pumpkin?

Today I bought a pumpkin. I had no idea what to look for in a pumpkin and there were three different sizes on offer along with this 'culinary' pumpkin. I hope I chose a good one!

You may remember I blogged about my autumn bucket list back in September (you can read that post here) and as part of the list I wanted to roast pumpkin seeds and make pumpkin pancakes well I really want to get maximum use out of this vegetable fruit so have been looking up some other ideas.

How yummy do these four things look? Find the pumpkin spiced latte recipe here, the pumpkin spice donuts here, the pumpkin and goats cheese pies here and the sausage and pumpkin roast here.

 

I have no idea if I'll end up making any of these recipes but don't they look great? Do you have any recipes you could share? I'll let you know what I do with my pumpkin and how the the roasted seeds and pancakes turn out.

 

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Oh! And also... how awesome do these decorated pumpkins look? We're not into Hallowe'en but these pumpkins look so pretty I may just have to have a go.

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our boy is six months.

how cute are those pudgy arms?!

Harry is now six months. Here's a round up of his royal loveliness...

He loves:

♥ swimming. We have had swimming lessons since he was 8 weeks and he can now swim a short way underwater between mumma and daddy. it is so cool.

♥ pulling hair. Grabbing mumma's hair is probably one of his most favourite things to do. Mine not so much.

♥ singing. We sing to him a lot. Daddy often plays guitar and sings which he is fascinated by but I tend to stick to good old fashioned nursery rhymes. Twinkle twinkle little star is always bound to raise a smile.

♥ watching Honey dog. He follows her around the room with his eyes and loves stroking her.

♥ playing peekaboo. Around the highchair. With the muslin. Behind your hands. He loves it.

He can:

★ eat food. His favourite thing seems to change every day but give him wholewheat toast and fromage frais and he is happy.

★ sit up. He is a bit wobbly even more so if you're not sitting with him but finally he can hold his back straight and play with a toy while sitting.
★ go through the night without food. Occasionally he does need feeding a 2am but most nights he goes through. Although we do still have to get up to him a couple of times a night.

★ wiggle and wriggle forwards and backwards. During the day when he's on the floor he seems to only go backwards but at night even when we start him with his feet at the bottom of the cot he works his way up towards the top.

★ stand up. If you hold him he wobbles a bit but loves to use his feet.

Being a mumma and getting to spend time with this boy is such a privilege. He is lovely and is changing at such a rapid rate it's hard to keep up with him. I just can't wait to see what he can do in this next month.

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baptism bunting.

Today we bought supplies for Harry's baptism bunting. He is being baptised November 4th and we are so excited. The chance to welcome him into our church family and into his life with Jesus with all our friends and family watching just makes me happy.

I want to make the occasion super special. Yeah he won't remember it. But to us this is such a special day and when we look back at photos, I want to be able to see feel how much joy there was. We definitely don't need bunting for this. It would be joyful if there was only 3 people and in a field. But I am excited for the chance to celebrate this event in our baby's life and a celebration for me must have bunting (&cake!).

I'll let you know how it turns out.

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the list.

 

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I love this new Muse song. Have you heard it? You probably have as it's played a lot on the radio. Not being a big fan of muse, yeah I like some of the classics and saw them play a great show at Leeds years ago, I was surprised but I think it's because this feels like a different style of song to me and I love it.

Before the first time I heard it, Matt and I were talking and he was telling me he thought it sounded a lot like another band. Anyone else thinking this? Well after listening to it, I was struck with how like Queen it sounds (Brian May stylee solo anyone?). 

I am a big fan of Queen. I grew listening to pretty much nothing but Queen as my parents were [big] fans. Although that being said they once had the opportunity to go and see them live but turned it down. Can you believe that? As in, said nah, I don't think so. 

I am particularly affronted by this as Queen are on my list of bands I must would love to see before I meet my maker and I definitely don't have the opportunity to ever see them. GUTTED. Especially gutted as they are one of only a few bands left I haven't seen.

Who's on your list?

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tutorial: ribbon toy

 

I don't know about you other mummas but I'm always trying to find new things for Harry to do or play with. Whilst at mumma and baby group a couple of weeks back Harry was rather taken with a simple ribbon toy and instead of searching and buying one I thought to myself, I could probably make one of those and so that's what I did.

It's a pretty simple plaything which I have imaginatively called a 'ribbon toy' but Harry loves it. He chews it, sucks it, chews it, twists it around his fingers, chews it, puts it on his arm, chews it, and loves being tickled with it and being inspired by many other mummy bloggers I thought I'd include a tutorial even though it is a really simple to make toy.

For this toy:

1. different lengths of colourful ribbon. Be aware of the lengths of ribbon! (Too long could wrap around the neck!) 

2. a plastic hoop. When I bought this I was in a craft shop and looking for an embroidery hoop (not for this job) but came across this in a bargain bin. Ask in your local craft shop.

3. matches.

 

Begin by taking each ribbon and threading it through the hoop. Tie a double knot to secure it to the hoop.

I made sure I had equal length of ribbon each side but you don't have to.

 

Once you have threaded all the ribbon through you need to stop each end from fraying. You can use a match for this.

Hold the match close to but not on the end of the ribbon. You will see it begin to melt. Do this until the end is sealed. You should feel a ridge when you pull on the end and there will be no loose threads.

WARNING: the end of the ribbon will be sticky like wax for a few seconds so be careful where you place it.

 And there you have it. I told you it was very simple!

I'll leave you with a few photos of my baby enjoying it!

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back to work.

Well here we are in October. Seriously where did this year go? I feel like I blinked and 8 months just flashed by. It seems like just yesterday I started my maternity leave (and this blog) and whenever people asked me about work I would nonchalantly say "Yeah, I go back in November" as if it was forever away but now it's next month. NEXT MONTH.

I love being at home with my baby. I think I could quite happily be a stay at home mumma (SAHM). But I can't. I need to work for two reasons.

For my family&For me.

To continue living in our beautiful home and enjoying our life I need to work. So we can eat good food, have family swimming time, buy Harry things, I have to continue earning. Money doesn't grow on trees now does it?!

But also, I need to still be me. Harriet will always be a teacher and will always love teaching. To stop would be difficult. It's my calling and I tried to run away from it once before and it didn't work. God well and truly swung every door wide open for me to enter this career and I firmly believe it's part of his plan for me to return.

Yeah it will be hard. The thought of leaving my baby as he's just getting up and coming home an hour before he goes to bed 3 days a week breaks my heart. But I know I'm always going to be his mumma and he will always need me whether I'm home or at work.

So for now. Back to work I go.

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photo a day.

I made an autumn bucket list and blogged about it here. Part of that is taking part in the photo a day challenge which is always circulating on instagram and this is the one I am going to take part in. 

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 Of course, taking a photo a day is about showing your creativity and sharing your life (if you choose to share the photos online) with others so choosing your own photo each day is a great option however I am not so creative and finding a photo to take everyday would probably not go well, you'd probably end up seeing 31 pictures of my dinner which would [probably] turn out less interesting!

I haven't blogged much recently. I have started a few posts but never finished them or felt that they were right to post and for this I have felt guilty at times. But then yesterday I was talking to a friend and was reminded that I started this for fun and to serve as a memory of our lives and so shouldn't allow it to become a burden. So, that being said, if I don't blog for a few weeks days, I'm going to forgive myself. I hope you will too.