A gift of fun & creativity: Totem Animals & Figurines

These are my favourite things in the boutique right now. Created by the Dutch brand kidsonroof, these are Totem Animal Books with pop out the cardboard pieces to make a collection of animals along with the sceneries.  For play and decoration - they will keep both little and big hands very busy and they look so cool placed around your home in all sorts of places. A really unique gift to excite kids as well as grown-ups.

And there's also a Totem Figurines set with eight A4 sheets in a ribbon-tie book, printed with a boy, a girl, a cat, bear + baby bear, donkey, a deer, a goat, a dog, a goose and a little bird. Once popped out, they’ll make great templates to draw on. Slide them into their little stands and the figurines will come to life and participate in endless fantasy stories.  A pressie for Christmas that will definitely be played with beyond the flurry of Christmas Day.

Totem Animal Book - Eagle or Lion - by kidsonroof, £25
Totem Figurines - by kidsonroof, £17

Discover the full kidsonroof collection here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

A gift to light up the room at Christmas

 

We think the Rice DK Candelabras would make a wonderful gift for Mama, Sis, Granny, Aunty or a good friend.  It is such a wonderful way to add some light and colour to your Christmas table, and will give so much pleasure all year round. 

This range of hand-painted candelabras adorned with birds and flowers in joyful colours of sunshine yellow, mint, fuschia, red, dusty blue and peacock green.

There's someone you know who would adore one of these....(hint-hint husband I love the yellow!)

Discover the full range of Candelabras and Candle Holders in the Boutique here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Homemade Gifts - Jar of Create me Cookies

In the build up to Christmas I'm hoping to get you all crafting at least one gift this year. Giving gives in return a wonderful feeling and its made even more wonderful when giving something created by your own hands. Every year we try to create our own presents for the family we buy gifts too but feel that sometimes we want to make it even more special to craft something that we know our friends and family will enjoy and perhaps last longer than the usual gift of woolly socks we try not to end up getting for Uncle Stu!

Hand made felt Christmas tree decorations

Children enjoy making gifts even more than buying them, I don't think there are many children who'd prefer to go trapsing around shops at this time of year over staying at home and baking and painting. The great thing about these makeries is you can print them off hand them over to your partner and let him oversee the projects whilst you curl up quietly for some online shopping or head out to buy those 'secret' gifts you wouldn't otherwise get the chance to get. To make it fair be sure to save some to make too, that way your partner can have some secret shopping time too....though if you're like me you'll probably need to give him a list of options or rather more kindly put a 'wish list'.

how to make scrabble magnets

So far the Makery has brought you some easy peasy gift ideas to create yourself. Homemade scrabble magnets, a great gift for young children, and a fantastic stocking filler too. Felt tree decorations which would be a beautiful gift for granny, and here is a simple idea Cookies in a jar!

Well, almost.....Sometimes nothing beats a homemade gift, but even better to pass the gift of making onto someone else. This is just a simple gift idea that's so very easy to put together and perfect for kitchen concoctions on boxing day. The best thing is it takes all the chore of weighing and measuring out of the equation with gift tag instructions all you need do is add butter, add egg, mix and bake. A jar of yummy and a great gift.

Here's what you'll need:

For the mix:

• Plain flour - 180g
• Soft brown sugar - 100g
• chocolate chips - 240g

For the wrapping:

• Airtight jar
• card and pencil
• ribbon
• scissors

Here's how:

1. Put your dry mixture into your jar. We put the flour first followed by the sugar then the chooclate chips on top, but no order is necessary we just liked the striped effect with the chocolate chips on top, especially the way that you have to cram them all in and upon opening the chocolate drops are literally bursting out!

Now for the cookie instructions:

1. We drew around a roll of sticky tape to measure the size of our label. It needs to be big enough to write the instructions on though it can be folded to open like a card if you want to make it smaller. We first made a circle of brown card to decorate like a chocolate chip cookie and then another to glue to the back with the instructions.
2. Here's the instructions for your label:                                                                                                                                                                                             
   
   
   Make Me!
   * Beat 125g of soft and squidgy butter, its better to do this in a bowl
   so its not so messy! 
   * Tip these yummy yet secret ingredients into the bowl and add 1 beaten egg
   * Mix, mix, mixxity mix it all together.
   * make small balls with your dough and load up a greased baking tray.
   be sure to leave a little room to for each to grow - 6cm ought to do it.
   * Bake in a preheated oven 180C for 10-12 minutes.
   * Be patient
   * Cool on a rack. Be patient. It is a virtue.
   * Scoff but remember 'sharing is caring'.
   
