PINK JUMPERS, PERFECT EGGS & DATES WITH MY BOYS


I'm not a big fan of Valentine's day. Red roses don't float my boat, and all of a sudden decent restaurants everywhere start to serve substandard food just because their set menu is covered in hearts. I'll give it a miss, thanks.

But when you've got three boys wanting to take you out how could I say no? When two of those dates happen to be under five your fancy schmancy restaurants are out of the question and so a leisurely lunch date it is. No set menu but a place that sells brunch all day long. Now you're talking.

Plus when you wear your favourite pink jumper, and you never wear pink, it feels like romance is in the air ;)

Thanks to a friend's suggestion I was recently introduced to The Pantry, located in Stockbridge. It boasts great food and great coffee, but there's more. Their piece de resistance is a little kid's corner it has set up full of books and toys, which just happens to be gated!! So after your little ones have demolished (or ignored) their food they have a space of their own to keep them busy which means lunch in peace for us adults, and even HOT coffee. Now there ain't nothing more romantic than that ;)


I went for shakshuka eggs, while Michael tucked into the braised beef quesadilla. The portions aren't huge but were perfect for us on that day. If you're really hungry I would suggest another dish to share or you can tuck into some cake afterwards. It's not super cheap, but considering the location and the gorgeous food I'd say totally reasonable.


With date night mostly a thing of the past it was so nice to have a little date vibe going on, with our two sidekicks happy in the play corner. I still find it astounding you can see someone daily yet never really get to chat properly. Family life for ya, conversations stop being about yourselves and are all about little people.

So it was nice to sit there and talk about work, the year ahead, and just life in general. It was a conversation that lasted a whole hot coffee, a win in my books. Once the boys started getting restless we decided to go for a walk before home


I don't know if it's because Caleb is soon to turn five but he just seems to have grown up so much in the last few months. He's my little gent who when he saw me ready to go out on our little lunch date told me how pretty I looked! Talk about boosting at mama's confidence because at the moment when I look in the mirror I just see a tired and rapidly aging me, but if in the eyes of my son I'm pretty, well that is good enough for me.


Then there's this little fire cracker, who's smile is infectious, the cheekiest of all, and loves so fiercely he will pounce and kiss at any time.


One of my favourite Valentine days to date. Three boys vying for my attention is pretty awesome ;)

You can find my pink jumper here. Be warned you will mop up everything around you with the cuffs, but when cuffs look that good, who cares, right?!

Also, if like me you struggle to get jeans (I've got thighs and a bum but a smaller waist, the worst combo for good fitting jeans) I'm obsessed with these Joules Monroe jeans. The fit is lovely and doesn't make me feel like sausage meat squeezed into it's skin, because where is the romance in that ;)
Thursday, 16 February 2017 Comments: 8
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WHEN INSTAGRAM FRIENDS BECOME REAL LIFE ONES


If you told me a few years back I would go on a weekend away with friends I'd never actually met in person before then I would have said you were mad. Crazy. Don't be so ridiculous!

Yet there I was packing my whole family off for a weekend doing just that, and all thanks to a little app called, Instagram.

So how does a person make friends on Instagram you may wonder? This was me a few years back. What I originally thought was just an app to edit and slap a few filters on your photos has turned out to be so much more, enter a few relevant hashtags onto your pics, and it's like a whole new world opens up.

A world that at first I admired from afar not daring to comment on other peoples pictures. I mean wouldn't they think I was weird for commenting?? We were strangers to each other. Stranger danger and all that ;). I was however spurred on to make my account public by a picture-a-day project. Soon I was chatting back and forth with other people taking part in the project. From there it was like a knock-on effect, through commenting and chatting on other accounts you would connect and find even more accounts to follow.

Now everyone will use Instagram differently but for me it's a creative outlet and a place where I can pour my heart out, so not surprisingly they're the accounts that have best resonated with me. Therefore the friendships I've made there have become special as without even meeting we know so much about each other and our daily lives. We've championed each other in the good times, and offered our support through the bad. In the beginning it was mostly people overseas I was chatting with but soon I started to find people closer to home.

Which brings me to these three gorgeous girls, Sally, Lauren and Jules, who I was about to spend a whole weekend with, without so much as a little coffee date beforehand. A weekend away may seem a little extreme when it comes to meeting people in real life for the first time but after years of friendship and sharing our love for our families, photography, Instagram and blogging, it seemed like the most normal thing in the world to do.

Now it became the task of finding somewhere big enough to house us all. Eight adults and six children, the place would need to be big, and of course it would help if the settings and surroundings were Instagramable of course. Pretty sure that word will make it into the Urban Dictionary soon ;) Ha! just googled, and guess what? It is!

Sally found the perfect place and more in Holmthwaite, a beautiful three-storied Victorian townhouse boasting six bedrooms, four bathrooms, roll top bath, woodburner and plenty of living room space, nestled in the lovely village of Coniston. I'd never been to Coniston before but I adore the Lake District so I knew we'd be in for a treat, and I wasn't wrong.

