Christmas Craft: Lightbulb edition!

I've been working non stop up to Christmas, so getting in the festive spirit this year has been harder than usual. I use every minute I get with Rio getting him to be excited for Santa, crafting and singing away. So when I was asked if I wanted to enter a Christmas craft competition I thought why not? I'm not really good but every little helps ;)

The task? To decorate a lightbulb!

My first attempt, a reindeer, kind of 'melted' when I dried him with the hairdryer. Oopsie!

So I raided the cupboards for another bulb, the last one, remind me to buy another, and started again with a more 'simple' design.

- First I covered the metal with red tape then added red ribbon.

- I then let Rio splodge some gold glitter glue on and added little pom poms to those areas.

- I then finished off by putting little dots of silver glitter glue to the bulb. And although it doesn't look in the pictures, in real life the clear glass with the little dots actually does like quite pretty.

If like me, you'd like to do some Christmas crafts, or even enter to win £100 John Lewis vouchers last minute. You can read all the details here.

Christmas crafts with Hobbycraft

I hear "want to draw", countless times a day. Rio loves drawing. He'll get out his crayons and his paper and will happily sit and draw circles ("snowmen") endlessly. Recently we've been venturing out into crafts.. leaf art, footprints, painting and what not. So when asked if we'd like to try out Christmas crafts I thought, why not?

Annalise is craft crazy so of course we invited her over to join the fun.

The candy canes, glitter gingerbread men etc given to decorate the tree were so creative and easy to use but the star was a little fiddly to keep balanced.

If you've ever been to Hobbycraft you will know that the list of things to do/create is endless, so there is something for everyone, quite literally! If tree's aren't your thing why not have a go at creating your own wreath?

This kit retails at £5 and is currently included in hobbycrafts 3for2 offer!

Overall they were lots of fun to do, even at Rio's age, and made great personal decorations for the Grandparents!!

This product was sent to me free of charge for review. The content and opinions however are all truthful and my own!

Rio's first advent experience

Other than buttons, Rio wasn't really much of a chocolate eater last year so we didn't get him an advent calendar. This year he's a bit more interested in Christmas, and chocolate, so when Craigs mum offered to quilt him one we was like "yes please grandma". Its filled with a mixture of things, mainly Christmas themed chocolates and kinder. And although he doesn't know how to find the right number, he has pretty good fun guessing :)

Thorntons Christmas Hero

Do you ever wish you could show that one person in your life just how much you appreciate what they do? Well, Thorntons have given me that chance!

I was recently contacted asking if id like to take part in their Christmas hero's competition, a chance to give a gift to someone who really deserves it and one person sprang to mind. My Mum!

Despite being ill with a arm's length list of illness' and on a page long list of medication, she watches Rio twice a week so i'm able to go back to work. She goes out her way for my other two sisters and their children too and never grumbles.

She's gave me a part of my life back, so although this is tiny in comparison, it wont go unrecognised, im sure of it!  In fact.. she's a soppy so and so and will most definitely blub like a baby when it arrives!

On top of that since being originally contacted I've fell down the stairs and broke my foot in two places. Despite being exhausted my mum didn't hesitate to tell me to fetch Rio through on the way to the hospital. And though I'm being 'miss independent' and looking after Rio myself..she hasn't batted an eyelid at my million clothing alteration requests so I can actually get dressed.

Life lately, going stir crazy!

At first having to lounge about all day down to a broken foot is great. You get to catch up on all your programmes, read books to your little ones all day and build endless brick towers. But after a while, being cooped up sends you a little crazy.. okay a lot crazy.

I woke up today with the determination that we would get to the park. Id put on my 'boot' and force myself to push the pushchair to the other side of the village just to get little Rio out! He misses it too. But the reality hit me as soon as I opened the door. It was freezing out! I'm not one to grumble, I'm all for getting wrapped up and well and truly exploring nature but with my poor toes out? I wasn't so sure.

Instead we headed round to the back garden, which Rio didn't mind in the slightest..not when there's a football out there!

Oh and Annalise stopped by for a visit too ,adding to the fun! He loves 'annylisey'

I always used to wonder why it took so long for my OH to bath Rio..now I know. BEST DADDY EVER!

Rio: 19 month update

Firstly, I know I don't/shouldn't have to but id like to apologise for the lack of posts. A lot is changing happening in my life at the moment, some amazing and some pretty horrible..like falling down the stairs and breaking my foot in two places horrible! Therefore my blog has took a bit of a back seat mainly because I hate posts without pictures and I've been in no fit state to run after Rio for a few snaps, especially not with my new camera! All will be revealed in due course.

Onto the update..

- Rio can say anything now and his daily vocabulary is growing into little conversations.

- He frequently tells me "I've found it..it was down there", and asks "whats that?"

- He still has a bottle of milk which he put him movicol in. But is finally a fan of juice :)

- He says uv you mummy, uv you daddy.

- He now says cuddle instead of "luv"

- He will ask me for "ring a roses" etc. And also ask me for "dinner" if he gets hungry and will tell me exactly what he wants to eat on occasion. And tell me if he's tired/cold..which as a parent is great because you always do worry. & now likes a "blanky" for bed.

- At the moment his favourite foods are egg, mushrooms and oranges.

- Everything must have a blob of tomato sauce on the side!

- He finally likes building towers and will build little jumps for his toy horse to go over..mega cute and imaginative right?

- He loves drawing.."want to draw".. and knows quite a few of the colours now..mainly orange and purple.

- He likes to have a shower!

- He'll say "move" and when I look at him will continue to say "move...please". haha

- He likes to inform me when its raining

- He's obsessed with watching documentaries..we have the nature channel on constantly so much so he knows what a hippo, fox etc are now.

- He's had his hair cut yet again and even let them shave the sides (grade 4) instead of just tidying it back up with the scissors. Whilst there he demands at least 3 biscuits!

- He knows mummys foot is "broken", he's mainly an angel about it but sometimes runs away with my crutches.. and shouts "no mummy" when I ask for them back...hmmm!!

- He has all four of his fangs through, meaning we're only waiting on a set of back teeth!

- His "dream feed" in the night has got less and he will sleep from 9-9 most nights..amazing!

- He's well and truly learnt to say "NO"

Joules Wishlist*

With Christmas fast approaching my wish lists are getting pretty out of control. Rio is usually a walking advertisement for Next but I'm trying to branch out now he's getting older and took a little look at the Joules website. Big mistake!! As a horse lover I instantly fell in love with the Joules range of boys clothing This wish list is just a tiny snippet of what id secretly love to slip in my Christmas basket, along side about 100 things for myself!!

Have you bought anything from the Joules range before? I bet a few of you own some of their fabulous wellies!

Its always a bonus to see companies supporting a great cause too!