How To Make A Christmas Rag Wreath

Ever since my year spent living in Austria, wreath-making has been an annual part of my Advent... whether it be a candle-wreath, or a door wreath, there is something lovely and festive about those colourful rings...

This year I went for a slightly different angle.

I am so thrilled with my rag-wreath, dirt cheap to make, quick and easy... you genuinely need no craft skill at all to make it... and even the kids can get involved! As long as you can knot, you can do this!

I led a workshop making these last week at our Church Christmas Craft Evening, and showed 42 women from our local community how to rustle up themselves a wreath... and without exception they were thrilled with their creations, and all commented how quick and easy it had been!

So I thought I'd share a little "How To" on how to make them... if you have a free 45 minutes somewhere, why not give it a go?

YOU NEED:
1m garden wire
Material/ribbon in your colour scheme of choice

Step 1: 
Cut your material into approximately 75 strips measuring 3/4" x 5"

Step 2:
Bend your garden wire into a circle with a diameter of approximately 20cm. Double it up and twist to strengthen.

Step 3:
Tie each strip onto your wire with a simple knot and bunch them together...

Step 4:
Once you have knotted all the way around your wreath, use a little decoration to create the top (I used little mushrooms on wire, but you could use a bell, bauble or some holly!)

Step 5:
Stand back and admire. I loved this craft... a little project that is so effective.

Watch out... I think there may be some seasonal wreaths planned for next year!!

Why not have a go?!

10 Lovely Little Girl Hairstyles...

I'm going to be upfront and honest and admit the irony of this post. I am useless with my own hair. Growing up, it was my sister who worked wonders on hers (and mine!)... she seemed to have the magic touch and her hair always looked pristine. Mine, more often than not, was bunged up in the simplest of ponytails.

But then I had little girls...

And I couldn't help myself... I started basic... following a few people on Instagram and coming up with a few ideas. I'd show Ava pictures and she would pick out the style of the day and often I wouldn't know whether it would work till I gave it a go...

Then gradually we got a bit more daring and started following Youtube tutorials and photographing what we were up to, and suddenly I had people asking me for top tips on their little girls hair, which just seemed hilarious to me, but very honouring too!

So here you are... our little girl hairstyle journey... and I can HONESTLY say if you are useless with hair, then you're in the right place...

Here are our favourites...

The Simple Styles...

1. Good old fashioned bunches

There's nothing quite like little bunches on your little lady, and its often the first hairstyle that baby hair can cope with. Our Heidi loves her bunches look, and she's only just getting enough hair now to try plaited bunches, and French plaits too...



2. The High Ponytail

Quick and easy, but really cute... especially if accessorised with some little flowers or pretty clips. This is one of Ava's favourites, even though its nowhere near as fancy as some of the others... especially good in the hot weather!

3. Pull Throughs

Pull Throughs are SO easy, and yet so effective! You simply stick your finger through the centre of the hair, just above your hair elastic, and pull the hair below the elastic through. You can do all sorts with this one!


4. Pull Through Braid

This one is so easy, you just need a lot of elastics. We found this tutorial really useful.

A Little More Challenging...

French Plait

Start with a layer of hair at the top, plaiting each of your three strands over each other and into the centre, and pulling more hair into the braid as you go down. It's a classic, and a pretty one at that.

Dutch Braid

A Dutch braid is the braid that looks like it sits on top of the hair, whereas a French plait tucks into the hair. This look is created in exactly the same way as a French plait, only instead of plaiting over the other strands and into the centre, you plait under the other strands. Dutch braids are my current favourite and you can do them anyway you like... Dutch pigtails, Dutch centre braid or diagonal... I think the diagonal is my favourite...

Star Bunches

I just love this one and it looks so cute! I actually didn't have a tutorial for this one, just a picture on Pinterest, but if you stare at the picture long enough you can work out how to do it! Five little ponies at the top (leaving hair loose underneath), split the centre pony and diagonally cross over the others . You'll need a clip of some kind to hold things in place while you draw everything into the bunches, but it's so cute and only takes about 5 minutes to do... Plus, there's no complicated plaiting involved!

The Tougher Ones!

French Crown Braid

This is basically a French braid, as described above, but you follow the braid around the head to create a circle. I haven't perfected this one yet, but it's one Ava lives to have so she gets it fairly regularly. Really good on hot days too.

