The Kymin, Wye Valley

Back in the Summer the hubby and I bought a years' membership to the National Trust, we figured it give us 'free' places to go once Squidge was born.  The membership is only for one year, but if we manage to get lots of use out of it and we have enough money at the time, we might well renew.  The hubby and I have decided we are going to try and go to a National Trust place every weekend (with the exception of being ill, or his OU degree commitments etc, and I thought I'd share with you each place we visit, and hopefully it'll build a bit of an 'exploring Wales' guide. 

So far I've talked about Tredegar house which is where we went last weekend, at some point I'll talk about one of our favs, Dyffryn Gardens as we've been there a few times too.  Well, yesterday we travelled to my favourite place in Wales, Wye Valley, it's the most beautiful & breathtaking place I've ever been, and where I'd love to live.  It's about a half hour drive out of Cardiff into Monmouth and close to the border.

This time I'd tasked the hubby with finding somewhere to go, he headed onto the National Trust website, had a look at places that are in a driveable distance, and picked The Kymin.  It's an 18th century roundhouse and naval temple.  The roundhouse is closed until March 2015, but it's worth going just for the views, if nothing else. It's free to go and walk around the grounds and only costs £3 to enter the roundhouse (where I think they serve tea and coffee).  It's a great place for a picnic (when it's warmer!) with views of the Brecon Beacons in the distance, the views really are amazing from The Kymin.

The hubby trying out our sling for the first time, Squidge seemed to like it, and as per usual, slept through the visit, lol

This was at the Naval temple, I love the QR code linking to Wikipedia :)

This was at the top of the Naval temple

The views from the back of the roundhouse, this was on a cold misty day.

A bit of history

The view through the trees at the front of the roundhouse, there was a couple taking some pictures

The ramparts at the top of the roundhouse, you can see it was a beautiful day, albeit cold

A view leading back to the car park, there were lots of walks you could take around the grounds, but with Squidge we were a bit concious about how cold he'd get since it was about 0 degrees out (frost was all over the grass)

A close up of some beautiful nature :)

The naval temple from a distance, the car park is just beyond this

Another view from the back of the roundhouse, a lovely bench looking over some breath taking views, with speckles of sheep in the distance

A horse looking over Wye Valley

As you can see it really is a beautiful place.  We'll definitely be coming back here when the round house is open and it's generally warmer, maybe we'll have a picnic here with Squidge in the Summer :)

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Christmas at Tredegar House, Newport

Back in the Summer when I was pregnant with Squidge, we went on our babymoon to Cornwall (read about it here), and while we were there we visited a National Trust venue.  We'd thought about becoming members before but brushed it off.  While we were there they mentioned it again, and we decided to take the plunge and become members (it's a little over £90 for 2 people for a year) - the way we looked at it, once I was on statutory maternity pay, we'd at least have places to take Squidge without having to pay to get in, just a bit of petrol.

Well, what we've decided to do is make the effort to go to a National Trust venue each weekend to try and make the most of our membership.  Last weekend we went to the Christmas craft fayre at Dyffryn Gardens (which was quite disappointing if I'm honest) and this weekend we drove to Newport (about 20 mins away) and went to Tredegar house, which didn't disappoint!

As we got there, the path leading up to the house was decorated with baubles everywhere, it looked so festive and pretty (and made for some nice pictures).

Everyone at the house (who worked there) were dressed in traditional Victorian? costume and looked amazing.  There was a massive tree right inside, decorated beautifully (the cinnamon sticks below were on the tree).

As you go into the house, if you went into the room on the right, you'd have found Scrooge himself! He was there, giving kids a hard time and generally being his mean-old-self.  In fairness, the guy was amazing, didn't break character once and made everyone laugh, he was great and played it well.

Scrooge guarding his money.

The room just beyond that had this chap (wearing what on his face?) teaching people to do the waltz I think.

In that room was also this Christmas tree, decorated with very colourful paper-chains, it looked so pretty!

I took the opportunity to take a picture of Squidge in his little monkey? outfit - I used to think it was a bear, but I think with the light patch on the tummy it's probably a monkey suit :)  He didn't sleep through all of it this time, he woke up towards the end, enough time to look around and enjoy the lights :)

In one of the other rooms they had a Christmas wish tree, what a lovely idea! You'd go over to a table, pick up one of these parcel tags and write your Christmas wish on there, obvs I'm keeping mine secret as I want it to come true!   

So many wishes!

