Chinese New Year Arts & Crafts
This year I have been picked to be a Bostik Craft Blogger, and I’m thrilled. Little Lamb is at the age when he loves to draw, colour and paint and will happily do it every day if I let him!
For January we were asked to follow the theme of Chinese New Year and write about what we have made. Bostik were kind enough to provide us with a box of goodies to help us with our art & crafts. The contents of the box were themed around Chinese New Year, so most of the items were red, green and gold. I spent a couple of days with Lamb creating some new crafts that we haven’t tried before.
I will add at this point that Lamb is just under 2 years old, so we did our best to finish each craft to a standard where I can guide you on how to replicate it! Arts & crafts with a 2 year old is a challenge! Here goes…
The first craft is a Chinese New Year themed paper plate drum.
We began by decorating the red paper plate with glitter, sequins and fluffy balls. The more the better! Lamb loved getting messy with the PVA glue.
Let your little one go mad with the glitter and sequins. Cover the plate as much as you like. For the furry balls I used Bostik Glu Dots.
To make the drum simply attach small beads to the end of 2 pieces of string or wool. Stick a one to each side of the plate, and attach a stick for a handle.
You can then spin the plate from side to side allowing the beads to swing and hit each side of the plate, giving you your drumming sound!
Our second craft is a paper cup fire breathing dragon!
This is super simple to make so I’ll list the instructions in bullet points, then show you photos of the process and final piece.
- Paint a paper cup with green paint.
- Tear up strips of red and orange tissue paper.
- Once dry, attach the stripes of tissue paper to the inside of the cup, on one side only.
- Take some stick on eyes and glue them onto two fluffy balls for the dragons eyes. I used Bostik Glu Dots to do this.
- Attach to the outside of the cup on the opposite side to the tissue paper.
- Cut out the bottom of the cup.
- cut a small hole in the bottom of the cup to slot in a lollipop stick for a handle.
All you have to do is blow through the end of the cup and your dragon will breathe fire!
We have absolutely loved January’s Bostik crafting and can’t wait to share what we have been doing this month.
Alex x
* The craft box was provided to me free of charge by Bostik as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers Club.
Last minute Valentines gifts for her
With Valentines Day quickly approaching I thought I would write a quick and easy list of Valentines gifts for that special lady in your life. Daddy Lamb and I are both rubbish at buying gifts for Valentines so hopefully these lists will give us both the kick up the bum we need to get buying.
All of these gifts are available to buy online so you have plenty of time to get ordering.
First on my list is a Yankee Candle
. Find me a girl who doesn’t like candles and I’ll eat my hat! 😉 Buy for something fruity and sweet and you can’t go wrong. Or something fresh and clean for everyday use (I recommend Baby Powder). You might think these candles are a little pricey but they last for ages and the smells are delicious. I promise, she’ll love it.
In my opinion you can’t have enough perfume. If you are really stuck for ideas, just look at what shes already wearing and either buy that again, or speak to someone at a perfume counter and ask what they would recommend that’s similar. Do not try buy her something without knowing what sort of scent she wears. Daddy Lamb made that mistake a few years ago, and I still have the bottle, full and hardly worn. Such a waste of money. FYI my fave is Lancome La Vie Est Belle
.
MAC. Buy her MAC. Simple.
You may think it’s a bit obvious, but a lady loves flowers. Especially when they come with chocolates and diamonds. Amazon have a huge selection and some even offer free delivery. If she’s at work on Valentines Day, why not have them delivered to her at work. You will be sure to pull on those heart strings.
WE LOVE BATHS. Especially if we have young kids and barely time to shower, let alone bath. So buy us some romantic bath bombs and dedicate an evening to pampering. Maybe throw in a glass of bubbly and some chocolate and you will definitely earn some serious hubby points.
If it’s hubby points you’re after, then you definitely should buy her chocolate to eat in the bath. Not just any old chocolates, and certainly not from your local supermarket on your way home from work (grrrrr Daddy Lamb). Find her something special, unusual and that she wouldn’t really by for herself. These pink champagne truffles will make her heart melt (not for long though as she will probably eat them in minutes!)
So there’s my list of quick and easy, last minute Valentines gifts for that special girl in your life. This year is our first Valentines as a married couple. We are baby free and going out! Nothing too exciting. Just a meal and a little bit of Mr. Grey… 😉
Alex x
Here comes the bride…
I know I’ve been a bit rubbish with the wedding blogging recently. I suppose I needed a break from talking about it! Well, I now have my professional photos (eeek!) so thought I would pick a couple my favourites to share with you. I promise I will write some more wedding posts soon. Including my hen party and a very embarrassing story about a lap dance (given by myself!!)
Joe & Alex 21.12.14

Alex x
Little Lamb’s 2nd Birthday Wishlist – Toys
Yep, that’s right, I said 2nd birthday. Are you as shocked as me?! I have a 2 year old?! How is this possible?
My little baby is all grown up, but I have to admit, as crazy as it sounds, from the age of 18+ months, this has been my favourite age so far. And it’s only getting better.
