Fluttering Butterflies turns *7*

Seven years ago today, I had this crazy idea of starting my own blog.  Seven years ago. In some ways it feels incredibly long ago and in other ways I felt as though I've blinked and have sped through so much.  I want to take this opportunity now to say a big THANK YOU  for taking this journey with me.

Fluttering Butterflies is a very different blog now than it was seven years ago today and I couldn't be happier with what it has become. Through this blog, I have met some amazing people - authors, publicists, other book bloggers, and I have loved sharing myself and my opinions on books and life with you.  Thank you for your support and encouragement. Thank you for taking the time to read my words and for commenting, emailing, or chatting with me on Twitter. I assure you that this blog would not have lasted as long as it did without the amazing people who read my blog.  Without you - so thank you.

I think my favourite part of being involved with the blogging community has been the people that I have met.  Over the last few years I've met some of my favourite authors: Sarra Manning, Keris Stainton, Luisa Plaja, Susie Day, Meg Rosoff, David Almond, John Green and so many more.  I've met some amazing bloggers who have become my friends.  I'm not even going to begin listing the bloggers I've met. You know who you are!

It's been difficult thinking of the blogging highlights from the last seven years and I'm sure that I will forget something major that has happened. But briefly, here are some of my favourite posts.

One of my highlights of my blogging career was my (now ended) feature highlighting Awesome Women.  I still really love this idea and actually, reading through some of these old posts has made me a little excited about the topic again ... Some of my favourite posts for this theme are below.

Favourite authors from my childhood

Buffy, Faith and Willow 

Hermione, Ginny and Luna

My favourite feature on the blog, that is thankfully still ongoing, is that of Celebrating British Authors in which I've highlighted or written about books with British authors. I've done two events on British authors and I hope in 2013 that I continue to do so.

My favourite posts of the series?

Peter Pan

Reading Roald Dahl


Other features that I've written over the years include 'Books That Make Me Want to Travel...' 'Musical Memories' 'WWYD?' and 'Not-Quite Blockbuster Books' I've enjoyed them all, and I hope to continue these features in the upcoming years!

I've also had quite a lot of fun writing discussion-type posts about books! These usually happen on a Friday but could appear at any time during the week...

I've got all my (literary) sisters with me

Birthdays in books

My favourite talking animals in books

Books I can't stop thinking about


And here at Fluttering Butterflies, I haven't been shy about talking about things more personal to me.  Here are a few blog posts that I feel quite proud of:

My battle with mental illness

My life in board games

Sarah McLachlan (Musical Memories)

What I was like as a teenager

My wishlist of American sweets

To celebrate getting to 7 years of blogging, I'm offering two giveaways. The first will be UK only for a large jiffy bag of some of my favourite books. The other is for a book from The Book Depository up to the value of £10. This is an international giveaway, as long as TBD shops to your country. You can enter

I will choose winners in one week's time and will notify the two winners by email. One entry per household please. You don't need to be a follower of this blog, but I would of course appreciate it!

Here's to many more blogiversaries happening here at Fluttering Butterflies. I really couldn't do this all without you, so again, many thanks! And good luck.


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Fluttering Butterflies is 6 today!

No big fanfare or huge giveaways for this year's blogiversary, I'm afraid (lots of giveaways for Love month though!). Still, I thought it only right that I mark the occasion in some small way.

Fluttering Butterflies has been active and running for a full six years. I'm daily amazed and delighted at the support and friendship that has popped up through writing this blog. I've met some wonderful people, had some amazing opportunities and read many, many great books.

I really hope that Fluttering Butterflies is around for many more years to come. Thank you so much for reading and commenting! This blog has changed my life in a really great way and it's all down to you my lovely blog readers. So thank you!

Happy New Year!

So this is the end of 2011! So far, and I think it's unlikely that I'll finish any more books so just quickly some stats:

I finished 17 books in December, bringing my yearly total to 209 books. I'm also really proud of the fact that 105 of those books were by new-to-me authors and that 68 of them were written by British authors.

I shall be writing a post about my reading, blogging and personal goals for the new year very soon but for now, I hope you all have safe and happy celebrations tonight and that 2012 is a wonderful year! See you on the other side.

Merry Christmas!

To all my lovely friends and blog readers, I wish you a very Merry Christmas! I shall be taking a few days off to relax and enjoy my time with my family.

It's always a lovely time of year, having two small children, I wouldn't want to miss out on any of their excitement or fun!

