Checking in…

So I wanted to see where I was up to with my challenge list just a few months in …..I’m doing better than expected to be honest.

I’ll keep checking back….

 1. Build raised beds and prep for growing some veggies 🥕 🥦 *In progress, raised beds were built up this week*

2. Successfully grow at least 2 vegetables and harvest them before the slugs get to them! These will be organic so will be healthier and earth friendly. *On Track. Lettuce and strawberries coming along nicely*

3. Have at least 2 beach days * One fab beach day under our belt*

4. Climb Snowdon. Great workout! 

5. Do at least 2 local walks/hikes

6. Walk/exercise for the NHS recommendation of 150 mins a week.

7. Cut down on fizzy drinks and up water intake. 

8. Make our own cards with the craft materials we already have. Will be a lovely creative activity for DD and I as well as saving money.

9. Make my first ever new candle from leftover beeswax wax. Great money saver especially as my favourite candle at the moment is £20! 🕯️

10. Make own skincare products using organic natural oils. Better for my skin, body as well as the planet 🌎 Money saving, too! *On Track*

11. Make a Bug Hotel for the garden. DD is very excited about this project! 🐞🕷️🐛🪱

12. Make my own cordial ideally from free picked or own grown produce.

13. Make good use of Blackberry season such as pies and maybe make own Blackberry Gin? 🍸

14. Keep up free Reflexology sessions at the local centre. *On Track*

15. Have a proper picnic in the sunshine ☀️ 

16. Track how much I spend a month on shopping - including any little top up trips to the shop!🥑🍞🥔🍎🧈🧀

17. Take advantage of free events at the local centre.🧵🪡🧶 🎨 

18. Relook at my overall budget to ensure that it’s still effective and is still working for me as it should. Tweak if necessary 💷 *Done*

19. Visit Call the Midwife tour. My absolute fave TV programme 📺 

20. Continue to make my own cleaning products. Again, better for the planet and cheaper. 🪣🧼 *On Track. Really enjoying making them too!*

21. Visit the Refill shop for as much as possible to keep single use plastic as low as possible. Healthier for the planet 🌎 ♻️

22. Lose at least a stone by the end of the year 💪🏻

23. Try to eat as seasonally as I can. Better health-wise, cheaper and better for the earth 🌏 

24. Decorate my Mum’s bedroom. *Done*

25. Book DD’s Mermaid party for her 5th birthday🧜‍♀️ 🐟

26. Create a Pinterest board for Mermaid party and pin some ideas📌 

27. Celebrate DS’s 16th birthday and have a successful weekend. 🎂🎈🎁🎉 *Done*

28. Do all I can to prepare DD for a smooth transition into reception and full time school! 👔

29. Start a new tradition of celebrating every end of half term with a special little treat of DD’s choice such as ice cream farm or Dessert Diner etc 🍨

30. Aim to do 2 sessions of gentle yoga per week 🧘‍♀️

31. Start looking at some college courses of interest 📚

I’m really enjoying doing these 😊

Challenge Anneka…!

Okay so it’s not really that much of a challenge and my name isn’t Anneka of course but still I’m calling them my list of challenges all the same. 

I’m finding that weeks come and go so very quickly. Honestly I wake up on a Monday, blink and it’s Friday! 

Weeks turn into months and the months turn into years.

For example in a few weeks we will be celebrating my son turning 16 years old!!!!! 16!? 

Surely I’m not old enough to have a strapping handsome 16 year old?! 

And my daughter starts school this year! It seems like she was only born around 2 years ish ago! 

So with that in mind, I’m going to set myself some challenges of things I want to do and hopefully manage to do before I get too old. A little dramatic? Maybe but I’m finding it so freakin’ scary how fast time is zooming by! 

So without further ado here are my challenges for the year:

1. Build raised beds and prep for growing some veggies 🥕 🥦 

2. Successfully grow at least 2 vegetables and harvest them before the slugs get to them! These will be organic so will be healthier and earth friendly.

