Finding my blogging feet...

Oh dear, I have seriously fallen behind with my blog...!!!! Sigh... It started out so well...I will make a concerted effort shortly, promise.

It's been a busy couple of months. We had almost 3 weeks away in March with a trip to Eurodisney, Paris half marathon, catching up with good friends in Scotland and some lovely family time with Nonna & co in Chichester.

We've also had a number of paying guests which has been slightly nerve-wracking and thrilling at the same time. [I'm pleased to say that everything has gone very smoothly so far and we appear to have some very happy customers]. Overseeing the building of our swimming pool as well as a month of relatives staying with us.

Kids are very happy especially the young man who has begged me to go to the after school club at school. Teeny is not quite so enthralled with the idea of school so we've gone back to half days.

Proper update to follow shortly. Have managed to tick a few of my 2013 goals :-)

Thought of the Day

A very wise friend of mine once told me it was 'process not product' when it came to children being creative. That comment often pops into my head when the children are doing something crafty... I must admit that I find it VERY difficult not to interfere when they are making something and have to stop myself from jumping in and showing them how to do it 'properly'.

 

I recently decided it would be fun to try out the blow painting monsters from this site. I didn't add enough water to the paint which made it incredibly difficult (and frustrating) to blow the paint in various directions to make it look like anything resembling the photos from the site. The kids quickly moved on and had much more fun playing with the syringes that I'd given them to suck up the paint mixture. They used the syringes to paint with as well as the straws to make patterns. They started talking about the different animals they'd created, the crocodile that was coming out of the water, etc. It really reminded of my friend's passing comment a couple of years ago, that it was about process and not product. They had such a lovely time simply creating something using the tools they had and their imagination.

I then decided we should try out some toilet roll painting which Teeny loved!

Big brother was very keen to have a go too and made me giggle when he chose these colours:

I told him I was amused by his choice of colours and he then proceeded to create this:

 

 

"Look Mummy, the French flag!"

I just love it! France is definitely making its mark on my wee boy :-)

 

I, of course, had to have a go at doing the monster blow painting 'properly'. Couldn't help myself and it was SO much fun!

 

 

Let it snow, let it snow, let is snow!

We had a fair bit of snow recently and as a result the kids had to miss 3 days of school. We were full of enthusiasm on the first day but I have to be honest that by day 3, enthusiasm levels were waning somewhat (from Mummy especially!) We started by building a snowman, of course!

 

 

Continuing on the same theme, we watched the wonderful film, The Snowman.

 

 

This is such a sweet film. Both kids love it.

 

And finally, we did some crafting... I've had these polysterene balls for over a year now, waiting for me to get organised and start this project. So I decided to give up some of my precious stash in the name of keeping the kids busy during a snowday. And this is what we made:

 

 

 

We had a great time making these. This is what you'll need if you want to have a go:

 

 

 

First of all, push a toothpick into a large polystyrene ball and join with a small polystyrene ball on top. You may want to put some PVA glue in between the body and head to secure more tightly, however, it can also be fun to be able to turn the head.

 

 

 

You may then wish to make a horizontal 'chop' across the bottom of the snowman so that it stands straight and doesn't wobble. It's also much easier when trying to work on it. We initially tried placing it in an egg cup but it still wobbled a lot.

 

 

Then glue on some googly eyes and draw a mouth.

 

 

 

Next, cut a small length of felt, wrap around the snowman's neck and glue in place.

 

 

 

You may then want to add some hair (lengths of wool) as A did. And maybe add a few sparkly snow flakes.

 

 

 

Make a hat using a bottle cap and a circle of black card - glue the two together. We drew black marker all over our bottle cap to make it black. You could also paint it with a mix of PVA glue & black paint.

 

 

All that's left is the nose! I couldn't for the life of me work out how to make a cone for the nose... I googled it and did this. Glue a couple of buttons on the front et voilà, your snowman is finished!

 

 

We then made a snow scene using a baking tray which we covered in tin foil, added some cotton wool, some 'bottle cap seats' for the snow people, some white wool to make a path and a few extra snow friends from our Christmas crafting.

