Currently....#18

Good Morning ladies and gentlemen! Can it be? Thursday? Again? Already?!! 

It is!! So it must be time to join two of my favourite ladies Ot and Et and Harvesting Kale for this week's Currently....

I have been:

Borrowing: I am always borrowing stuff from my Mum and Dad. Constantly! Pasta, squash, milk. Clothes from my Mum, allsorts. It's one if the great advantages to having them so close. Most recenty I borrowed their hand blender and some cocoa pops!! 

Dancing: one of the most fabulous things about having small children is surely their complete lack of inhibition. Biscuit loves to dance, she will happily up sticks and shake her tail feather at the drop of a hat. We regularly dance about, to any music we happen to hear. Great fun. I don't want her to loose that for a long, long, time.

Building: we spend a lot of time building towers out of wooden blocks for Wiggles to knock down. Apart from that I don't think we build much! Should I say something wafty and hippy like "a better future" well, I'm not gonna....

Throwing: I found a stinky old coffee maker in the back of a cupboard that I didn't know we had. I'm throwing that puppy right out! Is this interesting? I'm not so sure. Next week I think I'm going to make up ridiculous stuff that sounds good, I suspect I may be boring all to death with the truth. Sorry! 

Buying: I don't often buy a lot if stuff for myself, but I took advantage of a 25% off sale last week and treated myself to a pair of nude heels for the princely sum of £10. They're gorgeous!! I also bought Wiggles done cute baby clothes for her birthday next week, it's so hard waiting and not dressing her up straight away. 

Next week: 

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Mostly.....#5

I've been a busy little bee of late! And I haven't done a little round up post for ages, so here goes....

As I may have mentioned, and as you may have gathered my favourite friend in the whole world got married on Friday. We had rubbish weather, but a lovely day!! She looked beautiful. And for as long as I live I will never forget how funny it is when a bride in a big dress needs a wee!!! I think, personally, what I will remember the most from that day is how fabulously Biscuit behaved. She looked adorable and I was just so, so, proud of her.

Proud Mama

On Saturday it was our Village's Open Garden weekend. Essentially people with really very lovely gardens open them up for other villagers to have a nosey. I often feel a little weird about this and traipsing around strangers gardens can seem a little intimate, but it is very interesting! I helped my Dad out for about half an hour sitting on the gate of a beautiful garden, taking pennies and asking questions. The sun was shining and the birds were singing. 

My Mum goes to the local Art Group and they had an exhibition in the church of their paintings.  Because Biscuit goes along with Mum during the school holidays I suggested that she paint something for the exhibition.  She was thrilled.  She painted a little picture of a garden, with some birds, flowers and butterflies.  In the middle she drew a jail where the naughty babies go.  No comment!!!  Anyway, because she did so well, my Mum bought her a "prize" for entering.  She gave her a little pink bracelet and Biscuit was pleased as punch.  She wore it all day and told everyone we bumped into that she'd won First Prize!  It was the only "prize" but I'm not telling her that!

There was also a great Farmers Market taking place on our Common to coincide with Open Gardens. It would have been rude not to take a look.... We bought Homemade Damson Chutney, bunches of wild garlic, a bag of local onions and a big bunch of rhubarb. Lovely!! 

On Sunday we went up to the allotment, planted some carrot, parsnip and spring onion seeds. We earthed up our potatoes (they have to be buried to stop them going green) and did a spot of tidying. All very productive!

After that we went for a lovely walk up the hill behind our house. We allowed Biscuit a well earned trip to the swings on our way home which she enjoyed. She usually bumps into a little chum and has a chat. She's a sociable creature.

We used some of the wild garlic to slow roast with some lamb shoulder. Our whole house smelt amazing! Then we used our rhubarb to make a crumble, a proper Sunday!! 

On Monday I had to work in the morning, some overtime, which is always handy. As I work part time, working on a Bank Holiday doesn't phase me, though I can understand why those who work full time treasure those days off. I'm happy to help out. It was busy and exciting. 

When I got home we had bacon sandwiches. We pottered around for a while then all went for another walk around a local nature reserve. The weather over the weekend had been such a contrast to Friday's, it seemed silly not to make the most of it! We saw Dragonflies, butterflies and some horses out on a hack.

When we returned home Mr Husband watched the football and the rest of us enjoyed tea and blueberry pancakes in the garden with Mum, Dad and my brother. 

I've had a really lovely long weekend, spent enjoying friends and family. I hope you've had a great time too. 