I hope that you too have a wonderful, relaxing and magical Christmas, however you spend it!

11 years!

11 years ago today, I married my wonderful husband, N! (He's shy, and I'm not sure if he'd want me to post a photo of him on the blog? So have one of just me that I don't think I've shown you before?) Despite it being December and generally very rainy in the few weeks leading up to it, our wedding day was sunny and dry, if cold.

It didn't go perfectly (there was a funny moment with the wedding rings and also a wardrobe malfunction), but there was no huge disasters that we couldn't laugh about later. I'd never been the sort of person who dreamed about my own wedding and had some huge fantasy day planned, but I really liked the wedding that we put together. It was small, but enjoyable! I was never without a huge smile.

And what's even better, is that in the 11 years since N and married, it's been much the same. Of course it hasn't been perfect, there have been tears and fights but there have also been smiles and laughter in abundance. There have been two beautiful little boys, and a home and happiness. Today I feel especially thankful for everything I have.

Happy anniversary N! I love you.

Happy birthday to me!

Hello all! Today is my birthday, I am 29 years old. I've been thinking a lot about getting older in the past week. It's occurred to me that (so far!) I don't mind being a year older as I'm fairly happy and content at where I am in my life. I'd always like things to better, but right here? right now? I'm OK. And I think it's taken me a long time to get to this point. And a large reason that I'm so OK is because of you, my lovely blog readers. So thank you.

Still, in some ways, today almost feels like New Year's Day and like I should be writing a list of goals and resolutions for myself in the lead up to my 30th birthday. I've seen lots of people write blogs and lists specifically for the things they'd like to accomplish by their 30th (or 40th or any significant number, really) birthdays and it seems like fun. I don't think that *I'll* be doing anything too strenuous or challenging, but we'll see how things happen. Here goes...

By my 30th birthday -


1. Have a relaxing and fun-filled summer holidays with my two gorgeous boys and take lots of photos

2. Update both boys' baby books and write down all the crazy/funny things they've said regularly

3. See The Lion King in the West End

4. Read all of the Roald Dahl books to the boys

5. Visit the Roald Dahl museum

6. Visit the Jane Austen centre and take a Jane Austen tour

7. Have 500 blog followers (is that even attainable?!)

8. See an event at the London Olympics 2012

9. Finish a first draft of my novel (yes, I am writing one!)

10. Complete Operation Read Own Books!

11. Host Love Month again next February

12. Help the boys make handmade Christmas presents for the Nana


...And why can I not think of any more? Please do leave some suggestions for me in comments. I hope you're having a wonderful weekend, and as I'm writing this in advance I hope that I am eating lots of cake right at this very second!

My best and worst birthdays

As it's my birthday this week, I thought it would be fun to look at some best/worst birthdays, gifts and cake. Please, please, please share your own! I would love that.

When I was younger, as you'll find out later on in this post, I never had great birthdays. I think my family just weren't very thoughtful about them, nobody really tried to make the day special in any way. Usual presents for me growing up were things for the future. Things I'd probably have or get to do whether or not it was my birthday but that got lumped into the category of 'birthday presents' anyway. Together with my birthday falling in the middle of summer when I wasn't in constant contact with school friends, it mostly felt forgotten.



Worst birthday present - I don't remember how old I was, but I think I was maybe 11. And my best friend in the whole world at the time celebrated her birthday a few weeks before me. I have NO idea what I gave her for her birthday (if anything at all!) which may have been a factor in her birthday present to me, I'm not sure? Anyway, the morning of my birthday, the doorbell rings, and she's standing in front of me. She says 'Happy birthday' and whips out of her pocket this teeny little troll, you know the ones, with rainbow coloured hair. She has this huge smile on your face as I took it, she dashed away yelling 'bye' over her shoulder.

I actually quite liked the little thing, I always thought they were kind of cute. It did strike me as a little odd as I hadn't had any of the trolls before that and had never mentioned liking them, but whatever. I liked it. I liked that she'd remembered. It was only a few weeks later that it became my worst birthday present ever.

My best friend, I'm going to call her Sally, had her first boyfriend that summer. In fact, when she ran away on my birthday, I think she'd gone to spend the day with him. So, a few weeks later, Sally and I were at the dollar store (we were 11!) shopping for her boyfriend's birthday present. I remember picking up a troll with blue hair and holding it up to Sally 'what about this?' and she looked at the troll, nearly identical to my very own and said 'Not a chance! I can't give him something so stupid and immature.' and turned back to whatever she'd been looking at.

