Creative Challenge

Creative Challenge Linky #3

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Welcome to week #3 of the Creative Challenge Linky!

Thank you so much to everyone who linked up last week (and the week befor) I really very much appreciate it, and have loved reading all of our creative posts.

The Creative Challenge isn’t just about arts and crafts – but it is all about being creative. I loved The Life of Wife‘s post about creative cooking on a budget, an excellent example of a creative challenge. Another fave has got to be Toddler Slave‘s incredible upcycled bed!

All the posts were fab though, there are some creative mamas out there!

I’d love it if you could join in, you can link up anything remotely creative. Decorating, baking, sewing, even being creative in what you wear. This linky is about challenging ourselves to be a bit more creative – in whatever way best suits you!

Re-designing your blog or your home

Trying out a new recipe

Learning how to take better photographs

My creative challenge was an actual success these week and we managed a very creative messy play that resulted in an actual picture! Hurrah! I will link up my post below

Right, now it’s your turn to link up your posts, and tell me all about your Creative Challenge!

Creative Challenge


Here’s how this works.


    

  1. Write a new post (or link an old one if it fits the theme) all about your Creative Challenge.
    2. 

  2. Grab the Creative Challenge badge (by copying the code above) and pop it at the bottom of your post (in the ‘text’ version).
    3. 

  3. Link your post  by clicking on the ‘Add your link’ button and filling in the form.
    4. 

  4. Remember: Linkys only work when we take the time to read each others posts and leave comments so please let’s support each other and read and comment on as many posts as you are able to.
    5. 



The linky opens at 6.30am on Wednesday and will close at 11.00pm on Sunday so there is plenty of time to join in.







			

	
		
	


				
					


		

		
Toddler Sunrise Painting – 21 months


				

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I first saw this idea from Lucy at Baked Potato Mummy. Her little Potato isn’t much older than Monkey and I am always inspired by (and a little in awe of) the arts and crafts they get up to. The idea is that you fold a piece of card in half and your little one paints it oranges and reds for the sky. Then on a separate piece of folded card, they paint the bluey sea. Then when it is all dry you match the pieces together and have a lovely sunset picture!


It looks like such a simple way to have an actual picture at the end so I thought it was perfect for this week’s Creative Challenge.


I’d bought some new paints recently so I splodged some onto some paper plates as I figured that was the easiest way of doing it. For the sea part of the picture I chose purple, blue and green. For the sky I went for orange and yellow. (They didn’t have any red in stock the day I went to buy the paint).


A while ago, at the start of the Creative Challenge I had bought some sponge-brushes which I thought would be good for this so out they came.  Monkey got stuck in – we started with the orangy/yellow sky. WP_20140228_10_20_52_Pro WP_20140228_10_21_53_Pro WP_20140228_10_22_46_Pro WP_20140228_10_26_13_Pro


Then, when he had had enough, we had a clean and then did the sea.


WP_20140228_10_44_22_Pro WP_20140228_10_45_43_Pro WP_20140228_10_46_11_Pro WP_20140228_10_45_11_Pro Monkey had loads of fun and we ended up with this masterpiece!


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Hurrah, a successful creative challenge!! 🙂 We’re getting better at containing the mess when it comes to painting. I have discovered that the key is preparation, having a bowl of soapy water, cloth and tea towels on standby – along with a large amount of baby wipes to quickly clean up any splashes!


Do you like being creative with your kids? Or are you good at being creative cooking on a budget? Join in with the Creative Challenge and link up with me


Creative Challenge



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Creative Challenge Linky #2


				

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Welcome to week 2 of the Creative Challenge!


Thank you so much to all the lovely ladies who linked up last week, I was very grateful to you for making my first ever linky a success!


My favourite posts of the week were Mummy’s To Do List with her awesome creativity with toilet rolls, and All about a Mummy for taking steps to get over her Play-doh phobia!


It’s not all about creativity with kids though, it can be anything remotely creative. Decorating, baking, sewing, even being creative in what you wear. This linky is about challenging ourselves to be a bit more creative – in whatever way best suits you! 


Re-designing your blog or your home


Trying out a new recipe


Learning how to take better photographs


My creative challenge was a bit more successful than last week, and Monkey had a whale of a time in the messy play. I had to conquer my heart palpitations ever so slightly but I was very glad I pushed myself to do something I had been holding back from for a while. I have linked up my post about this below 🙂


Right, now it’s your turn to link up your posts, and tell me all about your Creative Challenge!


Creative Challenge




Here’s how this works.


