Tea Towels!

I recently took part in a tea towel exchange on http://www.naturalmamas.co.uk/ This is the tea towel I sent to a lovely mama...

 ...and this is the gorgeous one which I received!

Handmade and homemade gifts mean so much to me, so I was chuffed to bits with my tea towel. It's really cheered me up! And the mama who created it has also inspired me to get my sewing machine out and jazz up my own tea towels. I've been so busy lately, taken on too much, said yes to too many things, that I haven't had time for the things or people I enjoy. I feel really guilty that the tea towel I sent wasn't handmade. It's my mission to re-prioritise and find more time to be.

Thank you so much, whoever you are. Your gift means an awful lot to me, and has really touched me. xxx

Turning Two

We have recently celebrated Moo's second birthday! Where have those two years gone? Just a few snaps of her day...

She had a lovely day!

Home Grown Strawberries

I wouldn't say we were anything even approaching self-sufficient, nor do we, at present ,aspire to be. We do however like to grow a few favourites at home. Especially strawberries. It started off a few years ago, as one large hessian planter with holes in the sides, with 8 different varieties growing. This was lovely and we got  to try different varieties, but sometimes there was barely enough for a bowlful as they ripened at different times. So over the past few years we have grown other planters, pots, baskets and so on with our favourite varieties.

This is our third punnet full of the year.

This little hand appeared as I was trying to take a picture- strawberries are Moo's favourite.

Yummy!

What to do with a glut of strawbs? A yummy strawberry and cream cake.

Bliss!

Painting...

Beanie isn't usually one to enjoy painting, crafts, cutting and sticking or anything of that ilk. So when he asked could he do some painting, the other afternoon, I jumped at the chance! We used brushes, dabbers, sponges and rollers with simple primary colours.

a relaxed start...

interesting effects with dabbers...

a roller...

ooooooo... he chatted about how the colours had mixed...

 a handprint... lots of handprints...

finished!

The whole painting sequence was only about 5 minutes, which is quite long for him as a) he doesn't like painting (or anything of the messy play genre) and b) he doesn't tend to have a long attention span anyway!

I don't want to be too pushy with something he doesn't enjoy, but on the other hand I would like to present him with the opportunity to be a little bit creative, so have been searching for ideas he may like. We are hoping to do some painting with toy car/vehicle wheels this week along with some printing with shapes carved into potatoes!

I have to say though, I really should not be allowed to paint with children as it always ends like the final picture, with paint everywhere! Maybe that's part of the fun though!?



Dyeing Playsilks

I've seen and read lots of things about play silks, both on a forum where I am a member, and also in blogs I am following. Other mums enthuse at the myriad of play opportunities they enable. As well as looking beautiful, they stimulate the imagination and can be used in such an open ended and creative way.  So I thought I'd have a go at making my own for the little people to enjoy!

This is how I did it.

Firstly, I ordered my playsilks from http://www.silkcraft.co.uk/ but you can also get them from ebay. We got 6 hanky sized and 6 45cmx45cm, as well as 2 large ones (90x90 i think!). I ordered them at 11am and they came the following day! Very impressive service!

Most instructions I found used white/distilled vinegar. But I couldn't find any, so we used malt. It sent the playsilks a beige colour at first, but once they were dyed there was no difference! I measured 2 cups of hot water to 1 cup of vinegar and soaked the playsilks for 30 mins.

Next, I mixed up some more vinegar mixture. Again one cup of vinegar to two cups of water. (About 3 cups of vinegar and 6 of water was enough for the 6 colours I needed). I split this between 6 jars and added food colouring. I mixed green, purple and orange using the primary colours I had.

I then soaked each playsilk in each colour.

 I microwaved each one in turn for 1 minute then stirred, repeating for 3 mins in total.

 After this I rinsed each silk in the sink until the water ran clear.

And this is how they turned out! Excuse the crinkley-ness! They have been well played with so far, from pee-po to a river for dinosaurs to cross, as well as being muddy puddles to jump in!

I also made two large rainbow ones- one with stripes and one where the children just painted on the vinegar/food colour mixture randomly. To do this, I laid some cling film out on the table, and laid a silk on top. The vinegar/dye was then painted on with paint brushes. Next I rolled the silk and cling film together, like a swiss roll. I then microwaved it for 1 minute as above. I forgot to do pics of this bit though! Apart from this one!

I'm planning on doing some larger ones soon, so will maybe take more pictures then. I must do a lovely arty washing line shot too!

Oh Tulikowo, how I adore thee!

My truly beautiful Tulikowo mei tai. A work of art!



with zip on/off sleephood attached

exquisite applique

 

oh so comfy

 

and the sleepy dust works too!

sleepy dust works on days out with daddy too!

'Tis an absolute beauty, and perfectly knee-to-knee, but not too high on the back for arms out, so it will be staying a while! The *only* thing I am not entirely sure about is the cord straps. Still getting used to them. Other than that is beautiful, exquisite, amazing and a work of art!

Pics taken on Mother's Day, at Sacrewell Farm- we had a lovely day. Daddy pic taken at the Owl sanctuary, Beanie is currently obsessed with Owl Babies and owls in general!

Caramel Shortbread

We've all been full of coughs, colds, headaches and runny noses here so I decided to do some baking to cheer us all up, feed a cold and all that!

This is a fab recipe for caramel shortbread and works every time. Its a favourite in our house and a few slices always make their way into Daddy's work as well.

I use a different brand of condensed milk though, its quite hard to find condensed milk other than' a certain brand', but worth it!

Delicious!