Nappy Changing Mat

My kids seem to destroy the plastic nappy changing mats that you buy from Boots or Mothercare or the supermarket & I get fed up of buying them new ones, so the challenge was there to make something difficult for them to destroy. When you have 2 in nappies it gets a lot of use as well.

Let's see how this goes...

My eldest came with me to choose the fabric, so after I'd finished it I couldn't get him off it, he wanted to lay on it all afternoon.

Spiderman Cafetiera Cosy

My husband wanted a cafetiere cosy to keep his morning coffee warm a little longer, so my challenge was set!

(Excuse some of the stitching it was a challenge & it's not exactly neat for the first attempt!)

Creative Christmas Homemade Santa Sacks

Stockings are never large enough for little boys with big gifts, so I decided to make for them as part of their Christmas gift some sacks with their names on, so that every Christmas we can put their toys in them. Hopefully they will treasure these until they are grown men.

Creative Homemade Christmas Presents

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

One of this year's creative Christmas presents from me was handmade boxed mini iced Christmas cakes. I used my late-grandmother's recipe which I found in the process of clearing my mum's house earlier this year.

A Creative Merry Christmas

When you can't put up a Christmas tree as you have a climbing toddler, you have to get creative instead...

...tree painted with my kids hands & the decorated by them as well

An Autumn Owl

My toddler was loving playing with the dry golden brown leaves in the garden so we collected some together to make an autumn owl.

You cannot get an idea of the size from this photo but the owl is almost as tall as my 2 year old :)

Spiderman Bag

My Goddaughter is Spiderman mad, so for her 4th birthday I made her this bag...

Nappy Flower Bouquet

A great friend is having a baby girl soon. She already has two little boys and is quite excited to be having a little girl, so I had to make her something special...

...the flowers are all made from useful baby items, mainly nappies, but there are socks, baby mitts, muslin cloths...

...and the base is also filled with baby bits - cotton wool balls, more nappies & a little pouch I made to put nappies & baby wipes in for your nappy bag.

For a first attempt I'm pleased with the result.

Cupcake Icing

For a good friend's birthday, we had to have pretty cupcakes!

Lavender Hand Cream Recipe

My hands require lots of TLC, they're always cleaning, washing, gardening and I have never really found a commercial hand cream I am happy with so I thought I'd have a go at making my own with pure natural ingredients...

Ingredients:

100ml sweet almond oil
2 heaped tbsps coconut oil
2-3 tbsps olive oil
1.5oz grated beeswax
35 drops of lavender essential oil

Method:

1. Heat the oils together until warm.
2. Take off the heat & stir in the grated beeswax.
3. Place in the fridge for 5-10 mins to begin cooling.
4. Add the lavender and mix well, it will start to thicken so place into a jar to cool completely.

It smells divide & only a little is required each time it's used.

Toddler Booster Seat

We needed an alternative solution for our toddler at the dinner table, he was still comfortable in his high chair and a bit too small to sit on a normal chair. But we needed the highchair vacating for baby number two. So my solution was to create a wipe-down-able booster seat to attach to a chair....it took me 3 attempts to get it right but here is the finished product (the fabric matched our tablecloth!).

If anyone is interested in having one made I could do a few for friends for a fee ;)

Twin Girls Nappy Cake

My little brother & his wife had beautiful twin girls a few weeks ago, which is always a good excuse to get creative with new-born presents, but I also had a challenge as it had to be as light as possible to put in the post as they live overseas (just hope it arrived in one piece!).

The finished cellophane wrapped product

View of the top of the cake

View of the bottom of the cake

The cake contains nappies, 2 blankets, 2 hats, some bibs, cotton wool balls, cotton buds, 2 bottles, 2 muslin cloths, J&J baby bath, baby mitts, nail scissors and probably a few other small bits I have forgotten about.

Nappy Cake

Nappy Cake

Gingerbread House

Not done as much Christmas crafting as I would like this year but I did make a gingerbread house, it is becoming tradition to attempt to make one every year with my other half but this year's has to be the most successful yet - thanks to Lidl for the kit!

...when Santa got stuck up the chimney...

It looks so good and it took ages to make that it now seems a shame to eat it :)