• felt busy bag gingerbread house
    Christmas - gingerbread house - Handmade gifts - Kids crafts

    Felt busy bag gingerbread house

    November 20, 2014 - By 

    I’m sure you’ve noticed my obsession with gingerbread house but it really comes to life at this time of year. In the last week we’ve made a gingerbread tree, gingerbread biscuits, the gingerbread man story stones and today I wanted to share our felt busy bag gingerbread house. The gingerbread house appears in the well-known fairy tale, Hansel and Gretel. Hansel and Gretel are a young brother and sister threatened by a witch living in the deep dark forest in a house constructed of gingerbread and sweets. The two children survive by outwitting her. Aspects of the story are a…

  • competition - Handmade gifts - homestyle

    Win a Canvas print from Wall Create

    November 19, 2014 - By 

    We were recently offered the chance to make a canvas by Wall Create. You know I love filling my house with paintings, posters and photographs but I’ve never made a canvas before. Instead of reproducing a photograph I thought it would be fun to use one of my sons’ recent drawings. He drew a picture for his nanny which I loved, so I Photoshopped out his writing (which said Happy Birthday!) and sent off his drawing. My 4 year loves to draw and write – in case you can’t tell, this is our family 🙂 A lovely canvas arrived a…

  • gingerbread story stones - the gingerbread house
    book review - gingerbread - Kids crafts - tutorial

    How to make The Gingerbread Man story stones

    November 18, 2014 - By 

    The story of The Gingerbread Man is a perfect book for reading at this time of year. It’s a classic fairy tale about a Gingerbread Man’s escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The Gingerbread Man There are variations in the characters but our favourite features an old couple, a chicken, a dog, a cow, a horse and a fox. The story is great for it’s rhythm and repetition with the lines Run, run as fast as you can! You can’t catch me, I’m the Gingerbread Man! We love crafting around books, they…

  • days out - film review - Local Review - London

    Monday happy things

    November 17, 2014 - By 

    Although I swore I wouldn’t start getting excited about Christmas until the 1st of December I admit I may have slipped. This weekend we were invited to a preview of Get Santa, a festive film which is out on December 5th. It features some brilliant British actors such as Jim Broadbent, Rafe Spall, Joanna Scanlan and Warwick Davis and is a really fun family film. Basically, a young boy finds Santa Claus in the shed at the bottom of his garden after he has crash landed his fancy new sleigh. Santa enlists the boy and his father to get the reindeer,…

  • book review - Christmas - Kids crafts - What I'm reading

    What I’m reading – A Year in Crafts by Clare Youngs

    November 16, 2014 - By 

    Top of my crafty pile of books is A Year in Crafts by Clare Youngs which contains 52 seasonal projects to make and give. This is a gorgeous book, not only are the projects fun, well laid out and illustrated, but the book itself is a thing of beauty. It’s hard-backed but conceals wire binding so you can actually keep it open whilst crafting. The projects haven’t quite been divided by the seasons but there are 4 handy dividers throughout the book where you can keep your templates, notes or scraps of fabric. There’s also an elastic bookmark to help…

  • competition - playing - toy review

    Win 1 of 3 Shuffle Card Games

    November 15, 2014 - By 

    My 4 year old has just started to become interested in games we can play as a family. With excellent timing we were sent the Play-Doh version of the new Shuffle card games. We had lots of fun with it and I’m pleased to say I have a couple to giveaway at the end of this post. The Play-Doh version of Shuffle is aimed at ages 4 and over. Put simply, game players take it in turns to match their cards which display Play-Doh creations to a centre card by word, colour or story association. You can be as creative…

  • KDUK Mumbassadors - playing - toy review

    Disney Princess My Magical Secret Book

    November 14, 2014 - By 

    I hope you noticed the new shiny badge over there on the right? I’ve been recruited by KD UK (formerly InspirationWorks). They make electronic learning toys based on popular children’s characters, think Peppa Pig, Fireman Sam, Disney Princess, In the Night Garden, as well as a few of their own brand lines. My nearly 3 year old has a healthy obsession with Disney Princesses so was pretty happy to be sent the Disney Princess My Magical Secret Book to review. It’s very pink and pretty and my daughter has been carrying it everywhere she goes for the last couple of weeks.…

  • parenting

    Sponsored video: Barclays and Mumsnet ‘Your Bank Live’

    November 14, 2014 - By 

    Today I wanted to share a video with you. I don’t know about you but sometimes I wonder if shops and brands ever think about their customers experience, especially customers with young children. I dread visiting my local bank as my children have a tendency to go crazy. They love to play with the button which opens the door and they swivel on the chairs until they get dizzy and fall off! Luckily for me Barclays have listened, with a little help from some members of Mumsnet. The video shows some real mums from Mumsnet road-testing a real Barclays branch,…

  • Vintage Scrabble tile decorations
    crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling - vintage

    Vintage Scrabble tile decorations

    November 13, 2014 - By 

    I picked up a couple of vintage Scrabble sets at the weekend and thought I would upcycle the tiles and stands into Christmas decorations. They are so simple to make and work out quite cheaply. I’ve signed up for a couple of Christmas swaps so have been making some as gifts too. Today I’m going to share my simple way of upcycling vintage Scrabble tile decorations. Equipment you will need to make vintage Scrabble tile decorations: Vintage Scrabble tiles Vintage Scrabble tile holders (the wooden ones work best) Glue gun How to make vintage Scrabble tile decorations: Lay out your…