Snowdrops, the seaside and sewing

Half-term here has come and gone. The girls had ten whole days off school
and I think they've enjoyed themselves and have rested and recuperated. They
kept me busy most days. I had felt tired and frazzled at times and had craved
for some quiet time on my own during the day, but that was all off set by lie-ins
in the morning. the alarm clock not going off at 6:30am (hurray!), and doing fun
things with them like going to the cinema and meeting up with friends. It was nice,
actually, the whole half-term, and now that they're back at school, the house
has felt unusually quiet this morning. I miss them.

The weather was mostly rubbish throughout the school break. We were
looking forward to the sunny and mild days that were forecasted but what
we got was rain, grey skies, cold weather and on Thursday, the storm Doris.

When the sun did make an appearance, we tried to make the most of it. The girls

played outside and we went for walks down in the woods. We were on the look out

for any spring flowers on the ground and were disappointed to find only one clump

of snowdrops in bloom. Maybe in a few weeks there will be more of them flowering

and other flowers will appear, too. What we saw, and we keep seeing, are brightly

coloured crocuses in front gardens and we're a bit jealous. If I get myself organized

this year and have some bulbs planted in the autumn, we'll also have some colourful

blooms in our front yard next spring. Hopefully.

Tuesday last week was one of those rare dry and sunny days and we decided
to go on a day trip to Whitby. We love a day at the seaside, even if it's just
a short one. We played crazy golf, had fish and chips on the pier, mooched around
the Shambles and bought some kippers which we had for breakfast the next day.

Mostly, we stayed at home and pottered. I showed the girls how to sew one
rainy afternoon. They were very keen and were quite stoic with needle pricks
which surprised and impressed me.

It was Markie who first wanted to learn to sew and she specifically wanted to make

these felt birds. I was happy to oblige. I learned to sew when I was about her age, from

watching my mother, and then we were taught in school when I was about 8 or 9. It

pleases me that they're interested and they're both actually really good. Lulu, who's

four, now knows running stitch and straight stitch and 'gets' how buttons are sewn.

Markie pretty much did most of it by herself, including the buttons.

They're planning to bring their finished birds to school this week to show their teachers

and classmates. I'm all for it. I think they did a great job and should be proud. I'm

looking forward to making them pancakes for tea later. We'll have sweet and savoury

toppings, although I have a feeling Nutella, their latest favourite, will be most

in demand.

I hope you enjoy your pancakes too, if you haven't already. Thanks for reading

and for the lovely comments on my attempts at tapestry crochet. I have made progress

with the second pattern and I'm looking forward to showing you next time.

Have a great day!

Saturday Sunshine

charity shop books to add to my reading pile

making fairy potions

my little cactus is flowering again!

Hello. It's Sunday morning here, I hope you're having a nice weekend.
We had sunshine and blue skies here yesterday, so Spring-like. We spent
a couple of hours outside after lunch - a rare treat in early February. I did
a bit of hand sewing, finishing another motif in my sampler. It was so good
to work in strong, clear natural light. I get by on grey days by sitting next
to the window and under a lamp in the evenings, but nothing beats good
old Mr. Sunlight. I hope we'll have more of him in the coming days and
weeks.

The girls played while I sewed, their games peppered with squabbles as
per usual. Then they had the brilliant idea to make what they call 'fairy
potions'. Lulu had made it last Friday with her woodland club at school and
was keen to show her sister how this magical concoction is made.
So, basic ingredients: leaves, tiny sprigs of rosemary or whatever herbs
are available, an acorn if there's any, plus glitter. Empty snail shells are
 optional. Put them all in an empty jam jar, add water and a bit of mud
(muddy wellies are a good source), stir with a stick, put the lid on the jar and
ta-dah! the potion is made. It's like a muddy, weird slow globe when
you shake it. You can pour a bit of it in your garden and the fairies will
come visit your house at night. We haven't tried this yet but I've been
assured that it works.

I'll leave you with that for now. I hope we'll have sunshine again today.
We're planning to go for a walk somewhere nice this afternoon. Whatever you
have planned for today I hope you have a good day, too. Happy Sunday!

Egg Bunnies and Butterflies

The girls and I had a go at painting and decorating hard-boiled eggs
this morning. It's the school's Easter egg decorating contest tomorrow
and they are both super egg-cited!

We've never painted eggs before; it was messy and very fiddly. 

Lucky that we used kids' washable paint. It made cleaning those

messy little hands much easier and although we had to paint

several coats and it took ages, the colours came out all right once

they've dried. 