3. Have at least 2 beach days

4. Climb Snowdon. Great workout! 

5. Do at least 2 local walks/hikes

6. Walk/exercise for the NHS recommendation of 150 mins a week.

7. Cut down on fizzy drinks and up water intake. 

8. Make our own cards with the craft materials we already have. Will be a lovely creative activity for DD and I as well as saving money.

9. Make my first ever new candle from leftover beeswax wax. Great money saver especially as my favourite candle at the moment is £20! 🕯️

10. Make own skincare products using organic natural oils. Better for my skin, body as well as the planet 🌎 Money saving, too!

11. Make a Bug Hotel for the garden. DD is very excited about this project! 🐞🕷️🐛🪱

12. Make my own cordial ideally from free picked or own grown produce.

13. Make good use of Blackberry season such as pies and maybe make own Blackberry Gin? 🍸

14. Keep up free Reflexology sessions at the local centre. 

15. Have a proper picnic in the sunshine ☀️ 

16. Track how much I spend a month on shopping - including any little top up trips to the shop!🥑🍞🥔🍎🧈🧀

17. Take advantage of free events at the local centre.🧵🪡🧶 🎨 

18. Relook at my overall budget to ensure that it’s still effective and is still working for me as it should. Tweak if necessary 💷

19. Visit Call the Midwife tour. My absolute fave TV programme 📺 

20. Continue to make my own cleaning products. Again, better for the planet and cheaper. 🪣🧼

21. Visit the Refill shop for as much as possible to keep single use plastic as low as possible. Healthier for the planet 🌎 ♻️

22. Lose at least a stone by the end of the year 💪🏻

23. Try to eat as seasonally as I can. Better health-wise, cheaper and better for the earth 🌏 

24. Decorate my Mum’s bedroom.

25. Book DD’s Mermaid party for her 5th birthday🧜‍♀️ 🐟

26. Create a Pinterest board for Mermaid party and pin some ideas📌 

27. Celebrate DS’s 16th birthday and have a successful weekend. 🎂🎈🎁🎉

28. Do all I can to prepare DD for a smooth transition into reception and full time school! 👔

29. Start a new tradition of celebrating every end of half term with a special little treat of DD’s choice such as ice cream farm or Dessert Diner etc 🍨

30. Aim to do 2 sessions of gentle yoga per week 🧘‍♀️

31. Start looking at some college courses of interest 📚

I’m giving myself until the end of the year to complete each one which I’ll tick off as I go. 

I may add the odd extra challenge as we go along if I think of something that I really want to do.

I like working with a list as I’m very much a list person 😊

Of course, I will update how I’m getting on from time to time. 

Wish me luck! 

Love A x

Christmas Crafts...

I have been busy doing more Christmas crafts over here.

Since my last post of the handmade advent calendar I have been crafting away a few more Christmassy things.

It all started when I was Christmas shopping and whilst in a large department store, I spotted a beautiful rustic style twig star. It was a star shape made from twigs. Simple but very pretty. I was pretty shocked at the £15 price tag! I thought "Whoa! £15!! I could make that for pennies". 

So I did.

Just a few days later, I found myself trudging through snow in some local woods in search of the perfect size and shape fallen branches. I had lots to choose from again thanks to the recent Storm Arwen.

I took a bundle of sticks home and dried them off using an old tatty towel.

I then got to work with tying the twigs together with string and wrapping some battery lights around them which cost around £4 from Aldi.

Without feeling too smug I have to say that I think my star looks more rustic and natural than the one in the shop.

The only cost were the lights as I already had the string.

£15! Pah! 

Still having the itch to craft, I took myself and DD off to one of our favourite (and cheap!) charity shops.

I was deeeeeelighted to find an old style Scrabble set for £3. I pounced on it and that afternoon I was gluing the letters together! 

I also put some (dodgy!) fake snow on them (cotton wool) and attached string.

I also did my children's names with these too. 

They look pretty cool on the tree with the rest of the decorations.