Aww. What a thing to have held onto for more than 15 years.

Best birthday present: I don't remember every present I got that year, but I remember for my 21st birthday, N really pulled out all the stops. He thought really long and hard and he gave me 21 of the most thoughtful and wonderful presents ever. And he spread out opening the gifts over the entire day. They just kept coming and coming and it was all so overwhelming!

We'd spent the day at Pooh Country, you know how much I love Eeyore, and we played pooh-sticks at this bridge and it was such a great day. I loved it so much.


Worst birthday: So, so many. The year everyone forgot. The year my birthday was spent tired and hot driving through Northern California. When we stopped for the night, it was in a casino hotel and my dad and brother left me alone in the hotel room to go gamble. The year I was sent off to a boot camp and spent the day doing manual labour. They all happened on or before my 16th birthday though. They're all behind me and I think as I get older, it becomes less important to me, celebrating in any way. Perhaps next year I'll feel differently about birthdays though, who knows? (I'm 29 this year - I wonder how I'll feel turning 30!)


Best birthday: Since I met N, birthdays have really turned around. The birthday that stands out for me is my 18th, seeing as how I've already mentioned my 21st!

The time around my 18th was pretty hectic. N had flown out to see me and together we'd flown from Oregon down to LA to visit the British High Commission in order to apply for a visa for me to return to England with him. We'd spent a few days in and around LA, visiting Disneyland (where N proposed!) and then just before my birthday, N and I flew to Seattle. N had rented this adorable little bed and breakfast for us.

We spent the day sightseeing and then when it came to dinnertime, we found a nice Indian restaurant (N's favourite and my first ever time eating Indian food) and N had bought me a beautiful dress and shoes and a handbag. It was all very nice, especially the mango cheesecake for dessert!



Birthday cake: When I was younger, my brother and I always had store-bought birthday cakes. There'd be big puffy blue flowers and little plastic toys and 'Happy birthday' spelt out in really shaky icing. I never knew any differently. For my 21st birthday, N went to our favourite little bakery and bought a fancy birthday cake that was absolutely DELICIOUS. But I had my favourite birthday cake on my 16th birthday.

I've mentioned previously that I spent my 16th birthday at a boot camp surrounded by delinquents doing manual labour. But it really wasn't all that bad. Every week, each crew was able to pick one special something for dessert. And my crew leader saved this boxed cake mix to have on the night of my birthday. How he managed to bake a cake over a campfire is beyond me, but it came out pretty good. He'd even brought things to make homemade ice cream. And as my crew and I sat around the campfire that night with our cake and our ice cream, they went around in a circle and each one of them said one nice about me in lieu of presents. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me, and I will always remember it.

What have been your best or worst birthdays so far? What things will you always remember about birthdays past?

Fluttering Butterflies is 5 today!

Five years, what a long time. I've loved almost every minute of my time spent blogging. I've met some incredible people and have had the most amazing experiences. I've always been searching for some place where I belong, and I feel like I've found that place amongst you, my blogging friends and readers. Thank you for reading and supporting my blog, for encouraging me and making me feel less alone. Really, I can't say THANK YOU enough.

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I wanted to say 'thank you' in some way. I decided I'd do that this year by giving away two of my favourite books that I've read recently. I should probably wait until February's Love month starts, but I won't.


Here now, is your chance to win copies of either Anna and the French Kiss by Stephanie Perkins or Immortal Beloved by Cate Tiernan. Both books are finished hardback copies. There will be two winners - the first can choose which book they'd most like to win, the second person chosen will have which ever book is left.

As I'm lucky enough to have readers all over the world, this giveaway will be open internationally. There are no requirements for this giveaway, other than entering the form below with a name and email address. While being a follower of this blog is not required, it is always appreciated, as are blog posts or tweets that bring attention to my giveaway. The giveaway will close and I will draw two winners on the 5th of February.

Good luck to all, and here's looking forward to another 5 years of blogging...

My new year's resolutions

Happy New Year everyone! I do hope that 2011 brings you all you hope for and more.

Making New Year's resolutions has never been a regular occurrence. I always try to think of different things I'd like to see happen and change in a new year, but most resolutions fail, right? The ones I've made in the past have. So this year, my goals are a little different. And they're not just for 2011.