   
3. Now stick your label and your cookie tag together. Make a hole for the ribbon using a pencil or the tip of the scissors, and wrap it around your jar. To finish off you can add a mini wooden spoon.

These make great gifts for family and friends the only trouble is you have to resist using it yourself. You'll just have to collect lots of jars so you can make a whole batch for everyone.
If you like the idea of giving a little jar of yumminess why not make some vanilla sugar. All you need is a jar, soft fine white sugar and a vanilla pod! Easy to put together but heaven to receive.

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This is part of our Monday Makery where each week we bring you a recipe to bake, a craft to create and simple ideas for fun things to make with children. We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Our daily blogs offer you a sneak preview in our 'once upon a week' where we give you an insight into a week with Sisters Guild, a guide to whats on, with places to visit and things to do with all the family in our 'Art of Living', on Tuesday we bring you a little closer to our designers and why we chose them with 'The Story behind Our Collections' and a little closer to the bloggers, crafters and friends of Sisters Guild with our fun 'Tell us its Tuesday', whilst on Wednesday we show you new arrivals and inspiring discoveries in the Sisters Guild Boutique. To find where we get our inspiration from take a look at 'An A-Z of Sisters Guild' ; a collection of images inspired by the words which express the meaning of what we believe.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.

Once Upon a Week - Missing The Moment

Sometimes life gets so busy I forget to slow down, to pause and appreciate all that's around me. A week can go by in a blur of school runs, cooking, cleaning, doing homework, running here and running there and cooking again that in all the flurry of motherhood I forget the biggest pleasure of all; being still with my children.

People say 'they grow up so fast' and sometimes its hard to see that on a day when you wish they'd grow out of a bad habit, grow out of nappies finally or be able to be that little bit more independent rather then cling to your legs whilst you're trying to make it round the supermarket, and on days when I'm exhausted i'm certainly guilty of wishing the day away until bed time. But lately I've been trying to pause and slow down because we can't rewind the days when they are young. It does go by so fast and sometimes I wish we could have the day forever. 

All of us now share our lives, with a portion of their days now spent in school and I miss my girls. Not all the time but mostly I miss them. We no longer have those endless days of discovering together that are those first few years. Where did the time go? 

Life is just too short to let it go by in a blur, to not catch each moment. Tomorrow the weekend arrives and I shall wake in the morning and say 'today is ours!' and I shall treasure it for all of our tomorrows. Time today belongs to us.

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This is a new series - Once Upon a Week - where we give you a glimpse into the lives and times behind the scenes of Sisters Guild.

We also publish other series in our blog including our Monday Makery, Tuesday brings the closing of our series 'The  Story Behind Our Collections' inviting you to take a closer look at the designers we house and the beginning of a new series 'Tell Us Its Tuesday'.  Wednesday we show you our favourite seasonal pieces and Thursdays is dedicated to the 'Art of Living' in which we share ideas and inspiration from places to visit, things to see and articles about things that enrich our lives.


www.sistersguild.co.uk

The Art of Living: Lapland Dreams

Sweden is a place that I have always dreamt of travelling to and if I had to decide between summer and winter it would have to be winter, as I would love to go when it is covered in snow.  It must be quite magical with the snow covered forests and frozen lakes - a true winter wonderland.  Lapland isn't just where Father Christmas comes from...

image courtesy of simplysweden.co.uk

The Northern Lights can be seen clearly from Swedish Lapland - Laponia.  The winter phenomenon called Polar Night  is when the sun never rises above the horizon, during a 24-hour period so this is the time to experience the Northern Lights, Aurora Borealis, dancing across the dark polar skies – it would be such a beautiful sight to behold.

image courtsey of visitsweden.com

Sweden is also the location of the ICE HOTEL.  I would love to see this feat of architecture.  It's hard to imagine sleeping on a bed of ice, no matter how many rugs - do you think hot water bottles are allowed!

image courtsey of the icehotel.com

 There's another unusual place to stay which fills me with such awe and excitement as this is the ultimate tree house - the TREE HOTEL with different rooms of architectural wonder amongst the forest:

images courtsey of treehotel.se

The TREEHOTEL is firmly on my dream list - and families are welcome too! Activities can be arranged, including snowshoe hikes and dog-sled rides. That's a family adventure for future years.

