Making candles

Another activity that formed part of my Day Zero Project list was to make a candle. When I was little, my Dad used to take us into the school where he taught, and we used to make candles in his science lab. We made them by dipping a long wick into melted wax over and over again. It took ages, and the candles that I produced were generally triangular in shape because all the wax slid down to the bottom, but I was super proud of them, and we loved taking them out into the garden lit once it was dark.

To make my candles I bought a candlemaking kit from Hobbycraft. There were several different ones to choose from, and I chose the basic candlemaking craft kit. It comes with a big bag of wax chips, some moulds, three different colours and some perfume, as well as the other bits and pieces that you need. The only extra equipment that you need is a saucepan for melting the wax and a spoon to stir, definitely best to buy a very cheap saucepan or sacrifice an old one, as you won't be able to use it for food again! If you don't want to melt the wax directly into the saucepan, you can rinse out an old tin can and rest that inside the saucepan.

It was a bit difficult to estimage how much wax was needed to melt, but at least if you do too much you can always re-use it. It reduces down in size quite a lot from the solid wax chips so you need more than you think. After a couple of attempts I found that the best way to melt was was to put it inside an old tin can which rests inside the saucepan which is filled with water and boiled. It took a lot longer to melt down than I thought it would - about 20-25 minutes for a couple of large handfuls of wax chips. It doesn't need to be stirred constantly all that time, but you do need to be there to supervise it.

A small amount of the colouring goes a very long way, as does the fragrance. I made yellow and red wax, and also attempted some stripy candles which turned out really well.

I'm pretty pleased with my finished candles, they are a little patchy and the instructions do suggest coating them with melted wax to make them a bit more shiny, so I may try that when I've melted up my next batch. They smell lovely too!

I've only made these four basic candles to begin with, but I'm definitely inspired and as it turned out to be very easy I'm going to be making more. The instructions come with some ideas for extending your candle making, and one idea that I like the sound of is to make a candle in a bold colour, then chop it up and put in the mould before surrounding with melted wax in a different colour for a bit of a contrast.

I would also like to make some more stripy candles, and I'll be melting down all my old candles to make new ones. The moulds included in the set are very good and can be used over and over, and looking online it's very cheap to buy the wick separately. You could also make your own moulds quite easily from old plastic containers. I'm so glad I pushed myself to try something new!

Babysitting and cross stitching

I babysat for a friend the other night. I quite like babysitting. The boys I sit for never wake up during the evening, so I don't need to worry about being disturbed. Mia wakes up every evening at some point between 9 and 10pm screaming, and even though she usually settles quickly it does mean that we can't really have anyone to babysit for us at the moment, as I'm not sure how she'd react if we weren't there. So it was nice to have a chance to sit quietly of an evening and know that I wasn't going to be disturbed.

I took the opportunity for a chance to work on my latest cross stitch. It's a small kit which I bought a while ago in the sale in Hobbycraft, it's actually a design for a large coaster and it comes complete with the plastic case and cork backing. When I opened it I found that it didn't actually include any embroidery silks which surprised me as kits usually do, perhaps that was why it was so cheap. Fortunately I have a good range of colours which I've picked up at various times so I should have all that I need. It's quite a pretty little picture and I like that it will be functional when it's finished.

This is the very last cross stitch kit that I have, so once it's finished I'll have to make the decision whether to buy a new kit or not. The trouble is that I find cross stitch kits so expensive as an initial purchase, even if they do take me years to finish!

Beach themed day

This week is half-term, and it feels a bit like Harry's first real holiday from school. For his first half-term we spent most of the week away in Berlin, then over Christmas Ram was off work a lot, so I didn't really have to do much extra entertaining than normal. This week though it's mostly just me and the children, and as I really enjoyed the themed days that I planned over the summer I thought it was time for another. I let Harry choose the theme, and he went for Beach Day.

I decorated the living room with my sarong that I always take to the beach and a few beachy inflatables. I wasn't sure that I was up to having sand traipsed throughout the house, so instead I thought I'd have a go at sand playdough. I always use the fabulous Four Minute Playdough Recipe from The Imagination Tree as a base for my play dough as it's so easy to make. This time I played around with it a bit, I substituted some of the salt for actual sand, then added quite a bit more sand and flour as it went very sticky. It didn't work as well as some of my play dough, but it did the job!

To go along with the play dough I provided some shells, glass pebbles, little dolls wearing suitable beach attire and cocktail umbrellas. Both children loved the beach umbrellas and they each made up a beach scene. Harry then went on to make up some stories with the dollies.

I used these same figures for my Beach Sensory Tub a little while ago, which is another idea that would fit in perfectly with this theme - click the link to find out more!

I like to include a baking activity as part of our themed day, so next we made some sand biscuits. We make biscuits a lot as I have a very simple recipe for basic shortbread that works very well. You just need 50g caster sugar, 175g plain flour and 125g butter. You can either rub it together by hand or mix it in the mixer, and if necessary add a splash of milk to form a dough. Roll out, cut out your biscuits and bake in the oven at 180C for about 15 minutes, remove when they start to brown. I dyed some sugar yellow to look like sand - all you need to do is add a few drops of yellow food colouring to a bowl of sugar and mix well. I prepared it the night before so that it had time to dry out, but that wasn't really necessary. We iced the biscuits will yellow icing and then sprinkled the coloured sugar on top to look like sand.