As you can see we used egg cups when we were painting. They were

very handy - the girls painted one end first and when it dried, we turned

the egg over and did the other side. 

So what did we make? Well, meet Lulu's three little egg bunnies. They

have craft paper ears, googly eyes and pom-pom tails and noses.

And these are Markie's butterflies. They too have googly eyes and
craft paper for their wings and like the bunnies, they have cupcake
holder beds.

There are so many brilliant ideas for decorating eggs in Pinterest
and that's where I saw those bunnies. The butterflies are our own
little creation. We'd have tried making a ladybird too but we didn't
have any polka dot paper. Oh well, we'll try that one next year.

These were all a team effort - they painted, I made sure they covered
all the surfaces; I cut out the ears and wings, they glued them on together with the eyes, tails and noses - and we're very pleased with them all. The girls fancy themselves winning tomorrow. There will be
 one winner per class including nursery and the prize is a giant
chocolate egg. If it's up to me they'll both win because they did an
egg-cellent job (sorry!). Those bunny tails should earn extra points
just for cuteness! But, of course, I'm biased. We'll have to wait
and see tomorrow. Wish them luck!

Snow, Spring and Mothering Sunday

Hello. How are you? It's a beautiful Monday afternoon here, bright and
clear but very cold. Spring was very much in the air and on the ground
at the beginning of last week but it had felt so much more wintry
over the weekend. It even snowed on Friday. It came down thick and
fast and lasted for a few hours but thankfully, it didn't settle and was
gone by late afternoon. We only had mild frost this morning but the hills over in Derbyshire, the ones that we can see from our front windows,
 are still covered in snow. I'm still optimistic about Springtime though
- it is coming, it's on its way. It's just taking its sweet time getting here.

We had a busy weekend. We had our fourth pop up restaurant last Saturday, but at a different venue from our usual. My husband and
 his team of two had a smaller kitchen to work in, we had to set up the place ourselves and provide the cutlery, tableware, etc. We managed it
all somehow and the evening actually went really well. We're so delighted and we made a good profit too which is very important.  As always,
 we're exhausted afterwards. Mothering Sunday yesterday was a quiet,
 let's-not-do-much sort of day as a result but it was lovely and happy. Lulu made a beautiful necklace for me at nursery and I got a handmade
 card from Markie. In the afternoon we had a little Mother's Day party complete with cupcakes and balloons. It was all the girls' idea and
 they enjoyed it all as much as I did which, for me, made the day
 even more special and wonderful.

Today I have Lulu with me at home. She's a bit poorly and not really
up to going to nursery this morning so we've been taking it easy-
Cbeebies, lunch on the sofa, lots of cuddles. She seems to be better
this afternoon, so fingers crossed she's now on the mend.

I hope your Monday is going well. I have a lot of blog reading to do -
hope to catch up with you all soon. Take care and have a good week!

Five on Friday

Hello. I'm joining in again with Amy's Five on Friday and today I'm
sharing five photos from our week.

It's half-term here and we're having ourselves a nice little holiday.
We've been lucky to have lots of sunshine and blue skies especially
 after last weekend's stormy weather and we've been making the most
of it. The girls have been playing a lot outside and I've done several loads
 of washes since Monday. I know, boring stuff but as the saying goes
 'make hay while the sun shines...' Our laundry basket is nearly empty
and that's really good!

We made time for baking on Wednesday afternoon. The girls wanted

cookies so we made oat and raisin ones. They're yummy and quite

moreish. I'd be in trouble if I'd given up cakes and biscuits for Lent -

lucky I haven't (I'm giving up crisps and craft magazines instead).

Lots of pottering all week. I've been using these quieter, slower days

to catch up with chores and work through my to-do lists. Again, boring

stuff but I'm pleased they're now done and hopefully I'll have more time

for crochet and reading this weekend.

This was yesterday morning at Weston Park. The girls fed the ducks

and had a run around the park before spending an hour at the children's

museum. We all love the museum; it's always a fantastic place to visit.

While we were at the park I saw these yellow and purple croci. 

I love their bright, cheery colours and I can't wait to see more in bloom

as Springtime gets closer and closer.

Those are my five for this Friday. Thanks again to Amy and advance
congratulations for Five on Friday's first year anniversary next week!

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and  a lovely Valentine's Day
on Sunday. We sort of had ours already last Sunday - we had a night away in Harrogate while the girls stayed with my in-laws. It was the Turkish baths, dinner and breakfast at Betty's - the perfect one night
getaway. To those who are just about to start their half-term holidays - enjoy!

