Lego Birthday Cake

Its become a family tradition that I make all the kids Birthday Cakes! We haven't brought them, so it does mean they are not always perfect! 

Its Bear's 5th birthday and he didn't know it, but we where taking them all to Legoland for it.........So it had to be a Lego cake! 

Here is Bear's VEGAN birthday cake! 

Now you can make some amazing Vegan cakes, this was a little cheat as it was such a crazy busy weekend. Easter and his birthday! You replace the eggs and milk with one can of pop! Ok its a bit of a sugar fest but its a treat they only have at birthdays ;) 

I baked one large thinner cake, and one smaller taller one. 

Then using the bottom of the cake tin, I cut out a small part of the larger cake.

So the smaller one would sit in the larger and become one large cake! 

Another cheat......It is vegan but it does have palm oil in it, so I wouldn't use this alot! 

I didn't have a board to fit them on, so covered a baking tray in tinfoil! 

In order for the Lego to sit on top, the best thing is to pop the iced cake in the fridge. This will will make the icing hard. 

Now for the topper!!! I must say I had fun, building his name out of Lego blocked then adding little Lego people on top! 

I loved how it came out, and not only was it YUMMY and VEGAN but he LOVED IT!!

Am very exited to eat some of the left overs today, yum yum! For the first time ever they had cake for breakfast as this cake was waiting for them downstairs, then we where straight off to LEGOLAND! They had no idea they where going! 

I will be adding my review of Legoland, so bookmark and I will update with a link to the review. 

Family Budgeting

Here are a few of my tips, for keep meals on the table while working to a very tight family budget. From saving money too being frugal. 


Like most family's in the UK, we are finding it harder and harder to keep our heads above water. Since changing to a vegan/plant based diet I have seen some savings in our weekly shop and we just feel better too. I've had way less colds, I feel much healthier. We haven't saved millions as many 'free from' products are more expensive but for less money our meals are far more healthier!


First thing write down all your outgoings and double check what is coming out of your bank, is it correct? I know of people who still have a driect debt coming out for a service or insurance which has long been cancilled! Best thing is to add all this to a spreadsheet, list all of the bills coming out each month and then add all the months for the next year.  Then go through each and see if you can reduce any. Call each one and ask if you are getting the best deal, when I called Virgin, I got it reduced from over 70 to 53, now its on direct debt! Going paperless can reduce bills too, you do have to keep on top of it but it will save you a few pounds a year. Get as much as you can onto direct debit, you can forget about it and save on late payment fees. I worked out how much all the bills where, opened up a joint account and then the right amount is transferred over to that account and left. Its so easy to see money in your account and forget that things can take some time to show!


One of the biggest savings is my husband now cycling into work each day. We have spent a fair amount on bikes (one fell apart!) and safety things. He likes doing and we are saving by just having one car. He bikes 22 miles a day! I don't know how he does it, am so proud of him! I know this isn't something everyone can do, but its worth looking into if its possible. In the summer holidays, I walked the children to the shops and used the car as little as possible, a small saving here and there but it does add up.

Check your electric bills! I changed from southern (been with them over 6yrs) to e-on. Went from 160 a month to 80!! Over a year this is a huge saving.


Where do you shop? If its Tesco, look into the Christmas club. My friend told me about it last year and am so glad she did. We have our mobiles with them now too, and e-on give you clubcard points or high-street vouchers at the end of the year, so its all adding up! They used to double up on toys and clothes, but their not doing that this year. If we can afford it, I want to use what we have saved up for ferry crossings for a holiday next year or to help us with the Christmas gifts shop! I know others who save with Salisburys, it really depends where you already shop. I know people say that Tesco is more expensive but I've found like for like its about the same for my shop, use by is longer and I get the points too. If I have something I want to buy, I check if they have it first. When we brought our little girls bed, I checked and they where selling it too. That way I got the points on top as well!

Being a family of five, we go through a lot of bread. I find that shop brought bread makes me feel really bloated and it often has milk in it. Our bread maker is on most days, to every other. It saves lots on our shopping budget. I also make really Yummy Buns  without the bread maker, cheap and yummy! Perfect for burgers or packed lunches. I have made these lots this week as they are great for hubbys lunch at work and a snack after school for the hungry mini people! 

Slow cooker, this is such a huge time saving tool, but also you can cook lots of cheap easy meals. In a batch and freeze down some at the same time. There are so many things you can make in a slow cooker, check out my Italian Tomatoes and Olives its yummy! They cost about the same as leaving on a light bulb all day and so easy to use. 