There's plenty of resources online for planning your visit to Sweden,  visitsweden.com being a good place to start.

Little Scandinavian is a really inspiring blog with a travel section, including this post about Visiting Lapland which I found during my Lapland research.

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This is part of the Art of Living series of posts that bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

In our Wednesday Woo blog post series we present a selection of things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

And for a glimpse behind the scenes of Sisters Guild we have the A-Z of Sisters Guild here 

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Wednesday Woo: Hucklebones

Girls are so lucky to be clothed in Hucklebones.  These are clothes made with such thought and detail, with fabrics so tactile, tailoring so perfect, you just wish the collection came in adult sizes too!  For the autumn & winter season there is lambswool, velvet, silk and corduroy in a beautiful palette of edible colours - blueberry, biscuit, aubergine, heather and cinnamon.  Each season a new print is designed and for AW11 it is 'Jenny Wren' with a delicate bird motif in warm reds, rust and berry shades, printed on silk.  There's a lovely Jenny Wren Ruffle Dress and Skirt and the Boucle Wool Car Coat and Cloche Hat is lined in the silk print too.

Whenever I behold the Hucklebones collection I truly feel that Zoe Goldsmith, the designer behind Hucklebones, has achieved such a perfect balance of innocent charm and vintage-chic style.  The bows, buttons and pleats lend an innocent, feminine feel to the clothes, yet the extra attention to detail and the cut of the garment adds a more sophisticated edge that you rarely see on children's clothing. That's why Hucklebones stands out. It is a collection designed with an important fact in mind - that from a young age a girl can really feel and enjoy how special a garment is in its tailoring and fabric. Hucklebones is not necessarily about being fashionable, it's about pure appreciation of clothes of outstanding design and quality. 

The Car Coat in Boucle Wool with its rounded collar and pockets looks like a vintage find, pulled from an old leather suitcase, preserved from previous generations - designed in a time when clothes were made with longevity in mind.  Hucklebones achieves exactly that for the modern age of clothing design - clothes of exquisite beauty and style that are made to last.

One of my favourite pieces from the collection is the Ponti Roma Jacket - a chic, iconic piece reflecting the femininity of the 60's:

View the Hucklebones collection here

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo blog post series where we present a selection of our favourite things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

The Art of Living posts bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

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Discovering Pixies

Hanging pixies by Maileg, Bendable Pixies by Maileg £9.50 each, Bendable Climbing Pixies by Maileg £9.50 each, Pixy Girl Patchwork by Maileg £69.95, Chritsmas Pixy Family by Maileg £39.50 each, Advent Pixy Calendar Boy & Girl by Maileg £71.00 each,  Pixy in a Tin by Maileg £18.50 each, Children's Pixy Hats by Maileg £13.95

Can you tell we have a soft spot for these wonderful Maileg pixies!


If you've never stumbled accross a pixy before you may also like to know that the 'pixy family comes from an itty-bitty country far away in the North. From there, pixies have wondered to most other parts of the world, yet only the fewest know the little pixy well. The little pixy is shy, and would much rather have us believe that he is made only of pure cotton from top to toe. But, we do know, that deep inside of him a sweet Christmas heart is pounding.

Our collection of pixies has everything from enormous advents to start new traditions to micro hanging and bendable pixies and even your very own pixy hat!  Add a little pixy magic to your Christmas in true Scandinavian style!

View the Maileg Pixy collection here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Tell Us it's Tuesday: Carla of Sisters Guild!

Here is Carla, the youngest sister and the most determined force of Sisters Guild.  I wrote about Carla in one of our very first blog posts here.  It is her amazing ideas and energy that we 'harness' in the Sisters Guild Blog & Boutique.  There's no need for me to list here what she does in her many roles - she is a walking (or galloping) phenomenon! I actually do think she has some superpowers - I know her 2 daughters certainly believe their mummy has a secret magic like no other!

