Play house

Not sure if I have mentioned that we put a playhouse in the garden a year ago...it is a lovely wooden one (and is slightly shabby, but very trendy) The little Princess still loves going in it...but the boys are a little too big now at nearly 6 and nearly 8.

I have just mowed most of the lawn in this pic taken last Saturday, and she had been busy playing and making pink tea, aka squash, in her house. 

As you can see from the pic, this is half way down our garden . I really do need to get on and have a weed around the playhouse too. You can just see the little gnome sitting on a toadstool that she chose on her last trip to the 99p shop.

Half Term!

Oh dear....after missing 2 posts I have just realised that it is now Thursday and I have not posted anything.....my excuse.....it is half term and the kids are all at home driving me slowly insane....but today so far they are better behaved!
Yesterday we had a couple of their cousins over for the day with Grandma. They had fun chasing each other in the garden in between the rain bursts, watching a Transformers film in cinema effect in the front room and generally being noisy kids. As it has done nothing but rain so far this holiday it is not good! I decided to set up an indoor Hop Scotch game as the Princess has taken to this game while waiting for her brothers on the playground.

And there she is! Even in our narrow hallway it works really well and can be taken up before Daddy comes home this eve! Everytime we go up or down the hallway we all have to hopscotch it! 

Today I have had to take the car for an MOT and service....something to do with the stering is not good and needs replacing....they have not got around to the service yet! Hope it does not cost too much.The kids were all good getting up early to get it in though and walking home. I have also managed to do a mummy stlye haircut on my eldest, although he looked in the mirror and said yay thats goods mummy! Also got a nice beef and tomato casserole going in the oven. The kids have requested another home cinema today too.....Jurassic Park! I think I should watch with them so just in case they get too scared....but it is a PG. Oh well...its 10am....better get home cinema on them we can decide what to do this pm later....pick the car up with a hefty bill I suspect....it better last another year or two.

Tulips

Since we had our extension a couple of years ago, and severley reduced the size of the bed running down the side of the garden, I have lost track of what there is in the bed. Just this last week some wonderful Tulips have come up.

I have no idea what breed of Tulips but they are very blousey and I do love them. You can just see the French Lavender that I planted last year too.

This one and another couple of heads are coming up a little further along the bed. Think I might pop to the 99p shop and see if they have any lovely bulbs left to plant out for next year. After all the Bluebells I need something tall to take over the dieback. 

Fairy House

I used to have a bit of an obsession with fairies and I think it is coming back! I have seen some really sweet little fairy doors online and could not resist buying one of Ebay. I then got some No more Nails and glued it to the back fence quite low down.A couple of broken bricks act as steps for the fairies. I then left it to see how long it would take the kids to notice it.
After a week, my excitement got the better of me and I told them that I though I had seen something moving by the back fence and sent them all merrily down to look....They were SO EXCITED to find the fairy door. Although a little puzzled as to why it did not actually open....the fairies keep it locked!

The Princess keeps one of her toy fairies there now to try and entice the real fairies out!

Tuesday post?

I know I don't normally post on a Tuesday, but I have a free moment....before mopping the entire downstairs! After dropping the boys at school this morning and the Princess at her Pre-school, I went for my workout at our local branch of Curves. I cannot recommend it enough! As you have to change your activity every 30 seconds you don't have a chance to get knackered on one piece of equipment before you are moving onto the next....I always manage to work up quite a sweat too! I have only been going for about 3 weeks but would definitely recommend.
Then, I went around to a friends house for a cuppa in the garden....lovely. I refuse to line the pockets of the big coffee chains often and would rather sit in a friends garden, or have friends sit in our garden for a cuppa anyway. Time passes so quickly and then I had to return to pick the Princess up. Lunch now then on with jobs before going to get the boys and a couple of their friends for playdates and naan bread pizza for supper. Happy days!

Flowers in the garden

What a lovely weekend we have just had! The sun has been shining brightly here in West Suusex.
When I leave the garden for two weeks at this time of year, without a mow, the weeds (some call them flowers...me included!) really take over. I went out for a walk around the garden with my camera to take pics of some of the pretty flowers ( sorry ....weeds) before having a mow!

This one is one of the many pink flowers that take over our lawn , and the beds, given a chance. I know a lot of people buy them, because I see them for sale in the garden centers, but believe me, they take over!!! Wild Geraniums!

The lovely, wonderful Daisies. I love looking out at a field of daisies in the garden. Before I mow, I often get the kids to pick as long a stem daisies as they can find and have little mini cups of them throughout the house.

