Monthly Archives: May 2014

Taking Baby for their First Haircut and Other Adventures

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Real life

What a change in the weather, back to grey skies and rain but it’s been a lovely week nevertheless. Last weekend started with a child-free day to myself, a rare treat and time for a haircut and spot of shopping. The weekend saw the arrival of mr sunshine and the building of a garden bench, then we had a lovely Tuesday seeing Hannah and Reuben from Mumsdays in the morning and a first haircut for Jossy too.

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At the Hancock

I was delighted to be handed her first curl for our tots memory book, it completes her book and though I feel sad that we’re drawing a close on the ‘baby’ months this little girl is a joy to be around!

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The hairdresser was brilliant with Joss, I recommend going somewhere you go yourself, I love our stylists at my local salon, friendly and bubbly they really put Joss at ease, they asked her about her day and talked to her like she was a grown up which she loves, then when she was relaxed she had a quick trim to get her used to the experience, there were no tears, no need for distractions and a lot of smiles!

Blog life

In blogland I had a really popular post on making a summer garland this week, if you’d like to make one yourself details are here!

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Inspiration

I also lost a few hours this week on a bit of a bloggy jaunt which started with this beautiful book, following some of the blogs it mentions somehow led me to find the blog Junkaholique for which I am very grateful, what a treasure-trove of inspiration and loveliness!

homemade

- See more at: http://www.mumsdays.com/#sthash.mTNrKCA9.dpuf

Toddler Stained Glass Windows

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This was a great idea that our local museum sparked off, toddler stained glass made from acetate, glue and lots of little pieces of torn up tissue paper.

Help your tot to spread pva glue all over one side of the acetate, then pop different coloured pieces of tissue paper over the glue, it’s fine to layer them up, you just don’t want it to be too thick to see the light through!

Leave to dry, then fold a piece of card in two and cut out a heart shape to overlay on the clean side of the acetate. Stick in place on the card and leave to dry, then hang in a window to let the light through!

For older kids you can chat about how glass is made and look at pictures of more intricate stained glass as we did at our art class.

Here’s one to get you started, I think this one is a good one to chat about!

Pinecone, Pompom and Feather Summer Party Garland

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Pinecones, Pompoms and Feathers

Gathering pinecones on our walks became a little obsession for Joss, so when I saw these huge cones on an evening walk I was quick to scoop them up.

Dipped in paint and hung from bakers twine with pompoms and feathers from her toddler craft kit this is a fun party garland for summer :)
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I have linked this post to my new Critical Friend Linky as I’d like input on how to better present my craft posts! Should I be doing detailed tutorials or just brief notes like this one?

Bob the snail and other minibeasts

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Feelers out what’s about?

Joss loves Cbeebies’ Minibeast Adventure, so Daddy introduced her to Bob, our yarden snail!

She loved watching him crawl up the glass, chattered about his salad leaves and snail trails and commented on his shell “he’s got a hat on him!” – I’m slowly overcoming my creepy crawly fear, as she’s so fearless I have no worries about having passed on my fear yet!

If you have an inquisitive tot get yourself a large empty jar, this is a beetroot jar, add some soil and some edible leaves, pop holes in the lid of the jar and pop a small amount of water in gently each day, as snails like dark damp places try to keep the jar somewhere cool and shady, and never leave the jar in the sun. At night snails are more active so when your tot is sleeping look out for a few snails to pop in your jar and when you’ve had a good explore pop them back where you found them.

 


Ethans Escapades


Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Cake Angels Ice Cream Cone Cupcake Review

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Goodies

The lovely folk at Cake Angels sent us an exciting parcel this week, look at all those sprinkles, a cake lovers dream! Ice cream cone cupcake anyone? I was intrigued!

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How to

These cupcakes were so simple to make, just add water to the mix, fill the ice cream cones, and bake for 20 minutes. When they came out we let them cool, topped them with butter icing using the icing sugar from the pack, and then the fun part, decorations!

Sprinkles everywhere and a sticky child who really loved the vibrant colours! A stroke of luck that we had icecream themed cups from Polarn O Pyret’s party pack!

