How do you keep a 3 year old entertained on a walk to a park with no swings? Easy! With a laminated I Spy! We stamped together the alphabet and laminated the sheet so we can reuse it again.

Off we went to Uphill (handy as it was a sunny day so no umbrellas in sight) and walked through the nature reserve and boat yard.

Normally Sammy would be tired and complaining he needed to go on my husband's shoulders after 15 minutes but this time he happily walked for over an hour challenging us all to help fill in the blanks.

A good idea for entertaining children who walk to school too.

I was so impressed he managed all most all of them without any help!

and Rainy Day Mum Tuesday Tots

I have bought a few bargain things over the last few weeks that all became mini projects. Here are the before and after shots!

Glassware shelves from Vintage Von. Hand painted by moi in Farrow & Ball French Gray.

Continuing the painted theme ... remember my bargain table, £2.75! Sammy lovingly painted it (bit scrappy in places but that makes it even better) on a sunny day. We used the left over paint from the shelves which matches the sage green accessories in the kitchen. The table is perfect as it is really heavy and they can't push and pull it between themselves over tea!

Plus the little cheap ones you can get in Ikea (which we have bought in the past) aren't quite big enough for more than two and we often have little guests for tea!

The next DIY job is to make some place mats. Laminator at the ready!

The last project is to recycle the bag of vintage fishing nets. Perfect for a boy with a nautical room! I have tried to piece both their rooms together slowly over time. collecting bits and pieces as I go rather than buying the matching set from page 72 from a catalogue. Whilst you get an instant finished look, the trouble with buying everything in one go is that it's much harder to justify any extras, a few months down the line!

I want to use the nets for storage for all his soft toys which he loves to look at but has grown out of playing with on a daily basis. They need a good airing but will look fab. As soon as they don't smell like the sea they will be up. The scent is a little too authentic!

Hosting #MagpieMonday today for Lizzie who is cruising around on a canal boat! Link up your secondhand finds and share some bargains!

As you might have read, number 16 of my goals for 2013 is to bake a cake. Unfortunately this was not achieved in time for my husband's birthday yesterday!

Life is frantic at the moment so a cheats cake it had to be!

I jumped straight on the seriously photo friendly french macaroons bandwagon. They are so beautiful and delicate and much smaller than in photographs I have seen on Pinterest and in wedding magazines.

I used an old polystyrene false cake I used for a Halloween Lolly Tree, wrapped some tissue paper loosely around it and placed my macaroons carefully around the edge and on top.

Simple but so effective. I stacked two cake stands on top of each other and used an old record as a cake board for the top. Musical note confetti and some coloured mini pom poms completed the creation!

Plus they were seriously delicious! One bite wonders!

Happy birthday to my darling husband xx

ps. I did make all sorts for his birthday which I will post tomorrow!

pps. Happy Valentines to all my lovely readers. I have felt so much love this week so thank you!

This is what my Valentine will be opening later today.