More creating and a new member of the family

We have been creating in the Sweetpea household again over the last few days.  I find that if I keep the children busy making things there is less time for them to wrestle with each other :-)

I thought I would share some of our creations just in case some of you wanted to have a go.  Firstly we made bird feeders in the form of pine cones covered in lard and seed.  Firstly we melted some lard.

oohh that stuff smells so yucky when you melt it !  We then tied some raffia to the tops of the pine cones to form a loop so they could be hung up.

I poured the melted lard into a cup and we dipped to pine cone into it.

When the lard had built up after a few dips we rolled them in bird seed - didn't get a photo as it got a bit messy at that stage (the kids really loved that part as you can imagine :-)).

We then hung them on the trees, they look really pretty hanging up, we hope the birds love them.

I also cut some strips of brightly coloured paper so that the children could make paper-chains, they love making these.

They really enjoyed this and spent ages sticking them together - even little Sweetpea created one (although it was a slightly different design to the traditional style paper-chain bless her).

They look lovely stuck up around the house.

Another item that is now hung up over the fire place is a pom pom garland.  A friend of mine lent me her pom pom makers, wow these are fab!  They make pom pom creating so much quicker, they might not be as full as the original style pom poms but they still look great.

I love our new fluffy garland !

Just had to pop this picture in too as I love the coloured lights over our other fireplace, they let off a lovely colourful glow :-)

And now for the new member of our family, here is Spike the hedgehog.  He was found on a dog walk the other night and when we weighed him at home we realised he was too small to be out in the cold.  We are feeding him slugs and snails which he pounces on (I never knew that hedgehogs pounced!).  Eldest Sweetpea is out most mornings looking for slugs for him.  He is putting on weight and seems very content.  Unless a hedgehog does look too small to be out or is out in the day I wouldn't recommend  moving them.  We only picked up Spike as he couldn't get up a curb and looked far to small to be out and about.

Just in case I don't get to blog again I would like to wish you all a very relaxing and lovely Christmas and New Year. x

Oohh I nearly forgot to leave you with a festive photo of me ........

Little Sweetpea wouldn't wear this for the nativity party at 'Little Lambs' so of course I stood in :-)  Do my ears look big in this photo ? :-)

Luckily my mates are just as crazy, we were the only ones dressed up  (BearsFootprints is below if you read her blog - oohh she will love me for this :-)).

New Toy :-)

Yey I finally chose a sewing machine to buy with my birthday money (my birthday was back in March!).  A lovely friend lent me her Janome machine around March time but I thought it best I gave it back now :-)  I looked around on the internet and found this fab Janome which was only £10 more than the basic model but seems to have loads of extras on it.

I got the manual out and threaded it up - ooh that was slightly daunting as it was a bit different to how you thread up my friends Janome.

I worked out how to wind the bobbin and pull the thread up from it.  Love this see-through bobbin case :-)  Then I just had to pluck the courage up to actually use it lol.  So a few days later I made these cute little curtains for the kiddies new playhouse in the garden - well I say it is the kiddies but I love it as much as them!  The machine sounds lovely whirring away.

I remember having an old garden shed that my sister and I played in when I was little and I used to love pulling the curtains shut in there.  I got the fabric from e-bay and it was only £3.50 per meter and about £1.50 postage.  I was hoping to use some up--cycled material but couldn't find any big enough or that I was brave enough to cut into.

I like the look of the gathering at the top - I saw the idea of adding an extra sewn line at the top in a book to make it look prettier.

They can now shut their little curtains and be all cozy inside.

I was on a roll then so finally, after many, many years made this cross-stitch pattern into a cushion.  I started this when eldest Sweetpea as in my tummy and then finished the pattern a couple of years back.  He is now 11 so I thought it a little childish for his wall but he still loves the design (probably because I was making it when he was kicking away in me :-)) so I thought a cushion would be a nice idea.

Here is the back of it - loving the green spotty material.

And of course I had to add some of that special ribbon!

oohh look what else I got free with my new sewing machine, loads of gorgeous thread.  They looked so scrummy that I had to pop them in my new glass jar - I found this jar in Wilkinsons for £5 - I knew I would find a use for it :-)  It now sits on top of my dresser looking very pretty with all those lovely coloured threads in it.

