NaNoWriMo update.

So it's taken me a while but I've finally got around to starting one of my novel ideas.

It's very slow going as I have to wait until the baby is asleep before writing but I'm making more progress than I did last month even if I am miles behind where I was this time last year.

I just need to remind myself that this year isn't the same as last year I can't get up early to write before work or write on lunch breaks,  scribble ideas down on the bus and get my head down to do some serious writing in the evenings as there is no time before work anymore or travelling to work let alone free time in the evenings!

I've looked on a forum for people writing with babies and some people are doing amazingly which makes me feel a bit lazy but thankfully there are a few other parents on there in the same boat as me.

I'm still hoping that I'll be able to catch up to where I need to be but as I've only written 812 words and I should have written 6,667 to hit my 50,000 word target by the end of the month it looks unlikely.

NaNoWriMo 2013.

For the last two Novembers I've challenged myself to do NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) where I neglect housework, stave off watching much TV, ignore Paul and the cats to attempt to write 50,000 words in a month.

This year I didn't think I was going to do NaNoWriMo after finding out about my changed circumstances and failing to write a short story in June but I've been talked around and am currently trying to work out a story idea to launch into.

Obviously this will be hard work finding time and energy around breastfeeding a baby but what is life without challenges?

Wish me luck I think that I'm going to need it!

George and Mary's tomato chutney recipe.

This year has been the first year ever that me and Paul have successfully grown tomatoes.  Maybe this is because we got our tomato plant from Paul's Grandad George or maybe this is because we weren't too invested in whether they produced tomatoes or not.  We're not sure but the fact of the matter is they grew.

They grew large enough to produce tomatoes, lots of them...

The biggest problem was the fact that we had lots of tomatoes which were mainly green and not ripening very fast.  We didn't know what to do with them, then we had a brain wave we'd ask Paul's Grandad George and Nannan Mary if they had a recipe and thankfully they did. So they passed on his recipe for Green Tomato Chutney to us which we decided to try.

To make Green Tomato Chutney you need the following ingredients:

5lb Green Tomatoes
1lb Onions
1/2oz Peppercorns
1oz Salt
1lb Sugar
2 pints Vinegar
1/2lb Raisins
1/2lb Sultanas

The instructions advise to slice the tomatoes and chop the onions and mix together in a basin with the peppercorns and salt. Allow this to stand overnight

Next day boil up the sugar in the vinegar, then add the raisins (which may be chopped) and the sultanas.

Simmer for 5 minutes, then add the tomatoes and onions, and simmer until thick.

So when we followed this recipe with some slight variations such as we used a could of red tomatoes as well as many green tomatoes to make 5lb weight. We also left the tomatoes and onions to stand for a few days instead of overnight, the only other thing that we did differently was to use mixed fruit as this was the only thing available in the local shop.  (Unfortunately this meant that  we had to pick out the candied peel which I don't recommend as this is really time consuming.)

The rest of the recipe we followed as instructed and the resulting chutney is very nice; however, the vinegar boiling stage smells like sick and I kind of burnt the pot I made this in... Still it made 3 generous jars full of chutney which helped stop us from wasting the tomatoes and I may one day scrape the burntness from the bottom of that pot. (In a million years probably.)

The alien has escaped! (Aka - the baby's been born.)

As you may have noticed I've been pregnant for a while now and this has meant that I've been busy making preparations for my new arrival.Unfortunately this has left me with less time and energy for blogging...

My due date was the 24th September which felt like ages away but at two minutes past seven today I gave birth (with the help of Paul, midwives, a doctor and a plunger) to a healthy baby boy! As you'd expect I'm tired, and sore but happy. 

Recent events!

You may have noticed a slight lull in my blog writing recently and this is mainly due to the third trimester of my pregnancy catching up with me.  It turns out being gianormous is challenging for a clumsy person, tiring and downright uncomfortable. (The less said about that the better!)

So recently I took a week and a bit off work to start preparing for my new arrival, this involved sorting out some of my impending arrival's things.

It also included tending to the tomatoes in my garden.

As well as going on a road trip over to Jodrell Bank to see Sigur Ros with Paul.

Today has also been my last day at work this year before a few more days holiday and the commencement of my maternity leave.  It felt like it would be ages before the Sigur Ros gig and leaving work to have my baby at the start of the year and now it's all come to fruition.  Where has the time gone?

More maternity dresses...

Whilst sorting shopping for my impending new arrival my Step Mum stumbled upon this rather nice navy blue and white heart shaped polkadot dress and decided to treat me.

It's very cute and fits well so obviously I'm pleased with it and hope to put up a picture of me wearing it soon! Here is the Red Herring Maternity dress I got from Paul's sister for my birthday which is lovely, light and lose perfect for sweltering summer days!

This is the Red Herring Maternity Dress my Mum bought for my birthday.

This is a bit smaller and has a lining so it's nicer on warm but not roasting days, it makes me feel a bit like a 50s lady in a stylish rather than oppressed sort of way.

These dresses along with the ones in my previous posts and a few loose fitting/ larger pre-pregancy dresses have been my wardrobe for the past month and a half as I try not to burst into flames at the mearest glimpse of sunshine!  I hope this was worth the nosey!

Midsummer maternity wear.

I follow a few different blogs and my reading tastes could be considered a tad eccentric as I enjoy food blogs, art blogs and lifestyle blogs.  Recently I've enjoyed a few posts about summer clothes, this one from Domestic Sluttery is lovely.

However, considering my current ever expanding planet likeness all the featured dresses would be a bit impractical.  Thankfully I've been lucky enough to find and in a couple of cases been given maternity dresses to stop me from melting in jeans or looking absolutely blimp like in my pre-pregancy wardrobe. (Although I am still wearing a select few items from this...)  My first maternity dress came from a company called Dotty Miss which is run by a friend of mine.

It's a lovely vintage style dress in a size 14 with a pretty pattern on and pockets on the sides.  Technically it hasn't been designed as a maternity dress but it has the room for me to carry on growing into it for the rest of the summer.

Sadly, for public decency/ hygiene reasons I couldn't just wear this dress all summer so I relented and bought myself a maternity dress from H&M for my recent jaunt around London and for dancing in.  I tried on a red dress as I normally love red but the block of colour didn't really do anything for me, then I tried this nice blue and white patterned dress that reminded me of china tea cups.

MAMA Dress - from H&M

http://www.hm.com/gb/s/05B4JD

This is me in the dress at How Does it Feel to be Loved.

The picture is courtesy of my friend Heather and obviously I made a few different hairstyle, make up, pose and accessory decisions to the model above.  It's a nice dress though and perfect for a summers day or an evening dancing.  

I've also been lucky enough to get a nice new maternity dress from Paul's sister Gemma for my birthday, which I wore on the day when I went for afternoon tea with my Mum. We then went shopping and my Mum bought me another lovely dress from the Red Herring maternity range in Debenhams Last time I looked in Debenhams there were hardly any maternity dresses and most were navy blue which wasn't what I wanted; however, this time there was a selection.  I tried on 3 dresses in the end although about 5 caught my eye and I took home the one that suited me best.  The moral of this story? Don't over look somewhere if it doesn't have something you fancy the first time you go in it might surprise you in the future! (I'll be popping pictures of these dresses up as soon as I get Paul to take a picture of me in them as they don't appear to be on the website...)

I hope this helps some other people in my boat looking for something nice to wear whilst no longer having a waist this summer.  There are still clothes out there for us! Sadly there aren't many but we won't be wearing maternity clothes forever so we just need a few things to wear in the sun/ imaginary heat that we feel when everyone else is freezing and the skies are overcast.