Since coming back from a wonderful camping holiday in early February I’ve been completely overwhelmed by life.

We walked through our front door and into a blissfully clean house that we’d taken the time to tidy before leaving (because there’s nothing worse than returning home to a huge mess!) but within 3 hours we were back in chaos.

Bags that needed unpacking, toys that had been instantly spread throughout the house, piles of holiday washing, the reality of returning to the real world. Cupboards were bare of food, lunch boxes that needed filling for kindergarten the following day, gardens overrun by weeds and plants dying a slow death in the heat. It was pretty clear to me within a day of returning that the relaxation that was achieved on holiday (minus the 10 hours a day that weren’t relaxing, such as the hours of the day my children weren’t sleeping!) that something’s gotta give.

I can’t keep on top of this without driving myself to further insanity.

I need to fix this.

I bought a book just before I went away called The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying by Marie Kondo.

The plan was to read it while I was on holiday. I had visions of relaxing back in my deck chair outside my tent, the book in one hand and a bottle of beer in the other (I momentarily gave up on the no alcohol policy because HOLIDAY) but that of course (duh!) never happened! In fact the book never even left my bag. In between the chasing children down the beach, carting them back under my arm while they screamed because the sand burnt their feet, the cooking, bug control and socialising, I just never got the chance!

Since I’ve been home the reality of home life has hit.

Too. Much. Stuff.

On top of that: Kids who won’t eat anything except carbs and processed food. Lunch boxes that quite frankly would appall anyone with a judgmental bone in their body because they don’t contain fruit nor vegetables in any capacity (sue me). So many freakin toys my children don’t play with ANY of them. Literally. No home baking because quite frankly I can’t be assed. In fact, I would quite like to curl up in my lazy boy chair and go on strike!

And I know for a fact I’m not alone.

Mums everywhere are exhausted and hot and at the end of their tether. I know this because I’m reading it all over social media!

Yesterday I finally found the opportunity to sit down and open this book that promises to change my life and I’m ready to take a crack at it. Charlene at Teacher by Trade, Mother by Nature (who I initially heard about this book from) is blogging her way through the book. Thankfully I can follow her journey and inspire myself to get through it! Because it’s pretty full on.

KonMari (the method she teaches in the book) promises to change your entire life. By removing the excess in your home and only keeping those things that you love your whole life will be renewed. It’s an interesting and provocative concept!

Let’s be honest, throwing out shit that cost money is hard! If you’re anything like me you can’t let go of the cost factor. You hate waste. I hate waste! I always think to myself that there are people who would get use from this, that or the other and so I load all my unwanted goods into shopping bags ready to donate, only to then find them piled in the corner of my bedroom for months on end! I need to just toss it out. Out of sight, out of mind right? If only I had a garage I’d have a garage sale! But I don’t. So I need to stop with the ‘but that cost me $20!’ even if it’s an item of clothing that no longer fits, looks terrible or just something that has never been comfortable and I never wear. Or an ornament that someone gifted me long ago that I don’t love, jewelry that hurts my ears, a candle I’ve never lit, a book I’ll never read (or one I’ll never read again), a toy that has never been played with, a blanket never used, clothes that are too small for the boys anymore and furniture that doesn’t fit in our house.

I want to make way for the NEW. For tastes that are my own.

And I want less shit so I don’t have to tidy up ALL DAY LONG. Ok, with kids I’ll still be tidying up all day long! Who am I kidding?! But at least it will be less to tidy.