Waterfall Braid

This one is SO pretty, but does work better on thicker hair. Ava's hair is still pretty fine and wispy, so I've found it only holds for an hour or so... But what a pretty hour it is! It's a simple plait around the head, but you drop the downward strand on every plait and pick up a new one. Sounds complicated, and it is a little more fiddly, but I found this video really useful.

Fishtail Braid

I'm not even gonna try and explain this one... I haven't managed it yet, but my sister does it on the girls sometimes (told you she was good!) and I think it looks real pretty. I found a great tutorial here and I'm going to try and give it a go at the weekend!

***

So I thought I'd leave you with some great braiders to follow and be inspired by... Don't forget, you can also follow my "Easy Hair" Pinterest board for some inspiration, and keep tabs on what Ava's styling on  the #avashair hashtag on Instagram!

Any more great little girl hairstyles? Please share!

Hair Inspiration...

YouTube Turorials from Sweethearts Hair Design

On Instagram
@brownhairedbliss

@sweethearts_hair_designs

@toddlerhairideas

@flettemama               

@molliebanks5

Ava's 4th Birthday Fairytale Party

Once upon a time, there was a little girl called Ava who wished for a Fairytale Party for her birthday...

On Monday afternoon, her little wish came true...

It was such a fun afternoon... four year olds are just the best age. Enthusiastic and excitable! We were overrun by Princesses, with a few knights and dragons to boot, and the children just threw themselves into the party with full force. Ava loved it - fairytales, princesses and all her little friends around her. What more could a little four-year-old girl want?

So in case you're planning to throw a Fairytale bash anytime soon, here's what we did!

The Food

I maintain that you can always tie your food into the party theme with a little creativity, and a little help from Pinterest. In terms of party themes, I always try to keep them fairly broad (in the past we've had a Safari party, a Rainbow party and a Frozen party)... it just helps give you a wider spectrum of possibility! Here's what we had for the birthday tea...

Royal Rolls  - bread rolls filled with jam, ham or cheese
Jack's Beanstalks - Cheese Straws
Straw, Sticks and Bricks - Mini chipsticks for straw, chipsticks for sticks & carrot & cucumber bricks
Neverland Fairy Clouds -  Mini Marshmallows
Goldilocks Porridge Cookies - Oat and Raisin cookies in Papa-size, Mama-size and Baby-size
Jack's Magic Beans - Jelly Beans
Cinderella's Carriages - satsumas
Non-poisoned Apples - self-explanatory!

The food went down a treat and the table was pretty cleared by the end (only a few Jam Royal Rolls and some non-poisoned apples remained!). The children loved sitting at the Royal Feast, and Ava was in her element surrounded by her little friends!

The Activities

The first half hour of the party was free play, but we'd set up a few themed activities around the edges of the room for the children to have a go at...

Grandma's Cottage: Our new fridge freezer box was transformed into the front of Red Riding Hood's Grandma's cottage... Inside was a role play area complete with kitchen! This was a real hit!

Build a Little Pig House: a basketful of art straws, lolly sticks and building bricks, and a few sticks of glue, meant this was a table with a constant flow of little builders!
Colouring Station: A variety of fairytale colouring pictures and this table was easy to set up. I find a colouring activity is always a success at little girls parties!

Decorate a Crown or Fairy: an opportunity for our little fairytale characters to get creative with stickers, pom-poms and googley eyes!

Face Painting: my incredibly talented friend Kirsty came along as the Fairy Godmother and a did a great job transforming the children (and some of the adults) into role! (If your local and looking for a face-painter, I have linked to Kirsty on my Facebook page)

The Costumes

We had a huge variety of Princesses... And amazingly only one was doubled... Rapunzel, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, Ariel, Anna and Belle were accompanied by knights in shining armour, Thor, Captain Hook, Dragons, Fairies and even a Dalmation! All the children looked fabulous and it just added to the fun!
 
The Games

Even your party games have to be themed, right?

What's the time Mr Wolf? Well, we had to get that Big Bad Wolf in somewhere, didn't we? This game is SUCH a hit with this age. They just love it!

Cinderella's Shoe: The children were split into two teams. All the children removed one show, and placed it into a big pile in the middle. The children then raced each other to hop to the pile,find their shoe, put it on and run bag to tag the next team member.

The Emperor's New Clothes: A fancy dress race... A hat, scarf and large jacket were laid out for each team. They raced each other to get dressed, run to the end of the room, come back, return the clothes and tag the next team member. Some of them looked hilarious!

