Teaching Our Children Manners

I’ve been wondering for a while now just what is happening to our kids and their lack of manners. Ahren being pushed over and the kid not even apologising has really been the last straw.

I’m sure I’m not the only one thinking this, maybe all it needs is a gentle reminder, after all, good manners cost nothing and can make all the difference to both yours and someone else's day.

I made this sweet little reminder to put up in the boys playroom, we will be going over these until they are second nature to them.

I don’t want my children to be the cause of someone else’s child ending up in hospital having their head glued shut!

Click HERE to print your own!

Obviously these aren’t the only manners I want my kids to have, but they are a good start!

How do reinforce good manners in your children?

Running With Glitter ~ A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Crayon Freckles ~ Pincushion Creations ~ JAQS Studio ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Cherished Bliss ~ Homework
 ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Whatever Goes Wednesday ~ Sew Woodsy ~ All Things Heart & Home  ~ Wow Me Wednesday ~ Free Pretty Things ~ Sugar & Spice ~ Southern Lovely ~ DIY By Design ~ Clean & Scentsible ~ Primitive & Proper ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Whimsy Wednesday ~ Creations By Kara ~ A Little Tipsy ~ Laugh Love & Craft ~Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Fun to Craft ~ Truly Lovely ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ 504 Main ~ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating  ~ Air your Laundry Friday ~ My Simple Home Life ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~  At The Picket Fence ~ Serenity Now ~ Finding Fabulous ~ Nap Time Crafters ~ While He Was Napping

Coastal Themed Artwork & Apologies

So, there we were taking a walk along the seafront when some kid pushed Ahren over. Ahren smacked his head on one of the beach groynes, cue large gash above his eye and blood pouring out.

We all know that accidents happen, but frickin’ hell, APOLOGISE!

Ahren was stood there crying, in obvious distress, and the kid just walked off, when did parents stop teaching their kids manners?

Spencer scooped up Ahren, exchanged a few stern words with the kids dads, and then spent 4 hours at the local hospital.

Thankfully they were able to SUPERGLUE his wound closed, a few butterfly stitches and he was sent home.

My baby boy is going to have a scar just above his right eye, and the kid that did it, didn’t even think he needed to apologise, urgh, I’m so pissed right now.

Whilst Spencer was at the hospital with Ahren, I stayed home with Ethan, I wanted to keep busy {this mama not good with hospitals, especially when my child is in one}, so I made some coastal themed art work for the boys room.

I had some canvases which were painted nice shades of blue.

And some scrapbook paper which to me seemed more than coastally appropriate.

I took a walk around the house, having a look at some of the coastal themed bits we have to get some inspiration.

The boys especially love the ‘feature wall’ in the bathroom, from which I probably got most of my inspiration.

Once I had an idea of what I wanted I cut out pieces from scrapbook paper, arranged them how I liked, and using a glue stick and sticky foam pads I stuck the pieces down.

I didn’t adhere the entire area of the seagulls and boat sails, these pieces I folded slightly upwards to give a little 3-D pop!

     

I made one with beach huts with bunting strung between the two.

On the other one I made a lighthouse sat on rocks with a sailboat.

Hopefully I will get them up on the wall in the boys room tomorrow.

I’m off to calm my nerves with a handful of Tooty Frooties.

Hope your weekend ended on a happier note than ours!

More The Merrier Monday ~ Making Monday Marvellous ~ Making the Cuter ~ Amaze Me Monday ~ Craft O Maniac Monday ~ DIY Show Off ~ All Things Free ~ Sew Chatty ~ Polly Want A Crafter ~ Ask Anna ~ Sew Happy Geek ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Keeping it Simple ~

Getting Kids To Take Responsibility

Last year I shared with you this post on the Kids Cleaning Kits I made for our boys.

Since then, the various activities around the home that boys like to be involved in has changed. As our trust in them to be a little more responsible with certain things has grown and their increased interest and enthusiasm to be a bit more independent made me realise that the check lists needed updating.

These are all tasks that the boys can and do help with, I don’t expect them to do them all everyday by themselves.

I must admit I’ve been surprised at just how many jobs around the house the boys like to be involved in, Ahren and I actually have arguments over who is doing the vacuuming, whilst Ethan likes nothing more than helping wash dishes!

Aren’t I a lucky mummy!