Part of my problem (and probably the beginning of my clutter issue) is that when my mum died 13 years ago I ended up with tons and tons of her things. Clothes, books, ornaments, make up, furniture and piles of paper. Scrapbooks of her gardening, her crafts, her ideas, her yearly planner diaries, two novels she wrote (can you imagine the sheaf of paper that is?!), her tapes (yes, the old cassette tape type!), books full of poetry and artwork. She was an amazing artist so the pictures grace my walls with pleasure but a lot of the rest of it is just taking up space in drawers. Egyptian cotton pillowcases (the kind that you would never actually use because they’re adorned with delicate hand embroidery and probably cost an arm and a leg). Antique tea sets (I don’t drink tea!) and beautiful bowls and crockery. Don’t get me wrong, it’s beautiful stuff. Gorgeous even. But it’s not me. She loved things of beauty and she spent hours seeking things out. She went to antique shops like you and I would visit Kmart, endlessly searching for her next treasure. Of course, given the sentimental value attached I held onto it all. And some of it is likely worth a bit but I wouldn’t even know where to start attempting to sell it though I do feel her treasures deserve to be in a home where they are appreciated and loved. As a consequence I never really decorated my house with my OWN stuff and I don’t even really know what my own style would be because I’m surrounded by stuff that isn’t my own, so much so I have no space to put my own personal touch to it.

It’s apt that I decided I need to do this on her birthday.

For anyone who has lost a parent and gained possessions, it is a hard road to go down. First sorting and accepting ownership of things at a time when emotion is raw. Then realising years later that you have so many things that are not your own. That you don’t love like they did. But because they loved it it can be incredibly difficult to part with such items because in many ways, their energy is still attached to that item and you relate that item to them. And because you loved them, you hold onto the item.

For this reason I’m about to start the tackle on my own mountain of belongings first before moving on to her stuff. It’s a shame I quit alcohol because I’m pretty sure that would come in handy (alcohol lowers the inhibitions and I’m sure would encourage me to be ruthless!). I like the motto this book offers though. To hold each item in your hands and ask yourself ‘Does this inspire joy?’. If not, throw it out.

Simple right?

There is an order to the madness of KonMari tidying starting with clothes. Clothes will be easier … right?! One can hope!

Have you ever accumulated a loved ones possessions after death? What did you do with them?

Is your house over run with stuff? Does this book appeal to you?

 Linking up with: #IBOT @ Essentially Jess 

To read more like this, follow me on Facebook by clicking here!

The post Out With The Old & In With The New: Using KonMari To Get Rid Of The ‘Stuff’ In Your Life appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

A year or so ago I started to hear bits and bobs floating around the internet about this Christmas tradition that entailed a strange little Elf toy moving around the house and being found in fun and strategically set up scenarios for children to find every morning.

I did some research and discovered that it actually looked like a ton of fun, particularly with two imaginative little boys but they were sold out that year so I got in early the following year (last year) and bought one.

For those who don’t have a clue what The Elf on the Shelf actually is then here is a brief outline:

The Elf on the Shelf®: A Christmas Tradition is a special scout elf sent from the North Pole to help Santa Claus manage his naughty and nice lists. When a family adopts a scout elf and gives it a name, the scout elf receives its Christmas magic and can fly to the North Pole each night to tell Santa Claus about all of the day’s adventures. Each morning, the scout elf returns to its family and perches in a different place to watch the fun. Children love to wake up and race around the house looking for their scout elf each morning.

We adopted our Elf from The Book Depository and called him Alfie (yes, very creative I know!). Alfie joined us for his first December last year and we started off well.

Here’s what Alfie got up to with us last December:

Then this happened:

NOTE TO PARENTS: 

The Elf on the shelf is a very difficult endeavor to achieve when you have children who keep getting up or refuse to go to sleep! You do not want to be up at all hours of the night trying to set this up so my advice to those of you with restless sleepers is to wait a year! Our Elf stayed on strike for the rest of December until he delivered their Christmas Eve Box.

This year we have already started reading the book every night which the kids are loving. Last year the book wasn’t read because the kids weren’t interested but given the popularity of that aspect, I think this year will be a winner! And these monkey’s actually SLEEP at night now! Woohoo! That will make being creative so much easier!

Now, the only problem is that when Alfie was hidden away returned home to Santa after Christmas he was tucked away somewhere so safe that he is now lost. Wish me luck on my retrieval mission! Only 3 weeks until he needs to start working his magic (ie. making the children think they need to be good boys and girls or Santa will be told!).

