Fabric Play Tea Bags

I have been saving empty kitchen items for the children's playhouse, things like empty spice jars, left unwashed so they still smell.  I came across an empty Twinings tea box and thought I'd put that in too.  

I then had the bright idea of putting some pretend tea bags inside the box as they love to play tea parties...went to my stash of scrap material and found some off cuts of voile that looked tea bag-ish, snipped some brown and green bits of material to make the 'tea'...

Added a piece of ribbon and a felt tag...et voila...

I left them out for M to see in the morning and she thought they had real tea in.  I'm presuming they'll be ok to get wet as they're all fabric - a tea party's no fun without water is it...Nx

A Foody day

We bought a mixed box of eggs today which included some duck eggs.  We had a go at baking devil's food chocolate buns.  My little helper gets all the ingredients out, we substituted the soured cream for natural yogurt...

A spot of impromptu colour sorting...

'Folding' the yogurt in...

 Into the cases...plop...

I like how he took his glasses off to get right in there...

We didn't have much in the cupboards toppings-wise, so had to be a little creative with nuts etc...

he didn't seem to mind, there was chocolate and glitter after all...and the result...

Ro went for the glittery one, I tried pistachio.

Lunchtime, I know from experience that pretty food always gets eaten...

this was mine actually! There's no way I could get him to eat avacado. the plate was the same apart from Ro wanted 3 separate fillings: nutella, honey, peanut butter.  I often wonder what other people give their children to eat, do I give them enough etc...both mine are grazers (like me).

After school we needed to go to the post office, so came home past the allotments.  M stopped for ages to watch a man digging over his plot, when we got home she got the tools out...

Lastly...don't you think snowdrops look so much prettier from underneath?..

Lots of shades of green in my post today, Spring is in the air...Nx

A lovely half term...how many lovelies!!

We've had a lovely half term week...
Monday: My lovely sister came over for the day with her boys.
Tuesday: A catch up with my lovely friends and their children...and special chocolates!
Wednesday: We were invited to play with one of Ro's lovely playgroup friends and made some new friends.
Thursday: We walked and had a hot dog picnic with lovely friends.
Friday: I had my looooong awaited Ofsted visit...which ended up being rather lovely!
Saturday: We had a lovely lazy morning and I got lost in Pinterest for an hour or so. We got a leaky boiler so it kinda spoiled our day.
Sunday:  M got car sick...not so lovely.  Managed an afternoon walk with friends and J stayed home and made a lovely chicken roast dinner and amazing lemon cheesecake.

Thursday: we found a hollow tree

Friday: Afternoon woodland walk

Sunday: Pom-pom and napkin draughts

Sunday: J's gorgeous cheesecake

Breakfast muffins

My morning is always filled with wonderful aromas.  I wake up to the smell of fresh bread, then make a pot of fresh coffee...sometimes a hot buttery croissant.

This morning we had fresh raspberry (from our PYO frozen batch) and blueberry muffins.  I got the inspiration and recipe from the lovely Lucy at Attic24 via yesterday's blog. I prepped everything last night before going to bed.  This morning the oven goes on...add the egg, mix the wet with the dry and that my friend is it...

 the granola topped one is for moi...

 Mmmmmm...if only you could smell my kitchen right now...

Slightly crispy on the outside (mine are in bun cases: may be overcooked a tad) and light and fluffy inside...Nx

Gorgeousness: Friends and chocolates and children

Half term starts with happy smiles...porridge style...

Two of my bestest loveliest friends came with their children to tea tonight, and one brought with her the most gorgeous selection of handmade chocolates from her local chocolatier in Haworth.

J's away tonight, the new series of The Great British Sewing Bee starts, so I made myself a cup of cocoa and plonked myself on the sofa...where to start?  The stripy one, lime and chilli - wow! Next...the dark chocolate sparkly one, salted caramel - possibly the best chocolate ever! Amaretto - yep that's a good un. And I have no idea what the last one is called, the one with the white dot - it tasted like fudge, but had a gooey caramel centre, not at all fudge like.  But delish all the same...Thanks Jane :-)

They are gorgeous and very special, I'm saving the rest to share with J.

