My Small Shops of the week



My Small shops of the week this week are the brilliant @YumSugarAndSpice and @Jellys_Jewels. Completely different businesses who work equally hard and are both absolutely amazing ladies, Find them on instagram.

 

Yum Sugar And Spice

 

 

Firstly I am going to talk about Yum Sugar And Spice, the fantastic small shop who creates the most beautiful handmade home décor.

Lily's favourite thing from Yum Sugar and Spice is her Spider-man lego figure. It is sturdy enough for Lily to play with and looks amazing in her superhero themed playroom (If you haven't seen our blog on Lily's Superhero playroom here is the link- https://littlelilysbigadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/lilys-minimalistic-playroom-set-up.html)



 

 

We have decorated Lily's bedroom with a variety of the beautiful décor - including the gorgeous bunny and clouds, which are so girly and perfect for any gift, as a treat for yourself, or to use as decoration as we do.

A great point I should add about Yum Sugar and Spice is their turn around time and ability to create almost anything you could dream of, no challenge is too much, and our items have always arrived so fast!

Beautiful handmade items, taken from Yum Sugar and Spice's facebook page

Another one of our favourite items that we have received is the beautiful Mothers Day flower frame pictured below.

I asked for this to be custom made to match a gorgeous print I had made for me, as a present for my Mum.

The frame is absolutely beautiful, with each individual flower being hand placed to perfection.  My Mum was delighted with her gift and it looks fantastic up on her wall!

 

We love Yum Sugar and Spice and highly recommend checking them out!

 

 

My Mum's Mothers Day frame

 

 

 

 

 





Jelly's Jewels make and sell the most beautiful and unique jewellery, our collection is growing rapidly and they are definitely one of these businesses that once you fall in love with are so dangerous for your bank balance (please tell me it's not just me who has shop(s) like this?!)

Lily loves that we can match with the beautiful 'Mummy and Me' sets, which include a huge variety of different charms and the choice of any colour of bracelet. They are suitable for any occasion. Lily got a very special bracelet for her 'Four year old Birthday' (as she calls it) and she loves it!

 

 

 https://www.instagram.com/jellys_jewels/

The new range, recently released of choker necklaces is without a doubt the best thing to come to instagram! I have a huge wish list including the beautiful new lace chokers which can be made in adult, and children's size.

Pictured above is the gorgeous new pendants, available in many different colours and style of necklace.

 

 

 

beautiful choker style necklace.

Jelly's Jewels have a brilliant turn around time and their prices are competitive and I think very reasonable (hence the shopping obsession)

You may be thinking this shop only caters for females, but their Men's collection of beaded bracelets which can be personalised with almost any word, name or letters is the perfect fathers day gift.

 

 

 

 

 

We have loved working with both @Jellys_Jewels and @YumSugarAndSpice both as brand reps and as genuine customers and are so proud to call them friends, they both deserve recognition for the hours of work that goes into running a small business and making it a great success and we wish all the best to both of them!

 

 

Next on our blog we have a special 'Day in the life' with our photographer @AmieBainPhotography, Starring the most beautiful dress from @la_laboutiquex. We are so excited and hope you can join us.

 

Thank You for reading, and for waiting so long for this blog.

We hope you enjoy it!

Love

Danielle & Lily xo

Doodlebox Craft



DoodleBoxCrafts Taken from their facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/doodleboxcraftuk/?hc_ref=NEWSFEED

Let me first introduce you to the fantastic, Doodle Box Craft- They are a small business who offer a monthly subscription, craft box which encourages imagination, development of fine motor skills and most importantly fun! Suitable for children ages 4-8, these boxes are only £4.75 monthly and have hours of entertainment and fun, we found that not only Lily but the whole family wanted to join in. The boxes are both exciting and come with great extra's including an email giving lots more craft ideas, which is an aspect I have never seen before in a craft subscription and I can't wait to use these, both at home and with my class!

 

Our First Box

 

"Wow A Parcel for ME!!" was Lily's first reaction to the box, she couldn't get into it quick enough. Once opening the box Lily was delighted to find a letter with her name on it in bright colours. When we opened the parcel we found bright, colourful instructions on how to complete the craft activities inside, we couldn't wait to get started!

"LOOK THERE IS SAND MUMMY"

 


Colourful instructions



The first activity Lily began was a sand art magnet, in the shape of a beach ball. Lily managed to peel the sticky back of the beach ball, and chose her own colour of sand to complete her magnet, this activity was one that Lily could do completely independently and she loved that! Lily spent a long time deliberating over which colours to use and then poured the sand on. She was so proud with her masterpiece that she placed it in pride of place on our fridge! I love that she had such a sense of achievement after the activity.