On waking the first 3 things I do are…
(weekends) dodge Oonas dive, (mostly succeed) attempt to tempt the girls back to sleep, (mostly fail) ask Eldar if it’s his turn to get up early…(mostly fail)

(weekdays)Dodge Oonas dive (mostly succeed), wish I could ask elder if it was his turn to be up early, start answering the onslaught of questions from the girls.

If I had a superpower it would be…
To control time.

If I could trade places for a day with someone it would be…
with Sophia, my eldest daughter she has such insight already and I’d love to be able to understand her mind, and her image of the world around her/ with my mother, I could absorb all her wisdom, see the world through her, learn all her experiences and perhaps be a better mother for it.

If someone wrote a story about me the title would be...‘Mistress of distraction’

When I was seven years old…I met my father, had an invisible friend and ‘fell in love’ for the first time. It was quite a year!

If you open my fridge you will see...old salad having failed to keep my promise of eating it! home-made playdough, an optimistic amount of sauces, far too many jams and enough goats milk to bathe in.

My favourite view is…all my family together (anywhere)

The 3 things I will tell my children are… ‘enough is as good as a feast’  ‘look after each other you are the best friends you will ever have’ and ‘I love you’ everyday.

The song or musical piece for the theme tune of my life is…Bare Neccessities (Jungle Book) or We Could Have Been Anything That We Wanted to be....(Bugsy Malone)

I used to...dream for myself now I dream for my daughters

My biggest guilty pleasures are… chocolate and shoes’s, and telling waiters/waitress’s its Oona’s birthday just so we can all sing the song! (I don't do it often enough)

My wardrobe is… a tribute to all that I have ever been and all that I would like to be

Never have I ever… had so many ideas in my head

My kids taught me… patience, the importance of time well spent, the ability to make pancakes whilst still sleeping, the joy in the simplest things, and more importantly that a box is never just a box .

Life is like a… an empty canvas that we should colour as much as we can.

My earliest memory is…of morrocan markets, (I just see blurs of colour and 'Uncle' TJ's style of walking).

My underwear drawer… is 8 drawers of tulle, lace, cotton and silk!  Or as Bekka would put it ‘nothing appropriate whatsoever!’

I feel like running for the hills when….I receive another (children’s) party invitation to gambado!.

On my teenage bedroom wall there was… a collection of black and white movie stills dating back to the 1920’s.

My ideal partner would have the mind and the skills of... Eldar (my husband) only he would be able to create a delicious meal without calling for take-away and he wouldn't have to travel so much.

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This is part of our new series of Tuesday blog posts where we ask you to tell us all. We wanted a fun way way to get to know the people behind the blogs and businesses we follow. We have more people lined up to reveal themselves and may be asking you too!

We also publish other series in our blog including our Monday Makery, Wednesday we show you our favourite seasonal pieces and Thursdays is dedicated to the 'Art of Living' in which we share ideas and inspiration from places to visit, things to see and articles about things that enrich our lives.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Monday Makery - Felt Christmas Tree Decorations

I love working with felt and its an easy fabric for children to use too. I love too how rustic these trees look and all their imperfections are beautiful. Using wool to decorate them makes it easy for little hands and there is no need for symmetry, in fact the more wonky they are the more wonderful.

Here's what you'll need:

• pieces of felt in your chosen colours
• pencil and card
• scissors
• wool
• a darning needle or a needle suitable for using wool
• stuffing.
• ribbon for hanging

Here's how:

1. Begin by drawing the outline of your trees onto card and cut out.
2. Using your cut out trees as templates draw around each one onto your felt. Remember you will need two of each design - a front and a back.
3. Thread your needle with the wool and tie a knot on one end. 
4. Start to decorate your felt tree just as you would sew a lacing card. 
5. Cut your ribbon for the hanging loop and fold over in half and pin it in place at the top of the tree. 
6. Now to sew them together. You can do this by hand with the wool or needle and thread. I tried to teach Sessi how to use the sewing machine which was great fun albeit a little nerve wracking! Remember to leave a gap so you can fill it with your stuffing.
7. Fill with wadding or stuffing or even cotton wool and then sew the last remaining edge to complete.

