Making me smile...

A happy daughter (when she's had enough sleep).

A happy son (when he's had enough food and sleep).

A very brave girl (though she has had a broken leg already so this bump was nothing).

And the signs of a play date where the kids really had a LOT of fun.

And CBeebies for when I need to tidy up those kinds of messes (which my kids can easily create on their own). 

And don't judge me too harshly for my daughter in the background chugging the milkshake. It was under daddy's order due to the above photo which I may have messaged to him while he was at work.

One Day Monday

(Apologies, wrote this Sunday and had thought I'd posted it then, turns out I had not :) )


Hope you all had a great weekend. Mine was mostly spent with my little brother who I haven't seen in two years! So have enjoyed him meeting Ethan and getting to know Izzy again.


Today I was talking to Izzy about her seeing a lot of her extended family, as we were having a get together. She loves her cousin Noah so I mentioned that we were going to see him. She was very excited and was speaking about him. Then she said:


"Mummy, I not remember what baby Jesus looks like."


So I thought and said:


"Sweetie, I don't think many people remember. It was a long time ago."


"Mummy I mean my cousin Jesus."


"Oh you mean baby Noah?"


To which she rolled her eyes at me and said with a sigh:


"From the same book mummy!"


Did I mention I love this age?


Anyway, some of my faves I've found this week...





Some napkins made with scraps at Sewing in no man's land via Living with punks. Here for the tutorial.


I have loads of scraps that I'm always sure I'll find a use for, and this is perfect. I've even pinned it on my present ideas board. (No one will ever know it was scraps!)





How beautiful are these wallets? Ashley over at lil blue boo even suggests making them larger as clutches! (Which I think would be a little easier as you wouldn't need to do the card holders inside! But she makes it look so easy in the tutorial!)





And what a sweet (notice the play on words!) idea for an easy present. This would be great if you only had time to go to the supermarket! From three years of death (a law student, I know clever and creative?! Not fair!).


Enjoy your week!

SO excited!

I'm doing my first guest post today over at Made it on Monday!


I did a little happy dance when I saw it on my reader (I have been following Jill for a while now, and am so excited to be sharing there!).


It's a couple of tutorials, but you'll have to click here to find out what...


Oh okay, a little hint...

Nope I've not invented toddler deodorant. You'll have to go over!

Finally something for the boy!

What you didn't know that I had a boy/you thought I didn't love him as much as the girl because I never craft for him?!

Well I do. And I do love him. But girls are much easier to craft for. My boy is happy with just a car. Seriously. My husband is delighted that he fits the stereotype because they will have lots in common. 

Though on a little of an off tangent note I did worry when I was pregnant with Ethan whether he'd end up a bit of a wuss or a girly-boy. As Izzy is very, very girly. Like wants-to-wear-pink-princess-dresses-every-day girly. And as I am at home with her every day I kind of thought it must be my influence, I am quite girly too. 


But I guess that Ethan is more of a testament to nature more than nurture (though my husband would probably like me to point out his influence in all of this. Yes Andy you are VERY manly). 

I was being sarcastic but this photo really makes me swoon. He is actually climbing a tree with my daughter in his arms. :)


Anyway I didn't have to worry about a wussy son (who by the way I would have loved just as much, just aware high school boys may not have...), he has already had a trip to minor injuries and laughs when Izzy hits him. 


I will get to my point. Some easy peasy tees for boys!


So I scored a three pack of tops of £3.50. (Sweet!)

They were already cute with the little animals, but I had some writing in mind for one of them, as my brother was going to be meeting Ethan the next day for the first time. (He has been a missionary for two years with our church.)

So I grabbed some fabric paint and slid some cardboard inside in case of bleeding through onto the other side. (Which didn't happen, but I'd rather be safe!)

Then wrote away!

I also did one using a shape I had.

And there you go, two very easy and quick tees for my boy.

