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Free Resources Giveaway

Letter to Santa 2016 – Free Download

Christmas is just around the corner, so it’s time to start sending your letters to Santa (also known as Father Christmas or the Reindeer Whisperer). Download a free printable letter/wishlist for your small person to personalise. If you are super organised (AND live in the UK) and you send it to the address on the printable before the 9th December 2016, you could get a reply from Santa!

By downloading this file you agree to the following terms:

You may use the file
For personal use ONLY.

You may NOT use the file
For pornographic, unlawful or other immoral purposes, for spreading hate or discrimination, or to defame or victimise other people, sociteties, cultures.
To endorse products and services if it depicts a person.
As part of a trademark, service mark or logo.
SELLING AND REDISTRIBUTION OF THE FILE AND ANY ASSOCIATED PARTS (INDIVIDUALLY OR ALONG WITH OTHER IMAGES) IS STRICTLY FORBIDDEN!

Happy Christmas folks!

icon_downloadTo download the PDF, right-click on the link below and select ‘Save Link As’.
Who Ate My Crayons – Free Letter to Santa – December 2016 – PDF 130KB

Categories
Graphic Print Design Random Thoughts

New year, new planner

2017 Wall Planner A2 Personalised

For the past four years I have been producing and designing my own personalised wall planners. This was partly due to the fact that I couldn’t find anything that was pretty enough for my wall (yes, I am a design snob) and that I enjoyed the challenge of producing something like that, but I think that it was mainly because Mrs PinkMilk asked me to make one. I tend to do as I am told where she is concerned. It’s just easier that way.

Regardless of how it all came about, it’s been really fun working on these designs and through the years people have been buying them and enjoying them, which gives me a great sense of satisfaction.

Over the years there have been quite a few test samples where I have tried to find the right printer to outsource my large format printing to. You would be surprised at the variations you get based on the papers and inks used. Some samples were poorly cropped or had a rubbish saturation of colours and others where the paper weight wasn’t to my liking — yes, it turns out I am THAT picky. However, after much experimentation, I have finally found a printer that I am happy with and I’ve managed to keep the costs down. So everybody’s a winner!

I love being able to plan ahead and being able to see all the (many) school dates, playdates and holidays at a quick glance makes my life so much easier. But, then I am a total control freak, so I would say that.

I get the feeling that 2017 is going to be an important and busy year for Crayons HQ and I look forward to making lots of exciting plans and pretending to be in control by writing down things with pretty coloured pens (because it makes me happy).

So, allow me to take this opportunity to wish you all a happy and healthy new year and may it bring you everything you have planned for.

If you would like to purchase a planner and be in the cool planning gang, you can currently buy it and get free P&P!

Categories
Random Thoughts

Protected: Cake by the Ocean for the Crowthers

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Random Thoughts Soap Box

How to organise a STEM festival and still remain sane

Peterboorugh STEM Festival 2016

As a self proclaimed veteran (having organised one STEM festival for Peterborough), I thought it might be helpful to impart some useful tips to anyone looking to embark upon the same insane journey.

Before I start, I’d like to point out that this is not in any kind of logical order. It’s almost as if I am sat perched on the sofa with thoughts spilling out of my (cake deprived) mind. Maybe.

Here goes:

1. Choose co-organisers on your team who are generous, like-minded and level-headed. You’ll probably need to call on their ability and dedication to put up bunting and event decoration with you at 10pm the night before the big day.
2. Make sure one of your co-organisers is good with words. He’ll need these skills so that he can reply to the emails that make you want to curse like a fish-wife.
3. Surround yourself with awesome people who know what they are doing so that you inadvertently bask in the glow of their achievements and talent.
4. Recruit a team of dedicated and wonderful volunteers, supply them with a complicated spreadsheet so that it looks like you have put some thought into their roles and then step back and let them do their jobs on the day.
5. Use your influence on your school mum friends to get them to help you spread the word to their networks and then nag them into booking tickets on the pretense that they are ‘testing’ the booking system for you. Repeat this several times.
6. Use all your skills at begging for freebies and calling on people’s generous nature, because you will have zero budget to work with.
7. Wait for your friends to offer to help with a small task and then somehow escalate their role until they end up managing the front registration desk on the day.
8. Don’t organise another major digital event four days after the festival day because you’ll end up feeling knackered.
9. Be sure you are married to a supportive partner who is unfazed by your crazy schemes (this one should probably be the first thing on this list).
10. If anyone asks you when you will be organising the next STEM festival, don’t start sobbing and rocking on our heels, it makes people feel uncomfortable.

So, those are my top tips. Unfortunately, they don’t guarantee any success for organising a STEM festival, but I can guarantee that it will be a once in a lifetime experience, and you will make some amazing friends along the way.

