15/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

I asked the girls to draw something to do with One Cat Farm that they loved (where we've just been on hols). They both drew the den. And who could blame them? I loved it too.

Unplugging to reconnect with a basic love of life

I think there is something truly wonderful about your mobile phone going on the blink the same day that you leave for a holiday.  Maybe that’s just me? Yet as I’m headed westbound out of Paddington on a train to Bristol Parkway, I’m feeling like my holiday has already begun. You see, I no longer have the annoyance of work buzzing in my handbag. No, now it’s just me alone, sat smug having survived the platform scrum.

Actually, I’m doubly smug, for I’m doing this first leg of the journey alone. Darling other half is currently somewhere along the M4 corridor with the chaos that is our 7 and 4 YO girls in tow. See what I mean about feeling my hols has well and truly begun?

I’m not going to need the phone where are headed. One Cat Farm promises to have no WiFi and thank heavens for that. This holiday is all about being in close proximity with the family in idyllic Welsh countryside, staring at the stars. It’s about unplugging oneself from the technological madness that most of us inhabit each and every day, and reconnecting with a basic love of life.

Can’t wait to see how it goes…

A natural born camper?

Turns out I'm not a natural born camper. I much prefer the five-star treatment. Here, let me put you in the picture: me and camping

Then of course, last summer I went on a trip that was officially labelled GLamping but was horrified to realise there was no ground coffee available. I would usually have taken a cafetiere with me in these circumstances, but had been thinking glamorous camping would equate to strong coffee on tap, along with a ready made bed to get into. What a fool I was - no I didn't take bedding either.

So yes, camping is my idea of hell. But now that LIFE AS IT IS has been offered a GLamping review opportunity, and now that the kids are older... (7 & 4), now that there is heating on offer... and proper beds... and now that I've long since given up my coffee addiction... okay then, I'll give it a go. Who couldn't resist the lure of - and I quote - snuggling up in your very own den in a hidden valley - along with views like this...

One Cat Farm in Wales here we come.

14/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

How to make a home for a hedgehog

Wondering what to do with the kids through the holiday? How about encouraging wildlife into your garden by making homes for hedgehogs. 

Spring is springing, nature is waking; now’s the time to make our hedgehog friends homes.

All you need is a cardboard box with an entrance hole cut out of it. (No bigger than 15 cms wide). Line it with straw and paper and put it next to a fence or hedge. Protect it from rain by covering it with a plastic bag - a bin liner is best - remembering to keep the entrance clear. 

Children will love to add camouflage such as stones, twigs, grass and other garden finds to keep it hidden. Hopefully your nest will prove a welcome home for Mrs Hedgehog to settle into now - just in time for her to have her babies in the Summer.

For more tips on how to encourage hedgehogs into your garden read this post

The ballet - A joy for ALL to behold

MY first ballet happened to be the Christmas classic The Nutcracker. I took Esme Grace - my delighted 7YO - with me. Rather wonderfully, both of us were totally unaware of the magic we were letting ourselves in for.

Easter with HEMA

Thank you @Hema.UK for sending LIFE AS IT IS the great kiddie cake stand. Looks so bright and colourful. After Easter, the children plan to use it in their play kitchen - as well as bringing it out for parties evermore!

Hema stores can be found in Kingston, Bromley, London Victoria, Birmingham and London Stansted Airport.

Emma Oliver and the GraceFaith girls received goodies from HEMA in exchange for a review on the parenting/lifestyle blog LIFE AS IT IS.

For DISCLOSURE & DISCLAIMER, please view my page on LEGAL STUFF

13/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

FRAMED

Foot musings of a 7YO

M: You alright my love?
E: Yes mummy, fine. Just fishing in my feet for toe jam.

The Zoingo Boingo Pogo - A review

When I was approached to review the new Zoingo Boingo Pogo from Flair PLC, I jumped at it (no pun intended). You see the Zoingo Boingo is a flexible freestyle pogo outdoor toy, and I've lost count of how many years Esme has asked me for a pogo stick. The Zoingo is slightly different to what one immediately thinks of as a pogo stick; frankly this one lets you freestyle! 

12/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Parenting is...

... sighing deeply (and/or muttering swear words under your breath) as you realise your 7yo has forgotten to flush her poo yet again.

11/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

...Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Mr Sandman, bring me a dream...

HUNTING SEASON - Alternative Easter Egg finds...

Now we all know there's plenty of chocolate around at Easter, often too much it would seem, so for those parents hunting for some great alternative Easter gift ideas, here are my top five... (collaborating with publishing house Laurence King).

Annual Easter Egg Hunt at West Dean Gardens - Easter with the kids

All children big and small love Easter Egg hunts and the idea of being rewarded with a small handmade chocolate treat, don't they? Well let the family join in the fun at the simply beautiful West Dean Gardens in West Sussex daily over the Easter, for they are offering Easter Egg trails from the 25th to the 28th of March from 9am – 5.00pm (last entry 4.00pm). 

