Easter Egg Hunt & Nits!!!

Our local Country Park holds some great craft/nature days and today was no exception, we were off in search of the Easter Bunny.
It has rained quite a bit over the past few days and we were advised by the rangers to wear wellies and old clothes and boy were they right. It was very squelchy and squidgy but lots of fun. Firstly we picked up our twig pencils (Rachel and Jack loved these and I was on strict instructions to keep them safe to take home) and our clue sheet, then it was off into the woods to follow the Easter Bunny Trail and answer questions on which animals lay eggs. There were a few tricky ones likes snails and worms which we found out today do in fact lay eggs. This trail led us to a tent where we collected our hens eggs to paint and as you can see the kids enjoyed this. Although one little boy (not one of mine thank god) did try to eat his hard boiled egg paint and all!!
Then it was time to grab a spoon and head off on an egg and spoon race and to meet the Easter Bunny.

And this is where we found her and she wished us a Happy Easter and gave the children a creme egg each.

After we had all eaten our creme eggs it was off into the woods to climb trees, walk in streams, jump in puddles and generally get wet, muddy and tired. I think Tompom fell over so many times he gave up worry about it in the end.
I took loads off photos of the kids in the woods and had a great time experimenting with my new camera so when we got home I couldn't wait to upload them to the computer. So Rachel sat at the computer with me standing behind her when I saw that she had a few bits of what I thought were dirt in her hair, on closer inspection I found out it wasn't dirt but that she has nits, big nits!!! So out came the Hedrin and the nit comb and we have all hopefully be deloused!!!!
Hope you all having a very Happy Easter!!
I'm now off to write more clues for tomorrows Easter Egg Scavenger Hunt in the garden...

Colour Swap - here's what I sent.....

I received a lovely email from Lorraine over at FairlyGirly to say that she had received my colour swap gifts so I thought I would just show you what I sent her...
Now Lorraine chose green for her colour but having read through her blog I found out that she also loves purple so I combined the two colours and this is what I came up with...
The bag is made from a fabulous piece of curtain weight fabric that I picked up in a remnant box and it is lined with green and white polka dots cotton fabric.

This is my first attempt at a coaster and I was really pleased with how it turned out.
Purple on one side

Green on the other so Lorraine can choose to suit her mood...

I painted a little heart box with green paint and added a frog button and filled it with green flower and leaf beads which Lorraine is hoping to make into a bag charm for her new bag.

I made this brooch using the same purple and green fabric as the coaster and I couldn't belive my luck when I found this handmade button in the button box in the local charity shopAnd finally some Crabtree & Evelyn body wash and a green butterfly bath bomb.

I've really enjoyed taking part in these two swaps as I love making things specifically for people and have already joined another one.......

Magazine Feature - Easter Mini Tote's

I was really chuffed to receive an email from Avril over at SprinklesSparkles telling me that one of my Easter Mini Tote's has been featured in the latest edition of the online magazine Creative Crafting. The bag below was featured in the Online Street Best Picks section of the magazine.

Check out Issue 4 now.....

Rain Stops Play

Why is it that as soon as the builders decided to leave today the sun came out!!!

Both yesterday and today have been a wash out on the garden front but it is slowly coming together. I have taken a few photos of the path around the orangery and it has made a real difference as it seems to have pulled the buildings together.

This is my new front step, I have a lovely fossil leaf in the top middle one, we now have to touch up the paint on the small walls and add some plants.

One of my friends was saying that her husband would like to see some photos of our back garden and was asking about my workshop. Well here it is, looking more shabby than chic I'm afraid. I really need to get the dark oak stain out again and give it a coat and then when the builders have fimished the patio they are going to add guttering and waterbutts and hopefully it will look a little better.

I'm really pleased with the back step and path and can't wait till we knock through so that we can start using this new room.

Colour Swap

Today when Tomas and I got home from Mother and Toddler group there was a parcel waiting for me under the gate. Seeing that it was from Lorraine over at FairlyGirly I knew it was my Colour Swap gifts and was itching to open it. I resisted until I had put Tomas down for a nap as I wanted to be able to open it in peace and take photos of all my lovely green gifts.

