So I'm 29 now... it's rather fun!

 Last week I turned 29 and was happy to enjoy spending a few days with my little family enjoying the finer things.  You know croissants, ribs, sculptures, curry, full English breakfasts/brunches, cupcakes, marvel films... it's a hard life!

I got to have a lie in on the day which is a miracle with a toddler!  Then enjoyed some nice warm buttery croissants before opening my many cards and presents.

After that we got ready and headed out for a birthday lunch at Damon's then a nice cultural walk around the Yorkshire Sculpture Park.  (Of course we weren't shouting "poo", "sheep poo", "sculpture" you must have us mistaken for someone else...)

Later after a long drive back via Aldi we enjoyed a takeaway curry.  The next day we ventured to my son's toddler Spanish class then enjoyed full English breakfasts at Fancie.  It was good! I had Paul's mushrooms and black pudding and my son had my beans.  The lovely waiting staff also gave him a giraffe toy which he adores.  Obviously we ended the visit by purchasing some cupcakes as a cake-a-way.  This resulted in a bit of a toddler meltdown on Ecclesall Road... turns out they can't handle the idea of seeing cake and not eating it. 

 We consumed the cupcakes later with a cup of tea when the sleeping beauty had awoken from his rage induced nap and enjoyed a kick about in the local park.  The day was topped off with the rest of the left over curry, a visit from my Mum who babysat so we could have a trip to the cinema to see Avengers: Age of Ultron.  It was an entertaining film and a very good day

Since then I have also returned to work, watched a couple of roller derby bouts and enjoyed a birthday lunch with my Dad, Step Mum, Sister, Grandparents as well as my small family unit.

After a couple of days of healthy eating I decided to test the Giant Cupcake mould I was given as a birthday present.  It would be rude not to wouldn't it? So obviously I have had to experiment.  The results were not quite up to the Great British Bake Off standards but still rather tasty.  Might need to practise a little more.

So it seems that being 29 is every bit as good as being 28! I've been spoilt my my friends and family with nice cards, thoughtful presents and more nice food than I should really consume in a month.  I think this will be a good year.

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.