Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Christmas vests

A recurrent problem parents with older children have is, "Oh no, school want them to come in costume tomorrow!"

I thought we would be spared this for a few years, but no...Little E's nursery were having a Christmas party and the children were allowed to come in their favourite costume. Nursery kept reassuring us that they could dress Little E up if we didn't have anything...

Isn't it amazing, that you want to be laid back about these things, but that little voice inside your head starts saying, "What kind if mother are you? Your child doesn't even have a Christmas outfit for nursery!"

I did have some outfits for Little E, but they were for Christmas Day and there was a good chance anything he would wear at nursery would be filthy by the end of the day.

There are so many places to buy cute, cheap, festive outfits now, but I can't help feeling it is a waste of money for something that is probably going to be worn once.

So...I did this last minute.

I'd seen the phrase on serveral Christmas outfits for kids and stole it for my purposes!

Nursery were really lovely about the top. They had a face painter who then decorated him like a little Christmas pudding! I got lots of other positive comments from friends, which is always nice for me.

I think it goes to show how infrequently we make our own things now, which is a shame. I wonder, is it due to embarrassment? Are we worried our kids will be teased for their parents' shabby efforts? Luckily, Little E is too young to worry about this yet, but we shall certainly see what the future brings.

Until then, I will enjoy making him these simple things. I look back at my childhood and I did so much drawing and painting, until I hit my exams and I just didn't feel I had time for it anymore. I'm glad I can reclaim some of this back.

So...I made another one!

My learning points:

1) Place the design as high as possible. The writing on the Christmas pudding one tends to disappear under the waistband.

2) Fabric pens are definitely so much easier than the paint and gel pens I have used before, but still very tricky to write anything.

3) I tried to use an embroidery ring to tighten the fabric across and make it easier to draw, but I found pulling the vest over a cereal box easier.

I used these pens: 

And have a few more ideas for other vests. Needs to be something very simple that I can actually draw!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Christmas fun - scribbly snowflakes

At last! We are scribbling! This is something Little E has only just started doing at 14 months and I was so excited that I wanted to keep everything.

I see a lot of posts about creating memorable keepsakes with your little one. I think this is a bit odd. Isn't the best keepsake the spontaneous one that comes out of your little ones own imagination?

Also, have you tried? Most of the memorable keepsakes seem to involve perfect foot or handprints. These are then artfully decorated to become animals, etc, etc.

This will NEVER work with a one year old!

However, this does mean I am slowly collecting reams and reams of cute, but not very interesting scribbles.

I am now aware, I can't keep everything! However, I want to enjoy them for a while before I bin..I mean recycle them!

I like cutting out snowflakes to put up in our windows. I started doing it a few years ago, as I used to make tons as a kid and wanted to capture the magic again.

When I first started doing this, I just used to fold the paper up, cut out some bits and hang it up. Big E then said, "You know that snowflakes usually have radial 6-fold symmetry?" Er...no.

Big E then showed me how to fold my paper to create said symmetry and, I must admit, they started looking a lot more like snowflakes! Why had no one taught me this before?

So, I've been taking Little E's scribbles and turning them unto snowflakes for the windows. It's lovely to display them in a slightly different way over Christmas.

Here is what I do...

Step 1 - scribble!

Step 2- cut out a circle

Step 3 - fold in half

Step 4 - fold into sixths

Step 5 - cut your design

Step 6 - open!

Step 7 - display proudly!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Christmas thank you card

Our second Christmas with Little E has been and gone. Now for all those thank you cards...

Until Little E can write his own thank you cards, I will keep endeavouring to make creations for him.

At 14 months, we were finally scribbling! This has opened some easier (and less messy!) craft options.

Like this!

Getting Little E to scribble was becoming a real issue for me. It felt like all his little friends have been doing it for ages, while we were Ralph Wiggum at the back of the class eating our crayons. It's so hard not to compare your child to others, especially when all the books says they should be scribbling at 12 months. It didn't matter that Little E could walk by 11 months, throw a ball accurately and stack three cubes by 14 months, I was getting pretty paranoid about the lack of fine motor skills. I've seen lots of kids struggling with sensory processing problems and having to use specially designed writing tools to help them at school. I was already jumping 10 years ahead and wondering if this was the start of problems. Of course it's not, but I think most mums I know find it hard not to worry about the future.

