Oh, we've had a marvellous time. We cooked and cooked and cooked - and then ate, and ate, and ate. We had visitors from near and far, and we celebrated the festivities of Channukah/Christmas (Christmakkah, my cousin calls it) across many meals. I think it would have been more fun if I didn't have an emerging wisdom tooth (at 32!) and a subsequent...
School's finishing up this week, so we've printed out "homework" to keep everyone from going mad. School holidays are fun, but my work doesn't go on holiday and Finnlay is too little to even understand what holidays are ... so we stick more or less to the schedule and keep kids busy! Isla loves homework. It's in a special folder, has special "homework-only"...
As the year draws to a close, the days are so much shorter and the nights are starting mid-afternoon. It's cold, so we spend a lot more time indoors and around the dining room table, painting, glittering, making playdough shapes (it's a cookie, mummy, for you. There's a candle, can you see?). Everything, it seems, is glittery. Every tiny piece of glitter is...
Just because it's too good not to share! It's my fifteen minutes of fame this week, all the mums stop me at school to say they've seen me in the paper so I feel that it is only appropriate to show you too. Ha. Every month we trade at the Leigh-on-Sea Farmer's Market which is a really lovely community event showcasing wares from...
There's something really special about receiving a handmade gift. Here's Isla jumping on the trampoline with her best friend "Miffy Bunny" - a handmade crochet bunny she received while on holiday from someone very special (thank you Althea!). I love this bunny because I know how much love and effort and time goes into something like this, and I love that Isla loves...
It's been go-go-go since we got back from holidays. We've been attending festive Christmas markets with our soap, making up lots of gift sets between events, fighting off colds en masse, and celebrating a third birthday! I didn't think I'd find the time to put together the party but we did - thank goodness - and I think it all went down fairly...
We've been away on holiday. Beautiful, marvelous, magnificent holiday. I was very spoilt. We went to visit our family in Cape Town, South Africa. We ate too much, laughed a lot, bought too much yarn, ate far too much cake, enjoyed every minute of our time there, and cried a little when we left. The children adored spending time with all of their...
Everything is better supersized. And with sprinkles. I made these for Isla's birthday, even though it's still a month away. They're the most wonderful and enormous crochet doughnuts, made using Twinkie Chan's pattern (you can find it online here). I made them using Paintbox Aran yarn. I don't love this yarn as much as I did when I started using it, my project...
I'm pretty ridiculously pleased with the way that this poncho turned out (raveled here). It was so very quick to make too, which surprised me as it is a full-size wearable garment. I've knitted cardigans before and - for me - those take months to do! This was done in a few days during the school holidays. It's a really simple pattern and...
School holidays are nearing an end. I didn't think I'd make it this far without holiday club (school during the holidays) or babysitting, but I have. We have. We've done days out, adventures, sleepovers, play dates, painting, slime-making, finger-painting, gardening, swinging and sliding, swimming, crafting and baking. Oh, the baking. We've baked everything - bread, this apple cake using our own apples, cakes in various...
Summer holidays are here! I've helped Isla to make a list of all the things that she'd like to do in the coming weeks. It looks a little like this: make slime bake biscuits painting playdoh pizzas painting go to the aquarium stickers painting Clearly she has her priorities straight. We did try out some slime (I'll post about that later) but it has...
I have been potting about the house this past week, making up things, tidying away, bottling chutneys, peeling cooking apples very kindly donated by our neighbours who have the most amazing and enormous apple tree... it's been a lovely, homestead-y kind of start to the summer holidays (in between work, of course). I made Tomato Chili Jam which is a favourite in our...
It's very nearly the end of the school year here in the UK. I'm still trying to get my head around it; in South Africa, our school term was January - December. The end of the year meant the end of the school year, and you had a jolly long holiday over Christmas (and the summer holidays). It's only just gone June...
I have been working (slowly) on a few crafty projects around the house and am starting to finish things. Hurray! This past week, my mosaic house numbers went up on the wall. I love these - they're bright and cheerful, with just the right amount of sparkle to tell passers by that this is our house. Our house that still needs a lot...
It's a particularly festive week here, what with Father's Day (today) and my birthday later this week (Wednesday). I made a cheerful banner to string across the wall in the dining room - happy everything! We made dad a card and a keyring for Father's Day. I really love this keyring - it was a collaborative art effort, with stamped polymer clay that...
Here's a photo just to make you chuckle 😊 We attended the Southend Festival on Bank Holiday Weekend and it was loads of work - prepping, wrapping, setting up, chatting, selling. Ah it's a tough life. It's not all work and no play though; we took every opportunity to chat to our market neighbours, go walking about and even hobnob with real-life Disney...
We've had a whirlwind of activity here in the last few weeks, so much so that I've hardly had time to sit down and catch up! Most importantly, Finnlay turned one. Big boy! A whole year! It's amazing to see how different he is to his big sister at the same age. He is stronger, bigger, more demanding. But he is also less...
The Tower of London Poppies are on tour, and they've made their way to Southend. Well, Shoebury to be exact. This installation, by Paul Cummins (artist) and Tom Piper (designer) is at Barge Pier until 25 June 2017. The volunteers who are working tirelessly at the exhibition are just fantastic. I learnt so much about this amazing area during our visit, from local...