Sleeping Beauty: That age old game of sleeping lions!

The Cake

The cake was inspired by Pinterest. I wanted to create a storybook cake with a castle on it. I made a large rectangular chocolate cake which rose in the middle. I then sliced the cake horizontally across the middle and filled it with chocolate icing. I then cut the top half of the cake in half, and turned the risen centres to face out the ways, so that it was shaped like a book. A bit of Regal icing later and voila!

Needless to say, our little lady loved it!

The Favours

The knapsacks (more details in a previous post) were a roaring success.the children loved swinging them over their shoulders and heading off on an adventure home. Cheap and cheerful, but so effective!

Our little lady had a wonderful time. She literally grinned from ear to ear the whole time she was there (except when I told her she had to finish her Royal Roll before eating any more sweets - mean Mama!) when I put her to bed that evening, she put her little arms round me and said "That was the best party in the world. Thankyou for making it for me Mama"

I tell you what, the hours of baking, gluing, cutting, drawing, printing, organising, shopping, sewing and building were worth it just for that comment.

And who am I kidding... I absolutely loved organising it too!

(All photos of children are used with parental permission)

The Perfect Fairytale Party Bag!

The Enchanted Woods are slowly coming together, ready for the birthday girl's party on Monday. This party has been in the planning for a couple of months now, and one little lady is still trying to decide who to come as... Goldilocks? Red Riding Hood? Rapunzel?

All will be revealed next week!

Pom Pom apples and gingham napkins are ready to adorn the table; bricks, sticks and straw gather for the building of little pig houses; Three Bears Porridge Cookies and a Fairytale cake are ready to be baked... Plans are underway, and one little girl is extremely excited!

And so, when we returned from Norway, I turned my mind to the favours for one little Princess to share with all her fairytale friends...

And what could be better than each child getting their own little fairytale napsack of goodies??

Nothing could be simpler... A stick, some red gingham material, and we were good to go! I simply cut squares of red gingham material, and pulled the four corners together to tie around the stick. I then secured them with a piece of string! So easy, and yet so effective!

But what to put in them? I hunted around for a few fairytale ideas and also came across the Hawkin's Bazaar stocking filler page... Who says stocking fillers need to be for Christmas?! They had some perfect little gifts for party bag fun!

How cute are these fairytale finger puppets?!

I won't reveal too much, but needless to say, I'm quite chuffed with the final outcome, and hope we'll have lots of happy little fairytale characters on Monday afternoon!

If you have a party coming up, why not check out Hawkin's Bazaar for some perfect party bag fillers?

 Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post, however all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Homemade Evacuee Costume Tutorial...

When Ava brought home the letter inviting us to her Nursery VE Day party, I'm not going to pretend I wasn't a little bit excited. I love history. Always have, always will. I studied it for GCSE, A-Level and as part of my University Degree. I have always been fascinated by the past, and by the Second World War  Era in particular.

And so, last week, Ava and I enjoyed a little project afternoon, which Heidi joined when she awoke, and it was so much fun to see my little ladies developing the same curiosity and fascination that I have always had with that particular era.

But onto the party...

This Friday, Ava's nursery have asked the children to come in dressed up appropriately.

What could be more appropriate than a little Evacuee??!

So here you have it, a little "how-to" on how to turn your budding historian into an evacuee lookalike!

You need...

For the clothing

Ours were from the wardrobe, but charity shops are a cheap alternative

* Blouse and skirt/ dress, cardigan and long white socks for girls

* Shirt, shorts, tank top and long socks for boys

For the gas mask

* A small packing box 

* Brown string

* A black pen

For the label

* A brown label

* Brown string

* A pen

Accessories ideas

* An old style small suitcase 

* A teddybear

I am fortunate enough to have a real gas mask at home, which my childhood babysitter gave to me many moons ago from her own childhood, but I wasn't about to let our three-year-old traipse into school with that, so instead, I folded up a small postal packaging box, punched holes in the sides to tie the string through, and modelled the design on the original, copying out the original text from the genuine children's masks. I then simply adjusted the length of the string, until it was just the right fit for Ava.

The label was easy. I simply googled our local authority evacuee labels and found an exact match for the type of label the children in our local area would have had seventy years ago. I had always thought children wore the labels around their necks, but I discovered on closer inspection that they were, in fact, usually pinned to the collar, or tied through a button hole. Always want to be as true to life as possible!