They're all ready to hang and as well as decorating your home they would make great gifts for other people too. I think we'll make some more for Granny who'll adore them as much as we do.
You can make other designs too; a snowman, a soldier or stars. Be as creative as you're able and let all the imperfections be part of their beauty.

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This is part of our Monday Makery where each week we bring you a recipe to bake, a craft to create and simple ideas for fun things to make with children. We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Our daily blogs offer you a sneak preview in our 'once upon a week' where we give you an insight into a week with Sisters Guild, a guide to whats on, with places to visit and things to do with all the family in our 'Art of Living', on Tuesday we bring you a little closer to our designers and why we chose them with 'The Story behind Our Collections' and a little closer to the bloggers, crafters and friends of Sisters Guild with our fun 'Tell us its Tuesday', whilst on Wednesday we show you new arrivals and inspiring discoveries in the Sisters Guild Boutique. To find where we get our inspiration from take a look at 'An A-Z of Sisters Guild' ; a collection of images inspired by the words which express the meaning of what we believe.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.

Scandinavian hanging decorations for festive cheer

Whenever we behold the collection of Maileg Christmas decorations we want it to be Christmas right away. They express all the joy of Christmas and they feel fun as well as traditional.  What's more, they are made of such lovely fabrics they feel lovely too, and little hands will adore them. Maileg decorations can be added to your Christmas treasure box and be pulled out with delight year after year.

There's papier mache baubles in different colours, fabric hanging mushrooms, sugar canes, soldiers, drums, pixies, horses, hearts, snowmen, mice and coronets. From £2.95

Marvel at Maileg decorations here

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way. You'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, homemade gift ideas and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Once Upon a Week: Light

November feels like a month of preparation and strengthening ourselves as we feel the sense of Winter tiptoeing, or rather, stomping in!  Whilst October excites us with all the colour of the changing trees, the harvest and surprising warm sunny days, the months that follow have more darkness.  That's why we have been making the most of the light. Catching as many daylight hours outside and then coming home to the warming flames of a log fire. 

This week we visited Bradford-on-Avon and explored the Tithe Barn.  We enjoyed seeing the big space and the patterns of light from the narrow windows. In this photograph Gabe was running around chasing the light.  It was a beautiful sight.  I watched Gabe and wished I could capture in a jar some of those rays of light to see me through the Winter.

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This is a new series - Once Upon a Week - where we give you a glimpse into the lives and times behind the scenes of Sisters Guild.

We also publish other series in our blog including our Monday Makery, Tuesday brings the closing of our series 'The  Story Behind Our Collections' inviting you to take a closer look at the designers we house and the beginning of a new series 'Tell Us Its Tuesday'.  Wednesday we show you our favourite seasonal pieces and Thursdays is dedicated to the 'Art of Living' in which we share ideas and inspiration from places to visit, things to see and articles about things that enrich our lives.


www.sistersguild.co.uk

The Art of Living: Long Nose Puppet Company

I write this in celebration of the amazing creative force that is the city of Brighton & Hove.  Long Nose is a Brighton based puppet company that is really inspiring. It was set up by Katherine Morton and Polly Dunbar who studied illustration at Brighton University. Together they bring to life story characters in puppets they make themselves out of anything and 'everything: latex, wood, found objects and all things sparkly!'

It is with glee that I discovered that Shoe Baby is coming to Brighton in December in time for Christmas. It's a welcome kids alternative to the tv-based stage shows or pantos around at Christmas time. Find details on the Komedia site here

The show is adapted from the book SHOE BABY (quite a difficult book to find)  illustrated by Polly and written by her Mum, who is the well known author Joyce Dunbar. The music is written by  musican Tom Gray of Gomez.  Shoe Baby has had sell out shows up and down the country and has received awards.

One of my all-time favourite childrens books, PENGUIN (always a bedtime request as I have to make lots of silly noises), has also been adapted for show by Long Nose and is on tour in Ipswich - details on the blog here

As well as touring theatres and festivals, Long Nose puppets are available for school visits and puppet making workshops. I'm certainly always keeping an eye out for what's next.

