Next Project - turning an old piano stool into a footstool

I found this lovely photo of a footstool on the net which has inspired me to try and make something similar. A friend recently gave us an old piano stool which would otherwise have gone to the tip, so I'm working out how to cut it down and re-upholster it to make something similar. Currently hunting out some nice fabric in shades of duck egg blue, eau de nil, cream etc. I'll show you how I get on!

Little E's Tudor House

Little E's half-term history homework project was to make a model of a Tudor house. So we set to work with shoe boxes, paint and cardboard and came up with this. What's nice is that the lid still comes off the top section so, if she feels like it, little E can make some furniture and Tudor people at a later date.

Fire Lanterns at Tessa's birthday celebration

Last Saturday a crowd of us got together to celebrate my sister, Tessa's, "ngrdieth" birthday! Much fun was had by all, fabulous food, brilliant games and culminating in a walk down to Felixstowe seafront to light some Chinese Fire Lanterns - here they are....just taking off. Beautiful!

Little M's castle cake - school project

Little M's history project - a castle in any medium. Like mother like daughter....she chose cake! We cheated a little bit, using ready made swiss rolls, and then she had fun with the chocolate butter icing and cutting the windows out of wafers. The ice cream cones were a flash of inspiration although she didn't have time to decorate them. A definite success - 20/20 mark and every morsel wolfed down by the class!

Helena Bonham Carter

How completely fabulous and effortlessly cool is Helena B-C? I adore her slightly dishevelled, gothic sense of style. I am SO looking forward to Tim Burton's forthcoming Alice in Wonderland movie, due for release on 5th March. Go check out some of the trailers if you haven't already caught a glimpse!

Weekend fun with Alex, Sam and Lola

This is the adorable little Lola May, dancing to some wicked drum and bass courtesy of the Puzzle Factory ( http://www.myspace.com/thepuzzlefactory). We had a lovely weekend with our friends from Bristol, made lots of scrummy edibles and managed a well-wrapped-up wild and wintery walk along the beach at Walton-on-the-Naze, even though the temperature was just 4.5 degrees - brrrrrr!

The latest batch of Colchester Harriers results were issued and Little M was delighted to discover that she had come 2nd in her age group in her last cross-country race - fantastic result Lulu!!

Bee's chocolate brownies

A platter of brownies made for our friends' weekend visit, using the simple recipe from the Hummingbird Bakery. Next time I think I'll use a smaller tin to make them a bit chunkier, and perhaps bake them for a little longer than the recipe suggests, as they were maybe just a little too squidgy in the middle. My bee stencil is a work in progress too, as this prototype ended up looking more like a fossilised flying fish or some mystical and ancient cave drawing!