tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-51672095718887300872024-03-16T18:52:38.371+00:00lightly enchantedA thrifty and natural life...full of magical crafts, money saving tips and home educating along the way.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.comBlogger204125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-57272362881389576532019-10-14T00:59:00.000+01:002019-10-14T09:04:22.271+01:00Crab Apple Jelly<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It's that time of year again when we are having to harvest and preserve all our crops to see us through the winter. Crab apples are often left on trees and not used as they are small and very sharp tasting but it is very easy to turn them into a delicious jelly, jam or wine. We love their taste so much my husband bought me some trees as a gift a few years ago, so we can now harvest our own from the garden.<br />
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After harvesting, I usually wash and chop the apples in half to check they are good and not full of insects or rotten inside. Place all your apples into a large pan and add enough water to just reach the top of the apples, the juice of a lemon can be added to help prevent browning of the apples although it's not compulsory, then boil until the apples turn to a pulp.<br />
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I leave the cooked apple pulp mixture to cook slightly as it's much easier to get cooled apple into a jelly bag or muslin bag to strain and you are far less likely to burn yourself in the process.<br />
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The straining may take some time, maybe even a few hours and I usually tie my jelly bag onto the handle of the kitchen cupboard so that I can leave it and come back to it later. It is important not to squeeze the jelly bag if you would like clear jelly.<br />
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You may notice that I haven't given you exact weights and measurements so far... that's because the measurement that matters most is the ratio of sugar to strained liquid. Learning the basic rules like this mean you can make a little or as much jelly as you want, depending on your quantities of apples available.<br />
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Once your apple liquid has finished straining measure it and return it to the cooking pan, use a like for like ratio when you add your sugar. For example if you have a litre of liquid add 1 kilogram of sugar. Notice I've used both metric measurements here, if you are using imperial it would be the same ratio but in pints/pounds.<br />
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Apples have a high pectin content so it's not necessary to add any further pectin, bring your liquid and sugar to the boil stirring constantly. To check if your jelly will set a plate which has been in the freezer for a little while should help, spoon a little jelly onto the cold plate a leave it for a minute or two to cool. Once cooled, slide your finger through the jelly, it should wrinkle up if it's ready to jar up. If not boil a little longer until you have reached the wrinkle stage.<br />
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Pour into sterilised jars and leave to cool, I always find this jelly has a very firm set even though it looks like it will never set. This is one of my favourite jellies and tastes amazing on toast or scones.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-54853644341667639072018-02-12T20:46:00.000+00:002018-02-12T20:46:32.084+00:00Easy Bookmarks<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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These bookmarks are very simple to make with just a few items from your craft box and a few spare minutes, my children often like to make them. So I thought I would make a special one for my husband with faux leather and little wooden hearts especially with Valentines day in mind.<br />
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First collect together the items to be used, in this case faux leather, heart shaped wooden buttons and an elastic hair tie. Any fabric or ribbons can be used here, your designs can reflect your interests or those of the person you intend to use the bookmark.<br />
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Mark out your required size of bookmark, I have made mine the width of the ruler and around 30 centimetres long... however you could make it smaller or longer depending on the size of books most commonly read. Try out a few lengths on your books to see which size you prefer and remember to take the seams into account.<br />
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Next fold the end of the fabric over the hair tie and stitch a hem as seen above, this will hold your hair tie in place. As this is faux leather it will not fray but if you are using ribbon or fabric it's best to hem each end of your bookmark.<br />
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Then stitch on your buttons, you could use just one button on the opposite side to the hair tie allowing you to hook the tie over the button to keep your page. With valentines day in mind I have sewn on two heart buttons, one on each end to symbolise our two hearts being drawn together.<br />
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As you can see it securely saves your page with no risk of it falling out like a conventional bookmark. Just to show you an alternative design....<br />
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This is my daughter's bookmark, as you can see she has used a pretty ribbon and colourful star shaped buttons for it.<br />
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She also has an added feature on her bookmark...an extra button, this allows the same bookmark to be used for many different sizes of books. Children's books vary so much in size from one to another that this gives her the choice of bookmark size.<br />
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As you can see in the photograph above the extra button allows her to securely bookmark her pages in a range of different size books. A very simple craft for your little readers to try.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-63597199641923431252018-01-09T14:48:00.000+00:002018-01-09T14:53:20.918+00:00New Year, Bargains and Excesses!We are back after our winter break and would like to wish all our readers a very Happy new year full of new adventures. Just thought we would give you an update of a few of our adventures over the last week or two. Our baby Christmas / Yule tree has been outside now for a couple of weeks and is looking much better.... hopefully it will continue to grow all year ready to be brought in again for next year.<br />
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The decorations have been very carefully packed away... If you follow our blogs you will know that we hand make a lot of decorations and each one contains so much love and so many memories of past seasons and the children growing up that we would absolutely hate to lose any of them.<br />
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As an extremely thrifty living family this careful packing also saves us much money each year... Talking about thrifty living, we have used the January sales to stock up on anything we may need for next Christmas at just a fraction of the price!<br />
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We have bought the crackers and all of the wrapping paper for next year for bargain prices many things were just a few pence, plus some rolls of paper which could also double up as other occasion wrapping paper, for example stars can be used as birthday or congratulation wrapping paper too. Extra thrifty bonus points! No need to worry or stress about these things throughout the year or in the run up to Christmas now.<br />
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Another good money saving tip is to look out for bargain foods after Christmas... most supermarkets are wanting to offload their seasonal excesses very cheaply. One of the things we bought were these parsnips for just 3p a bag, I have to admit we bought lots... more than 10 bags. Well, we do eat a lot of vegetables and most of them have been prepared for the freezer, ideal to grab a handful for a casserole or just for roast parsnips. We have also been enjoying parsnip crisps too.<br />
