Astonishing Splashes of Colour: Pink

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I love everything about this

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my favourite shade of pink

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lovely pink kitchen

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Pink Bougainvillia, one of my favourite plants

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hand screened pink bunny cushion available from Erin Flett on Etsy

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lovely flower necklace from KJB Handmade on Etsy

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Rose cut pale pink sapphire ring by Kate Szabone Jewellery on Etsy

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pink Tourmaline ring by Erin Jane Designs on Etsy

A Toy Gun Bandolier

Like all young, naive parents-to-be, before I had children I had all these ideals and dreams about the kind of parent I would be, and the kind of children I would have. Most of them were, in hindsight, laughably unrealistic (my toddler would always be clean, I would never raise my voice, I wouldn’t need to use bribes as my children would want to do what I told them, my children would play with educational wooden toys and not watch television, and my children would never play with guns). Oh how I laugh at my naivety now! I wasn’t too bad, I have known much worse, and I think I sobered up pretty quickly once reality hit, but it took a while for me to shed some of my ideals.

One of the things I eased up on pretty quickly was the idea that I wouldn’t allow my children to play with guns, and that, if I never had them in the house they wouldn’t want to play with them anyway, right? Wrong. Little boys in particular, will make weapons out of anything, and being someone who likes to pick her battles, I did lots of research and decided that, in the grand scheme of things, a few toy guns and swords added to the dressing up box were not going to turn The Boy into a violent thug, or a gun-wielding psychopath or even someone who thought violence was acceptable. So I decided this was something I wouldn’t be battling over. Age-appropriate films and video games, on the other hand, I will be battling over.

One of The Boy’s best friends seems to always have a toy gun or sword on him, so when his birthday came up and The Boy asked me if I could make him some sort of gun holster I thought it would be a great idea. I searched online for a tutorial and all I found was this Snack Bandolier by WhipStitch, but it was easily adapted to turn it into a toy gun bandolier! I used denim from an old pair of The Boy’s trousers, and old maroon men’s shirt and some elastic I bought at a charity shop for 20p to make this.

 

 

The recipient of the Gun Bandolier was very excited when he opened the present, and his parents thought is was a great idea too, as his mum said she wouldn’t have to carry his guns around in her handbag any more Now I just need to make two more, one for The Boy and one for his other best friend.

 

Sunday Evening Kitchen Dreamin’

I love my flat, I really do, but there is one thing that lets it down for me, and that is the kitchen, or lack of kitchen. Our ‘kitchen’ is really just a small nook off the living room, with no door and hardly any room. It’s not that bad really, but I just don’t like the fact that I can never get away from it. Open-plan living is not my thing. I want a kitchen with a door on it, that can be closed, sheltering me from the mess and the washing up. I also secretly hanker after a big rambling cluttered country kitchen like the ones in the illustrations of the Brambly Hedge books I so loved as a child. So tonight, while Mr.B has been playing with power tools, I have been indulging myself in some kitchen porn while sipping gin and tonics and waiting for the goulash to cook. Sunday night bliss.

My childhood kitchen dream

My ideal kitchen would be big. Big enough to accommodate a table scattered with mismatched chairs, an old battered sofa where The Boy can curl up and read while I’m cooking, with a warm, homely, comfortable feeling. It will have lots and lots of storage (maybe even a pantry?), a nice big white farmhouse sink, shelves cluttered with pretty things and clear counters. A place for everything. Lots of functionality and clever little features. Welcoming and comforting. And no washing machine. I’ll have a utility room for that!

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beautiful mismatched chairs

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I love the table and light fitting in this kitchen

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I love the Persian rug. In my dream kitchen the floors will always be clean enough to have expensive persian rugs on them!

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Reminds me of the illustrations in the Bramble Hedge books I loved as a child

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Wonderful colourful kitchen

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I really like the reclaimed wood cabinets

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It might be a cliche, but I don’t care, I want a kitchen with an Aga

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cozy seating in the kitchen

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A love this chunky wooden table

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What’s not to like?

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Just look at those striped walls!

