30/03/201308/10/2019 by jo

AudioGo Audiobooks – a Review

We’ve held off from reviewing this, mainly as we weren’t sure how H would respond to hearing a story on the stereo – she looked confused the first time “mummy, the tv is switched off?” (oh dear..) – but since we bought the iPad Mini we’ve found that actually putting music onto my iPod Touch is a good thing (and really what it is meant for) – so the audiobooks have made a great addition for long car journeys.

We were approached by AudioGo to see if we’d like to choose some titles to review, so off I went to their site where immediately an absolute corker jumped out – vintage Magic Roundabout! Now, being a child of the seventies, H needs to know about the proper Magic Roundabout – while I’ll happily let her watch the modern one (Flo? Seriously…?!) I do want her to sample parts of my childhood – we’ve already done Bagpuss and Mr Benn and a bit of Rainbow too.

So a vintage Eric Thompson Magic Roundabout album? Oh YES. I chose some Pingu titles too which we’re working our way through.

So – how was it? Well, H fell asleep. I think it’s a different kind of listening – however, Shaun and I LOVED it! We had a proper laugh while driving along – they don’t make programmes like that any more…! I wish they did. I know these audio titles are something we’ll listen to for a long time as well – it isn’t something she’ll grow out of – and I know at her nursery they’re spending more time listening to audiobooks, so we’re picking it up at the right time.

Check out AudioGo – there’s a fantastic selection of titles, and they’re the home of BBC Audiobooks.

We were given an opportunity to review whatever titles we wanted, and I know we chose wisely – I’d highly recommend.

29/03/201318/01/2015 by jo

Love Our Library – Another Couple of Excellent Books

Now I know I often sound like gushy mum, going on about how wonderful my little girl is and all the wonderful things she’s achieved are, but well, that’s all I’ve got to go on. She constantly amazes me on a daily basis – she came home from nursery with a handwritten Easter card which is wonderful. She’s starting to work out words from letters and understand things – which is why I will likely be buying a copy of the first book, as for the first time in the library yesterday H read most of the book to ME!

Jez Alborough – Yes is the book, and it’s fun – like all of his books. We don’t actually own any of them (yet) but have bought ‘Hugless Douglas’ for a few people in the past. What I like the most about it is the simple language – the majority of the book is just the words ‘yes’ or ‘no’ – and for H to read them and recognise the different words is HUGE to me. While I can’t say she’s reading, she’s starting; so most of all, I highly recommend this book to any parent whose child can work out words and wants to have that feeling of achievement when you read the book together. I swear I nearly burst into tears of pride in the library when she read to me. Published by Walker Books.

Oliver Jeffers – The Incredible Book Eating Boy – aaahh we love Oliver Jeffers. Has he ever had a rubbish book published? I doubt it. We’re very excited there’s a new book in the Huey’s series coming soon too, so finding a new book is a great thing. Anyway, this one – there’s even a stage play. Henry loves eating books. He eats them all day – and the more he eats, the cleverer he gets – but it’s never going to last… published by HarperCollins Children’s Books

28/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Weight Watchers – A Final Challenge

We have our last Weight Watchers challenge to post about – Easter. Yes, that time when people find an excuse to eat chocolate and stuff their faces – I used to. Then when H came along I didn’t want the associations of chocolate and celebrating in her life – I wanted chocolate to be something we eat whenever we fancy. Having said that, I *could* go overboard on the Hotel Chocolat Easter Sale the day after the main event, and may well have. Ahem. Disclaimer: I have then taken another six months to eat it, savouring the chocolatey goodness.

Actually, looking at myself and how I eat around H, I’ve tried my best not to sneak food around her (like a sneaky chocolate) and have waited until she’s gone to bed. Last March (2012) she was given a chocolate Smarties treat which I managed to convince her was a shaker for a year (she ate it last Sunday when I confessed). Doing Weight Watchers has meant I’ve had to really look at myself and this is possibly the closest to ‘me’ time I’ve had in a long time – and hands up I can say it works for me. The hard bit now is keeping it off and not going back to old bad habits.

Which is where chocolate comes in.

