User-agent: * Allow: /. Would Like To Be A Yummy Mummy: June 2011

Wednesday 29 June 2011

My baby girl is growing up...she is 1 today!

Dear Rosie,

Wow, I cannot believe it but you are one today already.  The time has flown by. Its amazing how much you have changed, from this:

1 week old

To this:

1 year old

You have been been a fantastic baby only crying when hungry, dirty or in pain because of your teeth. You have been no trouble at all, a happy, content little girl who giggles and smiles away most of the time.  You are a little shy with strangers at first but this soon passes and you are a bit of a Mummy's girl too.

At the moment you are busy pulling yourself up on everything and walking around the furniture.  You also have several of those push along first walking toys and love them.

Today we went to the Zoo.  You had great fun and because it was a lovely sunny day all the animals were out.  You were pointing your little chubby finger at everything and shouting to your sister to look too.

Look at the ape in the background


This afternoon Daddy finished work early and we had a picnic tea with birthday cake.  Poppy had picked a chocolate Caterpillar cake for you..I thought you wouldn't like it because you have not had anything like that before but you loved it and wolfed it down looking for more!  I should have know really because you love your food.  There isn't anything you don't like...Daddy says if I gave you marbles you would eat them and say "yummy, thanks Mummy" (if you could talk of course).

This was your second taste of Birthday cake, your first was on Sunday.  We saw Nanny, Gramps, Aunty D, Uncle Jim & William at the weekend and had a little celebration lunch together before heading home.  It was lovely and you had great fun!

Party at Aunty D's


Here are a few more pictures of you today.

Opening your Birthday dress


The ball pit

Your 1st ice cream (usually you get an empty cornet)!

The greedy goat
 (It managed to open my bag & find Marmite rice cakes)

Lots of pressies

Sharing your new toys with your Sister 

Looking forward to watching you grow up but missing the baby you were already.

Love you sweetheart

Mummy xxx

Tuesday 28 June 2011

Poppy's Quote of the Week - Week 3



"I'm not ready for that yet" with hands over her ears

Context: Daddy tried to tell her that pork came from pigs


Karen x

Review of ELC Easy Painters



This one is not a sponsored post but I just wanted to tell you all about these as my little girl loves them. The age on the box says from 3 years but my two year old uses them and has no problems.

At only £4 for 5 of these paint pens they are a bargain.  They are part of the Bits & Basics range from the ELC and provide hours of fun for your little ones.

My Daughter loves that they are easy to hold and use and Mummy loves that they make no mess and really are washable.

There isn't a thing that we would change...well maybe some more colours would be nice.  They currently come in a pack of red, green, yellow, pink and blue.  We brought ours for a Christmas present and they are still going strong.

Here are a few pictures of my little girl using them:


So there you have it, easy painters from the ELC.  Great for a rainy day or for just encouraging the creativity inside your little ones.

Karen x

Monday 27 June 2011

MUMenTUM- Week 8

Hello again,

Its been a week of ups and downs so where to start I am not sure!

Ok good news first...I was measured for a new bra on Friday (didn't get one as between sizes and still shrinking after stopping breast feeding), anyway I have gone from a massive 40" after having Rosie back to my normal 34" round the back, much better.  My cup size has only dropped 1 size so far but the lady in the shop assured me I needed to wait a couple more weeks as I am still reducing and am in between sizes.  So for me this is fantastic news, I am almost back at my normal (pre-children) bra size.

I also turned up to see my Sister and parents after not seeing them for a few months and they all thought I look noticeably slimmer.  I was in a particularly flattering outfit of well fitted skinny jeans and a fitted top and felt really good.  However, on CyberMummy day I didn't feel that slim. I am thinking maybe I wore the wrong dress as I felt much slimmer in the one I wore the following day but never mind. I also had watery eyes and a scabby nose (the after effects of having a bad cold) but none of it dampened my day!

