• Family Life

    New year, new room for my daughter

    December 22, 2017 - By 

    Photo by Mariana Yarritu on Unsplash As much as I love December and Christmas, I also love January. It’s generally a quiet month when we plan and do lots of jobs around the home. Top of our list for January is my daughter’s room which hasn’t been decorated for a good few years. When we moved in she was just 2 years old and loved pink. It’s fair to say she has changed a lot over the last few years. New year, new room for my daughter I’ve been really enjoying the last fews days. I’ve been super-organised this month. All the Christmas…

  • Visiting The Gingerbread City
    Family Life - gingerbread house

    Visiting The Gingerbread City

    December 22, 2017 - By 

    Today we visited the rather wonderful Gingerbread City in London. I heard about this a few days ago and knew we had to visit. London’s best architects have created an the incredible city made of gingerbread! As well as visiting the Gingerbread City you could also attend Gingerbread House Making Workshops and visit the little gingerbread shop. The Gingerbread City The Gingerbread City was organised by The Museum of Architecture. This is the second year of its successful Gingerbread City project, a fundraising exhibition that invites architects, urban planners and landscape designers to design a city made entirely of gingerbread. Building on…

  • Brown paper bag gingerbread house
    Crafts for kids - gingerbread house

    Brown paper bag gingerbread house craft for kids

    December 21, 2017 - By 

    With the children finally finished school we have been able to spend the day making. There have been so many crafts I have wanted to try, so it’s lovely that we finally have the time. Ages ago we received some items in brown paper bags, and I put these to one side until ew had time to transform them into gingerbread houses! It was a quick and easy winter craft so if you are looking for a quick craft to keep your children busy then why not try this. All you need is brown paper bags and white pens or crayons.…

  • How to make Gingerbread Rocky Road
    baking - Christmas - Crafts for adults - gingerbread - gingerbread house - Handmade gifts

    How to make Gingerbread Rocky Road

    December 21, 2017 - By 

    I have wanted to make Gingerbread Rocky Road for a long time. With things slowing down for Christmas I finally got round to it. I love Rocky Road anyway, it’s a kind of cake, containing a mixture of marshmallows, chocolate, and nuts. I’ve adapted my recipe from Nigella’s Christmas Rocky Road recipe. Ingredients to make Gingerbread Rocky Road 250 grams dark chocolate 150 grams milk chocolate 175 grams soft butter 4 tablespoons golden syrup 200 grams broken gingerbread house (I used part of a gingerbread house kit from Flying Tiger) 150 grams brazil nuts 150 grams red glace cherries 125…

  • Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine
    Family Life - STEM activity - toy review

    Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine Kit

    December 20, 2017 - By 

    With my children now finished school for the holidays I have been planning how to keep them busy. They are so excited about Christmas Day so we’ve planned a few trips to the park, crafts and bakes to keep them busy. Today we had fun building the Haynes Internal Combustion Engine kit. Haynes Publishing is the home of car, motorcycle, scooter and ATV manuals, as well as a range of other specialist topics in print and digital formats. They also have the rather fabulous International Motor Museum which we visited this summer. Haynes Build Your Own Internal Combustion Engine We recently…

  • Kikki.K Christmas
    Craft book review - Crafts for adults - Family Life

    Enjoying a Kikki.K Christmas

    December 20, 2017 - By 

    A few weeks ago I popped into the Kikki.K store at St Pancras Station for a browse. I love stationery and have a very healthy addiction to list making, which means I need a lot of writing pads. There were some gorgeous products in Kikki.K so I treated myself to a little pre-Christmas haul. Have you heard of Kikki.K before? It’s a Swedish stationery brand with a few shops dotted around London. I just love all things Scandinavian, especially at Christmas time. This year their Christmas range features all my favourite things – black and white, gingerbread, candy canes and…

  • Craft book review

    Looking for a bit of creativity this Christmas?

    December 19, 2017 - By 

    I can’t believe I’ve run out of time to produce the Christmas Gift Guide I was planning. Time has just run away from me this December! I had been hoping to produce a little guide, especially as my husband is always clueless about the things I would like. I have a Pinterest board but I know he never looks there. I received a lovely gift from Ebury which I’m going to share today. They are the perfect gifts for crafty peeps like me – and my readers too! You can make your own cards, invitations, partyware and presents with some…

  • Baby Annabell Learns to Walk
    Family Life - toy review

    Challenging childhood milestones with Baby Annabell

    December 18, 2017 - By 

    We were recently sent a Baby Annabell Learns to Walk doll to review at home. This is a lovely 3 in 1 doll and with very realistic movements. You can place her on her tummy for tummy time and watch her crawl, she can be sat up and then take her first steps! My daughter has always loved playing with her dolls. The Baby Annabell range focuses on all the caring and nurturing aspects of being a mummy or daddy making it ideal for introducing little ones to the idea of a younger sibling coming along. Playing with dolls is also…

  • Star Wars porg paper craft
    Family Life - Monday Happy List

    Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things

    December 18, 2017 - By 

    Morning everyone. Time for my weekly post called Monday mindfulness – 5 happy things from the previous week. It was such a busy week with work, Christmas performances and parties. It all felt a little crazy busy until my poor daughter came down with a bug and everything slowed down. Fortunately she was able to take part in her Christmas play, and watched her brother perform too. She’s great company so it was actually really nice to spend a few quiet days at home, watching our favourite films. Last week I was notified that I made the Vuelio Top 10…