THE most wonderful time of the year!

December in London is charming. It restores my faith in this sometimes grimy and gloomy city. For one whole month (well lets be real, the lights turn on in October!) there is magic in the air and romance in the cold. We rug up in our warm woolies and I for one feel the sparkle of the fairy lights above. 

I have always loved Christmas, even when it was too hot in Brisbane to do anything but lounge around the pool and sleep, I always loved decorating the house and making Christmasy food, even if it wasn't cold and like you read about it in every Santa story. 

Last year we spent the Holidays in Charlotte, NC and New York City. Maddie was 6 months old and we had such a wonderful time celebrating a real American Christmas, complete with grits and the Rockerfeller Tree!

This year though we are spending Christmas in London, with my brother and his family coming to spend it with us. I am so excited. It will be the first Christmas I have spent with my niece and nephews, and this year Madeleine has so much more of a clue about what's going on, I can't wait to see her little face on Christmas day!

On the 1st of December every year is tree decorating and egg-nog day. So we did our decorations and had our good friends over for rum balls and eggnog! (you may have read, I cannot control myself when it comes to eggnog....)

You may have seen our beautiful Bruce (the Spruce) on the journey home...

And now we have proudly lost half of our living room to house this beauty for the next month! 

This year the theme is gold with splashes of soft pink. Randolph the advent calendar reindeer was once upon a time bright red, so he got a little makeover!

And he got a little buddy this year. But little buddy got gold'ed AND glittered!

We needed something for the top of our tree, and according to my husband, it had to be a star. I'm not sure that he has very many Christmas traditions to bring to the overly decorated table, so i'm more than okay with a star atop our tree!! So long as it was gold and glittered!!

 I made this wreath last year and was happy that it still fitted the theme this year because I just think its so cute. How funny does our tree look?! It's like half the living room!!

I made some tissue paper pom poms to hand with the bunting...

I found a really sweet bell-heart ornament (and got an extra one as a gift), but they were red! Could you believe it, red, at Christmas time! Well anyway, I'm sure you can guess what happened to ours!

And our brown paper packages have all been tied up with strings and posted all around the world!

Did I mention that I LOVE Christmas?! It is just the most wonderful time of the year. 

But today, is my husbands birthday, so Christmas is on hold today to celebrate him! Tonight we are off for a date night out, with our first London babysitter watching Maddie. But today we've been busy preparing to celebrate when he gets home. I better write my card now, tough act to follow!

Happy Birthday Husband, and Happy December to all and to all a good night!

Fast Diet - Week 7 - #LoseDayTuesday

Starting week seven of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here.

Boy oh boy am I making the Fasting Days work hard at the moment!! Its as though I'm challenging this diet, to see just how much I can indulge on non-fast days and see if I can still lose weight. The answer - NOPE! I am not entirely surprised to see no weight loss this week, it hasn't been the best week. I have tried and tried to resort to my list of non-food cuddles and on fasting days I have been successful, but on feast days, I've feasted. And I regret it. Last week I was feeling confident and proud of myself. This week I feel doughy and self-conscious.

As I see it, there are two possible scenarios for the reason the scales didn't move this week. Scenario one is that I have gained some muscle this week, which is possible given that my Reformer Pilates class was heaps easier this week and I wasn't hurting for 4 days after!! Scenario two is that I drank my body weight in eggnog and started to resemble the rum balls that I inhaled all day Sunday. Me thinks it is scenario two! Shame.

So, where to go from here. Onwards. And downwards (on the scales only, will be trying for a more positive and happy week this week....no more food cuddles!). I think I need to remember that I am actually trying to lose weight, so a litre of eggnog is perhaps not the way to do that!! I think this week's result are the kick in the butt I need to reset and work harder this week. 

Lunch - Chorizo & Butterbean Soup

Yes, same soup as last week. I can't help it, I love it! I've had another fast-day of soup for lunch and soup for dinner, but figure those aren't the posts I should write about. But, I wanted to put this one back in the mix to encourage everyone, EVERYONE to try it, it really is so delicious. 

This fab recipe from Lavender & Lovage. 

Snack - Cinnamon cottage cheese

I am losing a little bit of creativity I think! I am just going for the same old same old at the moment. I want to spend some time reading through recipes and come up with a few new snack ideas for next week!!

I had some cottage cheese, sprinkled with some cinnamon on top! 

Dinner - Baked Cod with Balsamic Peppers & Sweet Potato Mash

A few weeks back we went to our friends downstairs for dinner and every time we eat with them I am inspired to try new foods. They are gluten intolerant, eat really well, and are darn good cooks. We had the most incredible dinner of baked cod, saffron & currant rice, with another side that I can't even remember but it was soooo good. Anyway, my point is that I've wanted to try baking and grilling my fish the same way to see if I could recreate it, and so that's what I did for my Fast Day dinner.