I think the reason I am feeling a bit bigger this week is I have struggled a little bit from swapping from a low carbohydrate diet to just using the slimpods from Thinking Slimmer.  They told me to stop my fad diet and just listen to the slimpods each night.  The first few days this went okay and I wanted to eat healthy foods. However as CyberMummy approached I found it increasingly difficult to just lie back and relax, emptying my mind and listen to Trevor's voice... my mind kept wondering back to thoughts of CyberMummy and then tuning back in when I heard the word chocolate..whoops! For those of you that met me, you may have noticed I get easily distracted and have the attention span of a gnat (this is since having children)! Anyway from Wednesday through to Sunday I have eaten everything including chocolate, pizza and those gorgeous cup cakes that were everywhere during CyberMummy breaks ....yummy.

However, it is now Day 8 and I am dying to get back on the straight and narrow. I think the slimpod effect has kicked in and I am feeling really positive!!  In fact today I am going to squeeze in an hour on the cross trainer and have so far eaten healthily, I even resisted a KitKat!! The idea of snack foods makes me feel sick! You will have to watch this space to see if i'm successful this week.  I was very sorry to have not met Wendy and Trevor who were apparently both at CyberMummy11.  It would have been great to meet the man behind the voice I fall asleep to every night and I would have appreciated a little feedback on my first week, but never mind!

So this week my aims are:

  • To eat healthily
  • To continue drinking more water
  • To listen to my slimpods every night
  • To not snack especially on chocolate
  • To exercise

I look forward to letting you know how I get on next week and reading how you have all got on this week.

Feel free to join in, just add your name to the linky and don't forget to grab our badge if you too are struggling to loose your MUM TUM.



Karen x

Cybermummy 11... So Sad It Is Over!

My Sister (Not Yet A Yummy Mummy) and I were extremely lucky to have very generous parents that brought our tickets to CyberMummy.   We just needed to get ourselves there. They also took over babysitting duties for all three grandchildren and sent the Husbands off out to play. Living in Devon this meant a 6 hour drive the day before but it was so worth it!!

The two of us were like giggly school girls getting ready to go out.  We were very excited, got up early and rushed around putting on pretty pink dresses, a bit of make up and straightening our hair.  Running late as uaual we got one of our reluctant husbands to drop us off at the train station and were on our way.  It felt a bit naughty going out alone and leaving them all behind for a whole day...I realised I haven't actually done this since Rosie was born almost a year ago (I think I might do it a bit more often now!).

We got a taxi from the train station and took the first photo of the day:


I must tell you that The Brewery exceeded all expectations.This venue was truly amazing and the right choice for this event. It was also very well organised.  As soon as you walked in there were people directing you, your badges were all ready and goody bags were pushed into your hands. These werent just any goody bags oh no they were huge, from companies like Disney, Boots, Crocs, Three, to name but a few. We really did feel special and were spoilt with goodies!

Now I am usually a very happy go lucky, bubblly, outgoing person but when I reached the brewery I suddenly became extrmemley nervous and a little star struck.  It was like everyone one else was famous and I was getting to meet them...very exciting but also very nerve wracking.  I have only been blogging since January and was overwhelmed with that feeling of "what am I doing here with my little blog", feelings of not being good enough. Luckily though when we sat down at a table we met StayAtHomeMumLovingIt and Alyson from Alysons blog, both blogs I follow and love. I was still a little nervous at this point but they were both very friendly and I got to see lots of them throughout the day.

Lukily for me, both my Sister and I had been chatting with other ladies on twitter and had arranged to meet.  These included the lovely Liska at New Mum Online, Hannah from Mummy and The Beastie, Katie from Mummy Daddy and Me Makes Three and Claire Grumpinator. I was also fortunate enough to meet the lovely Claire from PR Mummy  and Working London Mummy.  I met Kerry from Multiple Mummy and Wendy from Inside The Wendy House.  I would have loved to have chatted to them both a bit longer, they both seemed very nice and just like I imagined them to be. There were lots of others too but I cannot possibly write them all down.




Happy in my little group I must admit I was not as confident as I would have liked to have been at introducing myself to more established bloggers.  However, I did get to meet Susanna Scott A Modern Mother and tell her how blogging has changed my life and that she is an inspiration.

The morning sessions I went to included Marketing your blog and Working with brands & making money. I found it fascinating at how well some women have made successful businesses on the back of their blogs and it has inspired me to think outside the box.

