There’s something about this time of year that makes me want to close the shutters and hibernate until spring. I love all seasons but the stormy weather which is being forecast over Christmas fills me with dread! I much prefer clear blue skies to wind and rain. We’ve now been in our house a few months but have spent most of our savings on furniture. We’ll be saving for a while until we can re-decorate, which unfortunately every room needs. With great timing, HomeServe has come up with a bit of a challenge. They invited me to tackle a cold-looking…
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Today my thoughts have turned firmly towards the school run. Since I’ve never done the school run before I’m not really sure what to expect but on the couple of occasions I’ve visited the school the fashions have been quite wide-ranging. There are the women who are so immaculate you wonder if they actually care for their children; the slummy mummies who look like they’ve just rolled out of bed; the sporty mums who look like they’re going straight on a run after they’ve dropped their children off and then there are the mum’s who look like me, pretty nondescript.…
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I Spy with my little eye, something beginning with Q. I have completed a project! I’ve been working on a doll quilt for Little Sis for quite a while. She has a growing collection which I am very happy to add to. The pattern is from pretty in patchwork doll quilts which is easily my favourite craft book at the moment. Fortunately for me the quilt came together in several distinct steps so I was able to work on it over a couple of weeks. First of all I chose and made the 24 hexagons, then arranged them again and…
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I’m a huge fan of Elyse Major’s blog, Tinkered Treasures, so was very happy to be sent a copy of her new book to review. Adding charm to the everyday is the concept behind Elyse Major’s first book, Tinkered Treasures. It features more than 35 projects, each craft is designed for beginners and can easily be elaborated with, according to your own skill level. Tinkering is the name given by Elyse to the transformation of everyday items. Through you can pick up some great ideas for embellishing, repurposing and altering using items you’ll already have. The projects are split into…
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It’s official! We’ve sold our lovely Edwardian cottage. Over the last few months we’ve been busy de-cluttering, painting, building walls and hiding as much as possible in the shed(s). Our house was on the market for a week, is now off the market, and we’re ready for a new adventure in a different part of London. We’ve had lots of people round to view, even before the photographer had been. We’ve also been arranging our own viewings which is exciting. I’d forgotten just how hard it was to keep the house clean and tidy though. Every day I was trying…
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Was Father Christmas good to you? I must have been a good girl last year as he was very nice to me. I received a years’ subscription to Ancestry which will really help me with my family history research. I want to capitalise on the creative writing course I did at the end of last year so I’m going to make time each week to work on it. I was also given a subscription to Mollie Makes. I think it’s rather expensive for a magazine but I do love reading it and now I won’t feel guilty about spending the…
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Over the weekend I attended the inaugural Mumsnet conference. I applied to join the Mumsnet bloggers group when it launched but I never heard back, so you might wonder why I would pay money to spend a day with them. conference essentials: programme, iPad mini and Orla Kiely I saw it as a day off from my children and yes, I’d happily pay for that pleasure. When I saw my old blogging friend Liska she told me I looked radiant. Yes, I told her. I have a child-free day. I had make up on. My clothes were clean and I’d…
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Last month two new books were published by the Irish fashion designer, Orla Kiely, in her range of cloth bound board books. Just like numbers and colours, creatures and shapes are two beautiful books for babies and toddlers. Shapes focuses on some of the most common geometric shapes and then places them alongside a common object or animal featuring that shape. I love the hexagon and honeycomb page, but there are also a rectangle and house, an oval and a ladybird as well as a star and starfish. Creatures shows her strong geometric-style graphics and patterns to illustrate a variety of animals, from monkeys…
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Tots100 and Ratedpeople.com have challenged us to makeover a room in the most creative way we can think of. The timing is perfect, given as how I have moaned before about our lack of space. Our 10 month old still sleeps with us and I haven’t enjoyed sleeping through the night since she was born. So, our plan. Our front bedroom was originally two bedrooms but converted to one when the loft was converted and a staircase put in. My husband works from home so the room is his office and our guest bedroom. We would like to turn…