Sew Simple - The easy way to repair frayed hems

My biggest bug bear is that childrens clothing seems to jump from one size to the next, and my children always seem to be in the middle of the range and so either have trousers which are departing the ankles or trousers which drag on the floor!

My youngest school trousers are a prime example, last year he had size 4 trousers, which were fine, but started to look too short so I went off in search of the next size up, and could only find size 5 - 6 which is much better, in terms of his socks are no longer on display constantly, but in just a few months of wear and the bottoms have frayed due to them being just abit too long.

School trousers thankfully aren't horrendously expensive, but it does seem a shame to throw out the trousers when otherwise they have alot of wear left in them.

Now if I was a domestic goddess, I would of turned up the trousers before letting my son wear them for the first time, but unfortunately I am not at all good at sewing, and don't own a sewing machine to help me out.

However, thankfully there is a solution. Bostik have an amazing product for people like me who just don't have the sewing skills. Sew Simple!

Sew Simple is primarily a fabric glue, it is a strong clear adhesive, which is flexible when dry and can bond fabric within minutes and withstand hot washes and ironing.

I was sent some Bostik Sew Simple to give a test, and when I was sorting out the School uniform for the return after the Christmas Holidays I thought I would give it ago and try to repair the frayed hems on the school trousers.

Sew Simple comes in handy 40ml tubes, the simple instructions are spread some of the sew simple glue onto both sides of fabric, leave for a minute, then press together to bond.

It really is very simple!

I managed to quickly and easily turn up the trousers repairing the frayed bottoms and rejuvenating them instantly.

The sew simple fabric glue made it so much quicker and easier than trying to find out a needle and thread, and the simple effectiveness means that it has hundreds of uses, no longer will labels need to be sewn onto clothing, or jeans thrown out due to holes in the knees. Even the old curtains and bedding which need repairs can all be easily fixed with just a coupe of minutes and a squirt of sew simple!

In fact I may even get creative and use it to make some teddy clothing which Chloe has been bugging me for ages for, and it would be perfect for drumming up school play costumes when you are suddenly confronted with the outfit required for the school production and only a few days in which to organise it.

Sew Simple really is something every home should have, and I know it will be something I will keep handy from now on.  Keep an eye out for it from your local super market or DIY store it retails around £3 and is also available online from Asda

Bostik also do a range of other products to help make life easier from childrens craft supplies essentials to extra strong wood adhesives for all the DIY tasks.

Take a look at the range online www.bostik.co.uk

Silent Sunday

A talent...

Every child is so different, my three included, and each has their own strong points, Chloe by far is the most creative, the one always with  a piece of paper and pen in her hand, she has always been a doodler, a writer a creator. Never interested by much other than pens and pencils.

But just recently her talent seems to be spiralling constantly surprising me with the images she produces.

This morning she came over to me clutching her latest drawing.

I must say I think it is amazing!

If anyone has any ideas in ways to encourage her then please do let me know.

Christmas Over

Today I took down our Christmas Tree and decorations, (including the string of cards which was a permanent feature throughout last year!) I packed away the tinsel, the lights and the Santas and dusted off the mantle piece.

Christmas, over for another year.

I promised to not blog over Christmas, and I didn't. I spent time with my family, we played, laughed, cooked and ate, everyone had a good time, despite the flairs of attitude from my eldest, and bouts of sickness all around.

Christmas eve saw the start of our celebrations, with us heading off to my Grandparents, on arrival we found that my Grandad had been ill the night before, suffering from the sickness bug that is sweeping through, I helped him clean up and sort out the washing which doesn't really make for a great atmosphere pre cooking the Christmas meal, but we smiled through it, Cooking a turkey joint with all the trimmings.

My Grans health is rapidly deteriorating, and it is a strange feeling being in her kitchen, cooking up a meal, The kitchen was always her domain where she used to fill the room with her personality and make the most marvellous meals with ease. I struggled to match her flair and charm, but did my best. I set up the table and helped her into the kitchen, her favourite room of the house, but one which she has been unable to venture into for the past few months.