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This is part of the Art of Living series of posts that bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

In our Wednesday Woo blog post series we present a selection of things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

And for a glimpse behind the scenes of Sisters Guild we have the A-Z of Sisters Guild here 

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Mama's Green Wishes

From left to right: Peacock candle holder £31.80 by Rice DK, mini oiseau necklace £61 by Hop Hop Hop, Dove Print satchel was £60.80 now £30.40 by Rice DK, Velvet tea cosy was £38. now £15.20 by Rice DK,  Colourful storage baskets £59.50 by Rice Dk, Advent candle holder in peacock green £48.00 by Rice DK, Fabric photo frame in green/blue leaf was £8.50 now £4 by Rice DK, Secret man pillow £43. by Lucky Boy Sunday,  Melamine mixing bow by Rice Dk £19, Hanging carousel bird hook £31 by Rice DK, candle holder in multi colour was £21.50 now £10.75 by Rice DK,   Fabric Purse with Satin Trim £15. by Rice Dk

Everyone has their favourite colour and at the moment I'm very drawn to every shade of green. The dove print by Rice DK has been one of our favourites this year and I know this satchel would be great for big sis to use as a nappy bag when her baby bundle arrives in March and the matching pouch would be great to keep all those baby essentials seperate inside. The baby alpaca cushion by Lucky Boy Sunday is a firm favourite along with Stanley DeLarge. The colourful storage baskets would be a nice addition to my ever increasing bits and bobs I use for crafts, and how much time i'll save - unhooking all the coats in the hallway to get mine that has been buried at the bottom - with this carousel coat hook ! Oh and just beacuse sometimes my mornings need a little special something to make me smile......I adore this velvet tea cosy!

Please Father Christmas I've been mostly good this year............

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This is part of a new seasonal series where we bring you a guide to all things festive. We'll be decorating and preparing wish lists and gift guides for all the family and with some little treats and wondrous surprises along the way you'd better be sure to come and join the festivities with us.

sign up so not to miss offers and news of whats in the boutique

Be sure to watch our Monday Makery- we'll be bring you decorations to make, recipes to bake, and new traditions to begin.  The Art of Living will help guide you through what's on and what's great for families.  And on Friday we'll be giving you sneek peeks into the houses of the sisters of Sisters Guild in our Once upon a Week.

If you would like to guest blog, have a craft, recipe or some great tips for family life we'd love to hear from you.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

Wednesday Woo - Tweet Tweet

from left to right: mini oiseau bracelet by Hop Hop Hop £46, Swallows wall stickers by Love Mae £39,  painted candleabra with birds in Sunshine yellow by Rice DK £44, Branches wall stickers by Love Mae £35, velvet bird clutch by Rice DK was £34.30 now £12, Bird cushion by Zid Zid £26, Peacock candle holder by Rice DK £31.80, Peacock rug by Rice DK £82.30.   

Let your heart take flight with a collection of colourful decor with everything from wall stickers to rugs. 

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This is part of our Wednesday Woo blog post series where we present a selection of our favourite things from the Sisters Guild Boutique.

We also have a Monday Makery with ideas for things to make yourself.

The Art of Living posts bring you all the things we are passionate about and the things we discover in our lives as mamas.

www.sistersguild.co.uk

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Homemade Gifts - Scrabble Magnets

Sisters Guild is more than a boutique its a place to come to for a new idea, a home of creativity and a place of discovery. When we began to build the boutique we knew we wanted to create a place of imagination and a place that will bring inspiration. Be it through discovering a place to visit, learning a little bit more about the story behind each designer we house or enjoying one of the many crafts and recipes we share in our Monday makery Sisters Guild is a boutique that believes imagination is contagious.

We're readying ourselves for Christmas and in doing so we are busy preparing a guide to gifts in which we also want to share with you some ideas in which you can create your own gifts and decorations. We've already begun with our first paper decorations and here is a great idea for a childs gift.

With quite an aversion to the usual brigthly coloured fridge magnets I decided to recycle some old scrabble tiles and create a more gentle and old fashioned version of alphabet magnets.  With two young children; the eldest busy at school with her reading and writing and the younger beginning to learn her letter sounds or rather her 'phonics' I know these will get a lot of use and they'll make a great stocking filler too. 

Making them is really very simple.

