Lifestyle

If you look through my website you’ll see that nothing’s been published for over three years! Let’s just say, life got in the way. To try and get back into the groove, I’ve signed up for the SEMrush Content Marathon.

Over the course of this week, I’ll be having a lesson per day and be following it up with an assignment. The first task is to just get writing. So here goes!

Just an average evening in the Birchley house…

Yesterday, my poorly one-year-old spent the day chilling with Granny while Mummy was at work. She had her 13 month injections last week and they’ve really knocked her for six.

Bubba was clearly tired so once we got home it was time for bed. We’ve been following the same bedtime routine for about six months now. Bottle, pjs, teeth, stories and then I turn on her Ewan the Dream Sheep and rock her to sleep while breastfeeding. This used to take about half an hour. But recently she’s started to fight sleep. The rocking becomes more like trying to wrestle a, a… well a toddler that weighs nearly two stone! On too many occasions it’s taken me over an hour to get her asleep and into bed.

Last night she went down too easily. I was back downstairs by 7.15pm and sat down to watch my SEMrush video. Within 15 minutes, she was awake and crying. It took me until 8.45pm to get her back asleep. My arms were killing me, my back was sore and I was feeling pretty emotionally exhausted.

I thought she’d now be settled for the night, so I sat back on the sofa ready to get the video watched and the assignment written. I managed to write the introduction paragraph to this post before she woke up. Cue a heavy sigh.

The next couple of hours consisted of crying, rocking, feeding, crawling across the sofa, thrashing about in bed and finally me clambering into the baby’s cot bed and falling asleep with her feeding. I woke up a little chilly to the sound of my husband coming home from work after 11pm. All that I had the energy to do after that evening was go to bed!

Motherhood is hard. But it’s also the most rewarding thing I’ve ever done. Her needs will always come before mine but I really hope she feels better soon! That cot is too small for me.

For fifteen years an increasingly dilapidated concrete arm has jutted out into the English Channel from Folkestone harbour. Once upon a time it was a railway station and passenger port with the steam trains stopping beside the steam ships departing for the continent. In 1891 it was possible to travel from London to Paris (via Folkestone and Boulogne) in just 7 hours 30 minutes.

During the First World War, Folkestone harbour was known as the ‘Gateway to the Trenches’ as millions of troops headed for the front line. With the last ferry leaving in September 2000 and the harbour branch line officially closed in 2014, Folkestone harbour is now waiting for development.

The refurbishment of the harbour arm, a £3.5 million project, is presenting Folkestone with a pleasure pier for residents and locals to enjoy. The Folkestone harbour arm consists of a lit walkway that goes all the way to the lighthouse at the end, pop up cafes to delight foodies and live entertainment.

The harbour arm lets you get a whole new perspective on Folkestone. My husband and I visited on the first day it opened and the weather was stunning.

Folkestone’s harbour arm will be open Friday evenings, Saturdays and Sundays all summer. Check out their Facebook page for the latest news.

Nearest station: Folkestone Central 1 mile – 54 minutes from London St Pancras International. Book online with Southeastern before 24th August to save 25% on off-peak tickets.

What better way to spend a Saturday afternoon than stuffing your face with yummy food? Last weekend my sister and I headed up to Chislehurst to check out the newly refurbished Bull’s Head pub. They’ve given their interior a brand new look and added their gorgeous English tea room complete with patterned tiled floor, tea cup light fittings and oodles of light flooding in through the glass roof.

The pub also has B&B rooms and a function room. There was an event on when we visited, which made parking in the car park impossible. After a little bit of fun trying to get back out again we found a nice space just a couple of minute’s walk away in front of the church.

Once we were seated at our table we got down to choosing our afternoon tea option. The options are a most traditional afternoon tea which comes with a choice of teas or coffee, a most unusual afternoon tea that’s served with a Hendricks gin cocktail in a teapot or a most decadent afternoon tea served with champagne. My sister and I both chose the traditional afternoon tea, Sarah had the Bull’s Head Blend tea and I opted for Blue Lady.

It wasn’t too long before the food came and we got stuck in straight away. The menu says ‘artisan bread’. I’m not sure what makes the bread artisan but the sandwiches were very tasty and didn’t last very long as we wolfed them down. Our afternoon tea was at 3pm and all I’d had to eat all day was a bowl of cereal in the morning because I didn’t want anything to spoil this experience.

I felt I should have a break before moving onto the tiny cakes but that was never going to happen. We both eagerly tucked in and enjoyed every last morsel. My favourite was this cute cube that looks a bit like a custard with a sponge layer at the bottom. I don’t know what it was but the coloured bits inside tasted amazing! So fruity.