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My freezer is also now full of carrots too, apart from the ones used for carrot stick snacks and of course carrot cake. Not only has this saved us a lot of money, it has also stopped a lot of food being discarded and ending up in landfill. As a zero food waste family this means a lot to us!<br />
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For the whole festive season we have been enjoying the beautiful flowers on my rhipsalis pilocarpa cactus plant, it's like looking up a lots of tiny white stars. We are also looking forward to the new season of growing especially with the arrival of our new seeds.<br />
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So once again we wish you a very happy new year and good bargain hunting!Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-85305185759369841092017-12-20T21:17:00.000+00:002017-12-20T21:17:15.420+00:00Natural wreathsFollowing on from my last post showing how we made the wreath bases, I promised to add a few photos when we had finished decorating them. We prefer the natural look and usually prune a little overgrown greenery from our gardens to decorate with, which has the added bonus of being completely free.<br />
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This is our front door wreath, as you can see it has a completely green and natural look. I have used clippings from holly, ivy, pine and added a few pinecones. Some twigs have just been woven straight into the twig ring bases and some things, mainly the pinecones, have been wired on to hold them still.<br />
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I have also made a few very simple ones to add to the back of some of our internal doors, as you can see I have woven in a small piece of pine and stuck a couple of pinecones on with a hot glue gun. I'm not sure yet whether to add a little snow spray.<br />
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These ring bases can be decorated as elaborate or as simply as you choose and the bases can be kept and used year after year with a new decor each time. Very simple, very quick and very thrifty.<br />
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<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-13099873030436884902017-12-17T21:06:00.000+00:002017-12-17T21:06:04.943+00:00Twig wreath and star bases<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Following on from our theme of thrifty or free homemade Christmas / yule decorations we have been making the bases for our wreaths and stars. As keen gardeners we tend to save any useful looking clippings and my husband had recently pruned our cherry tree which has beautiful reddish tinted bark, so we set to work creating the bases to woven wreaths seen above.<br />
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This is the pile of twigs I started with... when freshly cut, the twigs are still very pliable and can quite easily be bent and twisted into shape. To form the rings I first took one stick and bent it into a ring shape, then held it in place with one hand whilst intertwining the next stick around the ring. This is quite fiddly and it is possible to tie the first stick into a ring shape if you'd prefer but I always find that once you've woven in a couple of sticks it holds it's shape by itself.<br />
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Once it holds it's own shape you can then decide on how many sticks to weave in, you could go for a simple ring with just a few sticks or something much thicker and more substantial.<br />
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We have gone for something in between as you can see in our first photograph... all ready to decorate for the season now. These bases have cost us nothing to make just using a few clippings from the garden and a little time, I usually decorate our wreaths with the natural look of fresh holly, ivy and pinecones from our gardens.<br />
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The stars are also easily made from twigs, cut five to the same size, lay them out in a star shape and tie off the corners. These can also be decorated to fit your decor.<br />
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I'll be back to post a couple of photos to show you the finished results when the wreaths have been decorated. After Christmas / Yule these wreath bases can be saved until they are needed again, I usually strip them back of all the fresh foliage and pack them away ready to be redecorated on their next outing.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-7323359432770609002017-11-29T16:36:00.000+00:002017-11-29T16:36:11.531+00:00Pine Cone GarlandI recently posted some photographs of our pine cone garlands on social media and was inundated with questions on how to make these and many people commented on how beautiful the finished garlands looked. So I have decided to post a little guide on our very thrifty and natural Autumn, Yule or Christmas garland decorations.<br />
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My husband and I decided over 12 years ago that we would embrace thrifty living... no more shop bought decorations for us!!... Everything we wanted we would make as thriftily as possible. Not only has this saved us so much money, unpacking our lovingly, handmade Christmas decorations every year holds so many memories.<br />
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I absolutely love the simplicity and natural beauty of these pine cone garlands, the one above was made for Autumn but I also have one that was made for Christmas a few years ago which has a few more sparkles.<br />
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First you will need to collect some pine cones, we usually grab a few throughout the year as we find them. The amount of pine cones you need will depend on the length of garland required, I'm using seven for my mantle piece. I usually leave them outside for a little while to ensure that any critters safely leave the pine cones.<br />
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To make the fixings we are using screw eyelets, they are really cheap only a few pence for a bag. I have managed to screw these directly into the end of the pine cone by hand but it is a little fiddly, so if you need help starting your hole, a very thin drill bit may give you a start.<br />
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Next just thread your pine cones onto your chosen string or ribbon, we are using natural jute string here but ribbons work just as well and there is less movement of the pine cones. You may notice if using string that all the pine cones slip to the middle when you try to create a swag in your garland, you could tie them on to keep them still... but I have another remedy for this...<br />
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A little trick which allows you to easily fix them in place but still allows them to be movable if you need to change the position of a pine cone. Thread the string through your eyelet and then thread it through again, as seen in the above photo... so you create a loop.<br />
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This simple act gives your pine cone a little more resistance so that you can move it but it doesn't slip down the string.<br />
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These garlands can be kept natural or decorated for Christmas with a little glitter, paint or fake snow... the best part is it has literally taken a few minutes and cost a few pennies to make, and this beautiful garland can be reused every year.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-36526650934959037782017-10-26T14:02:00.000+01:002017-10-26T14:02:10.848+01:00Grape CordialThis year we have been blessed with a bumper harvest of grapes from our vines, and as our house operates as close to zero food waste as possible, it has meant a lot and I mean LOT of preserving.<br />
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My husband has started a huge batch of wine, I had already made grape jelly for the winter and we were still being inundated with grapes and the prospect of more ripening by the day. So we opted to make some grape cordial for the children to enjoy in the autumn sunshine and any extra could be frozen for over winter treats.<br />
