Entertaining an active toddler on a rainy day when you're stuck in the house is not an easy thing. Little Miss C loves nothing more than running about the garden so when it starts raining at breakfast and continues in a monsoon fashion all day it's tricky to know how to keep her occupied. At 14 months she's not really old enough to do any drawing herself yet but that didn't stop me getting out some paper and wax crayons earlier today. Whilst she had a few problems coordinating holding the crayon and making contact with the paper she was completely fascinated to see me drawing ... read more
Simple things in the garden
Give a little girl a garden full of things to collect and a bucket in which to put them and you have an hour of fun! ... read more
How to have a baby without it costing the earth
It seems I'm now the mum of a toddler. How did that happen? Fourteen months have passed by in a flash and I'm suddenly realising that there's a whole batch of new mums coming along behind me that I can share some of my experiences with, so that's exactly what I want to use this blog post to do. The press is full of articles about just how much it costs to raise a child here in the UK and it is true that compared to life before children our house now contains much more than it used to, but it is not necessary to buy everything on the lists that baby shops produce and there are ... read more
Being one
Two weeks ago this gorgeous little girl turned one. A special milestone, but one which seems to have come with a complete step change in ability from Little Miss C and more changes for the whole family. Whilst she has been crawling since she was about six and a half months old LMC hadn't really shown any interest in walking. What was the point when you could crawl as fast as she could and carry anything you needed in your mouth whilst doing so. Two days after her birthday though that all changed and suddenly there was a new way of getting around that she was keen to try out. First proper ... read more
Clothkits dress preview
Since Little Miss C turned one life seems to have become a bit of a blur. She's suddenly desperate to walk and her speech is also developing every day. We've had a few first steps and miles and miles covered around the house with her baby walker. That does mean I have had to quickly develop even more eyes in the back of my head and a skill to crochet whilst walking around! I have also managed to squeeze in some me time with a lovely night out being pampered with other mummy bloggers at Beautylase and an evening of crocheting in a pub with a good friend. There are also plans ... read more
Preparing for a birthday…
There's quite a major birthday here next week. A very special little girl will be celebrating her first birthday and being the girly girl that she already is I know I've got to pull all the stops out. There are gifts still being made, a party to plan and decorations to be completed. The latter was where I turned my attentions today; cutting out triangles that will hopefully soon form bunting. All the material comes from my stash (which strangely seems to have a lot of blue in it) and the only new purchase was the bias binding that Ii'm using to string it all together. I just hope ... read more
Clothkits Sunhat
The Clothkits catalogue can be a dangerous place, especially when you have a little girl who seems to like girly stuff as much as Little Miss C does. Today's sunshine made me even more determined to spend some time with my sewing machine to ensure that she actually had a sunhat and amazingly I actually did make the time to do so! I bought the kit for this hat a while back, along with a matching sundress kit which is next on my to do list. I think it's turned out really well, especially since I managed to do all the sewing just in the time that Little Miss C had her ... read more
Bedtime stories
As I've written before here I've always hoped the Little Miss C would love books as much as I do. When I first started reading her a regular bedtime story it was much more for her benefit than mine. Recently though there has been an obvious shift in purpose. I take LMC to the library most weeks for their Baby Rhyme Time session and started when she was just six weeks old. She very quickly started to respond to the singing and rhymes and if we now miss a session I find that we have to have our own little sing-song at home to make up for it. Whilst in the library I try to ... read more
A morning in the kitchen
My whole morning has been spent in the kitchen today, sadly not baking, but instead coming up with meals for Little Miss C. Pureed vegetables are nice and simple, but today I branched out a bit and tackled my first Annabel Karmel recipe: Apricot Chicken and Sweet Potato. I'm beginning to wonder if I should have bothered though. LMC is currently teething and while her front bottom two teeth have come through the gum, I'm pretty sure there's more going on in that little mouth of hers. Not only is she chewing everything that comes into her hands, but she also has moments where ... read more
Money, Money, Money…
When I first started this blog (over 2 years ago now!) I had no idea quite where it was going to go. Looking back my life has changed a huge amount since then and so has this blog. I started off writing about the things in life that make me smile and in a way that's what I still aim to do. When I started though I have to say that I wasn't too sure quiet what I would end up writing about! Of course I had some initial ideas, but once those first few posts are written you really do need to think a bit harder as to what else to write about. I never imagined quite how many book reviews I ... read more