So for months I'd been trying Little E on pencils and crayons with little success. He either nibbled on them or threw them around. At least he was having fun! I was pretty scared at the idea of giving him felt tips, but a friend suggested they are much easier for little kids to use.

So I bought these and they have been an instant success.

Unlike pencils and crayons, he doesn't need to press hard to make a mark. He was so excited and laughed to see the colours appear. They also wash out beautifully! Little E is very messy, so he had felt tip all over him, but it washed off him and his clothes with no effort.

I already had an idea for a card before we finally had scribbles to work with. I'd seen some cards on Pinterest, where you cut out holes in a top layer, so an image behind can appear through.

I thought it would be nice for Little E to "decorate" a Christmas tree for a thank you card. I bought the green card from the wonderful Pen to Paper in Headington (again) and set him to work.

I liked the idea of a simple shape of a Christmas tree, found a stencil online and cut it out. I placed it over the top of Little E's "drawing" and voila! I added the star, as it had some left over from another time and wrote the message underneath. Again, I took a photo and had this printed onto postcards.

Not bad.

So, that might be our last thank you card for a while! 12 months until Christmas and 9 months until his birthday. I'll go have a sit down and a cup of tea then. :)

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - thank you cards

Little E just turned one! We can't quite believe it.

Knowing we would need lots of thank you cards, I began to prepare. Again, what can you do sensibly with a 11 month old baby? It was going to have to be something finger painting related.

I'd seen lots of things were you mask out areas on a canvas, let your child loose and then reveal a design or message by removing the tape. I was pretty sure I could achieve this.

I got some advice online first. My plan was to put something on card, take a photo and then print copies on postcards via a service like Snapfish. People suggested using the best quality cardboard you could fine and the cheapest masking tape!

First stage: use you cheap masking tape to write your message.

Second stage: let your child loose with finger paints.

I was fortunate that early September was hot and beautiful, so I set things up outside. I was better prepared this time (see my blog about making a Father's Day t-shirt), but I still found the experience pretty stressful. Little E is on the move, so would play with the paint a bit and then try to crawl off. I struggled to find suitable finger paints, so we were using poster paints. Little E ate a lot and chewed the paint brushes! Trying to clear up with a clingy baby around your leg, was also difficult! I had to wait until nap time to really sort it out and frankly I needed a lie down by that point too!

However, I got some gorgeous photos at least and I was pleased with the final result.

Third stage: peel the tape away

I was very careful, but it still ripped a bit. Even cheaper masking tape next time?

Fourth stage: define the letters

As you can see, some do the letters aren't that visible, as Little E didn't manage to get that much paint in those areas. I decided to use a pen to draw round the letters. I needed to make sure it would show up when printed on a postcard.

Fifth stage: print onto a postcard.

We happen to use Snapfish, but use whatever service you like best. We were really pleased with the final result. Even clearer then we hoped.

Everyone is pretty impressed and it was a nice to write special thank you cards for a special birthday.

Cake decorating - Game of Thrones

Last year I was on maternity leave during Big E's birthday. I decided I had time to properly decorate a cake. I was also thinking I better start developing some cake skills for the little one I was about to have. My mother-in-law was a master at the children's birthday cake, so I had a lot to live up to!

At the time we were obsessed with Breaking Bad, so I made a BB themed cake. I'll post a photo at the bottom.

I was pleased with the result and people still remember it, so I thought I better step up this year!

This year...Game of Thrones is our new passion.

Like everything I do, I just want to do it quickly! I don't have the patience to spend two hours crafting icing. I also don't have the skills and I'm not that bothered about it being that good. I just want it to make people smile and be fun to make.

There were loads of ideas on Pinterest - cake pops decorated as severed heads, coats of arms made out of marzipan, etc, but quite a few people had cakes which were treasure chests with Dynareous' three dragon eggs. I know people who have made similar cakes, so I went down that line, especially as we have a really delicious cake recipe that is baked in a loaf tin.