Sarah Brown was definatley a high note of the day for me.  She truly is an inspirational women.  I liked the way she answered a question about her Husband and how he had previously managed to fit family life around being the Prime Minister. She came across as very down to earth and ordinary and said the short commute made it possible for Gordon to nip upstairs and spend 20 mins doing bath time, eat supper or say goodnight even at the busiest times. This painted a really good picture of family life!

I must also mention the P&G recharge room. Wow what a place! During the afternoon I was starting to flag and had a bit of a headache.  Luckily for me I was able to get a wonderful massage which really helped.  I also managed to get my hair done by Cat Deely's stylist.  He blow dried it all in big waves for me and gave me big hair using the tongs he uses on Cat..unfortunatley I didn't like it but that wasn't his fault, I guess I am just not a big hair kind of girl!

For me the afternoon session was definitely the best.  This included a greatest hits of past posts from bloggers themselves.  Some of these made me laugh out loud while others left me literally crying my eyes out.  All of these women were inspirational and left me with lots of ideas on how to improve my blog and really write from the heart!

Finally there was the party sponsored by Three.  Wow, the room was fab with huge white leather sofas, free flowing wine provided by Naked Wines and lots of other bloggers to relax and chat with....Fantastic.





We would have loved to stay on and go with a few of the others for Curry but by the end we were both flagging, especially my Sister who is pregnant and suffering from hyporemisis.  So we headed off home feeling very special with our huge array of goodies.



So there you have it, my day and experience at CyberMummy11. I had a fantastic day.  I especially enjoyed getting to spend the whole day with my Sister and no children so thanks Mum and Dad your the best!  I also enjoyed meeting my virtual friends..you all seem very real now and I am so glad you are just like your blogs!!

I think keywords for me that sum up the day include making new friends and inspirational women.  Hope you all enjoyed the day as much as I did and cant wait till the next big event whenever that may be.

Karen x

Thursday 23 June 2011

Gingerbread Men And A Lot Of Fun

This week Daddy did the shopping and came back with a whole load of treats which you can see here, amomgst the treats was a gingerbread decorating kit! No it wasn't on the shopping list but neither were all the other tasty treats he brought!

Rosie always has a nap in the morning for about 1 1/2 hours and we call this Mummy/Poppy time.  We try and do sticking, painting, gluing, play dough or cooking, all the messy things that Rosie isn't ready for yet! Anyway yesterday Poppy & I set about decorating them and had great fun.

We had lots of smarties, sugar strands and icing sugar that looked like a tube of glue and she had to concentrate very hard:


I didn't take lots of photos of her making them as I was all sticky too but here they are finished:


Next we had to eat them.  Poppy demonstrates the best way to do this.  First you have to eat all the smarties one by one:



Next you lick off all the sugar sprinkles..yummy:


Then you bite his arms off, one by one:


And then you bite his legs off so he looks like this:


Finally you get to eat the rest! so even though it wasn't something that would usually make its way into our shopping trolley, we had a really enjoyable morning and Poppy loved her tasty snack! Thank you Daddy!

Karen x

Wednesday 22 June 2011

The Gallery - 3 Word Gallery

The post for week 63 of the gallery is 3 word Gallery, that's right....you can write about anything you like as long as you give it a title of three words.  I have chosen:

Breakfast In Bed

On Sunday we decided to give Daddy a treat of breakfast in bed.  However, a lazy Mummy decided that she too wanted to stay in bed so it developed into a family breakfast in bed.  I got up and went downstairs to get milk for the girls, coffee for us adults and lots of toast and then went back upstairs with a tray full.  The girls thought this was fabulous and thoroughly enjoyed themselves. It was lovely to see even Rosie eating toast and she had been unwell and off her food for a few days. She giggled away munching on toast & jam. The bed was full of crumbs and covered in jam but it didn't matter.  We all had a lovely long lie in and I just chucked it all the washing machine later in the day.



This reminded me of weekends during my childhood.  We used to enjoy tea and biscuits in bed with my parents.  I always remember one of us girls running downstairs with whichever parent whose turn it was and getting the biscuit tin.  Us girls would then sit at the end of my parents bed, tucked under the duvet and happily chat away whilst munching on biscuits. This was something we continued to do even when we were grown up. I remember coming back from Uni and sat on the end of their bed with my mug of tea and the biscuit tin catching up on a whole terms worth of gossip! We had some great chats on a Sunday morning with a cup of tea and biscuits, some serious, some gossipy and other times just giggling and messing around.

