Posts by jo

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12/06/201326/03/2018 by jo

V05 Dry Shampoo and Replacing My Eighties Nightmares #cbias

I am a member of the Collective Bias® Social Fabric® Community. This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

VO5 have a Dry Shampoo which has recently been launched in some stores around the country. We wash our hair every day, though this weekend past at our local carnival Sutton and Surrey Water had a stand and gave us a timer to attempt a three-minute shower – so trying out a dry shampoo was something I was keen to do as I don’t need to wash my hair every day. I have long-lasting memories of going to school having had talcum powder rubbed into my hair by my mum in the eighties – and I can definitely remember a time it wasn’t rubbed in very well – so I was keen to see how it would work.

We don’t have a lot of time at home, and I often use my soup maker to save time and get some quality family time for meals, so need all the help I can while it’s not possible to magic another hour in the day. (that would be good though, just the one)

I work in Wandsworth Town, so have the shops at Clapham Junction to choose from most days, including Superdrug and Sainsburys within the station. I decided to try Superdrug as they have a wide range of haircare (and the previous day I’d checked Boots in Waterloo who didn’t have very much at all – you would think a decent selection of dry shampoo would be something a commuter would go for?) – it’s very convenient and has a broad choice of goods available and means I can walk in, get what I want and get out – Clapham Junction Station shops aren’t for browsing in. I have approximately five minutes to do my shop and make it into work on time so I’m always in a rush.

They had two kinds of VO5 shampoos, though disappointingly the front two rows of cans had no caps. I had to get to the cans at the back before I found one that was intact – and that included a smashed up lid too. The cans were fairly easy to spot on the second to bottom row of the shampoo aisle. I went for the ‘Plump Me Up’ range which suits my thick fine hair, that often looks flat and drab by the end of the day – it ‘has been developed with collagen to give instant body to tired, lifeless hair & banish greasy roots. If you want you can backcomb loosely for added oomph. Now you can skip a wash and still look beautifully bouffed!’. That’s me sold.

I don’t need a bag as I always carry a large reusable one with me, so left the shop, purchase complete. A quick trip to Sainsburys and Caffe Nero and I was ready to head to work. There’s some photos over here in a Google+ album. Now to put the shampoo to the test…

This picture was taken on Monday night, my hair was flat and dull, but with a bit of shine.

This morning I sprayed it onto my hair, having carefully read the instructions. It took me about thirty seconds which is much quicker than my usual process where I’ll wash my hair and then condition it if it is feeling especially dry which can take anything up to three minutes on it’s own even with my short hair length.

I have to say, my hair felt good, and did have a bit more ‘oomph’ to it and was definitely plumped up, oh and it smelt good too – though my eighties nightmares came back mid-morning when I visited the toilet at work and the bright lights near the mirror showed a white circle around my head. Oh no! So I dampened my hair to make it look less obvious and cursed myself. The instructions say to spray it near the roots, leave and then rub it in so it’s definitely something which I need to work on – but also as I have quite dark hair, maybe it’s more obvious. I suggest practicing at home a few times first, if you’re anything like me.

Overall my lasting impression is my hair hasn’t flopped and felt heavy and although it lost the nice smell the dry shampoo definitely helped. I can see it fitting in with my day-to-day life when I don’t want to spend long in the shower or we’re running late and my hair needs something to make it look presentable.

09/06/201328/01/2014 by jo

H’s Room Needs Improving

MoneySupermarket have a ‘Room For Improvement‘ challenge to do exactly that – improve a room in your house on a budget. We were given £50 to make up a room of our choice, and naturally the room had to be H’s.

We rent so we were a little restricted with what we could do, although then again a lot of it was making £50 stretch and make a significant difference – and I think we’ve done well.

One thing her room has been lacking is storage – and space. When her friend stayed over on a sleepover we had to move a lot of her room out of there due to lack of space and it seemed silly. Living in the corner of her room was the nursing chair too – easily the most comfortable chair we own, but for an almost four-year old’s room? It has to go.

When the weather is colder you can really feel it in our rooms, we have no central heating, just a vent which pushes warm air out – so we chose some paint to give her walls a warmer feel. Dotted all over the walls were nails and hooks from previous tenants, so we removed all of them, filled in the holes and repainted them in a warm yellow – it makes the room feel nicer too – also gone are the marks from the walls where things have bashed it.

