Month / December 2013

by jo

New Cancer Research Retro Range

I love things which have a retro feel though I don’t like the prices it often comes with. This afternoon we went wandering around the shops locally as we don’t get a chance to do that often any more.

Our favourite shop Calladoodles is currently being refurbished so we had to skip there (but it’ll be open again in two weeks) but happily our Cancer Research shop was open.

Cancer is something which has affected a lot of people. My dad died due to Bowel Cancer, my mum has had two different kinds, and various family members have been affected. A lot of friends are going through it at the moment. This is why I’ll always shop at Cancer Research shops – the money is put into Cancer Research in the hope one day a cure will be found. They have a lovely range of things in-store too. I’ve done Race for Life several times (I didn’t do it last year) and am thinking about doing the Dryathlon, though I’d find it quite easy not to drink for the whole of January.

Here’s the Cancer Research retro range, and the things which I’m going to go back and buy some of…

Cancer Research retro cosmetic purse

I do not need another cosmetic purse, however, at just £2.99 I need this.

Cancer Research retro notepadsI can never have too many notepads. Actually, I never have enough as H steals them.

Cancer Research Retro Purse

This purse has plenty of card compartments and a separate zip area for coins, etc. Only £7.99 too!

Cancer Research retro toiletries bag

What better than a matching toiletries bag?

Cancer Research retro wellies

If I really wanted to go for the overkill effect I’d also wear these wellies. At £18.99 they’re not cheap, and only go up to size 7, so may not fit me… but still, lovely!

These are all available now at Cancer Research stores and online. Go and check them out!

by jo

Nogii Kids Snack Bar Launches in the UK

Do you keep an eye out for snacks which aren’t full of sugar, and have natural ingredients? We certainly do, especially as H seems to like picking chocolatey things (this is a recent thing, we’ve managed to avoid sweets for a long time) – it will always be at the back of my mind she could develop diabetes later in life (as could I), so I like to find a balance so she can be like her friends but not go too overboard on sugar. Nogii Kids Snack bars are ideal.

nogii kids snack bars

Nogii Kids Snack bars have recently launched in the UK. The bars are formulated with all natural ingredients, healthy Omega 3’s, premium protein, quality carbohydrates, and fibre. They’re also gluten free. Snacks are a BIG part of children’s diets, and Nogii Kids Snack bars have been given the thumbs up by H.

The bars are quite big – we received four to try. They’re the right size when you’re out and about, are individually sealed but most importantly of all aren’t full of sugar. At the moment they’re for sale at the Win Naturally website, owned by the footballer Phil Neville and his wife Julie – both are passionate about foods which are healthy for everyone, especially kids. They want to make healthy, organic food available to everyone.

nogii kids snack bar

The final word on the Nogii Kids Snack bar goes to H though, who said “I liked it. It tasted good, I liked the chocolate and marshmallow and I felt full afterwards too”.

The name confused me a bit, as I keep thinking No GI (as in low GI), so if it does for you too, think Gluten Free rather than low GI. (although the overall GI is pretty good)

Available now, keep an eye out!

nogii kids snack bar

We were sent a selection of the bars for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

by jo

Souptastically Souper – A Christmas Leftover Vegetable Stew

We’ve had our Morphy Richards Soup Maker for over a year now and use it on a weekly basis. Generally I’ll make soups, but every now and then when we want to see our vegetables I’ll make a stew – today Shaun made a fabulous Christmas Leftover Vegetable Stew.

Christmas Leftover Vegetable Stew

The Christmas Leftover Vegetable Stew is a simple one. There’s no vegetable you can’t use really. For ours we had potatoes, butternut squash, broccoli, carrot, onion, cauliflower and anything else in the fridge which needed to be used. The joy of the Morphy Richards Soup Maker is knowing each vegetable is cooked to the point where it still retains goodness and you still get the flavour. There’s no mush here.

Shaun also cooked some mini conchiglie pasta to go with it to make it a bit more filling.

Instead of the usual bouillon he used the Knorr Vegetable Stock Pot (currently on offer at Ocado, four pots for £1) and water – which gave a lovely light flavour to the stew.

Vegetable-wise he did slightly over the maximum and added water to mid-way between the maximum and minimum – just right for a tasty watery base.

After that the vegetables were cooked on the chunky setting, and 28 minutes later our Christmas Leftover Vegetable stew was ready. Add the pasta, stir it around a bit and voila.

