Happy Easter!

Posted in Celebration by Sophie Juliette

But from this earth, this grave, this dust,
My God shall raise me up, I trust.

- Walter Raleigh

I love Easter, it’s a really wonderful time. It may not have the magic build up of Christmas but it is a day of celebration which is unrivaled in its uplifting spirit and its joy! I love that it is a time of renewal, it heralds in the Spring and everything feels bright and positive. It’s also a lovely time to spend with families, Easter holds so many sweet memories of being a child and being ridiculously excited to paint eggs and go on an Easter egg hunt with my sister.

My mother and I are one and the same when it comes to preparing for celebrations, we both love to decorate and bring the festivity into the house. I love that Easter is a time for beautiful flowers, everything is bright white and yellow and looks so pretty. My mother made us an Easter tree which is something we’ve done since Alice and I were little and it’s a special tradition for us

Easter breakfast is always a big deal at our house. Croissants and chocolate – you can’t beat it! I’m wearing a skater dress from ASOS which is new and I thought the floral was perfect for the occasion. Don’t all of the flowers and eggs look perfect?

Now one of the best part of celebrations from my point of view is the food. And Easter Sunday definitely calls for a roast dinner, in our case roast lamb with roast potatoes, caramelised parsnips and cabbage, along with a generous pouring of gravy. So delicious, and just what we need as although the flowers are bright, it has not been a very sunny Easter, in fact it has been rather cold… This amazing plate was just the right kind of warming and comforting:

Not only do I love the roasts, I get especially excited about the food for celebrations if there is an opportunity for me to bake! Easter is such a lovely festival that I had to make something a little special so I decided to make Nigella Lawson’s Easter Egg Nest Cake. It’s a flourless chocolate cake decorated with mini eggs and it is just adorable.

It is a seriously chocolatey cake and I love how it looks, it’s the perfect Easter bake. Also, spot the absurdly cute chocolate bunny that my parents gave my sister and I. Chocolate may not be much to do with the true message of Easter but it doesn’t hurt…

I hope you have all had a very happy and blessed Easter!

26Mar2013

A New Decade.

Posted in Celebration, Family by Sophie Juliette

So today I turn 20. No longer a teenager.

I know some people dread the turn of the decade and long to stay 19 forever but not me. I never really felt like a teenager anyway!

This new decade feels so much more exciting, so much more full of opportunity, of possibility. I can’t wait to see what comes with the next ten years, I can only imagine how much my life will change. I will (hopefully!) graduate from university, I will decide what I want to do with my life, I will move house, probably move city, meet new people, do new things…

Today was a lovely day, I started out getting my hair done, met the lovely Baiba for a very speedy lunch, and then this evening I went out with Tom and my family for a delicious meal in town.

Tempura battered squid with chilli jam

Grilled gilt-head bream with salsa verde, french fries, and tenderstem broccoli

Thank you to everyone who made my birthday a lovely day, especially my sister for a very special present, my parents for lovely presents and a fantastic meal, and Tom for joining us to make my day more complete!

15Jan2013

On Loss and Family.

Posted in Family, Personal by Sophie Juliette

My family is one of the most precious things in the world to me. Although we may routinely drive each other up the wall, we have always been quite close and I know that I definitely wouldn’t have been able to come this far without their support. My parents and my sister have always been there for me and I hope I will always be there for them. Alice is definitely the best sister you could have! Despite not being as close to them, my grandparents are also incredibly important to me and they have also helped me become who I am together.

Sometimes though, we forget how lucky those of us to have family around us truly are and it takes something painful to remind us.

On Sunday evening my uncle died. He has lived in Denmark since before I was born and although I have only met him a handful of times I still feel a great deal of sadness. I feel sad for my grandfather, my aunt and my father who have lost a son and a brother, and I feel even more sadness for his children, although they are grown up the pain of losing a parent must be awful. He has been ill for many years now so I can only hope that he went peacefully and take comfort that at least now he no longer suffers.

Loss of anyone is always a terrible experience, even if they are not someone especially close to you. But I believe that we can always learn from our experiences, even those that bring us pain. Having to reconcile myself with the fact that my uncle will never come back to visit only reinforces how lucky I am to have the family I have surrounding me.

I know that I am extremely lucky.

My heart and prayers go out to anyone who has lost someone close to their heart, I hope that as time eases the pain it will be easier to remember all of the happy memories and be glad for what they had before it was ended.

12Jan2013

Life Lately.

Posted in Celebration, Family, Food by Sophie Juliette

Having had a week mostly by myself with plenty of time to catch up on sleep and relax, I have to say that I needed this extra week off. I hope everyone who is back at work aren’t finding going back after the holidays too difficult, I imagine you’ve been looking forward to the weekend!

This week I had a lovely evening with my sister at one of our favourite eateries… (can you guess where?)

Wagamama! (Of course)

Alice had the Chicken Katsu Curry which was absolutely delicious, I loved the breadcrumbs on the chicken.

Isn’t my little sister (who is actually taller than me!) pretty?

I went for a dish I haven’t tried before called Yasai Yaki Soba and it was fantastic. It’s a vegetarian noodle dish full of vegetables and lovely flavours. I’m glad that I pushed myself away from my comfort zone and the dish I always get, this was definitely worth trying! If you live in the UK you should definitely check Wagamama out

The rest of my week has been pretty calm. I’ve spent my days doing chores, baking, reading, writing and watching nature programs on my laptop. All the whilst cuddled up with Poppy obviously, she makes for the best company.

This is more or less what my days have looked like this week.

I’m currently reading Adam Bede by George Eliot and so far I much prefer it to Middlemarch. So far this January I’ve read The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath and Artful by Ali Smith. I have plans to write mini reviews of the books I read before term starts, sound good?