Well I hope you all have a wonderful weekend, I am off to work tomorrow for a rest lol. x

Edit:  Nothing to do with this post but I just opened a fortune cookie and it says ' Calmness is the cradle of power' - loving that little bit of wisdom, I think I will keep that in my head as a mantra when things get a bit frazzled here :-)

I am an addict!

Oh dear ...... what shall I do ....... I think I may be addicted to crochet!  I can't stop making these cute little hearts!  As soon as I wake I feel the need to make one even before I get out of bed!  I keep buying scrummy coloured wool whilst thinking how lovely a little heart would look like in that colour.   Why did no one warn me of the dangers of getting addicted to this lovely new craft I have just learnt :-)

It is all your fault - you know who you are - I blame you entirely for putting too many gorgeous crochet photos on your blog and making me NEED to learn :-)  This pattern came from the lovely Attic24's blog if you want to give it a go.

All those scrummy colours ........

Gorgeous textures ........

So many possibilities ........

Gorgeous equipment to work with .....

And so many lovely things that I want to create.  I think these little hearts will become some bunting, oohh I can't wait :-)  I have now bought The Happy Hooker book and borrowed some more crochet books from the library, I just now need to find more time to create some more gorgeous wooly things.

As a thank you to you all for your inspiration I have made the bloggers who love crochet a little bloggy button.  Feel free to pop it on your blog and show your love of crochet.  Just right click on the piccy below, save to your hard drive and then upload it as a piccy into your blogger template.  I hope you like it. xxx

Pinata Tutorial - How to make your own Pinata

A few weeks back I decided to make a Pinata for my little girls birthday.  I thought I would write a little tutorial as it was fun to make and a hell of a lot cheaper than buying it from a shop :-)  Be warned though, you will need to do this a few days before the party (rather than 1 day before like I did lol)  to let it dry thoroughly.

So, what will you need?

Newspaper, ripped up in quite large strips.
A balloon.
A small bowl to hold the Pinata as you make it.
A large bowl to make up in the glue in.
Tissue paper to decorate.
Some string.
Water.
Flour.

Make up the paste that will hold the newspaper together, for this you just need 2 cups of water and 1 cup of flour.  Mix it up until there aren't any lumps.

Blow up the balloon and then pop it into the bowl for support.  Start dipping the newspaper stips into the paste mixture and then layer it on the balloon until it is all covered but leave a hole  large enough to put sweets in, this is where the balloon is tied (this should be sitting in the bowl).  As you can see from the above photo this is quite messy so make sure you either do it outside or on a surface that is easily cleaned or thrown away.

Make about 3 layers and if possible make the top a few layers thicker (the top of the Pinata so the area that is nearer the bowl as when you take it out of the bowl that will be the top of your Pinata).

When it is completely dry make two holes near the entrance, thread some string through this .  Now cut up some tissue paper and decorate the Pianta however you wish, we used strips of tissue paper in various colours.  I glued this on with PVA glue but double sided sticky tape would work too.

Now fill the Pinata with sweets or treats and some cut up tissue paper to add to the effect when it explodes :-)

Hang it up and have fun!   

Remember it is best that the children do this one at a time to lower the injury risk, we used a wooden spoon to smack ours :-)  Here is a good video link for more info on how to make one - click here.

Highs and lows ......

Hi everyone, I do hope you have been enjoying the last week and have had some sunshine where you are.  After another week of grey the sun is finally shining and the flowers are showing their lovely faces :-)  Little Sweetpea above has been wearing a little daisy chain I made her as she wanted to be a princess in the flowers - oh the joys of being 3!

I have really enjoyed taking photos of flowers again this week, I have missed it during the winter months.  I took this photo in our local grave yard, I am not sure what flower it is (does anyone know?), but it is stunning with it's tissue paper like petals.  It is such a simple looking flower but it captures my heart every morning when I walk past it, there is a whole group of them clumped together.  When I took this photo I did scare another local mum on her walk to school as I popped up out of the flowers in the grave yard - luckily she knows I am slightly bonkers lol.

I have also ventured out in a skirt this week :-)  I found a lovely 'White Stuff' skirt in a Charity shop and have been wearing it this week, I only knew who 'White Stuff' were when a mate told me, it looks like I got a real bargain!   I am not sure however if I am very good at being a skirt wearing girl, around 30 minutes after putting my new skirt on I decided to go to the allotment to cut some dafs and as you can see from the photo below I ended up with mud everywhere lol.  A friend of mine also joked that I would have to invest in an iron if I were to wear skirts, I can however confirm that with a slow spin and my shake and hang method it did pretty well on the wrinkle front - bonus !

