Card Making for Family Day

Merry Christmas To You All!

Corners Of My Daughter's Bedroom

Ninth Birthday Party

Homemade Lollies

Pastel Beach Hut

Style My Party Guest Post-Feather Party Hat Tutorial

Happy Valentine's Day!

Hello everyone!

Despite now being a single pringle, I adore Valentine's Day and all the hearts and flowers it entails.  I love the idea of giving a gift to show someone how much I love them, so I bought little gifts for the children.  I went to Oxfam, who always have a fantastic collection of second hand books, and I bought this beautiful bright red copy of Alice in Wonderland for my daughter, and a Famous Five book for my boy.  Both got tied up with red ribbon and a heart shaped cookie cutter.  The cookie cutter in the picture above was amongst the previous owner's junk we cleared out from my attic this week!   

Have a lovely day!

Tamsyn x 

Doll's House Project

Progress....

Sunshine Yellow Dress

Happy Saturday everyone!

I bought this dress as a Christmas present for my daughter in the Boden end of Summer sale.  I adore Boden children's clothes, but as a rule they are a treat, and bought when reduced and with free delivery.  My daughter rings the things she likes in the catalogue, I ring what I like, and what we agree on gets bought for birthday and Christmas.  

 I decided to start wrapping my gifts this morning, and had to share a picture with you of this bright yellow tea dress, it made me feel so happy when I took it out of it's packaging, especially when the skies are so grey and dreary at the moment.  As much as I love this time of year, I shall look forward to seeing her wearing this in the sunshine with blue sky behind her, looking for shells on the beach.

I made a trip to Hobbycraft this morning as I had 25% off voucher.  I nearly fainted when the lady at the till gave me my grand total, but I have some absolutely lovely things for that I will share with you soon.

Have a lovely weekend!

Tamsyn x

Homemade Advent Calendar

Hello everyone!

I hope you're having a good week!

After a crazy busy weekend, I finished the advent calendar that I was making for the children, and ta-daaa!  Here it is in it's full glory.  I used one of my job lot of large antique frames that I found at a car boot fair (post about some of the frames here) after giving it a coat of paint.   The Range do lots of large frames which you could paint and distress to look older.

I used mini white pegs to hang the little bags I made onto a twine washing line.  A trip to the 99p Store for chocolate coins and stickers to go in each little bag and we're good to go!  I love the red and white theme, and I'm making some bunting from the same fabrics too for a festive Scandinavian feel.

Once Christmas is over I will use my new frame to display photographs and mementos.

I can't believe December is just round the corner, I'm really looking forward to sharing lots of festive posts with you!

Tamsyn x

PS : To all you lovely readers in the States - just want to wish all of you a very Happy Thanksgiving.  Hope you are having a wonderful day with your families! x

Rock Cakes

Hello everyone!

When I was a little girl, my mum had the loveliest plastic recipe box, with recipe cards for every occasion.  There were many that become firm family favourites, and some that stand out in my memory were the following - Christmas Cake, Pineapple Upside Down Cake and Rock Cakes.  I loved Rock Cakes, I have sepia tinged memories of eating them in the kitchen, always in the winter, with my brother.  And they tasted so good.  So the other day I decided that I had to find a recipe for these retro delights, and bake them for the children.  My son, who is five, is an enthusiastic cake chef, more for the licking of wooden spoons and the finished article rather than the actual process, but he put his apron on and joined in with great gusto.  These are fun to make with kids, as they get to rub the butter into the flour and sugar to make a breadcrumb mixture, then mix milk in to make a dough before spooning it onto a baking tray.  They are a doddle to make.  They are lovely on a rainy Saturday afternoon, with a glass of milk, in front of a movie.  I used this recipe here.  Enjoy!

Tamsyn x

Little Shoes...

Hello!

We braved the crowds in Clarks a couple of days before the start of term, to buy the children new school shoes.  My daughter has not only shot up in height recently (she is eight) but her once tiny little feet are now size 2.  Size 2!  My baby is growing up, and fast!  Being the sentimental so and so that I am, I have kept some of the children's shoes from when they were tiny.  Not all of them sadly, I got rid of the sweetest pair of jelly shoes she had when she was about two years old and still feel sad about that to this day - the pale pink boots in the picture above were in a bag to go to a charity shop, only to be rescued at the last minute.  I'm so glad I did, because they hold precious memories for me, and they are a reminder of how small (and naughty!) she used to be, and of how much she has grown to be the funny, kind and loving person she is today.

Tamsyn x

Beach Holiday....

 Hello all!

Many apologies for the picture heavy post, but some of you may know me well enough by now to know that I'm all about the photographs!

We go home the day after tomorrow, and we have had such a lovely time.  We are on a little camp site near Pevensey Bay on the Sussex coast, in my parents caravan.  To sum up our holiday we have done the following (in no particular order!)

Eaten ice cream (lots of)
And fish and chips
Used the beach as our playground
Watched the sun go down
Bickered A LOT (the children)
Collected and painted pebbles
Been on a nature scavenger hunt
Swam in the sea (well, technically!  If two seconds counts!)
Been to A&E (my daughter, for a cut head after falling off a little sea wall!  Glued together, all fine!)
Lived in a caravan, just the children and I, for a week and survived!
Caught the sun
Eaten cockles
Had Pimms and lemonade from a can (wonderful!)
Been to bed late every night

I hope you are all having a wonderful week, I will be back to regular blogging from Friday-I have some more pictures from our holiday that I would like to share with you on my next post!

Tamsyn x

Feather crowns...

 

Lavender Pillows...

Birthday Party...

On the beach...

Party preparations...