{Ideas for the Activities with the Kinder}

The title says it all really! The kids and I have loads of fun painting, drawing, playing with Lego, Play Doh, gardening, jumping on the trampoline, baking cakes etc., but sometimes it's handy to have a few activities up your sleeve that don't take much organising and that will pass the time for half an hour or so whilst dinner cooks or whatever.

Here are some of the suggestions that I've come up with, lots others can be found on my Ideas board on Pinterest. Do come and say Hello and check out my other boards whilst you're there :)

Start with a magazine or newspaper clipping and let the child expand the picture. Genius! From artmommie.blogspot.com

We love Cheerios and we love the birds that visit our garden. What better idea than these Cheerio bird feeders from happyhooligans

Marble races with a pool noodle or you could construct a track out of toilet & kitchen rolls. This idea is from myhomespunthreads.blogspot.com

And whilst you're out with the marbles, why not try and spot of marble painting? theschoolsupplyaddict.com

Make colourful salt dough ornaments, from two-daloo.com

I've got a number of heart decorations hanging here and there in the house, and it would be nice to replace these with some homemade ones :)

Trace your outline and decorate. Looks great! From passionatehomemaking.com

You'll also find some other ideas over on an older post of mine, here.

What are your go-to activities for entertaining little ones?

{#ShareAdvent - pyjama picnic}

"Pyjama Picnic" is today's prompt for #ShareAdvent.

If I was organised then I'd have hosted some kind of pyjama party... but I've been swamped with various things these past few weeks.

Instead, I thought I'd share some of my favourite loungewear that I've come across :)

Last year I had Hush pyjamas and a cardigan from The White Company on my list.

This year, I've purchased a onesie. And I absolutely love it. It's so cosy! I never thought I'd buy one, but I did and I'm glad I did. Despite everyone at work slagging me off!

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Here's the more stylish items that I'm lusting after right now:

Hush Polka Dot Print Pyjamas - 

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DKNY Pyjamas from Idlewild London - 

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Or silk pyjamas from Figleaves - 

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And for my feet...slippers from The White Company - 

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Totally extravagent, but this is a wish list after all... I'd obviously need a house coat (or dressing gown, whatever you want to call it!) to keep me cosy. Here's a gorgeous long line luxurious robe by Donna Karan at House of Fraser. A mere £276!

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And for a bit of fun, this hoodie is hilarious... I want!

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{Fabulous Finds: Toys for Toddlers}

A lot of people are starting to seriously think about Christmas gifts, so I thought I'd start by sharing a few things I've come across in my search for gifts for my little ones.

You can have a peek here at other online retailers I love and some other previous gift ideas here.

I love traditional wooden toys and Born Gifted have a great selection. I've bought from this online store before and was impressed with the customer service and speedy delivery. They also offer free UK delivery on everything - ideal!

How adorable is this Busy Bead Tree by Skip Hop for little ones, £26.99!

I'm also a fan of toys that encourage role play, and we've had great fun with the wooden kitchen that I bought for my son's Christmas a few years back. This one from Janod is available on the Born Gifted website and I think it looks great. I don't really like the plastic designs, or the kitchens that are bright pink/red, but this one is neutral so would work in most rooms.

Janod Kitchen, £79.99

My daughter loves dolls, princesses, fairies... and I know she'd love this fabric fairy cottage. Isn't it so cute!!

Fairy Cottage by Oskar and Ellen, £29.99

I definitely recommend that you have a peek at the 20 (yes, twenty!) pages of toys on their website. There's some really beautiful gifts.

Another of my favourite shops is John Lewis . Love this store!! I could happily spend hours perusing their website and/or aisles.

Anyway, my littlest is also a fan of dogs, and how adorable is this Hansa Dachshund Pup!!

Awwww!! £26.99 at John Lewis 

We've had a lot of use out of our tea sets, and this baby pink one from John Lewis is super cute!

Wooden Tea Set, £20 at John Lewis 

I've already bought this Lego Batman clock which will be the perfect addition for my son's superhero themed bedroom. It's carefully tucked away in a box in the shed, hidden away until Christmas!

Lego Batman Clock, £24.99 at John Lewis 

More specifically, my son has asked for Superhero Lego from Santa and my littlest has asked for a prince & princess house.

If only money were no object, as I'd love to buy her this Playmobil Princess Fantasy Castle. How amazing is this!!

Playmobil Castle, £139.95 at John Lewis 

What are your 'go to shops' for gifts for kiddies?

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{Fabulous Finds: Wall Lights}

I am absolutely loving my new house. It's small in my eyes, but in actual fact it's only small to me because I have come from such a massive house and for the past two weeks the new house has been filled with boxes which has made it seem even smaller! The house is a perfect size for me and the two kiddies. We each have our own decent sized bedroom, there is one large-ish bathroom and I have a more formal 'grown-up' living room plus a family room with a little kitchen off from it. Ideal. I felt at home from the moment I opened the front door for the first time.

There are lots of things that I would love to change straightaway but finances aren't going to allow it unfortunately. I'll have to wait a few months to see how the bills work out, how much the council tax is etc etc before I can figure out what my disposable income is going to be. 

But in the meantime I can dream, window shop and plan out in my head how I would like everything to be. You'll know by now that I'm a planner!

So, first up is this wall light. I've never been a fan of wall lights, and this one I really don't like (might be a tad better if I replace the bulbs for a start)!

I took to Pinterest and have come up with a variety of other options. 

Tell me, why are lights so expensive??

