an award-winning craft and family lifestyle blog sharing fun crafts for kids and adults, days out and more
As a mum of two young children I have an ongoing battle to keep our house clean and tidy. Our current house has wooden floors in the living areas which makes it nice and easy to keep clean. Whilst the children are young we have invested in a few rugs to both muffle the sound of their noisy toys on the floor and to also give them something nice and soft to sit on. Thinking about it, we ask quite a lot from our poor old rug! They know they are not to have any drinks or snacks on our…
There seen to be lots of things going on at the moment which I feel quite patriotic about. Andy Murray winning at Wimbledon for the second time, Chris Froome becoming Britain’s first three-time winner of the Tour de France, and hopefully lots of British success at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio next month. So I thought it was good time to share a quick and easy tutorial for my red white and blue circle bunting. I used a Sizzix die and machine to do all the hard work for me, but this could easily be done by hand. How…
Last month I treated myself to 24 hours away from my family to attend the annual Blogtacular conference in London. I can’t really explain why I booked a ticket for this year. Looking back at the previous year, I enjoyed myself, took some notes, but nothing really changed for me. I had some ideas on how I wanted to improve my blog and my Etsy shop, but they either weren’t exciting enough to make me do them, or didn’t seem that important. Roll on 12 months and I found myself sitting in a room surrounded by creative types again. I…
This week I booked my tickets to The Handmade Fair. I went last year with my sister and we had a brilliant day out so I can’t wait for it this year. Last year I tried some new crafts but also went shopping! We’re both big fans of Annie Sloan Chalk Paints and there was quite a big Annie Sloan stand where I picked up some pots of paint as well as a stencil. My sister and Annie Sloan! I had read a lot about the stencils and really wanted one to finish off a little project. Years ago we…
I’m sure everyone has the Moppe mini chest of drawers from Ikea. It’s not cheap but we’ve had ours for years as they are perfect for storing my smaller sewing notions. The only problem I have with things from Ikea, is that everyone has them, so I love to add a personal touch. As an Orla Kiely fan I knew they would look amazing covered with my favourite stem paper, so that’s what I did! image from Ikea I love quick and easy DIY projects but I have to admit – this isn’t one of them. The easy option was…
I love to personalise items around the house and today I’m sharing a tutorial for these personalised chalkboard labels. We’re trying to help our children save for our next holiday by filling these glass jars with our loose change. I’m hoping that once the money has been taken out they will fill them with souvenirs from our holiday. You can find the tutorial over on the Sizzix blog. Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 28PK – Delicate Letters (661040) You may be interested in my other Sizzix makes: Embellished oversized peg craft Father’s Day Rosette Simple dream catcher tote bag Easy felt flamingo…
The children love spending time outdoors. Our small garden is home to their mud kitchen, sand pit, water table and little flower patches. A few years ago we were given a second hand trampoline which they loved, especially my 4 year old. We were kindly offered a brand new Rebo UK Ltd trampoline from Outdoor Toys to review. The trampoline is available in pink and blue, in sizes 4.5ft and 7ft. We chose the 7ft trampoline in blue. It arrived in a really slim box, I was quite surprised that it contained everything we needed to build the trampoline and enclosure. We…
At the moment we’re saving up to re-do our kitchen and this is hopefully something we will be able to do next year. The kitchen is the heart of our home so it’s important it is functional and looks good too. We were recently offered the Stack range of recycling containers from Joseph Joseph to review. They are an ingenious way to neatly store away all your different types of recycling, letting you separate it into different compartments, while decluttering your kitchen space. Although we had a bin to house our recycling it was always overflowing onto the floor. So…
I’m not sure why but I haven’t felt in the mood for sewing recently. I have lots of things to make, such as my Shipping Forecast quilt and a fun Nana Company swap deadline looming. The only thing I have been stitching are pretty yellow English Paper Pieced diamonds from the last issue of Mollie Makes. Normally I love to make the cover gifts so something is definitely wrong with me if I’m still making it (the new issue landed on my doorstep today!). The yellow EPP diamonds will eventually make a Starburst Sampler which I’m going to hang on my…