Thursday 27 December 2012

Christmas in a New House



10 days after moving in, we had Christmas at our house this year with our Mums, Dads and Siblings.
We really enjoyed showing them all the work we had done in the house and cooking a traditional meal but with a twist!
On Christmas eve we tidied polished and prepped the house. We also did lots of food prep while watching Christmas movies, we combined some Nigella and Jamie tips with family traditions and Lucy inspirations...

We woke up early on Christmas day to get the turkey sorted and in the oven. Emma and I went to church with Emma's family in the morning, now just a  short walk away from our house! 
Then we walked home to do some final prep before our families descended, we had just put everything away tidily when both families turned up with bags and boxes of stuff, we had asked them to bring their own drinks for the day but I think each of them brought enough drinks for all 8 of us!
We showed Emma's parents and Brother around the house as they hadn't seen it since the furniture moved in and they really liked what we had done with it! 
Our theme for the decoration was snowflakes, reindeer and little houses all in red blue and white in our dining room and purple green and gold in the lounge.
Lucy then carried on with the cooking while Emma prepared drinks and entertained the family. We sat down just before 1.30pm for a great meal which went on until 3.30pm.

Menu
**
Salmon mousse with crackers and a water cress salad
**
Turkey 
Gravy
 Carrots
Parsnips
Bread Sauce
Roast Potatoes
 Pigs in Blankets
 Cranberry Sauce
 Sweet Potato & Swede Mash
 Sprouts with bacon and pine nuts
Sausage meat, Chestnut and Amereto Stuffing
&
Wine
**
Christmas Pudding Ice Cream
Lemon and Dark Chocolate Tart 
**
Cheese and crackers for those with an inch of space left!

After lunch we retired to the lounge to open presents. Emma and I had not opened any of our presents but our brothers and sisters and parents had opened their presents from each other at their own homes earlier so it was a bit over whelming for us to get all our gifts at once - usually we would see family and friends at separate times but this was a bit crazy and hard to keep a track of who brought what for who.

I think everyone was pleased with their presents! 

Everyone went home full, both from dinner and the happiness of spending time with family, leaving us time to watch Strictly and Call the Midwife.

Overall it was a traditional Christmas Day, but that's what this time of year's about.
We hope you all had a Happy Christmas.



o

Wednesday 26 December 2012

Moving House

Should have posted on Monday! But got distracted hanging snow flakes!

So last Monday we moved to Kings Heath!
Birmingham is a really diverse city with lots going on and loads of different areas. I have always wanted to live in Kings Heath because of the beautiful houses, bustling high Street, proximity to my work, transport links, friendly people, friends and family close by and generally great atmosphere.


Our move went surprisingly smoothy despite leaving quite a few things behind in our flat whoops! We really appreciated the time we had to decorate before we moved in all our stuff.

Although we knew KH was a  great place to live and were already pretty obsessed with it, already we have found our lives soooo much easier and really do love living here even more than we expected to.

Also another huge plus point of our new house is having a front door at the same level as our lounge and kitchen, when we lived in the flat it seamed like we were not connected to the world outside but living in  a house with a down stairs has totally changed our living habits.Also we now eat up to table in the kitchen, making us be much tidier and enjoy our meals and our time together.
We have loads of Charity shops in Kings Heath and have found some great bargains for the house including a set of 6 dining chairs for under £50 and a lovely little TV table.


Every day this week the house has  got better and better and now it really feels like our home we have really tried to inject our characters into the house and it feels warm, cosy and homely. We even managed to get a Christmas Tree! We are hosting Christmas for both our families tomorrow and we are really pleased that the house will just be ready in time, the dining table arrived yesterday!


Before we moved we made a theme book of how we wanted each room to look and we have had a look back on it today and although we don't have  a single item that matches the magazine clippings fabric swatches we have captured the spirit and feel of each room.


Monday 3 December 2012

Go us!

So it's been a while updating this lil blog. We hope you forgive us but we have been quite busy with some very important life changes! We will talk about them a bit more in future posts, but in brief, Emma's new job and the big house move have taken our attention, along with Lucy's amazing play, (which you can all buy tickets to see in January!)

For this post we want to share our success  of something we are really proud of - our weight loss. Normally I would feel self conscious or modest about talking about thins, but I really feel like this is an achievement we could have only have done by working together and giving each other heaps of support. 

We had tried to have a healthy start over the summer, but the incentive wasn't there and after a few weeks we had forgotten all about it. The real kick came when we decided the time was right to start planning a baby...

To increase our chances of getting pregnant we need to be as healthy as possible. There was no need to cut out smoking or alcohol for us, but as we were both overweight this was the most proactive thing we could be doing until our treatment begins next year. 

So to Slimming World we went! 

We've found the diet plan really easy to fit in with our normal lives, we have renewed our love for healthy, fresh food, and we have both gained the motivation to increase our overall fitness levels. Lucy has been brilliant at making healthy meals (stuffed peppers and marrows, roasted vegetables, soups, stir fry's, salads and tasty pasta dishes) and I have ensured that the fridge and fruit bowl are stocked with lots of tasty snacks.

By following Slimming World we have been

  • Filling up on SuperFree foods; all fruits, vegetables and salad items
  • Enjoying Free foods; pasta, rice, potatoes, pulses, lean meat, eggs etc.
  • Adding healthy extras; milk or cheese, and cereals or crackers
  • Counting Syn items to add variety and allowing us to eat out at restaurants


Our favourite SuperSpeedy foods are Grapefruits and Oranges, and we have tried new ways to incorporate vegetables into our meals. Who'd have thought cabbage in chicken chow mein would taste so great?! I'm still able to eat plenty of chocolate too!
w
Together, over 8 weeks we have lost 3stone! And what's even better is that we've lost exactly the same amount, as we received our 1 1/2 stone awards today! We are wearing clothes that we had grown too big for, and we've heard a few compliments on how great we look too. We are just about to face the challenge of Christmas, when the average Briton gains 10lb over the Christmas week! Let's hope we can avoid that and start 2013 lighter than ever.

At the group people often ask how we are managing to consistently loose weight each week. I honestly thing the main thing (aside from following the plan) is the way in which we support each other. We have both made a commitment and are sticking to it for each other.