Aqualegia...not sure if I have spelt that correctly or not. I do love these too...although this one has taken root on the edge of the playhouse foundations....will try and move it I think. This one had a bee busy buzzing around when I took the photo.

And this white weed....no idea what it is, but so pretty and dainty. 

Along with all these we have numerous Dandelions, Buttercups and Cover that bees love, so I tend to mow slightly higher than we should and keep it for them....I tell the kids and visitors to always wear shoes in the garden!

Pints of Socks

Well, I had my at home party today and a few turned up....not as many as expected but still a fair show. Also, the sun made a glorious appearance...so we were able to sit outside for cups of tea/coffee and have a good old natter as well.
I will have to apologise, I totally forgot to take any pics of the actual event....to busy making cups of tea and coffee. But I did remember to do pics of my Pints of Socks:


First I rolled up the black socks as so....

                                  
Then the white socks got put together, folded and rolled as so....

Then they both get put into the pint glasses so that the messier sides are both on the same side of the glass ( if you get my drift)

Somehow, the white one on the top always looks quite effectively like the froth on a beer! And then all I had to do was wrap them up....

They look great and people always buy them as I only charge £3.50 for a pint!!!!!

Pen and pencil holders

 We are always either losing pens and pencils, or have a glut of them that seem to fill every surface in the kitchen and in my room! I thought I would re-cycle an old gravy granule tub into a pencil holder....
I am a re-cycling geek and collect lots of bits as well that could be made into something different if only I one day get the chance. I tend  to give my neighbour egg cartons as she has about 10 chickens in the back garden.
So, I also have quite a stash of pretty papers that I collect from anywhere and everywhere....I never throw anything out! I need to....but would rather find some use, even if it is only for the kids to enjoy cutting and gluing. Anyway, pretty papers, yes I chose a couple of papers that I thought would look nice in my room and on the side in the kitchen, and measured and cut them, put a couple of bits of double sided sticky tape on

and then carefully wrapped it around the gravy tub!

and the other...

with pens and pencils already in it.

Hopefully everyone will find them easily and more importantly PUT THEM BACK AWAY!!!

WHoops! I missed one!

Oh dear, I missed yesterday's post....kept thinking it was any other day of the week and then landed up totally forgetting! To much to do!
I am hosting an open house this eve and tomorrow am so am supposed to be busy getting things ready and sorted. I have not yet actually heard from anyone that they ARE coming this eve and one set of year mums are out tonight anyway. But, tomorrow should be busy. I have even borrowed a dozen mugs from a friend as last time I did this I ran out of cups and mugs and people had to wait for a cup to become free for a cuppa...how embarrassing. So, I have plenty of cups!
What I have to do quickly is make four Pints of Socks....I will take a pic or pics as I go along for this and post tomorrow along with a pic of the event. Fingers crossed that tomorrow is a full house.

Little Magnets

As a cheap little pick up line for the fairs I do I have started to make little magnets. I ordered some business card sized magnets and simply used any little odds and bits of papers that I had left over from various other projects....I DO tend to keep everything....I am a bit of a hoarder if I am honest. I made some Holiday ones for the summer break coming up and some Thankyou Teacher ones too and a few others.

Sorry the picture is not overly clear...did not realise this until I uploaded it and hit publish! Whoops....mental note to check quality of pics. The kids enjoyed using some of my odds and ends to do some bits of their own too on paper and card....so everyone was having fun. I am always trying to give the Princess in particular something to do whilst I am making....Speaking of which I do have another at home event coming up soon and need to get my fingers out and paint and make!

New Patio Set!

OK,So its Friday and so far at 11am I have taken the boys to school and the princess to nursery, gone to the gym, cleaned the windows inside and out, and had the hairdresser around for a cut! To do: Mop the floors in kitchen diner and bathroom, clean the charis around the table, pick everyone up, take middle boy for his swimming lesson, watch older son in his sharing assembly, decide what to cook and cook supper, shopping online to come on sunday, and at 8 we have friends coming for a fun Poker Night! To top it off I have one my my huge migraine type headaches coming and cannot take anything for it due to a liver condition I had a couple of years ago....ARGGGGGHHHH!!!!
Anyways, to get to the subject title....The new patio set...
Well, maybe not quite new, but new to us! A friend is moving soon and insists that she will not use her old patio set, which is a wooden one, so when she offered it to us I said YES PLEASE!
It did need a bit of work to it though:

This is the table, and as you can probably see the paintwork is very old and it needs a good sand down and repaint.

So, one sunny day last week, me and the Princess decided that we would make a start and do it. As you can see she got stuck into it and loved helping to paint the new table and chairs!

With her old Tshirt and leggings she was getting right into painting!

