Let's go fly a kite, enchantment in Hampstead

And send it soaring!!!

Living in Hampstead means living out a little bit of my childhood dreams. 

Julie Andrews is definitely a guest at my dream dinner party, I grew up with a strong love for Mary Poppins and Maria Von Trapp and love nothing more than passing this love on to my sweet girl now too. 

P.L Travers was an Australian living in Hampstead when she wrote Mary Poppins and there are little bits of it trickled throughout the book/movie.

I've always felt lucky to be living in Hampstead, but the little spoon-full-of-sugar that is sprinkled over NW3  makes living here feel a little bit enchanted. 

Madeleine is still a little young  but I hope one day she'll look back on her childhood with a little sparkle in her eye. 

Introducing Harriet

This past year has been such an exciting year amongst my friends. There have been some beautiful weddings, lots of travel, and some gorgeous babies come into the world (with one or two still in progress!!). I've blogged about my friend Saraid a few times, she's one of my oldest friends who's like a sister to me. We've been through it all together.  

When Saraidy told me that she was pregnant I was literally jumping for joy (no really, she videoed my reaction!) 

Courgette Ravioli with shredded beef

This is one of those recipes that appeared in my Pinterest feed on a Friday, and was on our plates on the Saturday. 

I haven't found many good gluten-free filled pastas in the UK (although Whole Foods in the US has a few delicious choices that I devoured when we were there) and so I was very excited to make a faux-violi!! 

He got the Train Cake

As we get ready to head to Jersey again, I thought it would be fun to share a few photos from our last visit, celebrating my nephew Morgans' 3rd Birthday. 

If you aren't Australian then you may have absolutely no idea what this post is about, but I'm going to guess that every Aussie knows exactly what fabulous baking went down to make this title possible!!!

The Australian Women's Weekly Children's Birthday Cake Book has to be the most famous cookbook in the land! 

Published in 1980 it was THE go-to book for birthday parties. Flicking through the book I can tell you which of my friends had each and every one of the cakes in the book! My favourite ones for my parties were the teddy bear, the lady beetle and the bunny rabbit. 

If I were a balloon on the wall...

meg-made it to Zermatt (Switzerland)

I can't believe it has taken me 6 months to get some of my travel photos together from our weekend away in Switzerland! 

It was 6 months ago now that we went to Zermatt to celebrate my 30th Birthday (which means now I'm closer to 31 than I am to 30, gulp, I need to stop being obnoxiously 30 now I think). 

Maybe its taken me this long  to write about because we had too many photos to look through, but if I'm really honest, its because if I extended the time it took me to post about it, it would in a little way extend the trip too. 

It was the most magical 5 days and was such a special place to celebrate my 30th Birthday.  

Zermatt is nestled in the Swiss Alps in a relatively inaccessible valley watched over by the grand Matterhorn. 

Quinoa, Pecan & Vanilla Granola (GF)

Happy Friday! 

Thank goodness for the weekend!!! The weeks when Husband travels are always a little rough, but they make us both even happier to see Daddy come through the door at night, and its never over the weekends thank goodness!!!

I thought I would post this granola recipe because its a bit of weekend bake. Its quick, easy, and makes for a delicious brunch.

I always thought granola must have been difficult to make, or why else would all those fancy cafe's be charging a fortune to have it on their menus! But I couldn't have been more wrong.

Making your own granola is SO easy.

This recipe is healthy, gluten-free, filling, and 100% delicious.

Babes on a Plane...my guide to flying with kids!

I've written a few posts about flying with kids over the past few years but thought I'd consolidate it all into one comprehensive guide. 

Being Australians living in London, far far away from Grandparents means we've taken our fair share of flights to reunite Maddie with family and friends over the past two years. 

We took 42 flights with Madeleine in her first two years, and so I feel a little qualified to give some tips which may help to reduce some anxiety about flying with kids. 

I'm by no means an  expert, but other than one or two bad flights, I've been pretty proud of the number of times air hostess' comment on how well behaved our little traveller is. 

Confetti Mariposa

Happy Friday to you! I am SO glad its the weekend!

For a fun and playful Friday post I thought I'd share a little photo session we did a week or so ago. 

I have had a lot of fun making these and had such a great time with Madeleine modelling the newest listing in my Etsy store, the Confetti Mariposa! 

It is a pair of bright and playful butterfly wings filled with confetti pom poms, attached to an alligator clip so that it can be added to any outfit. 

We just wandered around our little neighbourhood, got an "i-cream" and had such a fun afternoon taking photos of our little Mariposa! 

Here's a few (okay okay, a LOT of) photos of our photo session, I hope you have a wonderful weekend!!