Saturday 21 August 2010

Cousins together

Cara's cousins came to play today and we had a lovely day. Sometimes, if they spend too long together, they get to the point where they start to bicker, so I made sure we got out and about, not giving them much time to bicker.

We started off with a walk to the local library. Then we called in Tesco to get something for lunch. When we got home, they had lunch. Then they played in the garden for a while, then we went to the Strand, a local play area. Despite the fact it's August and therefore Summer, it wasn't exactly too warm. They didn't seem at all bothered though and loved the paddling pool. Cara was the only one to get wet. She bent down to scoop up some water to throw and in doing so, dipped her bottom in the water. Cue soaking wet shorts. She was pleased though as she got to sit on the towel on the way home!

Monday 16 August 2010

Instructions for t-shirt transfer

Following the comment she left on the t-shirt transfers, this is just for smilernbp - hope it's useful!

It's actually surprisingly easy to make these.

You get the transfer paper (I got it from Staples - it was £10 for 5 sheets, so fairly expensive. That was buy one get one free though, so was actually for 2 packs and 10 sheets. I'm sure you could find it cheaper online, but I was too impatient!)

Once you've got your paper, find your image. I then copied and pasted the images into Word and played around with the placement of them to get the most I could on the paper. You can use the tools in Word to flip the image - this is only important if you've got writing on your image, to ensure it comes out the right way on the t-shirt.

You then print onto the paper (instructions included in the paper, but you print on the white side). I've just got a normal printer and normal ink - nothing special. Just printed it as normal.

Cut out the image. Any white you leave will come out, so it's okay if it's going on a white t-shirt, but more important to be careful if going on to a coloured t-shirt.

Next, iron your t-shirt so it is flat and put the image on face down. Make sure the steam is turned off on your iron and it is set to its hottest temperature. Iron the transfer on. Keep ironing until the iron logo on the back of the paper is 80% brown (again, instructions in the paper). Peel the backing off. I then put a plain sheet of paper on the transfer and iron it for 5 seconds before peeling it off.

The instructions then say to leave for 24 hours and wash inside out before wearing. Cara is like me though and is too impatient for that!

Sunday 15 August 2010

I had a bit of a brainwave!

My husband has a t-shirt with a cartoon image of the A-Team on it. He loves it and wears it a lot. As a result, it is beginning to look worn and also has a tiny hole on it. I had a brain wave a little while ago, that we could get some iron on transfers from ebay, buy cheap t-shirts and voila, he would have lots of new t-shirts. I bought one t-shirt a little while ago to test it and it worked, it was just a case of buying more t-shirts for him.

So...last night, I had a brain wave. Let's do some for Cara. I was looking on ebay at the transfers - £1 each. Which isn't too bad, but then I thought...maybe I could do those as well.

Cue a trip to Staples to buy the paper and then a trip to Primark to look for bargain t-shirts. Bargain t-shirts they were. They were on sale for £1 for two - one white and one pink. Perfect. So I've had a busy afternoon and now Cara has lots of novel t-shirts to wear.





Sunday 8 August 2010

Lovely e-mail surprise

Our day has been a bit up and down - mainly centred on Cara pushing boundaries and testing limits. If we say it's black, she says it's white and so on.

So, this morning, after being given several chances, we told her she wouldn't be playing with her friends today. As a result, we all walked down to the shop and then called in the park on the way home. After also going to step class this morning, my knees were screaming at me, so I sat down while H pushed her on the swing. I took out my phone and checked my e-mails.

Check this out:

"Hi Dianna,

CONGRATULATIONS!

You have probably already seen on the website, you are our lucky winner of the Sakura Jewellery Giveaway competition, and our pair of silver and amethyst Orion Earrings are waiting to be dispatched to you!

Please can you email me your full address details including postcode, and I will pass these on to the designer, who will post them to you.

Thank you for entering our competition, and helping to spread the word for UK Handmade.

Best wishes
Anna"

I can't believe I won! It's one of those things where I forgot I had even entered, so when the mail dropped in my inbox I couldn't believe it. I had to read it several times to fully take it in!

You can check out what I won here - http://ukhandmade.co.uk/magazine/sakurajewellery - how lucky am I???

Child and dog

When I was pregnant, we worried about how the dog, who had been my baby up until then, would accept the new addition. We needn't have worried - from day one, he has loved her - even when her love for him is a little overwhelming at times!

Saturday 7 August 2010

I heart Bob and Jillian

So I recently discovered The Biggest Loser. Now considering they are RE showing season 8 of the US version and there have been several UK and Australian versions, I've been missing out on this for a VERY long time.

Now I've discovered it though, I simply can not get enough and will even admit to having a slight crush on both Bob and Jillian - but seriously, who hasn't??

I am loving the transformation of the contestants (and I'm talking about ALL the contestants as I'm currently watching three different seasons of the US version and one of the UK version)

Since damaging a ligament in my knee about 12 weeks ago, I haven't been to the gym. It's the kind of thing where you miss it for the first week of so but then it's easy not to go. My knee is still twinging and I know it isn't 100% but today, I went to the gym. I just did some walking and went on the cross trainer, but I really enjoyed it. I was going to stop at one point on the cross trainer and had 2 1/2 minutes to my goal time. I thought to myself "what would Bob and Jillian say?" and that carried me through!

So...long may it continue! (although I think the knee may pay for it in the morning!)

Sunday 1 August 2010

"oh well..."

"I'll just have to get bored then" is what Cara just said when she realised it's too light for her to play on her DS in the car.