radical cross stitch, theological debate, Easter bunnies, changing bags,and a baby brother...it must be June 08!

[spongebrainbigpants]

Welcome to our new thread .

Another printing tip is to lay a thin sponge in the bottom of a tray, pour/squeeze the paint on that and then press the potato,hand,foot,whatever onto the sponge, then onto the paper. It means you don't get too much paint on the object and stops them squidging rather than printing.I'm fine with a class of 3 and 4 year olds, 17 month olds are another matter!!!

My 17 month old has driven me mad today, I couldn't do anything right for him, I'm sure you all know what I mean. I was very happy when bedtime came round.Nigel is very busy on some music work at the moment so even though he's still at home he's working all the time and I was running out of things to amuse Ethan today. Sometimes he'll happily play alone for a while but not today!

Hello to everyone, hope the house moves have gone well for Amber and Whinegums, Puree and tpie - how are you 2 doing? Neenz - you're quiet at the moment, Good luck to Penguin for the big move. Sorry to the big list of people I haven't mentioned personally.

Any tips for sponge painting Deb?

Sorry E was such a handful today deb. S was like that on Sat, bedtime was such a relief!

BDQ - not too much paint, and don't press too hard - not a thing a toddler understands though!If you have sponges like these and you want to see what the shape is supposed to be, not just a blob I would paint the sponge printer then hand to the child. If it's the experience not the outcome then just pour paint into a flat tray and let them get stuck in!

Notice how quiet I am when the talk gets all academic or political

Thanks Deb that's really useful! We're going to make some Christmas cards for the GPs and I've got some Christmas sponges from the elc so I think painting on the paint will be the best idea.

I though the Christmas sponge pack was a real rip off btw - the paint it came with was blue, yellow and a pinky red. Not very festive! But luckily they had a Christmas colour paint pack which helped separate me from a few more hard earned pounds though.

Deb, another crafty question - glitter this time. Apart from 'you must be mad, don't have that evil stuff in the house' any tips for adding glitter? Is it just a case of scattering glue on card and sprinkling the glitter on, or would it work equally well with a pritt stick type glue! Just for future reference!

Hi all,

have been lurking but nothing useful to say! Lottie eventually got proper shoes today! - she's only a 2.5F but we had to get her a 3 as the cruising shoes which are all they do in a 2.5 are not up to walking outside in soggy glasgow. a pair of thick socks are keeping her tiny feet snug though.

Jealous of the happyland village bargains - we bought it for her birthday wioth gift vouchers although they have put the price up by £10 since we bought it, while taking out one item, so I shall comfort myself with that!

Am currently trying to avoid watching strictly until my friend comes round later. willl have to go and spend money on line to distract myself!

BDQ - glad to be of service! Glitter - gets everywhere but it does look lovely. Pritt stick doesn't work so well as it doesn't always dry clear. Use a PVA type glue

Viva - glad to hear that the tiniest feet in the group are now in shoes! What a bugger about the Happyland offer.

Very clingy boy here, who finally succumbed to sleep with 2 very red cheeks - yippee - more teeth as Daddy's off to the UK for work!!

BDQ - you can also mix paint, PVA glue and glitter and paint with that.

Ah, I thought it was smaller previously Viva. What have they taken out? I thought ELC had a bit of a cheek with across the board rises this year given the negative inflation.

Deb thanks for the tip of mixing glitter in with the paint. That would work quite well for my Christmas cards.

Glad that you managed to get C some shoes Viva, even if you do need extra thick socks! If you're still waiting for your friend you could come over to the dark side - it's Wham night on xfactor!

BDQ - it doesn't come out so glittery but it's easier.

our UK tv through the computer cheat isn't working tonight, so I'm missing out on Wham

Deb there was a serious lack of Wham - mostly George Michael covers. Bit disappointing.

Morning everyone,

Hope all poorliness is improving.

Debs - I'm fine thanks, wore myself out yesterday in a fit of preserving, made some lemon curd and some marrow chutney and now have it in my head that I need to make some of this sticky onion marmalade, the ILs got us some and it is very tasty, will let you know if I succeed in recreating it!

Impressed by all the crafty talk, I think I'm being risky if I let J use some washable pens!

The decorating is coming along, wall painting is finished now and both of the rooms look so much better, they have just had scratty bare plaster walls since we moved in

It's been quiet on here, has Penguin set off? Has Amber moved yet? Does anyone know how it went?

You'd be proud of me BDQ, we had the most successful afternoon of Christmas shopping at a local farm store that also stocks a huge selection of toys. I have to buy for the boys from Santa, us, my grandfather, DH's grandmother, and from each other. That's 5 sets of gifts.... and I managed to buy 4 sets today. Phew! I feel much more relaxed. I still have to buy for everyone else but...

I've been lurking because I'm exhausted - my book club on Fri night went until almost 1am and I never stay up that late. I might try to catch a nap now...

Well done abdn. Shame you have to get so many - is that because all of your family is in Canada? I suppose there must be advantages if having more control over what they get though?

