Hot drinks for cold nights!

Eventhough I only have a miniscule role to play, I love being a part of the blogging community. How amazing is it that you get to connect with all these awsome and inspirational people from all over the world and be allowed to take a peek into their lives? It's really an endless ocean of information and inspiration that I just love to dive into. I have alot of different blogs on my readinglist and whenever I find a spare minute I love catching up on them. A little while ago I read a post about homemade chocolatemix here and I really fell in love with the idea. It was love at first sight but unfortunately the recipe was't really me. So I decided to throw in the stuff I like and make my own hot chocolatemix! I love how it turned out, I've already had 3 cups! :)

Here's what I used to make it. I used a high quality organic cacoa by Australian Homemade (but you can use any high quality brand) a low fat powdered milk, mini marshmallows, coffee creamer, chocolate fondue, ground cinnamon, jars, a bow and a tag (which you can find here).

Adding a tag comes in handy if you are planning to share your chocolate love with others.

I used mini marshmallows in different colors, which gives it such a playful look! I used glass jars so you can really see the sweet little pop of color it gives. So cute!

The recipe
8 tablespoons of low fat powdered milk
4 tablespoons of high-quality cocao
2 tablespoons of coffee creamer
2 tablespoons of chocolate fondue chips
1 teaspoon of ground cinnamon
5 tablespoons of mini marshmallows

I didn't add any sugar to the recipe because the marshmallows already add some sweetness to the drink and I didn't want to make it unnecessary unhealthy. But if you happen to have a sweet tooth, you can throw two teaspoons of sugar into the mixture! :) Mix all the ingredients together (except the mini marshmallows, you add those later) and you have your hot chocolatemix. You can chop up the chocolate chips, but I like the fact that it doesn't look like a perfect fine mixture. Its homemade and it's allowed to look the part! The chocolate fondue chips are made to melt easily, so it's not really necassary to chop them up anyway. Throw 3 tablespoons of mixture into a cup, poor hot water on it and stir well. This batch should be enough for about 5 cups. Finish it off by throwing a tablespoon of mini marshmallows on top. Voilá and enjoy!

Kisses!

What we're wearing this Christmas!

Yes, I know! I might be going a little bit Christmas crazy here. But I just can't help myself. I love Christmas! We decorated the Christmas tree, we planned our Christmas menu, so now it was time to pick out our Christmas outfits! I love them, but unfortunately we won't be color-coordinated this Christmas. I was so focused on Charlotte's outfit, that I paid no attention at all to the fact that I can´t wear red! It makes me look like something that crawled out of a vampire movie. But anyways, this is what we're wearing this Christmas!

Charlotte's outfit

Charlotte's is wearing a checked dress by Burberry, a red cardigan by H&M, a red headband by Claire's and red tights that I got from some local store. I bought all these items separately, but luckily it´s all practically the same shade of red. Phew!!

The red cardigan has a cute ruffle detail and has one big sparkly button. It does run a bit big though. I got Charlotte a size 6 to 9 months and it fits like a glove!

The headband isn't new. I bought this at Claire's a couple of months ago and I figured it would come in handy for Christmas, eventhough I had no idea what her Christmas outfit would look like. 

My outfit

My entire outfit is by Vila, as usual! It's a Danish brand I believe, so you can't get it everywhere. But for who's interested, you can purchase their clothing online at http://www.asos.com. My outfit consists of a simple pair of black pants, a black and white top and a flowy gray cardigan. The shoes, handbag and earrings I already owned. The black leather high-heeled booties are by a brand called Zign, the black and brown handbag is by Calvin Klein and I don't remember where the earrings are from. Sorry! It's quite casual for the holidays, but with a little baby running around putting on something fancy is really the last thing on my mind!

The top has a black and white baroque print. I thought that would be very suitable for the holidays for some reason. It's a very soft sheer fabric. Very comfortable! The gray cardigan has glittery thread at the ends which makes it a bit more festive. 

My charcoal earrings. They are definitely one of my favorites! They are a bit ruffed up because I have been wearing them for years, but I still love them. I probably should start looking for a pair of earrings to replace them with. Well, that's what we are wearing this Christmas. Do you have your Christmas outfit picked out yet?

Kisses!

Are you decorating for Christmas yet?

I know I am! We're hosting a Christmas dinner, so that means we have to get serious about our decorations. Since I'm using green dinnerware (which really isn't as tacky as it sounds), I decided to make some decorations of my own to match the color of my dinnerware. I'll color-coordinate just about anything if I get the change, so this is an absolute must in my book!

 

I'm not a crafty chick, so I didn't make them by hand but with by good old friend photoshop. It's a set name tags for gifts, dinner name cards and an image that can be framed. I thought they turned out pretty cute, so I thought I'd share them. If you're also planning a Christmas party with a nutty color scheme, they might come in handy!

 

You can download the PDF files here:

>> download framed image

>> download dinner name cards

>> download name tags

Enjoy and get your Christmas decorations going! Kisses!

