30/09/201327/08/2017 by jo

A Beano Christmas

The Beano is 75 this year and over at the South Bank in London is Beanotown – a fan’s must-visit, with loads of things to do there. We were invited to view their Beano Christmas range of gifts back in July so headed down on our day off.

The Beano needs very little introduction – a comic that has lasted over 75 years it has been constantly reinvented but kept in the true spirit it started with. The gifts for this year reflect this.

The standout gift was a Beano chopper bike from Raleigh – which doesn’t come cheap at £300 but oh my, it’s great! I’d love one of those, although I’ve no idea where I’d keep it.. and it’s probably not practical for taking on cycle rides with H.

Some of the gifts for this year included things you could personalise – from mugs to books to calendars. H really liked it too and we’ve already ordered (and received quickly) a ‘Daddy the Menace’ mug from Gone Digging for Shaun’s birthday which cost us around the £10 mark. H was VERY excited about creating something so personal too. This is also why I’ve had to delay putting this post up, I didn’t want him to see!

There’s some games – and a set where you can Prank Your Pals available now at The Entertainer, and as we know Dennis the Menace does love his pranks. I spotted a comic maker kit – billed for older kids it looks pretty excellent, you stick your characters and speech bubbles and make a comic book with the various elements on offer – I’d quite fancy one of those for myself.

If you’re feeling a little more grown up, there’s always the Beano duvet set, available now in Single and Double size (alas no kingsize, sigh).

Accompanying the Chopper Bike are some cycling shirts, including one featuring Minnie the Minx. There’s a cute little Dennis Babygro as well! They are priced up from £27.95 via Foska (you can get the Babygro from here)

My favourites were the Dr Marten Boots – in kids sizes too. If H’s feet didn’t grow so quickly when I buy her full price shoes she’d have a pair of red and black stripy Minnie the Minx ones which I’d have loved when I was younger.

The Beano Christmas event was great too – there was a free comic drawing masterclass from Kev P who draws for the Beano – and who drew the most amazing comic version of H – it’s on the wall!

There’s so much choice out there if you’re looking for Beano Christmas ideas – if you’re someone who remembers those comics from your younger days, you’ll probably find something you love too!

05/09/201327/01/2014 by jo

Moshi Monsters The Movie

Coming to a cinema in the UK and Ireland this December is Moshi Monsters The Movie.

Moshi Monsters The Movie is the long-awaited full length monsterific adventure featuring the Moshi Monsters. H has a nice little collection building, and likes to do swaps with her cousin so I know we’ll be there.

Moshi Monsters The Movie is released on December 20th. The animated feature will see the six lead monsters (Katsuma, Luvli, Diavlo, Furi, Zommer and Poppet) travel across the weird and wonderful world of Moshi on a fun-filled, roar-some adventure.

The film will see the monsters in a race against time to collect the ransom for an ancient and extremely rare Moshling egg that has been stolen by the evil Dr Strangeglove. With Katsuma and Poppet (H’s favourite) at the helm, the monsters learn that both Monsters and Moshlings can overcome big odds when they stand together.

“We’re excited to launch the first ever Moshi Monsters movie,” said Michael Acton Smith, CEO and creator of Moshi Monsters. “This is our first foray into movies and Universal brings the expertise needed to ensure the best possible success. We can’t wait for Moshi to hit the big screen!”

With over 80 million registered users to date, it’s no surprise the wonderful world of Moshi Monsters is taking the leap into movies, after occupying the entertainment franchise with best-selling toys, books, video games and the best-selling monthly kids’ magazine in the UK. We attended their 5th Birthday Party at their offices and wow – what a fantastic place! I can appreciate Moshi Monsters – there’s a LOT out there a child might want, but it also has an educational element to it, as well as fun!

The animated feature, which is currently in production, is produced by the Moshi creators, Mind Candy.

We can’t wait!!!

28/08/201301/01/2019 by jo

My 99p Summer

We received £10 in vouchers to spend at 99p Stores, to see what we could buy and have a bit of fun with, doing the ‘My 99p Summer’ challenge.