INFO
Normal Adult gardens’ entry applies. 
Children’s entry to the gardens FREE although there is a small additional charge of £2.50 per child for the Easter Egg Trail, including two children’s activities and a small, handmade chocolate treat for completing the trail.

Free parking
Fancy a spot of afternoon tea? There's a shop and restaurant on site
Dogs welcome, on leads

10/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

What a happy Mother's Day! How I love this bowl Esme has made for me and how I will cherish eating my breakfast from it every single day! Thanks gorgeous girl. x

World Book Day today...

...and this year Esme's school is not participating in costume wearing - although Esme is for it also happens to be her assembly and she will be dressed as Pippi Longstocking later on this afternoon. Rather wonderfully, they are embracing the World Book Day theme. (Thought to self... goodness knows if the coat hanger wire in her hair will work?) I think perhaps the blog point I'm trying to make here is this... never mind dressing up, World Book Day is an annual reminder to read to our children, to encourage a love and lifetime of enjoying books, to support our local libraries, and overall, to express how interacting with the printed word can be every bit as good (indeed better) than a screen. Happy World Book Day one and all.

Julia Donaldson and Esme on stage, act out Julia's fabulous book 'A Squash and A Squeeze'

FRAMED - the busy day Fia had

LIFE AS IT IS This week in... Feb 2016 - Tummy Troubles (3)

Don't assume a woman is pregnant - even if she looks six months gone...

Looking down at my abdomen and again in profile - the bloating has become more severe of late. I wake in the morning and my tummy is normal. I drink a glass of water, and oh yeah up she rises. I'm wondering if an ulcer alone could possibly be responsible for this reaction? To help combat it - together with the wonder drug Omeprazole which heals the stomach lining - I started a probiotic, but rather wonderfully, all that brought me was a commonal garden bird. FFS. Oh, and I had to dig the nit comb out - although that itch was more than likely due to a new hair product: Some mousse I bought in a bid to inflate my lack lustre locks. Perhaps I'm allergic to that? While I'm on the subject of hair, last week I took the scissors to mine and I'm feeling quite lopsided now, wearing a rather unsteady base line chop which I'm viewing positively by calling it texture. Funny thing is, I go to the hairdresser, no one says a word, I do it myself and I've had a plethora of praise. Are people being kind do you think? So as my LIFE AS IT IS bumbles along, I do have one positive to mention about the fact that I'm looking very pregnant these days... I'm getting offered a seat on the underground every time. Chivalry appears to be very much alive and kicking - unlike the baby within.

9/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Struggling to give up the booze - A poem - Tummy Troubles (2)

Don't ask me how it's going - it's only been one week.
Truth is, it's bloody hard and I'm feeling very weak.
Friday night was hardest but even Monday wasn't great,
And now that it's the weekend, I'm thinking of my mate.

Not the one dressed to the nines and heading to the Ritz,
Who'll later neck Dom Perignon and get right off her titz.
Nor the one that's laden down with Cristal, Cru and Boli,
White wine, red wine, and rose, sitting in her trolley.

8/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Esme and Mummy flying together

Coeliac V Stomach ulcer - Tummy Troubles (1)

So they go in looking for coeliac disease, and they come out finding a stomach ulcer.

Good job that I gave up coffee. Not so good that I left it so long.

I'm convinced it's the sheer amount of coffee I consumed year after year that led to an ulcer.

Oh and stress of course. For motherhood and my Life As It Is has certainly been stressful at times. Goodness, you only have to read this or this to see how manic it has been. And what did I nearly always turn to on these occasions? A good glass bottle of wine. Mmm. Like a lot of us do. Alas, no more for me I'm afraid. Doctor's orders.

Tonight will be my last hurrah for a while. Out to a joint 40th to enjoy letting my hair down before I stop drinking booze for 6 weeks. The thought itself is enough to finish me off. I've never been up for a dry January - let alone a dry part Feb, March, and part April. Feck!

A parting thought... and a sobering one at that... endoscopes are not pleasant.

7/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

Esme plans a blanket design

LIFE AS IT IS - Tummy Troubles

Off for a gastro camera today. Not worried about it although I'm sure it won't be that easy to stomach. There's a question mark over coeliac disease. And not just with me.

Fia had cameras both ends a few months ago due to blood in her stools. After almost a year of wondering, they found and removed a polyp that had been 4x2 cms in size. Huge. Certainly for a wee girlie.

Unbelievably (or perhaps not), the hospital phoned me yesterday to say that they had not tested the blood they took last month correctly, and that she will need yet another blood test. It will be her sixth.

So from a mother who has been told her child is not a coeliac, I now wait to find out again. I now have the pleasure of taking her for another blood test.

And I told her there would be no more needles for a very long time.

That's our current LIFE AS IT IS...

coeliac.org.uk

When all around you is a monstrous sea - A poem

A monstrous sea whips all around,
Waves engulf you whole.
Beyond your depth, fighting for breath,
Totally out of control.

My advice: Open the vodka.