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First we washed our grapes and put them into a large pan, now I didn't use a recipe or weigh my grapes as I had so many but as a general rule with cordials if you use 2 kilograms of grapes add 1 litre of water, approximately half fill the pan in proportion to the grapes. Bring to the boil and simmer for around 10 minutes using a masher to release all the juice from the grapes.<br />
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Leave this to infuse in the juices and cool for a little while then strain the mixture through a jelly bag, cheesecloth or muslin to ensure all pips and grape skins are removed. This will leave you with a dark purple liquid.<br />
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At this point it is best for you to taste your mixture to see how much sugar you will need to add. Our grapes are not dessert grapes so they are really quite sharp, usually with cordials I add half the amount of sugar to finished liquid product. This means if your strained liquid is 2 litres you may need to add 1 kilogram of sugar.<br />
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Return your grape juice to the pan and heat to dissolve the sugar, it is wise to add the sugar a little at a time so that you can stop when you find it sweet enough for your taste buds, this will also depend on how sweet your grapes are too. Bear in mind this is a cordial so it will appear a little syrupy and the mixture will need to be diluted with water to drink.<br />
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Once the sugar has dissolved you can bottle up in your sterilised bottles or decant into freezable bottles to store.<br />
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We have actually made three large batches of this cordial now, and stored many litres in the freezer for Christmas and the winter season. It can also be diluted with sparkling water or lemonade if you fancy a change from still juice. The children are looking forward to a glass with their dinner over the festive season.<br />
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<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-64992711027965595672017-04-21T07:37:00.000+01:002017-04-21T07:37:03.935+01:00Education update April 2017The children have been very busy and involved in so many projects that it would be a very long post if I included it all, so we have picked a few of our favourite things to share with you here.
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After seeing pictures online of the many sock toys made by other people they made a plan to recycle some old socks into these cat plushies. I'm very proud to say that all the little sewing projects I had given them over the years must have paid off as they pretty much completed this project by themselves.<br />
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My eldest daughter's cat brought her a surprise one morning... a pile of frogspawn!! We have no idea how the cat carried these in but in an attempt to try and save the eggs she brought them round to us. We are pleased to announce that many of the eggs are now wriggly tadpoles, this has made an excellent nature project for my youngest children and given them the chance to study the life cycle of a frog at very close hand.<br />
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We have joined the Woodland trust's project to plant more trees, with great success as we already have many little trees coming up from our packet of seeds. This project has coincided with all the seed planting we do every year to grow our vegetables on our allotment, so it has been very busy.<br />
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The latest science project the children have been studying is sound, vibration and wavelengths. We have completed many experiments including a tin can telephone, balloon noise and the above experiment to see the sugar move on the cling film by the sound vibration alone.<br />
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We have also tried to recreate how the wavelengths looked on an oscilloscope by using a really long piece of cord and moving our hands either fast or slow as seen above, until it looked the same as a given noise.<br />
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My daughter wanted to try some new recipes in the kitchen, sticky toffee squares were one of her new experiments... and very tasty they were too. We have also been eating some of the early harvests from the allotment, so far this has been asparagus and rhubarb.<br />
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Another science project has been about light, this led to an art project involving stained glass windows to really brighten up the house. The children's sports club started up again this week for the summer now that the weather is improving which has been keeping us extra busy, along with the building of a new poly tunnel at the allotment with the hope of allowing us to grow extra vegetables.<br />
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Will update very soon with some new projects and updates on the ongoing ones like the tadpoles and baby trees.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-56132445756106556712017-01-20T11:02:00.000+00:002017-01-20T11:02:42.160+00:00Happy New Year 2017Just a quick post to wish you all a belated happy new year, I hope you have got the year off to a good start. We have all been quite poorly with the flu over the Christmas season so were out of action a little bit and everyone has been resting up well to recover, however we are definitely much improved now. I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas season.<br />
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The children have spent their recovering time enjoying all their presents including the many games, lego sets, education sets and craft kits to learn and complete to name a few things. They have also been catching up on some very interesting documentaries and are currently enjoying the royal institute Christmas science lectures.<br />
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I was able to make good use of the elderberry syrup made earlier in the year as we all had the flu and it has been lovely to enjoy all the homemade and home grown produce over the Christmas season. This year we made our own pickled onions grown by my husband at the allotment, these tasted absolutely amazing and we will definitely be making them again. Our redcurrant jelly also went down well.<br />
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The new year is bringing exciting projects and new challenges, we are expanding our plant collections and planting many more interesting things from seed. For me this means extending my cactus and succulent collection and starting off these new seeds when the weather warms up.<br />
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<span style="background-color: #fafbfe; color: #333333; font-family: Verdana, Geneva, sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">So as you can see we are still here and I hope to be resurrecting this blog more as time goes on, adding more crafts, science and other learning projects with an added taste of our lifestyle too... Happy New Year from our whole family at Lightly Enchanted.</span>Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-76142611973742628752016-10-27T15:52:00.000+01:002016-10-27T15:52:12.544+01:00Home education update October 2016The last few weeks have been quite busy, Autumn always is with all the food preservation from the allotment and finishing off the summer projects. The children have been busy with days out, drawing, making Halloween crafts and writing books as well as going swimming and a new home ed sports club. They have also been enjoying the experiments in some science kits with Dad.<br />
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Some of the experiments were exploring densities, this first one is to recreate a kind of Lava lamp. They started by pouring water and oil into a jar, waiting for the liquids to separate then they added food colouring and salt. The salt dropped through the oil layer talking some oil with it, after the salt dissolved the oil returned to the top in what looked like bubbles. We have added a short video to show this in action.<br />
