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Baking with kids: 4 easy ideas

May 20, 2014

I love cooking but I’m not nearly as keen on baking or making sweet stuff. I guess I’m just more of a savoury person. Anya though loves baking and so lately I’ve been thinking that I need to do a bit more with her. A couple of weekends ago she and I made some bunny cookies and she loved getting involved. The look of pure excitement on her face when I told her we were going to be making cookies together made me think I need to do this more often. It also made me realise that it doesn’t have to be a complicated exercise, in fact the simpler the better. Sometimes it can even be about decorating some shop bought cakes or cookies. Or making simple fairy cakes and just decorating the cupcake liners. So with half-term coming up I thought it would be handy to have a few easy baking ideas up my sleeve:

1. Making cookies in different shapes like we did a few weeks ago is always fun. I found a very simple cookie recipe and showed Anya all the cookie cutter shapes we have and she chose to make bunnies. I didn’t have time to make icing so instead we made little tails from the same cookie dough. She had great fun cutting out the shapes and getting flour all over herself. Next time we might try cloud, star and moon shaped ones.

2. This is such a cute idea! Make simple shapes with filo pastry and then bake the pastry. In this filo boat recipe they’ve also made a chocolate pool (yum!) but if you didn’t want to do that, you could just fill the boats with chopped red berries and dust with icing sugar. Or for an extra sweet treat, fill will little M&M’s. This is top of my list to try soon.

3. Make simple cupcakes or buy them and have fun decorating them. I especially like the idea of making little paper decorations to adorn the cupcake liners and to top them rather than using sprinkles and icing. Just like these mustache cupcakes, they’ll look so much more unique and you can be as creative as you like.

4. Baking doesn’t always have to mean sweet things. Like these teddy bear rolls, making bread can be just as much fun. Kids love playing with dough of any sort so why not try making fun shaped bread. You can make any shape you like and then give it ears, a tail or anything else that your kids can imagine.

Almondella baby goody boxes + a giveaway

May 19, 2014

I remember the crazy buying I did before Anya was born. I bought way too much because somebody somewhere convinced me that I absolutely needed it. Of course I never ended up using a lot of the things but at the time I didn’t know any better. Recently I came across the Finnish concept of all expectant mums receiving a baby ‘starter pack’ and I thought it was such a sweet and practical idea. The State sends all mums to be a cardboard box filled with baby essentials like bodysuits, sleeping bags, bathing products, bedding and more. Once emptied, the cardboard box with a supplied mattress becomes the baby’s first bed. Isn’t that a lovely custom and so helpful for a new mum?

Almondella (a new-ish Finnish brand) has taken this concept and created a range of beautiful boxes to suit various ages from newborn to 3 years old. Depending on the age and sex of the baby, Almondella put together a box with stylish toys, clothes, books, bathing products and more. I think this is such a lovely idea so I’ve joined hands with Almondella to giveaway one box of goodies to one lucky reader. The winner’s box will be tailored to their childs age and sex and will be full of the cutest goodies as you can see from the pictures.

Most of Almondella’s products come from small, independent Scandinavian brands which offer beautiful design and products that are practical and built to last. You can order these boxes on a 3, 6 or 12 month subscription which will be delivered to your door or they also have one off gift boxes. The idea of getting a beautiful little package for your baby tailored to their developmental and physical needs is lovely. Much like the Finnish State concept, it takes the hassle out of buying and choosing. These gorgeous boxes of goodies also make a wonderful gift especially for a new mum.

The giveaway: One lucky winner will receive one Almondella gift box that has been put together specially for them based on their babies age and sex.

To enter: Simply leave a comment below with your babies age and sex.

One entry per person and this competition is open to all my readers worldwide – yay! The competition closes at midnight (UK time) on Sunday 25th May 2014. Any entries after this time will not be counted. The winner will be announced on this post and on my facebook page on Tuesday 27th May 2014.

This giveaway is now closed. The winner is Maxine. Congrats Maxine!

The mixed family

May 16, 2014

As I’m Indian and my husband is British, Anya is a mixed kid. These days I’m seeing more and more mixed families which is a wonderful thing. Many of our friends are multicultural as are Anya’s. Especially in and around London, the multicultural family is very much the norm and I love this aspect of my adopted city. Recently a friend in a similar family asked me how I was exposing Anya to the Indian side of her culture and this got me thinking. Am I doing enough? As Anya is getting older, I am getting more and more conscious of the need to make sure she understands her Indian roots too. As her father is British and she is growing up in London she will naturally understand and experience the British culture but exposure to the Indian side is up to me.

Anya has grown up eating a lot of Indian food at home and has visited India several times. I’ve tried to teach her Hindi (the Indian language) but she resisted my attempts because she felt no one else speaks it so why should she. She would cover her ears and tell me not to speak in ‘that funny way’. Of course we all know that no kid likes to be different. Instead, I recently enrolled her in Hindi classes. This isn’t just to learn the language but also to give her an opportunity to mix with other Indian kids and let her see that there are other people in London who speak Hindi (which came as a bit of a shock to her at her first class!). I’ve also started making an effort to celebrate the biggest Indian festival of the year and I even went to her school to give a talk about it to her class.

