• The Courts Garden, Holt
    days out - National Trust - parenting

    The Courts Garden, Holt

    August 16, 2017 - By 

    We’ve had some amazing days out recently. Whilst we were away in Wiltshire we visited the beautiful gardens at The Courts in Holt near Bradford upon Avon. This place has been on our list for ages so I was really happy that we finally managed to visit. As I get older(!) I find I appreciate gardens a lot more than I used to. My children seem to enjoy the gardens more than looking round historic houses, and since the National Trust provide so much for children to do, I knew we would all enjoy ourselves. Holt is a small village…

  • Pass the Pigs! {game review}
    parenting - playing - toy review

    Pass the Pigs! {game review}

    August 15, 2017 - By 

    We’re currently away and had to be quite careful what we packed due to lack of space in the car. This was especially hard for my children as there are so many things they can’t possibly live without! The one thing they both agreed on was Pass the Pigs, a really fun game we’ve been playing recently. There are two fun Pass the Pigs games available, both offering weatherproof playtime fun: Pass the Pigs and Giant Pass the Pigs. Pass the Pigs comes in a travel case with two cute dice pigs, pencils and score pad. Giant Pass the Pigs includes two…

  • My 5 blogging essentials
    homestyle

    My 5 blogging essentials

    August 14, 2017 - By 

    I think you all know that I love technology. I have an iPhone, iPad Mini, MacBook Air and Olympus camera. These come everywhere with me, which makes for a very heavy bag 🙂 If I find a product or brand I like then I tend to stay with them, I’m pretty loyal – or dislike change – you decide! I’ve had an iPhone since 2007 and I couldn’t imagine life without it. I know that sounds strange but my phone holds everything I need – my calendar, camera, phone, mail, WhatsApp, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, need I go on? It really…

  • SUMMER HOLIDAYS WEEK 3
    homestyle - Monday Happy List

    Monday happy things {Week 150}

    August 14, 2017 - By 

    Happy Monday everyone! Time for my weekly post, about the things which made me happy in the previous week. Today I bring you the Summer Holidays Week 3 edition! The last week of the summer holidays has been much more relaxing than the previous two. We’ve had family staying so had less days out. Despite this we managed two trips to the theatre! I finally reached my 2 stone award at Slimming World! I’ve been going to Slimming World meetings for a few months. I don’t find it too hard to follow, especially now I’ve cut back on the Chinese…

  • Somerset Lavender
    days out - holidays - parenting - Somerset

    Somerset Lavender {kids in lavender fields]

    August 13, 2017 - By 

    So today we finally made it to a lavender field. I’ve really wanted to go to the one at Hitchin but so far we haven’t made it. We’re visiting my mum for a few days so decided to visit Somerset Lavender. Lately my Instagram feed has been full of happy children standing in lavender. I was wondering what my children would think. I love lavender. We grow it and use it at home (lavender play dough anyone?) and a few years ago we visited Isle of Wight Lavender and stocked up on lavender products. I’ve also baked lavender shortbread which you…

  • Kawaii Cakes Biscuit Icing Workshop at Tatty Devine
    baking - homestyle - kawaii

    Kawaii Cakes Biscuit Icing Workshop at Tatty Devine

    August 13, 2017 - By 

    Last weekend I booked myself on a really fun workshop at Tatty Devine. Although they are known for their super cute acrylic jewellery, they were hosting Juliet Sear and a biscuit decorating workshop. It just sounded like the perfect workshop so I signed myself up. I love wandering around East London, which is lucky as it took me a while to find the venue! The Tatty shop is tucked away at the end of Brick Lace and I kept getting distracted by all the colourful street art. They were hosting a super sweet workshop in their Brick Lane store with…

  • Blackberry and apple crumble
    baking - homestyle - recipe

    Foraging for blackberries {Blackberry and apple crumble}

    August 12, 2017 - By 

    Last weekend we visited our local Farmers Market. On the way we spotted that the bushes were full of beautiful, ripe blackberries and we knew we would have to pick some. We picked up a spare bag whilst we were shopping to put our blackberries in. I’ve been meaning to get to a Pick Your Own farm all summer, finally this was our chance to let the children pick and make something with it. We’ve never actually been foraging for blackberries with the children before. It’s something I remember doing with my parents and grandparents and I can still remember…

  • Sycamore seed faces, a nature craft for kids
    Autumn - crafts - Nature crafts

    Sycamore seed faces

    August 12, 2017 - By 

    The signs of Autumn have been around for a while – conkers growing, blackberries and shorter evenings. I love Autumn so I’m pretty happy to embrace it all. I noticed lots of sycamore seeds around the park so picked some up incase we could craft with them. We actually came up with something very simple – sycamore seed faces! We used sycamore seeds and card face blanks from Baker Ross (although you could easily draw your own faces). We also used a glue stick, some coloured card and wool. First my daughter glued the sycamore seed on where she thought it…

  • parenting

    Coping with kids and chicken pox

    August 11, 2017 - By 

    Photo by Josh Applegate on Unsplash I love the school holidays. One of the biggest problems with school is how quickly my children pick up any bug which is going around. School attendance is marked on their end of term reports and I wasn’t really surprised to see how many days they had both off – never at the same time of course! They both caught chicken pox this year. I actually thought they had both had it a few years ago so when I heard that chicken pox was going round I wasn’t too worried. Unfortunately over Christmas I noticed my daughter…