Half term weather hell !

So the wonderful May half term is upon us and yes of course it's cold and raining.

So what do you do that doesn't cost a fortune and isn't a bore for you as a parent?

I have to confess to coming across this little half term gem purely by accident. 

Whilst out with the small person looking for a Venus fly trap for her school homework we ended up at Wyvale garden centre at Cruz Hill in Enfield. 

The small person loves it there because they have a soft play area attached to the cafe - her two favorite things, so I can happily look around and she knows where we will end up, everyone is happy! 

Although we didn't get a Venus fly trap we did come across this. 

In the corner of the cafe I noticed a lady with trays and pens and paper and soil. So I thought I'd go and see what was going on whilst we waited for our lunch. What a find, today was perfect pollinator, just for £2.50.

So I asked if there was room for one more and the lady said there was. We had a great time. Mummy's and Daddy's can help, or not if you don't want to, all in the comfort of their lovely cafe. 

I wondered what else they had lined up. Details are as the flyer below.

So Wednesday and Thursday - buzzing bakery. For £5.00 - check their website for availability.

Friday - bee hotel £2.50, again check the website. 

Five star fun, with a bit of something for everyone. 

See wyevalegardencentres.co.uk/events for more details 

We had a fab time as you can see. 

http://www.wyevalegardencentres.co.uk/events

Invictus - flowers for the fallen

So this blog is a complete departure from arts, crafts and laughter.
So I feel I should apologise for that, shouldn't I ?

First of all I should explain where my line of thought has come from, and most importantly why.

Did you watch Gareth Malone's Invictus Choir (1st episode - I did watch both). I hadn't planned to if I'm going to be totally honest about this. It was on, so I watched it.

At about  2 minutes 10 seconds in  Gareth Malone made a one hell of a statement. Whilst standing in front of a memorial to fallen service men. He pointed out that "we are good at doing this". I sat up and  thought 'blimey' he's right. 

Firstly, I'd like to share my wonderful memories of my gentle, kind and careing Grandad. One morning a year, I would go just with him up to Trafalger Square and walk around until we found a good spot and there we would stay as the service of rememberance would come towards the Cenetaph and that somewhat eery and emotional minutes silence. We would watch the royal family pay their solemn respects and thanks. Every single year he would always say "I never see anyone I was out there with", and I would wonder too where they were. It's my most special of memories and still hugely important to me. 

So Gareth was right, we were good, very, very good at remembering our fallen.  Oddly this programme I was now totally into wasn't about the fallen, but the living!

Then on Facebook something popped up that I had completely missed. 

My lovely bride Nicola who had got married at the RAF club at the beginning of April (I have featured her wedding previously)  pointed out that at the  memorial that Gareth had made his thought provoking comment sat a beautiful display of red roses. That arrangement was from the their wedding that they had placed on the memorial the following morning. 

I cant really explain how proud I felt. I knew of course she had done this, because she had told me at the time. But there it was on tv and I did indeed feel proud. 

So, I sat watching remarkable men and women with the whole spectrum of injuries, both mental and physical and marvelled at their words and their attitude. 

The blind boxer who said "you don't need sight to have vision". 

Prince Harry, so honestly and passionately wanted to give something back to his military family. People who on the whole just desperately needed to feel a sense of worth again. That sense of worth they had in their military family.

The next day I talked to the small person about it. I wondered what her take would be on it.
I should explain that as a mum I am not the sort that shies away from any curious question your average six year old throws at you!. Because such important people had died before her arrival, I have always talked about them. Kept  their memories alive. 

She knew about Grandad Albert, that I would go up to London with him to the remeberance service, to remember people, just like him who had faught for their country, her country, and sadly had died and not come home. 

We had gone up to the 70th memorial concert at horseguards parade with my gorgous cousin and her husband and Mindy had loved every second of it. She fell in love with Alexander Armstrong and is know to burst into many a wartime song. 

My dear grandad 

My gorgeous girl and her husband 

All of this was fine, BUT what about the people that went out to fight for their country and did indeed come home. 

They came home broken. 

They came home lost, no longer the person they were when they went out. 

No longer able to be apart of the military family that was so important to them. 

Did we celebrate their sacrifice? No we didn't. 

Did we explain to our children that these people, just like Grandad Albert, went out and served their country but came back having given their all and were now simply broken?

Did we show them pictures?

Did we have memorials to them?

Did  we wear a symbolic flower to remember these people?

Amazingly,  I didn't think we did. 

The next day over dinner I  casually talked about the Invictus games, about people who did come back and that maybe we should watch it. she was quiet exited. 

I showed her the flowers at the memorial and she was of course impressed, because mummy had made them.  The first thing to watch was of course the Obamas video to Prince Harry with boom soon become the tag line for everything she said.

Can I have a drink mum, boom.

I'm sure you are getting the picture. How clever to come up with something that made people laugh, whilst bringing such a serious subject to the publics attention. By now the wheels of the invictus games where rolling  - and so where the questions!

So,  where is his foot then?

I like them funny legs, can I have one. Where are his eyes then?

What's  a land mine? 

I answered as honestly as I could.  She seemed totally unfaised by it all. It was sad apparently, but they did come back so that was a good thing. The innocence of childhood is so honest. 

It had made me think. 

What do we do?

As I sit each night watching the invictus games,  I do wonder what  the world is thinking . 

I do hope that maybe someone will think its important to celebrate more often these brave people. 

Maybe we should explain to our children more, about what these extraudinary people do for us. 

We should, but of course I wonder if we will. 

As for Nicola and Alexis, I wish you a wonderful life together, and pray you stay safe wherever life takes you - and thank you to you and all military families.   


To watch the first episode of Gareths Invictus Choir click here. http://bbc.in/1SQ3aTk

To watch invites games day one: http://bbc.in/1rMiYfn

Invites Games : https://invictusgamesfoundation.org/

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!