To cook the peppers, I used one squirt of oil spray (1 calorie) and let the finely cut peppers soften up for about ten minutes in the pan. I then added 1 teaspoon of balsamic vinegar and 1/4 teaspoon of brown sugar. I possibly didn't need the sugar, because they ended up tasting quite sweet, but they were delicious!

The mash sweet potato really is just that. I boiled the sweet potatoes and when I was mashing them, through in a tablespoon of cottage cheese and one teaspoon of paprika. I wouldn't necessarily do the cottage cheese next time, it didn't add anything to the taste and therefore was a bit of a waste of calories.

And for the fish, all you need to do is bake the fillets for about 8 minutes (depending on their size of course) and then finish them off under the grill for two minutes to crisp up the top. The fish just flaked away but had a great crunch on top.

Drinks

Gosh I was so incredibly dull this week!!! Same same, water and Creme Caramel herbal tea. (2 calories). 

Total calories for the day = 488

Exercise

Reformer Pilates and unfortunately that's about it. I had a few physical ailments this week, which made walking quite difficult, so unfortunately I didn't do as much planned or incidental exercise as I should have. 

This week my goal is to work out smarter, and so rather than trying to push through the pain, come up with ways of exercising that don't use my feet/hips/back in such painful ways. I hope to get to the pool to do some laps this weekend and I have a new Spotify soundtrack so no excuses for not doing a resistance workout in my living room!! 

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 2.7kgs (5.95lbs)

Boo.

I hope you have a wonderful week. Here's to a more balanced and happy week!!

CYBER SALE

For the rest of Cyber Monday everything on my Etsy store will be 25% off!!

So if you are looking for a Christmas gift/decoration and want a great discount, head on over to to meg-made before the night is out!

Black (read: Gold Glitter) Friday Promotion

It is the OFFICIAL first day of the Christmas season!!! Ding Dong merrily on high!

Whilst I still won't be decorating my house with lights, eating rum balls, drinking eggnog and singing carols until the 1st of December, my Etsy Store is getting into the spirit of Christmas today, kicking off a Black Friday promotion!

Under the giving tree this year, until midnight Saturday, there will be 20% off sitewide on meg-made! 

And because it is the season of giving, for every order over £15 (excl shipping) you will have a choice of two special gifts, from me to you! 

*exl shipping, on orders placed until midnight Saturday

You will have a choice of 10 Christmas themed Confetti-filled balloons or a beautiful gold sparkly Cambridge Crown headband, to ensure your little girl is every bit the princess this festive season!

Here's the meg-made Christmas magazine to browse through. Simply click through to my Etsy store from any of the listings and then enter the code GIVING13 to enjoy 20% off!!!

Click to view meg-made Christmas 2013 on GLOSSI.COM

Happy first day of the most wonderful time of the year!!!

Being thankful with Pumpkin Ice-cream

Just because I'm Australian, it doesn't mean I can't partake in a day about being thankful (and a day dedicated to having me some pumpkin!!).

I have so much to be thankful for I don't know where to start. 

We spend a lot of our lives working towards future goals that we seem to let the present fly by and quickly become the past. I have a bit of the opposite problem and relate far too much with this old Cup of Jo article about worrying. Some nights I just peep into Maddie's room to hear her heavy breathing, climb back into bed next to a snoring bear of husband and burst into tears. I feel so incredibly lucky that I am terrified. But with the worry comes thanks. Every day I am thankful for the amount of love I have in my life,  and even though I miss so many of them being all around the world, I am thankful that I have so many special people to miss. I am thankful that I said yes to the nervous Senior who asked me to dance 14  years ago, and thankful for the life that we have forged for ourselves ever since. And words just can't describe how thankful I feel for my healthy and happy little girl who every day melts my forever swelling heart.

I need to stop there before I go on all night long and dissolve into a puddle of emotion! The other part of Thanksgiving that I love is the overuse of Pumpkin!! I have always loved pumpkin soup, roast pumpkin and pumpkin scones. A bowl of comforting pumpkin soup was always my request when I wasn't feeling well, it just seemed to have healing powers for me. 

I was introduced to the concept of canned pumpkin by my friends in Oxford and it still confuses me a little! I have had some and its great and all, but I guess what I don't understand is why you wouldn't just use the real thing?! I guess I think of pumpkin too traditionally, so can't conceive of a world where you'd make an entire pot of soup from canned/sweetened/spiced pumpkin. 

We had a very pumpkin-filled meal tonight. It was kind of by accident, kind of on purpose! I wanted to make pumpkin ice-cream and pumpkin risotto, so cooked up two big butternut pumpkins. 

