Christmas Decorations in TheMadHouse

Who am I? I'm Caesar Augustus!

I live far away in Rome

And I want to count all my subjects

So, Mary and Joseph, GO HOME!

Please let me take you on a tour of TheMadHouse dressed for Christmas......

First my wreath as you come to the front door

Then the advent stockings hung over the fire

Meet Rudolf one and Rudolf two the very annoying jungle bell rock singing and ear flapping reindeer that the minimads adore given to them my Grandma.

My Plastic 1960's Santa, which is older than me and pinched off my mum, which guards the dinning room door.

More signing and dancing scary  soft toys, purchased for the MiniMads

The nativity that was my mums, which sits on the lamp table in the sitting room

Our Tree, which hides behind the sofa, so MiniMad and Mr Smudge, does attack it in equal measure!

MadDad and I have a tradition of buying one bauble for the tree a year, since we were married nearly 14 year ago

The twig lights which are decorated with garlands from Ikea

 

MadDad's stocking, which I made this year with the left over fleece I made the advent stockings from.

My Stocking, which I made too.

The MiniMads stockings dated with the year they were born.

The small tree in our dinning room which will be covered in boy made decorations by Christmas day.

I hope this has given you a taste of what Christmas looks like in TheMadHouse.

More pictures to come over the coming weeks.

Egg Box Jingle Bells and Advent Poem

"Mary, I too saw an angel,

And now we can marry with joy,

I'll care for you both, just as he said,

And together we'll bring up God's boy".

The boys task for last night was anther craft, which I have seen out on the blog circuit, but can not for the life of me remember where, so I am sorry for not linking to it.  This is another really easy and inexpensive craft.

Materials

Egg Box

paint

Glitter

String or ribbon

Little bells (I bought a wreath full of the from Poundland)

I cut up the egg cartons and the boys the little sections and then covered them in glitter.

We then set them aside to dry, whilst I pulled the wreath apart.

We then threaded the ribbon through the bell and made a hole in the top of the egg box cutout and threaded the ribbon ends through and tie at the top.

I then strung a number of them together to make a jingling sound!!

So another super easy, super simple and all inclusive advent craft. enjoy.

Day 3 and Pipe Cleaner Crystal Decorations

"Joseph, an angel has told me

That though it is you I shall marry.

I have been chosen to bear the Messiah

And it will be God's child I carry"

Now this is a blast from my past, something that I remember doing at my Playgroup before I started school, but you can not get Borax now, so need to use Borax substitute (I got mine from the chemist).

Materials

Pipe cleaners

Borax alternative

Water

Blue food colouring

All you need to do is shape some decorations out of the pipe cleaners.  We did snowflakes, hearts, trees and spirals (wrapped round pencils).

Then mix your borax solution with boiling water and add blue food colouring.  I used about 6 tablespoons to approximately one pint, but I just poured it in (I am not an exact type of person).

Once all the borax substitute is dissolved submerge your pipe cleaners and leave overnight.  The next morning remove and allow to dry and then you will have sparking, crystallised decorations.

Both my boys were amazed at the transformation and now MaxiMad wants to know ll the science bit!!

Now you could always do this salt I suppose, but it would take quite a while I would imagine.

MiniMad and MaxiMad have taken their decorations to school for the Christmas Tree decorating competition.  It is only 20p to enter and they really enjoyed doing this, plus for once no glitter to tidy away!

Don't they look great, MaxiMad was so excited that the first thing he did was show his daddy this morning!!!

Second day of Advent and Letters to Father Christmas

An angel came to Nazareth

A long time ago

With a message from God in Heaven above

To Mary on earth below

"God sent me here to tell you"

Said the glorious one

"That you will bear a boy child

And that child will be his son"

The first task on the advent calender was to write a letter to Father Christmas.  Both boys took this very seriously, but only want the same things.  A box of Maltesers and a marble run!!

MaxiMad decided to draw what he wanted

I wrote MiniMads letter for him - he basically dictated it to me and then he put lots of stickers on it.

Then we wrote out the envelopes.  Royal Mail will respond to as many letter as possible.

Last year I also did the Portable North Pole personalised video message for both the boys and will be doing it again this year.  Tara from Sticky Fingers posted about it yesterday and reminded me.  MaxiMad was open mouthed at it last year, I only hope that he and MiniMad enjoy it as much this year.

Writing Workshop on a Wednesday

Guilty Pleasures

I am not sure that I have many pleasures that I feel guilty about, but I do have a number of things that make my life good, if not great and bring me great pleasure too.

I like tea, no lets change that I love tea.  I have and am know in some circles as a Tea Monster.  It is my drink of choice, followed back Jack Daniels.  The thing is I need it to be a decent cup of tea, none of this wood shavings in a tea bag, lord no.

I like my tea of of a special cup and preferably made with leaves, dont you know.  I have two tea pots and did have a special large tea cup and saucer but this broke earlier in the year.  Oh and it has to be a china cup too.  You have to put the milk in first and the tea, bust no be week as dishwater either!

