Happy Easter

I hope you are all enjoying the Easter weekend, the weather hasn't been that great here in Essex so not much venturing outside has been done but today there was a small glimpse of blue skies which meant we could have our Easter egg hunt in the garden. I seem to have become a "last minute mum" as I hadn't really decided on what sort of hunt to do. I had three Easter eggs and a couple of packets of mini jelly eggs to play with and two teens and a seven year old to please!

 I had a quick look on Pinterest and found a cute Easter bunny template that I could make into a basket. I made some smaller ones for the jelly eggs 

and three medium sized ones for the sweets that came with the eggs 

and three big ones for the golden eggs themselves. 

Luckily I had some leftover scrap booking paper in my workroom that was fairly spring like so I used that. I very nearly ran out of ink with the printer but a purple sharpie pen came up trumps in adding bunny noses and whiskers!

Tomas used the basket he had made at Hyde Hall earlier in the week to collect the mini jelly eggs and I added each of the children's initials to the medium and big eggs so that it was fair. 

Tomas was off like a shot around the garden looking for the hidden baskets

 and very soon all the baskets and the treats had been found.

It didn't take Jack long to devour his chocolates and Tomas wasn't too keen on sharing out the jelly eggs but we all had some fun and as Rachel said 

"You're never too old for an Easter 

Egg Hunt"

Not bad for a "last minute mum"!

Happy Easter

I hope you are all having a good start to your Easter break...Here in Essex the sun was out and there was a lovely blue sky, BUT boy was it cold and muddy!!!! 

This morning we headed out to Hylands Park for and Easter Egg Hunt organised by a friend. 

We had a super time, collecting paper eggs

 in exchange for chocolate ones! 

We even found the Easter Bunny! 

We had a smashing time with the pinata egg

and played in the park.

You can see from Tomas' boots just how muddy it was!!!!!

We are all home now enjoying the warmth before having bangers and mash for tea, have a good easter whatever you are up to xxx

Easter Bonnet Parade

Today at Tomas' school they held an Easter Bonnet Parade. I made the actual hat and Tomas decorated it, cutting out all the flowers and animals and sticking everything on. The children paraded around the hall in their class groups and a boy and girl winner were picked from each class. Tomas was one of the winners and was very pleased with himself and also with the Easter egg that he one. Here is his creation.....




You can't see the back but there are lots of flowers and baby animals.




I don't know where he gets his creative streak from!!



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

Subway Art

I've been busy tonight creating some Spring and Easter subway art. I blame Pinterest really, as I was inspired by some wonderful subway art pins that caught my eye but most were American and I had absolutely no idea what PEEPS were until I googled it. They seem to be coloured marshmallow rabbits and chicks. Not sure they are too good for your teeth though! 

So after much faffing and fannying about, all in the name of art of course, and bearing in mind the fact that I was going to go to bed at 9.30 here are my two creations!

One for Easter....with not a Peep in sight!

as you can see it will need trimming down to fit in a frame.

And the Spring one, I worked out how to get a white background for this one and I think I prefer it.

I made both of these over at Pic Monkey so if you have an evening to spare waste then pop over there and create your own!

New Swaps for 2013

I love taking part in swaps and I have signed up for two fabulous swaps to kick start 2013.

The first one is hosted by Shelley over at All4meggymoo (which is a new blog for me) and is the

I Love Hearts Swap

The idea of this one is to send 5 heart themed goodies, one of which must be handmade.

The closing date for this one is midnight tomorrow so you need to be quick if you would like to sign up.

The second one is an Springtime/Easter Swap organised by Joy over at Daisy Row.

The idea is to fill a container, either 500g margarine tub or the much tastier choice of the 1 litre tub of ice-cream - that way not only do you get to make and fill it with lots of goodies but you also get to eat a lot of ice-cream! I digress back to the container you need to fill it with some craft goodies, some handmade goodies and some chocolate goodies. Now who doesn't like goodies!!

To take part in this one you need to pop over to Joy's blog and sign up by the 31st January.

So come on if you need to get your crafting mojo back or you would like to take part in your first swap pop over to these two wonderful blogs and get swapping!

A quick Catch Up...

Probably like many of you we have had some very changable weather these past few days....
last weekend we had the most amazing hot sunny days which resulted in lots of outdoor activities including a spot of gardening for me and bubbles for Tompom


Needless to say this beautiful weather and all that playing took its toll on Tompom and this was the result on Sunday afternoon!!!

Paul came home from the garden centre with a few new trees and shrubs which I planted up (forgot to take photos though) and I moved some of the existing plants to new homes to see if they would thrive. The photo below shows the area outside the outhouse which we revamped last year. I left the original shrubs in place as they have been there for many years. Tompom and I moved lots of topsoil to build up this area and then I added the pot and the clematis, hopefully as this site is more sunny than it's last home I'm hoping that the clematis should be a bit happier.

Monday was a strange day as Rachel was off on a school trip to Austria (music concert tour) and as she wasn't leaving until 3pm it felt like the longest day ever!!! We've had several updates from her, the coach broke down in Calais, someone was sick, the driver was given the wrong postcode for the hostel and the journey took 27 hours instead of 20!!! It's snowing and she seems to be having lots of fun and spending all her money!!!

Tuesday was chilly to say the least and we met up with friends in the park with us adults huddled under a blanket to keep warm and the kids running around to keep warm.

In the evening my friend Ruth came over as we have started getting together once a week to craft as we both just don't have the time during the day, the first time we met up we did more chatting than crafting but this time we both managed to complete what we started, Ruth made these gorgeous felt hearts on sticks and I made a plastic carrier bag holder for the kitchen.( I shall take a photo and add it later).

Wednesday was another chilly day and Paul and Jack went off with one of Jack's friends to Tilbury Fort, unfortunately we didn't check the opening times and it was closed!!?? so they had a walk along the Thames before heading off to Coalhouse Fort, but this too was closed for restoration works but the park was open and they had a great time on the death slide before coming home to play on the playstation, Jack is back into Pirates of the Caribbean as the new film is out next month and he can't wait to see it.

With the big boys out for the day Tompom and I headed out into the garden where we had lots of fun telling the time with dandelion clocks...

I carried on where I had left off at the weekend moving logs from one part of the garden to another.....

This is the tree

we had taken down over 2 years ago the logs have been piled beside the outhouse since then and I got stuck in moving some of them and burning all the small pieces.

And this is what I created for the kids (it's not quite finished yet!) not sure if it's a fairy ring/pixie ring or a campfire circle but all I do know is that I was in bed by 9.30pm completely exhausted and aching all over after my day in the garden!!!

Today we're off to see my Nan so should be a little more relaxing....

I hope you're all having a lovely time over the Easter break and that the weather is not putting too much of a dampener on things for you!!!