• Getting the house ready for Christmas
    Family Life

    Getting the house ready for Christmas

    November 25, 2020 - By 

    Disclosure – we were gifted a rug from The Rug Retailer in exchange for featuring it on my blog. I expect you are fed up of hearing that ‘Christmas won’t be normal’. I am nearly as fed up of this phrase as I am with the word ‘unprecedented’. 2020 has been a nightmare year but with two young children I’m trying to make things as normal as possible. Getting the house ready for Christmas We don’t really talk about Christmas before December 1st but that doesn’t mean I’m not busy planning behind the scenes. Our house elves have already arrived…

  • gingerbread house kit
    competition - Family Life - gingerbread

    Win gingerbread kits from The Best Bit

    November 24, 2020 - By 

    I’m not sure where my love of gingerbread came from but it’s something I love to be surrounded by, especially at Christmas. The smell is really special to me and my house is often filled with the smell of gingerbread biscuits, my favourite after school snack to bake. Thankfully my kids have inherited my love of gingerbread and have been helping me ‘test’ products I bought for my Gingerbread Gift Guide. I’m delighted to share with you a review of two gingerbread kits from The Best Bit. Read on for your chance to win the same! The Best Bit The…

  • Christmas gift guide for tweens 2020
    Family Life - Gift guide

    AD/Christmas gift guide for tweens 2020

    November 23, 2020 - By 

    Disclosure – thanks to Very for sponsoring this post. Products marked with an * were sent for inclusion in this gift guide, however all opinions are my own. I love Christmas and one of my favourite things is planning gifts for my family and friends. I always start early with my Christmas shopping, usually in September. Whilst this might sound early it really helps me budget if I spread the cost of over a few months. Due to the second Lockdown I have turned to shopping online more for toys and games for my children. My son is such a…

  • gingerbread house gift boxes
    Monday Happy List

    Monday Happy List {Week 319}

    November 23, 2020 - By 

    Starting the week by writing the Monday Happy List  is something I’ve been doing for a while. It’s a chance for me to sit down and reflect on the things that made me happy in the previous week, as well as to record some of our family adventures. It’s a post I always love to write. Monday Happy List {Week 319} We’re not really allowed to talk about Christmas in our house until my daughter’s birthday at the end of the month. However this year is slightly different. On Tuesday an Elf Isolation House appeared with our two elves in it. Yes,…

  • Christmas gift guide for crafty people
    Gift guide

    Christmas gift guide for crafters 2020

    November 22, 2020 - By 

    Disclosure: Products marked with an * were sent for inclusion in this gift guide, however all opinions are my own. We’re a crafty family with several projects on the go at once. Our dining room table is always covered in half finished projects and we like nothing better than making something. Whilst I love my sewing and craft projects, my daughter loves baking, my son drawing and my husband designs things for his 3D printer. Our house is full of homemade and I wouldn’t have it any other way. The benefits of crafting are well known and I want my…

  • Easy Among Us painted rocks
    Crafts for kids - Painted rocks

    Easy Among Us painted rocks

    November 22, 2020 - By 

    The weather has turned so cold that it’s been harder than usual to encourage the children outside. With shorter days it’s more important than ever to get outside at the weekend. I love getting my Vitamin D and love being outside on a sunny day. Thankfully my children can be persuaded to go on a walk with the promise of some geocaching and hiding painted rocks. This morning we headed to the Oxhey Park Sculpture Trail to hide some of our most recent Among Us painted rocks and look for geocaches. We used: Bag of smooth pebbles or rocks Selection…

  • A visit to the Christmas Tree Farm Chesham
    Buckinghamshire - Family Life

    A visit to the Christmas Tree Farm Chesham

    November 21, 2020 - By 

    For the last few years we’ve had an artificial Christmas tree. We bought it a few years ago after the Christmas tree we had bought dropped most of its needles before Christmas Day! My husband was so fed up with our real tree that he went out and bought an artificial one. It’s a great tree, easy to store and put together, but we just miss the smell of a real tree. So this year we promised to think about getting a real tree. We found the Christmas Tree Farm in Chesham and decided to pay a visit. A visit…

  • Christmas tree countdown for kids
    Advent crafts - Crafts for kids - free printables

    {Free printable} Christmas tree countdown for kids

    November 19, 2020 - By 

    With only a few weeks left until December 1st you are probably busy shopping and planning. My children are already so excited about Christmas. We start our Christmas celebrations on December 1st with the arrival of our Elf on the Shelf and his brother (yes, we have two!). They bring Advent calendars and get up to silly tricks each day which always seem to amuse the kids. Advent calendars are a great way to tick off the days leading up to Christmas Day. My children love a piece of chocolate each day but my printable Christmas countdown makes a great…

  • Waitrose Gingerbread Box Kit
    gingerbread

    An edible decoration – a gingerbread box

    November 18, 2020 - By 

    A few weeks ago I published my Gingerbread Gift Guide which was so much fun to put together. It gave me the chance to pick up lots of different gingerbread kits which I’m really enjoying trying out and sharing with you. After the success of my gingerbread mug hangers I decided to try the Gingerbread Box Kit from Waitrose. Gingerbread Box Kit With the Gingerbread Box Kit  you can make and bake your own gingerbread gift boxes to make giving even sweeter. All I needed to provide was unsalted butter, water and golden syrup. The packet included a Gingerbread mix…