JP and soldiers

Bits and bob's

Lovely Lemonade

The juice of 3 lemons
Approx 7floz sugar syrup
approx 500ml still or fizzy water
Make the sugar syrup by boiling 5floz of water with 5floz of caster sugar together for 2 minutes.
Squeeze the juice from 3 lemons and place in a large jug, add the sugar syrup when cooled and top up with lots of ice and the water - add more or less of the water to taste, personally I do not like it too sweet so add plenty of fizzy water. It makes a lovely treat on a warm day and my brood love it.

First week ending

Well, a busy week, plenty of baking and making going on...we decided to have a recycling session and made treasure boxes from old egg cartons - decorating them with paint, gems and glitter glue. The perfect size for storing marbles, precious stones and jewellery etc..
I have tried out a new courgette cake recipe, it turned out really well, moist and sweet, a good way of boosting childrens vegetable intake without them really noticing.
A trip to the local Gallery was enjoyed by all, especially the purchase of the biggest marble and some post cards for Fairy-pants Postcrossing project.
The young ones have also signed up for the Reading Challenge at the local library - involves reading 6 books over the summer holidays, there are prizes and a celebration party at the end of the hols. It has become a family tradition over the last few years and the children really enjoy it.
Eldest child has acquired a new iphone and has been glued to it for the last 24 hours, no doubt it wil be a permenant fixture in her left hand for some time to come...it has been lovely to see her joining in with some of the craft and games that her younger siblings have been doing in the last few days..

Recycling crafty

A touch of recycling this morning as we made robots and fairy-robots from bits and bobs around the house - a good way to use up old containers that cannot be recycled by the local council...
As usual school holidays mean den building in our house, here we have our first den of the season...no doubt the first of many, a perfect hideout for plotting and picnics...

First day of Summer Hols

The first day, Fairy-pants and JP made scrap books to keep a record of all their summer exploits...they spent quite a while decorating them...they can write little reports on places they visit, stick in photo's, draw pictures etc...

Lavender Biscuit recipe

I'm sure I have mentioned several times how much I love lavender biscuits at the moment...we have tried several recipes at home but this is my favourite one:
Makes 12 biscuits
5oz butter
3 1/2oz caster sugar
8oz plain flour
1 egg yolk
1 tbsp fresh lavender leaves, chopped
1 tsp lavender flowers removed from stem
Oven 160 C
Grease two baking trays or cover with baking parchment.
Cream butter and sugar together, add flour, egg yolk, lavender leaves...mix well.
Bring into a ball, knead a little until smooth. Roll into a cylinder about 8cm in diameter, cut into 12 sections and press flowers into the top.
Bake 15-20 mins until they feel firm but not yet brown.
Cool for 5 mins then place on wire rack to cool completely.

Gorgeous home produce!

Delicious chocolate bread (gorgeous toasted as it is bread rather than a cake..), happy tomatoes and beautiful garlic from the allotment!

somewhat simple: the "Mom, I'm Bored" jar

somewhat simple: the "Mom, I'm Bored" jar: "By about the second week of summer, moms all over the world have one thing in common- we are all sick and tired of the age-old phrase, 'Mom,..."
I love this idea and have made my own version for the Summer Holidays that start on Friday this week !
Here is the jar I made for my family to enjoy this summer, I adapted the Boredom Buster ideas to suit my children and added a few of my own, I also decided to go for an 'Ideas Jar' as I am not too keen on the word 'bored'!

Furry Felt Bears

A few of the cute bears I have recently completed to take to Fairs, this little family are going off to live with a lovely human family in York, I know they will be v happy!

Sports Day

The coolest, windiest day we've had for about a month and it had to be sports day, not an overly exciting afternoon - we have 'non competitive' sports days now (whatever that means...)and this year was particularly uninventive but my 8 year old seemed to be bouncing around the pitch a lot so I guess he was enjoying himself...the best bit of the afternoon was Dolores' gorgeous cream scones that she was selling to raise money for School Funds ...I brought some home for after tea, much to J's annoyance - he'd have been happy to scoff the lot on the way home from school...and now at 7:45pm the sun has come out and it is a beautiful evening...typical !

Crafty-ness

Martha and I made some really cute containers using a cup as a mould and yarn covered in PVA
I made the patchwork bag for the most recent Craft Fair, very pretty.

Playdough fun

We can not resist playing with the lovely squishy stuff, everytime I make a batch for a Fair we all sit together at the table playing with the left over dough like a class of nursey kids, it's great...you are never too old, it is also very good stress therapy!

Pretty Garden

Catching up

Hi, the weeks are flying by so quickly, only two weeks of school left for the kiddlies...last Sunday's Craft Fair went really well, a lovely sunny day too!
Have finally had time to finish the baby blanket I was working on, that was posted off this morning, Martha has been pestering for me to get on with her cardigan again, which I really must do - as well as Joe's blanket and have just ordered fabric for a new skirt for number one daughter....
Anyhow, here are some photo's of all the bits and bobs we've been up to lately!