Signing up for festive swaps seemed like a good idea in the months before Christmas and my favourite was the Advent swap, organised by Hookin’ with Laalaa. The idea was simple – to buy, make, gift or thrift 24 small gifts for your partner to open each day of the advent. These could be very inexpensive, or even free (think skincare samples or teabags!). The parcel was also to include a larger gift for your partner to open on Christmas Day. The swap was fun to collect for and I ended up with lots of little gifts which I put…
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2011 has had its ups and downs like any other year but we’re ending it on a high – with an unexpected couple of days with family on the Isle of Wight. I won’t be making any New Year resolutions that I won’t be able to keep. Instead I have my Day Zero list which I’m really enjoying working my way through and will continue doing. There’s a couple of things I am looking forward to in 2012. Here’s hoping: Big Brother has a full set of teeth by the end of the year – I can’t take any more…
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Little Sis is now one month old and we all totally love her. Big Brother constantly holds his arms out towards her when he wants to give her a cuddle and spends hours looking at her and giggling or giving her a kiss on her head. His behaviour, for the most part, is lovely and makes us both happy he has adjusted so well to his new role. He has the odd moment when he doesn’t understand that I can’t stop feeding her to get down on the floor and play but it’s great being a family of four. Unfortunately…
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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. This has been a rubbish month for me personally. I think I underestimated how much time I would have with a toddler and new baby to look after so I haven’t managed to complete a single action on my Day Zero list. Aside from changing lots of nappies and…
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Back in the summer I attended a parenting blog camp called Cybermummy where I had my photograph taken with a group of other pregnant bloggers for a ‘bloggers calendar’. To get my hands on a copy of the calendar I need to write a simple blog CV. So here goes… I started my blog back in 2005 to be a part of the online craft community which inspired me to dust off my sewing basket. Over the years I’ve sewn, baked, got married and had two lovely children and I love the way my blog charts all the ups and…
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I must admit that I seriously underestimated how much time I would have for our Christmas preparations with two little ones keeping me busy. Fortunately I was sent a Gingerbread House Kit from Bespoke Foods to try. The kit is fantastic for busy mum’s as it contains everything needed to build and decorate a lovely gingerbread house. The house pieces are already cut and the kit includes three bags of icing, sweets to decorate, a gingerbread tree and Father Christmas figure. The packaging also contains step-by-step picture instructions – perfect for older children to follow. The kit was simple to…
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Big Brother has been a bit poorly which means we’ve been spending lots of time snuggled up indoors trying to find things to do. Fortunately he likes playing games on the iPad and iPhone, in between episodes of Chuggington and coughing, so we’ve been trying out some new apps. Based on the original books by renowned education expert Dr. Lin Day, Stagecoach Education: Project Christmas is the first of the series to be brought to the iPad. Stagecoach was the first ever Educational Course developed for Under 5s and it has been helping to educate a global audience for over…
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I can’t resist a swap, especially when it’s a thrifted Christmassy one so signed up straight away to Lakota’s Faith, Hope and Charity Shopping Christmas swap. The challenge was to send a minimum of 3 items: one item to be sourced from a charity shop, one handmade item and one Christmas decoration of some sort. My partner was the lovely Hope from Pixie’s Ponderings. The parcels were beautifully packaged (almost too good to open!) but one evening last week I couldn’t resist looking at them any longer and did open them. Hope sent me vintage pot holders, a vintage crochet…
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I don’t often find myself in Sainsbury’s but at the weekend we picked up some shopping where I came across Sainsbury’s Mini Gingerbread Men Biscuits in a gift box. Of course I had to try them but I really wish I hadn’t! Bizarrely I can’t find any reference to them on Sainsbury’s own website but I promise I haven’t made them up. The biscuits come in a small cardboard box shaped like a house and contain a number of mini biscuits. They tasted dry, rock hard (despite being sealed in a bag) and not particularly gingery – I wouldn’t buy…