My future as a blogger, and as a SAHM

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My Monkey turns 5 next month, I’ve been a SAHM for nearly 5 years and a blogger for a little over 4 years. And in all honesty I’m not sure how much longer that I will be either of those things. I have loved my time at home with the kiddies while they have been small, and my blog has been a real lifeline for much of that time. Connecting with other mums, sharing thoughts and ideas. Sharing the updates about my beautiful children. Sharing the downsides and hardships of being a SAHM and sharing my postnatal depression.

I’ve had ups and downs with blogging but for the most part I have loved it. For a while though, that love has been waning. I’ve struggled to give it the time and energy my blog really needs to be successful. I’ve stopped minding whether it even is succesful, and have just carried on sharing as and when I have felt like it.

I still have ups and downs. Days and weeks where I seem to find more time and more inspiration and resolve to do better to give more attention to my blog. Then I have days and weeks where I just can’t be bothered, to be honest. So I wonder how long to keep blogging… And I don’t really know the answer.

As for being a SAHM, as I mentioned above, it has been wonderful… But I don’t love it as much as I once did. I feel somehow wrong admitting that. I’ve been so lucky that I have been able to be a SAHM, and I wouldn’t change it for the world. LM starts preschool in a month, just a couple of mornings a week, but both she and I need that time. As we gradually increase her time at pre-school, my plan is to start working part time in some capacity.

The truth is I need more now. I have raised my babies at home with me. I have taken pride in their achievements and seen many of them as my own too. I taught them to count, to recognise their colours, to be kind and for the most part we’ll behaved. That’s been my job. But I feel I need something other than being mummy. This isn’t going to happen over night as there are many things to consider but I think my days as a full time SAHM are limited.

I think that may be one of (many) the reasons my love for the blog is waning. It is called Becoming a SAHM… if I’m not going to be a SAHM anymore… What do I do? Change the name and the whole purpose of the site?

I’m not completely ready to hang up either Cape quite yet. There are some more things I would like to blog about (having one of those weeks I mentioned before, where I want to do it again) and a couple of PR things to complete, though I’m not sure I’ll accept any more. Apologies to anyone who has emailed recently. It is hard enough to find the time and energy to write things I want to write these days, let alone writing things for someone else.

Do you ever doubt your future as a blogger?

What do I want from my blog?

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I’ve lost my blogging mojo a bit lately. I just haven’t had the time or energy to write much and haven’t really engaged with any there blogs and on the whole have felt like a pretty rubbish blogger. The reasons for this are varied, it has been a really busy month with hubs’ knee surgery and trip to Canada so I have had more to do and have been more tired but I also know there is more to it than that. I have been questioning my blogging a lot.

I started this blog about 3 1/2 years ago, which is a bit mental really. It started off when Monkey was about 9mths old as a little hobby to help me cope with the adjustment of becoming a SAHM. In those days my posts were pretty rambling, I wasn’t on social media with the blog and had never heard of a linky so was mainly just rambling on to a few people.

Then I joined twitter and the world of linkies and wow did my blogging life change. Soon my blog was a major part of my life and my stats shot up. I redesigned my site and things went from strength to strength. I was constantly thinking about my next post and I was loving it. Then LM came along and the truth is I haven’t been able to keep my blog at the level it used to he since she came along. For a long time I just about managed but it was exhausting and eventually I scaled back a bit. I have still been thinking about what I want to write but I don’t always have the time to actually write the posts.

I hate not do something wholeheartedly and have struggled with the scaling back of my blog. I feel disconnected from so many of the lovely bloggers I used to talk to a lot more and to be honest on the periphery of the blogging world a lot. I hardly ever remember to reply to PRs who email me and to my shame have been guilty of link dumping. Not intentionally but I lose track of what I have linked up to and then feel terrible. I try and go back to every link but have a feeling that sometimes I miss some. And there are times when I read someone’s post… And then go blank when it is time to write a comment. I hate writing bland platitudes as a comment so sometimes just don’t say anything.

