Book Review; 1000 things to make and do

The very lovely Book People sent me this beautiful arty children's book to review. It is Usborne's 1000 things to make and do which is aimed at children aged 5 and over. 

The book is filled with creative ideas, mostly things to draw, ideas for collage, cutting, doodling and painting. I was impressed with the range of ideas to suit older children as well as little ones. All the pages are full colour and the book is ring bound so it stays open on the table.

How to draw a jungle scene in silhouette.

There are also ideas to suit both boys and girls, and plenty of seasonal pages which would be great for both home educators and primary school teachers.

Thumbprint snowmen.

I think the illustrations are great, showing a variety of colours and styles.

How to make a collaged doodle page.

I roped in my son Anthony to test one of the ideas; he chose collage robots which involved cutting out pictures from magazines and also sticking on things like safety pins.

Greenhouse feet!

And I also used one of the pages for inspiration and made this card by cutting out rough circles and sewing a button on top.

I really like this book, and can see myself using it both for myself and for the children. It would make a lovely present for a creative child and offers great value for money.

Pooh's Yummy Cookbook - tried and tested!

I'm very excited about this post because it's my first review for The Book People who sell loads of books at great prices, for little people, middle-sized people and grown up people too!

 So here is the first book they sent us - Pooh's Yummy Cookbook which is aimed at children aged 5 and over. Anthony is 7 next week so I quickly enlisted his help.

The book is nice and colourful with wipe clean pages, some Pooh stories, and 8 recipes. These recipes are all child friendly sweet treats, like cookies, pancakes and brownies. Anthony chose to make the "hunny cake."

The first instruction for this recipe was to separate 3 eggs; Anthony loves cracking eggs and did a pretty good job of this. He also weighed out all of the ingredients on his own but these are all recipes which require parental help and supervision.

Look at that speedy stirring!!

Poppy popped by to help with the mixing too.

The egg whites were whisked until white and fluffy, then folded into the yolks, sugar and honey mixture.

Ready for the oven!

Ta-dah!

We decorated it with icing and sprinkles, because all good cake has icing and sprinkles!

And then we all had a slice! Very yummy it was too, which is the most important thing about a recipe book!!

One of the nicest things about this book is that after each recipe there are pages to fill in. Anthony really liked asking everyone what they thought and writing about making the cake.

I think this feature would definitely encourage children to use these recipes.

There are also other pages to write on; about ideas for snacks, drawing pattern designs on a cake, a list of favourite foods.

Now it is a time for a confession... I actually don't like Winnie the Pooh!  I have to say though that this book is rather nice, and would make a lovely present for a child's birthday. 

I'm so super-duper absolutely smashingly pleased with my new apron!

It all began when I borrowed this book from the library. I borrow alot of craft books from the library; it's like porn for hopeless craft addicts!!

But I actually decided I really, really wanted an apron like this. It's really a tabard, but tabard is a very uncute, non-sexy sort of word isn't it?

I had this cupcake fabric which I bought from ebay on a whim. What could be cuter than a cupcake apron to colour co-ordinate with my pink kitchen? I had to wait two whole days for some bias binding to arrive by snail mail - because I was too busy / idle to go to the haberdashery.

But - ta-dah! Here it is. I'm so happy, it's my current favourite thing. I really want to bake a cake, but it's nearly time for the school run.

I always wear stilettoes in the kitchen you know... ;)

Home Sweet Home; part 4 - the dining room

The dining room is home to the dining table. A very important point I think. Too many people eat their dinners in front of the telly, off trays on their laps. We eat around the table every tea-time.

It is also home to lots of books - and we have many more in the children's bedrooms and stored in the loft! I read somewhere that there are households which own more cars than books - surely that cannot be true?

We also keep our antiques in the dining room - some Clarice Cliff pottery, accessorised with some Star Wars lego...

And a Chinese tea set; an identical one recently featured on the Antiques Roadshow. Unfortunately it is practically worthless! They were brought back in their thousands during the war. (Mark's grandfather bought this one while serving in the Navy during the war; his granny hated it, hence the never used perfect condition.)

There are more family photos, old and new.

And this is my favourite spot - my little desk with my net book and my sewing machine. I am multi-skilled and can facebook and sew at the same time.
(How did that desk get so cluttered? I only tidied it the other day.)