If you're in the UK then it won't have escaped your notice that this summer has been WET - very wet. Wet enough that going out to splash in puddles has been a common activity with Little Miss C. Wet enough that when I told her I was taking her to the local Splash Park one day her first response was to go and get her wellies and rain coat and put them on! The outdoor toys that we bought her for her birthday have been used, but we've not had the long lazy days in the garden making the most of them in the way that I imagined. This last weekend though all that changed. The sun came out ... read more
Featured Post: Sorting out the household finances
I'm not sure what's prompted it, but my twitter stream has recently been full of people asking for advice on how to sort out their household finances. People looking for tips on how to reduce their car insurance, contents insurance and utility bills and also how to keep track of what they're actually spending each month. I can't pretend to be a complete expert here, but several years of balancing our household books (and a previous paid job running project budgets) means that I have picked up some ways of doing things that others seem to find useful so I'm happy to share ... read more
Sweet Potato and Butternut Squash Gratin
Pulling meals together from what's in the fridge isn't my speciality. It shouldn't be difficult, but somehow I always struggle and sadly end up throwing away far more food than we should. I'm making a real effort at the moment to change that and reduce what goes into the council compost bin and I'm delighted to say that this last week I've succeeded and come up with a great new simple meal as a result. Based on the Waitrose Baked Pumpkin Gratin recipe that I picked up on one of their cards a while back I managed to concoct a delicious sweet potato and ... read more
The dangers of shoes…
They don't exactly look dangerous do they? A pair of toddler shoes in a bright red and a size five and a half. Yet yesterday they were the reason behind a dash to the emergency Doctors before closing. Little Miss C didn't fall over in them, nor did my inability to see my own feet cause me to trip over them when she left them lying around. Oh no - nothing that straight forward. Instead I managed to sprain my wrist whilst fastening the buckle on them. Yep, you read that right - a sprained wrist caused by fastening my daughter's shoes. You honestly couldn't make this up. After ... read more
Good enough to eat?
Sadly I can take no claim at all for this tin full of goodies. Instead it was one of my knitting group, the very talentend Mary, who passed these round at this week's meeting. They all look fantastic, but the details on the donuts deserves special attention - the beaded bits apparently took an age to sew on individually, but the end result is definitely worthwhile. My knitting progress is at a crawling pace at the moment, but with people around me sharing completed items like this there's constantly more and more inspiration for things I want to knit just as soon as I have the time! ... read more
Too much?
It's all been a bit quiet here lately. Not due to an early arrival of Baby C I'm pleased to say, but instead due to the simple fact that there haven't quite been enough hours in the day to get done everything that needs doing. In addition to looking after Little Miss C and being generally tired from being pregnant my body appeared to decide that a simple cold was too much like hard work this last week and seemed to stop working properly in protest. Two weeks of not being able to breathe properly due to a bunged up nose and sinus pain, coupled with a hacking cough became far too ... read more
Button Caterpillar
As soon as I saw a tweet linking to the instructions to make this Button Caterpillar on the Baker Ross blog I just knew we had to make him. Completely adorable and all you need to do so is a supply of buttons, a couple of pipe cleaners and a small circle of cardboard. The original design also includes some beads and some small googly eyes, but seeing as I didn't have either that were suitable I just made do without. Little Miss C was just able to thread some of the bigger buttons on to the pipe cleaner, whilst I did the smaller fiddly ones and also finished it all off. Older ... read more
Buns for new friends…
If a new friend has invited you round for tea then you can't turn up empty handed. Luckily I had a little assistant to help me in the kitchen. ... read more
Keith the Cat with the Magic Hat – Sue Hendra
Only in a children's book would a discarded ice cream cone become a magic hat, but that's exactly what happens in Keith the Cat with the Magic Hat. Only, as us adult have all probably worked out, wearing an ice cream cone on your head doesn't actually give you magical powers at all. There are other forces at play here and that's exactly what the delightful illustrations show you. Little Miss C is always thrilled to point out the army of ants that are carrying away the chocolate flake, rather than it moving by magic as the cats in the story think it does. I really like this extra level of ... read more
The Yoga Ogre – Peter Bentley & Simon Rickerty
I always find it funny how at just two years of age Little Miss C very much knows her own mind about things. When I first flicked through the review copy of The Yoga Ogre that I was sent I wasn't too sure about it at all and wasn't convinced that it would appeal to LMC. How wrong I was! We'd picked up the parcel containing it from the sorting office and for the car journey home she was engrossed in it (and the second book in the parcel) and was shouting out all the things that she was spotting in the pictures. Now she regularly asks for it as one of her bedtime books. The story is ... read more