kid-play-do

Saturday, 15 February 2014

Friday, 14 February 2014

Happy Valentines everyone... Stevie and I made a lovely heart garland today for her papa and we'd like to share with you how we made it. It's really pretty and lots of the steps are simple enough for a mini one to do...

Now it's ready to hang! Or you could do what we did...

We hope you have a Lovely day!

Thursday, 13 February 2014

Be My Valentine

Homemade (all by herself) Valentines card by Elfin, age six.

Wednesday, 12 February 2014

Summer sun

I really needed to cheer myself up as this constant rain is starting to wear me down and I needed some sun. So I just started to look through our holiday photos and suddenly felt much better! We went to southern Spain in September and rented a little cottage near Vejer de la Frontera, a beautiful little village on the top of a hill.

We went exploring and our favourite discovery was Bolonia beach which had the most incredible sand dune at one end, it was amazing for dune jumping and we all felt a bit like Lawrence of Arabia. It really was a lovely little holiday.

Wishing we were there now, love tess xx

Tuesday, 11 February 2014

A Perfect Cake For a Lazy Sunday

On Sunday we all really wanted cake. So after racing to get the recipe books we took a vote and settled on this cake by Dan Lepard from his book Short and Sweet. It is really quick and simple to make and is not too sweet. It was also super, delicious with a cup of tea...mmmmmm x

We did change a few things though - we didn't put as much sugar in as the recipe says, we kept the rolled oats whole and we didn't put as much sugar in the lemon syrup.

Sticky Lemon and Poppy Seed Cake

For the cake

175g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, softened
100ml sunflower oil
Zest 3 lemons
4 eggs
50ml hot water
250g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder
75g rolled oats
4 tbsp (about 30g) poppy seeds

For the lemon syrup

About 100ml lemon juice
75g caster sugar (we used soft brown sugar)

Line a 20cm square or round cake tin with baking parchment and preheat the oven to 180C/350F/gas mark 4.

Beat 175g sugar with the butter, oil and lemon zest until pale and fluffy, beat in the eggs one at a time.

Sift the flour and baking powder (we didn't!)

Whisk 50ml hot water into the egg mixture until smooth, toss the oats through the flour, add the poppy seeds, then beat through the egg mixture.

Pour into the tin and bake for 40-50 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean. Heat the remaining 75g sugar with the lemon juice until dissolved, poke a skewer deep into the cake dozens of times, then spoon all the syrup over the top.

Sprinkle with sugar if you want to.

Hope you like it too x

Monday, 10 February 2014

Beachcombing Part II

Following on from this post I finally got round to photographing the kids other beach-combing collection. Not only did we have fun searching for colour amongst the pebbles but we also did our little bit for the beach, It's amazing how much rubbish there is lying around after just a few days of rough weather. I was just about to deposit this little lot in the recycling bin when I realised we could them another day for something creative. I'm thinking robot feaures or stamping. Watch this space.

Sunday, 9 February 2014

High Five - Etsy Shops

B.E. little you and me

There are quite a few play-tipi shops on Etsy but this one had me hooked when I saw their image of a boy and his furry friend. The monochrome striped versions are particularly great.

Udas Kids

I have a teeny tiny obsession with mini's wearing dungarees and this vintage store has a fab selection of Osh Kosh classics. Lust!

Double Yellow Line

This super cute hand printed t-shirts and leggings from Canada also sells the fabric uncut so you can create your own designs.

4.
Jane Foster

I've had my eye on these Scandi-style rabbits for quite a while. Brilliantly retro toys and cushions hand made in Devon.

5.
Hello Dear Kids

It's nice to discover something a bit different and there's loads of fun quirky designs in this Korean store.

Wednesday, 5 February 2014

Happy Hot Wheels!

So Zephy is sort of obsessed with his hot wheels but he only had a few bits of track and a jump, not even a loop de loop! So I succumbed to his wants and bought him a job lot with a double launcher (the piece de resistance!) from eBay. There was much excitement and joy in our house when it arrived not just from Zeph I may add.

Anyway it turns out we had plenty enough track but not enough connectors. So off I pop onto eBay again only to find out they are pretty darn expensive, but luckily hubby (who incidently has not stopped playing with the new bits since they arrived) made some by cutting up a washing up bottle....genius! Took 5 minutes to make and they work perfectly. Happy Hot Wheeling x

Tuesday, 4 February 2014

Beachcombers

Last Sunday the sun finally shone so we headed to the seafront for a spot of beach-combing and a few silly games of hat attack (more about that another time). The kids really got into the beach-combing especially Zeph who seemed to love the idea that we were hunting for treasure. Even Stevie had a go and of course her slightly more interesting selections had to go into the bag. When we got home we dunked them in a bowl of water to get the sand off and they all had a go at arranging what they'd found. What a lovely day. Above all it was just so nice to get out of the confines of the house and run around like loons. Roll on summer we say!