Westward Ho! Storm Damage - Beach Exploring

 

We have just come back from a 1/2 term trip to visit my Mum in North Devon. We arrived on Sunday and it was such a lovely day we had a quick lunch & headed straight out for a walk on the beach. Westward Ho! was always our favourite beach when I was a child, I remember many happy days building sand castles, body boarding & rock pooling . Both my Dad & Gran worked on a holiday camp their as well. We last visited North Devon back in August when Mum & I took the boys rock pooling. I can't believe how much difference 6 months makes to a beach. I know we have had some of the worst storms in years but neither mum or I have ever seen Westward Ho! beach like this!

Getting Out....

Well this constant bad weather we've been having has meant that we haven't had much chance to get outside, have fun & some fresh air. That is except for the daily school runs in the cold, wet & wind! So last Friday when it was dry after school I took the chance to take the boys to the park after school.

Valentines Crafting

One of the great things about blogging is being able to look back at things you did in previous years. Last year we made a Valentines display using the boys artwork cut in to heart shapes. I didn't file these away with the other art work but kept it with my seasonal decorations so I could find them easily. I thought they would look great on the heart shaped photo holder I bought from a car boot a couple of weeks ago for just £2! I had no idea where I was going to put it, but for that price decided to find somewhere! So for now I've put it up on the kids art wall with their hearts from last year and a few old photos that had come out of frames ages ago. Daddy's not sure about it possibly because its pictures of him!

Our Art Wall.....

We have also been doing lots of valentines crafting in the last week..... The boys had lots of fun making some valentines cards for their 'girlfriends' this did include Nanny, Grandma & Daniels pre-school teacher, but its still a lot of cards for 2 boys so young to be giving! To decorate the cards we used some foam stamps & some heart shaped play dough cutters, with paint soaked sponges. This was the first time we had tried the sponge technique & it really helped limit the amount of paint on the stamps.

We also decided to make some Valentines trees, or Valentines Christmas Trees as Daniel (3) kept calling them. We painted some cardboard cones from our junk box, one had already been painted in the past so came out a darker shade. Apparently they needed glitter so to save on the mess we added some glitter to the red & pink paint. Later that day, once dry, the boys decorated the trees with various bits from our craft cupboard, Using PVA to stick them on.

For more valentines fun take a look at these posts from last year:
Bubble Wrap Heart Printing
Valentines Butterflies

x Jo x

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Photos

Well finally getting around to posting about our hallway update, motivated me to look at the rest of the hallway. I have had several pics of the boys waiting around to be dealt with for ages ( the oldest were taken in April 2011!) I managed to frame them over a year ago but with all the amazing gallery walls on pintrest I'm really undecided on where to put them up...so they have been sat (stacked up) on a shelf ever since.

When sorting out the pics for the hallway update post I realised that the boys baby pictures had been up in the hall forever and that it would make since to swap them around for now until that amazing gallery wall comes together! It has made such a difference, possibly due to the black frames, 8" x 10" from the 99p shop, bargain! So I decided to swap the pictures on the other stairs as well. They had been there since before Joseph (now 5) was born. I did have to put up one more hook on that side to even it out, but its so great to have a change. The old pictures had been up sooo long we didn't even see then any more.

You can just make out pale brown spots all over the background.

Unfortunately when I took down the old photos I discovered that 2 of Josephs baby pics had become discoloured mainly on the pale background, probably due to only being in a clip frame & I'm assuming moisture getting in! I know re-prints would be expensive & that's if the portrait company still has the images, so if anyone knows how to correct this that would be great!

x Jo x

P.S. Don't forget to enter our great competition to win a set of chrome letters from Fast Motorcare click here. Open until midnight on Thursday 13th Feb.