Midges Birthday Sleepover!

Midge in her new onesie

I can't believe my girl is now 9..NINE!? It's crazy how fast these birthdays come around. Her actual birthday was really quite quiet because she had school. Going to school on your birthday used to be a real bore but now they get a birthday certificate and a cupcake in assembly and the birthday boy or girl can bring in cake to share at home time, so needless to say, Midge wasn't too disappointed about it being a school day.

We had birthday pancakes before school and let her open all her cards and gifts before getting her uniform on. We bought her a pug onesie, lots of nail polish related gifts, boxes of Malteasers (her favourite chocolate) and a few other bits. It was odd not having anyone home when I knew there was a birthday but I got all her bits sorted for dinner and tidied up.

Mr B and I collected the children from school. Midge had a surprise visit from her cousins and we celebrated with a chip shop dinner (last minute change of plan!) and Malteaser covered chocolate birthday cake. It's the first birthday cake I've ever made that I couldn't eat!

Chocolate covered chocolate cake as requested

The cousins stayed until way too late and we all went to bed way earlier than we would usually but we'd all had such a good day and as the next day was another school day we all needed some kip!

I'm glad Midge had another great birthday. At the weekend we celebrated a second time with her 2 friends and 2 cousins. Mr B and A went to stay with his sister so it was just us girls. We had a junk dinner, cupcakes, a nail painting session, pillow fighting, we watched 2 movies with lots of popcorn before collapsing into bed gone midnight. I shared my bed with my 4 year old niece who was first to drop off, then the girls slowly went one by one until at 1am everyone was asleep and I could finally shut my eyes!

We had such a lovely evening (I still won't be rushing to host any more sleepovers though!) There were some tears, some bickering, black nail varnish spilled on the floor, bedrooms were trashed, popcorn was everywhere, screaming was most definitely done and I must have been shattered still by Sunday but it was all good! I'm still finding friends belongings down the side of the beds and under things, honestly, girls must pack for a week!

Nieces!

Midges birthday summed up in one word by Midge: Awesome!!

Cupcake Mumma

Making Chocolate with Little A

A few months ago my friend bought me a surprise gift: a raw chocolate kit. It came with chocolate powder, syrup and butter all in its raw form ready for me to make up a batch. I made these before little A had nursery so you can see that they don't take long to make.

A got involved with the stirring of the melted butter:

We added cocoa powder together (very messy!) and kept stirring until it looked so glossy and delicious.

I added the syrup, but A could have done it with the amount I put in. I still try to make my dark chocolate sweeter than its supposed to be..into the silicone mold it goes! This came in the set too.

An hour or so later the chocolates were popped out and we had fun eating homemade, rich chocolates on the nursery run!

Cupcake Mumma

Fixing The Future with Sugru!

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I've heard a lot about Sugru. I've seen it on you tube, I've seen it on blogs and several people have mentioned it to me for crafting. Those of you who don't know about Sugru, here's a little information:

Sugru is a mouldable clay which comes in a variety of colours (and right now Sugru has gone festive for Christmas!) you can use it in crafting, diy, fixing those broken toys, even for hanging up items and hiding those unsightly wires on USB cables you haven't quite got around to replacing yet! Here's a bit more about Sugru and what you can do with it on their website

As for me, well, naturally I don't think in terms of DIY or mending broken items, I think crafty! So I spent an evening making two rather sweet little models. A mushroom which I can easily turn into a badge/broach/keyring and a funny little worm which will become a keyring!

I'm not very gifted in the modelling department unfortunately so any further makes were firmly cast aside and the clay was reused for other things...

Like sticking my sons train track bridge together. It always comes apart and it upsets him a lot. Not anymore! It's not as neat as i'd like it to be but it's a very awkward object to stick together. I also got the chance to finally mend my beloved skiing Cheer Bear Carebear. She was dropped a while ago and I've only just found the missing ski! I was gutted when she broke but now Sugru has fixed her right up.

I still have more left and I'm sure it'll all come in very handy. My husband usually tapes everything up but now he has no excuse for that horrible habit! Sugru dries in a fairly quick time if left alone and it does dry rock solid. It's worth remembering that just like real clay and playdoh, if you don't look after Sugru it will become rock solid if left lying around and will get covered in bits if you drop it etc so do remember to pack it away again when you're finished!

Sugru is a long lasting mouldable clay and is also very strong. I have seen photos of this product holding up pans after being moulded into hooks and stuck on to tiles! It is also waterproof which is very handy if you need a temporary fix in the shower or around a tap before you can get to the hardware store. So basically, whether you're into make do and mend, DIY or crafts, Sugru really is a product anyone can make a use of!

I was sent a pack of Sugru in the colours yellow, blue, red and white for this review. A limited festive edition has now been released exclusively online which could be perfect for those stocking fillers! The best thing is that Sugru is under £10 and can be purchased from B&Q, Maplin, Wilkinson and more stores! So, let's fix the future and banish the electrical tape habits of a life time! (Seriously it's not just my husband is it?)

Cupcake Mumma

A-Z Challenge: D

D is for Date Nights

Our lovely cousins across the pond came up with this great idea called 'Date night,' where you and your partner spend some quality time together once a week or once a month. What you both decide to do is entirely your choice and there are so many ideas all over the internet.

My Husband and I are now big fans of date nights. Every Saturday evening we bath, dress and read a story to the children who settle within the hour on a good night. After that, Hubby will run to the local film store and grab a new DVD for us to watch while I prepare our weekly (almost traditional now!) meal of homemade fish and chips.