No, I am not adverse to bribing good behaviour, if only for one month a year! Bring it on I say!

Do you do Elf on the Shelf? Have you even heard of it before now? Is this something you would be interested in doing?

Linking up with #IBOT @ Essentially Jess

The post The Elf on the Shelf appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

When I was a little girl I absolutely hated having to go with my mum to the garden centre.

Being dragged around a place full of boring old plants was certainly not my idea of fun, but dragging us around the garden centre (for what sometimes felt like hours!) was indeed what my mum would do.

In order to keep me behaving myself I sometimes got to choose the new miniature rose for the garden (this would entertain me for approximately 10 minutes), a stone or bark animal that I swore they sold simply to keep bored children amused (and it worked … for a further 10 minutes) and the rest of the time was spent with my sister and I moaning ‘How much longer? This is boring!’.

And now here I am! History is indeed repeating itself.

Apparently my mother announced to her mother when she was in her 20’s that she was never going to have a garden. Gardens had dirt and bugs. These two things were certainly not her cup of tea being the ultra feminine girly girl that she was!

I followed suit with that sentiment.

Likewise I was never going to get into gardening. Plants and I were not great friends. I once was given an indoor pot plant and it grew and grew. Rather than die it was the plant that never stopped growing. One day my father-in-law found me trimming it back. I was cutting the ‘sticks’ sticking out of the pot that turned out to be the roots of the plant that were growing out of the pot because the pot was way too small to accommodate it! I’m happy to say that it survived and lives on in my mother-in-laws house (after my father-in-law removed it from my care) taking up one whole wall of their bedroom all the way to the ceiling! It’s a mega plant.

I did that.

We lived in our house for years without planting anything except some sad looking pot plants that never took off. Then last year I suddenly got the bug. I wanted trees. And flowers. Lots and lots of pretty flowers!

That’s right folks! I discovered Pinterest! Hundreds of gorgeous pictures of beautiful English gardens full of flowers. I wanted one. And so I set to work making one.

My husband didn’t want a bar of it so I was on my own. I got out there over summer and I dug my own garden right out of the lawn and I planted it all by myself.

As you can see, I learnt a thing or two in the process that I will now share with you my dear eager new gardening pal, you!

Here are some do’s and dont’s for starting your first garden, all of which I have learnt from experience!

All those don’ts? I did. All those do’s? I didn’t.

Don’t make the same mistake! Or you too will be the proud owner of a weed riddled, pumpkin infested spider garden!

THE DO’S AND DON’TS LIST FOR A NEWBIE GARDENER

DO properly dig the ground where you want your garden to go, removing all of the lawn and weeds to a decent depth to allow topping up with a good compost. I know it’s boring and you just want to go shopping for the fun part but it’s important because all those plants? They won’t grow if the soil is crap.

DON’T cut corners and think ‘she’ll do’. This will come back to bite you in the ass.

DO put down weed mat. DO PUT DOWN WEED MAT! Oh how I wish I could go back and fix this dreadful new timer mistake! You can also put down cardboard or newspaper under layers of soil to stop the weeds. I didn’t do this. Big mistake #1!

DO put bark or stones or something in the garden to keep it easy care. Like this (my one garden that I did right the first time!)

DON’T rush out and buy heaps of plants just because you think they look pretty. Do your research first. Know how big they grow and what type of garden they suit. Buying the wrong plants is an expensive lesson to learn. Yep, mistake #2! I had no idea and wasted so much money on unsuitable plants that didn’t last longer than a month.

DO know the difference between evergreen and deciduous; perennial, biennial and annual. Here’s a brief outline for ya:

• Evergreen: An evergreen is a plant that has leaves throughout the year, always green.
• Deciduous: A plant that completely loses their foliage during the winter
• Perennial: A perennial plant is a plant that lives for more than two years. Some of these plants will die away in Winter but return the following Spring.
• Biennial: A plant which blooms in its second year and then dies.
• Annual: An annual plant is a plant that completes its life cycle, from germination to the production of seed, within one year, and then dies. Summer annuals germinate during spring or early summer and mature by autumn of the same year.

