You may remember last year I attended the Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally where I picked up some lovely fabric to make a crawling blanket for my second child. I didn’t know if the bump would be a boy or girl so I tried to pick neutral fabrics. I couldn’t resist london scene by etsuko furuya which literally leaped at me as I passed a stand selling fabric. As well as the main fabric I bought a lime fabric to back the blanket and purple to bind it together. The fabric is gorgeous! It features well-known London landmarks…
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Time for the May PinAddicts Pinterest Challenge. The idea is to choose something from your Pinterest boards to create and link up each month. Ages ago I pinned this: Source: meggielynne.tumblr.com via Jenny on Pinterest So simple but really effective and a great portrait of a modern family. So I traced round our hands on a piece of paper and then transferred it onto a piece of linen. I chose four different colours of embroidery thread and traced each hand print using running stitch. I’m not quite sure where I’m going to put it so for now it’s framed…
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I made a delicious batch of banana muffins yesterday with some help from my toddler. Trying to be frugal with the food shopping I had stupidly let a bunch of bananas go too ripe and couldn’t throw them away. Banana muffins are really simple so here’s my recipe. You will need: 225g unsalted butter 225g caster sugar 225g self-raising flour 4 eggs 1/4 tsp nutmeg 2 mashed ripe bananas Heat the oven to 180 degrees. Mix the butter, sugar, flour, eggs and nutmeg together then add the mashed bananas and mix well. Spoon the mixture into your muffin cases…
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Sometimes I really dislike the term mummy. Not when my son is endlessly shouting it at me but when it’s applied to me generically by the nurse, health visitor, midwife, GP, librarian or impersonal PRs! In a bid to claw some of myself back from being just a mummy I’ve started to invest some time in me for a change. I’m spending more time on my hobbies which keep getting forgotten, drawing up a list of baking projects from some new cook books I’ve received, I have a new hair cut, I’ve cleared out the ‘mummy uniform’ clothes and the…
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Is it too early to be thinking about Fathers Day presents? I have all the important dates in my calendar but rarely have time to get crafty with the kids. This year Father’s Day will be different though – I keep telling myself so. I have plenty of ideas ‘pinned’ on Pinterest and I also have time if I start now. Father’s Day preparations I’m addicted to hand prints so made this last night, a simple embroidered hand print of the toddler. I was going to frame it in a vintage frame I found in a charity shop but the…
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I often blog about painting as the toddler absolutely loves getting messy. He knows where the craft cupboard is and will point and say ‘paint’ over and over again until I give in. We always start off by aiming to do a ‘proper’ piece of art with a theme, like handprints or painting with corks (his current favourite). It often descends into total chaos where he forgets about the piece of paper and just uses the tablecloth. We usually have plenty of corks lying around and I now have extended family giving me bags of them as they know how…
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In a desperate attempt to tidy the lounge I’ve been looking at my craft stash. Despite all my posts about parenting I spend a lot of time sewing which I never get a chance to blog about. For a long time my monthly indulgence has been Mollie Makes for the beautiful photography, inspiration and patterns. Who can forget my favourite ever pattern for felt biscuits? The paper copies do take up a lot of room but the cover gifts always tempt me to buy them, rather than the sensible digital copy which takes up no space. Looking through my collection…
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You know how much we love getting messy with the paints so Easter seemed like a great opportunity to break out the paints for some more fun. I saw a great Easter card on Pinterest based on Ed Emberley’s fingerprint animals. I instantly bought a copy of one of his books (Ed Emberley’s Fingerprint Drawing Book) as I know we’ll have lots of fun with it. Big Brother is a bit young for it as the moment but I love it – lots of crafty inspiration for fingerprint animals, vehicles, seasons and holidays. The fingerprint Easter bunny and chicks were…
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I really enjoy making my own personalised cards and had been wondering what to make for the toddler’s thank you cards following his 2nd birthday. I wanted something different to our usual paint splattered hand print cards and decided on a cheeky head shot with a jolly party hat. I tried to use some of the techniques I learned last week at a great blogger event using Stampin’ Up products. I hadn’t heard of Stampin’ Up before but they are a crafting brand which makes stamps, paper, ribbon and all things crafty. I bravely took both Big Brother and Little…