As a mother to two small children I seem to spend a lot of time tidying away toys, putting away clean clothes and trying to keep the house tidy. I know I can’t be the only one who struggles to find a happy medium between a family home and a stylish home. So I was pretty pleased to come across Design Mom: How to Live with Kids by Gabrielle Stanley Blair. This book sounds like it was written for me! Gabrielle Stanley Blair believes that a well-designed home doesn’t have to disappear when kids come along—and she should know: She’s…
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This is the first year that I’ve been more interested in our garden. Our garden is a great size with lawn, patio and plenty of space for the children’s toys. I’ve tried a couple of projects, such as upcycling a pallet into a planter and building the children a mud kitchen from another pallet. I was in need of some more inspiration and just at the right time I received a copy of Garden Made to review. Stephanie Rose is the author of the popular gardening blog Garden Therapy. Her blog is easy to read and packed full of fun…
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I love to make quilts but always stick to the same, safe designs. Recently I’ve begun to experiment and tried my hand at jewel, octagon, triangle and diamonds EPP – baby steps! I was interested to hear about All Points Patchwork: English Paper Piecing beyond the Hexagon, for Quilts & Small Projects by Diane Gilleland, published by Storey Publishing. image credit I received a copy to review and read it in one evening. It’s a lovely book and I learned so much from it. I’ve taught myself which is why I’m always happiest following other people’s tutorials and patterns. All…
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A few weeks ago I treated myself to a copy of Jane Foster’s latest book – Creative Craft with Kids. I’m a big fan of Jane Foster’s style (she loves Miffy as much as I do!) and I really enjoyed her first book. Creative Craft With Kids is the second book from Jane Foster and includes fun projects for parents to make with and for children to encourage creativity and experimentation. There are 15 creative projects to make with children which include felt-faced toys, customized T-shirts and a patchwork quilt. Some of the projects require some simple sewing skills, but…
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I’m delighted to be taking part in a blog tour today for Torie Jayne’s Stylish Home Sewing book. I’ve been a fan of Torie Jayne’s blog for a long time so I knew her book would be full of beautiful and stylish items to make. This book does not disappoint. It contains over 35 projects to make your home beautiful. The projects are fresh, are co-ordinated in Torie’s trademark pastel colours, and definitely reflect her style which shines through on her blog. As you would expect from a book published by CICO Books, the projects are really well laid out…
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I was so very lucky to win a copy of The Artful Year :: Celebrating the Seasons & Holidays with Crafts & Recipes by Jean Van’t Hul recently. I’ve read her blog for ages and was so excited to hear about her book. It is loosely based on her Artful Year seasonal crafts eBooks but expanded with some new activities and a fifth section on arts and crafts for the whole year, or those that can be adapted to the season or holiday at hand. There are 175 crafts and activities with clear, step-by-step directions. There’s also a long appendix of…
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Today I wanted to share two new parenting titles from Scribe with you. They aim to help parents solve two of the most commented on, despaired over and debated about parenting dilemmas: sleep and discipline using Mindful discipline The Happy Sleeper by sleep experts Julie Wright and Heather Turgeon offers an alternative sleep training method to ‘cry it out’ or ‘attachment parenting’. Using an approach rooted in making children feel safe, secure and happy in their bedtime routines, The Happy Sleeper offers practical advice for parents wanting to create good sleeping habits, or undo poor ones. The fantastic thing about…
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Top of my crafty pile of books is A Year in Crafts by Clare Youngs which contains 52 seasonal projects to make and give. This is a gorgeous book, not only are the projects fun, well laid out and illustrated, but the book itself is a thing of beauty. It’s hard-backed but conceals wire binding so you can actually keep it open whilst crafting. The projects haven’t quite been divided by the seasons but there are 4 handy dividers throughout the book where you can keep your templates, notes or scraps of fabric. There’s also an elastic bookmark to help…
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These chilly evenings are perfect for curling up with a book. I’m not a huge tv fan so love to have several books and magazines on the go. Bahlsen Biscuits kindly sent me a copy of Me Without You by Kelly Rimmer to read which is the latest Bahlsen Book Club book. They also sent me a couple of packs of biscuits which were perfect to enjoy whilst reading. The premise of Me Without You is as follows: A year ago I met the love of my life. For two people who didn’t believe in love at first sight, we…