Something so simple...

When it comes to making sweet treats, you don't need to always pull the flour, sugar and other baking goodies out... oh no!

It's as simple as buying a packet of rich tea biscuits, chocolate and sprinkles. It can keep little people entertained for some time. Why not try it!

Splashing and Spolshing!

I haven't shared an adventure of my niece and I for a while. Its often hard doing that as I know that the internet is a big wide world I'm exposing her to if I share photos so I try not to which means I can't show you what we're up to.

Last weekend my niece was so excited about going to City Park which is in the city center with school.  Only come Monday we had the heaviest rain fall imaginable with thunder and lightening. The school cancelled because children would be scared even though by 9am it had all cleared up and was another scorcher of a day.

 

I promised her that I'll take her on Friday after asking her mum. So on Friday I phoned her to ask if she wanted to go, she was so excited when I went to collect her and my sister made her a picnic too. I encouraged her to eat it in between her paddling in the water....

I don't have any reason to go to this end of the city anymore so when I turned up it was such a surprise to see majority of the children in their swim ware playing in the water. I didn't have any spare clothes so told my niece to keep away from the water fountain when it was high and to stay in the shallow water. That went pear shaped as we ended up being squirted by the water fountain but also by the children running through it. She ended up totally soaked from head to toe and thankfully I'd taken her dress off so could put that on and go in search of some clothes to buy which I did.

 

Today its my birthday and my niece turned up with this...

a birthday card of me and her at City Park 'Having so much fun!' I hope the weather perks up again as its been another heavy rainfall day which lasted all night and on and off all day. I've promised to take her again with spare clothes this time so that she can go slightly further and run through the fountains like other children did but I can't if our summer is over already... I hope not!

Crafty munchkins....

Lately my niece has been asking to do some making, I was convinced she wanted to bake and since I couldn't be bothered I kind of made out we had no time. She also went home and said the same thing to have her mum ignore her.... I know we are both mean. In the end I asked her what she meant by 'making' and she explained things like cards etc...

We ended up going to the store and buying a couple of new things to stick as to be honest I'm bored with what she has even though she isn't.

She made a cute card for her mum but I didn't photograph the outside this time, only the inside.

She wanted to write lots of kisses and hugs so I encouraged her to draw them and she did... its so cute... her mum also got coloured squares... Hey! What ever takes her fancy!

We also had some time to make a necklace using our supplies

She was so proud of it as she stitched everything on herself but others didn't have such encouraging words to say which quite upset her. I'm not surprised though. It now has pride of place in her bedroom.

 

It was a bank holiday weekend which meant I had today off work too but it doesn't at all feel like I've had 3 days off as time as always has flown. I could do with having more time off of course but that I will have to wait another 2 weeks for. At least we can enjoy the amazing weather which is something.

Sunday Celebrations....

On Easter Sunday it was my nieces 4th birthday, it is such a weird feeling knowing that she is 4. She has been saying to me for months now that she can't wait to be as big as me so that we can play with each other. I told her one day after the millionth time she said it to me that when she is my age I will be older then my mum, this upset her so much that she didn't want to be 4 for a while. Then on her 4th birthday I said something and she told me she was still the same and hasn't grown now that she is 4. She really surprises me though with her conversation and what she has picked up.

I bought her a dress

I saw this in the market and liked it a lot. I told my sister to buy it as we've got some invites to weddings and some possible weddings coming up this year that its nice to have some dresses for her to wear. She was in 2 minds about it and then in the end told me if I wanted I could get it for her birthday so I did. We had hoped to get some sparkly leggings and maroon shoes but we didn't find any anywhere. The shoes we found a pair in Debenhams but they didn't have her size, not even on the Internet.

Apart from her 3rd birthday I always make her a card, I didn't for last year as every time we went to the post office she admired the 3D Disney ones and one day she told me she wanted one for her birthday when she knew it was close by so when she wasn't with me I chose one.

She recently got introduced to Tatty Teddy Bears so I knew she would love one of the decoupages I had created and she saw them on my phone and picked the rabbit. I made up the card, wrapped the present and gave it to her mum for a family party in the morning where she'd open it all. When I went later I was looking at her cards and she came running to me saying look you gave me that one and I love it!