As the lists are laminated, the boys are able to put a mark next to whatever task they have done, great for showing to daddy when he gets home to show what helpful boys they have been.

I’m sure their enthusiasm won’t last, so I do intend to make the most of their willingness to get involved in keeping a somewhat tidy home.

The boys don’t get any treats for doing these things, tidying up after yourself has always just been something you do as far as I’m concerned. If they have done really well they might get a little something, but its not a given. {Does that seem mean?}

Each task is something either their daddy and I want them to take responsibility for; keeping their bedroom tidy and putting away their art supplies or something the boys have actually asked to be allowed to do  such as helping with laundry and vacuuming the carpets.

I want to clarify that the boys are never forced to do any chores, they are never left unattended whilst doing these chores and they are NEVER allowed to use and cleaning solutions other than their spray bottles of water and a dash of washing up liquid!

If you want to see the original post about the cleaning kits you can find it here.

You can print your own Cleaning Check List here.

Once printed, you can either fold the page in half and laminate or cut the two lists out, place back to back and then laminate. Your child can use a Sharpie or similar to mark off what they have done, these can easily be rubbed off for the next day.

This type of chore list is ideal if you don’t want or don’t have room for them to be displayed on the walls, once finished with the kits and lists are stored with the laundry supplies for next time.

Happy cleaning!

Linking up:

Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Fun to Craft ~ Truly Lovely ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ 504 Main ~ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating  ~ Air your Laundry Friday ~ My Simple Home Life ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~  At The Picket Fence ~ Serenity Now ~Finding Fabulous ~ Nap Time Crafters

Rain Drops In April ~ Mummy Goes Crazy

 

1 mummy

+

copious amounts of coffee

x

2 boys

-

outside playtime

=

A mummy about to stagger, weeping to a comfy armchair ready to admit defeat!

My kids kicked my arse today.

The little nut jobs were up and bouncing around by 6am, they no longer nap {insert sob here} and haven’t stopped ALL DAY LONG.

Just to top my day off, it has rained ALL DAY LONG.

I would have chucked them out in the garden to play in the puddles, but they are going through a ‘nekkid’ phase. It’s one thing them running around showing their little butt cheeks to the world when its sunny, not sure I’d be winning any awards if I let my kids run around showing off their bums in the rain.

So we have been trapped indoors all day, if I hear the alphabet song, see another Matters Tall Tales or stand on another building block I shall go bat arse crazy!

I love my kids to the moon and back, but I’m so glad it’s their bed time now and I can get some rest, so I can start it all again tomorrow.

Hopefully not before 6am!

And to top off my day, I just fell down the stairs, my arm and bum are going to be so bruised and sore in the morning.

Ric Rac Paper Garlands ~ Boredom Buster!

Do you ever just need to ‘do something’, nothing huge, just something to keep you busy.

Well, that was me Friday night, I wanted needed to do something and , and ended up cutting out a bunch of circles from different coloured card.

Saturday evening I decided to use the circles to make a paper garland, couldn’t let them go to waste!

So grabbing my glue gun, glue stick and some ric rac I ended up with 3 pretty ric rac paper garlands.

Each ‘paper ball’ is made from 2 halves, these halves are made from 2 circles folded in half and glued together.

I sandwiched the ric rac between 2 halves with some hot glue.

Before I knew it I had 3 pretty paper garlands strung above the fire place, not bad for something which started off as something to keep boredom at bay!

Time for a random question

Why hasn’t the freezer compartment have an alarm like the refrigerator section?

Seems to me that it’s more likely that you will leave the freezer door ajar due to not shutting the drawers properly!

Ahh well, hope you have all had a lovely weekend.

Under The Table & Dreaming ~ I heart Nap Time ~ KISS ~ Simply Klassic Home ~

More The Merrier Monday ~ Making Monday Marvellous ~ Making the Cuter ~ Amaze Me Monday ~ Craft O Maniac Monday ~ DIY Show Off ~ All Things Free ~ Sew Chatty ~ Polly Want A Crafter ~ Ask Anna ~ Sew Happy Geek ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Keeping it Simple ~My Girlish Whims ~ Blue Cricket Design ~ Sew Much Ado ~ Whatever Goes Wednesday ~ Sew Woodsy ~ All Things Heart & Home ~ A Beach Cottage ~ Wow Me Wednesday ~ Free Pretty Things ~ Sugar & Spice ~ Southern Lovely ~ DIY By Design ~ Clean & Scentsible ~ Primitive & Proper ~ Blue Cricket Design ~

Conscientious Crafting

I’ve been wondering about something for a while, so I’m just going to put it out there ask you guys and gal’s…..

