9 month photo

I can't believe that my little man is 9 months old. 

3/4 of of a year. Where has the time gone??

Why is it, the 9 months that I carried him for went way slower then these past 9 months.

He is so much more active now and is doing his best to get up and go.

 Only 9 months old and already sick of the camera.

Teeth: Still nothing in this department. But my daughter was 9 months to the day when she got her first tooth. He's teething but not complaining. So maybe I should stop complaining

Eating: This boy loves his food. Eating all kinds of fruit, vegetables and meat. Can't get enough of it.

Sleep: Still sleeping like a champ. Has started to move a bit more in his sleep. Found him on his belly sound asleep one morning this week. It was very cute.

Talking: He doesn't stop talking now. Wonder where he gets that from. :) Loads of babbling and he has started calling the horses by making a clicking noise.

Crawling/ skills : No crawling but he can travel at the speed of light in reverse on his belly. It's quite funny. When he hits a wall he can't figure how to go the other way yet. sitting up by himself now and can pull himself up onto his knees. Clapping hands, giving high fives and shaking hands are his favourite things to do. He looks so proud of himself. Oh, he loves to dance, well shake over and back too. Very cute.

Getting ready to go.

It's hard to believe that in a short 13 weeks this guy will be 1 year old.

I'm thinking of ideas already (crazy, right??)

Autumn (fall) Fashion

I love the weather at this time of year.

Most of the time here it's wet.

In summer it's wet and kinda warm so you can't wear summery clothes but you can't wrap up either.

Autumn brings a crispness it the air and some lovely fashion picks.

It also means that I can wrap up in some lovely scarfs and cardigans.

Animal prints, equestrian chic and bold colours are all the rage at the moment.

Here are some of my favourites I found on Pinterest.

I want this whole outfit!!

Some beautiful scarfs, that I also want.

I need both these jackets.

I think I need to leave this post open in front of the hubs. Give him a few hints.

Time to go shopping me thinks.

Mid week brain dump

A little bit of everything that going on in my crazy world right now.

• Been very busy with school these last few weeks. Everything was going great with school drop off and homework, until this Monday. Tears and very upset. Didn't want to leave mommy. Didn't want to give in and take her home even though I wanted to. Same yesterday and today but not as bad. Hoping for a better day tomorrow.

• Entered a Baking competition over at wholefoodsIE where we had to make sticky toffee pudding. Didn't win but I found a new recipe that I love and it was a hit with everyone. Think that counts as a win. You can check out that here .

• Starting some major face lift work on the garden here the weekend. Once the weather hold up. Trees and hedge to be planted. Note to self : buy (lots) weed killer.

• My little guy turns 9 months this weekend. 9 months!!  Must finish that post.

• Having a major dose of forgetfulness at the moment. For example, I forgot to do a blog post on Tuesday. I forgot to give the hubs milk with his lunch on Monday and forgot to give him a spoon today. I wonder if I can still blame "baby brain" after 9 months.

• I've got some lovely autumn and Halloween diy and craft posts if I ever get my act together.

That's all for now folks.

Happy Hump day.

Show and Tell Monday : Stuck on an Island

Linking up today with Becky over at From Mrs to Mama.

1. Tell us, if you could only take 5 people with you to a deserted island, who would it be, and why?

The Hubs :  I would have to take him. He is an outdoors man and could probably build a fire from nothing. He hunts too so he could hunt for food. I could survive without him but I wouldn't what to be there without him.

My daughter, Jasmin : I would be heartbroken if I didn't have her with me making my hair go grey everyday. She has loads of energy and loves being outside.

My son, Paddy :  He's just so cute right now and he's starting to move around alot more. Plus he's never been to the beach so it would be a memory.

I couldn't decide who else to bring without upsetting someone. But maybe Bear Grylls could be useful or Jamie Oliver so I wouldn't have to do the cooking. :)

2. Show us which island you'd like to be deserted at.

3. Tell us, if you could only bring 3 items with you, what would those items be. And why?

Firstly, I would have to bring my camera and batteries for it. I take too many photos of everything. I would be so upset if I could take pictures of this place. We might be stuck there and it might be scary but we would be making memories and they are always worth capturing.