Britmums live was interesting as I saw so many fabulous bloggers there having a great time together and it’s not like I am jealous, I guess I just don’t feel like part of that world as much at the moment. I don’t feel like a blogger.

I wonder what the point is in writing my blog. Does anyone really care what we got up to last weekend, or what my opinion is about things? Do I have anything new to share that doesn’t get shared a million times by other bloggers who can put it a lot better than I can anyway?

So do I give up? When something has been a big part of who you are for over 3 years that is not so easy. Especially when there is lots I love about it.

I love that it is a record of my little ones’ childhood. A record of them growing up and developing. A record of the fun we have together and a record of their relationship.

I love that it is a way for me to share all the million photographs that I take of my children, I know I take far too many but I love it and it is nice to have somewhere to share them without bombarding old friends on Facebook with them.

It gives me a place to vent my thoughts. I don’t share everything on the blog as some things should be kept private, but it has helped me so many times to get my thoughts out and process them. I do also love that this has the potential to help others. The thing about the world we live in is that we are never the first or only person to be experiencing a certain thing but if we don’t share our experiences it is easy to feel alone. I know that sharing my postnatal depression has helped others while also helping me and I am proud of that.

So when I think about these things I don’t want to give it up. What I need to do instead is for the time being to scale it back even further and come to terms with that. I will join in with the occasional linky when I have the time but won’t be joining in to any on a weekly basis. I’m sorry but I would rather join in properly occasionally than join in half heartedly regularly and risk link dumping and upsetting the hosts.

So my stats may shrink even further and I will probably be even more disconnected with the blogging world… But actually I think I am OK with that. Our real life is really busy and I want to focus on enjoying that and blog when I can and when I want to. I guess in many ways I am going back to where I started! When Monkey is settled at school in September I may find I have more time and will rethink then.

So in the meantime I will still be here sporadically and you will hear from me occasionally and I will still love to hear from you even if you won’t see at many linkies anymore! Oh and I love instagram so do follow me on there if you want to see what we are up to! I’m @becomingasahm xx

I get by, with a little help from my friends

Posted by Caroline Elliott

My word of the week this week, is friends, because I am incredibly grateful for the wonderful friends have in my life and honestly don’t know how I would cope without them!

Last Friday night my closest Mummy friends and I got together for a much needed catch up and meal out. We all worked together pre-children and since having our little munchkins we have gotten so close. We share the ups and the downs and though we really are all quite different, we support each other and are 100% there for each other. As one of my friends put it the other night, we are so lucky we found each other. It had been far too long since our last catch up without children and I hope we don’t leave it so long next time. We got things off our chests, shared the highs and lows of life lately and gave each other a good talking to where needed. Love my girls and I felt so happy and chilled afterwards.

I’ve also had some lovely time with some newer mummy friends this week and play dates with their little ones. Since Monkey started our local preschool I have gotten to know a few of the local mums. I am a bit of an introvert so find the playground mums thing really awkward but there are a couple of mums I really get on with. One in particular introduced me to someone as the first mummy friend she had met who she would have been friends with pre-children, which I was really touched by. She and I really click which is lovely as her eldest will be in Monkey’s class at primary school, so I think we have many years of friendship ahead of us! Some of the other mummies I chat to on the playgroup run are equally lovely and sometimes just those few mins chatting at the beginning and end of the day, sharing trials and tribulations really can make so much difference to how I feel at the end of the day.

I have also felt incredibly grateful for the friendship and support I get online as a result of my blog and social media this week. Parenting can be so hard, and after sharing a particularly low morning on Instagram and Facebook, the support and encouragement I got from cyber friends was incredible. Many are women I have never met but thanks to the internet we are able to reach out and support each other through this motherhood journey, and I am so grateful for that.