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The next experiment was to create the look of fireworks in a bowl of water. They first mixed oil and food colouring together and poured the mixture into a large bowl of water.<br />
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The oil and food colouring mixture rose to the surface but after a few minutes the food colouring began to sink down and look a little like fireworks, or streaks of colour. We have added a short video to show this in action too.<br />
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There was also a fizz bomb experiment but that really didn't work at all well. They then tried out the volcano experiment with vinegar, food colouring and bicarbonate of soda. The first time they tried not much happened at all, just a bit of a trickle, it was a bit of an anticlimax so Dad added more ingredients, this time it worked much better... a little too well.<br />
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So well in fact that it left a big red stain on the ceiling! I have spared you the video on this experiment as there was a lot of screaming.<br />
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We have enjoyed some lovely nature walks looking at all the leaves changing colour and the jewel like berries and visits to the beach for Autumn beach combing.<br />
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Also a trip to the local sea life centre, where the children watched the rays for what seemed like hours and got the chance to see the turtle having his lunch.<br />
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<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-11407154618381457572016-10-23T20:42:00.000+01:002016-10-23T20:42:21.185+01:00Halloween Dementor Head<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Last year for Halloween the children had a Harry Potter themed party, we decorated the house accordingly and added many homemade props, one of which was a dementor hidden in the stairs. If you read my wonderful husband's blog you will have seen the post he wrote recently on the <a href="http://the-shed-and-beyond.blogspot.co.uk/2016/09/dementor-hands-how-to-part-1.html" target="_blank">amazing Dementor hands</a> he made, I had the job of making the head.<br />
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We have made papier mache figures and crafts before but nothing quite this large! As you can see from the photograph I have filled a paper cat food bag with newspaper and used egg boxes and a card tube to make the hollows for the eyes and mouth cavity. Sticky tape has been used to obtain the head shape and to keep the details we have added in the correct position. It doesn't matter how much sticky tape you use to get the shape as this will be covered by the next stage.<br />
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Completely cover your model with several layers of newspaper and PVA glue, I tend to use my hands here to finish as you can further mould and smooth it to shape better than with a brush. Leave to dry for a while and it could be painted if you prefer.<br />
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However, we chose to cover the head with another layer of papier mache, only this time we used black paper. Is it starting to look quite scary yet?<br />
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We wanted to give our head a little more texture so that it had the appearance of being older and more decayed and ripped up gauze seemed to be the way to go.<br />
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First we mixed a little black poster paint with PVA glue and dipped our gauze into it. Then simply applied small pieces to the head until we achieved the desired effect.<br />
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As you can see it looks quite creepy! The children are still wondering whether to add some more spooky effects.... After it has dried you can assemble your dementor, we fixed the head and hands to long sticks and covered these with long black fabric. It really looked very scary hiding in the stairwell.<br />
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Hope you have a Spooky Halloween from everyone here.<br />
<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-80796425783146798262016-09-19T19:21:00.000+01:002016-09-19T19:21:27.627+01:00Heritage open days 2016Last week the Heritage free open days took up a lot of our time, we love this time of year and to get the chance to visit some of our local Heritage sites is always very exciting. Day one started with two garden tours, the Bishop's beautiful garden is a favourite of ours and has many different plants from all over the world.<br />
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This year there was an added attraction for the children, the Bishop's cat! Well we assume it was the Bishop's cat as it came running from the house to greet us and insisted on giving us a tour of the woodland gardens.<br />
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The children love the wildflower maze and the large swing that hangs from a very old tree near the ruins. As these visits coincided with the anniversary of when we first met, my husband and I took some photos of us sitting on this swing as a memento of the many wonderful years we have spent together.<br />
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The garden has some quite quirky plants like a tree that oozes the smell of curry, and a vine with flowers that resemble snails and smells incredible. Did I mention the little cat?... best buddies, they spent ages together.<br />
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After lunch we went on to look around a gallery housed in an old Victorian skating rink with a unique and extremely vast collection of South Asian art and objects. Followed by a medieval church in which our children got the chance to try their hand at some brass rubbing.<br />
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Day two we visited two small museums, another church and an old shawl and clothing exhibition. The first Museum is in a centuries old merchants house with a 14th century under croft and very old herb garden. We got to try on costumes, play old games, learn to write in Tudor letters, complete a shakespeare quiz and make old puppets on sticks.<br />
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We finished the week on day three with a visit to the castle museum, the children got to watch and chat to some stone masons at work which was very interesting. My daughter made a crown and they both made a shield using the heraldry pictures to describe themselves.<br />
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We had a wonderful time visiting all these places and were extremely exhausted by the end of the week.<br />
<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-77472975250287480142016-09-06T10:23:00.000+01:002016-09-06T10:23:05.375+01:00Not back to school 2016Over the years we have been to theme parks, zoos, beaches and picnics to mark the occasion of not going back to school as a home educating family... it has become a kind of tradition. However this year we have decided to take a more leisurely approach to the day as we have a really busy week planned out ahead of us.<br />
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So to start the day we went to visit a local park for a spot of hill rolling and playing, it turned out to be quite a relaxing day.<br />
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After this we went on a nature walk to look for the common lizard colony we have been watching for a few years. Many of them were out sunning themselves and we even managed to spot several young baby ones which shows the colony is doing quite well. Thank-you to my wonderful husband for this photo as they move to fast for me.<br />
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We also took the chance to collect the elderberries for this seasons elderberry syrup, we had noticed that they were very ripe and didn't want to miss the chance to be ready for the cold and flu season.<br />
