Baking

Heres a few of the yummy treats ive baked recently. Im currently trying to avoid baking until the New Year...if I bake I eat and I dont need any extra indulgence over the holiday season!

Pumpkin Cakes

Finished product (yes I made the pumpkins)

Mmm Nutella drop cookies

A classic victoria sponge... made at 8pm just because I needed cake!

Myles helping make chocolate chip scones

Bread

As mentioned, my projects now consist mainly of baking and knitting. I have always loved these two things so its really just picking them back up now I have the time.
A new challenge for me is bread making. In the UK I never had a real need to make bread, with lots of lovely bakeries as well as the supermarkets selling a huge range at reasonable cost why bother. Here its very different. Their pre packaged bread is full of random ingredients that I never knew could go into a loaf of bread, and end up making a very sweet, cloggy loaf that just doesnt work with the standard sandwich fillings. It also troubles me to eat so many ingredients I cannot pronounce!
The other factor is cost, finding a normal loaf costs about $3 (yes if you do a conversion to pounds its not too bad, but we are paid in dollars so its pretty high in my opinion).
I do not own a bread machine so I go old school just a bowl, my hands, a damp tea towel and a hot oven.

So far the attempts have been successful with the latest white bread being pretty awesome, more a fool proof recipe then my amazing talent!

Wholemeal with sesame seeds

Plain wholemeal

Simple white loaf

Everyday update, November 2012

I cannot believe I’ve not blogged since April, oops!

In May my mum and dad came to visit which was wonderful we had so much fun, but it didn’t help with my home sick feeling. As much as living in California sounds great, take away friends and family, that everyday support network, and its kinda hard work and a little sad.

Train Town, Sonoma, CA

With determination and, well, just being very outgoing, I managed to make Myles a couple of friends at his gym class. I was motivated by the thought of him having no friends to celebrate his birthday with in June.

After several weeks of hello and the odd smile, I went for it and introduced myself. It paid off and we have become friends with two of the families from the class. It made for a lovely party and playdates since.

Happy 2nd Birthday

I also used the local Moms Club to find friends. Yip I literally posted, hey I need friends! It worked and even though I only had a couple of responses the ladies I met from it are proving to be great friends, and their children get on so well with Myles.

I did notice though that everyone is less inclined to plan here, which meant at times we would have very busy days and then days of nothing. Going a week without any other adult company and trying to entertain a very busy boy is hard work.

School field trip, Artora Pumpkin Patch 

This prompted the decision for Myles to start a day care twice a week. Oh my gosh, it’s one of the best decisions for him we have made. Having started in August, he already has two best friends, Maggy and Oliver. I frequently have his teacher telling me what cheeky antics the three of them get up to in the day.  It has also really helped with Myles’ talking, we were finding he was being lazy, the words were there but he wasn’t bothering to try and use them, now we have to ask him to have quiet time!

I joined him on his first field trip to a local pumpkin patch. It was such a fun morning, I loved seeing him with his class mates and how he responded to his teachers (with hugs and agreeing to anything they asked of him). It also meant I got to meet the moms of his partners in crime.

They are fab ladies, we had the pleasure of joining them for Halloween and hope to have more playdates, and dinners soon.

Trick or Treat

Add in house warmings,  ladies (and gents) that lunch, house work and my projects and it feels like we are really creating a life here.

I still miss home, friends and family but I don’t feel so isolated and ready to jump on the next plane to England!!

(Oh and we got pregnant, so expecting our own little Californian babe early next year)!

Garden furniture

So, garden furniture here seemed really pricey, and at the time we only had a small deck to sit on so I hunted on craigslist and found these for $20, bargain.

Both pieces started this dingy brown colour and all a bit wonky

After a good clean with some chemical peel for furniture and a good stain

I am now looking out for some more seating for the yard we have :-)

Bed frame

Our bedframe has lasted for years and moved so many times its taken a scrape or two, so it was time to freshen it up

Im really happy with the finished result

The Bookshelves and draw units

Very simple, but a great fresh look to these very old units!