We enjoyed the meal, despite my attempts to match my Grans previous banquets I forgot all about the stuffing, only finding it after we'd all ate, burnt to a crisp in the bottom of the oven!

We then exchanged some gifts and chatted until the night drew in, enjoying the moments where my Gran connected with us, and joined the conversation and revealing in the Christmas spirit.

We then returned home and that night once the children were all tucked up in bed, rather later than usual as they were determined to stay up until Father Christmas had been, me and Darren set about setting up my Dads present, a rather last minute purchase by my mum with the helpful guide of Darren, an Xbox360

Now if you know my Dad, then you may wonder what on earth we were thinking, he isn't really interested in Games, and noisy technology, hes more a turn the volume down, and read a newspaper type of person. So it was critical that we made sure the right sort of games were available on the xbox when he opened it the following day, anything that didn't sit well with his personality could mean he would never give it a chance.

So we sat up until the early hours of the morning downloading and trialing games from the xbox live market place until we were happy with our selection, skipping past the zombies and fast paced games, and finding the more stratergy based games.

We eventually left for bed hoping that Santa would arrive and leave some presents for us whilst we all slept.

Then just  moments of resting our heads we were woken to the sound of footsteps on the landing and whoops of joy from Chloe as she found her stocking, I groaned and asked her to return to bed, but it was not going to happen, so before the sun rose we were back up and down the stairs with excited yet sleepy children wanting to open the presents that had appeared in the living room.

We kept things fairly small in terms of presents compiling money from all relatives together to ensure each child had jsut a selection of gifts they had asked for. Jake had an xbox of his own for his room, a Chair and some stocking filler nik naks, books and board games. Mikey received several boxes of lego and his selection of stocking fillers, nik naks, books, T shirts and a remote control tarantula,  and Chloe had a Secret Safe Diary, a Tatty Teddy MP3 player, some jewellery and the same stocking fillers as the boys.

Once the presents were open we went to my Mum and Dads.

My Dad had made a mammoth meal, with all the trimmings, including stuffing, we ate and then exchanged gifts, waiting with slight trepidation as my Dad opened his box.

Thankfully he was impressed with the xbox, he loved the games we'd selected and quickly learnt how to navigate the controls.

We spent Boxing day again at my parents, fun filled with games of pool on the xbox and Yahtzee and Othello, once we were at home we continued the play with my dad managing to beat everyone hands down on Othello via Xbox live, and laughter filled evenings as he and Darren took to being pilots trying hard to keep them in the air. My dad really getting to grips with the fact he can play games with us from the comfort of his arm chair and us in our noise filled home.

As the days passed we've pretty much enjoyed the slow pace of later nights and lazy mornings, enjoying the presents we'd received and generally having a lovely time, beside the odd flusted moment where voices have raised and tempers flared (namely over cheating on the boardgame Mastermind!)

 Overall its been a Lovely Christmas and I am hoping that 2013 continues to bring good things.

Tatty Teddy Music Player

This Christmas there was one present which seemed to be

Blogging Crossroads & New Year Resolutions

When I started my blog just a little over 2 years ago I hadn't really thought much about why or what I was going to blog about, over the past years I have on several occasions thought 'what on earth am I doing?!' and had several blogging block moments, wondering if I should be doing something more, something better, have a direction or plan of attack.

But then, after I promise to rethink and do things better, I just ultimately carry on, in my mis matched way, sometimes joining whole heartily into memes and linkies convinced thats the way to go, then other months filling the pages with more personal thoughtful posts about my life, then there is the months of just reviews and sponsored posts, jumping and switching, turning my hand to different topics, but never really finding a set one which fits my 'bit of everything yet a whole lot of nothing' approach.

