Bristol Parenting Cafe

Home-made ballerina skirt

2012-02-22T19:30:00.002Z

E has been smiling non-stop since we made a ballerina skirt together this afternoon. We found 2 rolls of tulle in pink and cream in a charity shop, and used a waist-length piece of elastic and knots to transform them into a skirt. I don't think I've ever made anything which requires such little skill but looks so good! If you'd like to make one you'll need scissors, tulle and a length of elastic.

Cut the elastic so it fits around your lucky recipients waist. Ti the ends of the elastic together to make a loop.
Cut the tulle into strips twice as long as you'd like the final skirt length.
Take one length of tulle and fold it in half. Attach the tulle to the elastic using a loopy knot (I'm not sure what it's called). I've popped some photographs showing the knot at the bottom of the post as it's much easier than trying to describe it.
Continue tying strips of tulle along the length of elastic, until it's covered all the way around..

Snowdrops....

2012-02-20T21:51:00.000Z

We visited Colesbourne Park yesterday to see their wonderful snowdrops. It was so cold, I couldn't feel any sense of Spring being round the corner. It was beautiful though, and now I'm looking forward to the arrival of seasonal flowers - ranunculas, tulips, freesias and violets - I love jam jars full of spring flowers on my mantlepiece.

Valentines Day 2012

2012-02-14T21:33:00.000Z

I know Valentines Day is over-commercialised, but it seems curmudgeonly to ignore it completely. We received so many smiles when the children were walking home with their heart-shaped balloons, and yet more from passer-bys when we hung them in our window. Happy Days!

Let's Make Dens!

2012-02-09T23:38:00.000Z

introducing...

Den Building Week

11th - 19th February 2012

No rules, just lots of half term indoor fun. Use sheets, blankets, cardboard and cushions to create magical hideaways! To take part, post a picture of your den on your blog, linking back to this post and don't forget to leave a link back to your blog in the comments below, so we can see your amazing creations!

We have also created a Den Building Flickr Group, please post your pictures there too and we can link to them all at the end of the week!

If you'd like to help spread the word, I've made a blog button you can display on your blog. (To do this, open your blog Design page, click Add a Gadget, scroll down to chose HTML/Java Script and then paste the code shown underneath my button into the content box. Ta dah!)

A blog collaboration between Bristol Parenting Cafe and fellow indoor den lover Emma Bradshaw!

Den-making III

2012-02-03T21:57:00.000Z

We've been indulging in one of our favourite activities - indoor den making. I've written about our dens previously here and here and this our latest creation. We've previously just used 4 broom handles and one bed, but E got a bit cross about not having her own den, so I duly went to our local hardware shop and bought 4 more to make a separate den for her. J came up with the genius idea of creating one gigantic den and it totally transformed their bedroom. So far the den has been a school and a market place and V loves hiding in there.

Winter Wassailing

2012-01-29T21:30:00.001Z

Oh little apple tree
We have come to wassail thee
Will you bear some fruit for me
When the season changes...

We went wassailing today at Boiling Wells Orchard. It's a West Country annual tradition to wake the trees so there's a good apple harvest in the autumn. We wrote out wishes to hang in the wishing tree, made wassailing sticks, watched Morris Dancers and sang apple-themed songs.

I loved the glass bottle window in the hut....

It was a freezing day, so it was good to return home to tea and cake.

Winter Beach Walk

2012-01-23T20:52:00.000Z

Z and E spent Saturday night at their Granny and Poppa's house in Cornwall, leaving J and I to enjoy a bit of time with V. It made me realise how rare it is for V to get her parents just to herself and she loved it. We booked ourselves into the Polurrian Bay Hotel and headed to the beach to get blown about!

The hotel has just been refurbished and was super comfy so afterwards we sat in their lounge warming ourselves up with hot chocolate. I really liked their decor!

Z and E had a whale of a time while we were away - they visited some newborn lambs and it is all they have been talking about today.

2011 Photo Collage

2012-01-20T11:56:00.000Z

Last night I finished making our 2011 photo collage. I made my first one in 2006, the year Z was born and have made one every year since. I print my photographs using Photobox and get busy with scissors and glue. It's a perfect January evening activity, when it's cold and dark and I'm happy to stay in and eat chocolate!

