Day out at Drayton Manor
Wednesday, April 08, 2015
We love to go to Drayton Manor theme park and this year we decided to go on Easter Sunday. As Amelia is at an age where she can interact and go on more of the rides it was a perfect theme park for her with Thomas Land being there too.
We got there when the park opened at 9.30, an hour before the rides opened and went to the park and the zoo.
We went to Drayton Manor when Hollie was 2 and a half and I wanted to take a picture of her in the same place where I took one of the pictures. Four and a half years later, she's growing so quickly!
Hollie and Amelia enjoyed the slides and we couldn't get them off them!
We saw a just a few of the animals in the zoo as they spent a long time on the slides. There were lots of inquisitive Meerkats, some black leopards (look at those paws) and a loud monkey to name a few.
When the rides opened, the first one we went on was Stormforce 10 which was a log flume and we got very wet. Hollie was not amused.
We then went to Thomas Land. This part is always very popular and they are extending Thomas Land, so some of it was blocked off.
There was plenty of things to keep you amused while in the queues like the bubble blower and stilt walkers.
Amelia got to on quite a few rides in Thomas Land with her sister and she really enjoyed them.
Hollie liked the cars in the air and enjoyed having the front seat to herself and relegated her grandad to the rear!
One of the last rides we went on was the big Ferris wheel. The trouble with the Ferris wheel is it takes a long time to load and unload people but once we were on it we got a lovely view of the park.
Normally the park closes at 5 but as it was so nice they extended it to 6 and that allowed Hollie and her dad to go on the dodgems and also go in the soft play before leaving.
We had a lovely day and could easily have done a lot more but the day went so quickly. My mum and step dad really enjoyed themselves too.
We will definitely be back in the future sometime and if you can get the 2 for 1 deals like we did, its a lot better value.
Easter gifts for the girls
Thursday, April 02, 2015
As Easter is upon us I thought I would share what I have bought the girls for Easter.
For Amelia, we got her some touchy feely books from Sainsbury's. We managed to get them when they had their double up event so we were able to use £5 of points and double it up to get the 4 books and didn't cost us anything.
Amelia has been loving the threading lace and blocks, reels etc. when we go to softplay group, so I bought this seahorse set from the Early Learning Centre and I think she will love to thread the laces and all the characters.
Rather than get her an Easter egg, i picked up these Lindt little chicks from Homesense and they were on offer too!
Lastly I bought both girls a new placemat from Dunelm which has lots of woodland animals on it.
For Hollie for Easter, I wasn't sure whether to get her just an egg but that didn't happen and bought a few things I spotted on my travels!
I came across these Charlie and Lola books in the 99p shop and couldn't resist them as I know she will like them and I am trying to get her to read more, which has been hard.
Hollie kept mentioning how she wanted one of these wooden giraffes from Wilkinsons and so I thought I would pick one up for Easter as well as some little eggs as she wants to do some cupcakes and put them on the top.
Lastly I saw this pack of paper placemats in Staples which you can colour in and thought even if she doesn't use them as placemats, she would have fun colouring them in.
I think they will love their little gifts and might keep them busy for a little bit!
Are you buying gifts for your children or ones you know or just getting an egg? I would love to know how you feel about gift giving at Easter.
Ombre Butterfly Mobile
Monday, March 30, 2015
I have gradually been trying to sort the girls room out by rearranging the furniture and organising it. Now that I have the furniture where I want it (for the time being anyway), I wanted to do some projects.
One project that I wanted to do was to make another butterfly mobile like the one I made a few years ago.
The first one I made was all white and used two embroidery hoops. I decided to use another embroidery hoop for this mobile but I only had one as I was trying to use what I already had and I think it looks better with one anyway.
The butterflies were punched out of three different coloured card, a light, medium and a dark, to create an ombre effect to the mobile and I used a large Martha Stewart Monarch butterfly punch. I love this punch as it creates a more detailed butterfly than the one I used before.
To attach the butterflies to the mobile, I used some thin white cotton thread. I just tied the thread to the embroidery hoop.
To create the ombre effect I started with the darker butterflies at the top and then the middle colour and then the lightest at the bottom.
To attach the butterflies I used a glue dot in the middle of one butterfly, stuck it to the thread where I wanted to position it and then stuck another butterfly to it in the same position and then bent the butterfly to make it look like it was flying.
I really like the ombre effect as it adds more character to it.
