You, inside a snow globe!

Here's a really quite but cute Christmas craft we did last week. The kids had a helping hand in making them and they have enjoyed shaking them ever since!

A play dough tea party

Sharpie Pen Vs Porcelain Paint Mugs

Dare I say the dreaded word so soon? Well, it is November (already!) so I'm starting to think about Christmas presents.

Throughout the year me and my 2 year old have done a lot of home made gifts, mainly painted mugs and plates, which have gone down really well. My 2 year old loves painting full stop so it was great fun for her to do. Here are some we did using potato printing (bunting), hand prints, stencil (crown), finger print dots and free hand strips, foam letter prints, which I then 'tidied' up with a porcelain paint pen. Wrapped in cellophane and tied with ribbon they looked great! Vibrant colours, high gloss and went on easily. 

As fun as it was, it didn't allow for much detail so when I saw on pinterest that you could use sharpie pens on ceramic I was thrilled. I am going for a 'Tea for Two' theme for my mums presents this year complete with biscuits, chocolates, tea and mug cosies etc, all hand made. SO, I just needed to do the teapot and mugs. 

Again, looking for inspiration on pinterest I used a few designs that caught my eye and adapted them to my own. 

Here is the result.

Simple but effective I think. And will go nice with her red and white theme kitchen.

My two year old also wanted to get involved so she drew around her hand and coloured in the larger areas while I doodled in the middle. The pens were easy to work with and great for accuracy. No drying time but less vibrant in colour than the paints once baked and haven't checked it in the dishwasher yet.

Go on, give it a try for yourself. A mug for canvas - what can you design? 

Silent Sunday

Recipe: Orange & Carrot Muffins with a crunchy oat topping

Silent Sunday

Halloween Spider Cake & Bonfire Cake

I baked a couple of cakes for Halloween and Bonfire night which were so easy, perfect for a novice (like me!) but looked great so thought I would share them with you for inspiration.

I won't go into the ins and outs of how to make them as I think they are fairly self explanatory, I'll keep it short but if anyone wants a full guide just shout!

Bonfire Night Recipe: Cinnamon Catherine Wheels

Here's an easy peasy recipe the kids get involved with for some yummy cinnamon swirls aptly renamed for Bonfire night as Cinnamon Catherine Wheels.

What you need

375g pack of ready rolled puff pastry

75g Caster Sugar

75g Softened butter

2 tbsp Ground Cinnamon

Sultana's (optional)

1 Egg beaten with 2 tbsp Milk

Method

1. Preheat oven to 200°c/ Gas 6. Roll your puff pastry out into a flat rectangle.

2. Beat together the butter, sugar and cinnamon in a bowl and then spread over the pastry. Scatter with sultana's if desired the roll the rectangle pastry from the short side into a sausage. Chill for a minimum of 10 minutes (the longer the better as it will make it easier to cut!).

3. Cut into 1cm wide slices and place flat on a baking sheet. Press them slightly so they spread out a little. Chill for 20 minutes (Or you can freeze them at this point. Open-freeze until solid then freeze in a sealed container for up to one month. Bake from frozen (brush with egg mixture and sprinkle with caster sugar half way through)

4. Brush with egg mixture, sprinkle with sugar and bake for 18-20 minutes until golden. 

Best served warm, sprinkled with sugar. Yummy with custard or just as nice cooled as an afternoon teatime treat!

Source

Halloween: Chocolate Cornflake 'insert scary creature here' Nests!

We probably all think of chocolate cornflake nests as traditionally an Easter thing, but they are so simple to make, kids love making them and they are pretty tasty too.

So, I decided to re-make them for Halloween as Dragon and Dinosaur nests, but you could do them as any scary creature you wanted to really!

All you need to do is follow the same recipe used for our Easter ones HERE but in place of the mini eggs we used Cadburys new green mini 'screme' eggs and some which other halloween-ish mini eggs with red caramel inside, simply cut in half.

As my two year old is obsessed with sprinkles too, we added some orange shreds sprinkled on some and used some toffee sauce on others to make them extra gooey (and tasty!)

I also had the idea of candy floss/ spun sugar put over the top as cobwebs for spiders webs. I didn't have time to try it, but someone could.... I think it would look good with a few of the small plastic spiders dotted around for display too. 

OK, ok, so I know spider technically don't have 'nests' like this but it's all for the fun of halloween eh?

Leaf art: animals and fairies

At the moment in seems as though we cannot go on even the tiniest of walks without collecting a carrier bag full to the brim with leaves!

The different shapes and colours, so many varieties too, means that we just have to pick them up!

So - what to do with them once they are home? Seems a shame for them to sit in a box forever more.