1. Be kind to myself - This one is first on my list for so many reasons. It's never been easy for me to look after myself. I carry so many self-destructive behaviours and thoughts and I really, really need to think more highly of myself. Treat myself better. I'm worth it.

2. When in need, ask for help - This has been a real problem for me, my entire life. When I was younger and struggling, I almost never thought to ask for help from those who cared about me. My family, my friends - I shut everyone out and suffered in silence. No more. I have a great network of people around me now and I have no excuse to not lean on other people for awhile if need be.

3. Be present - This one is mostly regarding my children. My Eldest is going full-time in primary school on Wednesday, it won't be long before my Littlest starts nursery for half-days. This time when they're little and I'm the centre of their universe won't last forever and I'm determined to provide them with happy memories.

4. Be kind to others - Remember my post about the lady with the umbrella who stopped to share with me while I was walking in the rain? After that happened, I promised myself that I would carry out random acts of kindness. It's so easy for me to float around in my own little world and not really listen to other people around me. I want to be a better wife, a better mother, a better friend, a better person. I'd like to do more to decrease world-suck around me. I've been very lucky in a lot of ways and not everyone is.

5. Be less afraid - When did it happen? When did I let fear rule so much of my life? It has to stop. I need to stop worrying about what other people will think of me. I'd like to break out and do scary things. Driving different places, putting myself in those awkward social situations that I worry about so much. Do something different and new and exciting. What's the worst that can happen?


And that's it for me. Wish me luck with my little list of resolutions! What're your New Year's resolutions? For your personal life? For your blog? For reading this year?

Happy Christmas

I've decided to take some time away from my blog for the holidays. Which means no posting, responding to comments or reading any other blogs. I'm sure it'll be the same with a lot of you. I hope you all have a lovely Christmas, get lots of books from Santa and spend plenty of quality time with your friends, family and loved ones.

I will be back next week, hopefully relaxed and refreshed, with a wonderful publisher giveaway! Stay tuned and happy Christmas to all of my readers.

Married to a non-reader

When I was younger, if you'd asked me the type of man that I would eventually end up with there'd have been no hesitation. I'd have answered that my 'ideal' partner would HAVE to love books as much as I did. In fact, in my head, I figured I'd end up with someone quite artsy and we'd lounge about talking about literature and history and art. I pictured heated debates and a house messily covered in stacks of books and between the two of us, there'd be a lot of ink-stained fingers. Oh how I laugh at those daydreams. Because I did not end up with an artsy-book lover.

No. In fact, I married a man who reads maybe 1-2 books a year, if that. And you know what? It turned out pretty perfectly. Because outside of books and literature, there's a whole world of fascinating things to love. N may not read the books that I like, but that's OK. Because books aren't everything and I love them enough for the both of us. Instead, he has an interest in computers, photography, in music, in cooking. And while N doesn't read much, when he does finish a book, it's usually a good one and he passes on the recommendations!

We don't sit around discussing the latest book news like in my daydream, but we have gorgeous photos of our boys on our walls.* I love listening to him sing and play the piano while I read my book on the sofa. He cooks me delicious things. When I break my phone/laptop/some random electrical item, which I'm bound to do, N can usually fix it for me. We watch movies together, play board games, he's much better at arts and crafts with the kids than I am. He always makes me laugh. In fact, thinking about it, I don't bring a whole lot to the table, do I?

And there's always something to discuss with somebody who doesn't share all my same interests. I've had an amazing and interesting time married to N. Why am I telling you all of this? Tomorrow is our 10th wedding anniversary and the years have passed like the blink of an eye.

Happy anniversay N!

*Do check out N's photography blog and you can wish him a happy anniversary as well :)

An ex-patriate's Thanksgiving

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving yesterday. Thanksgiving is a holiday that I've celebrated every year for the last 10 years that I've been living here in England. It's not always easy. As it isn't a holiday here, of course N doesn't get the day off. It'll probably never be a huge affair with lots of people and a huge table of food. Still, we do our very best to celebrate in our own way.

This year, things were extra complicated (N was really busy at work, my mother-in-law was in hospital having an operation, I fell down the stairs), but I think it's always nice to spend time thinking of all the things that I'm grateful for. My beautiful family: N, my boys, my mother-in-law, my dad. I'm thankful for my health, having enough of everything so that my life isn't hard. This book blog and all my wonderful readers. Every year at the dinner table, I always say I'm grateful for laughter, and I am. Especially the laughter of my Eldest. It's so loud and infectious and no matter how I'm feeling, I can't help but smile or even laugh at his laugh.

