Reasons to be Cheerful: Its October #R2BC

 
Thank you to Michelle for hosting the linky in September and its now over to me for October. This means I have to be more on the ball! I look forward to reading and sharing everyone's posts this week and I hope you visit the other lovely bloggers. 
October is always a reason to be cheerful for me as its my birthday month and my daughter has her birthday too. Before we get to those here are my reasons to be cheerful this week:
1) Back to Fell Foot
I finally made it back to Fell Foot parkrun after another couple of weeks off. It was a stunning day to be running along the shores of Windermere:

2) Being Crafty

I have already posted about some of the things I have been making at school this week. Its been great to be allowed to be creative whilst teaching a child more about World War Two. Here is my template for the final Anderson Shelter I made:

3) Being Positive

I am continuing to create messages for the new venture with my daughter. We have put out our second video and are thinking up ideas for the third!

So please join in and share your happy posts and give some R2BC love to your fellow happy bloggers!
get the InLinkz code

Crafting Fun with Felltarn Friends

Today we kicked off our Easter break with a free crafting session with Felltarn Friends at the Westmorland Shopping Centre. They are there every Wednesday and Saturday this Easter holidays. We first came across the Friends at the Food Festival last year and since then I have got to know the lovely mums that are behind the company. 

Once the children had signed in they headed straight for the colouring wall:

My son told me I had to do some too - especially the high up parts! He is normally very reluctant to colour in anything so this sight brought me great pleasure:

Family Fun: Rag Doll

Welcome to week 1 of the Family Fun blog hop. For more details please read the launch page. In the words of a classic 1970s children's TV programme this is about switching off the television and doing something more useful instead!


In honour of the blog hop badge I'm going to tell you all about our rag doll Pocka Dot... This was an idea that my 8 year daughter came up with whilst off sick from school last week. It actually timed in nicely with the No Spend Craft Challenge too.


Materials Required:

• Some surplus material (we used a too small vest)
• stuffing (kapok etc.)
• thread
• buttons
• beads

Instructions:

1. double over the material so you have 2 layers and pin together right sides in
2. draw a template on the material
3. cut out the template
4. separate the sides and decide which is the front
5. stitch the buttons on for the face on the right side of the material
6. sew a mouth as well
7. with the right sides together sew the pieces together leaving a gap for stuffing
8. turn the right way round and use a wooden spoon to make sure legs/ears/arms are completely out
9. stuff with kapok or other stuffing using spoon to get it right in.
10. stitch up gap
11. make a necklace using thread and spare beads

There you go nice and simple! If you have a post you wish to share then please add it to the blog hop and then put the code on your own post. The launch page has a blog hop badge but I can't seem to get the code to work..

#SilentSunday: 29th January 2012

Getting Crafty: Cloth Kitty

One of my resolutions for this year was to learn to knit, somehow I am currently being side tracked into learning to sew! This came about due to a combination of factors:

1. someone posted about PomPom makers and I thought now there is an easy craft to do with my children!
2. I followed the link on their blog and ended up on the Clothkits site and duly added PomPom makers to my basket
3. Being a child of the '70s I grew up with a wardrobe containing a wide variety of Clothkits clothes made by my mum (she didn't have a huge budget but had the time and skills required to sew). So I decided to browse the site to see what 21st century Clothkits looks like.
4. At this point my 8 year old starts peeking over my shoulder and spots the Cloth Kitty doll kit and asks to spend some of her Christmas money so can learn to sew so doll was added to basket

Fast forward a few days and we get a parcel from Clothkits. My daughter is very excited about the doll she is going to sew (with help from mummy) and cancels all plans for Saturday so we can make a start. Once I have looked at the instructions I realise that maybe I am going to struggle as the doll itself is fairly simple to sew her clothes come with instructions for bias binding, gathers and shirring elastic. For a woman who's worst subject at school was needlework this is a daunting prospect!


Nevertheless I cut out the required parts of the doll (having even ironed the fabric first - shock horror!) and set to. I demonstrate the sewing technique to my daughter and then pass the leg over to her for her turn. Her enthusiasm is quickly dampened after a few finger pricks so inevitably I end up doing all the sewing of the doll. It does turn out that my daughter is a dab hand at stuffing the doll though:

Note essential wooden spoon

#SilentSunday 8th January 2012