DO buy gardening gloves. Getting dirt out from under your nails is a bitch!

DON’T go overboard and dig a huge garden or multiple gardens straight away! Start small.

DO realise that gardens have bugs living in them. Spiders, worms, creatures you have probably never seen before. If you have boys then be aware that they quite like to chase you with worms because that’s their gig. If you live in Australia then some of these things may actually kill you.

If you are wanting trees then DO buy them and plant them first. We waited 8 years to plant our trees! 8 years of growing time down the drain.

DO buy shrubs! Again, some may consider them boring but bigger shrubs behind the pretty flowers look way better than no shrubs.

DON’T be afraid of wasting money on annuals! I had it in my head to only buy perennials because spending money on annuals only for them to die after 6 months seemed dumb. But annuals grow easily and flower profusely compared to perennials and buying in punnets of 6-8 is cheap and they put on a great show!

DON’T ignore the weeds. Just don’t. We live across the road from a farm in a windy coastal area and by god do we get weeds. So many weeds! I ignored them all winter and now I have a gigantic mess on my hands.

DO know the difference between what is a weed and what is an edible fancy lettuce. DON’T taste the weed to see if it’s actually a lettuce. They taste the same. If in doubt DON’T eat it.

DO know that pumpkins grow HUGE. Plant pumpkin seeds in moderation. Do not plant the seeds of an entire pumpkin unless you want to strangle your garden with vines.

DO start with container gardening and buy good potting mix. I wish I had started and stopped with pots sometimes! The containers on my deck are all going really well this year and I love pottering around in them, combining flowers to fill them to overflowing and bring some greenery and colour to my outdoor living.

DON’T decide that you think you can recreate a dry creek bed just because they look awesome on Pinterest.

DON’T plant in the vicinity of small children. Those flowers you just planted? They’ll be pulled back out in 3 … 2 … 1. ‘I helping mummy garden! See!’ *Little hands proudly holding up the plants you just spent an hour planting*

And that my friends is about it for now! I hope this helps some newly budding gardener somewhere somehow!

Are you into gardening? Would you agree with my list? Does you garden currently look like mine?

Linking up with #IBOT @ Essentially Jess

The post So You Think You Want to Take Up Gardening? What NOT to do! appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

The other day I bought some Kale.

I heard it was like some kind of magic super food and it’s certainly trendy right now, so I thought I’d give it a go. I bought it for the exclusive purpose of adding it to the smoothies which I’ve just started drinking again. In fact, I must confess that I had no idea what kale looked like until I bought some and now I am very confused that my kale looks absolutely nothing like the images I found for this post and I’m still left wondering what the vegetable actually looks like before the leaves are yanked off!

But anyway, when I was going through my infertility battle which feels like many moons ago now, I went through a ‘do anything it takes’ phase in my efforts to try and get pregnant by doing literally anything at all that I thought might help. I even had a wooden fertility statue complete with a rather large extremity in the nether region that was completely out of proportion with the size of the statue. It was a gift from a friend (a male friend who had picked it up in Thailand or somewhere exotic) and though the likelihood was low, it still sat on the bedside cabinet in high hopes that maybe it did hold some kind of super power.

However, back to the topic at hand … after months of drinking smoothies every other day in an effort to improve my fertility I went off them completely. In fact, I went off fruit in general. In addition I will never again see an acupuncturist after countless sessions acting as a pin cushion for myriads of mini needles, nor will I endure the horridness of Chinese herbal medicine. And I went off green tea. And pretty much anything considered healthy.

These days with the quick and easy approach to meals at the top of the agenda, I need something that is simple but will give me the benefit without much effort, therefore smoothies have been reintroduced as part of my new Spring agenda.