We will have chocolate, but we’ll have it in moderation (small eggs! Good plan!). I can eat it and know I’ve enough points to stay within my weekly limit, and seeing as there’s tons of local Easter Egg hunts going on, a long walk to find things with chocolate at the end is a well earned one (I’m aiming for a 10 point one) – that’s if this rotten weather doesn’t let us down. Polesden Lacey here we come….

I started my Weight Watchers journey around September 2012. In that time I’ve lost two stone, pretty much. My old size 38 jeans are gone – freecycled and put into clothing bins around our village. My old t-shirts need sorting out as they look wrong with my new body shape. I splashed out on some of the clothes I posted about on my New Look post, and got that ditsy print skirt – in a size 14. It fits me. The last time I remember being a size 14 was on my eighteenth birthday.

I’m wearing skinny jeans for the first time in I’ve-lost-count years – probably eighties drainpipes – and I’m starting to feel less conscious about myself. Last weekend we had pizza and I still lost 1lb – I’m edging ever-closer to my goal (only 3lb more to go), so I think it’s fairly safe to say that Weight Watchers works – for me.

Has this been life-changing? Possibly, yes. Would I recommend it? I’d definitely say give it a try. Weight Watchers isn’t for everyone – but if you need help in getting a jumbled life of food in check, it’s worth it. I have a link you can click on to sign up (see the sidebar), although three of my friends have gone for cashback schemes elsewhere – the most important thing is that there are opportunities to try it which don’t break the bank (which is what put me off doing it as we don’t have a lot of money!).

What has helped the most? All of us doing it. Not eating foods with sweeteners – just watching portion size. My wonderful Soup Maker.. quick soups are great. Eating chocolate but keeping an eye on how much rather than eating until I’ve finished the lot. Being careful with crisps – more places are stocking Popchips and that’s great because they taste good! Buying good wine – my tastebuds have changed, they’re recognising cheap and nasty wine so now I pick nice wine and savour it (or maybe I’m just growing up at last?).

There’s only one last thing I need to do – just as I’d started doing Weight Watchers I went for a blood test to check my cholesterol levels, as I’m at risk of high cholesterol. I need to book a follow up appointment, as I’ve been watching my saturated fats plus a lot of the Weight Watchers foods are low in them. I want to see if WW has made a difference to my overall health; I’m also going to try using coconut oil in our cooking to see if that helps.

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All that’s left to say is thank you Weight Watchers for giving me the tools to help get my life in check – and thank you to BritMums (for the initial campaign we worked on) and ShinyRed (for the second campaign) for the opportunity to work with Weight Watchers.

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I was provided with nine months of Weight Watchers membership for this challenge. All opinions are my own.

26/03/201326/03/2018 by jo

We Love Books – Love Our Library Again…

love3 Only two this week – I say only, it’s still taken me six days to get to write about them… firstly we’ve got

The Rhyming Rabbit by Julia Donaldson with illustrations from Lydia Monks. We’re familiar with both as we’ve owned ‘What The Ladybird Heard’ for a good couple of years now – in fact, if I was to close my eyes I can probably still remember the whole lot. The Rhyming Rabbit follows a similar pattern – pages with glitter on, but longer rhymes. It’s all about a rabbit who constantly makes up rhymes, and eventually meets with a fellow poet – and as ever it’s fun. Definitely a longer read than the previous book, but still great. Published by MacMillan.

The Pigeon Finds a Hot Dog! by Mo Willems is another in the Pigeon series – we were recommended ‘Don’t Let The Pigeon Drive The Bus’ by a friend a couple of years ago and this follows the same pattern – this time the pigeon has found a hot dog, and a crafty chick wants to know what it tastes like… will Pigeon give up his hot dog? Will he shout a lot? Will you laugh a lot? Oh yes indeed. It’s fun, and another one I’ll probably have to buy now… we love Mo Willems books – published by Walker Books.

26/03/201327/08/2017 by jo

We Love Books – I Heart Bedtime – by Clara Vulliamy

It’s the second Martha and the Bunny Brothers book from Clara Vulliamy – and since the first one came out last year we’ve built up quite a collection of her books – and H loves them all. I’ve noticed some recurring themes – school, bedtime, sleep, counting (lots of counting), sticky buns (mm) and most of all beautiful illustrations and fun stories to read.