We used some more real sand to make a beach picture with sand. First we painted a sheet of thin card with different shades of blue and white paint to make the sea. Then when it was dry we used PVA glue to stick the sand on to make the beach. I printed out some pictures of children playing on the beach, and the children coloured those in, cut them out, and stuck them on their pictures.

I couldn't have a themed day without featuring some themed Hama beads. There are lots of patterns available online, and if you have transparent pegboards, you can often print out the patterns and then place them underneath which makes it really easy for young children to create the designs. Otherwise these designs are very simple, so quite easy for children to copy.

I always turn to the brilliant Twinkl resources when I'm looking for themed activities, and I wasn't disappointed. I printed out a few worksheets for Harry which are all suitable for children in reception - a seaside scene labelling worksheet (free download), a seaside word search (Twinkl subscriber resource), seaside spot the difference (Twinkl subscriber resource) and sea themed addition and subtraction colouring puzzle (Twinkl subscriber resource). He loves doing little puzzles like these, and it's a good (and fun) way to keep his learning going while he's off school, I was really impressed with how his maths skills are coming along.

I also found some blank postcard templates (free download) to make some postcards which were brilliant. I printed one out for each child, and they decorated one half with some pictures cut from magazines and 'wrote' on the other side. Then I stuck the pieces back to back and laminated them. It was a good exercise for Harry in creative writing, I encouraged him to choose some pictures that he could pretend represented something he was doing on holiday, and he came up with a little postcard to send to Daddy. Mia loved copying him, she's very good at pretend writing. Harry's writing says "Dear Daddy. Fed a goat and I went on a bike love from Harry" based on the pictures that he chose for the front of his postcard!

Finally I found some instructions for simple paper boats which you can find here - origami paper boats printable. I made them a couple and we floated them in the bath. I'm going to try and memorise the instructions because it's a handy thing to be able to produce for some quick entertainment!

We also had a beach lunch sitting on the sarong in the living room and pretending to be at the beach. I put out the food in (well washed) sand moulds for a bit of a change.

I do like our theme days. It's a really good idea to have a long list of activities to at least try and fill the day, I had forgotten how long those afternoons can be when you are at home with small children.

If you feel inspired, here you can find the posts about our other themed days:

Space Day
Antarctic Day
Under the Sea Day
Dinosaur Day
Transport Day
Australia Day
Roman Day
Disney Frozen Day

And some tips on how to hold a themed day at home for children.

Some more mini Hama bead projects

I've really been enjoying my mini Hama beads lately. I blogged before about my mini Hama bead Christmas decorations, and for Christmas I was lucky enough to receive a big pack of the tiny beads and an inspiration book. The inspiration book is very helpful, because I've found that unlike the midi beads there aren't a lot of ideas out there online for the mini beads. They are obviously not so popular, or perhaps not so widely known about.

The mini Hama beads are about a third of the size of the standard midi beads. They really are tiny, the only real way to place them onto the pegboard is by using tweezers, and they can be a bit fiddly and susceptible to jolting out of position. It's definitely a craft for older children and adults - the suggested age range is 10+.

A pack of mixed beads contains a very good selection of colours. You do have to be a bit careful, because many of the colours have very similar shades, so it's best to work in daylight if you can, or at least check over your design in daylight before you iron it! When ironing, you need to be very careful that the iron is not too hot and that you don't press for too long, as the little beads melt very quickly.

Related post - Ironing tips for Hama beads

I really like how the mini beads look when they are ironed. They remind me of cross stitch, because the beads are about the same size as a single stitch. This means that you could easily use a cross stitch pattern for mini Hama beads. You can make designs that are a lot more complex than with the standard beads because they are so small, so you can create designs with more shading and with plenty of extra detail.

Here are some of my favourite projects using mini Hama beads:

Mini Hama bead Russian Doll tiled picture

Mini Hama bead decorative plant markers

Mini Hama bead Easter Egg cake toppers

Mini Hama bead heart pin badges

Please note that the mini Hama bead projects in the main picture aren't my own designs. The flowers and dragonfly come from a Mini Hama bead flowers kit, the violin and Easter egg are from the inspiration book ('Inspiration 13') and the owl design can be found here. 

Review - PaediaSure Shake

PaediaSure Shake is a supplement drink, aimed at children who are fussy eaters. Specially designed for children, it contains a balance of 26 vitamins and minerals, with protein, vitamin D and calcium as well as iron, all things that children need in their diet in order to grow and develop.

If your child is a fussy eater it can be a worry that they are missing out on some of these essential nutrients. PaediaSure Shake is intended to form a regular part of a child's daily diet during their fussy eating phase while you work to establish healthy eating habits. It is aimed at children from aged 1 - 10 years.