They also had a little shadow puppet theatre which lots of the kids were playing with, such a cute idea :)

This, I think, was some kind of mincemeat? Anyway, the tradition is you stir it 3 times and then make a wish, so I did, and again, keeping it secret so it comes true :)

Since getting the DSLR nearly a year ago, I've become a little obsessed with taking bokeh pictures too, and with a long line of fairy lights, I couldn't resist taking several bokeh pics, this being my fav!

They had a little craft market there in the courtyard too, one of the stands had some great knitted and handmade accessories, I picked up this awesome purple hat, and some purple fingerless mittens.

Just thought I'd throw in this pic of the hubby with a ticket in his mouth :-)

Despite going out in drizzly rain, we had a really lovely time, I'm so glad we went.  It was lovely to see it so full of people and to see all the staff being festive, and of course, see scrooge.  The house was decorated beautifully.  I also had a sneaky mulled wine and homemade mince pie, something they'd sold out of at Dyffryn gardens the week before.

This was the last weekend that Tredegar house were having their Christmas themed weekend, but at Christmas next year, I'd highly recommend going.  They even managed to track down Santa for a couple of hours to have his picture taken with all the good kids :)

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Recipe: Fererro Rocher brownies

I admit it, this isn't one of my recipes.  The brownie recipe I stole from Another Innocent Girl, and the inspiration I took from Pinterest, however, I did do one small thing to adapt it, which technically makes it mine :P

Here's what you'll need:

100g unsalted butter

150g milk chocolate

4 medium eggs

250g Caster Sugar

100g Plain Flour

1 tsp Baking Powder

30g Cocoa Powder

2 dessert spoons of Nutella

12 Ferrero Rocher's

And here's how you make it:

Preheat your oven to 180'c.  Get a tin, grease it and line it with grease-proof paper.  Then, great a bain marie and melt the chocolate, butter and nutella together (make sure the spoons of nutella are generous!).

Whisk together the eggs and sugar with an electric whisk, you're aiming for it to be very light and thick enough to hold a trail when you lift the whisk out of the mixture.

Measure out the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder and cocoa) and sift them into the sugar & eggs, then fold it all together.  Be careful though as you don't want to remove the air from it you've just whisked into it.  Then pour in the melted chocolate mix and continue to carefully fold.

Pour into the tin, and place your Ferrero Rocher's, making sure you space them evenly, try to make sure they're completely covered if you can too.

Bake for 25-30 minutes until nicely crusted but still soft in the middle. I tend to take it out at 20-25 minutes as I have a fan heated oven and it tends to cook food very quickly - and with these I was aiming for gooey middles :)

If you make them, be sure to tweet me a picture of them to @twinklinpixi3 :)

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Breaking boredom

We all have little things we do to pass the time when we're bored - for me, it's when the hubby is on the computer and there's rubbish on TV, that's when I take to my phone or tablet to play games to alleviate my boredom.  Typically I play an assortment of the above games, mostly Two Dots and Plants vs Zombies at the moment.

Then there's the other danger, browsing Amazon and eBay and buying stuff we don't need (the lightning sales were a killer!).  I've also started doing the lottery again since I started my maternity, as they say, you have to be in it to win it!  

Then there's the silly games we (secretly) play in our homes when no one is looking, mine isn't so much a game, but I do like to pretend I'm a very skilled singer, mostly singing Stereophonics songs at the top of my lungs :P  No, I don't use a hairbrush for a mic :)

The people over at Vera & John are also on a quest to rid the country of boredom with their #BreakingBored campaign.  The nice thing is about playing their sort of games (casino, bingo etc) is that you do stand the chance of winning money while you play, where the kind of games I play (above) I don't get that chance.  They have loads of different themed games like Game of Thrones, Hitman etc, and the traditional table games (i.e. roulette).  One thing I liked is that you don't have to actually gamble if you don't want to, you could just 'pretend' and 'play for fun' - a nice touch that lets you see how the games work :)  Almost like a 'try before you buy' without risking any money.