This book is no different – and fans of Clara’s work will love this. Martha and her bunny brothers Pip and Monty are pretty excited as mum is going out, so they’re having a babysitter (and Martha would like some special time with the babysitter as she’s older) – but of course there’s plenty to be done beforehand, getting things in order too.

What I’ve found H likes the most with Clara’s books, are the extra bits of text – you can tell the story if you want to go quickly, but woe betide anyone who misses the little details – the little handwritten additions – it’s like a beautiful scrapbook with handwritten notes alongside it – and our favourite bit is as they go up and down the stairs getting things ready – it’s a really lovely visual book with lots to talk about on each picture.

Martha and the Bunny Brothers - I Heart Bedtime by Clara Vulliamy

As an experiment (as H can’t read) I let her look at the pictures and tell me what she could see – and already she remembers a lot of names and things on there – I know children have good memories at this age, but credit to the author too!

I Heart Bedtime also has a new addition – a song! The Bedtime Bunnies song – you need to head over to Clara’s website to listen to it – there’s an instrumental version (from Clara) and one sung by her daughter, Martha.

Martha and the Bunny Brothers – I Heart Bedtime is published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, and is available now.

We were sent a copy for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own

25/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Cat Doorman – Songbook

Cat Doorman is Julianna Bright, a Portland Oregon based musician who makes music for her daughter – and released her debut album earlier this year. ‘Little Red Wagon’ is a traditional song, and very catchy too – I found that ‘Songbook’ sits really well alongside the Megson album we’ve just reviewed – folky and calm.We reviewed the Night & Day ‘Little Red Wagon’ app a while back (which features on here), and loved it so much I bought the album for H. (it was especially cute when she’d sing ‘everywhere my darling’ rather than ‘fare the well my darling’ at the end)

The track ‘Inspiration’ recently had a video made for it – which you can watch over here

Inspiration from Cat Doorman on Vimeo.

What attracted me to this album the most is the other musicians appearing on it – members of The Decemberists, the Corin Tucker Band and many more – bands I’d heard of, so I knew there was a good background there, and it left me curious. Actually, I’m loving that people in indie bands are making music for their kids and it stays true to the music they make.

There’s more audio samples to be heard on Cat Doorman’s site – I’ve embedded them here too. If you like this, consider buying a copy – it’s a lovely album and one we love playing when we’re sitting around playing games at home.

25/03/2013 by jo

A Panicky Tea

If I don’t log this somewhere I’ll never find it next time I get home from work and realise there’s no bread! We have a breadmaker which is used 2-3 times a week so we never run out, apart from tonight. Fortunately I had a recipe for Soda Bread I’d tried thanks to Jax at Liveotherwise, but I couldn’t find the recipe! Time was running out, and I knew it would take 30 minutes to cook, as well as 21 minutes to do the butternut squash, leek, sweet potato soup I had planned. Diasaster!

I found the recipe – I got the oven on and warming up (it’s meant to be 200 degrees), and started off the vegetables in the soup maker. Everything was going well – but I ran out of plain flour! Fortunately I had wholemeal which seemed to work – so I combined the two – but forgot to put the oven on full – and most importantly of all forgot to put a cross on the top of the emergency bread. I now know why this is – it won’t cook inside otherwise – I cut the bread into four and it needed another five minutes to properly cook.

Disaster struck again – the first blend cycle in the soup maker made the top come loose – the 21 minute cycle stopped – argh! My quick fix was to blend the vegetables anyway so they were smooth, then re-start the soup but only have it go for as long as was needed to complete the process – around eight minutes. Crisis averted, I think….

Fortunately the bread was better for being baked that bit longer, and the soup tasted great too – so much so I scoffed the lot and didn’t take a photo. You’ll just have to take my word for it.

Soup :

3 sweet potatoes
half a butternut squash

(if you’re really lucky, you’ll have a super husband who will chop them all up into chunks the night before so you just throw it into the soup maker)

I chopped and added a leek, then three teaspoons of low-salt bouillon, water up to the maximum mark, and that’s it.