When I go food shopping, I always check the reduced section first. There are so many things you can freeze down, from bread to spinach! A load of reduced veggies, in the slow cooked and then blits, amazing soups. Soups are a great money saving meal, not only can you use up a bit of left over veggies but also they freeze really well, have a look at my Slow Cooked Soup. Think about where you shop too, I do our main shop at Tesco, and then I go to a car boot sale that has an amazing veggies stall! Sometimes farm shops can work out cheaper as you maybe able to buy bigger amounts. 

Car insurance, staying with the same company is easy, but make sure you shop about. Also call up your car insurance company and ask them if your getting the best deal too. Sometimes, adding on another driver brings down the cost, adding on our tow bar brought it down!

I buy from boot sales/charity shops, swoop clothes with friends. Children grow so quickly we swoop clothes back and fourth between children of different ages. Its really nice seeing something you little one was wearing and remembering how small they where! 

If you have a garden, get working on a veg patch. It's amazing what you can save with a little veg patch-when you peal your potatoes throw in the peels, almost each peel is a potato!! I always grab a herb plant in the reduced section, with a little love you can end up with a big beautiful plant! I haven't brought rosemary for over two years! As at last my herb pot is doing really well. You don't need much space at all for herbs, they can grow inside too. I mostly use mint and rosemary. 


Wild blackberry picking, this will save you money and also give you a great fun actively for all the family. Please read Blackberry Picking before you set off foraging for food. 

Make do and mend, I have a small pile of things waiting to be mended but it's worth it. You will be amazed at what you can do to alter or fix clothing very quickly. I use my sewing machine for work but it's also saved me a little too. Making cushion covers, Christmas gifts and dresses. I also make my little ones blankets too as I love to crochet. Often car boots and charity shops are selling off unused wool so keep an eye out. I find it really relaxing and love seeing the mini people snuggled up under something I've made for them. 


Think natural, so often the natural way is cheaper too. Take Soap Nuts, they are cheap, good for your skin and our planet. Also, way, way cheaper! Click here to see my review of them. I use lemon a lot, not just for cooking, but also cleaning! 

I will add to this blog, so make sure you bookmark it!

Click here for my blog about how to save money on your food shop!

Review - Soap Nuts

I've been trying to think how long we have been using soap nuts for now.....I think its about 2-3 years. I have to say I LOVE them! It takes a few goes to work them out and get into the mind set of them but once you have got your head around them there are huge benefits! So far I have only brought the Ecozone brand, but there are many brands out there.

They will save you money, they are better for your skin and the environment! 

So I started by buying a small bag of them, on a real wim! They where on offer and I needed to bump up my basket on a shop to get a discount....So I went for this odd thing called Soap Nuts! I have not brought washing powder since! 

How do you use them:

They come with this little bag, you use about 3-5 nuts at a time.

You pop your nuts, in the bag.

Place in the drum, on top of the washing.

Wash as you always have (without the powder) and using fabric softer if you do. (I always do, unless its a wash with nappies or coats in. As softer will remove the waterproof!)

And then use that same bag of nuts until the nuts change colour, from brown to grey.

Easy! 

We are a family of five, and I do so much washing that am sure am there are people living in my house I haven't meet! 

I could do 2 loads a day and still just about keep on top of the, potty training toddler, school uniform etc. I think one large 1kg bag of soap nuts lasts us about year. I have this week, just brought a new bag of nuts, so am going to update this blog in a year! I say about, as a pass on kindness thing I sent out packs of soap nuts to struggling families to see them through a little. So I will come back to this blog again when I know for sure how long a bag lasts us. 

To give you an idea, I used to buy pretty cheap washing powder (which the price kept going up.) I would need to buy it every 1-2 weeks. It was about 4-5 pounds. One bag of soap nuts was under 10 pounds....

So how does it wash? If you like your washing to smell, make sure you add a fabric softer. The nuts will not add a smell to your washing. I use oils in the wash too, so lavender, tea tree etc. I use cloth nappies a lot and these oils are fab for them. I use lavender a lot at home. 

For hard stains, you need to add more nuts to the wash. I mostly use the sun on hard stains, its the best thing! I have tried all the expensive stuff and still ended up with a stain (and all the horrible stuff they are made from!) Left it in the sun for a few days - gone! So its not just sun, its UV light, brakes up a stain. You don't have to have a sunny day to get it to work, just sit the item in the window and that will do it - I have had stain filled nappies, look brand new after being in the sun for a few days. 

