Aaah look… the kids painted their very special PiggyBankKids piggy banks! (I only helped with the eyes and varnished them). They are learning all about saving and pennies…

Proud to be supporting PiggyBankKids this year. Stop by, take a look and see the very important work they are doing with supporting children – right from the beginning in their pregnancy research to the very end with young people needing a helping hand.

Linking to

Ok, you had better not look. If you look… and if you think of making a Rag Doll (from Martha Stewart, a Guest Post by Emily from Black Apple) you will become addicted and NEVER STOP!
Here is my THIRD doll, for a fellow bloggy friend Angelique. She fell in love with the one I Rag Doll I made for Pip Squeak, so I promised one for her too! She asked for Pink hair.. and here you have her disco diva!!

Here is Pip Squeak’s Rag Doll:

Notes:
1) The arms don’t have a seam allowance, so mark them out …

I made this reward chart about 18 months ago, if not longer…. and I have sent pictures of it to friends over time. I decided I should really do a “quick craft post” for you! I made it in less than 10 minutes from things around the house:

All I did was cut out rectangles, squares and triangles and 5 bunnies. I stuck the side of rectangle down, so the bunny slots in (see white marks):

When Red Ted is good, he gets one bunny “from the boat” and it goes in …

Well.. today we deWelcome back to today’s Kids Crafts! Today, we have a super duper simple craft, but it is one that my children never tire of.. Stone Monsters!! Nice and easy and lots of fun! They are tactile, bright and suitable for all ages to have a go (just moderate what paint you use). This is also a VERY special Kids Crafts post, as I am sharing this with the crazy and adorable lady over at Mammasaurus.

Mammasaurus has brilliantly creative blog and every Wednesday she challenges you to some …

Did you know that it is Energy Saving Week? I know there is always a “week this and a week that”, but as you may know from The Good Life Bloggers I am big into saving energy. Mainly for environmental reasons, but also because it actually saves you money too. Why use something up and pay for it that you don’t need?!
As a parent, I feel I have the responsibility to educate my children about how the world works. What is energy? Where does it come from? What impact does it …

Welcome back to week 2 of “Planting Creative Seeds” – a collaborative effort between Alissa fromCreative With Kids and I. Planting Creative Seeds is a challenge to spark up your creativity – be it for yourself or with your children.
Recap – Planning
Last week, we challenged you to think about what you would like to do more of and how you may go about achieving. We called it the “planning stage” and had a lovely number of posts link up, as well as dicussions on Facebook and Twitter.
The bottom line: creativity is …

I know I am a crafty so and so and yet I don’t *really* let them paint often enough. They love it though.

I am organising myself so we can do more! To lots more mess and painting this year.
Linking to

Welcome back to this week’s How To – where I show you the perfect father’s day gift or gift for a loved one or sibling. I find “male” members of the family really hard to craft for – as they usually do not want “cutesy” or “lovely” gifts, but practical ones. My brother asked for a last minute home made gift: could I make him a micro fibre iphone wallet. So that the phont was protected by the wallet, but he could also use it to clean the screen with …

Well.. I haven’t done any iphone app reviews for a while! That is mainly because I like to download the app, and then let the children play with them for a while to see whether they come back to that app time and time again or not at all!
This week I have a few that Red Ted adores. Though I confess, I am not 100% certain of them myself. They main problem, that I am finding, as Red Ted gets older, is that the apps become more computer game-y. And …

Ooooh… now I know some of you do love to cook. I am not so sure how many of you like cooking with your children, but if you have ever been inspired by Nick over at My Daddy Cooks, then you really should give it a go!
I do a lot of baking with my children, but a little less cooking – but we do like to make Pitta Bread Pizza’s together and I keep “meaning to cook more staples” with them. They do LOVE cooking their own food and they …

Well.. I finally more or less finished the Dolls’ House  Bathroom. It only took 3 months…. The dolls can now:

Shower
Take a bath
Go to the loo (including using some toilet paper)
Wash their hands
Dry themselves off with warm fluffy towels

What is lovely though about making this house in stages, is that every time we make something new, the children LOVE spending ages again playing with the house. It is like refreshing an “old toy”.

The shower and bath are made from an iphone box. The bottom half is the bath,  the top half is …

Well.. today we decided to get crafty in the kitchen again, with our Valentine’s Whoopie Pie Love! What I hear your cry outraged, Valentine’s already?!?!?! Well… yes and no. Yes, because this is indeed title Valetine’s Whoopies, but no, because I believe you should be able to tell your loved ones at ANY TIME OF YEAR that you love them…. so we made our Whooie Pies with much love and then gave some to The Englishman and our lovely neighbours! So there. These are NOT JUST for Valentine’s!
Oh and these …

Well… I never. Here I am writing my humble blog about crafting.. the next thing I know, I am whisked along the Red Carpet for the War Horse Royal Premier. I kept pinching myself to try and wake up (though not too hard, rather nice dream to be in).
Thanks to Dreamworks and Ancestry UK, I was invited along with another 3 Mummy Bloggers to experience and see the new War Horse movie out on Friday 13th. Why me, I hear you shout?
Well, some of you may know that the Red …

Planting Creative Seeds – so what is it all about? As you know, one of the aims of writing this blog is to get people crafting again – people who think they are not crafty, people who don’t have the time to be crafty, people who don’t know where to start or people who just don’t like the crafty mess!
Everyone is creative. When it comes to crafting there is no “right or wrong”.
I have teamed up Alissa from Creative With Kids to help you get started this year and help …

Mmmmh more foodie fun heading your way RIGHT now! I have two top yummily scrummily food books for you. Actually, they are not just “food”, but food for a Happy Heart!
Cake Pops, By Bakerella
As you may or may not know, Bakerella IS the Queen of Cake Pops. Angie Dudley is the founder of Bakerella and all things Cake Pops. I have already had two guest Cake Pop writers (one for Hello Kitty Cake Pops and one for Halloween Skull Cake Pops) and there is no doubt in my mind that …