Do you wanna build a snowman?!? Well more precisely paint one….or eat one. We had a crafting day yesterday as the weather was miserable. My mummy prepared all the paints and materials while I watched Frozen for the millionth time! I … Continue reading
Dear mummy, a couple of weeks back we baked Devils Food Cake (Chocolate Cake) in the attempt to keep up with the Great British Bake Off series which is airing on telly at the moment. We’re not very good at … Continue reading
Dear Mummy, the weather has been awful these past two days and we’ve been confined to the house. We’ve had fun though by baking and crafting and making lots and lots of stuff. One of my favourite activities has been … Continue reading
Dear mummy, every second Wednesday of the month you join other parents online and have a good natter. Between the hours of 20:30 and 22:00 you chat on Twitter using the hashtag #somum. It’s a creative make date (Twitter party) … Continue reading
Our weekend in photos. Vintage clothes, Vintage Cafe and Vintage cars….. Dear mummy, what a chilled out weekend we had! We stayed local and explored our home town of Basingstoke. It’s a town in North Hampshire, England. Just like any town and … Continue reading
Dear mummy, one of the first words to tumble out of my mouth at 19 months was “Cake” it’s such a lovely word. It reminds you of birthdays, treats, special occasions and good times. Whenever you want a ‘pick-me-up’ you have a cuppa and a piece of cake. Your waistline hates you for this!
Mr Kipling sent my mummy a selection of his cakes and asked me to write about what things, for us, during the easter holidays have been better with cake. Cake for us is all about getting together with family, taking a time-out and making activities more fun. Cake is a good reward for good behaviour too 😉 *hint hint mummy*
We wanted to show you how much cake means to us… but we can’t bake 😦 So no cookery post here! However we love painting and crafting so we’ve decided to create a masterpiece!
We loved Mr Kipling’s clever cake art installation billboard outside Westfield Shopping Centre and their recent marketing campaign, so we’re creating artwork inspired by their cakes and taking photos of our masterpieces.
Getting ready for our messy play with Mr Kipling’s cakes
I’m colouring in some of our favourite Mr Kipling’s cakes and embellishing them with glitter and sparkle.
Messy play is always better with cake!
Here’s our version of some of our favourite cakes…
Cherry Bakewell’s – My mummy sketched the cake and I helped colour it in with paints and glitter.
I copied the box to get the colours right and added some of my hand prints. My mummy used the leftover cake packaging as handy paint pots that I could dip my paintbrush into. Clever thinking mummy!
Our artwork for Mr Kipling’s Cherry Bakewells
French Fancies – These are my mummy’s favourite, so I had to battle to get one to eat! I studied one of the pink French Fancies in order to get my painting just right. Then I demolished it! Hehe…it was very yummy.
Mr Kipling’s French Fancies artwork
Here’s a little video of me eating them too!
Do you love Mr Kipling’s cakes as much as we do?!? As you can see I don’t share them! 😉
Love Bella x
Mr Kipling’s Exceedingly Good Cakes
Messy play is better with cake!
This post is an entry for #betterwithcake Linky Challenge sponsored by Mr Kipling. Learn more at www.facebook.com/mrkiplingcakes
Why not see what everyone else thinks about Mr Kipling’s cakes over on BritMums?
Pots 2 Paint, Basingstoke, Hampshire Dear mummy, it’s the start of the February half term and it’s miserable. Heavy rain, high winds and all the local soft play centres are packed. Oh mummy, after a horrible trip to a nearby … Continue reading
Dear mummy, I turn two this weekend! Where did the time go? We’ve booked the venue, sorted the party bags and invited all my little friends and family. To keep costs down my mummy has also started to make the decorations for the community centre.
She’s recycled old cardboard boxes into large golden stars to hang from the ceilings
I’m having a star themed birthday party because I’m really into the moon and stars. My favourite song is Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and every time my mummy picks me up from nursery and we head home, I look for the stars in the dark January sky.
Occasionally I see the moon and when it disappears behind the wispy clouds I shout “all gone!” Which makes my mummy chuckle.
Can’t wait to celebrate this weekend with my friends and family.
Bella x
It’s our first year at Just So Festival, we’ve received our weekend tickets, tested our tent and started to pack. A bit keen eh?
One of the main things we are looking forward to is the Tribal Tournament, a chance to join a Just So Festival tribe. By joining a tribe we will take part in the parade at the end of the festival and earn points for our chosen team to help them win the trophy.
We can earn points for our team by joining in the fun and games before and during the festival. It gives us the opportunity to dress up like our tribe animal and really emerge ourselves in the spirit of Just So Festival. I love dressing up and have full access to my mummy’s dressing up box.
There are 6 tribes at this year’s festival. The very popular Foxes, Owls and Frogs, the Fish and Lions and then the not so popular Stags who came bottom last year. We wanted to put our efforts to help the Stags make the biggest comeback EVER! Well kinda of…not coming last would be an achievement. There are so many fab ideas and things to do to become a stag.
