Here we are on the first day of a new year. Mr C is back to work tomorrow, Master C back to nursery and I think it's therefore time to say that Christmas 2014 is over. The last ten days seem to have vanished in a bit of a whirlwind, but I think it fair to say we had a good Christmas. The emergency dentist appointment for me and both kids being at the GPs on the Monday and Tuesday of Christmas week made me wonder if we were going to be a house full of sick people for the big day itself, but luckily I think we dodged a bullet there. We just had my mum staying with us for Christmas itself and ... read more
Christmas Crafting with Bostik
We started our Christmas crafting early here this year, and by the time our Bostik Blogger box of goodies arrived from CraftMerrily we'd already made angels, cards and gift tags. It was therefore with a bit of hesitation that I gave Little Miss C what was possibly the best early Christmas present she'd ever had - completely free rein to do whatever she wanted with the box of craft goodies. Normally I'm a complete control freak when it comes to the boxes of goodies that arrive from CraftMerrily, planning out everything we can make before she gets a look in. I then left her and Mr C alone at the ... read more
Have yourself a very thrifty Christmas
Christmas. Let's face it, it's an expensive time of the year. Well, at least it can be, but here are some of my top tips for having a thrifty Christmas in 2014. Save on Christmas presents If I'm honest here, the really serious thrifty folk will have already done the bulk of their Christmas back in the January sales! Don't despair though if you're reading this in December and thinking you don't have a chance of saving money - you do. Firstly consider who you have to get gifts for. Do they really all need a present? If there are a lot of family members then why not suggest doing a ... read more
Owl Advent Calendar
As anyone who knows me in real life will tell you, I'm brilliant at starting craft projects, but when it comes to finishing them it's another story entirely. The house (and cabin at the bottom of the garden) are full of unfinished projects (over 41 at the last count - but shhhh don't tell my husband) and the situation has been getting a bit out of hand lately. And I daren't even count how many project I've got everything for, but haven't yet started. It's not that I don't want to finish them, it's just that I either run out of time or something more exciting comes along and they're ... read more
Christmas Craft: Toilet Roll Angels
Sometimes Christmas crafts just need to be as simple as possible, especially when small children are involved and that's what I hope I've achieved with this simple toilet roll angel project. What you need: Toilet roll White paint Cardboard - a cereal box is ideal Scissors Pipe cleaners - silver or gold ideally Glue Glitter - silver or gold, or glitter glue Sticky tape Pink or flesh coloured paper Felt tip pens Something round to draw round Start off by painting the outside of your toilet roll white. You may need two coats of paint for this. Draw a circle on ... read more
Henry Westons Mulled Cider
I LOVE Christmas! There we go I've said it. There's probably people despairing as they read that, but this year as soon as we'd waved away the trick or treaters on 31st October I've been in full on Christmas mood. For me the moment that sealed it was sitting down with a mug of Henry Westons Mulled Cider that I'd been sent to review and my subscription copy of the Christmas issue of Country Living. Nice magazines are one of my guilty pleasures and whenever I open Country Living I'm always transported to the old village rectory that features in many of my dreams and a whole different ... read more
Washi Tape Christmas Gift Tags
The Christmas crafting is continuing at speed here and if you thought last week's washi tape Christmas cards were a bit too taxing then this is definitely the craft for you - washi tape Christmas gift tags. All you need are plain gift tags (any will do, but I happened to have a box of these lovely vintage style ones from East of India) and some festive washi tape. As an added extra you could also use any Christmas themed rubber stamps that you may have too. You can obviously decorate the tags however you want with the washi tape, but I decided to keep it relatively simple with a ... read more
Easy Washi Tape Christmas Cards
It may not be the trendy thing to say, but I love Christmas and I particularly love all the build up excitement. I see nothing wrong with starting off all the Christmas crafts and activities as soon as Halloween is out of the way and that's certainly what we're doing here this year. I'm trying to come up with activities that the children can get involved in which are not only fun, but also have an educational value. If they also produce something that can be used as a Christmas decoration or gift then even better. To kick off all my festive crafting I came up with a washi tape Christmas ... read more
So that was Christmas 2013…
... and what a damp squib it ended up being! After more than a month of being ill I felt woefully unprepared for Christmas and therefore spend the last few days running round like a mad woman trying to sort everything and make sure I'd done all the practical stuff like send cards, buy gifts, wrap them and pick up the pre-ordered Christmas cake and other food bits that my mum had asked me to provide. All was going well when we piled in the car to head up north and apart from forgetting to pack my slippers it seemed like we'd pulled it off without incident. How wrong I was. On Christmas ... read more
What the Debenhams Secret Santa brought me for Christmas
When I was asked if I wanted to take part in a Christmas Secret Santa with a group of other bloggers for Debenhams I jumped at the idea. Firstly the idea of being able to buy something for one of my blogging friends was lovely - these were a group of women that I chat to daily on twitter and Facebook. We share all life's up and downs and see crazy numbers of photos of each others lives every week. I've been fortunate enough to meet some of them in person and without exception they're all as lovely in person as they are online. And secondly - I was being given money to buy someone a ... read more