craft cupboard clean-up

If you are a liker of a little delightful's facebook page you may have seen this photo:

My super messy, super disorganised, can't find anything mess of a craft cupboard. Well, craft and activity cupboard. I keep games and other things in here, too. Like our rolobox bits, flash cards and workbooks and bubbles!

With school holidays coming up we have more time for crafting and activities. I have some things planned and needed to see what we have, and what I need to get in order to have everything ready. Trouble was I couldn't find anything without half the stuff falling out while I rummaged through. Time for a clean up!

 I emptied each basket because although they were supposed to be organised ... all the paint and brushes in one, all the markers and crayons in another, all the little things like buttons and beads, cotton wool balls and bits of wood together etc, it wasn't like that at all. 

This is the paint box, before - cotton balls in here, no paint brushes and I couldn't quickly see what colours of paint I had.

After, all organised and easy to see what colours we have to make it easy for me to know if I need to buy a certain colour for a craft we are doing.

I also did things like sort beads into colours, accumulated all the millions of googly eyes I had strewn across almost every basket in that cupboard and sorting the pop sticks from the other shaped little pieces of wood.

And after :o} yay! MUCH better. It's still not my 'dream' craft cupboard, but I didn't want to buy any new storage solutions for the cupboard just yet as I am still deciding on the best way to store our craft supplies and until I've done that, I just wanted to use what we already had at home.

 To help me {and hubby} find what we are looking for in the cupboard quickly I also made up some little blackboard tags to attach to the baskets. This is just blackboard paint on card stock, cut, hole punched and tied on with twine. Easy.

I used a white pen to write on the tags. And as my husband pointed out, I really could have just used plain black paint since I didn't even use chalk on these tags. :o}

We keep everyday basics in this little craft turntable. It sits on a shelf and is easy for Noah to reach.

Do you have a craft cupboard? How do you keep it nice and neat?

memory

This game is one that my little guy LOVED.

What's great about it is it is fun for the kiddos, helps build memory power, is quick and can be ready at a few moments notice. 

I just went around the house and grabbed a few things that would fit on a tray. For Noah I choose about 6 things as I feel this is a good number for his age. Sometimes we do more, sometimes less if I've picked a tricky combo! {like all yellow coloured items, etc}

Just line them up on the tray and cover with a cloth or tea towel. Then take that off and let your child look at the things on the tray. For us this is a look and don't touch game, but you can do what ever you like for your kiddo.

After a minute or so, cover it back up and line a piece of paper with the number of items you had on the tray. Then see how many of them your kiddo remembers {and how many YOU remember!}

Super quick, super fun, super cheap.

school holiday printable calendar + fun list organiser!

The brilliant woman that is Jade from Super Organiser Mum had a fabulous idea that I was so excited to get working on. This is our school holiday printable calendar and fun list organiser. Again, free for you to enjoy! 

It is even editable, so that you can open it in adobe reader {which is free if you don't have it installed on your computer already} or your computer's pdf reader and type the date of the current school holidays under the title on each printable. 

It's a great way to plan what you would like to do, or write down things that are only on certain days so you don't miss out! The Fun List organiser lets you jot down opening times and the cost for entry etc. Such a great idea. 

It's always handy to have this info ready at a moments glance, so you're not wasting time searching for it, or even better, if you find you need a last minute idea while you're out - you'll have all the info you need right there. There is a 'notes' section where you can jot down whether there is a cafe available, or if you will need to bring your own food + water etc. 

 I will be storing mine in these plastic pockets to keep them nice and safe and allow us to take them with us when we're out and about.

I like to have quite a few at home days during the school holidays, but of course we need our fun days out, too! I really really love school holidays! My calendar might look kinda bare, but we don't have holidays here for another few weeks :o} We might even be going to visit some family {hopefully!}

You can check out Jade's post here, with some great examples of fun things to do over school holidays and how to organise the Fun List so it is really a useful tool for you!

You can download them from here:
Calendar
Fun List

 I hope you all enjoy your school holidays, whenever they are! What will you be up to?

home made marshmallows

Yes, they are actually quite do-able!

This was one of the things on our Winter Fun List, a list of things our family would like to do during this winter season. I love winter!

I contemplated making my own marshmallows before but I assumed they'd be super difficult. Turns out they're not difficult at all! They taste really good and you get the satisfaction of knowing there is nothing nasty in your home made little clouds of yumminess. I wish I had a cloud cookie cutter because that would have been PERFECTLY cute for these :o}

Although, the hearts are mighty cute, too. The possibilities are endless, you could use any shape cutter and even dye your marshmallows any colour to suit your theme or holiday :o} I can see these becoming a regular around here. 

