They Did it - The Chicago Women's Half Marathon

Today my mum and one of my best and oldest friends Vicki, ran the Chicago Women's Half Marathon and I am so proud of them. It was quite a feat, a long way 13.1 miles and in hot weather too.

They, with Pop, arrived last week on holiday from England, we had a quiet week all in preparation for today, they only managed to get out once for a run in the Chicago climate as both were struck down with a sore throat and cold symptoms, but a few early nights sorted them out enough to be able to run today.

So they were up at 4am this morning, and I in my pyjama's, up before 5am drove them into the city centre with Pop, and dropped the nervous pair off. We then ventured home, the race began at 6.30am ( too early for us) and at 5.45am it was already 23c (73f).

It was a hot day for them, all the week the weather has been up and down, mainly warm but with a few thunderstorms, and on the one day they didn't want to be running in 32c (90f) heat was today and of course it was heating up to be that.

Their supporting team consisting off myself, Mr C, Pop (also known as Mick) and the girls wanted to cheer them on at the finishing line, so we headed down around 9.30am, the marathon had officially been running about 2hrs 50 mins.

Here they come

And the finish line is near

And over the line they go

We nearly cheered on two complete strangers thinking they were Vicki & Mum, but no it wasn't, but we gave them a cheer anyway. It wasn't long though before Pop spotted the running pair and the cheering team got to work, we had the big hands waving and our voices out cheering, it was great watching them run past and over the finish line in their times of 3.07.28 & 3.07.29 - a wonderful result for a wonderful pair of runners.

They looked knackered, they felt knackered, they said it was tough, but they are glad to have finished it, so we celebrated with breakfast at Lou Mitchell's (start of Route 66) before taking them home for a very well deserved rest.

Well Mum and Vicki - I am so proud of you completing a half marathon, you have inspired me, but maybe not as far as doing a half marathon but we shall see.

Now for a well deserved beer

Ps my mum is 60 well done Mum

Chocolate Chip Cheescake Cookies

Oh boy these are good so good, they are truly my favourite chocolate chip cookie at the moment.

I found this pin on pinterest, pinned it and finally this week I got around to making them, so when I clicked on the pin and it didn't work, I was so disappointed, as this cookie looks seriously good, but not to be deterred I did a quick google search and found this - you want cookies - hooray I had tracked down the recipe even if it had a slightly interesting history behind it - read the link.

So on that note here is the recipe - I have slightly adapted the recipe, as I find Americans do like their food very sweet so I cut back on the sugar and chocolate chips and it was still plenty sweet. I also used light cream cheese.

Chocolate Chip Cheesecake Cookies

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose(plain) flour
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp baking soda (bi-carb)
10 tablespoons of softened butter (1 stick plus 2 tablespoons or 142g)
3/4 cup sugar (recipe calls for 1 cup of sugar but I found 3/4 cup fine)
1 egg
4oz cream cheese
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 cup or 7oz chocolate chips any kind we like the semi-sweet variety (recipe calls for 12oz)

Directions
Preheat oven to 375f
1. Combine the dry ingredients (flour through to soda/bi-carb) in a bowl and set aside.
2. In a mixer, blend butter, sugar, egg, cream cheese and vanilla.
3. Slowly add the dry ingredients, mixing with each addition, until all are incorporated.
4. Stir in the chocolate chips.
5. Grease a cookie sheet/baking tray. Drop dough by the spoonful onto the sheet, at least 1inch apart.
6. Bake for 10-12 mins or until golden brown.
7. Transfer to a wire rack to cool
8. Make a cup of tea or coffee, sit down eat and enjoy.

My Little Helper - Baker Tilly

Tilly has the mixing jobs - all the dry ingredients in here

egg, sugar, butter, cream cheese and vanilla

I had my little helper on hand to make these cookies, and she always does a good job of mixing, weighing and making a mess, but we always have fun baking together and it's a great way to keep her entertained before pre-school. Here we had mixed all the dry ingredients together and got the other ingredients in the mixer ready to be combined.

Tilly adding the dry ingredients to the mixer

Tilly eyeing up the paddle for a bit of licking

Tilly adds the dry ingredients to the recently creamed ingredients, little by little, whilst I make sure each addition is fully incorporated before she adds the next one - it was great team work.

