How to make an Easter tree in 5 easy steps
Noticed lots of Insta-perfect and Pinterest-worthy images of Easter trees popping up? Wondering how to go about making one yourself? [...]
Nursery school leaving present ideas: try making a DIY hamper
Today is BB’s last day of preschool before starting school on Monday. The presents for staff have been flowing in [...]
My Own Fairy door review & reader offer!
Doesn’t the idea of your very own fairy door complete with its own tiny key sound enchanting? The three year [...]
Our big allotment challenge! (with a little help from Aldi)
After 14 months on the waiting list we finally have an allotment (pictured). I was surprised at how quickly it [...]
Abra-ca-Debora pancakes review: yum yum!
It’s Pancake Day, it’s Pancake Day it’s P-P-P-P-P-P-P-P Pancake Day! We LOVE pancake day in our house, so I thought [...]
The best Christmas present in the world ever: a 30 year old dolls house
After a two-week Christmas and new year break (bet you didn’t even notice) we’re back. And while we might be [...]
Paddington: there’s going to be a run on marmalade, duffle coats and Cornishware
There’s much excitement in the crummy mummy household: Paddington the movie has finally been released and we can’t wait to go and see it. Admittedly most of this excitement is from me: even though I’ve promised BB there are no Scary Bits she’s slightly dubious after our last trip to the cinema, when I took her to see Book of Life without researching the plot (ghosts + lost souls + Land of the Forgotten = lots of Scary Bits) Mostly I’m excited because there’s nothing like a good old British film at Christmas – acting greats including Jim Broadbent and Julie Walters, famous London landmarks such as Paddington Station and icons of Britishness like stripy Cornishware pottery (pictured) all brought together – what more could you want? Of course there’s no doubt there’s going to be a run on marmalade, duffle coats, Cornishware and everything else Paddington-related as a result, and good on them: I like it when everyday, honest things nobody usually notices get their 15 minutes of fame. […]
I need a food net umbrella – for a baby
I swear both our cats knew I was pregnant before I did. Our eldest, Eddie, has been following me around from the word go, while our youngest, Daisy, was instantly more loving than usual. Eight months on she curls up alongside my bump at every available opportunity (pictured), and Eddie is never far away. Both of them are quite happy sitting on top of my bump even though the baby now kicks back as they paw before settling down, and when the baby shifts position they simply shift too. I’m guessing it’s all to do with pheromones, but either way, it’s got me thinking about how loving and cuddly they’ll be when the baby actually arrives. Eddie will probably run a mile, as he did with BB, but I don’t trust Daisy one bit. She would curl up on or alongside BB whenever she could (pictured), meaning a cat net for the moses basket is definitely in order. […]
Thanks to the garden we switched the telly off for TWO WEEKS
Living in a fourth floor flat means being able to run through a door into a garden isn’t an activity which features in BB’s usual routine. So when we decamped to my parents’ house in Dorset while they were sunning it in Spain for two weeks BB thought all her Christmases had come at once. She pram pushed (pictured), she scootered, she ran barefoot in the grass, she watered the plants and ate breakfast, lunch and dinner in the great outdoors, leaving CBeebies mercifully switched off for almost our entire trip, which has got to be a holiday in itself. With her 3rd birthday falling slap bang in the middle of our holiday and with the garden at our feet it was the perfect opportunity to throw a birthday barbecue and try out a set of garden games we were sent by Two Little Fleas, who are encouraging families to spend more quality time together by playing outdoors this summer. […]
I managed to pull off a recognisable Peppa Pig cake using Brio…
Apologies for the radio silence. We’re one week into our two week holiday in Dorset, and while I thought I’d [...]
Placenta booties: what’s the big deal?
I fear I’ve opened a can of worms. Yesterday a feature I wrote for The Sun newspaper about mums who made unusual keepsakes following the birth of their babies was published online, and as I write there are currently 142 comments on the story on The Sun’s Facebook page. Mainly bad ones. The main objection seems to be to taxidermy artist Alison Brierley who – quite naturally given she’s a taxidermist – made two pairs of baby booties out of the skin of her placenta (pictured, lit up by LED lights). Then there’s young mum Emily Jackson who discovered she loved breast feeding so much she had some of her milk solidified and set into a silver pendant to remind her of the experience forever. Comments range from the mild ‘yuck’ to ‘how sick’ to ‘they must be weirdos and freaks’. What’s the big deal? […]
‘He was standing on the loo proudly displaying his willy’
We’ve been on a trip down memory lane in our house lately. It started when BB’s granny gave her a 1984 copy of I Want To See The Moon by Louis Baum for Christmas (pictured), a fave when I was growing up. If you don’t know the story, it’s about a little boy called Toby who wakes up in the night and wants to see the moon, but of course it’s behind the clouds. In some ways it’s very PC: there’s no sign of the mum (I always assumed she was at work) and the dad is the one who takes Toby out of his cot to the loo before making him some hot milk. But at the same time it contains illustrations you just wouldn’t get in a kids book today, like Toby standing on the loo proudly displaying his willy, also pictured. (‘You wouldn’t get away with that today!’ a male friend said when he saw it this weekend). […]
Boobie Beanie: a breast feeding mum’s must-have
Yes you did read correctly. This is a Boobie Beanie, aka a breast feeding hat, designed – you guessed it – with boobies in mind. If you’ve ever wanted to stick two fingers up to the person (there’s always one) who insists on having a good look when you need to breast feed in public then one of these on the baby’s head is the way to do it. […]
How to make homemade sandwich flags
With pink and green meringues cooling in the oven and having made not one but four homemade cakes ahead of [...]