Now the food purists may wonder why I call this a stew. In my world, 28 minutes is a long time. We once had a slow cooker but it was so big we never used it and ended up Freecycling it. This says to me something cooking for 28 minutes in a sealed container fits my definition. You may disagree. That’s okay, it tasted good anyway. Call it a soup if you fancy?

Christmas Leftover Vegetable Stew

Important note – The Morphy Richards Soup Maker is currently £49.99 at Amazon (affiliate link). If you’re thinking about buying one this is a good price. I think I got mine for £40 last year so it can go lower. If you truly need convincing how good it is, I have a few recipes, follow the ‘souptastically souper‘ tag and you’ll find a few. A year on and it’s one of the best things I’ve bought, it’s easy to clean and the soup feels so much healthier than ready-made.

by jo

2014 Travels

We’re fortunate nobody wanted us to be ambassadors for their travel brands this year. I say fortunate as this meant we could do the sensible thing and book three weeks in Australia instead to catch up with family.

So the flights are booked and paid for.

Today my sister-in-law pointed out fifty minutes at Changi Airport is below the minimum that the airport recommends. Well done us! I suspect we may miss it… at least there’s plenty to do there. Having said that, it looks like our next flight is six hours later. Sob.

My reasoning, if the airline offers it then it must be possible, right? Even with a four year old, right? I believe the term is cutting it fine.

H to Australia

So I suspect the coming year on here will be me having occasional wibbles about getting there – it wouldn’t be me if I didn’t worry about things, that and finding things which will help make the flight bearable – the last time we flew to Australia H was 15 months old and didn’t watch tv, and absolutely refused to wear headphones.

This time she’s four and knows all the tv characters and likes pop music. We’ll be fine.

It’s just that fifty minute change. I’ve looked and a few times the incoming flight landed five minutes early. Lucky for us both flights are the same terminal, but yes, still. Fifty minutes.

What would you do? (for the record we’re flying with Singapore Airlines for the first time and I can’t wait, they’re meant to be outstanding. Phew – last time we flew with Emirates, and previous before-H times were with BA, Qantas and Royal Brunei so we’ve flown with a few)

Fifty minutes though. Uuuuh.

by jo

Moshi Monsters – The Movie

Today H was treated to a film of her choice (last Christmas it was Tinkerbell). She opted for Moshi Monsters The Movie as I suspected she would. Here’s our thoughts…

Moshi Monsters The Movie

Moshi Monsters The Movie was witten about on here earlier this year, and we’ve been looking forward to seeing it since. For H it was everything she wanted. The film contains mild peril which wasn’t Finding-Nemo-style scary, but I’d pre-warned H in case it was. For the 80 or so minutes the film ran she had a big happy smile on her face and plenty of questions to ask at the end.

If your child likes Moshi Monsters, chances are they’ll love the film. It’s certified a U so a fairly safe bet.

The plot. There’s a Moshling Egg which Buster Bumblechops has in his possession (as he is Monstro City’s biggest Moshling collector), which goes on display at his house. However, the evil Dr Strangeglove steals it, and it’s up to Katsuma and Poppet to get it back, accompanied by some of the other Moshi Monsters.

Of course, it being a kids movie there’s a happy ending, yet another egg is discovered so there’s a chance of a sequel, maybe? Who can say, it has only been on release for a few days…

There’s plenty of songs in there, and there seemed to be several happy kids in the cinema too.

Moshi Monsters Movie

Our post-film thoughts. I got it, followed it and was able to explain to H where she was confused. The main thing she was stuck on was why the baddies were left at the end, and what happened to them. Shaun was confused by the whole plot, though may have fallen asleep at some point (most expensive sleep he’s had since Tinkerbell, I think…). H thought it was brilliant and loved that Poppet and Luvli both featured (her two favourites) and asked several times why Poppet was sad (this was Mr Snoodle related). Shaun felt there were too many characters involved, which I’d disagree with, so I think a basic knowledge of the monsters is needed.

If your child loves the Moshi Monsters, then Moshi Monsters The Movie is definitely for them – in all good cinemas now!