Every year, our family will prepare something special for Thanksgiving. It's almost never turkey as we're only four of us. N sometimes makes roast chicken, sometimes we'll choose American-themed foods. This year, the theme was Soul Food, and I prepared chicken jambalaya and cornbread and candied sweet potatoes. Delicious.



We always have pumpkin pie for dessert and every year the mixture is either too thick or I leave it in the oven too long. Every year I'm disappointed at how awful my pumpkin pies turned out, until this year. This year, they were heavenly. I'm not sure how much the boys enjoyed it though, but that just means there's more for me!

As an extra special treat, N ordered a big box full of American sweets for me. As you well know, American sweets are what I miss most, so it was a lovely thing for him to do. I can't wait to dig into it all ..

And that's it. That's how this little family celebrates our Thanksgiving. Thanks for indulging me in this personal post that has little impact or interest for anyone else outside of my family! And again, I'm thankful for each and every one of you. It's because of you that I write this blog.

Thank you.

Guest Post: Horror films for Halloween by Rachel Vincent

I'm very pleased to have Rachel Vincent guest posting on my blog today! I'm not the biggest fan of scary movies normally, but around Halloween I do try to make an exception!

Rachel Vincent is the author of Alpha part of her Shifter’s series about a pride of werecats which is out now from MIRA books £6.99.

You can find out more about Rachel and her books here:

Website | Goodreads | Facebook | Twitter | Nocturne Bites | Mira UK

Over to Rachel...

I was asked to write something spooky, to go along with a Halloween theme, but…I don’t really write spooky. Gory? Yes. Violent? Yes. But it’s always a kind of in-your-face violence and gore, not really intended to scare so much as to incite rage and empathy on behalf of those forced to defend themselves.

So instead of writing something creepy, I’m going to write about something creepy. But don’t worry—I brought pictures!

I’m a pretty big fan of horror movies, but I’m also a pretty tough customer to please. I like gore and…well…terror, but the movie has to have some serious plot skills to make me happy. Which means, for the most part, slashers need not apply. No Jason, Freddie, or Michael for me. I like stuff like this:



Why yes, that IS Pennywise, from Stephen King’s IT. My favorite old-school horror movie baddie. Because he’s not just physical I’m-gonna-kill-you scary. He’s psychologically terrifying. He becomes whatever you’re most afraid of. Personalized evil. Also, clowns. Seriously.
We all float down here.



The Unborn. I was pleasantly surprised by this movie. I went in not expecting much, because I’d never heard of it before it premiered on one of the movie channels, but it thoroughly creeped me out, the acting was pretty good, and there were lots of interesting references to the main characters mysterious family history. And I’m a sucker for some family history. ;) Also, look at this guy. He went down the stairs like that. Ouch.

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Jennifer’s Body. Say what you will, but I LOVED it. Clever, campy teen scream (though most of the actors aren’t actually teens. This is by far my favorite incarnation of the succubus myth. She literally devours her victims. Look at those chompers.

Also, Amanda Seyfried is awesome as “the kicker.” She should take on more action roles.



The Descent. Vaguely humanoid freakish cannibals. Gets me every time. Cannibalism is one of those concepts that truly terrifies me. Every. Single. Time. And the fact that this movie takes place almost entirely underground, in a maze of dark, bone-carpeted caverns? Awesome. Take this photo, for example. She has no idea he’s RIGHT BEHIND HER! Cause he has mad stealth skills, for a mutated freak. For real.



Pandorum. Similar to The Descent, in theory, but…so different. And so awesome. I loved Pandorum to a seriously unhealthy degree. So smart, and unbelievably tense and terrifying. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find any of the shots I wanted to show, so I’m stuck with this mutant child. Mutant children are always creepy. Add to that another movie set carpeted with bones and rotting human corpses (plus the twisty, turny plot), and you have one of my favorite horror movies of all time. All Time, I tell you.



And last of all, Pan’s Labrinth.

Guillermo del Toro may be my favorite writer/director/producer/visionary of all times, and Pan’s Labrinth is his most awesome work ever, in my opinion. Part war story, part faerie tale, part horror (and foreign film), the movie is an experience.

