A Modern Mother

Christmas baking and Christmas past

My mother is visiting from California. When she is here, we always try to cram in as much as we can. However, our plans to go into London for one of the National Gallery's children's programmes were ruined when hubby was turned out to be. (BTW- have your tried the National Gallery programme yet? That's a whole other post). So we decided to stay home and bake!

Charity shop challenge: the scarf or the necklace?

Back at the charity shops again this weekend. I found this black M&S turtleneck (£5.99 at Oxfam). Plain, yes, but oh so versatile. But I can't decide. Do you like it with this tapestry scarf (£4.99 Oxfam)?

Charity shop bargains: My £5.99 shabby chic coat!

What can I say? I love bargains. They always go over well with Scottish hubby too. 

Do you care about women's football? You should

My quest to raise the profile of girls' football in the UK brought me to Wembley stadium on Sunday afternoon. It was an eerily foggy day - the famous Wembley arch nearly invisible though I could sense it towering overhead.

The stadium was filled with about 200 youths, there for an once-in-a-lifetime afternoon of celeb coaching sponsored by McDonalds. Pat Jennings was teaching a group of boys in green striped jerseys how to use their body to be more effective goalies. Oh, look there's Geoff Hurst (yes, he's still around). Andrew Cole was helping a group perfect passing. Gareth Southgate (ooh, he's cute) strode by and stopped to instruct a group of girls.

The Kodak Christmas Photo Craft Challenge

I am working on a project with Kodak through BritMums to help get the word out about Christmas crafts -- using photos!

I'd like to create a simple Christmas card, and I've found the perfect image! Looking through my iPhone, I found this photo I took last year, right after one of the big snows in December. As we were walking with our sldges, this old fashioned automobile turned the corner, and it just looked a bit sureal.

Anyway, here's the photo:

I thought I could antique it with an app, and then put into a card.

Can anyone recommend a good holiday card template?

Pan-fried lemon sole with capers and parsley

So, I got my latest fish box from Delish Fish in Petershead, Scotland. This time is was perfectly vacuum- packed fresh Lemon Sole fillets. Ah, I thought to myself, this will be easy. I know that if kids don't like fish, it is likely that they WILL like Lemon Sole, because of it's mild flavour. FYI -- If you don't already know, by the cute little badge at the side of my blog, I'm participating in the Fish is the Dish campaign to help show that fish IS easy to prepare (if I can do it, so can you).