I dread to think what this sort of thing would cost from somewhere like Notonthehighstreet.

Again my five hanging decorations cost £3 and that was just for the Scrabble set - I still have more letters left which I'm sure I'll use for another craft in the future.

In case I don't get a chance to write another post before Christmas, I just wanted to wish you all a very Merry Christmas in whatever way you celebrate it.

Take care,

A x 

Handmade Christmas...

The Christmas that I was expecting my daughter, I set about making her an advent calendar.

I sourced the fabric from charity shops in the form of men's shirts. I knew I wanted a red tartan fabric along with a few others and luckily I managed to nab exactly the sort of thing that I was looking for.

During the last few weeks of my pregnancy, I absorbed myself into measuring, cutting and hand stitching. I really enjoyed the process of putting it together.

It took me some weeks to complete the 25 little pockets but when I did I was quite pleased with the result. Definitely not perfect but imperfectly perfect to me.

This week whilst scrolling online I came across this picture......

It's definitely an eye opener isn't it? :( 

As a family who have drastically reduced our use of single use plastic over the last few years I knew that I wouldn't be buying my children a supermarket chocolate advent calendar.

I am not preaching to anyone here but this was just something that I personally chose not to buy.

So whilst DD was in nursery, I got to work with putting my handmade version together.

Luckily, I managed to find the perfect size branches in my garden thanks to Storm Arwen!

I then rummaged in one of my craft boxes for some string and started to glue gun the string to the pockets.

I will pop treats in each pocket which will NOT include any plastic tat but will be useful and purposeful.

I hoped that my daughter would love it as much as me and I'm pleased to say she does!

This cost pennies to make and something that I can bring out year after year. Bonus is that there is no plastic involved so a success in my books :)

Pizza Making...

It's become a tradition in our house to cook up a healthy fakeaway on Fridays and Saturdays.

I've done it for years now and really look forward to cooking them.

They started after my stark realisation of just how salt and fat were added into our favourite takeaway meals. I found that I could cook them myself much healthier and save myself a wad of cash at the same time.

 It's worked really well for us and has definitely saved lots of money that I would have forked out for weekly takeaways!

We cook and eat various fakeaway dishes from Chinese, Indian, Thai, Japanese, Italian and American dishes to name a few. 

This weekend I decided to make a nutritious veggie pizza. I thought DD would like to help me make it which she certainly did. We made the dough for the base which DD was fantastic at helping with. Whilst DD was taking care of the dough, I made up the tomato sauce and left it on a low simmer on the hob.

DD had some extra fun by cutting pieces of the dough with the cookie cutters but we managed to knead and roll it back to a pizza base again.

I then popped the tomato sauce on with some mozzerella and lots of veggies! Into the oven it went.

It was really tasty and worked out just over £2 for the whole pizza.

To be honest, that's quite expensive for our meals as our fakeaways tend to work out around £1.50 or less!

Nevertheless, DD had a great sensory and baking activity doing this. I am going to try doing this with DS to see if he enjoys it, too :)

Keep safe,

Amanda xx

More Messy Sensory Play & Day Out...

It's utter madness that we are now in July and I am constantly cold! Anyone else feel like the weather is more Autumnal than Summer?!
I am living in hope that the weather warms up a bit to resemble something more like Summer!? and when/if it does than I want to be ready to hit the beach so I have ordered a little beach tent.
The day it was delivered, DD and I set to work straight away erecting it in the garden and she was very happy with it :) It blocks out harmful UV rays, provides shade and I thought it would also be useful to breastfeed in whilst we're at the beach. I cant wait to use it properly :)

Despite the chilly weather, the children and I have been keeping busy with more messy sensory play  - DS just loves this and we've been getting out in the garden as much as we can.
Recently, we played with coloured spaghetti which was really fun for me to prepare not to mention all the fun and amazing feedback DS got out of playing, swirling, dropping and squelching the pasta. I will definitely have to make this one again as it was such a hit!