I think this is something I am going to do with my girls too.

Don't forget to head over to sticky fingers to check out the other entries and join in yourself too of course.

Karen x

Tuesday 21 June 2011

Poppy's Quote of the Week - Week 2


Daddy "Poppy do you love the ipad or Daddy more?"

Poppy - looks at him very seriously and says....

....  "The ipad Daddy"

Oh dear, poor Daddy!

Review Of MADARA Creamy Baby Oil



MADARA ecobaby is an entirely natural and organic range of baby products. They are Rich in powerful and effective ingredients taken from the flowers and herbs of the Baltic meadows to nourish and nurture your baby's delicate skin. I was fortunate enough to receive one of these MADARA baby products to try on my little girls.The creamy baby oil I tested costs £14.50  for 150mls and can be brought online from www.madara.co.uk, as well as other leading stockists.


What do I like about it?
Both my Girls suffer from eczema so I have to be very careful what I use on their skin. I loved this product.  unlike other oils it is a thick, creamy consistency and soaked into the skin really well.

Little Rosie enjoy's having a baby massage with it:



Whilst Poppy likes to help rub it into her skin to keep it soft and smooth:


I also like that the product itself is pleasing to the eye, is nice to rub in and the packaging is environmentally friendly too.

What didn't I like about it?
I liked everything about the product.  I guess the only thing I would change would be to make it a little cheaper.

I would give this baby oil a score of 9/10 and would happily try more of the products in this range. Feel free to check them out for yourselves at www.madara.co.uk

Karen x

Monday 20 June 2011

MUMenTUM - Week 7


Okay so this has not been the best week for me. At the start of the week, I really struggled. I had no energy and could not get into my exercise. By Saturday I really went downhill and cold symptoms were appearing. Then for the past few days I have felt pretty awful.

I managed to stick to my high protein/ low carb diet until Friday. By this point I was feeling drained and decided I needed carbs. I then ate pizza and chocolate which made me feel better temporarily but then of course I felt worse.

I have no stop button, I am not one of those women that says "i'll just have bite of that yummy piece of chocolate cake" or one who can only have one slice of pizza! I have to keep going until it is all gone. For this reason we don't keep lots of goodies in the house, that is unless Husband goes shopping like I blogged about yesterday here.

Anyway, I am feeling much more positive this week.  The reason for my increased positive attitude is that I have a new plan. As of today, I am lucky enough to be trialing the Thinking Slimmer Drop A Dress Size and Chocoholic Cure Slimpod's.  These were created by the experts at Harley Street so I am expecting big results.  You will have to watch this space!. For those of you who follow me on Twitter, you will know that I really struggle with my chocolate cravings, apparently I am a specialist on chocolate according to Klout! However, the lovely Sasha informs me that within a few days I will not fancy it at all..or if I do I will be happy with a tiny bit! I will let you know if she is right.

So I am putting last week behind me and this week I am not going to worry about my strict diet and instead relax and lie back listening to my new slimpods each day!  I can't wait to let you know how I get on.

Until then, hope you have all had a better week than me.



Karen x

I'm taking part in the Garneir UltraLift Challenge

Whilst I may not be the wrinkliest person on earth (I am only 35), I do have a few and am therefore very happy to be taking part in the  Garnier UltraLift Challenge front lined by Davina Mccall. You may have seen it advertised on the TV recently or the Internet or twitter!! You too can join in, just visit the site here and fill our your details.  They send you 14 sachets of UltraLift cream (enough for 2 weeks) and the Garneir UltraLift Wrinkle Reader.

To use the wrinkle reader you stand in front of a mirror and place it under your crows feet.  You then match them to the closest image on the reader and note it down.  I cannot believe I am doing this but I have decided to go one step further and take a photo of my wrinkles!! Even more unbelievable is the fact that I am putting the image on the internet for you all to see.

So here it is...a close up of my wrinkles!!