One of the lovely things about making them is reminiscing about what we've done over the last 12 months and re-discovering photographs. Like this one of V, which I took in May and had forgotten about.

2012 will be a big year for Violet - it will be the year she out grows the last of her baby habits. At some point this year we'll loose the need for nappies and a buggy - features of our family life for the last 6 years. I never thought I'd be sentimental about nappies, and there were many times when I couldn't wait for nappy-free days. But now that time is coming closer it feels as though we're saying goodbye to the early years of family life and it reminds me of how quickly time flies - they don't stay small for long.

Waldorf Window Stars

2012-01-16T09:39:00.002Z

Window Stars

Our New Year biscuits didn't last long, so our windows were in need of a new, non-edible decoration. This is the first time I've made these and they really do brighten up a winter's day. They are very simple, just a matter of folding paper, but you do need to be accurate with the folding. Z and E were a little young to be doing the more complicated stars, so they chose the colours and helped with the sticking. We used kite-paper, which you can buy in a little multi-coloured booklet from Myriad Natural Toys and Crafts in their Crafts, then Paper Crafts section. If you live in Bristol you can get the paper from one of my favourite shops, Playful, at 87 Gloucester Road.

Eight-Pointed star

Preparation
Before starting the folding, you'll need to cut the paper to the correct size, using a sharp knife. If you decide to be lazy, like me, and just use the original size (16cm x 16cm), you'll end up with the whopping great star you can see in my top right window. It's nice, but a little OTT, so I'd recommend taking the following step to cut the squares down to a better size.

Firstly, fold a square in half and, using a sharp knife, cut down the crease, creating 2 rectangles, as in photo 2 above.
Fold each rectangle in half again, and cut along the crease to make 4 squares, as in the last photograph above. You'll need eight of these squares for the first star, so you'll need to do this with 2 sheets of paper.

I found it easier to cut lots of different squares in one sitting to get it out of the way before doing any of the folding.

The Folding

Take one square and fold it in half diagonally so the side corners meet, as in the second picture above. Make a firm crease along the fold line, then unfold to create picture 3 above.
Fold the side corners into the middle so they meet the fold line to create the last picture above. You can use a dab of Pritt Stick glue to stick the corners down if you like.
You're done....oh, you'll need to repeat this with another 7 squares, so you have 8 folded papers in total.

Creating the finished star

To create the star, you'll need to stick the unfolded bases of each piece of paper together.
Use the centre crease of each paper to position each piece of paper and use a small dab of glue to secure. Continue doing this all the way round to create an eight pointed star. .

Eight Pointed Star - Version 2
This creates the blue and purple star in the bottom right of my window - a little more fancy, a little more clever!

Fold the corners into the middle crease as for the star above, and press firmly along the crease lines.
Unfold as in picture 2 above.
Use the fold lines you have just created, fold the corners in so they meet the crease lines as in picture 3. The fold in again, along the crease line created in picture 1, so you have picture 4 above.
Repeat so you have eight folded papers.
Create the star using the 'Create the finished star' instructions above.

I hope this tutorial is easy to follow. If you've followed my instructions and have any comments or suggestions, please let me know so I can make any amendments.

Let me know how you get on and I'd love to see pictures of your finished windows.

New Year Biscuits

2012-01-06T15:08:00.000Z

I still feel excited that it's the start of a new year and the darkest days of winter are now behind us. I tend to start looking forward to spring far too early, but I can't help it. This morning I was cycling to work and it was beautifully sunny, the birds were chirping and I started mentally planning Eloise's birthday which isn't until March. To celebrate 2012 E and I made biscuit dough yesterday and then when Z came back from school we cut out the shapes. This morning I hung them from our window and even though I missed the morning sunshine by the time I got round to taking a photo they are still pretty. I used the recipe below for the biscuits and you'll also need biscuit cutters (one large and one small) in whatever shape you like, we also made stars.

Biscuit Recipe
175g butter
200g sugar
2 eggs
1 tsp vanilla extract
400g plain flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 teaspoon salt.
Boiled sweets - separated by colour and bashed up!

