The British post: 12 questions about me!

My beautiful friend Charlotte at A Much Prettier Puzzle tagged me recently in a post about British culture, originally created by Sammi from Beauty Crush. So here goes...

1. How many cups of tea do you have a day? + How many sugars?

I have just one cup of tea first thing in the morning, as soon as I get up. It’s like a warm hug but with a little caffeine to give me the wake up I need! I prefer a really good coffee the rest of day. No sugar for me….I’m sweet enough!

2. Favourite part of your roast?

Absolutely without a doubt roast potatoes. I’ve been known to put away 14 (a couple of them were pretty small to be fair!) in one mealtime. My dad possibly makes the Greatest Ever Roast Potatoes In The World (official title!) and I’m delighted to see my daughters already share my love of the great roast potato!

3. Favourite dunking biscuit?

Hmmm…I’m not a huge biscuit fan to be honest…can I say a Twix? I don’t know if that counts as a biscuit but I can remember biting off each end and using the Twix like a straw until it goes all gooey and lovely! Mmmm..lush!

4. Favourite quintessentially British pastime?

Is Gin British? I’m not 100% sure it is, but there’s so many British brands of gin, I think it might count. I love a good Gin & Tonic, especially on a Friday evening, after a long week. My favourite has to be Scottish gin Hendrinks, served with cucumber. Hmmm, is drinking gin an actual pastime?!

5. Favourite word?

A bit soppy but I think it might be ‘Mummy’. I still love hearing my babies call me mummy or mama (apart from when it’s said with a whining voice!). My youngest daughter’s favourite word right now is ‘MINE’!

6. Cockney rhyme slang?

It’s a bit saucy but love Bristols for boobies!

7. Favourite sweet?

Are we talking traditional sweets that you’d find in a lovely quaint old-fashioned sweet shop? If so, I’d probably say Rhubarb & Custards. If I’m allowed any kind of sweets, then I really love a Haribo star mix or those Flying Saucers, with sherbet inside!

8. What would your pub be called?

I love random pub names, where the two things don’t really go together – like the Drum & Monkey or the Wolf and Whistle. I think I'd go for...the Duck and Doorbell!! 

9. No.1 British person?

Am I allowed two? I ADORE Prince William and Princess Kate. They seem like such a down to earth, genuine, kind couple. I love Kate’s effortless style and how well she seems to handle the media. I don't doubt they have a great team behind them, but they appear to be lovely people. 

10. Favourite shop / Restaurant?

I love Le Monde, a fish restaurant in Cardiff. They've just opened one in Birmingham too, so I can't wait to try it out.

11. What british song pops into your head?

It has to be something from the BritPop era - Oasis, Wonderwall 

12. Marmite?

No thanks! My sister used to chase me around the kitchen with a tub of marmite - gross!! 

What's in a name?

I think one of the reasons I put off starting a blog was I couldn't think of a good name...it sounds ridiculous but the name is really important to me. I work with bloggers every day and have some favourite blogs I like to read and the different and varied names fascinate me.

I'd read that I should have something to do with being a parent or a mummy in the blog name but I don't necessarily agree with that. This blog is about my family life and the two people that are the centre of that are our two girls, so I've chosen to call my blog Florence & Belle, after their middle names. 

I worry it sounds like a kids' clothing brand, or a little gift shop in a small village or even a children's party planning company.......hmm, maybe if things don't work out in PR....! 

My babies! 

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A party fit for a princess...or two!

My girls are two years and two weeks apart in age, which means their birthdays are close together. This year I decided to throw them a joint party as I figured it would be the last time I could get away with it as M-Flo starts school in September and I imagine M-Flo may want to invite her school friends.

M-Flo decided on a princess theme early on (I'm afraid T-Belle didn't get much choice on the matter - not that she cared, as long as there was cake and balloons!). I LOVE party planning. It's part of my job to organise events and it's what I really enjoy doing.

Venue - We'd planned to have the party at home and in the garden. It was at the end of May so we had hoped the weather would have been nice but as the party invites got a little out of hand (hands up, I wasn't so organised on that front!) and the weather look decidedly grim, we changed it last minute to our local village hall which is a lovely spot. It meant I couldn't decorate the place quite as I'd hoped (high ceilings and nowhere to hang pom-poms and bunting) but we all stayed dry and I didn't have to clean the house from top to bottom!

Food - I made jam sandwiches in the shape of hearts and cheese sandwiches in star shapes (as well as regular ham sandwiches!). This took ages to make but I think the kids enjoyed them! We also had crisps, mini sausages, pizza, cucumber sticks, houmous, with fruit wands, mini jammy dodgers, strawberry jelly with mini meringues and of course CAKE! What party would be complete without cake? I made lots of cupcakes on a pretty castle stand and whilst I considered making a fancy cake for them both I just knew they wouldn't match what I'd seen on pinterest (damn you pinterest!) and I didn't have the time to practice, so I bought two very lovely and good value sprinkles cakes from Tesco for their candles. My mum helped by making lovely fairy cakes for cake boxes for guests to take home with them.

Entertainment - We hired a princess themed bouncy castle which all the kids loved, my friend did an amazing job with face-painting (she's an art teacher and is brilliant at it, even though she's not professional!) and I set up a craft station where the kids could decorate crowns and tiaras with jewels and glitter stickers.

Party bags - This is one of my favourite parts of organising a party! Kids just love them and I enjoy being creative with them. I tried to incorporate the theme with princess party blowers and a balloon, princess wands and bubbles, but added stickers, tattoos, chocolate buttons, sweet necklaces, mirrors and combs too. I'd collected items from 99p stores and when they were on sale for 6 months beforehand so didn't really stick to a budget which isn't ideal. I know so many party bags are full of crap that fill your house, but at the same time know that's what kids love, so tried to get some sort of happy medium! For boys I had a superhero cup, whoopie cushion, whistling balloons and a ball.

One of my bestest friends is in the picture above. I couldn't have done it all without her help! She's Maisy's godmother and I love her.

I feel I could tell you so much more about the party (the stress of setting up in the time, the wonderful help I had, the dilemma of whether to feed adults or not) but this post is already too long so I'll save it for another time!

So I started a blog.....

I’ve talked for many months about starting a blog but I've always found an excuse not to - I've not got the time, I have nothing of interest to say, the world of mummy bloggers is daunting - but for once I’ve actually decided to give it a go and do it!!

I’ve felt the need for a new project for a while now. Being a full-time mum and working part-time seems to take up so much of my time so I thought something like a blog would be something a bit different for me to do. Although ridiculously a blog about my girls is pretty much a combination of work (I work in PR and social media) and my parenting life so not sure how much an escape it will be...! 

A friend and colleague never forgets to remind me how, about 8 years or so ago, I casually commented that blogging would 'never catch on'....how wrong could I be?! But with my two beautiful girls growing up quickly (M is now 4 and T is 2) that I want somewhere to record our memories and lives so we have something to look back on. So many people tell me how fast this time goes and it's such a cliche but it's true. So here we go, my blogging adventure...let's see how long this lasts!