Too good not to share...

One of my boys' favourite movies (and one that I really love too) is Despicable Me. 

I especially love the little Minions in it, although I also have a soft spot for the bad guy with a good heart!

As anyone who reads my blog will also know, they are huge Avengers fans.

So, imagine their delight when we stumbled on the picture below online.

Both films combined!

It's such a great picture, it had us all laughing for ages.

I haven't seen the film, but am reliably informed by James there is a scene in it where Hulk punches Thor just like in the picture!

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Weekend Fun

Here's a selection of photos of what we were up to at the weekend in the sunshine.

Shopping for some goodies for our Jubilee Barbecue, which we are planning for this weekend.

We didn't buy the hats, but we did buy some suitably patriotic table decorations!

James is taking over one of the vegetable beds this year and planted his cauliflower, onion and brocolli. he has also planted carrots, parsnips, beetroot seeds elsewhere.

Alasdair having fun with one of his cousins.

Barbecue at my brother and sister in law's.

The cycle home from the above fun and barbecue was a bit much for wee Alasdair!

For Sunday lunch, Calum made Prawn Cocktail for starter. He made the Marie Rose sauce himself, without me telling him how much of everything to put in. It was delicious!

Summery weather needs a summery pudding and so I made Raspberry & Blueberry Roulade.

And there was lots of time to just potter around in the garden.

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Make it Monday - Patriotic Cufflinks

Since this is the final week in the build up to the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations (I have a whole other post about our plans for that in the pipeline) it seemed only fitting that I spent today making these.

These photos are not actually the best ones I took of them - the sun was too bright (can you believe I just said that?!) and cast too much glare/reflection on these. I'm just off to upload and edit the better ones just now, but thought I'd share my makes with you all first.

I also made a few other types of cufflinks today too. Father's Day is just around the corner and so I thought I'd get these onto my etsy store!

Yes, the sun is still shining. Eight days in a row. Unless you're Scottish, or have had such a miserable Spring as us, then you probably don't get the excitement of that!

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Our week in pictures (and a few words!)

There hasn't been much time for blogging this week, largely due to a visit to Ikea and the resulting work that came from that. More on that later.

Be warned, it's a long post, as I try to cram a week's worth of blogging into one post!

Let's start with last Saturday and the boys' weekly shinty practice. I don't always go with them as daddy is the coach and so he takes them. He had a conference to attend on Saturday though, so as the older three boys were training, Alasdair and I went for a walk through the park where they train and admired the last of the spring blossom.

You can determine the success of a shinty session by the state of the clothing afterwards.

The back was much worse!

On Saturday afternoon the football team that the boys and dad support (Hearts) were playing the Scottish Cup Final against their arch-rivals, the other Edinburgh team (Hibs). It was the first time the two teams had played each other in the final for over 100 years. The game was well hyped up before hand, and both sets of fans were actually more terrified than excited. They all said that they didn't mind losing in the final to any team but their city rivals!

We all watched the game (except poor daddy who was still at the conference, but eagerly following the updates on his phone!) and it turned out to be a really good match.

Thankfully for my little supporters, our team won, 5-1!

Sunday saw the start of the sunshine that we have been longing for all Spring. Although we have had sunny spells, there has hardly been a day without rain all Spring so were long-overdue this spell. With the exception of the major thunder storm on Wednesday evening, this is the longest it has been dry for ages and ages! Well, it certainly feels like that anyway!

Daddy and Alasdair spot a cute little doggy at the park.

David, fearless as ever....

Ready, steady, go!

On Monday and Tuesday, dad took a couple of days off work.

We spent Monday morning enjoying tea & scones at our favourite garden centre....

.....which has a play-park the boys love.

Alasdair and Daddy checked out some of the garden furniture, which is a wee but out of our price range!

We spent the rest of Monday at the swimming pool and then headed home for a barbecue.

On Tuesday we paid a visit to Ikea and bought some new bookcases. It's always fun getting Ikea purchases home again.

The sunny weather continued (and is set to continue till Tuesday I think.) It's been so nice to finally get working in the garden again and to let the boys potter around.

Our temperatures have been around 24C, which may not seem too hot to those of you used to sunnier climates, but it's just perfect to us! Not too hot, but hot enough to warm up your bones :0)

When not digging my way through the mountain of weeds that have grown up over the wet Spring, I was busy re-organising our books onto the new bookcase.

When we were thinking of moving house last year, we had a major de-clutter as all estate agents tell you is best, and put a lot of our books into storage in my brother's garage! It is so wonderful to have them all back again, and here they are on the new bookcases. 

We did have old bookcases (also in storage in my brothers garage) but thought we would treat ourselves to some smart new ones.

And to finish with, here is my littlest man enjoying chasing bubbles round the garden today.

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On-line craft fair

I've been too busy for a normal Make-It Monday post tonight as I've been getting all my forms submitted for an online craft fair that is being held from 9th - 16th June.

