Here We Are Together

We are back , I think.
Between contractions that keep me awake at night and grumpy toddlers who really want nothing more than to finally go outside and enjoy spring, (it’s still raining here, it’s been weeks now.) it really wasn’t easy.

Now that we finally reached a stage in this pregnancy where the survival rate looks a lot better for any baby born soon we can all at least play a little bit more than we have recently, but long walks outside are still not really possible.
We needed a change of scenery, but without spending any money.
We had a little think and decided to turn a little corner of our home into a playhouse by putting up a curtain .

So far it’s only got a kitchen corner and a cozy place for reading, but the little one’s are slowly making it their very own space, which is really how it should be. It’s a place we won’t ever tidy , a place that is just theirs, and right now, that’s just what we all need.

Thank you all for your kind emails, I will try to reply this week,
thank you for being so patient.
(oh, & yes, I will wipe that tiny fingerprint off my camera eventually,too..)
♥

I know we have been gone a while already.
Thank you for your kind emails,we are all doing well,
our plate is just a bit too full at the moment,
(not just with these lovely egg,gluten & dairy free sugar cookies… )

we will be back soon,
I know you all understand what it’s like,
I am sure we are not the only ones who struggle to keep up with it all.

I hope to see you all soon.
♥

There’s a guest post I wrote about England up at the Crafty Crow today, hop on over, and check out all the other amazing & interesting crafts and countries, too!
I love Curly Bird’s giant cardboard teacup and Joscha’s rain boot painting!

♥

A thing the British are very well known for is drinking a lot of tea,
so this beautiful teatime candle seemed a great craft to share.
We make these as hostess presents and thank-you presents, as they are quick and easy to make & always look great.

You will need:

An old teacup & saucer
a metal tin
small pieces of wax. (This is a great way to use up all those tea-lights and old candles you have, all you need to do is cut them up into bits. Save the wick, too!)
a wick ( we got ours out of one of the candles we reused)

How to:

Put your pieces of wax into the old tin , fill a pot with about 8 cm of water and put your tin into the middle. Now start melting the wax in your tin. Don’t place your wax directly in a pot over a heat source, always use this double boiler method.
You can add a crayon or colourful wax if you want your candle to be a certain colour.

When all the wax has melted carefully pour it into the cup and add your wick to the middle.
You might need to hold on to the wick for a couple of minutes till it stays in the right position.

Carefully place your teacup in the fridge and leave it to cool down for one to two hours.

After that , all you need to do is trim the wick and enjoy your new candle.
It makes even pretend tea parties feel very special.

Have a lovely day!
♥

A friend recently suggested this recipe to me as something to cook with Ezi, but it is lots of fun for little ones of all ages,
and as Fish & Chips is a very traditional English meal , especially here on the coast, I thought I’d share it with you.

You will need:

1 fish filet
3 potatoes
2 slices of toasted bread
ketchup (for a healthier version take a look at our homemade ketchup recipe!)

How to:

Start by turning your bread into breadcrumbs, just pull off tiny pieces till you used it all up:

Put your fish onto a baking tray and spread ketchup all over it.

Now it’s time to put the breadcrumbs on top, make sure you cover all of the fish.

Put this into the oven at a high temperature for about 40 minutes.
Your chips will not take as long, so you can prepare them now.
To make the chips you peel the potatoes , cut them into strips, cover them with oil, salt them
and put them into the oven for about 30 minutes.

When everything is cooked you can sit down and taste your traditional English meal!

Enjoy!

This morning absolutely everything went wrong,
there was a girl that woke up far too early, a boy that did not want to get up at all,
we were very late for playgroup and everyone was still in their pajamas.
But then the doorbell rang, and a lovely surprise from Germany arrived.
Thank you , Oma , for our lovely new books, for the ballerina outfits , the toys and everything else.

And thank you for the Duplo blocks, too.
They might be plastic, but they are already very loved.

While my little ones play I will be busy preparing a guest post for the Crafty Crow this week, so you can look forward to some very British crafts & recipes!
Have a lovely day!
&hearts:

Yesterday , as a very special treat, we got Emi a magazine.
She chose the Charlie & Lola magazine, and as we already have many Charlie & Lola books and other books illustrated by Lauren Child I was really quite happy with that choice.

There were lots of pages to colour, stick sticky stickers and cut wriggly lines (the magazine came with wriggly plastic scissors and some crayons),

but our favourite were the fish & mermaid pictures to cut out.
We decided to make an ocean diorama from a cardboard box,
we started to cut out the shapes and stick them to the background :

We even made a little bed out of tissue paper with a sandpaper headboard:

The pink & sandpaper table complete with a plate of fish & wriggly chips:

We enjoyed making this so much that we will start making these as part of our country studies for geography, just imagine all the possibilities!

What did you do today?
Have a lovely weekend!
♥
`

Finally, finally, we made it through February.
It was probably the hardest month for our family so far, and we are very glad that it’s over.
We hope that with a new month, and with what looks like spring outside, there will be a change for us,too.

As we are hoping for change, we felt it was time for a fresh new nature table, we were getting tired of winter:

(I love our milk bottles, delivered to our doorstep fresh from the farm!)

And because sometimes a new nature table is not quite enough to change the mood,
we also moved some toys around for some fresh corners.

Dress-up box and reading corner by the big window:

The tiny play kitchen that has been used a lot more recently has moved to a more accessible corner,

and while both these corners aren’t the prettiest places in our home they are already helping to change how we all feel, and that, well, it’s a good thing.

Have a lovely day
♥