    

  1. Write a new post (or an old one if it fits the theme) all about your Creative Challenge.
    2. 

  2. Grab the Creative Challenge badge (by copying the code above) and pop it at the bottom of your post (in the ‘text’ version).
    3. 

  3. Link your post  by clicking on the ‘Add your link’ button and filling in the form.
    4. 

  4. Remember: Linkys only work when we take the time to read each others posts and leave comments so please let’s support each other and read and comment on as many posts as you are able to.
    5. 



The linky opens at 6.30am on Wednesday and will close at 11.00pm on Sunday so there is plenty of time to join in.







			

	
		
	


				
					


		

		
Playing with Cloud Dough – 21 months


				

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We first found out about Cloud Dough in the summer and Monkey had great fun playing with it outside. You can read about it here. It was fab and I have thought about making it again but I am not always fond of REALLY messy play indoors, I do it, but I have to work myself up to it and prepare myself for the clean up operation!


As I have created the Creative Challenge Linky I felt I really should challenge myself to have some indoor fun with cloud dough.


Ingredients
Ingredients


What is Cloud Dough? It is Flour mixed with Baby Oil. It’s something like 8 parts flour to 1 part baby oil but I have to say I don’t really measure it. What’s the point in it? Well it turns to the consistency of sand, though has a much silkier texture. Otherwise you can play with it like wet sand, build things with it or just have a good old play.


I got a Tuff Spot ages ago with grand plans about this kind of messy play, but so far I have been too chicken to play with anything other than Play Doh in it. I just don’t trust monkey to keep things INSIDE the tuff spot. But as I said, this is as much about challenging myself as it is Monkey having fun and learning so we went for it.


And, do you know what? It was great! He has a whale of a time, as you can see! And yes, a bit of cloud dough managed to escape the confines of the Tuff Spot but it all got hoovered up


It started off quite sedately.. and he was moving some toys around in the cloud dough.


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Then it got messier…


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and messier…


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then he had a little dance to “wind the bobbin up” in his head (a definite sign he is enjoying himself a lot).


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He had a good stomp around..


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and well he was covered from head to toe, but he absolutely adored it, which was great.


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And it wasn’t too much of a nightmare to clean up, just pulled his clothes off and wiped his hands and feet and that was it. The cloud dough is in a tub to play with on another day, the tuff spot had a wipe and the floor a hoover and it was not too bad.


Phew! Successful Messy Play!


A quick word to the wise, if you do end up playing with it outside, like we did in the summer, make sure you sweep as much up as you can. Because our garden is a tip we left a pile of cloud dough in the corner of the patio, big mistake! It is a now a bit gunky pile of yukky stuff! It goes pretty disgusting when it has been rained on!



Creative Challenge


Mini Creations


 




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Yellow Belly Mummy


				

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When  I saw the theme for The Theme Game this week, I was a bit stumped at first. Yellow? I thought of Daffodils, but other than just a picture of a daffodil I wasn’t sure what else I would say. Then I’ve had the words to yellow by Coldplay going around in my head all week (thanks Jocelyn and Iona) but the phrase my brain kept coming back to was “yellow belly” said in a pirate’s voice for some reason, as in “argh you yellow bellied landlubber.” No idea if that’s an actual quote from somewhere or if I have made it up but that’s been in my head all week (with Coldplay in the background). But how to relate it to me and my blog?


Yellow Belly means Coward.


I can be quite a coward (and therefore a yellow belly). Especially when it comes to meeting new people, and, the dreaded messy play!


I’m rubbish at going to new places on my own and talking to new people. I much prefer to keep to myself and people I know – but as a mummy I’ve had to push myself to do what feels unnatural to me. To talk to other mummies and fake confidence, for Monkey’s sake so he gets to interact with other kiddies. We go to groups where I try and chat with other mums (sometimes I don’t succeed) while he plays with the other children. Thankfully I have some good friends who are mummies so we do a lot of play-dates where I can relax and I don’t have to fake confidence when I am with them!


I feel more relaxed with interacting via blogs and social media, probably because you have time to stop and think about what you want to say. You can edit yourself if it sounds stupid. You can delete if you decide you don’t want to join in after all. I can be braver hidden behind my computer screen


When it comes to messy play, I love it in theory, but the thought of actually doing it makes me shudder a bit. I am a yellow belly messy play avoider. I don’t like the thought of trying to contain the mess or cleaning it up afterwards. I create excuses why not to do it. I come up with other, non messy play related things to keep us busy.


