LIKES & LOVES| OCTOBER 2020

October has been a fairly good month. We've had a few fun days out during half term, watched Halloween films and done some Halloween crafts too. 

Films and Series

We've watched quite a few films this month and been making our way through some of the Halloween/Spooky films mentioned here.

There are also some great films and shows I've watched that have recently come out on Netflix too:

- American Murder: The Family Next Door

- The Haunting of Bly Manor 

- Slender Man 

- Hubie Halloween 

- Rebecca 


Whisby Animal Park

Whisby is one of our favourite places to go especially when family are up to visit. We headed there this month to pick a pumpkin and use the play facilities that were open.


Shepards Place Farm
This month we also headed to a nearby farm to enjoy some fresh air, spotting animals and a bit of soft play. It was lovely to visit a place new to us and we will definitely go again.


Halloween Crafts

Rock painting
This was an activity I had planned to do with Blake but he unfortunately had no interest and so I ended up doing them on my own. I did 3 different designs and my favourite has to be this Mummy one pictured below.


Pumpkin Painting
As Blake wasn't interested in the rock painting I thought a simple pumpkin painting would be best so I drew a pumpkin and let him paint it.



Mummy Jar Tea Light Holder 

We have plenty of empty glass jars so decided to use one to make this fun mummy tea light holder. All we needed other than the jar is glue, a bandage and googly eyes. 


Chocolate Orange 
I've been loving Chocolate Orange this month especially the Giant Chocolate Orange buttons from Cadbury and the Chocolate Orange fingers. 

Cinnamon Swirls 
We made cinnamon swirls the other week. We did use  jus rol ones but they were delicious and would definitely next time want to have a go from scratch.



2020 READING CHALLENGE | WHAT I'VE READ IN OCTOBER

October has been ok reading month, more prompts for the popsugar reading challenge have been ticked off.


The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath 
I picked The Bell Jar for the prompt a book written in the 20th century. It's a classic I had been meaning to read for awhile so I'm glad I managed to fit it in for the challenge. In case you haven't heard of The Bell Jar it's about the life of Esther Greenwood who is a college student who dreams of becoming a poet. She is selected for a month long internship at ladies day magazine. But in New York she struggles with her identity and societal norms. 


REVIEW| COOL MAKER GO GLAM NAIL SALON AND HOLLYWOOD HAIR EXTENSION MAKER

Ad – Review. I was sent the Cool Maker sets  for review purposes and all thoughts are my own.

Self care and having a  pamper tends to be something you hear about adults needing to make time for. However it's something children also love to do as well. These Cool Create sets I have been sent are ideal for that. As a child I would've loved these sets as I was really into having my hair and nails done.


The first product I want to share with you is the Go Glam Nail Salon. This at home nail studio includes everything you need to decorate 125 nails of any size. You can easily stamp and style custom manicures and pedicures and it even includes a built in nail dryer.

LITTLE MOMENTS 2020: 43/52: CINNAMON SWIRLS AND HALLOWEEN CRAFTS

 Thursday Blake broke up for half term and so we are making the most of it. We have the in laws visiting us next week for a few days and are looking forward to pumpkin picking etc.

Friday we made cinnamon swirls and they were absolutely delicious. We didn't make them from scratch but instead used the Jus-Rol premade dough which you can get six out of. Next time I definitely want us to have a go making them from scratch. 



We have also had lots of fun doing some Halloween crafts together on Saturday. They were all pretty simple to do.

The Mummy tea light holder was simply a jar that we cleaned out. I spread glue all over the jar and then we wound bandage around the jar and added more glue over the top. Once dry we added the two googly eyes. You could use self adhesive bandage and googly eyes but we didn't have them in.



I decided to have a go at doing some spooky stone painting. I did this on my own as Blake wasn't interested. All you need is stones and paint. I painted a base coat on all of the stones and then let them dry before using acrylic paint pens to do the spider, mummy and pumpkin designs . I wish I had decided to do another layer of base coat but they still look good. All I've got to do now is seal them using either modge pod or varnish.






Last of all I drew a pumpkin on a sheet of paper for Blake and then let him paint it with his paintsticks. Such a simple idea and Blake loved it.



HALLOWEEN 2020 PLANS: STAYING HOME

Halloween is definitely going to be different for a lot of people this year. For us Halloween has always been pretty low key.

If you love Halloween and you feel covid is spoiling your plans than I have some ideas of things you can get up to at home. There are some things we do each year and some ideas we are going to start doing featured to.


 

LITTLE MOMENTS 2020: 42/52: MCDONALD'S

We had an update on how Blake is getting on at school. He is doing really well and has started playing with other children, being good at listening and trying new foods. He has also been talking alot more and so we decided to let him have a treat.



Blake loves McDonald's chips and so we decided to take him there as his treat. We still find it so strange at how quiet it is inside and that we are able to get a seat. Before covid it was always packed and hard to find anywhere to sit. Where we live is medium risk and so getting use to track and trace is a thing now too. McDonald's is one of them treats I looked forward to as a child too.




LITTLE MOMENTS 2020: 41/52: WEARING YELLOW FOR MENTAL HEALTH AWARENESS

In the week I had an email from Blake's school that on Friday they wanted us to encourage him to wear a yellow top to school. This was because of World Mental Health Day being on the Saturday and they were planning to do a special assembly to raise awareness.



Luckily Blake has a mustard yellow top and jumper as it's a colour I love for the autumn season. On Friday when we popped him into them he was a bit confused and we tried to explain to him what was happening. He was eventually OK with the idea but wouldn't let me take a photo.

 I think it's great that school chose to raise awareness for World Mental Health Day. I feel it's such an important topic as it's not just adults that struggle with their mental health. I wish as a child I had known more about depression and anxiety as it would've been a big help to understand what I was feeling as at times I felt awfully alone.

AUTUMN 2020 BUCKET LIST

Autumn is in full swing and today I'm finally getting around to writing up my autumn/fall bucket list. I'm looking forward to ticking them off especially as it's my favourite season.



LITTLE MOMENTS 2020: 40/52: COSY EVENING'S

This past week I've really been enjoying the cosy evenings a lot more. I've definitely noticed the darker evenings and it's definitely been raining alot more. It's been much colder too although we've had to put the heating on only a few times so far. One thing I do miss is that our house doesn't have a fire. We used to have an electric one at the flat we lived in but here the fireplace is blocked off with tiles. 


My perfect cosy evenings have been either under a thermal blanket on the sofa or wrapped up in bed. I'm loving getting in my pj's a bit earlier or wearing a thick cosy jumper and socks are a must. I've loved eating stews and casseroles and drinking hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows. Once I've been feeling all warm and cosy I've been either reading or watching a film/show on Netflix. 

How have you been spending your evenings recently?