Fab Mums

I like the new collection of children’s accessory by Danish design company Ferm Living due to be released in April.
The lovely guitar cushion with the rush hour print is a cute addition to any little boy’s room. Made of 100% organic cotton and filled with polyester, this soft cushion is part of the rush hour collection with the matching junior bedding set and wall stickers. The bedding set includes a duvet cover with a zip for easy closing and comes with a matching bag, which makes a good sac for toys or the perfect place to put the laundry. Continue Reading »

Tags: bedroom furnishings, children bedding sets, cushions

The bookshelves in my son’s room have had such tired overflowing look for a while that I could no longer ignore their plea to be freed of some of those books that are far too young for my so grown up boy.  In the attempt of making space for new books I have started piling up those old favourites that kept us company during the toddler and preschool years in the hope of passing them on to another child who would give them the loving care they deserve. As you do at times like this, I went down memory lane and I found I still know by heart the rhymes of the Mr Men little books and other catching stories like Each Peach Pear Plum. You may laugh, but you never know when such knowledge might come in handy in days to come.

Jokes apart, there were some great early year books on our shelves. This is what I found. Continue Reading »

Tags: books

Yesterday we made our first Easter card. I got the inspiration from allaboutyou, which is a great source for simple kids’ crafts.

All you need to make the card is blue card or thick paper, green paper, an old paper bag, cotton wool, glue, colouring pens or paints and brushes.

I like the kind of craft where you just use what you have in the house and we were very frugal about it as we used only left over paper to make it. Continue Reading »

Tags: Crafts, recycled crafts, recycling

We are puzzles crazy in our house  so when I saw the Match & Munch by Lunch Punch I was really keen only to find it is not available in the UK at this time.  In case you were wondering, the Match & Munch is a set of 4 puzzle shape sandwich cutters designed to capture the most amount of bread while eliminating crust. However I must say I am not for the eliminating the crust part, but I believe the fun shapes that are made with the punch would encourage eating the crust rather than wasting it.  The punch is kid friendly and doesn’t contain any Lead, BPA or Phthalate. On top of that it is dishwasher free and the cutter and all packaging is 100% recyclable.

Tags: lunch boxes, meals, sandwich cutter

Finally a paper cup that you can recognise! When I first saw these fabulous ABC cups on Bloesem Kids I thought wow what a fun way to spell words and then I actually saw the practical side to them. They are great for parties, not only their individual design is fun but you can actually use them to spell words and you will be safe in the knowledge that you are not drinking from someone else’s cup. Yuk! Continue Reading »

Tags: ABC cups, paper cups, Parties

I know mother’s day comes once a year, but is it really enough to justify the price rise of flowers during the week leading to it and take advantage of children’s love for their mothers? Prices really vary according to where you shop, last year we were in London for mothering Sunday and while I admired the beautiful flower arrangements at the Liberty’s flower store I was equally appalled by the prices of those bouquets of fresh flowers that had obviously been arranged in true artistic style.  I grant that they were beautiful fresh flowers at the top end of the market, but with a short life nonetheless. I much prefer a changed approach of giving (or receiving) flowers by offering a beautiful planted flower arrangement instead?  I love this personalised flower box, planted with spring flowers and bulbs by Not on the High Street’s retailer Palntabox.  Available in rustic pine or aged antique oak, the box is lined and can be purchased with a flower arrangement already in place or empty with bulbs to be planted. It comes with a standard writing on the front MUM’S GARDEN, GROWN WITH LOVE, which is fully open to personalisation to enter your own message.  From the same retailer, the herb garden in the same style is also a cute Mother’s Day gift.

Tags: Gifts, mothering sunday gifts, planted flower arrangements

With so many different types of pens, brushes, paints and a variety of art materials, we really felt the need to make our own art box to keep those precious things all in one place.  So we decorated a cardboard box (the basic type you find in any convenience store) to contain all the materials we always have in the house for our weekly crafts.

To decorate our box we used masking tape to line the diamond shapes and painted inside alternating two acrylic colours. To decorate the top cover, we used bright yellow paint, and then we painted a paint pallet, a few brushes, some pencils and different size circles to make it nice and colourful. To preserve the cardboard from any spillages we lined the inside of the box with transparent adhesive liner, which is easily wiped clean.

What do we keep in our art box?

Non toxic acrylic paints, watercolour paint, water based decoupage varnish, masking tape, sticky tape, vinyl glue, felt cuttings, scissors, fabric glue, fabric pens, metal finish pens, paper, card, wooden pegs, glitter glue, brushes, pastels. 

Tags: art material, cardboard storage boxes, Crafts, non toxic paint