Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum

My Aunt and Uncle are over from Australia at the moment so (prior to our trip to Bognor) we had a big family outing to Bentley Wildfowl and Motor Museum. It was 'Bring an interesting car' day (but we didn't have an interesting car, so we just went to look at them instead!). Even some kids had brought their 'interesting car' and a very kind little boy let Kit have a go.

Bognor

Kit spent Bank Holiday Monday being given lots of attention from several adults and telling me to 'go away', which was fine as I enjoyed the rest (and he always wants me back once he gets tired!). We started the day with a trip to Field Place playground, where I used to eat my lunch when I was at college!

In the afternoon we went to...

The O2 Bognor Regis (the pic is Butlins)

As I might have mentioned before, we do like to be beside the seaside.

Silent Sunday

This week I'm grateful for..

Playgrounds

We have some great playgrounds nearby. Lot of them also have amazing sandpits attached, I don't remember them being like that when I was little.

Money, money, money

This is a post for my Dad. He likes collecting and counting pennies (or 5p's). He'll be glad to know that Kit is following in his footsteps (I'm happy to say he is being creative and pretty with it too!)

He has more money than I do (because if I leave money lying around he pinches it and puts it in his money box!).

Ribbon Rosettes (tutorial of sorts)

Kit inherited a beautiful rocking horse from freecycle, it needed a few repairs but his Grandad fixed it up for him and now it gets treated to carrots and everything. He does some spectacular rocking on it, definitely deserving of a rosette!

Tomatoes

Kit and I grew lots and lots of seedlings this year. We only have a shared garden at our flat, and we can't plant in the ground, and there isn't a water source down there (we live on the first floor). Consequently, the seedlings that we planted out in grow bags have not down very well.

Living Local: Bromley Pt2

So on the Sunday we were intending to travel across London for the Mad Hatter's Tea Party that was being put on by the Discover Children's Story Centre, which I'm sure would have been awesome. I saw a poster in Starbucks in Bromley for another family fun day though and thought, why not stay local.

Living Local: Bromley Pt1

We spent a rare weekend in our locality this week. I normally drag Kit across London at the weekends, or down to the South Coast to see Nanny and Grandad. We tend to spend the week in the local area, but I want to make the most of living close to the excitement of London and make the most of the mass of free events that London provides.

Mainly due to laziness, and the dread of the idea of having to carry Kit in the buggy up and down anymore stairs I persuaded my friend Maz to leave the bright lights of London Bridge and embark on a journey into the most local of my locality.

Bedtime Stories: Can't You Sleep Little Bear

The last of our bedtime stories series is this week and we are finishing with 'Can't You Sleep Little Bear' by Martin Waddell.

We have two copies of it. Can I find one? Nope! (We have a lot of books and Kit likes to 'read' them himself so they don't get put back where they should be!) So no picture this week, you'll have to head for the library or your local (independent) bookshop (there is a lovely one in Beckenham for any locals!) and look for it to see the pictures!

Quick toddler dinners.

When I first started weaning Kit, I was intending to be militant about his diet. I have to say I've slipped quite a lot. I'm not a big fan of cooking, but I do want to try to keep giving Kit healthy homemade food as much as I can. I do resort to buying food out some of the time - we go for scrambled egg brunches a bit too often probably, and I must have the only 2-year old that will eat rocket because Kit often gets Cafe Nero's pasta with tomato and rocket (minus the pesto dressing, because he likes it without!). I thought there must be other lazy cooks out there who also want to cook for their kids, but don't want to spend hours in the kitchen, so here are our favourite quick and easy meals.

Silent Sunday

This week I'm grateful for..

SUNSHINE

And the sunshine of my life...

Easy knitted flowers

I'm trying to create enough bits and bobs to do a craft fair at Christmas with my friend Jess (she is doing much better than me!). I've started knitted a big batch of knitted flowers which I intend to jazz up a bit further later. I'll also be knitting some smaller ones to use as embellishments for other things.

They are really easy to make so I thought I would share the outline of the pattern with you....

Brixton

I wanted to get a picture of the post-riot Footlocker in Brixton, but was running late for the train so all I got was this as I tried to run for my train...

I thought it wouldn't matter, I'd get one on my way to work on Wednesday (yesterday).

BUT... when I got to Brixton I saw this...

Nanny and Grandad's House

 This isn't Nanny and Grandads house!