Love, love

Silent Sunday - 26th May 2013

21/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013.

21/52 - Climbed into Daddy's wardrobe did we?

21/52  - Listening to the Bluebells

She MAY look cute, but Wiggles is an adventurer!  Even at the tender age of eleven months she is terrifyingly unafraid.  She'll take on the stairs, she'll tackle the sofa and she's more than happy to crawl into Daddy's side of the wardrobe and sit there looking cute like butter wouldn't melt.  She's holding her favourite toy in the world, Pinky Pancake who accompanies her on many of her adventures.  I swear those two could take over the world if they felt like it!

Biscuit was pretty annoyed with bluebells.  For a start they're not blue!  And then to add insult to injury they don't make any noise.  She listened steadfastly for several minutes before giving up and huffily declaring that they were completely silly.  I asked her if she thought they looked pretty?  She replied "No.  But you're pretty Mummy.  Can I have some sweets and some pink milk when we get home?"  She's got her head screwed on that one....

My Best Friend's Wedding

To my darling Tallulah,

Today is your wedding day! I am proud and honoured to be your bridesmaid alongside your lovely sister and my darling girl, Biscuit. It seems to have come by in a whirlwind. You met Mix a relatively short time ago, but you knew, and I knew, you'd found the right man for you straight away. You've kissed your fair share of frogs in your time, but let's not talk about that hey?  I couldn't be happier that you've found love at last. Mix is wonderful, he will protect you, adore and and take care of you, which is exactly what you deserve.

We first met many, many years ago when you were studying music on the same course as Mr Noir.  We've always got on well, in fact I don't think we've ever fallen out! I've probably annoyed the hell out of you at times, but we've certainly never had any raised voices, have we?

You were my one and only bridesmaid when I married Mr Husband four years ago. You held everything together, looked beautiful and even caught my hat when I laughed it clean off my head! You were there by my bedside the day after Biscuit was born, making me tea and making sure I was ok. You're Biscuit's Godmother and you do such a great job. She thinks you're the bees knees! You are one of the few people in this world that I would trust to raise my children if anything were to happen to us. 

We've had so much fun together, some amazing times that I will never forget. From chasing buses through London, to climbing up water towers in the dead of night, armed only with helmet torches. We've danced, drunk, scoffed scampi fries and spooned. You can kick like a mule!! We've holidayed together, sneakily half inched bottles of wine together and injured ourselves in various hysterical ways. But most of all we've regularly laughed like we might actually wee.

I love you like a sister. I hope you have the best wedding in the history of weddings and the happiest marriage in the world. Because that's the very least that you deserve. I have so, so many happy memories with you. I just know today's going to be another one to add to my collection. 

Here's to you my partner in crime, I love you. LOVE YOU! Now p-p-p-put your teef in and get yourself wed!

Currently....#17

Good Morning to you and a very happy Thursday indeed!  It's that time once again so together with Ot and Et and  Harvesting Kale I'd like to share what I am currently....

Eating: crisps, I have been eating bucketloads of crisps!! I wish I could say I'd been eating a delicious selection of vegetables or something delightfully cosmopolitan, but it wouldn't be true. I don't get time for lunch. I eat crisps. 

Loving: the way Wiggles eats peas! O know that sounds bonkers, but i just love it!! I have to put them on a fork for her one by one and she very gently gums them off like a Mummy dog holding its precious little puppy in her mouth. It's the cutest thing. And I stuff her full of peas because I love watching her so much!!

Missing: we received an invitation to a very lovely friend's wedding this week and I am gutted that we are going to have to miss it. We've already committed to doing something else on the same day. Isn't it typical? Two things at once! So sad to be missing it, she's such a sweetheart, but I wish them both all the very, very best.

Moving: I moved today in a way I haven't moved for ages. At Biscuit's Parents Lunch this afternoon I was forced to skip. SKIP! With an actual skipping rope. I haven't skipped for, maybe thirty years? My whole body bounced. I am not programmed to be in such a way. I did it though, go me!!

Taking: At work this week a very sweet girl was giving away shoes. You heard me giving away shoes!!! She has been diagnosed with a back condition that meant she has to wear a particular type of shoe and the majority of hers are now off limits. Poor love! So I was lucky enough to be the same size and took home three whole pairs!  FREE SHOES!! Life is good! 

Next week: Borrowing, Dancing, Building, Throwing, Buying.

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Shine on...you crazy diamond?