Official website We booked our tickets on the Vue website, where we were given a special code for an exclusive Vue Moshling which can be redeemed at the official Moshi Monsters site. We’ve also discovered an iPad App we hadn’t come across before which we’ll be having a look at over Christmas…

by jo

Sing and Play – Jingle Bells App

P2 Games have released a new title just in time for Christmas from their Sing and Play range. This time it’s Jingle Bells, and if you’ve tried their Wheels on the Bus app which we reviewed earlier this year, you’ll know what to expect. It’s a really bright colourful play along game which teaches your child how to play it really simply on a keyboard.

Jingle Bells App

The Jingle Bells app is available now at the App Store, and follows the familiar pattern all P2 games have – sections to complete and sticker rewards which you can place on a themed picture. This is still very much up H’s street so she got on with it straight away, and was playing Jingle Bells fairly quickly too.

Each note is highlighted on the keyboard, so the child just needs to press it. I think H still has a bit of time before she’ll work out what she’s playing as the tune, but she’s getting there and enjoys it.

The sections within the game are :
Jigsaw puzzles – Based on 4 different seasonal songs – ‘Jingle Bells, ‘We Wish You a Merry Christmas’, ‘Silent Night’ and ‘Ding Dong Merrily on High’. Once completed, children will watch in wonder as the pictures come to life, allowing them to play with everything they can see.

Playable keyboard – Let’s make music! Children can learn and practice the Jingle Bells song, as well as have fun with the freeplay activity on the keyboard, experimenting with different funny silly sounds!

Colouring activity – Get creative with different brushes and tools! Use them to colour and decorate a Christmas scene, each based on a different Christmas classic.

Animated sticker soundboard – Children can earn stickers throughout game-play as rewards, which then unlock in this sticker activity.

Jingle Bells App

The Sing and Play Jingle Bells app is available now in the App Store for just £1.49 – if you’re looking for a last minute present and can’t face going out in the awful weather right now, this is a good choice. This game is targeted at under 5’s.

We received a code to review this app, all opinions are our own. The link is an affiliate one.

by jo

Woolly and Tig App

The popular Cbeebies show Woolly and Tig has an app available now! We’ve been trying it out for a few weeks now, so read on to find out what we think.

Woolly and Tig App

Woolly and Tig are on Cbeebies, and each show is based around normal activities your child may experience – there’s a list of the episodes here so you get an idea. Tig is a three year old girl, and Woolly is her toy spider. The game is based around Woolly with the intention of making everyday activities fun.

At the start of the game there are various things you need to get Woolly to do, from rolling over to cuddling, as well as some counting. This is achieved by doing the correct finger movements, and there’s plenty of prompts.

After that there’s the various options within the Woolly and Tig app, which can be accessed in two ways – via the parental section where you can schedule them, or just as a free play option.

The options are : Getting dressed, brush my teeth, wash my face, fun in the rain, fun in the sun, fun in the snow.

They’re all simple straightforward sections where you can earn a medal. Within the parental section you can set up the scheduler so it helps remind your child to do something, so a morning play might involve cleaning teeth until they’re squeaky clean (this amuses H) and getting dressed.

Woolly and Tig AppI feel H is at the higher age range for this app, and she did enjoy playing it a lot; the target age is from 3-6 year olds. It’s also worth pointing out it worked fine on the iPad Mini, and mostly worked on our first generation iPad too.

The Woolly and Tig app is available now for £2.99 at the App Store. Woolly and Tig is on Cbeebies at 10.50 and 2.50 at the moment, check your TV guide for up to date times (as it’s possible this is a Christmas schedule)

We were reimbursed the cost of the Woolly and Tig app for the purpose of review and sent a lovely goody bag –  thank you! The link is an affiliate one.

by jo

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas

We’ve never been to Bocketts Farm Park, though have driven past the entrance many times. We’re also horribly disorganised this year and hadn’t booked H into Painshill to see Father Christmas. The slots all went and even locally it was hard – until we read about the Bocketts Farm Father Christmas.

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas

Bocketts Farm is no more than five minutes from Polesden Lacey, so already an area we’re familiar with, though we’d never been. It’s a farm with a big play area, good for kids and somewhere that was on the list to visit.

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas can’t be pre-booked – you turn up and buy a ticket for your slot. To save you reading the review, we were really impressed and H got a great toy (a Barbie sized horse) – it was really well done and had the right atmosphere.

