Now, I COULD tell you it was a joyous experience. Mother and child bonding over toilet rolls and brown parcel paper, deep in a shared vision of paint and garden design for the doll’s house.

Except it wasn’t.

If I show you these pictures of intense concentration on the face of my two year old, you may be deceived into thinking crafting is a peaceful activity in our house. You may even be conned into thinking time with paint passes tantrum free.

You see, these pictures are a lie. To show you these without the others would be to mislead you into thinking crafting with a toddler is an EASY experience.

I’m not that type of person though. So, here you go. This is what crafting with a toddler is REALLY like:

It’s half an hour preparing surfaces with plastic tablecloths and measuring paint into little saucers. It’s a further ten minutes persuading the toddler that an apron or bib is a good idea, to protect her freshly washed clothes. It’s turning your head for a moment, only to find the clothes have been stripped off and your child is using her bare legs and feet as a canvas.

It’s wiping sticky, paint-covered fingers before your walls are redecorated with red poster paint. It’s negotiating a tantrum because PVA glue isn’t best licked off a paintbrush or stuffed up a toddler nostril. It’s singing The Wheels On The Bus loudly and out of tune to distract your child from the fact she no longer wants to paint – despite only spending two minutes doing an activity she’s been screaming to do since 6am that morning.

It’s forgetting to wipe the paint from your two year old’s face and then spending the rest of the day explaining to people that the red smears across her cheek aren’t the result of a horrific, bloody accident, but the aftermath of an unsuccessful crafting session.

This is what crafting with a toddler is REALLY like. Isn’t it…..?

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Blogging

I read loads of blogs. Loads and loads and loads. The ones I really love, I subscribe to via email. This means I never have to miss anything posted and can often read as I quickly scan my inbox on my phone.

Blogging can sometimes be a bit like standing in a room full of people, shouting. Often it’s the ones who shout the loudest who get heard the most, meaning it can feel like you need to be constantly sharing your content over a gazillion different social media platforms for anyone to read you. This can all get a bit tiring after a while and can become a turn-off, which is why I try not to get too stressed by the shouty side of blogging.

I’m down with the social media stuff too. I do G+, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram. I’m a member of all the main blogging networks and regularly find new blogs that way. I enjoy using these platforms and connecting with other bloggers and readers, but there’s nothing quite like reading one blog and then going straight from that blog to another and then another, seeing where it will take you, without the help of Twitter.

The three blogs I want to share with you today were all stumbled across by accident, via other blogs. Since finding them, I’ve subscribed via email and can honestly say there’s not a post that ends up deleted before it’s actually been read.

I’m really enjoying all the crafty / homey type posts around at the moment. As much as I love to read a beautifully written post – Northern Mum and Patch of Puddles being a couple of favourites – I also enjoy a post with lovely photographs of inspiring ways to brighten up your home and make things look pretty. I also like saving money, so ideas for thrifty homey crafty (yes, I think I may have just made up a blog niche) are also welcome.

That’s probably why I loved this post from Capture By Lucy so much. Her ideas for making your own beautiful wrapping for presents tick both the thrifty box and the crafty box. It’s a really lovely idea for a unique way to make your presents stand out this Christmas.

I also enjoyed this post from Lulastic recently. All about how to shop in charity shops, it’s full of useful tips from the Queen of charity shops herself. Frog has a few presents this Christmas that have been sourced in our local charity shops and now I’ve been inspired to go back and see what other bargains I can find.

And finally, this post at Growing Spaces is also worth a look. An easy to follow tuturial for how to make an outdoor light tree, Heather (a.k.a. “Mrs Christmas” – if you haven’t bought her Ideal Home’s Complete Guide to Christmas yet, I implore you to do it NOW) has inspired me to try a similar creation in our back garden.

Now, go forth and read!

***

This post is inspired by Super Amazing Mum and her brilliant PAPS linky, all about sharing the posts you’ve loved reading and getting back to the basics of blogging.

(Oh – and one more thing. If you subscribe to Mother’s Always Right via email, you may need to resubscribe. A few technical glitches have meant some people haven’t been receiving my posts, so if you’re among that number just pop your details in the envelope icon at the top left of the screen and all should be fine again.)

The post Blogging – sharing the love appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

During the last hour I’ve already become victim to at least four violent, stormy tantrums. The Terrible Twos are taking their toll.