Bread :

200g plain flour
180g wholemeal flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tsp salt
1 carton of buttermilk

put all dry ingredients into a bowl, and make a well in the middle. Add the buttermilk and mix with a spoon until it becomes a big dough-y ball – now put the large cross on the top (VERY IMPORTANT). Put into the oven and bake for 30 minutes. It’ll be ready when it’s hollow sounding when you knock the bottom. It will also be super-tasty when eaten with freshly made soup.

Extra bonus, the washing up isn’t too difficult afterwards. My jeans are a bit mucky though, dough stains…

full credit to Cherished By Me for the recipe in the first place, thank you. It’s so quick and easy, especially when I’m organised. I’ve written it up now, so I reckon it’s foolproof!

23/03/201326/03/2018 by jo

Megson – When I Was A Lad

Shaun and I met thanks to music and a music community, so it was inevitable H would be brought up with it in her life – and while we’ve embraced it (especially kids tunes and classics), there comes a point where music we like has to make an appearance and take over for the sake of our sanity!

Megson - When I Was a Lad

We were sent a copy of ‘When I Was a Lad’ by Megson which is a collection of Children’s Folk Songs. Megson are a new band to us; they’ve been going a few years now (and have self-released four albums and one EP) who took a break when their daughter was born – and ended up making this album to combine their music and their roles as parents. These kinds of albums are my favourites too – it’s the kind of music you can play in the car and enjoy.

There’s some old traditional classics in there – ‘Oats & Beans & Barley Grow’, ‘Three Little Ducks’ and ‘A Frog He Would A Woo-ing Go’ as well as some songs they’ve written themselves. ‘All The Shops Have Fallen Down’ started as a song about shops on the high street and what you can buy… except there aren’t so many shops on the high street these days…

Megson - When I Was a Lad

It’s a good mixture, when I asked H what she likes the most she told me “I like all the songs!” as her best thing, and that is a good thing; actually, right now H is playing Musical Statues with the album (which is allowing for some good creative dancing too!). The music reminds me of Sundays growing up in the seventies when we’d have days around the house listening to my mum and dad’s music – and that’s a good thing, by the way.

I’ve been reorganising our digital life, and putting more music onto the iPod (after all, that’s what it’s meant for), so we’ve been playing much more music in the car – and mixing our songs in there too, that always goes down well… – Megson is a welcome addition.

Megson Family Folk Show
Megson can be found over here – where there are tour dates and more (look out for the family folk shows – please come and play Beanie’s in Croydon!) – they’re playing at the Larmer Tree festival (which is very family-friendly) this year as well. You can buy ‘When I Was a Lad’ on their website for £10 using this link.

We were sent the CD to review – all opinions are our own

22/03/201328/07/2023 by jo

things we like this week

the new Celia Birtwell collection at Uniqlo – Wandsworth had a decent selection in store, so I got a t-shirt which is pretty cool…

Celia Birtwell at Uniqlo

plus I picked up a Mr Potato Head t-shirt for Shaun as they had the Pixar designs still in stock.

Disney Pixar at Uniqlo

The two Very Hungry Caterpillar iPad games that Night & Day Studios made available this week – the freebie one on Wednesday for Very Hungry Caterpillar Day – Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar and the sticker book which was made cheaper – both fab games celebrating Eric Carle’s wonderful timeless pictures. Plus there’s a new book due later this year!

Martha and the Bunny Brothers I Heart Bedtime by Clara Vulliamy – we LOVE everything Clara does and this is another lovely book – beautifully illustrated (I really like the bit where they go up and downstairs) and a fun story too – a full review to follow very soon

Making cheese straws (thanks to Jo for recommending!). Okay, Shaun made them but we had plenty of fun eating them. They’re not too high propoints wise for Weight Watchers either if you switch a few ingredients.

Cheese Straws

Our local NCT Playgroup – we were with the NCT for our antenatal classes, and have made friends we’ll always keep in touch with – watching our kids grow up together and knowing they’ve all known each other since birth is lovely – and having a local playgroup where we can meet more local mums is even better – especially as we’ve now less than a month before we find out where H will be going.

Knitting! The Hooky Knitters met this week, I started knitting a rainbow sock, and we had two new knitters come along – Beka has a blog too and is joining us for BritMums – hurrah!

