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…
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This week I’ve been sharing my thoughts on some of the subscription boxes I’ve been trying. I adore getting mail and subscription boxes are just a lovely way to try new products, often at a fraction of the normal price. I read a couple of reviews about Degustabox and one blogger shared a code for a 50% discount on the first box which I used to save myself some money, normally they cost £12.99. I found the site easy to use and I liked the way they kept me up to date with the delivery of my box. The idea…
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You know how I love my subscription boxes and today another one landed on my doorstep. I love stationery so bought myself the October taster box from the Happy Paper Club from the green gables. Happy Paper Club is a monthly stationery subscription service that delivers boxes filled with papery goodness, happy and inspirational messages, and more to boost your happiness and spread a little joy. You can never have enough happy mail and I can’t wait to get a job so I can afford to receive regular subscription boxes! As with other subscription boxes, my Happy Paper Club box…
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This year my 5 year has started studying Science as a subject at school. He’s been coming home full of stories so I thought we could try some simple science experiments at home. As it’s Halloween our first experiment has been to grow our own Monster salt crystals. It’s surprisingly easy so I thought I would show you how we did it. You will need: A saucepan Epsom Salts Food colouring Empty glass jar with the label removed Large metal washer Wooden stirrer Bakers twine How to grow your own Monster salt crystals: Tie a metal washer to a length of…