The wonderful and completely gorgeous Hayley from Sparkles and Stretchmarks  nominated me for a Shine On award, which was so lovely of her. I have been a bad, bad tardy blogger and it's taken me ages to post this, for which I can only apologise!  Hayley recently gave birth to a gorgeous little baby boy called Tyne.  Congratulations once again Hayley! And thank you for my nomination. I love reading Hayley's blog, she's such a happy, positive person she always puts a smile on my face. Plus Tyne is seriously adorable.  Here are my answers to the questions Hayley asked me:

1. What song makes you emotional and why?
Hurt by Johnny Cash. The first time I heard it was on a Saturday night at a friend's house, MTV was in the background. The words, the tone of Cash's voice and the images were captivating and heartbreaking and jaw dropping all at the same time. When that song finished I felt like I'd been hit by a bus. I had to sit down and collect myself. It left a mark on me that's there to this day. If you've never seen or heard it, I urge you, deplore you to look it up on YouTube.

2. What beauty product could you never be without?
Blusher, without question!! I look like a ghost without it, a grey ghost.

3. What birthday of yours was most memorable and why?
This is such a hard question, but I think I'd have to say 2008. I was in labour with my oldest daughter, she was born two days later. At the hospital people kept satin "Ahhh, it's your birthday, how lovely!" And just kept thinking that it was the worst way to spend a birthday ever! Strangers doing unspeakable things to my fanaca and no baby at the end of it!!!

4. What were you like as a child?
Geeky. Sometimes loud, sometimes quiet. Desperate to please.

5. What was the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you?
This is a surprisingly hard question for me to answer as a shed load of embarrassing things have happened to me in my life. In fact so many that narrowing my choices down to just one is pretty tough! I'd say one of the most embarrassing happened many, many years ago when I went to a very popular club in the nearest big town. I've never been a big fan of clubs, always preferring bars, but this was an alternative night so I felt a little more at home. A lad that I was completely smitten with at the time was there and I really wanted to impress him. I'd worn my stripy tights and long flowery skirt. I probably looked like a right old hippy! The young man in question was stood at the bottom of a big dramatic staircase. I walked in, said hi to him in what I thought was a sophisticated and aloof way and walked up the stairs. Only I caught my foot on the bottom of my skirt on the first step. I then proceeded to walk up the inside of my skirt on the dramatic staircase, that was the focal point of the entire room, until the point where I was laying on the staircase like a beached whale, unable to move, flapping, unable to free myself. Boy at bottom of stairs looked at me, turned on his heel and walked off. Swine! The shame still haunts me....

6. Tell us about your morning routine?
I guess this question is referring more to my beauty regime, but as a Mum with two small children I don't have much time in the mornings for me. A swish around with a hot flannel and whack a blob of blusher on each cheek and I'm pretty much done.... My morning routine with the children generally involves me chasing around after Biscuit shouting "Where's your book bag?" And "Put your shoes on. PUT YOUR SHOES ON!!!!"

7. If you had to eat only one meal for a week, what would you choose?
Hmmmm, a whole week? Crispy duck pancakes? I think I could manage a whole week of them! Plus cucumber and spring onion would be my vegetable quota too, right? Not to mention plum sauce!!!

8. When you go the cinema, what snack food do you buy?
If there was candy floss on offer I would hoover it up! I'm not a big fan of cinema popcorn, it smells like guff to me, if there was a posh salted caramel popcorn kicking around I'd definitely want to get my hands on it!


9. If you had to marry a famous celebrity, which one would you pick and why?
Can I say Helena Bonham-Carter? She rocks! I don't want to go with convention choose a bloke because as far as I'm concerned Mr Husband is the best boy ever and I'd never want to be married to any other man but him. Sick buckets I know...

10. Where are you from and what is the best and worst thing about that place?
Originally I'm from Yorkshire, although I haven't lived there for many, many years. The best thing about it is that it's where all my family are. The worst thing? That its so flippin' far away!

I'm not going to nominate anyone particular, as I've completed a couple of similar things recently and I don't want people to get tired of me asking lots of questions, but if you would like to take part and answer Hayley's questions above as well, please do.  Be sure to leave a comment to let me know so I can have a nosey at your answers!

Love, love,

 

Magic Moments....#9

Good Morning one and all!! I trust you've a had excellent weekends?

I'd like to link up with The Oliver's Madhouse for the Magic Moments series once again. Here goes!

I'm sure I've shared the details of our living arrangements in vague terms before, but I thought I'd take this opportunity to explain our set up properly....

