Crafty Creatives Christmas box

A few months ago, I came across Crafty Creatives (www.craftycreatives.com), a subscription service where for a reasonably small sum each month, a box of surprise crafty goodies are dispatched to your door. I was so tempted to subscribe but knew that realistically, I don't have time for a regular supply of craft items and I would just be subscribing in order to build up a stock of untouched boxes.

But oh, how I wanted to join in.

In September, they announced a one off Christmas box with no requirement for a longer term subscription and I decided I could treat myself to this. The waiting began and finally, towards the end of November, the box arrived.

I'd convinced a friend to get one too, so we have been sharing regular updates on our progress through the box.

First impressions: as many others have said, it was a smaller box than expected, but it has a lot in it! I enjoyed picking through the different kits and other bits, and spent a fair bit of time playing with it before starting to make anything.

So far, I have:

Made a beaded bauble - this involved threading tiny beads with a needle, to produce a sort of net which sits and shimmers on top of a bauble. I did this first as I've never done anything like it and it looked the hardest. In fact, whilst being a bit fiddly, it wasn't that hard. I really enjoyed the technique; I think life is probably too short to craft bauble covers but I can see myself using a similar technique in other contexts. This is what I made - I love it:

Made 5 tiny pots of lip scrub, using coconut oil, sugar, honey, and the provided pots. I was quite excited about this in concept, but found it a little bit of a let down - it was a nice idea, but my scrub didn't quite work as the melting point of the coconut was too low, meaning that it melts as soon as I touch it with my finger and doesn't bring any sugar to my lips to do the scrubbing! It was also a really quick process meaning that the crafting itself wasn't particularly satisfying. Not my kind of thing really.

Made a mobile using one of the wreath rings, covered in the ribbon, with christmas tree beads and bells:

I was really pleased with this as I thought it was pretty - the beads have a really nice feel and heaviness to them. Sadly my daughter knocked it to the floor causing an irretrievable tangled mess, so I am going to have to remake it, or design something else! The beads, bells and rings were all really nice pieces.

Used the Christmas tree stickers as an advent calendar for a toddler - really quick and simple idea, with my only complaint being that there aren't enough stickers for the whole 24 days...luckily Peppa Pig is stepping into the breach! She is enjoying sticking them on each day and I think it's creating a sense of the countdown to Christmas for her:

I could probably have spent more time on the design but I was doing it on 1st December!

Used half of the felt tree decorations kit to make this bauble:

I liked the concept of a felt tree decorations kit but would have liked more exciting felt colours - mine were brown and green which didn't inspire me particularly, especially in combination with pink embroidery thread! I have a Christmas tree in progress though.

There are also 3 wooden die cut snowflakes which I've threaded up and hung on the tree - not my most imaginative moment.

That's all I've made so far. There are two sheets of really pretty Christmas paper, which I intend to make into cornucopia - little cones with a handle to fill with sweets and hang on the tree. There are also two little gift boxes which I will make when I do my wrapping (already mentally allocated to particular presents), and three card templates - haven't quite decided what to do with those yet. Oh, and I have more Christmas trees, bells, and another wreath ring!

Overall, I have really enjoyed playing with the box and deciding how to use the contents. I would have preferred a paper or fabric based kit in place of the lip scrub one, and a slightly more coordinated felt kit but it has felt like money well spent and I will go back for more when I have more crafting time!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Miss Rabbit

For the second in this occasional series, I want to look into the mysterious employment status of Miss Rabbit.

Peppa Pig features large in our house, so I have had plenty of opportunity to study this. For the uninitiated, Miss Rabbit runs the supermarket, the rescue helicopter, the train, the bus, the museum gift shop, the space attraction, the kiosk at Duck World, the ice cream van...the list goes on. For me, this raised a few issues, but I am going to focus on Miss Rabbit's employment status. We'll leave consideration of Miss Rabbit and the Working Time Directive, and the discrimination which is clearly preventing married women from holding down a job for another time!