Second thing I would bring would be my frying pan. What am I meant to cook on? I'm a foodie. Love my food and love to cook it well. I could cook just about anything in my frying pan.

Third thing would be some laying chickens. Now this might sound a bit mad. But I don't know how long we'll be there. With these chickens, I would have eggs and meat to feed my family. I'm very practical.

4. Show us 3 pictures that you would take with you.

This is a tough one as I have lots of photos that that I would want to bring.  but these ones make my heart swell.

5. Tell us what you envision life would be like on that island. Do you think you would go into survival mode? Would you be like those Survivor people and eat bugs? What qualities do you possess that would help you survive. Do share.

I would have to go into survival mode. Being a mother, I don't think I could panic or break down. I would have to be strong for my kids, so that they would see that we could do this. How ever bad things got, I don't know if I could bring myself to eat bugs. I just couldn't. I'm quite an outdoors person. I hunt, I can start a fire and I could probably be able build some kind of fort if I had to. But with the hubs by my side, I think we could survive.

Happy Monday everyone!!

Chocolate sticky toffee pudding {Recipe}

I have been looking for an excuse to make Sticky toffee pudding with quite some time and then I came across a competition over at Wholesome Ireland. It's called "The great Irish bake off challenge". I found them last week but I didn't like the lime tart you had to bake for the challenge so I held tough until this week

And as if like a sign from god the dish we have to bake this week is "sticky toffee pudding".

I have eaten this before and for some reason I never knew there were dates in it. I put that down to the fact that it tasted do good in the restaurant. Also, I have been known to be a little slow to get things something. What can I do? I can't be perfect at everything. :)

Any who, so I searched for recipes online. Trying to find the perfect one. I couldn't believe my luck when I found this one by Rachel Allen. It's for CHOCOLATE sticky toffee pudding.

I can have the best of both worlds: Chocolate and toffee. Yum yum!!

 I did make some changes to the recipe.

I changed from dark to milk chocolate cos I hate dark chocolate.

I had self raising flour at home so I used that instead, leaving out the BP and BofS.

I used vanilla essence instead of vanilla extract.

Ingredients

300ml (½ pint) boiling water

150g (5oz) chopped dates

100g (4oz) dark chocolate 

100g (4oz) butter, softened

150g (5oz) soft light brown sugar or light muscovado sugar

3 eggs

225g (8oz) plain flour

1tsp bicarbonate of soda

1tsp baking powder

For the toffee sauce

275g (10oz) golden syrup

275g (10oz) light brown sugar

100g (4oz) butter

225ml (8fl oz) cream

½ tsp vanilla extract

1. Preheat the oven to 180°C (350°F, gas mark 4). Grease the sides of a 20cm (8in) diameter spring-form tin and line the base with a round disc of greaseproof paper.
2. Put the water in a saucepan, reduce to a simmer and soak the dates in it for 10 mins. At the same time, melt the chocolate in a bowl sitting over a saucepan of simmering water.
3. Cream the softened butter and sugar in a large bowl until pale and soft. Beat in the eggs one by one and then mix in the melted chocolate.

1.  Sift in the flour, then add the dates and the soaking liquid and stir to mix.
2. 
   

1.  Pour the mixture into the tin and bake in the oven for 1 hr or until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the centre. Allow to cool slightly before transferring to a plate.
2. To make the toffee sauce, put all the ingredients into a saucepan on a high heat and boil them for 4-5 mins, stirring regularly, until they are smooth.

The smell of this while it was cooking was worth the trouble alone. It was alot easier to make then I thought it would too.

And this is how it turned out.

We had to take photos of our masterpieces as part of the competition.

A shot of the whole pudding (required shot)

With a little sprinkle of powdered sugar

Shot of a slice ( required shot)

Shot with some of the very sweet toffee sauce

Doesn't that look yummy!!

It tasted fab. But I think next time I'll make the sauce a little less sweet for the hubs. He doesn't have quite as many sweet teeth as I do.

Best of luck to everyone who entered.

Crafty Creations : Nylon Pumpkins

I have never been one to decorate for Autumn.

But Pinterest has sparked my creative juices once again.

I saw these and I just had to make them.

Nylon Pumpkins.

