• wooden spoon dragon craft for St George's Day
    crafts - Crafts for kids - Kids crafts - St George's Day crafts - tutorial

    Wooden spoon dragon for St George

    April 22, 2014 - By 

    We’re now back home after a lovely long weekend away spent with my mum. We’re all ready to face a new term the only downside is that I’ve come down with tonsillitis yet again, with conjunctivitis thrown in for good measure. As soon as we arrived home I realised our Easter decorations had been up for far too long so I was more than happy to take them down. The house is already looking a lot less cluttered. Did you know it’s St George’s Day tomorrow? It’s not an official national holiday just yet but, according to Wikipedia, St. George’s…

  • baking

    Hot Cross Cookies and the Colossal Cake Sale

    April 21, 2014 - By 

    Over the weekend we have been eating our way through a pile of Hot Cross Cookies from a recipe I found on Whitworths Sugar website. They were easy to make, half an hour from start to finish, and a great alternative to the traditional Hot Cross Bun typically eaten at this time of year. I left out the white chocolate pieces as we all eat far too much chocolate at this time of year (!) but I did decorate them with white chocolate with a little help from my son. The cookies were delicious so would be a great bake…

  • ASK Italian - cooking - eating

    The perfect Spaghetti Alla Carbonara

    April 17, 2014 - By 

    I’m currently working with ASK Italian to promote their brilliant campaign to #Respectthepasta! A couple of weeks ago I visited my local ASK Italian in order to tell you about their delicious menu. This week I wanted to share some tips for cooking the perfect pasta at home. ASK Ambassador Theo Randall, has had a huge hand in creating some of the delicious menus at ASK Italian, he has also created a set of rules for creating perfect pasta: Pasta DO: -Use LOTS of boiling, well-salted water -Cook for two minutes less than the packet instructions and finish cooking in…

  • Dyeing eggs for Easter
    crafts - Easter - handmade - Kids crafts - Spring - STEM activity - tutorial

    Dyeing eggs for Easter

    April 16, 2014 - By 

    I know my children don’t have a clue about Easter but that hasn’t stopped us enjoying some Easter crafting. Yesterday we tried our hands at decorating and dyeing hard boiled eggs. This was actually quite quick so the children were able to follow the whole process. I thought I’d share it here as my two really enjoyed it. You will need: eggs Scotch Magic Tape scissors vinegar food colouring {STEM activity} Dyeing eggs for Easter First hard boil the eggs. I boiled them for 10 minutes then placed them in a sieve and ran cold water over them for a…

  • crafts - Easter - Kids crafts - Spring - tutorial

    How to make your own Easter eggs

    April 15, 2014 - By 

    I think it’s fair to say we’re enjoying our Easter holidays. The 4 year old was in desperate need of a break from his nursery routine (he attends for five afternoons a week) and we’ve been crafting, to the beach, seen family and friends and for the first time, made our own Easter eggs! Have you ever tried using a chocolate mould before? We found it surprisingly time consuming as each layer needs to be left to solidify before another one is added. “Daddy, me have more chocolate please!” It was great fun though and there was plenty of chocolate…

  • competition

    Win a year’s supply of Duracell batteries

    April 15, 2014 - By 

    Today I wanted to share an inspiring story of mental and physical endurance with you. Childhood friends Luke and Jamie recently rowed 3000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean and raised £300,000 for Breast Cancer Care, the single biggest donation that the charity has ever received. During their 54-day adventure Luke and Jamie, both only 21, showed an extraordinary commitment to never giving up. They met sharks, crossed 40ft waves, and narrowly avoided being crushed by a container ship. They even earned themselves a place in the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest pair ever to row the Atlantic!…

  • Printing flowers with a bottle
    crafts - Crafts for kids - handmade - Recycled crafts

    Printing flowers with a bottle

    April 14, 2014 - By 

    Our recycling box was overflowing so we had a look through it to see if we could use anything for crafting. There were lots of bottles of all shapes and sizes and I knew they would be perfect for printing our own flowers. Printing flowers with a bottle We love any craft which has instant results and this was great for my 4 year old. He chose his favourite paint colour, covered the base of the bottle with paint then pressed it on to a sheet of paper. It’s a lovely way to create flowers although the bottle we chose…

  • Bostik Family Craft Bloggers Network - crafts - handmade - Kids crafts - Spring - tutorial

    Easy Spring wreath

    April 13, 2014 - By 

    The weather has been a bit of a mixed bag lately so we’ve been coming up with lots of Spring crafts to cheer the place up. Spring is easily my favourite time of the year and returning home after a week away I’ve been amazed how our garden has just ‘bloomed’. First of all we made our own Spring wreath. We found a sheet of green cardboard and used plates as a template for a large and small circle. My 4 year old loves to cut with scissors (!) and enjoyed this task so much that we made a couple…

  • book review - crafts

    Craft books from DK

    April 12, 2014 - By 

    I’ve always enjoyed reading DK books so was happy to receive an unexpected parcel of books from them earlier this year. I’m going to review them together here as they all fall within a crafty category. First up is Crochet, the complete step-by-step guide, which contains all the essential techniques and more than 80 patterns. I have to admit that I can’t yet crochet but it’s been on my to-do list for a while. DK are well-known for their highly visual books and craft books lend themselves well to this style. Crochet is the go-to compendium which takes readers through…