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...

A funky Apron

For a funky 35 year old lady! 

Happy Birthday Doi xxx

off on a jet plane

this time to Barcelona for 5 days, can't wait!!

I will be blogging about all this when I get back...

A gift for my aunt

My Favourite auntie Jan (I actually have two auntie Jan's and they are both my fav. just don't let the secret out OK?) Anyway Fav. Auntie Jan turned 60 last week so I made her this bag, she likes her bags BIG. I actually bought rings so I could make the strap adjustable but then mislaid them - heaven knows where they got to and I didn't have time to go and buy some more so we had to do with a should strap instead! Oh, well, I still like how it turned out, hope she likes it too.

Baby Blanket #1

We will be meeting a couple of new babes when we are at home so I made a couple of baby blankets, the back is so super soft, I have to keep beating Ebi-kun off, he keeps wanting to 'test' the blanket and the top is really cute elephant checks, I have some more of this fabric in shop, this bit just didn't quite make it that far :o)

Ball matching

These sensory balls are easy to make and you can get little one to help you!

What you need:

4 red balloons

4 blue balloons

small jug

funnel

things for filling the balls, we used salt, rice, tiny pasta hoops and flour

baking sheet (for easy clean up)

We started of measuring how much of each item we were going to use but then we realized that it didn't matter because the balloon would one take a certain amount anyway. 

1. Blow up the red balloon then let it down again, pull the end over the bottom of the funnel.

2. Pour your  first filling in through the funnel, do this over the baking sheet so it will catch any spills.

3. Carefully remove the balloon and tie the end.

4. Repeat with the blue balloon with the same filling.

5. draw a small shape on the matching pairs to act as a control of error.

Presenting the work:

Take out a mat and then the basket with the sensory balls in it and an eye mask.

Place all the balls on the mat and put on the blindfold.

Pick up a ball then work through the rest until you find a match, when you have got a match put the pair to one side.

Continue until all the balls are matched.

Remove the eye mask, you can tell if you make any big mistakes because the balls should be in blue/red pairs. Double check that they are all correct by checking the little shapes you drew on them.

oops

We went to the monkey forest today which was great and then we went to Trentham for lunch and a mooch around the shops and i accidently bought myself this fab kitchen set - shhh don't tell the hubby ;o)

we are back

from the road trip, we had a fantastic time, great company, great food and good drives. I feel like I have actually been on holiday! It was so good to meet up with all the old gang and their babies and Ebi-kun just went with the flow. I have been writing about our adventures BUT my mom's computer is full on memory and just won't let me upload anything so I will finish them off, with pictures when I get back.

This week will bring a visit to the Monkey forest, a trip to the farm shop, a day out to see my nanna, a full day of shopping - for me and a free day so we can shuffle things due to the weather. We also have the tickets booked so we fly out to Barcelona on the 21st for a few days -

whoo -hoooo

Baby Blanket #2

Another baby blanket, I love this cute rabbit fabric and I decided to sew on a flower with baby Iris's birth details, I love how it turned out. Although I had much grander plans to begin with, I had to simplify it or it would have never got finished.

New Place Mats for a New House

This is part of a house warming gift for my mate Di and hubby Rob, the bright stripe reminds me of the fun and out going Di whereas the black is like the sophisticated Rob (LOL well, maybe!) I also made mixy matchy napkins using the same colours as the stripe then completely forgot to take a photo!

A lovely day

we had lots of friends and family round yesterday, it was good to catch up with everyone. My sister-in-law bought her two kids over, D is almost 6 and M is 2, she was just a baby last time we saw her and now she is a real character, she had me in stitches. Ebi-kun and D had fun knocking hell out of each other, D is 2 years older and quite a bit bigger but Ebi-kun held his own. My mom tried to split them up at one stage but Ebi-kun complained that she was ruining his fun! We sent them round the park with my cousin and the football to wear them out a bit ;o)

A conversation between Ebi-kun and my mom who was putting on her make up...

E: what are you doing?

M: I am putting my face on

E: to make you beautiful?

M: yes...is it working?

E; not yet!

LOL - kids - gotta love 'em.

and...if you asked me a question I have answered it in the same post comments section.

thought I had better check in.....

No photos as of yet, we haven't really done anything exciting, just catching up on sleep and popping in to see a few relatives. I managed to do a bit of shopping but I still have plenty of space left in the suitcase ;o)

Today we have an open house so friends and family will be dropping by, we decided this time to make them come to us and save us rushing round like loonies. Then tomorrow we are going down to Nottingham to stay with my best mate for a couple of days then the three of us are going on a road trip to visit uni friends who all have babies, I am really looking forward to spending some quality time with Di and catching up with the girls, should be fun.

Barcelona is still up in the air but possibly the last week for 4 days - I really hope we pull it off! We also have a steam train trip, a visit to the monkey forest, a play date with my cousins lad and a trip to see my nanna pencilled in but no set dates.

I won't be around to post next week but I have got some post scheduled so that you don't abandon me! I have also been doing some hand sewing, so expect some cute goodies  in the shop when I get back....

Pina Colada Yoghurt #3

This postcard snack came all the way from the Bahamas, thank you!

Pina Colada Yoghurt

You will need:

1 cup of vanilla yoghurt

1Tbsp flaked coconut (we used shredded)

1 Tbsp crushed pineapple, well drained.

1. Pour yoghurt into a bowl.

2. Add coconut.
3. Add pineapple.
4. Mix well together.
5. Eat.
Testers comments: yummy and sweet

Assistants notes : I cheated somewhat with this and pre-measured everything, just because I was short of time, next time he can do it himself. It was really tasty and we had it again with our breakfast the nest day. The recipe also suggested toasting the coconut. Spread the coconut evenly on an un-greased baking sheet and toast at 300F oven until golden brown. I would like to try it like this, I think it would give a more nutty taste.

we made it!

Ebi-kun was an angel on the planes and even got compliments as we got off the 13hr flight from other passengers and the crew ;o)

The roll - a - snack game was the biggest hit and I also got a black light pen with a small light on the lid, the ink looks invisible until you shine the light on it, so I wrote some messages in a little note book for him to find, this was also a big hit. Thank you Monika for the suggestion!

Now jet-lag, that is a whole different thing, he slept for just 2 hours the whole journey and has been up at 3am wanting breakfast the first couple of nights, it is killing me! Coping with my own jet-lag is bad enough but having to do his too...

right, off to get my hair done, thanks for all the previous messages, will be checking in again soon