Felt Pinwheel Hairband {tutorial}

If you have girls in your house and they're anything like my girl, then they love their hair accessories. Hair bands are very popular in our house as my daughter only has one hand and she can do her own hair with these. She loves trying different one and I just happen to love making them for her.

This one is so easy to make and you don't even need to be good at sewing to do it.

You will need: 

Felt

Needle

Thread

Glue gun

Beads

Hairband

Start with two squares of felt. One smaller than the other. The colours are up to you. 

Lay them down on top of each other and push the needle through the center of the square from the back.

Take the needle and bring the thread over the middle of one side of the square and push the needle back through the center pulling tight. Repeat this on all 4 sides.

When you have all the sides pulled in, take you beads of choice and sew them onto the top of the pinwheel. Tie off the thread at the back of the felt.

To attach to the hairband, cut a circle of felt (about the size of a €2 coin).

Place your pinwheel on the hairband where you want it and hot glue it to. 

Add the circle to the underside of where you glued the pinwheel and glue it down.

You're done!! 

She has been wearing this everyday since I made it. 

I hope you enjoy making these as much as I do. Show me your creations over on my Facebook page. I'd love to see what you make for your little ones.

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The Weekend Recap

This weather this weekend wasn't the greatest but we made the most of what sunshine we got. It's the last weekend before school starts back. My little guy is starting Thursday so I wanted to do some fun , family centered things with them.

Saturday

We spent the weekend checking on our garden. We tried our hand at growing our own pumpkins this year. It's our first time so I wasn't sure how it would go. To our surprise, they are really easy to grow and we have one pretty decent size one. The kids love checking it every day. It needs some straw bedding to support it now. And we have even more sunflowers now too. I'm slightly obsessed with them at this stage.

We spent some time with the ponies and got a takeaway and ate it off out laps like a picnic. Then came home and put on a big fire. We settled down to watch some movies and pig out. Pitch Perfect was watched yet again. I think were up to the 10th viewing and Miss J still loves it. 

Sunday

We started Sunday off with a lie in for me which hasn't happened in a very long time. It felt amazing not to have to get up. I felt so rested. Then we had a family walk with a big of a scavenger hunt thrown in. We wanted to get some blackberries but it still a little early so we collected some conkers and autumn leaves. It was lovely. The rain held off just long enough. Hot chocolate was requested so that's what we had.

After our walk, we came home and the kids played and watched movie while I finished covering school books. Exciting stuff there!! We finished our Sunday with a little pig racing at a local village festival. The kids thought it was gas. I thought they'd be faster. It was still a fun evening and that's all that mattered. I totally want a pig now. They are so cute!

Hope you guys had a great weekend with your families.

Did yo do anything fun? Let me know in the comments.

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Favourite Things Friday

Happy Friday Friends!!

It's been a very busy week here getting all the last minute things ready for when the kids go back to school. My little guy is starting pre-school next Thursday and I'm not quite sure how I feel about that. We spent today getting hair cuts and covering school books and the kids played with the famous play dough again today. It has been a big hit in our house. Make sure you try it out.  If you on Pinterest, let me know in the comments. I'm always looking for new pages to pin from. Anyway, here are this weeks picks.Hope you enjoy them. 

Favourite Photo

Favourite Home Decor

Favourite Kids Activity

Favourite DIY

Favourite Free Printables

Favourite Quote

And that's this weeks picks. I'm going to be spending the weekend outside with the kids, having play dates and enjoying our last week of the holidays. Get outside and have some fun with your kids. Whatever the weather.

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The BEST Homemade Play Dough Recipe

I have the best, no cook play dough recipe ever.

It's so easy to make. No messing with pots and burning play dough.

It's soft, smooth and you can make it in whatever colours and flavour your little heart desires.

1 cup of flour

1/2 cup of salt

1 tbs of cream of tartar

1 tbs of oil

Food colouring

Food spices/flavouring

1 cup of boiling water

Directions

Mix all ingredients except the boiling water together in a large mixing bowl.

Add the boiling water and mix well.

Add the food colouring to the water.

{The food colouring will mix in better if added to the boiling water.}

 Please take care when using boiling water around children.

Stir well until the mixture is well combined.

Turn out on the counter and knead it gently.

If it too wet... add more flour
If it's too dry... add more oil.

It's that simple!!

I hope your kids have as much fun as my two had. Were going on 5 hours of entertainment with this stuff and this mom isn't complaining.

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Gluten and dairy free cupcakes {recipe}

Having allergies is hard to deal with on a daily basis. You have to watch what your eating all the time. But is's even harder to find a dessert that you can have. My husband is allergic to gluten and gluten is in alot of the foods he would have had on a daily basis. I've been trying to perfect a recipe for a cupcake so he can have something nice every now and again. 

