What I Ate Wednesday {31.12.14}

Happy New Year's Eve!

Here's what I ate on the last day of the year:

 Breakfast was the same as always - porridge with almond milk, 1/2 banana, blueberries and cinnamon along with a black coffee and lots of water. We are running out of bananas at a ridiculous rate...it seems both Emilia & Eduardo have developed quite the taste for them so it looks like I'm going to have to start buying two bunches every week as it's only Wednesday and we're already out!

Lunch was a sesame bagel toastie with cheddar cheese & organic green pesto. This was SO yummy! We came up with this recipe as a back-up when we ran out of ham one day, and have fallen in love. I also had a few cherry tomatoes & slices of cucumber while waiting for this to toast which aren't pictured!

After the children go down for their nap I always have a cup of coffee...it's become something I look forward to everyday! I love it :) My favourite Nespresso capsule is still Fortissio Lungo.

After Emilia & Eduardo wake up they always have a snack so I joined them with some red grapes and strawberry Fruitopolis (I literally cannot stop eating these...I'm addicted!).

We got Prezzo for dinner! Being that it was New Year's Eve we decided to treat ourselves and this is probably my favourite place to get take-out from. It's restaurant food so it's not like your typical fast food takeaway! I always get the king prawn spaghetti which is made with red chilis so it's hot & spicy which I love!

We felt it was important to end the year on a sweet note so we finished the night off with this decadent honeycomb cheesecake (and a coffee). Jonathan thought this was too sweet for him but as I'm basically a sugar junkie it was perfect for me! (I should tell you that Jonathan's the kind of weirdo that eats the "cheese" bit of a cheesecake & leaves the biscuit base, I mean WHO does that?!?! It's the best part!)

So those were my eats from the last day of 2014! I also drank 2L of water which I'm pretty proud of! Thank you all so much for reading & supporting my blog over the past year...here's to a lot more What I Ate Wednesdays in 2015! :)

Beauty Tuesday: Current Favourite Lip Combo!

I realise I stopped doing monthly favourites posts a while back...the reason for this was simply because I do not feel like I buy enough beauty products to warrant a blog post every month! But now & then when I do come across something that I like I always do my best to share it with you all. Here is my most recent favourite nude lip combination that I'm absolutely loving recently! The products in question are MAC's Honeylove and NARS Turkish Delight gloss (which I've blogged about before). I bought Honeylove last year after watching a YouTube review describing it as "the perfect Brigitte Bardot nude". I was sold. But when I tried it on myself I found it way too matte, drying and quite honestly thought it made me look like a corpse. I was disappointed and decided it was just one of those shades that didn't work for me. 

Fast forward to a few weeks ago when I was at the Gleam Christmas party and saw Victoria from In the Frow wearing the most beautiful nude lip (though let's be honest - she always looks gorgeous anyway!). Imagine my surprise when she told me it was Honeylove...the lipstick was coming back to haunt me! She suggested I try it with a gloss on top. So I gave it a second chance - and have been loving it ever since! A nude gloss like NARS Turkish Delight really does make all the difference to such a matte lipstick, and I'm so glad I repurchased it! I'll be the first to admit I own about 10-15 nude lipsticks that to some people probably look exactly the same but I can't help it but feel on top of the world when I find another one to add to my collection!

What's your favourite nude lip combo? And have you ever tried MAC's Honeylove?

Mommy Monday: What Santa Brought!

Growing up we had a rule that we were only allowed to ask for three things from Santa Claus (and one of them had to be "a surprise"!). Jonathan and I kind of stuck to the same idea when it came to Emilia & Eduardo. Each of them got three Santa presents, as we felt this way they appreciate their toys more and get to enjoy & play with them properly! Added to that is the fact that they always get so many presents from family members & friends so we didn't want them to get overwhelmed by too much at one time. These are the toys that Santa brought them this year. 

We'll start with Emilia's!

Frozen Elsa & Anna Toddler Dolls

These were the two toys she asked for as she just recently has become obsessed with Frozen and had been talking about Elsa & Anna dolls for the past month. Her face when she opened them up on Christmas morning was absolutely priceless! Even I am sort of in love with these...Elsa in particular has that "Barbie" smell that I remember from when I was a child! They are so pretty!! They both come with tiaras (though Anna's is missing in these shots) and shoes as well as a hair brush each and plastic Olaf. 

Doc McStuffins Costume

Lately Emilia has been really into Doc McStuffins and we knew a friend of ours was getting her the Doc's kit so she needed the coat to go with the part! The underneath part of the costume is actually just velcro'd on and it includes matching pants too!

onto Eduardo's presents...