Miss Rabbit appears to work every hour of the day, running pretty much all of the service industry. How can she be employed in so many places at once? There are a number of options:

1) Everything is owned by a single organisation; Miss Rabbit is employed by the umbrella company and deployed on a just-in-time basis. If this is the case, I'd recommend that the organisation looks at their resource and contingency planning, and considers some succession planning / flight risk analysis. On the one occasion where Miss Rabbit is sick, she has to organise her own cover and send her sister (Mrs Rabbit, just in case you wondered!) in to cover all of her jobs for the day. Everything falls apart. An organisation relying solely on one person for success is heading for trouble at some point.

2) Each business is owned by a different organisation; Miss Rabbit is freelance, operating under her own limited company, and invoicing them for time spent. This explains her ability to leap between roles wherever she is required. However, if this is the case, the businesses are exposing themselves to potential risk in the event of an HMRC audit: Miss Rabbit appears to hold a key role in each organisation and it is difficult to see how she could avoid being viewed as an employee, potentially incurring tax and NI liabilities going back to at least 2003. It is also unlikely to be the most cost-effective resourcing method; Miss Rabbit is likely to command a high day rate as she seems to be the only person available for work, and there doesn't seem to be anyone around to validate her invoices and timesheets.

3) Each business is owned by a different organisation, employing Miss Rabbit on zero hours contracts, so that they can just deploy her as needed. A zero hours contract creates an employment relationship, without requiring the employer to commit to a specific volume or pattern of work. It can be viewed as exploitative, potentially demanding commitment from the worker without offering any security. It would also be difficult to manage, and each organisation would need to be aware that Miss Rabbit was accruing annual leave as she worked, and to allow her to take this. Miss Rabbit may view this arrangement as beneficial to her - she is free to hold a number of jobs, although clashes appear to be likely, and it is lucky that there appears to be a community agreement to all travel to work at the same time on the single bus journey of the morning. I presume that on the day she drives the school bus for the trip to the mountains, everyone is happy to find a different route to work! I would urge the businesses, in this situation, to consider whether zero hours contract are the best way to go; they can seem an easy alternative to workload and resource analysis and planning, but increased loyalty and quality commitment could be achieved by offering fixed work patterns.

4) Miss Rabbit owns all of the businesses, and is operating on a shoestring. As the owner of a collection of small businesses, she may feel that she can't afford to employ others on a temporary or permanent basis. However, her businesses may be suffering; if more fully staffed, it is likely that sales in each area would increase, as they would cater more conveniently for the needs of the community. She could consider starting some sort of childcare business (which doesn't appear to currently exist, except for pre-school for a few hours each day), and create childcare capacity which would potentially free Mummy Pig, Mrs Zebra, Mrs Elephant and so on to seek part time work outside the home, should they wish to do so. There is an untapped pool of potentially skilled and keen workers, who are likely to want to work on a part time basis, thus not incurring the cost of full time employees. This would reduce the vulnerability of the businesses, reduce reliance on her, and leave her with more leisure time to enjoy the profits of her work (although it's unclear what she would spend her time doing as she appears to be the only single, childless adult in the community!).

5) We all know how rabbits breed..."Miss Rabbit" may in fact be multiple rabbits, each with a separate full time job, but no-one has noticed because the Rabbit family look so alike (a cynic may think that Miss Rabbit and Mrs Rabbit were in fact the same drawing). In which case, straightforward employment status, and a community that doesn't realise it is overrun by rabbits.

What do you think? I suspect it is 5!

HR Dilemmas from children's TV: Postman Pat

I think this will be the first in an occasional series on the HR dilemmas presented by characters on children's TV. It was inspired by Postman Pat so we will consider him first.

Having recently watched more episodes of Postman Pat than I care to admit, it struck me that there is a theme. Each day, Pat attempts to deliver one thing, generally messes up / loses it, but eventually manages to get the item there in the nick of time.

This raised, for me, a number of people management questions.

Is Pat deeply incompetent, and getting away with it, or succeeding against all the odds?
How could his productivity be improved so that he can make more than one special delivery per day?
Could resources be better deployed: he has a van, a helicopter, and a jeep (at least) assigned to his sole use?
What happens to all the parcels we see coming through the mail centre if he is only delivering one per day? Is there actually an army of less photogenic (a frightening thought) of mail delivery professionals handling the rest, leaving the tricky ones to Pat?
If Pat's performance is an issue, how should it be managed - is it capability or conduct?