Peterborough STEM Festival 2016

Categories
Random Thoughts

One friend to rule them all…

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m rubbish at blogging frequently. I am more of a ‘micro-blogger’ (aka twitter) kind of girl.

But the last couple of weeks I have been on an emotional rollercoaster. A real case of Jekyll and Hyde when it comes to feeling happy and excited one moment and weepy and sad the next. What has caused this? My bestie of 10-11 (ish) years has taken the family and is moving back to the motherland that is New Zealand. I know that this is an amazing opportunity and wonderful new adventure, but still – how rude.

It seems like the other day that they told me they had decided to leave and then all of a sudden the house was sold and the packing company arrived to put everything into a big wooden crate to be shipped to the other side of the world. Literally.

csamfojwaaaeqywWe’ve been able to spend the final two weekends together, to say our goodbyes, having lots of tearful hugs, exchanging lovely gifts (see my awesome print above) and buying of new matchy-matchy bling. I had a great idea that it would be cool to get the kids to help me make a music video for them during their final goodbye BBQ with their closest friends and colleagues. I didn’t really think it through, as I ended up doing most of the work myself (the children found it more interesting to play minecraft – the swines).

It was rather bittersweet to go through all the home video clips and photos (there was a lot, having two budding photographers on the scene) of our families together, at parties, on joint family holidays and just generally messing around (like all families do). Our children have grown up together from those chubby baby photos to the toothless grins to the early school days and many many joint birthday parties. How time flies when you spend it with the people you love.

It was very emotional to look back and see all the lovely memories we have made together as two families and I did experience a few moments of ‘oh no, this will be the last time we…’ feelings, but I also know that new memories will be made and shared and while it won’t be as frequently as we would like, time and distance will not change how precious they will be.

20160916_184846I was remarking to the Mister that we were rather lucky to find people who ‘get us’. What were the chances that we would all become besties, adults AND children alike. We seriously lucked out on that front. Aye?

I’m not one for song lyrics, but having recently fallen in love with the musical WICKED (yeah – I’m always late to the party), this really sums up how I feel about Mrs PinkMilk.

[warning: gushing cheese alert!]

So let me say before we part
So much of me
Is made of what I learned from you
You’ll be with me
Like a handprint on my heart
And now whatever way our stories end
I know you have re-written mine
By being my friend…

So, while A is sipping cheap airport hotel wine and N is attempting to gross me out with his man-boobs photo and the girls are treating me to fish-lips selfies, on the night before they leave Blighty, I want to say… thank you for the memories, beautiful Crowthers. It’s been EPIC.

Categories
General

Charity shop treasure

I found this gorgeous dinky little watch at a charity shop in Southampton at the weekend.

I love how small and delicate it is, so much so that I ignored the fact that it probably didn’t work and would need servicing or repair.

So now my smugness is dampened by the fact that I will probably have to spend more to fix it than it actually cost to buy.

Insert #Fail here.

UPDATE – 6 SEPT 2016

Turns out a wind-up watch requires — winding. Genius!

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean vel tempor sem. Vestibulum suscipit faucibus sem ut porta. Integer ut justo euismod, auctor turpis et, tempor ante. In placerat augue quis turpis molestie, quis suscipit urna tincidunt. Phasellus posuere eros vitae magna gravida feugiat. Proin semper sodales lectus. Suspendisse quis laoreet purus, vel dictum diam. Aliquam consectetur orci ut magna efficitur dignissim.

In vulputate mattis tortor vel imperdiet. In eget tristique tortor. Nunc suscipit a nisl vitae lacinia. Nam laoreet, lacus ut varius mattis, dui arcu aliquet lectus, vel elementum elit enim ut arcu. Praesent cursus, ligula non iaculis tincidunt, orci lectus efficitur quam, et blandit libero risus sed erat. Aenean vitae lacus sit amet mi pellentesque tristique. Donec rutrum fringilla urna. Proin consequat lorem odio, id tempus augue commodo et. Proin molestie suscipit tellus non suscipit. Etiam ullamcorper diam purus, quis dictum ante venenatis lacinia. Quisque risus mauris, congue quis mattis in, auctor et lorem. Vivamus at dui ante. Cras id orci tincidunt, pulvinar dolor vitae, dignissim nisi.

Donec eleifend sapien ipsum, eu cursus lacus porttitor in. Proin libero urna, viverra nec tempor non, bibendum quis leo. Nullam pellentesque ante nulla, eget pharetra enim interdum quis. Mauris condimentum risus purus, vel venenatis libero dictum ut. Suspendisse dictum sodales elementum. Donec egestas blandit purus non congue. Sed dolor arcu, iaculis sodales sodales sed, fringilla at purus. Ut molestie mauris commodo lacus auctor bibendum. Proin faucibus risus non mi pretium, non aliquam nisl sagittis. Quisque nec bibendum dui.