The other cakes were a sponge topped with jam and coconut, my first macaron, a chocolate tart with a fruit filling topped with chocolate ganache, and a fruit tart. All were delicious. The last layer was the scones, cream and jam. These beat us. I don’t know if it was the fact that we tackled the scones last but I wasn’t that keen on them. They seemed a little dry and there could have been more cream and jam but that’s because I love mine slathered in both! Had we not been so full I’m sure we could have asked for a little more.

Overall, we both really enjoyed our afternoon tea at the Bull’s Head in Chislehurst. It made a nice change and it was a lovely place to spend some girly time. I’d recommend the Bull’s Head as it’s the ideal place to linger while having a good natter. At £15pp for the traditional afternoon tea option, it’s not cheap so it would be ideal for a special occasion or treat.

I had to get a photo of the refurbished restaurant as it’s gorgeous.

Many thanks to the Bull’s Head and Roche Communications for providing my sister and I with a complimentary afternoon tea for review purposes.

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The Bull’s Head

Royal Parade, Chislehurst, Kent, BR7 8NR

Afternoon tea served daily between 2pm and 5pm

To book, phone 020 8467 1727

Today’s prompt for Blog Every Day in May is ‘share the blog love’ so I’m going to share with you some of the blogs that I visit the most. I love reading these blogs and feel inspired to either make things, cook, or just generally ready to get up and at ’em!

1 – A Beautiful Mess

Elsie and Emma are sisters living in America’s Midwest. A Beautiful Mess is much bigger than a blog, it’s a whole lifestyle company, but on the blog you can find home decor inspiration, recipes and crafts. I’ve never actually made anything that they’ve posted a DIY on but one day I will! I just have a feeling it won’t come out the same…

Fancy customising your shower curtain? Statement shower curtain DIY.

2 – The Everygirl

The Everygirl was the blog that inspired me to create Chapterthirty. It features interviews with awesome career girls, fabulous home tours and loads more. Its downside is that it’s US-centric, which is why I wanted to create a resource for British women. I haven’t been able to find anything similar to The Everygirl in the UK.

Check out this New York apartment home tour. Perhaps you can channel a bit of the ol’ Big Apple in your flat.

3 – The Travel Hack

The lovely Monica is living her dream. She’s a full time blogger who gets to travel the world plus she’s in the process of renovating a house and she’s a new mum to the gorgeous George. Basically, her life is pretty appealing to me.

Here’s a great post about how to travel the world with a 9-5 job.

4 – IHeart Organizing

I actually stumbled across Jen’s blog while researching an article about storage for work. I fell in love immediately. I’m such a messy person who would love to be organised, I’m just not really programmed that way. Jen has three boys and her home is so beautiful. I’d love to have a pantry just so I could organise it!

These DIY cereal box drawer dividers are such a brilliant way to organise your kitchen or desk drawers.

5 – Fleur de Force

Here’s another girl with an amazing life. Fleur and her gorgeous hubby Mike live in a wonderful house in the countryside with their cute puppies. I’m definitely having a cocker spaniel once I buy a house. She’s best known for her YouTube channels. My favourite is her vlog channel as I love the insight into her life that you get.

Here’s Fleur’s latest vlog where she has breakfast with Bobbi Brown.

Who are your favourite bloggers?

Come back tomorrow for ‘home sweet home’.

This Cinco de Mayo celebrate with a tasty (and a little bit naughty!) treat that’s surprisingly cheap. The other week, Lidl were celebrating the tastes of Spain and had a great range of Iberian goodies available including these frozen churros.

If you’ve never had them, churros are like strings of donuts that are deep fried and tend to be eaten with coffee or hot chocolate for breakfast. You can also buy them from street food stalls to enjoy at any time.

The last time I had churros was at Broadstairs Food Festival, and the time before that was in Mallorca. I love them and was very excited to find them in the freezer section at Lidl.

Rather than having to make the dough and pipe it into the fryer, now all you need to do is grab however many you want out of the freezer and either deep or shallow fry them.

I prepared a simple cinnamon sugar to sprinkle over the churros and because it’s Cinco de Mayo I added a few dried chilli flakes.

Scrummy!

What frozen gems have you found lately? Share your secret in the comments. I promise I won’t tell anyone….

This post forms part of the Blog Every Day in May challenge. Tomorrow’s prompt is ‘share the blog love’. Follow along with all my BEDM posts here.