Decopatch Eggs



Easter is fast approaching and we are almost ready to have our great Easter egg hunt,  We have bought and made all sorts of things to hunt for not just eggs and not all chocolate.  One of the things we did buy were some plastic eggs that had some small jellies inside.  They came in a range of bright colours but we thought that we could jazz some of them up and make them pretty so decided that a bit of deco patch was in order.  Sorry for the bad photo above.

Croods the Movie


Easter Holidays and here and we have a few treats set up for Sophie one was a trip to the cinema to see the new release of The Croods,

Touch magic Rockin Guitar Leap Frog Review


We are rocking out in our house with this fun Touch magic Rockin Guitar from Leap Frog suitable for 3 years plus.  Sophie couldn't wait to get this out of its box and start playing with it.  This bright red light weight guitar with strap is just the ticket to add some music creativity and fun to an eager little mind wanting to explore her musicality.

Lakeland Oven mate cleaning gel review

I confess i haven't cleaned my oven in 1 year !!!  

It truly is disgusting, it is so dirty the light doesn't shine any more because there is so much burnt grease and i swear i saw some thing lurking and moving in the base pan that catches all those drips that then burn and stick like black barnacles to the base of your oven, and that is where we cook our wholesome food we eat!! 


Moongazer beer soap in stock at Dunsley farm shop



The lovely Dunsley farm shop and tea rooms in Tring which is still a working farm, as you will see from all the ducks, chickens and donkeys you will see as soon as you step out of your car, which is great for the little ones.    The farmers wife prides herself in being family friendly run and selling a wide range of home produced preserves and locally sourced gift products, well as fresh produce, vegetables, eggs and meat. It also has a fab little tea room attached to it as well making it a well worth visit, for ladies that lunch and men that love cake, and that is just the some of what it has to offer as there is also a working brewer attached to the farm which is a sure fine way to tempt your man into a bit of shopping. 

Red nose day cake pops


We haven't done any baking in ages mostly due to pregnancy and being diabetic atm, but how can i resist this little face at the chance of doing some baking in the kitchen and make some red nose cake pops.

Red nose day raising funds

Red Nose day is this Friday the 13th and to raise funds for such an important cause i am donating 50p off each bar of soap sold from Mon 11th - Sun 17th March. So if your looking for a nice treat or present make sure you buy this week and help raise money for RED NOSE DAY!



Baker Ross Easter cards and Instant paint pens

What Fab Easter Cards we are giving out this year all hand painted by Sophie and we are going to give them out to the family to send them good wishes for Easter.



Easter Dinosaur eggs


Were getting all eggy as Easter is coming so we thought we would do make some multi coloured Dinosaur eggs and sandwiches.


Simple to do and i think im getting quite good at finding things that occupies the little lady and keep her quiet and busy while i grab a well earned cuppa.  First Sophie put the eggs in the pan to boil and then once they were hard boiled and cooled down Miss tippity tappity put cracks in the eggs.
She put each egg into its own container and i added some food colouring to some water and Sophie mixed this up and poured it over each egg so it was covered. this was left on the side for a hour or so, and then the long task of little fingers getting to grips with shell picking commenced.

Finally we had some multi coloured crinkle crackled dinosaur eggs, we think they look just super and Sophie couldn't wait to scare daddy with them. We made a nest to keep them in and Sophie gave a big GIANT DINOSAUR ROAR!!  Now for some multi coloured egg sandwiches.



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Baker Ross Easter baskets

With Easter fast approaching Sophie has been a Busy Easter bunny preparing to hand out lots of Easter Eggs to her little friends at school.  But how to hand out the eggs?  Well Baker Ross have these really cute mini Easter baskets with the cost of eggs these baskets were a steal at £2.99 for 12 a perfect number for her class.

Easter hanging hunting globes



Sophie and i have decide to do a nice sticky messy craft and make some hanging string globes.  we are planning to use these as part of the Easter egg hunt and hang them from the trees so Sophie has to look high as well as low when hunting around the garden.