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If you would like to make your own elderberry syrup or to read about it a little more, my post can be found <a href="http://lightlyenchanted.blogspot.co.uk/2011/09/elderberry-syrup.html" target="_blank">right here</a>.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-86547108792401394042016-08-31T19:41:00.001+01:002016-08-31T19:45:30.374+01:00Glass Ball and Wire Cane TopsOur garden backs onto the countryside with a small river running past, every summer beautiful dragonflies and damselflies fill every available space and when the seasons change we start to miss them. So we came up with the idea of making a small piece of sculpture to brighten the garden during the cold winter months using some of the parts from a broken mobile.<br />
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This is the broken mobile... I kept the parts as we have a passion for recycling and reusing things but the cane tops can just as easily be made with garden wire and glass balls or marbles if you fancy making some yourself.<br />
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The first thing we did was make the body of the dragonfly, my husband used a bar with a hole in to hold the wire still, but a cane works just as well. Put the end of the wire into the hole and keep winding the wire round until it starts to resemble a large spring and could fit the required amount of marbles in. We have used six marbles in total.<br />
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With the marbles pushed into the spring it automatically starts to look like the body of a dragonfly, you can then use pliers to spiral the wire at the end to finish it off nicely, leaving a little excess wire at the head end to attach to the cane. We have used a larger marble for the head.<br />
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We have made the wings with a slightly thinner garden wire because it is so much easier to shape and can be bought very cheaply. Once you have your wing shape twist the wire together to hold it in place remembering to leave enough spare wire on the underside of the wings to fix onto the body of your dragonfly.<br />
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A little detail was added using very thin wire and beads, this was wound around the edges of the wings to fix them in place and create a representation of the veining on the dragonflies wings.<br />
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Then all that's left to do is fix the wings to the body by wrapping the long piece of wire around the body. A glass bead can be fixed to the insects thorax to cover the knotted wire using hot glue or resin. In the photograph above you can see some of the other things we have made using the glass balls and wire from the broken mobile.<br />
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These garden cane tops have been made in a similar way to the dragonfly using a simple spiral to hold the glass balls and adding a few beads as a finishing touch. I have left the bottom end of the wire straight to slide into the end of a bamboo cane but they can also be spiralled to slip over the top of the cane.<br />
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Here is the finished dragonfly in the garden, the wire at the front of it's head was straightened and slid into the top of a bamboo cane, which is hidden by the bush. As the body has been made using a spring shape and it is only fixed to the cane at the front it has given the sculpture a subtle movement which has enchanted the children.<br />
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These are some of the cane tops which remind us of little moons orbiting planets and definitely liven up a dull looking cane. A small magical touch to add a little cheer to the gardens in the winter.<br />
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As there have been a few reports of fires caused by people having glass on sunny window ledges we will be using these to brighten pots in shady corners.<br />
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Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-80428800991191366792016-08-16T13:41:00.000+01:002016-08-16T18:39:31.206+01:00Rock poolingWe recently went on an educational adventure to one of our local beaches to explore the rock pools. The beach we chose has an interesting chalky foreshore and lots of flints leading to a range of good rock pools and even some fossils.<br />
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The children started searching the pools as soon as the tide started to recede, with the hope of finding something new. They were very soon rewarded with something we hadn't seen in a rock pool before... a moon jellyfish... in fact we found several different kinds of jelly fish by the time the day was over.<br />
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The jellyfish was quite large, it was approximately the size of an adult hand and you can see the exposed chalk foreshore behind it. Another new sighting for us occurred not long after when we spotted a shedding or moulting shore crab, it was a chance which was too good to miss so we have taken a short video for you to see.<br />
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We waited for the crab to move away and hide in the weed and decided to look at the now empty crab shell, it had stayed together and from a distance still looked like an actual crab.<br />
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This was a lovely experience for the children and after this we found many crabs that had also moulted and quite a few cast off shells.<br />
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There were hundreds of tiny baby crabs all over the pools most of them much smaller than my daughters little finger nail. We also found a few hermit crabs and managed to take a really short video of one for you to see.<br />
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As the day went on we had found many of the usual rock pooling finds like anemones, winkles, prawns and even some tiny fish. Although we never seem to find starfish at this beach.<br />
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There are a few of our finds in this bucket, although we did have to empty it often to stop it getting too full. Below is a close up of one of the small crabs caught in our net.<br />
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As I mentioned before this place is very good for finding fossils, even in the chalk foreshore belemnites are a common find and often get washed out of the chalk after the high tide.<br />
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These are some of our fossil finds today, previously we have found sea urchins and sea sponges. This beach is a place of scientific interest because of the exposed fossil beds in the cliffs and we intend to revisit in the Autumn to examine the geology in more detail and see if any fossils have been exposed at high tide. A steppe Mammoth was found in the freshwater fossil beds at the base of these cliffs a few years ago and the children are quite excited to see where it was found.<br />
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You can read more about <a href="https://ukfossils.co.uk/2004/09/18/west-runton/" target="_blank">West Runton</a> here, this site also directs you to good sites to explore for fossils in your area.<br />
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The photographs and videos on this post were taken by my wonderful husband.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-26457106494990048602016-08-10T15:17:00.000+01:002016-08-10T15:17:17.161+01:00Berry CordialFollowing on from my last post, we are still inundated with various berries, our currants have had especially large crops this year. As I hate things to go to waste we have decided to make a berry cordial for the children to enjoy in the late summer sunshine.<br />
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We have used 500g of mixed berries, make sure these are clean but there is no need to remove the stalks or pips as we will be putting the mixture through a straining bag to remove them later.<br />
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Place the berries in a pan, add a litre of water and bring to the boil. I have used a potato masher whilst the mixture is cooking to help release the juice from the berries.<br />
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Turn of the heat after about 10 minutes as the berries should have broken down and leave the mixture to infuse and cool slightly. As you can see in the photographs the juice is a beautiful, rich jewel colour.<br />