I’ve collected Dick Bruna postcards and put them in Ikea frames, trying to keep a fairly basic colour scheme for her room – so we bought more of the 3M frame stickies to avoid blu-tack like stains or making too many holes in the wall – we need more though, which has taken us over budget. They’re great, and do hold some heavy frames, although need multiple stickies to hold them on (some have fallen off, hence the bare-looking walls!).

Shaun added some ideas to a Pinterest board I created so we’d have ideas of things we want – and two stood out. The wall with the various picture frames in all shapes and sizes is something which can grow over time (so we don’t need to put up much right now). I bought some frames in Tiger (£2 each) and have put hama beads in one, and a wooden H letter I bought in another.

The dolls house shelves jumped out at me as a brilliant idea – we’re still only part-way as we need to look at what to use on the outside – I used the sticky plasticy paper Tiger have in store (£3 a roll, you get a lot) and some that I already had. We need to cover the outside of the shelves so that will happen when we have time.

Then there’s the bunting – made from scrap fabric left over from when we bought H’s curtains and fastened together with things we already had – the colour scheme fits in with everything else in there.

So, the cost:
Paint – £18
Wall stickers £6.99
Tiger paper for covering shelves £3
New picture frames for room £4
New Ikea storage shelves £20
Two drawers for shelves £5
3M sticky pads £3
3M hooks £2

Total spent : £61.99

and here’s the result…. she has so much space now, and most importantly of all those awful plastic tubs of toys can be emptied and maybe even freecycled and we’ll have space in our spare room. Now THAT I like a lot. We’re not finished but given this was started properly last Sunday night, I think we’re doing really well.

* Things still to do – put toys into the storage, put the pictures on the walls, finish covering the shelves, add wall stickers

We were given £50 to complete this challenge, thank you MoneySupermarket!

09/06/201328/01/2014 by jo

Review – Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco – London Wonderland

Monski Mouse is doing a monthly DJ session at London Wonderland at the moment (Monski Mouse’s Baby Disco), so we popped along today to check it out!

We were already in Central London so headed over to the South Bank Centre, finding London Wonderland eventually (it isn’t on any of the signs around the South Bank – if you’re reading this, head towards the London Eye and look for the upside down inflatable cow – it’s the area to the left of that) arriving inside just in time for some brilliant tunes.

The Lovecats by The Cure

Beware – the set is only 45 minutes long, so get there early so you don’t miss out – and you’ll find yourself in a tent-like area with seating around the sides, with cushions and beanbags to sit and a circular dancefloor which is just perfect to dance on – with tons of enthusiasm from Monica and her dancers. Songs like ’99 Luftballons’ by Nena or ‘The Lovecats’ by The Cure (Shaun and me have this as our unofficial wedding song, as my sister insisted we danced to it on the big day, so made H dance to it today), with ‘Sleeping Bunnies’ thrown in for good measure, or how about a slow then fast version of ‘Rock a Bye Your Bear’ (not The Wiggles though!) make an appearance, big smiles all round. I noticed while H was a bit shy at first and didn’t get into the dancing quickly, once she was warmed up there was no stopping her, there was no self-consciousness about her at all.

[soundcloud url=”http://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/25560961″ params=”” width=” 100%” height=”166″ iframe=”true” /]

There’s some country music, the charleston, oh you name it, it was there. (apart from death metal)

There’s so much enthusiasm, and the most refreshing thing of all is how the kids all want to dance – we’ve been to two parties now with music for our kids, which has involved One Direction – there’s none of that here, no no – this is PROPER music. (to be fair, H has shrunk away from this modern pop music thing, she’s going to be a retro child like her parents I think…)

H and I doing the charleston

The set finished with Monica Monski Mouse joining the kids to dance to ‘Nellie The Elephant’ by The Toy Dolls (which makes me very happy as I’ve been playing it to H for a while now), and loads of happy kids.

Dancing to Monski Mouse

£8 is quite a lot for 45 minutes, but when you bear in mind the amount of free activities there are to do around the South Bank it doesn’t feel quite so bad and you could easily spend a day up there and not spend much.

We received free tickets to attend, all opinions are our own – based on H’s enthusiasm when she warmed up we definitely want to come again!

07/06/201328/01/2014 by jo

Bunting For Impatient People

As part of our MoneySupermarket challenge to spruce up H’s room, one thing we wanted to add was bunting. Her room is a mish-mash of colour schemes, though decidedly yellower at the moment. She’s set to move back in there tomorrow, so tonight we need to get the walls decorated. Bunting was one of the obvious choices as it’s simple to do, or so they say.