Now a word of warning, the sun is a powerful thing, and it will brake down colour too. So don't over do it and ensure the whole of the item is in the sun so any colour fade is over the whole item. (I don't do this with light weight important items.) I also use a little lemon and water on school shirts ;)

I highly recommend soap nuts! Our little boys skin used to really fare up and now no problems!

There are many different makers of Soap Nuts but Ecozone are approved by:

Vegan Society

Cruelty Free International

Eu Eco Label

Allergy UK

You can find out more on their website. 

I have not been asked by the company to do this review - this is a product I have found and loved! 

Support my blog by using the affiliated link above! 

Sharing Snack Plate

I've found the best snack is a sharing platter! 

Perfect for mini busy people and easy to make. I pad it out a little more if for a light lunch. It really helps to make food go a little bit further too. One apple sliced up, a carrot, one banana etc and you have a sharing plate for lots of people, using very little! 

My go to dip is humus, its amazing and good for you! Other sauces like sweet chili or guacamole are yummy too! I mostly just use up left over bits and bobs! Yummy! I will share a few more of my platters, and add them here. Perfect for when you have a few people over or snack time with the kids! 

This was our Sunday brunch - It would have been a big roast but we where hard at work on our Caravan. So a big sharing lunch it was! 

Marmite Chips (Yeast Extract)

Am in the 'LOVE IT' club, but sorry Marmite, your jolly expensive when am penny counting! (So the own brand of Yeast Extract won out this month!) Love it or hate it, its mega good for you and on a plant base diet it gives you loads of B12! Yay, win win! 

So I saw someone put it on their roast potatoes and thought - wonder what that would be like on chips. Well, hubby said they where amazing! (He is my bench mark! lol) I have for years been putting a spoon full in bolognese, yummy!

Just white potatoes peeled and chopped into chip shape (when I made them first I used a mix of sweet and white.)

A little oil, I find that chips cook much better on metal trays not glass or china!

Its hard to spread the stuff on the chips so I just put it on a few and mixed. Last time, I had a full pan of chips so I just spooned it in a few places and mixed them.

Cook till crispy on the outside and yummy on the inside ;)

YUMMY!!!

 

Meal Ideas

I thought I would share this weeks meal plan. This week is a little different, as its the Easter Holidays. This means am making more snacks and quicker meals. There are many more pre-made items being used this week! 

Also this week, is Bear's 5th Birthday, so big cake, day out, Church and Easter Egg Hunt! All go! 


If you really want to save money on your food shop, meal planning is the way to go. It takes more time, but its worth it, click here for my blog all about meal planning. Also click here for my tips on bringing down  the cost of your weekly shop!


So what have I got planned for this week: We had run the cupboards really low this week, so I've got to buy a few basics like sauces and rice. I would love to make my own BBQ and Ketchup but so far I haven't tried it!



Main Meals/Dinners:

Pie and Chips - Home made Pie, with mushrooms. Click here for my 'No-Chick Pie' Am going to add lots of mushrooms this week. 

Lasagna, Salad and Garlic Bread - Click here for simple lasagna, I often make it with 'no cheese sauce' Click here for how to make it. I do make my own garlic bread, but this week some pre-made bread as slipped into my basket! If you want to try the very yummy home-made stuff click here! (Am regretting buying pre-made now....) 

Tofu, Rice, Sweet Chili Sauce and Kale/Green veg - I love this meal, its one of hubby's current favorites too and the minis like it as well! Click here for how to make the most amazing tofu!!

Scamp, Chips and Sauce - This is the new 'Scampi' by Linda McCartney, I cant wait to try it and will report back on what its like!!

Wraps, Peppers and Hoisin Sauce - This is a great meal to share as a family, the kids love making their own wraps! Click here for wraps!








The Weekend:


It's Bear's 5th birthday this weekend, and Easter! So its packed! At some point am hoping to do a roast, but this may get pushed out till next week. We are having a day out on Saturday, with cake, packed lunch. Am going to cook an early big birthday breakfast, with Cake and surprises (that's the plan.) Sunday, is Easter Sunday. We will be at Church in the morning, then two Easter Egg Hunts are planned! I will fit in a light snack and have dairy/meat free eggs on hand..... 




Roast, Sweed, Parnips, Sweet Potato Mash and Marmite Roast Potatoes - I mostly do a nut roast, pie or cauliflower for a Sunday roast. The other week we tried a new replacement to a joint, so we are going to have this again this week. I try not to buy too many replacement items, but this week, even though pre is very small, am having a 'I cant be bothered with anything' sort of week! ;) This is teamed with Marmite Potatoes! I have made the most amazing chips with Marmite, so am excited to try roast potatoes! (I will update the photo when I've made it!) (This maybe Saturday nights meal, depending on what time we get home!)