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After it has cooled slightly pour the mixture through a straining bag or some muslin to get rid of all stalks and pips and leave you with a lovely clear liquid.<br />
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Measure your liquid once strained as you need to add approximately half the amount of sugar to liquid when you return it to the heat. I had 700g of liquid once the straining had finished so I intended to add 350g of sugar but as the berries I used were very sharp tasting we found we needed to add a little more to suit the children's taste buds. Once your liquid is returned to the heat and the sugar has dissolved your cordial should look quite syrupy and can now be bottled up into a sterilised bottle.<br />
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This is a cordial so it needs to be diluted in water like a squash when it comes to drink it. This smells amazing and very strongly of the berries added and the children loved their drink. We also used some of this diluted cordial to make our ice lollies for warm summer days.<br />
<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-54808626079062407482016-07-29T15:28:00.000+01:002016-07-29T15:28:07.145+01:00Red Currant JellyWe have a large redcurrant bush in our garden and this year it has given us a bumper crop of berries, over two kilos and still going. So we have been thinking of extra things to make to preserve the berries into the winter.<br />
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Looking into the history of redcurrant jelly, I found that it was traditionally used in England as an accompaniment for Sunday roasts and Christmas dinner before the cranberry version was introduced from America and became the norm.<br />
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I decided to just make a small batch of redcurrant jelly, mostly to keep for the festive season and my husband has used the remaining berries for a batch of homemade wine, which I have to say smells amazing. The recipe I have used is a very simple one just using an equal amount of berries to sugar, the same as I use for all the jams and jellies I make.<br />
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First clean your berries, there is no need to de-stalk them as we will be straining the mixture through a jelly bag later. A sieve and a piece of muslin will do if you do not own a jelly bag. I have used 500 grams of berries and just covered them in the pan with water as you can see above.<br />
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Boil the berries for a few minutes until they soften using a masher or back of a spoon to help release the juices. Then allow to cool for a while before straining the mixture through the jelly bag to remove any stalks and pips. Try not to squeeze the jelly bag while it is straining as this may give you a cloudy jelly, some people prefer to leave this over night.<br />
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Once you have your strained mixture it should be a beautiful clear jewel colour, you can then measure how much fluid you have to see how much sugar you need to add.<br />
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** Remember** if you have 500 ml of fluid you will need to add 500 grams of sugar ... keep this measurement like for like and you can't really go wrong. ( keep to either both metric or both imperial)<br />
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Return your fruit and sugar mixture to the pan and bring to a boil, stirring all the time, to get your setting point, this will probably only take about 5 to 10 minutes. You can check if your jelly has reached a setting point by placing a small drop onto a cold plate, after a couple of minutes this drop will wrinkle when you push your finger into it.<br />
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Then simply pour into your sterilised jars and allow to cool.... I will need to add a sticker to mine saying do not open until Christmas dinner or there may not be any left.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-2781447783717617452016-07-22T13:33:00.000+01:002016-07-22T13:33:04.704+01:00Home Education journal July 2016Just through the other side of the busiest few weeks for birthdays and it feels great to finally be able to sit and breathe for more than a minute. So leaving out the four birthdays and our wedding anniversary, here are some of the other things we have been doing over the last few weeks.<br />
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A zoo visit gave us some chilling out time, especially as they had a new attraction in the play park... bouncy pillows. We had to return to this part of the park several times to bounce as it was a huge lure to my young bouncers. Another high point was the pooping bird video! ... A striated Caracara bird of prey was chatting to my son and I thought it looked so cute that I should try to film it to preserve the memory. However as soon as I had started to film, the bird stopped talking and pooped much to the amusement of the children.<br />
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Around this time the elderflower had come into bloom, we love elderflower cordial very much and make some every year. Spurred on by a twitter chat we decided to make extra this year and freeze some for the up coming birthday parties as a special treat.<br />
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It is very easy to make and very delicious, if you would like to make some <a href="http://lightlyenchanted.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/elderflower-cordial.html" target="_blank">you can find our recipe here.</a><br />
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We have been for some wonderful country walks and hikes through our local nature reserve, the children love to document changes in the wildlife and plant life at various locations throughout the year.<br />
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It's especially nice to find fields full of daisies and other wildflowers whilst looking for a place to eat your picnic... the butterfly, bee and insect action going on in this field was amazing to see.<br />
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The children's interest in science has continued to grow and they have been studying various aspects of geology. Some of their experiments have included making two different types of lava to compare and using sugar cubes to study erosion.<br />
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They spent some time plotting volcanoes around the ring of fire in the pacific ocean to give us this giant map amongst other activities.<br />
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We were lucky enough to get the chance to buy a couple of boxes of fruit, plums and peaches, for just 7 pence a punnet, so we jumped at the offer. This meant quickly processing it before it went off ... so we got down to making batches of both peach and plum wine, both types of jam and a few cakes for tea.<br />
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It was a very busy few days but not a single fruit was wasted... the above photograph is my upside down plum cake which was the very tasty end of the last punnet of plums. I may share this recipe in the Autumn when the plums are in season. So that covers a few things from our daily lives.... until the next post.<br />
<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-91638082898274110532016-06-17T14:02:00.001+01:002016-06-17T14:07:17.553+01:00Handmade Mouse Mat Father's day is fast approaching and the children like nothing better than to make gifts as little extras for their wonderful father. This year we decided to make a sturdy mouse mat as the ones we have keep getting mysteriously peeled and we have to constantly replace them.<br />
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Firstly, finish peeling the top layer from the mouse mat if you need to, as we have chosen to reuse the rubber bottom layer for this very simple craft. Next choose your top layer and test out the fabric to see if your mouse works well on the surface. I have decided to use a faux leather as this mouse mat is for father's day but any scraps of leather or thick fabric would work well. You could even use a fabric that had a photograph printed on it if you wanted a personal touch.</div>
