Painting Rocks

This summer many people in my local area have been painting rocks and leaving them in the woods for others to find. Rocks, paint, woods, outdoors, art. It sounded right up our alley.

So we decided to join in and give it a go. We started out by digging in the garden, finding rocks and giving them a good wash. This was a great activity and Pickle and Penguin dove into it with all the energy and excitement that small people seem to muster from nowhere. They found a lovely selection and were really keen to get started with the paint.

I covered them in PVA once they were dry and the next day we went out into the woods to hide them and search for others. We found a few and have been back a few times since to find more.

Pickle and penguin love to see the different designs others have chosen, to them every single one of them is beautiful and exciting. I love to see the world through their eyes. Some are amazingly creative, taking into account the shape of the rocks, others are very much toddler painted.

I would highly recommend getting involved in community projects such as this, it is really great to see so many families getting involved and enjoying the outdoors. I have seen a lot of posts about this on the facebook community so it would be worth looking to see if it is going on in your area.

Until next time. x

An Ending

So we are now into our first week of the summer holidays here in England. Last week Pickle left his preschool. It was an emotional day as not only were the children moving on from a much loved setting but the preschool was closing its doors for the last time.

I have no idea of the schools motivation for asking the Ofsted Outsanding in all areas preschool to leave right as the 30 hour provision is about to kick in but these things happen.

Pickle has only attended the preschool for 7 months but it had a big impact on us as a family. It was the first time Pickle had been left anywhere that wasn't with my Mum and Dad. The staff were amazing and the whole ethos and practice of the place was wonderful. They took his interests and passions and ran with them, introducing them into their activities and topics extending the learning he did at home into preschool and extending their own knowledge in order to provide stimulus and excitement to his experiences there.

Pickle has loved it show much that he insisted that we now have our own kindness tree at home and has asked to make a learning journey for home now too 😆

They inspired me to try more activities at home with Pickle and Penguin which has led to a lot of FUN! Pickle has developed so much in his confidence and interactions with other kids and we will always be thankful for the experiences he gained.

I was very thankful for the work they did with Pickle and for their kindness and conversation so when they were talking about organising cakes for the final day I offered to make some for cost price. I made one large cake and 60 cupcakes. It was a lot of fun and I was pretty pleased with how it turned out. The cake was sooooo tasty. (who doesn't love chocolate cake after all!!)

I hope that it shows how thankful we all are. We have a lot of fun things planned for the summer so come back soon to hear all about our adventures.

Until next time. x

30 Days Wild - Day 1

We started the day by making some 'binoculars' from toilet roll middles. Pickle and Penguin were quite happy to sit and stick bits on them and were very keen to take them outside to look for things.

We went to the park and had a look at some trees, fed the ducks with bird seed and had a picnic. Certainly a wild filled day to kick things off. I am sure some of these activities will be repeated at somepoint during this month!

Sun Catchers

So, with some lovely sunny weather the past week I though I would share with you a lovely little craft perfect for the summer time!

Suncatchers! We made these a while back but they are easy peasy, Penguin and Pickle both loved the activity and both were able to join in nicely. Penguin even managed to find a rouge googly eye which she added to her suncatcher. See if you can spot it in the picture!

So these are super simple, cut a cardboard frame, add some sticky back plastic then cover the 'window' with bits of cut up tissue paper! I hope you guys have a try!

Until next time.....

Nests

Pickle has lately had a fascination with nests. He likes to build nests and look at nests. He talks about birds and their nests.

We recently set up an activity building a nest himself. We collected nest building materials from the garden and then made some salt dough as a base.

Pickle and Penguin love collecting sticks, grass and moss from around the place and Pickle really enjoyed putting them together with the salt dough to make a little nest.

We made the salt dough brown by adding some coco powder, and watched a video of a robin building a nest for some top tips. Pickle took it into preschool as a present for the preschool leader because he said she likes nests too. So sweet.

Until next time.....

A most Egg-cellent adventure....

Oh yes, a cheesy Easter title. Happy Easter! Things have been wonderful, busy and just a tiny bit stressful here. We are nearing the end of a nearly 3 week Easter break here Pickle is only at preschool but it makes a big difference having him off. Penguin has decided she doesn't like to nap when he is at home and at just 18 months she is not really ready to drop that afternoon snooze. I really must look at getting that sorted before Pickle is off for the summer and then starts nursery in the mornings rather than the afternoon!

Any way. We have had a lot of fun building junk robots, making krispie cakes and easter crafts with a few trips scattered in....a post on that later.

Today's post is all about my new crochet Easter bunting! It has taken me a while and progress certainly slowed down without Penguin's nap time these past few weeks.

