November 22, 2013

22.11.13 | FIVE FINDS FOR FRIDAY

1. Bonkers Awesome is actually the perfect way to describe how I feel about Bonkers Awesome, the new series from Joy The Baker! YaaaaaY.
2. We have been taking annual holiday's in Crackington Haven since the big kids were teenies, so you can imagine how giddy I was when I saw this home tour on Apartment Therapy this week. What a lovely cottage!
3. I like the idea of making & giving these to some people for Christmas this year. You know I won't get around to it, but a girl can pretend, right?!
4. And because I just mentioned Christmas, I'm going for it now - Look ADVENT CALENDARS!
5. And wrapping paper inspiration!! Oh, come on - it's almost time to crack open the BublĂ© album (you know you want to...)

Have a good weekend folks!

November 20, 2013

20.11.13 | THE ULTIMATE VEGGIE CHILLI


Finally, it happened.

Finally, I got the urge to get back into my kitchen, turn the radio up, pour a huge glass of wine and make something new. This hasn't happened in ages and I've really missed it (and to be honest i was getting a little worried). Don't get me wrong, we have been eating (mainly tacos I'll admit) but I just haven't seen any recipes that I was desperate to give a go - until the other night. I pulled down my Kitchen & Co book again & whipped up their veggie chilli. It's bloody good, and the way they recommend you serve it with wraps, fresh guac and salads was awesome. 
When i'm testing out a new recipe, I like to do as I'm told the first time around and this time it really paid off. It was like a burrito / chilli mash-up and one I'll be making until the cows lentils come home (see what I did there? Genius).

This is perfect winter grub, ideally eaten in front of a roaring fire. All together now, "ahhhhhhh".

November 19, 2013

19.11.13 | HOME DECOR: BEDROOMS


It's all change round here and to say it's bittersweet, is an understatement. You see, we are going through probably the last bedroom switch around since we moved here almost 7 years ago as a then family of four from London. Dexy is eight now and feels a little too old to be sharing with his sister and to be honest, India needs to get out of that damn cot (I know, i know - it's called 3rd child syndrome) and Flo? Well, Flo just needs a high bed and so we are doing the great switcheroo this weekend.
I'm really sad about it though. This is how it's going to be from now on; there's not going to be any more babies, big old Dexter will now have his own big boys room and the girls will be entering a massive new chapter. At the moment they are 2 and 6 which is going to be everything from cute to god damn noisy, then eventually (i hope) sharing clothes, make-up, gossip, stories about boys, secrets from mum etc etc. I hope I'm not being terribly naive and in actual fact a 10 and a 14 year old or a 12 and a 16 year old in the same room is going to be nothing short of hell on Earth.... oh god, what have we done?!?!

OK - time for something positive - OUR NEW ROOM! Yippppppeeeee!

I don't like our current bedroom, lets be honest here. My bed is FAB and MASSIVE but the rest of the room has about as much style as me circa 1992 when I was trying to be Blossom. We have a royal blue carpet which was left over from the Dexy baby days and white walls. OK, that's not awful I know and in actual fact it will be perfect for the girls because one of them at least is a die hard Chelsea fan, but that carpet for us? No thank you! Same goes for my bed linen actually, which i attempted to match to the carpet in a moment of "Wow! Look, this is only £3.99" Ikea insanity.

So, I'm planning and pinning like crazy. The mister has been working like a trooper on re-configuring the loft space (we took out the en-suite) and painting all the never-painted-before wood work and it's starting to look fresh and bright and spacious. He's laying some rich mahogany flooring at the weekend and then I get to have some fun, making our forever bedroom space beautiful. Above are some ideas of calm, clutter free spaces, and some idea for some wall art. What do you think?

*collage created from various images found via pinterest

November 18, 2013

18.11.13 | FOR ALL OF US: TOPS


For Dad: Tokyo 63 from Jakes
For Flo: Embellished Sweater from Boden


I am forever getting ideas for Christmas presents, Birthdays or just wardrobe updates when needed, which is all the time with Dexy who never seems to stop growing; yesterday, i got him a few tee's and had to get size 10-11, the boy is *just* 8). Anyway, i can never remember when or where I saw said items, because i'm pretty forgetful. So, gathered up there notebook stylee, are my top picks of tops around at the moment, one for each of us.

