Holiday Bonnets

Kids are generally a good excuse for making all the cute little things you fancy, without having to admit that it's you who is the most excited about opening the packets of fluffy balls in assorted colours.   

I'm a girl who would happily wear everything worn by Jess in "New Girl", including the slightly eccentric items worn on occasion, so here's my Easter contribution to my inner child.

As a side note, if you've not already seen New Girl but like easy to watch comedies, then it's a fun watch.  I was recommended it not so long back by Sunae (visit here @sunaefoal) and ended up watching the first two seasons in the space of three weeks.

All you need are plain hats (like for most of my craft items, I visited Hobbycraft, I've seen all the components in Tesco seasonal aisle recently.), foam shapes, fluffy coloured pom-poms, anything else you fancy sticking on, and some kids to blame it on!

Let us know if you have some good television recommendations for this Easter bank holiday weekend.

Easter Bouquet Decorations

As far as public holidays go Easter is by far my favourite.  Comparing it to Christmas, the weather warmer, the decorations are cuter, and radio stations haven't yet fond any songs about it which they feel the need to roll out year on year.

It's also a time for spring flowers, and each year I've made a tradition for myself of making sure during April at least we have fresh flowers at home to welcome in the season.  With the kids off school we like to craft our way through the holidays to put some use to the mass of art and craft equipment I have stashed around the place, so this weekend we made Easter egg shaped bouquet decorations, ideal to add some colour to the house.

International Women's Day

Where you're for or against the need for a stand alone day celebrating women, it's here, and it's today (there are many arguments online to cover both sides).  The United Nations theme for Internaitonal Women's Day this year is "Equality for Women Is Progress for All", but its well known that Disney has not always shown women in the best light within its films.

I'm not a writer, I'll not pretend to be, but I do enjoy reading other people views on the matter, and I've highlighted a couple of them here.  There are so many negative views regarding the female characters within Disney films, I've tried to focus on some of the more positive.
I've attached links to blogs for all quotes, so please check these out - there are some great writers out there.

Jasmine

Jasmine is clearly a trophy, in most parts merely a love desire for Aladdin and the first Disney princess to not be the centre star of her own film.  On the plus side, she's the first to not be of white European origin.  The arguments against her stack up in their plenty, and usually follow along the lines of 

She was naive before Aladdin shows her a "whole new world" - she is the passive learner while he is the active teacher. (Not Another Wave)

But on further reading, she may not be as anti-feminist as we might first have thought:

Jasmine, from the very beginning, has a mind of her own. She may have some fantastic romantic notions that seem a little unrealistic, but she also refuses to be forced into marrying someone just because of the law. Then she, a princess who has never been outside the palace walls in her life, decides to run away to make her own life on her terms...She saves Aladdin’s life from the guards, giving up her own attempt to get freedom, proving that her romantic notions aren’t just born from selfishness on her part...Last, but certainly not least, Jasmine shows extreme bravery in the face of Jafar even while he has her enslaved. She refused to marry him, throws a glass of wine in his face, repeatedly defies him, and ends up being instrumental in distracting Jafar while Aladdin is attempting a rescue.  (The Snark Who Hunts Back)

Love Your Past: 100 Years of Brownies

The Brownie Section of Girl Guiding is 100 years old this year, and in memory of this fantastic organisation, which has provided my mum, me and both my daughters (and most of the female friends I know) with many evenings of badge related fun, all Brownies past and present have been encouraged to light a candle and place it in their window to commemorate this experience.



If you search Twitter with #bigbrowniebirthday and #worldthinkingday you can find many people who have already taken part in the candle displaying.
This is our offering.


Whilst explaining to the girls about the group I was in as an eight year old (Pixies), I was hit with many fond memories.  Brownies was the first time I tried those little silver ball decorations you get on top of cakes, and I thought I was very clever to be "tricking" grown ups into thinking I was eating real silver balls (of course looking back, none of them would have thought for a second I was actually eating metal).  Brownies was the first time I made a jam sandwich with a group of friends to gain my cooking badge (we were not allowed to actually cook) and I remember stacking them high and we shared them around.  Brownies was also the first time I won a big award - our group won a trophy for designing and building out of card a model village; we had a fire stations AND a church.

Tell us about your favourite Brownies or Guides memories. 

Its The Silly Things Which Show You Care

I've been married nearly three years now.

God, that makes me sound old.  I'm not, at least I don't feel that I am.  I still drink pop with a straw, I still have sprinkles on my ice cream, and I still like dancing in my underwear (imagine Greys Anatomy, with less fabulous hair).  So when it comes to "grown-up" romantic ideas, I'm not quite sure we're there yet.  He doesn't use aftershave, not fussed for chocolates, and downloads everything he needs media wise, which kind of rules out most conventional ideas.

Blogging On A Budget

Lets face it, we're all skint.
Christmas has been and gone, leaving us all with less money then we would like.  But there are still blogs, and still many posts to write, so its the time of year we need a little cheaper inspiration.  Last year I discovered voucher based websites, offering discounted events, treatments, meals and even holidays for a fraction of what they normally retail at, and I have used these to aide some of the subjects of past blog posts without spending all the money I may have normally had to have spent to have the same experience.

Who's Hobby Is It Anyway?

Having a newly focused attitude each year is something I enjoy working up to and planning.  The last few years have had quite a few big changes thrown in for me - 2010 I first moved in with my best friend, 2011 we took the attitude of "why wait?" and got married.  January 2012 we decided we'd be ready to buy a house, and by April we were moving in with our first mortgage.  Last year we wanted to expand our family, but not in the kids way since we've both fulfilled our desires on that front, so we bought a couple of pugs, happily knowing that now our team is complete.  That makes this year unusual, in that the focus I choose won't be a single massive event.