Jubilee Weekend

Jubilee Weekend started with a jubilee themed day at my local baby and toddler group.  I brought in home made flags courtesy of Kodak, put up some banners and printed some crowns to colour in.  Each child had a flag, crown and a balloon to go home with.

At home we hung flags from our front wall and put up flags in the house from the Kodak collection.  The larger flags were from watching the Olympic Torch in Caerphilly

 I do like the Royals and was really looking forward to the celebrations, but was not looking forward to the rain that had been forecast!!  I had organised a family picnic on the Sunday but the forecast was torrential rain, so we moved it to the saturday.  Cue lots of family fun with my brother, two sisters, their partners and children, friends, my mother and my aunt.  We also a crown competition, some people made them some bought them, here's our group photo...

My Crown attempt made me look like a posh tea lady!!  We also had planned a trip to the beach over the weekend but the weather was so horrendous, we had an indoor picnic instead.

The rest of the Bank Holiday was spent watching the celebrations on the telly and chilling out.  Despite the weather trying it's best to dampen our spirits we had a fabulous Jubilee weekend, hope everyone else who celebrated it, did too.

Mothers Day

For this Mothers Day I got a lie in, a cooked breakfast and all my lovely handmade cards from the kids and Don.  Last week as sort of pre mothers day  presents I also had a new summer hat and an absolutely fabulous original one of a kind oil painting by Don.

This picture really doesn't do it justice.  It is amazing!!

This morning I decided to do some baking.  I already had a punnet of strawberries and had picked up some cheats all butter pastry (I cannot make pastry at all) earlier in the week so having a browse on the internet I came across this recipe Simple French Strawberry Tart and decided to give it a go.  The only thing I changed was the redcurrant jelly for strawberry jam.  I came out okay, the crème patissière didn't firm up as well as it could of but it tasted yummy all the same.

After using the egg yolks I had the whites left over.  So what to make with them?  Meringues!  I have made Lemon Meringue before but never actually meringues on their own.  I was very pleased with them when the came out of the oven and was over the moon when we ate them.  Crunchy on the outside and all fluffy in the middle - perfect with strawberries and creme fraiche.

So that was our yummy mothers day desserts that went with a scrummy beef casserole made by Don (he is the better cook).  I am so lucky to have such a lovely family.

Living room make over for £66!!!!!

So it's finished.  The living room, toy box and stones are painted, the throws are dyed, the cushion covers and tie backs are sewn and we have a new lamp all for £66!!! Now if you don't have gloss, throws, spare paint or material to utilise then it will cost you more but I just wanted to show you want you can do by using up what you have and buying the barest minimum.

BEFORE.....

                      The living room at Christmas: un-dyed throws, grotty cushions, messy shelves, grey wall and stickers

We had already dyed the throws before this photo

The fireplace at Halloween, cluttered with candles and the stones

AFTER......

After the makeover:  a picture of loveliness

                                           

The finished fireplace, toy box and newly painted wall in matt Cobalt paint from Homebase £14.49

Nice and bright with the cushions finished by using new fabric bought for under £23 and blue fabric I already had and dye for under £12

The wall opposite the T.V. the map is hung on a canvas bought for £12 and painted

       

Our bargain £5 lamp...spot the chipped mirror

The painted Ikea toy box

Painted stones with kids poster paints

We absolutely love our 'new' living room, its bright, colourful and uplifting.  What do you think?

Re-decorating the living room...again

Ok, so if you know us well enough you will know that Don and I have a bit of an obsession with decorating and changing the layout of our rooms - especially the living room.  Well I got it into my head last week I wanted a more streamlined living room to which it was pointed out that we have 5 kids and minimalistic would be very difficult!!

Day One we sorted Niles toys and put one toy tub upstairs so that he only has one toy tub and a toy box with a few larger toys in the living room.  Next we cleared the shelves of clutter, DVDs, games, the printer and photos that were outdated.  Well, just by doing all that the room looked more spacious and I felt calmer.  Then I sat down and browsed around on Pinterest and Right Move (because I am nosey and like to see how other people live) and decided that I wanted our fireplace wall to be a bright vibrant colour.  Cue lots of sighs from Don because he knew I would be dragging him off to buy paint the next day.