A 99p Summer may not be something you’d think about, but actually there’s a lot of choice in-store. 99p Stores are one of those places I can always find something to buy – so when we were accepted for this challenge I was more than happy to give it a go. When we went summer was very much with us (unlike this slightly foggy grey morning we have today) and one thing we didn’t have a lot of were water toys – as in, water pistols, water bombs, a fishing set, an ice-cube tray and of course some bubbles. I know, I don’t know why either.

We found £10 goes a long way in 99p Stores – there’s a lot of choice for outdoor fun – so much so we had £9 worth of goods and H demanded a doll which we let her have as we felt we had plenty.

Here’s what we bought for our 99p Summer :

There’s quite a bit there – so, the verdict!

The water pistols were good – they had good range, especially important as Shaun was so much better at it than me.

The water bombs were AWESOME – they come with an attachment you can hold to the tap to fill it which is tricky but worked – I found that they were good to burst when you needed though would often just bounce! Not the end of the world as you don’t want poor quality ones when you need to surprise unsuspecting rivals and need to carry them a distance. These made me giggle the most too – I found my inner child again getting Shaun and H!

The Sparkly Windmill lives in H’s plants and makes it look pretty. We’ve found when it has been really windy it has blown apart but generally it has stayed together and is still going strong – it hasn’t broken (when it has blown apart we’ve rebuilt it easily).

Silver trays and serving bowls – ideal for barbecues and when you’re eating outside. We’ve never had any little bowls where you can put a selection of snacks, I was pleased with them as they’re the right size and clean easily.

Fish and a fishing rod – this is fun, H will spend ages trying to hook the fish onto the rod – really simple and loads of fun while also being good for her co-ordination skills. We’ve got her old toy tub and filled it with water for her to do a spot of fishing – good for those moments when she needs to have a bit of quiet(er) time too!

The biggest surprise of all were the bubbles – we didn’t think they’d be as good as they are – really big bubbles or loads of small ones with the attachment added – we spent a good hour just playing with them, after all you can’t beat trying to pop them can you?

In summary, we’ve had a lot of fun with our 99p Summer. You don’t have to spend much at all to have a good time – we were pleased with everything we bought and would highly recommend you have a look in your local store!

We made a little video of our 99p Summer fun day – we hope you like it. As you can see Shaun seems to get me the most as far as water goes, though I’d like to think I got the last laugh….

We received a £10 voucher to purchase these items, and we’ve had a lot of fun! This is our entry for the ‘My 99p Summer Competition’

27/08/2013 by jo

Panasonic Kitchen Appliances

Back at BritMums I got to have a nosey at some Panasonic Kitchen Appliances, though not their latest range. These ones look pretty special!

The Panasonic Integrated Appliances Range has some brilliant choices. I’m really liking the induction Hob as one of my least favourite jobs around the house is cleaning the spillages around the cooker, especially if we don’t do it immediately so they dry out and get burnt on a little more than they should. Imagine – a flat surface you can just wipe, which stays cool as it’s clever and knows not to be warm there – it directs the heat into the centre. In fact, it’s on scratch-free glass too, and looks pretty good.

Sigh. I hate renting sometimes! This sounds ideal to my lazy nature. Have a watch of this video – it sounds too good to be true :

Another appliance I’m really liking is the dishwasher in this range, which claims to be their quietest ever; whisper quiet (44db). THIS appeals a lot, as our (rental) dishwasher is noisy, and shabby. It works which is the main thing, although half of the front handle has broken off. This dishwasher looks sleek and has loads of space too – my kind of thing, it means you don’t have to set it off every day – but also if you do that it won’t be noisy. I like the kind of appliances I can put on last thing at night and know it’s done by the morning. It also has an A+++ energy rating which is good.

As well as that I’m liking the features within the dishwasher – you can easily organise your shelves, they move as well so you’re not restricted to a certain height, and there’s a cutlery shelf. It looks pretty excellent as far as dishwashers go – watch the video and see!

As I said before, we rent so the reality of us ever having anything like this is pretty much non-existent, but it doesn’t stop me from dreaming! Now if someone can invent a washing machine which is also as quiet as this dishwasher and will put out the washing on the line for you too, I’ll be more than happy!

This post contains paid for content.

23/08/201320/04/2017 by jo

Lego Table Ideas – Ikea Hacks

It’s H’s birthday and one of the things she wants is a Lego table.

