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Mamma wears Prada

Valentine’s love? Not quite yet

Cuisine, Daily photo, family Comments Off on Valentine’s love? Not quite yet

Christmas has passed and all I can see now all over the web it’s hearts, love messages, Valentine’s cards. NO NO NO!!

It’s January for crying out loud! This is like seen Christmas decorations in September!  Valentine’s day is still more than a month away so this is so wrong.

January is a kind of boring month for me and only few days ago I was wondering what excuse I had to find to bake and celebrate something. Then I phoned my sister in Italy and she said to me: “Do you know what day is today??”  “mhh well not really..” and she said “It’s the first day of Carnival!!”

YEAHHHH

I never understood why in the UK  Carnival is not celebrated seen that people like to dress up throughout the year in silly costumes anyway. It’s such an awesome time of the year and it reminds me of many Carnival parties when we were little and we used to plan weeks ahead what we would have liked to dress up as so our mum could sew the costumes.

Then we used to go to nursery/school, all dressed up as our favourite characters and show off to our friends. On the top of my mind I remember dressing up as princess (obviously), as little devil, as Morticia Addams (this was repeated for many years due to my pale skin and long black hair!).

Here, nothing…

But, I can still celebrate Carnival in my house by preparing something, like I did last year, some typical Italian Carnival sweets. Last year I made Frittelle (Carnival doughtnuts), this year I want to try and make Crostoli, well at least it’s how we call them in the north, my husband would have probably used the word Frappe.

Stay tuned! In the meantime a picture of myself dressed up for Carnival

I survived Christmas celebrations

Dessert table, family Comments Off on I survived Christmas celebrations

Yes. I did it! I managed to survive Christmas and New Year’s Eve celebrations!

Don’t get me wrong I LUUUUUVE Christmas and the countdown for the new year but unfortunately this year my baby decided to get sick 3 days before Christmas ie 3 days before my inlaws arrived, basically when I was supposed to start getting organised and preparing everything. Feeling poorly, he was clearly in need of extra kisses and cuddles which he obviously got. Because of this all his germs were passed on me and I got the flu too. Nice. But…

I survived!

I survived 10 days of festive celebrations that in the Italian culture mainly represent eating 24 hours. No, it’s not a joke in Italy during this time of the year, the table is always set as there is only a small gap of time in the day during which people  don’t sit at the table eating. This also mean that I had to prepare 10 lunches and 10 dinners for 6+ people. Spot on.

Do you understand now why I feel pretty proud that I pulled it off?

The only thing I failed was finding the time to edit and to post a picture of my Christmas dessert table so if you are fed up with Christmas and everything about it, please look away because I decided to skip the editing bit and post these pictures now…

For the first time I made Panettone! And I made the citrus ice cream to go with it. Delizioso!

And I made this huge Red velvet cake covered with cream cheese frosting…

and these red velved cupcakes…

 

Some cranberry juice (just because I love paper straws!)

And these vanilla gingerbread cookies with raspberry jam

Mini holly gingerbread house

I made this Christmas wreath out of gingerbread biscuits and covered with icing sugar.

Snowy cake pops

My Holly cake pops

more cupcakes

Done! Buon Anno a tutti!

Cool Christmas gifts for babies

baby products, Christmas, Daily photo, family, Inspiration Comments Off on Cool Christmas gifts for babies

Only few days to go until Christmas so if you are stuck for last minute present ideas for your baby (like I was!) I hope you will find some inspiration from this Christmas gift  list. It includes unique presents and some original ideas which your baby will love for sure!

These building blocks for example, are a lovely decoration for your baby’s nursery.

I find these elephant slippers too cute and so cozy to keep my baby’s feet warm. Plus I believe babies will love to chew their ears!

This is probably too big for your baby but while waiting for her to grow up, I think this shiny plane toy is a marvellous designer piece of furniture for her room

 This simple wooden caterpillar is Leo’s obsession at the moment. He loves it!

We had such a cold November so these baby snow boots would be a must have for the months ahead. Warm and cute at the same time.

 

This drying rack is more a present for mommy…  Cups and feeding spoons are always laying messy next to my sink. This green grass will keep the place tidy in a designer way.

Who doesn’t feed pretending to fly an airplane? This wooden spoons will make “plane” feeding more fun.

Leo loves playing in the water and I’m sure this shower fountain would entertain him while being bathed.

Coming out of the water is alwasy a struggle but if the towel is a soft star maybe it would be a bit easier?

When Bee was one she received a lovely wooden rocking horse but a fluffy rocking sheep would be an original alternative.

What about a wooden rocking reindeer?

More shoes I know but these leather snowman baby shoes will keep your baby pretty steady especially when he’ll start experiencing his first steps.

 

To keep your baby’s head warm this  hat  would be perfect and it will make your baby even cuter (if possible!)

 

I’m in love with this swing! A great nursery decoration and much fun for your little one.

Just awwwwww…Baby grey mocassins

And if you want to give your baby the ultimate bath experience this baby Jacuzzi is a must!

Next I wanted to write a list of presents for mommies but then I thought it would be too short. Yeah, that’s right, because there is only thing that mammas need for Christmas … MORE SLEEP!

 

Mini Gingerbread village

Christmas, Daily photo, family, Parties Comments Off on Mini Gingerbread village

I warned you I had so many projects in mind for Christmas! I cannot remember to have prepared so much gingerbread dough like this year. I used the same recipe I followed when I baked my big gingerbread house.

These mini gingerbread houses were a must as I’ve been looking at pictureson Pinterest and I found them adorable!

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Being so small, they were quite difficult to assemble but Bee and I had much fun putting the sugar decorations on.

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We sprinkled some icing sugar on the top and they were ready.

This is my favourite! The roof is made out of almond flakes.

We originally placed the village under the tree but the cats loved them too so we had to move them elsewhere.

I have another small gingerbread project to share with you and then we will be ready for Christmas!

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