You'll need :

Old tights

String 

Rubber bands

Filler

Ribbon.

First cut your tights into sections. I just divided mine into 3 sections about 6" long.

Next turn your section back on itself so it looks like this.

Then fill it up.

 I chose to use rubber bands to tie it off cos I was lazy because it was quicker. You can also use string.

Then wrap your string around the pumpkin to create the grooves and your done.

You can wrap ribbon around the top like the other lady did but I like the way mine look.

I think these little beauties will be sitting on my table in a bowl with some pine cones.

Must get off my butt and finish the decorating now. Oh and take some photos to put up here.

Happy Crafting everyone!!

Wordful Wednesday : The countdown begins

My WW posts are normally more wordful but I think the picture you're about to see will explain in all.

And I know it's still early and there is lots to happen before this day comes but I just couldn't resist.

I have already started thinking about gifts, started making crafts and making draft posts about them. But I'll will do my best not to post them until after December 1st (that could be hard)

As the saying goes "A picture is worth a thousand words" so I guess it's not so wordless after all.

Happy Hump Day everyone!!

For more WW check out these lovely ladies.

Ch- Ch- Ch- Changes

So if you have been here before you might have noticed that I have changed the name of my blog.

Well that's because I'm the worst speller in the world.

I stupidly spelled the name of my blog wrong when creating my blog address (Doh) and because there is another blog with the same name I had to change mine.

It's not much different. I just changed it around a bit.

The new name is;

My Country Girl Ramblings.

So if you have me bookmarked, Thank you so much, but you'll have to do it again cos the old address doesn't work anymore.

Nothing is ever simple in my crazy world.

(it's mostly my own fault, hehe)

Happy Tuesday Everyone!!

Show and Tell Monday : High School

Linking up with the ever so cute Becky and her growing bump this week for Show and tell Monday. Go check her out.

1. Tell us what kind of student you were in high school {popular, nerd, sport obsessed, choir, etc} I was a sports girl. I did track and field and palyed basketball for 3 years and was on the equestrian team which  was started up by me and our sports teacher. Loved keeping fit back then.Wish I had more time to do it know. I was also on the decorating committee for our school dance (debs). Back then it was a way to get out of class but now I know it because I LOVE crafting.
2. Share with us some high school pictures. We know you have them somewhere. I searched high and low for some pictures and the only one I could find was a group one of my debs class. Debs are like the senior prom in the states. It the final big party before we finish school.

Cant believe this was taken 10 years ago.
3. Tell us about your school. Private? Public? How many in graduating class? Mascots? School colors? It was a public, catholic all girls school. We had nuns and all. Things are a lot different here in Ireland and I know that this is going to be read by some people in the states so let me explain. We didn't do school teams that much. I mean we had a basketball team and football team but no cheerleaders and games were never a big deal. We wore a horrible navy pinafore and the nuns were very strict about proper dress code. The school is gone now (thank god) and there is one big mixed community collage
4. Tell us about some of your favorite memories of high school. Or what stands out the most? Any teachers? Specific classes? I loved phys ed. Didn't involve books and I loved sports. Never liked english. I speak it everyday and I speak a lot but ask me to put it on paper and I just couldn't. And you might be wondering how I can blog... well it's because I type what I think. But I'm pretty sure the if my English teacher had to mark what I'm writing now, I'd fail.
5. Tell us a piece of advice you would pass on to your children or any child entering high school. Not to worry about fitting in. You will find you groove and you will be ok. I wasn't the most popular in school but I talked to everyone and because I did that I always had someone to sit with and talk to. Make friends with someone who might be struggling. You never know what they might be going through. Don't be mean with your words, they can hurt more then and anything. Be brave, try new things, stand up for yourself.
Happy Monday everyone!!

Friday Night Movie Night { a recap}

So awhile back I told you all that we were going to start Friday night movie night in our house. 

You can find that here.

We've done it a few time now and it has been a huge success.

We gather all our bits and pieces : Blankets, pillows, snacks and such.

Put on the Pj's.

Put on a blazing fire and snuggle down for the night.

I never did tell you what we had for our snacks.

It was a toss up between taytos or popcorn and popcorn won.