The cupcake is light and fluffy and tastes so yummy. It has been kid approved too which is a huge bonus.  It's also dairy free for those of you that have a dairy allergy. 

Recipe

5 oz gluten free self raising flour

4 oz sugar

3 medium eggs {separated}

3 fluid ounces of water

2 tablespoons of coca powder {optional}

Separate you eggs.

Beat you egg whites until they form stiff peaks. Put to one side.

Add the sugar and water to the egg yolks and mix until light and fluffy and pale in colour.

Sift you flour into you egg yolk mixture and fold in.

Add you egg whites to the mixture and fold in gently, keeping as much as the air as possible.

The mixture will be more like a batter. It's quite loose. Don't worry. It's meant to be.

Divide your mixture into cupcake cases and bake for 15 to 20 minutes at 190'C.
Allow to cool and decorate with the buttercream icing.

Buttercream

125g margarine

3tbsp vanilla extract

650g icing sugar

coca powder {opt}

Beat the margarine for about 5 minutes. Don't cut on this. You really need to beat the margarine until it's pale and creamy.

Add half of the icing sugar and mix.

Add the Vanilla. Mix until it is absorbed into the mixture.

Add the milk if you are using it now. {leave out if making dairy free} Mix until it is absorbed.

Add the remaining icing sugar and mix for a further 5 minutes. The longer you mix it the better you results will be.

I hope you enjoy these little beauties as much as we have. I've been baking them at least once a week and I don't think that's going to stop anytime soon.

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Favourite Things Friday

Happy Friday Friends!!

What a week it's been. I've spent most of my week on the phone with Vodafone trying to sort out a problem and after being passed from post to pillar, I finally got it sorted. I'm getting what I wanted. I little man, or woman in this case, won. I stood up for myself. I stuck to my guns and I didn't back down. I going to apply this to more areas of my life. Anyway, enough about that. The rest of the time was spent in the garden with the kids in the glorious sunshine. Here are this weeks picks.

Favourite Cake

Favourite Home Decor

Favourite Craft

Favourite Flowers

Favourite Look

Favourite Birdhouse

I hope you enjoyed this weeks picks. I'm going to spend my weekend with my family,outside enjoying every bit of sunshine that I can. I hope that where ever you are in the world that the sun is shining for you too.

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Out & About : Checkers Cafe and Crazy Golf

Last week my daughter and I got invited to a birthday party at a lovely little place in Ballybunion called Checkers Cafe. The Cafe is located in Ballybunion Golf Holiday Homes only 1 km from the world famous Ballybunion Golf Club and 2 km from the vibrant bustling seaside town of Ballybunion.

  

The birthday party was great fun. The girls were taken upstairs where they would be baking cupcakes. They mixed their own ingredents and made the cupcakes. While they were baking, they went outside to play mini golf on the amazing 18 hole miniature version of Ballybunion’s world famous Old Course complete with well-known landmarks strategically placed around the course. You can read about the names and history of each hole.

Then they had food and got to play checkers on the gaint board and play on the playground. Once the cupcakes were cooled they went back up to the baking room and decorate the cupcakes with icing, fondant and sprinkles. Each child got to bring home 3 cupcakes. 

If your ever in Ballybunion over the summer and looking for something to do, please consider this amazing place. Ypu can play golf or take one of their kids cookery courses. Just click the link and you'll get all the detail on the resort. 

What are you favourite places to go over the summer holidays? Share them in the comments below. We're still looking for something to do before school starts.

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Fake away Shredded Crispy Chicken {recipe}

I love my Chinese but too much of it not very good for my waist line. So I went on a search for a version of my favourite that was healthier for me and my family and something that I can cook at home. I came across this one a unislim website a while back but can't remember where. Thankfully I wrote it down and I sharing it with all you lovely people. 

Note: The oven chips take a a bit longer than the chicken so stick these on before you start prepping the rest of the ingredients.

Ingredients (serves 2)

2 Chicken Breasts

1 Onion

3 Spring Onion

1 Chilli (red)

Tsp Chilli Flakes

1 red and green Pepper

Salt

1 wholemeal slice of bread

Garlic

Method

Cut the chicken breasts into strips. 

Whisk the bread, salt and some chilli flakes together in the blender to make breadcrumbs. Dip the Chick into the breadcrumbs and cook in the over for 20 mins on 180c.

Slice everything else up and cook in a wok until just cooked and add the chicken for a few more mins and stir up together.

Oven Chips

Cut up potatoes into thin chip pieces.

Dry with kitchen paper.

Lay on a baking tray lined with grease proof paper and spray with cooking oil and salt.

Cook in the oven until crispy, tossing once or twice through out the cooking time.

I hope you enjoy this as much as I did. I really hit the spot and was sooo filling. I even got a thumbs up from my too kids. 

Winner, winner, chicken dinner!!

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