• 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…

  • Easy Star Wars snowflakes for kids or adults to make
    Christmas - Crafts for adults - handmade - Paper craft - Star Wars crafts

    Star Wars snowflakes {Christmas decorations}

    November 18, 2016 - By 

    Both my husband  and son love Star Wars. I’ve mentioned before that my 6 year old is obsessed with Star Wars and his Christmas list is pretty much all Star Wars lego sets, and new Rogue One toys. I wanted to introduce some Star Wars Christmas decorations this year and found some really fun Star Wars snowflakes on Pinterest. I followed the link to this site where Star Wars snowflake designs have been produced for the last few years. Paper cutting is my latest obsession and I’ve pretty much finished the Cut It Out book I bought a few weeks…

  • Japan Candy Box
    competition - subscription box

    Win a Japan Candy Box {subscription box}

    November 17, 2016 - By 

    My obsession with subscription boxes continues and I was happy to be sent the October Japan Candy Box to review at home. I’ve reviewed a few of these before, it is a delicious monthly subscription box filled with 8-10 sweet treats from Japan. I’ve always enjoyed finding out more about Japanese culture and was excited to open the Japan Candy Box when it arrived. Unfortunately my children were equally excited so I found myself hurriedly taking photographs whilst they were opening and trying everything! We found we recognised some of the super cute characters on the packaging. Inside the October…

  • An Advent calendar of picture books for little readers
    Advent crafts - book review - Christmas

    An Advent calendar of picture books for little readers

    November 17, 2016 - By 

    Every November I like to plan our annual Book Advent. I started this Christmas tradition a few years ago and the children love it. On the 1st December quite a few things happen so I have to be super organised at this time of year. Advent traditions Most importantly our Elf arrives all the way from the North Pole. This is another tradition we started a few years ago. I know not everyone likes the Elf on a Shelf but my children do so he’ll be coming back again this year and making sure my children behave themselves in the…