What do you do with everything you make / revamp /  repurpose?

I know some of you sell on what you create, awesome, and some of you repurpose what you have made, but, what happens to the rest?

I can almost imagine homes all over the place with a spare room / loft or basement fit to bursting with wreathes, banners, frames, mason jars, cushions etc.!

Having been a reader of blogs and a blogger for over a year now, I have seen the seasonal and holiday changes we crafty ladies like to add to our homes, which is wonderful.

But I’ve been kind of wondering about what happens with the old stuff, do last years wreathes get tossed in the bin or are any embellishments' removed from the wreath base and its used again and again?

Are cushion covers which no longer co-ordinate with the decor left in a linin closet, or repurposed into something else?

Furniture pieces which are no longer being used for their initial purpose, are they consigned to the garage or found a new role in the home?

Are unfinished projects left to collect dust or are they unpicked and used to create something new?

I’m not having a dig at anyone who likes to craft with new things, different strokes for different folks and all that jazz!

I’m just genuinely wondering, are we crafting responsibly or could we perhaps make a few changes, ones that could save us some pennies whilst being considerate to the environment.

Here are some ideas for those unwanted craft bibs and bobs

• I give a lot of things to my niece, children are always grateful for any craft supplies you can offer
• Enquire as to whether an after school club or similar would be interested in some items

• Use them as teaching aides, craft items are great learning tools, from counting and colour sorting with buttons to motor skills with scissors and scrap paper
• If age appropriate pass items on to your kids, great for rainy days stuck indoors
• Look for another purpose for it around the home; last year I gave this  little table a revamp, now the boys are in shoes we needed something bigger to store them in and this became redundant, this little table now resides in the bathroom hosting loo rolls and candles.

• Take it apart and start something new. My snazzy balloon bunting, to make some of the balloons I took apart some of the small mug rugs I made (much too small for coffee and cake).
• I have a HUGE problem with scrap fabric, as in I keep almost each and every piece. Random odds and ends are great for testing out new stitches on my machine and for the kids to play with, tiny pieces like this make great stuffing for small sewing projects like this. Larger pieces are great for patchwork projects,  the balloon bunting and these mug rugs were made using some scrap fabric.

• Sell on ebay, cragslist etc
• Host a craft evening with your friends, swap for something you need

Perhaps next time we are about to hit the craft store we should have a look at what we already have and see what we can do with it, shop within our own home.

Momnivore’s Dilemma ~ Fireflies & Jellybeans ~ Somewhat Simple ~ Frogs & Snails & Puppy Dog Tails ~ H o H ~ A Crafty Soiree ~  Thrifty & Fabuless ~ A Creative Princess ~  Beyond The Picket Fence ~ The Shabby Creek Cottage ~ The Artsy Girl Connection ~ A Little Knick Knack ~ Someday Crafts ~ Delightful Order ~

Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Fun to Craft ~ Truly Lovely ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ 504 Main ~ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating ~ Momma’s Kinda Crafty ~ Air your Laundry Friday ~ My Simple Home Life ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~  At The Picket Fence ~ Serenity Now ~

Balloon Bunting ~ Sewing For Me

This weekend I have been like a mad woman cleaning and sprucing up the place, I got the Spring Cleaning bug!

I did tons of laundry, washed walls, took down curtains, turned mattresses, sorted out piles of toys and clothes for donation, rearranged rooms and even sorted out some of my craft stash, phew!

After all that I was itching to do something for myself, so I sat down and did a little sewing.

You know about my love for all things bunting, but I haven’t really mentioned I also love balloons, there is just something about them that reminds me of being a kid, even as a big kid I still love balloons.

I even used one as ID to gain entry to a bar on my 21st! Yep, the doorman asked if I had any ID, I replied ‘Yes, my balloon’ and swanned off into the club my helium filled balloon trailing behind me, in my defence, the balloon did have ‘Happy 21st Birthday’  on it.

Anyway, I decided to combine my loves of bunting and balloons into balloon bunting.

I raided my stash of scrap fabrics for this little sewing project, and sewed up a bunch of patches.

Using a balloon template I drew and cut out a whole bunch of balloons.