H’s curtains are the girly bunting design you can get at Ikea, with blue, red, orange, green and light blue flags (1) – and with them being Ikea there was plenty of fabric left over, so I cut out a few of the flags – with about 1cm of hem around them, cutting a line across the bottom and diagonals across the top so they lie nice and flat. (2)

Then they just needed pressing to make it easier to sew.

As luck would (or wouldn’t) have it I managed to sew two on the machine (3) before I wasn’t able to thread the needle, so gave up – and did the rest with the invisible wonder-web type stuff you get at Ikea. There wasn’t a lot so I had to be careful, but there was enough to get two sections of bunting. I used what was left to then attach the flags to a length of ribbon I had saved. (4)

This is how it looks (5) it could be better in parts, and I put that down to me rushing things – but we have plenty of fabric so I could try again… if I find the patience from somewhere….

I found that putting some of Tiger’s fabric tape at the back helped the ribbon stay straight and strong and avoid getting twisted too.

07/06/201328/01/2014 by jo

A Tickety Toc Website Launches

We were lucky to get a sneak preview of a newly launched Tickety Toc website – based on the popular Nick Jr tv show which H enjoys watching.

I’ve found that when we do things online we tend to do them on the iPad rather than the laptop, however, I do know that from September H is going to be learning on a computer so needs those skills – but here we are on a laptop… so not exactly what she’ll be taught and I’m pleased to say she found scrolling around the Tickety Toc website really straightforward – I could leave her to get on with it, without needing to help which is good for her computer confidence and means I get a coffee!

The site is set up so that wherever you are in the world it will recognise the time – and as we’re trying to get the concept of time to H it all helps with learning.

You have several video options to choose from, watching random video clips from the show, as well as some games. We’ve started on the games (there’s one where you have to find objects around the house within a certain time) and are going to try those on the iPad as the site is built in HTML5 and CSS3 (rather than flash-based), so compatible across mobile devices.

The Tickety Toc website has a built-in feature which you can set which allows your child to play for a set time before Tommy and Tallulah pop up – so after ten minutes up they popped, and H promptly moved away from the computer as she knew her time was up! It’s done really nicely so your child doesn’t feel like something is being taken away from them.

Tickety Toc bye

As a parent, what I like is the lack of adverts – it’s just Tickety Toc, and if your child is a fan of the show then they’ll like the site. One minor criticism, as H can’t yet read (but does recognise some letters and words) it would be handy to have a voice tell you which option you’re choosing – but as I was sat with her I was able to tell her.

As far as computer skills go, it was good to get H using the touchpad on the laptop, which she picked up quickly (one finger to move the cursor, two to scroll down) – I’ll post a follow-up once we’ve had a try on the iPad.

05/06/201326/03/2018 by jo

H’s Tooth – An Update

Last Friday we had our hospital appointment, in the Children’s Dentistry section of our local hospital. After a check up (and being told all of H’s teeth are in excellent condition) we were sent for an x-ray which H did with no fuss at all – she quite enjoyed it and wasn’t at all bothered – I think she found the top she had to wear funny, and indeed the one daddy wore hilarious (only one parent could go into the room so I waited outside).

Once the x-rays were processed (it’s all digital these days) we were sent back to Dentistry with a number on our slip of paper, the consultant called us in and confirmed that H will need an extraction. One of the really interesting things was seeing her grown up teeth formed and waiting to come through – she’s going to have good teeth!

The Consultant suggested the extraction should be done with just a local anaesthetic rather than general – this is by far the best option for us, mainly as it doesn’t involve fasting beforehand or taking a day off work – just an afternoon instead! If H doesn’t like it and won’t keep still then we will need to re-book and have a general, but we were reassured that H will be fine.

I was pleased we got an appointment just three and a half weeks later – and I’m especially pleased it’s a week after her last nursery photo, so she’ll still have two front teeth on that!

So, onwards… these next three weeks are going to fly by so now we’ve just got to prepare her. At the weekend I was chatting with an old friend who recommended the Cbeebies programme ‘Get Well Soon’. We haven’t watched it before but I had heard of it, so headed to the BBC iPlayer which has it on demand – the episode is about injections, many of which H has already had, so we watched it and found it fun – while it doesn’t deal with going to the dentist it’s still showing how important it is and how it doesn’t hurt.

