Mosaic sticking

I bought some craft packs from The Pound Shop. They are awesome, mainly you get a bunch of offcuts of paper and random leftover pieces but you also get some of the non-offcut parts of the paper (if that makes sense). In one of the packs we got a bunch of cat shaped cards, some flower shapes, some sheets of handmade-looking paper and some squares of plain paper. The other also had some squares of paper, and had some card offcuts of various shapes, with some of the shapes not having been taken out (I have plans for these sheets I'll show once we've done it), a few envelopes, some felt deer, an embossed sheet of Christmas images and the leftovers of a sheet of sparkly foam letters, with some letters still attached. You also get a bag of beads and a piece of ribbon with them. Definitely worth the £1 and also I'm guessing, very eco-friendly, as they are essentially made of the cutting room floor waste.

As Kit is getting more mischevious everyday I struggle to keep him from destroying our flat getting bored, while I am trying to get ready or cooking the dinner, or anything really that doesn't involve me paying 100% of my attension to him. Sometimes he is great and plays on his own happily, but that is never when I actually need him too. I've been trying to think of easy things that he can do himself that are novel enough for him to engage with them, but that are safe for him to do unattended (safe for the flat as well as the child!). He likes sticking, but just randomly sticking stickers on paper can be a bit boring so I thought I'd make it a bit more focused and constructive.

I basically cut up the offcut leftovers of sparkly foam from the alphabet stickers and left them out with a colouring page and suggested he colour the picture with the stickers. I put it out ready and it kept him entertained for the 15 mins that I needed to get ready this morning. I'd also, unintentionally, left a cup by the set-up which he then spent another 5-mins tipping the leftover stickers from the plate to the cup and back. Now I just have to think of something for every other morning.

Pipecleaner threading

I've discovered the ultimate in toddler activities. Clean, easily portable, and developing motor skills.

I pinched the idea off of Jennifer's Little World for threading beads onto pipecleaners. From now on I shall always carry beads and pipecleaners as this turned out to be perfect entertaining Kit firstly on our train journey to Bethnal Green, and then whilst we were queueing to get into the Bust Craftacular. Kit has been to this event every year since he was born, it is quite the tradition! We originally went because my friend had a friend who had a stall (and who we now seem to stalk at all the craft fairs we attend!), but it is definitely my favourite of the London craft fairs.

We aren't doing very well with preparing for Christmas anymore, but I think we might do some pipe cleaner threading and bend them into shapes to hang on the Christmas tree. I will post pictures of our tree once we have it finished, but it won't be on the 1st as originally planned.

Really Easy Scary Spiders

Halloween may have been and gone, but in this house we are still crafting spiders! As you might have seen on my Happy Halloween post, we'd been making Halloween spider cards. I thought that as Halloween had been and gone I could move Kit on to making other buglike things with pompoms and googly eyes so we made these flower things.

When I popped in the pound shop today and saw a pack of pipecleaners I thought they would come in useful in some crafting with Kit. When he saw the pack of pipecleaners all he wanted to do with them was to make spiders! So we made more spiders.

Apparently spider craft is going to be a year-round theme in our flat. Spiders are for life, not just for Halloween.

Why I may grow to love Ikea!

I was in desperate need of a new shower curtain and bath mat, my bathroom breeds black mould and the shower curtain was already off-colour when we moved in a year ago. I knew Ikea could provide me with the cheap bathroom accessories I needed to make my bathroom look clean and nice. We don't live that far from Croydon, and I've driven to Ikea before, but I hate driving. I only needed a shower curtain and a bath mat so I thought we'd try out the public transport route. We caught the bus to Beckenham Junction (the first or last stop on the tram line) and then we boarded our first tram. Kit really enjoyed riding on 'the train on the road'. The trip took a lot less time - or felt like a lot less time than I expected, and we didn't get lost once (which I would have done if I'd driven). Plus it didn't cost a fortune, in fact it was probably less than the petrol cost would have been.