The shot above is from the single most suspenseful, creepy scene I’ve ever seen in my life. The kind that makes you want to break through the screen just so you can yell at the little girl to LOOK BEHIND YOU! Cause that think with eyes in its hands and rows of sharp teeth? It’s GOING TO EAT YOU!

If you haven’t seen Pan’s Labrinth, I can’t think of a better time to devote to this film than Halloween, after the trick-or-treaters have gone to bed. Don’t bother with the popcorn. Just turn off the lights and enjoy. ;)

(Phew that WAS creepy. Thanks Rachel!)

So tell me. What is YOUR favourite horror film to watch around Halloween? Have you seen any of these films?

Happy birthday to .. me

28 years ago today, I was born. Hurrah. I love the story of my birth. Let me bore you with it... My mom was on her way from Texas to Alaska. She was either on a greyhound bus or an airplane, depending on who you speak to. Her waters broke and the bus/plane had to make an emergency stop in Seattle where I was born. My due date, however, was mid to late September. There was little me, born just slightly over 4lbs and of course everyone fell in love...


How could they not? Despite not always having the greatest birthday, it being during the summer holidays when everyone is away, I grew up healthy and mostly happy, but kind of dreading those alone-birthdays. Now fast-forward to today, the year I turn 28...

And I'm sure to have the best birthday ever. Not because I have the most presents or because of how many people remember my birthday. But because I have the two most gorgeous boys in the world, who give me lots of hugs and who only wipe their faces after I give them kisses after I've turned away and they think that I'm not looking. Poor N's struggled to find the perfect birthday gift for me this year, but it doesn't really matter. Because with N and the boys, I really have everything I need.

...but I still hope there will be cake.

So, help me to celebrate my birthday this year. Tell me your best birthdays, best gift, best thing you've done. Best cake. Worst birthday, the forgotten birthdays, the crappiest gift. Most embarassing birthday. Spill. I want to hear it all!

Happy 4th Birthday, Fluttering Butterflies!

Four years ago today, I started this blog. My Oldest at the time was only 2 months old and already I felt myself being swallowed up into motherhood. I was actually being consumed by what it meant to be a mother. I needed an excuse to remember that being a mother is only part of who I am. A huge, wonderful part of me. But so is reading, and learning new things and sharing my other interests. And so, Fluttering Butterflies was born.

Four years later and I am incredibly happy with the way things have turned out with this blog. I love the discussions that go on, the friends that I've made, the swapping of book recommendations, the whole sense of community that I feel. I couldn't have done it without all of you supporting me, giving me feedback and nice comments.


So thank you to my followers, thank you to my commenters, thank you to all of my readers. You have truly made the last four years incredibly special.

Children's Christmas Baking

I have this problem every year. We put up the Christmas tree, we decorate the house, we write out our Christmas cards, we play the Christmas music. We get everything ready and out, prepared and bought. We make plans about food and where to go and what to see. And I never feel Christmassy. Not until the very end usually.

So I'm doing all I can to speed up that process. I actually have a little to-do list which includes making our own Christmas cards and wrapping paper. Making Christmas decorations and so on, which I've not yet had time to do. But one of the ways I have made time for is by baking Christmassy things with the children.

I have a 4 year old and a not quite 2 year old. So things have to pretty simple for them to help out. To be fair, there isn't much my Littlest can do. But Oldest likes measuring and stirring and especially those little cutters. Here are some of the things we've 'baked' in our house this week in preparation for Christmas. It's kept the boys busy for a few hours anyway.


Creamy chocolate fudge

To make 36 squares of fudge, you will need:

75g (3oz) full-fat cream cheese
350g (12oz) icing sugar
1 level teaspoon of cocoa powder
1 teaspoon of oil, for wiping
75g (3oz) plain chocolate chips
40g (1 1/2oz) butter
a shallow 15cm (6in) square cake tin
greaseproof paper

1. Put the cream cheese into a bowl. Sift the icing sugar and cocoa through a sieve into the bowl too. Mix them together well.

2. Put the cake tin onto a sheet of greaseproof paper and draw around it. Cut out the shape, just inside the line.

3. Use a paper towel to wipe oil onto the sides and base of the tin. Press in the paper square and wipe it too.

4. To melt the chocolate, pour water into a pan, until it is about 3cm (1in) deep. Heat it until it bubbles, then remove the pan from the heat.

5. Put the chocolate chips and the butter into a heatproof bowl. Put on oven gloves and gently put the bowl into the pan.