I’m loving the slightly brighter weather starting to peek through the grey and it always makes me enthusiastic and motivated to make some changes, perhaps re-arrange the furniture, wash the curtains, vacuum under the couches … you know how it is. Walk some. Have a fleeting vision of yourself jogging before going back to walking. Fix the neglected garden. Release the children to the fresh air of the beach and river walks without drowning in the splash of a muddy puddle.

We all know the general things that appear on a Spring Cleaning List – the cleaning of the house from top to toe. Then of course there is the purging of the chocolate and pasta and fast food diet, hopefully followed by a loss of the spare tire caused by said diet packed on over the colder months.

My list is slightly different. Not so much about clean eating and dusting the house extensively, but rather life hacks to make your life easier (because I know we are all so busy!) while refreshing and changing things up a little.

So here’s my Spring Clean Your Life list (available as a free printable checklist at the bottom of this post should you want it!).

SIMPLIFY YOUR LIFE

• Email subscription cleanse: You know how you always skip over certain emails you subscribed to at some point and hit the delete button over and over and over again. Why not just unsubscribe? Use https://unroll.me – check it out to unsubscribe all you want in one go! (Note: Once you unsubscribe your list the first time, you need to hit the ‘Edit Subscription’ button at the top to get the ‘New Items’ list where all your random subscriptions hide. I just went from 124 to 20. So worth doing!
• Facebook pages cleanse: Same deal. Did you like a million FB pages when you entered some random competition after another? Go through and unlike the ones cluttering your newsfeed that you aren’t even interested in so you just see the ones you are.
• Sort out your mail and important papers: If you’re anything like me you probably have a stash of mail that was opened and thrown in a ‘file away or deal with it later’ pile. Sort it.

GET YOUR HOUSE SUMMER READY

• Check your fire alarm batteries: Traditionally this is done on daylight savings but no harm in doing it now!
• Clean out the freezer: Make way for the summer BBQ packs!
• Review your utilities: Utility providers are sneaky buggers and often once you are past the time period that they bargained you into signing up with them (usually with some awesome deal) they then knock you up to some less than desirable rates without advising you. Do some homework and check your phone, internet, power and insurance providers to make sure you are on the best deal you could be on.
• Wash blankets, cushion covers and curtains
• Vacuum the wall edges and under furniture
• Rearrange furniture and furnishings (out with the woollen blankets and in with the cotton throws): Sometimes rearranging a room can give it an all new feel! I park a couch over a window in winter to retain heat, in summer I move it to let the light in. 
• Air the house out: First nice day, open every window in your house! Let the air flow through and freshen the place up with a nice air spray (I love using aromatherapy oils in water in a spray bottle – grapefruit and lemon are really refreshing scents).
• Clean the glass of picture frames and mirrors: I have all my mums artwork on the walls and let me tell you, the glass takes a battering with the kids fingerprints and dust collecting on top of the frames and don’t even talk to me about my mirrors! Grubby.  
• Clean the windows: Inside and out. You want to let that sun shine in!

FOCUS ON YOU

• Sort your summer wardrobe: Make room for some funky new clothes, make up and jewellery by throwing away the stuff that doesn’t flatter you, is old or broken.
• Pluck your eyebrows: A super simple way to update your look.
• Buy new sunscreen: Slip, slop, slap!
• Colour your hair a shade lighter: A lighter hair colour is always nice and summery!
• Fix your feet: Months in socks equals not so pretty! Exfoliate, slather in moisturiser and buy some new nail polish!
• Start exfoliating: Your body will thank you.
• Start exercising and getting some vitamin D and fresh air: No excuses in the warmer weather!
• Start Pinteresting salads, super smoothies and summer cocktails! Yum!: I’ll be into the frozen margaritas this summer!

