Happy monday...

....Here's to a wonderful new week...

the flowers my lovely husband got me for our anniversary...

We have had a lovely anniversary weekend here!

On Saturday Mr and I went for a lovely meal at a local canal-side restaurant...

Its funny, and I think most parents will recognise this, we get a few hours to ourselves as a couple then end up spending the whole time talking about our little Miss Moo....

....anyway, after a couple of hours and a couple of glasses of rose , we rushed home to get the washing in as it started pooring down with rain....like REALLY belting it down...torrential style!

After which, I promptly fell asleep on the sofa....LIGHTWEIGHT !!

Never the less we had a lovely time!!

 

Then on Sunday we all went to a nearby village, Berkhamstead, strolling around and browsing the antique shops...stopping for some lunch and an ice cream...

Lovely!!

We didn't buy anything, but sometimes its just as much fun to just have a look...

...So today I am posting some pictures from yesterdays window shopping:

 

 

First we went to one of my favourite shops, the home and colonial

I have never actually bought anything in here as I find it a bit expensive for our budget...even in the sale....but I love looking around here for inspiration and ideas....

 Its just a treasure-trove of beautiful old things, from antique art to vintage toys...

 

....rustic furniture to nostalgic kitchenware...

 

 

I loved the look of this collection of green tinted glass bottles...

...and I dream to have a linen cupboard like this...

It is always allowed to dream...

 

So, dreamily, I walked away from this shop...I didn't mind not getting anything...I couldn't possibly choose from their wonderful stock ....and anyway, we are saving up for some big home improvements at the moment, so I know it will be worth saving the pennies....

 

A little stroll down the road, we stopped to look at a flowering tree buzzing with bees and fluttering butterflies...Little Miss Moo loves butterflies - ever since she went to Butterfly world with her class last month, so she was totally engrossed....

 Our next stop was the heritage antique centre, just off the Berkhamstead High street...

...this shop is a little more in our price range, and also filled with treasure...

This is one of those shops that is just filled to the brim with things...

...and you really need to keep your eyes peeled to spy the diamonds in all the rough...

These were some of the items that caught my eye:

 

A lovely copper tea pot...

...some pretty and colourful vintage kitchenware..

...and these vintage suitcases sparked my imagination....

...might come back for these...!!

 

Even Little Miss Moo found something she liked...

Luckily she  is not a child that "wants something" all the time, and she happily waved goodbye to her new friend, when we said we would go to the olde sweet shoppe next...

This lovely old fashioned sweetshop has jars upon jars of sweets...beautifully displayed in the old shop interior.....so nostalgic...so me!!

We all came away with some goodies....and with our gobs full of sweets we were satisfied after having a great day out as a family, and headed home!

 

Feeling rested and happy, I am now ready for this week:

Today we are hosting the second session of THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB...

....We are expecting another 3 of Little Miss Moo's friends at 2 o'clock, so I best start getting ready!!

The weather has turned and we are expecting rain and thunderstorms, so today we are having a RAINY DAY INDOOR PARTY...

Check back on Wednesday to see how we get on, and what we will get up to!!

 

And don't forget to leave a comment on Saturday's post to be in with a chance of winning a set of 3 of my lace print plates, in my celebratory giveaway!!

 

I wish you all a great week!

xxx

June

A celebration....

...or two...

 

So last weekend nostalgiecat hit a milestone...10 000 views...
And the numbers are growing with a steady pace....
I'm not really sure how this measures up in the blogging world, but it has exceeded my expectations....

When I published my first post 22march this year...I would never have imagined that in a little more than 4months later I would have achieved such a great result....honestly: it took me by surprise....
When I started nostalgiecat I had never even read a blog....!!



In the beginning I felt like I was talking to my self (like I'm sure most  newbie bloggers do...), but I can now truly say that blogging has given me exactly what I was after when I started.....and so much more:
It has given me that kick up the backside I needed to go for it, and try to make something out of my life....I feel like I have finally taken control of my destiny...It has thought me not to just sit around and talk about all the things I want to do, but to just do it....and the feedback I have got has given me the confidence I needed.... that I am on the right track...
I Love It!

But I must admit : I find the blogging community and the internet a baffling place, and often feel overwhelmed and confused....I have a lot to learn about not just blogging, but also the networking and social media side of things....not to mention the URLs and all the technical side of blogging...
But keeping it simple and committing to the content on my blog, rather than getting lost down a rabbit hole seems to have paid off....
So today, 52 posts down the line, I want to celebrate my 10 000+ views  and my 15 followers (thanks guys...I truly appreciate your support)...
 