6. Stir the chocolate until they have melted. Using oven gloves, carefully lift the bowl out of the water. Stir in a tablespoon of the cream cheese mixture

7. Pour the chocolate into the cheese mixture in the bowl. Beat them together with a spoon until creamy.

8. Spoon the mixture into the tin, and push it into the corners. Make the top of the fudge as flat as you can.

9. Put the tin in the fridge for two hours, or until the fudge is firm.

10. Use a blunt knife to loose the edges of the fudge, then turn it out onto a large plate. Remove the paper, cut the fudge into lots of squares. Put fudge back in fridge for two hours, or until hard. Enjoy.

My thoughts: I'd never melted chocolate before. It was a new experience and I quite enjoyed it. I always thought I'd have to faff around doing that, but it was quite simple. I couldn't find my sifter though, and I think the icing sugar really needed that. The taste was wonderful, everyone seemed to enjoy it. I think I've started a Christmas tradition with this one :) Next year I might buy some pretty cellophane and wrap them up to give as gifts or in goody bags or something.

Peppermint creams

To make about 25 peppermint creams, you will need:

250g (9oz) icing sugar
half the white of a small egg, mixed from dried egg white (mix as directed on packet)
1 teaspoon peppermint flavouring
2 teaspoons lemon juice
green food dye
a rolling pin
small cutters
a baking sheet covered in plastic foodwrap

1. Sift the icing sugar into a large bowl. Make a hole in the middle of the sugar with a spoon.

2. Mix the egg white, peppermint flavouring and lemon juice in a small bowl. Pour the mixture into the sugar.

3. Use a blunt knife to stir the mixture. Then, squeeze it between your fingers until it is smooth, like a dough.

4. Cut the mixture into two pieces. Put each piece into a bowl. Add a few drops of green food dye into one bowl.

5. Use your fingers to mix the dye. If the mixture is sticky, add a little more icing sugar and mix it in.

6. Sprinkle a little icing sugar onto a clean work surface. Sprinkle some onto a rolling pin too, to stop the mixture sticking.

7. Roll out the green mixture until it is about as thick as your little finger. Use cutters to cut out lots of shapes.

8. Use a blunt knife to lift the shapes onto the baking sheet. Roll out the white mixture and cut out more shapes.

9. Lift all the shapes onto the baking sheet. Leave them for at least an hour until they become hard.

My thoughts: These were fun to make and quite simple. I followed the recipe to the letter but found my batter needed a bit more egg white than was required. Also, I didn't make white and green batches but dropped some green food dye onto the whole thing. I think I needed more. The strong peppermint taste is not to everyone's liking but I think it'd make a great gift if put into a pretty box!

I love the idea of Christmas baking. For the following weeks we plan to bake gingerbread cookies, shortbread, cheesy Christmas stars, shining star biscuits, and possibly chocolate truffles! See, I'm already excited. Christmas here we come!

A huge thank you to Marg and Kailana for organising such a wonderful event!

York, Part Three

OK, so this will be my third and final York update so I'm trying to squeeze a lot into this one. We actually stayed in a B&B really closed to York Minster, but we didn't end up actually visiting until the third or so day into our trip. It was beautiful inside.



Unfortunately, Oldest and Littlest were not too keen on the historical aspects of our visit at all. In fact, we went just before an afternoon mass was beginning and Joshua decided that was the right time to yell out 'MEH!' over and over again as loud as he could!



It was our first holiday as a family of four, so quite a lot of leeway was given in terms of what to eat and drink when we were out. Oldest may have had icecream every single day, plus sweets and chocolates and more Fruit Shoots than he'd normally have in a month. And he loved it. A lot.



And Littlest did very well despite being cooped up in his car seat or pushchair for long periods of time. I was really impressed that he managed to keep that gorgeous smile on his face despite everything being so entirely different for him.



This was taken at the lovely Museum Gardens. Look how close that squirrel is! I managed to hold Oldest off until N took this photo. Oldest loves chasing things.



The best decision we made while on this trip, was to book a sightseeing tour on one of the open-top buses. The bus driver was so friendly and helpful. He even let Oldest sit in the driver's seat for a photo. Oldest still talks about the bus driver in York. Thank you, York Pullman Bus Company!



We did also take a river boat tour, which was just as lovely and informative, but LIttlest was having a bad afternoon by that point! But look how much he loved the bus tour!