FOR THE KIDS

• Sort  your kids clothes: You’ll thank me come next winter! See what you still need to buy this summer BEFORE you go and buy a whole bunch having forgotten the 10 T-shirts you picked up for $3 a pop at the end of summer sales earlier in the year. Then pack away the winter stuff that they will still fit next year and donate the clothes they’ve outgrown.
• Renew the Toy Box: You probably get sick of tripping over toys as much as I do so I find simplifying the toy box to a few handfuls they actually play with and packing away the rest is the best thing you can do (especially since they will likely spend the majority of their time outside shortly – one can hope anyway!). Swap them up every few months as the current lot start to be neglected. While you’re at it, throw away any broken toys, toys that have bits missing, stray puzzle pieces, broken crayons and those cheap knick knacky stupid toys that just end up everywhere but seem to have zero purpose but to be annoying. Toss them all!

CLICK ON THE IMAGE BELOW TO DOWNLOAD YOUR FREE ‘SPRING CLEAN YOUR LIFE’ PRINTABLE CHECKLIST 

What are you most looking forward to doing this Spring? Do you usually do a Spring Clean? Are you going to join me and give this checklist a go?

To read more like this, follow me on Facebook by clicking here!

The post Spring Clean Your Life + Free Printable Checklist appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

The topic of shape hadn’t been brought up for some weeks but the prerequisite for the cake that he wanted was chocolate with chocolate on it. Which to be honest, suited me just fine.

On the way home on Thursday night I made the amateur mistake of telling him what kind of cake he was getting.

‘Cohen, guess what! Mummy is making you a Pirate Ship cake for your birthday!’

‘But I don’t want a pirate ship cake, I want a circle cake’

‘I don’t have any circle cake tins so you can have a pirate ship cake. It will be awesome!’

‘But I want a circle cake with a tipper tipper’ (Translation: He wanted a circle cake with a dump truck, à la F’s cake but circle)

‘You’re getting a pirate ship cake’

‘But I want a circle!’

‘Pirate ship’

‘Ok’ (this was delivered with reluctance)

Damn it child, I have not spent hours on Pinterest researching Pirate Ship cakes to then make a circle cake! And I don’t want to have to go searching for circle cake tins.

Once again I used my two favourite recipes – for the cake the Annabel Langbein Chocolate Cake and for the icing Nigella Lawson’s Sour Cream Icing. You can read the tips related to those in the Dump Truck Cake post where I go into a bit more detail.

However I must admit to maybe messing the icing up a bit this time around by accidentally doubling (ok, more than doubling!) the butter! Don’t ask me how, I think I have told you before that attempting to bake with small children is a disastrous idea! In the end I just kinda winged it and it turned out awesome so there is hope in that! I added a tablespoon of cocoa this time too to make the icing darker as often it can be quite light in colour. I’ll list the ingredients of the accidental icing at the bottom as it was smoother than usual and probably paid off in the end by going on the cake easier! And there was a shite load of it which is never a bad thing. In fact I think I will mess it up every time from now on. Just don’t tell Nigella!

So without further ado, here was the end result!

To make the pirate ship shape (say that fast 5 times!) I used two square cakes and cut off one of the edges to make it narrower. I then used the off cut of the first cake to lengthen it at the front and the off cut of the second cake to lengthen it at the back, making it longer and more rectangular. I used the rest of the second cake as a second layer for the front and back and for the step (which I cut down to be lower).

I used a knife to shape the front by rounding off the corners before covering the entire thing in icing using boiling hot water to dip the knife into intermittently to get it to go on smooth(ish) and ran a fork around the edges to make the ‘wood’. Once you have done that you have the fun part of decorating it however you please!

I used marbled Kit Kats, Chocolate Finger biscuits, white chocolate buttons and lollies around the edge as the ‘water’ – Blueberry Clouds and gummy sharks/sugar coated fish. I did try convincing my son that a rainbow ocean would be cool (pebbles) but no, he wasn’t having a bar of it. Oceans are blue and that was the end of that. Whatever happened to young imaginations! If your child is less literal you can probably get away with that!