Pre-heat oven to 180c or gas mark 4.
Cream the butter and sugar together then add the eggs and vanilla extract and beat.
Add the baking powder, flour and salt and mix with a wooden spoon.
Split into two balls and roll each ball out between two sheets of greaseproof paper - it should be about 5mm thick. Place on a tray and leave in the fridge for at least 30mins.
Cut the dough using your large biscuit cutter and place on greaseproof paper on an oven tray. Use the small biscuit cutter to cut a shape from the centre of each biscuit. Remember to add holes to hang the biscuit (I used a straw)
Place in the oven for 5 minutes. I then removed the biscuits and re-shaped using the biscuit cutters (I found the biscuit had puffed up a bit so this helped the cut-out centre keep it's shape).
Now add the crushed sweets to the cut-out centre of each biscuit. You can use one colour or multi-coloured.
Bake for another 10 minutes and then remove from the oven and leave to cool.
If the sweets stick to the paper you can scrape it off quite easily with a hot knife.

New Year's Eve Fun

2012-01-01T11:42:00.000Z

Yesterday we celebrated the last day of 2011 with lunch at Berwick Lodge - a beautiful manor house with roaring fires and 15 acres of grounds for the children to run around in. We discovered beautiful outbuildings, empty fountains and a huge playhouse, but my favourite was the orchard where we played hide and seek, chase and kick the can. For the first time in 5 years we didn't stay at home during the evening and saw in 2012 at a friends house party which was fab!

We will be heading out for our traditional New Year's Day walk later. I love the start of the year - with the darkest part of winter left behind and the promise of warmer days ahead, the making of resolutions and the new, spotless calendar on the wall.

Happy New Year!

Photo Booth Christmas Fun

2011-12-21T20:15:00.000Z

Our advent activity was for Z and E to have their pictures taken in a photo booth wearing festive hats. The children got an extra treat as quite by chance we stumbled across a lovely face painter so they had their faces painted too. You can't see E's picture that clearly but she's an angel with a halo on her head and glitter on her cheeks. I'm sure you can guess what Z choose to be - he loves singing Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer so jumped at the chance to be a reindeer for the day! Z and E loved seeing their faces on screen and waiting for the pictures to develop. I might make this an annual Christmas activity as I like the idea of having a little festive photo of them each year.

Christmas Tree Decorating

2011-12-20T17:39:00.000Z

Our advent calendar activity yesterday was to buy and decorate our Christmas tree. J and I spent Sunday evening rearranging the furniture so we'd have enough room and now it's the first thing you ~~bump into~~ see when you walk into the living room. Z and E put all the decoration up and got very excited when presents started to appear underneath.

Advent Calendar Snowflakes

2011-12-07T22:15:00.005Z

Our Advent Calendar activity yesterday was to make snowflakes to decorate our window. We used kite paper which is waxed so it's stronger than standard tissue paper and easier to cut. We were rewarded was a beautiful crisp sunny day today which cast beautiful shadows on our wall.

My favourite Advent activity so far was on Monday which was 'Choose a Christmas song and dance'. Z choose Jingle Bells and E chose Rudolph the Red nose reindeer and we ended up doing a family conga around the house!

Edit: I've had a few requests for snowflake templates, so Kirsty and Karen these templates are for you - don't every say I'm not good to you!

Advent Calendar 2011

2011-11-30T13:00:00.000Z

I've finished our Advent Calender, just in time for tomorrow. I used baby food jars decorated with wrapping paper and and number stickers, standing in an old wine crate. Each one fits 12 jars so a perfect fit {smile}.

I use the advent calender to help prepare the children for Christmas and to celebrate the closing of the year. I try to steer clear of 'things for the sake of things' and incorporate activities that we would be doing anyway during December. So for example in one jar there are beautiful Winne the Pooh and Thomas the Tank Engine first class stamps and on that day we will write and send our Christmas cards. One thing I learnt from last year was to list what is in each jar so that I can swap the contents depending on what the weather is like or how energetic we are feeling, so the trip to the library might be on a rainy day and the walk on a sunny one.