Are date nights something you and your partner enjoy doing together? I'd love to know what you plan every week/month whether it's big or small like our Saturday nights in.

Gluten and dairy free homemade battered fish with peas and chips. Absolutely delicious!

CupcakeMumma

Natures Decorations

I recently mentioned about going to my local Church for their Christmas fare. As Midge and Little Man were getting a bit tired and impatient waiting for Father Christmas, I decided a little walk around the grounds would be nice. 

Of course I was right. On our way around we picked up leaves, some which still had a faint bit of colour to them and even some pine cones. I bagged everything up and took our finds home. When we got in, I placed the pine cones onto the heaters around the home so they could open up. You'll see how much the open if you check on them which is quite cool!

Next, I decided we should turn our pine cones into some lovely decorations for our Christmas tree. All you will need are a few, basic things:

* A few pine cones

* Some glue and brushes

* Lots of glitter in lovely, different colours

* Ribbon or thread for hanging your pretty decoration

Pop all your bits and pieces on a table on top of some newspaper so your glitter doesn't go completely everywhere (unless you want to be like my house and have a VERY sparkly lounge!) Simply cover your pine cones (not too thickly though) in glue and sprinkle the glitter over. We used our fingers to pinch glitter and sprinkle it on, we mixed glitter to get some wonderful colours and also rolled our pine cones through the glitter. So many ways and so much fun!

Finally, tie some ribbon or thread around the top of your pine cone and hang onto your lovely tree. Stand back, and smile!

I've written this post as part of SnafflesMummy's 2012 Homemade Christmas Countdown. Do pop on over and catch up on the blogger's who have made some wonderful contributions so far.

CupcakeMumma

My Summer Gift Swap

During August the lovely Kat from KatSighs hosted a gift swap to bring some summer cheer to our lives. My swap partner was Joy who blogs at Welcome to Daisy Row  . If you would like to see what I sent Joy then please click above to have a look!

I got some truly wonderful gifts from Joy. Here is what arrived for me a week ago:

Lots of goodies!

I received this lovely cupcake card (always makes me smile when people play on my blog name, I really do love cupcakes!) thank you Joy! 

When I was opening my parcel I commented to Husband about the fab, green polka dotted parcel tape that Joy had used. I thought it was really different and I had never seen it before so imagine my surprise when I saw Joy had packed me some for myself! Red polka dots and cupcakes!

Joy had also made me this great scarf (apologies Joy if I have that wrong but I'm sure I haven't!) I really love the colour, so bright and unique! As I'm not quite chilly enough just yet but didn't want to hide it away I have actually hung it up at my kitchen doorway! So many people have commented on it and I've proudly said where it came from.

I do like a nice warm scarf!

 We also had to add a magnet in with our summer swap. I found a brightly coloured cupcake one for Joy (everyone needs a cupcake in their lives) and here is the one I received:

just too true!

She then did one better by adding this rather great digestive biscuit magnet which I love. Little Man will be most annoyed when I finds out it isn't real. To add to my wonderful gifts Joy had also made  me some lovely coasters. As I have a black table you can imagine how well these stand out!

 

Thank-you Joy for your wonderful, thoughtful gifts (and I love the gingham tissue paper. I've kept it because I've never seen tissue paper like this before!) and thank-you to Kat who hosted this summer swap. Yet again I've enjoyed another successful swap. If you like swapping gifts please have a look at my Mug Swap gift exchange for October. Ideal for gift swapping for those who don't fancy making something straight away!

CupcakeMumma

Homemade Heart Swap-Part 2

Now Louise has received her gifts, I am going to 'big myself' up a bit and post up all the gifts I made as part of the Homemade Heart Swap. I enjoyed making my crafts, especially as I love hearts and making people smile. I love to give gifts but never been confident enough to make and actually hand over a homemade gift until now. Christmas here I come! Even my wedding is getting some of my new craftyness injected into it!

 I reused nice smelly coloured candles I had in my craft box, melted them down and poured them into a silicon heart mold. It took me a few attempts to make these perfect but finally they came out and I'm really pleased with them.

 I used to make jewelry when I was living in the countryside to pass the time when Little Miss was at nursery for a few hours, especially when I became pregnant with Little Man and I couldn't go anywhere without chucking up! I dug out my old bits which there is a lot of still and made Louise this heart bracelet and earring set. I don't know if she has her ears pierced but it seemed fitting to make a set!

 Bird seed. I went through Louise's blog and noticed she liked nature a lot. I just new she'd love something for outside so came up with this bird feed heart. I used foil to make a heart shape, mixed seed mix, flour and water and placed the mixture into the foil. I popped a straw in the top and baked in the oven for nearly an hour. When it was cooled, I removed the straw and when totally cold I put some ribbon through and wrapped it up for its journey!

 I made Louise a little book mark too. It looked a little bare so I thought adding this button would be a bit of a quirky little extra, I do like buttons! I'm going to make myself one soon I think, I've been reading these kindle books for too long and I'm missing turning real pages.

Finally a small little cushion I made from some left over fabric I bought for £2 last time I visited Plymouth. I had no idea what to do with this fabric until the heart swap came along. I've never really sewed before so it's not perfect, but i certainly put a lot of effort (and love) into it!

Hope you like my makes. They've already been put to good use by Louise which is just wonderful, as have mine! Thanks for reading.

CupcakeMumma