Recently....

Recently, we have been...

 ~ Enjoying the sight of things sprouting and..

 ... rejoicing at the first edible thing in the garden (sorrel) and wondering exactly when it would cease to be too soon to take a leaf or two.

~ Leaving little soaked shoes in the sunshine and on radiators to dry at every opportunity, oh has it has rained!

~ Played MANY a game of  'Pirates' to while away the showery evenings.

Hope all is well with you! How have you kept your little ones occupied in the rain? xx

A Budget Birthday Gift for Little Ones...

Yesterday, I had a bit of a last-minute panic before a birthday party for a little friend of my children. I needed to make a gift, quickly, with hardly any financial outlay- not much of a task then! So I found our favourite little bear cookie cutter and a favourite recipe and created hundreds of these sweet little bears (knowing full well that somewhere along the production line I would be highly likely to eat at least half of them). The recipe is adapted from a Nigella Lawson recipe found in this book. My children loved them too, there is something about nibbling off arms and legs which seems to appeal to us all!

Once cooked, I dabbed a little icing onto their legs and dipped them up to their waists in sugar strands, then popped them all into a jar with a ribbon around it. Such was my haste that I forgot to take a picture of the end result, but it all looked very sweet. And it didn't cost much at all. Phew!


Birthday Biscuits

 (Adapted from Nigella Lawson Recipe)

300g Plain Flour
Pinch Salt
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
100g soft butter
100g soft brown sugar
2 eggs
60g maple syrup

Preheat oven to gas mark 3/ 160 degrees Celsius. Mix everything together in a food mixer (or mix dry ingredients, rub in butter and add eggs and syrup). Flour your surface well and roll dough out to 5mm thickness. Cut out your shapes and place on a greased baking tray. Bake for 12-20 mins so that they are a lovely golden brown, they will go hard when they cool.  Decorate as you wish... it occurred to me that these would be ridiculously yummy half dipped in chocolate.

Nap Time Crafting

 In a dream domestic setting, I would love to be able to do a little crafting while my little ones were napping. You know, in a land where there were no chores or meals to prepare or ironing (I don't include that under 'chores' it is too tedious even for that!). Anyway, somehow I managed it today! I've been experimenting with creating hand painted patterns on crisp white cotton. I loved the result of my latest experiment and wanted to incorporate the little scrap I had made into a tiny project. So I quickly wizzed up a tiny bag for my tiny girl. Rather like Eeyore in Winnie the Pooh, she loves putting little things in and out of little pots, jars and bags, so thought this would make her happy after a few days of being a little under the weather.

She gave a little squeal of delight when she saw it, which was completely the idea! She also loves different textures and is very tactile, so this beaded handle and matching stretchy bracelet (to put in and out of the bag) went down a treat.... as you can see from the photo above it remained un-ironed!

I'm very much enjoying the spring weather we've been having and have been excitedly planning which vegetables to grow in my little garden this year. It has been a rather indulgent treat to sit down with a cup of tea and this fabulous book to aid the process!

I'm thinking French Beans, Fennel, Rocket, Tomatoes.... but also of dedicating  a whole lot of the little space I have to herbs. Any thoughts on what to plant? (I know I have to get a move on with it!!). Also does anyone know what these purple flowers are?  I have a rather lovely pot of them but no idea what they are called!

Little Friday....

 

Just to share the very beginning stages of my new venture....

  

...... a sweet little shop called 'Little Friday Designs' where I hope to sell some of my hand painted cotton softies and cushions.

Please take a look! I cannot wait to be back on here sharing some of lovelier things in life! I'd love to hear what you think  :)

Cold Cold Day

It was too cold to venture out yesterday. We were all a little bit sniffly and the thought of piling into and out of various layers of jumpers, coats, boots, scarves etc. etc. did not really appeal.

So we had a quiet day in, recovering and watching 'The Gruffalo' on repeat whilst doing some little crafty activities...

My littlest one enjoyed mark making with chalks onto black paper (in between trying to eat the chalk of course!)

My little boy loved driving his toy cars through paint puddles and onto the paper...

as well as sticking down pictures saved from a falling-apart-ready-for-recycling-book...

 So now, happily,  we have a few more things to adorn our fridge door!