Lego Duplo Creative Suitcase

Okay so Eduardo isn't exactly old enough to ask for particular presents yet, but we were pretty sure he'd like something along these lines! So he got a big box of Duplo which is safe Lego for his age group. What's cool about this is that he & Emilia can play with it together so it's fun for both of them!

Lego Duplo Creative Cars

You can't see from the pictures above as I've since got rid of the box & lumped all of these legos along with the other ones but Eduardo also got this set as Jonathan decided he needed some cars in his life...ha ha ha! Poor thing loves car sounds, noises and toys but doesn't get much of them as Emilia's toys are mostly quite girly. I think we managed to salvage one (stolen) Thomas the Tank Engine toy which he had been clinging to for dear life so we definitely needed to get him something with wheels to call his own!

Jungle Lantern Night Light

Last but not least Eduardo got this night light which Emilia was given by my mum two Christmases ago! She has the ballerina one, while Eduardo has the jungle theme. These are so beautiful and a huge hit with the children as they love watching the pictures spin around the walls of their room! I'm so happy with this present as I always knew I wanted one for each of my kids and I think they're really special!

Those were the things Emilia & Eduardo got from Santa Claus this year! I hope you enjoyed this post & hopefully it even gave you some ideas too! ;) 

Sweet Sunday: Almond-Filled White Christmas Cupcakes

I know Christmas is over (insert sad face here) but I couldn't resist sharing the recipe for these almond filled Christmas cupcakes with you! These were possibly some of my favourites I've ever baked as I'm a huge almond fan and am obsessed with white chocolate, which is what the frosting is made of! These are very Christmassy but I think you could bake them for New Year's too, perhaps decorated with silver balls? This recipe consists of a white cupcake using egg whites so we opted for white snowmen cases. The frosting is a very rich white chocolate/coffee flavoured one made with whipped cream. It is AMAZING but I imagine too much of it would make you feel sick!

You can access the recipe from Betty Crocker's Big Book of Cupcakes here. I did amend it slightly by adding some almond extract instead of just vanilla. As you can see, Emilia really enjoyed these...and Eduardo was very jealous with his boring rusk! Don't worry, he got a little bite too ;) 

Style Saturday: Christmas 2014!

I hope you had a very merry Christmas and are recovering from all the festivities! Here's what we wore on Christmas Day. As you can see, Bianca the Bebo stunner wanted to join in on our little photoshoot...her dress is from Pets At Home! I wore two new pieces I got as an early Christmas present from Jonathan. The grey jumper with gold threading is By Malene Birger and my dark grey pencil skirt is from Michael Kors. I also wore my black suede wedge boots from Whistles, white sleeveless Vila shirt & a red lip (Rimmel Kate lipstick #01 - same as yesterday!).

Both Emilia & Eduardo's entire outfits were from Du Pareil au Meme. Emilia wore a beautiful black tulle skirt with gold detailing, matching black tights, a black & cream polo neck and soft short-sleeved jumper. Her shoes are from a boutique in Sorrento and the black bow is from Layniebug Designs. Eduardo had on a striped viking sweatshirt, matching socks and blue viking sweatpants.  

Enjoy the rest of your weekend & we will be back tomorrow with a yummy cupcake recipe!

Fashion Friday: Christmas Eve Outfits!

I hope you are all having a relaxing Boxing/Stephen's Day! Here are our Christmas Eve outfits! Eduardo & I sort of accidentally matched with our navy, white & red (unintentional, I swear!) and Emilia looked equally festive in her red tutu! I wore my new Christmas jumper from Abercrombie which totally trumped all my others as it's super soft & a dream to wear. I know it's a bit pricey for quite a novelty piece but I think it was worth it. My jeans are from Zara (a good few years old) and I also wore my grey Bailey Button Bling UGG boots. My lip colour is Rimmel Kate 01, a deep red. 

Eduardo's entire outfit is from The Children's Place and consists of a white long-sleeve vest, red pants and this sweet little navy & red polar bear gilet. Emilia wore her new red tutu from Belle Vintage Boutique which she picked herself...as soon as the package came she grabbed it and told me she was wearing it! She wore it with a matching red hairband (also from Belle Vintage), cream tights (DPAM) and a cream cardigan from GAP Kids. Her Minnie Mouse slippers were a present from Zoe ;) 

  See you tomorrow for our Christmas Day outfits! 

Throwback Thursday: Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! 