Finally, the flags were free printables I found via Google – the ship sail from Frugalful which you can get here and the smaller flags you can find here. I then printed them at work on a 160gsm paper stock (120gsm would do though) and threaded the large one through a bamboo skewer for the sail (as per instructions on the site). For the smaller flags I snapped two skewers in half and just folded them over the top of the sticks with double-sided tape on the back of each flag to stick together, then shoved them into the cake.

Easy peasy!

I was pretty proud of my efforts and the birthday boy loved it (yes, even though it wasn’t a circle!).

Winning!

……………………………………………

THE ACCIDENTAL ICING RECIPE

175gms Butter
375gms dark chocolate
1 tablespoon golden syrup
9 heaped tablespoons sour cream
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
3 cups icing sugar
1 tablespoon cocoa (for added chocolate colour, if you want a lighter icing leave this out)

Melt butter and chocolate together (I melt the butter on the stove and then add the chocolate after taking off the heat and the heat of the melted butter melts the chocolate but do stir it continually!). Let chocolate mixture cool down and sift the icing sugar and cocoa into another bowl. Add golden syrup to the cooled chocolate mixture followed by the sour cream and vanilla (it does go quite a hard consistency, this is normal, don’t panic!). Add the chocolate/sour cream mixture to the icing sugar and mix together as best you can before adding a teaspoon of boiling hot water to start and then adding little bits more until it is the right consistency (go slow on how much you add, you don’t want it super runny!).

……………………………………………

What was the last birthday cake you made for someone, kids or otherwise?

Once again linking with the lovely Jess for #IBOT today!

The post The Pirate Ship Birthday Cake appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

When I was heavily pregnant the first time around I got really sick with a cold and chest infection and everyone knows when that happens there is not much you can take for it. Luckily my being sick happened to coincide with a visit to my Nanas house and as all Nanas seem to (they really are endless sources of wisdom!), she had a tried and true remedy for getting over colds and coughs and easing symptoms at the same time. Not only that but it was so simple and it actually tasted really nice (I thought so anyway, others may be in my husbands boat and disagree completely!).

Yes, I am one of those annoying wives that says ‘Try it! You’ll like it! It’s yummy!’ and his face was priceless. Much like one does with children and medicine which we call ‘lolly water’ –  genius if I do say so myself! Do it, it will make your life so much easier because what child doesn’t want to drink lolly water?! Also make your husband drink some, it’s fun! (No, not the childrens medicine, the apple cider and honey drink!). Now mine waits for it to cool down and sculls it which doesn’t really help the symptoms as much but do if you must.

If you have only tried apple cider vinegar on its own without the honey, then don’t scoff it until you try it with the honey as a hot brew. It really does soothe your throat and I would swear that it sped up my recovery.

Here’s how to make it:

1 DESSERT SPOON OF HONEY

2 DESSERT SPOONS OF APPLE CIDER VINEGAR

BOILING HOT WATER

Spoon ingredients into a mug and pour over boiling hot water stirring until dissolved. Voila!

So how does it work?

Apple Cider Vinegar creates an alkaline environment to help kill bacteria and viruses soothing symptoms at the same time. Start drinking it at the first sign of illness and repeat several times a day until the symptoms subside.

Give it a go this winter!

NOTE: I did some research into the safety of apple cider vinegar and pregnancy and while most agree it is safe, the odd website out there says to avoid it. Do your own research if you are pregnant before drinking this just to be sure!

The post Natural Cold and Cough Remedy appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

I am a huge fan of this quote, I can’t even tell you the number of times that I have bought items of clothing because they were on special and then never gone on to wear them! Or wore them once and then they were put in the back of a drawer never to be seen again.

The items of clothing in my wardrobe that I love and wear the most are more expensive but quality items. One thing I never buy a lot of but spend more on is shoes! Boots especially! Every two years I buy myself a new pair of boots, usually in the dollar range between $200 – $400. My boots are totally my splurge item and I wear them to work every day through winter for two seasons before I allow myself the indulgence of choosing a new pair to take their place (by that time they are usually so worn out from being so loved!). A good pair of boots can totally change up your style every season so I try to get a different colour and style every time.