Still working on finding the draw pulls I want, but Im happy with the paint.

Updates on old projects - The Dining Table

I did finish the furniture projects I had planned so here are some pics ...

The dining table

Lets Start Again

Ok, so im pretty rubbish at this blogging thing!

Life got busy as we have started to settle here in California. We have been out and about a lot, plus lots of lovely everyday living.

About 2 months ago we moved… again. The first house we were in was lovely and big inside but unfortunately I could not get on with the location (or the noisy neighbours), so we downsized and got our perfect location in downtown San Carlos. It’s a cute little town full of restaurants and boutique stores. A real plus is that we can walk Myles to his day care, no more morning tears about having to get in the car, yay! We also have a yard to play in which is so great.

With downsizing, I really don’t have the need or space for furniture projects so after finishing my last already planned project I stopped looking for bargains. Instead I swapped sanding and painting for baking and knitting.

I love love baking, the whole process is relaxing, the smell always makes me smile and whilst pregnant I figure I can get away with an extra treat or two J

Bread is something I have really started to work on. One thing we really miss is English bread, its simple yet scrummy flavour. Here they seem to insist on adding honey, corn syrup, molasses etc, you name it, and it’s probably in the bread. Not everything turns out perfectly, the new house has a gas oven which is all new to me, so I seem to need to make at least two attempts at any recipe to figure out the best timing, but it all still tastes good and Pete seems to be happy eating anything!

The other great thing about baking is Myles loves to help me. Its so nice to make things together and he will try everything as we go, so a lovely way of getting him to try new things without bribery.

Knitting, well its not as fast as baking but I find it a great way to switch off in the evening. I really enjoy knitting but I am far from being very good. I still stick to very simple items. My plan is to eventually find a group that I can learn from but for the moment you tube will having to suffice.   

So, my plan is to share with you my projects, and you can nag me to speed up on the knitting (so a blanket doesn’t take 3 months)! 

Easter eggstravaganza… sorry couldn’t resist!  

We seem to have celebrated Easter for two weeks. On the 1st, Redwood Shores held their egg hunt, not sure who enjoyed it more, Myles or Mummy.  I may have become competitive mummy excitedly pointing at the golden, prize winning egg, whilst Myles stared at me bemused… we got it though, score!

Americans do not take Easter as a holiday which is a shame, especially when reading everyone’s facebook updates back home about their 4 day weekend breaks. We did however squeeze in a lot of special activities.

Saturday we left the Peninsula bubble for some time with friends in the city, Myles enjoys playing with Scarlett, or Scar Scar as he enthusiastically refers to her, and harassing poor Minou the cat.  We took a stroll in the sun to the park, and stumbled across a nice little bar for a cheeky beer.  The entire day was most pleasant, well except for the high decibel screaming from a very over tired child, but we can blank that part out.

How to start the Easter weekend 

Scarletts brick at AT&T Park 

Sunday we ventured to Pismo Beach, you may have heard us talk of this place before. We first visited back in 2009, and again when we came out in December 2011.  I have a big soft spot for the place, it combines laid back easy living with a beautiful beach and great seafood.  Add a playpark on the beach, and you have the perfect family escape, no worries, no hassle, no time constraints, bliss.

This time we were able to meet up with our friends that were over in SoCal on holiday from the UK.  It truly felt like a little mini vacation and Myles had great fun with Neeve and Connor, dutifully agreeing to do or go wherever Neeve suggested… a life lesson for the boy about woman me thinks!

Pretty much a perfect weekend, a bit of city, a bit of beach and all in one weekend…not something we’d ever do back in Guildford.