There was some amazing treasure chests online, but I wanted the cheat's version! I looked up "how to make a pirate chest" on YouTube and got some really simple ideas of how to fake it.

Step 1 - Make a cake

We have a great one by Nigella Lawson - Quadruple Chocolate Loaf Cake. It is from her Feast book in the "chocolate hall of fame" section. Bung all the ingredients into a mixer and then bake it. It's delicious.

Step 2 - Make cake into a treasure chest

My first idea to make a chest was to cut a square out of the top of the cake, so that was then a hole to fill with "sand" and the dragon eggs. I'd seen this when people had designed cakes that look like baths. However, I was worried I would make the cake and then ruin it by trying to cut out the required amount.

I looked around and lots of people suggested using KitKats to make a treasure chest. Sounded like the perfect, easy option I was looking for! If the KitKats were taller than the cake this then made an artificial space to fill.

As you can see, I trimmed down the original cake so the KitKats were taller. I also cut off the ends of the cake, so it was exactly the length of two KitKat bars

I melted a bit of chocolate, which I then painted onto the cake and KitKats. This solidified and held them in the place.

I then dipped chocolate fingers in the melted chocolate and put them at the corners to fill the gaps.

Step 3 - Make the dragon eggs

There are some amazing GoT dragon eggs out there! I have no idea how some people are so patient. I decided that I would buy chocolate eggs and then wrap them in icing. That way I would get a perfect egg shape, without the hard work.

I thought there would be more options around, but lots of the chocolate eggs I had thought I could use were not available outside the Easter period.

Only one option then...Kinder eggs! I thought this would be a fun extra to use.

I didn't want to make my own icing. I knew I needed three colours for the three dragons and fortunately Dr Oetker had a box of different colours that suited my needs. They came in small amounts too and were really easy to work. I rolled the icing out and wrapped the Kinder eggs up. I then took a cocktail stick and drew "dragon scales" on.

Step 4 - Put it all together

On the TV series, it looks like the eggs are lying in sand. I crushed up digestive biscuits and sprinkled this in the cavity to make a bed for the eggs to lie in. Then I placed the eggs on top, added some candles and....voila!

I did have a plan to use more of the yellow icing to make details on the treasure chest, but I was so pleased with myself I didn't want to ruin it! I decided best not to spoil it with fiddly bits I couldn't manage!

Big E loved it! It was fun eating it too!

This was Breaking Bad last year...

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - tie birthday card

The quest continues to make various things with Little E, but it's hard when he is only 11 months. I gave him a crayon to see if he would scribble something, but he ate it. A few minutes later we had purple vomit!

Fortunately, Little E started nursery about a month ago and his "paintings" have been coming home with him. I'm sure people are less squeamish than me, but I really can't bear the thought of an under one year old with paint in my house! Thank goodness for nursery with their wipe clean surfaces!

I saw lots of homemade tie shirts for Father's Day and was sure I could use one of Little E's finger paintings to make it.

First I need a good tutorial, as always and found this one very helpful.

http://thismummy.com/diy-shirt-and-tie-card-for-dad/

I used a very similar finger painting above, which was brown and gold, so I bought some A4 gold paper from Pen to Paper Summertown. I downloaded an image of a tie and used that to cut out the shape, as I didn't trust myself to do it by hand.

Problems I encountered:

1) I realised too late that the card I had bought was only gold on one side. It was white on the other. When I folded the card back, of course it made the "shirt" have a white collar. However, big E has a few colourful shirts with white collars and cuffs to contrast, so it didn't matter.

2) The tutorial was for a card in a different size to mine. I had to fiddle about a bit to get the collar to fold together properly. As ever, as I am a bit slap dash, I could have cut away too much card, so just be warned!

Apart from that, it was easy peasy! See the finished result below.

Big E really likes it and it is a way to preserve these early paintings without having to keep piles of paper.

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - jar lid toy

This was another project that we were told about at one of my baby clubs. We were creating a variety of "treasures" for our babies.