Here's what you'll need:

• A collection of wooden scrabble tiles, we found an old scrabble game in a charity shop but the board had seen better days so I kept the tiles and threw away the board. You can probably find scrabble tiles on ebay if you don't happen to have spare scrabble tiles in a cupboard!
• Self adhesive magnets

Here's how:

1. Peel the self adhesive magnets off their sheet and stick firmly onto the back of each tile. You can use the blanks for games of 'guess the missing sound/letter' or write onto them explanation marks, question marks or other symbols and punctuation.

There you have it, a great gift made in minutes that will keep young minds and hands busy for hours. Handy too for putting reminders on the fridge.

This is part of our Christmas guide, helping you choose the perfect gift and creating some yourself. 

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We know that sometimes the craft isn't about the final finish but having created something together and we want to encourage everyone to have a go. I am certainly a 'newbie' when it comes to making things and trust me I'll leave all baking recipes to my sister, you see the thing is my girls love it, they feed me with inspiration and I love that our home is a constant and evolving state of creating and creations.

Christmas is coming and we've been busy putting together a little inspiration to help you through. We're helping Father Christmas with his lists and guiding you though our selection of gifts and decorations.

The Story Behind our Collections: Kidsonroof

Having a nearly 4 year old son who has inherited his Dad's engineering and architectural mind, I am always looking out for creative toys that have an element of construction.  I was led to kidsonroof a while back and when we wanted to expand the imagine & play section of the boutique we knew the kidsonroof collection would fit pefectly with Sisters Guild.

Kidsonroof = creativity + imagination + sustainable approach = great to play with -/- visual pollution for the grown ups!

Behind kidsonroof is a creative family who live a very inspiring life in Holland. Romy Boesveldt and Ilya Yashkin established kidsonroof in 2005. With kids comes a new perspective and as a family they wanted to 're-connect modern life with nature and discover basic values.' Together with their 3 kids and their little friends they have a 'testlab' where they conjour up new ideas. Further design visions are nurtured from simple time spent in the Southern French Mountains in a 'little shed' with no electric or running water.  You can see how such creativity can flourish.

Ilya has trained as an architectural designer. He brings the ingenious 3-dimensional design to kidsonroof. Romy is all about conceptual development and styling.  Together they are the imaginative heart of kidsonroof.

Kidsonroof really is all about imagination.  The Totem collection consists of sets of recycled cardboard pieces decorated with graphics and pattern that slot together to become planes, trees, buildings, birds, animals, ships, figurines and so much more.  With kidsonroof the possibilities are fantastical and far-reaching. For a child's mind that is just the thing, there is no limit to the way something can be played with.  

The Totem collection can be fully appreciated by adults too - for play and decoration.  We know many a home that has the Totem Tree and the animals from the Totem Books bringing wonder to shelves, tables, desks, hallways, mantlepieces and windowsills.

Another collection within kidsonroof is 'Casa.'  Here the scale gets a bit bigger, yet it is the simplicity that can be enjoyed. There are recycled cardboard houses to decorate and play with inside and out.  And a Trojan Horse..

The Trojan Horse is made of recycled cardboard and children can sit on it or play with it, along with its' baby horse.  Extra magic comes from the little tinkling sound from within the horse.
This beautiful toy and pure object was designed by Alex Hellum. By the shape and character of the horse you can spy his Scandinavian origins.  Alex has worked for over 20 years in the UK as a teacher and for Heal's and Ercol amongst others, but he is originally from Norway.

Altogether kidsonroof is an oustanding creative achievement that brings something so refreshing to children's play and to our homes. Kidsonroof is a noteworthy classic for the new creative generation of parents and children who desire and appreciate design that is visually stimulating, tactile, imaginative and ecological too.

I know my home is slowly being filled with the Totem and Casa pieces and they don't feel like toys - they are pure joy and celebration of shape, colour and form!

Discover the kidsonroof collection here

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This is part of our series of blogs where we share the story behind our collections; because the collections and their creators mean so much to us here at Sisters Guild we want to pass the story on.

We bring a new blog each day; other series of blogs include our 'Monday Makery' with ideas and 'how to's'  to make and bake with all the family, Wednesday we woo you with our favourite pieces from the boutique and its new arrivals, Thursday is all about the art of living; discovering places and sharing new treasures and Friday we bring you the 'A-Z of Sisters Guild' a collection of pictures that convey the life behind the boutique

You can Follow us on Twitter here ,like us on Facebook here and visit our rather marvellous boutique here
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