And when we had finished,because it was suck a lovely day the whole set dried off in a couple of hours! So we put it in place on the patio and waited for Daddy to come home. When he did it was the Princess who dragged him very proudly out to see what she had been doing all day!

We just need to have some visitors around now!

The set looks like new.

Snow Foam

So, after playing  for some time, the other day, with the shaving gel we decided to put it into the freezer to see what happened....

Yippee! Lots of freezing cold snow type of stuff! Was so cold that the Princes could not touch it and resorted to using a spoon. It did slowly melt though back into the shaving gel. 

When the boys saw it they were fairly interested in it too and played for a while. When daddy saw it his comment was " Yes, Mummy has been left unsupervised for a while!" Not sure I would bother with freezing it again, and if I was to do this again would definitely go for a ladies or fragrance free foam!!!! 

Thursday post?!?!?!

I know, I know, I do not normally post on a Thursday, but I have a spare couple of minutes (or rather need to sit for a couple of minutes and this is a good excuse!)...
Its raining again today! Having dropped the boys at school, gone to the library with the Princess, then dropped her off at pre-school, I went to my new gym!!!!! I seriously need to loose some weight....not eating may help, but more sensibly going and exercising will help! I joined a couple of weeks ago when I got a call saying that I had won a free month at Curves Gym in town by filling in a form the previous day at Sainsburys...it was a sign....get fit NOW!!!! So, yes, I am not some super slim yummy mummy.......yet, but a work in progress....hide the kids sweets away and any baking that I do....I love baking...but love eating it too!
Right it is now 11.30am and I have two and a half more hours before collecting the Princess, sorting out a pre-school issue that has come up (i am secretary for the committee!), then going and taking the boys to chess club whilst trying to get the Princess to be quiet while we are there...I can't leave her anywhere after all! Sometimes we do wish that we lived closer to some relatives!
Ok, kettle boiled, going to have a cuppa and then tidy up as we are holding a poker night here tomorrow for a group of friends....should be entertaining...have already told hubby that I will not be drinking as it;s a nightmare looking after the kids with a hangover....sure most people would agree to this!

shaving gel play

 Its Wednesday.....one of only 2 days that the princess is at home all day.....forecast not brilliant. So we managed to get in the garden and plant out some of the runner beans that have been waiting for it and sow some of the peas that we have had waiting too. Then when it got a bit wet we came inside and I decided to do something different with the Princess....foam play.
I have seen so many people on Pinterest using shaving cream as a form of sensory play. Now the Princess is a little old maybe for that but it looked like fun. So, we hunted in the bathroom and found that daddy did not have any shaving foam, but he did have shaving gel! We decided to use this instead.
We filled a container with it and added a little food colouring in pink (of course)

At first the texture put her off a little but she decided to persist and in the end thought it was great fun to swirl it all around. 

We also boiled some tapioca up to use as water bead type of things, we added quite a bit of purple food colouring to this as you can see. We called it Gloop. She quite liked picking it up though and putting it in the shaving gel and mixing it up.

It was very weird if you ask me, but Princess loved it! It occupied her for about an hour this morning. I doubt that she would play with it for that long again, but you never know. I may try freezing it and see what happens....will keep you posted.

Mowing

Mowing the lawn takes an age!!!!!! Well to be precise about an hour to an hour and a half! And what a workout it is. We have a petrol push mower and have to empty it into the garden waste bin for the council as our compost is a lot smaller than it used to be! ( I think we may build another one next year)
Somehow it is always me that ends up mowing too! Still, like I said, a bit of a workout! My husband always says that it looks like I am drunk when I have mown the lawn as the lines are never entirely straight! Well.... at least it shows that I have done it!!!!!

You cannot quite appreciate how wonky my lines are but nevermind! Another job done, for a week........

Lovely Flowers

I got a lovely bunch of flowers the other day, brought for myself unfortunately but nevertheless, think they look so romantic. Maybe they will give my husband a hint about the sort of flowers I like!!!!!

And here they are brightening up our hallway.  If I had the money I would buy fresh flowers every week, maybe 3 or 4 bunches.

Little Apple Tree

Our newest apple tree is in blossom at the minute. We planted it last year so this is the first spring and it looks wonderful.Like I say, you can never have too many flowers.

The kids have put some swirly ornaments all over it as well. We picked them up for 99p for 3! I am spending more and more time in the garden at the minute so it is nice to have some flowers out there. My seeds are all coming on well and I will take some pics when I have planted them out. Have started on the runner beans now, they are inside in the south facing room in loo roll inards! It is so nice to be doing more in the garden! Will be out there today as the forecast is good.