Simply take a clean metal lid and stick something inside. We used double sided sticky tape on the day and put in pictures cut from magazines such as flowers and faces.

I had some photos lurking about, that don't fit into any of my frames. I thought it would be fun for Little E to have some family photos for him to keep. I used the lids to draw around the faces I wanted to cut out. The great thing was, I then didn't need any sticky tape, as the photos just clipped into place. Little E has chucked them all over the place and never been able to dislodge them.

I just have three at the moment, but I thought it would be fun in the future to make more for Little E to play with as a guessing game. Flip them over and match the grandparents, etc. :)

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - tote bag

I was given this beautiful fabric for Little E's naming day.

Oh the agony! Being given something so beautiful and having no idea what to do with it. Even if I did think of something to make, what if I made a mistake and spoilt it?

People came up with lots of ideas (cushions, wall hanging, etc), but I really wanted it to be something Little E needed. I borrowed some great books from a friend, which had loads of ideas, but most beyond my skill level!

I decided to be patient and wait and see if anything inspired me.

Then Little E started nursery. He needs a light bag to carry a few things, such as his dummies and sleeping bag. He has a little peg to call his own to hang it on. I was sure I could make a bag!

The books above had loads of different bag patterns, but I needed something idiot proof and a tote bag seemed the simplest to make. I found the instructions confusing in the books, mainly because I am not familiar with the different terms. As before, I found a step by step video guide much more helpful.

I looked at several on YouTube, but Stitched Up appealed the most to me.

http://youtu.be/Tquel2JFTXk

I thought this video was great. Really easy to see and hear. Nice and simple. I don't have a sewing machine, but I had no problems stitching everything by hand. I used a running stitch, mainly because it is one I can do (!), but also because it looks neat.

I was hoping to be able to cut off some of the polka dot border to make the straps, but there wasn't enough fabric. I could have tried to make a smaller tote, but it started getting complicated and I was at risk of cutting off some of the pictures. In the end, I used all the fabric I had to make the body of the bag and a good friend of mine let me rummage through her fabric bag to find something for the handles.

And... Ta dah!

I'm pretty pleased and it feels pretty sturdy, however I wouldn't trust my stitching to carry my shopping home!

The fabric pattern doesn't quite work with the bad design, as on the other side, the caterpillar is upside down...

...but I'm not too bothered. The patterns in the books that I saw always had the most amazing fabrics that worked with their design perfectly, but of course most of the time we have to make do with what we have.

Really quiet chuffed with myself. Hope it doesn't fall apart at nursery!

Baby tips - Muslins are your new best friend

We're on the bus into town to enjoy the "beach" (glorified sandpit) at Oxford Castle when the terror seizes me. I've forgotten Little E's hat! He's going to get burnt in the sun, get skin cancer and die!

I suddenly remember that I had seen a mum who had tied a muslin around her baby's head into a cute bandana. I always have a pile of muslins with me, as I find them so useful. To my surprise, Big E calmly showed me how to tie one. Very gangsta...or pirate as most of my friends pointed out.

It got me thinking how amazing muslins are and how many things I use them for.

1) An instant hat! - There are videos on YouTube if you don't know how. I didn't! Basically fold the muslin into a triangle and tie it on.

2) As a sunshade and "nap time" indicator on the pram - Seen lots of people struggling with inbuilt shades and umbrella on their pram. I just dangled a muslin over the edge to provide extra or full coverage. A couple of clothes pegs hold it in place. When I was teaching Little E to nap, we would always draw the curtains in his room and I repeated this with his pram by "drawing" his muslin. It worked really well for Little E as he was sometimes so busy looking at things he couldn't sleep. It still works really well now that he is 9 months,

3) Blanket - If nothing else was available, I tucked in a muslin around him to keep Little E warm, especially if I had forgotten a hat. Once I tucked a muslin into the hood of his coat to add some extra padding. It also works well for keeping the sun off his feet when he is sleeping.