I did have to stop her from wanting to lick the paddle beater -with the promise she could have it once we where finished.

chocolate chips added

finally Tilly gets the beater to lick clean

Final step we added the chocolate chips in and gently folded them in, the recipe does call for 12oz of chocolate chips but I found this far too much, Americans do have a very sweet palate, but 12 oz is a lot of chocolate chips for this recipe, so I measured out 1 cup of chocolate chips (which equated to 6oz) and threw another oz in for good measure.

It didn't take long to dollop them onto the baking tray and cook in the oven - roughly 10 mins did ours just nicely.

look at all that yummyness

They really didn't last long even in the cake stand.

We couldn't wait for the cookies to cool down, so we enjoyed ours slightly warm, they were soft and delicious, oh so yummy.

They did not last long, between the girls, myself and Grannie and Grandad we polished off this batch in less than 3 days ooppps - we didn't even manage to save one for Mr C - who had been grounded in NYC.

I know for sure I'll be making these again very soon and this recipe will be my go to Chocolate Chip Cookie recipe.

Tilly Finishes For Summer....

.....and that's 94 days of summer holidays for Tilly before she goes back to Pre-School.

She has really enjoyed her year at Cherry and has excelled in many ways, it's been a big year for her as we have got her into speech therapy and she is really coming on great, really working on those "s" & "f" sounds at the moment as she has an articulation speech problem.

The kids at Cherry celebrated the end of their year with an ice-cream party and a little show for the parents. It was fab, they sang 3 songs all very cute.

Singing Away

And not forgetting the actions too

They are a really great group of kids, it was a lovely class to be in and Tilly made lots of friends, she really enjoyed "school"

To say thank you to the teachers, Tilly & I made some mini banana bread loaves, and packaged them up, and Tilly made each teacher a little Hama/Perler bead coaster with their initial on it.

Tilly finished off their boxes with a personal Thank You

We didn't quite managed to get a photo with all the teachers but we did get this one, which I think is lovely.

Tilly & Michaela

We are sad that this was her last year at Cherry and not because she goes into Kindergarten (the cut off date here is September 1st, she has to be 5 on or before that date, and she misses it by 29 days) but because we are moving her to a different pre-school, one that is closer to Ruby's school and one that does mornings only so by 9.15 am 4 days a week I will be child-free and hoping to work.

Roll on 94 days of Summer.......

Ps I've just discovered Bloglovin thanks Lesley I love it already here's my link - <a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/8042557/?claim=9g6akd9vw5r">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

Mini Road Trip to St Louis

It was Spring Break school holidays, my dad, also known as D-Dad by the girls, was over from the UK, and it was my 40th birthday week, so we decided to take a mini road trip to St Louis in Missouri, another new state to cross off our list, so with the car packed and me swished in between the car seats we set off Sunday morning for a leisurely drive down to St Louis, about 5 hours away, as planned an hour or so into our journey, we stopped for brunch at the iconic Denny's before hitting the road again, our plan was to cruise it down Route 66, stop in Atlanta, Illinios for pie, Springfield our states Capital, to visit the grave of Abraham Lincoln, before finally arriving in St Louis.

However a very bad turn of weather, saw us drive very slowly down to St Louis. It was horrendous, we were driving in a snow blizzard with very limited visibility and in some sections of the freeway down to one lane, we passed at least 20 cars that had swerved off the road and down the slight embankment with no way of getting out, that's how bad the conditions were, we contemplated stopping in Springfield for the night but decided to keep going.

And I am happy to say 9 hours after we had left home we finally made it to our destination St Louis, Mo and the furthest south we've been so far in the US. With the weather so bad and nowhere to go, we went out for dinner at a local institution Chuck Berry's restaurant and bar Blueberry Hill. It was fabulous, full of memorabilia and the meal itself was good too.

The next day, we were pleased to see it had stopped snowing finally, after breakfast we headed into downtown St Louis to see the famous Gateway Arch - an iconic monument erected to symbolize the westward expansion of the United states.

Where is this Arch they keep talking about?

Nearby the Arch is another very interesting piece of history - the Eads Bridge (completed in 1874 and named after James B Eads, the designer and builder.)  It was the first bridge in the world to be completely made out of steel, it was also the first bridge to be built using cantilever support methods, there is a lot of history in this bridge still being used today, it crosses the Mississipi river and was built to provide a link for eastern and western railroads - a very lucrative business back in the 1800's if you'd like to know more I suggest this series for a quick insight into America in those days - The Men Who Built America

Anyway back to the Arch, after a short walk we arrived at the rather tall Arch, and discovered we could actually go up the Arch to the top and back down again, so after a small but interesting movie about the making of the monument,  we went up on the "Journey to the Top"  in a short tram ride. we were transported up the North Leg and after a good time sightseeing up there, we came down the South leg.