But, I am trying to change, which is why I have come up with the Creative Challenge linky. A way for me to challenge myself to be braver with messy and creative play, and then share it with other mummies. The scope of the linky is a bit broader than that in that I want to know about anyone challenging themselves creatively – whether it be being more creative with their kids, or creative with something else, baking, decorating, improving their photography. Anything really.


Sorry I digressed a little there! The point is, I am trying to be less of  yellow-belly and face my fears. I try to be braver than I am. But really, I am a yellow-bellied mummy 🙂




(I just found this book about a yellow-belly, maybe I should buy it :))


The Reading Residence

			

	
		
	


				
					


		

		
Creative Challenge Linky #1


				

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Hello and welcome to The Creative Challenge!!


This is a new weekly linky for you to link up any posts (new or old) about you challenging yourself to be more creative. 


Please click here if you would like to find out more, but the basic premise is that you challenge yourself to be more creative. You could be trying to be more creative with playtime ideas or messy play, or with a new hobby for yourself. Push yourself to try something a bit more creative, then come back and let me know how you’ve got on. Even if things haven’t gone quite as well as you hoped!!! We can’t all do everything right all of the time,  but the important thing is to try something new and push ourselves. That’s what this is all about!


My creative challenge so far hasn’t been very successful at all!


You may have read about the disastrous attempt at cutting and sticking that was the Failed Valentine’s craft attempt, which basically resulted in this:


Created with Nokia Camera


Like I say, it didn’t go too well.


Not to be put off though I tried again, this time with glue sticks rather than gloopy glue. Once again though Monkey was obsessed with the lid , and trying to pick the glue out of the stick, but he was not so interested in doing any sticking. (We used foam shapes and googly eyes this time.)


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A couple of times I thought he was getting interested in the sticking, but no, if anything he preferred picking off the bits that I had stuck down!! Once again it did not go the way I hoped.


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So we resorted back to good old fashioned stickers, which he loves sticking down. Not sure why he likes those rather than sticking with glue but hey ho!


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He was quite happy so it wasn’t an all out fail I suppose, even if it didn’t go the way I hoped it would! The whole point though is that I challenged myself to be more creative – and I did  even if it’s with an activity he’s not really ready for yet!!


Right, now it’s your turn to link up your posts, and tell me all about your Creative Challenge!




Creative Challenge




Here’s how this works.


    

  1. Write a new post (or an old one if it fits the theme) all about your Creative Challenge.
    2. 

  2. Grab the Creative Challenge badge (by copying the code above) and pop it at the bottom of your post (in the ‘text’ version).
    3. 

  3. Link your post  by clicking on the ‘Add your link’ button and filling in the form.
    4. 

  4. Linkys only work when we take the time to read each others posts and leave comments so please let’s support each other and read and comment on as many posts as you are able to.
    5. 



The linky opens at 6.30am on Wednesday and will close at 11.00pm on Sunday so there is plenty of time to join in.







			

	
		
	


				
					


		

		
Welcome to my new website!


				

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I did it! I finally got all of the ideas that have been buzzing around in my head for so long, out of my head, and into the form of a website!


I’ve had an idea of what I would like my website to look like for ages. But I had no clue how to do it. I’ve tried a few different free themes that have been ok but I always knew they weren’t perfect. It wasn’t something I wanted to spend any money on as I didn’t know if it was any good or worth spending any money on.


This year things have changed a bit, in that since I have joined Twitter I have become much more a part of the wonderful blogging community that I had previously shied away from. I wish now that I had got more involved in this community sooner but hindsight is a wonderful thing. Since joining twitter, and discovering Linkys and Blog hops, the traffic to my site has increased and I have received some truly wonderful comments that have boosted my self-confidence no end and made me feel that what I am writing is worthwhile.


Then my lovely hubby offered to pay for a site redesign as my birthday present in April. He had offered before but I’d always turned him down as it seemed a waste of money, but as a birthday present it seemed more reasonable. At first, I said yes, then the control freak inside got the better of me. I had such a strong idea of how I wanted it to look that I was scared of never being 100% happy with the way someone else interpreted that idea.


So I started having a play around. I took some photos for a potential header background. I have been getting to grips with PicMonkey and have had lots of fun editing and creating with their free software.


screenshot 2


This turned out better than I thought it would and I got excited, then hubby got excited with me. He is great at web design and used to do a lot of it, but he doesn’t have time in his current role so only dabbles occasionally. But the great thing for me is that he knows how to do it all. He understands CSS and knows the language to use to make things happen. This all just looked like gobbledegook to me before! So we found a very simple theme that wasn’t perfect, but that he assured me we could make into the vision in my head.


