REVIEW: Which came first? The chicken, or the egg (sandwich).

When I was asked to review “20 Great Lunchbox Ideas From Leftovers” I did wonder what on earth these meals could be and indeed look like, so I was pleasantly surprised.

My first impression of this e-book was the clear navigation, simple instructions and easy steps to follow. It made this occasional dizzy blonde feel like even I could produce great food from the recipes.

It’s a fabulous idea; a book written by two very inspiring women. One a busy mum who set up MyFamilyClub , and the other, a campaigner who heads up the brilliant
www.lovefoodhatewaste.com and is also the food expert for MyFamilyClub. They also have a great page on Facebook, click here to view.

Now, I’m not the most organised of mums so when I read how easy it was to convert last night’s dinner to today’s always-hungry child’s lunchbox (actually make that husband’s too) I was very keen to read on and take lots of notes.

The layout is very helpful with first a dinner recipe, then lunchbox and then waste-reducing tips including freezing instructions. Did you know you can freeze fresh garlic, me neither. Bake washed potato peelings, season and enjoy? Slice fresh lemons and freeze for drinks instead of ice cubes? Impressive, hey?

I never thought I’d enjoy reading a recipe book, especially an e-book (I like to hold a thick tome, but that’s a different story, boom boom) but like any good book I was hooked from start to finish. In fact, you could say “the butter did it” (sorry).

Bin there. Dung that.

I’m now looking at my freezer in a different light.  For instance, I never thought of buying peppers, onions and mushrooms. Preparing and then freezing. How easy it is to throw something nutritious and tasty together when the main components can be found in the freezer? I do recall my mum ‘blanching’ vegetables and freezing them but those were the days when it was the done thing to boil the life out of broccoli, rather than have the much healthier and palatable ‘al dente’ we all prefer these days.

I found the lunchbox ideas particularly helpful as well as innovative. I seem to be the only parent with a four year old who still won’t deign to eat a sandwich, no matter what lies betwixt the wholegrain goodness. I sometimes find myself having bleary-eyed, head-scratching food dilemmas at 7am, searching my cerebral cortex for another way to make cold pasta interesting. Not anymore, thanks to this book. Next time I do a ‘big shop’ I won’t just be considering dinner-time meals but how these can be converted for lunch box.

And as for our ever-faithful compost bin – well it’s going to take a lot longer to fill now we have this book in our lives!

This cookery book is hugely recommended and makes you think. Doesn’t it?

Well I’m off to make myself a well-deserved gin and tonic, not forgetting the frozen lemon slices. All in the name of research, of course. 

Buy it now for only £1.99:  http://www.myfamilyclub.co.uk/ebook/great-lunchbox-ideas/d/9

Let's be friends!

Someone once said "if you have nothing good to say, say nothing". I agree, to a point. If it's appalling service then one needs to let the server know it's unacceptable. But it should work both ways. I'm a great believer in positive feedback; not only does it make the person on the receiving end feel good but I also get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside too. And at my age that's few and far between!

With the dawn of social networking comes greater brand awareness and customer service contact. No longer do we need to begrudgingly put pen to paper and hastily post to some unidentifiable P.O. box number nor do we wait patiently on the phone whilst Cliff sings 'Wired for Sound' or worst still 'Power to the People'.

Log on to Facebook and you're sure to find your intended modern-day oracle.

One such case occurred for me last week. On our chill-out Monday at home, me and daughter like to bake. Sweet or savoury - as long as my little girl gets to stand at her step in the kitchen and throw, sorry make that sprinkle, a topping or two she's happy.

Upon realising we were eggless off we went to our new sparkly supermarket to grab some eggs and other baking goodies - I always find it oddly pleasurable eyeing up all the pretty bottles and jars of sprinkles and the like. Anyway, Autumn grabbed a box of ready-made cake mix and as time was pushing on I thought what the heck, let's do it. She picked Green's Barbie Vanilla Cupcake Kit; it was clearly the most appealing packaging to a little girl and to this bigger girl as not only do you get the mix but also stickers and activity book. Great to while away the minutes waiting for the oven to do its thing.

