geography

to get lottie to grasp her place in the world, we made this "wheel of where?"

it taught her counties/countries/continents/solar system

xmas in february

we had our traditional 2nd xmas with the hove lot and i just had to post this photo of lottie and tom trying their hardest to pull a giant cracker (makes me laugh!)

we had a trailer trash theme...paper plates/bowls/cups, plastic cutlery and cola to drink

crochet snoods

a black one

a navy one

a pretty 1940's girly modelling one

i made these for ellie with my own fair hand and we are rather chuffed as they are £8 each on ebay (80p for wool from a charity shop and 68p for ribbons!)

a little late...

forgot to post this:

lottie made me a valentines

better than red roses anyday

a day of fame

lottie got mentioned and her card shown on one of her youtube subscribers vlogs

watch it here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qs0oKLg5idA

she's at 6.54mins

they have masses of subscribers so this was a big thing!

ellie also got mentioned on a youtube vlog:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwYzDPNFBss

AND

i sent an email to cath kidston with a design/product suggestion and they got back to me telling me they love it and are going to put it forward

woohoo!

happy valentines day

lottie made red velvet cupcakes with dc cupcakes' cream cheese frosting recipe...she scattered the heart sprinkles she got as a present this morning and added red edible glitter

topped with a heart-shaped sparkler

perfect pud to follow their venison in port

a surreal gain

introducing winston zeddemore churchill (pug/jack russell cross)

we had just been shopping at sainsburys after work, rang a taxi but it was late, a taxi from the same firm arrived dropping off a passenger so he said we might as well use him (so not the taxi we should have got), put our shopping in the boot and there is a very cute little puppy in his bed! taxi driver explains he got him from a client who had too many dogs and as his wife had been wanting a dog, decided to take him off her hands, taxi driver takes puppy home and wife explains she wants an older dog, so he is trying to get rid of him, taxi driver explains he has had all his first shots/has all food, toys, toothbrush with him/doesn't want any money for him/trusts us as he has taken us home quite a few times so we could have him if we wanted him...after much deliberation we decided yes

my mum who would be the biggest critic of this decision is away for 3 months so the timing is perfect/it will make our grumpy older dog used to other dogs/ellie had only been saying to a colleague that morning how much she'd like a puppy/and every year i hang 4 stockings on the fireplace yet we only have 3 pets

some things are just meant to be

memories (like the corners of my mind...)

17th january 1964, hong kong

what a beautiful couple...it all looks so 'mad men'...her bridesmaids wore tight fitting turquoise satin with kitten heel stilettos and all the men were dapper suited and smoking!

we went for a visit to my sister's today and got out my (now divorced) parents wedding album...i never kept mine as my ex-hubby and i never had children; but i think if a couple have kids it's good for them to see that their parents so loved each other, they made a declaration to the world and it was that environment that their children were brought into

as they were both in the army in hong kong, no relatives were present, so alongside the photos were telegrams from stella, h and rusty/eileen and walt/flo and donald....and cards from the relatives which made me cry; it has been over 25 years since i saw the hand written font of both my grannies

and both my girls noticed how much i sometimes look like my mum

i love ancestry!

unicorn poop cookies

lottie has been wanting to make these having seen a youtube tutorial

same recipe as play-do cookies (see old post) but make orange and purple food colour as well as the basic yellow, red, green, blue...so you have all rainbow colours....sprinkle edible glitter before baking

so called because unicorns poop rainbows with glitter!

kitchen cupboard art!

cake liners for flowers, green straws for stems, multipack of crisps wrapper for grass, ice cream cone box to cut out bees, cellophane from cereal liner for wings and roll up silver foil for the eye

we want to do art from food next!

best blueberry muffins

3oz butter, sugar, 1 egg, vanilla extract, 4oz sr flour and what i can assume was 100g of fresh blueberries (because it was a 200g pack and we'd used half already)

cream butter and sugar, add egg and vanilla, fold in flour and berries, bake 180c for 20mins

usborne art

we have been working from this book which is fabulous at breaking down styles and explaining how to make a reproduction

van gogh's starry night

lottie's starry night using acrylics dabbed on and paint mixing using water to spread the colours; front scenes from black paper stuck on top

degas' dancers

lottie's dancer on black paper using chalks and finger smudging

gung hay fat choy!

i was master of ceremonies for our celebrations (and it gave me the opportunity to dress up at work again)

good grief i look like my mother

our fortunes from cookies (as usual we all prefer lottie's at the bottom!)

a red day

for a fee toward charity we were allowed to dress up again today...anything pink/red/valentinesy

queen of hearts (obviously)

chinese new year

2013 is the year of the snake

lottie and her friend are both snakes having been born in 2001...we discovered they are obsessed with money and not bothered about having many friends (sooo true!)

a spiral snake made from a paper plate

good luck money wallets

lanterns from double sided papers

blossom branch

snakes from tp roll covered in patterned paper, cut into a spiral, tongue/eyes added and painted inside

paper plate hand drums

no technical interference

what with the bitter snap, we have been huddling round the fire of an evening and not watching tv

but reading

and knitting

and it's been lovely...has made us think about the worth of the tv service but i do enjoy a good documentary and hate watching programs on the pc so for now, we are still a tv house

brighton sealife centre

we went here because ellie and i got free entrance and lottie always gets in free because of her blue peter badge

enjoying the victorian architecture

and great lighting

lulu the turtle who weighs 26 stone

lottie feeding lulu iceberg lettuce (26 stone on iceberg lettuce??)

"under the sea"

they also got to stroke a starfish and watch one eating a mussel (must be french)

groundhog day

Groundhog day is celebrated on February 2 when a groundhog predicts the weather for the next 6 weeks...if it is a sunny day and the groundhog sees his shadow then it will remain winter for another 6 weeks. It's origins lie with the romans who believed that if an animal cast a shadow on Candlemas day, there will be 6 more weeks of winter. They brought this tradition to Europe when doing their conquering thing. The Scots even have a saying "if Candlemas day is bright and clear, there'll be two winters in the year". The earliest settlers in eastern USA were Germans and they brought this tradition to America and decided the groundhog was the most intelligent animal for the job. From the early 1800's people in Punxsutawny, Pennsylvania began to celebrate this event at a place outside town called 'gobblers knob' and it has been celebrated there ever since. The groundhog is called Phil and the inner circle of the groundhog club are the ones to release him from his burrow. They wear top hats and tails for such an important occasion.

lottie made punxsutawny phil from thumb printing

top hats for the inner circle 

where the event takes place

pennsylvania dutch potato doughnuts

phil just told lottie his weather prediction...

phil did not see his shadow signalling an early end to winter

we ate schnitzel with potatoes and corn and gravy followed by doughnuts; and drank spiced apple juice....we made the top hats to join the inner circle so we are privvy to hear phil's prediction...we also had to speak in german accents or be fined pennies