Nam et nisl dui. In sed vulputate massa. Fusce ultricies, enim at congue malesuada, ex risus egestas urna, eu bibendum justo ipsum nec nulla. Donec neque felis, imperdiet quis rhoncus id, fringilla ut elit. Praesent vehicula tellus in nisi malesuada, quis fermentum turpis ullamcorper. Nunc mattis lectus non turpis interdum tincidunt. Ut nisl tellus, laoreet vitae metus nec, aliquam sollicitudin lacus. Ut feugiat finibus enim, id tincidunt sapien mollis aliquet. Vestibulum blandit nisi fringilla felis congue, quis viverra ligula pellentesque. Aenean pharetra nisi quis quam rhoncus, a imperdiet neque pellentesque. Aliquam erat volutpat. Pellentesque eget convallis magna, vehicula posuere neque. Curabitur sit amet libero maximus, sagittis mi ac, tempor ligula.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean vel tempor sem. Vestibulum suscipit faucibus sem ut porta. Integer ut justo euismod, auctor turpis et, tempor ante. In placerat augue quis turpis molestie, quis suscipit urna tincidunt. Phasellus posuere eros vitae magna gravida feugiat. Proin semper sodales lectus. Suspendisse quis laoreet purus, vel dictum diam. Aliquam consectetur orci ut magna efficitur dignissim.

In vulputate mattis tortor vel imperdiet. In eget tristique tortor. Nunc suscipit a nisl vitae lacinia. Nam laoreet, lacus ut varius mattis, dui arcu aliquet lectus, vel elementum elit enim ut arcu. Praesent cursus, ligula non iaculis tincidunt, orci lectus efficitur quam, et blandit libero risus sed erat. Aenean vitae lacus sit amet mi pellentesque tristique. Donec rutrum fringilla urna. Proin consequat lorem odio, id tempus augue commodo et. Proin molestie suscipit tellus non suscipit. Etiam ullamcorper diam purus, quis dictum ante venenatis lacinia. Quisque risus mauris, congue quis mattis in, auctor et lorem. Vivamus at dui ante. Cras id orci tincidunt, pulvinar dolor vitae, dignissim nisi.

Donec eleifend sapien ipsum, eu cursus lacus porttitor in. Proin libero urna, viverra nec tempor non, bibendum quis leo. Nullam pellentesque ante nulla, eget pharetra enim interdum quis. Mauris condimentum risus purus, vel venenatis libero dictum ut. Suspendisse dictum sodales elementum. Donec egestas blandit purus non congue. Sed dolor arcu, iaculis sodales sodales sed, fringilla at purus. Ut molestie mauris commodo lacus auctor bibendum. Proin faucibus risus non mi pretium, non aliquam nisl sagittis. Quisque nec bibendum dui.

Nam et nisl dui. In sed vulputate massa. Fusce ultricies, enim at congue malesuada, ex risus egestas urna, eu bibendum justo ipsum nec nulla. Donec neque felis, imperdiet quis rhoncus id, fringilla ut elit. Praesent vehicula tellus in nisi malesuada, quis fermentum turpis ullamcorper. Nunc mattis lectus non turpis interdum tincidunt. Ut nisl tellus, laoreet vitae metus nec, aliquam sollicitudin lacus. Ut feugiat finibus enim, id tincidunt sapien mollis aliquet. Vestibulum blandit nisi fringilla felis congue, quis viverra ligula pellentesque. Aenean pharetra nisi quis quam rhoncus, a imperdiet neque pellentesque. Aliquam erat volutpat. Pellentesque eget convallis magna, vehicula posuere neque. Curabitur sit amet libero maximus, sagittis mi ac, tempor ligula.

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Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean vel tempor sem. Vestibulum suscipit faucibus sem ut porta. Integer ut justo euismod, auctor turpis et, tempor ante. In placerat augue quis turpis molestie, quis suscipit urna tincidunt. Phasellus posuere eros vitae magna gravida feugiat. Proin semper sodales lectus. Suspendisse quis laoreet purus, vel dictum diam. Aliquam consectetur orci ut magna efficitur dignissim.

In vulputate mattis tortor vel imperdiet. In eget tristique tortor. Nunc suscipit a nisl vitae lacinia. Nam laoreet, lacus ut varius mattis, dui arcu aliquet lectus, vel elementum elit enim ut arcu. Praesent cursus, ligula non iaculis tincidunt, orci lectus efficitur quam, et blandit libero risus sed erat. Aenean vitae lacus sit amet mi pellentesque tristique. Donec rutrum fringilla urna. Proin consequat lorem odio, id tempus augue commodo et. Proin molestie suscipit tellus non suscipit. Etiam ullamcorper diam purus, quis dictum ante venenatis lacinia. Quisque risus mauris, congue quis mattis in, auctor et lorem. Vivamus at dui ante. Cras id orci tincidunt, pulvinar dolor vitae, dignissim nisi.

