Scrabble with a twist

Recently Ebi-kun is really into board games, he was given Shopping List when we were on our travels which is great, a twist on the memory game and I got him Guess Who which he loves too (once he got the hang of it!). Anyway, we needed a somewhere for these new games to live, so I cleared space in the draw where our scrabble and chess set are kept. Of course, he spotted the scrabble and wanted to learn how to play. He can't manage to play properly yet so I made up some alternative games, the first he had to pick a small object from out of a bag and then spell the word out, placing them on the tile holder.
After we had done a few of those he asked to learn to play properly again, he realised that we weren't using the board that is in the box. So, alternative game 2, we placed all the scrabble tiles on the mat and spelled out one word to start off with, then we took turns spelling out new words and adding them to the board.
It was basically spelling practice, the sort of thing we do with the moveable alphabet but it was interesting (for him) because we were using something new.

In the afternoon I made up some side walk paint, I have seen this on a number of blogs, I'm not sure which one I saw it one first but it is easy to do and a great alternative to chalk.

1/2 cup corn starch

1/2 cup water

few drops of food colour

mix together, I ended up adding a bit more corn starch to make it a bit thicker, we did some painting, then I painted out hop-scotch and taught him how to play. After I painted it, I decided it looked wrong so I added a number 10 too, I can't remember if that is right or not! We haven't had much rain since we did this so it hasn't washed off yet, I hope it does or we will have the neighbourhood police after us :o)

The Long and Winding felt road - tutorial

It is Ebi-kuns birthday at the end of the month, so I have been trying to think of a few things to make him. Last Christmas I thought about making a playmat, the sort with roads on for him to play with using his little cars. Then I decided I wanted something a bit more open ended and so I made this felt road, he has requested some more pieces, it was super easy to make so I thought I would share.

You will need

• a couple of big sheets of felt, I prefer wool blend to the acrylic since that bobbles after a bit of use
• a ruler
• something to mark the felt with
• scissors
• sewing machine
• black and white felt if you want to add a zebra crossing

Decide how wide you want your road to be, mine are 8cm. Once you decide the width you need to stick with it. Cut your felt into 8cm strips, for country style roads make the strips wavy, if you prefer the new city look keep them straight.

Once your strips are cut you can start making the roads. To make a long road, take two piece and place the ends together so that they are touching, they don't need to overlap, using the zig-zag function on the machine (adjust so the stitch is quite long), sew them together.*

I made a couple of long roads and then added side roads, 4 strips of felt per 'section' and then made 3 sections, all different. The beauty of it all is that he can completely change the layout of the town by switching the sections around and because it is just the road, it packs up quite small and fits in with his box of cars.

The wooden pieces shown are from Muji, he often uses his little Tomika cars on her too. I actually made the felt park to use with his animals/dinosaurs but it usually comes out with the roads.

*worried about the stitching holding up? no need, Ebi-kun has been using these for the last 6 months and they are still held together.

Barcelona

My younger brother lives just outside Barcelona, so when I was in the UK we managed to pick up some cheap ticket with Easyjet so we could go and visit for a few days. We had 4 full days there and it was great, it is the first time I have been and I would love to go back with more time to spare. When I go on holiday I never do the organised tours, I like to do it all myself but this time I had to sit back and let Daniel and Yani (his girlfriend) take control. The first day we wandered into town then went for a paddle in the sea followed by a lovely leisurely lunch, a nice relaxing day.

The following two days we took a city tour bus, I am missing most of my photos from the first day but we went to the Gaudi park which is lovely, I am sure we only saw a tiny part of it though then after lunch we took two trams to get to the top of the city, great views and there was a theme park up there so Ebi-kun was happy to try out a couple of rides. The next day we went down Las Rambla which was fantasitc, Ebi-kun absolutely loved the street artists - well, I think with some it was a bit of a love-hate relationship, especially the guy with the severed head, it cost us a small fortune but well worth it. Then we popped into the fairy forest pub for a quick drink, so cute! It is all done out with trees and a wishing well, I loved it in there. After a Tapas lunch we took the bus again which is when Ebi-kun crashed out so we ended up doing a full loop of the town and got off the same place we got on! This was OK with Ebi-kun because he wanted to walk back up the Rambla!
The last day we spent relaxing on the beach, I am not a beach person at all so I was quite happy to dump Ebi-kun on my mom and Daniel. Ebi-kun loves going in the sea but hates water splashed on his face so one minute he would be all smiles and the next close to tears, he was getting better nearer the end of the day.