4) Photo prop

Sometimes a brightly coloured muslin is just there at the right time! I swear I didn't set this shot up. I just popped Little E down on his mat and he happened to be on top of a red muslin. My sister bought me a pack of beautiful coloured muslins when Little E was born. They are wonderful and have added gorgeous flashes of colour to our photos. I've always tried to choose colourful muslins since.

5) Mopping up sick - had to be in there somewhere!

6) Bib - Again, another mummy inspired me. I saw a friend of mine wrap an old muslin around her 3 year old to protect him from his lunch. We were starting to wean Little E and I was considering all the different options for bibs. Someone else I would have to buy and carry...sigh...was what I was thinking, but bunging a muslin around him, which I was carrying anyway sounded great.

Pros - large surface area covered, have one in bag anyway, take up very little space, light

Cons - get filthy (I only use cheap muslins now as the stains can be so hard to get out), juice can leak through to clothes

Er...and I think that is my list.

My favourite muslins were a gift from my sister. They are gorgeous bright colours, super soft and have lasted 9 months of punishment. They are from Faye and Lou. I love them! Problem - they are very expensive. £28 for a pack of 7. I don't think I would have bought them for myself, but I would definitely consider them as a gift for any of my friends due a baby.

I got a cheap pack of five from Sainsburys, which are doing well. Really big, but only in grey and white. 2 of them have a funky star print though, so I really like them. Worth trying I think. I also have some nice ones from Marks and Spencers. No idea how much they cost, as they were a gift, but jazzy colours and very soft despite so much use. I was very disappointed with a pack I bought form Mothercare. Rough and nasty within one use, so they are the designated bibs! At least they are in fun colours.

If your baby was like mine and threw up a lot, I'd definitely invest in some nice muslins. They are worth the money.

I'll finish with a question. What do you use your muslins for? Always looking for new ideas!

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - decorating baby vests

We have been so lucky to receive so many gifts and hand-me-downs for Little E. I don't think I had to buy him any clothes for the first 6 months!

The most recent batch was a huge bag of long sleeved vests. We are sorted until Little E is about 3 with this lot! A small selection below.

My friend is an artist and she had decorated some of the vests. Her son went through a phase where he refused to wear anything plain, so she used fabric pens to draw various designs.

She apologised for some of the vests being a bit grubby, but her Little L is a rough, tough little boy! I didn't care, but I thought it would be nice to be inspired by my friend and jazz the vests up a little.

I sorted all the vests out and had five in 18-24m. Big E is obsessed with his day of the week socks, so I thought it would be fun for his son to be in day of the week vests.

First step was to get some fabric pens. I went to Pen to Paper in Headington (great shop!) and they had several options. I didn't know what would be best, so I tried to choose a pack with lots of colours that I liked.

These are what I ended up with. I'm quite pleased with them, but they are not that easy to use. As you draw, you have to squeeze the paint out, rather than being more like a marker pen, which was what I was expecting. However, they dry in 5 hours and you don't have to heat seal them, so they are ready to go immediately. I have washed a t-shirt I used the pens on and the design has stuck beautifully. I like the way, if you get things right, you can create a shiny ridge of paint, which is nicely textured.

So, here are my day of the week vests:

I started with Monday. As usual, I lacked confidence in my abilities and decided to use stencils to write out the words. This was quite hard with the pens I used, as the pain could ooze under the plastic and run a bit. It also meant you had to do one letter at a time, as you had to wait for the paint to dry before you could put the stencil back on top. By the time I got to Thursday and Friday, I was doing it by hand and actually it was really easy and I was pleased with how it looked.

Tips: I put a cereal box inside the vests. This gave me a surface to work on and pinned the vest down. It also stopped the paint soaking through to the back of the vest.

For each day of the week, I wanted a simple motif to explain where the name came from. Any excuse to squeeze in a bit of education! "Moon-day" made sense to be in blue with a simple circle. Again, I used a stencil for the blue moon, but when I did Sun-day I found it was easier to do it by hand. It was good I chose very simple motifs, as the most complicated design was the tree Yggdrasil for Woden's-Day and with my gel fabric pens it was pretty hard. If I can find fabric pens more like markers, I think it will be easier to draw something more elaborate.

