Belle and Boo

I came across the Belle and Boo books a couple of years ago and fell in love with the characters, the beautiful illustrations and of course the stories are enchanting, luckily L enjoys them too.

I treated L to Belle and Boo and the Very Merry Christmas and also the sticker book to go with it, we love both of them. Every story starts with "This is Belle and this is Boo. They are always together on sunny days, rainy days and dreamy let's be lazy days" which is great as L remembers this and joins in every time we start to read the stories. The books have a lovely vintage feel, that follow everyday friendship and activities between Belle and Boo, that captivate L, we have thoroughly enjoyed the sticker book too.

Now a little trick I've used for years, that makes it easier for toddlers to to do the stickers books on their own, without the frustration of stickers that tear etc as they try and get them out. Is to peel the sticker background of, leaving behind the stickers they need. They are then able to peel them of without any of the usual problems.

Now tying in nicely with the end of the story was the idea I had seen here, so we made some pop corn, some for snack and the others to thread onto string. Not something I will plan to do again in a  hurry as it's rather fiddly and time consuming, even if did look rather good. We made some bird feeders using an orange cut in half and the flesh scooped out and attempted to make some feeders using bird seeds mixed in with melted lard and pressed into cookie cutters. I only managed to get two out in one piece, the others crumbled. Any way L and the minders, loved putting them on the tree, not sure when the birds will feel brave enough to come into our garden to feed though, as the children ran around the garden shouting " Birds, birds, we've made food for you, birds come and eat your food now"

I am working on a Belle and Boo cross stitch for the girls bedroom, decided to try and outline the face last night, as I was really worried it wouldn't look right, relieved to say I was pleased with how it came out. There was part of me that hoped to get it done for Christmas but don't think I am going to manage that, as I have been busy knitting various Christmas presents and then sewing some decorations. It will hopefully look like this one when I have finished it Belle and Boo dandelion cross stitch pattern