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Cut out a rough shape slightly large than your mouse mat as it's easier to cut it to the exact size after glueing. If using a porous fabric you may want to test a small patch to see how the glue dries before starting your mat.</div>
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We have used a latex based glue for this project to give a better flexibility. Paste a small amount of glue to each side you want to stick and wait a few seconds to allow to go tacky.</div>
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Stick both sides together, ensure there are no creases and press down firmly, then allow to dry completely.</div>
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We left ours to dry for a few hours underneath some very heavy books, this ensures your mouse mat dries totally flat and has no lumps, bumps or creases in.</div>
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After the mouse mat is dry you can cut around the edges as neatly as possible also ensuring the corners are rounded. Scissors or a craft knife will work well but we have used a rotary cutter as this cuts fabric very neatly with one quick motion.</div>
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As you can see the completed mouse mat is now taking shape, the faux leather has given the mat a very professional look. It will look perfect on any father's desk either at home in the study or in his work office.</div>
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There we go all finished, the mouse works perfectly and because it is much stronger than the ones we usually buy it shouldn't suffer from peeling any more.</div>
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If you would like to personalise your mouse mat further you could emboss it or try out some metallic permanent markers and a quick spray of lacquer to ensure it doesn't come off. It may be best to add details to a top corner so that it doesn't interfere with the mouse functions in any way.</div>
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Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-24148029338079670012016-05-30T14:21:00.000+01:002016-05-30T14:21:08.487+01:00Home education journal - A busy timeIt's been a while since I have posted an education journal entry as we have just been so busy, but I have picked out a few things from the last few weeks to record here. We have started to go swimming again for an hour or two each week which the children have enjoyed immensely and it's a very important life skill. We had a short break over winter to allow my daughter's new ear piercings to heal but at least nobody forgot how to swim.<br />
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We have continued to spend a lot of time at our local nature reserve, so that we can observe the seasonal changes in wildlife there. Also taking the time to explore the ruins of Trowse Newton Hall found in the reserve.<br />
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With the commencement of spring, plant experiments start all over the house and garden. The one pictured above is to see if various plants can find their way through a maze to find the light... the children tested beans and potatoes.<br />
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They have also continued looking into plant anatomy in much more detail including flower dissection and labelling.<br />
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Another science project had them looking into energy and motion, they made straight roller coasters and bumpy ones to test how much energy was needed to get the marbles over all the bumps amongst other things, which proved very entertaining.<br />
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We have spent some time exploring the directions on a compass and made little signposts to have in their rooms to enable them to know which way our house faces and also the windows. They found which way to position the signpost using a compass. <span style="text-align: center;">Another part of the Mystery science course was to plot the sun's passage over our house using a little plastic dome.</span><br />
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We also took part in the RHS school's gardening project to grow rocket seeds that had been in space. </div>
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<span style="text-align: left;">We had to plant two packets of seeds, one from space and the other a control, to see how each packet </span>grew. Each seed had to be planted independently in it's own compartment in the seed tray, so it took quite a lot of time and patience. </div>
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The children took one packet each and all our results are being recorded on a very large chart.</div>
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That covers just a tiny fraction of the things we have been doing and some of the science projects the children have been experimenting with. It's been very busy here sorting out the allotment, plants and various other activities. Hope to be back really soon.</div>
Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-49622399516433672222016-03-31T22:15:00.000+01:002016-03-31T22:15:04.700+01:00Home ed Journal entry - last few weeksAs usual we have been so busy over the last few weeks and with the onset of spring there has been so much more to fit in. This is a quick update of some of the things that have been taking up our time.<br />
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We have been out and about on a few nature walks in our local nature reserve and on the local marshes, monitoring and looking at the kinds of wildlife that is around in early spring. We visited the nature reserve on a lovely sunny afternoon but decided to go to the marshes extremely early on a very frosty morning and were rewarded with a sighting of a white egret, although photos proved much more difficult.<br />
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The children have been enjoying cooking as usual, and have carried on making many things after the success of the Chinese dumplings for Chinese new year. It's lovely to make these as a family every year, they taste amazing.<br />
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Chocolate Easter nests are usually a very simple, favourite every year, ideal for young children to make and enjoy.<br />
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We have also been looking at life on the home front during the war and have been considering a dig for victory theme for our allotment this year. In the meantime, as I have several wartime ration and victory cookery books, which have been fascinating, I have been trying out the recipes. This week we cooked an old favourite of my grandmothers... Rock cakes!<br />
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These were recommended during the war by the Ministry of food because of the minimal amounts of sugar and eggs in the recipe. I must admit to avoiding these as a child if I could but they were definitely really tasty, I obviously didn't know what I missing and the children loved them too.<br />
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My husband and daughter have also been rescuing and renovating a wartime dressing table with the most fabulous mirror <a href="http://the-shed-and-beyond.blogspot.co.uk/2016/03/dresser-refresher.html" target="_blank">if you would like to take a look.</a><br />
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The children have been really fascinated with science as usual and we have been continuing with the Mystery science courses and some of the of the shelf science packs. They have been studying different forms of energy and plant science mostly due to the fact that spring has arrived and our growing experiments and activities have been taking off.<br />
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We have made a root viewer, so that we can study roots closely and also if we turn the viewer every few days the directional change of the roots can easily be seen.<br />
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We made some grass heads... we have made these before when the children were very small but we wanted to make them again to try out some of the theories on the science course.<br />
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The quest this time was to get the hair to grow in the direction of your choice. My daughter wanted her grass hair to grow upwards and my son wanted his to grow straight out the back, so I think that worked well.<br />
