Do loom bands send you loony?

 So I'm sure we've all been through the loom band stage. That stage where we had to, out of support to our children, wear numerous rubber band bracelets out in public! If you were really lucky you had a matching necklace! And, of course if your child was truly dedicated to the art of loom making you could have key rings with very specific shapes on the them. I was lucky enough to only have bracelets. Then of course this wonderfully creative phase passes and you, dear Mummy are left with boxes of bands. When of course you attempt to throw them away, they become your child's most favourite thing. This is my little rant about loom bands over, thanks for listening. 😉

So the question is what do you do with them when you aren't allowed to throw them out?

My first idea came about when making up party bags. 

My idea was to include a pretty bow for each little girls party bag. I had of course consulted Pinterest on how to make a pretty bow clip. All had including glueing. I did follow the instructions but all I seemed to do was get covered in glue and make a mess. Now I am quite good at making bows due to my many years in floristry but it was the attaching to the clips that was really throwing me. Then I had a lightbulb moment, a genuine lightbulb moment and yes, it included loom bands. 

Shall I talk about it ? Maybe no, probably best to just show you how I did it. 

You will need 

Hair clips - your choice

Pritt stick (have to say that this worked best for me) I'm sure any glue will work. 

Left over loom bands

Scissors

Ribbon

I got my gingham ribbon from my florist wholesalers, but you can get it from Hobbycraft http://www.hobbycraft.co.uk/berisfords-gingham-ribbon-blue-15mm/594287-1004

Let's get started 

Cut your ribbon approx 2 foot long 

Turn the ribbon to make a loop on the left hand side. 

Then make another loop on the right hand side. 

Move the left hand tail piece of ribbon over to the right and cross the right over to the left. You will now have a short straight piece of ribbon on the right and a long straight bit on the left. 

Now take the long left piece and fold it behind and then turn it over to the front. You will see a very basic, but obvious bow shape. 

Now you need to pinch the centre with you fingers. From top to bottom, works best for me. 

Now for the first tricky bit. (Although not that tricky so don't be put off). Keep your fingers in the centre of the bow. Take two or three loom bands (try to match or contrast the ribbon) and wrap them around the centre (hope below helps you understand what I mean by this) 

This is what you end up with 

Now to add the bow to the clip. 

Hold the clip (open) against the back of the clip. Take FOUR loom bands in the same colour as the ones you used to pleat the bow. 

Now twist the loom bands around both the bow and the clip. 

Do this a couple of times until the bow is secure. 

Pull out the loom band so it's flat across the clip and not lumpy. 

Now you need to neaten the edges. Turn them over and glue down. Now leave to dry. 

There you go. 

Now I appreciate this isn't  going to use your vast stock of loom bands up, but it's a start! 

And watch this space incase I have more lightbulb moments! 

Where do you say.........I do?

I'd  like to share my real passion. 

My really, real passion. 

Something I've done for over 25 years, yet still I'm totally enthused about. Floristry. 

Specifically, wedding flowers. 

What I really like to do is small weddings. 

I don't want to become a celeb florist. I don't want to be endorsed by any one. What i do want to do and love doing is dealing with brides (of all ages I should point out) that just want something  simple and small. Because small doesn't mean boring! Small actually means you have far more time to include personal, special details. To get to know the bride, to become part of their special day. 

Bride number one.

I was thrilled when Nicola phoned and asked me to do her flowers. It was to be at the RAF Club at Picadilly. Instantly I knew I had to create something soft yet formal. In such splendid surroundings something that looks like it's just put together from a field of wild flowers would look beautiful of course, but slightly out of place. She knew what she wanted. I knew what I needed to do. The nice part about it all is that the men usually don't get involved...at all, but Alex added a few (yes just a few) ideas, so we all k ew what we were doing. 

So how does it work?

Well, throughout my years doing this I have encountered so many people who say "floristry how lovely".

Let me tell you that at 4 a.m, when it's  dark outside ,in my kitchen, there's nothing very lovely about floristry. 

