Handmade with Love- Trinkets from Old Skool Retro Kitsch Boutique

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Katie from Old Skool Retro Kitsch Boutique custom kindly made me a Fender Plectrum bracelet. I've creepily out of proportion, tiny, Tim Burtonesque wrists, so ready made jewellery is always too big & falls off. I love my new wrist wear.

Katie also makes cushions from retro fabrics in a wide range of designs, on sale via Etsy.

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Make Your Own Twee Bird Cage Garden Craft, from Past Times

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www.PastTimes.com have an ever changing selection of unique gifts for all ages. For example this beautiful little crafting gift, to Make Your Own Garden.

I have the shakiest hands in the west, and even I imagined to assemble it with no fuss. There's also a Make Your Own Circus.
Show off your creation on www.Facebook.com/PastTimes

Afternoon Delights from Mr Stanley's Classic Confectionery get the The Three Generation Taste Test

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I stumbled upon Mr Stanley's online sweet shop pre-Christmas. The virtual rows of tempting classic treats made lovely little presents for our neighbours & our son's school teachers.

I ended up having a box of gourmet dark chocolate violet creams left over, and well, it would have been rude NOT to eat them. This was my folly, as I was quickly hooked. Imagine Parma Violet fondant dipped in dark chocolate, heaven.

The confection experts at www.MrStanleys.com were kind enough to send me a hamper of their finest wares to try out, and being that these are classic, old favourites, I took them to share with my classic old favourites, my parents!

After Sunday lunch we had a sampling session. My parents, my husband & myself, and my five year old son. Three generations worth of taste testing!

We got to try the Rose variety of the Creams, which tasted like Turkish Delight, fragrant and exotic.

Two varieties of Mr Stanley's fudge were also happily gobbled up. It's PROPER fudge, not like in a fudge bar, but the kind that crumbles a little & melts in your mouth. The Maple Fudge was my favourite, so sweet & buttery.

We also had Coconut Delight, which came in a wooden box, a very cool retro touch for gifting. These were coconut delicacies beautifully rolled with various flavours of Turkish Delight.

Visit www.MrStanley.com and have your own little vintage tasting party yourself. Let them know which are your favourites at http://www.facebook.com/MrStanleys and http://www.twitter.com/MrStanleys

Teenage Mutant Ninja Toilets, Thunderpants & Wee-Man- My Favourite CITV Show Round the Bend. Watch it all online!

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My favourite CITV programme was the kids' satire show Round the Bend. With puppets by the Spitting Image team, and claymation from what would be the Wallace & Gromit people, it took the piss out of other, patronising children's magazine shows.

The cartoon segments ripped into current shows, but basically changed them to be about bums and toilets. Which is the funniest thing ever to a seven year old.
He-Man became Wee-Man, BotMan was BatMan with a giant bum, and then there were the Teenage Mutant Ninja Toilets.

The CITV throwback weekend isn't showing Round the Bend, which is fair enough, as the majority of the comedy was current, and would be lost on kids, and maybe us too, now. 

But, I have found the creator's website which has every single episode for you to watch! 

Don't forget to sign his guest book and share your love of the show. I'm pretty sure it set me up for loving Chris Morris & Armando Iannucci satire as a teenager and adult. Thank you, Tony Husband!

I Made My Own Cbeebies' Pantomime Stage

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My son has watched this year's Cbeebies Pantomime over & over on his Christmas present iPod. Today we discovered print outs on the Cbeebies' website to recreate your own stage set, so that was my afternoon dictated to me.

A shoe box, lots of backing card, left over wrapping paper and a whole roll of cello tape later, here we are.

Make your own with the guide here-