We arrived at Ikea at lunchtime, and I had pre-planned that we would have lunch in the cafe/restaurant first. As a vegetarian, and since Kit doesn't eat red meat, meatballs were not on our menu. I am hugely impressed by the offerings that they do have for children though, Kit had fish, chips and peas, and I had their organic pasta and tomato sauce (which you could also get in a kids size but I thought I'd give Kit a treat although I ate most of his chips, I think he thought that peas were the treat!). Kit got a free banana with his meal, and I could have got a free organic baby food pouch with my meal, all for £3.98. I'm a fan of anywhere I can get a decent healthy meal for 2 for less than a fiver! Also did you know that you can get free tea or coffee in the week with an Ikea family card.

Now Kit is only 2 years old at the moment, but when he gets to 3 Ikea will open up a whole new dimension of admiration for me Smaland. Smaland is a creche for children 3+ to play in (which is essentially a soft play area) while their parents shop. Did I mention that it is free? Now I'm not a fan of soft play - I'm more of an outdoor play kinda girl, but if the weather isn't playing fair, I'm thinking that Kit would love the chance to run around, climb, and jump in a ball pit.

So here is my plan. Once Kit hits the big 3 I can go on an exciting tram adventure with him to Ikea, where we can get cheap lunch. I can then drop him into the free creche while I go back to the restaurant for free tea or coffee, in peace! I know it won't work that way (in reality I'd be reluctant to leave him in a creche anyhow) but even without Smaland, I think that we could be popping over a few times this winter, because look at the fun you can have just in the toy department!



I'm not sure that Ikea aims to be a play destination, but surprisingly Kit did not want to leave, and that it enough to turn it into one for me!

Make Your Own Play food: Felt Pasta

My son loves playing chef. He cooks me strange concoptions of wooden and material play food almost every day. I was treated to a biscuit with an eggy middle (apparently) and garlic on toast today. I'm sitting writing this post surrounded by plates of lettuce on toast. I always see things about making your own play food and I really want to make Kit some. He has quite a bit already but there are some things that are missing. One of the things that you don't often see in the shops is pasta, and yet that is one of most childrens favourite foods. Here is how I made some ...

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.

Loo Roll Piggy

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

This week we're grateful...

It was Kit's birthday a month ago. I'm really slow at getting around to doing certain things. As a consequence, we've only just started to make thank you cards!

It was a joint effort really - I thought it would be a bit much to expect Kit to spell out 'Thank you' in glue so I did that bit for him!!

Coolings Nature Trail

Given that the weather seems to be holding, I didn't want to spend Thursday stuck inside, but I did have lots of chores to do. Thinking of what we could do early in the day so that I could get on with my boring housework and Kit could get down to some serious jigsaw puzzling and stickering later I thought we could go for breakfast at one of our (fairly) local garden centres.

Just so happens that it happens to have Nature Trail, and it also happens to be home to some pigs! When I went to buy some pig-food I was informed that I couldn't because the piggy had a litter, lots and lots of piglets! :)

New Voices Festival

I posted earlier in the week about our chance to have tea with the tiger at the V & A Museum of Childhood, and promised that there would be more about this great museum later. So here we go..

I have a huge soft-spot for the Museum of Childhood, it is quite possibly my favourite place to take my son (and use him as an excuse to relive my childhood!). I wish that I lived nearer, I'd be there practically everyday! We went last weekend as the New Voices Festival was on, but you really don't need an event to go there, we had to work fast to fit everything in!

This week I'm grateful for ...

...LIBRARIES.

We go to the library at least once a week at the moment. Most weeks it's twice, sometimes more!

When I was on maternity leave Kit and I went to the library pretty much every other day, and I think it kept me sane as a constructive way to get out of the house while not spending any money. All the local libraries had a session of 'Bounce and Rhyme' for babies and toddlers, and they were all on different days - we library hopped!

Now I'm working part-time, we only have two days of the week to play with where there are activities to participate in the library fun (they don't have activities on a Saturday - but we sometimes go then too just for the books, and they are closed Sundays sadly - but I guess books need a break too!).

Recycled Stickers

Kit loves stickers - every child does, don't they? He also insists that practically all of his artwork be stuck up on the wall, so we now have a living room wallpapered with sticker and scribble covered paper - but he's so proud of his work, what can a mum do!

Lots of sticker usage causes lots of empty sticker sheets...BUT they aren't empty are they!!

Being frugal, and posing as environmentally friendly I was wondering what I could do with all the leftover sticky bits from the used sticker sheets.