When Biscuit was fourteen months old we all moved to the little village that I'd grown up in. We rented a lovely little cottage right beside the church, about a five minute walk from my Mum, Dad and Brother. 

We'd lived there for about two years when my Dad asked us over for lunch as there was something he wanted to discuss. When we arrived that day he told us he'd woken up the night before with a grand plan that had come to him. It was an open secret that we would never be able to afford a mortgage on our household income and I know this pained my Dad. He firmly believes that renting is dead money. And in some respects I agree, but it never particularly bothered me. Certainly not to the same degree!!

My Dad told us that he had worked out that he could extend my parents home, then divide it up to create two separate (but joint) houses, one for them and one for us, if we would consider coming to live alongside them. 

This made sense in so many ways! We'd have more space, have an extra bedroom so could have another baby (hence the arrival of Wiggles a while later). We wouldn't be renting, we would be able to live in a house we would never be able to afford on our own and we'd have more security for our little family. We would be on hand to help out with caring for my older brother who has severe learning difficulties and will always live at home. We'd be company for my Mum during the week when my Dad often has to work away and in later years we'd be around to make sure they were ok.

What followed was my Dad drawing some very clever and detailed plans, submitting them to an architect to get them drawn up, Planning Permission refusal, some adjustments, Planning Permission acceptance! Finding the best builder in the world, a whole lotta rubble, packing up, moving out and moving in.   My Dad was very clever and utilised the existing buildings that they had, even turning the old garage into their new bedroom!  I am so proud of him for having such excellent vision.

This is our before picture, Mum & Dad's old garden and conservatory..

The conservatory down and most of the garden removed - although you can see where it used to be...

The garage - which became Mum & Dad's bedroom...

The new extension from the inside

Our lovely builders hard at work, and nearly there!

This is the final product from the garden, taken in 2012.  You can see the new extension on the right and the gararge that's now the bedroom at the bottom.  Oh yes, and Biscuit in her paddling pool!

We made a few adjustments here and there to make the place our own, but we've now lived this way for eighteen months now and it's great. It really works for us. Apparently living together as a family and pooling resources is is much more popular overseas than here in the UK, but with ground rules and common sense there's no reason that it it shouldn't work for others...

I love to see how close the girls are to their grandparents and Uncle and I feel really lucky to live the way we do.  And the live in babysitters are fantastic!!

I am so pleased that my Dad had this flash of inspiration that lead us to where we are today.  I suppose this was his Magic Moment really, but it really has changed our lives for the better and I love him for it.

 

Silent Sunday - 19th May 2013

20/52

A portrait of my children, once a week, every week in 2013.

20/52 Box fun

In many ways it's lovely how children find pleasure in the simplest of things, a ball of wool, a cardboard box, and spend hours enjoying them.  In other ways it makes me regret filling my house with miscellaneous pieces of brightly coloured plastic that get wedged down sofas and behind radiators.  This week my two sweethearts enjoyed a simple flat cardboard box for about an hour.   It was a tent,  it was a car, it was a sledge and probably many more things besides.  I love how this caught Wiggles peeking out and Biscuit's cheeky grin. I could snuggle those two right up.

Currently....#16

Hello my lovelies!!! How are you diddling?  Anyone notice that I skipped a week last week?   I am feeling twice as Currently-ish now!!! So off we shall trot to join in with Ot and Et and  Harvesting Kale for this weeks post.

I am currently....

Hoping:  At the moment I am hoping that we can sort out going on a little family getaway in August. Logistically it's proving a bit tricky. But with luck and a tail wind we'll all be able to go and visit Aunty Polly by the sea for a lovely break later this year. Hoping. Fingers and toes crossed.

Reading: blogs, blogs, blogs. I recently performed a blog cull. I know that sounds harsh, but I really needed to really narrow down my reading list so that I can commit to and comment on and get to know those I do follow. And I'm happy with my decision, and I feel relieved. I love every single blog that I now follow. You are all amazing!

Wearing: I went to my best friend's Hen/Stag do on Saturday night and wore a very pretty dress.  Not that I don't always wear a dress, but this was one that I particularly like! I don't know when it happened, but I'm starting to feel like my wardrobe is growing up a bit. I look at some things now and think, nope, I'm too old for that!! I am so looking forward to her wedding though....

Me and My Girl, Me and My dress.  Well, a bit of it...

