Valentine's Peg Dolls

Sisters

Tomorrow morning each of the Podlings will wake up to a small bag of treats for Valentine's day. There will be a chocolate lollipop, some heart-shaped chocolates, Love Hearts and heart-shaped jelly sweets. They will also each have a little handmade gift from me. Tom will get a little ladybird heart (which you can see in the post below) and the girls will both get a peg doll. I love peg dolls and I had so much fun making these. I can see them becoming a bit addictive!

Lily's peg doll. Lily loves all things pink and roses are her favourite flower.

Emma's peg doll. The red gingham matches her bedroom and the heart shaped button keeps the Valentine's theme.

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Felt Ladybird Heart

Tom loves ladybirds, so for Valentine's day I made him this little felt ladybird heart. He will find it nestled in his Valentine's treat bag tomorrow morning and I know that he will love it. It wouldn't surprise me if he wanted me to make him several more of these....
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Put your hand on your heart...

Since we had the pink paint out anyway, Emma and I did this little handprint Valentine craft this afternoon. To be honest, most of the crafting here was done by me. Emma supplied the handprint and I prettied it up. It is now hanging in my kitchen window and serves as a rather sweet Valentine decoration. It will also serve as a reminder in years to come of how little my Emma's hands were when she was three.
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Heart Prints

It's Valentine's Day this week, which naturally gives us an excuse to indulge in lots of heart-themed crafts. This afternoon I did this simple printing craft with Emma. I think I originally saw this idea on Pinterest and it was so easy. You simply take a cardboard toilet roll and fiddle around with it until you get a heart shape. You then give it to your three year old along with some red and pink paint and let her have fun. It's that simple!

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Puffin around Lyme Park

This afternoon we drove across the Peaks to Lyme Park to visit the 'There's Nuffin like a Puffin' exhibition, celebrating 70 years of Puffin children's books. It was a double thrill for me as both a lover of children's books and as a lover of Jane Austen. For those who have seen the 1995 BBC adaptation of Pride and Prejudice, Lyme Park was used as the location for Mr Darcy's seat, Pemberley. You might remember a somewhat damp Mr Darcy emerging from the lake you see above. E'hem, moving swiftly on...

We had a lovely time looking around the exhibition. It brought back a few memories for Mark and me, both of us avid readers from childhood. We were treated to lots of original artwork from many books, together with letters from authors, transcripts with corrections marked on and lots of background information on the books and the publisher itself. There was plenty of hands-on fun for the children and they had a wonderful time playing instruments, dressing up and doing lots of colouring and crafts. We enjoyed walking around the gardens, though I think I will enjoy it more in warmer weather. There was still snow on the ground in patches and it was jolly cold! We intend to come back later in the year when the house is open (most National Trust houses are closed from October until March/April) and I'm sure the gardens will be absolutely delightful when in bloom.

We all had a really lovely afternoon at the exhibition, so I felt we had to end the day appropriately  Emma had 'Each Peach Pear Plum' for her bedtime story this evening and I started reading Roald Dahl's 'George's Marvellous Medicine' (published by Puffin) to Tom and Lily at bedtime. I only read them the first chapter, but then Tom took the book to bed with him and stormed ahead a couple of chapters. Tom is just the right age for Roald Dahl now, so I hope this is the start of something special...

It was rather a thrill for me to see some of Janet Ahlberg's original artwork for 'Each Peach Pear Plum'. We love the Ahlberg's picture books and this one is an absolute favourite. It has been one of Emma's favourite bedtime stories for some time now and I never tire of the beautiful illustrations. What a pleasure to see some of the originals!

Emma dressed as a puffin.

A copy of a delightful illustration from Noel Streatfeild's 'Ballet Shoes' 

An original illustration from 'Where's Spot?' by Eric Hill, always popular with the littlest ones

In the courtyard

The Dutch Garden

We were excited to see the snowdrops starting to show their heads. One has to hope that the end of winter is in sight, although the temperatures and the promise of more snow this weekend seem to suggest it will go on forever!

Last night I dreamt I went to Pemberley again...

The Podlings hard at work on some of the many activities they had for children. They had a great time. 

There were lots of copies of Puffin books around to look though and who can resist a good book?

In the orangery

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Newcastle Borough Museum

The 1940s living room tableau 

Just a few pictures from our visit to Newcastle Borough Museum in Newcastle-under-Lyme on Sunday. It is a charming little museum and we passed a pleasant couple of hours in the museum and park. I loved the 1940s house and the Victorian street scene and we all particularly enjoyed the toy gallery. There was an area in the toy gallery for the children to play in and we had a hard time getting Emma to leave it!

After exploring the museum, the Podlings played for a while in the sensory garden outside and enjoyed the colourful birds  in the aviary. My sister might like to know that they had a rabbit living in the aviary that was the spitting image of her childhood pet, Malcolm. Malcolm was an adorable dwarf lop. Unfortunately, my parents didn't realise when they bought the rabbit that 'dwarf' applied to the ears, not the rabbit. Instead of the small rabbit with large ears we were expecting, Malcolm turned out to be a huge rabbit with itty bitty lop ears! Anyway, I digress...

Although it was a cold day, the Podlings enjoyed playing in the playground in Brampton Park before we headed for home. All in all it was a very pleasant way to spend a Sunday afternoon and the whole family enjoyed it. We will certainly go there again.

Mark and I, both holders of doctorates in chemistry, were rather taken with this old chemistry set on display in the toy gallery. You can be sure you wouldn't get half these chemicals in a modern child's chemistry set!

I find old books in museums so frustrating. I would love to be able to look though this old recipe book for little girls. I love old books!

I thought this old play kitchen set was lovely and they had a beautiful old doll's pram and doll's house on display. Honestly, I am still a little girl at heart! 

Lily outside the museum

This contraption was obviously designed to work with water, but there was no water in it. The poor girls were trying to get it to work with sand, which was never going to happen. I admire their determination though. Perhaps they have water running through it in warmer weather. I wouldn't have wanted the Podlings getting wet on a cold February day like Sunday!

Astbury Mere

On Saturday afternoon we took a walk around Astbury Mere in Congleton. As we strolled around the lake in the cold February dusk,  the peals of the nearby church bells were ringing out over the clean crisp air. Beautiful!

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