A Very Yellow Birthday Party

And this year, the theme was The Minions.

I started writing this blog around this time last year when I was preparing for The Little One's first birthday party. At the time she loved Elmo and so I ended up making an Elmo garland, Elmo masks, Elmo place names and an Elmo cake. I loved making everything, and I think they looked pretty good.

Life is a bit busier these days and so the internet has helped out quite a bit with the decorating. Also, there's a great deal of Minions stuff online, whereas Elmo was a bit rare...or expensive.

This year, I ordered a tonne of stuff from the website Puffin Party - all very reasonable and it all arrived very quickly. I bought so much stuff (don't tell the Other Half!). Plates, tablecloth, straws, invites etc. but I also bought some plain yellow decorations, just so that I could do some crafting, and feel like I've contributed something.

This year, the to-do list was shorter, which meant a less stressed out Mummy. Yay! 

So, I decorated a few cups with some Minion-style glasses, as well as decorating the jug filled with orange squash, with larger versions of the same glasses. I forgot to take close-up photos, but you can just about see them here:

I also decorated the main cake as well as a gazillion fairy cakes in (sickly sweet!) yellow icing, to vaguely resemble the Minions. The Little One knew where I was going with this, so that's all that matters:

And here are a few more photos from the weekend. It was a lot of fun, and I loved seeing the Little One's face this year - she gets it now and it made it so much better. She was able to open her presents and appreciate the balloons and decorations a bit more. Her favourite part though...bursting the balloons! What a nutter.

Happy second birthday my lovely girl, I hope you had the best day! xx

This made me smile...

I was doing my Christmas shopping in M&S the other day and this made me smile...

Definitely feeling this at the moment. 

Motherhood

Unmumsy Mum. Selfish Mother. Mother of Daughters.

I honestly think I have a girl crush on all of them. They're honest. And real. And don't have pinterest perfect lives. They struggle. They cry. They lose their temper. And occasionally swear in front of their kids.

And they're fine. Their kids are fine. They are all bloody brilliant.

Butter wouldn't melt

I'm aware that they do get a lot of stick in the media for not being the perfect mummy, but I honestly couldn't have survived these last two years without their blogs/social media. They make me feel normal. I have no idea what I'm doing and am well and truly winging this whole motherhood thing. But to see that everyone else is also struggling and having a few bad days, well, that makes me feel brilliant.

Some days I paint my daughter's hands and feet and don't care about the mess on the kitchen floor. Some days we go for a stroll in the park and spend hours (ahem, 20 minutes...) playing with the leaves and stones. Some days she's a knobhead.

And that's ok.

I love My Little One more than I ever thought I could, and some days are well and truly perfect. But, honestly? They're rare. Most days are full of tantrums, tears, shouting, bogies, poo poos, wee wees, soggy crisps, Teletubbies, Bing (don't get me started on that tiny little idiot...), bribes, promises and wine. Lots and lots of wine.

But even in this day and age, it's not always acceptable to talk like this.

I have maybe 3 other mums I can talk openly to about this stuff. But, as for the other mums...I, shall we say, bend the truth...

"Oh I absolutely love reading to The Little One at bedtime."

"I made fresh homemade gluten free pizza with no added salt over the weekend and The Little One ate it all." 

Bull. Shit.

I know some mums are born to be mums, and fair play to them. Those mums who have their pinterest perfect lives, and who are honest about it - go ahead. But don't lie. No one cares if you gave your Little One fish fingers every night last week. They're still alive. Doing fine. And love you for it!

I love talking to my 3 honest mum friends. Two are colleagues of mine. I'd never even spoken to them until we'd all had our Little Ones, and now that's all we talk about. But, to begin with, we were all a bit shy about it all. Until, one day, I blurted out that My Little One had been a right twat on my day off, that I was knackered, and was planning a day of annual leave and sending The Little One to nursery. Gasp. Horror...nope. They looked at me and smiled. They were both struggling. They both needed a day off. And so they both had one. With all the Little Ones happily playing at their respective nurseries. 

And as for my third Mum Friend. Well, she's simply the best. I met her at my very first baby group, roughly two months after giving birth. It was a baby sensory class on the other end of town at 11:00. Boy, was I proud of even showing up! We bumped into each other in the church hall lobby and panic rose in us as we saw a baby class mid-way through. Had we missed it? But we're here, on time, clean (ish) and the babies are quiet (ish).

Fortunately, we hadn't missed our class as it was an earlier one for the older kids. But this moment of panic cemented our friendship. We hit it off straight away and have been inseparable for the last two years. We're brutally honest with each other and that's how we like it. That's how we survived the last two years.

Let's be honest ladies. Our Little Ones are well and truly awesome, until they're not. And then they're little knobheads.

Let's be honest. Let's tell it how it is. Let's do more than survive and try to enjoy this motherhood malarkey together.

Now, pass me the wine. And chocolate. Oh, and those doritos. Yum.

Cross stitch

I've always been pretty rubbish at sitting and doing nothing. But sometimes, I have zero energy and happily collapse on the sofa after a day at work. But then, I fidget and get bored.