S has been driving me demented today with tantrums. He has the attention span of a gnat And we've had a couple of bad nights so we're all a bit tired and fractious today! However, we did get the sponge paints out to start making Christmas cards for Struan to give to family and that went well. Went to hobbycraft earlier and have a burning desire to do crafty things (if only I had the time). I loved arts and crafts as a child but didn't get the opportunity to do much.

I multitask on a Saturday night, BDQ I watch SCD first, then xfactor, so I can fast forward the breaks!

the happyland village seems to no longer have the doctors surgery and ambulance in it? I've just remembered that I also used a 20% off voucher, so not so bad x

hoping for a group rendition of Freedom on xfactor tonight, felt there was definitely not enough Wham last night.

can't remember what else I was going to say but here's a big [wave] for everyone.

Hi everyone, Nigel's away, had a lovely morning at a park and Christmas market , off to eat chocolate and watch something on TV in peace!!

Sounds like a lovely day Deb! We have German markets come to Edinburgh for the winter festival - I must go for a mooch this year.

Loving the multi-tasking Viva. Think you may be right on the missing bits - sounds like you got a good deal so not too bad!

Well x-factor about to start - a group Wh song would be great!

Deb your day sounds lovely

Abdn what book did you book club read? We're reading Margaret Atwood's The Year of the Flood. I still have quite a long way to go and only a few days. I'm enjoying it though.

Rolf We read Ann Patchett's Bel Canto, and everyone liked it but I don't think anyone loved it, the discussion was the shortest on record. Last time it was at my house and i'd picked Wolf Hall and I was the only one who'd finished it and people were really divided - it made for better discussion though. Next time it's my turn to pick I might have to ask you what's gone down well at yours....

Morning everyone, hope you're all OK, early start here today courtesy of Ethan(yawn) so I've abandoned him to his brothers for 5 minutes now before they go to school.

Morning Debs.

Sounds like a lovely day yesterday, we normally have Christmas markets in Nottingham but I can't see me summoning up enough energy to trail around Nottingham this year. One year one of my exs was working on the mulled wine stall at the Manchester Christmas market, I got a free mug of mulled wine every time I walked past, ended up doing some very merry Christmas shopping! Everyones Christmas presents this year are going to be from Ikea as that is my closest shop

It's been tantrum tastic here this weekend as well, I think DH has been a bit shocked as he hasn't really had the full effect before. I think having a few days of the full attention of his Nanna has made J want more attention from us. I don't mind the ones in the house so much but when we are out and about and he decides he wants to go in a different direction to me and collapses onto the (usually wet) pavement in a hysterical heap while I'm attempting to control him and carry bags and not faint it's no fun.

BDQ - I spent a happy afternoon a couple of weeks back wandering round hobbycraft!

Abdn- sounds like some good present buying. I love the fact that you stayed out late at your book club, that's very rock and roll!

I had a failure at my first attempt to make onion marmalade, I've ended up with a rock hard jar of onion toffee! Think I may have overcooked it a little.

I've just written out a huge list of things to do this week so I should get on, hello to everyone else!

Ktpie - sounds like you have a severe case of nesting, hope the tantrums are better today!

Whoever said Chimney sweeps are good luck - I disagree, 50 minutes later and I am 107 Euros poorer after a visit by the chimney sweep, that's just for a chimney clean and cleaning the oil boiler.Probably lucky if you are one eh? I once saw ours in civilian clothes, didn't recognise him at first - he looked expensive!

Ktpie - not sure I'd go for the onion toffee, even if I do hate to throw things away!

DH still away, J still not eating although his cold is better and the vomiting has almost stopped. Also, dd is off school poorly today. Its all quite gard work still at the Vimes house!

Hi all, been lurking but not posted for a week or so, DH was off work last week so we had lots of lovely days out, late nights and too much alcohol - fun at the time but quite tiring too. I was actually glad to get back to normal today, altho it was nice to have DH around and he loved spending time with the kids. They went to CM's wed, to GPs wed overnight and back to CM Thurs so we had a couple of days without them which was fab . I enjoyed that bit rather too much really . Got all our Christmas shopping done too (and wrapped) [boast]

Sounds nasty, Sybil, we are just snot-tastic here as well, it's been about 10 weeks now. I have just resigned myself to it, they seem to get a bit better one day, then next day they'll have awful coughs or loads of snot and be really sad .

Had a frustrating day today at gp's to get my blood test results. He didn't have a clue how to read the results, he has referred me though. I asked for a printout and the results look fine from what I can google. But he said the progesterone test wasn't even done . And as that affects the luteal phase which is what I think is the problem it was kind of an important test . I will have it again this month tho, on CD16 so can have it done on day 21 again . The LH and FSH levels look fine, if anyone can help with the results they are here. I am pretty annoyed though that they couldn't even do the right tests.

oh Neenz - your 2 days without children sounds heavenly! I was thinking about you today as I got Ethan ready to play in the garden, as I struggled to get him into coat, boots, gloves, hat I thought how does Neenz cope with getting 2 ready?