Firstly, we should have a look at the expectations which have been set. Has Pat been asked to focus on the careful delivery of a limited number of special items, or would it be reasonable to expect him to deliver more? Has a precedent been set so that he believes he is achieving what is required?
Secondly, we should investigate the circumstances around the bodged deliveries. What were the commercial and reputational impacts of Pat's inability to deliver a parcel without some form of mishap? Has he actually lost or seriously damaged anything, or are they all near-misses? If all near-misses, what is the potential impact, and is this serious enough in itself to require some sort of disciplinary or performance management action?
Thirdly, why is it happening? Does Pat need more training? Is he aware that it is a criminal offence to open someone else's mail? Does he know how to adequately secure the van so that items don't fall out? Has he been trained on securing parcels within the van so that items don't break? Or is he just too busy trying to control the domestic animal that he carries around with him to concentrate on what he should be doing?

Armed with the answers to these questions, I would recommend an informal conversation to begin with, between Pat and his line manager (invisible - regular one to ones clearly aren't in place). Clear expectations should be set. If no improvement is seen, a formal process should begin. This could either be a disciplinary process (if we believe that Pat has been adequately trained and instructed, and is not following procedure - i.e. conduct), or make use of a performance management process.

Following each step of the procedure, objectives and a review date should be set, and regularly reviewed. If things improve, and Pat achieves the objectives, excellent news: the people of Greendale will benefit from an improved postal service. If he doesn't pick up the pace, improve the quality of the delivery, and gain better control of his cat...well, once the appropriate steps of the procedure had been followed, I would dismiss him.

Yes, that's right.

I would sack Postman Pat. What would you do?

In praise of 2 year olds

It's really easy to get into the habit of complaining about terrible twos/tantrums/early starts/being tired all the time. I have to confess that our terrible-2-year-old is not so terrible, as they go, although she has her moments. And, a more embarrassing confession, I have been inspired to write this post by watching DIY SOS this week. **hides face in shame**

Still with me? The family featured on DIY SOS had twins born really prematurely, leaving one with cerebral palsy, who will never sit let alone move unaided, and one less ill but still fragile. They reminded me that while life with a small child may feel hard sometimes, my life is a breeze compared to families who go through that kind of illness or difficulty, whether in the short or long term. So I thought, time to celebrate a few of the things which are amazing about 2 year olds.

Like seeing the wonders of the world - as Rachel's bath drained tonight, she lay in it watching the way the water spiralled down the plughole, absolutely fascinated. When I stop trying to rush her from one place to another, it's so nice to be part of the process of learning about the world and the way she wonders at it!

The start of conversation - when speech suddenly moves from disjointed words into full sentences and you have a little person you can chat with! Particularly hearing Rachel have a conversation on the phone with Daddy when he's not going to be home until after she goes to bed.

Singing...waking up at 6am is sweetened by the fact that we are generally woken by a rendition of Twinkle Twinkle Little Star. Every time she sees a bus she sings Wheels on the Bus (all verses). She sings songs I don't even know (bonus of nursery!), and is generally word perfect after just a couple of times of hearing a song.

Reading and books...whilst I've always been pretty convinced of the benefits of reading (possible understatement, see other blog!), we are already starting to see the impact of reading. Rachel knows words and phrases that she can only have picked up from reading (phrase of the day: Something smells delicious! as her tea cooked), and is starting to recite books along with us when we read them. Sometimes she even recites books when she doesn't have the book in front of her.It's cute, but it's also reassuring that there is a point to spending time doing these things!

Relationships...not only does she ask to see adults, family, etc, but this is the age where you start to see real little friendships starting with other children. It's just so nice to see your child choosing to play with your friends' children, and starting to interact rather than simply playing alongside.

Imaginative play - I didn't realise it started this early, but Rachel can play pretend games for hours, whether it be dolls house, happy land, or pretending to go to sleep/wakeup/sleep/wakeup etc time after time under a makeshift duvet!

