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
Embracing the real simple life
My recent trip to Amsterdam has been part of a longer process I'm going through looking at my blog, my blogging career, our family finances and lots of related things. I'm lucky enough to make money from my blogging. Not enough to pay the mortgage (unfortunately) but enough that it has been making a difference to our lives - whether it being extra money in the bank each month, or review products or events that we could otherwise not afford to do. This difference has come through hard work though. Lots of hard work, and work that doesn't necessarily always pay a good hourly wage. There are up ... read more
Spot A Lot Animal Escape
So much of Little Miss C's learning stems from books and when I see her curled up in bed or in her "reading corner" with a book it just gives me a bit of a warm glow inside to see her starting that reading journey that I loved as a child. It's not just words and language that children learn from books though and one thing that I really like about Spot a Lot Animal Escape is how it encourages children's maths and observation skills too. The opening lines of "There's trouble at the zoo today... The animals have run away!" instantly grabs children's attention and they instantly want to know ... read more
The weekend I went to Amsterdam and won a new kitchen bin
When you become a stay at home mum after years working in a career where you were actually someone with quite an important busy job it can be a bit of a shock. Looking back, managing multimillion pound projects with stakeholders with conflicting requirements actually seemed quite easy in comparison to trying to get a Duracell fuelled two year old to lie still whilst you change a particularly nasty dirty nappy. Even those arguments about conflicting requirements were a piece of cake compared to two children both wanting the same toy. Back in my working days I would have thought nothing about ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: A Ladybird Book of Flags
Ladybird Tuesday has become a bit lost over the last few weeks. So much has been going on here and my head has been so busy digesting everything I've been discovering about where I want this blog to go that I just needed to park it for a little while. It's definitely not going away though, especially since I found myself really missing my weekly look at all things vintage Ladybird related. The lovely Becky from Thrifty Home (and several other amazing blogs!) pinged me on Facebook last week and revealed that she had a few Ladybird books that were in a pile to take to the charity shop and ... read more
Notebooks, notebooks everywhere… #LOVEstationery
As someone who writes notes about pretty much everything in life it does sometimes feel that my house is full of notebooks - but it's something I'm definitely not complaining about. I've always been someone who likes to write things down in the old-fashioned way, whether it be craft ideas, lists of things that need doing, or just things I need to remember and I always seem to have several notebooks on the go. It was therefore obvious that I was going to choose a notebook or two to go in my first stationery order from Bureau Direct. But, the decision over which to choose took me a while to ... read more
What happens when a stationery addict discovers Bureau Direct #LOVEstationery
I think I must have been in Year 1 at primary school when I first discovered that stationery could be so much more than just functional pencils and sheets of plain paper. There I was one day when Lucie came in with a pretty floral pencil case. Suddenly this strange urge over took me and I just knew that I needed a matching one. I remember dragging my mum to the local branch of WH Smiths and desperately scanning the shelves to find one the same. I failed. My mum even tried to make one for me from the description I gave her, and whilst it was nice it just wasn't the same. But, my eyes had ... read more
See the Miracle with a Million Miracles #seethemiracle
What can you see right now? Look around the room you're in and just think for a minute about what you can see around you. There might be people - possibly your family or people you live or work with, or you might be in a cafe somewhere or on public transport. If you're at home you might see familiar possessions. Photos of loved ones, art work your kids have brought home from school, or souvenirs from a family holiday. You might have the book you're currently reading laying nearby, or possibly a favourite magazine. There might be a postcard a friend sent you from her holiday stuck to the ... read more
September 1 – 1 Mrs C
On Wednesday morning I woke up to find myself in October. Now, I know it shouldn't be much of a shock after all the calendar has been in place for hundreds of years, but I still found myself a bit staggered when it happened. For the whole summer I was always assuming that life would calm down when it got to September and school started again, but instead the opposite has happened. Things have become more than a bit crazy instead. I thought things were going to be a bit more straightforward. Master C started going to nursery two days a week at the start or the month (instead of just the one ... read more