Bumbling along together - The Gallery

I love this picture of my daughter with her little ballet pals all colouring away, like busy bees around a honey pot.
The girls were waiting to dance in their annual performance - and what a performance it was: over a hundred children happily bouncing about in their colourful costumes: I've already posted a photo of the bumble bees about to buzz on stage.

As it was such a big show, there was a fair amount of hanging around, and just a handful of parents to keep the kids entertained. All I can say is thank goodness for a colouring-in book and a pencil case full of felt-tips. It may be classic stereotyping, but it did the trick. For a fleeting moment I remember thinking about my boys, and wondering what we'd have done to keep a gang of 4/5 year old lads quiet for a whole hour.

Seeing her with her friends also reminds me of a chat I had with the 8 year old in the car the other day. He told me he was going to ask his best mate for some money so he could buy a much-longed for computer game - I told him he really couldn't do that.
'Why not?'
'Well, you can't just ask for money, it's not very nice, and that's how you lose friends.'
All of a sudden my daughter piped up from the back,
'I'm never EVER going to lose any friends mummy,
and if I do I've got some spare ones.'

May she always have a case full of colours and plenty of spare friends..

Linking up with The Gallery - the theme is 'Together'

Apologies for the lack of commenting this week - we're away, and no

internet!  

Shiny Happy Easter Craft

One of my most popular craft ideas ever, because it involved eating a bag of these..

Obviously there'll be mountains of them being munched over the weekend, so thought I'd post this now in case you fancy a go, and want to salvage some foil before it gets ripped to shreds and ends up in the bin...or sprinkled about the place like tiny shiny bits of confetti that you'll be hoovering up for weeks..

The trickiest bit is getting the foil wrapping off in one piece..or even two. Then you just need to decide what to decorate. We went for a butterfly and a dragonfly. I drew half the shape on a folded piece of cereal packet - cut out and open up.
.

We flattened our bits of foil and cut them into strips and squares. A glue stick worked best - the foil can be fiddly and sticks to fingers with over enthusiastic gluing!
My daughter spread some on the cardboard first before sticking down the pieces she wanted for her foil decoupage.

Very impressed how she mirrored the pattern on the wings.

It really doesn't matter if bits hand over the edge because they can be tucked neatly around the back.

Turns out we needed more coloured foil than I bargained for, so had to break into another Easter egg... shucks hey? I think this is what you call craft with benefits.

Please excuse blatant advertising! We used every decent sized scrap we had..

A pipe cleaner taped to the back makes good butterfly antennae and we added a few more shiny bits.
You could make smaller ones and attach them to plant sticks - they'd look good fluttering above a herb pot.

I think there's a very strong chance we'll be making more next week!

Hope you have a lovely Easter.

Linking up with Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty and For the Kids Friday

Life changing walks - The Gallery

I used to be a reluctant walker. Never keen to go out anywhere. I remember when I was about 11 refusing point blank to join a family walk in Tollymore Forest Park, and sitting by the car for what felt like hours until they got back. On my own. Wouldn't happen now would it. Anyway, my lack of enthusiasm for moving any further than I had to, stayed with me well into my 20's. Then in my early 30's things started to unravel: love, work, friendships; and just as I was descending into the depths of despair, an opportunity arose to travel in South America. My family pushed me to go, and I'm so glad they did.
There was a lot of trekking: I walked my little legs off, and I can clearly remember one moment, along the Inca Trail in Peru, when I properly took in the beauty around me and felt truly happy for the first time in ages.

Hey thinny! Highest point on the Inca trail

bleak beauty of the Mournes

The clouds of self-pity started to lift, and by the time I got home I was stronger, more positive and a born again walker.

Things began slotting back into place in my life, and I went walking most weekends; usually in the Mournes and usually on my own.
Then I met a wonderful man who also liked to walk - and one glorious day, after a steady climb up Rocky Mountain, I was getting our picnic ready - goats cheese quiche; never forget food  - and turned round to find him on bended knee, holding a beautiful ring.
A perfect, magical moment; it really felt like we were on the top of the world, in this amazing, wild, empty space - the only people for miles...when out of nowhere we heard a voice,

'Did she say yes?' 

Three young lads appeared on the other side of the peak. Couldn't believe it. We hadn't seen a soul all day. What were the chances?

'Yes, she said YES!'

Makes me smile thinking about it - and there've been a few jokes over the years about his choice of mountain for the proposal..

I walked on air that day.

Linking up with The Gallery - the theme this week is Walks

Easter Surprise! Easy egg box craft

I'm becoming a serious rubbish hoarder. I've a drawer stuffed full of loo roll middles and swiped party napkins, and one of the work surface walls is made of empty cereal and egg boxes with yogurt pot turrets.. But this wall is coming down slowly, because with Easter on its way, egg boxes are the rubbish of choice at the moment! They're so handy for all kinds of craft, and there are some brilliant ideas around. If you haven't already, do take a look at these 10 egg carton crafts on Red Ted Art's blog. We had a go at some of them, then got on a bit of a roll, and came up with our own idea.
An Easter egg shaped box..

little egg shaped box

They're easy to make; a few fiddly bits that need grown up help, but plenty for the kids to do.

You'll need an egg carton, tin foil, craft glue, leftover braid or coloured paper strips, and felt/sequin decorations, or any small, colourful bits.

Cut out the 6 egg holders. I usually do this with small nail scissors, or I cut them out roughly and let my 5 year old do it - but this can mean we end up with teeny tiny cups!

Scrunch up a small piece of tin foil, but not too tight - these are going to form the rounded top of your egg. Glue to the bottom of a cup, and mould until you're happy with the shape.

