With the darker nights and the clocks due to go back, we love brightening up The Mad House and one way we do that is with Jam Jar/Mason Jar Lanterns or tealight holder. These Halloween lanterns are really easy to make Look great too, so I have teamed up with Betta Living to show you how you can reuse any old jars that you have. What you need to make Jam Jar or Mason Jar Halloween Lanterns
I know what we will be doing this Bonfire night. We will be spending it with family as they put on their own annual fireworks show. It is something we look forward to every year and it would be the perfect time to have a winter BBQ and the people at Country Valley Foods have some brilliant meat hampers at the moment. There is nothing better than some lovely warm food whilst watching fireworks and it makes for a great evening for everyone. I particularly like the Meat Hampers from Country Valley and think they are really great value. Even better for me they are a local company and have sites not far from more »
I love cooking and baking with the boys and for me the secret is letting go and dealing with the mess afterwards, plus good planning, making sure all the ingredients are out and the equipment etc. I think that by empowering the boys to cook and bake it will stand them in good stead as they get older, plus they can start cooking dinner and feed me! Also it might not look perfect, but I can assure you it tastes mighty fine. So I bring you Maxi’s chocolate cakes and biscuits. Basic Biscuit Recipe I use one without egg and it is fine if over handled, so perfect for more »
It has been a wet, wild and windy week in TheMadHouse and what with the dark nights and dark mornings we need something to look forward to, so we are going to start on our Halloween Preparations. Last year we did lots of things and I thought I would do a nice review post for you here to get you in the mood for the spooky festivities. I will also be holding a special Halloween Children’s Craft Showcase on the Monday 25 October (start of half term) to collate everyone’s ideas and to give you some more for the half term week. Balloon Scary Faces Paper Pumpkins Salt Dough Decorations Spooky more »
We have been to my Brother and Sister in Laws social club this evening for the children Halloween party and it was and always is a fantastic night. It is a night for all the children and most of them dress up (except for MaxiMad who goes as himself) and have a great time. Cheesy tunes are played by the Menacing Boys Disco, parents are dragged up on the stage to show off the dance routines to the children and party games are played. Apples are bobbed and fancy dress competitions take place. Toffee apples, Halloween cakes and toffee lollies are eaten. It is always a wonderful experiance and tonight is more »
Well today has been very wet, so I decided to do some very easy Halloween decorations with the boys that required minimal preparation or involvement on my part. So we made paper pumpkins and drew faces on orange balloons. Whilst MaxiMad was a football practice I did was cut the paper for the pumpkins and black triangles for the mini’s to decorate them with. I also blew up a couple of orange balloon’s (I need to get some more as they really enjoyed this part) All the mini’s did was colour in the paper with orange crayons and then stuck the black card where they wanted it to decorate them. I then more »
We love salt dough here in TheMadHouse. It is an inexpensive and fun way of making and modeling. I picked up a set of cookie cutters from tesco for 99p. They are small, but they are fine until we fine some larger ones and have a few spare pennies. Basic recipe 2 cups of plain flour 1 cup of salt 1 cup of warm water I also add 1 tablespoon of lemon juice to make the final decoration harder. Mix the flour, salt and lemon juice adding water until you get a firm dough. Then knead the dough. The more you kneed the more pliable the dough will become. We basically roll more »
Seen as I have the colour changing pens out already for the Autumn tree collage I did with MiniMad this morning, I decided to do some secret Halloween pictures for when the boys came home from school and preschool. Again you can not get much more simple than this. I used the white (colour changing pen to draw Halloween shapes and words on white paper and let them lose with the others, so they could find their messages and pictures. Not elegant, but fun none the less. You dont need to have colour changing pens to do this though, you can use a candle or a white crayon and water paints more »
You will have gathered by now that I like simple ideas, often the simpler the better and you dont get much more similar than ghostie paper chains. The only prep work required by me was to fold the roll of paper (ikea) and cut out the ghosts (I didn’t even need a template – smug). I then drew the eyes and mouth on one and maximad did the rest. Voila, effective, simple, inexpensive and family inclusive halloween decorations. I saw this originally on Skip to my loo and she has templates there if you need them too. Keep an eye open for more easy and simple Halloween crafts you can do with children.
We love glue resist art projects, one of our favourites was the watercolor leaf garland we made last Autumn and this year we decided to try a variation using black paper for our glue resist pumpkins which is the perfect pumpkin art project for this fall season. This black glue pumpkin art project is perfect for kids of all ages from preschoolers to adults. I mean who doesn’t love seasonal crafts?
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.
Create a memorable and fun Autumn/Fall with your children using our free autumn/fall bucket list for families. Our bucket lists printables are always so popular that we created an Autym/fall one with low costs simple activities for you and also a blank one for your family to create your personalised bucket list.
Rock painting has become a massive craft trend over the years, if you haven’t heard of it you must have been living under a rock! I love it as you can make something beautiful and then leave it for other people to find or gift them as paperweights or even place them in the garden. Sometimes our children just need some inspiration so I have gathered together some simple rock painting ideas for kids along with some fabulous art materials to make it even easier. We have something for beginners to experts here.
These DIY Rainbow Clay Christmas Tree Decorations are the perfect homemade Christmas tree ornament for this year. This is a fun DIY Christmas craft that you can hang on the tree and be reminded of the year we have had.
Not everyone loves Halloween and these free No trick or treaters signs for you to print are to help ensure that your wishes are respected especially during these difficult socially distanced times.
I am on a roll designing these kindness colouring pages for adults and I decided to keep it floral with this Kindness looks amazing on you, adult colouring page.
I love colouring and I love kindness, so I couldn’t resist combining the two and developed this Plant Seeds of Kindness Colouring page. A simple fast page to colour that is perfect for when you do not have loads of time.
I have had my Cricut Joy since the beginning of lockdown, but haven’t had the mindspace or time to unbox or review it. However, I was determined to get it out of the box and see what was so special about it.
I love tea, it is my drink of choice so I made some DIY coasters using Cricut infusable ink that are dedicated to my favourite beverage. I am delighted at how these turned out and I learned some valuable lessons that I wanted to share with you.
Growing up by the sea means that I have an affinity with beaches and they are somewhere I gravitate too. We lived in Landlocked Berkshire for 14 years and I craved the sea, so when we came back to North Yorkshire I made it my mission to explore all the local beaches and now I am going to share them with you my best North Yorkshire Beaches.