Making: This evening I went to a Make Do and Mend Class I my village. We all made wrist pincushions. Mine was rubbish, I got stroppy, hid it in my bag and refused to finish the job. I went off to wash up instead. I hated it. I want my money back. I've learnt more from YouTube. Grump, grump, grump :)

Playing: Wiggles has just taken to pointing! We've been playing lots of games of "Where's Mummy?" "Where's Gran?" "Where's this? Where's that? Where's the other?" She also loves a good game of "Give Mama a kiss!" Which essentially involves that dribbley little sausage slobbering all over my cheek. I love it though and I love playing games with my little wriggler.

Next week: Eating, Loving, Missing, Moving, Taking.

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The fish is dead. Long live the fish!

A couple of weeks ago it was Biscuit's Birthday. She desperately wanted goldfish and we were happy to buy her some. She spent ages choosing their names and getting ready for them.

On the day of her Birthday Mr Husband, Wiggles and I collected Biscuit from school and took her to the local garden centre to choose her gift. We bought the tank, the filter, the pebbles and all the expensive water treatments. Not to mention the two little goldfish themselves; Nuzzle and Scratch.  Now I don't begrudge paying for them one iota, but I was slack jawed in amazement when the youth behind the counter announced that our little lot would cost us the princely sum of £52.  Fifty two quid?!!! I was expecting something closer to £15!!!  Still, as long as our girl was happy.  And she was, she loved those fish!

She was desperately worried that they wouldn't survive the journey home. Probably my fault, because I couldn't see them through the bag they were in I'd said something along the lines of "I hope they're ok in there...." She was so happy when we opened them up when we got home, declaring "They're alive!" in a way that made me think of Brian Blessed in Flash Gordon.

Sadly when I returned home from work the other day Mr Husband informed me that Scratch appeared to have gone to the great big goldfish bowl in the sky.  Thankfully he wasn't floating on his side at the top of the tank he was stock still at the bottom. He'd definitely gone though, he'd not moved for ages and his gills had stopped flapping.

We'd decided to keep their tank on the landing right at the top of the stairs so we had to distract Biscuit past on her way to bed. And we did pretty well I must say, she didn't notice a thing....

I began to worry that the dead goldfish would poison the remaining goldfish like some sort of deadly goldfish teabag so we had to get it out as soon as possible. We solemnly made the necessary arrangements, scooped out poor old Scratch, gawd rest him. I belted out a quick verse of "All Things Bright and Beautiful" and we bid the little fella farewell.

In the morning we once again distracted Biscuit as she passed the tank so she wouldn't be upset by the distinct lack of fishy action. She is ridiculously easy to distract. After dropping her off at school I made dash back to the garden centre.

You'd think it would be easy to buy a simple goldfish, but the old codger on the desk was in a bad mood so sent me on a merry dance around the shop. Cantankerous swine. Eventually I managed to buy a very similar fish, get him home and slosh him into the tank as if nothing had happened.

Until Biscuit returned home from school, fed her fish and announced "Scratch has grown AND he's got a suntan, he's got brown blobs on his tail. And Nuzzle looks poorly to me"  A quick butchers at Nuzzle confirmed that the poor fishy Mr had what looked like the fish version of internal bleeding. I got my google on and discovered that this was likely to be down to the water. I plopped in a couple of the ridiculously expensive water treatment beads that set me back so much and hoped for the best.

Thankfully a few days later he seems to have fully recovered. Phew! I don't want to go through that again any time soon!

Any one else ever performed a pet switch? How did you get on? Has anyone ever switched your pet under your nose? Did you notice? I'd love to hear your tales/tails!!!

Love, love,

Edit: Tuesday 14th May 2013 - 1600 hrs. 

This morning the new fish was swimming around happy as Larry (whoever Larry may be) this afternoon we returned home from a Baby Shower (really nice, thanks) and the sodding replacement fish has kicked the bucket!!!! I can't believe it!!! Why today? It's just too bizarre, I feel like I've jinxed the second fish, doomed it to a watery grave. 

We've decided to come clean. Perhaps it's Scratch (the surviving fish), maybe he's a lean mean fish killing machine? Maybe the bloody gills were a sign of his murderous conquests? So cue many, many death related questions from Biscuit and much wailing and tooth gnashing....

Matcha May

Have I ever told you that I'm a massive, MASSIVE fan of teapigs. I first tried their tea quite by accident at a coffee morning, it was the pure peppermint and it was amazing. So much mintier (is that a word) than any other mint tea I'd ever tried before and I was smitten from then onwards.

So when I happened to spot on twitter that teapigs were promoting something called Matcha May I chucked myself headlong on board.  The only slight disadvantage was that I had no clue what matcha actually was or what it meant. Ahhhh....