We scoured Pinterest to look at tribal headdresses, looked at festival masks, Red Indian head pieces and visited deer and stag local handouts at Windsor Great Park and Petworth House. We wanted to be at one with the stag, become a stag. Mummy even watched creepy ‘Hannibal’ on Sky TV to see how a stag was depicted as Hannibal Lecter’s persona. I didn’t watch that programme though, a bit too scary and gorey for my little eyes.
The feeling we get is Team Stag are the dark horses of the tribal tournament, slightly mysterious and proud creatures but also loners. Solitary souls who are lost. Hopefully during the tribal tournament we can make new friends and restore the team pride.
We’ve made a start on our costumes by creating our headpieces. Each of us will have a different stag personality. Mummy is a Mexican Deer of the Peyote, Daddy is a Scottish Heritage Stag and I’m a Pixie Baby Fawn.
Here’s our progress so far… We’ve used a substance called Kobracast to make our antler head pieces. It’s a thermoplastic which moulds to any object to make a hard, light weight cast.
Ideal for wrapping around antlers and creating life-like multiples. Mummy carefully heats the Kobracast using a heat gun to make it pliable. We bought the antlers at the Highclere Country Show back in May from a walking stick maker/ taxidermist who collects them.
Deer and Stags shed their antlers from March through to May and these were acquired through a natural shed. So no deer was harmed in the making.
Once the casts were made and set mummy carefully peeled the Kobracast from the antlers using a stanley knife. We used brown and black acrylic to paint mummy and daddy’s and gold to paint my little horns.
Mummy affixed the faux antlers to wide hair bands with Kobracast and glue.
We have yet to embellish them so watch this space. We can’t wait until The Just So Festival in T-minus 2 weeks! They still have some tickets left but be quick before they all go! www.justsofestival.org.uk
Pop back to check out our costumes and see how we got on at the festival 🙂
eek! Bella x
Follow Baby Isabella’s board Just So Festival #TeamStag on Pinterest
Dear mummy, at last a crafty challenge I can get involved with! You are making paper mâché Easter Eggs today to decorate the house. We already have a lot of the materials in the house. We have some pink balloons leftover from my first birthday bash, coloured tissue paper from present unwrapping, PVA glue (what mummy wouldn’t have this stocked up?) glitter and paint.
We start off with a blown-up pink balloon and sit it in daddy’s coffee mug so it doesn’t roll off the table. Mummy prepares the mâché mix by watering down PVA glue, making it into a thin paste. She also uses a paper plate to contain the mixture so she can dispose of it afterwards. I’m not involved with making it at this stage as mummy doesn’t really fancy peeling PVA glue off my little fingers. So I sit patiently on the sidelines sucking my thumb. She dips the pre-cut strips of multicoloured tissue paper into the mâché mixture and sticks it on the balloon. Mummy covers it completely using several layers of tissue paper to make the egg shell.
She leaves it to dry overnight until it is hard and we go outside and play. The following day the PVA glue has dried to a shiny finish. Mummy gets daddy to pop the balloon inside the tissue paper shell so all that is left remaining is the light (and fragile) undecorated egg shell.
Now for the fun part, and here’s where I can now get involved 🙂 we decorate the paper eggs with paint and glitter! And make them look super pretty! It’s very messy but great fun, glitter is everywhere up my nose and in my hair. Mummy thinks it looks pretty however it doesn’t taste very nice. We hang them around the front room and they sparkle!
Next year, if I’m lucky, I will get to eat a chocolate one.
Love Bella x
Dear mummy, as it’s nearly Easter I’ve decided I want to make an Easter Bonnet in true traditional fashion (well kinda)
I need your help! As I’m still so small I can’t really partake in today’s activity. I need adult hands to use scissors and glue. I, for the time being, shall just watch from my highchair as you work your magic on creating me a masterpiece. It is your first attempt at making an Easter Bonnet hat, so I’ll go easy on you if it looks a bit dodgy.
Firstly, you find a plain pink straw hat from Sainsbury’s. It’s a real steal at £1. Which leaves good pocket money to buy embellishments as well. Sainsbury’s have a pack of six fluffy yellow chicks for £2 and nests for £1.50. We scurry home with our bargains and eagerly crack open our PVA glue and mummy’s craft box.
Mummy has great craft bits and bobs that she’s accumulated over the years….ribbons, gems, bows and felt. It’s like a gold mine and I can’t wait until I’m old enough to dive into it on my own. Mummy starts off with stitching the ribbon band to the hat and gluing the gems to the brim. She then adds the fake flowers and little yellow chicks. I’m starting to get restless watching mummy make my hat, so she quickly finishes it and plonks it on my head.
It’s a bit big! Hopefully I will grow into it. It’s not over decorated like some of the versions I’ve seen but hopefully we will have many more years of creating bigger and better creations.
I hope you like it
Bella x
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