Unfortunately no pictures of him wearing them, as soon as I put it on him it was covered in food, snot and dribble. (Yet another talent my husband is very proud of.)

Handmade handkerchiefs

My husband's granddad is turning eighty this week so I wanted to make him something personal but useful.


I settled on some handkerchiefs because he does fit the stereotype and uses them all the time!


I started with a 12"x12" square and did a zig zag stitch around the outside. You can just stop there, but I decided to hem them and ended up with these:

They are far from perfect, but they are handmade and Andy's granddad loved them!

I did a quick monogram on one too.

With all the packaging...

And all ready to go! 

(I am loving the 'Smirk' products at the moment, that's where this paper comes from, plus I was given some of the chipboard pieces too. I love that they seem to have a little person to fit anyone! (This is totally Andy's granddad above!))

Oh yeah brackets inside brackets. I'm just that cool.

In other news my daughter is getting use to me having the camera out all the time!

I love that pout!

*Disclaimer, Sainsbury's did not pay me to show their 'basics' range bread. We are actually THAT cheap when we feed the ducks.*

One Day Monday

I'm actually posting on a Monday this week. Found some really great ideas of things to do with kids this week. I think all of American schools have broken up so I'm storing all these activities on my pintrest account (feel free to follow me!) for when we have some free time. 


Here are some of my favourites:





I could make these with Izzy one afternoon, and both kids would love to play with them. They are from Jaqs studio.





These would look sweet on the kiddies bedroom walls. And I know they'd love that they'd made them themselves. Plus, I get to see their tiny, chubby hands more! Found at A pumpkin and a princess. She also does a theme to her week with her kids, this week was ocean theme and she reads books and does crafts and activities based around the theme each week. What a great idea!





These finger puppets would be great for both kids to make and we have plenty of spare paint! Found here.


And finally this is perfect for me as my kids love things like this, but I don't like the mess! I love it when I find a good compromise! From here.





Plus with this I'm pretty sure you could pop these away and save for another time! Easy and reusable! Sold!

Cookie Dough Brownie Chocolate Fudge Cake

So I've had an idea for a while now to make a desert that is about 1000 calories a slice. I saw somewhere about brownie and cookie dough squares and I thought, that's a little too healthy for me. Why not add some chocolate fudge sauce on top? You know, go the whole hog?


So this beauty was born:

Now I have to warn you, I gave a small piece to my three year old and she had a tiny bite and then requested some milk. She had to have a large glug of milk after every small bite and was immobilized for a while after.

My husband took some into work and gave it out in the morning and everyone needed a nap and couldn't work. It's just that stodgy. Just a little warning before I give you the recipe. With great power comes great responsibility.

This makes two cakes (about 8 inches, I make one 10 inch cake and a loaf tin one).

Make the brownies:

Make two quantities of the brownie recipe found here, but leave out the chocolate chunks. Split the mixture between the two tins and bake for 20 mins till firm-ish but not fully baked. Set to one side till cooled in tin.

Make the cookies (recipe from my Auntie Ros):

Ingredients:

8oz plain flour

4oz soft brown sugar

4oz butter (at room temp)

1 egg

250g chocolate cut into chunks

Mix all the ingredients together and spread a covering over the brownie base.

Bake for about 10 mins and allow to cool completely.

Make the chocolate fudge topping:

Melt approx 250g of milk or dark choc (whatever your preference) with about 200 ml of double cream. Allow to cool and thicken slightly, then spread over the top and allow to set. (In the fridge if you're greedy like me.)

Enjoy!

Button!

Here's my brand new button if you'd like to grab it for your sidebar! Found out how to do it here.

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Heavily journalled scrapbook page

I recently took Ethan to have his photo taken and they surprised me with a print out of all his best shots! Just tiny pictures but I had an idea of how to put them to good use.

I also wanted to include on the page all he things that he is into at the moment and how he acts. So I used the journalling as the background and stuck the photos onto a piece of acetate which can be lifted up to read all of the writing.

