Captain America to the rescue!

Yet another mask completed using designs from Jessica over at Cutesy Crafts :) In fact I think we have the whole set (must post them soon). This time it's Captain America, and Josh likes this one much better than the mask that came with the costume!

 

 

The only changes I made to the original were a little bit of backstitch detail on the feathers and I used xcut's Leaf die to cut the eyes (smallest die), the rest is handsewn and blanket stitched all around the edge.

 

Red Nose Day 2013 :) A quick way to make a design into a t-shirt...

J's nursery where having a 'wear red and donate £1' day for Comic Relief day and he wanted to dress up. He didn't like the official t-shirts at Tkmaxx but loved the red noses (we ended up with one of each nose, two plush toys and several pez dispensers.)

If you want to recreate an image onto a t-shirt here is a rough guide of what I did. Do beware of using images that are copyright, and keep in mind that felt does not wash or wear well in the long run, so for projects that need to last perhaps use fabric and overlock or hem the edges.

Apologies for the mess, craft room under construction

After 2 years of my expanding craft supplies, tools and paraphernalia being housed in the study/junk/guest room we've finally had a sort out!

 

Now the "junk" is less (or at least better organised) the guest sofa bed is visible and everything had been moved around to allow for my new "husband-built" desk. Here is a photo of the desk going in and my daughter with hands over her ears in case the drilling states again.

 

On a side note this is also a demo post to test the new blogger app, for updates on the go.

 

Today's Tie is...

I'm back after the Christmas & New year break, and am starting with a shameless plug :)

 

My Dad is an avid Tie collector, and first time blogger, he has challenged himself to wear a different tie to work every working day for a year - and there are seriously quirky ones in there. Keep track of his progress [HERE]

 

 



Happy Halloween 2012 Pumpkin Carving

Today we've carved our Pumpkins or 'Bump-kins' as my son calls them) made Skull cupcakes (update to follow) made Beef Stew and are now waiting for it to get dark so the kids can get dressed up and go trick or treating! Happy Halloween Everyone! And safe trick or treating. x

 



Upcoming updates

Well it's all go in our family at the moment; birthdays, house moving, BBQs, painting & decorating, and nursery starting ... not to mention the accociated card making, cake decorating, cooking, sewing and other side projects. (Plus Mr.S's race running and toe breaking)

 

 

In all the chaos it's been tricky to find time for a proper update, but I promise more is coming soon!!! For now here is a sneak peek at my new toy...

 

 

... eeek!!! Previously I've held off buying any of the die cutting machines, prefering to muddle through with my punches and handcutting skills, but Christmas came early when this arrived :D So, expect lots of new projects involving my brand new Big Shot :D

 

Potty training : Free printable chart

Well, it's potty train time again in our household. Little Lady has been randomly choosing to do wees on the potty since Christmas but has resisted any attempt at serious potty training, with a month till Josh starts nursery and warm enough weather for Lowie to wander around the house in pants and a t-shirt I decided to take the plunge.

With Josh I stayed away from sweets/stickers and other reward style potty training techniques as I was worried he would always expect a reward for doing it - and it worked OK but he wasn't really ready till he was almost 3. This time I was thinking about using  a reward chart I saw some in shops and a few free downloadable ones from companies and blogs alike but didn't see anything with the format I was looking for, so I ended up making my own.

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It's might not be perfect for everyone - I made this for my daughter but hopefully someone else will find it useful. It has the 7 days of the week, 3 weeks per sheet (or possibly 3 kids per sheet for childminders or triplets) and space for lots of small circle or star stickers each day. I'm going to get mine laminated but currently have it mounted in a clear pocket file - so that the sheet is re-usable, but you could just print a new sheet every 3 weeks.

Download girls potty training sheet

Download boys potty training sheet

To download your own sheets simply click on the appropriate sheet above and either choose to save for later or print. When printing make sure to check the paper size and print preview. I hope this resource helps!

We've just started using it today, and she's got 2 stars and had one little accident.

Olympic Opening Ceremony : Cupcakes and Pizza

As it's the Opening Ceremony for the 2012 London Olympic games, so I went a bit Olympic ring crazy with a little batch of cupcakes this morning :)

We're letting the kids stay up to watch the ceremony - hopefully they'll crash out before we do but as they're currently hyper running around waving Union Jacks I suspect they may last longer than us!