So the menu was:

Popcorn with a surprise

Chocolate

Capri sun

fruit

We picked The Princess and the Frog the first night and Beauty and the Beast the second night and Cinderella last night.

(do you see a pattern)

Either way it was a great idea and both kids were fast asleep before the movie was over.

Making Memories that they will one day pass on to their kids = One happy Mama.

{Recipe} Carrot and turnip mash

I love my veggies.

Now this is a strange thing coming from me as I never liked them much as a child.

But this is one of my favourite side dishes to have with dinner and the kids love it too.

Carrot and Turnip mash

Cut up the carrots and turnip into small chunks.

Boil in slightly salted water until you can pierce with a knife.

Drain off the water.

(don't throw it away, you'll use it again)

Return the veg to the pan and cook off the excess water. (Only takes a few seconds)

Add a knob of butter and season with salt and white pepper.

(trust me when I say use white pepper. Works way better. Or so the hubs tells me)

This works great with bacon, chicken or beef.

As for the water you boiled the veg in, you can use it to make gravy and freeze it to use as stock in soups it the future. At lot of the vitamins and nutrients are lost in the water when you boil them. By using them to make gravy or a sauce you get some of them back.

Hope you like it.

Happy weekend!!

My 24 hours of hell

Warning!! I complain, a lot, in this post. Sorry

I've been lucky.

I've never needed to go to hospital for anything, aside from the birth of my children.

No broken bones or anything. (touch wood).

But the dreaded day came that I thought at the time would never end.

Woke up with a pain in my side. Didn't think much of it. Thought it might have been wind or something. Went for a ride on my horse, thinking it might help with the wind.

But it didn't.

Ate some lunch thinking it might be hunger.

But it wasn't

Now I'm no wimp.

I can deal with pain.

I gave birth to two kids with just gas and air for goodness sake.

I can handle pain.

But this was a burning pain that wouldn't go away and was getting worse.

On to the GP I go and she tell me I might have appendicitis. Go to the hospital. Don't eat or drink anything in case they need to operate. Now this was at 5pm. So I sorted out a babysitter and the hubs took me to the hospital. It was 6.50pm when I checked into A+E. 

The hubs hates hospitals. More then he hates anything. The smell alone makes him want to vomit. So he waited in the car.

The hours passed. People came and went and I was still sitting there waiting. Everyone around me was eating. I couldn't even have a drink.

Met some lovely girls who were painting their nails. They were dancers and one of them had burst their chin off the floor. ouch!!

 Hubs was still outside at midnight waiting. "Your're next" the nurse told me. So hubs said he'd wait for me.

I finally got in to see a doctor at 2.15am. She examined me and did bloods (which should have been done when I came in at 7pm).

Waited another hour.

Finally at 3.20am the doctor came is and told me that my bloods were fine and to go home. No appendicitis.

Come back in the morning at 9am for an ultrasound.

I was fuming.

Hubs was fuming.

Home we went and came back at 9am. Waited til 12 noon for the ultrasound where they were asking me about my ovaries and did I have any c-sections. The thoughts that were going through my mind were frightening. Was it a tumor or cancer?? I was told to go home. They would send out the results.

Now I know that hospitals are very busy places and that they are under staffed. I know that most of the nurses and doctors that work there are very good at what they do. I have friends that work in this very hospital and they work very hard. But I was sick of it.

This place was a joke!!

I waited 6 weeks for my results (they lost them) and it turned out that I did have appendicitis and they should have operated.

So now I have this grumbling time-bomb in my body that could explode at anytime. And I'm writing this now because I have that same grumbling pain I had back in June and I fear I could be heading back to that dreaded place... A+E.

Lets hope they get it right this time.

September fun!

What do you do when your at home on a boring Sunday and have nothing to do?

Go for a walk.

Not the most exciting thing to do but when the sun is shining we had to take advantage.

Turned out to be a lot of fun.

Jasmin surprised me yet again.

Turns out she is alot more adventurous than I am when it come to food.

Here she is eating wild blackberries we found growing on the side of our road.

Picking some more. She couldn't get enough of them.

We were supposed to collect some to bring home for the hubs but this is all that survived.

She really loved them.

Think we'll have to do it again soon.

Happy Hump day everyone!