A Blog Break & Catch Up

I've had a week or so off from blogging. I've not really been doing other things, I can't remember the last time I did something I enjoyed to be honest. Mr B has been on night shifts so I've been doing everything alone and found it quite tiring to be honest! Also lonely. I've not wanted to do much once bedtime is done other than curl up and watch something on the TV. Mostly I've turned it off at 10pm and gone upstairs to deal with Little A and his wake ups.

Anyway, I've had a little break, although I wanted to blog I just didn't want to sit and edit photos but here's a little catch up of our last few weeks:

I went to Bath with Midge in the half term where we enjoyed a huge park, her first cinema visit where we watched Paddington and we both had fun on the train journey. She was scared of going over the bridge that connects Plymouth but seems to have gotten over that fairly quickly! We enjoyed our first Shakeaway, the dairy free milkshakes were delicious. The day after I came back I spent some time with both children. We had breakfast out and bought them a toy each.

I visited my Gran with Little A this week to celebrate her 82nd birthday. I made her a lemon cake and enjoyed a lovely lunch with her, my Mum and my A. I've been enjoying nature as part of 30 days wild which I've seen over on social networks. I've spotted some lovely flowers and am nurturing my own tomatoes, strawberries, potatoes and some flowers. We've bought some pebbles and a swing seat so the back garden can take a step in the right direction! We need to mow the lawn, give the decking another coat, buy more pebbles, get a bench and finally we'll use fencing to split the garden for the children and the dog. To finish the week, I had Little A's parent meeting which was really positive and baked 50 cupcakes for a friends wedding which we went to the reception of last Saturday. I had a lovely couple of hours but had to come home early because Midge was sick during the first part! At least I saw the first dance and the cake cutting and I saw all my cupcakes with the wedding cake and I felt so proud. I've banged on about it loads and I know people can make them so much better but I don't care, I loved them! (And so did the happy couple so that's all that matters!)

Now we really are on count down to the summer holidays with only six weeks left! Midge has lots planned for the upcoming weeks and on Tuesday she had a swimming assessment. She has a birthday party at the local pool to look forward to this weekend. There's an inset day on tomorrow, where I have a doctor appointment for A but otherwise nothing else planned. Mr B is back to normal work shifts and I'll just be plodding along in my usual way. I hope you're all enjoying the sun that's come out in the last week or so! I know we have!

Cupcake Mumma

My Mini Royalists

I have no shame in loving our Royal Family. I don't know loads about them no, but I like to read the history of our royals and our present day ones are pretty wonderful. Unless you've been determined to miss it, you should know that we have now another member of our royal family in the form of Prince William and Princess Kate's little girl (name as yet unknown!)

As soon as we heard that the little Princess had been delivered we got decorating a few cupcakes to eat in celebration! My two were obviously happy with this. They chose not to be as patriotic as me!

With their marshmallow cupcakes

 My more patriotic offering..

Then a few hours later we watched the hospital doors open and reveal the gorgeous new mum Kate with her daughter and husband proudly waving to the crowd (kudos to the Duchess, I wanted to stay in my shower then sit on my sofa!) both of my children were so happy to see the new princess. Midge asked questions, Little A kept shouting 'let them go home!' 'Come to my house!' Then they clapped when the couple turned to re-enter the building.

I love that my two shared their happiness and joy with me today. There is so much to be sad, bitter and fed up with that to just rejoice as a country is such a wonderful thing and I'm pleased my two were as excited as me: their shameless royal-family-loving Mother!

Did you watch any of the coverage today or follow online? Any guesses on a name!?

Cupcake Mumma

Strawberry Nesquik Cupcakes

Look good don't they? That's because they are of course! I made these a while ago thanks to one of my lovely pen friends and have decided after being asked a few times I shall post the recipe on Cupcake Mumma. These cupcakes are gluten and dairy free but of course you just substitute all of these ingredients for whatever items you'd prefer. There will be no difference in the outcome.

You will need:

110g Doves Farm self raising flour

110g caster sugar

110g dairy free butter (I use vitilite)

2 eggs

Baking powder

Vanilla essence

50g Nesquik milkshake powder

Method:

Cream butter and sugar together. Add your eggs ( I recommend one by one) until your mixture is well mixed.

Add your flour, baking powder, vanilla and Nesquik. Give your mixture a good stir before placing small spoonfuls into cupcake cases.

Bake on 180 degrees for about 15/20 minutes (My oven is pretty fast so do keep an eye!)

We've had these cupcakes plain and found they were just as delicious without icing as they are with. You can add the strawberry nesquik to icing sugar but I didn't find that quite as nice after I bought a tub of strawberry icing from the supermarket! (pictured) 

CupcakeMumma

My Summer Gift Swap

During August the lovely Kat from KatSighs hosted a gift swap to bring some summer cheer to our lives. My swap partner was Joy who blogs at Welcome to Daisy Row  . If you would like to see what I sent Joy then please click above to have a look!

