Lessons learnt on how to reupholster a chair - Spider-man style

I attempted using material !!!  Me and sewing just do not happen but staple gun... oh now we're talking.

I am fortunate to live near The Recycled Goods Factory - their upcycling and furniture repairs are fantastic!  Every now and then they post a picture on facebook showing items which are free to collector!  Now, like I said I live very near so when I saw two old chairs looking for a new home I was straight down there!

Rule Number 1 - Take before pictures!  Fail!  After dismantling the chairs I thought about taking a photo!

So, this is me remembering to take a before picture!!

Letters to my son

I have a personal blog which I write just for Max.  The aim is to one day give him the blog to read over.  Here is one of many 'firsts' letters I have written to him.

Dear Max,

There is the festival fever in your blood.  Both mummy and daddy have been to the Reading Festival on several occasions.  So is it any surprise that you attended your first ever festival at 22 months old?

We took you to the 2013 LolliBop Festival in London - and you loved it.

It started off with a 2 hour (plus) train journey to London and you were as good as gold on the train.  After staring out the window for ages, we did some drawing, a lot of eating, bouncing on the seat (no shoes of course) and raspberry blowing on said feet much to the amusement of the other passengers.

I was so very proud of you.  You were such a well behaved, little boy.  You stayed on your seat, did as you were told and we had lots of giggles.

Once we finally got to the festival we had more to eat, visited various stalls include playhouses which you didn't really want to get out of!  Had a dance.....on stage no less in the dance tent and made our way to the big stage to see Dick & Dom!

Daddy bought you two fantastic balloons which somehow managed to make it all the way home with us - underground and 2 train rides these two balloons rode!!

All in all, we all had a lovely day.

Mummy and Daddy had a lovely day sharing the festival spirit with you - and I'm sure this is just one of many to come.


lots of love

Mummy

xxxxxx

Travel Your Way and win £1,000

Competition Now Closed

Rhinocarhire is running a competition based on modes of transport and how you travel.  They want to see your favourite snaps for each mode of transport be it Road, Air, Rail or Sea.

I've used my photos from our American trip back in 2010.  The only one missing from the above list is rail.  We did use the monorail that runs down the Vegas Strip - but no pictures I'm afraid (well actually that's not true, there may well be pictures but I couldn't find one in our 2,000 snaps that we took.....)


Road:
Spoilt for choice here as we did Route 66 as part of our holiday and I could fill the whole server up with our pictures!  I decided to use the most colourful and unusual Lombard Street in San Francisco

Air
Whilst in Vegas we went over to the Grand Canyon.  A MUST PEOPLE!!  We travelled over by helicopter and how I did not pee myself with excitement is beyond me!  I love to travel by helicopter (I make that sound like I do it all the time!!).  I do though, I love love love it!  Anyway, I resisted putting up one of the many pictures of me grinning wider than the Cheshire Cat and picked the view of the Vegas strip from the air.

Sea:
Back to San Francisco for the water picture.  I wanted to put up the picture of the Golden Gate Bridge as we passed it coming back from Sausalito (because we missed the coach!) BUT I'm not entirely convinced it exists you know!  I'm sure everyone must photoshop their pictures...... I'm only playing, it was quite foggy that day so we only got the top of the bridge.

We did, however, manage to get this fantastic shot of Alcatraz!  Oh yes, you can not come to San Francisco and not visit this infamous prison.  I'm not a fan of sea travel but that went out the window this day.

Have you entered too?  Would love to see your photos if you have.

Good Luck

xx

Magic Moments

Max is currently going through 'a phase', well, at least, I hope its just a phase.

He's been very clingy to daddy of late, and I can't blame him his father is a super dad, well liked and basically, everyone likes to be around him.

Unfortunately though and at the risk of sounding selfish, this breaks my heart slightly.  To see Max so upset when daddy leaves the room and I'm still there.  To have him cry and try and lay on the floor when I take him out the house without daddy - I look like I'm trying to kidnap my own son!

So what's the magic moments?

Well, this weekend we went to LolliBop and my boy was fantastic.  He sat with me on the train and we played the whole hour and a half train ride to London.  We played on the grass, had a lovely picnic and had lots of laughs, hugs and giggles.

He travelled for nearly 3 hours there and the same back and my boy was as good as gold.

There is nothing quite like being a parent.

Route 66 Holiday

Competiton Now closed

Travel supermarket is running a competition for bloggers.  They want to know your magical holiday memories with a chance to win £1,000.  

I was torn between our Route 66 holiday and our World Cup South Africa Holiday!  My two best ever holidays.  In the end, I've gone with my first ever holiday with my partner - Route 66.  It's the first time I'd ever visited America and still to this day feels like it was only yesterday.

We had perfect weather, we saw some of the most amazing sights and visited friends I'd made over on myspace!!

We also visited San Francisco and Las Vegas along the way.  I have written a diary blog of each day here.  Below I've told the story of our fantastic holiday in photos.

First Day - San Francisco Diner

Day 2 - San Francisco Muir Woods, Alcatraz & Lombard Street 

Days 3 - 5 Los Angeles

Days 5 - 7 Las Vegas

Days 7 onwards - GETTING OUR KICKS ON ROUTE 66

Saying Goodbye to Mally

Thursday 1st August I said goodbye to one of the best dogs I'd ever known.

I had Maliki since he was 5 weeks old.

At 6 weeks old he fell in the pond!

At 8 weeks old he pushed his sister in the pond

By Christmas Mally and his sister had worked out how to get out the kitchen - they ate the Christmas tree!

They ate the mattress

They ate the Lino flooring

They ate trainers, plants and pretty much everything that took their fancy.

Maliki and Athena grew up and old together

Maliki was like a real life teddy bear, he would let you lay on him and cuddle him

He was so obedient, well behaved and good

He saw me through good times and bad and showed nothing but love.

Rest in Peace my wonderful crazy little puppy

You are so missed.

How to keep children amused - Kidicraft Angel Malma Review

We were recently sent the Angel Malma Build Your Heart Pack from Kidsonestopshop to review.

When it turned up it contains the heart components needed to make 24 hearts and if I'm honest I thought it was a lot of money for what you get.

It's not!

It is very much worth its money.

Obviously, part of the fun of this craft project is making up the hearts.  As Max is only little I let him colour in some of the pieces whilst I set about putting the hearts together.

It's once you have 24 hearts made up and scattered around the table that you see this product is very much value for money.

Once the pieces were glued together we set about painting the hearts and obviously I could not resist creating a spiderman heart and using my good old Mod Podge to decorate another.

This pack costs £24.99 and it will keep your little ones amused and entertained for ages.  They have to make up the hearts, then paint and decorate them as they wish and then finally get to hang them up.

You can use these at a play group, party or just for your little ones and will last a long time.