• days out - sewing - upcycling

    Monday happy things

    I can’t believe that two weeks of school holidays are over so quickly. The holidays kept us busy and we created some really fun memories. The weather has been amazing so we’ve spent a lot of time sorting out the garden. We’ve had a few trips to the local garden centre and put in some lovely plants and veg in our upcycled pallet planter. I enjoyed spending time with my mum over the Easter holidays. She always organises the best Easter egg hunt which the children love and she helped me upcycle a Cath Kidston skirt into a cushion. The…

  • Crafts for adults - Pinned it made it - Recycled crafts

    Pinned it made it – DIY magnetic Scrabble board

    Ages ago I Pinned an image on Pinterest of an old picture frame which had been filled with Scrabble tiles. You could use it to make your own words and phrases. I love Scrabble and I’ve been meaning to get round to making one for ages and I finally did. Equipment needed to make a DIY magnetic Scrabble board: Old picture frame or similar Magnetic Scrabble tiles Chalkboard paint Brush How to make a DIY magnetic Scrabble board: I used a Wilko chalkboard frame as a base for my Scrabble board. It cost £8 and is a large chalk board…

  • Crafts for adults - Handmade gifts - Pinned it made it - upcycling

    Vintage Playmobil figure badge

    Ages ago I bought a bag of vintage Playmobil figures from eBay. They were mainly from the 1970s and I really wanted to craft with them and bring them back to life. You may remember the Playmobil clock and the Playmobil jar toppers I’ve made. I thought it would be fun to see if I could make some badges from a collection of vintage toys and game pieces so collected some badge backs and epoxy glue and a very old tablecloth and got to work. How to make a vintage Playmobil figure badge: Collect your materials. I used an epoxy…

  • homestyle - interiors - playing - toy review - upcycling

    Learning with Lego sets

    What child doesn’t love playing with Lego? My 4 year old was recently sent some lovely new Lego sets from George at Asda. Like any boy he loves his vehicles, and if they have moving parts, even better. He’s not at the stage when he can build them independently but he really enjoys making them with his Daddy. George at Asda have a huge range of Lego and Construction toys and he loves his Lego Technic Bulldozer. This was a 2 in 1 set so rebuilds into a powerful Trench Digger. He’s had a lot of fun with this set.…

  • Crafts for kids - Kids crafts - Recycled crafts - upcycling

    17 Kinder Egg craft ideas

    We love looking through the recycling bin and crafting with the contents. We’ve quite a collection of Kinder Egg shells as my children have been trying to collect the Kinder Surprise Pink and Blue eggs with Marvel Avengers and Disney Fairies inside. We’ve had fun with decorating them to make Kinder Egg Minions,  Kinder Egg Baymax and they are perfect for making Lego heads. 17 Kinder Egg craft ideas We still have lots of Kinder Egg shells left so turned to Pinterest for some inspiration. People have been really inventive with them and I’ve pulled together a list of 17…

  • baking - Uncategorized - upcycling - vintage

    Monday happy things

    Monday again, where did the weekend go? – I’ve been having a huge de-clutter and tidy which is ongoing and never ending. During the week I finished tidying our bedroom. You can finally see the floor and it feels like a lovely place to fall asleep – the Tempur mattress probably helps 🙂 Over the weekend I managed to read 4 years’ worth of Mollie Makes magazine. I took out any projects I want to make and have stored all the free cover gifts in a box – I think I’ve only ever made one! This has given me a…

  • baby - baby products - Recycled crafts

    Washing baby clothes and other memories

    This shop has been compensated by Collective Bias, Inc. and its advertiser. All opinions are mine alone. #collectivebias #mums4tommys School holidays or not I seem to spend a huge amount of my time washing clothes. Fortunately, one of my favourite smells is clean washing. Certain smells trigger some memories. One of my earliest blog posts was about the amount of washing my son made. In his first few months he brought up a lot of his feed after each bottle so we had muslins everywhere. I was always washing baby clothes during those first few months of his life. My…

  • crafts - Gingerbread house finds - upcycling - vintage

    Gingerbread house finds: Scrabble sets!

    If you’re a regular reader of my blog you’ll know I am constantly on the look out for old Scrabble sets to stock in my Etsy shop. The letter tiles are perfect for crafting with, such as this fun Scrabble bathroom sign I made. Well last week I found a couple of sets, but they weren’t the sets I am used to seeing. The first was an Australian version, published and distributed by T.R. Urban & Co., Sydney under licence from Production & Marketing Company USA.  There aren’t many differences from my English versions, except obviously where it was made,…

  • Gingerbread house finds - housekeeping - upcycling - vintage

    Gingerbread house finds: vintage board games

    I’ve been obsessed with vintage board games for a while now. Part of it is trying to re-create the games my grandparents kept in their wardrobe which we were allowed to play with when we visited. They had a great collection which included Tell Me, a metal wind up car racing game made in East Germany, a magnetic fishing and more, all stored in a green enamel bread bin. When they died I really wanted to take all of those with me, just to preserve the memories, but I couldn’t and I suppose I’ve regretted it ever since. What a…