My matcha challenge

Have you ever heard of matcha tea?  I think I have, many months (even a year?) ago but had never tried it – until now!

Matcha tea is said to be the superhero amongst teas.  One serving is equivalent to 15 cups of regular green tea (that’s 137 times the antioxidants of regular green tea!).  I love drinking green tea so when I heard that fine fact it caught my interest immediately.  I was contacted by the lovely staff at TeaPigs last month to see if I would be interested in taking the matcha challenge in January. 

Here is what their website says about matcha tea.  It’s worth a read!

All I have to do for this challenge is have a serving of matcha every day. That’s 1/4 of a teaspoon.

Let me tell you.  This tea is no joke!

There are different ways of drinking matcha and so far during this challenge I’ve drank it as a shot (just mixed with some fruit juice), I’ve made a matcha latte, and I’ve had it just in boiling water as you would any other tea.  It has quite a strong taste, and I’ve enjoyed it all three ways so far, but I’d say I prefer the shot first, the latte second, and the good ol’ fashioned way third.  I’m 6 days in!

What do I have to do?  Basically just see how I feel!  How are my energy levels? Do I get the “boost” it promises? Am I noticing any other benefits, like feeling slimmer or differences in my hair, skin and nails? So far – I have noticed the boost in energy, and 5 out of 6 days I’ve cut my coffee consumption from three cups to two. Still hoping to bring that down to one.

If any of you are interested in purchasing matcha tea, I have a 20% off code for you.

MATCHABLOG12 – offer ends Feb 12th!

 

Like I said, this tea is no joke!

So far I’m really enjoying it and I’m thinking about ordering some more!

I’ll report back once the challenge is over to let you know how the rest of it went.

In the meantime, follow other bloggers, tea drinkers and I who are doing the challenge on twitter!  #teapigsmatchachallenge

A great start

How it everyone’s start to 2012 going?  We have had a great couple of days so far.

Steve and I stayed in on New Year’s Eve after a fun day of shopping and taking Sophie to a local play center which she absolutely loved.

I love letting her explore on her own and interact with the other children.  It gives her some independence.  But that’s not to say we didn’t have fun either hehe.

So yes, Steve and I spent New Year’s Eve hanging out with take out, a movie (Hangover 2 – hilarious!) and some wine.  It was the perfect end to the year.  I’m actually surprised I made it to midnight.  Ok, I didn’t.. but I did wake up just before Big Ben hit 12 and the fireworks went off.  The display looked amazing in London, right where the London Eye is.  Maybe we’ll get to go someday!

Yesterday I took our Christmas tree down and tried to put things in order a bit.  It’s still a work in progress (Sophie was spoiled this year as usual), but we’re getting there. I have a lot more decorations this year that need to go into storage.  Somehow we collected a lot more!

I started the year off right with a three mile run yesterday.  I ran my last mile in 8:48! Seriously. I sprinted to the finish. This is exactly why I love my garmin, it challenges me to push myself!

One of my goals this year (I have many) is to keep up with exercise like I have been.  It helps me to feel my best and I love the time to myself.  I want to focus more on yoga too and other forms of cardio like spin. 

This morning the weather was gorgeous so we took advantage of it and took Sophie to the park around the corner from where we live to feed the ducks!

I love doing things like this together, and it cost us a measly 65p (for the loaf of bread).  Sometimes it’s the little things like this that leave lasting memories.  These are the things I want do this year.  We don’t always need extravagant ways of entertaining our kids (or ourselves for that matter!).

See that smile?

Hope you’ve been enjoying the start to your new year!!

What are your goals this year?

Sophie in 2011

I know I haven’t done a recap about how wonderful our Christmas was.  Trust me, it was wonderful.  I missed home and my family back in Canada but I am truly lucky to have such a wonderful family here.  I figured as it is New Years Eve, I would take a  look back at some of my favourite pictures from the year!

January – 6 months old

February

 

March

April

May

June – Sophie turns 1!

July

August

September

  October

 

November

 

December- 18 months old

 

I hope 2012 brings you and your loved ones good health, joy and many great memories!

Happy New Year!

Merry Christmas

Sophie has visited Santa a few times this season!  Twice with Steve and I and once with her Grandma and Grandpa.  The first time we went to Santa’s grotto there was a huge display with lots of different “animals” and a post box to Santa.

 

(blurry but cute nonetheless)

    

Sophie sat so nicely on the bean bag chair listening to Santa and “talking” to him with her constant chatter.  I was surprised she didn’t play strange whatsoever.

She walked away from that visit with a new puzzle that she has nearly figured out already!

Earlier this week for the third and final time we took her again (to a different Santa location) and this time I wanted a picture with her on Santa’s knee.  It was all going swimmingly. 

She seemed to really love the elf display.

And then as soon as we got in there she walked up to him, with a smile on her face.  I tried to put her on his knee but she wasn’t going to go anywhere near him after that.  She got upset, wiggled off and wanted nothing to do with it.  The super friendly lady elf said well, looks like this is going to be a family photo!

And then this was born.

I have to say, I’m pretty happy with it! 

Merry Christmas from our family to yours!

Canvas Dezign Review

A little while ago a company called Canvas Dezign contacted me to see if I would like to receive a canvas print and review it on the blog.  I jumped at the opportunity because one of the things I want to get going on in the new year are getting our walls filled with photos that hold memories.  While I have a few up in our home, most of our photos are in frames sitting on shelves and window sills.  This was a great start to that project! Canvas Dezign is one of the UK’s leading printers of canvases, providing high quality, bespoke prints to customers. 

The website is extremely user friendly.  It even let’s you view a sample of what your canvas could look like in your home.  The photo is printed on really good quality canvas and the picture I chose came out really clear.

This was the original photo:

Steve, Sophie and I taken in October in St. James Park in London.

I decided to go with a black and white print because that is the theme of our living room.

Here it is up on the wall.

The canvas that I ordered is 30in x 20in, so it’s quite a large canvas (although almost looks a bit small in the photo).

The website gives you a choice of having your photo stop at the edge of the canvas or wrap around.  I definitely think for this particular photo, the wrap around is better.

From the time I ordered the canvas to when it was delivered was only about 3-4 days.  They have extremely quick service and I was really impressed on how well the canvas was packaged to prevent damages.  The staff are also really helpful and answered any questions I had through email.  I think it’s really hard sometimes to know what a canvas print will turn out like because you really want it to make a statement.  Some can look cheap, but that is not the case with this one at all.

The only thing I would do differently is take better care in thinking about how much the actual picture would wrap around.  In the original photo you can see part of the tree on the left hand side of the picture.  We lost it slightly when the photo was wrapped around the edge of the canvas.  Just a learning curve for next time!

Overall I’m really happy with the outcome and would order more in the future from Canvas Dezign!

 

UPDATE!!

For any one wanting to get a massive 20% discount, use the code “FYQUAPBSTB” at checkout.

This code is only available to the Canvas Dezign site.

*please note, while Canvas Dezign did send me the canvas as a product to review – all opinions are my own.