Today is Halloween and we’ll be celebrating by having a small party, with some ghostly treats. For one day only we’re calling ourselves the gingerdead house! We’ve had loads of fun making decorations so I thought I’d share some of them with you. We’ve been really busy over the last month and some of our favourites are: no carve pumpkins, pinecone spider, mummy candle, ghost ice cubes, Halloween sun catchers and toilet roll mummies. As well as crafting we’ve made some spooky snacks, from gingerdead men with black treacle to wriggly jelly worms. We’ve also tasted some yummy pickled onion…
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Are you prepared for any Trick or Treaters knocking on your door tomorrow? We have a huge selection of scary treats thanks to Swizzels Matlow, the king of the trick or treat season. They sent us a yummy collection of sweet treats to try and the good news is we have a selection to giveaway too! This year’s new ghoulish party delight is Trick or Sweet, which includes a choice of Double Lollies, New Refresher bars, Parma Violets, Love Hearts, Fruity Pops, Fizzers and Drumstick Lollies. Swizzels Matlow’s other frightening fancies include Trick or Treat Lolly Mix available at Morrisons…
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A new book recently landed on my doormat which combines my love of upcycling and home-making. Creating the Vintage Look by Ellie Laycock encourages you to discover how to make unusual and unique homeware through 35 gorgeous step-by-step projects. What I’m reading: Creating the Vintage Look Upcycling is about taking something old, vintage, treasured, or possibly even broken and giving it a new lease of life by trying it into something new. It’s a thrifty way of decorating and enhancing your home that avoids waste, but is also stylish, and Ellie Laycock shows you how you can make truly beautiful…
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I’d love to know how an idea is developed for pre-schoolers. My children absolutely love Woolly and Tig, the series about a little girl and her pet spider (stuffed, not real). If you haven’t seen it before, each episode features Tig and her cuddly toy spider Woolly, as they explore the feelings that children have when faced with new experiences, such as going to the dentist or the first day at nursery. The children were sent one of the new series of first-experience picture books based on the smash-hit CBeebies show as well as an activity book, the Let’s Play!…
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I’m so glad we went out this morning as it’s been raining on and off all afternoon. Fortunately we were sent an updated version of Scooby-Doo and the crew to watch. I have very fond memories of watching the cartoon adventures of Scooby-Doo with my sister so I was intrigued to hear of an original film with a brand new puppet format. Zoinks! Scooby-Doo! Adventures The Mystery Map DVD sees new-look Scooby and the gang embark on a mad, pizza-fuelled dash to find pirate Gnarlybeard’s hidden treasure. Confronting more than a few chilling obstacles along the way, watch as the…
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As you know we love to read so are excited to be sharing with you Discover the Savage World which is the third book in the bestselling ‘Discover the World’ series, produced in association with Discovery ChannelTM. It tackles ‘savage’ subjects through six brutal-themed sections, covering Earth, nature, people, history, science and technology. It really appealed to my nearly 4 year old. He liked the way the book was laid out as there is so much to see on each page. In fact he’s been enjoying the book so much he’s been choosing sections to read at bedtime, although how…
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Today was the school Halloween party and the toddler has been very excited about it. This morning we went last minute shopping for some outfits and when we got home we baked some extra special gingerbread men, or gingerdead men, to get us in the mood for the party. I made my favourite gingerbread recipe but with an added dollop of black treacle to give them some extra flavour. Lyle have launched a limited edition ‘Trick Or Treacle’ which we used last year to make some sticky ginger cakes which were delicious. After the biscuits had baked we decorated them with…
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I don’t know about you but I couldn’t help but keep a list of the ridiculous things my children say after seeing Greg Pembroke’s Tumblr, Reasons My Son is Crying, which went viral earlier this year. It all started when he posted pictures online of his three-year-old son, mid-tantrum, alongside the reason he was crying: He had broken his bit of cheese in half. In one month, the blog had received over 5 million hits – it is predicted to reach 14.5 million visits this year! As soon as I started reading his posts I completely empathised with him as my children have…
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You all know that I love to visit charity shops and upcycle the things I find in them. When I heard about a new book produced by The Children’s Air Ambulance it sounded absolutely written for me and I had to share it with you. The book is called New Wings for Old Things: Sew, Stick, Splatter and Salvage and includes over 20 projects to change preloved pieces into vintage visions for your wardrobe, home and garden. The ethos behind it is encouraging people of all levels of crafting experience to upcycle preloved (or just unloved!) items knocking about at home or in…