Bead Brooches

Before I start, I'd like to say I'm not very good at beading (yet - I'm being optimistic!). I'm just trying to figure it out, and I'm not being 100% successful in what I do. If anyone out there is good at beading who wants to give me some tips then please feel free. I'm going to keep practicing though, and when I start making more of these I think my main plan is to plan the image as a pixelated picture before I try to put the beads together.

Hove Lagoon

We met up with our lovely friend Carly at the weekend for a brunch of pancakes and eggs at Woodies Diner! Then we headed to the seaside.

Oh I do like to be beside the seaside..

Oh I do like to be beside the sea

Bedtime Stories: Tyrannosaurus Drip

 Tyrannosaurus Drip

Silent Sunday

I'm grateful for...CAKE

yum yum yum...

I'm also grateful that my bananas were getting over-ripe so I had to make a banana loaf last night!

Elmo: A boy's best friend!

Elmo is the love of Kit's life at the moment. Apparently he wanted to go to the park.

Riot Clean Up

I didn't want to post about the UK Riots. Even though I live on the outskirts of London, and I walk through Brixton to get to work. I don't understand the mindless destruction so I didn't feel I had anything to say. I don't know why those people did what they did. I do know that they weren't just kids that were bored and had nothing to do, and they weren't all victims of their upbringing. For the most part they made the choice to do what they did, they weren't all poor people that needed to steal in order to feed themselves or a family.

Anyway, I don't want to talk about that. I want to post about the wonderfully amazing people that didn't riot, and the community spirit that followed the destruction. It makes me sad that I couldn't join in with fantastic cleanup effort (I think my 2-year old would probably have created more mess than we'd have managed to tidy!). I was lucky in my area that the damage was limited to a few selected shops, but I used to work at a shop in Clapham Junction and I have friends there and in Ealing who cannot believe the damage that has been done. There is wonderful work ongoing to help rebuild the shops and homes that were destroyed by the actions of the individuals who felt they had the right to smash and burn. Additionally there are community events being organised in the affected areas. I'd love to see the news focusing on looking at how great the communities are in coming together to help each other rather than argueing over excusing and shunting blame as to why the riots happened in the first place.

If you are interested, check this out http://www.riotcleanup.co.uk/

If you are on twitter and want to help out try following @riotcleanup @riot_rebuild @artistsmakers @katenash @RebuildReeves or search the #riotcleanup

Please comment if you have any other links and I'll add them in. :)

String Coaster

I've recently accumulated a bunch of craft books from various charity shops. They are books from the 70s and 80s books and offer instructions on how to do, and projects with, various different crafts. They are now my bibles, if I want to know how to do something, they can tell me how!

One of the projects in the book was sisal braiding, it was being used to make a rug (which is actually amazing - a to do for when I have a bigger home!)* I thought one of the circles would make a great coaster so I decided I'd have a go. I don't have any sisal, but I did have some string, so here is my string coaster.

Apple Cart Festival

We're on a bit of a winning streak at the moment (my luck has obviously changed as I never win things normally). I won tickets via Dalston People for Apple Cart festival. I used to live near to Victoria Park and it's a great place for an event (and they have plenty of events on there).

Origami

I still have a very large pile of envelopes to use, and so I started another craft idea to re-use them. Origami paper is generally quite pricey, so I made my own!

A year or so ago Kit's big sister (who was 11/12 at the time) did lots of origami with Kit's (and her) Dad. They got the patterns from Activity Village, so well worth considering as an activity if you are stuck for something to do with the kids over the holidays.

Lollibop

We were really, really lucky and won tickets to Lollibop Festival via Mummys Little Monkey. Thank you Jackie, lots and lots and lots.

Bedtime Stories: The Lorax

We love Dr Seuss in this house. From early on Kit has enjoyed the rhymes (much to his Nanny's despair as he kept bringing her the most difficult books to read!) The Lorax is such a great book we have two copies of it!! One is an abridged version in a board book and the other is the full version as part of a Dr Seuss story book. Either version is great, it just depends how lazy I am feeling!

Silent Sunday

This week I'm grateful for...

...friends.

I have some really, really amazing friends. They have to be to put up with me!

I moved into a flat-share with some friends before I had Kit, within 3 months of living with them I was pregnant. The plans of a party flat were somewhat pushed aside as I got fatter and fatter. My friends were so supportive though, and (although they probably don't realise) I couldn't have got through my pregnancy without them. Once I had Kit it was the visits that I had from them and other friends which kept me sane. None of my friends pre-Kit have children, but they still want to spend time with me and my child. I don't tell them how grateful I am for them, I should.