Even tonight's pizza got the Olymic treatment, with red, yellow & green pepper, olives and red onion (tinted blue with food colouring).

Wedding: First photos

The first of many wedding posts. Thought I'd share a couple of photos taken by friends at the wedding.

 It was such a fabulous day, surrounded by our dearest family and friends. And it was so satisfying to see all the planning and projects come together to create a truly unique and personal day.

And a sneak peak of the finished heirloom Bouquet on the way down the Aisle with my Dad.

Fun in the sun and cress heads

This week we've been mostly enjoying the glorious and unusual British Sunshine, popping in only to cool off, get snacks and finish off last minute cards for friends and family :) There have been so many I'm not had chance to post them all so I'm planning on a photo montage of them in June.

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On top of this I'm planning two parties for my little girl (one family and one for her little friends) - and for some insane reason I've decided to have 2 different themes even thou they are only a few days apart.

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Wedding stationary progress has also suffered thanks to this glorious weather, however my wedding day tan is coming along a treat :) Six weeks to go, so excited, but I am suddenly reminded of how much there is still to do.

One craft I can share with you today is a playgroup activity I set up last week: Yougurt pot cress heads. Above is the result of our efforts, guess who's is whose?

Bank holiday fun

What a lovely bank holiday weekend. We took the kids to Longleat Safari Park - where the kids hand fed the deer, roared at the Lions and climbed all over the inside of the car pretending to be monkeys (as the real ones climbed all the outside).

Mr S. has decided we need a summer holiday, so we spent some time looking at tents - the kids loved running in and out of the big 10 man display tents (and falling over the doorways). Whe  we got home we even got out one of the old tents for the garden - JJ wanted to sleep in it but was glad he didn't when it started rainning. To be honest I'm not sure if they're quiet ready for camping, might opt for a lodge instead this year.



The kids bake cakes

Yesterday was a lovely day at home with the kids. They'd asked to make some cakes, and who am I to refuse? I let them pick their own cake cases (JJ went for Pirates, Lfor a cupcake pattern to match her apron) - a decision I regretted later on when it came to 'sharing' lol.

These cake were pretty much all their own work, from helping measure the ingredients, to turning the dial on the mixer and portioning out the mixture. Mummy was only needed to top up the cake cases and handle the oven.

Obviously the best bit is helping to lick out the bowl...

JJ took great care when decorating his, whereas L got stuck straight in eating it as soon as I'd helped her ice the first cake :D

Rain, Rain go away...

Well, April is certainly living up to its reputation around here, we've had showers everyday for weeks. I've been making the most of it, teaching the kids lots of songs about rain (hence the title), and they have been dying to get out in the garden, so yesterday we put on our wellies and went for a splash in the biggest puddle we could find.

 jj was a bit reluctant at first, after asking all week to splash in puddles he changed his mind the second his trousers got a little bit wet, but after matching him up and down a few times he soon remembered how much fun puddles can be. Little lady got stuck straight in, one of life's natural adventurers. We all had a lovely time, just wish I'd taken my camera (captured these with my phone on its last bar of battery, lol).

In other more crafty news, I've been developing my Heirloom Bouquet (probably about 30 brooches short of being finished). Mr S has just requested 20 more evening invites so I'm patiently making those.

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I'm also slowly working my way down a list of about 20 friends and family birthdays that fall between now and the wedding and making handmade cards for them in advance - which is no small job I can tell you, lol.

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Also in the pipeline, a  couple of special handmade Birthday present for my little girl, and a few gifts for other children's Birthdays ... not to mention Minnie Mouse Party planning and general wedding organisation :D Busy busy busy!

St. George's Day - Knight's Costume

JJ's nursery let us know the other day that on Monday they'd like it if the kids could come dressed as dragons, knights or princesses for St. George's day. It was quite short notice and as he's is not into dressing up and refuses to wear anything 'fancy dress' at the moment apart from his cowboy hat - there didn't seem to be any point in buying an expensive costume just for one day.

