Insta-Moments: July
Hi guys how has everyone's week been going? Mine well I will be so glad when winter is over. We have been battling colds for 3 weeks straight now and I am so so tired of it all. I was the last one to get it so everyone else is starting to feel chipper and energetic and I am still dragging myself around with a sinus infection and no energy. Blah. I'm doing saline rinses and sticking to my ginger, lemon and honey tea! (pictured below) I haven't been able to taste anything for 4 days now and it's getting really old. Only one month to go until winter is gone and I cannot wait!!!
I thought I would start a monthly recap (because weekly or fortnightly is just to hard) of what's been happening here at The Whimsical Wife house thanks to my
. I want to write a bit more on this here blog but life has been happening and the blog does get put on the way side a fair bit. It takes a lot of mental energy and time that I am struggling to find to put together any sort of post at the moment so I thought it would be nice to have a little chat with you guys at the end of each month about what has been happening around these parts. So make yourself a cuppa, sit back and let's have a chat.
At Home:
I mentioned
that I recently signed up to a "Yummy Mummy" (I really hate that term) Boot Camp with my sister. It's an 8 week program which we meet twice a week to basically get out butts kicked
hard
. Little Miss is now 9 months old and I knew it was time to get myself back into shape again. I managed to make the first week but (bad) luck would have it I came down with a horrible cold the next week and wasn't able to drag myself out of bed to work up a lather. I managed one session at the end of the month and hopefully I will be up and running to continue the rest of the program. I'll keep you posted on how it ends next month.
I sparked a bit of interest on
The Whimsical Wife Facebook page
with this picture of me in the process of putting together my monthly meal plan. I hope to write a post soon on how I go about putting one together. I could not live without my monthly meal plan - it keeps me sane, saves money and oh did I mention keeps me sane. Ha. More to come soon!
I have been making my own bread for a couple of years now and I showed the process of cooking a loaf from start to finish. I enjoy the process of making bread from scratch and although it does take a couple of hours out of the day waiting for the bread to prove, it all makes it worth while pulling a fresh loaf out of the oven and cutting a slice and slathering it in honey!
My
has featured a fair bit in my pictures this month. I pulled it into the house to photograph it properly for a feature I had to do for
. I was approached a few months ago by the editor of Handyman to use material from The Whimsical Wife in a monthly feature in the magazine. So far my
,
,
,
&
have been featured with more stories to come. So I've been a busy bee re-photographing some projects to a better standard for the magazine and trying to brainstorm future projects to pitch to the editor.
Sewing:
I've been getting back into sewing a bit this past month. I was feeling a little bit creatively drained from constantly giving to other projects and needed to do something for myself. So I carved out a bit of time this month to complete three projects which have been sitting in my sewing cabinet for months now. I somehow decided I would try and sew some clothes for myself and Little Miss. The only piece of clothing I can remember ever having success sewing is the mandatory boxer shorts in year 8. I have sewn other crafty projects but clothing is a whole other ballgame. I got the clothing patterns from
and with the help of the
Shwin Design Facebook Pattern Group
I successfully finished a dress for Little Miss
and a shirt and dress for myself (
). I was beyond pumped with the finished product.
Chocolate
Looking back at the past month on Instagram you will probably notice Chocolate was a bit of a theme in the early weeks. I was in the middle of developing a recipe for The Reject Shop for Father's day and was up to my eyeballs in melted chocolate! This decadent Salted Caramel No Bake Malteser Slice was the result. To.Die.For! You will just have to wait a couple more weeks until the recipe goes live. (Keep your eyes peeled at the end of the month).
As I mentioned above I am SO over winter. The only thing that is keeping me going is a warm crackling fire and copious amounts of hot chocolate. My favourite is
, made from crushed cocoa beans. Totally dairy, gluten, sugar and chemical free and it tastes delicious. It's my guilty (no so guilty) pleasure when the kids go down for a nap in the afternoon. I froth a bit of almond milk up and top the brewed Crio Bru up with this. It really does hit the spot.
Cook.Shoot.Repeat
I've had a few freelance photography jobs to do this month which leaves me running pretty mad during the day while I cook, style and photograph food and juggle the kids. I love the job and really feel I've found my calling in life doing this but during this season of life with little kids it is a madhouse here on most days.OH and we always have an overflowing fridge and leftovers for days when I'm shooting. It has taken me until I was nearly 30 to find out what I want to do with my life. Funny that. I started year 12 thinking I would take up a job as a chef as food is my passion but after realising the terrible hours they work I scrapped that idea before leaving school. For the next 10 years I dabbled in interior design, a loose leaf tea business, worked as a dental assistant and started this blog. This little blog lead me to where I am today and I am thankful for the little and big opportunities that have come my way.
Prop Obsession
I adore collecting props to use in my food photography whether it be old or new it doesn't matter. My favourite place to look for unique props is my local op shop however I still love buying the odd new piece to add to my collection. My prop cupboard is already groaning with my current collection so the pieces I buy from now are have to be carefully selected until I can figure out some more storage space.
Make sure you pop over to my
account to keep up to date with what's happening in my little corner of the world! See ya next month for the August catchup. Have a great weekend everyone.