 

My mum was annoyed that she forgot to get her a card despite having bought her gift so I made the forever friends bear one for her to give. I haven't been to see what she would say about that one.

 

I hadn't planned on going over to see my niece for her birthday as my sister had planned a sleep over for 2 of her cousins and she didn't need all of us added to the equation too of sitting around and taking up space. My sister ended up phoning me and asking me to go round and from there we'll go to the fair which we had realised the day before was on so we went....

I mentioned to my niece this was a Ferris Wheel and she turned round to me and told me she'd seen a big Ferris Wheel like this in London... she went to London a couple of weeks ago and will have seen the London Eye.

You can't go to the fair and not get some sweets...

I bought my niece her first bag of candy floss, we went last year but we didn't get any then. I don't understand why they don't make it fresh anymore and hand you it on a stick but then again I wonder if it has something to do with health and safety. I love Fruit Caramels but for some reason they don't sell them in shops anymore so when I see them at the fair I have to get a tub even though it is so expensive and you don't get many. I almost ate them all in one go. I bought my mum a caramel nutty bar which she ate before I could photograph it.

 

This time last year we went to the fair for the first time with my niece, it had rained cats and dogs that year so the grass was muddy, slippy and it was freezing. This year they placed the rides along the pavement but there were still huge piles of snow and it was once again absolutely freezing.

 

My niece however had a wonderful time and sat on nearly every ride she could. We left earlier then we wanted as her cousins were waiting for her outside their home to stay the night. She had a great night and apparently couldn't stop crying when they went home the next day so her dad took to the fair again. Today though she asked her mum to take her again.... I think she's got a feel for rides, she's like her aunties and uncles after all :).

 

She didn't just get a dress as my husband bought her a slide too.

 

I hope that you had a good Easter!

Christmas Crafting Part 2

I was busy creating the last of my Christmas cards on Saturday when my niece called me down by saying 'I'm here Khala, come down!'. So I had no choice but to... she handed me a piece of paper, 'I've made you a picture Khala' before I got the chance to question her about it, her mum piped up... its a picture of her dad sleeping... erm ok... I actually asked her why I needed a picture of her dad sleeping but got no response.

To me though it looks like dads dreaming of spring or summer as he's got a flower above his head but best of all 3 sunshines even though the yellow one isn't visible. I think I know how dad's feeling there as we're all nearly dreaming of some warmer weather.

 

I couldn't help laughing on my way to drop my niece off to school on Friday as we turned the corner and were hit by a blast of cold air.... she went 'oh its cold. It's freezing!' she sounded like such an old lady. Her dad got a phone call later saying she wasn't well and can they give her some medication, my mum went after a hospital appointment to get her but they refused to let her go home saying she was fine now. Well when I went to get her, I got a lecture on having dropped her off at school poorly when she had been perfectly fine for the hour and a bit she was with me... I'm guessing she caught a chill from that blast despite being wrapped up in tonnes of layers, gloves, hat and scarf.

Anyway back to Saturday after she gave me this picture, it was like someone pressed a repeat button on her as she kept continuously asking to make Christmas cards as we hadn't finished the few she had left. I decided to share another type of card I made with her in case you'd like to do something like it yourself with a little person. Its so easy and one you can more or less leave them to do.

You'll have to excuse the photos as I took them about 8pm on Saturday night as my sister had mentioned she was going to write them to give on Monday. They are a peach and beige colour but they both look exactly the same. I have a tub of glitter glue from my days of making FBs and Decos which I hardly use anymore and weirdly still work. Before she had even started she told me she was going to make lots of spots so I told her to go for it even though I knew they would flatten out. They remind me of fireworks, baubles or fairy lights.... her mum has some Christmas foam stickers at home and I said if she wanted she could get her to stick some on top but she liked them as they are.

I've since told her not to write the cards as I saw a post on GypsyofJaspers blog about Salt Dough ornaments that I thought it would be so much fun to make with my niece as she's been begging for me to bake with her for ages only this will have a different twist of course as she can paint them. I've decided to make circles (baubles) and stars and she can give one each to the adults that work with her which in reality I don't actually know how many there are so I'll make about 20 if I can. Its one of the things my niece has always found hard is not knowing who would be there on the days she went.

