School holidays are upon us so I’m desperately looking for ideas to keep the little ones amused :)  Well, I’m not going to get much crocheting done otherwise, am I ;)

First on the list is play dough.  There are a ton of recipes out there – some you cook, some you don’t, some with cream of tartar, some without…you get the idea.

Here’s the one I made.  Yes, my boys have hot pink, glittery play dough :P

YOU WILL NEED

2 cups of flour
2 cups of warm water
1 cup of salt
1/2 cup of corn flour
3 tablespoons of white wine vinegar (or 1 tablespoon of cream of tartar)
1 tablespoon of olive oil
1 tablespoon of glitter
A few drops of food colouring
A few drops of almond essence (the vinegar can be a bit stinky when the dough is fresh but it puts my kids off eating it!!!)

Put all the ingredients into a saucepan and give them a good stir to make sure there are no lumps.

Place over a medium hob and keep stirring.  After a short time, the mixture will thicken and the dough will start to form.  Keep stirring until the mixture forms a solid ball that you can roll around the pan.

TAKE CARE removing it from the pan – it will be hot.

Have fun kneading the warm dough before giving it to the children.  It truly is the best bit!

I’ve had a quiet week in terms of crocheting – I think I’ve only picked my hook up once this week :O

That doesn’t mean I’ve been doing nothing, of course :)  I have several patterns being tested, the children have finished school for the summer holidays and I’ve been busy, behind the scenes, setting up an online shop for the website…which it turns out is a lot more involved than I imagined – eeek!

But, it does mean I’ve had more time to spend catching up on my fellow designers and seeing what they’ve all been working on recently.  One of my favourite ways to do this is usually over at Pinterest  but ‘Oh My Word’ how easy is it to lose your day over there – so many crafts, hacks and recipes to tempt – my house would no doubt look like the product of a ‘Nailed It!’ meme if I didn’t control myself just a little ;)

So, in an attempt to stop myself Pin-crastinating this week, I’ve limited myself to browsing Etsy – in particular, the Mad Mad Makers on Etsy.  I’ve created three Etsy treasuries (Coffee and Cream, Pretty in Pink and It’s a Grey Day) so you can see all my favourites in one place :)  I hope you like the contents as much as I do: