Feeling More Like Me Again - Partners Salon, Manchester

I'm sure that new mums the world over will appreciate that those first few weeks (months?) can be difficult.  It's all about the baby and you have days where even getting out of your pyjamas is a chore.  Even with the most supportive of spouses I found myself feeling a little lost, especially having the Monkey to look after too.  Help was at hand though.  I was lucky enough to be invited to a bloggers event at Partners Hair Salon in House of Fraser, Manchester, with my sister over at OhSoGawjess. 

The salon, located on the 2nd floor, is part of a three-salon chain, the other two being in Knutsford and Poynton.  To get to the salon we had to walk down a really glam, sparkly corridor and I already started to feel more like Becky then Mummy!  After having our coats taken we were led to the backwash and the treatment was explained to us.  I was lucky enough to have Ray, the owner, taking care of my hair and, as he started washing it, he gave me advice about the type of shampoo and conditioner to use.  I have quite a lot of hair but it's very fine and straight.  Ray recommended using a salon-specific shampoo (i.e. not a shop-bought one) as it would clean my hair properly and not leave residue.  He also told be to use a leave-in conditioner just on the ends of my hair rather than an all-over one so that my hair wasn't weighed down.  Well thanks Ray, I took your advice and my hair is much easier to manage now.

After washing, my hair was treated to a Schwarzkopf Professional BC Micro Infusion Treatment.  According to the literature

 "this salon-exclusive treatment reconstructs deeply damaged and eroded hair immediately by filling the gaps in the cell-membrane complex with highest concentration of 10,000 ppm (parts per million) keratin elixir."

It's part of the BC Fibre Force range and it was left on my hair for 5 minutes before rinsing off.

Ray asked what sort of look I was going for.  To be honest anything that differed from the "aaargh, I have 5 minutes to leave the house with two kids" look would have been great but as it was the Tiny Dancer's christening in a few days time I asked for something that I could possibly, kind of, try to attempt at home that looked a little glam.  Yes I know, I stretched his talents to the limit but he definitely stood up to the plate and took on the challenge with gusto.

As Ray started rough-drying my hair to get most of the moisture out he explained that you should always dry your hair from the top down to let the cuticle lie flat, thus making your hair super shiny.  Yes, I've tried it myself.  Yes it works.  Thanks again Ray!

I could already see the difference that the treatment had on my hair.  It was much more manageable and dried really nicely.  Ray then added a spray called Blow and Go to help hold the style.  He separated the hair into rough sections, drying each one and then curling and pinning them.  The curls were all different sizes.  When he was finished he hairsprayed me and undid the pins, combing them out with his fingers.

OMG

I looked like the Little Mermaid!  I felt wonderful and I've never seen my hair look so shiny.  Both me and my sister were gutted that we weren't then going out afterwards to show off our new dos!  I'll definitely be returning to Partners, even if its just for a wash and blow dry.  At only £20 it's a more than affordable treat and anything that makes me feel more glam than grunge is totally worth it.

 

 

 

 

 

(By the way, Ray, I did try to copy this at home before the Christening but I think I needed more time/sleep and less children!)

Cakey Bakey

Having recently had an addition to the family I'm always conscious about the amount of time I spend with Monkey Joe.  I don't want him to feel left out and he's developing at such a rapid rate I don't want to miss out on anything either.  I know he's only one and a half but I thought it was high time that we did some baking.  We've made salt dough before and he made a glorious mess but I decided to bite the bullet and be brave.  So, without further ado, here's Monkey Joe's guide to baking buns!

First of all you need a bowl and a spoon (and an apron, that's important!)

Measure out 100g of butter or marg.  Put it into the bowl and mix well until soft.

Measure out 100g of sugar, add to the butter and cream together until light and fluffy.  Add one beaten egg and two capfuls of vanilla extract.  Mix together well.

Next, measure out 100g of self-raising flour and sift into the mixing bowl.

 

Obviously putting the sieve on your face helps...

Once you have mixed the flour into the butter-egg-sugar mixture you should put paper cases into a bun tray.

 

OI MONKEY!  WE NEED THAT MIXTURE!