So, amongst tantrums (don't want to put shoes on, haven't got shoes on, have got the wrong shoes on...) I think 2 is a great age so far. And a pretty beautiful one too:

Dolls house renovations

Please bear with me, as this is a slightly self indulgent post. It's primarily to record for myself the process I have been through with this, also to share pictures as requested and, I will admit it, a little bit of showing off.

The back story: I read a blog post on the fantastic Red Ted Art about making your own dolls house - this one. I immediately desperately wanted to do this. However, I am notorious for starting ambitious craft projects and not finishing them, which may not go down so well on the birthday morning ("Sorry darling, I was going to make you a dolls house. Wonky box any good?"), so reluctantly decided that I should buy one instead.

However, I still couldn't quite let go of the idea - I grew up with a spectacular dolls house which was my mum's 5th birthday present, handmade, and frequently redecorated over the years (electric lighting and all), and really liked the idea of giving Rachel something a bit more personal which she could add her own ideas to over time.

Then I came across a plain wooden one with a load of furniture included (this one  - post not sponsored by ToysRUs!) and sensed an achievable project.

This is it before I started:

Well, technically, not before I started as I'd built it by this point.

I then gave it a coat of white paint all over to act as an undercoat:

Then the fun part - decoration. For the roof, grey slate tile (paper), and black chimney pots:

Inside, a range of decor, suspiciously mirroring colours you'll find around our house, mixed with some wallpaper samples from a well known DIY store, and fairly neutral carpets (with the exception of the bathroom and the kitchen):

Outside, vaguely Georgian white with black detailing:

Iron included for scale, apparently!

And given that she isn't here, I couldn't resist a little play with the furniture...

It's not the most flawless piece of work as my enthusiasm for progress may have overcome neatness from time to time, but I think that all adds to the fun. It's all very cute. Unfortunately, it's still 11 days until her birthday and I have no idea how I'm going to wait that long to let her play with it!!

Things they don't tell you: life in a musical

My primary objection to musicals (though there are many) has always been the lack of reality. For example, take The Sound of Music. Maria and Captain Von Trapp are sharing a tender moment in the garden, that first realisation of feeling...and suddenly start singing, full into each others' faces. Who does that?

Well, as I'm discovering...parents.

It may be just me, but I started off singing to the baby, partly because she seemed to like it, and partly to fill the silence of the adult-free day at home. You work through all of the songs you know, and then you find yourself making up songs, or just putting random sentences to music.

And suddenly you realise it's now acceptable to you to sing nonsense songs, in public, as you walk down the street, or around the supermarket with a trolley, or stand in a queue at an airport. Or you end up bargaining with a toddler who will only continue eating if you sing. And you accidentally teach a toddler to add nonsense words to tunes. And you are living in a musical. Perhaps I'll reconsider my boycott.

The Deep - a review

We are terrible at planning trips out - the week gallops past, we fall into the weekend, and it tends to be somewhere around lunchtime on Saturday where we realise that we could have done something more productive with the day.

Not this week. Ever since we've lived in York, I've heard about the wonders of the Deep in Hull - the only submarium in the world, no less - http://www.thedeep.co.uk/. I was slightly sceptical about whether it could be as good as everyone says. However, given that Rachel gets excited when I take her to see the fish for sale at our local garden centre, I thought it was a fairly safe bet that she'd enjoy it, so off we went.

We booked online - you can just turn up, but it's 10% cheaper online (and you don't have to commit to a specific date), and the queue is far shorter for pre-booked tickets. It's not the cheapest attraction (about £9 per adult, and not much less for children, although under 3s are free), but they give you a form which you can then use for free entry, as many times as you like, for a year. If we lived in Hull, I could imagine getting a lot of use out of it! As we're an hour away, I'd imagine we'll go once or twice more, but even that makes it pretty good value for money.

Once you're in, you take a lift to the top of the building, and gradually work your way through the exhibition down towards the deepest level. There is a mixture of small tanks, interesting exhibits, interactive activities/buttons to press etc, centring around a spectacular, massive tank where the most exciting fish can be found. Rachel found it absolutely fascinating - any time there was glass to press her nose up against, we couldn't tear her away:

We didn't spend a massive amount of time reading labels, so I couldn't say I know more about fish than I did this morning, but as entertainment goes, it worked for both the toddler and the adults!