I got some truly wonderful gifts from Joy. Here is what arrived for me a week ago:

Lots of goodies!

I received this lovely cupcake card (always makes me smile when people play on my blog name, I really do love cupcakes!) thank you Joy! 

When I was opening my parcel I commented to Husband about the fab, green polka dotted parcel tape that Joy had used. I thought it was really different and I had never seen it before so imagine my surprise when I saw Joy had packed me some for myself! Red polka dots and cupcakes!

Joy had also made me this great scarf (apologies Joy if I have that wrong but I'm sure I haven't!) I really love the colour, so bright and unique! As I'm not quite chilly enough just yet but didn't want to hide it away I have actually hung it up at my kitchen doorway! So many people have commented on it and I've proudly said where it came from.

I do like a nice warm scarf!

 We also had to add a magnet in with our summer swap. I found a brightly coloured cupcake one for Joy (everyone needs a cupcake in their lives) and here is the one I received:

just too true!

She then did one better by adding this rather great digestive biscuit magnet which I love. Little Man will be most annoyed when I finds out it isn't real. To add to my wonderful gifts Joy had also made  me some lovely coasters. As I have a black table you can imagine how well these stand out!

 

Thank-you Joy for your wonderful, thoughtful gifts (and I love the gingham tissue paper. I've kept it because I've never seen tissue paper like this before!) and thank-you to Kat who hosted this summer swap. Yet again I've enjoyed another successful swap. If you like swapping gifts please have a look at my Mug Swap gift exchange for October. Ideal for gift swapping for those who don't fancy making something straight away!

CupcakeMumma

Pinaddicts Return! August

I was really struggling with Pinaddicts this month but as I was racking my brain wondering what I could do that wouldn't eat up too much time I received an e-mail in my inbox from a craft swap I had signed up to a few months ago. This was ideal so I went into my Pinterest account, had a good browse through my Pinaddicts folder keeping in mind what my swap partner would appreciate and love and well.

As my swap partner enjoys baking this was the perfect idea for her! I bought a case from The Works which was in the sale.

I bought some cake cases, a few extra gifts as part of the swap instructions and bought a select few toppings from my favourite local sweet shop. This included some Cornish fudge which I chopped up (perfect for a vanilla cupcake topping), some mini marshmallows, roasted and chopped hazelnuts for a chocolate and hazelnut cookie and some chocolate buttons. Yummy! I put all these in cellophane type bags to keep them fresh on their journey. Here is the finished result! Complete with some little flags for a real tea party theme!

To add a personal touch I hand made a little card with 2 mini envelopes. Inside I popped a little peice of paper, one with a recipe for a cookie mix I always use and one for a lovely fudge icing.

Pinaddicts now has a lovely new site all of its own so please head on over to check out all the other entrants here!

CupcakeMumma

Polka Dot Themed Gift Swap!!

Homemade Polka Dot Swap

I am absolutely loving my gift swaps at the moment. So far I've done a 5 item heart themed gift swap, a mug swap and I'm taking part in a sunshine swap with KatSighs. Then in October Ill be hosting my very own UK Mug Swap!

For this swap, I turned to PopularCrafts who run a fantastic website and whom I see lots of on Twitter. I've just subscribed to their magazine as it's never in my local store! The theme for this swap was 'Polka Dots.' It took me a while to think of something as my swap partner, Natalie doesn't give much away on her blog!

After admitting I was struggling a bit she said she loves to bake. Well, so do i! Of course as soon as she said this I knew exactly what I wanted to post off. A small suitcase full of little treats to make some tasty treats for her and her family!

First of all I scoured the shops for cake cases- these had to be polka dot themed. I was in luck! I found these great red and blue ones. I then picked up some flags to add a little 'tea party' theme to any cupcakes Natalie should wish to bake!

Afterwards I popped to my local sweet shop to load up on some extras for toppings! I bought some Cornish fudge, mini marshmallows and some buttons. I put some chopped, roasted hazelnuts into a bag and cut up the fudge (saves Natalie a job after all!) Luckily there were spare buttons for the children and spare marshmallows for me yum!

All packed away nicely in a mini suitcase (from a jam making set!) and it's
all polka dot themed!

Next I thought about adding a little card. I had already written a note, so i thought about adding my two favourite recipes. Now, i now know Natalie does a lot baking and will most likely have these recipes (especially the cookie one-fact!) but still...

I printed off some themed paper, then added a cupcake print inside. I handmade 2 mini envelopes and added a chocolate chip and hazelnut recipe and then a fudge icing recipe which is perfect with vanilla cupcakes.

I went for green as it is Natalie's favourite colour. No matter how hard I tried though,
pink just couldn't be avoided-sorry!