I wore it out with a long spring coat I have, I was feeling pretty good until my middle Sweetpea said 'Mum, you look like Mary Poppins in that coat' , I smiled, feeling happy that I looked like her, I like her style, but then she said 'or .... a witch!' to which I replied 'hhhmm, I think I will go for the Mary Poppins option'.

Also this week I have been busy cutting felt and creating things, oh how I love felt, buttons and thread, you can create such pretty things with simple items.

I also did a swap with the lovely Kazzy recently, she sent me one of her gorgeous drawings, a lovely little robin for little Sweetpea, a gorgeous rose scented pillow and also a little notepad, it was such a lovely parcel!  I feel very honoured to have one of Kazzy's amazing works or art.

In return I sent her some little flower hair clips for her little Sweetpea, a button heart, a vintage pill box and a Little Bear Lost book (I love the illustrations in those books).

Pets, Highs and Lows :-(

We are all rather excited in the Sweetpea household as our lovely cockerel went off on holiday to my Father-in-Laws recently to meet the Light Sussex ladies there :-)  Well we have popped the eggs they have laid in an incubator, the eggs are turned 3 times a day, the temperature has to be kept between 37.5 - 37.7 deg C and the humidity at 45 - 50 with a little water trough (wow those hens do more work than we think when sitting on eggs!).  We checked the eggs by looking through them with a strong light and they are all dark so look fertile :-)  It takes roughly 21 days for them to incubate, the kids can't wait for next week :-)

On a sad note one of our African Greys escaped this week.  My husband has had him for around 24 years so he is really upset and we are also worried for his mate who he left behind.  He had eaten his way through a wooden door frame and some wire, walked through to the chicken run where we saw him when we returned from the school run.  We tried to catch him in a net but he then escaped and flew to a nearby tree.  What was really sad is that then a couple of crows started to mob him and call their friends in, then over 50 crow mobbed him until he flew away, you could see him trying to fly back towards us but they scared him away :-(  He still hasn't returned ......

Crafting and sorting

Hi everyone, I hope you all had a fab half-term week last week.  Ours was a lovely chill out week (well once the older Sweetpeas got used to being with each other all the time again :-)).  I really must make sure we enjoy the next break too as Eldest Sweetpea is getting to the age where he wants to go out with friends so we may not see so much of him in the Summer term :-(  He is then off to College in September and I am hoping I don't lose him completely then :-(

During the last couple of weeks I have had a little play with knitting, my work mate decided I should learn knitting before teaching me any more crochet - not sure why but it has been fun.  This form of knitting is different from the UK knitting technique, I had thought it was Russian knitting but then talking to another work friend who is Lithuanian I now think that it must be a wide-spread version of knitting and maybe the UK uses a different technique to everyone else?   Basically you have the loop on your knitting needle and hook through the wool from the back and pop your new loop on your other needle.  I will have to try and blog some piccies of how you do it.  It is quick to do but I am not sure if the knitting is more loose with this style , it may however be due to my lack of skill :-)

I got going and made little Sweetpea a scarf - she picked out the colours she liked and away I went :-)  As you can see it is not fantastic but she seems to love it.  It looks a bit like Bagpuss wrapped round her neck lol.  On finishing it I realised I didn't know how to get it off the hook so my Mother-in-Law taught me along with the help of You Tube :-)

I have stalled slightly on my Crochet.  This little square was created with a lot of help from Bears Footprints the other Friday.  I really must try another one as I am sure I have forgotten it all already :-(

Middle and eldest Sweetpea joined in with some felt fun during half term.  They made their own little brooches and hairclip designs.

We have also been painting.  I got the watercolours out, lots of lovely vibrant colours and this is what little Sweetpea above created - hhhhhmm a lot of black!

Eldest Sweetpea then bought the above painting home from school, should I worry about my children and their fascination with black lol :-)  They reminded me of the comedy Spaced where Brian the artist is inspired by black and of the comedy below:



Spring Cleaning

I have been in a real de-clutter mood lately, most cupboards have been pulled out and most things put back in again.  I do think I have a bit of a problem with saving too many things - just take a look below at some of the things I have saved from things I have been posted over the years !

 

 

That is just some of it :-o  I just can't bring myself the throw things away if I think I can re-use them, the problem is where to store it all???  Any ideas?