We’re lucky to live in a beautiful part of Greater London surrounded by woods and forests. A short drive away is the outstanding Wendover Woods which is looked after by the Forestry Commission. Not that we need an incentive to visit the woods, but we do enjoy the partnership between the Forestry Commission, the wonderful books by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, to create the fun family activity trails. There have been a couple of trails based on books and so far we’ve visited the Gruffalo Activity Trail, The Gruffalo’s Child Activity Trail and the Superworm Activity Trail. Stick Man trail at Wendover Woods A few…
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Happy New Year everyone and welcome to my weekly Monday Happy Things post where I record the five things which have made me happy in the past week. I’ve really enjoyed the Christmas holidays. I’ve had plenty of time to indulge my hobbies, written some long overdue blog posts and loved not receiving too many emails. One of my favourite Christmas presents was The Year in Stitches Calendar Kit from The Draper’s Daughter. I enjoyed stitching the first month and will look forward to making each one every month. On the way back from spending Christmas at my mum’s…
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A couple of weeks ago we made it to Longleat Safari Park Festival of Light in Wiltshire. My mum was celebrating her birthday with a large family party and we all (10 adults and 3 children) headed over to Longleat to enjoy the show. None of us had never been before so we were excited to visit. Festival of Light at Longleat During the winter months Longleat is transformed to a winter wonderland with the addition of hundreds of Chinese Lanterns, a Singing Christmas Tree, Ice Skating, and the Santa Express. We entered Longleat Safari Park as dusk was falling…
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I hope you all had a very Happy Christmas. I love the week between Christmas and New Year. We’re busy relaxing and helping the children play with all their new Christmas presents, Father Christmas was very good to them this year! On Tuesday we explored the new Fairy Village which has appeared in our village. The children were really excited to find so many fairies had decided to build their houses near us. It was also a great reason to get out and have some much needed fresh air. We had our first family ice skating trip. I thought it…
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I can’t believe I’ve managed to keep posting the 5 things which make me happy for well over a year now. It’s a great way of marking the passing weeks which are going so quickly. This week has been busy with a big birthday and the school Christmas Fayre, which I helped organise. I’m not sure how I managed to do anything else – but I did! We upcycled a wooden crate into a sleigh to hold our Book Advent. I painted it in my favourite Annie Sloan Chalk Paint Emperor’s Silk which is a gorgeous, deep red colour. You…
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A couple of weeks ago we were invited to spend the day at ZSL London Zoo thanks to YouTube Kids. Now we love the Zoo so it was easy to say yes and we got to London Zoo nice and early so we could visit our favourite animals. Soon it was time to meet everyone at YouTubeKids. We went to a dedicated party room, filled with games, toys, crafts and tablets where we could find out more about YouTube Kids. It is an App which has recently launched in the UK and Ireland, built with parents and children in mind that makes…
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I’m sure I’m not the only one finding life exceptionally busy at the moment. In the next couple of weeks I have two birthdays, two weekends away and the school Christmas Fair which I’m helping to organise. It’s time for my weekly Monday happy things post before I face the week. On Saturday I enjoyed a trip into London for the 4th annual Mumsnet Blogfest. I missed last year but went to the first Blogfest in 2012 and the second one in 2013. I have never hung out on the Mumsnet forums but Blogfest is amazing. It’s more about good…
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Christmas came early for me this year thanks to a special invitation to celebrate those special Christmas moments with Waitrose at the Waitrose Cookery School in Finchley Road, London. The evening was hosted by Phillip Schofield and I learnt how to make cocktails and cupcakes as well as sample the most amazing Christmas dinner, courtesy of the very talented Cookery School chefs. You may be asking why I was invited to Christmas dinner in November. Well, throughout November and December, Waitrose are celebrating all of the different moments that symbolise Christmas – whether it’s decorating the Christmas tree, enjoying the first…
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A couple of weeks ago I went on a workshop run by Jessie Chorley. She is a designer/maker with a shop and workshop on Columbia Road. I’ve visited her shop a few times and was pretty excited to discover she runs workshops too. I signed up for a Christmas workshop. On arrival I was handed a little pack of paper items from which I could make three items: Stitched and collaged Christmas cards Collaged and stitched postcard decorations to be placed in your home once complete Decorating pre cut Christmas decorations that will then hang from a string in your…