After everyone left I started the 'big clear up'.  Then something strange happened...the children helped to tidy up...I'll get the cars mummy, I'll clear the table...then they dried up and put away the pots...I have video evidence!  What a lovely afternoon...Nx

Beyond the egg lady's house...

What a glorious sunshiny blue skied Sunday we've had today...

Yesterday was wet and grey, Ro's choice of activity...so we went to a roller disco... brilliant fun - we all had a go.  Today, M's choice was swimming, she went with J, I went food shopping with Ro (he's a bit sniffly). We decided to go out for a bit of fresh air this afternoon (my turn to choose), the kids on their bikes, just a short walk to buy eggs.  Shall we carry on past the egg lady's house and see where it goes?..

So glad we did, we passed a gated driveway that I wished I could see more of, it had this small clump of Honesty right outside the gate...

As we turned the corner...

You really don't need to go far to feel like you're in the middle of nowhere, with just a few sheep to keep us company...

We walked, they rode a little while further, through a farmyard and then we turned back. I love this photo, the little ones riding back down the lane, the lovely landscape together with the dry stone walls and the blue sky!..

You know me, I like a nice mossy wall!  These acorn caps caught my eye, so attempted a close-up...

The sun shining on the soft feathery moss looked very inviting...

We arrived home...and leaning against our garden wall...a great big tractor tyre had kindly been delivered...

I have sand pit plans for this...Nx

Valentines day...hearts all round

I love hearts, there may have been heart overkill yesterday!  Sharing the love is important though, and it being valentines day I felt free to overindulge.  Our day began with a 'pinky orangey red sky' I know shepherds warning and all that, still pretty...

 Then our usual porridge breakfast...made with extra love...

 Daddy left chocolate buns with hearts for the kids, so they had those for breakfast too!..

 A surprise through the letterbox for the little ones...

 Lunch box loving...gingerbread heart, carrot and kiwi hearts...

When M arrived home from school I asked her if she enjoyed her lunch.  She said her school friends had said, Ooh you'll be full of love today, I thought that was so sweet.

After the school run, I set about making the table looking pretty.  The children had been making felted hearts so I hung those around the light above the table along with some gingerbread hearts, very difficult to photograph...

Made some very simple to make heart snowflake thingies as we had some red napkins...

...I decorated the whole table with just 2 napkins, the smaller circles came from the wastage, and they are in layers...

As I pulled the layers apart I found one with just four hearts on so I did this just for fun, it's stuck on our dining room mirror now...

Ro told his little girlfriend when we went to pick M up from school 'we've got a hearty house'.  He's not wrong!  Nx

Tuesday's trundle (Sutton Clough)

No playgroup today, Tuesday is a me n my boy day...It began with "what shall we do today?" Ro: "I want to bake, I'll get the book" (he says it like we only have the one book) He chose gingerbread men...

 Nicely placed cherries...

Lunch time arrived and he requested 4 different sandwich fillings: houmous, jam, peanut butter and honey, with a side of grapes and tangerine!  After lunch and as it wasn't raining, I said come on let's go for a walk in the woods...We passed this ring of snowdrops, I couldn't resist...

 It kind of set me off on a photo journey, up the hill and past lots of front gardens...

This tree looked like it was being swallowed by its own roots, but was probably some sort of ivy...

 Plenty to see on our nature walk today...

 The hole in the tree that makes his "voice sound funny"...

 More fungi...

 Pooh sticks, the river was running far too fast today though...

 Beautiful...

 But muddy...going on a bear hunt at this point...squelch squerch...

 We had the place to ourselves...

 On the way home, puddle jumping...

 Shadow shaping...

With our woodland collection today, we made a stick man.  I made the body...Ro embellished.  Stick man is stood next to three trees (leaves) holding a flower and he's got a catkin smile, he also had a catkin willy until he changed his mind and made it a caterpillar on a leaf!  He makes me chuckle...

What a lovely lovely Ro day...Nx