I've only seen salt dough used once at work and it was a nasty experience as the children used it like play dough to make something in pieces so they were differently thicknesses. It ended up taking a whole day to cook it so the thin bits snapped and the fatter bits were still squidgy... so you can imagine where that project ended up! We had no choice as it was just crumbs so I hope the same doesn't happen here.

Hopefully I'll leave work straight away at 4pm tomorrow (I'm getting home about 4.30pm due to parents not collecting their children on time) so that I can do this with her as on Tuesday I'll be viewing a house which has probably sold by now as we had to wait a week to view it at the time we wanted! Its been put on the market for the 3rd time! Then I'll work until 4pm on Wednesday too.... I hardly do anything with my niece anymore and feel so guilty... I can't even remember the last time we went to the library.

I'll blog about our salt dough adventure soon though as I will give this a try.

Christmas Crafting....

My niece always asks me if she can make someone a card which sometimes we do but mostly we don't. When she realised I'd be home on Wednesday she asked to do some baking! Well you know I'm not such a great baker but also with not feeling well there really was no way I could bake.

A while ago I thought of the idea for my niece to make cards using stamps etc... so when my niece woke me up when she came from school I gathered everything together and more or less left her to it.

She started by stamping all the cards and envelopes which she was just as bad as me with as she had to fill in all the gaps.

I showed her once where to colour and she just got on with it. I even had to leave her at one point and she picked up the next item and got on with it. I was amazed that she had the initiative to do it.

We finished them off with some sequins but I made the mistake of buying some PVA glue with a flat nozzle so my niece couldn't glue it and I didn't have a spreader for her to do it. We actually did the sticking a couple of days later as she suddenly ended up really clingy on Wednesday, she kept crying as she couldn't stop coughing. It got worse over night so she didn't go to school the next day, her dad had to take her to the doctor as she was so pale and thankfully he gave her some medicine that knocked her out which meant I could rest too. We finished these cards off on Saturday as her mum left her with me whilst she did her weekly shopping.

The envelopes match the cards. I only made 4 for her to give to staff at school but my sister turned round and mentioned her neighbours too so now we'll have to make some time to make those too.

 

I decided to share this with you now incase you have little ones that would love to make Christmas cards but you don't know what to do. My niece is 3 years old and she could just be left to do it with only a little prompting and she didn't get bored. If anything she got annoyed when I suggested putting things away as I thought she might be tired.

 

I will be posting my handmade postcards on my bubbles blog next month which are all address/stamped and ready to go.

 

Have you sorted your Christmas cards out yet? I haven't got my presents ready at all.

Paper Muses.....

My sister is currently making Good Luck cards for the children she has worked with that are leaving this year after their exams. She was complaining that my niece will be happily playing and the minute she would take her things out she'd tell her she has finished and wanders over to investigate what she's doing. So I guess to keep her entertained she encouraged her to make a card for me which I got on Monday morning with a lovely message on the back. The little bunnies remind me of her as she gallops, skips and glides around where ever we are walking and people stop to look at her.

The wreck this journal finally arrived and I was surprised by the size at first as I imagined it to be a little bit bigger then it was but also some of the things in it were quite childish. I'd bought it as a gift and was in 2 minds in giving it as that person might wonder if I was insane or something. In the end I decided I'll ask her to have a look at it and decide whether she wanted it. I'm so glad I did as the reaction was exactly what I'd hoped it would be. I had the card at home just in case she didn't want the book so I'll give that tomorrow.

From what I'd seen on the Internet I created this insane, wrecked card.... use one word continuously (I know that's 2....), make holes in your page, fill a page with circles, colour outside the lines, rip this page..... I kind of forgot the card needed to stand up when getting over excited ripping it, it would have been better doing it along the sides.

I would still like one for the silliness of it.

I also bought a little present for me too....

I mentioned a while back that I wanted some collage pieces for my next project and I really struggled to find what I wanted until I came across the pack thats in the 3rd image. I had it in my basket for a week as I wasn't sure what exactly it contained but I'm glad I did buy it as I love it. The thing that I don't understand is that these images are on the inside of the card and not one seller took a photograph of it to make it easir to shop. I definately wouldn't have bought the 5th photographed one as I'm not into words but it would have meant that I'd have bought something else. I've ended up with a flower overload when I wanted something neutral but its ok as I really like everything and can't wait to use them in some way. I'd really recommended these K&Co packs. I've already created something using the old fashioned bicycle.

