• homestyle - housekeeping

    Let there be light!

    Did you watch any episodes of the Great Interior Design Challenge? I love that programme and watched every episode. I love seeing how the different designers met the brief and how they transformed the different styles of houses. I was waiting for them to design a 1990s house but funnily enough that didn’t happen. We are really struggling with ideas for our house. I’m not sure if these programmes are a good idea or not. On the one hand they inspire me to want to have a beautiful home. On the other hand, they make me feel inadequate that I…

  • Christmas - handmade - kawaii - sewing

    A snowflake-shaped table mat

    I was hoping to make some seasonal doll quilts for my quilt gallery wall but I’ve only managed to make one. However it’s one I’m really pleased with. A few weeks ago I finished the final seasonal stitching club from Mollie Johanson – the Winter Stitching Club. As usual each week a new embroidery pattern was introduced. They were all fun seasonal patterns like this sweet thermos flask. I enjoyed stitching them so they came together really quickly. Each hexagon became a puffy hexie. I used fabric from Moda’s “In From the Cold” which is so pretty. There was plenty…

  • Christmas

    Deck the Halls for less

    My 4 year old woke me up today to tell me he didn’t think we had enough Christmas decorations up! I thought we had made a good effort with our reindeer in the window, Christmas tree, wreath and everything else. Obviously not, and so as not to disappoint my 4 year old further, today I hit the shops. At this time of year I don’t have much money left but fortunately I found everything I needed in my local Poundland. I managed to pick up some gorgeous decorations in red and white as I’m trying to have a Scandi Christmas…

  • days out

    Top 12 Things to see at Christmas

    Are you looking forward to a relaxing Christmas holiday or is your calendar full of parties and days out? Although we’re entertaining at home we’re hoping for a couple of trips out. Top of our list is Winter Wonderland in Hyde Park. We haven’t been since 2011 when my son was little so it would be great to go back and re-visit. I also really want to take the children ice-skating! I love this Top 12 Things To See At Christmas infographic. Each listing shows a fun family day out that is a must see this Christmas! Just click on…

  • Christmas - Crafts for kids - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - tutorial - upcycling

    Recycled toy Christmas decorations

    This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #CollectiveBias I think I’ve mentioned before about the beautiful wooden storage shelves my husband built for my son. They normally house his collection of small plastic toys but over the weekend my son took them all down so he could display his toy cars. I thought it would be fun to incorporate some of them into our Christmas decorations so, with my son’s permission, I recycled them. Let me tell you how. First of all we went through his toys and took out…

  • Christmas

    Monday happy things

    Monday again and only 9 days til Christmas. Hope you’re all feeling super organised! Although I haven’t made as many handmade gifts as I wanted to there has been lots of Christmas crafting. Our house is very twinkly and pretty and the tree is beginning to lean with the weight of decorations. Over the last week we’ve made wreaths, a styrofoam snowman ornament, gingerbread sun catchers, Liberty baubles, apple and cinnamon muffins, upcycled toy ornaments and personalised baubles. We’re all enjoying wearing Christmas jumpers this year. I have a sparkly gingerbread man, the 4 year old has a beautiful Fair…

  • Christmas - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Personalised bauble decorations

    For the final time this year I’ve teamed up with some European children’s activities bloggers to co-host a Countdown to Christmas organised by Rainy Day Mum. Every Monday we have a different prompt to inspire our festive crafting – this week’s theme is family fun. Don’t forget to add your crafty post to the linky at the end of this post! This time of year is all about family fun – we’ve been wearing our festive jumpers, listening to brass bands play carols on the High Street, attend parties and festive lunches whilst the excitement builds up to Christmas Day.…

  • Christmas

    Decorating Santa’s Grotto

    One of the things I love about this time of year is the opportunity to be really creative. Mobile Mini challenged us to help out Santa by designing a portable grotto that can fit within a storage container. Now my 4 year old loves his Playmobil cargo truck and cargo ship as it comes with a couple of shipping containers. He loves these toys and can often be found using them to ‘ship’ other toys around the house. I immediately knew this was the challenge for me. Of course my first thought was to create a gingerbread-inspired portable grotto for Santa.…

  • Crafts for kids - gingerbread - Kids crafts - tutorial

    Gingerbread men sun catcher tutorial

    We love sun catchers and have made quite a few this year. They are fun to make and easy to set up as they use everyday items from our crafty cupboard. We were recently reading The Gingerbread Boy which inspired our latest craft. Here’s our gingerbread boy sun catcher tutorial! Equipment needed to make gingerbread men sun catcher: black card scissors cellophane squares contact paper hole punch ribbon How to make gingerbread men sun catcher: Draw around a gingerbread cookie cutter or draw a gingerbread man freestyle on a piece of black card. I made a gingerbread girl and boy…