These were really simple to make and took us 2 days due to the drying time.  We used a ball of wool, paint, glue and balloons to get us going.

To start we mixed glue and paint together and then cut length of wool and dipped these into the glue paint mix.
We blew up a few balloons and held them in some small bowls so we could work on them by taking different coloured painted thread and laying them over the balloons in a criss cross method, building up lots of layers all over the balloons.
We let one side dry and the next day turned them over the allow the other side of the balloon dry out.  While making these we tryed to make the holes as small as possible so we could eventually pop some chocolate treats inside.
As you can see from the above once the balloon part is removed you can pop inside little chocolate eggs and pennies.
When removing the balloon don't worry it wont pop as it has been covered in glue by the nature of laying the wool over it.  The balloon consistency becomes similar to a egg shell, so it is simple to give it a poke and the membrane of the balloon pushes away from the string leaving the string hard and in place.

Finally we decided to decorate our globes a bit further by covering them on butterfly cut outs, flowers and pompoms and added a string so we could tie them to the branches of trees ready for the hunt.  Sophie and I love these and they may end up in the playroom to help make it bright and cheerful.

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Sale on my online shop



 Well i have my online store off and going now and as i am pregnant this means i can not do any craft fairs as my boxes are way to heavy and i have the bladder of a grape.
So I am having a bit of a clearance sale on my online shop http://www.bathfood.co.uk/ Not only that as Mothers day is coming i have a few Gift bags of some lovely products to buy and give to your mum. They seem to have been received very well. Also check out my Facebook page to see the products.


Pregnancy update Gestational diabetes, Metformin and Insulin.


With Sophie i suffered from gestational diabetes but i was able to control this with diet even though it was picked up quiet late in the pregnancy, however as it was picked up late my body was HUGE with a lot of fluid and i was stretched tighter than a drum.  With my second pregnancy my body seemed a lot weaker to the diabetes so was at greater risk this was picked up in week 13 because of the previous history and at an early stage my blood test readings seemed to be spiraling ever higher through the coming months.

What is Gestational diabetes? 
Well it is a type of diabetes that arises during pregnancy and occurs when the body does not produce enough insulin to balance the effects of the hormones produced by the placenta, meaning that blood glucose levels will rise higher than normal.

How will it effect the baby?
Baby will not be born with diabetes, but the high glucose in the mothers blood will travel through the placenta and into the baby making the baby bigger than normal which will make delivery of birth difficult.  A close eye will be kepted on the growth of the baby with additional scans measuring the baby at week 28, 32,36 and maybe more.

If diabetes is undiagnosed there could be a risk to fetal abnormalities, the risk depends on how high and how long the blood glucose have been.

What treatment is available?
Mothers will be referred to a special diabetes team where a close regular eye will be kept on the progress of the pregnancy and mother.  In my case i had weekly checks by a diabetes nurse and monthly checks with the specialist.  Mothers will be given a blood glucose meter where the mother will have to perform blood tests on themselves 3 times a a day every day for the duration of the pregnancy the test is either done before or after meals on alternate days.  The aim is to keep blood glucose levels at either.

  • Fasting before a meal below 5.9 mmol/l
  • 1 hour after meal below 7.8 mmol/l  

For me i found my fingers felt like pin cushions after a while so make sure you use alternate hands.  Managing diabetes with diet can really help cutting out all those naughty but lovely sweet treats as well as fatty foods and choosing healthy foods to eat with good GI helps keeps blood glucose level.

Exercise also is a big help as excessive weight gain will effect the babies size.  I found swimming was a great supportive form of exercise

Metformin
I really struggled keeping my blood sugars level even though i was careful with my diet and exercised but my levels were going crazy and emotionally i felt i was failing some how.  It was great to have a nurse on the end of the phone to talk to and monitor the levels and she reassured me that i was doing everything right and that it was the pregnancy hormone raging out of control and soon i was put on Metformin, which is a tablet form of medicine that can also assist in keeping blood glucose levels in check.  I was put on 1 tablet a day and over a few short weeks this racked up to 3 as the tablets but these were not keeping blood sugars in check, mothers can be put on anything up to 5 tablets a day.  Unfortunately the Metformin and i didn't get along and i was very sick on them spending every day all day nausea and every other day throwing up, diarrhea and having no energy and no will to do anything.  So when the conversation came up to go up to 5 tablets this was dismissed by myself and the specialist and the specialist saw that there is no point going on further as it was not helping.  However this wont be the case for all mothers as many women do just fine on Metformin.

