• Embroidery hoop Christmas decorations {Sew this is Knitmas}
    Christmas - crafts - handmade - homestyle

    Embroidery hoop Christmas decorations {Sew this is Knitmas}

    November 22, 2016 - By 

    This is a commissioned post in collaboration with White Stuff. Recently I’ve been working on a really fun collaboration with White Stuff as part of their #SewThisIsKnitmas festive fun. They sent me some of their fabulous offcuts and challenged me to make a unique Christmas decoration with it. This was a great excuse to browse Pinterest for some crafting inspiration! Not only do White Stuff make gorgeous clothes but their print and patterns are beautiful too. I love White Stuff and have some key pieces which I just love; the quirkier the pattern the better for me. They sent me…

  • DIY fingerprint Elf craft for kids
    Christmas - crafts - Elf on the Shelf

    DIY fingerprint Elf craft for kids

    November 22, 2016 - By 

    I’m getting really excited about our Elf coming to stay on the 1st December. I wanted to drop a few hints to my children about his imminent arrival so came up with an Elf on the Shelf craft for them. This is another of those easy after school crafts which is perfect for some downtime around the table. We used: paper green and pink paint black marker pen DIY fingerprint Elf craft for kids It’s been a while since we had fun with paint and our fingers so the children had a few attempts. They experimented with dipping their fingers…

  • The Snowman and The Snowdog gift guide
    Christmas - competition - Gift guide

    The Snowman and The Snowdog gift guide

    November 21, 2016 - By 

    At this time of year our thoughts turn to our festive favourites and what we’ll be reading and watching. We all have our favourite characters but one thing we love to sit and watch together is The Snowman and The Snowman and The Snowdog. I grew up with the story of The Snowman and it’s still a firm favourite in our festive Book Advent. I was so happy to discover The Snowman and The Snowdog and enjoy it with my children. Luckily we are not the only ones who love these characters and every year there are some lovely products…

  • Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List – week 113

    November 21, 2016 - By 

    The days are flying by and we’ve had another busy week. My husband took a day off work so we could paint the living room. This is the largest room in the house and one which badly needed painting. It’s a massive living/dining room and we decided to paint the whole room white. We ordered a new piece of furniture and I am so excited about finishing this room! Pics soon. On Saturday we drove down to Portsmouth for the day to meet my sister for lunch. We don’t see each other nearly enough and we had a delicious meal…

  • Easy Nativity story stones craft for kids
    Christmas - crafts - Twinkl Blogger

    Easy Nativity story stones

    November 20, 2016 - By 

    Story stones are a great way to introduce the idea of story telling at home. We always collect smooth beach pebbles when we are at the beach and these are perfect for story stones. My drawing skills are pretty bad so I glue pictures to the stones and they last for ages. Previously we have made Gruffalo Story Stones and our favourite, the Gingerbread Man Story Stones. With Christmas coming up I made Nativity Story Stones, and these are great for telling the story of the Nativity. Equipment to make Nativity story stones Nativity pictures Smooth stones Mod Podge and…

  • Creating adult space in the garden
    gardening - homestyle

    Creating adult space outdoors

    November 20, 2016 - By 

    One of the hardest things about this time of year is that our garden is so sadly neglected. Our beautiful French doors are closed and the shutters are kept closed. We did venture out today to plant some of the new Miffy tulip bulbs and it was lovely to have a little tidy up. The recent stormy weather has blown leaves everywhere and it’s all looking a little bare and sad. When we bought this house a garden was top of our list. We had a gorgeous garden with our last house and our current one is a little small…

  • Planting Miffy tulips for Spring
    gardening - Miffy Mums

    Planting Miffy tulips for Spring

    November 20, 2016 - By 

    I know a lot of my posts have been about Winter and Christmas recently but it’s never too early to be thinking about Spring. We have had some lovely blue sky days but I’m already longing for warmer weather and  longer days – give me back my evenings! Anyway, we’ve been getting the garden ready for Winter and part of that was forward thinking to Spring bulbs. Today we planted our Miffy tulip bulbs which was very exciting. After 15 years of cross-fertilisation and patient cultivation, Dutch tulip breeders have finally produced a variety to represent the Netherlands’ most famous…

  • Blogfest 2016 with Coca Cola
    blogging - days out

    Blogfest 2016 with Coca-Cola

    November 19, 2016 - By 

    This year I was resigned to the fact that I wouldn’t be able to attend Mumsnet Blogfest. Blogfest is one of my favourite conferences but as a stay-at-home-mum, money is tight for this kind of thing. A few weeks before the event I received a lovely invitation to attend Blogfest as a guest of Coca-Cola and I jumped at the chance to go. There was a stellar line up of speakers and two of my oldest blogging friends, Mum Friendly and New Mum Online (pic below) were going so I knew I was going to have a fab grown up day out.…

  • chalkola chalk pen craft for kids
    After school crafts - Christmas - crafts - handmade

    Time capsule baubles for kids {Chalkola review}

    November 19, 2016 - By 

    We have a really great craft to share with you today. My children are growing up far too quickly so I thought it was about time to capture a moment in their lives. This was one of those fun crafts which we squeezed in after school and also got to use some great chalk pens from Chalkola. Equipment to make time capsule baubles for kids Clear plastic baubles Chalkola Chalk Pens Paper and pen How to make time capsule baubles for kids First of all I asked my children 10 quick questions. The idea was to find out a little…