Marshmallow Recipe:

from here

2 Tbs gelatine

1/4 cup water

2 cups white sugar

1 cup water

1 tsp vanilla

1/4 cup cornflour 

1/2 cup icing sugar

Method:

1. Soak the gelatine in the 1/4 cup of water and let sit for 10 minutes

2. In a large saucepan, pour in the sugar and 1 cup of water. Dissolve the sugar in the water, stirring constantly.

3. Add the gelatine to the saucepan and dissolve in the sugar mixture. Bring to the boil.

4. Allow mixture to boil steadily for 15 minutes without stirring {be careful to watch it doesn't overboil and make a mess of the stove, that will leave you a sticky mess to clean up!}

5. Remove the saucepan from heat and allow the mixture to cool to luke warm

6. Transfer mixture into a bowl and add the vanilla. Whisk with an electric mixer or handheld mixer until thick and white.

7. Rinse a 20 cm dish in water and pour the marshmallow mixture in

8. Cover in plastic wrap and place in the fridge to set

9. Once cold and set, cut into squares {or use a cookie cutter for cute shapes} and roll the marshmallows in the icing sugar and cornflour mix so they are not sticky to touch

10. enjoy :o}

I was a bit unsure about the cornflour but you don't taste it and as the marshmallows are so so sweet already you really don't want to roll them in just plain icing sugar, sweet overkill!

winter fun list

I've been inspired by the recent Summer To Do Lists I am seeing on a lot of American blogs.

Here are a few links to some cool ideas people have used to display their lists.

Eighteen25 Summer To Do List

Whatever Summer To Do List

So we decided to do a Winter Fun List for our family. 

I often find that we forget to do things until it's too late and really the wrong season to do it {like a picnic at the beach, I have been wanting to do this for a while and of course now it's way too cold!} so doing up a list like this is a helpful way to remember the things we would like to do this season. Some things are better done in winter! {Like drinking hot chocolate, and snuggling in bed watching movies}

It was lovely to sit down together and work out what we'd like to do. Noah enjoyed being part of the process, as is super excited about pyjama day and watching a sunset and going on a bus. 

I am going to laminate our list when I'm sure we've added all the ideas we'd like to add so it doesn't get ruined. I am then going to display it on the pantry door in our kitchen, nice and central!

On our list we have a lot of family activities, baking ideas and crafts to do at home on those cold and wet days and a few things to do out and about enjoying the nice cold weather. 

If you would like you can download the Winter Fun List to do with your own family :o}

You can find it here.

I would love to hear about what is on your Winter Fun List this year! You can also share photos of your list by linking in the comments to your blog or up on a little delightful's facebook page :o}

battles

Hello!

It's been a while. Things have been full on in our delightful home. 

I had a really difficult semester at uni ... tough units that were not easy to get my head around.

Coupled with so much more going on at the same time and I'm feeling burnt out.

I also received a couple of not so nice emails and while I try to tell myself they don't matter, it's not always that easy. They were personal attacks, and came at a really bad time for myself and my family.

I just feel that this quote is so important for everyone to remember, always.

So there have been big changes going on here with my family. 

Changes that need a little time to come to terms with. 

A little healing needs to be done.

We need a little positive thinking.

A little bit of deep breathing.

And a lot of love.

--

We were driving home the other day, and I couldn't stop admiring this beautiful sky. 

It just made me smile.

It was truly a gorgeous blue. These are unedited photos, straight out of the camera.

I hope that the last few weeks have been good to you. And if you're fighting a battle of your own right now, I hope that time helps you heal and you are able to see a little silver lining, somewhere. :o}

Coming soon, some fun + craft ideas, some printables, some recipes.
And I would also love to know if there is anything you would like to see here on
a little delightful
:o}

better late than never : happy blog birthday to me :o}

I can hardly believe it's been a year! I started this blog in the middle of the night, hiding under a thick blanket because it was freezing. With a new baby in my arms, I was just a little bored and oh so tired of the home shopping stuff on TV. I never thought blogging could be like this. I have met some lovely people and have formed new friendships and found new things I really enjoy doing {like printables!}.

Since starting my little blog I have received some lovely lovely emails {and only some not so nice ones}

You guys are just so wonderful, and I love reading your comments here and on facebook, and your emails,  :o} Thank you for taking the time to share with me!

I got a few emails about the shirt my little girl wore for her cake smash.

I made her 1st birthday shirt for her cake smash because I knew she'd trash it with icing + smooshy cake. So the thought of paying $20++ for one wasn't really making me smile. I made up a pink polka dot 1 image and printed it on some iron on transfer paper. Then I just ironed it onto a $3.50 shirt from Kmart.

So to celebrate a little delightful's first birthday I thought I'd share with you a download so you can make your own special birthday shirts :o}

Click on the download below to make your own special shirt for your little soon-to-be 1 year old! {I've got them in pink of course, and also blue!}

BUT, so we don't leave the soon to be 2, 3 and 4 year olds out, there are downloads for them, too.

PINK:
1
2
3
4

BLUE:
1
2
3
4

Thank you all for being such lovely readers and for taking the time to read what I write. 

I hope you have a lovely weekend and that you hug your little ones extra tight just because you can.

I am looking forward to having a little extra time to write up more blog posts and share what we've been up to around here once my final final final assignment is done for the semester.

Thank you for being here!