 

 

 

 

Country Living

 

Well, moving from a city of almost half a million to a small hamlet of about 20 inhabitants is quite a change...! We've been here about 5 months and it's still taking me some time to get use to the fact that:

 

a) We have no gas on tap, ie. for central heating and the gas hob. We have a VERY large tank that must remain topped up with oil and we have to buy gas bottles (makes me nervous!) to hook up to our hob.

b) We are not hooked up to a mains sewerage system. We have our very own fancy 'assainissement' that is basically our own sewage plant in the back garden. We have to watch what we flush down the toilet and must never use bleach.

c) The minute we step outside the front door, we get covered in mud - on account of the time of year as well as the mess left from digging up half the garden to fit our septic tank system.

 

The inevitable happened this week-end when we woke up to a freezing cold house...urgh... we'd run out of heating oil. Drat! We had managed to consume the 700 litres that we had bought at the end of November... Oh dear, need to curb our oil consumption. Luckily we have a lovely open fire that kept us going along with lots of blankets and hot water bottles. Five days later and we finally have working central heating. We've also run out of gas for our hob so are having to cook off one electric hot plate. Oh well, first world problems eh??!!

 

Looking forward to a cosy night in bed tonight :-)

Pinteresting Times...!

My dear Canadian friend introduced me to the world of Pinterest around a year ago and I have since become a die-hard fan(atic!!!). For a number of weeks, my husband referred to himself as a Pinterest widow such was my obsession...

(Source: http://dribbble.com/shots/386451-Pinterest-Stole-My-Wife)

I love to look through all the things I've pinned, however, one of my resolution's for this year, was to actually make some of the pins... Don't get me wrong, I did try out quite a few of the pins last year but I felt I needed to be more methodical in my approach...

 

Source: http://marlenemccune.blogspot.fr/2011/08/pinterest-ii-adventures.html

So I set about sifting, selecting and scheduling (okay, maybe not the scheduling part - YET). Of my 2700 pins, I've whittled it down to 165 pins! Mind you, I haven't included Halloween or Christmas - that'll be a whole other post...

If you'd like to see what I have planned for this year, click here:

• For moi
• For the kiddos
• For my tummy!

2013 Targets...!

I managed to change the title of my blog - phew!!

I have a number of resolutions/targets/goals/bucket list for the coming year...

On a personal level, I want to spend more quality time with my children and husband. Create memories, laugh, have fun, cuddle on the sofa, have snow ball fights. Catch up with old (and new) friends. Pick up the phone, send that email. Get-together, reminisce, giggle.

On a 'I need a list to work from' level, I also have some more specific 'wishes' for this year that I'm going to list below (in the hope it will make me more accountable to these personal targets).

In no particular order:

1. Write a blog for a year - week 1 down, only another 51 to go!

2. Have at least 14 weeks of bookings for our gite

3. Romantic week-end 'sans enfants' with hubby

4. Run a half marathon and several 10ks - cheating slightly for this one as I signed myself for the Paris half marathon back in October. But hey, what's the point of setting yourself up for failure. I still have to run it! I do, however, want to take part in several organised 10k runs and have challenged myself to finish one in 50 minutes... Yikes!

5. Continue on my sewing journey

6. Learn how to use photoshop

7. Take the kids to Eurodisney - this has been on the bucket list for the past couple of years and I'm pleased to say that we're booked up for 2 nights in March thanks to a generous Santa (and courtesy of #agreatdealongroupon).

8. Stay in a yurt

9. Join a yoga or pilates class

10. Keep practising what I learned on my photography course last year

11. Visit Monet's gardens

12. Go for a trip in a hot air balloon

13. Work through some of my Pinterest projects - sift, select & schedule!!

14. Teach English to tots and adults

15.  Take part in a flashmob J Yeah, pretty random I know! I had to have one crazy one.

Blog for a Year...

Okay, I've spent the best part of the last 6 months trying to come up with a name for my blog and I've finally decided on something but managed to make a typo when setting it up... Bog for a Year???? Seriously??? And the worst of it is that I can't work out how to change it.... I came up with "A year in the Gite" on account of our current experience in France, "The Auld Alliance (as in Edinburgh - Auld Reekie) or simply "The Little Den" (my Pinterest account) but decided on "A Year in the Blog" as that's basically what I plan to do... ("Blog for a year" was already taken!) I'm not sure what I'm going to write about but I promise you one thing, I'm going to do it for the next 52 weeks!!!