As you can see Lorraine has sent me some beautiful, amazing, and gorgeous green gifts.

This notebook was soon nabbed by my daughter Rachel

And this candle is far too pretty to light

This is Lorraine's first attempt at crochet and it has inspired my to dig out my crochet hooks. isn't my bird just gorgeous..

I had admired these beautiful green flower beads over on Lorraine's blog (as part of her "pay it forward" gift) and she very kindly let me have some and made me this amazing bracelet.

I always have a book on the go, it helps me unwind and get off to sleep each night and now I can mark my page with this beautiful beaded bookmark, I love the delicate flower bead at the end.I've really enjoyed taking part in this colour swap and just wanted to say a big thank you to Dolly Dollop for organizing it and a huge thank you to Lorraine at FairlyGirly for all my gorgeous green gifts!!!! Lorraine your gifts are in the post - I hope you like them as much as I love mine!!!

Garden Makeover - Day 3

Today (wednesday) has had a slower pace to it, the past two days have been hectic and there seems to have been major changes to the garden and lots of lorries coming and going.
Nearly all of the 40 railway sleepers are now in place and as you can see from this photo I took from the bathroom the drive is now edged.


Below is one of the existing flower beds up near the gates and this is going to need a good weed to get rid of the last of the grass. It's looking a little wild at the moment, I need to put up some trellis on the fence to train the pyracantha, and I think there are two other shrubs at the back there that will need a little taming too. I did lose one shrub off this near end it but it looks some much tidier now. There is still a little more type 1 to go down and then finally the shingle.

I can't believe what a difference just one coat of paint has made, the house looks fresher and cleaner and we have finally painted the lead flashing under the windows black, after my several past attempts at green, black and just plain old grey!!!
Our front garden has the hump!! due to the old drain, the kids love to ride their bikes over it and it sort of peters out as it reaches the road. It means that we have had to raise the step slightly in one corner but I have some topsoil left over and where all those plants are now temporarily I will try and level out that bit so that you won't see as much of the sleeper. It's really weird as it dips then rise again under the window. Ben and Lee have laid a tiered bed under the window and I can now put in some lovely shrubs and plants. It's always looked a little folorn there as the bed it quite big and a bit sparce.

Talking of big beds, here is a picture of the enormous bed at the front of the patio, everyone just used to walk over the old bed has it had no edging and hardly any plants but they definitely won't be climbing over this bed now. I can't wait to sort adding plants to this area if you have any suggestions or favourites let me know otherwise you find me wandering up and down the garden centre not knowing what to buy...

Work has already started on the front step and I then tomorrow weather permitting I think they're off round the back of the house to start on the path and step out from the orangery...

Garden Makeover - Day 2

There I was happily snoring away on Tuesday morning when I was rudely awoken to "Come on get up the builders are here!!" No I hadn't overslept it was 6.30AM (yes AM) and they were there in my front garden getting as much use out of the digger before it was to be collected later that day...
Also very early today we had the slabs, edging bricks and cement delivered, can't wait to see what the sandstone looks like!

Well the patio has well and truly gone now and as you can see we have also decided to have the house and garage painted, so along came Dal the dab hand with a paint brush to help. The house was painted for the first time when we moved in in 2002 and we have had a porch added and new windows since then and it was really surprising how lovely and fresh it looks in the sunshine after its new coat of mushroom paint.

You can just see here what the house looked like originally as next door haven't painted theirs

This area down by the gates looks enormous at the moment and the railway sleepers are there waiting to tidy up my flower beds, all the type 1 has been rolled and whackered and the trench dug for the railway sleepers that will edge the grass side of the drive.

The boys also made us a lovely (if somewhat huge) flower bed up by the patio using railway sleepers apparently it is the same size as the original bed but now with the height from the sleepers it looks massive. I think its going to cost a fortune to fill with plants, luckily last year our local garden centre was having a half price day and I managed to buy some largish shrubs so may use those. If anyone has any suggestions for plants to use then that would be great...