In the store is some gorgeous Alimrose bunting in classic blue, white and linen fabrics. And best of all is that it is currently ON SALE so if you want to snap some up at this price then get in quick!

Here is some inspiration for nurseries styled in Classic Blue, White and Linen.

Image source found here

Image source found here

Image source found here

Whilst these pictures are from many months ago I thought I would share a fun craft activity to do with kids for once the weather starts to dry up….not long now until Spring….and around here we just can’t wait! 

We did these sand pictures a few times last Summer. There are a few techniques out there if you google it but I just went with this method which works well  for me.

Seperate some cups of sand into zip lock bags. Tip in enough water to make the sand only just wet. Then add a few drops of food colouring to the damp sand, seal up the zip lock bags and rub the bags of sand between your hands to spread it. (the girls love this bit) Once all the sand is coloured, tip it out onto something flat like tray and let it dry in the sun or overnight. Once you have dry sand (this bit takes a while so we usually colour the sand the day before), draw a picutre or use a colouring in sheet, cover in glue then sprinkle on the sand. It is a good idea to store any left over in containers as the fact that the sand takes a while to dry is hard for little impatient people so if you keep it coloured and ready to go you can do it on a whim.

Kobie

Jemma and I both  love pretty gift wrap. I have a friend (Hi Sara!)who has always delighted me with her gift wrapping and I almost get as excited about seeing what she has done as to what the package holds inside.

Back in May my 2 nephews and niece had a combined baptism as they are all born very close together.

I made my Nephews a personalised Typographic Print each with bedtime verse and the details of the baptism….

…and got my Niece the same Freshwater Pear Bracelet I purchased for Esmae’s Baptism from this shop

I wrapped the bracelet by sewing 2 paper doily’s around it after being inspired on Pinterest. (sorry I cant get this image to turn around!)

And for the 2 frames  I  just added some tags, string, and ties.

Now I wish I had done something a bit more spectacular…like some of these fund gift wrap ideas:

wordsearch from here

and this is a cute idea for a pocket to hold the card, found on martha stewart here

more martha goodness…very cute! Find those here

And I just love Ellinee printable paper bows you can find here

Now there is a sensible part of me that thinks that giftwrap is really wasteful and that we should stick to no giftwrap policy, using newspaper or children’s artwork to recycle or putting gifts in reusable bags or cloth….but the crafty side of me loves the idea of spending a bit of time to make the parcel pretty!

Kobie

I have already shared this image on facebook but for those that missed it here is some photos from Sabre’s 6th birthday recently held.

My inspiration came from the stunning Tina Givens Elephant fabric (hoping to get some summer dresses made in this fabric). I was also very drawn to circus parties, especially the vintage look. So I sort of went mostly with a colour theme, Pink and Gold.

I made the star cupcake toppers with glitter card, the girls helped me cover some card stars in glitter for a fun but very messy craft activity. I used photo shop to make some pink striped paper bunting and folded some handmade popcorn boxes. I also made the raggy garland on the table with fabric scraps, and of course the birthday girls outfit.

The cake was an Ombre 3 layer vanilla cake and I kept the decorations on it fairly simple.

Lots of work was involved but I started about 2 months before so there wasn’t too much pressure at the last minute.

Kobie

We love these knit wraps and think they are so fabulous we want to giveaway two of them to one lucky person so that their ears will always been warm this winter.

The wraps are so versitile and make a great alternative to a beanie.  With an adjustable button they can fit an adult and a child, so you can share yours with your daughter, or with our giveaway of 2, she can have her own.

To enter all you need to do is enter via Rafflecopter below:

 
a Rafflecopter giveaway

I love the trees of autum and it makes me want to move south whenever I see them as we cannot achieve that here in our mediterrian climate.

I love my garden, but I would so love it more if it was placed in a climate with more water and I could grow the plants I love.  It is just so dry here at the moment with no winter rains.  The lawn is dry and yellowing off and it is all just so…… urgh did I say dry.   Even the poor old vegie garden this year has suffered from the lack of rain and the destruction from the chickens.    Today it was covered with bird netting to hopefully prevent another attack from the flying chickens from hell and we may receive some winter vegies joy this year.

