Anyone who knows me knows that planning parties is totally my ‘thing’, it’s just something I love doing. This weekend we celebrated Florence turning two with a fun filled farm themed birthday garden party. This year I also put a lot of emphasis on the […]
We woke up early on Friday morning and waved Sean off to work. It was grey and miserable outside and despite having had more sleep the night before than I’d had in weeks I was in a terrible terrible mood. You know one of those […]
There’s no doubt about it, life changes a whole lot the second you become a mother. Your days are suddenly split into four hourly chunks of changing dirty nappies, feeding the baby and tiptoeing around the house in the hope that they’ll nap for just […]
We are big play dough fans here. It’s my go to activity for when I need the children to play independently while I get something done and it’s something I know that both of them love to play with. This weekend I made a big […]
With tighter restrictions on who can leave the house and when, the children and I have been making the most of the resources we have at home and truthfully I’ve fallen back in love with organised play. When Florence was a young toddler, we used […]
Hello! It’s been a while since I actually sat down properly and wrote anything at all and while I’d love to say it’s because we’ve been off adventuring or planning something huge, the truth is we’ve been right here just getting on with the every day. I have always struggled a bit through the beginning of each year — dark and dreary days have a real impact on my brain and since having children January & February seem to be an endless battle against colds & bugs but with any luck this final bout of laryngitis is on its way out the door we’ll all be feeling a lot more like our normal selves. I mean, unless we all get coronavirus and then frankly I think I might just retreat under my duvet for the rest of the YEAR.
I have really been questioning how to go forward with my blog and social media and have taken a bit of a step back while I figured out what I want to do with it all. I started writing here and sharing our lives as I loved the idea of recording all of our special memories and having something that my children could look back on it in years to come. Having worked with bloggers to promote my own business back in the day too, I knew the value I could bring to some of my favourite brands through spreading the word and shouting out about their products too. Over the years monetising these little personal spaces on the internet has become so much more of a thing and for a little while there I got a bit sucked into the ‘Blogging for a Living’ bubble. Now though, I’m pretty sure I want to find the fun in blogging again and not worry so much about whether it’s making me any money! I’ve so much I want to write about and document on here, not to mention some pretty awesome collaborations to share but I’ve decided to go back to my roots and blog for me and mine. Plus, Pinnable parties has really started to take off and I feel like I’ve found my calling a bit. I know…pass the bucket.
Anyway, I’m hoping to have a bit more of a structure to my blog with regular features including a weekly kids fashion post showcasing our favourite independent and high street brands, the return of our weekend blogs, monthly letters to my children, posts about our days out, plus cake hacks, some kids play ideas and perhaps more apt in the weeks to come a little diary of our days at home should we all have to go into isolation.
Stay safe lovelies
A x
*This post contains affiliate links. So after the response I had last month when I shared my transformation of this Tesco Unicorn birthday cake into a DIY Dinosaur cake I decided to try and share a different cake back each month throughout 2020. With William […]
And just like that my squishy little sunshine boy has turned one! Little boy, I feel like you have taught me so much over this last year. You are genuinely the funniest, cheekiest little person I have ever met. You light up a room and steal […]
*This Strawberry & Raspberry Play Dough Recipe contains affiliate links.
With the winter weather meaning we have a few more home days just recently I’ve been reaching for some easy indoor activities to keep the littles occupied. Our tub of homemade play dough has been out more times than I can count over the last month or so as with so many ways to play it’s a sure fire way to entertain Florence and lately even William is getting in on the play dough action.
As Valentines Day is coming up I’ve been planning a few Valentines theme play ideas and in preparation I’ve made this super sweet scented play dough. I’ve used a slightly different recipe this time to make sure the smell of the strawberry and raspberry really come through. 
Ingredients
1 11g sachet of strawberry jelly crystals
1 cup plain flour
1/2 cup salt
2tsp Cream of Tartare
1 tbsp oil (cooking or baby oil)
Red food colouring
Method
Combine the flour, salt and cream of tartare in a saucepan.
Make up the strawberry jelly according to the instructions on the packet.
Pour in the jelly mixture along with the tbsp of oil and food colouring. We used red Dr Oetker food colouring* for this batch but it turned out more of a pinky red than what I was originally going for.
Add to a high heat and continue to stir until the mixture until it sticks together in a ball. This could take between 2-4 minutes depending on your hob.
When you remove the dough from the pan it might not feel as firm but once cooled it will feel more like your usual dough.
For the raspberry scented play dough, I followed exactly the same method and instead used a raspberry jelly sachet and some hot pink food colouring. I used ProGel food colouring* this time – it gives off a much more vivid colour.
You might find that this play dough is a bit stickier than your normal jelly free batch but once handled a bit more it seems to lose its stickiness. I really love the way the scents fill the room when this play dough is played with.
This scented play dough should be stored in an airtight container or zip lock bag in the fridge to keep it fresh and prevent it from going hard.
I’ll be sharing some fun ways to play in the coming weeks.
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One of the things I really want to do here on the blog this year is showcase some of our favourite family friendly days out and attractions in our local area. I’ve previously shared our day at Kent Life Hops ‘n’ Harvest Festival and our […]
I don’t usually post this sort of thing but it was something I googled quite a lot in the lead up to Florence’s first nasal Flu Vaccine and frankly I was none the wiser by the time the appointment came around. Florence is quite wary […]