This year I switched from a classic pair of pointed knee high black boots with significant heel for these:

I love love love them! So comfortable but stylish at the same time! Yes, not the cheapest but certainly better than 4 pairs of boots I never wear!

What is your indulgence wardrobe item and are you a buy less, choose well kinda gal or do you spend less and buy more? 

The post Food For Thought Friday appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.

Then out of the blue the other night Cohen (my 3, soon to be 4 year old) says to me ‘Mummy, for my birthday I want to be a pirate and have a pirate party and a pirate cake!’. I was completely thrown. Since when did he start having an opinion about these things? I thought I had at least a few more years up my sleeve of being able to decide what the cake would be, but apparently not! This birthday gig just got a million times harder. I have already used up the treasure chest idea two birthdays ago (which would loosely fit the pirate theme!) so that leaves me with a pirate ship of some description.

Which brings me to the topic at hand.

For Finley’s 2nd birthday last year I made the easiest boy cake that I could find the inspiration for on Pinterest and today I am sharing my adaption of that with you and wishing I could just repeat it! Pirate ship cake be damned (but at least my attempt will also warrant another post, perhaps a ‘Nailed it!’ version!).

So without further ado, for those with toddler boys looking for something that looks good but isn’t too hard to make, look no further! I bring you the easiest boys birthday cake ever, the Dump Truck Birthday Cake!

THE CAKE

The recipe I used for the actual cake is the delicious and oh so easy Annabel Langbein Chocolate Cake (check out the recipe by clicking on the link!). It is literally a ‘throw all ingredients in a cake mixer and hit the go button’ kinda cake. But be warned it makes a large amount of cake batter! I made it in two square tins and sandwiched them together with icing to make a tall cake.

THE ICING

I always use Nigella Lawson’s Sour Cream Icing (Note: That cake is also one of my go to’s and AMAZING but it is quite a dense thin cake, as opposed to the other one which makes a much larger cake which is what you want for this). Don’t let the sour cream put you off! I know it sounds weird but trust me, it is delicious. Don’t cut corners with sieving the icing sugar or cocoa though or you will end up with a very lumpy looking icing! The reason I know that is because I have done it before, let that be a lesson to you all!

Now onto the fun part!

So what do you need to recreate this:

SHOPPING LIST FOR DECORATING THE CAKE:

A Mini Dump Truck (I got a John Deere one from Farmers)

Two packets of Tim Tams, Chit Chats or similar (for you foreign folk, that would be chocolate coated biscuits with a biscuit middle)

2 x Crunchy Bars

3 x Flakes

1 x big bag of Maltesers (or 2 to be safe, you can always eat them later!)

METHOD

Put the two cakes together with just enough icing to hold them and then spread the remainder of the icing all over the cake including the sides.

(TIP: I made the cakes the night before and wrapped them in plastic wrap before putting them in a sealed container in the fridge, this stopped the cake from crumbling and the icing from melting. I also put a strip of baking paper just under each of the fours sides of the cake covering the edges of the plate so you can just remove them after you have finished the decorating and the plate is clean!).

Chuck an entire packet of chocolate biscuits into a blender (I used my smoothie maker) and blend it to a find crumb (you can always do more later if you need it but start with just one packet). This is the dirt. Sprinkle the ‘dirt’ all over the cake pressing into the icing to hold in place. Next, place the dump truck where you want it positioned. Break apart the Crunchy bars and position them under the dump truck and down the side (remove the baking paper from this side now) followed by the Flakes and Maltesers until it covers the side as if dumped by the truck. Insert candles and remove the rest of the baking paper, wiping any excess ‘dirt’ from the other three sides. And you’re done!

See, how easy was that!

If you ever decide to give it a go, I would love to see the photos!

What do you do for your kids birthday cakes? Are you a fancy cake maker or would you rather pay someone else to do it for you?

Joining Jess at #IBOT today!

The post The Easiest Boys Birthday Cake Ever! appeared first on Maybe Baby Brothers.