On Friday, I got the girls to make cornflake buns as our dessert for movie night 🙂 It was a simple recipe from Jack Monroe. I’ve done a lot of baking with the girls, but I usually measure everything, heat things, etc, so I decided to stay in the background and let them make it without my interference. It’s hard to go wrong with that recipe; there are only three ingredients 🙂 I prefer the white chocolate and peanut butter ones, but we only had milk chocolate, so we made them instead and the girls added some sprinkles. My daughter helped me to make a pizza with dough I made that morning and we watched back to back Sister Sister and ate in the living room 🙂
Yesterday, we went for a walk on the Greenway to clear our heads. We’ve been lucky to have so much dry weather this January. When I heard we were going into Lockdown in Winter, I had images of us watching the rain bouncing off the windows and not being able to get out for a walk, but it hasn’t been quite like that 🙂 I still love having a rainy and windy night though when we are snug indoors 🙂
When we got home, we did some of the girls’ Toucan box crafts. They had to make crabs with peg claws 🙂 They filled the felt with stuffing and added pipe cleaner legs before placing the lid on top. Then, we twisted the pegs onto the pipecleaners and added googly eyes. It was straightforward and the girls got to make a blue and red one each. I always save extra bits in the kits if we don’t use them. Even though it adds to the mount of craft clutter we already possess, you never know when you might need them, and in Lockdown we usually do 🙂
Afterwards, the girls made their glittery sandy beach pictures. They just had to spread glue over their little picture boards and shake the sand over. They enjoyed making a mess with the sand and added the leftover sand to other pictures too. Today, when they had dried, they coloured in the sea and the sea creatures and we stuck them up on the wall 🙂
I tried some new hot chocolate and made the girls their usual one – I expected them to turn their noses up at cacao 🙂 It was different to hot chocolate I’ve had before and wasn’t sweet, but I found it less heavy 🙂 We got out some board games and played Guess Who, Snakes and Ladders and Uno 🙂
This morning, we walked to The Lamppost Cafe again and got some hot drinks. I got some of the Root & Branch coffee they were selling to make at home too 🙂 The girls are fascinated by every detail of that cafe and I plan to take them for breakfast when it is open to sit in again 🙂 We went to an empty playground and the girls ran off some of their energy before we walked home 🙂
When we got home, the girls asked if they could have a tea party. They were pretending it was another doll’s birthday, so they brought in all her “friends” to the table. I made them some berry tea in my big strawberry teapot. It’s the only kind of tea they both drink and I find you have to add a lot of honey for them to consider it palatable 🙂 I gave them a jug of water too so they could cool it down. They had some snacks and we listened to a Café de Paris playlist. It felt like we were inside a cheery cafe abroad in contrast to the dullness outside 🙂 We did some colouring/sticker books.
I wanted to make a fairy garden in a jar, but I didn’t know how to without all the supplies for it. I dug around in my craft box and found some artificial moss and a little fir tree I had got in a Christmas craft pack from Lina at https://www.amistykindofblue.com/ We added some beads to the bottom of the jar and then the girls added the moss and little tree. We cut off part of a toilet roll tube and cut it open so it sat in a dome shape for a little caravan. I covered it with some floral fabric we had and we drew some little windows on paper to cut out and stick on. Trying to get the caravan into the jar was interesting 🙂 I tried to with tongs and when that didn’t work, my daughter managed it with her small hands 🙂 I added some jewellery wire and a little peg for a washing line and my daughter made a miniature dress to hang from it. I just bent the wire over the rim of the jar on each side and put the lid on to hold it in place. Then, we just added some string with a couple of little bells around the lid to decorate it. I’m not sure how much it looks like a fairy caravan in a forest, but we enjoyed making it anyway 🙂 Afterwards, the girls insisted on drawing pictures of their own caravans 🙂 I like when one craft naturally leads to another one that holds their attention.
I got miniature canvases from the pound shop a while ago, so the girls used my acrylic paints to paint pictures on them. I decided to join them and paint some of the art objects we were using at the time. I’m trying to let go of how things turn out and just enjoy the process of making them instead 🙂 I found it quite soothing and continued painting for a while after the girls had moved on to something else. I tend to save things I want to do for when the girls are asleep or occupied with something entirely different, but I think this afternoon showed me that that doesn’t have to be the case and I can combine both 🙂
The Funky Thrifter 