And what better way to celebrate than to have a giveaway...
I've chosen to give away the glazed lace print plates I made back in April (pictured above)...as that was the first post I got some notable response to...
I will make the winner a set of 3 dishes, finished in the colour glaze of the winners choice....
(click on the link above to see how I made these plates, or see here how I glazed them...)

The rules are simple: leave a comment below to enter this price draw, and on the 24th of August, I will put all your names in my husbands bowler hat, and let Little Miss Moo draw the winner....
So make sure to check back in two weeks to see if you are the chosen one...

 

I also have another reason to celebrate this weekend...it's me and Mr's wedding anniversary tomorrow....7 years ! So whilst one of my friends take little miss moo to a friends birthday party today....we are going for a grown up meal in a grown up restaurant.....just the two of us.!
(If you are getting the feeling that this doesn't happen very often...you are right)
So I am really looking forward to it...even if it is only for a few hours...



I went through our wedding album and found this lovely picture of us on our wedding day...this was taken just after we'd said our wows, and we were having our first dance as a married couple...
...Oh how young and happy we look....
A lot has changed since then, and we've been through a lot together...good and bad...

I would like to end this post by dedicating this poem by Thomas Moore to my darling Mr., as I think it says how I feel better than I ever could:

OH, NO- NOT EVEN WHEN WE FIRST LOVED

Oh, no - not even when we first lov'd
wert thou as dear as now thou art
Thy beauty then my senses mov'd
But now thy virtues bind my heart.
What was but passion's sigh before
has since been turned to reason's wow;
And though I then might love thee more,
trust me, I love thee better now.

Although my heart in earlier youth
might kindle with more wild desire,
believe me, it has gained in troth
much more than it has lost in fire.
The flame now warms my inmost core
that then but sparkled o'er my brow.
 And though I seem'd to love thee more
yet, oh, I love thee better now.


I love you honey!!



Thanks for popping by,
I hope you will leave a little comment below, so that you can be in with a chance of winning a bit of NOSTALGIECAT....
Have a great weekend!

XXX
June


 

THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB....

 CHALK PARTY...

 











So here's how the first session of THE NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB went down...
The Theme of the day was CHALK PARTY...
We made our own homemade chalk, colourful blackboards and fizzy chalk paint...
....and generally had lots of messy fun in the garden...
So today I want to tell you what we did and how we did it, and show you some fun pictures Monday's session...



As it turned out to be the hottest day of the year so far here in the UK on Monday, I put up Little Miss Moo's tipi in the garden , so that the kids had somewhere to retreat to, out of the sun ,for refreshments....



I had all my materials and bits and bobs at the ready, so that when the kids arrived, we were ready to go...We had 3 of Little Miss Moo's friends turning up:
Martha, Tristan and Freya...LMM was very pleased to have her friends around!!



Mixing up the chalk recipe....Looking nice and clean, but not for long...

The first thing we did was to make our own chalk...



We made 4 colours: Red , yellow, blue and green...

 

DIY CHALK RECIPE

2 cups plaster of Paris
1  1/2 cup water
 tempera paint powder (1 tbsp. per colour)

Mix the plaster and water well together in a bowl,
divide the mixture into smaller containers (one for each colour),
then add the tempera paint powder and mix ...




Poor the coloured mixtures into a mould...ice cube trays work well, and leave to dry and set for at least 1 hour...



So, whilst the chalks were setting, we got busy making our
BLACKBOARDS...
I had already cut some rectangular pieces of wood ready for this...
so all we had to do was make up our own.....

BLACKBOARD PAINT

I let the kids choose a colour each out of my selection of emulsion tester pots...
Then we simply mixed a tablespoon of powdered grout in with their chosen colour in an old jam jar...
before painting it on to their bit of wood...



Painting their very own black boards...

The paint will be a bit lumpy...just help them brush it on as smooth as possible..
Let the blackboards cure overnight....then rub a piece of chalk all over the surface, to prepare it to be drawn on....

...As Tristan said: "this is hard work....I think we need a snack break".... this is exactly what we did next... 

Having a biscuit and juice break in the tipi.....

When the kids had filled up on biscuits and juice...we checked on the status of our homemade chalk...
....as all the water had dried up on the surface of the chalk mix, we turned the  moulds upside down, and knocked our chalk sticks out so they could finish curing in the sun...
There was some that broke, but we managed to get most of them out intact....



So, with the (colourful ) blackboards curing and the homemade chalks drying out in the sun, it was time to make some ....

FIZZY CHALK PAINT



 



 Now came the fun bit....painting the ground....
One thing to remember about entertaining kids: the more mess they can make...the more fun they are having....
...so I let them go nuts...

