Monthly Archives: May 2014

Minibeasts Mumslist

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Real Life

A rain rain go away week for us – these gorgeous flowers are brightening it up though!

Rose blooms

We did have a lovely little morning out at the Hancock Museum pond-dipping and hunting for Minibeasts

Minibeast pond dipping

And I enjoyed making these little gift bags for Father’s Day gifts for Daddy and the Grandads, otherwise a quiet week for us!

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Blog Life

Things are kinda quiet at the moment, I have an exciting review series to come next week all about eco-parenting choices, and I have been busy on a post about using decoupage to update your home, so more writing than publishing this week!

Inspiration

I’m really my enjoying craft at the moment so popped into Janet Clare’s beautiful blog, I’m on a bit of a nautical jaunt at the moment so it was great to see this amazing fabric, and also her work on birds which I’ve long been an admirer of.

BlightyQuilt410w

(Janet Clare fabric, see here http://janetclare.co.uk/blog/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/BlightyQuilt410w.jpg)

– See more at: http://www.mumsdays.com/#sthash.Jn8JWK9L.dpuf

Envelope Gift Bags for Father’s Day

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Who knew you could make a gift bag from an envelope in less than five minutes? How About Orange inspired these Father’s Day envelope gift bags made from a plain envelope and some washi tape, but you could use stamps or stickers too!

Sweets are readily eaten in this house, and Mr B likes Wine Gums especially. I think these gift bags make good sweetie bags or a smart way to present an awkward to wrap small gift.

How to:

Seal an envelope and cut off a quarter inch from one side. Decorate your envelope. Fold both sides an inch in towards the middle and then fold the base (the uncut end) an inch too. Then pop your hand in the opening and push the base up as shown in this vid :) then stick down the corners with a little tape, fill and seal before handing to your lovely loved one!

Nautical envelope gift bag

Envelope gift bags

Stop Sticking Stan! By Nicola Killen

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The lovely folks at Egmont UK sent us a beautiful new book to review this week.

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“Stan loves collecting things, feathers, buttons, old socks. But he gets distracted when his parents treat him to a set of stickers, and a whole new hobby begins!”

I can sympathize with Stan, I collect fabrics and bits of paper ephemera as well as stickers, but collections can soon take over!

The stickers that come with this book are beautifully illustrated, but thankfully they are contained to one page, when you see what Stan did you’ll see why, stickers everywhere!

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We enjoyed reading this book outside on a summer’s day, the illustrations are bold and bright, Joss loved Stan’s dog and I have to say his rainbow doggy bandana is pretty cool too!

As the stickers are all over in the book there are hundreds and hundreds of things to spot together, so lots of opportunities to learn new words too!

My little Stan-fan was delighted to wear the book’s hero on her new top!

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How does your yarden grow?

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Mary Mary quite contrary how does your yarden grow?

Well, it’s coming along rather nicely!

Three new additions, the old stool came from my bedroom and I gave it a flash or red paint to brighten up this space.

The wooden planter I picked up in Aldi and filled with plants from our local greengrocer so I was pleased to have a couple of bargains this week!

First, a new collage I worked on this week!

Flower Collage Tropical Parrot

clockwork duck garden

yarden

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Finally a garden bench finishes this off; I feel like we’ve achieved the yarden space that we’ve been working towards, and a place to sit just seemed all the more necessary now Joss wants to play out with her sandpit every day. Daddy and I have a spot to enjoy a cuppa (although as you can see in this last pic someone else quite likes this bench too!) and perhaps the odd glass of wine on the longer summer nights :)

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A Blogger’s Critical Friend Linky

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The best source of inspiration I have found is other bloggers. Whether sharing ideas on Pinterest, using Blog Support and Love All Blogs to champion each others posts or joining in with linkys and blog hops the direction my blog has taken has been supported by fellow blogging pals.

This linky is about taking this support further and asking for a critical friend to take a look at your blog.

Costa and Kallick (1993) define a critical friend as:

“a trusted person who asks provocative questions, provides data to be examined through another lens, and offers critique of a person’s work as a friend”

So the emphasis is on friend here, trusting other bloggers to cast a critical eye and give honest constructive but above all supportive feedback.

Linking up a fave post from the previous fortnight you will not be asking for comments on content per-se but on the look and feel of your site, design and posts.

You might want to build questions into your post, like how might I have improved this photo? or ask folks to pin one of your photos, you might ask for advice on ideas for similar posts.

This linky is super relaxed, the rules are here to help everyone along and I hope you’ll get out what you put in, insight, direction and inspiration!

1) Comment on the posts of the two people to link in infront of you

2) Be open and honest and constructive but above all be supportive!

3) Grab the blog linky button if you like, to help spread the word and the support!

My blog

Ref:
Costa, A. and Kallick, B. (1993). “Through the Lens of a Critical Friend”. Educational Leadership, vol. 51 no 2, p 49–51.

Upcycling From Adult to Toddler Apron

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Joss loves to help out in the kitchen and I looked for a little apron but didn’t like all the plastic ones we saw. Eventually I spotted an adult apron in Poundland and liked the sweet ditsy flowers so this was a cut and stitch job waiting to happen! Upcycling From adult to toddler size is easy, if you want to do the same just chop off the bottom and either use to make a pocket or save for a hairband or other project.

Then chop the sides saving the ties (I used a dress of hers for basic measurements for length and width) then I cut off the neck tie and repositioned a couple of inches closer together and stitched up all the hems finally repositioning the waist ties after she tried it on to give a comfy fit.

Cute and thrifty in less than an hour!
fabric toddler apron
fabric toddler apron