogmas over on my YouTube and would love to grow my blog too so I will be blogging every other day on here and hopefully I don't miss a day. I hope that you enjoy my content over the next 25 days leading up to the big day and would love you to give me a comment below on any. We have a tradition in our house now which is to make our annual Christmas cake, its something that is important to me, to make memories with the children and teach them how to cook some yummy Christmas treats, something that they can pass on if they have families of there own. This Christmas cake is a 6 inch round cake which works for our family as its just me and Lilly that eats it so far. I love the decorating of the cake too, this is the main part that Lilly loves as she gets some of the leftover icing and marzipan. I'm not going to lie, its not the easiest bake but its well worth it if you like Christmas cake, and its rewarding when its done. My Recipe...

Another show ticked off for 2024, this time one of my favourite and one we can all enjoy, a Panto. This year local pantomime was Peter Pan at the White rock theatre. This years celebs are Emily steel, AKA Dynamite from Gladiators plays Wendy and our Tinkerbell was portrayed by Alexandra Mardell who plays Emma in Corination Street. Both ladies were brilliant and both had great singing voices too. We also had to familiar faces in the Hastings Panto of Ben Watson and Tim Mcarthur who return every and have amazing repore between each other and the audience. The show had all the classic panto moments with lots of audience participation such as 'oh yes it is, oh no it's not' and 'it's behind you' along with the pie in the face a d tongue twisters.  The songs were all on trend and worked well with the story and were all sung with passion, the dancers were brilliant too and filled the stage with colour and fun. The story was a little different this time as i...

What a festive, beautiful afternoon on a hunt for The Snowman. We took a drive out to Sheffield park in Sussex where they have a beautiful event celebrating the beautiful stories written by Raymond Briggs. The walk around the enchanting gardens involved finding 12 decorated sculptures along with some painted boards with the characters and parts from The Snowman and activities along the way, such as snowball target practice and making music. Whilst walking around the trail you are treated to some of the music from the films making it feel like you are fully immersed in the story. With loads of photo opportunities to including a sleigh and decorated trees, you can treasure the memories for years to come. We were very lucky to be able to have met The Snowman too, he is at the event on the 21st of December. It was honestly the best event I've been too and definitely brought me back to my childhood, the girls loved it too.

Buying for a 4 year old for Christmas is so much fun. She is fully into everything right now and is such a grateful little girl. Ken doll Polly pocket Wooden food Wooden hairdress belt Bath letters Vet costume   Gruffalo garden set Lenovo tablet She loves everything and has been loving using her Ken in her Barbie house from Santa. This year was the first year that she fully understood it all and have loved pretty much every second, down to the eating lots of treats and picky dinners. Victoria xa

 It's probably no secret that me and Lilly love a good karaoke session in the car and it doesn't get any quieter over Christmas, Lilly absolutely loves all the holidays and takes any chance that she can to celebrate and belting out Christmas songs is her favourite.  I too am a lover of the Christmas songs and I for one can't wait for them to come on the radio and have them blaring out much to Liam's dismay.  Each song mentioned makes me feel so festive, some are more emotionally attached to me than others, like my number 10, this was one of my Mum's favourites and I do love a bit of David Bowie. Others bring back amazing memories like number 6. We have been loving having kitchen discos to these songs. Slade - Merry Xmas everyone Elton John - Step into Christmas Lady Antebellum - A holly jolly Christmas Arianna Grande - Santa tell me Michael Buble - Christmas (Baby please come home) Darkness - Christmas time (Don't let the bells end) Mariah Carey - Al...

  We are moving house!  We have lived in our current flat for just over 12 years, it has been the only home that both the girls have every really known and this makes me emotional but I am excited for the next chapter. At the beginning of last month we got a house viewing and absoloutly loved the house so put an offer in for rent, we were told that he had a difficult choice to make as there had been a lot of interest in the place. A couple of days went by and we got a phonecall offering us the house which I still can't believe. fast forward a week and the references were going through and the deposit was being paid, then it was time to get boxes for packing. This has been the most stressful part I think as our house has just been a constant mess of boxes, charity bags and rubbish bags as we have had a huge clearout at the same time.  We have booked a moving company to help as Liam's mates all work and we didn't want them using there holiday to help us, so we have had to l...

Welcome to Blogmas, here I start with my November recap a couple of days late. With Blogmas I will be posting every other day, mostly festive content. November has been a long one, we have had so much going on behind the scenes and it has been mentally exhausting but this is the start of a new chapter. So if you watch my YouTube you will know that we are moving, we have been working through all the preperation of moving through this whole month and it has been ridiculously stressful but it will be worth it in the end. I will so a seperate post on moving as I want to be able to look back at it myself.  The first part of the month was quite quiet with just working and normal Mum life, we did take a trip to the park with Dad and Angie and had some yummy chips and a warming drink, the girls ran around and we fed the ducks too, it was just what we needed and I appreciate any time with my Dad. The middle of the month has been full of sickness bugs and Olivis had her second bo...

This year has been so much harder to find things for Lilly, she is now at the age where she still likes certain toys but is slowly loosing the love of playing with toys per say. She is into Harry Potter which has given us a few options and I am loving that fact that I can find things that will grow with her   Harry Potter doll We have had this for a while now and its something that she can use with her barbies and that she can imagine so many different stories. Amazon £7.49 Harry Potter LEGO Switch game For her 10th birthday she got a switch console and I thought that this would be a great game for her to enjoy, she loves LEGO and Harry Potter so mix them together and you have the perfect mix of a game for her. Amazon £19.99 Disney PJ's  These are just a must for Christmas, some new cosy pajamas which will be well worn, I was intending one getting some Stitch ones but they had sold out the next best were some Disney ones. Primark £8 Airbrush tattoo kit Me and Liam thought...