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The proof is in the tasting of course, the cakes were light and airy and the chocolate flavour came through well, Joss loves icecream cones so that they stayed crispy was a big plus for her, and they were so simple for us to make together that I’d definately pick up another pack for a fun afternoon together!

What do you think?

Good enough to eat?

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Thanks Cake Angels, we really enjoyed our treat!

Disclaimer: I received these goodies for the purposes of review, all views are my own.

Sweet William Photo Study

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Sweet William

sweet wil·liam, noun

a widely cultivated Old World pink (Dianthus barbatus) with small white to deep red or purple flowers often showily spotted, banded, or mottled and borne in flat-topped cymes

http://www.merriam-webster.com

These are my absolute favourite flowers to have in the house and what better way to appreciate them than a short photo study? I’ve been motivating myself to read a little each day about improving my photos so this was a good starter for ten!

 

 




Sunday Grumps

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Today we assembled our yarden bench, this expression says “sit with me NOW Mammy…”
Joss is perfecting her pet lip and it works on me about 50% of the time!
This one was closely followed by me sitting and being told “no Mammy, my bench!”

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Roughly ten minutes later when I finished prepping lunch (my reason for not sitting down NOW) she was back to smiley Jossy!

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Expressions photos

Dressing a toddler for summer outdoors

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With a fair haired girl I am really sun safety conscious, I prefer to stay in the shade myself but with an inquisitive tot it’s hard to avoid sometimes.

1) We both layer up with factor 50 and top up through the day especially after we’ve been in water

2) Hats are a must, protecting sensitive scalps, fine hair and keeping the sun out of little eyes…

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3) …As with sunglasses. You can get stretchy straps to make sure they stay on, Joss lifts hers up a lot but generally they stay on if the sun is bright

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4) Go for layers and try to keep them covered up

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5) Go for comfort, I love these Polarn O Pyret leggings, comfy, light weight and with knee patches for my frequent faller!

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Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

Natural Cleaning Products Part One

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index

There are some eco-brands that I use for home cleaning, but as it’s the season of spring cleaning I thought I’d share some eco-ideas that have multi-uses and reduce the need for lots of different products using lots of packaging. This is a mini series so part one covers vinegar, lemon, bicarb and salt and part two will be back with borax and more!

Natural Cleaning

Vinegar – cuts through grease and limescale

Fill your kettle with a cup of distilled white vinegar and leave overnight to tackle limescale, rinse thoroughly the next day.

A mix of equal quantities of white vinegar and water make an effective floor cleaner

You can clean your windows with white vinegar and rub dry with a newspaper scrunched up to get rid of any marks

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Lemons are your friend!

They give a really fresh smell when you integrate them into your cleaning regime

When we moved in to our flat the taps were limescaley and nothing shifted it, I cut a lemon in two and jammed each half over the end of the tap and left for two hours, when I came back the scale just rubbed away!

Lemon juice cleans stains from cutting boards rub the juice full strength onto the stain and let sit until the stain fades, then rinse and dry

You can clean hard water marks on glass shower doors with half a lemon

Bicarbonate of soda

Make a paste with a tablespoon of bicarb and water and pop it on a cloth to clean your sink, sparkling!

Repeat this to make a cleaning paste for pots and pans, to remove stains from cups and clean tarnished silver

A cup of bicarb in your fridge absorbs fridge odours

To clean grout make up a paste of 2 parts bicarb, one part vinegar or lemon juice (this will fizz!) apply the paste with a toothbrush, leave for 10 minutes and then rinse

Dampen the floor of your oven, sprinkle with bicarb and dampen again. Leave the mixture overnight then remove with a cloth and rinse with warm water

Table salt

Salt doesn’t scratch so it’s great for glassware, add some salt to a stain for extra abrasion and scrub

Pour salt mixed with hot water down your kitchen sink every few weeks to deodorize and keep grease from building up

A great one for coffee lovers, add salt and ice cubes to your stained coffee pot, swirl around for a minute and rinse, it scrubs away those stains!