Tomorrow is my Father’s birthday and I have a fantastic present for him, can’t wait till he opens it! We’re about to go out for lunch with my Grandfather to celebrate and then tomorrow evening my Father has picked his favourite meal for dinner – steak with peppercorn sauce and chips. So lots more good food to be had…

Have a great weekend lovely people!

7Jan2013

One Week In.

Posted in Celebration, Family, Food, Fun by Sophie Juliette

We are officially one week into the new year, into 2013.

I spent the first few days of the new year in France with my mother and my grandparents and it’s the perfect place for reflection. It’s always strange going there because they have no internet and as they live abroad I can’t use my phone so I spend several days disconnected from the world. I did feel the urge to check my emails and twitter several times but the bliss of it is I just can’t, so I spent time away from technology and got to focus on other things.

The house in which my grandparents is, for me, central to my childhood memories. When I was little we used to spend two weeks there for our summer holiday, I used to go stay with them on my own for a week at Easter each year and I’d go to the local school, we’ve visited them about 3 or 4 times a year since I was born. Although in recent years things have been a bit tough for them health-wise, I know they are still the wonderful grandparents I have had supporting me my whole life.

It was a nice, calm way to spend the first few days of 2013 just spending time with family, taking it easy, reading, eating… Personally I love traditions and in France, on the 6th of January, it is traditional to eat what is called a Galette des Rois (King Cake). It is basically a puff pastry pie filled with either apple sauce or frangipane. I bought an apple one to share with Tom on Saturday in London, and then we bought a frangipane one for the family yesterday.

Now the most important element of the galette (apart from the tastiness!) is that somewhere inside each one there is a little porcelain figurine, called une fève. Whoever has the figurine in their slice is crowned the King or Queen and gets to wear the crown. It was one of my favourite traditions as a child, I always hoped that I’d find the figurine. This year I found it in the little galette I had with Tom and my mother found the figurine in the family galette.

So this year starts with a very old tradition which in my mind is a nice way to start a new time. I have three weeks of time to myself now, I don’t start lectures till the 28th of January as it is currently exam period at uni (but I don’t have any!). I have lots of organisational things planned, tons of reading, baking, and writing to do. Hopefully it will be a good month to start the year!

What are your plans for January?
Do you have special traditions like this one?

30Dec2012

A Cheery Catch-Up!

Posted in Celebration, Cooking, Family, Food, Fun, Love, Photography by Sophie Juliette

Hello lovely lovely people,

First of all, I hope you all had an absolutely fantastic Christmas! Hopefully you’ve all had a wonderful holiday, enjoyed time with your loved ones and had the chance to relax and have fun. I have definitely adored the past couple of weeks full of their celebrations, it was a truly lovely time with my family and we all had a great time.

Now that all the festive happenings are over, I thought it would be nice to make a little photo recap post for you all to share my family’s Christmas celebrations and traditions with you. The time between the morning of the 24th of December to the evening of the 25th of December all make up the Christmas festivities for us. We start getting everything ready, we have a delicious meal together on Christmas Eve, we jump onto my parents’ bed together on Christmas morning for our stockings…

IMG_6950 - Copy (427x640)

Despite being home again this year, Christmas still manages to make me feel incredibly lucky to have such a loving, supportive family surrounding me. It makes me look around at everything that I have been blessed with in my life and be so thankful for all the wonderful things I have. I can’t imagine how difficult this time of year can be for those who are not so lucky and I know that I need to treasure all of the amazing people and the many positive aspects of my life.

I hope you all have an absolutely fabulous new year and I wish everyone a brilliant year in 2013!

Sophie x

24Dec2012

Happy Christmas Eve!

Posted in Celebration, Family by Sophie Juliette

Well. That is by far the longest I have ever left my blog without posting. I can’t really explain other than I had 10,000 words of assignments to write and then I’ve been relaxing and trying to build my strength back up. It has been an incredibly long term, with 12 weeks of lectures and reading, but it has equally been a successful term. I know I definitely made the right decision to transfer back home, I have not been feeling much better but it has been so much easier to deal with uni. Plus I’m grateful for the extra time with my family, it is something I should cherish whilst I am still here.

Those of you who know me well will know that I adore Christmas, especially the build up throughout the month of December. It’s such a magical time of the year, full of wonderful festivities. I have been decorating the house, baking, eating lots of mince pies and buying lots of presents. For me, Christmas Eve is one of the most special moments of the year. As a family we spend most of the day getting everything ready together, joining in with all of the fun and preparations. Because my mother is French we have our big Christmas meal on Christmas Eve. We all get dressed up, make up a beautiful table, light all of the candles and sit down for a delicious three course meal together. Each year I’m just as excited for it as the last. I don’t think I’ll ever outgrow Christmas…

Here a few photos from when we decorated the Christmas tree. It is another of my absolute favourite parts of the preparations, every year as we open the cardboard box of decorations and lay them all out ready to go up it brings back so many memories. Each year we buy a new decoration each and so they all have a special significance.

Because I won’t be with Tom on Christmas morning we decided to exchange presents yesterday so it was like having an early Christmas, buying Tom’s present is always something I spend a long time on, I want to get it just right. I think he liked it!

My presents from him were just perfect. Daisy is my favourite perfume and the Eau So Fresh is even lovelier, spritzing it on in the morning feels wonderful. Ali Smith’s Artful is the book that I went to see her talk about last month and is beautiful. It’s one of those fabulously bound books with several picture sheets at the end. I’ve just started reading it and it is so captivating. I’m feeling rather lucky for having such a thoughtful boyfriend!

I hope you all have an absolutely fantastic Christmas and enjoy the time spent with loved ones