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The Sister I Never Had

I feel like I have spent the last year apologising for my lack of activity on this blog. I'm sorry! I wish I'd had time to document my pregnancy on the blog more but the reality of undertaking major house renovations, starting a new job role, increasing my hours at work, having time for my three year old, growing this baby and keeping general order to my life has left me with very little spare time.

I will be on maternity leave soon, and our house work is nearly complete so stick with me. I hope to be back to a more regular posting pattern. In the mean time I find Instagram a far quicker and easier way to share my thoughts and if you've been following me there you're probably feeling more connected to me. Yesterday I posted a very special gender reveal and it didn't feel right not sharing it on the blog so I thought I would come on here and do just that.


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The Next Chapter....

Well guys, it has been a minute! Nearly four months in fact. My last few blog posts were published with the promise of more travel posts from our epic Australia / Singapore trip. I have so many photos that were meant to compliment many awesome travel posts. And then I went quiet.... 

If you follow me on social media you would have hopefully kept up with some bits and pieces of the goings on of the last few months and realised I didn't just fall of the face of the earth. Most importantly, I hope you caught our very special announcement over the weekend. 



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A Fun Wine Tasting Afternoon with Co-Op Food

This mama sitting behind the keyboard right here, loves her wine. Yes I do!

Wine is perfect for so many occasions: gossip sessions with the girls, date nights, to kick start the weekend - or any kind of weekend excuse, lets be real and even to take the edge of a terrible day. Wine is my friend :)


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Review: Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa - Singapore (Sentosa Island)

Just like that, our month long holiday is over..

We've been back home for nearly three weeks now and it feels like so much more than that. I must admit that this time, I got a great big dose of holiday blues when we arrived home and I'm only just starting to shake it. It's been pretty quiet on the blog as I adjust back into the daily grind. I have quite a few travel posts to come, there's so many posts written in my head. And photos to sort through and edit and I haven't been sure where to start.

So I thought the best place to start would be right at the beginning. On our way to Australia we stopped over at Singapore for 4 nights and although we were incredibly jet lagged we had such an amazing time. Last year we stayed at Shangri-La on Orchard Rd and loved it, so this time we decided to stay at Shangri-La's Rasa Sentosa Resort & Spa on Sentosa Island. In this post I'm going to share my thoughts on our stay.


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From London to Singapore To Melbourne

We have made it to Melbourne, Australia. Yipppeee! My little family of 3 jumped on a BA flight from Heathrow and had a wonderful 4 night stop over at Shangri-La Rasa Sentosa which is Singapore's only beach front hotel. We loved our stay there and I'm working on a little review to share with you all so stay tuned if you're interested in hearing more about that.


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How I'm Preparing For Long Haul Travel With My Two Year Old

Please, for my own sanity, tell me I'm not alone in this very similar scenario.

You book a holiday with enough notice to spend months dreaming about your adventures, making getting through the daily grind of life that little bit easier. You feel like your countdown is still so far in the distance. It is initially, but time flies and before you know it, your holiday is just around the corner. This follows a mad dash and panic to get everything organised, shopped for, packed, lists sorted and everyone and their bags in the car headed to the airport. The marathon that can last for many days leading up to take off. Only feeling complete in that moment when you take your seat on that plane. By that time you know that no matter what you've forgotten to pack, you are only a flight away from your holiday and there's nothing else that you can do about it but relax and look forward to your arrival.... and breathe....

Me. Every. Time.


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Review: Bottomless Brunch At Tootoomoo, London (To Tickle Your Pan Asian Tastebuds)

This blog has evolved massively from that late night in the middle of March 2 years ago when I pulled out my laptop bleary eyed, had a snoring 6 month old sleeping beside me and I instinctively decided to start writing a blog.

I couldn't imagine not having this blog now. It's not only my happy place. It's the place where I wind down. The place where I get to use my creativity. It's the place that I have all of you! I have your amazing support when I need to wear my heart on my sleeve (the latest open letter to my lady squad is the perfect example). It's also the first place I think to come when I want to shout about something - whether it be the latest restaurant I've dined in, my travel recommendations, hotel reviews, kids fashion you just HAVE to know about and all of my favourite recipes. There's a joke in my office that I am the queen of recommendations too so it's not just on the blog. I guess you can say I'm just a sharer :)

I visited a brunch place a couple of weekends ago, which was so amazing I was always going to share it with you. However I have to admit that the thought did cross my mind to just maybe keep this one to myself. I feel like London hasn't been let in on this secret and I want to make sure I can always book a table - I only counted 9 of them.

