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Welcome to my blog!


If you ask me what my very favourite thing is I would not hesitate to say my family. I came into motherhood quite late on, and was immediately overwhelmed with how amazing it is. Now I would like nothing more than to be a Domestic Goddess, and surround my family in love, good food, beautiful things and lots of happy memories. And like the majority of families these days, we need to do it on a budget!

I firmly believe we all have a little bit of the Domestic Goddess inside us, just waiting to break out. Whether that is knowing how to make a roast chicken feed a family of 4 for a week, being able to make, repair or recycle clothes, hunting down a bargain, or simply turning everyday, simple things into pretty or useful items, with a little bit of imagination we can all dip in to the Goddess inside and make our lives that little bit more interesting.



I hope you enjoy reading my blog as much as I enjoy sharing my (challenging) journey into Domestic Goddessness!



Sunday, June 10, 2012

Handmade Reward Tokens

This year seems to be flying past way too quickly. I can't believe we are into June already! Although you wouldn't know it from the weather we are having!

As usual I'll be linking up with Handmade Harbour this week for Handmade Monday. It's a lovely community of craft bloggers so have a bimble over (after you've done here of course!) Many thanks to Wendy for hosting it again.

For those of you who are regular readers, you will know of my love for all things Herman (and if you don't know what Herman is then take a look here!) We've been eating Herman cake and Herman pancakes for several months now. I have attempted to make sourdough bread in the past, too, with mixed fortunes. I was having a wander around the web looking for Herman inspiration, when I came across a recipe for Herman bread. I had a spare starter available and thought it would be worth a try.And it really was! Very tasty bread I have to say, and much nicer than the sourdough bread I have made before. It was a little bit sweeter than normal bread (that'll be the sugar in the starter obviously!) but not overly so, and it still ate well with savoury fillings. Not tried it toasted yet, though I suspect it will toast well too.

I have been making with The Flop this week, too. We have a reward system where she collects lolly sticks over the week in exchange for a treat at the weekend. She collects the sticks by basically being good, doing as she's told, eating her meals, helping out...you get the picture. And if she is naughty, then she has one (or more) taken off her. I can't remember where I came across the idea, but it really works for us in a way that the Naughty Step never did. And I like the idea of her being rewarded positively when she's good. it gives her an incentive as well because she wants that treat at the weekend!
Well, we decided to freshen it up a little bit and this week I gave her the chance to help me make some tokens to replace the lolly sticks.

We started off by choosing what she wanted her tokens to look like. She decided on some digital button embellishment images I have (from Daisy Trail ) then I gathered together backing papers, leftover cardboard from a box (so a bit of recycling there!), some scissors and glue


Then it was simply a case of cutting out and sticking. We glued the cut out 'button onto the cardboard first, then cut that out and added the backing paper on the reverse.


We had to find containers to keep them in, and I happened to have two sweet 'cupcake' tins, one to keep the tokens in and one for Caoimhe to collect them in.



She seems quite excited about earning her tokens, even more so than when she collected lolly sticks - maybe because she helped me to make them? Hopefully that excitement will continue!

That's it for this week. Don't forget to see what everyone else has been up to this week. Looking forward to a little wander through the blogs myself!

Til next time!





17 comments:

Myth Illogical said...

Love the tokens! I have a three year old daughter, so that idea may well come in handy.

Tickled Pink said...

I think I might be stealing that idea too for my 4yo! You should sell them!

Anonymous said...

A much better idea than marbles in a jar. :)

Unknown said...

OMG Not Herman! Did you know that he even has a Facebook page and a website... what do you do with him when you go on your hols?

Fiddly Fingers said...

I like your idea of involving your daughter in the making of her tokens:) Glad the cooking is going well.

Helen said...

Haha Ros, my mum looks after him when she comes to feed the cats :)

Kazies Magical Designs said...

I was given the herman cake its a great cake love watching it grow overnight because of the yeast i assume I froze a couple of tubs so hopin that comes out as wellx

Christmas Pie Crafts said...

That's a lovely idea Helen and great fun too. Good old Herman. Hope you have a good week.

Wendy said...

What a lovely idea! Love it x

Free Spirit Designs said...

i think you're right that kids respond better to things they have been involved in creating, i love the button tokens and i bet you both had fun making them! x

Highland Monkey's said...

Great idea. Like the treat at the end of the week. Wish they'd been thought of 30 years ago!

Rachel said...

They are lovely. Another one who might be borrowing that idea as my daughter is 3 going on 13 and needs reigning in alot lately. ;)

stylesofcooking said...

Brilliant idea and far better than a naughty step and i think you are right that the fact she joined in the creation makes them a far better thing for her than the lolly pop sticks.

Stephen @ Soy of the North said...

Love the tokens. Brilliant way to reward good behaviour.

Pickle Lily said...

Lovely tokens and it is so much better to reward good behaviour (she writes piously!!!), we used to have atarget to work for, for a treat of some sort! have a great week! Jo x

Little Harriet said...

What a great idea (i'd so use it if I had children) Shame it doesn't work with dogs, my pug is like a naughty 2 year old.

LH
x

Jan said...

I always found that rewarding positive and good behaviour was by far the best way. Positivity breeds positivity.
The tokens are so pretty.

Jan x