Hubby works so hard and has a demanding job so I have felt awful being demanding of him in the evenings too. I’ve also felt frustrated that I can’t do much of it, and impatient that it has been taking so long!


But I have been gradually learning bits of CSS too. I by no means know everything, but I know a few things now. I can download a font from t’internet (somewhere like Font Squirrel) and I know how to embed that in the site and use the font. I know how to change the colours, sizing and line spacing. I understand some of how CSS works now and  how to find what I want to change and try to change it.


screenshot 1


I’ve really enjoyed the process and wasn’t sure how it was going to turn out – but I am so pleased and so happy with the end result. I hope you like it too!


 




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Word of the Week – Creative


				

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This is the first time linking up to The Word of the Week over at The Reading Residence. I’ve thought about joining in a few times but struggled to find one word that categorises our busy weeks – other than busy I guess haha.


Anyway, this week, one word has been on my mind a lot so I thought I would share it.


creative


I started off this week thinking about how you have to be creative as a parent. Creating magical worlds for your children, creating diversions, creating activities for them.


I have also challenged myself to be more Creative with Monkey, to allow him to be more creative.


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This led to the idea of starting my very own link up – The Creative Challenge – to see if anyone else would like to challenge themselves to be more creative. To do this I had to be creative with my blog and find out how on earth to do a link and how to create a badge, and all sorts.


Creative Challenge


 


So there we have it – my word of the week is Creative. If you would like to join in the Creative Challenge – please click here to find out more!


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The Creative Challenge – Join in with me!


				

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I recently posted about how I am challenging myself to be more Creative with Monkey.  My aim is to come up with some more arty crafty things to do with him over the next month, and then report back on my progress and how successful I have been! I have decided that this kind of challenge is more fun done as a team, so….


Do you think you could be more creative? Do you shy away from messy play? Is there are a craft/art/hobby you’ve wanted to try but never quite got round to it?


I CHALLENGE you to change all that and give something new a try!


It could be anything you like as long as it’s a bit creative, such as:


 Always fancied crochet/knitting? Now’s the time to try.


Do you shy away from sticky/messy play? It’s time to be brave!


Want to get more adventurous with cooking/baking? Do it.


Always fancied writing a short story? Why not start right now?


CHALLENGE YOURSELF. 


Then come back and let me know how you’ve got on.


I’m giving us a month to give time to prepare and have time to make a good start.


The linky will open on WEDNESDAY 26TH FEBRUARY for you to share your creative story.


Please grab my badge, and spread the word! #CreativeChallenge


If you think you are going to join in I would love it if you could comment below and tell me how you are going to challenge yourself


 


Creative Challenge



			

	
		
	


				
					


		

		
			
		
	


		

		
Creative Challenge – January – Painting


				

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After seeing some wonderfully creative things mummies do with their little ones who are Monkey’s age or thereabouts, I sometimes feel I don’t give him enough of an opportunity to explore his creative side. I think I’m still a bit stuck in the ‘oh but he’s too young for that’ frame of mind, when I shouldn’t be.


We’ve been drawing with crayons, chalks and bathy crayons for ages – mainly because they are so easy to tidy up. But things like paint and glue give me the shivers at the thought of all the mess. But I need to get past this because if I can, then we should have a lot of fun together and it will of course help him learn and develop.


So I have decided to explore new things with him, and to do this I need to be a bit more creative with our activities. So I am challenging myself to be more creative with him as part of my new Creative Challenge series.


I am also going to link this up with the lovely ‘Mini Creations‘ Link Up hosted by Grace and Lucas at Kid GL loves. I have been reading and getting ideas from this link up for a while but not posted anything, because, well, scribbles are only so interesting. Then the very clever Jocelyn at The Reading Residence came up with the idea of doing her little ones’ mini creations on a Monthly basis and I immediately realised what a genius idea this was (thank you Jocelyn!).


So here it is, Month 1 in this new Creative Challenge series, and this month, Monkey has been doing a lot painting.


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Painting with a brush, and his fingers.


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It sometimes gives me heart palpitations when I look at his black paint covered hands…especially when he starts to move said hands towards the white woodwork! aaaah 🙂


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But he loves it and we have some amazing art to show for it:


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Want to be more creative with your little one? Is it time to get over your fears of messy play? Why not join the Creative Challenge? Grab my badge and on Wednesday 26th February I will be hosting a new linky to see how you have got on!




Creative Challenge




Mini Creations