November means I can officially start my Christmas preparations. I’ve started writing lists and am feeling pretty on top of everything at the moment. I know there will be lots of Christmas crafting and last week we made our first Christmas craft – gingerbread play dough hearts. Have you seen the decorated gingerbread hearts hanging up in Christmas markets? They always look so pretty, decorated with coloured icing, and wrapped in pretty cellophane bags. I thought it would be fun to make our own version so today I’m sharing a tutorial for them. Read on because I’m also taking part in…
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It’s that time of week again when I write my favourite post – my Monday Happy Things! On Friday I spent the day at London Zoo as a Keeper for a Day. I had an amazing experience and helped clean out cages, prepared food, fed the giraffes and got a great look behind the scenes at ZSL. Hopefully I will have time to write a full post about my day soon. I’m a huge fan of Orla Kiely so was pleased to hear of a new collaboration with Boots. She’s created two new toiletry scents; energising orange & caraway and…
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Christmas is my favourite time of year so you probably won’t be surprised to hear I’ve started planning where we’re going to be, the presents an how we’ll decorate the house. I was excited to review a copy of The New Christmas Tree: 24 Dazzling Trees and Over 100 Handcrafted Projects for an Inspired Holiday by Carrie Brown, published by Artisan Books on 6th October 2015. The New Christmas Tree by Carrie Brown is a beautiful book. I love the concept and the photography and am completely inspired for the holiday season. This Christmas, consider everyday objects from a new…
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I can’t believe we are 10 days away from the Summer holidays! This term is really rushing by. Top of my list of things which made my happy this is surviving the parents race at Sports Day! I hated Sports Day when I was at school but I’m pleased to say both my children loved theirs this year. I was so happy to be challenged to decorate a teepee by Hobbycraft and write a post for the Hobbycaft blog. We were sent a teepee and some craft supplies and the whole family had lots of fun decorating it. We experimented…
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We always seem to pack a lot into each week but the last week has been exceptionally busy. We hosted a family Christmas which was fun but tiring. Highlights included lots of lovely family time, great food, a trip to the local Lido for a Christmas Day walk, more fresh air in Black Park Country Park on Boxing Day and seeing a rather spectacular display of Christmas lights. Last week I found time to finish Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. It is the last instalment of The Hunger Games, following The Hunger Games and Catching Fire. I’d watched the first two…
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As part of my pre-Christmas clear out I sorted through the toy boxes and put aside some of the children’s old toys. As I was putting them into a bag for the charity shop I had an idea about recycling them into decorations. Both children have small trees in their bedrooms and I thought we could make some decorations for them. Equipment needed to make recycled toy decorations: Unwanted plastic toys Spray paint Screw eyes Pin vice How to make recycled toy decorations: Pick a selection of plastic toys. I would love to use toys the children play with but…
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I have a brilliant craft to share with you today, cookie cutter gift tags which is a great way to recycle Christmas cards. For some reason I packed away last years’ Christmas cards, fully intending to recycle them into gift tags. Today I finally found the time to make them. Equipment needed to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Christmas cards Festive cookie cutters Pencil Scissors Hole punch Ribbon How to make cookie cutter Christmas gift tags: Pick a part of each card that you want to keep and position your chosen cookie cutter over it. Draw around your cookie…
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Today seems to be a great time to tell you about our felt gingerbread house. This is one of those projects that has been waiting to be finished for a while. I’m terrible at starting something and not finishing it! Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I made it as much for myself as the children and we’ve all had fun getting it out and looking at it. Here’s our Felt Christmas Cookies and Gingerbread House I purchased the pattern from Jeanette Lim at umecrafts a while ago, she’s also the author of Big Little Felt Universe which is one…
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We survived Big Brother’s first term at Reception. This week we’ve had parties, lunches and just so much that I’m grateful for a 2 week holiday from all the running around. Let’s ignore the fact it’s Christmas and we have a household full of guests, at least I don’t have to go outside! Over the weekend I made a wreath for the Winter solstice. I like it’s simplicity compared to our Christmas decorations, just a ring of intertwined branches and a string of lights. I placed it in the dining room and put one of my new house-shaped tea light…