The view from the top

D-Dad 630ft above the ground

Snowy views of St Louis from the top of the Arch

 

After a quick look around the museum (we could have spent a lot longer there) we went to meet friends at a local brewery and eating place Schafly Tap Room fantastic food and booze, I sampled their Sampler - 6 (small ones) of their finest beers- truly delicious.

After lunch we went to this rather peculiar place called the city museum, it was weird and wonderful, and so much fun, a huge adventure playground, like nothing you had seen before, it wasn't long before all of us were up climbing around, having fun, we even encountered a 10 storey helter skelter style slide, climbing the stairs up to it was a nightmare, but coming down was fab. Even D-Dad with his cast on made the slide down. It was such a fun place, our only regret was we hadn't come earlier, it was definitely a place we could have stayed for a whole day, we only touched a small section of it.

After all that excitement, you'd think we were ready for dinner and bed, but no we decided to go ten pin bowling - the girls first time and they loved it we had a great time, then it was time for dinner, we found a lovely Italian then headed back to the hotel.

The girls first bowling experience

Our last day as the weather was still bad, saw us visit the Museum of Transportation. We spent a few hours there, before hitting the road to see Springfield, after a very nice spot of lunch and beer, we went to visit Lincoln's home and street where he had lived and we visited his rather grand grave/memorial.

Outside Lincoln's modest home

After our little jaunt in Springfield, we took the Route 66 to Atlanta but we didn't get there in time to stop for pie at the famous Palms Grill Cafe, however we did meet a giant man and his hot dog.

Atlanta, Il

It wasn't long though until we started losing our way on the 66 (as it is not well sign posted as it is a decommissioned highway now) and we headed back to Chicago on the freeway.

We really enjoyed St Louis and due to the bad weather, we didn't get to see all that we had planned to see, but there will be a next time, and I'd definitely recommend a visit there, I can't wait to go back to the City museum.

And I'll leave you with a very nice instagram of my dad and his ditzy blonde beer

Dad and his Ditzy Blonde - Cheers Dad

Kids Clothes Week - The Finished Garments

 
Very late indeed but here is a round up of the clothes I managed to make during KCW (Kids Clothes week) a few weeks back.

As I always love a challenge, I do get pretty determined when I set my mind to things, so for the rest of the KCW, I was busy planning what to make, cutting out patterns, cutting out fabric and finally sewing and I thoroughly enjoyed myself.

I whipped up a pretty easy skirt on day one - see here

Day 2  - saw me do the planning side of things, as I'd had a busy day with Tilly, only being home for lunch, before taking her to pre-school where I stayed as I was parent helper for the day, by the time we had picked up Ruby from school, I knew I wouldn't and didn't have time to do any sewing so I opted for planning instead - deciding what were going to be my challenges for the week.

After scouring through my favourite books & patterns - Make It Perfect and Making Children's Clothes, I settled on the Puffball Skirt for Ruby from Making Children's Clothes and a simple Simplicity A-Line Dress for Tilly (pattern no 1836).

Day 3 - I traced the size patterns I needed and cut them out onto tracing paper - well actually I used parchment paper as I couldn't find tracing paper. I then got all the pieces cut out for the puffball ball skirt and dress and before I knew it my hour or so was up.

Puffball Skirt Pattern pieces

Day 4  - I got the puffball skirt started, the instructions were clear and easy even the gathering wasn't too bad, but it did take a while to get it even(ish) so I only got as a far as gathering the bottom part of the skirt, inserting the lining and sewing the two pieces together.

Day 5 - I completed the top part of the puffball skirt which included more gathering and adding the waistband, but then the instructions said to slip stitch the waistband on the inside, and I hate hand sewing so after contemplating using the sewing machine, I decided against it, as I thought it just wouldn't look right or neat, I put it too one side and got on with making Tilly the A-Line Dress. After several attempts at putting in the zip (more my curse of perfection than doing it wrong) I finally got it right how I wanted it and ended my sewing hour(s) there.