It's cold and to be honest quite lonely . Afraid of waking anyone, you try to do everything silently. 

Number one on the list is of course the bouquet. Once that's done, next come the buttonholes. You now know the bridal couple are done. Then other people that you consider to be part of the bridal party, mums, dads, bridesmaids and other special people. Then guest buttonholes, if you have any - not really the thing anymore. People tend to stick with just the bridal party. Then it's venue dressing, which in some cases can't be done until you actually get to the venue, so it's just a case of loading up and crossing your fingers that you haven't forgotten anything. 

For me, the big thing is handing over the bouquet to the bride. There is ALWAYS that little flutter in your tummy that they say "oh.....right". I would die if that happened 😁. But once they have looked, turned,held and hopefully given you a big hug, the rest is simply a case of doing your job and ticking off the list. 

So back to Nicolas big day.......

So there I was driving around and around and around and around again looking for a legal, rightful parking space to drop the brides bouquet off at the hotel she was going from. I eventually  got my poor mum to jump out and take the flowers into the hotel whilst I held my breath hoping a traffic warden or police officer wouldn't  appear out of the pavement. All the time texting Nicola waiting with even more bated breath for her response. 

She loved it, phew, I could breath out, move off the yellow line and get the rest of the flowers to where they had to go. So off to the RAF Club we went, men's and mums buttonholes delivered and top table arrangement . The lovely Frederick was extremely helpful and took over from that point. 

All of a sudden I noticed the park, the people, the cars and the fact I was in the middle of London! 

The responsibility you have to these lovely people is huge. Flowers are an accessory, just like the perfect pair of shoes or the right color tie and waistcoat. You need to get it right. 

So when people say "oh, how lovely" they aren't really considering the responsibility, the unsociable hours, lack of heat and worries about where to park!

They just see the end result 

For more details about the RAF Club 

https://www.rafclub.org.uk/

Bride number two ..........

Now let's go to the other end of the request scale. A dear friend, after

many years had decided it was time to make an honest man of her other half. Her request:- yellow, white, daisies and to be a day that everyone enjoyed. The venue being a golf club with beautiful views. Like before you just instantly know what you have to do. So this wedding was totally different, but the procedure was the same. 

Up, brides bouquet done and buttonhole. Because the flowers for the venue where in small vases there was nothing I could do until I got there. Brides flowers delivered - she was thrilled. Yes, silent punch in the air! Now off to the venue. Each table had a large vase with a floating candle. Around that three

small vases of flowers. The only problem here is that I can't actually lay the flowers out on the table as the ceremony will be there. So I have to set up in another room with very specific instructions to the  staff of what needs to go where. Then the groom arrives looking all handsome and nervouse I must say, buttonhole pinned on.

My job here is done! 

All I can do now is keep an eye on Facebook for early pictures appearing!

The feeling I have when the pictures finally come through is a mixture of relief, excitement and an odd feeling of proudly looking at the bride and groom knowing I had a little something to do with the fact they look beautifully radiant and happy. 

For more details of this venue - top meadows golf club http://www.topmeadow.co.uk/

For those of you who have come over from Mrs Lightys blog, this was her wonderful day. 

If you don't know about Mrs Lightys blog, pop over and have a look. https://allthingsspliced.wordpress.com/author/mrslighty/

cakes and things. (video)

I wanted to write a separate blog about a very old friend.
Not that she's old you understand, but I have known her since nursery, since we were both five. We went through school together and when we left school life took us in different directions.

After too many years, (we are both of course in our thirties don't you know ;o)) we met up again and it was like all those years missing, had never been!

The strange think was we had so many things still in common, especially our love of all things creative. 

Now, I have had a go at most things in the craft world from rug making to paper craft, cake making included. And whilst I enjoyed myself, I have to admit my baking creations do look like a... 'good try' shall we say! And when Sharon said she made cakes, I couldn't help but instantly think that just like me she too liked to have a 'good try' at them. 