I’m learning as I go along and trying to do things so that she has a balance of both cultures. My husband Richard is totally supportive of this and like me, completely believes that if you do happen to be a mixed family it’s so important to have a good understanding of both your cultures as that can really widen your horizons.

Since I’m still finding my way, I’m really curious to find out if you are a mixed family, how do you do it? Do you have any tips on integrating the second culture in to daily life? I’d love to hear your suggestions and ideas.

Have a wonderful weekend! x

{photo by ebabee – an old one from when Anya was just a baby}

Collected for mama & baby: Shades of Summer

May 15, 2014

How gorgeous are these shades for Summer? When I saw those women’s dresses I totally fell for the colours. Fresh, soft and flirty, perfect for those glorious sunny days ahead (I hope!). And the kids clothes are no less beautiful, especially those lemon yellow dungarees. Seeing colours like these in the shops makes me happy and hopeful for a long, hot Summer.

I’ve linked up to Mummys Got Style’s Fashion Friday.

How to mix prints & patterns

May 13, 2014

I’ve found that as Anya has started taking an interest in what she wears, she almost always tends to go for the craziest, most mis-matched combos which can even include her dotty pyjama bottoms combined with a floral skirt and a very ethnic Indian style top! While I let her have freedom at home, I prefer to be in charge when we are going out. That doesn’t always end happily but since I’ve noticed she is more drawn to bolder patterned clothes (like most kids), I now pick out clothes like these and have fun mixing and matching the various prints and patterns with her. Mixing prints & patterns not only looks good but it’s also a way to give a new look to an old outfit. So I thought I would share 3 of my favourite ways to mix prints and patterns:

Continue Reading "How to mix prints & patterns"

Noughts, crosses & kisses

May 12, 2014

You may have come across this new Bobo Choses Summer collection but if you haven’t, it’s unmissable. I’m especially loving all the bold cross, dot and lip prints. I mean how cute is that dotty baby jumpsuit and the crosses bloomer? Just adorable. In the UK you can find a selection at the stylish Orfeo Design boutique.

Happy Mothers Day {to my International readers}

May 9, 2014

For some reason Mothers Day in many countries is this Sunday (2nd Sunday in May) except in the UK where it’s always 3 Sundays before Easter Sunday. My mum is coming over from India tomorrow and in India too Mothers Day is this Sunday. So since she’s in town we’ll be celebrating Mothers Day again. It’s not often I get to spend Mothers Day with my mum as we live so far apart so this one will be special and will involve our favourite pastime – eating a big meal somewhere nice. Yay!

To celebrate UK Mothers Day I had done a fun mum and daughter shoot of Anya and me with talented photographer Abigail Fahey. Abigail talked me in to it as she rightly said that we end up taking loads of photo’s of our kids but not many with our kids. So I wanted to share another of the photo’s from the shoot and hope it reminds you to take loads of pictures with your kids every day, not just on Mothers Day.

Have a wonderful weekend and a very happy Mothers Day to all of you who are celebrating this Sunday!

{Photo by Abigail Fahey Photography for ebabee}

Going green…

May 8, 2014

Lately I’ve seen lots of green kids rooms popping up around the web especially rooms using a bright forest green colour. Many of the rooms use a lot of green and that just doesn’t work for me. This shade of green is quite an overpowering colour so using it in abundance is overwhelming and almost hurts your eye. But use it with caution and the room can look amazing like these four rooms above.

These rooms work because they have used lots of white to balance the bright green. Also, while your eye is drawn to the bright green, all the rooms have used duller, more muted shades of green and used other colours too. My favourite is the first room which uses lots of black and white which I really like with the green. But all four are pretty cool. I especially like this colour for a boys room as it makes a nice change from blue but it’s also a great colour choice for brother-sister shared rooms. What do you think? Would you go for a green room?

Image credits: 1. 2. 3. 4.

5 of the cutest knitted rompers

May 7, 2014

Babies wearing little rompers look the cutest. I’m a big fan of these all in ones for babies, especially the knitted kind. Here are 5 that I’m loving right now for baby boy or girl:

1. pale pink shortie with cross back (also comes in grey and a blue-green)… 2. retro inspired ink blue and cream romper… 3. ivory romper with pocket… 4. bunny romper… 5. tomato red baby all in one

A cool new toddler bed

May 6, 2014

I’m loving this new toddler bed by Oeuf NYC. Simple, minimal, and effortlessly stylish, this toddler bed is also available in a dark chocolate colour but the natural wood is my favourite. Moving a child from a cot to a ‘big kid bed’ is one of the many milestones of going from babyhood to toddlerhood and I can’t think of a cooler bed to do it in!

Oeuf’s Perch toddler bed comes with a removable safety rail so once your child outgrows the bed, it can be used as a mini sofa. Design that grows with your child is always a winner for me.

P.S. How cute is that bird in boots poster?