What kind of styles are you into?

As you will have noticed mine is more ecentric/vintage with the odd floral and cutesy things.

It's GREAT to have a Holiday!

Since Friday I have had the most energy sucking cold so far this year that left me just wanting to sleep... Did I do that though? No...I was determined as it was my holidays I was going to keep busy even though today is the first day I actually went out.

I decided as I had holidays it was best to go to the bank even if it meant queuing for 45minutes but that's the joys of going after a bank holiday. I got the above receipt last month when I bought something for make my day and decided to spend it as I found I needed some things.

Have you ever had things laying around in the hope that you'll find use for them but the minute you give them away or throw them out you suddenly find that you need it? Well that happened with me over stamps, I sent a whole load that were sitting in a box on my desk to someone on make my day, they must have been there for a year! Maybe 2 weeks ago I created something for make my day and wanted them but I had none available, I won't cut them off the corner of my letters so I was really quite stuck. Now I've bought these from the store and I feel really stupid for doing it but at least I'll have some available. The flower and fruit one has some amazing stamps in but the Great British one I was so annoyed about as its 95% Christmas stamps and even those are mostly completely covered in postmarks. I guess I'll have to think of some Christmas cards using them.

The folder is another thing. I had a purple one with lots of plastic wallets in from my college days, over 10 years ago. I got sick of it one day and took all the wallets to work and threw the folder out. Now I needed to put my Frisker Shape Templates in as I'm worried about them snapping but I had no folder to put them in. I've also had moments recently when the plastic wallets would have come in handy. I'm not a Hello Kitty fan but ever since I've seen this design I've really liked it but none of the items could be used by me in anyway until now. Despite having all these items I realised in the line that I didn't have enough to make up £15 so grabbed the chocolate bar which was the nearest thing. I've never had this one before and I got lucky it was suitable for vegetarians as I didn't have time to check.

The last photo is something that took me back to my childhood and I really wanted to buy but had no use for so decided I would get it for make my day but in the end its going to a friend.

Another thing to take me back were these 2 books. Did you ever read Topsy and Tim? I used to love these 2 and they always had such fun adventure that I wished it was me. As for Moomin I think he was a much loved character for all. I always wished I lived in Moomin Valley with a house like his. It just looked like a magical place. Its a shame all has moved to Cable/Sky/Satellite you need the appropriate channels so children will miss out on all the great classics if their parents can't afford to buy those channels. Its really quite sad actually.

Whilst I'd been out my sister had phoned to see if I wanted to go shopping, the answer of course was no, I'm already out... the funny thing is that I was her last resort as she had been out with a neighbour who had to rush off home so it made me even more glad that I wasn't home, she took my mum instead. I came home to find a box of cake mix that she had left so when she turned up  later and said she was staying until 4pm I decided to make the mix with my niece. I actually have this same box and a double (or triple) chocolate mix box too which I bought last week when we went shopping for rice krispies equipment.

It was so easy to make, my niece could easily mix it all but the pain of it all was the icing. My buns look really brown but the ones on the box are the same so I don't feel as bad. I will try and take them out a little earlier next time though. The lemon yellow one was my favourite.

I bought my sister a craft goody bag for her birthday and for weeks she wanted to buy some of her students good luck cards. Only nowhere really sells packs of cards anymore and buying single ones are usually over £1.50 each so in the end she decided to make her own and don't you think they look amazing. I couldn't believe she made them first as she doesn't do 'fussy cards', she always tells me to make sure I keep them simple. If I wasn't feeling so irritated by my craft supply organisation etc... I'd be tempted to buy a pack for me.

I'm also in the process of writing a letter, it maybe my last for this holiday as I have no more to reply to but mail has been slow for the last month or so as I haven't had anything. It doesn't bother me anymore though as it gives me time to do other things instead.

Its been so nice and it makes me realise what I love about holidays, just relaxing and being productive. I could easily give my job up to do my hobbies all day everyday!

This is only today but yesterday was just as picture heavy but I'll show you those another day.

Have you got any plans for the weekend?