A few days later an exciting envelope plopped through my door, great (I thought) time to get supping on some new exciting tea.  I was not expecting what I discovered; green tea.  Yep! Green. Tea.  My arch enemy.   In all honesty I've never had a good one, never encountered one that didn't taste like pond slime.  Lesson learnt; do your research woman.  But I'd committed to this and I'm not the type if girl to go back on my word, so I would carry this one through.  Take one for the team. But I wont like it.  Can't make me.....

At this point (a little late admittedly) I started to do my research. I could carp on for ages about matcha and its history, but to be honest that's probably a story better told by teapigs themselves so I'd suggest clicking here if you'd like more information. I discovered online that teapigs matcha is pretty flippin good for you boasting 70 x the antioxidants of orange juice and claiming to raise energy levels for 4 - 6 hours.  It even won best slimming and fitness product in 2011.  Impressive.  Although, in my mind this did nothing to help distract from the idea that it would taste foul.....I usually find that if something is really jolly healthy it tastes revolting.

Nevertheless I was going to give it a go.  My package contained a little sachet of ground green tea leaves.  100% natural, organic green tea leaves in fact.....so obviously I looked at them suspiciously:

There was also a handy little recipe card giving me some suggestions on what to do with it.  The first idea I spotted was to make a matcha latte.  I could cope with that I thought, so off I set.  Half a teaspoon of powder went into my cup, it looked, erm, very green...

In went the milk and I gave it a blast with the impressive steamer on my Dad's posh coffee machine.  Now, I've never used been allowed to use the posh coffee machine before and perhaps I was doing it wrong, but I could not get rid of the great green lumps of powder that were floating in my cup however much I steamed that milky little tinker.

So how did it turn out? Lumpy green milk.  Lovely.  As you can imagine  I was really looking forward to drinking it.

Mmmm, yummers... I decided to have a go at straining out the lumps, with some success.  As you can see I really wasn't keen on my matcha latte.  It wasn't the taste.  In fact the taste surprised me, it was actually really quite pleasant and fresh tasting, it was those darn lumps.  By straining them I'd just made them smaller, rather than got rid of them.  By like I say, that's probably down to my inadequate steaming skills.

I'm not a lass that admits defeat easily, another day another matcha!.  This time I decided to mix it with apple juice and drink it like a shot.  I'm good at shots, I've had practice.  Here's the before and the after.  As you can see it goes a really lovely vibrant shade of green.  I'd learnt a lesson from the latte and made a paste with a little apple juice and powder first and then squished the lumps out with a teaspoon.

You will be pleased to hear my friends, that it tasted GOOD.  You could have knocked me down with a feather.  A very drinkable morning drink!  I thought I'd found the method for me.  Apple juice and matcha is a definitely winner. Even though I am very experience at necking back small drinks I found it was perfectly pleasant to sip it as well and would happily do either.

I thought that was it, I thought I'd found favourite way of drinking matcha.  Until I came across....dum, dum, dummmmm.....  THE MATCHA MARTINI!

Anyone who knows me will tell you how much I LOVE cocktails. I love them a lot!  So I was very, very excited to crack out my trusty vodka bottle (there's always some stashed away for emergencies) and get cracking on a matcha martini...

The recipe can be found here, but essentially it's matcha, sugar syrup, vodka and a wee bit of (green) fruit to decorate. I know its pedantic, but I wanted my fruit to match my matcha (see what I've done there?). Plus they were all things that I already had lurking in cupboards, fabulous!  And this is what the end product looked like: 

Cocktail time in the kitchen, wooo, woooo!  Ladies snd Gentleman matcha martini is AMAZING!  Not only did I get to treat myself to a cheeky cocktail on a week night, but I also felt very smug about the fact that this particular sneaky martini was actually good for me!  

Bottoms up!

In conclusion I was very pleasantly surprised by teapigs matcha green tea and I would definitely try it again.  I'd really like to try out a box so I could drink it over a longer period and check out the health benefits.  As a lovely treat teapigs are very kindly offering bloggers a 15% discount with the following code:

When I opened the packet I genuinely never thought I'd actually like this product but I've been really impressed with it and it has definitely lived up to teapigs reputation for making really delicious high quality teas.

Let me know if you've tried teapigs teas or their matcha green tea, I'd love to hear about it if you have.....

Love, love,

I was sent this free sample by teapigs for the purpose of this review, all words, photographs and opinions are my own.