My blog has connected me to so many wonderful people, and as I can be a bit introverted as I mentioned above, I don’t always make the most of this. I shy away from blog conferences and meeting fellow bloggers purely out of shyness and a lack of confidence in myself. But this week I have finally arranged to meet up with a blogger I have admired for some time. I am nervous but we get on so well in typing that I hope we will get on as well in person!

My blog has also reconnected me with people I have lost touch with over the years. A lovely lady I met travelling 9 years ago got in touch this week and told me how much my blog helps her through her motherhood journey, and well wow, what an awesome thing. Helping anyone with my ramblings is amazing and reconnecting with a friend from my past is always lovely. There are other lovely blogging mummies that I worked with in a previous life, and I’ve mentioned before how Sarah from Run, Jump, Scrap and I have become much closer through blogging. Our husbands have been friends since childhood so it really is great when we all get together. We have arranged to meet next weekend and I am so looking forward to that! The friendship side was just something I really never expected when I started writing my little blog but it is a fantastic bonus.

The final reason that my word of the week this week is friends, is because Saturday is my birthday, and we are having a bbq in the afternoon (fingers crossed for kind weather!) with lots of family and friends over. Once again I am so grateful for having so many lovely people in my life who are coming to celebrate with me, please cross your fingers for good weather for me, otherwise we may have a slightly crowded house!

How has your week been?

Mummy Bloggers

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Blogging had been such a help to me since becoming a mum and making the decision to be a SAHM. It has helped me share my experiences and to feel less alone thanks to the wonderful community of parent bloggers out there. There is so much power in blogging and as well as helping each other we can be quite influential.

I was recently sent the following info graphic about the rise and stats of Mummy Bloggers which I find hugely interesting.

Top 50 Mummy Bloggers In UK

Rebateszone.com

Who knew there was quite so many of us out there? I admit to being honoured to be included in the top 50 bloggers on here. I confess to being a little sceptical about this however as there are many fantastic and far more influential bloggers than I who have not made it onto this list. (Never mind the absence of any daddy bloggers…) I wonder whether it is more a chart of those of us that responded rather than a chart of the top mummy bloggers..

Hubs says I should not worry and enjoy it and I guess though I am not sure I agree I do feel very proud that someone feels that I belong on this chart alongside such wonderful company.

Whether I do belong on this chart or no I do hope that I have helped other mummies as much as other bloggers have helped me. That is all I really care about. Parenting can be so hard at times and so difficult to know if you are doing it ‘right.’ Reading other Mums’ experiences helps me to know I am not alone and that there is no ‘right’ way and that I am doing ok. I hope my blog helps other Mummies to feel the same way.

Stepping off the Merry-Go- Round, My New Approach to Blogging

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I have had a bit of a break from blogging recently and it has really made me think a lot about why I blog, what I want to get out of it and what I want going forward. I have rechecked all of my priorities and decided to make a bit of a change from here on in and focus on myself and what is right for me and as a result I will be scaling right back.

I love writing and I love creating a record for the kids when they grow up and I don’t want that to stop but I can’t let my blog take over my life the way that it has. I can’t keep getting stressed out because I haven’t managed to post in time for a linky. I can’t be glued to phone to ensure I comment on the requisite number of posts that each linky needs me to comment on. I just can’t keep up with it all. So I need to stop putting so much pressure on myself to do so.

I will still be here and I will still be writing what I want to write. I will also still be reading lots of lovely blogs and commenting when I want to comment – but not for the sake of it or because I feel I have to.

I will be stopping my MaternityMondays linky. I have really enjoyed it but I am finding it too much work at the moment. I will still be joining in with lovely linkies, but not on the scale that I was. When I have a post suitable for a certain linky I will join in but I am afraid I won’t be a regular with many linkies from now on.

I will hopefully have time to reply to comments on my blog again, I am not making any promises, but I would love to actually respond to people who take the time to comment on my blog. This has completely fallen by the wayside over recent months and I hate that I haven’t replied to people… but I just havent been able to keep up.