The risotto was creamy and delicious and not dissimilar to my SuperPumpkin Soup from yesteryear! 

And onto dessert...

Once the pumpkin was cooked and had cooled, I added in cinnamon, ginger and mixed spice. I then mixed it together well with regular vanilla ice-cream and put it back in the freezer to reset. 

Then I got to work on the meringues! I made mini-pavlova's I guess you could say, but then added in the traditional pumpkin spices too, to really compliment the pumpkin ice-cream. 

It could be said that these were "indescribable" but yet "the goodness of a ice-cream with the greatness of pavlova and the amazingness of a pumpkin waffle". Thanks husband. 

Wishing a very Happy Thanksgiving to all of my American family and friends. And happy and thankful thoughts to all of my non-American family and friends, may the pumpkin be with you all. 

For the budding Sous Chef (SPECIAL OFFER)

When Madeleine is a Michelin Starred Chef in the future, and magazines interview her about her love of cooking, she'll be able to trace it back to first starting as a sous chef for her mama when she was less than 1 years old. 

And then, when she was 17 months old, she got her very own kitchen, was head chef almost overnight, and the rest, as they say, is history. She was very comfortable as Head Chef straight away, but her poor little boyfriend Ilia seemed less than thrilled to be her Sous Chef!

I just love how comfortable Maddie is in an apron, it is just the cutest thing to watch!!!

And she gets you trying all sorts of cuisines you would never have usually been tempted with, but she's pretty hard to refuse, and is very persistent! 

I have always loved little girls aprons, but was never terribly fussed about boys wearing the same type, so designed a little boys apron, so that he can match Daddy! Its a MANS apron, but for little men!!!

I have just put these sweet aprons on my Etsy store but only have enough supplies for 5 of each print, so if you would like one, here is a direct payment option below (with a super special price).

There are two colours for the boys:

And two colours for the girls:

But lets be real, the girls can wear the boys aprons and the boys can definitely wear the girls aprons!

So if you're looking for a Christmas gift for a special little Sous Chef (or budding Head Chef like Maddie!!) then look no further! 

meg-made will be having a Black Friday Promotion on Friday which will bring the original prices (£20.50) to a similar point, but if you want to make sure you get one before the sale, here's your chance to get one now!!

Usually £20.50, now only £16.50, only through this buy it now option!

Gender and Colour

Boys, Navy Stripe Boys, London Scenes Girls, Pink spot Girls, Puppy

meg-made Christmas 2013 Glossi

Its beginning to look a lot like Christmas!!!

I just love Christmas. I love all aspects and I'm sure I'll do countless posts about Christmas cooking over the coming month, but I also love December 1, decorating the house. 

This year we are getting our very first real Christmas tree! Unfortunately it won't arrive until December 3, so we won't be able to decorate our tree on December 1 this year, but we will decorate everything else and still enjoy eggnog and treats. It is my only family tradition and I simply love it. 

To get in the festive spirit, I have put together a Glossi e-catalogue which shows some of the Christmasy things that I have going on over in my Etsy store. 

Click to view meg-made Christmas 2013 on GLOSSI.COM

I have made some new items for my store recently, and am super excited to release them through the catalogue!

I really love the little kids aprons, which has two designs of each, and are for both girls and boys!

I really love seeing a man in a man's apron, and so I thought that a little boy would look just so gosh darn adorable in a mini version too! And I was right! Look how cute Maddie's boyfriend Ilia looks!!!!

I am also super excited to announce that I am now making cookies for sale on my Etsy store as well. They are 100% gluten free and 100% delicious (with a 100% strike rate, everyone is loving them!!). 

There is a Vanilla & Honey cookie as well as a Choc-Chip cookie. 

I made a mini gold glitter bunting for our tree, and decided it was so cute, you should have one for yours too!!!! I will now have bunting in every room of the house this Christmas, could things get any better than that!!! 

So have a look at my e-catalogue and let me know what you think.

meg-made Christmas 2013 Glossi

Do you have any pre-Christmas traditions that you just love? 

Fast Diet - Week 6 - #LoseDayTuesday

Week six of the 5:2 Fast Diet!! To find out more about it, read my original post here.

I'm really enjoying the Fast Diet community. Its been fun finding other Fast Dieters on Instagram/Twitter/Facebook etc and seeing other people's results, motivation and meal ideas has been really inspirational for me this week.

I am definitely still enjoying my non-fast days far too much, I really have to remember that I am actually trying to be healthier and lose weight, and shouldn't be putting 100% of the pressure on the two fasting days!! I have had a bit of shift in mindset though this week. Rather than waking up on a Fasting day with the first thought being "bugger, no breakfast", I now have managed to think about it as such an opportunity day. I always feel better about myself after I've done a workout (not the endorphin rush kind of better, just feel more empowered and proud of myself), and so this feeling I now get in the mornings is similar to that, and I try to carry that feeling and remember it when the hunger pangs hit around noon.

