Hello!

I feel like I haven't blogged in ages! In reality it's only been a week, but it's long enough to give me blogger's guilt! I've been really busy with knitting classes  as well as breaking one of my teeth and looking after a toddler (and his daddy) with a cold so have been savouring my free time by doing important things like sleeping! I'm also on a mission to organise my life, which has taken up lots of time but there will be more on that shortly!

As I promised here is this weeks free pattern. As you can see I have taken the official start of autumn to heart & have gone all out making a pumpkin baby hat! Yes that's right you too can now be mean and dress your baby or toddler as a pumpkin! I hope that if anybody actually makes this they'll send me a picture of it in action as what could be cuter than little ones looking like pumpkins?! 

I made this using Debbie Bliss ecoaran which is a lovely 100% organic & fairtrade cotton & it's so soft! It's on sale in most places at the moment, I got mine from John Lewis & Deramores. I love a bargain, but I hope it's not disappearing forever as I love that they offered such lovely eco yarns!

I hope you like the pattern, it's a fun little one!

Last Sunday we went for Sunday lunch at The Ethicurean as a little treat. We don't really go out anymore unless it's for special occasions so it was nice just to do something for the sake of it. As I mentioned before we went  to the Ethicurean last year on my birthday, it's such a peaceful place and can be a welcome escape from the city sometimes as it really feels like you're miles from anywhere when you are there. 

Anyway the point of this post is because  I was looking through pictures from the 2 September visits and I cannot believe what a difference a year makes! Henry was nearly 7 months old when we visited last time & wasn't mobile at all. He was still a little baby really (although at the time I couldn't believe how big he was getting!). Now he's 19months old, and spent every moment he could running around the gardens with energy that only a toddler possesses! Sometimes you don't realise just how quickly your children change because it happens so gradually. I feel like I don't get to savour Henry as much as I would like because life gets in the way sometimes, and we always seem to be so busy. Every now and again though I stop in my tracks & take a moment to appreciate what an amazing little boy he is & how much he learns and changes every week! He really does take my breath away.

It was lovely to take him there again as a toddler because  he really got to enjoy the place fully and spent every spare moment running around asking what everything was.......although they no longer serve macaroni cheese as their children's meal which is Henry's all time favourite food so there was a bit of disappointment after being promised that for lunch!

Anyway that's enough of my soppy Mama ramblings! Have a lovely evening!

We have been feeling a little under the weather in our household over the last few days. I was too poorly yesterday to make it in to the city centre to visit the food Market which is on as part of Bristol'd Big Green Week. I love that Bristol is so environmentally friendly and that there are so many fantastic ethical restaurants here such as The Ethicurean & The Thali Cafes. In our household we aside from being vegetarians we also make every effort to shop locally and to eat with the seasons, because not only is it better for the environment, it is cheaper & the food tastes so much better!

I started to feel a little better last night & really fancied some clean fresh tasting food & this is what i came up with for our dinner: A warm green veg & new potato salad with Mint pesto. Everything in this dish is in season now and if you are anything like me you'll have plenty of mint in your garden right now........it's loving this wet & occasionally sunny weather we are having & growing like mad! As i'm still being quite strict with my PCOS diet this is another dairy free, low GI recipe so it's pretty damn good for you. Enjoy! 

Ingredients:

• For the Salad:
  
• 600g New potatoes 
  
• 1 large bunch of Asparagus
  
• 2 Courgettes
  
• 100g Sugar snap peas
  
• Lettuce leaves of your choice
  
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• a handful of pine nut kernels
• For the pesto:
• 2 generous handfuls of fresh mint
• 50g of unsalted Cashew nuts & pine nut kernels
• 75ml Olive Oil
• juice of 1/2 lemon
• Salt & Black Pepper 

Preparation time: 30 minutes
Serves 3-4 adults.