So with a little imagination and a small amount of resources I made him this outfit, complete with Tabard, Cowl and Shield (the shield is currently still in progress). It was all completed within a few afternoons, and I'm even making a second outfit for my daughter - in between toddler wrangling, naptimes, bedtimes, and meals :D

It was quite easy and cheap to make. The main resources that went into making the outfit were; a tea towel, a couple of flannels and some red cotton tape. :D

The cowl is a separate garment to the tabarb so that it can we worn with or without it, and tucked under the tabard or sit ontop, and I added detail to the straps on the back, which are adjustable and there's still plenty of growing room for my little man.

The cowl can be worn down as well as up, and the tabard reversed. You could even add a crown for a 'King Arthur' look.

Here is the Tabard and Cowl tutorial:

A little sewing and a little baking..

Oops, no blog entries since Monday, which is odd as I've spend a good part of this week on sewing projects: I finally found time to start work on my garter for the wedding and have been working on a surprise last minute project - a Knight's costume for JJ to wear to nursery on Monday for St George's Day! Keep an eye out of full step by steps on both of these projects.

Had my Mum over today, and while JJ was at Nursery we helped Little Miss make some cookies to give her brother when he got home. She loves baking and was surprising good at doloping the mixture onto the baking trays.

The cookies came out lovely, she was so proud when she gave them to Josh.

A place of everything and everything in its place.

Today I thought I'd share a little obsession with you - although, I'm not always the tidiest person, I am a complete sucker for organisation and compartmentalisation. I'm the kind of person who would have a drawer for spoons, one for knifes, another for forks and one just for egg timers ... not to mentioning my childhood compulsion for putting my coloured pencils in rainbow order, lol.

The kids arts'n'crafts cupboard was a mess so recently it got a make-over, albeit just with cheap tupperware pots and printed out labels. Not only do these keep everything neat, but the kids know where to find everything - although the finger paint might need keeping under lock and key ;)

And for balance here is a selection of my crafting boxes including ribbon cut offs, loose buttons, A4 papers, scrapbook papers, and my glue guns. I love these clear boxes, as they are so neat and they fit perfectly into my drawers.


Happy Easter!!!

I hope everyone had a great Easter. We've been really busy with Easter crafts, walks and a little baking. Everyone was really spoilt with chocolate eggs this year - I think we'll be eating chocolate till Christmas at this rate!

We made the traditional Crispy Cakes: Melted mars bars, rice crispies, and cadbury's mini eggs :) These were rather too morish, and no good for the wedding diet, lol! We also induldged in lots of hot crossed buns and eggs with soliders :)

The Easter Bunny must have been out in the rain, as we needed our wellies for Easter Eggs hunting this year. The kids really enjoyed it, and we were really impressed at how JJ helped his Sister to find them and didn't just grab them all for his own bucket.

Easter crafts with the kids

It's been a dull rainy day in Wiltshire today, but that didn't stop us going for a little family walk in the morning. Mr S is now busy making a Curry for tonight's dinner, meanwhile the kids and I have been doing a little Easter crafting.

They both made Easter cards earlier in the week at a Hobbycraft craft event so today we decided to make Easter pictures to go on the fridge. Granny had given them both a set of foam stickers so the kids used felt tips to draw on a piece of green card and then used the stickers to decorate. These are entirely their own work, with a little help from Mummy to stop the long 'happy easter' sticker getting stuck to itself.

We also made this years additions to the Easter Tree decorations. I drew around a cookie cutter and cut chick shapes out of yellow card which the kids then coloured in, we used glue dots to stick on feathers for tails and then hole punched the tops and threaded a ribbon through.

Easter nest cupcakes

Just a quick Easter themed update, I've just whipped up some Easter Nest cupcakes for my Dad's visit this week ... OK, I say they're for my Dad but they're mostly for Mr S and the Kids ;)

They're basically just chocolate cupcakes with grassy green butter cream, a crumbled flake 'nest' and smartie/sugar bean 'eggs'. I added a bit of twist by using my mint chocolate recipe - not a particularly Eastery but they are Mr S's favourites (he's had 5 already).

Belated Birthday post

Thought we were all recovering from flu just in time for my birthday, but it turns out we were just coming down with a new bug. But had enough time to go for a picnic in Longleat and see the Seal Lions. Here is my daughter being cute, picking daisies:



I got some great arts and crafts things for my brithday, including new wire cutters, scrapbooking papers, felt, sugarcraft veiners, stampers and the wilton book of cake pops - I can't wait to feel better enough to start using them all!

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Here's to a healthier and happier April!