A surprise visit to the Sweetpea Household ..

After the excitement of Marion's arrival to the Sweetpea household we weren't expecting more excitement to come knocking at our door.  The Sweetpeas were all sitting quietly in the house the other morning and we heard some strange noises coming from outside the house.  Little Sweetpea, Marion and Elf went to investigate (they are a brave little team) and found an empty box, it looked like a Rabbit hutch and had an un-eaten carrot inside .......

There was a sweet little note inside, little Sweetpea got Marion to read it as she couldn't read yet.  Marion read it out loud, it said  'Oh my, is this the Easter bunny who came to visit little Sweetpea? A little bunny for a sweet girl.  Lil' bunny thought he would come and be friends with Esme, Marion and Elf ... can he stay ?'

Little Sweetpea became excited and worried, the Easter bunny had come to visit but where was he now?  Marion, Elf and all the Sweetpeas looked around and found some empty chocolate wrappers, they looked like chocolate egg wrappers.

As they were looking they didn't see the little Easter Bunny hiding behind the daffodils.

The Easter Bunny decided he didn't want to be kept in a hutch but wanted to explore the Sweetpea household.  Now, Mr Bunny was a clever little thing, he was fluent in English, French and Bunny but was getting more and more worried when he couldn't understand a word these feathered creatures spoke.

And this furry creature spoke yet another language ....

Oh me, oh my thought Mr Bunny, why did I run away, what have I done, who are all these strange speaking creatures .....

He hide behind some more flowers with what looked like a fellow bunny having a snack, this little chap was however very quiet indeed.

In the meantime the Sweetpeas were still looking for the missing bunny.  They looked under all the flowers but found chocolate eggs instead of a bunny.

Little Sweetpea then found Mr Bunny.  He told her how worried he had been and little Sweetpea hugged him tight and told him everything would be alright.

She showed him the little eggs she had found, Mr Bunny said he had hidden them just for her and the older Sweetpeas.

He was introduced to Marion and Elf and little Sweetpea tucked them into bed after a long day and read them a bedtime story.

I would like to BIG thank you to the lovely Monique for sending little sweetpea the gorgeous Mr Bunny.  Monique makes the most gorgeous dolls and felted creatures, please do go and look at her lovely Etsy shop.   Mr Bunny has settled in really well.  My husband did have quite a scare the other day when middle sweetpea came running to him saying that Ted (who looks so sweet and innocent below) had stolen Mr Bunny!  

Middle sweetpea picked up the dropped Mr Bunny and told Mr Sweetpea how upset she was as his eyes had been eaten and his scarf can got stuck round his waist - he looked like he had his hands up to surrender :-(  Now Mr Sweetpea was really worried and was starting to panic he would have to move Ted out of the house as he knew how much little sweetpea and I loved Mr Bunny.

Thank goodness they were just holding Mr Bunny upside down and back to front!  Phew!  (No bunnies were hurt by the mischief Ted and Mr Bunny is now back safe and sound with Marion, Elf and little Sweetpea.)

Eater Holiday Ideas Part 3 - Create a small pond

We created this pond about a year ago and whilst cleaning it out today with the kiddies I thought it would be a good idea to share with you.  It is a fab little pond  and works really well in small spaces and seems to keep lovely and clear.

All you need for this pond is:
A big glazed garden pot
A slab
A bit of cement or waterproof filler
A pond plant
A water pump
Some pebbles

First pop some cement on the slab and put your pot on it so it is secure.  Then fill in any holes in the pots base with the left over cement or a waterproof filler.

Next pop some pebbles in the bottom of the pond.  I also put some slate in to balance the plants and pump on.

Put in an aquatic plant, this helps keep the water clear and creates a great hide for any fish you may want to put in.

Fill up your pond with new water.  Little sweetpea loved this bit :-)

Put in a pump if you have one and there you have it, a lovely little pond!  I am going to place pebbles around the base of ours but I was pondering on blue mosaic stones - let your imagination run wild.

If you do add fish make sure you put them in the pond whilst still in the bag you transport them in.  After about 20 - 30 minutes when the water has changed to the temperature of the pond you can add them to their new home.  This is so they don't go into shock with the temperature change.

I have also seen this style of pond recessed into ground which is a nice idea as then frogs can hop in and out.  As we have little sweetpea we decided against this idea otherwise she would swim in it.

Easter Holiday Ideas Part 2 - Colouring Eggs

As the chickens are laying well at the moment we decided we would decorate some eggs today.  For this I filled 3 containers with different food colourings - they need to be have quite a lot of food colouring in them to dye the eggs.  I also added a tablespoon of vinegar to fix the colour.  I then got out all our arty supplies which included stickers, glue, paint, glitter etc - let your imagination go wild :-)  I used an egg box to pop in some paint and glue and this worked really well - not sure why I hadn't ever thought of it before!

We popped the eggs into the colourings but found they took a little while to colour the eggs.  Thinking about it now it would have been best to leave them for a few hours really to get vivid colours.  The red worked really well and the yellow worked OK but the green didn't work at all in the time we had.

I dried the eggs off a little and the kiddies started prettifying them.  Baby Sweetpea in particular spent ages on this and really enjoyed herself.  She painted and painted, stuck stickers on, painted and painted a bit more.  She even used both hands at once to make sure it was completely covered !

The older sweepeas also enjoyed this but did get sidetracked by a tractor going around the field next door hence no photos of them doing theirs.