 

 

Put dessertspoonfuls of the mixture into the paper cases.  It should make 12 but for some reason ours made 9... 

 



 

Place in the oven at 190C for about 10-15 minutes depending on your oven.  NOW you can  lick the bowl Monkey!

 

 

Take the cakes out of the oven and place on a wire rack to cool.

When they're cool you can decorate them.  We used plain white icing and coloured sprinkles.

And TAH-DAH!  The finished article!  They tasted good and Monkey Joe hardly made any mess.  I'll try other things with him now, maybe gingerbread tree decorations.  He did spend the whole day running around shouting "CAKE!"  at everything though but has now learned how to say "delicious"...

The Things Kids Say...

Just a quickie, something that amused my tired little Mummy brain. Monkey Joe was building a climbing frame with the sofa cusions. He decides that adding Alice's bouncy chair to the top would be a great idea.  This is the conversation that followed:

Me: "That won't work you know"
Monkey: "Will work" (with his hands on his hips)
Me: "It won't work, I'm telling you"
Monkey: "Will work!"

Monkey proceeds to look at his creation from different angles. Hands go back on hips.

Monkey: "Weeeeeeell, MIGHT work".

Honestly I nearly fell off the sofa laughing. He was like a proper little builder.  He's such a vocal child that you forget that the cheeky little fella is only 18 months old! I mean, come on! How can you have a conversation like that with someone so tiny? He's a cracker!

My First Giveaway!

Hello all you lovely people.  To celebrate my return to blogging I am having my very first giveaway!  It's for a very exclusive prize.  As it is now getting all wintery, frosty and festive I have a pair of lovely, hand-crocheted snowflake earrings to give to one lucky person. 

These deliciously dainty creations are made from mercerised cotton with a lovely silver sparkle running through them and are the perfect accessory for the festive season.

If you want to win this lovely little prize all you have to do is enter using the widget below.  Please do make sure that you use an email address that you check regularly and that it's OK for me to have your address so that I can post this festive little package to you.  Once a winner is picked then they will have 48 hours to reply or a new winner will be chosen.
a Rafflecopter giveaway

Life in the Public Eye

I'm fortunate enough to be married to the most wonderful guy.  He's a brilliant husband and father and he's one of those lucky people who have found their perfect career.  He's a publican, licensee, landlord, whatever you want to call it.  I've never really seen anyone as suited to their job as he is. I'm in complete awe of the amount of stuff running through his head.  (Saying that, at this moment in time he's sat playing FIFA on his Xbox).

We live above the pub and this has massive benefits for us as a family.  We don't need to pay rent and utilities as these are covered by the business.  We have a lovely beer garden which, thanks to the talents of one of our staff members, was an absolute riot of colour in the summer and, most importantly, because we live where we (ahem, he) works we get to spend much more time together as a family.  The daily commute isn't too bad either.

Recently though I've been feeling a little overwhelmed by it all.  Maybe it's something to do with having a new baby in the flat but I'm really starting to feel that we live our lives too much in the public eye. Nothing seems completely private to me at the moment.  Yes we have a beautiful beer garden but we have to share it with the customers.  We don't have an outside space to call our own and I miss that.  There are two homely log fires downstairs that are lovely to sit by, especially with a snuggly baby, a ball of yarn and a crochet hook but again, they are downstairs in the "public" area.  Not so good when you don't want to make polite chit chat (and EVERYONE comments on my "granny" crafts!)

One of the main issues I think for me involves our front door.  The entrance to our flat is through the back of the bar and there is a door that leads either to the cellar or to our "front door".  When we first moved in there wasn't a door there but I insisted on having one fitted for privacy's sake.  The issue I have now is that the staff don't bother to knock on the door they just open it and shout up.  Not ideal when you have two kids under two and they nap a lot.  It's also not great for me to be honest.  Yes we have told them again and again to ring us but it doesn't always happen.  I even put a sign on the door but again, I don't think they actually look at it.  I think I'm going to paint it to look like a proper front door with a letter box and everything.  Maybe that will work?