Come on rain, please stop by soon.

Of actually being an unorganised person when I have way too many organisational things around my home in a desperate effort to take control of life?

I love the idea around the web and Pinterest of Glass frame “whiteboards”. I have 3 of these in my home for jotting down lists and think they look great.

I also lost the legs to my pretty metal cutout Ikea self unit (cant find the name of it but the one that  you can screw to other sizes to give you step shelving in a cupboard) so turned itinto a magnetic board in-between the glass board and the cork pin-up board which is along side a calendar.

There are 3 calendars in my home and I have dozens and dozens of notebooks and post it notes and pads and several ipad and iphone apps for listing and organising. 

The trouble with all this is I still don’t seem to be able to organise my self nor remember important dates. Maybe I am far too busy looking organised that I am really very unorganised! Life is just far too busy sometimes. I think what I need to do is take a break…. slow down ……and go make another wipe-able glass board

p.s. Happy Birthday to my newphew …one date I did manage to remember…JUST….

Kobie

My little model has me in fits of laughter as she comes up with some very  interesting moves when I do a mini photo shoot. It just takes the bribe of a little something sweet afterwards and she is more than happy to oblige. In fact if I now just mention “will you please try this on and I will take your photo” …she responds with a ” yay a choc choc” ….so more than happy with the going wage around here.

Here are a few out takes of some of the photos over the last few months.

This move she understandably calls ”The Rocket”..

It was particularly popular a few weeks later…think it might be her signature move…

And the “cheeeeese” ….big smile with eyes closed whilst saying cheese for a good 30 seconds.

And to make me laugh more, she says “like dis?” before doing every pose. Bit of leg out the side. Funny girl.

And by the end she was throwing in all sorts of sassy moves that it was hard to get her to stand still for even one good pic!

Sabre is missing her old role as Ollie Rose model now that she has outgrown the sizing, but I promised her she can still model jewellery and hair accessories for me along so she was happy with that.

Kobie

We have jumped head first into toilet training around here. Miss E has been very interested in the whole process for some time now and physically ready with her nappies staying quite dry but there was a period there where her stubborn personality meant we weren’t anywhere near ready, and really she is quite young so I didnt push anything and just accepted we would need to wait longer. I would keep her potty and toilet seats around to get her used to the idea and offer her “big girl knickers” to wear to get her thinking about it from time to time. No real luck with just the occasional wee if she was in the right mood.

Then about a week ago she didn’t want to wear her nappies and we got out the underwear, lots of play outside made the inevitable messes easier and after a couple of days we had a break through in more wees going in the potty and toilet than in the floor so we were off and running in the toilet training front.

She is now doing really well and it was perfect timing too with the arrival of new stocks of Pat-a-cake wet/dry bags.

I have been using a small bag since Esmae was a baby for our nappies and wipes. I would just take that bag in the pram or  my handbag as I have never been a fan of the whole big nappy bag and didnt find we needed to take too much when going out. Now this handy little bag has become perfect for toilet training. It can house a spare pair of dry underwear, shorts, some wipes and a face washer, and if there is an accident I can then hold all the wet items in the waterproof bag until we get home. Loving that!

Sigh, growing up so fast now.

Kobie

If you have been following along you will see if I have been hunting out easy things to do with the kids to cope with our run of 40+ days we are experiencing and this is another activity I came across via Pinterest which led me to the blog Share and Remember,  and knew we just had to try it out for fun.

This morning I made our iceblocks, trying carefully to only put the smallest amount of food colouring in (a hard task indeed) and then this afternoon it was time to get the water table out and let the kids go for it.  They were extremely imperssed, and as suspected their first question was can we eat them.

Definately a fun activity to do on a hot day, and as well as that it also had them talking about colours, which is never a bad thing.  The only drawback I can see is we might have coloured hands for the day.

Jemma – ps locals may also have noticed I posted this over on Midwest Kids page, yup that is me