1st day of spring, painting flowers

Today is the 1st day of spring and I had a very rare one on one time with my 2 year old daughter. In this house there's always more than one child here so I wasn't letting this time pass by without doing something fun her. 

As she's only 2 she's very easily pleased, and as long as it's messy she's even happier. 

So I wanted to make flowers something easy for her to do but no cutting out.  I took inspiration from centre parcs Emma hull finding materials around the house  So cake cases & lollipop sticks sprung to mind, out came the paints too and her fav glue stick. 

she had so much fun getting messy full of paint, we only had 4 paints and every time she used one I told her what colours they were and she lovingly repeated them to me, learning while having fun :)

We let our cake cases dry while she splashed in the water to wash her hands which took just as long to paint. 

Once dried (ish) she happily Glued the cases to the sticks with little help from mummy 

TA da... Our paper flowers added to a little jar to take pride of place on my shelf 

Ssshhhh ignor the paint we got on the table even when it was covered in paper :/ 

A lovely afternoon spent having fun.. 

This is my entry to the centre parcs and tots 100 march challenge. if I'm chosen I'd like to visit whinfell forest. 

Free sewing classes

Last night I went along to a free sewing class run by recycle for greater manchester. 

The class was being held in Oldham gallery by to ladies from Junk a cool shop that's in manchester it offers sustainable fashion upcycled & recycled. The shop it's self is kitted out with entirely recycled materials.

The class was to do with recycling your old clothes making alterations something I've never done before. 

Now I love sewing I have a machine and I make things all the time, but what I learnt last night I was like wow why didn't I think of that before. ???

We started making bows, as a mummy to 3 little girls we love bows. Bows have to be on everything . 

My bow

My mums bow whey cooler than mine ..

We were shown how a simple bow can be added to a top or bag or shoes to total transform something so basic (or in my case cover stained baby tshirts, we all have them) 

 We were also asked to take an item of clothing we wanted to change or alter. 

I took a dress I bought from a charity shop £3 bargin !  it was from a high street store that you'd pay around £40 for normally. 

(Sorry no before picture)

I wasn't too sure what to do with it. I liked it but was very plain. So with a little help & inspiration, I added some simple flowers cut from a old peice of clothing & added few peals (from a old broken necklace)

My dress is totally transformed. No one else will have one like this for sure and the best thing is if I change my mind I can just unpick the thread and add something else. 

Now what I did was very basic but it totally changed the look of my outfit AND it didn't cost me a penny. 

You don't have to be an expert at sewing ( I'm sure not) but the key is to enjoy it, take your time and have fun! 

A bow covering a paint covered top for nursery :) 

If you live in the greater manchester area why not take a look at there website 

www.recycleforgreatermanchester.com who also offer free sewing classes along with lots of other useful information on recycling. 

And here's the website for junk 

Www.junkshop.co.uk

I'm now off to raid my childrens clothes to alter and cover up them stains :) 

Have a fab day 

L x

Rainy day indoor fun

So today is a wet and dull day we've done the parks museum gallery kids are board.

With kids age 7,4,3,2 & 1 finding games they all like can be pretty hard inventing games is even harder when you have a very opinionated little girl that wants things her own way and a boy who thinks he is a teenager and the boss of the house. 

I spotted that center parc have set a challenge to get creative with the kids and create games and indoor fun. 

There was some great inspiration from Lisa

"Screw up some newspaper to form a ball then some toilet roll tubes and decorate to make your own inside tenpin bowling" 

Now toilet roll tubes are always plenty here (I'm sure my kids eat the loo roll) but we where out of them when we need them Isn't that always the way.

So what to do? what to do? The kids by this time are screaming going wild.. So I collected my pans some spoons and I had 2 empty milk cartons I filled them with rice. A band. My kids where in there element for a good hour banging on the pans shaking the milk cartons. 

I'm sure my neigbours enjoyed the noise 

This was great for the 4 younger ones something so simple as pans and cartons with rice in.. But my 7 year old wasn't too into it.. So later it was his turn for a game. If spotted this over on pintrest a while back so we had a g. A laser maze 

The aim of the game don't tuch the laser or your out the giggles that came from them all was priceless 

And they were helping each other pulling each other threw the maze. Such great fun and giggles. 

The cost was nothing for these as they were things we already had in the house. Simple games but most fun and effective. 

This is my entry to the centre parcs and tots 100 February callenge. If I'm chosen I'd like to visit whinfell Forrest 

Half term madness

Well half term is here in full swing and with 5 little people to entertain all under the ages of 7 can be pretty demanding and expensive. 

So as I'm a super organised mum ( yeah right) I took a nosey on the netmums website and search out the free or as cheap as possible things to do in my area. Always a go too for me every holidays. 

I'm very lucky where I live I'm in easy reach of library's and museums. 

I found a great afternoon for them.

Our local gallery had free arts & crafts and is connected to the library too so off we went to make paper fish and magnetic fishing rods which we turned into a game, I only had to pay parking of £1.80 I took snacks with us so was a super cheap day for me. 

Paper fish on the wall 

Staying at home is not always a option for me I feel like I'm climbing the walls the kids hate it too. So we donned our all in one water proof and welly blobs and went for a walk in the park splashing in the puddles and mud the kids love it. We spent a good few hours there again with my bag of snacks and drinks and a flask of tea for me. 

Another cheap day for us was the £1 cinema we went to see monster university it was an experience with a 1 year old crying but she was not the only one but maybe not one I want to repeat in a hurry. Again I took bag of snacks treats drinks stuffed into my bag for everyone. This cost me £6 for us all.

We may not have a lot of money this half term but we have had a lot of fun. 

If your ever stuck for things / ideas to do always take a look on netmums you can filter by area there's sure to be something on there for everyone. 

Enjoy the rest of half term 

L xx

Hello

Hello welcome to my 1st blog post. 

I'm Leanne, wife & mummy to 5 little people. 

It isn't easy being frugal is about my life how I cope on a shoe string looking after my husband, my children & my home..

Life isn't always easy & sometimes being frugal seems so hard, as we try to save our penny's there seems to be so many reasons as to why we never get there . 

I'm going to share how we try to do up our home pay off our mortgage raise our children feed & clothe them all.

I'm a stay at home mummy while hubby works long hours I fill my time crafting with the children playing out doors and snuggled up on the sofa.

Thanks for reading & I hope to bring you more soon 

L x