When they had almost used up all their paint mixture I gave them some plastic spray bottles filled with white vine vinegar...

The Vinegar will react with the baking soda and washing up liquid, and make the paint fizz when its sprayed on...



See what happens when we spray vinegar on the paint mix!!



Martha is going for the fizz...




 Tristan is wondering what will happen if he sprays some vinegar straight into his cup of paint mixture....

"what will happen if I...."



Martha and Little Miss Moo realises they can make the paint fizz even more by using their paintbrushes to mix the vinegar into the paint... 

"Look...what happens when..."

This was the best part of the session...the kids had so much fun experimenting with the fizzy paint and getting very messy....I guess it's not every day they are allowed to paint the ground (and themselves)....

Fun washing all the paint and chalk away....

The good thing about chalk and chalk paint is that it will simply wash away with water...
...and luckily...another thing kids love to do, is playing with water....so I set them to work...

 

Freya and Tristan sees who can reach the highest to clean off the big blackboard....


Kids say the funniest things...

Whilst they were busy, having a wail of a good time , I decided to ask them all what they wanted to be when they grew up....all the girls wanted to be princesses (no surprise there then...) But Tristan gave me a very serious look and said: " I just want to be a regular person"....



Martha and Little Miss Moo using their homemade chalks to draw on the "pavement"...

When they were finished "cleaning"...they tried out their homemade chalks and left me with some lovely murals in the garden...

I think they all had lots of fun...I did anyway!!

They all did really well coping in the heat, and it was a pleasure to have them all around...

Little Miss Moo's friends all came away with their very own blackboards ( although they were green or pink or purple....) and a handful of homemade chalks...

 Have you got any fun ideas for things to do with the kids in the holidays?
Maybe you know of any fun chalk based games...?
Let me know by leaving a comment below...

xxx
June

Happy monday......

 

 Hosting the first KIDS SUMMER CLUB...

 

Today is the day when me and Little miss Moo will be hosting the first of this summers

NOSTALGIECAT KIDS SUMMER CLUB

 

 

 

 

Schools out, garden is sorted and I think I am as ready and prepared as I can be...

So at 2 o'clock today 3 of Little Miss Moo's friends are coming around for some crafty fun in the garden....I just hope the weather holds out, as my phone app tells me its going to be very hot, but with thunder and lightning....hmmm....fingers crossed!!

 

I wanted to do this kids club for several reasons:

I was worried about keeping Little Miss Moo entertained over the holidays, and was looking around on pinterest for some fun things to do....then I thought: why not invite some of her little friends around to join in as well: It'll be twice the fun for the kids, as well as help tightening the bonds they've made....and maybe make "starting big school" in September a little less daunting...

I am also a firm believer that creativity is one of the best ways to engage children and a fun way to teach them that they can make things happen themselves...

I know Little Miss Moo is utterly fascinated by my crafty projects, and every day when I've picked her up from school, one of the first thing she has asked me was:

 WHAT HAVE YOU MADE TODAY??

....And of course she loves to help me...(sometimes more successfully than others...)

So I would like the children that will be taking part in the Summer Kids club over the holidays to come away with a sense of achievement, and a little something they can proudly show their mum and dad...

From a more selfish perspective, I thought this would be a great way for me to connect with the local community: Having spent the last 5 months in my little blogging bubble...crafting away here at home whilst Little Miss Moo was at nursery...

And of course I want to blog about our crafty sessions...

I will be posting about our sessions every Wednesday, so that maybe I can reach out to other parents out there and share the activities we will be doing....

Hopefully We can inspire some of you to try out some of these boredom busters with your own kids this summer!!

 

 

 

Little Miss Moo is very excited to have her friends around today, and to be honest I am looking forward to seeing her interact with her friends, as this is something I think I miss out on in the every day life...

So fingers crossed todays session will go off without a hitch...

(and pretty please: let the weather behave!!)

Please pop back on Wednesday to see how the first session went...what we did and how we did it!!

 

If you in the meantime get stuck for something to do with the kids, have a look at my pinterest board

 

KIDS CRAFTS AND FUN

for some boredom busting activities and ideas for the holidays....

 

 

xxx

June

 

 

 

 

 

 

Easy pallet seating area for the garden

 

As well as weeding ,getting rid of ants and bees and planting and tidying, this week I have also been making this easy seating area in the garden...my very own summer blogging paradise...

I have always wanted one of those comfy outdoor sofa's , but garden furniture can be soo expensive.....so when I came across some great DIY pallet seating areas on pinterest (see my Pallet fun board for this and many other great pallet projects...),  I knew this would be a great project to try out!!