I’m not worrying about my stats at all anymore. If people read it then they do, if they don’t they don’t and I need to not care about that. I am also not going to work as much with PRs anymore. I have a couple of things in the pipeline and there may well be some tempting opportunities so never say never but there definitely won’t be as much. I just can’t be bothered. I don’t want to be a professional blogger, this is a hobby not a job for me. I don’t want to write anything because someone else wants me to and I don’t want anyone else having any say about what the content is of my blog. It is my blog and it is for me (and anyone else who wishes to read it).

I won’t be worrying about what people think when they read my posts. I won’t be writing things for the sake of it or in the hope that it will get people to like me.

For me that has been a big downside of blogging. I don’t have a whole lot of self-worth if I’m honest, this isn’t a pity party and I don’t generally talk about it on here because I haven’t the time or energy to rehash it all but there are some things that have happened in my life that have not given me a whole lot of self-worth. After telling me most of life that he had nothing worth living for my Dad eventually lived up to his word and committed suicide. I know it wasn’t about me but when your own father doesn’t even think you are worth being alive for it doesn’t give you the best opinion of yourself growing up.

Then years later my group of best friends, who I thought really knew me and got me, proved that they didn’t. They believed me to be capable of doing, saying and thinking things that I would never have done, said or thought. Some of us got through it but most of those friendships ended. I am in a much better place now than I was then and I do have wonderful friends now who do really know me. But that experience left behind some nasty scars. I am very guarded and always worry that what I do or say will be misinterpreted. Maybe it was my fault. Maybe I am as awful as they thought and it will happen again?

I was sent a meme recently with a question that asked what I thought people liked most about me. This is what sparked a lot of my thinking of late because I really realised that I have no idea why people like me. I wouldn’t even like to hazard a guess and I realised at this just how badly my self-worth has been damaged. I’m not writing this for sympathy. I am writing this as I realised that actually much of the community side of blogging isn’t helping me. It appeals to my needy attention seeking side, wanting people to like me, to get me. And I don’t think it is that healthy.

I have a husband who adores me and children who love me as much as I love them. My family is amazing and supportive and lovely. My mum and step dad are wonderful as are my in-laws. I have amazing friends who do know me and do like me/love me. I don’t need the whole world or the whole blogging community to like me. I don’t need new best friends.

I’m not knocking the blogging community here… on the whole it has been very good for me. I have received so much support with my PND and difficult times and there are so so many wonderful bloggy ladies out there. The problem lies with me and I need to take control and work on myself. I need to stop competing or feeling I have to ‘keep up with the Joneses’ so to speak.

I don’t want to stop blogging entirely as blogging inspires me to be a better parent. I have found so many wonderful ideas for playing with the kids, for cooking, for parenting, for everything. It makes me think and question myself and find ways to improve myself. I also love so many wonderful blogs that I still want to know what you are all up to, how you are getting on and support you in the way that you have supported me. I just need to get off the merry-go-round of constantly blogging and linking up and give myself a break.

Rules for Me & Choosing to be Happy

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Regular readers will know that I have recently accepted that I have postnatal depression. I am taking antidepressants and things are definitely improving. The medication isn’t a miracle cure though and I have to play my part too. I need to change the way I think about some things to help get through this and I have come up with some “rules” for me to live by.

I actually came up with a number of these before accepting I have PND and was trying to manage it by myself. I didn’t manage and I did and do need the help but that doesn’t mean that these rules are any less valid.

My rules are:

Stop being mean to yourself. You are not fat and disgusting, stupid or incompetent. (Honestly I am meaner to myself than I ever would be to anyone else!)

Be kind to yourself and make more time for you.

