• There's a Dragon book
    book review - competition

    There’s A Dragon book giveaway

    May 5, 2016 - By 

    I have a lovely giveaway to share with you today. Publishing this month, There’s a Dragon In My Backpack! is the hilarious follow up to There’s A Dragon in My Dinner!, the new series starring eight-year-old Eric Crisp and Pan the Mini-Dragon by Tom Nicholls. Both tell the story of a mischievous 15cm tall mini-dragon called Pan, who accidentally finds himself in England and specifically in the house of Eric, a young school boy and Pan’s new best friend. The little dragon has an oversized appetite for adventure. In There’s a Dragon In My Backpack! Eric finally succumbs to Pan’s demands and agrees to…

  • trampoline fun
    homestyle

    Springing into May with Outdoors Toys

    May 5, 2016 - By 

    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…

  • Mollie Makes Crochet Flower Pincushion
    crafts - Mollie Makes crafts

    Jenny Makes Mollie Makes Crochet Flower Pincushion

    May 4, 2016 - By 

    Every month I challenge myself to make the Mollie Makes magazine cover gift. I’ve subscribed since it first came out and have a drawer full of unopened kits – but no more! I’ve been making more time for crafting and I love to make the kits and hopefully try something new with each of the cover gifts. I have to confess that I’m still struggling to finish off the Starburst Sampler from the Mollie Makes Patchwork Project Book which came with issue 65. I’m enjoying making the EPP diamonds but lacking in time at the moment. It’s nearly finished…. Anyway, the…

  • Papier-mâché death star
    crafts - Star Wars crafts

    Papier Mache Death Star

    May 4, 2016 - By 

    Since my son watched The Force Awakens in December everything has been about Star Wars. Up to that moment he had been a huge Minecraft fan but now it’s all forgotten and all he seems to do is eat, sleep and talk about Star Wars. However, we’ve had so much fun crafting around the theme of Star Wars. Luckily we’re all Star Wars fans, yes, even me! We wanted to make something special to celebrate May 4th. My 6 year old loved the idea of a Star Wars Day so we made our very own papier mache Death Star. This…

  • Frome Market
    days out - Lego

    Monday happy list – week 84

    May 2, 2016 - By 

    The May Bank Holiday weekend saw us enjoying a family weekend away. We managed to fit in some grown up time to see the new Captain America: Civil War film which was really good. You can’t beat a bit of escapism. We went antique-ing at Frome Market where I nearly picked up a gorgeous dolls house. My practical mind got the better of me and I resisted as I had nowhere to put it. Instead I stocked up on fabric for me, and craft kits for the children, in Millie Moon. We celebrated May Day by decorating our seasonal tree…

  • DIY flamingo drinking straws
    crafts - die cutting - Paper craft - Sizzix crafts

    DIY flamingo drinking straws

    April 29, 2016 - By 

    Have you noticed the trend for flamingo decor recently? Along with monstera leaves they seem to be everywhere. So I was pretty happy to discover Sizzix had sent me their latest Funky Flamingo Thinlits die to craft with. The Funky Flamingo die by Sophie Guilar features 3 dies which means you can use a variety of papers to give it some depth. I found some pretty pink patterned papers in my stash to cut 5 flamingo shapes. You can find my full tutorial over on the Sizzix blog. Sizzix Thinlits Die Set 3PK – Funky Flamingo (661246) You may be interested in…

  • Sea glass sun catcher jar
    Crafts for kids

    Sea glass sun catcher jar

    April 29, 2016 - By 

    I was totally spoilt growing up by the sea. We could go down to the beach whenever we liked and it remains my favourite place to be. A few weeks ago we enjoyed our annual holiday in Devon by the sea and we collected a *lot* of sea glass. It seems to have become our tradition to go searching for beach treasure. This year we brought a lot home with us to craft with! Which was kind of lucky because today we’re taking part in the fourth craft in the Project: Recycle and Create series. The material this month were jars.…

  • personalised Scrabble wall art
    crafts - upcycling - vintage

    Personalised Scrabble wall art

    April 28, 2016 - By 

    Now this is one of those projects which has been sitting around waiting to be finished for ages. I love crafting with Scrabble tiles. I pick up vintage Scrabble sets whenever I see them, the kids love making words with the letter tiles and I have hundreds of them around. So I thought it was about time I made something with them. Have you seen the cute vintage travel Scrabble sets? They come with a type of peg board so the letter tiles can be slotted into the board and not move around. Well we’ve had one out for ages.…

  • food waste caddy
    homestyle - interiors

    Intelligent Waste with Joseph Joseph

    April 27, 2016 - By 

    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…