And that concludes my Sunday evening dreaming. I hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. Do you have a big kitchen, or do you long for one? What would your ideal kitchen be like?

Have I Just Bitten off More Than I Can Chew?

I am a bit worried, to be honest. On Fridays I teach Design and Technology (D.T.) to ten and eleven year olds, and last week I started a project all about Recycling that will be spanning five weeks. I got very excited and inspired at the prospect of planning some resourceful recycling projects for my pupils to tackle over the next five weeks, but I think I may have been a little over-ambitious!

After lots of internet searching, I finally came up with three projects that I thought we could tackle. Have a look and see what you think:

1. Recycled magazine bowls and containers that look like these:

 

2. Old Vinyl Records made into bowls:

3. Beads made out of cereal boxes:

A class of 34 ten and eleven year olds should be able to handle that, right? Over the course of five weeks? It’s not too much to ask is it? Well. I am begining to think it may be.

Last friday we began. I thought we’d start with the magazine bowls, as they were going to be the most time consuming. We cut, we folded, we glued, we twisted, the adults went wild with the glue guns. We worked solidly for almost two hours. And after all of that all I had to show for it was a very messy classroom, some very hyper kids, and one tray (yes, just one tray) of rolled up magazine spirals . And not even a full tray at that. Probably not enough for one decent sized bowl, let alone 34.

the end result of two hours of hard work by 34 primary children <sob>

I have tried to grab free moments this week to frantically try to make more magazine spirals, and folded lots of pages ready for the children to make their spiral bases for their bowls tomorrow.

I am very worried though. I have four Fridays left to complete the projects, and I’ll be lucky if we get to finish the magazine bowls, never mind the other projects I wanted them to do! I am hoping that they will all be able to make a bowl out of an old record, I have a big pile of old worthless records kindly donated to me by a charity shop, and they are really quick and easy to make, but I think I will have to shelve the idea of making the cardboard beads. I wish I had more hours to do D.T with the kids at school, because there is no way we can tackle any of the more ambitious projects I think of within the time-frame I am allotted. Which is a shame, because it reduces D.T to nothing more than a bit of junk modeling in Primary schools, glorified art lessons rather than useful life skills. Shame really.

A World where Legislation comes Before Free Knowledge? No Thanks.

Have any of you tried to go on Wikipedia today? If so, you might have been surprised to find that it has been blacked out, and will continue to be, for the rest of today, in protest against The US Congress, who are considering legislation (SOPA and PIPA) that would bring an end to free and open source Internet. Not only would Wikipedia be brought to it’s knees, but WordPress would probably also be closed down. To raise awareness, Wikipedia are having a 24 hour blackout, and I am in full support of them. Are you?  Learn more here.

You can also read more about it in the following articles:

The BBC: Wikipedia joins blackout protest at US anti-piracy moves

BusinessWeek: Google rallies opposition to Murdoch-backed anti-piracy bill

I don’t want to live in a world where the Internet is heavily censored and websites with user-submitted content cease to exist.

Astonishing Splashes of Colour: Violet

collection of vintage bottles

A lovely recipe for violet jelly

my favourite fruit in the whole world

enchanted entranceway

violet door knob

velvet sofa

another purple velvet sofa

I love the stripes

purple striped vintage tea towels

I wish I knew where this was

purple dendrobium orchid

violet backed starling

Amethyst ring from Janish Jewels on Etsy

Sapphire ring by kateszabone on Etsy

violet earings by Botny on Etsy

lavender macarons

violet macarons

purple velvet cake

Time for the Giveaway Winner to be Announced!

First of all, a big thank you to everyone who took the time to comment on my blog, I really enjoyed reading everyone’s comments, and through your comments, finding links to so many lovely blogs! Tonight I put everyone’s name in my trusty tin pail and then got Mr.B to draw one out for me…

 

and the winner was…

Dilly Tante’s blog header. I love the origami letters. Click on the image to goto her very entertaining blog.

Congratulations Dilly Tanty, and thank you for being such a regular contributor to my blog comments. You win a little ruffled zip up purse and two little nesting dishes. I’ll be in touch