Click here for a link to Marmite Chips!

Snack Plate - In the week, with all the kids off from school and running about like mini rockets. I love to make sharing snack plates, for snack-time.  Its a great way to use up that last carrot, just chop it all up and pop on a large plate or in this case charger plate. It helps to make food go a little further too. One apple, one carrot, can go along way, when chopped up all together.  A proper snack, yummy and good for you! Click here for ideas for your platters.






So that is this weeks shop! It really pays to plan out your meals, saves money and also helps to plan timings!

As our delivery arrived really late this evening, we brought chips and eat them in the caravan! Kids loved it. I love having our caravan at home with us, its an extra room for the minis and it feels like a little mini brake! If you want to see more of my recipes click here. 

Hope you all having a lovely Easter Brake/Holiday, all I can say is, thank goodness for Glenn Miller on vinyl and coffee.....

How To Make The Perfect Bunting

I love bunting! 

Adding bunting to a venue, turns a party into an event! Transforming rooms, venues and every caravan needs bunting! Click here to read all about our 1969 Bluebird Caravan.

I would have it all over house if I had time to make that much!

If your looking to rent some bunting for your event, then I highly recommended Beautiful Bunting. We used one of their cream sets for our mini people christening and it made such a huge impact at the venue! 

I also love their advice page on how to hang your bunting, click here to see their tips.

What look are you going for? 

Before making your bunting, first you need to work out how much you need to make and what style you like. By what style, I mean, is do you like each flag to be close together or do you like space in between?

The first photo (inside our caravan) shows large flags, with about the same size as the flag gap in between. The second photo (outside our caravan) shows smaller flags with no gap. 

It really is up to you, gaps can help you save on fabric, and give a bigger impact. Do make sure the gap is the same, or it will lose its impact. 

There are many different styles you can pick from. How big the flag is, is up to you! But make sure you use the same template for each flag, often you will get slight changes in size. This is ok, over large areas, but up close will bug you! 

Now the main three ways I make my flags are:

2 sides of fabric, sewn together and then turned inside out and ironed

2 sides of fabric, sewn together (sometimes with a pretty stitch as showing) then the edges cut with pinking shears 

1 side of fabric 

On the most part its the 1st one, if am pushed for time then 2nd. I hardly ever do the 3rd option. Mostly due to how it hangs, one side of fabric would be very light, it can work well if adding detail onto it or going for a thin look. If not then thick fabrics would only need one side, this would only work if the pattern is on both sides or its a plain fabric! 

Once you have worked out what look you are going for, gap or no gap, stitching showing or not showing...then you can work out how much fabric you need. What I love about bunting, is you can add to it later, or pull out a few (ok, carefully unpick) flags and change them. This is what am currently doing with Daisy's bunting. We have changed her colours, so her bunting needs to be changed too! 

So how much fabric do you need? Well the wonderful thing about bunting is its not all that much fabric! Depending on the size of flag you want and how far you are covering, you can get a lot out of a small amount of fabric. 

Say you are making some for your caravan or a room. If you have made some pillows or curtains, save your off cuts. Click here for my easy way to make pillows covers. You can make a few flags out of the off cuts, pad out with a plain fabric and then mix/spread out the pattern flags. Big impact and not to much fabric! Please note though that huge gaps, will not look as good - It helps to lay out your flags with gaps first and see what you think! 

I work out how many flags I want in a meter of bunting, so it could be 3 large flags or 7 small flags etc. Once you have how many flags in a meter, you can work out how many flags in total you need to make. 

A quick drawing to show you what I mean, drawing it out will help you if you are adding letters too!

You can really play with the shape of your flags too, thin and long, short and wide. You can mix sizes up to short then long, etc.

These drawings just represent just one meter, the pattern you go for will be repeated over each meter of fabric. 

Here are some ideas to help you with colour and placement.  I try not to go over 3 colours, that's just me! I have gone up to 3 plain colours and 1 patterned fabric but not very often. 

So top is just a plan, 1, 2 & 3 colour, then repeat, 1, 2 & 3 all the way through your bunting line. Next is just alternate plan colour and pattern. Then one long flag, next to a short. With this pattern way, I tend to stick to 2 colours, or 1 patterned and 1 plain.  If there was going to be a patterned fabric that would be the smaller flag. 

This is just how I do it and you can do it how ever you wish! 