Our flight was early the next morning, so that was it. I had hoped to pick up a pair of these shoes whilst I was there but the day we were actually in town was a national holiday and of course all the regular shops were closed. I know of a shop here that sells them, but at the double the price, so maybe not.

I have got a couple of projects in the works but I am finding it really hard to get motivated at the moment, I reckon it is this awful weather. Todays mission is to sort out our old clothes...

butterflies

When we came back to Japan we found a chrysalis in the garden, so we put it in Ebi-kun's bug box and yesterday it emerged. We took the box outside and Ebi-kun managed to get the butterfly to walk onto his hand. It sat there for quite some time just dryings it's wings before eventually flying off, Ebi-kun was very impressed. I am chuffed that we found the chrysalis too since we missed the last butterfly after doing all the butterfly study before.

I am not entirely sure what it is though!

and more flashback time...Cumbria to stay with a university mate who has two girls that are 1 and 2, there is a year and a week between them! It is the first time we have been to their house and the setting is beautiful, this is the view from the front of the house and the back has rolling hills full of fluffy sheep.
Ebi-kun got on well with the girls, both of which speak really well, he loved sharing a bath with them (how many lads wouldn't love sharing a bath with two pretty lasses?). We went for a bit of a wander around Keswick and then we attempted to have a picnic but ended up huddled on a bench under a tree in the rain - a fine British picnic! At least we could all laugh about it, so we gave up on that idea and went to and indoor ball pool place instead, of course once we were in there the sun came out - typical. It didn't matter the kids had a great time and so did we, catching up on all the gossip :o)

I love these pictures of Ebi-kun and J sharing kisses, there was quite a bit of this going on!

After 2 nights at Kez's house we headed back. It is a long drive so we stopped off in Bury to meet another uni friend and her new baby I, she is the one I made the baby blanket for. Here is Di practicing to be a mom :o)

All in all it was a great road trip, I got to spend some quality albeit sometimes silly time with Di and it was fantastic to catch up with everyone and all their offspring, can't wait to do it again.

Getting back into the swing of things

I don't know what happened this time but the jet-lag has really wiped me out and last week was basically a wash out, I am finally back into the old routine and I have made a proper effort to get back on track this week, I even did some cleaning yesterday! OK not a lot of cleaning but that is better than nothing, right?

It is still the rainy season here and it is forcast for rain for the rest of the week, blah, Ebi-kun's cough still hasn't cleared up so it meant a trip to the doctors, I don't drive so it actually meant a walk to the doctors, Ebi-kun was quite happy about this because he got to wear his new raincoat which I bought when we were in the UK. (From McKays). He got some new medicine and he didn't seem to cough so much last night so hopefully it is working. He did ask to go to bed at 5pm though which just shows he was under the weather, of course I didn't argue...

flashback to the UK. Leeds was the detination, to stay with one of Di's old school mates, Veena and her family, she has a lovely Yorkshire cottage that they have restored and the bathroom is beautiful, I fell in love with the mermaid on her wall. We had a good gossip and catch up, got to meet her son Z and did quite a bit of playing.

The next morning we set off to Bradford, which is where Di and I met, at university. Our aim was to go to Bombay Stores, which is a massive Indian fabric store, right next to the uni. It is where I used to shop to buy my fabric for the M&Ms costumes. Sadly Bombay Stores has gone up market and there were no bargains to be had but we had a giggle wandering around. Next stop was the Eureka, the national children's museum in Halifax. I thought it was a bit pricey, especially since they charge you for parking too BUT it is a fantastic museum and you easily spend all day in there. I only have a few pictures here, the rest are on the card back at moms and the ones I have don't really do it justice. Ebi-kuns favourite part was the body section which had lots of hand on things showing you how your body works, Di and I even learned a few things :o)
We complete wore Ebi-kun out which was great because we got back in the car for a couple of hours to drive up to Cumbria.

The Shop Is Open.....

Please pop along to meet Mikey, Layla, Davey, Matilda and Freddy they all have their profiles up and vital statistics for all to see!

