Classic Reads - The Snowman and the Snowdog

Even though growing up in a warm southern hemisphere country meant that Christmas time was at the high of  summer and the concept of a white Christmas was something that never really featured. Although having a Welsh mother meant there was always a distant British influence in all our holiday celebrations . We always read the Snowman in the run up to the big day, we filled our home with the smell of a huge real Fir Tree and hung wreaths and ate Hazelnuts. We indulged in show from Wallace and Grommet and the BFG and had traditional carols playing continuously on the HiFi and despite the often 30+ degree weather we would craft paper snowflakes to hang up along with some mistletoe. The snowman has been as much apart of my childhood Christmas experience than any others despite the thousands of miles distance from the UK and this story will always have a place in my heart. So when I was asked to take part in The Snowman and Snowdog Christmas Blog tour we couldn't wait to get......

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Let them be Superhero's

Having grown up in a creative household it's always been important to both John and I to provide our sons with a space that allows them to express themselves in a safe and supportive environment. We completely encourage moments of madness, imagination and believing in the unbelievable.  So when Vertbaudet set my eldest a challenge of putting together his dream superhero I had an inclination it would include Dinosaurs but what I didn't expect is that he would pair it up with super secret Ninja skills  and creating a crime busting Ninja Dinosaur that projects the smaller Dinosaurs from any rogue meat eaters that may be prowling the plains of our back garden.  I love how free kids feel when they are in character as Mr A spent the rest of the day in this superhero suit, roaring along the aisles of our local supermarket without a care in the world, if only I could be be so unselfconscious as my 5yr old.  Competition Do your little ones lov......

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This Homeschooling Life

So this is coming to you a few days later than usual as we are still having some interesting sleeping patterns with our 11month old but for one thing I cannot believe we are already into our second month of the year! I love to look back and reflect on what we have been doing together as a family, the adventures we have been on and what we have learnt. So what did January have in store for us? Well for one we decided to be a little bit more organised this year - we are neither structured or unschooled when it comes to the way we home educate - we simply do what feels right and allow Mr A some control over what he learns, of course with lots of encouragement. We picked up a few things for him over Christmas to help with reading and telling the time and have continued our outdoor adventures despite the constant rain we have had in Wales. Watching the blacksmith at work Our main highlights have included looking for animal foot prints at Dare Valley Park, watching t......

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5 Lifestyle, interiors and travel blogs to check out

A vintage home by Owl and the Accordion  Being a blogger I always look to other blogs for inspiration, motivation, advice and a good read and I thought every now and then I would share my 5 fave reads of the month and share the blogging love for those blogs that I find interesting and inspiring. My main passion as you are probably aware off are travel, interiors, fashion and general positive lifestyle and these blogs are great if your looking for some happy in your life Owl and Accordion Written by the wonderful creative crafter, interior stylish and nature lover that is Victoria. I love how she styles her home with a vintage feel and captures it through some beautiful photography. She captures that feeling of simplicity and slowing down and I find her space a lovely calming place to be. Wild and Grizzly This cool mama makes you want to jump on a plane and explore all the colours and cultures of all those hip European cities while also taking in the Architecture ......

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This Homeschooling Life

As some of you may already know, myself and three other bloggers do a monthly roundup of what Home Schooling or Home Ed looks like to each of us and what we get up to and here are some of the highlights from the last month. It's been a bit slower than usual, with less outdoor adventures due to both the boys coming down with bad colds and coughs (as well as myself) but we are not back on form *well almost* and we have ramped up the Christmas crafting and getting into the festive season.  One of our favourite things from the past month has to be the JacDo Christmas Craft session at Chapter in Cardiff with a few other local bloggers and their kids. The lovely people at JacDo had setup three tables each with a different craft, all perfect for young children to get stuck into and get creative with. First we made sock snowmen filled with rice then painted paper plate wreaths and a simple sowing craft which was Mr A's favourite. For those who don't know what or who Ja......

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This Homeschooling life

Wow how did a whole month fly by so quickly? We have been so busy with the changing of the seasons and have been celebrating everything that Autumn has to offer with most days being spent outside. Half term also happened which means we also have a bit of a break and any "formal" learning went out the window and we did a whole lot more hands on activities during the dry weather We enjoyed pumpkin carving in the Park, worm charming and apple pressing at Forest Farm Nature Reserve as well as Autumn crafts, wild art and being apart of a Spider survey which involved recording all our spider finds as well as coming across some earwigs and snails. Mr A has also shown a big interest in Bird watching and we actually spotted two beautiful Kingfishers over the weekend which was a real highlight Another thing we have enjoyed lately is cooking together, something which Mr A seems to have a love hate relationship with, he is not a big eater and rather fussy and a......

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Life lately.....

So with the summer holidays it has pretty much been go go go but we have had moment of enjoying the little things and trying to slow down. I love having flowers in the home and this bouquet filled with sunflowers has been my favourite so far. I also found these amazing brogues in an Oxfam shop in Cardiff - brand new by Hush Puppies! I have been spending rainy days with the little man in Ikea getting Scandi inspiration for the home as well as making masks - good times all round...

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Old-fashioned hobbies making a comeback

Me rocking my knitted snood a few years back If you love nothing more than getting down to some serious crafting and whipping up something artistic, you're not alone! Craft is back, and with websites such as Craft Superstore providing materials and inspiration, the passion for creating something unique and personal is growing. Old-fashioned hobbies are making a massive comeback, so what have the practical and creative among you been up to of late and what can we learn from timeless pastimes? Let's find out! Knitting is a great way to be creative (Image via literallyinspired ) Knitting Once upon a time throwing clothes away was unimaginable. Shocking in fact. People simply didn't have the means to replace garments on a regular basis, so they'd learn to knit in a bid to mend and repair. These days, throwaway fashion is much more on trend, but the younger generation are picking up their knitting needles for fun and creating a wealth of quirky and u......

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Waldorf Inspired Crafts

Mr A with our Waldorf star hanging over our nature table I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client. I have been meaning to set more time aside for crafts, but as is life I always seem to run out of time. This week however I was determined to indulge in some simple and family-friendly paper crafts and with the little man starting Steiner Kindergarten soon it seemed only fitting to make a Waldorf/Steiner star above our nature table in our house. It's brings so much lovely colour into the kitchen and really brightens up the room. I thought some paper garlands would go well with the star and was inspired by two pins on my pinterest boards. The great thing is for both of these crafts you don't need anything special, we simply popped down to our local supermarket and picked up some tissue paper, natural jute string,  cardboard, PVA craft gl......

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