Snowy Sunday

We're having a very wintry Sunday here in Sheffield - we have snow!

It started snowing around tea time yesterday and continued til after midnight. It wasn't heavy but there's enough snow on the ground this morning to delight the girls and start me worrying. I don't like it when it

turns icy and we've got the school run tomorrow. My husband walked

to work today instead of driving but that's not really an option for taking

the girls to school. Hopefully all the snow would have thawed by then.

Setting aside my snow worries, I have to admit that this is a very good day for hot chocolate, board games, crochet and watching films snuggled under a blanket on the sofa. The girls spent nearly an hour playing outside earlier and it was great to see them having so much fun.

And it does look beautiful out there. It reminds me of a poem from

A First Book of Nature called 'Snow Song' :

Snow has covered up the dirt and muddle;

It's made the world look new and neat and clean.

You forget the other seasons and their colours;

For now, white seems more

Beautiful than green.

Just for today, though. Tomorrow I hope the usual browns and greens

outside will reappear and life will resume as normal. We're keeping

out fingers - and cosy toes - crossed! 

Have a lovely, warm, cosy Sunday day, everyone!

Red Robin Christmas Cards

We've been making Christmas cards this week. Last year we had
 reindeers, this time we have little red robins!

We really enjoyed our card making last Christmas and I wanted
a design that was as easy and simple but equally as effective as the
reindeers, something that we can all do together. I thought robins
might work. They're very Christmassy, appearing in cards, postage
 stamps and all manner of festive decorations every year and they're
cute too. So I came up this little idea to make them:

We started off with brown paint (we used children's washable paint)
and using their fingers, the girls made three or four brown circles
on the cards. Lulu needed a bit of help with this but Markie did hers
 all by herself.

When they have dried, Markie and I coloured in the bottom half

of the circles with red felt tip pens to make the robins' red breast markings.

Then it was adding the little details - eyes, wings, legs. 

Ta dah! Four little robins! 

I then used alphabet stamps to write the Christmas greetings
and it was done! Simple, quick and lots of fun.

We're really pleased with these and we're looking forward
to giving them to friends, family and the girls' teachers. As always
I'm glad that we can do things like this together, that they're happy
to help and join in, and I have the time to craft and be with them.
It makes this time of year even more special and really great fun.


We'll have more Christmassy things to share soon.
Thanks for stopping here. Enjoy your weekend!

Easy Chocolate Oat Treats

We tried a new recipe this week- 'easy chocolate oat treats' from
The Scandi Kitchen by Bronte Aurell. The cook book was featured
in last weekend's Saturday Times and the recipes included looked
lovely and delicious. I particularly liked this one because there was
no baking involved, just lots of sugar sprinkles and mixing and rolling
by hand. It sounded like something concocted with my girls in mind
 and making them certainly kept them happy and occupied on a rainy
half-term morning! They taste really good too and despite their sugary
appearance they're actually not too sweet, just a nice mix of chocolate,
 sugar and coffee flavours. They were very easy to make as well, just
as the name suggests. If you'd like to give them a try, here's how:


Ingredients

250g butter
400g rolled oats
175g caster sugar
4tbsp cocoa powder
4tbsp strong, cooled coffee
1tsp vanilla sugar
Dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar,
to decorate

1. Blitz all the ingredients, except the coconut, sugar sprinkles
    or pearl sugar, in a food processor, or mix by hand but allow
the butter to soften before doing so.
2. Put the mixture in the fridge to firm up a bit before using it
or it can be a bit too sticky. Add more oats if you feel the
the mixture is too soft.
3. Roll into 2.5cm diameter balls, then roll each ball in either
dessicated coconut, sugar sprinkles or pearl sugar.
4. Firm up in the fridge before eating.

Makes approx.40 and they will keep up to a week in the fridge.


We didn't have sugar pearls or dessicated coconut so we just
used what we've got which were mostly pink glimmer sugar and
hundreds and thousands, all leftovers from last June's birthday
baking. I didn't think the girls would like coconut anyway. And I
wasn't too sure at first about all that raw porridge oats but they
 all got absorbed into the mixture after they've been blitzed and
give the mix a bit of crunchiness. I've added this recipe to our list
of favourites, no doubt we'll be making these again soon.

Thank you so much for your comments on my last post especially

about the pop up restaurant. As Michelle said, it is crazy, but a good

sort of crazy. We're already making plans for the next one, hopefully on
November 28th. Thanks again for your kind and encouraging words.
Fingers crossed it will go well again, I'll keep you posted.


Enjoy your weekend and happy Halloween!