 

Lily's Completed Magnet

 

As an adult, I was really impressed with the fact everything we needed was included, and that I didn't have to go and hunt for bits and bobs that I am unlikely to posses, the fact I didn't need to go out and buy anything to be able to complete the sets which in the past I have found frustrating with other subscription boxes, I also loved how one activity Lily could do completely independently, boosting her confidence greatly and the second activity challenged her, so we worked together as a team to complete it. The conversation that came as a direct result of the items in the box was brilliant.

"Mummy there's lots of sand left over, can I play with it like at the Sea Side please"

Lily spent about an hour after she'd finished making her beach ball magnet playing with the left over sand, mixing the colours together and talking about all the colours she could make using the sand she had, she loved adding the shells to her mini sand pit, and having discussions about what we could use to make a mini sandcastle. We had such fun playing with the sand that we kept it to play with again.

The lovely thing about these boxes is that the activities can take as long or little time as you and your little one needs, we did one activity at a time then put the box away to take out later on.

Our second activity was a sand paper, sand castle making set which required more drawing, and colouring. Even the pencil and chalk were included!
Lily asked for a little bit of help with this activity, we worked as a team which brought up a conversation about helping each other out and team work.
Lily needed some encouragement to add the doors and window but once she'd seen me do it she was excited to get let loose! She chose to play with the little cut out sea animals in her new sandpit, so we kept our sand castle card to the minimalistic look.

https://www.instagram.com/doodleboxcraft/

 

 

Lily and I truly enjoyed our first Doodle Box Craft, box and can't wait to see what next month brings.

 

 

To see for yourself just how much fun can be had, subscribe here at- http://www.doodleboxcraft.co.uk/#products 

 

Thank You for reading

Danielle & Lily

xo

Sibling battles!

My brother, Sam, is two years younger than me. He is, in my opinion the most annoying, infuriating and yet fantastic person I know.
We fight more often than we are friends, and as a child being the eldest was great, I could just smack him one, I used to be forever getting him into trouble for things I had done. Sorry Sam!
Unfortunately as we got older he grew, massive, he's so tall and spends all his spare time in the gym. I don't fancy fighting Mr Muscle because unlike when we were 5 and 7 I know for a fact I will not win. (damn)
Growing up we had a love/hate sibling relationship, you know the one.. either 'I want to kill you' or 'you're my very best friend in the world' and that drove (and still does drive) our parents mad, but which siblings don't drive their parents crazy? We surely can't be the only ones? If we are sorry Mum and Dad.
We are fantastic at winding each other up, seeing who will bite first. for example....I'll never let him live down the time I squashed him into my dolls buggy and pushed him round the house, or the time he insisted in dressing up in my dress and refusing to get changed (sorry Sam had to be done)

When it comes down to it Sam is the person in the world I can trust with any secret and he tells me absolutely everything, even when I cannot be in the same room with him because he's made me so angry, I would never tell.
As children we even had our own secret language, does anyone else have their own language with their siblings? No? Just us... okay!!

We hang out fairly often, usually having at least one argument, as siblings usually do. We can often go weeks without talking because we have fallen out over something completely ridiculous and I can't even count the amount of time we have 'unfriended' each other on Facebook, but we always re-add each other again.

Sam, is a fantastic Uncle to Lily in his own way, he, as most adolescent boys is not fantastic at the whole practical 'looking after' a child or baby, he almost fainted when he had to change her nappy. Once! However he did love Lily cuddles when she was tiny, and is one very proud Uncle whenever she does anything slightly exciting he is always first to cheer her on!

Looking lovingly at each other

When the two of them are left alone together it is the equivalent of leaving two four year olds' together, unsupervised. Expect mess... and often tears, mostly from Sam! (kidding) but Lily ADORES him, she thinks he is the most funny person in the whole wide world, and how great is winding him up?!
Sam and Lily share a love of all sports which means they are often running around together.
As a newly (almost) trained swimming teacher Lily loves nothing more than showing off her swimming schools for Uncle Sam's approval.

 

 

 

 

 

Do you get on with your sibling? I'd love to hear.

Thanks for reading

Danielle x

 



Lily's first blog- All about Steven

Lily has been asking me to write a blog all about her pet, Steven the Hamster since I first began writing blogs, today's blog is going to be written by Lily. Age 4 and is all about her furry friend. Questions asked by Mummy and answered completely in Lily's own words.  

