How can you not love these

I came across these brilliantly colourful shelves on the ace Bright Bazaar blogspot. Surely this would be easy peasy to re-create yourself with a few pots of paint and some cheap Ikea shelves. This one's on my list to do this summer.

Street party-tastic

This Friday over 1 million people will be taking to the streets to join in one of the many Street Parties that are being put on to celebrate the Royal Wedding. Hats off to all those community spirited individuals who are putting the time and effort in to make these things happen. It's no small feat. In case you're searching for some inspiration, I've provided a few of my favourite street party or village fete style games:

• Tug of war - one side of street Vs other
• Best decorated front door or dustbin
• Best front garden
• Village fete style baking and vegetable growing competitions
• Dog that most looks like it's owner
• Bunting making competition
• Human fruit machine side show
• Whacky races - three legged race, egg & spoon, sack race, backwards running, high heel race, fancy dress race (oh the list could go on)
  
• Bike decorating competition

Thanks to www.notonthehighstreet.com for the pic.

Easy way to this season's interior brights

When it comes to interiors, bright is good in my world. Admittedly our home more closely resembles a nursery classroom than a houseboat, but I find minimalism and the muted hues and white palettes of some uber designed homes rather depressing. The good thing about fashion is that if you wait long enough, everything comes around eventually. So if your style is a little wayward then you can rest assured that at some point those dedicated followers of fashion will at some point be turning to you as their inspiration.

Thankfully for a brief and fickle moment, I seem to be on the money as the interior magazines are showcasing a rainbow explosion. One simple way to bring this season's brights into the home is with a couple of pots of paint. A few weeks ago I rescued some country style wooden chairs that had been rejected by the local charity shop. With a coat of wood primer and a couple of coats of bright paint, I'd updated our whole table for less than 30 quid.

How to organise an uber super duper Easter Egg Hunt

With Easter just around the corner I thought I would see if I could inspire you to organise an Easter Hunt spectacular that's a little more than a couple of chocolate eggs poked inside a plant pot. There's a whole other level that you can take your Easter Hunt to that should get even the most poe faced to get involved. I know of a family who still all head home aged 30 plus in eager anticipation of their Father's infamous Easter Egg Hunt extravaganza, with their own kids now in tow. If you fancy adding a touch of dazzle to the traditional skip around the lawn, then I hope the following provides some inspiration:

• Think beyond the back garden or living room, and take your hunt into the big wide world. Lay your trail around your local park or the village if you're in the countryside, or organise a hunt that follows your favourite Sunday stroll through the woods or along the canal. See if you can persuade a couple of accomplices to help out by getting them to hold a clue. They need to be relied on to be at a certain place, at a certain time, so a shop keeper, lock keeper or even ice cream man are all ideal
  
• We once started our Easter Egg Hunt by making it look as though we'd taken an ad out in the Sunday papers announcing the first clue. We had actually created an ad and stuck it in there, but the kids loved it
  
• If you're playing near a beach or riverside, then use items around you to hold clues. Mark a cross on a bottom of a stone with the clue written underneath or if you're any good at origami and are laying a trail that will take you through some garden blooms, then you could re-create a flower out of paper with the clue written on it, and strategically position amongst the real McCoys
  
• Another year we decorated our local oak tree by hanging the chocolate high up in the branches meaning the kids had to scramble up the tree to retrieve them
• Ordinance survey map coordinates are also great clues if the egg hunters are any good with a map and compass
  
• If you're playing anywhere near water and can get your hands on a floating buoy then create a waterproof container that you submerge and attach to a buoy. You can direct the egg hunters to the clue either through ordinance survey coordinates or by points of reference
• Thanks to Counrty Living magazine for the lovely picture.

Hold a sunflower growing competition

Last weekend we received a parcel in the post from one of my aunts containing a packet of seeds and a challenge that laid down the gauntlet to a sunflower growing competition amongst the wider family members. I love a spot of competition and duly raced to the potting shed to sow several seeds in uber growth generating compost and doused them in sunflower power plant food (or similar concoction). I'd actually sown some sunflower seeds the weekend before, and was sorely tempted to get ahead of the game and claim these as the ones received in the post, but that would be cheating.

This is a really lovely competition to hold with friends, family or neighbours, and if you're a city dweller, it allows you to bring a touch of the village fete to your urban life. For our competition there were no rules other than your sunflower must be grown from the packet of seeds that were sent. Other than that it's open season.