My first ever E-Workshop

Hi friends,

I really pleased to share with you something I have been working on for some time; my first ever E-workshop.

This workshop teaches you how to make these fabulous Positive Affirmation Cards, but it does so much more than that.  Included in the E-workshop are:

An photo-illustrated e-book which includes:

• 15 beautiful pages,
• All you need to know about why positive affirmations are useful and how they work,
• A reflective, healing tutorial for coming up with your own positive affirmations,
• A huge list of over 70 ideas for positive affirmations you could use,
• A materials list,
• A guided meditation to lead you into a reflective and healing art activity,
• Detailed instructions on how to create your affirmations cards, including suggestions on how to choose your colours,
• Ways to extend the process creatively, personally and socially.

A video tutorial:

• Me, making the affirmation cards and talking you through how to do it.

You get all this for an amazing price of just £5.00!!

Why should you trust in me to lead you through this E-workshop?

I am a practicing artist, with 7 years art education under my belt (though I am always learning and currently taking an online course in Introduction to Art Therapy).  I studied art at Oxford Brookes University and eventually trained at Reading University to teach art to people of all ages.  I have a further 7 years experience teaching art and a personal interest in how positive thinking can change our lives. I have been a practicing artist for 14 years.

How you can get your creative paws on this E-Workshop:

There are a couple of ways to purchase this E-Workshop.  Either you can simply click on the "add to cart" to take you through to Paypal:

And I will email you the e-boo and video within 3 working days,

OR, you can shop through Etsy via this link:

https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/505938036/positive-affirmation-card-mini-e

And you will immediately receive the e-book and the video will be emailed to you within 3 working days .

So there you have it, are you willing to take a leap of faith in yourself (and in me)?  Give it a go, you may just be opening a door to somewhere you never thought you would be. 

Reggio Tag Toy

When Biscuit was tiny I had in mind to create a Reggio inspired play space like this one on The Imagination Tree. I decided to make a tag toy using strong contrasting black and white with bold shapes to grab Biscuit's attention.  It took me a long time and by the time it was finished he was really a bit old for it, but I thought I would share it anyway and give you a short run down of how I made it. 

I used to do loads of crafts but have so little free time now it is a rarity, I love sewing and crafting so much I hope I can get back into it as the boys get older and can amuse themselves for longer.  So any little project I do feels like a huge achievement, and of course I want to share it!  

Step 1: Cut 5 squares of black fabric and four squares of white measuring about 12cm each (for a 10cm square with 1cm for stitching together)

Step 2: Cut one piece of black fabric (for the back) measuring about 33cm by 32cm,

Step 3:  Cut strips of tape (I think I used herring bone) for the tags,

Step 4: Cut the shapes you want appliqued onto each square,

Step 5: Sew the shapes onto the squares using a very close zig zag stitch so it creates a solid line of stitching about 1/2mm thick all the way round, this stops stray threads on the applique shapes,

Step 6: Sew together the squares as you would a patchwork quilt,

Step 7: Place the front and back face to face then pin the tabs all the way round so they are inwards,

Step 8: Sew all the way round leaving a small gap,

Step 10: Turn inside out and sew up the gap.

Very basic instructions I know, it was pretty simple though so I am sure you can work it out, and there are probably way better instructions for how to make a tab toy than these such as this one  and this one. 

Have you ever made a tag toy? or any toys for your baby? I would love to see them, feel free to link in the comments. 

Hope you are having a great weekend x

Welly Boot Planters

So I had this pair of wellies that had split and were good for nothing...or so I thought!  Then I had this idea (yes you heard correctly, I thought of it all on my own, not copied from pinterest or anything!) to turn my old wellies into planters.

So I took myself and the boys off to a garden centre and bought some lovely colourful primroses, just the thing to brighten up a miserable garden in dripping wet Blighty.  I also cheered myself up with a very large slice of carrot cake and a pot of Earl Grey tea, (Boris had a flap jack).

How did you do it? I hear you cry, well it was easy really, I just folded down the tops about 2 inches to make them a little less wobbly, punched some holes in the feet of the wellies for drainage, filled them with my home made compost and bedded in the flowers and ta da!

They look really jolly at the end of the garden, and Boris helped too, attempting to punch holes and spreading compost all around the patio.  He had a great time watering them too!