As you reach the bottom, you walk through a tunnel underneath the tank, and really have the sense of being surrounded - this was my favourite bit. Then, the glass bubble lift takes you slowly up again, through the water, pausing midway so you feel you are really among the fish.

...and so to the cafe.

We didn't think about practicalities at all whilst we were there, and this is testament to how well designed the Deep is...it is a linear exhibition (in the style of Ikea?!) taking you from start to finish, which could potentially be tricky when working with small children whose eating/resting etc needs don't necessarily schedule themselves around an attraction's timetable. However, pushchair/wheelchair accessibility is fantastic, and facilities such as toilets, cafe etc are dotted around at regular points, meaning that you can forget about them and enjoy the fish!

The only minor complaint we had was that quite a few of the interactive exhibits didn't seem to be working - it didn't materially affect the visit but was a bit of a shame.

There are events - divers, feeding time (?), films etc. We didn't actually see any of these so would try to catch some next time!

So, definitely worth the drive to Hull, and I can't rate it highly enough for a couple of hours' entertainment (or more, probably, if your children are bigger / you're an adult and want to read all the labels etc. My only tip would be to go early - we arrived just after it opened at 10, and came out about half 12. It wasn't too busy for us, but the car park was absolutely rammed by lunchtime, so I would imagine it was a bit more crowded then; there's plenty of space inside but you could find yourself queuing to look into some of the tanks.

Hope and Bradford City football club

**WARNING: this post is about neither parenting, nor work. It's about football. I've been thinking about it for a while. Feel free not to read it if the topic doesn't interest you...**

It's been a funny season to be married to a Bradford City fan.

I met Martin in 2001, when Bradford were just beginning their slide down the echelons of English football. The football season was characterised by anxiety, depressing results, the inevitable approach of relegation, the threat of insolvency, and a distinct absence of enjoyment. They never seemed to catch a break, and there wasn't much to hope for, but being at a distance in London it didn't impinge that much on my consciousness.

We moved up north in 2006, Martin got his season ticket, and in an odd fit of enthusiasm (and I think it was buy one get one free) I got one too. This lasted one season - Bradford didn't win one of the games I attended, and we made a mutual decision that it might be better for the club, and my Saturdays, if we didn't renew it.

So the club plodded on in League 2, seasons now characterised by early hope, a good but small squad, injuries, a succession of loan players, a late-season panic about possible relegation, and a disappointing mid- to bottom-half league finish. Oh, and a revolving door of managers. For me, Saturday afternoons were dominated by keeping an eye on Soccer Saturday to see what mood Martin was going to come home in. Another loss from a goal in the 89th minute? Quel surprise. There was a dreary inevitability in it, despite Bradford's nearly-Championship-level crowds...League 2 referees, losing in the first round of every cup, ugly football, bad decisions, a world of pain.

Until this season.

This season has been different.

Bradford somehow started to carve out a cup run. It came to the next draw and, rather than getting another League 2 team, out came a Premiership team. But it was Wigan - a recipe for a dreary 1-0 loss on a rainy Tuesday night. Except that somehow, Bradford held on for a draw, held on for extra time, and contrived to win on penalties. Suddenly the season held a glimmer of hope - fourth round of a cup! The league performance was looking good too. Bradford had a manager that was pulling the team together; the team was populated by regular players signed to the club not loan players; they cared about the club. There were more positives than negatives...something I had never experienced in relation to Bradford.

And then...Arsenal in the next round! A proper Premiership team, coming to Valley Parade. (no offence, Wigan). Obviously there was no hope that Bradford would win, but excitement started to build nonetheless. Wenger picked a full strength team, off Martin went, resigned to seeing Bradford lose but delighted at the prospect of seeing some decent football in the process. I watched it on TV...and somehow, again, it came to penalties and Bradford won.

It's hard to explain, to someone not interested in football, what this felt like. The Bradford fan is accustomed, when telling an enquirer which team they support, to receiving responses which range from confusion to pity. They are not used to being the main story in the sports pages in the national press, to gushing features on the news, to being spoken about with fondness, to start having a reputation for being unbeatable in a penalty shootout. Football doesn't usually feel ... well... good.

