Not much to show this week. I am trying to finish some little projects and have brought a bag on them on holiday in the hope there will be some sewing time. At last years’ Knitting and Stitching Show at Ally Pally I bought a fat quarter of a fab print by Echino Ni-Co called Camera in turquoise. It features a vintage 35mm camera in repeat and I thought I might make something for my husband who loves taking photographs. That never happened when I realised a fat quarter wouldn’t be enough to wrap around a lens, let alone his…
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I have a new hunting ground, Westbury in Wiltshire, where my mother has recently moved. We’re currently visiting and I was able to visit some of the charity shops. The first charity shop was an Age UK where the toddler spotted a Tomy Thomas & Friends Post Office Loader. He has a Big Loader at home which he loves so we bought this too on the premise we keep it at Nanny’s house. When we got it home we realised it was complete but missing the instructions and balls! Hhhmmm. However, it was easy to put together from the picture on…
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I can’t believe the summer holidays are nearly over. We’re going away visiting family next week so I thought I should pull out all the stops to ensure we’ve had lots of inexpensive fun this week. We’ve been dodging the weather and making sure we spend as much time outdoors as we can. I bought the toddler a box of chunky chalks and he’s been having great fun drawing on the patio. Don’t forget there are lots more ideas for inexpensive play from Play England on Morrisons website. Yesterday we made our own modelling putty for the first time. I…
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A couple of days ago I reviewed So You Want to be a Pirate? ,a little taster before the release of THE PIRATES! IN AN ADVENTURE WITH SCIENTISTS which is available on Blu-ray 3D™, Blu-ray™, DVD and Digital Download on September 10. I have the most amazing giveaway for readers of the gingerbread house -The Pirates! In An Adventure With Scientists Special Screening and Workshop! © 2012 Sony Pictures Animation Inc. All Rights Reserved The special screening and workshop will be held next week on Tuesday 4th September at The Pirate Castle, Oval Road, Camden, London, NW1 7EA 4.30pm –…
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On the 19 September 2010 I started a Day Zero list: a place to record your goals, discover new challenges, and gain motivation to achieve them. I have a list of 100 things I want to do over 1001 days. The list is due to be competed by 16 June 2013. Over the last two months we’ve been so busy. It feels like I’ve ticked off a lot of my goals and my progress is slowing down. I’ve managed the following: 20. Get the children christened We had a lovely weekend on the Isle of Wight with all the family…
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For my birthday back in March I asked my husband to buy me Betty Crocker’s Gingerbread Cake & Cookie Mix. I’m not even sure where I saw it but I can’t resist gingerbread so had to have it. The best before date was today so I finally got round to baking it. I really wish I hadn’t bothered! It was horrible 🙁 The mix makes gingerbread cake or cookie mix (naturally flavoured!) and I chose gingerbread cake. I don’t know what went wrong as it smelled delicious, but it didn’t bake properly. I served it with custard to try and…
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I can write about our love of Lego ad infinitum. At the moment it seems all encompassing which is great because as a parent I believe it’s a great educational toy. We’ve had lots of fun with Lego. We make endless towers, houses, tunnels, bridges, and manage to use it alongside other toys such as cars and trains too. We’ve been trying to think outside the box and made Lego crayons, Lego biscuits and even painted using Legos. We started off with some pots of paint and chose some different sized bricks and figures. Initially the toddler started off…
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You may remember I wrote about a workshop I attended run by Julie Arkell. She’s an inspiring woman and I really enjoyed the opportunity to listen to her talking about her work and what inspires her. Well I never showed you what I made. First up is a Second World War-style brooch, made from cardboard and tapestry wool, and finished off with embroidered leaves and felt flowers. It was actually surprisingly simple to make, using scraps of fabric and wool on a cardboard base. I’ve been busy collecting old embroidery threads whenever I see them in charity shops so I…
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To compensate for the fact the poor 8 month old has to share a room with us I thought I would decorate her cot. Our bedroom is in the loft conversion so, unlike the rest of our Edwardian terraced house, it has a really modern feel. Her cot is a simple one from Ikea in plain white so I wanted to give it a little makeover with a cross stitched heart mural. I love the idea of translating cross stitch to fabrics and furniture and have seen some lovely work by Eline Pellinkhof which inspired me. First of all I…