Crafting by not a very crafty mum - sensory bottle

Ooh...shiny

Sensory bottles or calm down bottles was something that kept appearing on my Pinterest. I wasn't sure how easy they would be, so kept pinning, but not doing.

Then, I received a lovely Christmas card from my parents. It was decorated with a bauble filled with glitter. I thought what a shame that the glitter would go in the bin, but then kept the card in case I could reuse the glitter.

When inspiration suddenly arrived - a galaxy themed sensory bottle with star glitter. Perfect!

I looked up a few tutorials and had a go.

I used a bottle of baby oil, a Voss water bottle, tap water, star glitter from the card and some leftover blue glitter I had. I tried to buy blue food colouring too, but it didn't arrive in time.

Bung them all in and hey presto. I wished the oil mixed better. Any scientists out there with suggestions? Other blogs suggest hair oil or corn syrup, so might try that in future.

Sadly, I can't seem to post any pictures to my blog. I'll keep trying!

New baby, new me?

I'm not one for new year's resolutions. If I want to make a change, I try to do it in the here and now. Why wait?

But I've been thinking of sharing my ideas and the surprise arrival of baby number 2 (our Little A came 5 weeks early) has prompted me to write.

Basically, I want to try to live more sustainably. I do all the usual things - recycle, careful with water and energy use, check out charity shops/secondhand for clothes/toys/books, etc. I get irritated with articles that tell me to only boil the water I need each time. I know! Tell me something new!

But suddenly, there is something new. Zero plastic and zero waste blogs keep crossing my way. They can be pretty intimidating lifestyle changes, but there are some good ideas.

I'm not going zero waste! Many of these people are devoting all their time to this  challenge. One blogger spends 4 hours a day writing about her experiences. 4 hours a day! I now have two kids and a job! Ain't nobody got time for that!

Of course many of these bloggers are doing it as a job - writing books, getting advertising, etc. They devote a whole year to it and make huge personal sacrifices.

I much prefer incremental changes and the idea of "minimal gains" - slowly change enough small things and they add up to big wins. I hope the changes I make can be maintained much more easily. I can also then keep stepping it up as I gain in confidence and try new things.

So, some of my changes:

Less plastic
I actually began looking at this when Little E was born. We had a lovely book called "Your baby week by week" and it mentioned the environmental impact of having a baby. I never got my head around reusable nappies (so many types!), but our book suggested they were other things we could do, like look out for biodegradable nappy bags. I didn't realise there was such a thing. We started using Ocado when Little E was born and amazingly they stocked all sorts of products that were just what I was looking for.

Nappy bags by Naty - biodegradable nappy bags. Used them since Little E born. They are amazing. No difference in performance from plastic ones that I can tell.

Naty also do sanitary towels, which again I have used and don't notice any dip in quality. However, they only seem to do quite light towels. For maternity pads I found Natracare. Soft, absorbent, biodegradable.

Less waste

1) Reduce your wet wipes. Cutting back on baby wipes is something I did with Little E. I use muslins for everything - as a bib, mopping hands/faces, etc. I dunk in some water if necessary, then take home for a wash. It amazes me how so many people keep using wet wipes for wiping little hands, etc, long after nappies are out the window or they are old enough to wash their hands in the bathroom.

2) Washable breast pads. With a lot of support I breastfed Little E until he was about 19 months and things are going well with Little A. I'd heard ladies might leak a bit while breastfeeding, so bought some disposable pads to get me through the early stages. Word up people... With Little E I leaked until I finished feeding. Not a little, a lot! I've seen fertility statues where rivers of milk are depicted flowing from their breasts. I know what that feels like! It got better, but I ended up wearing disposable pads for over a year. I'd heard of washable ones, but was so tired I never got round to investigating.

This time I have bamboo washable breast pads from Cheeky Wipes. Absolutely chuffed! Really comfortable, absorbent, stick them in the wash and dry quickly on a radiator. Fab.

Might think about their washable sanitary pads...

I'm sure there are other things, but those are my marginal gains. Hope it gives people ideas and feel free to share your ideas with me.

Staying sane - "gratitude diaries"

When Little E started nursery, they asked us to keep a little journal of his day. He was only 10 months old, so it was to help maintain a routine that worked at home and nursery. They filled in what he got up to at their end - when he slept, what he ate, what activities he enjoyed - and we did the same when he was home.

It was really useful and more than 2 years on, we all still fill in "his book" every day.

I've kept it up, because it makes me happy and I wondered if others would like to share in the idea.

Why do I like it?

1) It's a lovely memento. I just got back his old journal from nursery. They keep his old ones to help fill in his progress reports. The first entry is from 4/11/15, so over a year ago. Little E was obviously beginning to become confident with his colours and counting 1,2,3. It names the children he played with most at nursery. Our entries over the next few days talk about puddle hunting and his first nasal flu vaccine! It's all the little details there on every page. I can flick through and it triggers lots of happy memories.