I also have this cute hedgehog coin purse up for grabs, I had the idea bouncing around for ages and managed to sit down and draw up a pattern whilst I was in the UK....

There are some new fabrics for you to check out plus lots of hair bobbles, buttons and even some note books!

coming soon....

Punky Monkey and her friends....

Ohhh Jet-lag you are not my friend

Well I think the the first night back I slept like a log, due to sheer exhaustion since last night the jet-lag kicked in big time and I (we) didn't sleep a wink. We have kept busy today - a slow kind of busy, I did some work, the kind that doesn't need more than two brain cells which is about all I am up to at the moment.

For those who asked, I will be opening the shop again at the weekend, thank you for your patience, I want to make sure my brain is back in proper working order before tackling orders again :o) I also have some new goodies to show you, including some super sock monkeys.

....and back to England, Nottingham to be precise, mom dropped us off at my best mates house, so we stayed there two night before heading off on our road trip. I was hoping to meet up with Emma but it wasn't to be, maybe next time! On the Monday we wandered into town along the canal and headed up to the castle, as far as castles go it is a bit rubbish, more like a posh house but they had a couple of good things going on. We did enjoy the sea themed room and we were the only ones there which meant there was a lot of clowning around - not that an audience would have stopped us :o). The gift shop was actually quite good and I picked up a couple of things for Ebi-kuns birthday. After we wandered into town and to The Alley Cafe, an old haunt of ours and had a lovely lunch and after all that we were shattered so headed back to Di's for a nap. Well Di crashed out, she is a mother-to-be* so that is allowed and Ebi-kun spent ages making houses for footballers out of Di's coasters - cheap entertainment. When Di had come round we got out guitar hero, now I am now a video game kinda gal, but I LOVED this, so much fun, almost too much fun as we had a problem getting Ebi-kun into bed LOL.

1. P1040638, 2. on the drums with guitar hero, 3. footballers houses, 4. princess Di, 5. dancing Di, 6. sailor Ebi-kun, 7. the ocean room, 8. applique art displayed at Notts uni, 9. colouring in kings and queens, 10. guitar hero, 11. another play castle, 12. football with Di, 13. the caves under the castle14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

The next day we went for a play down at the university, they have a nice park and cafe, so we filled up before setting out on the first leg of our road trip to Leeds.....

* subtle hint for those who haven't heard the new yet!

We are home

It was a loooong trip back which wasn't helped by being delayed in Copenhagen for a couple of hours! Ebi-kun did sleep most of the way back which meant I didn't get a wink of sleep since he was sprawled on top of me so last night I slept like a log.

Now, a slight hiccup with the photos since I left one of the SD cards back at moms and I had only copied half of the pictures to disk so I might end up showing you pictures out of order - oh well!

Actually, the first week we didn't do that much other than get over jetlag. We went down to the park to play a couple of times and did a bit of shopping, I was in desperate need of some new clothes so I managed to pick up some bits and bobs and also got my hair done. On the Saturday we had an open house at my moms and invited everyone to come and say hello. The idea being that we wouldn't have to spend half the holiday rushing round trying to see everyone, quite a few peeps turned up so it turned out to be a good day, we made blue monster cakes for the party and we caught up on all the gossip, it was great to see everyone again.

1. yum coconut milk, 2. hammering the coconut, 3. how to open a coconut - the nana fran way, 4. Cocky kisses xxx, 5. sofa cushions formula 1 racing car, 6. Mia amusing the oldies, 7. hairy scary working hard, 8. kissing cousins, 9. Declan showing Leo what to do, 10. making blue monster cakes, 11. footie with hairy scary, 12. aunty jan and ellie playing nicely, 13. auntie jan being a texting teenager14. Not available15. Not available16. Not available

Made It Back

To the UK!

We had a fab time in Barcelona, I took at least a squillion photos, so I will be boring you will them all later LOL.

Now I am on a mission to fit everything into the suitcase to bring home, I thought I was doing alright until my brother bought Ebi-kun a microscope set, which is great and not very heavy but it is quite bulky in it's case. hmmmm

Ebi-kun has developed a cough so between that and his wriggling I have very little sleep over the last few days, i am looking forward to crashing into my own bed in a few days time.

right, off to wrestle with the suitcase...