Insulin
Is an injection that is self administered into the thigh and i started on two injections a day one for the morning before breakfast and this was to last me through the food that i ate over the breakfast and lunch period, another injection before the evening meal to last me through the evening food and night.  Most woman who will have to go on insulin will have to continue taking Metformin in conjunction with the insulin as this helps the body absorb the insulin.  Thankfully as i had so much sickness with the tablets i was taken off them and put on a higher rate on insulin around week 21. With Insulin there is no limit to the amount that can be injected.  I started on a dose of 6 but there was a chase between the specialist watching the blood results which i was still doing 3 times a day and the raging hormones being created by the placenta and i was being boosted up ever 2-4 days by 2 doses so after two weeks i was on a dose of 14 shots with no end of this escalation slowing down as the pregnancy went on, and i am wondering how high the dose will go as i have 3 months left to go.  I was also told to eat a few more small snacks to help keep blood sugars level in check.  My thighs are a beautiful artwork of purple bruises and hole marks from the daily injections although the needle is finer is not as bad as the finger blood tests i have to do.

When on insulin mothers also need to be aware of hypoglycemia, which i have had a few episodes of this is  when the blood glucose is a level of 4 mmol this is the defined as the onset of hypo. Causes of hypo are:
  • too much insulin
  • too little to eat
  • to much physical activity
  • alcohol
  • stress
  • heat

Mild effect are
  • hunger
  • shaking
  • sweats and palpitation
  • anxiety
Moderate
  • lack of co ordination
  • blurred vision
  • confusion
  • speech difficulty
with mild and moderate reactions having a 15g fast acting carbohydrate snack can help such as 5 glucose tablets, 80 ml of lucozade, 150ml cola, 6 fruit pastilles

Severe effects
  • fits
  • unconsciousness/coma
Seek medial advise asap although severe is more uncommon in gestation diabetes.


Labour
Most women with gestation diabetes will be induced a week early and this was the case with my first Sophie and blood sugars will be monitored during labour, and if blood levels are not maintained some women will be put on intravenous of glucose and insulin as labour is hard work. Some women who's babies get very large will be offered a c section.

After labour when the placenta is delivered diabetes normally goes away however the baby who will have been used to higher levels of glucose may have lower insulin levels making it hypoglycemic so it is very important to breast feed the baby so it gets the all import colostrum to help stabilise the babies blood sugar levels.  The baby will then have blood tests done where blood taken by cutting the heel of the foot every 3-4 hours so it is important feed the baby every 3 hours to keep the babies blood sugars in check.  I found this quiet emotionally distressing with Sophie as she screamed when this was done no mother like to see her child being hurt, plus i was having difficulty getting Sophie to latch on with breast feeding possibly due to the fact i had a c section as my body hadn't had the chance to release hormones to my boobs to tell them to release milk and i ended up having to express and bottle feed her to get the goodness into her to level out her blood sugars.

The Future
If a mother has gestational diabetes with one pregnancy there is a very strong chance that future pregnancies will also suffer from diabetes so it is important to alert the midwife as soon as possible.  There is also a 60% risk of the mother developing diabetes during their lifetime anywhere from 5 to 10 years after delivery so yearly visits to the GP for blood tests are a must to detect this early, it is a good idea that after pregnancy that a careful eye is still kepted on diet and a BMI of 30 maintained to help reduce risk of developing diabetes in the future.


Medical information NHS
Images abc news radio online, Adam, Redmondregional..com sheknows.com healthylifstyle.com andrefit.com


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