Parenting can be tough at times. Especially if your kids seem to think that you model yourself on that Pinterest and Instagram mum, who always has a new craft activity or similar lined up ready to do at a moment's notice. Reality is that your child is likely to ask to do something, you begrudgingly agree to their crafty ideas and start rummaging in drawers, cupboards and boxes to find everything they need. Half way through the project the child, or children, will suddenly declare that they need something else to complete their masterpiece so you then start plouging through the entire contents ... read more
Bringing Holiday Home at the James Villas Crafternoon
Anyone who knows me will know how much I love crafting. Crochet is my proper addiction, but to be honest I'm not fussy as to what craft I turn my hand to, especially if there's someone there to teach me how to do it right. What might come as a bit of a shock though is the fact that since moving house on 1 July I have only picked up a crochet hook once. Once! That's pretty much unheard of in my life, but it's been the reality of a crazily busy couple of months. I'm hoping that life is about to calm down a bit so that I can pick my crochet hook up again soon. Especially as I had a weak ... read more
Craft Tools That Can Take You From Amateur To Pro
pexels Crafting is becoming something of a popular hobby these days. Many people are turning their back on rank consumerism and enjoying the fruits of their own labor, and instead of splashing out huge amounts of money on new furniture, ornaments, and artwork, they are doing it all themselves. And why not? Regular readers of this blog will know how much I love a good craft project - there is nothing in the world more satisfying than creating something beautiful yourself. You can even start making some money from crafting, too, if you put your mind to it. But make no mistake, if you do ... read more
Review: Craft Time Mosaics
A recent house move combined with some grotty weather means I've been looking out for some small craft projects to keep the kids entertained on wet days at home. It was therefore perfect timing when I was sent a couple of Craft Time Mosaic kits to review. Little Miss C always loves anything crafty, and Master C's fine motor skills have been coming on in leaps and bounds recently, meaning that he too is actually now enjoying sitting down and completing something like this. We were sent two small kits to review - the kitten and the dragon. With the glittery mosaic stickers LMC wanted to ... read more
The Pirate Craft Book
Sometimes in life, timing is perfect. And that was exactly the case when an email popped into my inbox asking if I'd like to review The Pirate Craft Book. Little Miss C has just had pirates as a learning topic at school and this culminated in a pirate dressing up day. Strangely we don't have a pirate costume in the dressing up box at home, so I knew I was going to have to pull together a costume from somewhere and this book is the perfect place to start. Written by Laura Minter and Tia Williams (the mums behind Little Button Diaries) the book is packed with "15 things a pirate can't do ... read more
My 2016 in crochet
Now normally reviews of the year come at the end of the year. It's the kind of blog post that people publish between Christmas and New Year as a sort of round up. That was my plan, but like all the best laid plans it didn't happen. Many reasons, but the biggest one being that by the time we got to that weird period between Christmas and New Year I was just absolutely shattered! I also sat down then with a notebook and realised that I actually did far more in 2016 than I'd realised, and just one blog post wasn't going to do the year justice. So, welcome to what is likely to be the first in a ... read more
My inspiring WI Summer
Yes, I know it's October. And mid-October at that, but I'm still catching up with the very, very long list of things that have been going on in my life that I want to capture here. In a way the summer seems like it was a life-time ago, but strangely it also feels like only a couple of days since it started. And boy did the summer start with a bit of a bang! I've blogged several times on here about the things that I've been getting up to at the lovely Herts Belles WI group that I joined here in St Albans a couple of years ago. Up until earlier this year though I only really went along to ... read more
Catching up with all things crochet
I've been a tad rubbish this year writing about all things crafty. That's partly because I just haven't had much time to be crafty this year, but also because when I have had the time I've been actually crafting instead. Instagram has also become my go to place for tracking my progress with big projects, and that's exactly what I'm doing with the second Spice of Life blanket that I'm currently working on. I've just found that when you're working on something that takes weeks or months a series of blog posts as you go isn't always the most riveting read. Crochet and a cuppa with good ... read more
January – all the things I’d forgotten I’d done
Did I fall asleep or something? Where on earth did January go? It seems like only two minutes since Christmas and New Year, but then at the same time they also feel like a lifetime ago. So, what exactly have I been up to in January. Sitting here now it seems a bit hard to work out exactly what I've been up to for the whole month, but I'm sure I'll work it out. The biggest thing has probably been that January has been the month in which I started running again. Here I am on the 29th of the month and I'm delighted to say that I've clocked up a whole 70km in January (so far!) and am ... read more
Advent House for Master C
It seems hard to believe that it's over a year now since I made an Owl Advent Calendar for Little Miss C (and nearly a year to the day since I blogged about it too). Master C wasn't quite ready for an advent calendar last year, but even then I knew that I would need to do something for him this advent, so it was perfect timing when the team at Ocean Loans got in touch asking if I would like to be sent an Advent house from Hobbycraft and a nice gift voucher so that I could decorate it. This was of course back in early October and I was rather proud of myself for getting on to it straight away, ... read more