I have a great competition to share with you today. Do you have a budding magician in your family? If so you may like to enter my competition to win a copy of My First Magic Book: 50 fun tricks and illusions for children aged 7+. Mini magicians can learn all of the tricks of the trade with this fun introduction to the world of magic! They can start with Card Tricks and keep people guessing with Tricks with Everyday Objects, such as the fantastic banana split trick and the coin under a handkerchief illusion. Move on to the head-scratching…
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On Sunday we spent a lovely day exploring Kew Gardens. I love watching how curious my children are about the things they see and there was plenty to see and do at Kew. Having children has definitely made me more aware of the changing seasons and over the last couple of weeks we’ve enjoyed watching the garden spring to life. Whilst we were at Kew the children collected pocketfuls of pine cones. They’ve been sitting on our nature table but I thought we should make something with them and decided on pine cone spiders. This is a great craft as…
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My 2 year old is very curious about the world and has been having great fun with a RC Thomas she was sent from Fisher-Price. It’s a great toy for developing motor skills and allows her to use trial and error to master the simple buttons on the remote control and move Thomas around. This is a very simple toy. The remote control unit takes 3 batteries, Thomas takes 3 batteries, and there’s a small on/off button underneath Thomas. The remote control has two buttons which enable you to move Thomas forward and backwards. Thomas is also full of sayings,…
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I promised myself I would spend more time on my hobbies and am trying to finish off lots of sewing projects before I start any more. However when a copy of Little Quilts by Sarah Fielke & Amy Lobsiger landed on my doorstep there was a project I just had to make straight away. Craft books are a major weakness and indulgence and Little Quilts is my kind of book. I love making little quilts for Little Sis to play with and I’ve already made a couple. Little Quilts features 15 step-by-step projects for small quilts using traditional and contemporary…
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If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I am constantly on the look out for old Scrabble sets to stock in my Etsy shop. The letter tiles are perfect for crafting with, such as this fun Scrabble bathroom sign I made. Well last week I found a couple of sets, but they weren’t the sets I am used to seeing. The first was an Australian version, published and distributed by T.R. Urban & Co., Sydney under licence from Production & Marketing Company USA. There aren’t many differences from my English versions, except obviously where it was made,…
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My children adore the adventures of Woolly and Tig and as well as watching them on CBeebies, we have read many of the books which are great for having discussions about the new experiences they face such as going to the dentist or making new friends. Today I have a lovely giveaway for my readers as I have two great Woolly and Tig sticker books up for grabs! Three-year old Tig is exploring the world with her cuddly toy spider Woolly. From building sandcastles to Tig’s first day at nursery school, there’s so much to look at and learn about.…
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Voting closes today at midnight for the Brilliance in Blogging awards or the BiBs. This is the second year I’ve been shortlisted in the Crafts category and I would really appreciate your vote (just click on the image to go to the nomination form). I started blogging back in 2005 about my life in London and the things I made. I still write about this but also life with two children and much more. Every night my son asks me what we’re going to make the next day but my blog is more than just children’s crafts. I also love…
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Have you ever tried making your own pasta? I was challenged to make my own ravioli, from scratch, and I have to be honest and say this made me very nervous. I can whip up a cake or follow a recipe with pretty good results but the idea of making my own ravioli from flour and eggs was slightly scary. Fortunately I was provided with the 00 grade pasta flour, a Lakeland ravioli stamper and the ASK Italian recipe book. Yesterday afternoon I gathered all the ingredients and set to work. I made the ravioli in a couple of stages.…
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Little Sis is almost two and a half and I find myself caught between wanting her to attend nursery for a few more hours a week (!) and not wanting her to grow up. She is very independent and hates being told what to do (not sure where she gets that from) and I need to let her grow up a little. We recently ditched the dummy which wasn’t as hard as I thought it would be and she barely wants a noo noo any more. She used to always have a dummy and noo noo (a muslin) but she…