I think this mobile as really easy to make and can be done in stages if you haven't got a lot of time in one go.
It would make a nice feature in a bedroom or playroom and you could change the butterflies to another shape like stars which I have done when I made one for my nephew.
It would make a lovely gift too. Would you consider making one? Maybe you would just prefer to receive one as a gift? Let me know.
Comparing to Others and Changes
Monday, March 23, 2015
I've been blogging for 5 years now. I can't believe I started back in March 2010, it's crazy.
I have loved to blog about the projects I have done over the years but I have struggled to actually write posts and keep up with a schedule, which is something I really wanted to do.
There are several reasons why I think this has happened. First being that it is so easy to compare your own blog to others that are more successful. Secondly, having a 7 year old and now a 1 year old, it's so hard to get time to take photos, write a post etc for the blog. Thirdly, partly because of the other reasons, I find it hard to focus on the blog and post. I tinker away at the blog design now and again but writing blog posts seems to hit a brick wall!
I have quite a few different topics that I have blogged about but have found it hard when it comes to writing a blog post on a card that I have made and then writing a post on a project I have done, not sure why. Maybe it's because some people will be interested in the card and some the project and I feel they are too different a topic.
So to try and help me with blogging more I have decided to make another blog called Pretty Sweet Lovely where I can write about the cards that I have made and then keep this blog for the other topics that flow a bit more together, like organisation, projects, home decor, parenting and posts on life.
I really hope that this will help in releasing the fog that seems to have gathered over the blog for me!
So if you are interested in the cards that I made then please go and have a look at Pretty Sweet Lovely and I hope that you will keep visiting here at My May Sunshine too.
Felt Name Garland
Monday, March 02, 2015
For our youngest nephew, for Christmas, I decided to make a felt garland of his name. I decided to do this as I didn't want to buy any toys or clothes as he already had enough and would get more for Christmas from others anyway.
For the embellishments, I used the Sizzix stars dies and cut out lots of small stars and some slightly larger ones. On the larger ones, I sewed on smiley faces.
I then hand sewed all the embellishments onto the letters and hand sewed the front and back together. I could (and should have) machine sewed them but didn't want to keep changing the threads every time, which would have been easier really.
I filled the letters with some hollow fibre filling which I bought a big bag from Dunelm.
I decided to use some ribbon to hang the garland up rather than using string as I thought it would be stronger and just attached the felt letters to the ribbon.
Having your child's name in their bedroom wall is quite popular at the moment but I think it's great to help them learn their name.
What do you think? Is it something that is lovely to have on their wall or to much decor? Let me know.
Mission Toy Organisation
Tuesday, February 24, 2015
Recently I have been on a mission to try and get our house more organised. I have been moving furniture around the house to try and make things work better but it has been tricky.
We live a 2 bedroom house so the girls share a bedroom. It's not a small bedroom but not a large one so organisation as key. Well you would think but with Christmas and 2 birthdays, there is a lot of stuff in the house.
Yes a lot of it is mine, but I can keep that in check to a point but when it comes to toys, it seems to take over the house.
So I have decided to document my progress!
I wasn't sure whether I wanted to show the complete mess that is my home but hey ho lets go for it. I'm keeping it real!
This is the girls room. Hollie has a bunk bed which I took the bottom slats out and originally had Amelia's cot bed under but wasn't working with Hollie throwing things into the cot that Amelia could get hold of so I moved it the other side of the room.
Bunk beds are a nightmare to get to the top bunk and so it looks like this! No sheet and clean bedding ready to go on but the bed needs emptying before I can change it!
This is on the landing and has some of my craft stuff as well as more of Hollie's toys.
This is the other side of the dining room which is a playroom and craft space and where I wanted to keep most of the toys but that never happened.
These are Amelia's toys, well some of them. She has more in a large wooden box. Some of these are Hollies too like the truck and the barbie car but Amelia likes them so they end up in here.
So I really need to go through the mass amount of toys and stuff and really sort out some organisation for it.
I have no idea how long it will take me but I hope to have a clearer house at the end of it. It does give me a lot of anxiety so I thought that writing a blog post about, yes it can be embarrassing but would push me to sort it.
Wish me luck! I have a feeling I may need it and if you see a pic on instagram of a large skip, you know it got the better of me! I'm definitely craving some organisation!
If you have any tips or tricks for toy storage, I would love to hear them.
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