Take deep breaths when things go wrong (rather than f-ing & blinding under my breath, slamming doors and stomping around like a teenager – this one may be tricky)

Don’t let the fact that one thing has gone wrong ruin the rest of the day or make you forget what a lovely time you were having until that point. It hasn’t ruined anything and won’t last forever.

Have realistic expectations. Both of yourself, your plans and of the children. I need to accept that perfection doesn’t exist and unfortunately things won’t always go smoothly. If LM is off routine then I must take a deep breath and go with it rather than stressing about it.

Be more organised. One of my biggest stresses about 4 times a day is working out what to feed LM, so I have created a meal plan a week in advance to remove the stress of that multiple times a day. (We already meal plan for the rest of the family.)

Set times to do things and make lists so you can feel you have achieved something (rather than just getting weighed down by a seemingly endless mental list)

Don’t try and squeeze things in when looking after the kids – I get so frustrated when I am trying to blog but have a child jumping on my head or kicking me in the ribs, when really they just want my attention

Have two blogging evenings a week. No TV on those days.

Remember that blogging doesn’t have to be a competition. You didn’t start blogging to win awards etc.

Write and do what makes you happy.

Do more exercise. I have been saying I need to do this for ages but have so far been lazy and not done so! My diet did me well for a while but I have had enough of it for the time being. I am doing lots of walking and that and looking after the kids is helping me maintain my loss but I need to tone up and strengthen my muscles as I am very weak and I have no core strength at all. So I have started some yoga and pilates at home and my brother’s girlfriend and I are starting to play badminton every week next week so that should be fun!

Enjoy the kiddies. Too often I get annoyed when the kids won’t play on their own so I can get on with jobs – when I should be making the most of my time with them and having fun, that is why I am a SAHM after all!

Definitely enough rules to be going on with and I have to keep reminding myself at the moment but I do feel like they are helping me …. that and the sheer quantity of chocolate I have consumed in the lately. I am being kinder to myself…. though I really need to keep up with the exercise so that I don’t put back on all the weight I have lost this year!!

Do you have “rules” that you live by?

Recognition

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I wasn’t sure if I was going to write a word of the week this week as it has been a bit of a mixed bag. Some parts of the week have been absolutely lovely, others really hard with LM and honestly I am a bit fed up about banging on about the difficult days, so I wasn’t sure what word I would use.

Then I woke this morning to a pingback, a little email telling me I had been included in a Tots100 article – a real first for me – titled Five blogs for Parenting Advice. To be included amongst such awesome company as the other bloggers felt pretty incredible. But what really, sincerely touched me, was what the author said about my blog, and one of my posts in particular. She said that it had genuinely helped her and her little one. This meant so so much to me.

I blog primarily for my own sanity. It is a way to keep my brain working and exercised while I am surrounded by nappies and crumbs and toys every day of my life. It also serves as a lovely record of our family journey which I hope I will treasure in the years to come. I also blog in the hope that something I say may be able to help someone else. I am no saint and I know it sounds cliche saying I want to help people, but becoming a Mum is the hardest thing I have ever done and it is challenging and lonely at times. If by sharing my experiences I can help another Mum feel, even for 30 seconds, that they are not alone, then I am ecstatic. Or if I can share a technique that actually helps them get some more sleep or avoid a mealtime battle, then I am thrilled. It makes me feel that my blog has a purpose.

I have noticed this week that the ramp up to the Bibs has started with lots of posts about why people hope to be nominated. Of course I would be lying if I said I didn’t hope for a nomination, who wouldn’t want that recognition? But there is so much talent out there in the blogging community that I am pretty realistic about my chances of winning. I thought about writing a post showcasing some of my favourite blogs to vote for rather than asking for votes for myself, but I don’t even know which blogs to choose and nominate for my own vote as there are so many amazing bloggers that it feels unfair to choose some over others. I may yet try as I would love to see some of my favourite bloggers up there getting awards or at the very least receiving a nomination.

