Photo Friday/This Moment

Inspired by Soulemama's {this moment}:

Two tired children today meant bathtime was best enjoyed straight after lunch.I think this is the way to go for cold, dreary winter's afternoons.

Tidy Me Happy!

Our dining room is small, and it also has to double as a laundry room, playing-at-the-table room and route to the stairs. Stairs mean potential storage space underneath, and we certainly need to make use of every corner and cubby hole we've got, but a cupboard there would make the room look even smaller. Instead, I came up with this.

{Before and After template by Paint the Moon}

The table has adjustable legs it's tall enough to fit over the tumble dryer, and the man of the household came up with the idea of attaching my home-made fabric screens using dowling rods supported by hooks so they can come off easily too. Shelves, table and fabric are all from Ikea. It's a nice bright room as it gets the morning sun, and it makes me so happy to see colourful pretty things in that space, instead of the mess that always seemed to accumulate there!

I just need a new phone now. One of these Trim phones would do nicely.

{Image credit: Retrowow}

But the question is: which colour?

Skipton Castle

Can't beat a good clamber around a proper, well-preserved medieval castle. Check out the arrow slits, measure the thickness of the walls in spans of your outstretched arms, scare yourself in the dungeon, poke around the fireplaces and tread on the steps worn down by hundreds of years of use. El loved it almost as much as the fish and chips we had for lunch.

If you go down in the woods today...

At this time of year it always seems hard to get out for a walk at the weekend. By the time we've pried ourselves out of bed, had breakfast, cleaned up, played, had lunch, napped (ok, only the one-year old gets to do that, lucky girl), and got wrapped up and out of the house it's almost sunset.
But every time we visit these places I always wish we came more often, so we could keep track of how they change from month to month. Like whether or not the (three) tree bears hibernate in winter.



They don't. Perhaps we should try not to either!

Photo Friday

Break time. For One Red Robin's Colour Me Happy. (The Amy Butler print alone makes me happy).


And for Soulemama's {this moment} - "A Friday ritual. A single photo - no words - capturing a moment from the week. A simple, special, extraordinary moment. A moment I want to pause, savor and remember."

Colour Me Happy Friday

Playing along with One Red Robin. A bit of colour for a gloomy January day. Time for a bit of hairband reorganisation!

And dreams of summer, short sleeves and ice lollies...

More Star Wars dolls: Obi-Wan and Anakin

My Big Epic (Christmas) Project™ was to make two more felt dolls to add to El's growing Star Wars doll collection. I drew up my own patterns because I wanted to avoid button-jointed legs, and change the shape of the torso, shoulders and face.

I was a bit anxious about getting Obi-Wan's beard and moustache right, but I'm really pleased with how he turned out!


The doll bodies are made with 100% wool felt from here (a shop with such gorgeous natural toys it was a struggle not to spend a fortune there), and the tunics are made from repurposed maternity t-shirts(!) making them very soft and cuddly. They were revealed on Christmas morning to giggles of delight and currently split their time between El's bed and Kiki's new pram.