Gardening in small spaces..

A lot of people talk about wanting to grow there own veggies but say they haven't got a lot of room, or they live in a apartment and don't know we're to grow them..
So today I will post a few links and ideas for you to read and consider for you to grow your veggies were ever you might live and how ever much space you have.. It takes some imagination and effort but its well worth it when you see your veggadables growing and the feeling about picking your own grown stuff is great.
Involve children in your home grown food too ,it makes them feel happy and gives them responsibility about taking care of them ,watering them and a feeling of satisfaction when the vegetables are ready for picking.
I remember we put some potatoes one time in an old ikea bag and kids were amazed when the potatoes were ready and they were digging them up, because from one potato you can get 5 so they multiplied.. So below there are links of some good ideas for your garden and ideas about what grows best in small spaces and in pots.. Hope you enjoy and have a great day..
http://www.bbc.co.uk/gardening/digin/your_space/

http://www.sunset.com/garden/fruits-veggies/small-space-vegetable-gardens-00400000044403/

http://www.pinterest.com/lara_50/growing-vegetables-in-a-small-space/

http://gardening.about.com/od/vegetables/a/SmVegGarden.htm

 http://m.wikihow.com/Grow-Vegetables-in-Small-Gardens

http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/ten-great-crops-to-grow-in-containers/
http://www.verticalveg.org.uk/how-to-save-tomato-seeds/

Kids Poppy paintings.

We painted with the kids today as our afternoon activity, we used some canvases and acrylic paints .
I gave the kids some thin wood pieces some sponge ,brushes and paints. At the bottom of the canvas we put some blobs of paint and kids scraped it  upwards with the wooden pieces. This gives a really nice effect on the canvas , them they used there pieces of sponge to make patterns.
When they were happy with there painting my eldest had the idea of putting some blobs of paint and with the flat side of the wood to swirl it around to make snails and poppies.. With some green we made some stems for the flowers and the result was fantastic...kids signed and paintings were left to dry.

Diy lice repellant spray..

With school starting up I thought I would share my diy lice repellant spray , this is good for prevention of lice and the little menaces hate the smell so they keep well away from the kids hair.
All you need is:
 10 drops Lavender
10 drops Eucalyptus
10 drops Tea Tree Oil 

I spray bottle ( normal garden sized )

Water

Poor water in the spray bottle ,put 10 drops of Lavender,10 drops of Eucalyptus ,10 drops of Tea tree essential oils. Give it a good shake before use and just spray on child hair each morning before school..

That's it simple and effective.. Wishing you all a good school year.

Recycled foil pie tin craft

My oldest collected some stuff from the recycled box ,got out the hot glue gun and he said he had a craft idea to work on. So I let him to get on with he's craft and when he was done he came in the room happy and proud of he's creation. It was a robot head made from bottle tops from beers and water bottles some yarn a foil pie tin and a old top from a box.
Now it's a part of our art wall gallery in the play room. With a little bit of imagination and a few scrap pieces art is made. You could recycle anything you have to make art, with a bigger top from a box you could made a scene of flowers ,trees ,people and anything you could think about. Ask your children for there ideas ,kids come up with the greatest and imaginative ideas..
Have a great day you all out there..

I back to school free labels

 It's soon back to school and you parents are probably getting the kids stuff ready just as I am.
I like to have things labeled the kids bags ,books,lunch box,folders and pencil cases.
Some labels I order online , the kind that don't come off in the wash, those ones for the school bags that need to be a bit more durable and others I print on sticker printable paper and stick them on there books and folders.
You could also print them on paper too and them glue them on,and mod podge them if you like.(pva glue)
I will share with you some links that you can go and download for free some very nice labels.
Hope you enjoyed this post and have fun in the new school year..

http://alphamom.com/family-fun/holidays/free-printable-lunchbox-notes-tags-stickers/

http://alphamom.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/Lunch-Box-Jokes.pdf

http://tarisota.typepad.com/files/school-label.pdf

http://tarisota.typepad.com/files/class-label.pdf

http://www.livinglocurto.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Personalized-Snack-Labels-
©LivingLocurto.pdf

http://eps-ai.blogspot.com/2012/05/abstract-vector-paper-labels.html

http://ziggityzoom.com/website/activities.php?a=161

http://orangeyoulucky.blogspot.com/2009/06/bookplates-for-you.html

Reusing those broken crayons..

My kids love to draw all the time and we are left with loads of crayons that are broken and just left at the bottom of the crayon box looking messy . So we made it in to an activity with my boys to melt them and make new ones.
So what you do is this:
Get  kids to peel of the paper of the broken ,chipped crayons, separate them in too different colors.
Orange with orange ,blues with blues.reds with reds and so on.....
You will need a cup cake tin and or shaped molds to put your crayons in side. If you would like rainbow colored crayons them mix the colored crayons together in the cup cake tin or molds.
Put your oven on to 180 C and put your tin in the oven until crayons are melted.. Now if your mold is not oven safe you could melt the crayons in a pan and them pour the melted crayons in your molds..
Let the mixture cool completely and then remove them form the tin or the mold..
I gave some for party favors for one of my boys birthday party, ours were fishes and wrapped in a cello bag with a pretty ribbon and thank you card..
Have fun melting :-)

Secret garden hideout..

Secret garden hide out.. Make a secret play area with your children so they can play and pretend. They can paint it and make chimes to hang on the branches. Put logs of wood for seats old tiles for the floor..
My boys have been working on there's 2 days now and there having fun.. Choose a good area in your garden were bushes and trees are tall and were there is an area that looks like a little cave so kids can go under and play. 
We choose a nice place were our fairy garden is , we have bushes ,trees and shrubs that are grown big and its an ideal place for a secret garden. 
My eldest cleaned and cut the lower branches yesterday and wheelbarrowed some stones in side for he's floor. We made a frame from wooden planks that became  the hideouts wall.
On that we used and old large box and stapled it on,cut some windows and a letter box slot and the kids painted on it.
Next over the time we will make some chimes to hang from the branches . Kids made a plastic cup banner a wile back and that was hung on the branches as decoration along with some paper Pom pons.
Hope we have inspired you to make your secret hideout garden.. Have a great Sunday..