a happy place.....

thoughts of summer are again in my mind today...our little den in the garden was looking most sorry for itself so I hatched a plan.....

the story of our den is close to my heart...I built it from old palettes and scrap wood with just a hammer...some very big nails and a screwdriver...our boys were only small and I had been mothering and nesting as you do when I had the urge to build them a den... when I look back now it was just what I needed at the time...a project to take my mind off sad things...outside in all weathers...banging stuff... getting grubby..thinking time...mucky hands...sitting on a pile of wood sipping tea from a big tin mug...

it started off  very small but then someone gave me some more palettes and it got an extension...the boys call this bit the balcony (so grand)

 

It's at the bottom of the garden in a tree....there were already little steps there so it feels like you have to 'climb' up to it...there's also a little pond and a lot of frogs rustling around down there...it's changed a bit over the years from a pirate ship to an army base and a nature look out (which was basically the boys spying on our neighbours with binoculars through a small gap in the camo net)

 

the latest look is based on a favourite film from last year...can you guess??? this meant I had a lot of fun gathering stuff from around the home to decorate it...

 

another clue :)

as you can see it's not huge but all 4 of us plus the dog can sit in there at a push...the tree is like a canopy so it keeps pretty dry inside...

 

it's quite well hidden from the house so you can really hide out in there without any one knowing :)

 

the latest addition is a swing seat made from strong rope and a piece of wood..

 the nitty gritty to the construction of the main den is pretty simple...

it is basically 4 palettes joined together with a roof made from fence posts...it involved lots of re jiggling..re designing and quite a bit of swearing...it's not straight, the roof is a bit wobbly..and there are far too many bugs in there for my liking

 but we love it....(especially me)

x x x x x x

 

holiday diaries....

 We are so ready for the summer break here and school holidays are a good excuse to plan some fun... we tend to holiday at home in the summer...since the boys were small we have always planned out the summer hols so that there is a good balance of going out and staying home...not going out to work gives me the freedom to be around, but it also means we have to stick to a budget...

 

when the boys were small I would make a little book and get them to decorate the cover and then we would write in it every time we did something..I did this so they will have a record of what we got up to when they were young but also it serves as good reference for when you are stuck for something to do in the next holidays...

 as they are getting older I changed the format last year to a fold out postcard book...inspired by lovely Ingrid

so now we buy a postcard whenever we go anywhere to fill in and add to our book....I  hoard keep fab stamps from all over the place and stick them on...

 I love looking back through the old ones and seeing their writing and drawings...they bring back such happy memories...

I have started collecting a few postcards in anticipation of this summer holiday and am planning a few trips to pick up some more... roll on summer :)
x x x x x x x x

a little visitor.....

 this little blog post is all about a well traveled owl called Clara...
she is the creation of lovely Susi (from my lovely swap post)
and has been sent on her travels around the world,visiting crafty bloggers along the way......

it's a very lovely idea and Susi's little girl gets to find out where she has been and what she has been up to via the blogs Clara visits and her little journal that we fill in before she leaves...

we introduced Clara to all our little creatures...she kept popping up among the little collections we have in our house...

 all the owls were gathered up for a 'family' photo :)

Clara came and sat in my little work shed when I was working...she was very good :)

she enjoyed noodling about among my sewing things....

she met Goosey....

and Mrs Salt and Mr Pepper

 

as she seems to like badges we made her one of our little wooden girl ones :)

and when it all got a bit much for her I found her snoozing on the bed with another owl :)

so now I will write up her journal for her stay at the Teawagon house and then I will find out where to send her next....I wonder where she is going???
lucky old Clara x x x x

last week I was mostly....

... entertaining our #2 who was on school holiday while our #1 was at school... in between nipping off to the newly white shed for a bit of worky type creating...we became a little obsessed with polymer clay...

 

first of all we made little kawaii style fruit faces and animals inspired by this 

then we decided to make some of our own style inspired by little vintage Fisher Price people....oh what fun  I we had...

the trick is getting the right colours and having a few little pots of acrylic paint for features...

as you can see I channelled my inner hairdresser here and created a few 'do's...

 then of course if you just happen to have a little house lying around then you can display them...

 

luckily our #2 is a budding animator and has a fab collection of miniature furniture for props...more fun making little room scenes....

I have to confess by this point our #2 had wandered off to craft some worlds on his favourite xbox game...so I soldiered on alone...making little cushions and blankets and arranging and possibly making a few more people...

 these two drew the short straw with the smallest room but they did bag the telly :)...

 

and then when everyone went out and I should have been doing very important things...I made a little matchbox home for this little couple....I could have gone on and on...it was so addictive and I confess to hogging the oven and filling it with big headed little people when I should have been making tea..

now everyone is back at school and I have no reason to make any more but I think when no one is looking I might just make a couple more :)
details for making these if you fancy having a go..
we used Sculpey polymer clay in primary brights and a couple of neons and we mixed up our own pastel and skin colours...the paint is acrylic applied with a cocktail stick and the varnish is mod podge

x x x x x x x x x

ps sorry for the name on the bottom of the photos..this is due to finding an instagram feed that was full of my blog photos :( not sure how effective that will be but its worth a try x

brighton rocks....

cinema

last week we took a little trip to the seaside...somewhere I had never been before... but had heard very good things about here
it was a last minute thing, we were on a budget and we were taking our boys... so we had to make sure it would work for all 4 of us..(our little dog Arnie was left in the safe hands of my good friend Jane..and although he had a splendid time, he has only just forgiven us)

two nights in Brighton...  an eight hour round trip and a limited budget.... 

royal pavillion

was it worth it??? .....YES! the shops are amazing...independent sellers and vintage emporiums...graphic novel and comic shops and lots of record (vinyl) and books shops...something to keep us all happy :)

brighton pier and our boys

we walked our socks off... had ice creams... rode an open top bus... had picnics... watched the sunset... saw amazing architecture....dodged a massive rainstorm...soaked up the sun...played daft games in the arcades...

toy museum

 went to the Toy museum... sat in the park...had a dodgy breakfast in a Little Chef... walked along the Pier... ate Pizza
and slept like logs :)
x x x x x x x