This was partly about pressure - Bradford were now playing well beyond a level where they could possibly expect to win. With expectation lifted, any achievement could be celebrated, and even being there was an achievement.

Next round - Villa, over two legs. There was no way Bradford could win again. Except, after the first leg, Bradford were somehow 3-1 up. They tried not to hope, and for the first half of the second leg looked hopelessly outclassed, but regained confidence and managed to retain a one goal league at the end. Bradford were in a final. At Wembley. In a cup!! At Wembley!!!

Again the hope thing kicked in...it was impossible that Bradford could win it but a little spark of belief was there all the same - after all, it had been impossible to beat Wigan, Arsenal and Villa.

Wembley was amazing:

And, as Swansea demonstrated pure superiority and crushed Bradford 5-0, utterly devastating. But about 20 minutes before the end, we remembered that we weren't supposed to be there, there was no way we should win, and that the experience was one to be enjoyed...and the Bradford fans sang, cheered, shouted, went crazy for a corner (our only one of the match), and generally displayed an incredible sporting spirit. It's hard to articulate but it was unforgettable to be part of.

So, that was it...the excitement of the season over. Performance dipped in the league, the team was tired; the financial benefit of the cup run remained, but the sense of anticipation was gone.

Now, though, we find ourselves facing Wembley again in the League 2 playoff final. I'm not going this time - it's too important a game to risk bringing my losing curse back to the club (I fear the 5-0 loss was my fault!). Bradford are marginally favourites, there is pressure to win, and it feels too important to believe they can...this feels like the season where they have to get promoted if they're ever going to do it. There is definite hope and anticipation here but mixed with a massive amount of fear. Only a few days till we'll know.

It's been a weird season to be married to a Bradford City fan. It appears to have converted me from an interested bystander into...well, a Bradford City fan. I'm not sure how I feel about that.

The Tiger Who Came To Tea

I wasn't sure whether to post this on my book blog or my child blog but eventually decided it's not really about literature!

One of the joys of living with a small child is that you get to revisit old book favourites, as well as discover new ones. Again, and again, and again, and again. Books are one of Rachel's favourite things and so there are a number of her favourites (A Bit Lost, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, One Ted Fell Out of Bed to name just three) that I can now recite, word perfect, without the book in front of me. This is handy when you're trying to entertain her in the morning without waking up properly.

A downside of this repeated reading and retelling (often three or four times in a row without pause) is that you start thinking too much about the content. The Tiger Who Came To Tea (TTWCTT from now on) is a prime example. It's a classic, and I remember it fondly from my childhood. But how dated it is. With each reading, Sophie's downtrodden, idiot Mummy irritates me more. She's stupid: she rules out all the "safe" visitors who could be arriving at the front door, and still sends Sophie to open it. She's helpless without Sophie's Daddy: when the tiger eats all the food in the house, and even drinks all the water in the tap, she has no idea how to handle the situation of having nothing for Daddy's supper...it takes the man of the house to arrive home, sit in state in his armchair to hear the tale, and think up the revolutionary idea that they will go out to eat. Rocket science. And I don't like her tights, but that's my personal taste.

I have therefore been amusing myself, when reading TTWCTT, with alternate scenarios from the modern world:

• The tiger turns up but no-one is in as Sophie's mum hasn't yet collected her from nursery
• Sophie's mum decides not to open the door as the Tesco delivery has already come, the Amazon delivery isn't due until tomorrow, and Daddy has his key, and it just isn't safe these days to open the door unless you know who it is.
• Sophie's mum opens the door herself, deeming it too dangerous to send her child, and gets eaten by the tiger.
• Sophie and her daddy are having tea in the kitchen as it's the day he looks after her.
• Sophie and her mummy aren't having tea in the kitchen - what a ridiculous idea, they have ready meals on trays in the living room.
• No-one really cares when the tiger eats everything as they can order a takeaway online anyway.
• After the tiger eats everything, Sophie's mum gets straight online and does a supermarket order. She orders some tiger food, just in case, but unfortunately they make a substitution and they get tiger bread instead...

Somehow the magic is missing from these variations, but I have at least survived one more reading.

It may just be me that's amused. I think we need some new books!