I saw a picture of this make on Pinterest (my favourite place online right now - please pop over and follow me if you don't already) when doing some insect crafts with the kids earlier in the year and knew that it had to be on my Halloween list of things to make. The yarn in my Bostik Bloggers box from Craft Merrily was the perfect prompt. Paper plate spider's webs are not only easy to make with young children, but they also look really effective and are great for children's fine motor skills too. All you need is: Paper plates Scissors Yarn / wool Large tapestry needle (blunt ... read more
Autumn Crafts: Easy autumn leaf wreath
This has to be one of the quickest and easiest bits of craft ever to make an attractive, simple, autumn wreath which would look lovely either on a front door, or just hung as a wall decoration. Making use of the goodies sent from Craft Merrily as part of the Bostik Bloggers challenge I also made use of a simple wicker wreath that my mum gave to me as part of clearing out her sewing room before she moves house. So, all you need to make this simple autumn leaf wreath is: Wicker wreath (From most good craft shops, or there's a selection available from Amazon here) Selection of ... read more
Halloween crafts: Peg doll witch
Since making the decision as to where I want Being Mrs C to go next, I've really be catching up on all the crafty things that I enjoy doing and this meant that the latest bloggers box of goodies from Bostik and Craft Merrily couldn't have been better timed. The obvious themes with this one was Halloween and autumn and I really was itching to get stuck in with things. The wonderful thing about the boxes that Merry puts together is that it's possible to do so many different crafts with what's inside them. A week later and I'm still crafting and still coming up with new ideas of things ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 8 – Mummy daughter day
I find it difficult sometimes ensuring that I still get one on one time with Little Miss C now that her brother's here, and especially since he naps less. I know that she misses that attention, and I've realised that some of her bad behaviour can stem from not having that time with me. During the school holidays I'm making a real point of making sure that we do something special together on the days when Master C is in nursery. This week we were busy getting ready for our holiday and trying to sort out laundry and packing, so I asked LMC what she would like to do for lunch. Her choice was to ... read more
Summer 2014: Day 6 – Birthday party, upcycling and vintage sewing patterns
As I feared, time is starting to run away from me somewhat and I'm already starting to wonder what it was we did a couple of days ago. After the excitement on Luton on Monday, Tuesday was intended as a bit of a quieter day at home, punctuated by a lunchtime birthday party for both children at the kind invitation of one of Little Miss C's school friends. The party was held in a Scout hut in a part of St Albans that I'm not at all familiar with (and hence I discovered a fantastic new playground next door too), and as we were still blessed with gorgeous hot weather here it was particularly ... read more
Arm knitting and organza flowers at the WI
There are many many reasons I love my local branch of the WI. I've met some lovely women and had a great laugh with them. But most of all I love that fact that one evening a month I get to leave the house and the responsibilities of being a mum behind for an evening and I go and do something for myself. Our particular WI branch is what many refer to as "one of those modern ones" in that it's about as far removed from the stereotypical Jam and Jerusalem image of the WI as you can get. With ages between 24 and 70-something (as far as I remember) they're a really refreshing bunch of women with ... read more
Sticky peacock and dragonfly crafting with Bostik
I'm going to be honest and say that half term here wasn't exactly a roaring success. Combined with grotty weather we also had Master C come down with a dose of hand, foot and mouth disease. As a result he woke up pretty much every hour, every night bar two in the whole 10 days. He wasn't eating and was super cranky. That crankiness passed on to his parents, who in turn were probably a bit short tempered than they should have been with Little Miss C. Overnight roadworks on the road which we live on added to the night-time woes but at least provided some evening entertainment through the front ... read more
How to make a simple paper plate ladybird
Sometimes when doing crafts with children you just need something that is dead simple and that's exactly what I hope this paper plate ladybird is. We've been busy re-reading some of our old picture books lately and Lucy Ladybird has once again become a firm favourite. A school trip to the woods, combined with the new CBeebies series Mini-Beast Adventure, means that the interest in bugs, insects and creepy-crawlies has gone through the roof. Little Miss C was convinced that she wanted to "craft a ladybird" so that's exactly what we did. All you need for this is: A paper plate Red ... read more
Bunny Loves to Learn – Peter Bently, Emma Foster and Deborah Melmon
Now that Little Miss C knows that she's got a school place at the same school where she currently attends pre-school we're starting to prepare her for what it will be like to go to Reception in September and therefore the arrival of Bunny Loves to Learn couldn't have come at a better time. Peter Bently has also been responsible for a couple of other books that we've reviewed (Meet the Parents and Underpants Wonderpants) so it was also interesting to explain to LMC the concept of people writing many books and comparing them. Buster Bunny's teacher has announced that all the children in the ... read more
Growing the giant crochet granny square
Wow - it's been quite a couple of weeks here and thanks to problems behind the scenes I am completely behind in blogging about any of it. There's a whole list of posts in my head that need writing up, but I've also had to move my blog over from one hosting platform to another, so I'm having to learn about a whole new interface to be able to do so. So, what to do at a time like this? Reach for the crochet and stick my head in the sand of course! If you follow me on Instagram you may have seen my giant crochet granny square in progress, but I don't think it's made an appearance here on the blog ... read more