So was I nervous about meeting people in, 'real life' for the first time after chatting for years? Strangely no. I just felt excitement at finally getting to give these girls a big squeeze in person, with the mental note to not be overly familiar with their children to the point of scaring the little guys! Did they not realise though that I've known them since birth??! Hi, it's Aunty Claire, ya know, from Instagram ;)

Now I could wax lyrical about these girls all day long, but I'll save you that. What I will say is that they are even more gorgeous and lovely in real life. Spending time with them was like spending time with some of my oldest and dearest friends. The chat flowed endlessly, all the children played happily, and our men found their very own Instagram husband support group ;)

To see how truly gorgeous the settings were I did a little two minute vlog about our stay below.


A Weekend with Friends at Holmthwaite, Coniston from Claire Stewart on Vimeo.

As you'll have seen in the vlog the lovely people over at HelloFresh supplied us with the most delicious meals for the weekend. If you've not heard of HelloFresh yet, they're a meal subscription company that take the hassle out of deciding what's for dinner and instead deliver fresh recipes to your door with the exact ingredients and quantities you will need.

I've heard amazing reports about how good their food is and I was not disappointed, each dish is restaurant standard and packed with so much flavour. Perfect for a foodie, a busy lifestyle or for someone who hates the whole shopping and cooking process, as their recipes are super easy and straight forward to follow.


Now it's not an Instagrammer/blogger weekend without a few cheesy shots! Thankfully, Lauren's partner, Colin was overseeing the cooking whilst we found ourselves hilarious in front of the camera ;). Thanks, Col! 


With our bellies full of food we had the perfect settings to walk it off, Coniston was looking it's finest on this cold and sunny winter's day.


After our long walk there was nothing better than going back to warm up in front of the woodburner with a glass of wine, and plenty of space for the kids to run about.

I'm still kicking myself for not taking advantage of the roll top bath we had next to our room, another visit me thinks!


An amazing weekend, with wonderful friends, beautiful settings, and delicious food. More of this, this year please. It is good for soul, that's for sure.

If you're interested in booking Holmthwaite for a family gathering or a weekend with friends everything you need can be found on their website here.  We found the owners so helpful and went above and beyond, especially when poor Jules and her husband had to abandon their car due to a flat tyre, on a sunday of all days, it was really lovely to have a local point of contact throughout our stay.

*A big thank you to Holmthwaite for hosting us all, and HelloFresh for providing all the food. All thoughts and opinions, as always, are my own.

Thursday, 9 February 2017 Comments: 6
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THE GLASS IS HALF FULL 2017


Is it too late to wish you a Happy New Year?

It's still January (just!) so I'm going to go with it. Happy New Year!!

Does anyone else feel like 2017 has snuck up on them? Not that I'm particularly sad to see 2016 go, it was a strange, weird, and damn right awful year for many, but all of a sudden it's January again, just like that, and never has it felt so good to have a fresh start.

One thing I'm very glad to be leaving in 2016 is my driving lessons! On the 29th December I took my driving test for the second time, I reasoned with myself it was a good time of year to take my test as I will have been preoccupied with Christmas and the upcoming New Year celebrations (which we were hosting), turns out I was absolutely right. I was nowhere near as nervous as I was previously and the test ran so smoothly. A pass!

I've already nicknamed 2017, year of the car, year of freedom!!!!!

In all seriousness though, driving is a game changer for me. Since moving house I've been restricted on where I can go because of Caleb's nursery times, I could only ever venture so far or rely on others that could drive who had room for us. It didn't help that I'm actually the worst person when it comes to asking for help too.

The day after I got my car I went to a good friend's for lunch, nothing major, but before I was unable to as it would have meant two buses and not enough time around nursery schedule. I stood there in her kitchen, us chatting away, and I just burst into tears. Don't worry, they were happy tears. I was just so happy to be stood there.

It made me realise just how hard 2016 had been in many ways. Throughout last year I would focus on and tell myself repeatedly all the good things I had. So for example, when we moved I told myself.....I love our home, I love the area, I love the nursery, I love that the boys are settled, I love that Michael loves it, I love the lovely people we've met so far, all I need to do is pass my test......

It's taken for me to pass my test to finally admit that not being able to drive has been isolating and frustrating. It's like a rush of emotion keeps coming over me every time I think back to last year. It's the one time in my life I can say I'm truly proud of myself. Proud for passing, but mostly I'm proud that I kept strong with my positive outlook, besides a few weepy outbursts that my poor husband had to contend with ;). My glass remained half full.

I have to say there's nothing quite like passing your driving test to give you a positive outlook for the new year ahead. I feel refreshed, recharged and ready for 2017.