Does what it says on the box

The cakes rose. A small triumph in this house I assure you! Autumn had busied herself with the activity book, so it was time for me and my little sous-chef to get decorating. The buttercream was easy to mix and simply by cutting the corner off the packet, as advised, I could pipe to my heart's content. You might be able to see the one cake that I allowed Autumn to pipe (I did try to resist but there's only so much elbowing I can take) - it's hidden at the back. Once decorated I felt compelled to take a photo. I know. I'll photograph almost anything but hey I was impressed. The cakes looked exactly like the image on the packaging. That NEVER happens!

Cut to a few days ago, and what with my love of feedback, as mentioned at the start of this, I found Green's on Facebook (harder than you think). Wrote a little message saying how impressed I was and attached a photo. I didn't expect anything back but just wanted to express my appreciation. The very next day I had a friendly reply and was instructed to email their marketing department as they would like to send me a goodie bag for Autumn.

Frenzied unwrapping ensued

Two days later I receive a large parcel. A full size Barbie doll, post-it notes and cookie cutters. I guess the doll isn't for me. Autumn was beside herself; a new doll with lots of accessories, and safe in the knowledge that Mummy will be hot-footing it back to the supermarket to buy more from Green's selection of home-baking. Click here to go to Green's website.

"Oh, I can't wait until you're older so we can bake together" Barbie might have said

So remember this, "IF IT'S GOOD, TELL THEM." (You can use that, it's mine).

I've not had time to swing a cat

So it's been 6 weeks since my last confession blog, huge apologies. I have an A1 whiteboard opposite me daubed with so many half-finished projects, things to do and ideas that I've not had time to swing a cat let alone find room for it.

It could have something to do with the school holidays and the fact that I'm not the most organised of people. I've been wanting to get on with what was going to be a weekly blog post but time has flown by in a flurry of 'play days', cafe visits, Grandma's house, and the dreaded role play. Re-enacting Cinderella with a wannabe actress (make that 'drama queen') takes a lot out of you when you know you've got a proof to send off and the stairs are too far away from the playroom to make a run for it. Especially when you're dressed as the fairy godmother. Bibbity-boppity-flipping-boo!

Anyway, I won't hang around. I'm writing this in some pain. Not mental pain you understand. Physical, squashed against the edge of my desk pain. Yep, you've got that right - one child sat at desk behind me. All manner of odd and somewhat questionable sound effects coming from the child's PC. This is how I'm managing. Apart from the odd evening spent catching up on projects and 'Swimming Sunday' when Daddy takes Autumn out for the day, I've took it upon myself to work 'with' my very demanding almost-4-year-old who, when at home with me, tends to cling onto my leg like an excitable Jack Russell needing her first 'ablutions' walk of the day. The only way I can shake little Autumn off, metaphorically speaking of course, is to hurriedly switch the pc on and offer her a chair. Thus rendering some pain my way. It's a box room for gawd's sake! We are both squished in the corner as it was my grand idea years ago to install a swivel chair to work between both pc and mac in busy periods - and to feel a little like some important NASA expert or failing that, Jean Michel-Jarr. Now we have a dining room chair and about two inches betwixt working mother and inquisitive child.

My brain hurts!

I could blame my lack of accomplishments on Social Brand Creation's work log but I've also become a social network fiend. Facebook is almost an income, so let's not complain. But then there's Twitter (Stephen Fry has yet to reply), Pinterest (I have no idea either) and Google+. Not to mention LinkedIn, but again let's hope one of my paltry 23 connections has a connection with a connection that might eventually want a connection with me, which may in the future lead to a lead which leads to a lead which leads to a job. Ahem.You can view my LinkedIn file here. Or Google me, I'm everywhere baby!

In the meantime, I've got 5 windows open on my mac, including two email inboxes so by the time I've checked for updates, competition wins, job requests, job approvals, and done some actual, proper, what-I-like-to-call-work work the blog is still on the to-do list.

Autumn is normally very good when she's 'working', only momentarily banging the mouse down in fury when the pc freezes at an important part of colouring in a big hairy monster and yelling "Maaaaam, do something, NOW grrrrr" in my ear which happens to be a few inches from her mouth. This usually occurs when I'm about to save a proof so timing could be better. Saying all this, it is working. These school holidays have a lot to answer for but I will miss my lovely little girl even if I do I have to watch my language and find myself humming along to some very annoying, 80s-synth inspired theme tunes. 

One last thing, if I hear Justin Fletcher talk about Mr Tumble's spotty bag again the pc's going out the window.

