• Family Life - Monday Happy List

    Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things

    February 12, 2018 - By 

    I love starting off each week by writing my Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things blog post. It’s a great chance to reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week. Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things Last week my husband took a few day off work so we could re-decorate my daughters bedroom. It looks amazing and didn’t take as long as we thought. We painted the whole room white and put up a patterned wallpaper on one wall. I love a freshly decorated room and my daughter is happy too. We took the opportunity to…

  • Christmas wreath paper cut
    Craft book review - Crafts for adults - Paper cut art

    Paper cutting by garden {book review}

    February 11, 2018 - By 

    Late last year I treated myself to a copy of Paper Cutting by garden – Flowers, Animals and Other Decorating Ideas. I have quite a few paper cutting books but this one looked lovely. Paper cutting by garden Mihoko “garden” Kurihara is a well-known Japanese papercut artist is the author of many books including adult colouring and paper cutting books. This book presents more than 150 original cutting designs, mainly of flowers and animals, but also includes alphabets and numbers. It provides detailed step-by-step techniques on paper cutting from copying the design to framing the completed work, which makes this…

  • toffee hammer votes for women badge museum of london
    Family Life - Local Review - London

    Votes for Women at the Museum of London

    February 11, 2018 - By 

    Last week I managed to visit the Museum of London before I went to Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium, London’s first cat cafe, for the launch of The LEGO NINJAGO Movie. I really wanted to go and see their new Votes for Women exhibition. This year marks the centenary of the 1918 Representation of the People Act which extended the vote to some women. Votes for Women display I used to work at the Museum of London and love going back to visit. I was really excited to see their new exhibition. The display forms part of the national commemorations marking the centenary…

  • Paper plate snowdrop sun catcher
    Crafts for kids - Winter crafts

    Paper plate snowdrop sun catcher

    February 10, 2018 - By 

    I absolutely love snowdrops. In fact I love any Spring flower, they are such a welcome sight after the gloom of Winter. We’ve been so excited to spot the snowdrops and crocuses popping up that we thought we would try and re-create the snowdrops at home. We actually spotted our first snowdrops when we visited Barrington Court in December, but now we have spotted them closer to home too. Equipment to make a paper plate snowdrop sun catcher A paper plate White and green cellophane Contact paper Scissors How to make a paper plate snowdrop sun catcher First we drew…

  • Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium
    competition - Family Life - film review

    Win a The LEGO NINJAGO Movie bundle

    February 10, 2018 - By 

    Last week I visited Lady Dinah’s Cat Emporium (London’s first cat cafe) to celebrate The LEGO NINJAGO Movie which comes out on DVD and Blu-ray on the 12th February. You may wonder what the link is between cats and The LEGO NINJAGO Movie. If you haven’t been lucky enough to watch the film then let me tell you a little bit about it: The battle for NINJAGO City calls to action young Master Builder Lloyd, aka the Green Ninja, along with his friends, who are also secret ninja warriors. Led by Master Wu, as wise-cracking as he is wise, they must defeat the evil warlord…

  • Project Mc2 Ultimate Spy Bag review
    Family Life - Netflix Stream Team - STEM activity

    Project Mc2 Ultimate Spy Bag review

    February 9, 2018 - By 

    Project Mc2 ’s geek-chic heroines are back with a mission – to make sure girls (and boys) know that it’s cool to be smart and love all things S.T.E.A.M (that’s science, technology, engineering, art and maths). Project Mc2 is a team of super-smart and seriously cool girls who use their love of science and spy skills to undertake missions for top-secret organisation, NOV8TM (that’s “innovate”!). 2016 saw the launch of two new seasons of the Netflix original show, new products, and two exciting new characters – Devon D’Marco and Ember Evergreen. Last year the girls returned with a host of exciting new S.T.E.A.M focused products as seen…

  • Family photo Valentine decor using Photoshop Elements 2018
    Adobe Partner - Crafts for adults - Valentines Day crafts

    Family photo Valentine decor using Photoshop Elements 2018

    February 9, 2018 - By 

    I am so happy to start crafting for Valentine’s Day. Not that I don’t fully embrace Winter, but its been colder than usual here in London and I was starting to get a tiny bit bored of the lack of colour. So welcome Valentine’s Day, warm hugs (which always makes me think of Olaf!) and the colour red. Valentine’s Day is a great occasion for the whole family to celebrate. I treasure the Valentine’s Day cards my parents gave me as a child and carry on the tradition with my own children at this time of year. I think that…

  • Valentine’s clay handprint keepsake
    Crafts for kids - Handmade gifts - Handprint art - Valentines Day crafts

    Valentine’s clay handprint keepsake

    February 8, 2018 - By 

    A few weeks ago my daughter and I were shopping in Hobbycraft where we found a huge display of air drying clay alongside some inspiration of things to make. My daughter wanted to try making something at home so we bought a huge pack of white air drying clay and went home. How to make a Valentine’s clay handprint keepsake We cut the block of clay in half and rolled out one half until it was large enough to place both her hands on it. She pressed both her hands into the clay and I drew around them with a…

  • Family Life

    Don’t neglect your living room any longer – fall in love with it again instead!

    February 8, 2018 - By 

    Photo by Kari Shea on Unsplash For most of us, the idea of completely redesigning a room is one usually left for those make-over shows we see on the TV in between changing nappies, running errands and being just generally too busy. It’s common for living rooms to become old and tired. We spend most of our time in there – whether it’s during the day or on an evening. So arguably the living room gets a lot of traffic and is the busiest room of the house. We’d all love a new floor – check out discountflooringdepot.co.uk for a little inspiration, but…