Come and sit with me at my desk, in my office and let's make something.

I can't bear looking at all the sad plants in our house. We are always scooting around the country visiting family and friends, that I am just hopeless with houseplants. 

They end up droopy, beyond salvation and I actually have found great beauty in artificial  greenery. They look incredibly realistic, especially if you stick to natural colours.

I used two rustic wall planters (I think they are really for the garden!) and you can fill them as full as you like. Make a topiary ball and hang them for another idea. 

What are you making this weekend?

ps. if you fancy a peek at our whole living room, have a look here. 

This post was kindly sponsored by Hobbycraft  - check them out and go make something of your own! 

This heat only means one thing - BBQ season. Night after night I can smell delicious smokey flavours wafting over the garden fences, with everyone taking advantage of guaranteed evenings, bathed in warmth.

Our university friends bought us a lovely (now a little rusty - oops) chimenea 8 years ago when we got married and I made up these DIY firelighters, to bring some beauty and scent to our beloved patio heater.  

You could use these on a charcoal BBQ too, to add spice and flavour to your barbecued food. 

We have two (slightly overgrown) bay bushes either side of the front porch and I uncovered some fibre pots that I bought, with growing some seedlings in mind. They make perfect firelighters! 

You can make them up as one large tray - which would be a great handmade gift for your BBQ loving partner, friend or Father, or make individual ones for a quick and easy craft whilst the charcoal heats up.

Take a tea light (I used up some apple scented ones I had left over) and cut it into a small square shape.  

Use the excess to line your pot. Place your cut tea light on top.

Stuff your fibre pot with anything you like! Search your garden or your neighbour's garden! I used some chilli spices from the kitchen, dried rosemary, fresh thyme I had in the fridge for a fish recipe that you will see on the blog next week, lavender sprigs and a lemon. 

Super pretty and super easy. 

What do you love to BBQ?!  

There are lots of things I am trying to teach my son before he starts school in September. To get him ready for being a big boy at big boy school. One of them is to use a knife and fork. For such a long time I have set the table with a spoon and a fork but now he is almost 4 it’s time to know how to use a knife! 

We made these sweet healthy lollies as a way to involve him in a simple recipe and he was very proud of his cutting skills! It’s good hand eye coordination practice and teaches them to take care and be precise. You can also use it as a safety lesson about being very careful with knives!

They wrote on wide lolly sticks which fruit was in which lolly and then we added milk to half of them and yoghurt to the others. There was no need for any added sweeteners!

Leave your lollies in the freezer for 4 hours and enjoy. The kiwi was my favourite.

A delicious way to help with motor skills, growing up skills with a healthy treat as a reward!

Ingredients:

• Fruit
• Milk
• Yoghurt
• Lolly Moulds
• Lolly Sticks (unless your mould comes complete with plastic sticks)

Preparation time:

• 5 minutes
• Freezing time - 4 hours

This post originally featured on See Vanessa Craft as a guest post for Tots School Tuesday.