I’ve always been partial to an Emma Bridgewater design and just discovered these Emma Bridgewater diffusers.

Perfect Christmas gifts for those people who have everything and can also be used as a vase between fragrance refills.

I am gifting many of these this Christmas so thought I’d share the discovery.

The Botanist has become one of my favourite local haunts, a cool, quirky place in the centre of Alderley Edge.  A great venue for a relaxing working lunch or catching up with friends over dinner or just to pop in for a cocktail to get the weekend off to a good start.  I have done all of the above but I have never taken my children there, until now and now I have, I will again.

The Botanist invited Lil’ H and Diva G to come and try out their new kids menu, so a different kind of Friday night was planned.  A change from the usual end of week flop on the sofa and brace ourselves for the weekend endurance test that is ballet, tennis, swimming lessons and usually one, if not more, birthday parties to attend.  The kids and I spruced ourselves up and went out for Friday tea.

I’ve always loved the quirky eclectic collections that create the aged-potting-shed interior theme at The Botanist.  I love the look and feel it creates.  It had never crossed my mind just how much that provides for the younger, ever inquisitive minds of children, there was just so much to look at and discover.  Here are my two checking out some butterflies:

Great choice, value & beautiful details

Clearly a lot of thought had gone in to the fact that children would be the diners and what would engage them.  Made me stop and think about how often we had eaten in allegedly family friendly restaurants when actually the meal was just the same but a smaller portion of an adults.  At The Botanist the kids meals are accompanied by small knives and forks, presented with children in mind, designed to put a smile on their face and that they did.

The menu offers all the popular choices chicken, fish, burgers, sausages but you’d be very mistaken if you interpreted popular to mean usual.  The difference is in the detail, and details there are, as what arrived at our table was great fun.  Lil H’s scampi came in a basket with rice paper butterflies on the lid and side salad, Diva G’s mini burgers were just the cutest and her beans came in mini flowerpots and they both came with ketchup in a wheel barrow.  What is not to love about that?  Don’t worry you aren’t paying extra for these finishing touches, in fact at £5.95 for a children’s meal with an ice-cream dessert that brings the unexpected to your table it’s cheaper than the far less exciting children’s menu at Pizza Express.  Fantastic value for money and my kids really loved it.

I was permitted a small taster of each and they were delicious, I am a huge fan of The Botanist’s menu with hanging kebabs being my favourite but the empty plate and basket is all the testament any parent needs.  The best was saved for last which arrived in the form of dessert.  This wasn’t just any old kids ice-cream, this was The Botanist’s kids ice-cream, with a touch of Heston.  A wooden tray arrived with a mini beach bucket containing their scoops of ice-cream placed on a beach of crushed ginger biscuit sand with chocolate and sweetie pebbles.  Amaze!

Happy kids, happy mum.  Did I mention The Botanist makes fabulous cocktails?  Even happier mum!  The Botanist is a great place to meet up with friends with the kids, as well as without the kids.

Thank you to Lindsey and the team for inviting Lil H and Diva G to try out the new kids menu, we loved it and we have already been back!

Website:  http://thebotanist.uk.com/ 
Twitter:  @TheBotanistAE
Facebook facebook.com/thebotanist

I have two kids, my own business, no cleaner, no gardener, not enough money and not enough time.  

It’s 10pm I have a to do list across two sides of A4.  

This is why!

It only took the lions share of two years to get booked in for a child free stay at fab boutique hotel, Fishmore Hall in Shropshire. This was Mr L’s Birthday gift from his parents in 2012 but that’s where I’ve just returned from a lovely mini break away. I’m always on the hunt these days for ideas I’d like to bring to our home and there were a few I spotted this weekend.

Bathrooms
I miss my beautiful bathrooms from our old house. I look forward to staying at friends or in hotels to have a bath or shower in a nice bathroom – even the Travelodge at London City Airport is much nicer than what is on offer at my home. I won’t lie. It definitely gets me down. I loved this weekends bathtub and I was surprised as it looked a bit square and angular but it was really comfy and I thoroughly enjoyed my soak!

Floor joining strips
There was also a really neat approach to managing the tiled bathroom floor meets bedroom carpet challenge. Handled fabulously with a complementary strip of granite stone allowing both floorings to be neatly finished beneath. That works, I like it!

Lighting
I’m definitely a ceiling spot light fan with room lamps to create atmosphere, but sometimes central and wall lights work too. A single style throughout was really impactful and at Fishmore Hall they had these rather fab contemporary crystal fittings that looked great and really created a consistent look and feel whilst allowing different spaces to be used for different purposes.

They created fab reflections too, look:

Current house build status, with planning permission, without funds, saving and idea collection in progress!

The kitchen windowsill was starting to resemble a mini jungle. The basil plant I’d bought because they didn’t have a small packet had been doing some serious growing but it felt wasteful to just bin it so I thought I’d give making pesto a whirl. News just in… it’s super easy, delicious and keeps really well in the fridge. Here’s mine, the recipe and the how to…

Ingredients
2 oz (50 g) fresh basil leaves
1 large clove garlic, crushed
1 level tablespoon pine nuts
6 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
1 oz (25 g) Pecorino Romano, grated
salt

Method
If you have a blender, put the basil, garlic, pine nuts and olive oil together with some salt in the goblet and blend until you have a smooth purée. Then transfer the purée to a bowl and stir in the grated Pecorino cheese.

If you don’t have a blender I say buy pesto! Delia says use a pestle and mortar to pound the basil, garlic and pine nuts to a paste then stir in the other ingredients. The choice is yours!