Olivia really has gotten into playing lately, with role play and taking everything in, its been amazing to look for different things that I know she will love to play with. She has been pretty easy to buy for unlike her elder sister and I would like to share what we have picked up for her.  Peppa magnet scribbler board This one on of the first things that I picked up, Olivia absolutely loves Peppa pig and loves drawing too, I thought that this would be great in the car or to take out with us to keep her amused. Amazon £8.99 Bath toy I would say Olivia's favourite time of day is bath time, she could spend all day in there if possible, this is something that I think that she will get a lot of enjoyment out of it with lots of different ways the water flows. Amazon £14.99 Disney PJ's Fluffy pajamas are a winner in my book, I love them and so do my girls. These are always great as they get used, I decided to go for Disney pajamas so her and her sister can have similar pj's. Prim...

Today I wanted to share some of the books that I will hopefully enjoying with my toddler this year, I have picked four books that I believe are great stories for the little ones to enjoy over the festive period. The Dinosaur that pooped Christmas  This is a great story and a funny one too, it involves dinosaurs and poo which is definitely one way to get the attention of a toddler, we love all the versions of the dinosaur that pooped books and this one hopefully be one that Olivia loves to hear. £4  3-7 years recommendation  The Snowman This story is a classic and one that I cannot wait to share with Olivia, we always watch the film on Christmas eve as its something that I did when I was young. I believe it is so important to keep traditions like that in the family. £6.99 5-11 years recommendation Bella gets her skates on This has been one of my favourite stories to read Lilly over the years and I can't wait to share the adventure with Olivia, this story has a great messag...

I'm not the best are picking items for myself for Christmas, I don't really like money being spent on me as I always want to treat everyone else, but I have come up with a few items that I think maybe helpful for some out there. I have tried to be mindful of budget as this year isn't great for people. Book I do love a good book and I normally put at least one on my list, this years pick is 'Tom Felton Beyond the Wand', I am a huge Harry Potter fan and would love to know more about the actors. Obviously there are many types of books to choose from such as romance, biography's, crime and many books based around TV shows and films.  A great place to find second hand books is the World of Books on eBay. Slippers/Lounge wear Slippers are always a great gift for many as they are things you don't normally buy yourself, they come in so many different styles now so are sure to fit someone you know. If that fails lounge wear is a good one, pajamas or onesies are alway...

 Lilly has been so difficult to but for this year, she is getting to the age where a lot of toys aren't her thing any more, she is getting more interested in make up and room decor. I think that we have done well considering and have taken all her ideas into consideration. I am excited but nervous to see what she thinks, I know that she will be grateful for everything but its every parents dream to make Christmas as special as possible. 1. Chad valley Be u colour changing light set - Argos This set includes 2 different lights that you can design yourself. This is something that I think she will absolutely love, she is so creative and likes to design things, it was brought in the sale and I just couldn't resist it. 2. LOL surprise OMG remix doll - Amazon Lils, as I am sure many other girls have, has asked for LOL items including there really overpriced chalet. she also loves barbies to so to combine the two we have gone for OMG version, it comes with 25 accessories...

 It's getting close to the big day now, and I for one am so excited, this year Olivia seems be to taking so much in. I wanted to share with you all what I have gotten for Olivia, her age is a little awkward to buy for but I think that I have a good variety.  I have tried to be as equal as possible with both girls as I believe that it is important for it to be fair. 1. Orchard toy Farmyards heads and tails game  - Amazon This was brought many months ago during Amazon Prime day, I love the idea of having educational games ready for when she is. This seemed like quite a good one for learning the idea of puzzles and also learning the sounds and names of animals from the farm. 2. MerryXGift water doodle mat - Amazon This again was a purchase through Amazon Prime day, Olivia has really gotten into her drawing and scribbling, this will be great to get out so that we can have some mess free drawing time together. It also comes with some stencils and stamps too which ...

From the 1st of  December the Christmas films go on, me and Lil's are huge fans of these and we spend many evenings and weekends delving into chocolate treats and cuddling up watching them. I thought I would share my top five with you, and i am telling you this isn't an easy choice to pick just 5. 5. Santa Claus the Movie This one is a little sentimental to me, it was one of my Mums favourites, I remember that this was the main one I watched as a child. The film itself is a lovely one and brings the magic of Santa to life, the song at the end always brings me to tears now but it just brings back the magic in me. 4. The Polar Express I think this may be Lilly's favourite as this is normally the first one she asks for, and I must admit that I love it too. Its one of those films that makes you feel warm and cosy and want to enjoy a hot chocolate with them on the train. The music in the films just makes it even more perfect. 3. Santa Claus 1 I love all three in the Santa Claus ...

Another day, another post, today I thought that I would complete the Christmas tag so you can get to know me a little better. Christmas is one of my favourite times of year and I feel like its important for the family too. 1. What is your favourite Christmas film? I am a sucker for anything festive, I love the corny films like 'Nativity', romantics ones like 'Love actually' and 'The Holiday' and the classic ones too but my favourite has to be 'Home alone' it just calls out to me every year and makes me feel really festive.  2. Have you ever had a while Christmas? I don't think that I have experienced a white Christmas, our snow normally comes in mid January to mid February. I do wish that one day we did have a snowy Christmas day. 3. Where do you usually spend your holiday? Normally we spend the morning at home with some family time, opening presents and building them too and later we visit family, last year of course we were home the who...