Hope you like them!

November 17, 2013

17.11.13 | LATELY

Here's what this past month or so looked like:

We took a trip to the sea life center in Brighton.

November 15, 2013

15.11.13 | FIVE FINDS FOR FRIDAY


1. I love this calendar from Etsy. Fonts - can't stop, won't stop!
2. Brandy is my favourite pinner at the moment and her blog is one of my favourites.
3. Ha! Chris Hadfield makes me laugh again! Movember - get on it guys!
4. It's all about the cosy..... Zzzzzzz
5. Sidesaddle Kitchen is my fave place to be at the minute. I made this smoothie for my breakfast today.

and because i'm far too impatient to wait until Tuesday, this:




November 12, 2013

12.11.13 | THIS BLOGGING LARK / HATERS GONNA HATE


image: pinterest

Blah Blah Blah.- that's my warning to you!

Turn away now if you don't enjoy a good old bit of ranty incoherent babbling from a 34 year old blogging mum of three who cooks good grub from her tiny kitchen - because in blogging terms, that is simply who I am.

This old blog of mine, what is it now, 4 years old? Well, I say 4 years old but really that's when i started it, back when in actual fact I had no idea what a blog was. I just saw it as a place to store all my badly taken photos of my (then two) toddlers because I hated Facebook (still do a little bit) and I thought Dizzy Loves Icy would be a nice little corner tucked away for basically my mum to go to and see pictures of the kids without having to update my Facebook every 5 minutes.

Then, I forgot about the blog really and couldn't be arsed and it was like that for about a year  until I was lolling around on the sofa suffering from Flu and preggers with India that I stumbled across this whole world of bloggers out there who were documenting everything from pregnancy to fashion to food and interiors! I was in heaven and spent hours looking through them all. Some of them have folded, some of them I've grown out of and others I still adore to this day and it was those bloggers that inspired me to get a little more creative and pay more attention to my own little space. I used to, and still do read some of the main players as well as lots of smaller blogs i'm discovering on a daily basis,which is lovely, but sometime's I don't really know where I fit in in this whole blogging world, reasons which i'm sure will become apparent (grrrrr!)
I don't make regular money from my blog for a start, I mean I occasionally get sent products to review or recipes to try, or I get asked to write articles for people in return for a cash fee or product but at this moment in time, in no way do I consider this blog a job or a business. I'm babbling now but just before the summer months, i suspect after I wrote a couple of paid posts, i received a ('less than charming' shall we say) email from someone saying how they didn't think it was right how I was using my blog to  'pimp' out my kids as a way to make money (errr, wtf?) To say this made me gasp is an understatement - don't get me wrong, it didn't upset me (bitchy comments tend to not do that, sorry if that was the reaction you were hoping for) but it did make me think. I showed the short but blunt email to some friends, discussed it with others and wondered if that's how I was coming across? I had actually thought that since my gallbladder turned all nasty on me and i had to dramatically change my eating habits, my blog had gone more down the food route - something I was ok with. I was using it to take pictures of my food, to share recipes and to fulfil what had become a new found hobby. Ironically, I was actually worrying that people would think that I'd 'lost interest' almost in blogging about the kids and I actually felt guilty every time I hadn't blogged about a day trip we'd taken or updated the kids pages for a while. Not in my wildest dreams did think that someone would think the complete opposite and actually accuse me of using them to get money. Urgh - hater's gonna hate i know, but man you suck! As if I would do that?! Make them do something they didn't want to do, or make them take part in something they were not intertested just to gain site traffic, or money?! As i have said before, sometimes my kids get asked if they would like such & such stuff as a gift and IF it is something I think they would enjoy THEN i MAY say yes - not always, but sometimes.
So what did prompt that person to email me that? Should I give a shit? I didn't reply to it, and I haven't mentioned it to this day on here, but recently i've been thinking about it again.
Should I change what i'm blogging about and how I'm doing it? Should I no longer post reviews if i'm asked? Should I no longer post things about the kids? I don't think I should change what i'm blogging about unless it's an organic process. I enjoy my food posts and I get lots of emails and comments relating to them and for every one of those, I am so grateful. I love that side of this blogging lark, i really do. I also feel so lucky for the love the many friends I've made both online as part of this community and locally who i catch up with regularly. I am also grateful for the various opportunities that it has opened up to me so far and hope it continues to do so in the future, as it grows or moves in whichever direction I see fit.

