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This day I love.......

Up-cycling is about giving an item a new purpose.  It is not always about making an item more beautiful but simply reusing to stop an item going into waste.  The girls have a little wooden box for which we lost the lid, and for some time I have been wanting to make it more useful.  It seemed a shame to simply throw it away.  I decided to turn it into something the girls could get much more use out of.  I gathered together a selection of Rustoleum Aerosols and began to get to work.


I began by spraying the wooden box with white surface primer this was to ensure an even finish with the colour.


Once dry I gave the box two coats of blue paint, leaving it to dry in between


Before finally giving the middle two coats of chalkboard paint


The girls now have a chalk board and I plan to use it with my youngest to help her practise letter formation.  The girls have already started using it as a tray to carry items which I think is another wonderful use. I am so glad we decided to up-cycle our wooden box!


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Halloween is fast approaching, I can't believe it is that time of year already. Last year the girls and I made our first Halloween decorations at our local ceramic paint shop. This year we got creative.


We took some items from our recycling bin and covered them in tissue paper. We used a 50:50 mix of PVA glue and water to stick the paper onto the items. My youngest got a little carried away and just covered everything in glue but at least she had fun. As well as covering some items in paper we also turned some into spooky mummies ready for Halloween.


After the glue had dried we next took out our glue gun and I wrote some words on our items. Spooky words such as eyeballs, newts and poison.  


We waited for the glue to dry and then came the fun part, painting. Using our magnetic chalk board paint from Rust-Oleum, we covered each item in 3 coats. The paint only took 2 hours to dry between coats and the sticky paint was fun to apply. It is worth stirring the paint very well before you start in order to achieve good coverage.


We struggled a little to get the paint from our hands. Grandad had to use WD40 on our hand to get the paint off, which luckily worked. We left everything to dry.


The next day we got some chalk and rubbed it over the items to create a weathered/ageing effect. Our spooky pots were ready for Halloween. 


I even made the girls a tub to keep their chalk in using an old margarine tub and used the same principals as above.


The girls loved their spooky Halloween craft activity.

Our Rust-Oleum paint was provided for a review.  All words and opinions are my own. 
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It is perhaps no secret that the girls love messy play and to be creative.  I often save things I find like card board boxes, ribbon and buttons to help the girls with their crafty creative messy play and often visit charity shops to pick up other little bits.  I do however have a little secret shop I like to visit for my creative messy play supplies.  It perhaps is not the first place you would think of for creative messy play but it is packed full of items to aid creative messy play.

Viking supplies

Viking-Direct is my creative messy play shop.  To give you an idea of the things I have ordered from there I wanted to set up a creative messy play shopping list and hopefully give you a few ideas.

1. Mister Maker Doodle Drawers

The Mister Maker Doodle drawers is based on the Cbeebies program Mister Maker.  The drawers contain multiple bits such as googly eyes, pipe cleaners, tissue paper and wooden sticks.  All those little bits that can help make a messy play creative project.  The nice thing about the Doodle drawer is that it can be customised with stickers and it holds all the little pieces in one place.

Creative play with Mister Maker

2. Coloured Paper

Coloured paper is perfect for creativity.  Green paper can be cut to make grass for example and black paper can be used to chalk on.  Coloured paper provides the opportunity to talk about different colours and I think sometimes just makes pictures a little bit special.

3. Glue and sticky tape

Most creative projects need either glue or sticky tape.  In fact its impossible to complete most creative ideas without them.  Glue comes in a wide variety of types and it is best to choose according to the project.  I like to buy the pre cut tape as it means the girls can use tape without the need for scissors.

Creative project to make peacock

4. Chalk

I love chalk.  It has so many possibilities.  You can use it outdoors when it is sunny to draw on the floor or even the walls.  It is great to practise drawing letters, shapes and numbers and a great way to draw pictures.  It is lovely to draw games such as hop scotch and play these too.  For indoor play if you have black paper you can use this to chalk on.  Which means that you are able to chalk whatever the weather.  I find it much easier to clean up than paint.  The girls have egg shaped chalk.  It fits into an egg box which I find rather fun.  The girls like the shape as its easier to grip and doesn't snap as easily as some chalk can.