As usual, I'm pretty slap-dash, so a couple of times, I didn't line the letters quite centrally, so I would use the motif to even up the design.

So, overall I'm pretty pleased. They turned out much smarter than I thought they would and I won't be ashamed to put Little E in them. They will probably be under a nice t-shirt anyway!

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - 1st Father's Day

I wanted to make something personal for Big E for his first Father's Day. Like a lot of men, he's pretty resistant to buying new clothes. He cycles to work and has a selection of very old and tatty t-shirts that he wears before he gets changed into his workwear. 

His collection includes ones that have acid stains/holes from his time in a chemistry lab and two flu vaccine marketing t-shirts that he loves dearly.

So, if he is willing to wear this tat, I assumed he would wear something me and Little E could make him. I was pretty certain I could decorate a t-shirt somehow and since it would just be for cycling, Big E would probably wear it.

My first step was to purchase a cheap t-shirt. I looked around and eventually got a plain white one from George at Asda. £5 and it feels pretty good quality. Time will tell!

I got fabric paint from Unique Creations in Summertown - a great little shop for these things - and was planning to use some fabric pens I had already bought from Pen to Paper in Headington (a subject of a blog to come and another super shop).

There is lots of inspiration online, but I had a horrible suspicion mine would turn out nothing like their photos. Perfectly printed feet from an 8 month old? Unlikely... So I decided I would write on the front and then let Little E "freestyle" on the back and see what happened!

Ideally I wanted to complete this task outside. I was terrified of getting paint on everything. Of course May/June can be temperamental in Britain, so I tried to plan ahead. I managed to write on the front of the t-shirt one day while Big E was at work. It needed 5 hours to dry, so I needed to have a day where I could get the task done in the morning and then pack it away later.

Then the rain came... It ideally needed to be hot and sunny, so I could have Little E in only his nappy, but time was running out!

Finally, a nice day came and I rushed out to complete my task. Unfortunately, this meant I was pretty ill prepared. I had laid out an old table cloth and the t-shirt, but the wind kept catching both of them. Eric was in a bad mood and not keen to help. Worst of all, once I coated him in paint, I didn't have a good way to clean him up! Uh oh... I managed to bundle him up, get him upstairs and into the bathroom to clean him off. I had to resort to a bath in the end, because the wet wipes weren't cutting the mustard. Fortunately, it all scrubbed out of the bath with no trace.

So, as I expected, the back of the t-shirt is a mess, but it is a mess "composed" by our little one. I got one pretty decent handprint.

The big day has been and gone. Good news...Big E loves the t-shirt. I think anything our little ones "make" for us melts our hearts. He is wearing it to work today.

I think I bit off more than I could chew with an 8 month old. Hopefully next year I can give Little E some fabric pens and let him scribble away.

If you do decide to use fabric paint, I think the key is to do a lot more preparation than me. Pin the t-shirt down, have something between the t-shirt layers (the paint soaked through to the front in places) and, most importantly, something to clean your baby up outside!

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - CD toy

I hate wasting money and when Little E was only a few months I was struggling to think of toys that he would want to play with. His motor skills, etc were not up to much and the best thing for him was to lie on his playmat staring and touching things hanging above. I was lucky that a friend had let us borrow her baby gym, so I had something to start with.

A lot of my friends had new baby gyms and they all came with so many lovely things. I couldn't seem to buy many of the toys separately and those I could were pretty pricey. There were plenty of gorgeous toys we had received as gifts that Little E had no interest in, so I didn't want to buy things he wouldn't play with.

Upcycling to the rescue!

I go to a really good baby group in Marston and they are always showing us how to make simple things for our babies. Perfect for my level of skill, i.e next to none!

One day they showed us how you can stick two CDs together with pritt stick. Who knew?! I assumed you would need special glue to do this.

So, to make my new toy I used:

2 unwanted CDs (marketing)

Pritt stick

Leftover ribbon from a present

Lindt bunny ribbon with bell

I was worried about how baby safe it would be, but loads of babies have played and sucked on this with no incidents yet. They all love it. It glitters and shines, jingles and is easy to hold.