I guess that what I am trying to say is that while winning an award for my blog would be amazing for me, being included in this article felt a little like winning an award. Someone out there felt that what I had written was worthy of comment. Someone out there felt that my blog genuinely helped them through a tricky time. I couldn’t ask for more.

So regardless of awards I will continue blogging. I will carry on sharing my experiences, good and bad, and the things that have, and haven’t worked for us. In the hope that I can help a few other Mummies through this amazing yet challenging experience.

Blog Nicknames

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I have been thinking a bit about nicknames lately and the nicknames we give our kiddies on our blogs. When I started blogging the original aim was to be much more anonymous – there wasn’t going to be any pictures of Monkey’s face and I didn’t even have my full name associated with it. At 9 months old Monkey was an actual nickname for our little baba and so it made sense for him to be known as Monkey on the blog.

Over time I realised how hard it was to keep the blog anonymous. I reached a point where I wanted to show Monkey’s face as seeing his enjoyment of playtime activities made more sense with the posts. Plus he was so cute and rather than baby spamming my personal facebook I felt my blog could be the place where I shared the cute pictures and gushed over him a little.

Then as I became more involved in social media my name became more relevant and with linking up facebook pages and google plus profiles I just accepted that my name was well and truly associated with the blog. But I still didn’t want Monkey’s real name to be associated with blog. Not everyone will understand why and maybe it is a little futile but I guess he hasn’t had a choice about the fact that is life is played out for the world to see online and by not sharing his name he retains the tiniest shred of anonymity. If his real name was written on the blog my fear is that one day when he is a teenager, or older, if someone were to google his name, they would find the entire record of his childhood.

No doubt the internet will be entirely different by then and who knows if the blog will even be online by then. Like I said, it may be futile, but I feel it is worth trying to retain his anonymity at least!

As I mentioned, Monkey is Monkey’s actual nickname so it made sense to call him that. But with Little Miss, she obviosuly didn;t really have a nickname the second she was born, but we did need a nickname for her on the blog. It took a while to decide and Little Miss works as LM are actually 2 of her initials. But we never actually call her LM or Little Miss at home. We do have a couple of nicknames for her but they are very much related to her name so I don’t want to use them on here.

So it does feel a bit odd sometimes referring to her as LM on here. I find the best nicknames are the ones that evolve naturally. I remember a girl at school saying she wanted a cool nickname and I was very much of the opinion that you can’t choose your nickname, they usually come from nowhere and sometimes they randomly stick. I have had a few nicknames over the years, Cazzabella, which I liked, Poodoo (because my maiden name was Pardoe) which I didn’t like, Paparazzi Pardoe because I always took photos but this ended when I got married, and one I am very glad didn’t stick was Flatuline from my charming roommate at uni!

So I am not really sure what to do, I do call her a cheeky madam sometimes, or cheeky minx or fidget pants but am not sure how long they will hang around. We will stick with LM for now and then see if another nickname sticks in the future I guess!

Are your children anonymous on your blog? what were your reasons for this? If you do have nicknames, how hard were they to come up with?

My word of the week is Nicknames 🙂

Determined to feel Positive

Posted by Caroline Elliott

I made a conscious decision that my word for this week was going to be positive. Normally, I see how the week goes and think about the best word to fit. This week however I decided in advance that my word this week was going to be “Positive”.

Because, at the end of last week I was feeling decidedly negative. I made the decision to apply to be a Butlins Ambassador, and while I would absolutely love the opportunity, part of me actually feels like I wish I hadn’t gone for it. Why? because they wanted to know all of my blogger stats. Page views, followers etc. In general I try not to think too much about these kinds of things, mainly because whenever you start comparing yourself to others it is easy to fall into the trap of thinking you aren’t doing as well as them. But to apply I had to provide them with this information and I felt like I was doing well enough or something.