Anyway, onwards.. I’m so proud of my little girl and how she’s just getting on with it – I think it’s worse for us parents!

(the first post about the tooth)

02/06/2013 by jo

I Bought an Ice Cream Maker

Lidl are currently selling one for £19.99 and after seeing the recipes from ScottishMum I rushed out and bought one. I’ve not had time to try it out yet but Shaun did, making the easiest recipe in the book, banana ice cream and it’s delicious.

Actually, one thing I’ve found already with the ice cream maker, you need to think well ahead if you want some – the bowl to make it has to be chilled for 24 hours, and the mixture itself needs to be prepped four hours before you plan to eat it. Shaun said it was quite runny when it was finished (but was fine after some extra freezer time) so if you include that then I’d give it some extra time to be on the safe side again.

So over the coming weeks we’re going to try some ice cream recipes – which means we’re now in control of what goes into H’s ice cream and we have plenty of fresh fruit at home most of the time. I know we’ll definitely try out the strawberry recipe!

The ice cream makers are in store now – don’t leave it too long as it’s a good price.

30/05/201328/01/2014 by jo

Alice’s Bear Shop – Lyme Regis

Alice's Bear Shop

Every now and then we kind of stumble across shops that we’re immediately drawn to – and Alice’s Bear Shop is one. Last year when we stayed at Devon Cliffs we did a day trip into Dorset, and found the shop while wandering around.

Now you’re probably thinking a teddy bear shop doesn’t sound very grand, but if I was to tell you that in the back of the shop there’s a Teddy Bear Hospital – where you can take your old bears to be repaired, you’re getting the picture.

There’s SO much more though. Rikey Austin started Alice’s Bear Shop a long time ago, and has written and illustrated several books about bears which over the last year have become some of H’s favourites. In fact, on stepping into the store you can find all sorts – with a teddy reference in there somewhere. I have now touched a teddy which sells for £50!

Rikey herself has a story to tell – which has recently finished being filmed in the form of a documentary – she’s hoping her story will inspire others to give it a go – and she is a really inspirational lady. We chatted about bears, and how she doesn’t want to make lots of money – that all she wants is her bears to be loved (as teddies should be!) – it isn’t about spending lots of money buying the latest teddy, it’s about finding a teddy you love and treasuring it forever.

I like that way of thinking – the only way I could understand it was by putting it to my experiences with my job I have now – I was buying the records in my teenage years and here I am working for the same companies – I’ll never be rich, but I’m working amongst something I know I love. If you’re doing that, you’ll get what Rikey is doing too.

This Sunday we picked up two more bear books, as well as a t-shirt and print – the print is set to be framed and put on H’s wall (with the big reorganisation of her room), and I love how she knows the names of all the bears (and knows enough letters to work out which bear is which when she isn’t sure). The Tilly book is set to be released in hardback quite soon; towards the end of the year; and Rikey is going to be doing a signing in London – we’ll have more news when it happens.

What is it that attracted us to Alice’s Bear Shop? Seeing the hospital reminded me of my childhood – these days toys don’t get repaired, they’re disposed of and a new one bought – and as we try to move into a better ecological way of life this kind of thing is important – you don’t stop loving a toy when it gets worn out – but how many Teddy Bear Hospitals are there these days?

The books too – they’re all lovely stories all based around Alice whose mother mends bears. Alice has a special power in that she can talk to the various bears and often rescues them or finds out what they’re trying to do. The stories are charming and once upon a time each bear in the story had their own toy equivalent – those days are over though.

There’s more than that too – Rikey has illustrated some Brainbox Memory Cards in the last year – we bought the teddy set for H for her birthday (which arrived just in time!) and there’s a new set featuring fairies which are available now. I’m holding out for Rikey’s ‘bad fairies’ collection personally!!

If you’re visiting Lyme Regis, you can find Alice’s Bear Shop at 55 Broad Street, Lyme Regis, Dorset DT7 3QF. We went on a Sunday when they were open until 5pm, but you can phone to check at 01297 444589. There’s parking nearby (which was full when we went) and a larger car park at the top of the hill which makes it a ten minute walk, tops.

Please pop by and visit – if you’re someone who has ever loved a teddy you’ll get this shop – and in fact if you still have your teddy and it needs a repair, why not get it checked into hospital? It might take a few days, but you can pick up or have it posted back to you once it’s mended. We love it!