I brought home the one I made in my group. We had stuck on glitter and tissue paper (again with pritt stick). There was glitter everywhere! Seriously, it looked like Tinkerbell had moved in. Little E also had little problem tearing the paper off. I think I will store that idea away for when he is older and we can decorate a CD together.

I'm so glad I made it. Little E is now sitting confidently at 8 months and has little interest in his baby gym. If I had bought him toys it would have been a lot of money for a very small period of time. He might come back to his gym, but I suspect not.

Days out in Yorkshire - Malton Food Lovers Festival

Little E is not very little. At 8 months he is 11kg (24 pounds) and heavier than some of my friends' toddlers. He is very difficult to carry for long periods, even in our Baby Bjorn Miracle (which is only rated up to 12kg!), so we are always looking for places we can push a pram around.

For the last two years we have happened to be around in York when the Malton Food Lovers Festival has been on. It's amazing and we wanted to go again while visiting family, but we couldn't remember how well it would work with a pram.

Good news! It was simples with a pram. In the whole area we only had one step to navigate. Amazing when there are over 160 stalls spread over several squares. We can come every year now!

As I took this photo, we suddenly realised we had forgotten to bring any food for Little E. Not ideal with a weaning baby. Fortunately, there was so much good food we had no problem finding something for him. Sausage rolls went down a treat! The adults enjoyed them too.

So, if you are around Malton at the end of May and looking for a day out with a baby, I would definitely recommend this food festival. Most of the stalls are food (rather than crafts) and they are all bloomin' amazing. We have just found out there is a smaller event every month as well. Ask Mr Google for details.

Days out in Oxford - Hinksey Pool

I had to take the car for a service. What can you do with a 7 month old for 5 hours while you wait for your car?

Fortunately, Hinksey Outdoor Pool is down the road from the garage, so I ordered good weather and packed up my gear.

I love Hinksey Outdoor Pool, but would it work with my little one?

So, I arrived at about 10 on a Monday morning in May. Despite the glorious weather, the place was pretty empty. The last time I went it was a weekend and rammed!

First problem I spotted for my little one...where was the shade? I hadn't remember the space being so open. There were a few trees around the periphery, but the sun was so high they barely cast any shadow. I spotted one bench in the shade and set up camp there. The bench was pretty comfortable to breastfeed on, so that was a bonus.

I felt so sorry as other families arrived and mournfully eyed up my little patch of shade. It wasn't even big enough to share and rapidly disappearing as the sun rose higher and higher.

My friend arrived and we decamped to the only other piece of shade we could see - by the fence near the cafe. It wasn't very picturesque (the recycling pile was outside), a bit noisy (the fan from the cafe) and smelt of chips (from the fan!), but our bubs (7 and 8 months) were in the shade and we were happy.

Also important for new mums, the cafe serves a pretty good cup of coffee for £1.50. Caffeine and sugar, how do I manage without you? Nothing appropriate for weaning babes though, so pack a picnic.

Next, the pool. Little E was not in the best of moods that day (I think mixture of a runny nose and big developmental surge), but I took him into the water twice for a paddle. There are some water features that spray water, which he was pretty fascinated by. The sloping "beach" effect of the pool meant it was easy to help him "walk" into the water and he started experimenting with stamping his feet. I was hoping to take him into the water a bit more, but despite it being heated, it was pretty cold and Little E didn't look that happy. Another day perhaps.

People are probably not as dim as me, but I leant an important lesson about swimming nappies - they leak. I had heard that their only role was to...ahem...contain solids, but I was hoping to not have to keep changing Little E in and out of his wetsuit. I put him in his swimming nappy, a happy nappy and then his wetsuit, but realised later wee was dribbling down his leg. The pram and my friend's sarong had damp patches. Ewww!

Despite the problems with shade, it was lovely sitting on the grass with our babes, chatting and having a picnic. I even got a swim while Little E was napping. Before I knew it, it was 4pm and the car was ready. Perfect.

I won't add details about Hinksey Pool here. The links and information will change, so just ask Mr Google nicely for opening times, etc.

