autumn


Fall/Autumn Activities, Crafts and Food Roundup

This Fall/Autumn Activities, Crafts and Food Roundup is a showcase for all my favourite Autumn things to do with kids and as a family. One of the things I love best about where I live is the distinct change in seasons and being able to celebrate what those seasons bring and mean. Autumn here is a riot of colours, smells and feelings. Woodsmoke from fires and bonfires leaves as beautiful as flowers and crisp apples ripe for cooking and eating.


Easy DIY Fabric Pumpkins

I have asked my friend Mel from Sugar Bowl Crafts to share with us how to make her easy DIY fabric pumpkins. Seasonal decorating is becoming more and more popular in the UK and this simple craft activity of stuffed fabric pumpkins is a fun Autumn craft. What I love about this is that you can adapt the colours to coordinate with your home and they are super simple and fun to make.


Pinecone Hedgehogs – An Autumn Kids Craft 27

How cute are these Pinecone Hedgehogs? Pinecones are just amazing.  Autumn has such beautiful bounty and one of our favourite crafts of the past was our pinecone owls and when we got them out recently Mini commented that pinecones look a little like hedgehogs, which is what inspired our pinecone hedgehogs.

Pinecone Hedgehog

Paper plate Autumn/Fall leaf wreaths 29

An autumn paper plate leaf wreath is the perfect fall activity or craft to make with your kids whatever their age.  Paper plates remain one of my favourite ways to make wreaths with kids due to their affordability, but also their flexibility.


20 Firework crafts and treats roundup 16

With Halloween getting bigger and bigger each year, bonfire night just creeps up on me.  This year I am prepared and have a round up of some super fireworks crafts and treats to get you in the mood.  There is something wonderful about coloured art on black paper and beautiful colours against the night sky that makes fireworks so spectacular for both children and adults alike.

Firework crafts and treats roundup

Pumpkin paper plate weaving

Pumpkin paper plate weaving 14

Are you feeling all autumnal yet?  We certainly are.  We picked the last two butternut squash from our garden this week and are enjoying lots of pumpkin soup.  We are also still in the mood for pumpkin craft and I had some orange yarn left over from our pumpkin paper plate lacing craft, so we came up with a variation on our Sunflower paper plate weaving, Pumpkin paper plate weaving.


Firework Art - Zip tie firework sculptures

Firework Art – Cable tie firework sculptures 19

Do you love fireworks?  I have such fond memories of the annual firework displays that used to take place on the stray each November 5th when I was growing up.  Cold toes, hot chocolate from the flask and sparklers in gloved hands.  I remember  looking at the sky in awe at the beautiful bright bursts of colour and them making the fact that I was cold so worthwhile.  We loved making these zip tie (cable tie) firework sculptures, just look how beautiful they are and they were super fun to make too.


Autumn Days 1

We love sunshine and getting out and about and unfortunately this Autumn has not been as crisp and bright as we had hoped, but we haven’t let this stop us making the most of our weekends together as a family. Both boys play Junior football, so sunday mornings are usually taken up with a match, but the rest of the weekend we make sure that we have something planned that we can do as a family.

Our recent weekends have included:

A trip to a local Rugby match
Family Bowling
A trip to The National Railway Museum
A trip to Dalby Forest
Car washing
We were sent some great items from Bonprix to test out and the image above shows the boys in their new favorite cardigans. They are fleece lined and so soft and they have a zip in addition to the lovely paddington bear style fastening and are £14.99 each. MadDad and I


Get outside this half term

It is our half term next week and we are big fans of the great outdoors and very lucky to have some wonderful diverse countryside on our doorstep. We are less than a minute from a fab woodland area 5 minutes from the beach and 15 minutes from the North Yorkshire moors.

One of the things that stop people getting outdoors is that they are not appropriately dressed. We have been trying out some splats and have to say they are the perfect footwear for our damp autumn and are easy for the boys to put on themselves, warmer than wellies and are great for Mini, who can not get into wellies with his wide feet and large instep.

I often find that this half term is one of the most exhilarating to be out in. We need to make the most of the daylight before the darker days and nights creep in. So here are some


Autumn Clothing Inspiration and Care 7

I adore Autumn. I love bringing out my thick tights to wear under my skirts and dresses and long sleeved t-shirts to add as an extra layer under them.

Just because the weather has changed doesn’t mean that you need to put your childrens summer clothes away either, especially as most children will have grown out of them by the time the weather changes for them to be able to wear them again. It is all about layers. So I thought I would supply you with some hints and tips for making those clothes last over the colder seasons.


Encouraging Children to be Walkers 1

In an homage blatant copying of Chris at Thinly Spread, I bring you our favorite weekend Autumn Walk.  Now I am pretty lucky in the once the boys get started on a walk they love them and often it is MadDad and I who start back first. We live in a very beautiful part of the country and are blessed to have fantastic countryside on our doorstep.  We live 200 yards away from a wonderful wooded area which is on The Cleveland Way. So making the most of a dry day, we decided to set off on an adventure this afternoon. I am not sure if it is a boy thing, […]


Autumn Days and the Grass is Jeweled 4

My wonderful Fly friend Wendy sent this craft all ready prepared for the minimads all I added was the colour changing felt tips which had been supplied by my mother in law earlier in the year. Basically she printed out the tree and the leaves and we coloured them in with the colour change felt tips and then changed them to represent the autumnal colours that we see all around us at the moment.  This became a discussion on photosynthesis and why some tree lose their leaves and others dont – quite in dept for my 35 year old head, let alone minimads 3 year old brain who thought up all […]


Autumn is here, the season of change 3

It seems apt to me that it is Autumn, it is a season of change, a season of colour and a season of harvest.   I love Autumn and Spring the most.  I love crisp days walking through leaves, hearing them crisp underfoot.  I love hats and scarfs, I love hot chocolate when you get in to warm up.  I love watching the ever changing landscape around us.  I love berry picking and eating!  I love the closing in of the evenings and closing the curtains.  I love that I can peek into other peoples houses when I pass.  But what I am trying to say is it just seems right, for […]


Spiritual Sunday 3

I am Flexible and Flowing I am open to the new and changing. Every moment presents a wonderful new opportunity to become more of who I am. I flow with life easily and effortlessly. This is true for me and many other mothers of children this week, as it will have been the first week of school for many and the return to school for others. it is also particularly applicable as MiniMad has his home visit from the head of Preschool  amd one of the other teachers tomorrow afternoon. I had been looking to keep him with me for as long as I could, what with him being my last baby and […]