So now I happily watch telly with the other half, but am also either doodling or doing some cross stitch.

I always thought of cross stitch as a bit old fashioned, but with everyone jumping on the knitting/crocheting band wagon in recent years, I thought I'd give this a go.

I bought a kit online and am happily working my way through the pattern. The intention was to display this, once finished, in my daughter's nursery. She is now almost 2. Hmmm...

However, slowly but surely I'm getting there, and enjoying the process.

UPDATE: I've finished it! It's not quite hanging on the wall...but it is in a frame. In the nursery. 

A photo a week

Well, it's been a while. A long while. Sorry about that.

Living with a toddler is crazy. Awesome, but oh so manic. But, I have been crafting and doodling and trying new things, and I'd love to share it all with you.

But, just to get me back in the blogging frame of mind, here's a post I drafted almost 6 months ago, and never got round to posting...



I take a million photos. Every day. Well, not quite, but I do take a lot. So much so that the Other Half bought me a phone with extra storage so that I'd stop moaning.

However, I very rarely print any of my photos. So, a couple of years ago I decided to print a photo a week. I try to choose abstract things without people in them, and I love the way they look in my scrapbook.

It's lovely looking back and being able to remember a particular week just by the photo. I'm a little bit behind at the moment, but plan on printing a bunch of photos over the next few weeks. 

There might be quite a few with a crazy toddler in them these days, though...!

And just like that, I'm back. Please bear with me, and my very tired brain/body!

Woven Wall Hanging

I made a loom. A working loom. Myself. I've never been prouder. Ha - small victories ay?

I spent a couple of hours in the garden (fricking freezing, by the way), hammering nails into a spare piece of wood I found in the shed.

I measured them a couple of centimetres apart so I had enough room to work with the yarn. And as I wasn't sure that this would even work, I only used a small piece of wood. 

However, it did work. Fantastically well. It was really easy to do, very therapeutic and for my first go, the end product was better than I expected, and is now proudly hanging on my bedroom wall.

And the best tip, without a doubt, was to use a fork. I know, weird right? But it made it so much easier to weave the yarn over and under, without getting tangled.

I started off with the pink fork on the right, but quickly changed to the one on the left, as the ridge between the plastic on metal on the first fork made it more difficult.

God. I never thought I'd be talking about the best fork to use. To weave.

All you need is an old piece of wood, a hammer, some nails and yarn - you can use one colour throughout or mix it up. I did my first piece using yarn that changed colour throughout, so it looked more impressive than it actually is. ;-)

Since the Little One has come along, I find it difficult to make time for 'real' crafts, as oppose to doodling while watching television, and so this felt like a real treat.

I thoroughly enjoyed the process, and would love to have a go at making something bigger and more complex.

Let me know how it goes for you.

Scrapbooking

I've always loved flicking through magazines, and inevitably come across a few inspiring sayings. For years I did nothing about them, and then I decided I could create a scrapbook of my favourite quotes, inspiring images and anything else that took my fancy.

I bought a plain book from Paperchase (oh, how I love thee Paperchase!), collected all my clippings and went for it.

I seem to always be cutting bits of paper out of magazines, flyers etc. and always have a pile of cuttings around the house. And then, every few weeks or months, I create a page. 

My current scrapbook has been ongoing for about a year and I'm not even half way through the book yet.

Some pages are happy and inspiring. Others are a bit darker. It's a bit like a visual diary. And somewhere for me to put my feelings on paper, while also doing a bit of crafting. Win-win!

What do you reckon - would you have a go? Or have you already?

Colour

Another splash of colour. 

I love our bookcase since I put all the books in order of colour.

Happy Hump Day everyone!

Colour

A little late, but in the correct week at least. 

With home buying complications and busy days at work, I'm proud for getting something out to you all!

A splash of colour to brighten your day!

Doodling

As promised, here are some of my doodles.

The Other Half, as supportive as he is in other aspects of my life, has zero interest in me and my doodles. He doesn't see the point. Which is exactly the point.

Doodling is therapeutic. Is something to do. Sometimes, it's the only chance I have to be creative, especially since the Little One came along. 

It calms me down after a long day, and keeps me from slumping on the sofa watching repeats and falling asleep every evening.

They might not be great, or authentic, or super creative. But I enjoy it. And that's the main thing.

Anyone else love a good doodle? Or maybe you do something else that's creative to wind down and relax?

Cards

It was always a great way to pass the time as children, especially in school. Making cards - Mother's Day. Father's Day. Easter. And the rest.

But for years as an adult, I have bought all my cards.

Until a few months ago, when I thought I'd have a go at making some myself. I'm always doodling (I'll share some photos soon), so I thought I'd go down that route, instead of cutting and gluing paper.

I chose simple designs, often only choosing a couple of main colours, stuck the design onto a piece of card using (what I just googled) foam mounting squares to give the card some life, and sometimes chose to add a few tiny little diamonds I had in a drawer. As you do.

With a few Welsh ones thrown in for good measure. 

People (aka friend and family) have been pretty complimentary about them. But to be honest, I find it quite therapeutic to doodle so was happy to do it. And I saved a few quid!