In reaching out and connecting more with the Fast Diet community, I have stumbled upon a few awesome recipes that I am keen to explore more over the coming weeks and tried out another awesome recipe from the Fast Diet Recipe Book. 

Again I am finding that in putting off eating my first meal as late as possible, I am not nearly as hungry for as long in the day now. Its as though my system forgets about food overnight, and it isn't until I remind it what its missing that it starts growling for more!

Lunch - Chorizo & Butterbean Soup

I made this soup once. And then twice more that week! On one of my Fast days I actually had it for lunch and dinner, it's THAT good! I added some extra chorizo in mine when I had the spare calories because, well you can never have too much chorizo. 

I love how simple and easy (and affordable) this soup is. I am not going to reinvent the wheel, so here is the fabulous recipe from Lavender & Lovage. 

Snack - Green olives

Yes, the same snacks as I've had before, but I got some flavoured ones this week, so have added a few extra calories to the total for the pesto and pimento olives! Instead of 60 calories, I have had to guestimate about 100 calories. 

Dinner - Masala Prawns (with chickpeas and spinach)

I really do love reading a recipe, wanting to cook it, and finding out you had mostly everything you need already! Very neat. I followed the recipe from the Fast Diet Recipe Book for Masala Prawns, and given that I had had a very low calorie day thus far, added in the chickpeas and spinach. My husband even had the same meal as me, no rice, no bread, nothing bulky at all, and he commented that he was full without all of that starch!

The recipe from the book is as follows:

Ingredients (serves 2)

2tsps cumin seeds (I used ground cumin)
1/2 cinnamon stick (I used 1/2 t ground)
3 cloves (I used 1/2 teaspoon ground cloves)
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed
Salt and pepper
2 tsps chilli powder
1 tsp ground turmeric
1 tbsp vegetable oil (I used sunflower oil)
2 tsps butter
150g raw prawns
coriander leaves

And my other changes were the addition of 120g of tinned chickpeas, 2 tablespoons of no-fat yoghurt and 2 handfuls of fresh spinach leaves.

Method:

1. Make the masale paste by heating a pan and adding the cumin, cinnamon and cloves, dry frying for a minute. The smell that this creates is amazing!

2. Remove from the heat and crush in a pestle and mortar (I don't have one, so I figured the ground spices made up for that).

3. Put this mix in a blender with garlic, salt and pepper chilli powder, turmeric and oil and whizz to a paste (again, I didn't do this step, but stirred it well into a paste in the pan instead).

4. Melt the butter in a heavy pan and add the paste and fry for two inures.

5. Add the prawns (and chickpeas) and stir gently until cooked through. Meanwhile cook the spinach.

6. To cook the spinach, turn a pan on and wait for it to be a little warm before tossing two handfuls of spinach leaves directly in the pan. Toss gently and the spinach will begin to wilt almost immediately. It will need to cook for no more than a minute in total.

7. To serve, I stirred through 1 teaspoon of yoghurt just before serving and dolloped one teaspoon on top before  sprinkling fresh coriander over the prawns.

The masala tasted like authentic Indian curry, without all the oil! It was filling and full of flavour.

Drinks

Lots of water as usual and some more of my new favourite Teapigs Rooibos Creme Caramel herbal tea. (2 calories). And what better vessel to brew it in that my brand new Fast Diet mug! Woohoo!!!

Total calories for the day = 477

Exercise

Reformer Pilates, lots of incidental walking and one Heath Hills walk! I had a bit more energy this week and so made sure I made the most of it! I still find designated exercise unlikely on a Fast day, but walking half an hour each way to take Maddie to her swimming lesson is still on the agenda!!

Weight loss?

Total loss to date = 2.7kgs (5.95lbs)

I was stoked to see the number on the scales this morning, I was sure there wouldn't be any change at all! I have two targets that I've set myself, and the first one is 4kg by Christmas (yay, only 1.3kgs to go), and then I want to be at my goal weight by my 30th Birthday in February (4.3kg to go). I am starting to believe it might just happen too!!!

On a very unrelated note, other than ticking off items on my Non-Food Cuddles list this week, here's a project I have been working on that has kept me busy and kept my mind away from food thoughts!!

Click here to view the meg-made Christmas 2013 catalogue on GLOSSI.COM

I have put together all of my favourite items that are on my Etsy store in one easy to read e-catalogue. If you're looking for some Christmas gifts or decorations, you might just find a little sparkly piece of London that is perfect for your Christmas!

I hope you have a great week! One Fast Day down, one to go!