Donec eleifend sapien ipsum, eu cursus lacus porttitor in. Proin libero urna, viverra nec tempor non, bibendum quis leo. Nullam pellentesque ante nulla, eget pharetra enim interdum quis. Mauris condimentum risus purus, vel venenatis libero dictum ut. Suspendisse dictum sodales elementum. Donec egestas blandit purus non congue. Sed dolor arcu, iaculis sodales sodales sed, fringilla at purus. Ut molestie mauris commodo lacus auctor bibendum. Proin faucibus risus non mi pretium, non aliquam nisl sagittis. Quisque nec bibendum dui.

Nam et nisl dui. In sed vulputate massa. Fusce ultricies, enim at congue malesuada, ex risus egestas urna, eu bibendum justo ipsum nec nulla. Donec neque felis, imperdiet quis rhoncus id, fringilla ut elit. Praesent vehicula tellus in nisi malesuada, quis fermentum turpis ullamcorper. Nunc mattis lectus non turpis interdum tincidunt. Ut nisl tellus, laoreet vitae metus nec, aliquam sollicitudin lacus. Ut feugiat finibus enim, id tincidunt sapien mollis aliquet. Vestibulum blandit nisi fringilla felis congue, quis viverra ligula pellentesque. Aenean pharetra nisi quis quam rhoncus, a imperdiet neque pellentesque. Aliquam erat volutpat. Pellentesque eget convallis magna, vehicula posuere neque. Curabitur sit amet libero maximus, sagittis mi ac, tempor ligula.

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Donec eleifend sapien ipsum

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Aenean vel tempor sem. Vestibulum suscipit faucibus sem ut porta. Integer ut justo euismod, auctor turpis et, tempor ante. In placerat augue quis turpis molestie, quis suscipit urna tincidunt. Phasellus posuere eros vitae magna gravida feugiat. Proin semper sodales lectus. Suspendisse quis laoreet purus, vel dictum diam. Aliquam consectetur orci ut magna efficitur dignissim.

In vulputate mattis tortor vel imperdiet. In eget tristique tortor. Nunc suscipit a nisl vitae lacinia. Nam laoreet, lacus ut varius mattis, dui arcu aliquet lectus, vel elementum elit enim ut arcu. Praesent cursus, ligula non iaculis tincidunt, orci lectus efficitur quam, et blandit libero risus sed erat. Aenean vitae lacus sit amet mi pellentesque tristique. Donec rutrum fringilla urna. Proin consequat lorem odio, id tempus augue commodo et. Proin molestie suscipit tellus non suscipit. Etiam ullamcorper diam purus, quis dictum ante venenatis lacinia. Quisque risus mauris, congue quis mattis in, auctor et lorem. Vivamus at dui ante. Cras id orci tincidunt, pulvinar dolor vitae, dignissim nisi.

Donec eleifend sapien ipsum, eu cursus lacus porttitor in. Proin libero urna, viverra nec tempor non, bibendum quis leo. Nullam pellentesque ante nulla, eget pharetra enim interdum quis. Mauris condimentum risus purus, vel venenatis libero dictum ut. Suspendisse dictum sodales elementum. Donec egestas blandit purus non congue. Sed dolor arcu, iaculis sodales sodales sed, fringilla at purus. Ut molestie mauris commodo lacus auctor bibendum. Proin faucibus risus non mi pretium, non aliquam nisl sagittis. Quisque nec bibendum dui.

Nam et nisl dui. In sed vulputate massa. Fusce ultricies, enim at congue malesuada, ex risus egestas urna, eu bibendum justo ipsum nec nulla. Donec neque felis, imperdiet quis rhoncus id, fringilla ut elit. Praesent vehicula tellus in nisi malesuada, quis fermentum turpis ullamcorper. Nunc mattis lectus non turpis interdum tincidunt. Ut nisl tellus, laoreet vitae metus nec, aliquam sollicitudin lacus. Ut feugiat finibus enim, id tincidunt sapien mollis aliquet. Vestibulum blandit nisi fringilla felis congue, quis viverra ligula pellentesque. Aenean pharetra nisi quis quam rhoncus, a imperdiet neque pellentesque. Aliquam erat volutpat. Pellentesque eget convallis magna, vehicula posuere neque. Curabitur sit amet libero maximus, sagittis mi ac, tempor ligula.