Cabana | Rio Street food in Southampton

Illustrated Teacup is certainly becoming the home of Southampton food at the moment, and I really kind of love it. Mostly because it means that my fair city is gathering an enviable collection of great food places, and I'll happily try them all!

Last week, myself, Dann and Henry had a Monday lunch to ourselves (annual leave for the win!) so wanted to try out somewhere new and a bit different. This came in the form of Cabana and their amazing Rio inspired street food! Now hold onto your sombreros for a post filled with food and many, many pretty photos... because Cabana is basically the best place ever for photos!

Having never really eaten Brasilian food we knew this would be a bit of an education for us, but we love anything a bit out of the norm, and a bit of spice is always a hit with Dann.

Water Baby

Henry's been a little water baby since he was tiny - he is the biggest fan ever of bath time (read my essentials bathtime post, and our bedtime routine here.) and loves nothing more than splashing about.

I'm also a huge water fan. I love the sea, being by the river, and being in the pool. I find it relaxing and calming, and think it is the best kind of exercise you can get. 

A little help from our....

local handyman!!
I bet you didn't see that coming.
Yes it took me an age to come up with that blog title. And yes, it will likely not help at all with this blog post explanation, or rank me well for SEO but hell, I kind like it.

Anyway, we've been thinking a lot about the final bits and pieces for our house. Maybe it's because Spring is getting thankfully closer, or maybe it's because Henry is on the move (OMG is he on the move) and I want the house sorted before we completely run out of time and hands!

Happy Birthday to my love

So today my love celebrates his birthday!  This is our ninth celebrated together which is kind of astounding in itself! 

Nine years of birthdays and seeing you grow into my favourite human on the planet (we celebrated nine years together three days ago too!)

Chocolate delights for weekends at home

Yay for Sunday's am I right? Ok so I'm writing this post on a Monday on the signature Monday low from a lovely weekend with my boys, and right now while you're reading this I'm back in Bucks with Dann's family ahead of his birthday on Tuesday, but hey, let's celebrate Sunday! 

One of my absolute favourite things to do on a Sunday daytime is bake. I find baking totally relaxing and it's nice to have some yummy treats for the week too. My go-to recipes are the brownies from this 3 ingredient recipe post, or my favourite banana loaf (also if you're looking for the perfect meal outside of the usual Sunday roast, check out this Lamb recipe). 

However a couple of weekends back I thought I'd try something new from one of my many recipe books, The Big Book of Baking. As a fan of GBBO the book is a great one, though I always get a little nervous about the recipes as they are always more skilled cooks than I am. To ease me in gently, I tried the Very Quick Cupcakes.

What I love about the cupcake recipe is that is made with just your general store cupboard items, bits that pretty much all bakers, and to be honest most kitchens, will have in at all times. 

Loving you - JORD watches

Tomorrow is mine and Dann's nine year anniversary! Nine whole years as a couple! (We celebrate four years of marriage in May FYI). 

I always like marking the big occasions in our life on this blog as it's sort of like my personal online photo diary. I also know that Dann reads all my blog posts, so I can write something super cute and if I've forgotten a card (sorry, again) I'm kind of covered! Does it get more romantic than a specially dedicated blog post? I think not!

We've learnt an awful lot in the last nine years, not only about each other, but about life in general. Having a child together has probably been the biggest trial of our lives (anyone who thinks having a child will save your marriage is so far wrong they may as well be on the moon) but also the absolute best thing to happen to us too.

The thing about love, and the thing I think is most amazing about it, is it ever changing. Some days you're totally smitten, and other (more tired, anxious or stressful) days it takes a back burner. It develops as each of you develop as a person, and I think that's kind of special. 

Neither of us are exactly the way we were nine years ago. Think 100 hair style changes, more body fat (for us both) more tattoos, better style, less sleep, more stuff, less shoes (me), more shoes (Dann).We've gone through heartbreak together, redundancy, job changes, four homes together, collected debt together, been on holiday and had the absolute best days together. 

I couldn't have given birth without him, I couldn't bring up our son without him (and I know that's vice versa too, ha ha) and I would not be happy without him. It's been a nine year rollercoaster of a ride, and for two people that don't even like rollercoasters, we're not even slightly ready to get off!

My mini Monet

Being indoors for days on end can be pretty hard, am I right? But admittedly something that us British folk have to deal with rather often with our considerable amount of rain. This becomes 10x harder when you're a parent and need to entertain a small child.

