A couple of weeks ago I received a very interesting email from a representative of Baker Ross, a company I was vaguely aware of through my previous voluntary work with the Beavers. The Lovely Chap explained that he was trying to spread the word about the products they have available for arts & crafts and offered to send me some goodies in return for a review. Well, being a canny Scot I’m never one to turn down a freebie Only problem was, what to choose?

Bob & I spent ages flicking over the site to try and pick. In the end I had a list of – well to be honest, pretty much everything they stock! So I emailed Lovely Chap back and told him that I’d be thrilled to review for him but he’d need to pick for me and last week a package arrived containing half a dozen mini canvases, a pack of Giotto Decor pens and this set of woodcraft kits.

So! I opened the package, looked at the canvases and Bob & I said almost simultaneously “Handprints!” You see, my babies are not really babies anymore and it’s really hitting me. I have the ubiquitous penmarks up my living room door showing how they’ve grown since we moved here four years ago, but I’ve always wanted to make a more permanent reminder.

Look at the difference between them all!! The girls (Erica is a UK6G) managed to fit their hand and foot on one canvas but the boys needed separate ones (Nairn is a UK9G, Findlay is a UK12F), which meant I didn’t really have the fallback of spare canvases if we made a muckup! I did find with Erica it was a bit of a squeeze because her feet are so broad but we managed.

On the whole it was pretty easy – Findlay being older was able to listen to my instructions not to move his hand or foot once it was on the canvas. Nairn and Erica had clearly done similar at nursery by the professional way they slapped their hands and feet down. Then it was Greer’s turn. What a bloody nightmare. First of all I had to feed her so she’d let me paint her foot without screaming the house down. Then, once she’d finished feeding I sat her up to put her foot on the canvas and she spewed on me. I cleaned us both up and painted her hand only for her to decide that she was keeping her hand squeezed as tightly into a fist as possible so I decided to do a fistprint. Started painting the outside of her fingers and she opened her hand up! ARRRGGHH! Hence, Greer’s prints aren’t as neat as I’d have liked but that in itself is a little story to tell her when she’s older

Next time I think I’d use paint pads like these though. The orange, purple and green paints I’d bought when Findlay was a toddler (so at least six years ago now!) and they were very watery hence the resulting prints not being quite as crisp as I’d like. Findlay’s red prints were done with paint the kids got at Christmas which was quite viscous and perfect really for the purpose. The only drawback with this was getting paint out from in between toes and fingers – as you can see, Findlay just loved this part!

Now I just need to paint my hall so my lovely reminders of my tinies can go where I can see them!

Posted under family, with the kids

As I’m sure I have mentioned before, Bob was diagnosed with severe dyslexia earlier this year and I’ve been trying to find ways to help him with his particular issues. Specifically, Bob’s dyslexia manifests itself in processing – you could give him a list of six things to do and by the time he’s done the second, he’ll have forgotten the rest. This makes things like going shopping great fun because unless it’s written down he will remember maybe four things out of a list of ten. So! I got him a diary and notebook, knowing that he’d only use them if there was a way to keep them together.

It’s just a very simple sleeve with a pouch on each side to accommodate the A6-sized diary and notebook, with snap closures. It’s small enough that it’s not an encumberance and big enough to do what he needs it to do. He seemed pretty pleased with it but whether it gets used is another thing entirely

It just dawned on me too that I hadn’t mentioned the other new additions to the house. Our cat, Sia, had a litter of kittens (underneath Nairn’s bed, ugh) on Erica’s birthday. This is the only kitten left that we haven’t secured a home for yet, and he’s been named Horatio. I always wanted a ginger cat I could name Titian but I was heartily overruled by the kids.

On a final note, Bob and I had a big conversation last night about ethics and cheating. What spurred this on? Well, in this photo Bob is embroiled in a water fight with approximately ten kids…

…standing behind a 7ft+ wall with an umbrella and a hose. Ah well, Findlay seemed to enjoy it.

Posted under family, sewing