As well as that, if you create an account they'll give you £5 credit, 100% deposit bonus and 30 free spins on the Boomanji slot machine :)  If you want to see their funny video about the silly things we do to rid ourselves of boredom, you can watch it here :)

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*Collaborative post

10 week baby update

It's hard to believe Squidge is 10 weeks old, 10 weeks!  I can't believe how quickly it's going, it's like he's doing something new every day.  With that in mind, this is a very long post, so I'll crack on :)

Tummy time

Squidge with nanny

We've been trying to give Squidge as much tummy time as we can, his head is... well, it's mishapen with a big flat spot at the back.  The Dr isn't worried, she seems to think it'll fix itself, but we're trying to help by giving him tummy time on his play mat, and I'm using it as an excuse to cuddle him more on my chest/shoulder :)

Sleeping

My little angel, fast asleep in his moses basket (which he's rapidly growing out of)

Going back about a week ago, we had spent 2 weeks being up with Squidge until 4-6am every night, he just wouldn't sleep when it was dark and we were slowly losing our sanity.  Although, the funniest occasion was when he kept us up until 5am.  We both then slept through the alarm the hubby had set (7am) for work and didn't wake up until after 10am!  When we looked over to Squidge, he was lying in his moses basket smiling his head off, the cutest thing ever.  We couldn't help but smile and giggle about it :)

Squidge punching Daddy in the face in bed :P

Well, after being utterly exhausted, we read up on what to do to fix his night and day that seemed to be the wrong way around and this is what we did.  His last feed of the evening (around 10pm), I take him upstairs and feed him in the dark (we have a light on in the nursery that gives me enough light in our bedroom to see him to feed him).  I don't speak to him, I only feed him and when he rejects the bottle, I put him in his moses basket.  If he cries (not grizzles) I'll pick him up and continue to feed him, but if he grizzles and whines I leave him as sometimes he'll go off to sleep.

This seems to be working, not 100% but a vast improvement on what we were getting!  Now he'll sleep from about 11pm until about 12:30-1am, then wake for a feed, and go back to sleep about 2:30-3am until about 8am.  It's so hard not interacting with him when he's sat there smiling his head off at me though... I'll share a secret, I do smile back, and sometimes I'll kiss him on the head (I can't help myself!)... I'm terrible I know!

Developments

He's doing all the things he should be and more, it's really amazing to see him develop.  He's smiling, giggling and cooing, and even starting to bear is own weight when I stand him up.  A couple of days ago after changing his nappy, I stood him up on the change mat/table and he stood up alone, my hands weren't really touching him, just there to grab him when he fell or wobbled.  It's funny, he can't really push himself up if he's on his tummy, but he can bear weight on his legs, lol.  It's still his smiles that get me the most, he has the most beautiful smile he really does.

He's also been loving his bouncer, now that he's quite active in kicking his little legs, he gets a bit of a bounce on, he likes looking at the little dangling animals too :)

Expressing

This is the sad part of the update... my milk supply is gone :(  I'd tried expressing more often, but the reality was I'd express 3 times in 3 hours and then I wouldn't get the chance again for the rest of the day.  Each express I was lucky if I'd get 5-10ml, so it's now been a week since I've expressed, which makes me really sad :(  I think the hubby is a bit disappointed in me for stopping too... I really feel like I've failed Squidge, I wanted to keep him having breast milk right up until 6 months.  I know it's an excuse, but I really was struggling to find the time to express, I feel like I've either been out of the house, or had visitors here a lot, and the time I've been alone and able to express, Squidge has been awake and needing my attention.

Out and about

Mummy and Daddy with Squidge at Dyffryn Gardens Christmas craft fayre

Handmade Christmas tree ornaments from Dyffryn Gardens (£2 each)

We haven't been too many places with Squidge as hubby has been super busy with uni work in the evenings and at weekends.  We've also had our boiler replaced as ours died, so we went a week without heating and hot water, not ideal with a new baby!  The hubby did manage to take us to Dyffryn Gardens last weekend though, to their Christmas craft fayre (with carol singers!).  We're members of the National Trust so we've been trying to head to NT places to take advantage of our membership (that's why we bought it, so we could visit places for free with Squidge over his first year).

Cooking & Shopping

On a side note, I've also been experimenting in the kitchen!  I'd seen on Pinterest an image of Ferrero Rocher brownies, and considering they're the hubby's fav chocolate, I thought I'd give them a go - and they turned out fab!  I also made what I would call, Reeces Kisses, balls(ish) of crunchy peanut butter, covered in a blob of melted chocolate, which is then put in the fridge to set, super tasty!

I've dug out the Tassimo machine and stocked up on t-discs, so I'm enjoying Costa lattes at home :) 

I picked these up in Aldi, I was replacing some flowers and thought I'd opt for something more festive, and that would last longer :)

So that's my update, sorry it's been such a long one! Maybe I should go back to weekly updates?

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