As part of our Christmas thank you notes (does anyone else do these? I had it ingrained in me by my mother that you always send a note to say thank you!), we decided to do a bit of painting with Henry (his first time painting actually) and of course I had to snap some photos of the momentous occasion! As you will be able to see from the photos, it was particularly messy business. These were taken a few weeks ago and he was still working on sitting without falling straight onto his face, which FYI he's doing much better on now - far fewer face-planting episodes thank goodness!

Henry's eight month update

Another month down and we're already mid way through February! This month is already going WAY faster than January!
This last month we've been really working on getting out and about, and making sure Henry gets lots of socialising. We're also working harder than ever on seeing family and friends so he recognises the people that are going to be in his life.

I have to admit I think the last couple of months have been my favourites developmentally, especially as he grows his little personality. He's really very happy 90% of the time and will smile for anyone,which of course makes this mama very proud! He's a total charmer without the need for any words at all - that's some skill!

So what's new for this chunky eight month old? (you can read his seven month update here)

Dance the night away | Billy Elliot The Musical

You know when you watch something and it just lifts your spirits and leaves you wishing you could bottle this feeling because you just feel like nothing is bad?!
Well that's how I felt on Wednesday night.
It's amazing how something so very simple can entirely lift your spirits because it is just simply beautiful.

I went along with the Sotonbloggers to the press night of Billy Elliot The Musical* at the Mayflower Theatre, Southampton, and I basically now want to spend every single night there watching the show because it was very simply brilliant.

Getting Spring Garden ready

Anyone else really looking forward to Spring now? Don't get me wrong, I know British Spring isn't always much better than our Winter, but it is a teeny bit warmer, with a little more sun! And with the first signs of Spring, comes the hint of Summer, and that's a season I'm really looking forward to this year.

Anyway, with Spring in mind, we've been thinking about all our Spring cleaning, which always results in us decorating, re-arranging and organising some part or another of our home.
This year, we're focusing on our garden. With Henry hopefully being on his feet come the summer, I want to get him outdoors as much as possible, which means getting out in the garden. And it requires a much needed spruce up.

Pizza and Wine Education with Franco Manca

Probably my favourite country in the world is Italy, partly because it is so so beautiful and I have some amazing memories from the country (we inter-railed around Italy for our Honeymoon) but also because damn I love Italian food. I mean to be honest, what is there not to love about pasta, pizza, cheese and wine? Nothing I tell you! 

Last week I was asked along to join Franco Manca on their launch event night, and honestly, I think it might have been the best event I've been to yet! 

Franco Manca, in the new Westquay South (Watermark for the locals) is a Neopolitan Pizzeria, bringing authentic slow-risen sourdough pizzas and organic wines to the British public. And boy am I glad they've joined us in Southampton.

Make a splash at bathtime with your little one

Bathtime might just be one of my favourite times of the day. Henry has loved baths from his second bath (his first was all screams, broken hearts, and probably slightly too cold bath water) so much so that we've enrolled him in swimming lessons (which I will be blogging about too)!

We've been a little unorthodox in that we do not have a baby bath, or a baby bath seat - we started Henry out in the kitchen sink (which you can see in my bedtime routine post), which as it is a huge porcelain sink was super convenient for us. As he got bigger and hit the six month mark, we switched to either myself or Dann having a bath with him. Now at seven months, he is in our bath on his own, thanks to a couple of bits we've bought to help us out.

Now that we've been doing bath time for a good few months now, I thought I'd share some of my personal essential products for bathtime!

What's inside: January Degustabox

I find subscriptions quite interesting. It's something to look forward to every month, whether it's a magazine, craft kit, beauty box or food box.
Of course being a huge foodie I love the Degustabox* Subscription box. It's the best introduction to lots of new foods and drinks, and we love to try and create new dishes from the ingredients.

This month I got Henry involved with the unpacking of our Degustabox. Now that we're weaning and getting Henry into new foods, it's going to be really interesting seeing what new things we can introduce to him over the next few months.

So what's inside?

My Beauty Resolutions

So we may have just hit February but I've been thinking a lot about what I want to achieve this year for the past month, and something I really want to work on is beauty, make up and skincare.

I've always loved make up, but I'm definitely more of a budget friendly kind of gal, but with a fair number of beauty blogger friends, I am quickly being educated on the perks of spending a little more on my make up.
They're also very good at completely unintentionally making me very guilty about my pretty much non-existent skincare routine. I'm a make-up wipes, quite often sleep in my make-up, wash with shower gel type of lass, and although my skin is pretty great (even if I do say so myself) I really don't think it's going to stay that way and I am not getting any younger!
Then there's my hair, which has definitely been through a lot recently from pregnancy and then the ever-loving tugs from small chubby hands.