DIY Art

I was looking for a picture a while back for our bathroom and couldn't find anything in the colours I wanted that I liked so I decided to create something of my own.

Being a bit of a collector of hearts, it funnily enough turned out to be a picture with hearts in different shades of beige, pink and greys and worked nicely with the colour scheme.

More recently I was looking for something for the lounge and remembered creating the hearts before so I looked them up on the lap top and just played around with the colours and this is the result.  It's not anything wow, but it's simple and the colours are cheery and I like it.  

And it was free which is always a bonus!




I created it using Smart Notebook software which is really easy to use and (I think) free to download. 

Spider Playground

It's that time of year when you are cosied up in the evening with a cuppa watching something interesting and suddenly out of the corner of your eye you see a HUGE spider scuttling across the floor.

They all manage to somehow sneak inside at this time of year and even when you put them out, they find their way back in pretty quickly.



We've been spotting spider's webs all over the place recently - in the garden and playpark that is...hopefully not toooooo many inside!  

And did you know if you touch the web really gently with a little leaf the spider will come rushing out to see what he has caught?  
A bit mean to trick the spider but very interesting for little ones!

Anyway, we made our own little spider playground recently with fallen leaves, pebbles, sticks and plant pots and we've hidden our pretend spiders in amongst it all, I wonder if the real spiders will come to play too?

Spooky Water

Ok, so I know it's a bit early for Halloween but my little one has recently developed a real fascination with water and is constantly pulling over a step or little chair to play at the sink.

This isn't always ideal so instead of playing at the sink (and flooding the kitchen) I put some water in a shallow tray and tipped in some spooky creatures and confetti that I usually save for Halloween time.

You can see different sized spiders, mice and other creepy crawlies and I also put in a couple of plastic shot glasses for pouring and filling.

This experience is great for imaginative play as well as developing pouring skills and let's face it, playing in water is just great fun!

Colour and number play mat

Using buttons to sort and match colours

My little one is just beginning to talk about colours and knows some colour names, although is not yet applying them appropriately, instead he usually calls everything green!


However, he is very good at colour matching so I've made this play mat so he can collect and sort coloured objects and in time he will be able to name them correctly too.

He loves playing with buttons as most little ones do and this selection of different shapes, colours, tones and sizes is perfect for lots of sorting activities.

You could also try a random selection of bits from around the house and put them together in a little basket, like this.....

Provide a selection of colourful objects

Sort the objects onto the appropriate coloured square

So that's one side of the mat but what about the reverse side?  

It seemed a shame to have just a plain backing on it so I thought some numbers might be nice to provide counting opportunities.

I cut and stitched numbers 1-5, each in their own box so we can count out objects.  

In the photographs you will see we used discs for counting but you could easily use buttons, cars, shells, pom poms etc, whatever you like!

We used discs for counting but you could
use shells, buttons, pom poms,
 cars....anything!

To make the mat I cut and stitched colourful scraps cut into squares to make a mat roughly A3 size and then cut a large plain piece for the back.

Onto the plain piece I stitched some ric rac ribbon to divide the mat into 5 sections and then appliqued some bright numbers.




To complete the mat, stitch right sides together, turn through and slip stitch the opening closed.

Dolls House Makeover

It's finished at last!  Well, it's as finished as it's going to be.  
This dolls house has been taking up too much room in my house for the last few months and as school starts back next week, this is where is will be heading, so I HAD to get it finished.

I'm fairly pleased with it and have to admit it does look much more modern, clean and inviting but having spent literally no money on the makeover, it is somewhat lacking in detail such as accessories, lighting etc for the rooms.  However, it does have the basic furniture - I guess you could call it minimalist!

If you want to see the house in detail before I started click here 

I'm sure you will agree, it was quite depressing.

Bedroom with paper bunting

As I explained in that post I pulled out the broken windows, scraped up the carpets, ripped off the wallpaper and coated everything in white paint.  

Second bedroom with printed rug and wall art

Then I printed some pretty paper and glued it to the walls (this was the only cost involved).

Simple kitchen with large printed clock

I painted the furniture and made colourful covers from scraps and then finished the rooms with some paper rugs and art which were also glued down.  

Most of these I printed from the Ikea website!

Colourful lounge is so much brighter!

I'm glad it's done.  I wondered about curtains, window boxes and so on but I've spent enough time on it for now - it needs to go back!

I painted the front a beige/cream colour
with white trim and grey roof

Have to admit though, I saw a dolls house on Gumtree a while back complete with loads of furniture and had to have it....

....it's currently in the loft waiting for a makeover for my little one, possibly for this Christmas or next?  

We will see. 

Left side of the house

 

Right side of the house

Rosemary and Lavender Scented Playdough

I cut back the rosemary bush in my garden yesterday and have an absolute stack of it!  I'm planning to dry it and then store it or maybe even freeze some but there's just soooooo much of it.

So this morning - a grey day - we decided to make playdough au natural and add some fragrant rosemary to it.  












We ended up with rosemary trees and some pebbles around the playdough and then also added some lavender from the garden.  It smells delicious! 



Then we added some animals and little one had a great time moving the animals about, pummeling, rolling and squishing the playdough and rearranging the trees and pebbles.

He was absorbed in this for a whole hour!  
What a hit!

If you want to make playdough you can do so in a couple of minutes.....

1 cup flour
1/2 a cup salt
1 teaspoon cream of tartar
1 tablespoon oil
1 cup boiling water

Mix it all up and add whatever you like - colour, glitter, scent etc

Change Bag Pouch

This is the second changing pouch I have made and only really made this one as I left the other one behind at my sister's house last week and didn't realise how much I would miss it!







It holds all our changing bits and pieces and other essentials in one place, making them super easy to find instead of rummaging around the many pockets in the change bag.

This time though, I put an extra little pouch pocket inside the bag to hold tubes of cream, plasters, and sachets of paracetamol - after somebody asked me if I had any paracetamol and I just about tipped out the contents of my bag to find it!

It seals up nice and easily with a simple strip of Velcro.

The initial idea came from Simple Sewing for Baby by Lotta Jansdotter, although I have put my own touch to it by fully lining the bag and added a little pocket inside.  

This is a fabulous book and I would totally recommend it.  I've made many of the ideas or at least adapted them for my own use and they are super simple!

Best of all, little one is loving the camper van print.