We didn't own any suitable suitcases, but we do have a little bear who looks fairly old fashioned, so Ava picked him out as her travelling companion.

And there you have it. The transformation was complete. One little lady was delighted as she glanced between her costume and the evacuee pictures in her library books... And then she was off, running around the garden and re-enacting the games her Great-grandmother played which she had read about in her memory book last week. She was utterly thrilled, and it was rather a battle to get her to remove her costume and save it from getting damaged before Friday.

I think it's fair to say, if we were looking forward to it before... We're definitely looking forward to it now!

Hmmm... Now to create a little two-year-old evacuee sister!

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Heidi's Frozen 2nd Birthday Party!

On Saturday we celebrated Heidi's much anticipated Frozen Party... I say much anticipated because for the week running up to it, I had a flurry of little high-pitched voices persistently asking me "How many more sleeps 'til the Elsa party?" Needless to say, we were more than ready for it when the big day finally arrived!

I have to admit I wasn't overly excited at the prospect of another Frozen party. It's the biggest fad right now amongst almost anyone under the age of seven, and so the last few parties we have been to have had, for the most part, a decidedly Frozen theme.

But of course, with a little help of Pinterest, a few ideas were born, and soon enough I was possibly just as excited about the party as the girls were!

So in case you ever find yourself needing to throw a "Frozen" party, here's what we did!

The Food
The food is always the fun challenge for parties... tying it into the theme gives you the opportunity to get very creative without actually having to put much work in. I mean, who ever heard of whole mini carrots at a birthday party? But name them "Sven's Reindeer Snacks" and suddenly you have a posse of two-year-olds devouring more fruit and veg than you've ever seen in your life before. I can't take credit for any of the food ideas though... they were all straight from Pinterest, and I tried to find something fun to eat for each of the main characters...

Prince Hans' Sandwiches
Sven's Reindeer Snacks (a platter of grapes, raisins, mini carrots and chip-sticks)
Queen Elsa's Coronation Cupcakes
Olaf's Noses (Wotsits)
Anna's Snowballs (Popcorn)
Kristoff's Melted Icicles (flavoured water in little bottles)

As I said, minimal effort (with the exception of the cupcakes) and yet lots of happy little eaters!

The Costumes
We had encouraged people on Heidi's invitations to come dressed in white or blue, so there were a flurry of little snowy bodies running round the room, and there were no shortage of characters from the movie either! (Children's photographs are posted with parental permission)

 
It was pretty cool to have a snow monster at the party!

The Cake
A simple Victoria Sandwich with butter icing (except that I dyed the butter icing blue!) made this one a pretty easy make (close-up at the top). I cheated on the Regal Icing and bought it ready to roll in Tesco for around £2. I kneaded a bit of blue food colouring through a bit of it to cut out the snowflakes, and Olaf was a simple marshmallow/cocktail stick job. It took me a couple of hours start to finish and there was one happy little lady by the end of it. I'm still very much a novice when it comes to cake decorating (I don't know how people make these incredible creations you see on the web) but we were pretty happy with our humble attempt!

The Activities
This one was good fun as I found there were lots of ideas on Pinterest, but none that were really suitable for two-year-olds... I always think 2nd birthday parties are a bit of a challenge. The children are old enough to get involved in some activities, but there's still not a lot they can do completely independently. I was also conscious we had a good few boys coming, so didn't want everything to feel too  girly... so here's what we did!

* Ice block tower building - a whole stack of white boxes and white foam blocks (the kind you get in packaging) and we were good to go. This kept loads of the kids amused for ages, and they enjoyed both the building and the knocking down. Ava's school class had been doing a topic on "Ice and Magic" the previous half term and had kindly donated me their supplies, so we had no shortage of ice blocks!
* Colouring Corner - a few "Frozen" colouring pages led to happy little artists!
* Hunt Olaf's Noses - This is the only one that I had to prep in advance. I hid eight different coloured carrot noses around the room, and the children had to find them and tick them off when they had each nose. At the end, we talked about which nose was the right nose for Olaf! The children enjoyed hunting them down, and, with a bit of help from Mums and Dads, every child was able to get involved!

The Favours
This was a total Pinterest steal! I had seen these cute little "Do you wanna build a snowman" packs and knew it would be a sweet little gift for Heidi to give her friends to thank them for coming! A few marshmallows, twiglets and raisins and an orange jelly bean was all it took!