Not the best light I am afraid, it is hard to get away from the kidlets to take photos in the daylight. 

These are crocheted up with dk yarn I had left over, not sure what the yellow is but the white is stylecraft special. I then cross stitched on the egg shapes with some Patons 100% cotton 4 ply. I am not sure they do the green anymore but the other colours are Candy, Lilac and Pale Blue. I think the green was called sage or similar but I no longer have the ball band. Hook size used for these was 3.75.

To make the egg shape: (Uk Terms)

Ch16

Row 1: dc in 2nd chain from hook and then in each ch until the end. Turn. 

Row 2: ch 1, dc in each dc. Turn

Row 3: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 13 dc, 2dc in last dc. Turn.

Row 4: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 15 dc, 2 dc in last dc. Turn. 

Row 5: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 17 dc, 2 dc in last dc. Turn

Row 6: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 19 dc, 2 dc in last dc. Turn. 

Row 7: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 21 dc, 2 dc in last dc. Turn. 

Row 8: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 23 dc, 2dc in last dc. Turn. 

Row 9: ch 1, 2 dc in first dc, dc in the next 25 dc, 2dc in last dc. Turn. 

Row 10-16: ch 1, dc in each dc. Turn. 

Row 17- 45: ch1, 2dctog, dc in each dc after that until the end. Turn.

Row 46: ch 1, 2dctog, dc in each dc after that. You should now have 7 dc in a row. 

Row  47: ch 1, work dc down the side of the egg shape, 1 in the end of each row. Along the foundation ch work 1sl st, dc, dc, dc, htr, htr, tr, 2tr, tr, htr, htr, dc, dc, dc, slst, then dc up the other side of the shape. In the top row, work sl st, dc, htr, tr, htr, dc, sl st.

Row 48: dc around the edge to finish boarder.

I then cross stitched random patterns onto the eggs and joined them with a sl st along a simple chain. I am really pleased with my easter bunting. I think I might do some bunny bunting for next easter.

Until next time....x

Rainbow Mice

Pickle started pre school at the start of January. As I am a SAHM he has never really been left, just a few times with my Mum and a few times at a church group. I must say he has been a champ. No tears, loads of happy faces. Immense relief.

One day, on the way home, he said he had been sad because he missed me. I suggested I could make him something small for his picket so if he missed me he could hold it and know I loved him and was thinking of him too. His little face lit up and he began to chatter excitedly.

I suggested a little crochet heart thinking I could whip up one nice a quickly before I went to bed, maybe in a few colours so he could choose....Pickle claimed that would be too big, it should be small like a mouse. Yes it must be a mouse. So a mouse it was. A little purple mouse.

On day two of the little purple mouse the pre school leader asked about the mice, if I had in fact made it and if she could pay me to make some for her. I whipped up 5 as a gift for the pre school, and a rather cute collection they are too. Pickles teacher was very pleased and I got to test a new pattern! Watch this space for the little mouse pattern and tutorial!

They are just the perfect size for little hands and little pockets.

I used Patons 100% cotton as found here. The colours are Delta, Candy, Apple and Jade. The Yellow one is the same type of yarn but doesn't seem to be in the current range. I have sadly lost the ball band as it has been in my stash for a while. It is a very pretty yellow, I am sad to see it is no longer on the stock list at Wool Warehouse.

I loved working in this yarn, it is so smooth and has a beautiful sheen to it. I love that it is cotton too. Will certainly be using this type of yarn again. It looks like it may be similar to the Scheepjes Catona which has a lot more colour options! Wow, Scheepjes you are winning me over from sight only. I am absolutely going to need some of this yarn in my life....on my next order for sure.

A Life in Black and White

I love crochet. I am going to drop that bomb one more time. I love crochet. I love the snuggly yarn and the beautiful colours, I love the different patterns, the versatility and I love to feel productive. I like seeing my proects grow, I love the inspiration from wonderful creatives online....I could go on.

Did you see that I love colour? I am not Monochrome. I am blue and green, I am purple and pink and all the colours in between. I wear green jeggings and I love teal and turquoise. Yellow bean is monochrome. Don't get me wrong, he likes colour, he wears normal clothing and has some very colourful t shirts. But he loves black and white. He loves Ska music and all things two tone.

My latest F.O. was a little challenging. Not only was I trying to complete it without Yellow bean spotting it but it was all black and white. A two tone lap blanket for my ska boy. He loves a snuggle under a blanket and always seems to be cold, particularly when he is working. So I made a narrow lap blanket as a Christmas present (it was late). It is big enough to cover his lap and small enough to be manageable when he is sat in a chair at the table working. It is long and thin, just like my man.