Having sought some cool in the kitchen I move myself and my angry 23 month old into the garden. She is hot and bothered. Grumpy.

But she spies her second favourite thing in the world. Her hat. And I bask in the radiance of her smile, snapping the moment on my phone to remind myself of this happiness when the next tantrum arrives.

The storm clouds gather yet again. A wave of darkness passes across my daughter’s face. She angrily bats away suggestion of playing in the sandpit.

The day is narrowly saved by paint, grass and sunshine.

Tantrum averted. Phew.

***

This is my offering to this week’s Gallery, where the theme is “Sunshine”. Head over to Sticky Fingers to see the rest.

The post Sunshine appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

Tantrums on top of tantrums - on top of more tantrums - haven’t mixed well with the sheer exhaustion that comes with being up at 3.45am every day for my new job. By the time tantrum number 3,479 has hit in the afternoon, I’ve regularly melted into a pool of (melodramatic) tears.

But today has been different.

I had nine hours sleep last night for starters. And, as I began the 45 minute commute from work to the childminder’s, I started to form a plan.

“What if I’m cheerful this afternoon?” I thought. “What if I don’t snap ‘NO’ at the slightest hint of cheekiness from my 18 month old?” “What if….” (and this was the big one) “…I attempt some form of messy play?”

So, on the journey home from the childminder’s, I enthusiastically sang along with my child’s CD of nursery rhymes and smiled encouragingly at her in the rear view mirror. I resisted the soft call of CBeebies and the sofa, choosing instead to let my daughter frolic in the garden with her walker. (Note: I say “frolic” in yet another attempt to divert from the fact she still isn’t walking.)

Frog was a bit suspicious at first. This new-found mother was not the same one who said goodnight to her last night. This mother was laughing, like the old one used to. This mother didn’t exasperatedly roll her eyes at the slightest quiver of the bottom lip.

But, as the paints and dried pasta and toilet rolls were brought forth from their dusty corner on the disused “craft shelf”, Frog’s eyes lit up.

Funny how being covered in blue paint can keep even the most persistent tantrums at bay…

[slideshow]

The post Enjoying being a mum again appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

It’s all part of my ongoing quest to be the perfect mother and assuage the constant Mother Guilt Complex that nags at the back of my mind.

The thing is, I’m a bit crap at making things. Take this homemade peg bag for example:

Yes, I know it's rubbish.

So it was a bit of a relief to be given a Button Bag, do it yourself, Advent Calender to be my guide in this latest project. (Before we go any further, this isn’t a sponsored post. And I’ve not been given this to review. It really was a present – thanks Granny from the North.)

I’ve still got a way to go, but unlike the doomed peg bag, I don’t have an indefinite amount of time to finish this creation. Clearly December 1st is my cut off point.

So if you don’t hear from me for a while, you know where I’ll be:

[slideshow]

I suppose if it all goes tits up, I can just stuff it with chocolate and still win those elusive Mum Points?

The post The DIY Advent Calender and the Mother Guilt Complex appeared first on Mother's Always Right.

At nearly 16 months, my daughter has decided she’s not particularly interested in toys any more. She’d rather play with real stuff. It doesn’t really matter what stuff, as long as it’s stuff.

Useful stuff is best; a bowl, a wooden spoon, some pegs. Anything that isn’t a real toy and which I’m likely to need within the next half an hour.

So we decided to make a box of treasure. A box of treasure, filled with real stuff. The benefits to this are threefold:

1) Actually making the treasure box occupied my easily-bored child for a good half an hour.

2) Playing with the stuff in the treasure box provided yet more time when she was occupied.

3) It meant she kept her chubby little hands out of my cupboards for a good, oh, half an hour at least.

Painting the box of treasure

More painting...

Filling the box of treasure

More filling...

Discovering the box of treasure

Playing with the box of treasure

Warning: Only exceedingly rich and talented parents may create such an incredible treasure box, due to the hugely expensive contents and lovingly painted interior. Obviously.

Contents include: A pair of gardening gloves, some conkers, a few shells, a couple of walnuts, some scraps of fabric, a teaspoon, a lemon juicer, a luggage label, two painted toilet rolls.

All very expensive, I’m sure you’ll agree.

The post The box of treasure that isn’t really treasure appeared first on Mother's Always Right.