Yes, I know, as soon as he turns 2 the tantrums will start. Well, we’ve been having those for a while now and I just sit back and smile and wait until it’s over. I have recently noticed him getting a little pushy too. He doesn’t like other kids playing with his toys and he’s becoming rather bossy. (I wonder where he gets thats from? 😉 )
Actually thats’s not fair. He’s very good at sharing. He even says ‘share’ when he gives you something. Obviously if he’s having an off day (like today) he will shout “No Marnie!” when she picks up something he’s not even playing with because it’s “Jaxsix’s” and not hers. Yes, he calls himself Jaxsix – cutest thing ever.
As much as I miss having my little bundle of joy, I am absolutely loving life with a toddler. He has the best sense of humour you will ever see in a 2 year old. He’s kind and caring, and still a sensitive soul. He loves his grandparents and cousins, and of course, Auntie Teevee (Stevie) and Uncle Dom Dom.
Apologies for the mammoth intro, I know this is just a wish list, but it’s my first post about Lamb turning 2!
Let’s crack on.
It’s taken some convincing, but Daddy Lamb has finally agreed to letting me buy Lamb a kitchen for his birthday. He was a little resistant due to the lack of space we have in our house, but I explained Lamb loves playing with his cousins and the ones at nursery and playgroup, so I finally got him to agree, and we have chosen this one from IKEA. For only £65 I think it’s a bargain and not too big for our little house. They also have lots of accessories to go with it.
Both Mummy Bear and myself are big fans of Melissa and Doug products. Lamb has a had a few things in the past like wooden puzzles and colouring pads. There is a huge selection available on Amazon, I could buy everything!! Here are a couple of things I’ve found that I think Lamb would love for his 2nd Birthday.
With a love for all things dinosaur I obviously have to get him these amazing stamps
. Lamb is really into colouring and painting at the mo, but I’m not always in the mood to get the aprons and tablecloths out, so a stamp set would be the perfect compromise. This is something he could do by himself sat at his little table and chairs, rather than in his high chair at the dining room table.
Lamb is obsessed with stickers. I mean really obsessed. You will find stickers everywhere in our house. On Lambs jumper, sometimes on his face. On the carpets, on the bottom of my slippers. Everywhere! But, oh look, I’ve found some reusable stickers
for him to play with. Yippee!
Lamb is slowly learning his numbers. He loves to count, but just says 2! So this clock puzzle
would be a great tool for us to start teaching him some more numbers. He’s really good at shapes and colours, so I’m hoping we can say things like ‘triangle number 3’ to teach him. Plus when he’s a little older we can start teaching him time!
Anyone else have a toddler who wants to help do the hoovering? So cute, but so annoying! It takes me so long to hoover! Here is my solution. Buy him his own hoover! Of course it has to be this Dyson one
. Only the best for my Lamb 😉 He’s had a little cleaning set from ELC before, but he was too young and he wasn’t able to push it. Daddy Lamb decided it was going to charity because it was getting in the way, but I definitely think this one will get some use if we decide to buy it for him.
Lamb has been going to a new toddler group recently, with his 3 best Friends, Baby Bear, Sophia and Joshy. One thing he’s has mastered while there is how to climb and go down the slide by himself, and he loves it! I’m a bit protective over him as he has never been very confident with climbing etc so I’m always there to catch him if he gets a bit wobbly. This slide from Little Tikes
is the one we would get. The tall handles at the top of the ladder means he has something sturdy to grab when he’s pulling himself up. It collapses for easy storage too which means it can be put away in the winter and won’t get too grubby.
Little Lamb love the shapes from Mister Maker. He literally screams “shapes!” over and over when he sees them. These squirting bath toys
are perfect for him! Not only does he love the bath, but he’s loves squirting toys (you can see our review on his H&A squirting ducks here), and he loves the shapes, so I’ve got a feeling he will be super excited when he opens these.
Like probably every other 2 year old in the world, Lamb loves the Gruffolo. I am trying to do a lot more interactive activities with him, like arts & crafts and baking. This Gruffalo baking set
is so cute. It comes with a wipe clean apron and cookie cutters (not dishwasher safe grrrr) and the drawstring bag. It says for ages 4+ years, but I still think he will enjoying using the cutters with a little help from mummy.
I could go on and on with this wish list. Lamb loves so many different characters and activities. We don’t want to make the same mistake as we have for his 1st birthday and Christmases and buy too much. He doesn’t care whether he’s gets one or 100 presents as long as we buy him something we know he will genuinely love! I honestly think if we only bought him the Shapes bath toys he’d be happy.
I’m going to write a clothing wish list too as I have a list as long as my arm of things I want to get him. I’m not too sure about wrapping clothes up for him to open. After what we experienced at Christmas I’ll think it would be better to avoid clothes. Let’s just say there were tears and throwing, and the word ‘more’ a lot.
I still can’t believe Lamb is turning 2 next month. I’m so excited.
You can read about his 1st birthday here.
What did you buy for your little ones 2nd birthday?
Alex x
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