BABY: The highs and lows of the first trimester

As you guys and gals will hopefully know I'm expecting my first little one (you can read the announcement here) and I'm truly over the moon and excited.

Like many women I kept the news pretty quiet for the first 13 weeks which I'm not going to lie was hard, especially when you want to shout from the rooftops. Some of my closer friends knew from about 8 weeks or so, mostly due to some of the rather irritating downsides to the first trimester.

So I thought I'd share some of my highs and lows of those secret 12 weeks.

LIFESTYLE: A very special announcement

Today's post is a super special one. And one I've wanted and been so excited to post for a while.

WE'RE HAVING A BABY!!!

Or course that was blindly obvious from the photo but I love seeing the words, saying them out loud!

We've wanted this for such a long time. We started trying shortly after getting married, but lost the baby at 9 weeks. We then put off trying again for a while and then decided to let nature run it's course.

TRAVEL: A day in Amsterdam

On our little winter cruise we stopped off for a day and a bit in Amsterdam.
It's a place I've heard so much about and have wanted to visit for a while so this mini trip was a great starting point.

The evening we arrived we took a wonder and took in all the pretty Christmas lights and worked our way around the city.

We took a much longer stroll and cruise around to see the beautiful sights. The canals give you the best view of the place and the tour takes you through the history of the canals and the river, as well as the buildings lining the way. And the whole place has an amazing history. 

Unfortunately as we weren't there for too long and we were on a fairly tight budget we didn't book any excursions, but we did hear good things about Anne Franks house/museum. 

However we did take a wander to the Flower Market which was so pretty and stopped off at many cheese shops along the way. Dann ate many many samples! Sheep cheese being his top choice! 

We definitely hope to visit again in the future, maybe in the summer time. 

Here's some photos...

FOOD: Homemade Honeycomb (aka Hockey Pockey)

This year for our friends and family we are putting together little packages of homemade bits and bobs for Christmas. We're trying to save money and doing Christmas on a budget this year, but wanted to show we'd put lots of thought and effort in, and what better way than homemade yummy treats.

I thought I'd share one of my recipes for you, which I think you'll all love, and it's super simple to make, and kinda fun as it's a little bit like a science experiment.

This recipe is from Nigella Lawson, and can literally be made in 10 minutes.

What you need
100g castor sugar
4 tablespoons Golden Syrup
1 1/2 teaspoons Bicarbonate of Soda
Greaseproof paper for the tray

How to make
Mix the sugar and golden syrup together in a pan off the heat
Place pan on the heat and melt the mixture. It will then start to bubble (approx 3 minutes) - do not stir, swill the pan if you want to but no stirring
Remove from the heat and add the bicarb
Immediate whisk the mixture (this is the fun sciency bit) where it will foam and go a light gold colour
Pour onto a tray (use greaseproof paper to make it easier)
Let it set (put in the fridge to help
Once set smash, and put in a box/tin

Store in the fridge until gifting

We're also adding a tag to our boxes saying it is best served chilled.
It also goes well crumbled on top of ice cream or a fruit crumble!

TRAVEL: A mini cruise in November

If you've been keeping up with my social media you may have seen that I went away for a mini break at the end of November.

We try to go away/abroad at least once a year (I've been abroad twice now this year) so booked a mini cruise to Amsterdam and Brugges with P&O cruises. As they sail out of Southampton it only made sense to try out a cruise. We started out small as neither of us had been on one before, and opted for an adults-only break.

We set out on the Arcadia, a medium sized ship for four nights away. 

Unfortunately due to the terror alerts in Brussels we couldn't stop in Brugges which was understandable though a shame, and due to the weather and time frames couldn't stay in Amsterdam or stop at another port. I'll be doing another post on Amsterdam shortly but in the mean time here's what you need to know for a cruise.

Due to the weather our first night was rough and made for an interesting nights sleep. Our extra day at sea also wasn't the smoothest which wasn't ideal but manageable.

The evenings were so much fun, as there was a dress code each night. The best night had to be the Black Tie evening where everyone was beautifully dressed up and Dann busted out his James Bond Tux. The menus in the restaurants were amazing every night, but they went all out on black tie night with a special four course dinner. Even if I did miss dessert from feeling a little under the weather. We went to the theatre (actually we went to the Theatre three out of four nights) where they put on an amazing dance show themed on Queen. It was 100% my favourite night, even if a little poorly for some of it.

Here's some photos from our time on the ship!

 ^^don't we dress up smart. And of course it only made sense for Dann to order a martini (with olives) to match his tux!!^^

 ^^isn't this ceiling just spectacular!!^^

^^our fave piece of art on the ship... I could have happily taken this home! Creepy cool!^^