I made the stripes with watered down acrylic paint. 

.

(I did actually mean to crop out the mess on my desk, but there you go. I think it is quite representative of the mess inside my head!)




And that's how it works. I wrote down his habits, routines, things he loves and hates, what he eats and his favourite things/people. 


Simple but I love how many different pictures I've been able to squeeze onto one page! And now I have so much information about him at this sweet age. It makes me smile when I see it (no so much for how it's done, because it's far from perfect, but because these photos and memories will be so precious to both of us in a few years.)

And that's why I scrapbook. (Because it's certainly not something I'm particularly good at! I don't have quite the patience needed!) 

One day...Wednesday?

Okay I'm a couple of days late. But I was ill so it's ok. Apparently it's just me that has been craft free for a few weeks days. 


Check out these!





Homemade by jill is one of my favourite blogs. Her things are always so professional and cute, just like this owl mobile.





How great would these look in a kids bedroom?! Want to make one for Ethan as his room is SO bare! These are from dollar store crafts.





And I'm really tempted to make this for our fireplace with some old bed slats I hoarded saved from ages ago! From every creative endeavor.


p.s. You can follow me on pintrest here if you want to join me looking at other people's pretty things. (just so you know, if you do you'd be doubling my following single handedly!)

Princess on a bus

Just wanted to show you something that made me smile last week. My beautiful princess on a bus. She absolutely loved it. I think it's just her third time on a bus too.


Sorry for the lack of crafty posts, I have been busy but they are fathers day and wedding presents for people who read this blog. But will share soon!

I'll leave you with a little action shot! 

Guess what!

I'm being featured on a wonderful blog today! Please go check it out here. 


It was so surreal to open up my dashboard and see my project featured on one of the blogs I follow! She is very talented and is always doing furniture re-dos and wonderful pieces for her home. So go check her out at http://savedbysuzy.blogspot.com/. 


And because I can't do a post without any photos...

A couple of photos from our latest 'shoot'. You'll see more of that top soon as I'm writing a guest post on this and another top soon! Very excited today! (Unfortunately these photos didn't quite make it to the final post. Hmm I wonder why Isabella!)

I did one!

So you may remember my last one day monday post. In it I showed these cookies:





Well I actually tried them out myself! (Yeah I was pretty shocked too.)


I made some slight alterations but the original recipe come from here.

1/2 cup butter, at room temperature

1/4 cup peanut butter (I used the chunky one)

3/4 cups sugar

1 egg

1 cup of flour

1/4 cup dark cocoa powder

1 teaspoon of baking soda

A pinch of salt

2 oz dark chocolate, melted

1/2 cup of dark choc chunks

1/2 cup milk choc chunks (I just cut in half pieces from a chocolate bar)

Cream butter, peanut butter, sugar, eggs and vanilla until fluffy. Add flour, cocoa powder, baking soda and salt and mix until combined. Add in melted dark chocolate and mix until just combined.

Fold in chocolate chips. Refrigerate dough for 4-6 hours. When ready to bake, preheat oven to 350 degrees. Scoop large mounds of dough (about 2 tablespoons worth) and place on a cookie sheet.

Bake at 350 for 10-12 minutes.

And the result?

These did not last long.

They are really moist and nutty and chocolatey and not good for the dieter. (sorry)

But all credit to How sweet it is, yummy idea.

One Day Monday

How cute are these mini tool boxes from alpha mom?! (via A girl and a glue gun)

And what about these frozen banana pops from Little wonders' Days?

And along that same theme...

Delicious triple threat chocolate fudge peanut butter cookies from How sweet it is.

Can you tell I'm craving chocolate today? In fact I have the cookie recipe chilling in the fridge...will post photos soon. (If you live close I don't mind you dropping in this afternoon for a couple, even the batter is delicious by itself and the mixture makes a LOT!)

Any other recipe ideas? I've got a cake auction coming up! (I know, I know, it's a hard life!)