This wall light is in the family room, for which the colours are going to be the same as the kitchen / dining room in the old house. So we're talking green walls (eventually!), and then the fabric (which I'll probably make some cushions out of, again eventually!) is red, teal, grey, orange and green. You can see some pictures of the fabric and get an idea of the colours here and here. 

I'm in two minds... do I lose the artwork and make the light the feature, or do I find a light that compliments the artwork?

Here's a few of the ideas I've found so far, first up my options for if I lose the artwork...

Big Band Red Wall Lamp, a whopping £430!

Or how about this quirky whiteboard light:

Snakkes Whiteboard Wall Light (can't seem to find this at Liberty & can't get a price offhand from Google)

Amour Neon Light from Graham & Green, £345

Or you can get a variety of different phrases over at notonthehighstreet.com, 

how about 'home is where the ❤ is' for a mere *cough* £765!

And then if I am to keep the artwork (which I think is more likely as the lights above are way out with my price range!!), here are my ideas:

My current favourite, anglepoise light from Heals - a more reasonable £88

Industrial wall sconce - bare bulb light from IndLights at etsy (£35 plus shipping)

Another industrial option, this time from Holloways of Ludlow. Light is £85 plus £12 for the bulb

More of a classic option...a swing arm wall light in polished chrome (£108)

Cheap and cheerful ceramic wall lamp that I can probably paint in the wall colour, £12.99 on eBay from speedytradelighting

Or a silver picture wall light from the same seller at £19.99:

What are you thoughts? What's your favourite? Do you have any other suggestions? :-)

{Easter: Crafts & Baking}

Last Easter I shared some ideas for crafts & favours for my little ones over the Easter period. As always, I've been scouring Pinterest and have come up with some new suggestions for you. A little bit late I know, but I've been rather stressed these past few weeks what with illness & selling house.

What are you up to this Easter?

Bunny Tails

Carrot Cupcakes

Origami Bunny

Donut Bunny Pops

Paper Strip Easter Egg Art

Easter Marshmallow Bark

Cheese ball 'carrot' favours

Easter bunny bags

Paper plate craft

Egg carton daffodils

{Guest Post: Feature Chairs by the grey house}

I asked my little sister, Ali, to put together an interiors Fabulous Finds post for me. Here are her thoughts on feature chairs...

I’ll start by introducing myself and by putting a face to the name: I’m Ali (@the_grey_house) and am Sarah’s little sister.  Feeling the strain a bit here, nobody really reads my blog but I know there are plenty of people who read this one!

Sarah and I on my wedding day

I live in Aberdeen and write a blog about interiors and the renovations of my Victorian townhouse to a very small audience - Sarah and a few friends!

My interiors taste is on the traditional side but with a quirk, as a result Living etc is my favourite interiors magazine.  At the moment I am loving greys, clean lines and pops of colour.  I can’t stand magnolia (I feel people with no style choose magnolia); I also dislike most warm tones, red toned wood and the overly fussy and floral are not my cup of tea. (Thanks for that Ali... I'm sat here at my computer staring at a magnolia wall...clearly I have no taste?? Lol). 

{everyone needs a feature chair}

I have a vision of myself lounging in a feature chair gazing out the window with a cup of tea.  At the moment I can’t sit in mine because there is no seat pad and it's rank!  

My feature chair!

I acquired a wing back chair from a skip in Glasgow, I was there with Sarah dropping off a car load of her stuff and little did she know we'd end up bringing back a chair!  I just managed to squeeze it into my car and took it home to Aberdeen.  Shamefully it’s sat in my living room for over a year now without me doing anything with it.

I toyed with buying the tools to tackle it myself (there are some good guides online and YouTube) but chickened out at the expense of them and the fabric if it all went wrong.  A bit too challenging for a first upholstery project. I have some ideas for fabric and will pay someone to do the job for me instead!

I have been considering where my wing back chair will go in our house and think it might sit in the bay window of our soon to be open plan living, kitchen and dining space.  The colour scheme for this room is going to be white, grey and yellow / green / olive inspired by my future map which I bought as a present for hubby. This map is really cool and is a massive 2 m by 1 m. I am going to get it framed to hang on the wall.  It's also part of my 35 at 35 list to improve my geography!!

Future Map

With this in mind I have begun looking at potential chair fabrics and thought I would share a few with you.  I am enjoying stripes at the moment and would consider having the sides and the back of the chair in a patterned fabric and the remainder plain. These fabrics are from Harlequin:

Harlequin

Harlequin

I have also found a chair with bold zig zag print which I think is really cool.  This is an example of my taste exactly - traditional with a quirk.  I'd possibly choose dark grey and white fabric rather than black and white but I love both (images found via google).

Funky zig zag print chair

Grey and white zig zag fabric

If you don't have a chair to upholster a couple have caught my eye of late.  I found this one on one of my favourite furniture websites made.com.  Of course you can't go wrong with grey in my book and this has a cute little pop of colour with the buttons.  This chair costs £349 which I think is quite reasonable.

Ritchie Armchair in anthracite grey with rainbow buttons

I also love the Conran Shop and some of the Conran range in M&S.  I found this chair which I thought was simple but classic and liked the slightly retro style to the shape. Again, no surprises I like the grey version.  The different fabrics work well here too.

Conran Bainbridge Chair from £599

Do you own a feature chair? If you could have any feature chair, what would it be?

Thanks Ali for an inspiring Fabulous Finds post. I already have my feature chair (from made.com!) but I love the idea of reupholstering a vintage find... I'm thinking perhaps an ottoman for a bedroom or a footstool?