We had a fabulous time... Heidi was pretty grumpy for the firs half hour - lets just say no-one ever likes to be woken from their nap... not even for their birthday party! But pretty soon, she was running round with the other children having a whale of a time. It makes all the effort and preparation worthwhile when you see their happy little faces...

... and I still can't believe my baby girl is two!!!

Advent Day Two: Easy Make Cinnamon Stick Decorations...

There's something lovely about the scent of Christmas, isn't there? There is just something incredible that takes you right back to that childhood excitement when you walk into a room full of the aroma of Christmas - that real Christmas tree smell, the scent of cloves in orange pomanders - cranberry and cinnamon!

And so I thought today I throw you in a little "How-to" on one of the quickest and easiest Christmas crafts you've ever done!

Cinnamon sticks are easy to get hold of, easy to work with and smell INCREDIBLE...

Time taken: About 5 minutes...

You Need:
A pack of cinnamon sticks (either from your Supermarket or craft shop)
Some thin Christmassy ribbon
A  dab of liquid glue
Some string (optional)

Step One:
Gather three cinammon sticks together and lay two on the bottom, and one centrally on the top. Dab a bit of glue on the inside (so it remains unseen) to secure the sticks. The ribbon should hold them together, but better to be safe than sorry!

Step Two: 
Wrap a bit of ribbon tight around your three cinnamon sticks and tie tightly in a knot. Once you are sure it is tight and secure, tie the remaining ribbon into a bow on the top. You can then either attach a piece of string to make a lovely, scented Christmas tree decoration, or you can simply pile them up - perhaps amongst some dried oranges, apples or star of anise, to create your own gorgeous Christmas pot pourri.

DEAD easy. Seriously!


Who's giving it a go?!

Bake Day Recipe: Lion Bread on the Menu!

Anyone who reads this blog regularly will know pretty well that our eldest is a big fan of lions. And so, on Friday morning, after we'd gone through the normal routine and I'd suggested to the girls that we could bake some bread, it came as no surprise to me that "Lion Bread" was the order of the day...

Zopfbrot is a fairly regular bake in our home. It's dead straightforward, doesn't have any funny ingredients and tastes DIVINE straight out of the oven with a bit of butter and jam. It takes time - there's a fair bit of waiting for dough to rise - so we always write out a morning to make it. But at that first bite, it's worth every second! With two little ladies also eager to help out, it's a fairly foolproof recipe that's pretty difficult to ruin, which is always a bonus. Zopfbrot is a type of Austrian/Swiss sweet bread that somewhat resembles brioche, and it became regular staple for me when I was living on the Swiss border of Austria. Ten years after moving back to England, and I'm still baking the stuff.

And so we donned our aprons and set to work; pouring, mixing, kneading and rolling. We had great fun and were totally chuffed with our lion bread by the end!

Of course, we couldn't resist packing up some Zopf rolls for our friends and family!

So in case you have a free rainy morning ahead, and would like to try your hand at some good old fashioned Swiss sweet bread, here's a little how-to for you all.

And if you really fancy getting into the spirit of it all, just plait your hair and yodel as you work!

How to make Zopfbrot

1kg Zopfmehl (150g bread flour mixed with 850g plain flour)

40g fresh yeast/ 2 packets of dried yeast
2 eggs
500ml milk
2 tsp salt

160g caster sugar

90g butter

- Warm the milk in a pan until it is lukewarm.

- Remove 2tbsp of the milk into a mug, and add the yeast and 1 tsp sugar. Stir until well -mixed and put in a warm area until the mixture is creamy and begins to rise.

- In a mixing bowl, mix the rest of the milk with the eggs, sugar and salt and the melted butter with a whisk until everything is mixed in.

- Add the yeast mixture and gradually work in the flour, a bit at a time, until you are able to knead the dough (you can add raisins too if you like).

- Knead the dough for approximately 5 minutes, cover and then put in a warm place to rise for approximately 1 hour, until the dough is approximately double the height (I usually put mine in the oven on the lowest temperature setting).

- (Cue opportunity for stories, puzzles, games and general merriment)

- Lay the dough on a floured surface and knead it again for approximately 5 minutes

- Cover and leave the dough to rise in a warm place for another half an hour. Preheat oven to 170 degrees

- Shape or plait your bread and leave to sit for 15 minutes
- Glaze the bread with egg and place in the oven for approximately half an hour

- EAT and enjoy!