While we are talking about what ever you wish......Who said they had to be flag shaped! 

Now you have worked out the shape of your flags, and how many you want in a meter! Fabrics.....So back to where we started, are you going to make these flags double sided? Say you went for 3 flags in a meter, and two sided. You don't need to buy a whole meter of fabric! Often fabric by a meter is folded and you would end up with a lot of fabric left over. Now don't fall into my trap of not ordering much and then it gets discontinued :( So plan ahead! If you want to save some pennies, plain fabric on the most part is cheaper, so order a 3rd of your over all fabric in patterned and the rest in plain. Its best to start by making up to about 3 meters and seeing how you find it. What shape you like and how much fabric that used. 

For each of our children I wanted to make them a set of bunting. I think making the first set, with the help of my mother, was enough to put me off making bunting for life! It has his name hand stitched on it, along with little sayings. 

I hadn't finished making the windbreaker above so I used his bunting. Having such a huge amount has come in very handy! From his Christening, being lent to friends, the above beach party and to wrap around Daisy below.

To give you an idea of how long this bunting is, our Daisy is 14.5 foot long and it wraps all the way around. So something crazy like 40 foot long!! Everyone needs to have some bunting in their life, its so fun and satisfying to make! If you have never made anything before, bunting is a really good place to start. It can be hand sewn, machined or even knitted! Made from old sheets, clothes, anything. 

My favorite thing to make as a gift, is bunting. Here is some I made, in my friends beautiful original 1970's caravan. (The fabric was a gift from a friend and I made the bunting.) There is something about adding bunting which just makes a space so much more special. 

Here is the same bunting, used on his amazing little sprite! I love that you can add, take away, pack up and re-use your bunting for so many things! 

So now you have your fabric, and pattern, what next! 

Whats it going to attach to? From ribbon, bias binding, lace, even to string! 

My favorite is bias binding. I love how it encloses the top of the flag in it. You can pick a plain colour or even a bright in your face bias binding colour, or patterned to really show off! (You can even make your own!)

This amazing set was made by a lovely friend of mine, and it shows you how you can get such a different look! Here she has encased the whole flag in the binding and it looks amazing! It was very nice of her to let me use the photo, I think she is selling this set too so click here for a link to Retro Caravan Club's Facebook group.

 Its easy to know how much to order, how many meters are you making, is how many meters of it you will need. Allow extra at each end to tie your bunting up! You can also make little matching ties, to hold your bunting in place. 

Now you have your design/layout, fabric, and binding. All you need to do is put it together. 

The best way is to make all your flags first. This means you can check layout too. 

Make sure you use a template, to keep each flag the same size. I just cut this out on plain paper. You can pin this template to the fabric to cut or cut many at once. Please note, if you have a patterned fabric, is this pattern directional? If so you need to keep in mind how it will look when hanging. You can see in the above photo on the left is the plain cut out, and on the right is where the 2 sides have been sewn and then the edges cut with pinking shears. (The top is left as it will be enclosed with the binding.) Please note, make sure the top edge is perfectly straight or it will make your life harder when attaching the binding! 

If you are going to add any applique or hand sewn details, do this before enclosing the two edges which will be on show. This will mean that your workings sewing it on will not be on show but hidden by the other side of fabric. I love that you can really make your bunting your own by adding detail! 

Once you have made all your flags, lay them out how you want them to look when hanging. This bit is fun, changing around the different flags to see what you like best. 

Once you have made all your flags, and worked out the order. Pile them up in that same order, with the first flag on top and the last flag on the bottom. Keep them in this order when you press or iron them. To make really good looking bunting, make sure you iron it. It will seal the stitches but also make your bunting look even more fab! I do not iron very much, my husband jokes that if he sees me getting out the iron he knows am making bunting! 

When you have your pile of flags ready, and you are adding the binding by machine. You need to first sew together the binding which will be your extra before the flags to tie on your finished bunting. You don't need to go crazy with this amount I would say a max of 3 flags of extra. 

When you run your binding through your machine, make sure you have folded over the binding so the opening is facing away from your machine. This means you can feed in the flags with ease. 

When I first started making bunting I pinned each flag in place but now I just run it through the machine, making sure to leave the same gap between each flag. It really helps to have something the same size to check each gap before adding in the next flag! 

Am going to add in a video of running the bunting through the machine. 

Everyone needs some bunting in their life! I will add some videos as soon and some more action shots (Its very late at night here and am off to bed!)

For more how to's, tips, tricks and frugal ideas click here.