You can visit Father Christmas without visiting the park – entrance there is around the £9 mark and worth it if you’re having a day there. Father Christmas is an additional £5. We only wanted to see him so paid the £9ish charge which gave us access to the cafe and a small outdoor play area. As H is an only child we got a slot for an hour later (I suspect if I’d have had more than one child it would have been two) so we grabbed some sandwiches, had a play and had a browse in their shop. Soon enough our time came, our ‘elf’ took the kids in a trailer to the Grotto (made from hay and really well laid out), we sat down and let Father Christmas work his magic – and he was great. Writing the kids name and their present request, a simple touch but it was like he was listening to them. H was the last one to be seen, he asked lots of nice questions and handed over the present – she had a minute with him. We were all sat on hay bales watching.

Bocketts Farm Father Christmas

It felt like we were in there for ages – each group of kids has around fifteen minutes until the next lot arrive, and he does see children in groups rather than individually and it was done really well.

A bonus is parents go free (up to 2 per child).

Polesden Festive Fun

It’s small, but when you’re like us and badly organised Bocketts Farm Father Christmas is a more than adequate experience. If you’re National Trust members (like us!) then head to Polesden Lacey afterwards where there’s always lots going on. We were lucky and caught the last rides from two horses ‘disguised as reindeer’ in a truck around the grounds – that was pretty fab and I’m finally starting to feel festive. There was a Father Christmas who chatted to the kids in the queue, however H told me it wasn’t the real one, and they’re all dressed up and pretending. Gulp…

by jo

Bringing Warmth to My Living Room

We have a huge living room. Almost everyone who comes here comments on how deceptively big it is. The reality is it’s like a living room and dining room in one, but the space is used well. However, our heating isn’t great – the nasty air vent kind – only two in the house; upstairs and downstairs.

In summer it’s a lovely room to be in – with the windows open and the sun streaming in it’s a room which has a nice coolness to it – neutral decor with just our photos on the walls to decorate. In the winter, however, it gets really cold.  Even with the Christmas tree up it isn’t as cosy as it should be.

We rent but own all our furniture – so if we’re going to make changes they have to be on our property. We were set a challenge with HomeServe to bring warmth to a room in our house so we decided on our living room as it’s where we all spend the most time.

Living Room - Before

We were given a £50 B&Q voucher to put towards the changes, so yesterday after school H and I went shopping.

Our walls are a lovely shade of what I’ve always called ‘landlord paint’ (I believe it’s magnolia), the floor a neutral brown-y grey. Our settees are both blue and I have cushions on those in varying shades of purple, burgundy and beige with plenty of spotty designs. If we’re going to bring warmth to our room we’re going to need to use some bright colours and some clever lighting. Shaun fondly calls the living room ‘my office’, as I have everything around me I need – files never get put away as I need them on a daily basis to stay on top of everything. So I picked up a fabric storage box. What I need is something that holds my school files, slanket, iPad chargers and anything else that just lived on the floor or the back of the chair. While it’s not the tidiest box in the world it now keeps all my things in one place.

After umming and aahing for a day I had to buy this floor light – it was one of those purchases-to-be that refused to go away. I love it. It brings warmth to the room just by being on. I want to curl up on the settee and drink hot chocolate with marshmallows floating on the top. You know the kind of thing?  We sat with the lights off, with the new light and the christmas tree on last night, watching a spot of Vintage TV. Dare I say it? It was pretty cosy in the room.

Settee - now

I bought a fluffy pink throw. Shaun thought it’d be a bit bright but it adds colour without being too odd. It suits the burgundy cushions too – plus it’s got a fluffy texture to it which is quite nice for lying on when you fancy a tv night.

After that I decided our cushions needed some love. I picked up a couple of cushion inners from The Fabric Warehouse and two new purple ones to go on the settees. No longer do we have flat lifeless cushions you have to fold in half to feel any kind of difference – we have big squishy ones again!

Living room - after

As far as doing things which don’t cost a lot, the light was on the pricier side at £49.99 – but it’s sturdy which is important when you’ve a four year old around. I was able to pick up everything else at a discount – the cushions were £5 each and the inners were £8 (it’s their largest size). That works out a lot cheaper than buying two new large cushions. The throw had 50% off as well! But never mind this waffle, why not see for yourself how things are different? We made a video. I’m not very good at doing commentaries.

This is our entry for the HomeServe Winter Blogger Competition. We received a £50 B&Q voucher to take part.