How wrong was I !!!

Last year I asked her to make a frozen cake for the small person.

What did I expect?
In all honesty I expected a cake in pale blue and white with some snow flakes and a bit of glitter. 

I wasn't prepared for the beautiful cake and perfect cupcakes that she produced.  Each cupcake in a little bag tied with a ribbon. Each cake had a picture of a character on. The dome on top of the cake housed the famous figures. All in all, it was amazing. Far from a 'good try', it was breath taking. 

So this year I just threw the theme at her. Alice in wonderland - do what you like with it. And boy did she do it! 

It was beautiful, bright and clever. Yes, clever. You just had to keep looking at it just in case you had missed some perfect little detail. It also tasted delicious. I know how could I cut it? It was hard, and I have to admit I felt somewhat guilty cutting into something that had quite obviously had so much love and care put into it.

Any occasion, any theme. She always leaves me amazed. Her imagination, her skill and her attention to detail make any cake the centrepiece of any party.

Take a look at her brilliant creations.

You find this talented lady on Instagram : http://instagram.com/sharonmacks

Wonderland - part 2

Welcome back to wonderland!



So as promised, I thought I would share my ideas with you to transform normally serious men into characters, that quite frankly the children adored.

As I mentioned before, I had toyed with the idea of lots of props and lots of characters, but to be honest, it really did seem an awful lot of work that would be over looked by your average six year old. So I opted to just have two of the most well know characters, there, in the flesh!

So where to start?
Well the white rabbit seemed to be as good a place to start as any.
So my dear uncle, who is affectionately known as Unkie was up to be the white rabbit.
My original aim was to make a whole body suit, but somehow that didn't happen so what to do?
I should at this point add that my dear uncle is know for his dressing up and his ability to bring a bit of fun to any and I do mean any occasion.
So I knew that he would bring dressing up 'stuff' along, as he was always prepared. 
All I had to do was transform him into some sort of fluffy creature. I had a good couple of metres of white fury material (previously used for a cat costume), so I cut a circle, stuffed it and sewed a pin on. Fluffy tail sorted. Now for his head. Did it really mater whether he wore a suit, a waistcoat, a pair of shorts, probably not. But if he didn't have a white fluffy tail and big white ears, I did run the risk of him looking like anything you wanted him to!

This was the result . :0)

Please excuse the fact that his ears look like they are doing the splits.
So you need a piece of white fur material about 18 inches square. I got my material from hobbycraft at Christmas, but its easily available, especially on line. A piece of foam approx 8 inches by 10 inches. Size of the foam really depends on how tall you want the ears to be. Needle, cotton and sticky Velcro spots.


I don't know if you remember in the 70's (showing my age here), these fake fur hats.



I based the hat on this and added the ears, made simply of the foam cut in two, covered in the fur fabric. Of course it wouldn't have looked as good as it did if Unkie, bless him, hadn't bought along his bag of bits and of course a bit of face paint. The children were mesmerised and I had to tell him more than once to behave because they weren't listening to me and were just looking for him!

Of course he did have a partner in crime..............

THE MAD HATTER.

The mad hatter was, I have to confess, easy. You can wear anything you like as long as none of  it matches. If you wear suits, just mix a jacket and trousers. a waistcoat, a bright scarf tied as a tie with a bow and a pair of loud shoes. What makes the mad hatter is of course, his hat. This was really, really easy. Honestly, anyone could make it. You need cardboard, duck tape, cord/wool/straw for hair, masking tape, knife, ribbon/material, thick paper and a pen.