Here is what it all looks like! Packed up and ready to go!

We also had to add a gift totally no more than £3.

A very cute little book from The Works I came across

Some of my favourite travel sized hand cream and a nice lip balm
i think Natalie will love.

Now I just have to wait and see how loved the package is!!
CupcakeMumma
x

Blog Challenge Days 18,19 and 20!

Oops totally late with this challenge after all the Olympic Torch excitement I was too tired yesterday and on Friday I had a blinding headache so decided staring at my laptop screen wasn't such a good idea.
All excuses over with I'll move on to the challenge!

Day 18/31 My Blog Name.
CupcakeMumma really is as simple as that. I'm a Mumma who likes cupcakes! I bake a few here and there but they're not anything amazing and before you say anything, there's always one good one and that's the one that will get the blog fame! I'm just a bit obsessed with them to be honest. I have cupcake books, a cutting board, ornaments oh blimey all sorts!

Day 19/31 What Do You Collect?
I collect postcards so if you're ever feeling so inclined to post one to me then well, I'd be very happy! I have a tin box under my bed getting nicely full with postcards from around the world (thanks to postcrossing.com) some I pick up to remember days out and a few of my favourites have  been picked up from the local market and have been written on years ago, I have some from the 1930's and 40's which I adore.

Day 21/31 A Difficult Time in Your Life
I wrote the other day about my anxiety and PND which are by far the worst moments of my life and the worst for my poor Other Half too who still suffers with my mood swings and pretty low dips. Hats off to him and anyone else who lives with someone like me, it sure isn't easy sometimes!

The most difficult time in my life was when we moved from the countryside to a little cul-de-sac in a town. It felt like things were going to be okay but it soon turned out otherwise. Above us lived a young man who had his mates over every Saturday night, sometimes Friday too. He would play extremely loud music, wouldn't turn it down, his friends threatened Other Half on two occasions and they would smoke drugs throwing their butts and cans out of the window so when I opened the curtain on a nice sunny morning after a hideous night I was greeted to a pit of a back yard. It wasn't my back yard, but I still had to look at it!

This was difficult because it really felt that no one cared. My anxiety, which previously hadn't bothered me for a good couple of years came out of no where and i hated living in my new flat. Because nobody else had to live there they really didn't understand our desperation to leave. We were lucky though that most weekends for pretty much the whole time we lived there I stayed with Little Miss at my Mums place or we all went to Other halve's parents.
The final straw came when, after a lovely birthday dinner i came home and ended up crying down the phone to my Aunt who lived near by. We all stayed with her that night and it was the last time I was going through it. Other Half and I even considered separating, me leaving with Little Miss and my bump, I was a total mess!

Luckily for us, the landlord wasn't happy about the situation at all and got us the 2 bedroom house we are currently living in. The process of anti-social behavioural orders is a very long one and the estate agents dealing with the man above us were not very sympathetic. Needless to say it's all the past now but I really, really feel for those living with nightmare neighbours and I never want to move because I'm too scared of going through it all again!

CupcakeMumma

Mr Cupcake!!

Here he is, the better half of me being inspired this morning to bake cakes!

Yeah he looks great in my cooking gear doesn't he? Complete with matching bowl and whisk haha.

Here's my Little Miss helping Daddy in the kitchen.

Aww a lovely pink cupcake with a smiley face :-)

Sunday started off with toddler spewing all over my bed (thanks) then same toddler jumping in the bath creating a flood outside of it (why can children not keep the water IN the bath?) but then i finally got some motivation and put some things out for the charity shop, hoovered my house and relaxed a bit with the babies (no more sick involved thank goodness)

Now I've just had an amazing roast followed by cupcakes (okay more cupcakes followed by roast but hey, who's complaining?) 

This Is Dedication:

I'm poorly yet still Blogging. I'm sure everyone does it but it makes me feel special so meh, I'll feel special!
As promised I wanted to share my finds from yesterdays little Charity shop hunt, so here we are:

A children's book for 30p another Xmas pressie

My 'nothing special' fruit bowl but it's nice!

I think this frame will look nice in my bathroom. Very 'Cornwall'

So here's the lovely tiger for Little Mans pressie

The Framed seaside picture is not a recent find but it's something I really like and thought I'd share. I got more Christmas shopping done today and excluding my dear Other Half we only have 4 people left to buy for and only one (my dear Pops) has left me completely stumped (and then there's presents to Daddy from Little Miss and Man...Ideas on a postcard please!)

Which reminds me. My parents went off to Devon last weekend and as I have mentioned before here I am an avid collector of postcards. My Mum very thoughtfully brought back a selection of postcards from her trip but this one stands out as my favourite and as such will be framed for my ever growing 'Cupcake Kitchen'

 Off now to feel sorry for myself. All the best.