The other thing that makes life in the pub difficult are the weekends.  Specifically the nights.  We have a DJ playing and he's very good, don't get me wrong, but the music is very loud and unfortunately our bedroom is right above his speakers!  I kind of solved that problem though.  We bought a baby monitor with a vibrate setting and I got myself some earplugs.  Bingo! A good night's sleep!  Then Alice arrived.  She will eventually share a room with her brother but, until then, she's in with us and so the ear plugs have been retired to the bedside cabinet.  It's all well and good having a baby that sleeps through the night but I don't!  

Yes, it is difficult living and working in a pub.  The hours are long, drunk people are a nightmare and there's always the possibility of trouble but, as the Husband said recently, the gift of being able to see his babies whenever he wants makes up for the hardship.  I also like the way my son (and I'm sure my daughter) is growing up to be a friendly, sociable and confident little person, learning different things off different people.  So for every down side there is an up side.  Speaking of up sides, does anyone fancy a drink...?

Cheeky Tuesday Tipple

As I'm bottle-feeding the Tiny Dancer I'm now free to once again have a little tipple. My favourite at the moment is an icy glass of joy called an Amaretto Sour. The sweet almond and tart lemon flavours make this a killer cocktail and all of the ingredients can be found in the supermarket - no specialist shops for me!

Here's the way I make it...

Into a jug put:
50ml (or a good splosh) of amaretto liqueur
A dash of sugar syrup ( you can get this from the supermarket)
The juice of a lemon (I use lemon juice from a bottle)
A few drops of Angostura bitters (optional)

Mix well together and pour into a glass full of ice. Loads of ice. Did I mention the ice?

You then really need to add a cherry or two for pure cocktail geekiness.

I think it's delicious and I know it's only Tuesday but what the hell!  The Husband can't complain anyway.  He's sat here drinking a piña colada!

Time flies when you have a child...or two!

I've not blogged for over a year!  To be honest, it seems like my last post was only five minutes ago but, here we are!  A lot of things have happened in my life to take away my time and I have to say some of them weren't even my fault!  I'm guilty of being one of those people that like to have a hundred projects on the go at the same time.  My Mum says it's because I'm a Gemini but I'm not convinced.

I play cornet in a brass band.  The Dobcross Brass Monkeys to be precise.  I know it's not everyone's cup of tea but I love it and have done ever since my school days.  We're an adult training band so we have players of all abilities and, fortunately, our gig schedule has increased over the last year.  (We rehearse every Monday and Thursday, drop me a line if you fancy playing...)

I'm the one in the black and white skirt.


Looking after a rapidly growing Monkey Joe is another reason my blog got left by the wayside.  He's an awesome little bundle of fun and its been amazing watching his personality develop.  Myself and the bearded Husband always said we wanted more than one child so we decided to try for another, knowing how long it took us to get out Monkey.  Which brings me on to the third reason why I've not blogged...  our Tiny Dancer!

Yes, it took us ages to conceive Monkey Joe but not so long for us to get the Tiny Dancer.  Three months in fact!  We found out just before last Christmas that we were going to do the whole pregnancy thing again.  It's a good job I didn't retire my maternity clothes!

When I look back I realise that I didn't have the easiest pregnancy (more about that in another post) and I also went back to my old school to do some supply work.  One pupil stated "OMG Miss, have you not had that baby yet?!?"  It took a while to make him understand that yes, I was pregnant the last time he saw me and yes, I am pregnant again but I now have a baby too!

Needless to say what with being pregnant, looking after a newly toddling Monkey and working too I had barely enough time to brush my hair let alone craft or blog.  We're now 9 weeks after the birth of the baby and we kept the gender a surprise but were delighted with the arrival of our Alice May aka Tiny Dancer (that's what she felt like in my belly anyway).  I feel like we're getting into a proper routine again now.  Alice is sleeping through the night and Monkey Joe goes to a child-minder for three days a week so that he can get a bit of socialising done.   I guess this means that, when I've finished the usual housekeeping jobs, I've had more time to finish projects and the blogging itch can finally be scratched again. 

I'll leave you all for now but before I go here's a picture of the best things I ever made (with a little help of course)...