Upcycled foam bed

I'm cheating with this post, because I did this ages ago and featured it on my first blog, which I believe is still to gain a single pageview! I had no idea how to get people to look at it so I gave up after two posts. I thought I'd share this on here now, so maybe someone will actually see it!

When I first moved into my flat I had no seating in the living room. Actually, that's a bit of a lie, I had a bean bag, one of the inflatable ladybird cushion things from ikea, and a second-hand footstall which I picked up from Emmaus in Brighton (along with a few other small bits of furniture, and some wool I think!).

PomPom Bunting

Hi. My name is Beky and I am an addict.

I just can't help myself. I'm addicted to wool.

I can't leave cheap wool in charity shops. If I see it I have to buy it. As a consquence my room is gradually being lost to a growing pile of fluffy, soft, colourful string.

Obviously I am gradually using the wool, but I buy more than I use up! To try to increase my usage I treated myself to a pompom maker (you can make pompoms without them, but it is so much easier with if you want to make lots). I've gathered a little pile of pompoms...

Listography : Kid's Films

1. The Muppet Christmas Carol

I realise that this is the least seasonally appropriate film to choose, especially given the current tropical weather. BUT, this is probably my most favouritist, bestist film ever. I could watch it year around, it just makes you feel all warm and happy inside. Kit will like it, whether he wants to or not!

2. Elmo in Grouchland

We only bought this the other day, but it's the biggest ever hit with Kit. He laughed, he cried, and he shouted 'Elmo', 'Elmo', 'Elmo', constantly. He also went to fetch his blanket to give to Elmo (you'll have to watch it to understand!). I've never known someone to be so emotionally involved with a film as Kit was with this (and all while also doing jigsaws!).

3. Kiki's Delivery Service

I apologise for the pic but it's the best I could find to illustrate Kit's love of this film. I swear he just wants to watch it so that he can get me to lift him up to fly!

4. My Neighbour Totoro

Another Studio Ghibli films, I love them (as I've mentioned on here before). I love the fact that there are more to the stories than just a story, they teach (I don't want to say morals) a better way to live. I think so many kids films are just about entertaining, I want to show Kit films where the characters show him how to become the lovely person I know he will. The characters in this film are adorable.

5. Alice in Wonderland - probably the Disney version, but who can really resist Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter, maybe Disney is over-rated!

Check out the other listography posts over at Kate Takes 5

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Hackney

I'd arranged to go to Columbia Road flower market this weekend with my friend Maz. Having previously dipped into Columbia Road for their late night openings the Christmas I was pregnant, I hadn't made it back to go to the flower market so wanted to check it out. It was amazing, but very busy and hot! We went for yummy cakes at Lily Vanilli, and pottered in the shops wishing we had homes of our own to buy stuff for!

Conveniently, at the end of Columbia Road is Hackney City Farm. So to make up for being confined in a buggy and dragged shopping Kit got the chance to make friends with some more piggy's.

Loo Roll Piggy

A while back I found a book in a charity shop...

A Stroll Along London's Southbank

We went on a mammoth walk with my parents at the weekend. I love the way that if you just walk in London you realise how close together everything really is, and it's much nicer than squishing into a stinky tube. You also save money, get exercise and find things you never would have known were there. On the subject of saving money, everywhere we went was free (in fact mostly everywhere we go is free - I'm a cheapskate!). We walked from Victoria Station to London Bridge Station essentially. On our way we did lots and lots of fun things.

We went to the Vintage Marketplace at Southbank. Nanny treated Kit to a go on the vintage car ride.

Play Day

I have to work, but for those of you lucky enough to be spending the day with your little ones, tomorrow (3rd August) is the national day for play. It's organised to try to protect the child right to play.

Various events will be running across the country. Check it out!

http://www.playday.org.uk/

Bedtime Stories: The Midnight Ride of Thomas the Tank Engine

This weeks Thomas the Tank Engine story just happened to coincide with an extremely generous gesture from Kit's half-brother. Kit's dad has two kids from a previous marriage, and we always try to pop over to see them whenever he has them for the weekend, they are lovely kids and it's nice to spend time with them. This weekend when we went over his son (who is now 9) generously (without having been asked) gave Kit a set of 30 Thomas the Tank Engine stories which he had from when he was younger. I'd imagine that we'll be having lots more Thomas-related bedtime stories from now on. Thank you big bro!