Any crafters out there, anywhere in the whole wide world, can take part.

You have until the 25th May to book a stall, that's this Friday.

This is the first time I've signed up for it, but basically it's like a craft-fair only instead of sitting in a draughty hall somewhere, your stall is a page on-line with photos of all you are selling along with links of where to buy the items.



If you are interested in having a stall you can find out more here.

I'll be sure to let you all know when my stall is up and running too so you can come over and give me a friendly virtual wave!

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No stopping his creativity...

We are starting to see a slight improvement in James' hands today. It's taken about 48 hours for the antibiotics and stronger steroid cream to kick in. 

Yesterday he couldn't even stretch his hand open to hold a glass of juice the skin was so broken and sore, but tonight he managed to do so. 

It's not holding him back though.

He might have been struggling to hold a pencil properly for the last few days, but this afternoon he managed to put together this animation for a class project.

Everyone in his class has to do a project on any subject of their choosing. They still have a few more weeks to work on it but tomorrow they need to do a presentation on what they have done so far.

James' strong point is not with writing but with art, and it is great that his teacher allows them to use all sorts of media for their projects, and doesn't want them to do just a written report. 

He has chosen D-Day as his subject, and has (before his hands fell to pieces) begun working on a poster with a drawing of a battle scene and lots of information boxes around it. He will also give a presentation on the subject and is working on an animation too.

For tomorrow's presentation he has made up a wee trailer of his animation, in the style of a movie trailer, which is the delight I have for you all tonight.

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Ouch!

Poor James has been having a tough time of things recently with both his asthma and eczema. 

 In the Easter holidays he came down with a cold, which didn't really bother him too much but, as it usually does, it went into his chest and his asthma flared up. He was left with a nasty cough that was disturbing him through the night and he was needing to use his reliever inhaler far more than usual. Almost once an hour. 

A few weeks back we went to see the doctor who confirmed a chest infection, prescribed a course of antibiotics and altered his asthma medication for a while. A few days later and his chest was on the mend. 

However, whenever any of the boys are under the weather their eczema also flares up, and this time was no different. Although James' chest was back to normal, his skin wasn't and his hands especially were in a terrible state. Now it was his skin that was waking him up through the night rather than his cough. Add to that the fact that Alasdair still wakes up itchy though the night and you can imagine how much sleep was going on for mama - especially the night last week that Calum was up through the night with a migraine too!! 

 Anyway, yesterday we were back at the doctors and James is now on another course of antibiotics, this time for his skin infection. The doctor looked over at Alasdair and decided he could do with a course too! James has also been given a stronger steroid cream to get him through this too. 

 AND, and this is where the 'ouch' comes in, as if he didn't have enough going on just now, James is getting ready to have braces fitted in a weeks time as his teeth are overcrowded at the top. In preparation for this he had to have two adult molar teeth taken out on Friday. He was so brave though. Having never had any teeth out before, I was amazed at the size of them! He hasn't complained once about his gums, although we haven't tried him with a chewy steak yet!

I had thought of finishing the post off with a photo of his teeth, but healthy and clean as they are, I still find them kind of gross to look at, and it makes me just want to run upstairs and brush my own teeth just to make sure I never have to have any of mine pulled out!

 

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Make it Monday - Some Inspiration

This week I thought rather than share something I'm working on, I would share some of the inspirations and ideas I have for future Make-Its.

Hand's up who is on Pinterest? The following ideas have all come from there, a wonderful source of inspiration for crafters, bakers, designers etc. I have seen numerous people say how addictive it becomes, but to be honest it isn't too bad. You just need a bit of self discipline, and so I limit how often I let myself go there!

Here we go then, a list of things that I have been inspired to try out!


~Things to make with cardboard boxes. My boys love to hoard boxes for any type of invention they might need to make in the future, so this has their name all over it!

Source: ikatbag.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

~Slime! I'm not too sure how this would be for little hands with eczema, but it certainly looks like fun for boys.

Source: ourbestbites.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

~This next one is possibly my favourite. We go through (literally!) so many pairs of jeans in this house but this is such a wonderful way to patch them up.

Source: bymiek.blogspot.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

Moving onto a few foodie ideas to finish off.



~Calum my little owl lover would love both of these.

Source: google.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

Source: nicolehill.blogspot.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

Just need to find some wheat & dairy free Oreos first.





~These would be just the thing for brightening up packed lunch boxes. So cute.

Source: doorbellove.tumblr.com via Kirsteen on Pinterest

So there we have it. Just a wee selection of things I want to try out.

If you are on Pinterest and want to see what else I have pinned you can find me here.

Or, if you haven't joined up and want to see what all the fuss is about, then send me a wee email and I will send you an invite. I'm not sure why it is invite only, but that's the way it works just now anyway.

Happy Makings!

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