I then folded some cotton tape in half and ironed it.

I had a whole bunch which my darling boys had unravelled, so I decided to just iron the lot, I make enough bunting that I would use it eventually, to keep it all nice and neat, I wrapped it round my ruler, stick a pin in it and its safe and secure for next time I use it.

Once my tape was ready, I used my sewing machine to sew each balloon to the tape.

I only did a few stitches along the top of each balloon.

After I had sewn 20 or so balloons onto the tape I needed to attach strings to each balloon, I decided to use ric rac, loved how it looked on the banner I made for my kiddos birthday.

I really could not be bothered with sewing each individual piece of ric rac, so I grabbed a bunch of brads.

 

I pierced a piece of ric rac with a brad and then pierced the brad through the fabric balloon, at the base where you would usually tie the string, I opened up each brad to secure the ric rac to the fabric.

Once all the pieces of ric rac were attached, I snipped off any stray pieces of cotton, gave it an iron and then hung it up on the wall.

I put it up in the craft / playroom, I think it looks good above the pinwheels, now I’m wondering what other types of bunting I could do!

Linking up here

More The Merrier Monday ~ Making Monday Marvellous ~ Making the Cuter ~ Amaze Me Monday ~ Craft O Maniac Monday ~ DIY Show Off ~ All Things Free ~ Sew Chatty ~ Polly Want A Crafter ~ Ask Anna ~ Sew Happy Geek ~ DIY Home Sweet Home ~ Keeping it Simple ~ Running With Glitter ~ A Bowl Full of Lemons ~ Crayon Freckles ~ Pincushion Creations ~ JAQS Studio ~ Not Just a Housewife ~ My Uncommon Slice of Suburbia ~ Homework

The Ultimate Blog Party

Eeeek, Friday 13th! If your the superstitious type and want a distraction or just fancy finding some new awesome blogs you should definitely participate in the Ultimate Blog Party hosted by Janice and Susan, the mums behind 5MinutesForMom.com.

With 1000’s of blogs linking up over the next week I’m sure you will find some new blogs to follow, there will even be some fab prizes up for grabs, woohoo!

So lets get the party started and hop on over!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

If you have come here from the party, hi!

I’m Amanda, the curly haired shorty, mum of twin boys, amateur crafter and DIY enthusiast!

My blog is a hodgepodge of randomness, from crafts and DIY,  the crazy antics of my boys, to my own accident prone randomness, I can break off a dishwasher door whilst cleaning it and go pavement surfing for fun!

On a serious side, I also write about the seriousness of having a sick child and coming through postnatal depression, got to keep it real!

Have fun reading up on our antics!

Chalk Paint Splash Back ~ A Fail & A Fix

You know those projects, which in your head look totally, amazingly awesome? The ones you just know will look exactly like you imagined?

Well, today I began one of those projects, I shan’t beat around the bush, it did not go as planned!

I ‘accidently’ smashed our glass splash back behind the oven, with the aim to tile over almost the entire wall, but I just can not make a final decision on tiles, and I’m not going to all that expense and effort for something I’m not 100% certain with .

This weekend Spencer’s parents were here and as is typical when they visit, a spot of DIY took place, we finally took down the extractor hood from above our oven. The thing was less than useless, it did nothing that throwing a window open doesn’t do, plus it attacked Spencer's head on a daily basis!!

So now, with no back splash and no extractor hood, I was left with a totally blank piece of wall, which is actually the largest bit of nekkid wall in our kitchen, I almost hugged it!

We debated putting up shelving, but forgot the idea as we like the openness of the kitchen with nothing there.

As I still couldn’t decide on a permanent solution, I decided a temporary one would have to do, aqua painted walls do not agree with oven top splashes! I decided to bust out the chalk board paint, my original idea was to paint individual ‘boards’ across the wall over the oven.

Turns out I’m not very good at painting small curvy lines.

So I decided to make them in to 3 squares, but the tape I used let the paint seep underneath.

Then, getting a tiny bit panicky, I grabbed my ruler and drew a huge rectangle, which I then filled in with chalk paint. I didn’t stop to take photos, I was much too busy trying to make the place somewhat presentable for when Spencer came home, I tend not to tell him when I start things like this, opps!!

I wanted to add something to it, a large black rectangle isn’t massively appealing.