Little sweetpeas egg in progress, you can never have too much paint :-)

The end products, they loved the googly eyes.  I particularly like the glitter on middle sweetpeas egg (left) and the cape on older sweetpeas egg (right) and of course the shiny paint on baby sweetpeas egg (in the middle).

Easter Holiday Ideas part 1 - Terrarium

I thought I would do a daily post of ideas to keep the kiddies busy.  I am hoping to do this every day for 5 days but we will see if that will happen with 3 kiddies in the house all at once for the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday the eldest sweetpea and me made a Terrarium.  I was reminded of these fascinating mini gardens by Ryan on his blog Ryan's Garden.  Oh how it reminded me of my childhood when I saw it - they used to be so fashionable in the 80s!

My son has always had a thing about the Venus Fly Trap plants so was really excited when I told him about this idea.

You will need:

1 glass jar - I used a large coffee jar.
Some gravel.
Soil - we used the soul that came with the Venus Fly Trap plant as it was in a deep pot so had loads of soil.
Some moss to pop around the plant (this is optional).
A spoon to help pop everything in the little jar.

Get a jar and give it a good clean to make sure everything that was in it is now gone otherwise it will go mouldy in a few weeks.

Pop the gravel in the bottom of the jar.

Pick a plant that enjoys tropical conditions and then pop that in.  You will most probably need to take some soil away due to the small space in the jar.  Keep this soil to one side for filling in around the edges.

Place the plant in the centre and press in with a spoon or stick.  We did try just our fingers but the job was just too fiddly for that.

Once it is pressed in pop the moss around it and press down gently.

Give it a little water and wipe around the inside of the glass so it is clean and then close the lid.  If it steams up them just open the lid to release the moisture from it.  If it is a Venus Fly trap you have used then make sure you leave it open so it gets food (flys).

You will to keep the jar in a window that doesn't get direct sunlight.

Thanks Ryan for the inspiration!

I hope you all had a fab fab Easter, I worked one of the days and my hubby worked another one of the days so we are having a belated Easter break together now :-)

Sweetpea and Pebble Fun and a craving for all things birdie.

A few days ago I had a visit from the Pebbles.  Mummy Pebble came round to drop off my latest bit of treasure and we decided to coincide this with a cup of tea and some Raspberry and White chocolate muffins :-)  I thought I would share some of the photos from that lovely afternoon with you all so you can see the little static pebbles and sweetpeas.

'I am just loving this new hairstyle, aren't you little pebble?'

'If your name's not down you're not getting in!'

We tried to get a group photo but it was a bit like herding cats :-)  As you can see most of the afternoon was spent on the trampoline and even Mrs Pebble couldn't help herself :-)

One of the reasons for the Pebble visit was to drop off my lovely new necklace.  I also ordered 2 smaller versions for my little sweetpea girls for their birthdays.  As soon as I saw this cute little bird in Silverpebbles shop I knew I had to have one (or 3 :-) ).  Luckily I had some Christmas money left over so this is what I bought with some of it. 

At Christmas my hubby also bought me another lovely necklace from Silverpebble.  It is the finger print from each of the sweetpeas and the beading contains a pearl from my wedding tiara.  I must admit to ordering it myself and my dearest hubby paid for it :-)

 

Isn't it just lovely!  I seem to have been drawn to all things birdie at the moment, I wondering if it is because Spring is in the air?
 

 

My bird lantern from TK Maxx.

A gorgeous bird scene, this is a card from Phoenix Cards that I have framed.

An angel with bird in arms, bought this a few years back .... hhmmm maybe my bird craving started before now.

I even had to buy the girls new bird bed linen.

Hey ho, I can think of worse vices :-)

Yey Marion has arrived!

 

After little sweetpea gave up her dummy and was then ill I thought she deserved a little treat.  After reading some blogs I stumbled across 'Blueberries in Fields' and couldn't resist taking a closer look.  There she was in all her cuteness, the perfect doll to comfort little sweetpea!

I contacted Monique who made the gorgeous Marion and asked if little sweetpea could give her a home.  Marion was then put on a plane for England and all the sweetpeas waited excitedly for Marion to arrive (I think my husband and I were more excited than the children!).  There is something very special about buying a hand-made item that you know someone has spent their own precious time making - it just adds to the excitement somehow.

Yesterday we heard a very faint knock at the door, 'Who can that be?' asked little sweetpea, she looked out of the window and there she was.

She arrived with her lovely pink suitcase with all her belongings in it.  She said she was very tired after her long journey as she had quite an ordeal in customs as they took a liking to her pink suitcase :-)  Little sweetpea had lots planned however so poor Marion was going to have to wait for a rest until much later in the day!

The first thing little sweetpea wanted to do with Marion was play Bubbles.

Marion was then asked if she would like to see how to do a jigsaw with little sweetpea's friend Elf (Elf and Marion seemed to get on very well :-)).

Then there was some excited jumping on the bed.

Poor Marion was looking quite worn out by this point so little sweetpea thought that she might like to freshen up with some 'dipstick' (lipstick) before they went out.

Little sweetpea thought it was time to show Marion the sights so took her to the local garden centre (one of her favourite places).  There she showed Marion all the lovely flowers and some gorgeous fluffy bunnies.

After such a busy day both Marion and little sweetpea were very tired indeed.

Thank you Monique for making my little sweetpeas day! xxx