Day Two came around but I had to show great patience (not easy for me when I have an idea in my head) and take Niles to mothers and toddlers.  When we got home Don had been glossing the shelves!!  They looked fab and he had glossed around the electric fire surround (which doesn't work and we didn't use it when it did) then we went to Homebase to get our paint, having settled on a bright blue.

So off we went to Homebase and ended up buying a tin of paint in cobalt blue and a gorgeous mirrored lamp that was reduced to £5.00 because it had a slight chip in the mirrored base.  A complete bargain since you can't even see the chip! That afternoon we took down our beloved tree wall stickers and HOME letters and painted the feature wall but later that evening when we finally sat down, we decided to paint the wall opposite the fireplace in the same colour the next day. I also bought for some fabric on eBay to cover the cushions and fabric dye for our throws.

Ikea Barnslig fabric for the cushions

Day Three of our living room make over the sun was shining and I started on the second wall while Don painted a tree on the stair wall.  We had put the wall stickers we took off the fireplace wall there but they were very sorry looking and losing their stickiness so Don said he would paint a tree and birds.  I don't know about you but they look amazing.  Again when we sat down in the evening we thought of more things to do!!  Paint the toy box and the stones in the fireplace to match the room, then hopefully other than the cushions and throws the room would be complete

Don's first wall painting in progress

The finished tree....

The finished wall - amazing

Day Four and another glorious day. Out came the poster paints and the gloss and we got on with the painting.  Don had also decided that he would stick the HOME letters on the wall opposite the front door and paint intertwined trees around the letters again they look gorgeous.

Marc painting his stones....

Big Pit, National Coal Museum, Blaenavon

During half term we try to take the tribe out once or twice and if it's a free day even better!  This time we took them to Big Pit, the National Coal Museum in Blaenavon, South Wales and we had an amazing time. As part of the day out involved going underground we didn't take the baba with us, he stayed with the Grandparents for lots of cwtches.

Now I love history and luckily so do the kids,when we have family days out they like nothing more than going to a castle or a museum (other than running about the park).  I also think that learning about local history is a must and living in Wales in an area that was dominated by coal mining, what better than a day out visiting a coal mine.  I highly recommend visiting Blaenavon if you are in this part of this world, there are lots of interesting sites to visit as well as Big Pit.  

We started with the underground tour, firstly you are kitted out with helmet, headlight & battery, self rescuer and belt (what the miners themselves wore) then you go in the lift down 300ft to the mine.  The tour is given by a former coal miner and lasts about 50 minutes, I came away in awe of  all the men, women, children and horses that ever worked a mine even in the modern age of mining.

self-rescuer, breathing apparatus

After the tour we had a very cold picnic near the pithead baths and took some photos of the landscape and old equipment before looking at the exhibitions and experiencing the audio-visual tour in the galleries.

Valentine's Day

Valentines Day in our house  is always celebrated but is never over commercialised, this year though we almost forgot the date so the night before we made our cards.

My card for Don

Inside the card

My card, flower and windmill from Don

Both of us said there were things we would do differently.  For me I should have used black card as the backing inside the card and this was Don's first time sewing something crafty, which makes his gifts more special.

Pinterest and a T-shirt necklace

Okay my new favourite obsession is Pinterest and many crafters out there are posting their works and other peoples on this fabulous global pinboard.  Whilst browsing I have seen lots of these t-shirt necklaces and thought mmm too time consuming/fiddly for the quick crafting fix I wanted.  But NO!  There was a linked picture to More Design Please for a really easy non-woven necklace, then I found another site etté studios with yet more examples of scarves and a tutorials.  So here is my effort using one of Don's old t-shirts.

Not a great picture I know but I had the baba hanging off my legs and following me around.  As you can see I used pinking shears which I felt added something to the finish.  I will add some more (and better) pictures at a later date.

Dottie x