This place is where I blog about the stuff going on in my life. Simple. If i blog every day about food for  a week, then so be it. If i don't write about food ever again, then that's the way it is. If I share pics of our holidays or day trips or whatever, then great. We've had over 80,000 hits since I started blogging full time in at the start 2012 so some of you enjoy what I have to say and do you know what, even if i'd have only had 8 people look, i'd feel the same. This place is a happy place, and i'm happy to share it with you as long as you are happy to be here.  And if you're not happy to be here, then jeeeez - go somewhere else ;)

BTW - this was a long time coming! Sorry, rant over.

12.11.13 | TUESDAY'S TUNE


Oh c'mon, it's totally fine to cry at adverts - you're not made of stone!

November 10, 2013

10.11.13 | Mmmmmmmmm!


I get a lot of emails asking me to link to this, or link to that and some of it is just a little bland or boring or not really something I'm into, but this morning I got an email asking me to take part in a bloggers competition where you design your perfect dinner party menu! Now, considering food & recipe building is something I'm constantly thinking about, I thought I'd be mad not to give it a go.

Before we get down to the grub, can I first babble on about who exactly is coming to this perfect party? Of course I can:
I'm think I'm going to invite six guests because cooking for six is just on the border line of becoming a stress head and I really don't want to be stressed at my fantasy dinner party.
So, first up Guy Garvey. At first I was just going to have him sit in the corner singing but thought that a) that might be a bit weird and b) it's a bit of an insult as I quite like most of what he has to say.
Next to Guy I'm going to put Claudia Winkleman, partly because of her fringe, partly because of her eye make up, but mostly because I actually want to be her.
I'm also going to invite Liza Tarbuck because I love her - have done since The Big Breakfast days and she can go and plonk herself down next to Ricky Gervais, because I can't take all the responsibility of being the only comedic genius at this party. Actually, I'd like to pull Ricky up about tripping me up once outside the newsagents on Newman Street and not saying sorry. Tsk!
Team those guests with Mark Ruffalo (mainly to look at, I'll admit) and Stephen Fry (because who wouldn't?) and we're in for a right old treat!


So, now for the whole point of this post - the FOOD! My idea of the perfect dinner party is of one that's relaxed, informal, with nice low music, lots of good wine and food heavy on flavour & low on faff. As a go to when we have family and friends over for food, it's almost always Mexican so this time i thought I'd shake it up a little with a rustic, Italian feast, in the way of:

On arrival
apricot bites with goats cheese and toasted almonds

To Start
Mozarella bruschetta with rocket drizzle

Main Course
Scallops with saffron potatoes and blood orange salsa

To Finish
Brown sugar meringues with red wine plums

All washed down with some good wine & i imagine, excellent conversation!

Now wouldn't that be nice?

November 06, 2013

06.11.13 | THERE'S A STORM IN MY BRAIN AND IT LOOKS LIKE THIS

(as in, these things caught my eye this week)

this mash-up of Nancy & Lana

November 05, 2013

05.11.13 | BJORK - HUMAN BEHAVIOUR


Because it's Tuesday!!

it's scary that this was out in 1993! I was 13!

November 02, 2013

02.11.13 | SPICY CHICKPEAS


Well hello there! It's been ages hasn't it?

 (no one noticed i was gone? oh.)

It's been half term here & it's been a busy one. We've been away, we survived storm St Jude (why do they name them?) I made stressful Minecraft pickaxes for the big kids Halloween costumes and I've consumed my body weight in pickle (not pregnant). We also ate at the most amazing Thai street food cafe, but more on that another time because what I'm here to talk to you about today is Spicy Chickpeas - lucky you! This Indian dish is my new favourite thing to make and eat and because i'm really good at sharing, I'm spending my Saturday morning typing all this out for you. You really need to make it (not just because this is taking ages to get down) but because it's bloody lovely and generally wolfed down by all. Except if you're called India, then you won't eat it because you never eat anything.