H&M Kids Basketball shoes H&M – we got a new catalogue and already I’ve placed an order (ssshhh don’t tell Shaun) and shopped in-store. H desperately wants a Brazil football shirt from their new range and being a modern mother who loves football I’m happy she does – Shaun is also happy as if he pretends there isn’t ‘Brazil’ on the back and there isn’t a badge on it, it would be an Australia shirt. On the other hand, I lived my eighties fantasies in this top.

H&M 80's top

How Eskimo’s Keep Their Babies Warm – I’m already chatting about it to mum friends, it’s an interesting book – and I’m only a short way in.

I got a new Mia Tui bag – my fourth – a Sofia. This means I can switch bags for all our activities, especially on a busy Wednesday when we’re running around like crazy – I use the largest bag for swimming, the smallest for going to pilates, and the new Sofia for everything else in between when I need to carry things for H.

Mia Tui bags

Blinkbox – we’ve watched two films we’d never have got around to watching had we not had a free trial (and a PeerIndex perk) – and I’m really impressed – we watched ‘Hit So Hard’ the Patty Schemel documentary and ‘Sound City’ the new Dave Grohl film – both great.

Music – new albums from British Sea Power, Iron & Wine, The House Of Love, having an account at Rdio (like Spotify without the ads) and Cherry Red recreating my youth in CD form.. and getting a thankyou on The Breeders LSXX Last Splash reissue is really special!

Disclosure – there are affiliate links in here, we were sent the Martha & the Bunny Brothers and How Eskimo’s Keep Their Babies Warm books free of charge for review, received Blinkbox as a free trial, everything else has been paid for and is recommended because we like it. Music-wise, some are related to my work but this doesn’t affect my opinion.

19/03/201327/01/2014 by Karen

Baby Knits for Beginners – Debbie Bliss

New to knitting? Then this lovely book by Debbie Bliss may well be the one for you!

I have always felt connected to knitting in one form or another. Firstly, it was at the tender age of eight when my Grandma taught me a few basic stitches. I forgot about knitting for many years after this, but became reacquainted again almost two years ago when Jo invited me to attend monthly Hooky Knitters sessions. It was being in a group of like-minded people that made me realise how much I enjoyed knitting and that it was something I’d like to progress.

Whilst knitting was fun, the thought of using patterns terrified me, which is why I’m so glad I got the chance to give ‘baby knits for beginners’ by Debbie Bliss a go. Visually it’s a beautiful book, as soon as I saw it I wanted to dive right in and get knitting!

The book starts by giving the reader an overview of different yarns, equipment advice and stitch descriptions. This book was obviously made with the beginner knitter in mind. The patterns themselves start from the very basic (a plain knit scarf) to the slightly more advanced (a v-neck sweater with pockets). I love the fact that the reader is given the opportunity to gently ease themselves into using patterns if they are feeling unsure, whilst the more experienced knitter can go straight to the slightly advanced stuff.

I have to admit that I went a bit insane with this book, knitting all sorts of lovely items. Shown in pictures are the shawl-collared jacket (minus buttons) and a moss stitch shoe. Admittedly, against Debbie’s advice, I used cheaper synthetic wool as being a beginner I didn’t want the pressure of messing up very lovely more expensive wool. If you do decide to use a different wool it is best to ask advice at your local knitting shop to ensure that your creation looks similar to the pattern… being a novice I didn’t think to do this and as a result some of my knits have turned out a bit lumpy/ odd looking… but I love them nonetheless!

For me some of the patterns took a little getting used to. There are some terms that I had never heard of before and found a little daunting, however Debbie has got a thorough list of explanations and abbreviations in the front of the book. For me I also enlisted the help of on-line videos, as for me it is easier to visually see what needed to be done. However once I’d understood and tried these new techniques a couple of times I felt a lot more confident.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to get more into knitting. It is a fabulous little starter book and if I can do it, believe me, anyone can!

We were sent a copy of ‘Baby Knits for Beginners’ by Debbie Bliss from Love Knitting, a fabulous online knitting store which we’d highly recommend. All opinions are our own.

Mum Friendly

the things we do, the things we like

Month / March 2013