It's in Martha Stewart weddings but these doily garlands would be so gorgeous for Christmas. Next year, maybe.
Recently in Things to make and do Category
Growing up, our heights were marked in my mums italic hand on a spare piece of wall next to the alcove where the recipe books and toaster were. When we redecorated (which wasn't often), she traced all the marks and annotations onto paper, and copied them back onto the newly painted wall.
I'm itching to get our living/dining room repainted (white, with a yellow painted floor, since you ask), and think this idea in Cookie mag is a very sweet and simple treatment for keeping track of the kid's growth.
The kid is interested in colours. He's asking, often, 'Colour it?', but so far he identifies everything as yellow. I wanted to find an easy game with him to play with colours and came up with these (click the thumbnails for full-size pdf to print out yourself).
I printed out two pages each of the colour blocks and of the wallpaper background, and stuck down (blocks backing onto wallpaper) to both sides of a piece of card. I used spray adhesive because it's easy for repositioning, but I imagine you could print out directly onto the card if you had the right printer/card combination.
I cut them out to end up with two sets of 8 cards. The first game we played was pretty successful - I scattered one set of cards face up on the table, and from the other set said 'I have red! Can you find red?' etc. Allowing for the usual two-year-old chaos, it went pretty well. After a few minutes playing that, he wanted to practice picking up all the cards and laying them out again saying 'yellow... yellow... yellow...' I guess we will be able to use the cards to play Pairs (Pelmanism) when he's a little older.
For a 5 minute project, I'm already pleased with how much play these have had.
(Many thanks to Spoongraphics for the free wallpaper pattern.)
Ah, brilliant. A tutorial on turning your 'normal' trousers into the maternity kind.
I love 
I saw this project at Party Perfect, and got on the case pretty much straight away.
This was more than a weekend project: I suppose it was about one full weekend getting the photos, and another 4-ish hours doing the layout in iPhoto. And thank you, Apple UK. There were a number of options for getting the book printed but this was easiest (no special software to download) and I trusted it would be a really nice product. We got two copies. One to keep 'nice', one to read. I had intended to hold it back for his birthday, but just couldn't wait.
I'm glad I didn't.
I used to be pretty good at the piano, once upon a time. Alas, it's unlikely that I'll be reviving that skill any time in the foreseeable future (how would one even start to practice with a toddler in the house?). The legacy is a small, unremarkable, dark wood upright piano - but here's the catch, even a small piano is a large piece of furniture.
I've been wanting to paint ours ever since I saw a mint green glossy piano in a magazine spread somewhere, but it seemed like a desecration, somehow. But I think I'm coming round to the idea.
Genuis. If there is any chance that you may ever need to make a child's birthday cake, I recommend you bookmark this page now.
A couple of months ago we were at a great outdoor party (thanks again Steve!) - bouncy castle, hog roast, dancing, sleeping in tents (never again). The complete highlight for the kids was that someone had brought a giant bubble maker. They were totally captivated - as, I must say, so were most of the grown ups. Why do the big bubbles float up, up, up?? I swear these were the highest floating bubbles I have ever seen. And then I found this tutorial!
You can tell I have only one kid, because I still have hopes that I'll get through everything on my list of things I want to make for him. No matter that the list grows faster than I can tick things off. But I really think I could find the time for a wee matchbox house, or a couple of bugs, and they could be perfect little gifts for Christmas.
Hammersmith Park is one of our neighbourhood favourites. Here are the things I particularly like about it:
1: The play area is grassed, not asphalt. I am concerned that my urban kid should be able to splash in muddy (not just dusty) puddles. Here, when it rains, is mud.
2: The 'big boys' climbing frame is enough of a challenge that he gets a huge sense of achievement from it without being overwhelmed.
3: The main grassed area of the park is beautifully maintained and dog free, with smaller areas designated for dog owners. In most other parks we go to, the balance is the other way around. I LOVE to play football without having to eyeball every footstep in case of poo incidents. We have enough poo incidences of our own without dogs in the equation.
4: The Japanese garden with little hump backed bridge and two (!) waterfalls. There are low, flat rocks either side of the little streams and it's so cool to be able to get right up to the waters' edge. Also to sit there all peaceful-nature-feeling and look up and see the massive satellite dish at BBC Wood Lane. Almost like being in Central Park New York in the middle of lush green space and seeing the skyscrapers out beyond the trees at the boundary. Almost, but actually not at all like that. The kid can EASILY spend upwards of an hour throwing things in the water. Mostly pebbles, but also little clods of earth which I try to discourage because I know they will bring algae into the shallow, clear water
All of which brings me circuitously to these great little boats at Inchmark. I don't buy juiceboxes generally (yet) but I'm ready to make an exception for these. Or for sure there would be ones to be scavenged from bins in the park. Is that too completely yucky?