High Teas and Maybes!

How good does this pictures look? And I don't mean quality wise. Besides the very present teeth marks on my phone, I'm pretty sure there is also baby drool on the camera lens. I meant what's in the picture.

This week it was time for our annual High Tea. Me, my mom, my aunt and my niece try to plan a little get-together once a year. Our weapon of choice happens to be a High Tea. I've done so many, but this was definitely one of my favorites. As you can see they served it with fresh mint tea. That was a first! And you'll never guess where we did this...at Ikea! Now I don't think they serve it everywhere, and it's definitely poorly advertised. But if you have an Ikea near you that offers this service, I very much recommend it!

We also brought Charlotte along and as you can see that also served it with a snack especially for her. The baby food was free of charge. Charlotte had so much fun! She loved to sit with us and be part of what the grown ups were doing. She was so proud and couldn't stop smiling and babbling. She was such a charmer!

We had a lovely afternoon and it obviously ended in some serious shopping. I'm stocking up for the holidays and the shopping will continue tomorrow! The only downer was that I was planning to take my new car. I'm looking for a new one and I thought I found the one for me a couple of days ago. I was so devastated when the car turned out to be a disappointment. So I'll have to continue my search for the perfect ride. Who knows, maybe I'll have some new car news to share really soon! Maybe!

Kisses!

Ten Month Update!

I can't believe my little baby is 10 months already! How did that happen? I find it pretty difficult to believe how fast things are going. I miss those first little baby months! But I am excited about the fact that I can now officially start planning her first birthday! I really want to make it special, so I have all the time to get inspired and order all those pretty items that will make it a day to remember! :) If you have any cute ideas, let me know!

Weight and Height
Charlotte has gotten so big! She now weights 17,5 pounds and is 28 inches tall. Such a big girl! She's still smaller than average, but she's doing really well!

Clothing Sizes
Charlotte is now wearing 9 to 12 month clothing and wears size 3 - 4 nappies. She's kind of in between sizes, both sizes fit her really well. I already purchased some 12 to 18 month clothing but it's definitely still too big for her. She'll probably fit into those around summer. But since these items were on sale the last couple of months it was definitely worth stocking up on them already!

Eating
At atound 9,5 months Charlotte started to completely refuse her bottle. We were so worried about this. Was she sick? Doesn't she need her formula? But according to our doctor she is absolutely fine! She just really has a will of her own and simply doesn't want to be bottlefed anymore. She wants to do things on her own and be a big girl. She is very strong-minded and simply won't do anything she doesn't want to do. She's going to be such a handfull! But it also means she is now fully weaned!

Development
Charlotte is now standing all the time. She pulls herself up to everything and tries to get from one place to another. She's still now walking on her own though. She walks behind her walk trainer at home and the activity cart at the daycare centre. According to the daycare personnel she walks like an old lady behind a walking aid. I can see the resemblance! Haha! She also likes to crawl (like really proper crawling) and climb. She can wave goodbye, play peek-a-boo and has now discovered curtains. She loves to peek through closed curtains and look outside. Just this morning she was peeking through the curtains to observe out neighbor making his car ice free. That's just the little stalker baby she is! Haha! She's also experimenting with the sound of her voice alot. She screams, squeals, talks, laughs and so on!

That's it for today! Kisses!

Matching Mommy and Baby OOTD!

I wasn't actually planning on doing another outfit of the day. I wanted to do Charlotte's 9 month update this week, but unfortunately her 9 month check-up got postponed. I really wanted to get het stats in, so I decided to do something else this week. This check-up was already schedueled pretty late, but now she'll actually already be 10 months once we make it to her 9 month check-up... oh well!

I thought today's outfits were pretty cute, so I thought I'd share! It's getting colder, and that automatically means I start gravitating towards the darker colors. I'm not a big fan of black, so I tend to lean towards gray, silver and navy. I mentioned before that I like to match our outfits and today is no exception. Charlotte is wearing the same colors, but with a few pops of pink. Kids need some color in their outfits!

My Outfit

I'm wearing my navy blue trenchcoat by Vila and my gray animal print vest by Vila. Can you tell I love Vila? Haha! I paired it with a charcoal cami from H&M and my black skinnies by Mexx.

The boots are by the brand Tamaris. I love the look, but I was kind of dissapointed by the quality. They are made from a lovely soft leather, but the silver flakes are falling off at a rapid speed. This was the third time wearing them, and there are already large patches of beige leather peeking through. They weren't cheap, so I expected them to last a bit longer than this!

And this is my favorite necklace! Excuse the drool stains, it's Charlotte's favorite as well. :) It's a silver nameplate necklace with a silver heart and a little pearl. It has Charlotte's name on it and I got it for my first mother's day. I earned it! I make pretty long days, so it's nice to have something like this with me to remind me of the gorgeous little gal that's waiting for me at home!

