Dear March.....#A-ZChallenge

Dear March,

I usually title these posts something like '10 Things I loved in...' but as it's the a-z challenge I thought I'd write a thank you for all the things we got up to during the lovely month that was March 2015. We welcomed spring with some lovely walks, seeing the beginning of beautiful flowers in the nearby neighbourhood green...

I had some wonderful hot chocolate dates with my Little Man before nursery. I consumed a lot of medium sized caramel hot chocolates in March and Little A had a number of baby hot chocolates himself. Sometimes we went wild and added cherry bakewells into the mix...

At the end of the month we had the Easter bonnet parade where both my children made me feel incredibly proud. Midge was walking with her friend even giving her a high five at the end of the cat walk whilst Little A, who only last Christmas was a crying wreck during a Christmas choir of sorts with the rest of his nursery buddies, strutted down the cat walk, hand in hand with another little girl, waving a grinning from ear to ear. I may have cried...

March brought me lots of little things like an opportunity to squirrel away a few pounds for Christmas, lots of happy mail from my pen pals and swap partners and the introduction of Sky TV which means I can watch Friends until I'm sick of it. Thanks March...okay, and everyone else involved.

We enjoyed several lovely walks and I helped Little A climb some trees for the first time...

I also had a wonderful Mothering Sunday...

Thank-you March, for a wonderful month.

Cupcake Mumma

My Springtime Surprise Gift Swap

I had such a wonderful time joining in with Lucy's swap which was a huge spring time exchange between people from all over the place. For the first time ever my swap partner wasn't to be found on social media or blogging. I had a small amount of information and I really enjoyed just letting myself go for a spring themed box.

Here's what I sent to my swap partner:

My parcel was just beautiful, the photos are all below.

2 postcards for my collection

I adore this exercise book and gel pen- so me!

Postcard! Plus a glass candle holder

Cupcake cases that are wonderfully spring like and this fab sign that's in my room

Lovely cake wraps, flags and decorations

Thank you so much to Sarah and thank you to Lucy for running this rather big swap and cheering a lot of people up with happy mail this month!

Cupcake Mumma

February~ A Look Back

February was a really nice month. I've had enough of the wet school runs and cold weather though, it doesn't help that Spring has been doing nothing but teasing me! I've loved seeing the last of the crocuses and the first daffodils on our local green. The children have enjoyed their school runs with some muddy puddles to play in along the way. At the beginning of the month we enjoyed a bit of snow, which was lovely.

February was a great month for stationery. I started a new book for a friend and I to record our writing and trips. We send it back forth, or at least we will when I've posted it on its first journey! I've loved my bird themed #Paperhaul box and had some lovely stationery in my gift swaps (which I really need to blog about!) I was enjoying being a bit of a bookworm in February too.

February's Blogging Best Bits:

Our Peadiatric Appointment and The Start of Our Journey- this was so useful for me to write. I added some tips for those going to their first Peadiatric assessment too which I know has helped several people.

How Sensory Processing Disorder Affects my Son- I really enjoyed writing this post. Although Little A is still very much in the process of being referred for occupational therapy and we have no definite answers for his behaviours we are working with SPD which has fitted with A and the useful things I have found online regarding the disorder have been very useful to us. Many people thanked me for this post which meant a lot to me.

My Sunday Photo- With Olaf!- This was a popular Sunday Photo post last month and one of my favourites.

I'm really looking forward to March. My sister returns from University and we get celebrate her 21st birthday. My Gran should be coming home from hospital soon and it will be so lovely to spend time together as a family. I'm also excited to get ready for Easter and do some gift swaps which keep me happy.

Happy March everyone! 

Cupcake Mumma

My #DICraftSwap with Dainty and Ivory!

I recently followed a new blog, Dainty and Ivory written by Hannah. I'm so pleased I did because it's a lovely blog with craft, round ups and now swaps! Every month, Hannah sets a theme (sign ups are now going on for next month with a geek theme!) this months theme was Spring.

I didn't honestly focus too much on the theme itself preferring to think of nice bright or pastel colours, what spring means to me and what my swap partner loves. With all that in mind here's what I sent:

I made several cards, one in particular I loved because of this little kawaii character I placed on the front. She has a basket for little flowers which reminds me of spring.

I made some earrings and a needle felted cat (one of my partners favourite animals) I added some hot chocolate sachets because we're still having chilly evenings and a lovely bright notepad too.

Here's my gorgeous gift from Rhiannon who blogs at  The Sparkly Panda! A beautiful handmade bunny which I adore, a cross stitch pack, a lovely notepad and a pair of handmade earrings in my favourite pastel colours. Thank you so much!

I'm looking forward to the next swap and also blogging about an upcoming one I'm sending off this week! In the mean time, why not check out my mug swap post from last month?

Cupcake Mumma

Catch Up!

It's week 2 of the Easter holidays here in Cornwall and finally some gorgeous weather has been cast upon us. I've started work on our garden which I won't show you a photo of just yet because other than a total mess there's nothing much to see! Lots of mud and digging! I'll be planting some bulbs and herbs and I have a little veggie growing challenge to rise up to (more on that soon!)

We haven't been doing very much at all this holiday but what are holidays for if not relaxing and enjoying the weather, family, time to yourself. We successfully made some homemade play doh which kept all of us entertained for hours (yeah even me!) and baked a few delicious treats for ourselves too. I adore chocolate brownies!

Some beautiful flowers have come out to play in the sun which had lifted my mood. I had my tooth extracted last week so I haven't been in the best place, I'm getting there though! I've been trying to eat better and have made some lovely vegetarian meals like the one below.

Mainly though I've been letting the children run wild and I even caved in to buying the Frozen DVD. I haven't felt much like being on social media so have taken a step back to enjoy my craft swaps.  I've been letter writing occasionally but mainly reading a lot of my books in my 'to read' pile. I've also ordered a needle felting kit because I love felting and want to make it a new hobby.

Right, that's me all caught up. Are you enjoying your holidays? Let me know what you've been up to!

Cupcake Mumma

My Wonderful Spring Swap

I recently took part in a spring swap hosted by the lovely Joy from Welcome to Daisy Row (it's a lovely blog, do check it out) As most of you will know by now I love a good gift swap so I got my friend Kat to pop my name in the comments whilst I was away from the laptop (so desperate I was to not miss it!)

I was partnered with Margaret  who blogs here and is such a nice lady. We exchanged a few emails, got a general idea of each others tastes and then all went quiet as we made (or bought in my case as I have been so busy studying anything crafty has escaped me- sorry Margaret!) our parcels for each other.

My parcel arrived on Friday in a butter tub (which was a requirement in the swap) wrapped inside a really rather nice pink bag (which Midge and I are already fighting over!)

I had some chocolate Easter bunnies and a couple of cute little fluffy chicks just to add to the whole theme of the swap. The children swooped on the bunnies very quickly, even Husband had a fight on his hands!

I received the most perfect cupcake bag which I have already used today to post my parcels and visit the library (so it works very well!) How perfect is this bag though seriously? I adore it. I only just noticed that Margret has sewn an angel into it too which is so thoughtful, I love angels and fairies.

Margaret had also made me a small bag which will be used for all my essentials in my bedroom (I don't want it to get ruined by putting mascara in it. I might store my nail polishes in there?) I also had 4 fabric coasters made for me which again are pink and cupcake themed. Happy CupcakeMumma.

Thank-you so much Margaret for these truly lovely and thoughtful gifts. Thank-you also to Joy for hosting the Spring Swap. I hadn't participated in one for a while so I'm pleased to have got back into them.

CupcakeMumma