I know it's not Blogmas anymore but I'll admit I've got used to writing here everyday and it feels quite strange not to post! So being that it is Thursday I thought I'd share this throwback with you of me with my dad from a past Christmas when I was a moody teenager! I actually don't think I purposely meant to look so solemn...I just didn't realise the picture was being taken! Either that or I'm just jealous of whomever we're watching open presents...most likely my sister, ha ha! I'm not 100% sure but I would guess I'm about 13/14 here. I think that is around the time that plastic purple CD racks were trendy.

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and that Santa Claus was good to you this year! :)

What I Ate Wednesday {24.12.14} (Blogmas Day 24)

Breakfast

Happy Christmas Eve! 

Here's what I ate today...breakfast was the same as always (very boring, I know). Porridge with almond milk, 1/2 banana, blueberries & cinnamon along with a black coffee and pint of water. Traditionally on Christmas Day we have panettone so I'm really looking forward to that tomorrow morning!

Lunch

This was a toasted seeded onion bagel (we got these from our Morisson's bakery section) with roast chicken tikka slices, cheddar cheese and a bit of black pepper. I also had cherry tomatoes & sliced cucumber and another pint of water!

Snack

For my afternoon snack I had a mandarin (these are Eduardo's favourite!), cherry Fruitopolis yoghurt and black coffee.

Dinner

We had lasagne with a combination of beef & lamb...it was SO good!! Even Emilia ate hers which is always a bonus. I don't want to jinx anything but I think she just might be coming out of her fussy eating phase. *crosses fingers*

Dessert

This was the exact same as last night, but I love it! An almond filled cupcake (baked by yours truly) with white chocolate frosting (this stuff is dangerously addictive) accompanied by a very low intensity black coffee. 

I didn't manage to drink 2L of water today...maybe about 1.5L. Ugh...it's so hard sometimes!  

And that concludes Blogmas 2014! Thank you SO much for all of your lovely comments & support throughout the past month - I hope you've enjoyed it as much as I have. I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas whether you're spending it with family, friends or pets :) I'm so excited to announce that on the 26th of this month my blog will be undergoing a huge revamp and whole new look! I can't wait to share it with you all. But for now a very merry Christmas and to all a good night!

xoxo

Anna

Beauty Tuesday: Christmas Nails! (Blogmas Day 23)

After a hectic few weeks, I finally got the chance to paint my nails...it seems even something so simple has become a mammoth task these days! And my nails have gone from being really weak & splitting (during and after pregnancy) to super strong (about 6 months postpartum) to weak & brittle again! I don't know what's going on with me...whether it's breastfeeding, hormones or a combination of both. So as a result of that my nails are now short. I kept it simple this Christmas with classic red, in one of my all-time favourites for autumn/winter - Zoya's Asia but threw in a little sparkle with Barry M's Nail Effect Foil in Gold. The base coat I'm using is Sally Hanson Diamond Strength and topcoat is Barry M's Basecoat, Topcoat and Nail Hardener.

I can't believe tomorrow is Christmas Eve!! I'm finally completely set for Christmas as all of my wrapping paper, ribbon & other supplies arrived today so I am really looking forward to wrapping up a storm tomorrow night! (No, I'm not being sarcastic...I really love wrapping presents!) We also baked almond-filled Christmas cupcakes with white chocolate frosting...OMG!!!! Talk about decadent. I could eat 500 but unfortunately the recipe only bakes 24 ;) I will share the recipe on Sunday if you are interested!

xoxo

Anna

Mommy Monday: Getting Ready for Christmas! (Blogmas Day 22)

I don't think I even have to explain how hard it is to get a decent picture of these two where they're BOTH looking at the camera! Either Eduardo is smiling & Emilia stays glued to Sofia the First on the TV or Eduardo is crying and she's looking like the queen of sass. But such is the reality & beauty of life with two small children! Things are never perfect, often messy, sometimes difficult and always rewarding. Being a mother is probably the toughest job I've ever had but at the end of a very long day, when I'm looking frazzled and feeling exhausted, my makeup's smudged, shirt is milk-stained and my jeans are streaked with snot from two runny noses, I think of my little rugrats asleep in their beds and am reminded of how lucky I am to have them in my life <3 

I feel like this Christmas is our most exciting yet...Emilia is old enough to understand that Santa Claus is coming and Eduardo has made our family complete! I whizzed around town like a mad woman today in a last-minute attempt to buy stockings (along with posting the our final few Christmas cards and doing a full-blown "weekly" shop that could probably feed our entire neighbourhood for the next month. Panic shopping anyone?!). I ended up buying the two pictured above from a home decor/gift shop called Nantucket and while I do love them, had I had more time I would have liked to get them personalised with the children's names. Oh well...there's always next year! At least I now have stockings for Santa to fill! How are you all organised for Christmas? Hopefully a bit better than me! 

xoxo

Anna