Washable Wet Wipes

This post was first published on Serendipity Child on 27/07/2012

If there is one thing that most parents seem to not be able to live without then it has to be wet wipes.  I often hear other mothers lamenting the cost of nappies, formula and wet wipes and I sigh thankfully to myself and think how glad I am that I am not having to spend money on two out of those three essentials.

Don't get me wrong, I am no saint, I was using cotton wool and water for this first five months of my son's life, and still use disposable nappies but I realised that I needn't be filling up our dustbins with yet more detritus, that, although admittedly will eventually bio-degrade, will take a long time under all that plastic.  So in order to eliminate that little bit extra waste I decided I could make my own wet wipes.  This idea struck me after reading the chapter about babies in The Self-sufficientish Bible, they suggest cutting up polyester fleece to use as wipes, but seeing as I had a lot of cotton flannelette left from the neckerchief/bandanna bibs I thought this would be a better material.  Not only is cotton more natural that synthetic fleece, but I figured it might also be more absorbent.  Also small particles that end up in our waterways during laundering would not cause harm to aquatic life like a synthetic fabric would.

To begin with I tore up my flannelette into long strips which were the width of a sheet of toilet tissue.  I then cut these strips into smaller toilet tissue sized rectangles.  Initially I thought to make them wet-wipe sized, but decided that toilet paper size was sufficient, and should I decide they ought to be bigger in future I could just make more.

Next I stitched round each edge with a wide zig-zag on the sewing machine.  I don't think that this step is essential, but I thought it might make them last a bit longer as it will stop them fraying in the wash. 

Then just keep going until you have as many as you need.  I must have made about 50 initially, but may  make more depending on how many I get through in a day.

To store them I put mine into a plastic tupperware type box with a slosh of water to keep them moist.  You could also add a few drops of something like grape seed oil which is the only other ingredient in waterwipes, or soak the water in chamomile tea before putting the wipes in. 

Better for your pocket and better for baby's bottom too because they don't contain any of the nasty chemicals found in commercial wet-wipes.

Once used place them into another plastic container with a tight lid which will not only keep in any smell but will keep them moist making them easier to wash.  (much harder to get out dried on poo than the soft wet stuff) You can wash them as you would washable nappies.  I will be washing them at 30 degrees with Bio D Laundry Liquid.

Illustrated bread-making tutorial

First published on SerendipityChild on 22/06/2010

I got this bread making recipe from a wonderful website called selfsufficientish and it is pretty fail safe although is not a quick fix, you will need to go the the shops if you have a bread emergency, it takes a day to make. 

First pour 750ml of luke warm water into a jug:

Next add two teaspoons of yeast and two teaspoons of sugar and stir it in:

Leave the mixture in a warm place untill it is all frothy on top, (about half an hour)

Pour the mixture into a bowl:

Take your flour.  I use half wholemeal and half white breadmaking flour.  Organic of course.

Add flour to the yeasty mixture in the bowl:

Stir:

Add more flour to make a gloopy paste:

Cover with a damp cloth and leave in a warm place overnight (I do mine in the morning and leave it while I am at work)

While you are away the mixture with froth up and become all bubbly:

Give it a stir and you will find that it's all gloopy and stretchy:

Add more of the flour until it has thickened:

Flour your worktop:

Tip out your mixture:

Add more flour:

And some salt (I do 3 teaspoons) don't forget to do this or you will end up with quite bland bread.

Then begin the process of adding flour and kneeding until you have made a dough, don't add too much flour though, your dough should still be a bit sticky:

As you kneed, don't just fold and press the dough, really tear it and stretch it:

Lovely!

The dough should be nice and stretchy and spring back when you poke it:

I then cut my dough in half because I have found my tired old over can't cope with cooking one large loaf so I make two smaller ones:

Make two lovely round balls by kneeding them a bit more:

Beauties:

Put em into tins:

Then cover with a damp cloth (this one is actually clean but looks manky from fruit staining).  leave to rise.  The time it takes to rise will vary depending on how warm your room is.  Basically just leave it till it has risen lots!

Put the oven on just before you think they are ready to go in.

Ohh

Put them in the oven.  My oven only goes up to 200 degrees and this seems to work fine.

Then as if by magin, in about 20 minutes you get a beautiful loaf of bread.  Take the loaves out of the tins and leave to cool on a rack.

Then enjoy

Hope you liked by breadmaking tutorial.  Comments are welcomed.

Come again soon.

x