An Apple(mac) A Day

Let's make this a little easier for you, my wonderful reader, we are still blogging in retrospect and this edition begins in 2010:
So yet to be discovered as the next David Bailey and with a little bit of money left, I bought myself a brand spanking new iMac, replacing the battered and bruised Blueberry iMac used purely for iTunes and emails. Considering I've been working on, let's give them their proper title, AppleMacs since they were first introduced to the UK (yes, I'm that old) I thought it was time I made my money this way. With 20 years experience in the creative industry it was only right I give it a go.

Being one of those, what I like to call, 'creative types' my once glitzy 'dressing room' morphed into my home 'office'. The idea being that as sole carer for Autumn I should start thinking about staying in to work - as opposed to going out to work, see what I did there?

Starting off as 'WFH Creative' I had some success but not wanting to make excuses, it's flipping hard to concentrate on a project when you have a two year old wanting your attention, demanding food and bottom-wiping (her's not mine). Then there were two cats to kick (I jest) and a house to keep tidy. Don't get me wrong, Andy is well domesticated and house-trained (he'll love me for that) and not your typical male stereotype - he'd make do with a cold belly-pork sandwich after a long day at work, he's Northern remember. A couple of projects down the line and my yearning for success grew. I do have a fair few ideas whizzing round my cerebral cortex so am often found talking out loud then maniacally searching for a "goddamn pen and bit of paper for gawd's sake!"

One of my very first projects was to come up with a new cider. Not as easy as it sounds, and now looking back I'm sure we would have been trounced by Stella Artois' Cidre, but it was fun all the same and proved that I was still capable of coming up with original creativity. Another project that didn't take off sadly was for a friend's refrigeration company and I feel, especially after announcing it here, that the strapline will follow me around for years to come. The brief was to come up with a catchy slogan about inexpensive cold storage appliances. I cringe as I type this but all the same, it's funny, sort of clever and once Curry's see this they'll be biting my hand off for copyright: 'Thrilling Prices for Chilling Devices'.

With my thirst for branding and marketing reawakened, it was about this time that I discovered 'comping' on Facebook. It got so bad that I'd wake up in the night thinking of winning slogans and captions. Andy used to tell me off for going on the computer every day. I'd say I was taking some washing up or making the beds or cleaning the shower (that's when he knew I was fibbing). There were times when I was actually working too. Like I said, when you have no childcare you have to grab as much time as possible to do the things you think will make a difference to your family. I've been entering competitions and giveaways on Facebook since September last year and have won 70 prizes so far. Ranging from the inevitable cuddly toy to Disneyland Paris breaks, oh did I mention ankle supports?

"All because the Lady loves...ankle supports?"

Having an inquisitive and tech-savvy daughter means that I'm often elbowing said child off my Mac and have now installed a chair at the PC behind me. Autumn has her own desk and enjoys doing 'her work' on Cbeebies but she says she prefers my computer and I don't blame her! I've just been working on a branding project for Word files. The expletives coming out of the office were record-breaking, I even managed to create some new swear words. Copyright pending of course.

She blinded me with flash photography.

My husband, Andy, won't mind me admitting this but for the first couple of years I did feel like a single mum. We were like the proverbial ships in the night, only grunting at each other after our equally tiring days. Our sole purpose in life at this time was to keep our baby safe, secure and fed (not in that order). My choice of breastfeeding meant that Autumn was dependent on Mummy mostly and the fact that I could stay at home that first year, with the cushion of redundancy payment helped hugely. I've always been a creative type and would sit with feet up, boobs out and baby attached daydreaming about this idea and that. Some of my ex-colleagues would say that's how they remembered me at work, without the baby of course. Meanwhile, Andy was under immense pressure to work long hours to pay all the bills because, as mentioned in my first blog, that money soon burnt holes in both our pockets.

Years passed and bringing up baby got easier - they say the first 6 months are the hardest, with worn-out parents getting little from the experience (sorry to say this but it's true). Rewind to the day before Autumn's birth and I made a vow. Well two actually. One was to be the best mum ever and, if I was lucky enough, to breastfeed as long as physically possible (2 years and 2 teeth later, if you're interested). The other? To document our little girl's life through pictures. This latter vow was a personal wish for Autumn to have more (and better) memories of growing up than I do. I only have a handful of photos and sadly own only one of me as a baby. In this digital era I count myself lucky that I am able to take so many photos and make so many memories for Autumn.