Start by drawing a circle about a foot and a half across. And then draw around a dinner plate as central as possible. This will not fit your head, but its a good place to start. You will see that you need to cut some away from the front or the back, its just a case of cutting away and then fitting until it actually fits.
Once you have the rim cut out, you need to then cut out another circle of cardboard the same size as the original circle (a foot and a half across). Then cut strips of card about two foot high, again this depends on how tall you want the hat, and two inches wide. At the end of each strip turn over one inch. Attach the strips to the base of the hat with masking tape. Once you are happy with how the strips fit on the brim, attach the top circle of card, again using masking tape to hold it in place. Once you are happy with the cardboard structure of the hat cover it in duck tape.
The brilliant thing with duck tape is it now comes in lots of different colours and patterns. So you can do the brim and bottom third in one colour and then the rest in another colour. Once the hat is covered and becomes a secure structure, add a ribbon or piece of material as a band and then of course the finishing touch is a card with 10/6 on it. All that's left is the hair. All pictures of the mad hatter you see its noticeable that his hair is somewhat unruly to say the least! I used a straw like stuff which I got from the florist wholesalers and attached it with duck tape inside the brim, so it literally just stuck out. Of course you may come across a wig, or have wool or cord that will create the same 'mad' effect. And there you have it.
And again, what with a naughty white rabbit who thrilled the children by throwing cocktail sausages at them and the mad hatter encouraging them to be noisy, its fair to say that the party was a roaring success.

Face painting - Sharon Mackie

Cake - Sharon Mackie

With help from Unkie and Daddy

Is it going to be wonderful in wonderland?

Pinterest, YouTube the Internet, at the moment I'm looking for inspiration for anywhere! Why? Because the small one is having a birthday party and the theme is Alice in wonderland. So, by the 6th of March I have to have created a mad hatters costume for daddy, a white rabbit costume for Unkie and numerous props to turn our hall into wonderland! Where to start? Well I have to confess I have made the hat. Cardboard, masking tape and a lot of duct tape and that seems to have ticked boxes. The watch for the white rabbit, box ticked. And that's it! So what's left on the list, well, there is still the matter of two costumes for two grown men! 

The hat is solid and remarkably mad hatterish!

And the clock has now been painted to, look like a clock. So I'm getting there. 

The million dollar question is why do we do this to ourselves? Obviously I love the making side of things, but there's so much more to it!

Problem number one: small persons birthday actually falls on good Friday. That means school holidays with lots of her friends away. So bring it forward a week I hear you say. Week before - hall not free. Week before that's already a birthday weekend all booked, the week before that, will just have to do. So her party is actually 20 days before her birthday. 

Problem number two: to invite the boys from her class or not? Not was the answer. Glitter face painting, all things pink and 'tea' because Alice has tea, didn't really feel like the sort of party your average six year old boy would want to go to. 

Problem number three: which applies to any sort of party or gathering that anyone ever has - the food. Should you put it on plates so they can help themselves, or maybe make lunch boxes so it's quicker and easier. Of course Alice had a lot of eat me drink me directions, which have come in handy. So boxes it is with big stickers saying eat me. Bottles with tags saying drink me. Vegetarians, covered. Phew, I guess the list is shrinking. 

Oh and of course party bags - this being the only reason that any child under the age of 9 actually agrees to go to a party. From the second you walk through the door the anticipation of what's in the party bag is sometimes too much to bear. 

They have all been sorted, have to say they are the one thing I'm quite ok with. A few sweets, a few bits of plastic that they can play with in the form of a a game that you have to spend hours on to get the ball into the hole only for it to fly apart, is fine, they love them. A pencil with a silly something on the end - shopkins being the in thing at the moment and of course a notebook.

So what is next the ? I guess I need to tackle the mad hatter. Watch this space to be either amazed or amused!! With a possibility of both to be honest! 

Scissors - can you cut it?

The art of scissors - can you cut it?

It's a really odd question this - how old were you when you learnt how to use scissors?

I haven't a clue. According to my memory I was obviously born with this basic ability, with no need to learn how to do it. Of course this is utter rubbish, I must at some point in my childhood years been taught ( I would suspect by my mum) to use them.

Why on earth am I asking such an odd question you are of course asking yourself.

Because, I have noticed that its not something that children naturally learn or do.

Most arts and crafts involve using scissors. Whether its just to cut tape to stick something or to cut a template out, the reason to need to use them is endless.

