I know my regular readers love it when I share a good competition and I have a brilliant one for you all today. Velvet have an on-pack promotion giving you the chance to win an ultimate night-in bundle worth £1,500 each week! But first let me tell you about my ultimate night in. Since becoming a parent I have to admit that after the children have gone to bed I don’t feel like doing much. I enjoy my weekly choir practice and lately I’ve been spending some evenings with other PTA parents planning the school Christmas Fayre but that’s about…
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Right now I’m sitting on my sofa surrounded by Christmas magazines and craft books. I love Christmas and am happy planning handmade gifts, home made crackers and personalised Christmas cards. This year we all have our Christmas jumpers ready and we’re even planning a little festive shoot this weekend to try out some ideas for our own cards and gift tags. Despite the rise of email and text messaging I *have* to send out Christmas cards. I try to get ours printed on recycled, sustainable paper and often find myself recycling the Christmas cards we receive. The only thing I’m…
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A couple of weeks ago I spent a beautiful sunny day at ZSL London Zoo on a special Keeper for a Day experience. I had such a great time and I really wanted to share some pics. I got to London Zoo early in the morning and met the other members of our group. There were only 6 of us so it was easy to get to know everyone. I was handed a pair of overalls and we headed over to the restaurant for some breakfast and to find out our activities for the day. The Keeper for a Day…
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I love this time of year so much. I got an early start of my festive making with a sew your own Advent Calendar fabric panel from elephant in my handbag. It’s always lovely to make your own decorations and gifts (time permitting!) and I really enjoyed putting my Advent Calendar together over a couple of evenings. I chose the Winter Wonderland panel, designed by Bethan Janine for Dashwood Studio. The panel is 100% cotton and the instructions are cleverly printed at the top of the panel. Once you have the fabric panel you need to buy wadding and some…
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We had a lovely half term but I was glad that my children went back to school and nursery today. We had a really busy week including visits from grand parents, a trip to the theatre and our cookery lesson with Ora. Since the clocks have gone back I’m making sure our house is very hygge. I love this concept and it is one that I fully intend to embrace this winter. I picked up a cute gingerbread house tea light holder from Asda at the weekend which is providing a lovely seasonal feel to our mantelpiece. Last week I attempted Salted…
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November means I can officially start my Christmas preparations. I’ve started writing lists and am feeling pretty on top of everything at the moment. I know there will be lots of Christmas crafting and last week we made our first Christmas craft – gingerbread play dough hearts. Have you seen the decorated gingerbread hearts hanging up in Christmas markets? They always look so pretty, decorated with coloured icing, and wrapped in pretty cellophane bags. I thought it would be fun to make our own version so today I’m sharing a tutorial for them. Read on because I’m also taking part in…
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I’m feeling sad that help term is nearly over as we’ve had a lovely time. We’ve had visitors, lots of days out, been shopping for half term treats and managed to squeeze in a weekend away. One afternoon the children took part in a really fun cookery and craft session at The Lounge Cafe in West Hampstead sponsored by Ora. If you haven’t heard of Ora before they are round kitchen towels which are super absorbent and super strong. They come in a cone so are easy to grab with one hand, unlike conventional kitchen towel which needs to be…
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As today is Halloween we’ve been having lots of Halloween fun. The children have worn their skeleton onesies all day long, we watched scary films, eaten spooky treats and are gearing up for a little Halloween party with more ghoulish food. The Haunting Of Bagger Bones is a frighteningly clever story app for kids. A revolution in digital storytelling, it puts your child at the heart of the action and turns them into a star instantly: first by seamlessly integrating their face into the illustrations; then by adding a personalised narration by Ray Brooks – the iconic voice of Mr…
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It’s no secret that we’re huge fans of Roald Dahl. I’ve been reading his books with my 5 year old and working our way through Roald Dahl’s Completely Revolting Recipes book too. So far our favourite has been The Twits, my son loved the tricks they play on each other and we even cooked the Wormy Spaghetti recipe – although I refused his request to include some real worms! I think my children are lucky to benefit from some amazing apps on the iPhone and iPad. I was so excited to hear about a new app based on The Twits called…