• hand print dragon
    crafts - Crafts for kids - handmade - St George's Day crafts

    Hand print dragon for St George’s Day

    April 16, 2013 - By 

    I probably bore you to tears with tales of our hand print painting. However, it is good, messy fun so I can never say ‘no’ when the toddler asks! St George’s Day is coming up on the 23rd April so I thought we would try and make a dragon using his hand prints. We needed some new supplies so headed off to our local Hobbycraft for a very enjoyable browse, returning with a huge bottle of green paint, glue sticks and a selection box of googly eyes. Check out my google+ page for pictures from our trip to Hobbycraft to…

  • crafts - Dolls quilts - handmade - Patchwork & Quilting - sewing - tutorial

    Grandmother’s flower garden doll quilt update

    April 15, 2013 - By 

    It’s three weeks since I wrote about the Grandmother’s Flower Garden doll quilt I’ve been working on. You may remember I asked for some advice as I’d got to a mini crisis point. I loved reading everyone’s suggestions so I thought I’d share a little update. I was lucky enough to find a remnant of the green material I was using for the flower border which made things much easier. My first step was to square off each end with half flowers as someone suggested so the whole shape was rectangular. Then my problems started again! I realised it was…

  • baby - pregnancy

    If Only I’d Known…

    April 14, 2013 - By 

    We’re at a happy stage in our lives right now. We have a 36 month old and a 16 month old which I suppose means we have two toddlers – scary, but fun. Pregnancy seems a long time ago and whilst I would love to add a third to our nest I’m not sure that will happen. I wanted to take part in a competition and was given a couple of prompts to help me write. The first prompt was the ‘3rd trimester of pregnancy‘. Reading this made me shudder as although I had straight forward pregnancies I’m ashamed to…

  • days out - Family Life - Local Review - London

    London Transport Museum Depot – We Love Steam!

    April 14, 2013 - By 

    We’re huge fans of the London Transport Museum so when we heard they had an open weekend at their depot we bought family tickets for today. The last time we went we didn’t have children so I was interested to see how our visit compared. London Transport Museum Depot Happily we all had a great day out. This year they’re celebrating the 150th anniversary of the underground and we had the chance to see the newly restored Metropolitan Line Steam Locomotive No. 1 and the Metropolitan Jubilee Carriage 353 which was originally built in 1898 and is one of the…

  • days out - Local Review - London - playing

    William Morris Gallery Walthamstow

    April 13, 2013 - By 

    A friend told me about the William Morris Gallery and Lloyd Park in Walthamstow, not far from us. Perfect (i.e. dry) weather was forecast this morning so we headed there. The building was beautiful and behind was a hidden gem, a huge public park with formal gardens, a moat, children’s park, cafe and much more. First of all we let the children (and daddy) run around the park. They loved it, everything was new and shiny and they had fun on the slides, trampoline, swings, slide and sand pit. The shiny paths were perfect for scooting along and there was…

  • moving - vintage

    King of his castle

    April 11, 2013 - By 

    It’s no surprise that I’m spending most of my time thinking about our new house. We are waiting (impatiently!) to hear that we’ve exchanged contracts and fingers crossed that will happen any day. This time round we’re paying a removal firm to pack and move us. With two small people it’s pretty impossible to concentrate on packing more than the essentials we’ll need for the first few days. At the moment I’m worrying about a cover set, stair gates and black out blinds but I’m sure they will be replaced by something else tomorrow. Our new house is bigger and…

  • housekeeping - Morphy Richards Innovator - reviews

    Morphy Richards Never Loses Suction Lift Away Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner

    April 10, 2013 - By 

    As part of my role as a Morphy Richards Innovator I was sent the ‘Never Loses Suction Lift Away Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner’ to tell you about. I have to admit that vacuuming is never top of my to do list but with two messy children and two cats our house needs constant cleaning. The vacuum cleaner was easy to assemble out of the box and straightforward to use. It has a number of great features: The Never Loses Suction cyclone technology ensures constant pick-up performance The Lift Away canister gives you the flexibility to clean anywhere, perfect for awkward…

  • crafts - handmade

    Crafting – not just for girls!

    April 10, 2013 - By 

    Have you seen the new crafts magazine for girls called Ruby Loves? Ruby Loves* comes out monthly and includes materials to make the items featured in the issue, online content which is unlocked with a secret code, prizes and much more. Everything is contained in a paper bag and we were very impressed when we opened it as it contained the magazine, lots of craft materials and the special code to use online which gave access to extra templates, patterns, crafts and lots more goodies. We’ve all had a good read of the magazine which is bright and colourful with…

  • baby products - competition

    OXO Tot flippy snack cup giveaway

    April 9, 2013 - By 

    Little Sis was sent a new flippy snack cup from OXO Tot to try. She has a tiny appetite but is partial to a mid-morning snack so was happy to give it a go. I filled it with her favourite snacks and let her explore how it worked… The soft silicone flaps are perfect for little hands and ensure snacks stay in the cup and off the floor! The twist on lid stays secure even when dropped and a removable cover snaps on to keep snacks fresh. The non-slip handle also hooks onto pushchairs and are a breeze for tiny…