• crafts - handmade - London - sewing - tutorial

    Pinned it made it – how to make an embroidered pegboard

    I love cross stitch and I love trying different things so when I saw an embroidered pegboard on Pinterest I knew I had to try it. Equipment needed to make an embroidered pegboard: Pegboard White paint Paint brush Sand paper Tapestry wool Needle How to make an embroidered pegboard: I bought a large piece of pegboard (also known as perforated hardboard) from my local wood shop, gave it a light sand then a couple of coats of white undercoat. I wanted it to look a little rough so I didn’t try too hard. When it had dried I embroidered big…

  • film review - reviews

    Review: Woolly & Tig First Day DVD

    The children were sent a copy of Woolly & Tig First Day on DVD to watch. They are big fans of Woolly & Tig on cBeebies so I knew they would enjoy the DVD. If you haven’t seen Woolly & Tig before then Tig is a 3 year old girl and Woolly is her toy spider. Each episode is only 5 minutes long and explores common worries, with the help of Woolly who comes to life, in a fun and positive way. ‘First Day’ contains 15 episodes. From a first day at nursery school to meeting a man with a…

  • Cath Kidston - moving - reviews

    A tidy bedroom (fingers crossed!)

    One of the things I am most excited about in moving house is the fact both children will have equal-sized bedrooms. That might sound silly but the majority of the houses we saw had two decent sized bedrooms and a box room. Fortunately our new house is quite modern so the rooms are all a good size. We’ve been tripping over ourselves and the children’s toys so I’m looking forward to decorating the children’s rooms and buying new furniture including children’s beds. I have a very handy Cath Kidston planner and I’ve been using it to keep pictures from magazines…

  • crafts - handmade - London - sewing

    Where I join a sewing bee (kind of)

    I really enjoyed watching The Great British Sewing Bee which started this week, it reminded me a little of Project Runway. I think it’s made by the people behind Bake Off and there’s plenty of room in my life for programmes about makes and bakes. I liked the fact that the contestants all had completely different backgrounds and loved watching how they faced the challenges. Last week I attended my first proper sewing class at The Make Lounge. I signed up for Learn to Sew: Cushion Cover+Floral Corsage which was suitable for beginners. I’ve been hand sewing for years but…

  • days out

    Where we meet Sportacus!

    This morning we set off on an adventure into central London to meet Sportacus, the star of LazyTown. For nearly ten years superhero Sportacus has got the world’s children moving, dancing, singing and playing along with his colourful cartoon-come-to-life LazyTown.  Now he’s back to inspire kids to feel good about doing healthy things in a brand new series of adventures as the much-awaited third series of LazyTown makes its debut on Cartoonito on Saturday April 6 at 9am, repeated at 4pm. Created by and starring Icelandic entrepreneur and athlete Magnús Scheving, LazyTown follows the adventures of super-fit superhero Sportacus, pink-haired…

  • cooking - eating - reviews

    A lazy day

    This cold weather means I want to be eating good wholesome food! Ok, so I’ve already written about butterfly cakes today but I don’t just eat cake (honest). Most of the time I like to cook our meals from scratch but, like most busy mums, I keep stock of quick and easy meals for my lazy days when I don’t want to spend time cooking. Today I was waiting for my husband to come home from work to decide what he wanted to eat for dinner. For various reasons it took him over 2 hours (instead of the usual 40…

  • baking - moving - recipe

    Recipe for butterfly cakes

    The weather was unbelievable today – grey, overcast, snow and even a hail storm. Is it really the beginning of April? This morning we had to go out as the toddler had a hair appointment. Little Sis got her first hair cut too, one quick snip across her fringe and she can see again. When we were home with the front door shut firmly behind us we started baking. We needed a sweet treat so turned to our favourite, classic butterfly (or fairy) cakes. They are simple to make but look and taste great! Just in case you want to…

  • book review - London

    The Sugar Girls

    I love living in London and I’ve always loved learning more about the history of the place. We try to get and about as much as we can as we’re keen for the children to appreciate all that London has to offer. We don’t get to the East End very often but we have visited the old Royal Docks a couple of times to watch the planes come and go from City Airport. When you’re out that way you can’t miss the gigantic tin of golden syrup adorning the corner of one of the buildings making up the huge complex…

  • crafts - days out - eating out - holidays

    Easter in pictures

    We’ve been fortunate that our couple of days away coincided with blue skies and sunshine. At long last we were able to spend time outside and all feel much better for it. In the run up to Easter we did lots of Easter crafting. We made and decorated bunny biscuits, boiled eggs and tried out our new egg wraps, and also melted chocolate to make yummy chocolate lollies and eggs! Yesterday we treated ourselves to a delicious lunch at the Three Daggers in Edington and a walk around Edington Priory which was resplendent with flowers. We also did a lot…