2) It helps me to reflect on my day in a positive light. This is of course something that I started for nursery. I didn't want them to think I was a bad mummy, so I documented the "good stuff". However, it also meant that I began to see all the good stuff I did. Big E would come home from work and I would feel defeated   - Little E hadn't eaten, he'd watched too much CBeebies, he'd had a tantrum, etc. But then, while they had bath time, I would write in Little E's book and I'd remember we'd  had a cuddle on the sofa, that he'd sung me a song, that we'd done some water play at the sink, that I had handled the tantrum and that he'd at least eaten an apple. Big E often writes in the journal at weekends and he finds the same thing - you suddenly realise how much you have done for this little person and we're not doing too badly after all.

I think it works like a mindfulness and a gratitude diary all in one. I take time to reflect on my day and try to focus on the positive things. I'm intending to start one when no. 2 comes along.

We think we plan to keep this up until Little E starts school. We just won't be as lucky to have staff who have time to write such a detailed description of our child's life. We shall see.

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Quality Street wrappers

If you are anything like my family at Christmas, you're about to get through a lot of Quality Street (other sweets are available).

I got a large tin free with my shopping this November. We could have saved them for Christmas, but me and Big E couldn't resist them and have started tucking in.

As always, there is then a huge pile of colourful cellophane left over. I thought there must be something we could do with these.

So me and Little E made "stained glass" sun-catchers. They worked out so much better than I thought they would.

First step: eat chocolate! Collect wrappers

Second step: Get out your sticky backed plastic. The blog that inspired me to do this suggested decorating half a piece and then you fold the undecorated half over the top at the end. This worked well for us. Little E liked chopping up the wrappers best.

Third step: fold over the plastic to seal your creation in. I then used a biscuit cutter to draw around and cut out star shapes. I was sure they would fall apart or curl up, but they stuck togetherness brilliantly. I used a hole punch to make a hole and threaded some ribbon through. Little E said "wow" when I showed him the result.

Even on a dreary, rainy day, they look nice in the window. I've got all sorts of ideas now of what's we could make. Definitely think we need to make a few for the tree. Plus, we might just HAVE to buy more chocolates. Win.

Crafting by nota very crafty mum - keepsake

Little E is three today and I thought it might be time to share a keepsake I am hoping to make for him.

When Eric was born there were so many ideas for capturing his first year - baby books, hand prints, etc, but it made me a bit sad that it all seemed to stop after this.

Then I started seeing long term projects - grown ups being given lamps filled with everything their mums had emptied from their pockets for years, journals full of letters from every teacher they had ever  had, etc. I have friends who have made lovely shadow boxes filled with memories or personalised art.

This is sounded a bit complicated! I am not sure when I thought of it, but at some point before Little E was one, I decided to try and collect a birthday badge for every year of his life.

My collection so far! Every year I've tried to choose a badge with something Little E loves. It was hard when he was one, as we weren't sure what he really liked. He did seem to like the colour orange, so I went for an orange badge and that has turned out to be his favourite colour (along with green). Diggers for his second birthday and it is all about super-heroes now he is three! He doesn't really know who Spider-man is, but he knows super-heroes run around going zap and say "To the rescue!" He spends hours at nursery playing super-heroes with the other children.

My plan is to try and do this until he is 18 and then have them mounted for a wall hanging. Time will tell if I manage this. I don't want to hide them in a drawer until that time, so I pin them to this cardigan remnant and they live in his room. I hope he will at least enjoy them even if I don't manage to finish my project.

Hope this inspires some of your own ideas.

Cake decorating - Person of Interest

My life has changed. There are pens for cake! After years of rubbish icing, I won't ever look back!

I've been planning a Person of Interest cake for months for Big E. He loves Lego and I saw the computer programmer minifig at a craft fair. I couldn't help but think he looked like Finch from POI. We love POI, so I had my TV theme this year for Big E's birthday cake.

I looked out for Lego figurines that I thought might work on the cake. I got a police officer body and a dog that looks Like Bear from eBay. I completed what else I needed from https://minifigs.me

 I found out about cake pens from a lady at work who, unlike me, is amazing at decorating cakes. Seriously, why did no one tell me before? I got a red one from Hobby Craft.

Exciting times!

Crafting by not a very crafty mum - Ruby Wedding Anniversary card

Big E's parents just had their 40th wedding anniversary. It was another nice excuse for me to try something new.

I saw lots of lovely ideas, but I did like the idea of a family tree. I got my in-laws to put their finger prints on a piece of card months before the event, in the hope they would forget what I was up to. I thought I would make them a pair of love birds at the top of their tree with their children, partners and grandchild as the leaves. I found a lovely sentiment to write on the card: "From strong roots grow beautiful leaves".

You'd probably need a bigger card if you have a bigger family!