27/05/201328/01/2014 by jo

Pizza Express has a New Menu

Of all the places we eat, Pizza Express is the one we seem to go back to. They do good deals on food so you can get a decent amount, feel full and not feel like you’ve eaten too much.

Today we made a trip to the Banstead branch having heard rumours of a new menu – and yep, it’s there.

Firstly, the Piccolo menu has been redesigned. You have more choice of food, plus you can now do a create your own. H is still set in her ways so stuck with her favourite cheese and tomato – BUT – we spotted you no longer get a drink thrown in with the meal, it’s now a separate charged item. Fortunately we had her water, but that’s a bit annoying, but I guess brings it into line with the rest of the deals and menu.

I’d noticed all the pizzas now have a calorific value on the app which is really helpful (click on the ‘cal’ icon on each menu item when you view it on the menu) and that there’s also now an Android version of the app (as in the past I’ve had to bring my iPod or iPad out with me to be able to pay the menu via PayPal at the end) which I hadn’t noticed, so I decided to try their new 300 calorie Leggera Superfood Salad.

It costs £10.95 but is included on the deals which I was pleased about – and is a really generous plate of mozzarella, butternut squash, beetroot, spinach and more – while I don’t feel full it definitely was filling – a few more vegetables and it’d probably be perfect. The balsamic dressing was nice and sweet too. Here’s the blurb “Packed with some of our favourite superfoods, our fresh new salad is nutritious and lower in calories. Baby spinach and seasonal mixed leaves, roasted butternut squash, beetroot, light baby mozzarella, avocado, pine kernels, cucumber, lentils and fresh basil finished with balsamic syrup. At under 300 calories it is even suitable for anyone who is on the 5:2 diet.”

We also ordered a diet coke, and because my salad was lower in calories I went for dough balls (quite high in calories though), but figured as I’ve spent the afternoon walking around I’ve got some leeway.

We had a choice of two deals – 25% off our mains or 3 for £12.95 – we opted for the latter but mainly as we fancied a dessert – although I was a bit disappointed their low-calorie option wasn’t included in the deal (as that would be a good sales point!).

In total the bill plus tip was £40 – so our overall spend has crept up a bit more. I think next time it’ll be tap water to help keep costs down, and I’m sad (but understand) with the kids drinks – I’d much rather do away with the bambinoccino at the end than a drink at the start. Still, overall we were happy and you can’t beat paying with PayPal on the app, even if I feel guilty every time I do it, like we’re leaving the restaurant without paying!

27/05/201327/05/2018 by jo

Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve

Sometimes we have one of those spur of the moment ‘where shall we go?’ kinds of days, when we don’t want to drive too far but we want to breathe, to get out of the city. Somewhere that’s safe but we can learn and explore.

Today we found a new place – Selsdon Wood Nature Reserve 200 acres which is just outside Croydon, across from Sanderstead and about twenty minutes drive for us. We found it by me checking for woods near Banstead Woods (which we almost went to) and seeing it had a five-star review – and you can see why.

It’s very basic, and is a wood in National Trust owned land, co-run with Croydon Council – so don’t expect fancy gift shops and the like here – although there’s a giant wooden bear at the car park.

Instead you’ve got woods, butterflies, orchids, insects, birds, trees, buttercups, bluebells and many other things – we spotted a rope swing (slightly too high for H) and I bet there’s more when you investigate. Families playing hide and seek in the woods, people walking their dogs… it’s a great open space made of five fields and several walkways (all with names) and somewhere to explore and wander around.

There’s plenty of activities going on from time to time too – check their website for more information.

So, what did we do? We walked into the woods (there’s tons of bluebells right now), through the fields, checked if H liked butter or not with a buttercup, blew a few dandelion clocks, spotted two different butterflies, listened in case we could hear a badger (we didn’t), got two different insects in her bug viewer (a millipede and a devil’s coachhorse beetle), and ticked off another of the ’50 Things’, making a grass trumpet (I was the expert at this and passed on my expert knowledge to Shaun and H) – the weather was good (sunny and cloudy) and there was some mud around but generally everywhere was accessible. If you go there after rain it’s definitely a wellies kind of place.

We’ve still a good section of the woods to explore so we’ll be back…. when it’s a sunny day!

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the things we do, the things we like

Author / jo