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The hat is from Claire's and it has silver sequins on it. I love it! I also have a scarf and gloves to match!

Charlotte's Outfit

Unfortunately I can't say too much about Charlotte's outfit. Most of the items were gifts, so I don't know where they are from. Sorry! Charlotte's outfit consists of a blue wintercoat with silver hearts, gray vest and a navy little dress. 

The blue and denim headband is by Claire's. It came in a three-pack and it was actually labelled 3 years and up. I don't think that's quite right because they fit Charlotte's little head pretty snug. I don't think you could actually get this on the head of a three year old. 

Charlotte's silver booties are from H&M. I picked them up two weeks ago, so they are still in stores right now. I love how they match my silver boots. Very cute!

Her tights were a gift from grandma, so I have no idea where they are from. I love this look though. She has a  lot of tights with these ballerina footsies. I also love the pop of color. It matches the inside of her wintercoat and gives her outfit that fun bright color accent every little girl needs. 

Kisses!

Pregnancy and Klippel-Trenaunay Syndrome

Yup that's me! This picture was taken 6 days before giving birth to my baby girl. I was HUGE! Now I mentioned in a previous blogpost How to Smile Your Way Through Labor! how scared I was about giving birth, and pregnancy over all. And eventhough it's a pretty scary thing to go through for any mommy-to-be, I had something extra to worry about: My diagnoses of Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome.

One and a half year ago, I didn't know if I would be able to have children. At the age of 21 I was diagnosed with Klippel Trenaunay Syndrome. KTS is a congenital vascular disorder. According to my doctors there are only a few cases of pregnant woman with KTS described in medical literature. This pretty much meant they weren't able to tell me what I was going to expect. KTS was once thought to be a contraindication to pregnancy. Luckily we know better now. Succesful pregnancies can be achieved.

A little over 1,5 year ago I made my first appointment to discuss my wish to be  mom. I was still on birth control, but because I was at high risk for thromboembolism I was told to quit the birth control I was on. A DIU was the safest choice for me, but since I was interested in becoming a mom it didn't make any sense to get one. So I figured this was the time to stop birth control and see where it would lead me.


Because the uterus can be affected by the KTS, we started off with an internal exam. All went smoothly but after the exam they did inform me about the possible risks of pregnancy with KTS. For me, the risk factors were mainly a higher risk of thromboembolism, excessive bleeding, increased operative delivery, higher risk of complications, coagulation disturbances and an increase of the KTS symptomes I already had. For the baby placental insufficiency could be the biggest problem, causing fetal growth restriction or worse.

A couple of weeks later I was schedueled for a MRI to see if my KTS caused any disturbances around my uterus. After reading the pamflet (which advises against getting a MRI during the first trimester of pregnancy) I decided to do a pregnancy test, just in case. I knew I wasn't pregnant because I just got off birth control and I didn't even have my period yet. But oh boy, I was already knocked up!

So besides getting over the initial shock of getting pregnant that easily, it also meant 9 month of intensive medical monitoring. Since there are no university hospitals in my area, this also meant alot of travelling. It was so incredibly tiring. I was working two jobs and having to take all this extra time to get to my hospital appointments.

Because there was a high risk of  thromboembolism, I was put on bloodthinners early on during my pregnany. The horror! You would you would get used to getting daily injections, but I didn't! Everyday my anxiety towards those awful injections grew. But if this meant staying healthy during my pregnancy, I had to endure it.

As the months went by I passed every single check up with flying colors. I think to everyone's suprise! I was pretty much symptom free during the entire pregnancy and I even continued working until 2 weeks before giving birth to Charlotte. I actually went in expecting the worst. I did my best not to bound with the little baby inside of me because I was afraid I would end up losing it. I was keeping so preoccupied with all the other things that were going on so that I wouldn't worry so much about all the complications that could accur. But they never did! I was blessed with the easiest, complication free pregnancy! And i even got two wonderful 4d echo pictures from charlotte's 12 and 20 week medical scan. All paid for by my insurance! :)

There were only two minor problems I encountered after giving birth to Charlotte. Pregnancy had taken a toll on my right leg and the pain symptoms I already had increased. This actually led to laser threatment to remove a vericose vain in my leg to relieve pressure. But that went very smoothly. And of course Charlotte was a bit smaller than average, causing her to not be able to regulate her blood sugar level right a way. This meant she was hooked up to an IV and had to stay in the hospital a few days extra. But compared to what could have happened, it was still a walk in the park for us.

Pregnancy is never without risk, but if you have a medical condition that can cause even more complications, it can cause quite some anxiety. There isn't a day that goes by that I don't realise how thankful I should be for having such a positive experience. I am the best possible scenerio and I have a gorgeous healthy little girl to proof it. I'm very Lucky! I wanted to share this story because this is the story I needed to read when I was pregnant. Getting diagnosed with KTS or any other diagnoses for that matter doesn't automatically have to mean you have to give up on your dreams. You can be the success story!

Kisses!