Putting Oranges in Jail

Today was a first for me and the children.

As a kid I never got to carve pumpkins, I never went trick or treating until I was in my teens. Today though, me and the kids carved our first pumpkin !

We looked on Pinterest for some design ideas and came across some Halloween oranges. ‘Let’s do that’ exclaimed Kaiden, so we did. 

Continuing our search for pumpkin design ideas we came across an idea 💡 that we could incorporate our Halloween oranges into. Kai decided the oranges had been naughty, and unsure of their crime, we sent them to jail. 

 Poor little oranges!

Meet The PlayTime Kids

Over the last year my two children have really gotten into watching gameplay videos YouTube. Mainly because we no longer have the TiVo plugged in so there’s no tv to watch. Feeling inspired by the likes of FGTeev and Come Play With Me, the kids wanted to have their own channel filled with the games we like to play. 

Donning a cheap £7 Asda headset (you can tell it was £7) and Roblox on the computer, we had a go at making our own videos, with over 60 videos saved and waiting for editing, we finally uploaded our first video with seven more following. Please check us out, like us, subscribe to us and watch out for more to come. 

The Pokemon Craze

The craze that is PokemonGo is still strong a couple of months after its release. My five year old son goes mad for it and even likes to play it on his imaginary tablet. We even bought him a book with over 700 Pokemon and their stats inside, he has read it everyday!

So what better than to crochet a few Pokemon plushes. So far I’ve only done a Pikachu but I’m working on making more and will showcase them on their completion.

Etsy Store Offer

Until 31st August get 10% off your order at the till using discount code YARNSALE10

Click here to shop now!

The ‘Geek’ Blanket

This project started in about October last year (2015), yes it has taken me this long to complete the blanket. Whilst following one of my favourite crochet blogs, Repeat Crafter Me, I saw she had posted a picture of a beautiful Christmas character afghan blanket. I decided I wanted to make this blanket. After pitching the to my husband, who told me it would be ‘too seasonal’ I decided to come up with my own design geek blanket, full of squares of everything we love geek.  

And here is the finished product, modeled on my 2.5 year old daughters bed, hence the bed guard and princess wallpaper! 

See below the picture to see what each square is. 

Top banner- Serenity from Firefly

Top row, left to right- Pikachu, Yoshi & a Star Trek comm badge. 

Mid row, left to right- Tardis, Adventure Time & Justice League logos.

Bottom row, left to right- Fallout vault boy, Green Power Ranger & Totoro

😀 

Purrmaids

Over the last couple of days I have been working on a new project, Purrmaids!! (or are they meowmaids? or catfish?) They are the cats that love water. The hardest part was getting the nose right, I literally restarted it about 5 times, probably more. I now have some safety noses on my Ebay watch list to make the job easier next time.

Well, it didnt take as long as I expected and was quite easy to make. I have written my own pattern which I have published to Etsy along with the plushies to buy.

These feline fishies would look great in your bathroom!

Buy a Plush- Click here

Buy the Pattern- Click here

Visit my Etsy store- Click here

Thanks for looking

 

Kids on YouTube

So why is it kids love watching videos of an unknown face opening kinder eggs, and playing with playdough? The answer to this question which I get from my 5 year old is a shrugged shoulder.

I remember he was once watching a video of a German man eating sweets, he’d (very loudly) suck on a lollipop and every now and again, show it to the camera, the same was also done with chewing gum, gross!!

And then its the videos about video games, fair enough if you want to try before you buy, but we already own these games! Why instead of playing the game yourself and discovering what you can unlock, you want to watch some other dude play it? It’s right over there on the shelf, put it in and play it yourself.

Internet Famous! My son looks forward to the day where he can be internet famous and can record his own game play videos, once mummy figures out how and buys the materials that is.

It’s educational There is one YouTube channel though which is a particular favourite of the 5 year old, it might be something to do with the fact that the videos are made by his class teacher (whom he adores) and they’re educational so that’s a win for me. You can check them out in the following  link. Mr Teach- Minecraft Maths   https://www.youtube.com/channel/UChf0ErPjca3wGIuaBlOrMhg

Leave a comment with the strangest videos you’ve found your child watching, then download the following FREE resource- Minecraft ‘Top Trumps‘ (click it to link) to distract them from these strange animations!!

 

Crochet Tic Tac Toe

Whilst browsing Pinterest for  inspiration I came across a crocheted version of Tic Tac Toe; or as I’ve always called it, Naughts and Crosses. Not finding a pattern I decided that it looked simple enough to make my own, after all its just a square and some circles with a bit of slip stitching. I thought it’d be a perfect addition to the bag of Busy Bags.  Instructions on how to make your own Naughts and Crosses are below.

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Abbreviations:
Sc- Single Crochet | HT- Half Treble | Slst- Slip Stitch | MR- Magic Ring | Inc- Increase | Sts- Stitches | St- Stitch | Ch- Chain | F/O- Fasten Off

Board: (In Colour 1)

Row 1) Ch38 stitches

Row2- 37) HT across, Ch2 at end of each row, F/O (36 rows)

In colour 2, crab stitch around each of the 4 edges, F/O

Slip stitch 2 lines vertically and horizontally across the board

Counters:  Make 10, 5 in colour 1 & 5 in colour 2

Round 1) Mr8

Round 2) Inc around (16)

Round 3) [Sc, Inc] around (24)

Round 4) [Sc2, Inc] around (32)

Round 5) Sc around, F/O

In the opposite colour, slst O on 5 counters and + on 5 counters

 And there you have it, a Naughts and Crosses game of your own, you can even use up those left over bits of yarn.

  

Crochet Granny Square Baby | Free Pattern

I really enjoyed making these cute and small granny square babies, these palm sized infants make for perfect baptism, baby shower and gifts for newborns. Add a loop at the top and these can be hung in baby’s room, the perfect decoration for your nursery.

Overall they were quite easy to make and a great way to use up leftover yarn as they can be made in any colour. The author has included plenty of pictures and links to help you on your way.

These beautiful babas can also be purchased from my Etsy store
and are shipped worldwide. https://www.etsy.com/uk/listing/275830640/granny-baby-doll?ref=shop_home_active_21

I found the pattern, FREE from http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/granny-baby, published by Gabriela Abrazables.

*Pictures below are mine