"I love Steven"

"Where did we get Steven from Lily?" - "We got Steven from Pets at Home in Inverurie, the lady helped us choose the one we wanted, we could choose a boy or a girl, I wanted a Boy. The lady helped us know how to look after a hamster, and not to feed him kiwi, because it's bad for hamsters. The lady also told us to let him rest in his cage for a long time before we played with him so he could be settled in"

I can hold Steven but I'm very gentle because he's little

"Why did you call Steven, Steven?" - Because that's My Grumpa's name and I love it, and I love my Grumpa lots.

"How do you look after Steven Lily?"  - "I give him fresh water every day, and give him fresh carrots and feed him everyday.
I play with him every day, I play with him in his ball.
Steven loves his ball and runs really really really fast. 
I hold him lots, he's very used to being holded now and doesn't even bite. 
I take him to the vet if he's poorly, when he had wet tail we went to the vet, the vet looked at him but he was okay, so we took him back home.
I have to clean out his cage, Mummy helps me with that because its tricky isn't it Mummy?  Steven likes having a clean house" 

Steven in his ball.

"Mummy and I went to the pet shop at the weekend and bought Steven a brand new cage, it is HUGE it has tunnels for Steven to climb up and a big wheel for him to run in, we got him a new house too but he doesn't really like it yet. Steven's new cage was from Pet's at home and Steven loves it. It is blue and blue is my and Steven's favourite colour."

Me looking at Steven's new cage!

"We buyed him yogurt bites for a yummy treat. He loves those but he loves broccoli the most. He gets lots of different food for treats, but remember Mummy not Kiwi"

Steven enjoying his favourite food, Broccoli.




Thanks for reading Lily's first blog,
We hope you enjoyed it.
Lily would love to know what you thought?


Danielle & Lily
x

A Day In the Life of Lily

A Day in the life of Lily



Good Morning Mummy



Lily wakes up at around 8.30/9am and gets herself dressed, in the clothes that we looked out for her to wear the previous night. She then comes and wakes me up, by getting into bed with me for a 'good morning kiss and cuddle.'
We both get up and Lily plays in her play room. While I get myself dressed and ready.
Recently she's started playing a lot with her 'Design A Friend' doll Victoria. Which is a doll collection, with their own outfits and accessories, available to buy from Argos (link below)
Lily is saving up to buy the other dolls and more clothes for Victoria. She loves how Victoria looks like her and has so many different outfits so she can dress and undress her lots which is one of Lily's favourite thing to do at the moment and is great for her fine motor skills.


http://www.argos.co.uk/search/shop-all-designa-friend/?tag=ar:designafriend:shopall

After I am ready we both go downstairs and Lily lets Capra, our dog outside, while I get breakfast ready. Lily likes either cereal or toast for breakfast. We have breakfast together.

 Lily then plays with her hamster Steven, who she recently bought a new cage for and is so excited to help write her very first, own blog post based on her very special pet Steven.

Lily and I then take Capra for a walk, either to the wonderful fairy garden we have in our village or the dog walk area, Capra loves going to the dog walk, where she often meets other dogs to play with. Capra is a rescue dog from Spain and we have had her for a year, she is the soppiest dog out there and just wants cuddles from anyone and everyone. She also loves sharing ice cream with her human sister Lily!

 

When we have finished our walk we grab a quick lunch, as we start Work/Nursery at 11am. Lily's favourite lunches include- Salad wraps, ham sandwiches, Picnic platter with lots of veg. Lily's favourite food is cucumber and she would eat the whole thing if I let her!

We then set off to Nursery. Lily is in my nursery class and has been for just over a year, but only until summer when she starts primary one (but that's a whole other blog post)

We spend the afternoon playing, learning, and having fun! I am very lucky in the sense that even when I am working I am playing and spending time with Lily, although it has it's own challenges, I wouldn't have it any other way. Being Lily's teacher is just as much of a challenge and fun as being her Mum, in a completely different way and when Lily first started in my class we found it quite difficult to adapt, Lily wasn't used to sharing her Mum, but now she barely notices I'm there. Since starting Nursery she has come on in so many different ways, her confidence and social skills are the two areas I notice the most difference in.

Lily stays with me after her friends have gone home, and helps tidy the Classroom though more often than not she makes more of a mess as I'm trying to tidy up.

Sometimes Lily will go through and visit her Granny in the office and help her with very important jobs, Lily's Granny is our School's Administrator.

We finish School at 4 and head home, we seconds away from the which has it's advantages and disadvantages, it can be challenging when my best friend's are also parents of children in my class, but again I wouldn't have it any other way.

 

 

 

Lily with her neighbours Shaun and Chloe, two of Lily's best friends, We are so lucky to have the best neighbours.

 

Lily loves to play out with next door neighbours after school.

