Phew. What a weekend!

On Sunday we all got up at 5.30am and drove 2 hours up the road to Trowbridge. It was the location of our first proper Twirling comp. 

The girls preformed 2 routines. 

The first a baton routine set to the Teddy Bears Picnic. The second set to music from the film, Trolls. 

It was a incredibly long down but we did really well as a team. The girls dances came 2nd and 3rd in their categories which is amazing for a team of 4-7 year olds! 

We have 3 weeks to correct any mistakes and we're back for the next comp. 

Lots of practice runs in the garden in the meantime. 

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Paultons Park Visit

I've never tried uploading videos of Blogger before, so I apologise if I get it wrong. 

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Ladybird biscuits

The girls have gotten over their circus excitement. Today when I asked what they'd like to do both wanted a ladybird activity. 

With a handful of store cupboard staples we soon had a fab little biscuit decorating activity set up on the dining table. 

All three of them enjoyed spreading buttercream over their biscuits and making patterns with their choc chips. 

Gman has really good fine motor skills and was able to make simple patterns on his biscuits. DD2 eventually became frustrated and opted to sprinkle them on instead. DD1 created beautiful abstract art worthy of the Tate Modern. 

Best of all they tasted delicious!

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All the fun of the Circus

The circus is in town and that clever Hubby of mine obtained some cracking discount vouchers. Just £3 a seat meant that we could all afford to visit the big top and enjoy the show.

We took our own snacks from home to keep costs down. We didn't tell the children so Hubby disappeared during interval for a few minutes and reappeared with them. 

We picked up our tickets the might before we went and arrived in good time. We were rewarded by having the front row in our section. It gave Gman plenty of room to stretch his legs in the aisle when he got restless. 

It was a great show. Both of the girls came home determined to be jugglers and trapeze artists. Lol

For our after school activity today we decided to recreate a little of the Circus at home. Using scrap card, wool and drinking straws we made several colourful performers.

I think they look rather sweet hanging above the dining table. Both the girls are eager to do more things on the circus theme so watch this space for more activities. 

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Charity shop bargains

I thought this week was done for amazing bargains after Saturdays free sofa and yesterday's mountain of onions. Turns out that this is the week that just keeps on giving!

First I found Gman a Thomas the tank pillowcase for 50p. We've been watching old episodes on YouTube together and he adores them.

Then I found a book all about mint for 20p. It's full of things to make with mint and has lots of fascinating facts and folklore about mint. 

Last but not least I found a brand new set of pajamas in DD1's size. They are the sweetest green and blue tartan and 100% cotton. I've added them to the Christmas cupboard!

Not bad for £1.70!

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Mummy, why are you crying?

Because I couldn't say no to a bargain!

5kg of onions for 50p! Guess what is being sneaked into every dinner, snack, dessert etc for the forseeable future. 

If they start refusing to eat them I will threaten them with more stinging nettles!

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Oodles of Doilie crafts

Look at all this wonderful crafting potential! Be still my heart!

My mum very kindly gifted this pile of potential to me yesterday. I've spent a gloomy wet afternoon hunting for craft ideas on Pinterest and Google, while Gman napped on my lap.

Not having done anything remotely blog worthy today, I thought I would share some of my favourite finds. I warn you in advance....There's a theme you may not be ready for yet.

First up is this super cute garland from Raising up Rubies

I love the simplicity of it. I'm tempted to try making it more festive with Christmas print liners. 

These sweet hanging decorations from Fun EZ crafts come with an easy to follow tutorial. They'd be great to make with the children and easy to adapt to your colour scheme.

But Christmas won't be Christmas without.... doiley angels! The one above can be found here at Craft Town but I warn you in advance it's full of ads and pop ups. Maybe stick to Pinterest?

Pretty Dandy have a host of clever ideas on their page. My favourite were definitely the Tree cards. I can imagine a present afternoon creating them with the children over hot chocolate and mince pies.

 Are you sensing the theme of all these ideas? Me too!

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Forget-me-not cinema

The local arts centre has just started screening classic movies. They are calling it Forget-me-not cinema, with idea of dementia suffers and their carers coming to the screenings. I think it's a wonderful way to stir up some memories for the older generation, and a opportunity for the younger generations to see great movies on the big screen as intended. 

I saw it advertised on Facebook and invited my mum along with me. We both agreed it was a great experience. 

 Hopefully we're able to view a few more. Next month they are showing Brief Encounters!

And because my dear mummy is so wonderful and lovely, my sewing machine has been fixed, cleaned, freshly needled and ready to go.

 A small piece of lint was discovered under the footplate which we believe could have  been the culprit.  

I can't wait to get sewing again!

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Dustbins and Dilemmas

I've reached my plastic bag crisis point. When the 5p bag tax came in I switched over to reusable bags. I now have a fair sized collection of them dotted around the house, buggy and car. But it does mean plastic bags are rarely coming in the house anymore. I've been using bread bags and cereal bags etc for my kitchen/wet rubbish which just about covers what I need after composting and recycling. 

I could start buying in rolls of bags (40 for £1 in poundland) but that feels even worse than reusing a bag from shopping. 

I've consulted a few of my old housekeeping books for research. They all recommended lining the basket with sheets of newspaper. 

Such an obvious solution!

So DH is going to start bringing home the newspapers left at his workplace so we build up a little store of them. He thinks he can easily get 2-3 newspapers per shift at the bookies. Most people only read the racing pages before dumping them onto the table. 

There's other perks to this idea to. Sometimes the papers had vouchers to collect or free gifts, not to mention the cartoon strips, silly horoscopes and crosswords. 

This might actually be one of our better ideas!

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A Carroty sort of a day

First thing this morning I covered the dining table with lining paper. Then I let the kids loose with Duplo and felt tips. We soon had a delightful sea side town being created complete with a palace for King Thistle and a dinosaur enclosure for the towns resident population. 

While all that excitement was going on, I was pottering in the kitchen and experimenting with some new recipes.

I had a packet of 29p carrots in the fridge that I needed to use up, a quick browse on Pinterest found a wealth of recipes to try.

The two that caught my eye most were carrot and corriander fritters, and carrot cake flapjacks. 

Both recipes have turned out nicely and been well received. I did have to answer a lot a question about the 'green stuff' in the fritters. No one is forgetting I fed them stinging nettles anytime soon lol. (For the record it was only after they'd all eaten and id told them the secret ingredient that they went off it lol)

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P.S - still no luck with my machine :(