Then just cut out or rip pieces of tin foil, big enough to cover each part of your egg separately, and wrap tightly, folding the extra foil underneath.

I glued lovely bits of braid around the edge of the top part of our little egg box, while my daughter did some decorating. The braid needs to hang just below the edge, so it fits over the bottom part and covers the join. Well, kind of covers the join!  The sticking takes a little patience - paper clips help so it dries in place, but you could speed things up by using coloured paper strips instead of the braid.

Coloured foil would be great for a bit of variety, but we didn't have any...apart from what was on my stockpile of Easter chocolate..

creme egg eaten in the interests of craft...

There weren't many small yellow pompoms either, so we ended up making exotic chicks! Might need their feathers trimmed so I can fit in a mini egg or two..

exotic Easter chicks

Linking up with Red Ted Art's Kids Get Crafty 

and For the Kids Friday over at Sun Scholars.

Jumble Bunny

I went to my first ever full on, crazy Jumble Sale at the weekend. I've been meaning to go for ages, but the closest one is always at lunchtime on a saturday, when I'm ferrying kids from matches or to parties. It never worked out before.

I arrived just as the end of a queue was disappearing into the church hall, and parked beside a bored looking man, listening to the radio is his car. Paid my 20p and entered the fray. The hall was heaving: swarms of bargain hunters around every table. It took me 5 minutes to get anywhere near the stuff. Soon realised being really polite was a complete waste of time, so elbowed my way into a slither of space. There were people literally disappearing under piles of jumble in a buying frenzy. Some were throwing clothes/toys/shoes at helpers standing behind, who looked like they'd rather be anywhere else. Started to understand why the guy was in the car.

Easy though to get swept up by it all: I began grabbing anything that looked like it had potential, and worked my way around the room. When the tables ran out, I asked how much for my bundle, '£2 to you', the smiley lady said. Boy, I had no clear idea what I'd got, but £2 sounded brilliant!
And then suddenly I was out in the car park again. Just like that. It was all over so quickly. But what had I bought? Well luckily it wasn't half bad..

A very nice petrol blue Warehouse tunic top - too crinkly at the moment for a decent picture; and a sweet pair of Mini Boden cotton pjs with little embroidered buds. My daughter's size too.

More material to add to a growing fabric mountain - soon to rival my huge hoard of wool.

This one's actually a skirt but I bought it for the patterned cord. Love a bit of cord. I'm gathering up pieces for a little idea I've got in mind.

Didn't spot any jumpers suitable for chopping, but did find this woolly scarf,

and guess what?

Yep. I made another owl. I'm a woman obsessed. Quite sure people are fed up seeing owls on my blog, so thought I'd also have a go at.....a jumble bunny!

...basically an upside down owl with ears...

Linking up with Liz's Magpie Monday and
Ta-dah! Tuesday over at Lakota's

Trolley detox, Team Honk and a few home truths

Almost there! And I'm not stressed about the rest, because it's homemade pizza tonight and that's everyones favourite.
It's certainly been an interesting week - tough but rewarding, with a fair amount of late night baking.. Still, no one starved.. or cried, and I have managed to feed the 4 of us on just £12 - so, Yay!

It's made me more resourceful, more organised and more grateful for what we have and often take for granted. It's also made me wonder what on earth I'm putting in my trolley..apart from the boring, obvious stuff.  I've already said I don't think I'm that bad at budgeting, but my weekly spend can be erratic - I've had to guess at it - I do know it's many times more than £12. What am I buying? Mmmm. Too many things that aren't on my list. I do suffer from a bit of BOGOF-itis - you know, when you go in for 'a few things' and come out with a boot-load of groceries that are on offer.

Okay, £12 is extreme - but this trolley detox has made me focus on my spending habits. The thing is, like any detox I'm full of good intentions straight after - all these plans for radical change, and then...it's just too easy to slip back into old ways. Well it is for me. That's what happened last time I did the Challenge: I was going to have weekly meal plans, and write a shopping list that I'd stick to like velcro, but it all went out the window, and I drifted back to last-minute 'creative' cooking. I'll try harder this time: definitely try harder to stick to my list - and I've liked feeling more organised about meals, so we'll see.

We wouldn't have got far these last 7 days without homemade bread - the saviour of Challenge..well that and the 4 trays of muffins. I thought the week would be good for my waistline, but I think I now have an extra spare tyre around my middle, made completely of bread.
It's a good job I'm a late bird too, because there was quite a bit of night time baking; and I'm really pleased I've finished off the old, mostly used up bags of flour in the cupboard (probably past their sell buy date..dared not look..)

The kids have been great: I think the Challenge made more sense this year - they know they're doing it for Comic Relief and understand where the money's going. Don't get me wrong, there have been a few trying moments, and they've moaned and complained about having no choices or treats (apart from muffins) - but I know they feel involved, which is brilliant. My 5 year old asked me yesterday if she was allowed to have a biscuit when she went to her friend's house for a play. I squeezed her really tight for that.

And I'm massively slow off the mark with this, but we've joined Team Honk at the 11th hour - we have our very own Red Nose Day sponsorship page and everything!..which is HERE if you'd like to take a look. I know the week's almost up, but if you'd like to give some money to Comic Relief by sponsoring us, that would be amazing.

So, why £12? Something I've been asked a few times: the answer is I'm not absolutely sure.. Originally it was going to be a tenner, but that would have been such a struggle, unless we grew more fruit and veg and did the Challenge in the summer. I'd have had a mutiny on my hands.

Will we do it again? Do you know, I'm sure we probably will - but think I'd like to try a £12 vegetarian week next time..