6/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

ARCTIC CONDITIONS

There's an unspeakable beauty about a place like this.
And really… seeing is the only way of truly communicating that beauty.
For breathtaking, it renders the observer mute.
And how could one possibly recreate that vision through words anyway?
Visiting for yourself is the only way to understand. 

When she's not off gadding, Freelance travel writer Emma Oliver can be found WritingLifeAsItIs.blogspot.co.uk

FRAMED

déjeune en Paris

Paris has a beauty and charm that defies time - yet still it had been far too long since my last visit. So there I was again, invited for lunch. And being lunch in Paris, come on... it was never going to be disappointing now was it? The food and drink - masterfully paired, were an overwhelmingly good onslaught on the tastebuds. I was left wanting more... 

5/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, every week of the year...

Quote of the (following) day...

S: I wish this family wasn't mine.

Quote of the day...

S: I love you, you're still my favourite mummy

4/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

FURTHER TRAVEL TALES: Tanami Treasure

In a near forgotten past and in a life before children, there was a young girl who wandered without bags under her eyes but with a bag on her back. Here she returns to notes she made within the haunting beauty of the Australian outback, recalling an encounter with Aborigines.

3/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

My new clay pencil holder!

2/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

...choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year

The Nutcracker - Our first ever ballet

LIFE AS IT IS resumes

The house was finished on the 23rd of December and we moved back into the kitchen on Christmas Eve. Talk about cutting it fine. Fortunately, the tree had gone up the week before just as soon as the newly laid floor was down. The sight of the children decorating it all by themselves for the first year ever was enough to catapult me into the Christmas spirit that had been missing up until then. Of course, things remained undone, such as the mistletoe which never made it to the ceiling, and the fresh wreath that never found the front door. Not to mention the lack of decorations about the house - sparse in comparison to Christmases gone before. But the point is, after eight weeks of extension build and alterations, we got there. And Christmas 2015 was indeed one to remember. Together, in our beautiful new home.

Hello Nature - A book review

Just want to mention this book that I've come across recently, 'suitable for all nature enthusiasts over 8'. A book that is packed with fascinating facts and brilliant activities, and if it could, would fit perfectly into the green science and nature wedge in Trivial Pursuit.

Hello Nature by Nina Chakrabarti is all to do with drawing, colouring, making and growing, and answers fantastic questions that children are bound to ask along the way, such as... What is the difference between a frog and a toad? How are snowflakes formed? Can you identify a tree from its leaves? And Fia's personal favourite: Why do snails make slime?

Nina Chakrabarti urges children to explore the weird and wonderful things they can find all around them. Perfect for all enquiring minds, this book is a breath of fresh air - bringing the outdoors inside.

The paper used, and the size of the book, along with the doodle style illustrations, give it a rather wonderful 'scrapbook' connotation. If I'm honest, it's the sort of year long diary I wished I had created in childhood, (or in 2015).

Simply exquisite, don't you just love Laurence King for making the ordinary, extra-ordinary?

Priced: £12.95
Written by: Nina Chakrabarti
Published by and available from: Laurence King
© 2016 Nina Chakrabarti

01/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Currently my 1Grace 1Faith

52/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Getting creative with Nanny

Loving the Christmas food sculpture that the girls created today with Nanny. Gorgeous!

51/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

Making table decorations for Christmas

50/52 The GraceFaith year long art project...

...uncovers an earlier painting by Sofia during the building works

and it clearly needs to be recorded: Circa 2014

Chocolate & Teapots

My current slow mo style LIFE AS IT IS means that I'm not yet feeling the Christmas baubles. Even though Fia excelled at Mary in her nativity, (beauty, joy and even grace were mentioned), and Esme wrapped her gifts for us all, well over a week ago, I'm finding the countdown to Christmas 2015 hard to embrace. The building work has only been seven weeks; I can't grumble. Instead I give thanks and a massive shout out to everyone that's helping us. Chocolate and teapots clearly make the world go round. All rather welcome and very much appreciated. Thank you. We think we're going to be complete end of next week? We had better be, I will get the tree tomorrow, and I will feel the baubles, I will!

Northern Highlights - reindeer racing in Lapland 2015

You can read my travel feature on Lapland here.

My guide to a stress free Christmas

For me, this post is sort of ironic, seeing as the house is yet to be finished and I am still upside down... anyway for lots of practical reasons, here's how to ensure your Christmas runs stress free:

49/52 The GraceFaith year long art project

Choosing a favourite piece of art, each week of the year...

Our favourite Christmas gifts

Over the course of the last year, LIFE AS IT IS has been fortunate enough to be sent some amazing products to review. So just in case you need any Christmas shopping inspiration, here are some of our favourites:

My goodness, if travelling with children wasn't already enough fun - just add these into the mix! Disney Samsonite cases, available from www.samsonite.co.uk priced from £59. 

FRAMED - who says you need a kitchen to cook?

Incidentally, that's my kitchen, flat packed in the boxes behind!