Tea is the first thing I reach for in the morning, MadDad is a star and brings me up a cup as he leaves for work and it sets me up for the day.  I would rather go without than drink a poor cup of tea.

I also love going for afternoon tea, when we can afford it and the minimads love the routine too, in fact we often re-create it at home with little sandwiches and cakes too.  They both like their tea and have their own cups (but they get decaf).

I also have a thing for moist toilet tissue (dont you just love all the lip pursing you have to do to say it).  This is a relic from my pregnant days, when I found it just did the job better!

My other pleasures are my bed and bedding.  I adore my superking size bed in an almost obscene way.  We purchased it before I went into hospital last year, so that we didn't need to all be cramped.  What can I say about it other than it is the best thing in the house!!  I adore getting in to bed when I have had a bath or a shower and there is clean bedding, so for this reason I iron my bedding.  It is all about the duvet being perfectly in the cover, the sheets being wrinkle free and the clean smell.

My other guilty pleasure is chips, but not just any chips, they have to be home made chips.  My dad made the best home made chips in the world, followed by my Father in Law.  Now dont get me wrong we make decent chips in our Tefal Actifry thing, but you can not beat home made chips done in a deep fat fryer (we dont even own one).

Now please dont report me for this last one, but nothing beats giving my two little men's peachy and delectable bare bottoms a stoke.  They are just wonderful, in fact the two of them just make me want to squeeze them far to hard and take bites out of them sometimes.  Strange this mothering lark.  They also smell perfect, even better when they are in their Pj's cuddled up each side of me reading a book.

I guess this kind of all morphs together in a way to bring you to my most favorite things in the whole wide world - My family.  it may not be fashionable, it may not be in trend to say it, but my family are my guilty pleasure.  I enjoy all of their company, most of the time.  I am one of these woman who gets on really well with her husband, MadDad and I would prefer to do things as a family than go out separately.  In fact my mum had MaxiMad on Saturday evening and we all missed him.  I love our Saturday night in front of trashy TV.  hole in the wall, followed by Merlin and finished off with Strictly!!

This post was written for Weekly writing workshop at Sleep is for the weak and was inspired by prompt 2.What’s your guilty pleasure?

Advent Calenders a Plenty

Sound the Trumpets

Beat the drums

Advent is

When Jesus Comes

It feels as though I have been talking about it for week, but here it is in its old and tatty glory, my advent calender.  I won this aged 6 at Sunday School for a special drawing.

I had to drag it off my mother when the boys were born as we all adore it and have searched high and low for a similar one to no avail.

So the plan is to regale you with a poem and picture from it each day as it tells the story of advent.  It is such a nice way to discuss things with the minimads and it sits on our dining table for us to discuss each meal time. 

I have also strung the stocking advent calender I made too.  They will get their task card once home from school this evening!!

Dorma Bedding - Review

I was asked by the people at Dorma if I, along with some other mummy bloggers, would mind reviewing their website and I also received a boudoir pillow too.

I have heard of Dorma, in fact my Mother in law has just (well earlier in the year) redone her bedroom and she purchased a full set of Dorma bed linen at quite a cost for it, but as she told me at the time, it will last and the last set was from their wedding 43 years ago!!!  My Duvet is also a Dorma duel tog rating one and it is great, washable and natural.

So firstly, as always the blurb....

Dorma don't produce any bedding below 200 thread count, which far exceeds most mass market bedlinen. They also have a fabulous 350 thread count range creates a silky smooth lustre that feels incredibly soft and smooth against your skin, giving a sensuous treat for you or your guests.

You will find impeccable attention to detail and insistence on peerless quality in everything they create. They choose sumptuous materials like cotton; Egyptian, satin & sateen, quilted damask and Hungarian goose down. You can feel the difference every time you turn down your bed, open your curtains or snuggle down to relax after a busy day.

The pillow that we were sent was from the Belvoir range and the quality was outstanding   It is a lovely neutral, with Jacquard and trim and is washable, which is great when you have children.  In fact the whole Dorma range is of superb standard and in today's times I guess you get what you pay for and that one cushion was £30.00 so expensive indeed, but is it good value?

Well my mother in law certainly believes so, would you expect a duvet cover to last in excess of 10 years if you purchased it from Argos or Matalan?

Would I buy it?  If I had the money I most definitely would, there is nothing more luxurious in my opinion that jumping in to a lovely clean, soft and delicious bed and Dorma's bedding certainly fits the bill.

I also had a good look at the website, where you can buy direct, which appeals to me as dragging a 3 and 4 year old shopping is like visiting the seven circles of hell.  The site is set out well and is fast too.  I would have preferred a sort by colour option at the front end of the site though and also some GREEN bedding too!

Yes Dorma I have a wonderful green bedroom and like green bedding and I know I can not be the only one out there!!

If you have a wedding coming up then take a look at adding Dorma bedding to your wedding list.

Oh and what of the cushion, well shhhhhhhhhhh it is going to be the mother in laws Christmas present as it matches her bedding!!