Yes, this is an old picture, two years old to the day almost if you feel like counting. The reason I'ms showing you it is to remind you of those super cute jumpers because finally Minnie outgrew hers (if you look carefully you can see her sleeves rolled up as it was actually age 3-4).

Not being one to throw things out I pondered on what to do with it. And decided to let Minnie help. With Minnie driving the sewing machine- it only has one speed and copying me with guiding the jumper through the machine she produced this:

A super cosy cushion- we left the neck open to allow us to take the insert out and be able to wash it. She is beyond proud of herself for first attempt at sewing.

But this plan did mean that there were two sleeves left over, not to fear- Lexie and I soon put them to good use with a wee bit of repurposed elastic she now has some rather funky legwarmers for the winter.

Not bad for a half hour of fun with my youngest girls on a Sunday evening waiting on Strictly Results Show.

This whole project cost almost nothing - the jumper originally cost £4 and was worn regularly for 2 years, the thread was from a big pile of brand new thread bought at a charity shop for a £1, the elastic from a 10m length also from a charity shop a couple of years ago for 20p- even the sewing machine was bought second hand for £7! Ooh, I've come over all thrifty.

This post is just a tad on the late side since fathers day was a whole week ago. I had every intention of writing about this and writing a lovely post about how super wonderful my husband is at being a daddy. It didn't happen- I ended up being rather ill and he was busy being that super wonderful uber-capable daddy. Ah well, but I wanted to share what the girls made for Christopher for Fathers day.

We have an unofficial rule that we don't buy gifts for Fathers Day/ Monthers Day/ Valentines day etc but we do make somthing- but not always, only when time and inspiration are available. Last year the girls made their daddy an iDad which he loved- it is framed and hangs in our hallway. This year I thought we might gek it out a little bit more and make Christopher his own TARDIS.

The important part about the TARDIS (apart from it's ability to travel through time and space) is that it is bigger on the inside.

I was inspired by the Lap Book idea I had seen (Kateri uses it with one of our special needs girls in our Senior Section unit and it's used a lot by homeschool kids). Basically- lots of little bits that pull out and fold out to display all different aspects of learning. For our purposes it meant each girl could put their own interpretation of what they wanted to say to daddy.

Even Minnie was able to contribute with being given the task of painting the outside of the TARDIS (for some reason I didn't take a picture of Lexie!)

They wrote and drew pictures. They wrote about what their daddy does for them- the important things they picked out were "takes us to ballet" and "helps us with our homework". They said thank you for taking them swimming and that he was the "best" because he is "cool" and "makes wonderful dinners". It's lovely to see what they think is important and what they value.

Charlotte wrote a story about her super hero daddy- without any help (which probably explains the spelling!).

This was a super simple craft that the girls did with my help in folding and fitting everything in (and the notice on the outside). It used only card (from a cereal pack), glue, paint and paper. The girls loved being able to work on their own and it all combine into one big result.

And daddy? He loved it of course!

Painting is not a common occurance in our house- lets face it the mess, the potential destruction of clothes/ furniture/ walls, the general faffiness of it all puts me off. But every so often I give in and let them paint- more often now that Minnie is getting older and can follow instruction (like paint the paper not your sister) and has a lot more control. In saying this I do like to give them a bit of direction to kick them off.

I had seen on Art Projects for Kids (a fantastic resource for anyone with children of any age) ages ago a class project completed like the Kandinsky painting below. So I figured it was a simple way to focus them so I didn't end up with 20 paintings of soggy brown mess when they don't remember that less is more.

We started off with a blank piece of card and divided it into six sections and each child chose a shape for the centre- predictably Lexie and Minnie had hearts and Charlotte chose a triangle drawing the same shape inside itself. The girls then coloured the outer shape with bright crayon thus making it easier to separate the other two areas when it came to painting- it also gave it a bit of texture.

Once this was complete the girls then embarked on the fun- painting! We were using a mix of what we had so there were poster paints, acrylics and even gouache so we had extra texture fun. They rather liked the way the card went from boring to interesting pretty quickly and how each one looked different despite having a similar starting point. One of the benefits is also the fact that neatness is not really a requirement. Bonus!

Once dried they even look good hanging together in our kitchen. It was probably about time we updated the artwork on display anyway!

Once these were complete the excitement of paint had died down a little and I let them loose with their imaginations. Not too many big brown soggy messes. Hurrah!

I think it's probably time we did more painting- we will perhaps try more of over the summer (what with us being able to move into the garden!). I'll be trawling the ideas in Art Projects for Kids for further inspiration. Although, what on earth I'll do with it all I have no idea... post anyone?

With all of the book reading going on around here we seem to have a distinct shortage of bookmarks. Ridculous set of circumstances really, and a simple craft.

You need:

• Card (old greeting cards will work)
• Hole punch
• Ribbon or thread
• Enthusiastic child

We took 6 lengths of embroidery thread and pleated it together. This is currently Charlotte's favourite activity so she was more than happy to oblige.

A length of card with a fancy hole punched in it (although a normal circular hole punch would serve as well). We tied the braided thread through the hole.

Charlotte then decorated this particular one for her friend Zoe as part of a birthday gift (the other part being the book you can see underneath)

We've made a small stash of these (sorry, no pictures- my camera battery died), including this one Charlotte made for herself. I love the flamingo she has drawn on it, I have no idea why she drew a flamingo.

These are certainly more stylish than the train tickets, reciepts and old envelopes that we currently use.