I asked at my local Wickes if they had some pallets to give away, and they were very helpful and told me I could help myself to any bits and bobs left outside around the back of the shop....

(This article has some great advice on where to look for free pallets)

So not only did I cart home 8 pallets, but I also came away with enough free wood to cover them all...

(Luckily my local Wickes is only a 5 minute walk away, and they let me borrow one of their trolleys to take them home....never the less: pallets are heavy, so my arms were aching for days...)

I had the perfect area in mind for my DIY pallet seat...this corner in the garden always ended up as a dumping ground, and as it is always partly shaded would be a great place to relax out of the direct sunlight in the heat of the day...

I made sure the pallets I chose was all the same size, so I could simply stack them on top of each other...the condition of some of the pallets wasn't great, but  I wasn't too bothered, as I was given enough wood to cover them all)  You can find some great advice on choosing pallets for craft projects at painted furniture ideas (they have also some great advice on disassembling pallets and how to clean and prep pallets before painting)

I stacked 3 pallets on top of each other for the perfect seating-height , in an L-shape to fit the little nook in our garden...I put a couple of pallets upright along the back wall to create a back rest....

I had to cut down one of these pallets to fit, but other than that, it was pretty much like building with lego...

Unfortunately I have somehow managed to delete the pictures I took at this stage of the build, but as you would have to fit your own pallet seating (should you decide to give this a go) to a suitable area in your own garden, it is simply a case of playing around with the shape until you are happy...

Then I cut the bits of wood to cover my pallet seating base...

Unfortunately in the British climate, this sort of project outdoors can not be expected to survive the winter....So I am already planning on how to reuse the pallets when summer is over:

So apart from covering the pallets to hide the state of some of them, this will also give them some protection from the elements of nature.....So that I can reuse the "good" ones for future projects....I could of course have treated the pallets, by painting them, but we are also planning on chopping some of them up come winter, and using them as firewood...(We are planning on getting a wood burning stove installed in our front room ) so I didn't want to add to the chemical composition in the wood...

With my pallet seating area covered in (mismatched) wood...(up until now this project has not cost me a penny....not bad hey?)...it was now time to prettify it a bit...

 

A couple of coats of Exterior Satin paint in "Duck egg", not only brightened my seating area up, but will also add to the protection of the pallet wood...

I ordered some cut to measure foam from efoam.co.uk ,got some cheap fabric in the sale, that also happened to be in the colour "duck egg"...and sewed up some slip on covers on my pathetic mini sewing machine...(I've said it before, and I'll say it again: I'm not a haberdashery sort of girl...)

 

On the back of the cover for the foam that will go along the back of the seating, I sewed on a strip of Velcro.....

...the Velcro will help keep the foam pad from falling down...

Placing the covered back-foam in place up against the back of the seating area, I marked off on the wood where the hook-bit of the Velcro would have to go to match the position on the foam...

Mr treated me to a new toy/tool....(Love you honi!!) A staple gun!!

First I applied some double sided tape along the line I'd marked out for placing the Velcro strip...

This will help keep the Velcro in place, and will also allow you to adjust the positioning to best match the position of the opposite Velcro on the foam pad...

When I was happy that the two Velcro strips matched up, I used my new gadget to secure the Velcro to the wood....

There we have it.....

 

 I also sewed up some new and colourful cushion covers to use on some old cushions I had laying about....

And voila: what used to be an obsolete corner of our garden, used for dumping things, has now been transformed into a comfy, shaded seating area to relax in over the summer...

 I spent £10 on the paint , and about £15 on the material...the foam cost £36...so creating this cosy nook in our garden, cost me in total just over £60....

...not bad hey?

 

I know I will be enjoying our garden so much more this summer now that We have somewhere to cosy up....and with all my hard work getting the garden up to scratch this week, I am really looking forward to spending some lazy summer days here!!

What do you think of my new garden seating area?

Fancy making your own?

I'd love to hear from you, so please leave a comment below!!

This was my last (scheduled) Saturday DIY tutorial for a while....as I will be taking some time out to enjoy the garden with Little Miss Moo (and of course poor Mr....when he's not working) over the summer holidays!! There may be the odd project or two, as I think it will be hard for me to quit making and crafting all together, but I also want to concentrate on my

NOSTALGIECAT SUMMER KIDS CLUB

 that will start next week...

So if you are looking for things to do with your kids over the summer holidays, pop by on Wednesday when I will be posting about creative boredom busters to keep the kids happy...

Happy Summer Everybody!!

xxx

June