Continue reading →

A Cake Decorating Masterclass with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro

Posted by Caroline Elliott

Buddy Valastro, AKA Cake Boss, is an awesomely talented New Jersey Baker who has become a household name in the US, and across the world. Having watched his show a lot, I have also attempted to make his amazing Red Velvet Cake recipe in the past, and have blogged about it. This blog post led to me receiving an invite to meet the man himself! I couldn’t believe it! After much excitement I agreed and made all the arrangements to head to London for the evening.

Last Monday was The Night! I headed to L’atelier Des Chefs in London for a Masterclass in Cake Decorating and to meet the amazing Buddy. I was excited, nervous, awestruck… but you know what, I had so much fun, and he was LOVELY!

The man himself arrived!

He was such a lovely, genuine guy and seemed genuinely happy to meet us all! There was a real mixture of people there from die-hard fans, to journalists, digital media marketing peeps and a few of us bloggers (including the lovely Lucy from Capture by Lucy, and it was great to meet her!). There may have been more variety than that even, there was quite a few people there and I didn’t get to speak to everyone!

After meeting Buddy and his UK ambassador Juliet Sear we headed in to the kitchen where Buddy gave a demonstration of some of his techniques, giving us decorating tips and showcasing his range of products which you can buy (more on that later). He was also answering a lot of questions, on a whole variety of subjects including the balance of personal/private life with filming a reality TV show – to why he does what he does. He was very lovely and genuine and took it all with real aplomb. He said that for him it is all about family – he wants people to bake as a family and show people that anyone can do it. And you know what, I believed him.

Then it was our turn to have a go at decorating cakes. The hard bit of baking, trimming and shaping the cakes had been done in advance so all we had to do was decorate, but it was for a competition judged by Buddy! Yipes! Right off I made a mess of my fondant so he helped me sort it out and we had a lovely piccy together and a brief chat, though I was a bit awestruck to ask any serious questions not related to cake decorating – sorry everyone!

The lovely Lucy from Capture by Lucy

I got the fondant on the cake with the help of his handy smoother tool… (ok so it’s not THAT smooth, but better than I’ve ever managed before!)

But then didn’t really know what to do, and instead of forming a plan, I decided to just have some fun and try out some different techniques, some of which I managed better than others!! My drop lines were not particularly effective as they kept falling off the cake. Think I need some more practice there!!

I was having lots of fun then I looked round and realised some people were actually taking it pretty seriously…. and their cakes looked fab! Oops! So I panicked and stuck a layer of fondant over my messy creation in a last ditch attempt to make it a bit more appealing? (Not sure it worked??!)

Then it was judging time and there was so many fab cakes to choose from (not including mine – though shhh I don’t think mine was the absolute worst – but it was down there with them!) and he chose a lovely cake with a bow decorated by Kirsten at The Little Wedding Helper.

The evening was over and I got my pinny signed by the man himself, and a couple more snaps to remember the evening!

As we were leaving we got an awesome goody bag with a Cake Boss DVD, Baking Tips book, a Cake decorating kit, a book by his UK ambassador Juliet Sear and some fondant icing! Great stuff!

Some of his products were fab, I am very excited to try out the kit we got as a freebie and have popped a couple of others onto my birthday wishlist! 🙂

If you would like to buy any of the Cake Boss range I am sure there are a lot of places you can buy them but I have found them on Very.co.uk

If you would like to see Buddy in action you can catch him on TLC as follows:

The current series of Bakery Boss is on Fridays at 9pm right now

Cake Boss is on Fridays at 9pm from June

Next Great Baker is on Fridays at 9pm from September

Becoming a Stay at Home Mum

Can I really do this?

blogging

My future as a blogger, and as a SAHM

What do I want from my blog?

I get by, with a little help from my friends

Mummy Bloggers

Stepping off the Merry-Go- Round, My New Approach to Blogging

Rules for Me & Choosing to be Happy

Recognition

Blog Nicknames

Determined to feel Positive

A Cake Decorating Masterclass with Cake Boss Buddy Valastro