In recent months I've watched my art club children, whose ages range from five to 11, either struggle or use them with no effort or thought.

This made me wonder why there's such a gap.

I have a five and three quarter year old, who to be honest if asked to cut something out just does it. If she needs to get some tape she will cut it off the roll. I've done sewing with her and she's cut the pattern pieces out without a second thought.

When did I teach her to do this?

I honestly have no idea.

I must of at some point though mustn't I ?

I appreciate that my obvious need to use scissors in this blog is related to arts and crafts, but to be honest using scissors has to be a basic skill surely?

I have quite a few 8 year old boys who to be really blunt about this, haven't a clue what to do with a pair of scissors and the look of horror that appears over their little faces when I say "now lets cut this out", is really quite shocking. So their parents haven't taken it upon themselves to teach them this but why haven't the school noticed and dealt with it? 

Then I wondered about other basic skills. Simple things like, making a cup of tea. Making a sandwich. If I put this to my scissor phobic 8 year olds what would they say? 

So many simple skills involved to do everyday ordinary things.

Measuring - pouring - stirring - balancing - using a knife - cutting, there are probably more to go on the list!

So my question is, are these basic skills no longer being taught? Maybe because they aren't needed to operate an iPhone? OR do children just not take an interest in things they don't see as necessary in their world?

Technology is the most amazing and wonderful thing - I wouldn't be so obsessed with Pinterest if it wasn't for it, but please don't forget to teach the good old fashioned basics.

I should point out that my scissor phobic 8 year old boys - are now rather nifty with a pair of scissors, something I'm rather proud of.

Olden days sugar mice

So last week was a busy one! 

Firstly I had to finish off the two birthday cards that art club and rainbows have made to send to the queen for her 90th birthday. It's so funny how making something for someone else, especially a queen, can be so exciting. Little faces, wide eyes, total amazement that I'm actually going to send it to Buckingham Palace, to the real, actual queen. 

I do so hope that they send a letter back acknowledging recipt - please keep your fingers crossed for me. 

As part of their heritage badge the rainbows are looking at all things from olden times. 

Hilarious when you think my daughter (who is 5 and 3/4) thinks something from the 1980's is old!

So I thought I'd take them back somewhat further and look at war time food. 

In one word - hilarious. 

We looked at mock apricot flan using carrots, which they were not at all amused by. And sugar mice and old fashioned styled sweets. I'm not too usure they really understood about the lack of choice, and it's kind of hard to explain that to five and six year olds to be honest, but as always they embraced it all with enthusiasm .

Looking back at old recipes is so interesting. It's amazing how versatile our great grandmothers had to be during the war. 

I shared the recipe with the girls explaining that because they couldn't get hold of apricots they used carrots. Little faces screwing up as I read out the ingredients. What I hadn't told them was that the flan I had on the table covered by a tea towel wasn't actually the one in the recipe, so when I asked them if they wanted a piece they were slightly reluctant, and I did secretly giggle! 

My flan I had to confess was pear and white chocolate, so the end result was in fact smiles all round and a big thumbs up, lucky for me. 

Explaining that children in the war may have had sugar mice as a treat but their tails would have been string, they looked horrified - but I had substituted the string with fruit strings. 

They got messy, made a mess and looked incredibly sticky by the end of it which can only mean it was a success. 

I think the end of term rainbows was great fun and of course I found loads of stuff on Pinterest. 

So now for a week off and don't forget fingers crossed we get a reply from the palace! 

Think the tails may have been eaten on the way home? 

I got the recipe for the sugar mice from vintagesweetshop.co.uk, and the mock apricot flan from bbc.co.uk/handsonhistory. Another great site was all that women want - frugal recipes from wartime Britain and of course 1000's of ideas on good old Pinterest. 

http://www.allthatwomenwant.co.uk/wartimerecipes.htm

http://vintagesweetshop.co.uk/blog/how-to-make-sugar-mice/

http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/history/handsonhistory/ww2_recipes2.pdf