And finally, Littlest and I and the Yorkshire moors. We decided to take a trip out to the moors and I ended up visiting the Bronte Parsonage Museum, home of the Brontes! I've been inspired to re-read Wuthering Heights in the hopes that this time I might not hate it and also attempt other lesser-known novels by the Brontes. Visiting other author's homes is definately a must-do activity.

York, Part Two

I'm getting farther and farther behind on my blog. Drafts keep piling up and I can't seem to find the right balance with everything. I'm sure most bloggers struggle with this and I'm sure in a few days I'll have found my feet again. Until then, here are some more photos of my recent holiday in York.

These first two photos were taken at Clifford's Tower, the scene of a terrible massacre of Jews in 1190.



The walk up those steps was very long and hard work carrying Littlest. The views from the top were very pretty though. The top of Clifford's Tower as well as walking on the medieval city walls of York had a major impact on my vertigo. Both well worth doing, especially as the York has the most intact city walls in all of England.


Here's Oldest and Littlest indulging in a moment of brotherly love after we'd walked a portion of the walls, which you can see behind them. It was such lovely weather while we were up there, and both boys were reasonably well-behaved throughout!



And, to wrap this up, here is one of Oldest in the Yorkshire Museum Garden atop some of the ruins of St Mary's Abbey. Both were very pretty and it was amazing to be surrounded by so much history and beauty.

York, Part One

Yes, we went to York on holiday, home of the National Railway Museum, the largest railway museum in the world. It houses the only bullet train outside of Japan, the fastest steam locomotive in the world, the Mallard and so much more. Oldest adored the place. He kept talking about going back to the train museum every day that we were in York.



While we were there, we met up with my sister in law and her family for the day. It was nice to see them, and catch up a little bit. We took a lot of silly pictures, even tried to get the three boys to sit together nicely for a photo but we didn't quite manage a good one. Oldest helped out during storytime by waving a flag and blowing his whistle at the station. It was cute.



When we were finished, he said to his cousin, C, 'you can come back to York tomorrow, OK?' and was disappointed when we told them that C was going back home. He loves his little cousin. He kept giving him hugs and kisses and holding his hand. It makes me sad that they live far enough away for us to not see them regularly. Luckily, they're here for the bank holiday weekend coming up.



This is York Railway station. We went there to sit down and have a drink and N took Oldest to see the trains that came in and out of the station. Oldest adored it all. He kept making train noises and tooting. He still is, actually. Everywhere we go he pretends to be a train and chugga-chuggas along.

Imagine his excitement when Oldest realised that the B&B we'd booked was close enough to the train tracks that he could see trains whooshing past by looking out of the window next to his bed? He stayed up late every night waving to those trains with that same excited look on his face.

Blog Advent Tour 2008 - A family tradition

Marg at Reading Adventures, and Kailana at The Written World are hosting the Blog Advent Tour 2008. Every day, participants post a bit of Christmas until December 25. Today it's my turn. And whew, have I been a little nervous about what to post.

Earlier in the month, I posted about the fact that I had no Christmas spirit, and in order to defeat that feeling, I was going to write about Christmas as much as I could. I took pictures of my tree and my kids, my Advent calendar, I elfed the family, I answered Christmasy questions... what haven't I written about already? I may have mentioned before that my family as a child didn't really celebrate Christmas, but clearly what I meant by that is that I don't remember our family celebrating Christmas in a traditional way. We very rarely stayed at home. We stopped putting a tree up after my brother and I turned a certain age. After awhile, our family grew apart and were hardly in the same house together.

Because of this, I'd love it if my children grew up remembering specific holiday traditions. Fun ones, things we did together as a family, things that could think back on fondly. The smell of baking, laughter. My husband N plays the piano and every year he plays for us and we sing carols together.

And I started one as well. It was difficult to remember, because it isn't a tradition specific to Christmas, but it orginated at Christmas and I carry it on every year. It happened by accident.

My oldest son, Elliot was less than 4 weeks old on his first Christmas. He slept through us opening his Christmas presents for him, he slept most of the day in fact. When the presents were all opened, I wanted a nice photo of him. Something that would remind me of this, his first Christmas. So I plonked him down on the wrapping paper. And a tradition was born. Every Christmas I do the same, take photos of him surrounded in wrapping paper. It works the same for birthdays.

The first Christmas

Elliot, aged 1

Elliot, aged 2