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An Open Letter To My Girl Squad: From One Frazzled First Time Mummy

TO MY GIRL SQUAD:

You know exactly who you are. My ladies. The sisters I never had. My confidants. Fellow gossipers. Shoulders to lean on. Fellow wine connoisseurs.

We've loved together, laughed together, travelled together, lived together, worked together, partied together. United through sisterhood.

I've always held the importance of my girl squad so very close to my heart. I have no sisters through blood (although am blessed to have some brilliant sisters in law) and over my life time I've adopted some amazing ones. You know who you are. We went through school together becoming friends at the tender age of 9. We've done our growing up in the same neighbourhood in Melbourne Australia. We've become adults together. Some of you I've met later in life. We spent our 20's dancing all night. We've been on some amazing girls holidays together. Some of you were my first friends that I ever made when I moved to London and I am forever indebted to you because you made London feel like home.


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Recipe: Roasted Vegetable Cous Cous

Last week Co-op Food reached out to me and told me they were sending me a surprise. When it arrived I was delighted to see it was my favourite kind of delivery - a recipe box!

Co-op have teamed up with the YouTube channel SORTEDfood to tackle the cooking skills gap amongst youngsters and have created #nowcookit - a campaign all about educating and encouraging by offering free online cooking courses.

The recipe box I was sent was for a roasted vegetable couscous and let me tell you, this is a dish I have a love affair with so it couldn't have been more appropriate to appear at my doorstep.


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Review: Plaza Hotel Lucchesi (Florence, Italy)

I sit here on a cold Friday in London looking outside my bedroom window staring at a grey sky. The days are short, the cold is growing old and daydreaming about travel is high on my agenda.

We have our next long haul trip on the horizon that I'm excited about and I have the very dear memories of our family weekend away in Florence that we took in December. There were so many reasons that made the trip so wonderful and one of them was definitely Plaza Hotel Lucchesi - a 4 star boutique that we spent two nights in. If you follow me on social media you would have seen me raving about this stunning place during our stay. Heres some more detailed thoughts:


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Mini's Wardrobe #4 (Some January Sales Finds)

We are two thirds of the way through January already and it's already flying before my eyes.

This is the funny time of year when we are though Christmas and the buzz of coming into a new year but we are still faced with frosty mornings, short dark days and coldness. I've kept myself excited through January with lots of fab deliveries of things that I scored in the January sales.

Today's toddler outfit features some bits that I found in the sales that I absolutely love. Both have become a wardrobe staple from the very minute I opened our happy post.



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Press Play: A Mummy Day Off (Camden, London)

Here's a post I've been planning to share for some time but haven't because A. I've been hesitant and b. My blog schedule was terrible late last year.

I wanted to talk about a vlog I shared on my YouTube channel at the end of November. I've been slowly getting used to sitting in front of the camera at home and talking to you all but on this particular day something inside me gave me the drive to pick up my camera and take you with me on my mummy free day out.

My hesitation to share this comes for so many reasons. Reasons that when I vocalise them sound silly. Are my editing skills good enough? Is it actually interesting enough for you to spend 10 minutes of your day watching? My skin was terrible on this day. My camera angles make me look terrible. My voice is annoying. I'm not confident enough vlogging in public yet and it shows....

But you know what I realised?  This is me - flaws and all.

And this is what I chose to share.

And I always said to myself that I wanted to share my authentic self and not an edited version of me.

Yes, my videos still need loads of work but this is my journey and you have to start somewhere right?

So now that I've got past this hesitation and I'm working at getting my blogging schedule back into action. Here is a snap shot of one cold day back in November last year when this mama left her baby at home and went to catch up with her friends in Camden for a nice day out.

Press play:

To see the minute I got out of bed....

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Photo Diary: Our Family Weekend In Florence

At the beginning of December we decided it had been far too long between travel for us so we booked a weekend away for my husband J, Baby Girl and I to go to Florence.

Florence is somewhere very close to our hearts. We were married in the hills of Tuscany and have already created some amazing memories in this amazing city so close to our wedding venue. We decided we just had to go and show Baby Girl.

There is beauty in every corner you turn in Florence. It's one of those cities that takes my breath away. I'll be sharing a review on the hotel we stayed at, as well as a separate post on some practical details but for now I just wanted to leave you with a small selection from the hundreds of photos I took during our break. Hope you enjoy!


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My Plans & Wishes for 2017

A happy new year to you my lovely friends. I hope you had a great time over the holidays and it was filled with my three favourite F's - Food, Family and Fun.

Here we are, a week into January and I know that this year is going to fly by just as quickly as 2016 did. We have a very busy year ahead of us and I'm determined to do two things 1. Be productive and 2. live in the moment. I've been learning to master this balance over 2016. It's not easy and I'm not there yet but I'm better and I'll keep improving.


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