Myles loves sand (and trucks)

Burying Neeve and Connor

Turning Californian

A couple things you notice when you walk around here are

1.       90% of woman (and men) appear to work out in some way

2.       95% of people walk around in their work out gear, woman in black pants (I will note that this was also the case in Vancouver, I knew I should of bought lulemon pants back in 2007)

With this in mind, I joined the gym. I was going at home anyhow but with everyone around me jogging to the library, talking about their latest class and looking like they were always ready to sprint at any moment I thought it’s time to at least make an effort.

The local YMCA here is fantastic, it’s a family gym and swimming pool. All classes and crèche time included, this is a huge plus when you have a toddler.  Everytime I collect Myles he tells me he drove the car, kicked the ball and played with the choo choo’s , a little place of heaven for him then!

Now all I have to do is stop eating the American fair, such as deep fried chicken and waffles, deep pan pizza, and cookie dough frozen yoghurt, I might actually see some benefit.  

Projects – Dining Table

So my first project is the dining table. We purchased it from craigslist for a very reasonable figure, I love the shape and style and the white base, but the black chalk board paint top isn’t my idea of sanitary dining! So with home depot as my new love, I got myself a little sander, the mouse, and went about discovering what lay under the paint.

It took a few hours, several sheets of sand paper and some painful back ache but I hit gold (well for my taste anyhow) underneath is a beautiful wood top, which I believe is oak. Ive now diverted from my original plan of painting the entire table white and decided to go down the farmhouse look route and give it a classic stain. So after some finer sanding this is the first coat of stain…

Removing a nasty layer of chalk paint over white gloss

Applying the first coat of stain

Moving Day

Moving day finally arrived! It's lovely to be in our new home and to have our own things again. It's going to take a little while to sort everything out but it's exciting. Kirsty has great plans to renew some of our furniture which will be awesome. Some stats from the movie just for the fun of it..

Distance Traveled = 5359 miles or 8622.63 Kilometers
Items Transported = 113 boxes by Sea + 7 Boxes by Air
Time taken to transport = 55 days
Items of new furniture put together = 9 (so far)

The move has been handled really well by the removals company - they packed it all up in the Uk and even helped unpack here are the new place. Luckily nothing was damaged or lost in all of this!  We are all connected up with Electricity, Cable TV, internet and the other of lifes essentials - all of which has been quite painless so far. As Kirsty has written - we both have cars now which really helps. I've got a Ford Fiesta which is perfect for getting me around to work, etc and we gave it a good road test last weekend on our first trip away...

We had a wonderful weekend at Pismo Beach catching up with the McDairmant family from the UK (I worked with Alan at Criterion).  It was lovely seeing Myles play with Conner and Neeve and the seafood at the Cracked Crab was as scrumptious as always.

I'll post some pictures of the trip soon but here we are relaxing with an appropriate drink in the sunshine..

 

A new hobby

As part of saving money and furnishing our new home ive been looking around at second hand pieces of furniture I can work on. 

I guess the projects will serve a few purposes, save money, get creative again and give me something to do other than stare at the tv or go online all evening, ill be honest, im very excited about this prospect! Ive purchased a small electric sander and plan to set up in the garage. My first project is going to be our dining table. If successful im going to attack our old bed frame, and hopefully bedroom furniture. 

One of the ladies ive recently met here does this kind of thing very very well so hoping for some hints and tips. 

The dining table, starting easy with just needing to work on the table top

Lets see how it ends up!

Out and About

Although mainly parks, Myles and I have been starting to explore our new surroundings. Myles loves the parks here as they are mostly on sand, which means digging and playing. In summer I think he is going to have a great surprise that a lot of them have water play features, im going to have one happy boy.

This weekend we went to the local Easter egg hunt, it was great fun and very well organised. Unfortunately the Easter bunny got a more extreme reaction to Father Christmas, lets hope those two are never in the same room!

No No NOOOOOO! Not a fan of the bunny

but ill happily take your friend

We are spending Easter Sunday in Pismo Beach, Im hoping we will have a few more smiles :-)