DS and I also planned on doing some baking. DS just loves the feel of soft flour and he really enjoys pouring and slopping ingredients into a bowl and stirring and feeling with his fingers.
After scrupulous handwashing, we set to work with our ingredients. Unfortunately, our mixture never quite made it to the oven but that really didn't matter as DS had an absolute ball playing and feeling with the mixture. He loved tipping in things like extra icing sugar, flour and even a couple of eggs constantly changing the consistency which interested him.
The end result was a messy one but no regrets here as it was so enjoyable for him :)

Speaking of baking, DD and I had our first ever baking sessions together. We made shortbread biscuits and weirdly enough, DD kinda knew what to do. She stirred the mixture with a spoon (as well as taking it out and putting it in other nearby bowls!) - I swear that this child has been here before!

DD did an amazing job - they were delicious! :)

This week, we had our first day out since March and it was wonderful!
It was lovely to drive further than the local supermarket (which is the furthest I have been since March!)
We visited a safari park as DD loves animals and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.
After the safari drive, we went on the little funfair which DD liked and we had our first ride on a beautiful carousel :) It was such a lovely day :)

This week, I have started scribbling in a journal. I have never used a journal before but was keen to try one. I ordered a gratitude journal as I feel that would be the most beneficial to me right now. The basic concept of this is that everyday you write three things that you are grateful for that day - they can be little things or big things. After a short period of time, you will automatically start to notice gratitude moments which in turn will make you think more positively therefore making you a more positive and happier person. I think with the world being fairly scary and unpredictable right now for most people then something like making an effort to notice more moments of gratitude is no bad thing.

I'm day 6 into my gratitude journal and am loving it! I complete it everyday and can definitely see me ordering another one once this one is completed.

Hope you are all well and staying safe,

speak soon..

xx

Messy Sensory Activities and Edible Sand...

Whilst restrictions have eased a little and the weather has been glorious, we've been out in the garden a lot.
DS has enjoyed some awesome messy sensory play with gloop. We always make the gloop up together which he enjoys adding the ingredients and stirring. We tend to add food colouring to our gloop just to give it a pop of colour. When I ask DS to choose a colour, nine times out of ten he will choose red.
Our gloop is cornflour, water and food colouring so its completely edible and safe. DS has a little tendency to taste everything he works or plays with so I always try to make stuff safe and edible as much as possible.

DS has also enjoyed some sunny days out with his wonderful staff. He's become partial to enjoying some chips whilst sitting on the promenade looking out to sea. I love doing exactly the same thing so he must take after me! :)

DD has been enjoying some baby sensory play activities too.
I have recently discovered how to make edible sand! DD can be a little monkey when playing in the sand pit as she often eat the sand.
Pinterest has some fantastic ideas and recipes for safe baby sensory play ideas and I think that's where I nicked my edible sand recipe from.
I say 'recipe' but it isn't really, it's simply a box of Cheerios breakfast cereal blended into fine sand like crumbs. DD seemed very impressed and yes she did eat some of it too! :)

Water is a terrific sensory play activity for both children. DD has enjoyed lots of days in her paddling pool with cups, jugs and such and DS has a cool tray on a stand which he can access.
Water is always a massive hit with kids!

I've been trawling Pinterest just lately looking for activities that can entertain both children as I think cabin fever coupled with boredom is close to hitting them.
DS hasn't the routine of school anymore and DD is missing out on her baby classes so I've been trying to keep them stimulated and engaged as much as I can.

I have had some amazing news this week! I am now the proud owner of an hair appointment! lol
Oh yes, I have a much needed hair appointment in my usual and favourite salon and I really cannot wait! :)

I have been very busy decorating my Mum's house. I've been stripping wallpaper, painting and wallpapering and I have just completed the second room in her house - only 4 more rooms to go *groans* but it does look very lovely though.
Mum says there's no rush so I will just plod leisurely on room by room :)

Now restrictions have eased a little, I have excitedly planned a day out! I have booked and paid for tickets and will tell all once we have been - more on that next time :)

Hope you are all doing well, take care..

xx