I couldn’t add anything other than bunting, but as its in the kitchen I needed something I could wipe down easily. I decided to laminate some scrapbook paper and snip it in to triangle flags. On a few flags I added some retro looking kitchen toppers which I had in my craft stash, these fitted through the laminator just fine.

Once I had them all strung on pieces of bakers twine, I strung the bunting across the chalk board.

So now I have a kind of temporary back splash and a place to use as our menu board! Can you see that tiny patch of yellow above the cabinet in the corner, I’m too short to paint it and keep forgetting to ask hubby!

This really has turned out better than I had planned, anyone else had a project go wrong but ended up pleased with the result?

Linking with some of these wonderful blogs

Fingerprints on the Fridge ~ Fun to Craft ~ Truly Lovely ~ Stuff & Nonsense ~ 504 Main ~ Chic on a Shoestring Decorating ~ Momma’s Kinda Crafty ~ Air your Laundry Friday ~ My Simple Home Life ~ Lovely Crafty Home ~  At The Picket Fence ~ Serenity Now ~

Cleaning Up Your RSS Feed

My blog, like most out there has a few different ways for folk to follow; Linky Followers, GFC, Bloglovin’ and plain old ‘follow by email’, what I didn’t know was that most of these things depend on your RSS feed being clean and healthy.

I’m not going to get to technical, I sorted out my Feed issues mostly by sheer dumb luck!

To check the health of your Feed

First of all go to FeedBurner, and log in.

A screen with details of your Feeds will pop up, must admit I was beyond happy when I saw how many peeps are following via this.

From here click on the tab for ‘My Account’, which will take you to your account details, on the left hand side is another menu, click on the ‘FeedBulletin’ tab.

Here you will be able to see what is wrong with your Feed, I was getting the following message

{PROBLEM: FeedMedic Alert for CityGirlGoneCoastal

Posted: Mon, 02 Apr 2012 08:37:24 PDT

FeedBurner had trouble retrieving your Source Feed:

http://citygirlgonecoastal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default

Error getting URL: 502 - Maximum allowed response size is 576K.}

I never realised that there was a size limit, and if you go over, your Feed just won’t be read by FeedBurner and followers will stop getting your Feed updates. FeedBurners size limit is 512k, this doesn’t include photos, luckily there is an easy way to reduce your Blogger feed to below FeedBurners limit.

In FeedBurner, click on your blog name from the ‘My Feeds’ page, you will be taken to the ‘Analyze Tab’, along the top you will see ‘Edit Feed Details’, click on this link.

On your Original Feed add the following text,

?max-results=3

straight after default, do not change anything else or insert spaces.

Save the Feed changes.

You will get a message saying it will take a little time for FeedBurner to catch up with the update, so just be patient!

My Feed began updating within a few hours, yippy!

After a wee while log back into your FeedBurner account, go to your FeedBullitin and fingers crossed you will see a message similar to this

{ALL CLEAR: FeedMedic Alert for CityGirlGoneCoastal

Posted: Tue, 10 Apr 2012 04:52:33 PDT

Your Source Feed, http://citygirlgonecoastal.blogspot.com/feeds/posts/default?max-results=3, is now working fine. Carry on! We will let you know if anything bad happens in the future.}

Phew, all better now!

You can see the text you added to your original Feed is now included.

Another way to check the health of your Feed is by using Feed Validator, your FeedBurner account will actually link to here so you can see what the issues are.

I will be honest, this site just about scares the bejinkos out of me, if you have more than a basic understanding of html then you might be able to make sense of it, but if your like me, best to back away slowly.

Another thing you can do to help your Feed stay FeedBurner acceptable is to stop writing up your blog posts in Word.

I never realised this, but when you write up your post and use copy paste to insert the text into your blog post, a whole host of additional characters are added, none of which you see, but they make a big difference.

I have downloaded Windows Live Writer to write my posts. Its clearly laid out and so far easy to use, I haven’t done much with other than write this post, but so far I’m happy with it. You can download your blog template and see your post in preview mode, making sure you get it just perfect.

There is also something about photos, but I haven’t looked into that yet.

I would also suggest following your own blog in the various readers you use, that way you will know instantly if something is wrong, you should also log in to your FeedBurner account on a regular basis to keep up to date on any issues.

I hope some of this has been useful, if you have any questions just ask, not sure if I explained this all clearly but am happy to go over it with you!