Day 6 - Saturday with Mr C at home I got to spend more time in my sewing room, so I finally plucked up the courage to do the hand sewing on the puff ball skirt, and I was very pleased with the results, once finished I sewed on the buttons, inserted the buttonhole elastic and voila one finished skirt, I love it and more importantly Ruby loves it.

Day 7 - Sunday - after my several attempts at inserting the zip, I discovered my back piece was now way smaller than the front piece arghhhh and had to start all over again, so I cut out two more back pieces, inserted the zip correctly first time too phew and left it at that, and that is where is it still currently. I will finish it honestly.

Ruby posing in her new skirt

She makes a great little model.

Fabric is Amy Butler - Lotus Wall Flower in Cherry, I've had it ages and wanted to make myself either the versatile wrap or the shearwater kaftan by Make it Perfect as I have both these patterns with the fabric, but I had bought the fabric before the patterns and discovered I didn't have enough for either, so instead I get to enjoy my Ruby wearing the fabric instead.

Kid's Clothes Week - April 22-29

I'm so happy I came across this yesterday  - Kid's Clothes Week it's right up my alley and I couldn't wait to get started.

So I abandoned my ironing, plonked Tilly in front of the computer (ABC Mouse) and literally ran to my sewing room to get started, I actually did only have an hour to spare, as school pick up was just over an hour away and I wanted to get something made.

As I hadn't had time to plan anything, or search Pinterest for ideas, I went with an old favorite, a simple skirt with an elasticated waist for my eldest daughter Ruby, luckily over the weekend she had been through my fabric stash and picked out some lovely Prints Charming fabric. so with that in mind I got to work.

Just under 1 hour later the skirt was completed, elastic in, and hemmed - brilliant I was so pleased.

The fabric Ruby chose, is from my favorite Australian Fabric Designers Prints Charming I was lucky to pick up a good amount of this fabric at an incredible price at one of their sales - I was very pleased. In fact I'm now thinking this fabric would make a great Kaftan for me and I have the perfect (Make it Perfect) pattern for it - it's the Shearwater Kaftan.

Day 2 - I haven't done my hour yet today, I've had a busy day and spent the afternoon at Tilly's pre-school- so instead I'm going to choose what I'm going to make next, and get the fabric cut out this evening so I'm ready to pin and sew tomorrow. As long as I get my hour in I will be happy.

Then I'll have the pleasure of watching the final of the The Great British Sewing Bee which is nothing like Project Runway or Fashion Star but a show I am enjoying immensely.

Keep sewing ladies

WW Week 11

Week 11 - Weight Loss -0.9kg/2lbs

Oooopppps a bit late with this post, a few things have happened these last 3 weeks which I will get too, but here is my week 11 update for week ending 23rd March.

Woo hoo finally a decent weight loss, I'm back on track and I hit my 10% weight loss goal too, only another 9.6kg/20lbs to go........

It's been a very good week, which started with a very naughty meal out last Saturday night with friends, we went to this fabulous Chinese Restaurant called Sun Wah BBQ and had Peking duck, that they served whole to the table, and carved it up in front of us before serving - it was perfect and we ended the night at a famous Chicago Jazz place called Green Mill - super night out

The rest of the week was spent being very careful point wise and exercising - 4 times on the treadmill, I redid week 5 on the couch to 5k plan due to me having a week off, I thought it would be best to go back a week and carry on and I'm pleased I did.

And talking of running yesterday my dad for my birthday (next week) treated me to a proper pair of running shoes, I had my feet assessed - I overpronate which I knew, so the salesperson was able to find and fit the right pair of running shoes to help this and I have to say he did a great job, I walked out with a great pair of running shoes and my dad walked out with a lighter wallet - I can't wait to try them out

The girls finished school this week for Spring Break and we're taking a little road trip down Route 66 to St Louis for a few days before heading back to celebrate my 40th, I've always wanted to have afternoon tea (very English I know) at a posh hotel so I've requested we go here The Drake Hotel and I'm looking forward to it

With such a busy week I don't know how I'm going to stay on track but I will try and fingers crossed for a loss even if it's just a little one, but I fear with cake, alcohol, eating out and my 40th I may be setting myself up for a fail.

Having said that it is only 1 week out of many, I will survive and get right back on it next week.

Favorite Meal - has to be the Peking Duck we went out for & my Lamb Biryani my dad and I enjoyed.

Favorite Snack - Ben & Jerry's Liz Lemon frozen yoghurt - delicious - I had a kids size portion but it still came in at 6 points a definite treat.