I'm pretty sure that there's not a child out there that doesn't dream of waking up on a winter morning and finding the whole world under a thick blanket of white snow. That's exactly what the children of London found when they woke up on Thursday 5th December though. During the previous night it had snowed and snowed and snowed so hard that in the morning mobile phones buzzed and emails pinged with the news that there was no school today. But in Snow Day it seems that not everyone got the message as two people did turn up for school. Danny and Mr Trapper. Putting aside any practicalities ... 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
Rediscovering my love of a fountain pen #StationeryWednesday
As regular readers of Being Mrs C will know, I am delighted to be part of a team of six bloggers that are currently working with Bureau Direct - retails of some of the most gorgeous stationery products I've ever seen. But to me stationery isn't just about things that look good, whilst that is still important. It's about functionality. This has to be the case when it comes to pens in particular. There's no point in having a pen that looks good if it's horrible to write with. This month my choice of review items from Bureau Direct was very much on the functional side of things. After my ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: ‘People at Work’ The Soldier
The Ladybird People at Work series (number 606B) has to be one of my absolute favourite ones, mainly as it just gives such a fascinating insight into what everyday life was like at the time. I find all the illustrations fascinating and they really are packed full of interesting facts - as well as a few sexist comments of the time! I've previously featured The Policeman, The Car Makers and In a Hotel on Ladybird Tuesday and if I had been planning more ahead I probably should have featured The Soldier in last week's post - after all it was the 11/11 last week. The role of a soldier is ... 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
Dragon Jelly – Claire Freedman and Sue Hendra
I had been intending to get a review of Dragon Jelly up before Halloween, but life got in the way somewhat - as it has a habit of doing - and actually looking back at it, although some people associate monsters and general grossness it's also the sort of thing that appeals to children all year round. Dragon Jelly follows on wonderfully from Claire Freedman and Sue Hendra's last book Spider Sandwiches which Little Miss C and I reviewed last year. This time round Max is having a Monster party where he and his friends are playing all sorts of horrible games and eating some pretty hideous food. ... 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
Washi Tape decorated Vintage Maps Storage
My mum is about to move house, and as she's downsizing she's spent the last few months having a huge clear out of all the stuff that the family has accumulated over the years. It's fair to say that I think none of us had any idea just how much stuff there was in her house, garages and outbuildings. As part of this my sister and I have been helping where we can by taking a few things off her hands, especially things that we have fond childhood memories of. I've always been a huge fan of maps, vintage ones in particular (and that passion was reawakened by the relevant vintage Ladybird ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Shapes
This post has now moved over to Penny Reads - the new home of Ladybird Tuesday. You can read all about Shapes here. ... read more
Review: Little Princess Hama Bead Gift Box
Well the Halloween Hama beading may be over for another year, but the Hama love is not waning! CraftMerrily recently sent us a couple of Hama Bead gift boxes to review and the first of these has proved to be such a favourite with Little Miss C that I have to admit that we're yet to properly tackle the second one. The Little Princess Hama Bead gift box comes with one princess shaped peg board, 3000 beads, and instruction sheet and a piece of the required ironing paper that you use when fixing your designs. Being a typical four year old girl (and one that happens to be a huge Frozen ... read more