Husband and I have decided that I score between  2 and 3 on the wrinkle reader.  While this is not that bad.. I would prefer it to be a score of 1 or off the scale completely so I am up for the challenge.  I will report back at the end of two weeks.  So watch this space! Anything to make me yummier!

For the record I am posting this on Day 3 of the challenge but took the photo on Day 1.

Karen x

Sunday 19 June 2011

Husband's done the shopping!

I have not been feeling my usually bubbly, happy self this weekend as I have a horrible cold. My eyes are puffy and watery, my nose keeps running and my throat is all dry and scratchy! My little girl has also been poorly for the past few days too. I thought it was her teeth but now think she has been feeling the same as me.

Anyway, I have not been very organised and forgot to do the online Sainsbury's shopping."Don't worry" said Husband "I will go". So armed with a small shopping list (we don't need much this week) off he went with Poppy to accompany him.

They were gone a while and I was starting to worry a bit...after all they only went for a few things!

Well when they returned they had much more than was on the list! Considering I have been on a high protein/ low carb diet and our little girls don't eat this sort of thing he came back with all of this (as well as the usual stuff):

Naughty Daddy!

He was very thoughtful too though and brought all of this as well:

Good Daddy!

Now he is cooking them all sausage casserole for Supper. I think I could just about manage a nice cup of tea and one of those chocolate biscuits or two!!

Karen x

Silent Sunday










Saturday 18 June 2011

CyberMummy Meet and Greet

The lovely Carly over at Mummy's Shoes is very kindly holding a meet and greet over on her blog.  The idea is that we get to "meet" before the big day and get to put names to faces too. I think this is a wonderful idea and will hopefully  make walking in a little easier and less scary. So a huge hello to you all (with a big smile and wave).

So this is me:

Name: Karen

Blog: Would Like To Be A Yummy Mummy

Twitter ID: @wouldliketobe

Facebook: wouldliketobeayummymummy

Height 5ft 5 (although for years I thought I was 5ft7)

Hair: Long and straight and  currently highlighted. It is also feathered a bit around my face

Eyes: Dark brown

Likes: I am a really girly girl who likes anything pink and fluffy. I haven't done any of these for a while but I like diving , horse riding, skiing and skating.  I like coffee with cream, chocolate and ice-cream but am currently on a high protein, low carb diet.  I like the smell of freshly cut grass, the feel of the sun on my back and visits to the seaside

Dislikes: butter, the smell of fish, rude people, bad manners and laziness

I have only been blogging since January so still feel kind of new to all of this but I am enjoying it immensely and feel like it has opened up a whole new world to me.  I have found the support amazing and wonder why I didn't do it before?  I am really looking forward to CyberMummy and can't wait to see you all there.


Karen x

A delicious box of goodies- check this out!

I am so excited because this week I won a competition...yes me.  I never win anything so I am extra happy! Anyway the competition was over at Poppy Sparkles to win over £50s worth's of gorgeous girly goodies from Strawberry Annies, the home of tulle, net and ribbon. Well anybody that knows me and my blog will know that this is right up my street.  My little girls always wear tutus and hair bows so I was particularly excited about this one. 


So what did I win?
 it was: A gorgeous Frou Frou Tutu, custom made in my choice of colours.  I picked light pink, fuchsia and bright pink. ~ A Tutu Tiara to match the tutu ~ Bejewelled Rose Hair Clip ~ Boutique Hair Bow in Red Polka Dot ~ Medium Pinwheel Hair Bow in Pink Heart Ribbon ~ Toddler Hairbow With Double Ruffle Bow ~ Ribbon covered Headband choice of ribbon. 


Anyway, the goodies arrived yesterday and we were very excited. They came in cake boxes and looked good enough to eat!  Here are some photos I wanted to share with you:






The black flower on the frou frou is also a clip or hair bobble which means we can change it whenever we want to make it look really different. We can even swap it for a big pink bow if we want to! This was Poppy getting ready for and at Ballet this morning.  She received lots of compliments on her new tutu:






So there you go, proof that you can win competitions! Don't forget to check out both Poppy Sparkles and Strawberry Annies they are both favorites of mine now!

Karen x