I was sent a tub of the PaediaSure powder to try. The powder is mixed with water at room temperature to make a milkshake style drink. We tried the vanilla flavour - strawberry and chocolate are also available. You use five scoops of powder to make up a serving. The number of recommended servings per day varies by age, a five year old like my son should have no more than three servings.

I would call Harry a fussy eater. He never showed much interest in food, right from the very first days of weaning. I feel that he eats very little, and he rarely complains that he is hungry. If I give him something that he doesn't like to eat, he just won't eat it. Although he does eat from all the food groups, he eats a limited range of food, and he's not adventurous at all. This is a problem when we eat out or if other people are preparing food for him, because he will not try anything that is unfamiliar. I accept that a lot of this is my fault, I have become lazy when it comes to making him food. I cook him things that I know he will eat, because he sometimes looks so very skinny and I want to be sure that he has enough to eat.

I do worry that Harry is missing out on some of these essential nutrients that he needs. But unfortunately, because he is so fussy about trying anything new, the shake was not a success for us. Harry was very good, and did try it, but he just had a sip and refused to drink any more. I passed it on to Mia (2) who was the same, one sip and then refused any more. I tried some myself and I can see that I would expect it to appeal to a child, as it has a pleasant, milky taste, and is very sweet. But because Harry is only used to drinking water and milk, it was just too much of an unfamiliar taste and texture for him.

One concern I do have is that if you gave a child too many shakes then it might fill them up so much that they don't want to eat any other food, particularly if they are on the small side with a small appetite. I think I would just stick to the one drink per day, and serve it away from mealtimes so that they are still hungry enough to eat proper food.

If you are worried about your fussy eating child then it wouldn't hurt to give these shakes a go, especially if you think that they would enjoy the flavour, as it would certainly give you peace of mind that all their nutritional needs are being taken care of. A 400g tub of Paediasure currently sells for £9.99 in Boots.

I am a member of the Netmums Blogging Network, a unique community of parent bloggers from around the UK who have been handpicked by the Netmums team to review products and brands on their behalf. I have been paid expenses and supplied with a product sample for this review but retain all editorial control. All my Netmums Reviews will display the Netmums logo within the post.

This is a Netmum's sponsored review.

Watching Mia's role play

I love watching young children, particularly toddlers, as they role play. I'm particularly interested watching Mia play, as I naturally compare her to Harry, and the differences have really surprised me.

Mia has grown up surrounded by toy cars and trains. She has always played with them a lot, but lately I've noticed how motherly she has become in her role play. Harry has a great attachment to Giraffe, that he takes to bed each night, but Mia seems to attach herself so much more to dolls and soft toys. She has her Teddy, and her Seahorse musical toy that she takes about with her. Since we brought home Percy Bear from nursery last week she has attached herself to a new Percy Bear, offered as a replacement as she was so upset when he had to go back. She also has a little doll which she plays with more and more.

She packs them all up in her dolly pushchair and pushes them about, copying the places that we visit with her in the pushchair - nursery, school, the playground. She hangs a little handbag from the handles, where she keeps the bottle of milk which she stops to give to them at periodic intervals. She also loves giving them medicine from a spoon, and her absolute favourite activity is tucking them all up in bed. I find my cushions and little blankets scattered about all over the house, with teddies underneath them. One day I went to tidy the living room after dinner and found all her little dolls house dolls neatly tucked up on the floor, I couldn't bear to disturb them.

At the moment she is also completely obsessed with birthdays. Probably because Harry celebrated his birthday over three weekends - with presents and a cake each time - she is constantly presenting me with a 'birthday cake' (usually a toy plastic plate with a felt strawberry on it, or something equally random) and singing me Happy Birthday, before instructing me to blow out the candles.

I'm sure that Harry wasn't so motherly in his role play, and I don't think that it's anything to do with me, because I don't feel that I treat Mia any differently. Harry had plenty of soft toys that he could have mothered in the same way, and he much preferred pushing his cars and trains about. But I do love watching her play!

Valentine's Day cross stitch heart

Happy Valentine's Day!

I mentioned in my last cross stitch post that I bought a few little kits in the sales after Christmas at Hobbycraft. They were supposed to be Christmas kits, but I managed to find some that were fairly general, one of which was this little cross stitch heart which I finished just in time for Valentine's Day.

It was quite refreshing to stitch something which I completed almost in one session. It wasn't as easy as I expected though being so small - there's some tricky back stitching in there!

I bought two other small kits, one is a gingerbread man and one is a cat. I suppose when I bought them I had in mind that the heart could represent me and Ram, the gingerbread man Harry (because he was learning The Gingerbread Man story at school at the time) and the cat Mia (because she likes pretending to be a cat). It would be nice if I could come up with some way of incorporating them all into a finished piece, either to be framed and hung up or maybe as a cushion or something. I'm not very good at deciding what to do with finished cross stitch pieces, I do like to have them on display but I also like quite a simplistic look to my decorating without too much clutter about.

It's something for me to think about, I'd love to hear suggestions if you have any!