I have learnt so much this year about the blogging scene, I joined the ever volatile yet hugely helpful facebook parent blogger group, saw view points I hadn't thought much about before, realised that where there is a huge wealth of knowledge, there is also a lot of friction with different opinions. I stumbled into the possibilities of being paid to blog, and when, where and how I should go about it, listened to views and drawed my own conclusions on hotly debated topics.

Once again my blog brought me fantastic opportunities and great connections with some fantastic brands and products, which I thoroughly enjoy and hope to continue this year. I want to grow and nurture my blog, but I want to remain grounded in doing so, to ensure the love for it stays. The last thing I want is that it is no longer my adored hobby but a chore.

I spent far to long on occasions last year ignoring the real world around me, whilst I sat and hoped I could somehow catapult myself into fame and fortune through this hobby that steals my time. Then reality dawned, I do not want fame (a fortune would be nice tho!) but when you seek it you often push yourself further away from it, spending hours and hours trying to think of some way to improve my blog meant my blog was actually doing the opposite and not improving at all!

So I left my blog untouched throughout the summer months, whilst I cleared my head and spent valuable time away from the Internet, I came back and watched stats and ranks hoping that in some way they proved my worth and would open the way to greatness once again.

And now we are right at the start of a brand new year, which seems to symbolise change and new starts, people make resolutions, promise to stick to their new found plans and reinvent themselves. Several bloggers hanging up their hats and moving to pastures new, others promising to dedicate more time to their blogs and push hard to make them amazing with a list of points to keep them on track in their goal of grandeur

But this year I am not going to do either, no Ta Daaar January's here I am going to do this!

No that doesn't seem to work for me, I started the 365 challenge last year in a whim flowed on from several friends all starting it, and I failed miserably before a month was up, yet I look back through my albums of photos and have hundreds of thousands of them showcasing the year - yet sticking to a must do project, just made me loose heart altogether, turning off the expectation of the 365 challenge meant I ended the year with what I initially started the project for anyway - a showcase of photos.

If anything the past year has taught me so very much, but left me right back at the start.

Blogs are personal, and much like real life, each one is unique and amazing. Learn and improve but don't change too much, and don't try to do what someone else is doing just because they are good at it. The possibilities are there to use blogs as tools to gain new careers, incomes and opportunities but they come by when you find yourself truly enjoying what you're doing, not if you are falsly protesting your enjoyment and fighting to gain status in a strange I must do this sort of way.

So my blog will remain the mis match of photos, snippets of our life, memes and reviews. I will continue doing so for as long as it continues to make me smile, I will continue to warmly accept offers from brands and snap hands of people offering new experiences which bring laughter and happiness to my children, I won't lie and say stats and rankings don't matter, I will continue to look and check them and smile when they rise, but over all I just want to carry on in the same direction as I did throughout the past 12 months and keep reminding myself of what my blog started for and why I love it so very much.

2013 is set to be a eventful year, my eldest turns 11 and starts senior school, my daughter reaches double figures too, whilst my youngest grows ever more away from the pre school stage as he turns 6 I want to capture these moments to look back on in years to come.

I love the sentiments that we truly do make our own destiny's and that we can shape our own future, with nothing ever set in stone, and with that I will continue to blog sporadically whilst I make my own way, no writing out a list of resolutions to stick too, no background thoughts changing the way the year pans out. No I will just take whatever comes my way and run head on into whatever opportunities arise.

Happy New Year!

Well that's it everyone, 2012 is over, another etch on the circle of life.

This evening we have not been out celebrating, singing the night away, instead opting once again for the quietness of our house.

Instead of drinking the night away I have been spending the evening looking through the years photos, sorting out the favourites from the thousands and thousands I have taken this year.

As I flicked through the months I came across photos which reminded me of friends who have moved away, friends who haven't, people and places we have seen and should try to see more of.

2012 was not all that bad, we had some fun times, and some rain... well a lot of rain!

I wish everyone a very Happy New Year and I hope, for those that 2012 was not so kind too, that the new year brings happiness and health, for those who had a great year last, lets hope the next is even better!

For me, well I just hope that I get more moments like this.

Happy New Year