Here are some of the things I've included this year:

A visit to the library to choose new Christmas books

A twig and leaf for a walk in the woods (we do a big get-together walk with friends each year)

Tickets to the theatre

A small candle

A bell

A walnut

An acorn

A tree decoration

Paper snowflake for an activity making fold-out snowflakes

A star-shaped cutter for the day we make mince-pies

A sprig of mistletoe to hang

A little pencil for writing a letter to Father Christmas

A coin for spending or giving or both

A chocolate coin

Dolly pegs to make angels

A ribbon to wrap up presents

A visit to a Christmas market

A visit to Grandparents

A Christmas cake decoration

Orange peel to make dried orange tree decorations

Cinnamon stick

Gold and silver stars

Tags for Christmas presents

A pinecone to make birdfeeders

A trip to the zoo

A trip to the aquarium

A knock-knock joke (Mary...Mary Christmas)

Trip to a photo booth wearing Christmas hats

Small pegs for hanging up Christmas cards

If you have any other ideas, I'd love to hear them.

Waldorf Star Lanterns

2011-11-16T20:14:00.000Z

I'm having a lantern making week! Today we made these beautiful Waldorf Star Lanterns, which are my new favourite winter craft. They are incredibly beautiful, and once you get the hang of the folding, pretty simple to make. My one main tip would be to be make sure all the folds are pressed firmly down at the beginning as it makes the process a lot easier. I used 160g watercolour paper, which the children painted in different colours.

I found two tutorials which I found here and here, which both have brilliant step by step instructions.

Indoor Paper Lanterns

2011-11-14T11:33:00.005Z

I'm not a big fan of November. Everything seems so much gloomier when it's dark and cold by four o' clock. We always loose a week or two due to sickness too, which is why I haven't posted for ages. All three have had awful night coughs so sleep has been pretty hard to come by - I had forgotten how difficult life is when sleep deprived.

But there are good things about November too. Open fires and woolly tights, jacket potatoes and Sunday roasts and the dark evenings are perfect for brightening with candles and fairy lights. We've been making these simple paper lanterns for our mantelpiece.

You'll need:

Watercolour paper

Watercolour paints

Tissue paper

Scissors

Glue

In the morning we did wet-on-wet painting and left the paper to dry.

Cut the paper into in half to make a long strip (ours were 40cm long x 15cm high)

Fold a tab along the short length (you'll use this to glue the strip together) and then fold the strip into quarters

Cut out shapes inside each quarter - simple works best - sun, stars, moon, leaves.

Paste tissue paper on the inside so that it covers the cut-out shape.

Glue the tab to the other side to make a lantern.

Use a night light placed in a glass votive to make the lantern glow.

Coloured Acorn Caps

2011-10-31T09:49:00.004Z

I'm having a love-in at Sister's Guild today with my first ever guest post - yay! If you'd like to know how to make these colourful acorn caps hop over to their blog here. Z and E totally loved making these and we've made 3 batches already - perfect to while away a wet weather afternoon.

I've guest posted as part of Sister's Guild Monday Makery - a series of inspired craft activities with beautiful photographs. I'd definitely recommend a peek at their shop too as it's full of lovely children's clothes and toys including Lucky Boy Sunday, Rice and Belle and Boo.

Family Life

2011-10-23T21:15:00.005+01:00

A little conversation snippet from today. We were driving past College Green, the site of Bristol's Occupy Wall Street Protest so there are lots of tents and colourful flags.

Me: Look! People are camping on the green because they want to change the world.

Z : But what do they want to change it in to?

Daddy: The moon!

Me: A horse!

Z & E: What?!

Snapshot of E

2011-10-22T21:35:00.005+01:00

Time is flying. Z is reading, V is saying her first words and E's vocabulary increases by the day. I've never been one for filling in baby books and amongst the washing, feeding, cleaning, crafting and general business of family life it's easy for the little pieces of childhood magic to pass by in the blink of an eye. So I thought I'd write occasional snapshot posts to remind me of family life at this exact moment. I'll start with E wearing an outfit that combines her favourite things - tulle and sequins.

E has an imaginary Granny who made her first appearance while we were camping in the New Forest. We drove past a castle and E said 'Lorifer lives there'. Lorifer gets mentioned daily, drives a Mini and has 22 children! Frustratingly for me Lorifer has done everthing! So if we're somewhere E hasn't been before she'll nonchalantly turn to me and say '...actually I've already been here with Lorifer, last week!'. E loves pink and yellow and choosing her clothes each morning. She loves drawing, picking flower petals and writing her name. E has her own language: Dupuse means you've hurt yourself, Oshy means you don't want something and Fidfid means take your shoes off. She loves making up incomprehensible 'knock-knock' jokes. She's been 3 and a half years of fun!