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After our experiment finished we thought it may be a good idea to hide the grass heads in the garden so that they could continue growing and add a little extra magical interest. We are hoping it may look like a little troll head popping up out of the ground, my daughter added ribbons to her head first.<br />
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As for me I have increased my cacti and succulent collection over the winter season by about sixty new young plants so I have been really busy as most of these, and some of my larger ones have needed re potting as the spring arrived.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-1951895000685642602016-02-21T14:59:00.000+00:002016-02-21T15:22:03.347+00:00A day in the life...A few weeks ago some fellow home educators decided to live tweet their days, I had intended to join in but due to some technical difficulties didn't get round to it. Anyway I saved the photographs and I'm going to post here, I have been thinking of making it a regular feature... a bit like journal entries of things we have been getting up to, better late than never!<br />
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We decided to do a '30 days of yoga' challenge during January which was a very enjoyable and relaxing way of keeping active during the winter months and beyond. I have done yoga sporadically for a very long time and am hoping to make it a more frequent family pastime.<br />
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On the live tweet day our next activity was a local library visit to make good use of resources and a variety of new reading and studying material followed by a very frosty play in the park and obstacle course race. Lugging heavy bags of books about definitely keeps you warm.<br />
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After lunch and library book reading the children chose to study, completing some maths and science projects and a little anatomy practice. Recently we have been doing some on line science courses with the mystery science club which the children have found fascinating. This months project was Invisible forces - forces, motion and magnetism. We have also been looking at Botany, prehistoric man and the great barrier reef to name just a few things.<br />
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Dinnertime that day consisted of home made bread and minestrone soup, the children love making bread and we have just finished watching Victorian Bakers which was a very interesting social history program and has inspired them to try and make different styles of bread in the future.<br />
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Our minestrone style soup is very chunky and rustic looking but tastes amazing as most home made soups do and well worth making to warm you up on winter days.<br />
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That pretty much covers that particular day but we have no set timetable and every single day looks very different to the next day...what we study is entirely led by the children's interests and is a fascinating and exciting journey.<br />
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We have also taken the time at the end of January to complete the big garden bird watch for the RSPB and were very excited to see a gold crest right outside the window. The children also went ten pin bowling for the first time, which was great fun and I have added a short, funny clip of my son's very unusual bowling technique... one, two, three... star!<br />
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<br />Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-63940060671151753312016-01-14T18:24:00.001+00:002016-01-14T18:27:46.004+00:00Resurrection plant time lapseMy son decided to buy a resurrection plant called Selaginella lepidophylla also known as rose of Jericho and dinosaur plant amongst other things and we wanted to capture footage of the plant returning to life. So my husband and children set up the camera to make a time lapse film recording what happened for them to keep.<br />
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The clip lasts less than a minute but captures the plant opening and is an amazing educational project for the children to watch again. Our camera battery ran out slightly sooner than we would have liked so we have added a photograph at the end to show the plant after 24 hours. The good thing about these plants is that they can be dried out and re hydrated again. Fascinating to see!Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-1522977801941914952016-01-12T20:35:00.000+00:002016-01-13T09:27:20.869+00:00Happy New Year 2016Just a quick post to wish you all a belated Happy New Year, give you a quick update on a few of our activities coming up to the Christmas season and to post a photograph of the handmade gifts I made for my children this year.<br />
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I usually crochet the children an extra gift to add into their Christmas stockings but this year I decided to get out my sewing machine and surprise them with a soft character toy each from their favourite computer game or cartoon. I made my son an Enderman from Minecraft and my daughter a Lumpy space princess from adventure time. They certainly got more than a few squeals of delight on Christmas morning.<br />
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Just before Christmas we went to the Harry Potter Warner Brother studio tour and had an absolutely wonderful time. We got to see the Hogwarts Express which arrived earlier in the year and had the pleasure of seeing Hogwarts in the snow with all the sets decorated for Christmas. An amazing day for adults and children alike!<br />
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We also took advantage of the last sunny days of the year to go beach combing on a nearly deserted beach and had a picnic by the sea. Using some of the time to clear a bag of rubbish from the shoreline as we usually do.<br />
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To finish the day we visited the local sea life centre, a perfect way to relax in the lead up to the Christmas season.<br />
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So as you can see we are still here and I hope to be resurrecting this blog, adding more crafts, science and other learning projects with an added taste of our lifestyle too... Happy New Year from our whole family at Lightly Enchanted.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5167209571888730087.post-86058708314667593072015-11-30T19:38:00.000+00:002015-11-30T19:38:00.490+00:00Pumpkin pancakes / flatbreadI do not know what to call these really, but we thought we would try something new with some of our left over pumpkin purée from the Autumn harvests. Where I live potato cakes are something to make with your left over mash potato and a little flour, so I wondered what would happen if I replaced the potato with pumpkin purée instead... I have to say the result was very tasty.<br />
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I have started with 200g of pumpkin purée and mixed in about 200g of all purpose flour and a small knob of butter. I have said about 200g of flour because sometimes you need to add a little more to be able to knead it like dough, as that's the consistency you are aiming for. Roll it out to about half a centimetre thick and cut into your preferred shapes.<br />
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I have cut them in rectangle shapes so that they fit neatly on a lightly oiled baking tray and cook them in the oven at 200C for about 10 to 15 mins.<br />
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That's about it... very simple and very tasty especially hot straight from the oven spread with melting butter. My husband and daughter like to cut their's open down the side like the pocket in pitta bread and spread the butter on the inside. They are also a handy size to put in the toaster and warm through.<br />
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But however you choose to eat them it's a very quick and easy way to use up some left overs and has a very intense pumpkin flavour.Lightly Enchantedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02604019868978725395noreply@blogger.com0