Having used my lovely Nikon D50 to take some beautiful, well I am biased, photos of my one and only I realised that I had a knack for capturing something and so I decided overnight to become a professional photographer (I'm laughing at this whilst I type). Never been one to concentrate on one thing, nor enjoy courses, revision, you name it I won't read it. Anyway, Hevco Creative Photography was launched. Buoyed by the fact that I'd won a recent Facebook photo competition I began to think this was going to be the 'It' I'd been waiting, and clearly was destined, for. I was going to make a significant contribution to the household income. To further my chances of becoming successful I created a brand (I'm good at that) and set up my first Facebook page. (https://www.facebook.com/hevcocreative)

About this time Autumn had been attending a wonderful playgroup at a local church. The lovely ladies there encouraged me to set up a portrait shoot in a back room. Now my camera is good but not that good. So with the help of a very dear friend with a very dear(!) camera/flash/lens I took part in my first, and to date only, children's photo shoot (see test shot of my lovely girl above). This was partly successful had it not been for my nutty mother-in-law who chose to walk in front of shot just as I'd been able to settle my final 3yr old subject. A scouse mother-in-law is not to be questioned even when potentially ruining your career before it's actually began. Funny now but at the time I was furious!

My short-lived career as portrait photographer is over, for now. But my love of concept photography is always never far from my mind. I've since entered other competitions and either won or been short-listed. I enjoy updating my Facebook page and will eventually, honest, get around to advertising my gallery and hopefully sell some of my work.

There's just one more thing I need to do and that's find the time to back-up the 11,000-and-counting photos already on my hard drive. I can't do everything. But I'll give it a go.

Back where it all began.

*Stretches fingers, strokes chin, thinks* Casting my mind back I can't believe it's only been 4 years since I left my busy, stressful, often brilliant, job in the city. But leave I did. And for a very good reason.

After 7 years of kinda trying I at last fell pregnant. You see the idea was that having been married relatively early (it was 11.15am but I meant I was 24) I made the decision to pursue my burgeoning career until at the age of 30 I would fall pregnant at the first attempt and myself and husband would be youngish parents with a mortgage and a good job each. Fast forward the seven years and it wasn't looking too good. I had quite a few of what I like to call 'investigations', then my skin (psoriasis, but I'll talk about that separately) became a potential factor plus my age blah de blinking blah. But hang on, during this time my lovely husband Andrew decided to take the overdrawn bull by the horns and sorted out our money problems (well, until baby came along of course) and hey presto that little red line appeared on that white stick and we, the royal we, were at long last pregnant. So taking away the pressure and worries of our debts our little miracle-in-waiting appeared.

The pregnancy wasn't without its issues though. Being 37 meant I was on the 'high-risk' list, having a chronic skin condition also meant that I was at 'risk' of organ failure due to labour (really). Once pregnant, suddenly steroid creams are not the be-all and end-all in skin management so being lucky enough to have private health I was assigned an amazing dermatologist who eventually signed me off for the majority of my pregnancy due to the 'high-risk' factor. I was on low-dose steroid creams and UVB sun treatment (all safe for pregnancy). No alcohol except the odd glass of Guinness or red wine (if you can steer clear totally you should) and best of all, no housework including ironing. My husband was an absolute saint and treated me like a princess. (If only that were true of all prospective dads, hey?).

Anyway, during that time I was the healthiest, brownest and slimmest I'd been in a long time. Sounds odd doesn't it? Once our beautiful Autumn was born, by c-section - not because I'm too posh to push, somewhat of a snob but no where near as posh as I think I am, but because it was dangerous for both of us - our lives changed forever. Having a child changes everything. And I mean everything. Not least the fear of going back to work when the child reaches 3 months. That's what we were faced with due to me being the breadwinner. I'd recently worked on a high-profile project and was on a great salary plus all the benefits which come with working in a City financial house. BUT the stress of working there, the prospect of handing our beautiful Autumn over to a stranger (no parents on hand to help us out, don't go there) and the imminent recession meant I made a huge decision helped by the fact that the company were actively seeking volunteers and I asked for redundancy. So for Autumn's first year on planet Earth we lived like we'd won the lottery. I received a year's salary tax free. Looking back it was a sickeningly large amount of money to what we have now and how we live now. That's set to change though. Watch. This. Space.