Apple Harvest - Horfield Community Orchard

2011-10-16T19:29:00.004+01:00

This was the beautiful apple tasting table at Horfield Organic Community Orchard, which was open today for it's annual Apple Day. There were so many beautifully named varieties to try - Ribson Pippin, D'Arcy Spice, Lane's Prince Albert and our new favourite - Kidd's Orange Red.

Z tried his hand at apple pressing.

It was lovely weather - the perfect English Autumn day. E and Z dug for potatoes in the sun.

Apple Day is on the 21st October so there are lots of apple events on during the coming week. You can find a list of local orchards here if you'd like to visit one too.

Wool Conker Cobwebs

2011-10-12T17:25:00.000+01:00

Z and E made conker cobwebs using old scraps of wool to brighten up our autumn days.

I used a kebab skewer to pierce eight holes into the side of a large conker and Z stuck cocktails sticks in them. We cut the sharp points off the cocktails sticks too, as it was looking a bit dangerous at this point!

We started by tying the end of the wool to one of the cocktails sticks and then, working clockwise, wound the wool once around the next cocktail stick and carried on working clockwise, winding around each stick until we had a big band of colour. To change colour we tied the old thread to one of the sticks with a double knot and cut, then tied a new know with the new colour to the previous cocktail stick to there wasn't a gap. We then repeated with different colours. E found this too difficult so she just threaded hers between the sticks using some very fat wool which makes it look like this:

We still have lots of conkers left so I'll be thinking of different ways to make use of them over the next week.

Magic in the Woods {autumn}

2011-10-08T21:55:00.006+01:00

There was magic in the woods again this evening. We arrived at twilight and were led through the trees by a storyteller to hear the tale of Hunter's Moon.

There were beautiful aerial performances from the treetops, lit by burning torches. Music was haunting and gentle, with a cello, violin and soft drum. E was enchanted by the fairy who fell asleep in her hanging cocoon after her dance. As the light faded, our paths were lit by paper lanterns hung from the trees.

This was another amazing production by the Whispering Wood Folk and if you didn't see tonight's show they have another one next weekend at Combe Hill Woods, you can book tickets here.

Collecting Conkers

2011-10-07T22:20:00.004+01:00

Now that the heatwave's over we can put away the paddling pool and indulge in more seasonal activities. I love the beginning of autumn, when it's still light in the evenings and the days are sunny and bright. Today we went to collect conkers, find the biggest and shiniest to put into E's basket.

Kool-Aid Felt Dye

2011-10-04T19:45:00.001+01:00

My original plan was to use natural dyes, such as onion skins, nettles and chamomile to colour pieces of an old wool blanket but I've decided to postpone this until the children are a bit older. Instead, we used Kool-Aid, the low-effort route that made the most amazing, bright colours. If you're in the UK and you've never heard of Kool-Aid, it's a US drink powder that comes in lots of different flavours. I bought mine on-line from here. It's great fun and very easy to use, plus it makes your house smell like a sweet shop!

You'll need:

An old wool blanket pre-washed on a hot cycle, cut into squares - ours were 20 - 25cm square

Sachet of unsweetened Kool-Aid in various flavours - 1 per square

Saucepan

Water

2 large bowls for soaking

A wooden spoon

Method (for one square)

Soak the blanket square in a bowl of tap-hot water for 15 minutes.

Pour 2 pints of tap-hot water into a bowl and add the Kool-Aid sachet.

Remove the soaked blanket piece, squeeze any excess water and add it to the Kool-Aid mix.

Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a light simmer.

There should be enough liquid to cover the square and it doesn't matter if it's not totally flat, but it should be fully submerged.

Simmer, with the odd poke for 10 mins or until the water is clear (with some flavours it turns milky)

Drain using a sieve and rinse in cold water

Peg onto a washing line until completely dry

Ta Da!

Here's a colour chart showing the colours and flavours: