March 2013 | Mum In The Madhouse

March 2013

Eggs decorated with washi tape

3 Comments / crafts / By

This is one of those craft activities that you can do whilst mindlessly watching the TV. Sometimes on an evening when I spend time with MadDad I have the urge to craft, but it needs to be be something that I can do whilst chatting about our day and perhaps watching TV or listening to music. These masking (washi) tape eggs really fitted the bill.

To make it even easier you could use polystyrene eggs rather than blown eggs and then you wouldn’t worry about pressing too hard either. All I did was place strips of tape length way on the eggs from heat to point and kept going over lapping each time.

They would look lovely hunt onto a branch as an Easter tree too, however, mine make me happy in one of my many cake stands and dishes.

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Pom Pom Bunnies and Chicks

1 Comment / crafts / By

Method – Chicks

Make a largeish pom pom in yellow wool for the chick’s body
In yellow felt cut out two shapes for the chicks wings and one for the chicks tail feathers. Also cut a small triangle for the chicks beak – in future ones I will make this orange to stand out more.
Stick the wings and tail to the pom pom using a glue gun.
Stick the eyes and beak on using fabric glue

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Affordable gifts that are Heaven Sent

Featured and Guest / By

There is a real trend for shabby chic at the moment and although it is not my style, there are some aspect of it I love. However, sometimes shabby chic, is not shabby cheep and you can be charged through the eye for this style.

So when I saw these fab items from Heaven Sends at Gifts from Handpicked I thought they were great value.

I love these you and me hooks which are one of the more expensive items in the range at £29.99. These would be fantastic in our conservatory for the boys to hang their dressing up outfits on. But they would also make a great coat hook too.
I adore this Portraits de Famille Box (£22.99), which is brilliant take on a photo album, which holds holds 288 photographs across 12 labelled holders. I think this is a super way to look at your families photos rather than just keeping them digitally. It is beautiful enough to keep out, rather than put away in a cupboard and just think of all the memories you could keep in those albums. This is something that we seriously need in The Mad House!

Now this Heaven Sends Carte Postale Chalkboard would look perfectly at home in Cass from The Diary of a Frugal Family’s Kitchen or entrance hall. I really love that it comes with three mini pegs so you can hang the chalk up and other important things such as pretty postcards etc! Even better it is only £12.95, so I will have to remember that when it is her birthday.

I also like this wooden Heaven Sends Laundry Drop Your Pants Sign, which is less than £6 and would be perfect for our fulility room (the name for our unity room as it is never ever tidy).

I also adore this Heaven Sends I Love You To The Moon and Back Sign, which reads “I love you all the way to the moon and back again” and is £6.95. This is going on to my wish list for Mini’s room as it is something that we say to each other every night before bed. It would be the perfect new baby gift or even baby shower present if you do not know the sex of the baby and really reasonably priced too. I love that it is not to babyish and will last a long time and not date like some nursery decoration does.

Affordable gifts that are Heaven Sent Read More »

Smartie Birthday Cake

5 Comments / baking / By

It has become something of a tradition that Maxi always has a chocolate smartie cake for his birthday. This year I decided to try and do something a little more eye catching. I love baking, but find icing larger cakes something of a chore. So this cake is very forgiving.

Cake Ingredients

6 oz of butter or marg
6 oz caster sugar
5 oz of self raising flour
1 oz of coco powder
1 teaspoon of baking powder
2 eggs
half teaspoon of vanilla extract
3 tablespoons of milk

Method.

Cream together the marg/butter and sugar. Then add the rest of the ingredients in and mix well!

Put in two 7 inch cake tins (I line the tins with parchment and grease) and place in to a preheated oven of 180 degrees for 15 to 20 minutes. You can tell if the cakes are cooked if when you press the top it gives slightly but springs back.

Remove from oven and leave for 2 minutes before removing from tins and placing on to a wire rack to cool.

Icing Ingredients:

1 block of butter (250gm of 10 oz)
450 grams icing sugar
50 gms of coco powder
half teaspoon of vanilla extract
4 tablespoons of milk
Method

Soften the butter in a mixer before adding the other ingredients. Make sure you start mixing very slowly so you do not get icing sugar everywhere. If your mixer does not have a splatter guard then cover with a tea towel.

Assembling the cake

Sandwich together your two cakes with icing and then apply the remaining icing around and on top of the cake. You are going to use the using around the cake to stick the chocolate fingers to the cake, so make sure you have enough at the sides.

I applied the fingers and then refrigerated the cake overnight, before covering the top with smarties the following day.

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Get the Basics Right in Your Kitchen

kitchen / By

Get the Basics Right in Your Kitchen

We would all love to have a more impressive kitchen but what if you don’t even know where to start? Will you need to spend a fortune on completely overhauling the place?

Before you start splashing out big sums of money on expensive changes it is best to think of the basics which can make the difference.

The Right Kind of Lighting

The type of lighting you use in the kitchen is vital to making it a pleasant room to be in and to cook in. Your first step should be to check out some ideas using chandeliers, recessed lighting, under cabinet lights and all of the other kinds which are available now. Once you know what the options are you can work out which ones would fit in best to your room. In general terms, a mixture of different types of lighting is best, although this might not be the case in a particularly small kitchen.

The Pots and Pans

Of course, the kitchen is a room we cook in and this means that you need think about the basics required for doing this right. A good example here comes with the saucepans from Lakeland. Buying a few of these will give you practical pieces of cookware and will also ensure that you have attractive pots in the room as well. You will find other ideas for useful basic items on the site at Lakeland.co.uk. By stocking up well on these things you will make it a nicer room at little cost.

The Colour of the Walls

There are some highly popular colours used in many kitchens and others which aren’t so highly recommended. The exact tone you would be best using will be determined by factors such as the style of the kitchen and the size of the room. If you aren’t sure which colour to use then a good idea is to buy a few of those little sample pots and paint small areas of the walls with different colours. After you have lived with the different tones for a few days it should a lot easier to work out which one to choose for the whole room.

The Space

One of the most common complaints which people make about their kitchens is around the lack of space. If your kitchen is too small or cramped then cooking is probably more of a problem than it should be. This might seem like an issue without a solution in some cases it could be but there are some tips to help you get a bigger working space in most types of kitchen. The first and simplest one is to clear out anything you don’t use on a daily basis. This can make a lot of space and help the room look better too.

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How to make a Pinecone Owl and other pinecone crafts

13 Comments / childrens craft, crafts / By

Maggie at Red Ted Art (who has a new craft book out) hosts a weekly Google + Hangout and this weeks was all about Pine cone crafts. Mini has been studying nocturnal animals this week, so we decided to make a pine-cone owl.

This is one of those crafts that you can adjust dependent on the age of your child bu cutting out all the felt (or foam) and allowing them to glue it or they can cut it out and glue it too. I made templates for the boys to draw around on the felt with a soft pencil and they cut out the felt themselves.

Materials

Pine-cones
Felt (or craft foam) in yellow, brown and orange
googly eyes
Glue gun or glue (Maxi uses a glue gun, but mini uses craft PVA)
Method

Cut out in yellow a figure of eight shape for the base of the eyes larger than your googly eyes and stick the eyes to it.
Then using orange felt or foam cut out a small triangle for the beak and curves with points which are the owls feet.
You cut out a square in brown for the owls hat – approximately 2 inches in size, but this depends on your pine cone.
Cut two triangles for the owls wings

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Free things to do in London over the Easter break

Guest Posts / By

As you may know London is Mini’s favorite city in the whole wide world (his words, not mine). So we can often be found hopping on the train when we can grab an inexpensive fare and doing some sight seeing. Also one Maxi’s school friends still visits a Dentist in London to have their invisible braces looked at (they used to live there) and they are going back over Easter and we are possibly going to London Zoo for an event too, so will need some other things to do too.

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If only I had know…………..

5 Comments / parenting, Uncategorized / By

That time truly flies and people were not exaggerating when they said “they grow up so fast”

That life really does change when you look at that tiny bundle and suddenly realise you are responsible for another human being

That one so small can create so much poo

That irony is not lost on babies

That boys WILL wee on you as soon as you remove their nappy

That no matter what colour you dress your child in, people will always think they are of the opposite sex

That second hand is not second best

That it will take 30 minutes more than you allowed to get out of the house

That babies smelled so good after a bath

That sleep is for the weak

That colic does get better

That cold tea is all I will drink for months and to invest in a thermos cup

That LEGO is a weapon

That poo could be such a funny word to toddlers and boys of all ages

That it is OK to get angry

That I will never again be able to go to the toilet in peace

That I would know The Hungary Caterpillar off by heart

That I would cry on their first day at Preschool

That DVD’s do not wear out though repetitive play even if you wish they would

That nativities are so emotional

That is it perfectly acceptable to get sick of cooking and preparing meals

That it is natural to live in constant fear of something bad happening to your child

That it is not acceptable to fancy one of the presenters of CBebbies

Daytime naps for Mummy as well as baby are totally acceptable

That the odd jar of baby food and bit of salt will not harm your child

That saying no to homework is OK

That the cleaning can wait

That it is not a sign of weakness to ask for help

That weetabix dries like concrete, so wipe it up quickly

That when people are starring at your whilst your child is having a tantrum are actually thinking “oh no, poor woman” rather than “gosh what a crap mother”

That I would be a better parent for having some me time

That being a parent is the hardest, but most rewarding job in the world

If only I had know………….. Read More »