This will be the year I focus on more personal goals, remain positive and simplify. I said goodbye to a lot of clutter when we moved house and I now want to continue that in all aspects of our life. I've said goodbye to a lot of hard feelings I've been holding onto as well, they serve no one, all they do is harm me more. I choose JOY. Cheesy as that may sound, but it's true.

I wish you a wonderful 2017, and maybe some of you are in a place in your life that's particularly hard or not what you expected just now? I'm certainly no expert but remaining positive and looking to what you do have served as a lifeboat to me. Keep telling yourself your glass is half full, until it actually is, and then go blubbering to a friend over lunch about how hard things actually were and now you're crying because you're happy ;). It worked for me :)



Thursday, 19 January 2017 Comments: 2
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Decorating This Little House For Christmas


This time last year I was going through the motions. My Grandad was seriously ill. We had just moved into our new home with the norovirus. I was hanging on by a thread. I made sure I put the tree up for the boys but my festive spirit was nowhere to be seen. 

Here we are a whole year later, it's crazy how time just sneaks up on you like that, and I don't want this time of year to be melancholy for our family. My Grandad would not want that, he loved Christmas. I have the best memories of my nan and grandad's house decorated for Christmas, they'd have the coloured flashing lights that played music, the mismatch coloured decorations, we'd make paper chains, anything festive I made at school they would proudly set out. I loved it. I distinctly recall making a candle holder with cones and far too much gold spray and glitter, you know the sort of thing you as a parent would be proud that your child had made but wouldn't want it anywhere near your gorgeous festive decor?! Yeah, that sort of thing. That's when grandparents come into their own though, isn't it?! 

Then there was my mum's house, all beautifully decorated with her gorgeous, perfect tree. I remember one year staring in horror as she dressed the tree with blue and silver decorations (long before it was deemed cool)  Where the hell was the gold and red!?! Where were my multi-coloured lights?! Ahead of her time my ma. I now smile every time I see the blue and silver combo anywhere at Christmas.

So this year I wanted to pay homage to my mum's stylish decor with my nan and grandad's homemade approach, and this is the result...


I've admired the tradition of stringing popcorn and cranberries but have never done it before, after a little research I found that dental floss is in fact the best thing to use as it's strong and super easy to thread with. So enticing my mum, who was visiting, with mulled wine we got threading, and in no time at all we had some lovely garlands. I had picked up battery operated wire fairy lights not fully knowing what I would do with them, it turned out because they're so delicate and easy to manipulate they've been perfect with the garlands. Needless to say I went on to buy more!


Next up we dried orange slices for garlands and present tags. I sliced four large oranges and baked them in the oven. Have you ever baked oranges? If not, do it immediately even just for the smell alone. The scent is Christmas! It's quite a nice thing to do if you're in for the day as most guides I found suggested 4 hours at 65 degrees celsius, mine still weren't dried properly after that time so I bumped the oven up to 100 for a further hour but careful not to burn them.

Inspired by @karenmcrobbie85, I threaded them onto my wire lights, and as a final touch I added some eucalyptus.


For Christmas my Nan has given the boys money so I decided to use some of it to buy the boys little potted Christmas trees that can be planted in the garden after. I know my Grandad would have loved this, as they'll now each have a tree in the garden from their great-grandparents which will grow as they grow. 

Now I couldn't find musical lights but you betcha I got multi-coloured ones, and it would have to be handmade decorations all the way! We made salt dough decorations as the boys are play dough fanatics just now, plus I liked the idea of their little fingerprints being on them.

I wanted the salt dough to be super white for Christmas and I came across this recipe here. However for all my British readers, if you fancy giving these a go I've popped the recipe below to avoid confusion with the American cooking terms and temperatures.

1/2 cup (I used a small china tea cup) of Cornflour 
1 cup Bicarbonate of Soda
3/4 cup of water
Put into a saucepan on medium heat until it bubbles.
Stir until it looks like a smooth consistency.
Remove from the heat and roll into a ball, if it feels really sticky just add more cornflour, but we didn't need to do this.
Place in  bowl and cover with a damp cloth and leave to cool.
Roll out and use whatever cutters you like, making sure to pierce a hole to thread the string.
Place on a baking sheet and pop in oven at 80 degrees celsius for 45 minutes.
Once out the oven and cooled we painted with craft glue to seal and we added glitter. Its ain't Christmas without a little glitter ;)


The boys loved making these decorations and hanging them on their trees. It is definitely going to be a little Christmas tradition of ours from now on.


Oh and fyi all the fir on the staircase, garlands and presents was cut directly off a tree we pass every day on our way to nursery. Yep, that's right I've become that person who carries garden shears around with me.

Seriously though we've had so much fun making our Christmas decor this year. It's been a family affair and it has cost next to nothing.

I'd love to hear any Christmas decor traditions you have and why?

* The boys pj's (that glow in the dark!) are from Fatface and can be found here.
Thursday, 15 December 2016 Comments: 4
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