They are all in different classes at the moment so Lily gets so excited to rush home from school to play with them, I will often have a chat with Faye, Shaun and Chloe's Mum and one of my closest friends.

We are so lucky to have such amazing neighbours who are not only great friends but the most supportive, kind people we could wish to live next door to. I am delighted that Lily is growing up on a street where she can 'play out' like I did when I was a child. In the holidays the children will play outside until it gets dark and we will sit outside chatting. (often with a glass of prossecco or 5)

 

 

Lily does highland dancing twice a week, and really enjoys it. She passed her first Highland Dancing exam in December and will begin to compete very soon. She has come on so much since starting and loves it so much that she practices every single day without being asked. On Highland Dancing days we don't get home till a bit later on.  



 

 

 

You may have already read our blog about Lily's bedtime routine if not I will put the link in here..... https://littlelilysbigadventures.blogspot.co.uk/2017/05/sleep-its-important-to-us.html

That is the average day in Lily's Life, I hope you have enjoyed reading.

Danielle x










Sporting Classes, Why I think they're important

There are so many different sports classes out there for children of all ages, it can be overwhelming choosing which ones to attend, whether that be one you go to with your child or one they attend alone. Sometimes attending classes with your child may feel daunting or scary, especially if you are shy and find meeting new people difficult.
That is the first reason I think starting going to any class from an early age is a really positive part of your child growing up. As well as the obvious added fitness and health benefits, It's a great opportunity to meet new people both for you and your child. Children of young ages can develop social skills which are valuable when it comes to them starting nursery or school.

Lily currently takes part in Ballet and Highland dancing, we have narrowed it down to these two as she has decided these are the two she wants to do seriously. Previously she has tried gymnastics and swimming- she will continue with swimming after the Summer Holidays.
Trying a variety of groups from a young age is a good idea, both you and your child can get an idea of what they will enjoy, and those they may not enjoy as much.
Once you have decided on an activity (or two) that your child wants to do I think it is very important that your child sticks to it/them. This may mean encouraging them to keep going once the initial excitement has worn off, but by getting them to persevere and at least continue to attend until the end of that block or term not only teaches resilience but also teaches them that in life just because things become difficult or hard work it does not mean you can or should just give up. These classes often cost money which is another reason a child should not just drop out half way through a term- on the other hand if they really, get to dislike their hobby for a genuine reason you can discuss this and listen to their reasons and come to a decision together.
Sport, including dancing is a great way to keep fit, as well as this it teaches them a huge variety of life skills including: team work, gross and fine motor skills, coordination, confidence, spatial awareness, the ability to persevere and the feeling of achievement.

The improvement in Lily's motor skills and spatial awareness since starting both Ballet and Highland dancing a year ago is massive, when she first started Ballet she didn't know how to skip, she is now doing Pre-primary ballet as well as five year olds. Not only is there an obvious physical improvement but Lily's confidence has grown massively. She completed a highland dancing exam in December and passed, the sense of pride and achievement was massive.

Lily with her highland dancing awards

Lily has recently been told she is at a level where she can begin to compete in Highland Dancing and she is so excited to begin, she attends highland dancing twice a week and ballet once and she loves both and spends the entire week asking if its a ballet or highland day!

I'd love to hear what sports or activities your children get up to.

Thanks for reading

Danielle

x



It's okay to ask for help.

"Sometimes it's okay not to be okay."

I hate accepting help, admitting that I'm struggling or just that I need a hand.
I see it as a sign of weakness almost like I'm not good enough if I take the help that is offered to me.
Which of course is ridiculous.
I have the best most supportive family and friends, who are forever helping me out in any way they possibly can. I am incredibly lucky in that aspect and I feel like I don't tell them enough how genuinely grateful I am.
Without the support of my family and friends I would not have been able to cope this past year. Some days I struggle to get out of bed. My head feels like it is attacking itself and my whole body aches, but despite how rubbish I feel Lily needs her Mum. Yet some mornings when Lily wakes me up I want to hide under the covers and shut the whole world out. I want to scream and shout, its not fair, why can't I just feel normal, but of course I don't, I keep going and try to be the best Mum I can be to Lily.
Very recently I have began to accept help from the people I love and the people who love me, its hard, but slowly I am getting better at accepting the help I need.
Recently a very good friend of mine took Lily for the whole day when I felt absolutely awful, although I found it really hard to ask for help, because I did I spent the day able to rest and recuperate and I felt so much better after a full day of rest.
What I guess I am learning is that taking help when offered isn't weakness, its necessary.
So, to my friends who have tirelessly supported me and offered help, and sometimes just an ear, Thank you.
To anyone reading this who needs some support or help but are too scared to ask, please do.

Thanks for reading

Danielle x