Chalk on black paperChalk outdoorsEgg Chalk



5. Sand

Sand is so much fun for messy play.  It can be used to create landscapes and just for general digging.  It is also possible to buy coloured sand which is also great for getting creative and having fun in too.  Sand is great for exploring different textures and great for the imagination.

Using sand for messy play


I would love to know what would be on your creative messy play shopping list and where do you find your supplies from?

This post is written in partnership with Viking-Direct, all words and opinions are my own.







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Sunday

After deciding to take on the Yorkshire 3 Peaks again next year today saw the first of many training walks.  I took our dog with us and he became very interested in the field full of llamas.

llamas field

Monday

Why is it when you need the kids to sleep they never do? And when you need them to get up they are always asleep.  Probably one of the only times I have had to wake up my youngest

sleeping baby

Tuesday

The girls wanted to do some chalking outside using the chalk I had got them from the Handpicked collection.  They love how big the chalk is and they had lots of fun creating pictures.

big chunky chalk

Wednesday

I was a little shocked when I looked at the trip counter on the car to discover I had done exactly 666 miles.  Thankfully I was at my destination and could reset the counter.

worst trip

Thursday

This is the ultimate driving combination. 

best driving combo

Friday

With lots of rain outside the girls and I decided to bake a cake.  We baked a really gorgeous syrup cake.  My youngest would not put her tongue away the whole time we were baking.  Think she wanted some of the mixture

making cake

Saturday

We received our living with Pushchair today.  My eldest loves the box and kept crawling through it.  Can't wait to try it out.

pee po



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drawing with chalk
Sunday

My youngest is really starting to show an interest in colouring.  As the weather was nice we sent outdoors with the chalk and both girls really enjoyed getting messy and playing with the chalks. 

singing and dancing

Monday

The girls had a lot of energy after nursery and decided to jump up and down on the decking singing their favourite songs.  It was lovely watching them sing and dance together.

name necklace

Tuesday

My lovely name necklace arrived.  I was rather impressed with how fast delivery was and so happy to have it in time for Britmums live.

cuddle time

Wednesday

It is always nice to have cuddles together.

doughnut eyes

Thursday

My eldest thought her two doughnut balls were just like eyes.  She kept running around with them im front of her eyes.

trunki time

Friday

The girls took their Trunki to Grandmas house so that Mummy could go to Britmums

hedwig and kurio

Saturday

What an amazing time I have had over Friday and Saturday.  This though was the moment that Mummy bird demonstrated the Kurio 7 to Hedwig.  I had so many photos to choose from to sum up Saturday but decided to go with this.  I cannot wait for Britmums next year it was a fantastic event.  


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The great thing about it not raining is that we can get outside and have some messy fun.  My youngest is showing an interest in drawing at the moment.  I know this as she recently took to using crayon over every surface she could reach.  My eldest is wanting to learn to write and likes nothing more than to be sat with a pencil and a book practising.  

Whilst waiting for Granddad to return home we sat outside on the patio and played with the chalk.  My eldest got to practise letters and shapes and my youngest could colour to her hearts content.  

eldest practise shapesyoungest likes colouring


colourful chalk tubchalk colouring in


The nice thing about chalk is that it washes away really easy so it did not matter that it was all over their clothes and bodies, that just added to the messy fun.  My youngest loved the fact she could draw anywhere and not be stopped.  We drew round our feet and then round our hands

outline chalk hands

We even drew round our bodies and coloured ourselves in.  The girls had lots of fun with chalk. I think I am going to have to get them some chunky chalk for at home.  Of course once you are lovely and multi coloured the best place to go is the bath

bath time fun

Chalk is so much fun and a great way to encourage creativity especially when outdoors as you can use most surfaces.

This day I love messy chalk fun
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About me

About Me

Welcome to This Day I love.

My name is Leyla, also known as Mum to my 3 humans and dog Mum to J. I have a passion for the outdoors and love to run. I can often be found off road exploring the trails and fells and covering distances all the way up to 50 miles. As a family we love travelling and discovering new adventures, as I try and run around the world!

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