So, I had a lovely day at Hinksey and can't wait to go again. However, I need to invest in a big umbrella or tent to keep me and Little E from burning. I suggest you do the same!

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - Sock monkeys

Drunk on the success of socktopus (http://moxblox.blogspot.co.uk/2014/05/crafting-by-not-very-crafty-mum-behold.html) I needed a new challenge. I decided I should go for it and try to do some sewing.

Problem is, I haven't done any serious sewing since I was 14 when I was in textiles class making a bean bag snake. 14 was a long time ago...

So, why now?

Essentially, I love Little E very much, but being a mum can be very boring. When he was under 5 months he often just wanted me to be around, but wasn't interacting much. There were only so many useful things I could do with an iPad, so finding crafty projects was perfect for me. I could sit with him, whilst doing something stimulating for me without the GUILT, because I was making something for him. The extra bonus was he seemed fascinated by watching me sewing.

Why did I feel guilty? That's a whole other blog post, but don't most mums feel guilty for doing something for themselves?

Pinterest to the rescue! Seriously, what did people do before this interweb thing?

http://craft-with-confidence.blogspot.co.uk/2010/10/sock-monkey-tutorial.html

This is a great tutorial for how to make a sock monkey with step by step pictures. As I've said, I am rubbish at making stuff, but this was enough of a challenge without me throwing down my pins in tears.

I don't have a sewing machine, so I did everything by hand. More time consuming, but not hard. I also tried not to buy anything again. I used up old socks that I didn't want to have to darn and ribbons/buttons I had collected. In the tutorial she stitches the nostrils and mouth, but I wasn't confident I could do this, so I used a laundry pen to draw them.

With my first attempt, I filled the monkey with chickpeas, as I thought Little E would like the textures. They don't give a very good monkey shape, but it is satisfyingly heavy. The legs are very uneven as I was so convinced I was going to fail that I didn't measure anything.

I think you can agree, my second attempt is much more like a monkey. I thought the pattern of the socks made a nice mouth and I like the "winking" button eyes. He is stuffed with one of Big E's old shirts that I ripped into rags.

To be honest, Little E is not really interested in them, but my friends love them. A few people even want me to make them one! I see an army of monkeys on the way.

Crafting by a not very crafty mum - Behold socktopus!

When Little E was about 4 months we went through a phase where I couldn't leave the room without him screaming. I was going to be the tough mum who taught my child to be self reliant, but guess how long that lasted?

As long as I sat in the living room with him, he would play around on his mat happily. There was only so many useful things I could achieve with just my iPad, so it got me thinking about making things for him. 

I used to love making things. I'd spend hours drawing, painting plaster casts, messing around with play dough, but slowly it all stopped. Adult life got in the way. I had plans to take drawing classes, etc, when I finished university, but never got around to it. I'd always hoped having a baby would give me the "excuse" to unleash my creative side again.

I like this stuff, but essentially I'm a bit rubbish at it and too impatient, so I need quick and easy projects. A lot of craft projects I found were too intimidating. If this sounds like you, read on!

A couple of pairs of my favourite socks wore through. I hate darning them and they just end up wearing through again, so I thought there must be something I can do with them. A no sew option preferably.

Pinterest is a great resource and this is where I found Socktopus!

http://thehatched.wordpress.com/2012/08/07/socktopus/

The instructions here are very clear and I had no problems following them. I like to think I'm pretty environmentally friendly, so I tried not to buy anything to make my socktopus. I put the sock with the hole inside the other with some worn out baby socks to make the head. I have tried to keep as many ribbons from presents and had one that matched the socks to tie around to finish the head. I had samples of curtains that I had kept to make the eyes. All I had to buy was the fabric glue.

As I said, I have no idea what I am doing! I went to my local craft shop and checked out all the fabric glues. I bought the cheapest (UHU The All Purpose Adhesive) and I am pleased. We used it to fix my Big E's mobile phone case as well, so a good purchase.

And this is my socktopus. Nailed it?

Most people love him and Little E has fun pulling on the legs and enjoys me tickling his face. I hope it will be fun in future to throw around as a ball with streamers.

And yes...there are 8 legs.