A Lego table does not come cheap, this we have found. I don’t want her to have the plastic ones as they’re already quite small for her. We wanted something which would suit a tall girl and grow with her. I spotted an absolutely gorgeous wooden one you can buy for £100 which is a bit too much.

So I googled around. There are plenty of Lego table options to make out there, but this one stood out – so we stole a few ideas then added some of our own.

After shopping around, the Lego boards we need to go on the top can be bought via Amazon for £5 each, so four were ordered. After that all you need is the table and containers which worked out really reasonable and cheap.

H decided she wanted a turquoise Lack table from Ikea. We spotted some Bygel plastic hanging containers which fit on a Bygel rail, coming in at a very reasonable £1.50 for the rail and 60p for each container. After that we went for the Grundtal magnetic knife holder at £11 (it’s really strong) and three Grundtal magnetic pots at £5 – which were slightly more expensive but will be a nice touch to the table.

After that it’s just a case of drilling them on – so it looks like this!

The final touch to the Lego table is the four lego boards. As said in the link above, you can’t place them close to each other so need to use lego to space them out properly. Something like on this picture (use Lego to make sure they’ll fit). Glue-wise we used ‘No More Nails’ and left it overnight – the night before H’s birthday in fact.

And that’s it. Rather than spend loads of money we spent a fraction of the cost. The Lack table has really good height on it and Ikea do a small chair which fits perfectly.

EDIT – this also works with Duplo. If your child isn’t quite ready for Lego but is likely to move up then this would be ideal! It doesn’t work with other brands we’ve tried like MegaBloks unfortunately!

19/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Easy Bunting Craft With Tiger Stores

Tiger Stores is one of my favourite craft supply shops – everything is at a good price, so today I made some easy bunting which involved minimal effort from me and still looks good.

Easy bunting is something I’ve had in mind for H’s birthday – and Tiger Stores have some cool things in stock at the moment, but I hadn’t had the time to start it.

Today I was ill from work and needed something to occupy myself without it being too strenuous, something which involved minimal effort but decent results.

easy bunting from Tiger Stores

So here’s my Tiger Stores Easy Bunting Instructions :

Buy the Karton cardboard triangles which are bunting shaped. There are 50 in total, in ten different colours. £2.

If you’re anything like me you’ll always have a stash of the sticky back plastic drawer liners Tiger do – they have various colours at £4 a roll. I always keep any pieces I might do something with, as even the tiniest amount works. I have four different patterns at the moment.

Other than that I picked up some Snor purple string (£1 or £2) to use for hanging them.

easy bunting from Tiger Stores

Step 1

Work out the letters you need and using the handy guides on the back of the sticky paper make sure they’re the same size. Cut them out and look out for the letters which will come out the opposite way (like p) – don’t forget to do those backwards (I forgot).

Step 2.

Take each card piece of easy bunting and sort them into the colours you want. There are ten colours; green, dark green, blue, light blue, pink, cerise, yellow, orange, red and black.

Step 3.

Sort out which letters you want on which colour. Peel off the backing and stick them on.

Step 4.

You’ll probably have bits of plastic sticky stuff left – don’t throw it away, use it to fix the card to the string at the back – it’s strong sticky stuff so should do the job.

Step 5.

Hang up and admire your easy bunting then have a long lie down afterwards.

Gulp. I’ve just read they’ve opened a BIG store on Oxford Street. Dangerous. For my bank balance, that is…

14/08/2013 by jo

A Sad Kind Of Post

Yesterday I was saddened to read about the death of Jon Brookes of The Charlatans. See, I’m not sure if you know, but the name Mum Friendly came about after a night sitting in the pub trying to think of a name as they played The Charlatans ‘Some Friendly’ album – and it happened I had been proof reading the artwork for a reissue at work too. It all kind of clicked into place.

So it feels appropriate to post something here. RIP Jon Brookes. A great drumming talent and a sad loss at such a young age too.

14/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Lollibop 2013 Stage Times Announced!

The Lollibop 2013 stage times have been announced!

Lollibop 2013 stage times have been published – the festival starts this Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – and if you’re a seasoned festival goer like us, you want to know where to go to make sure you see everything.

Fear not, as the lineup has been made available over on the Lollibop site – the Parent Superhero Pack is available as a PDF for you to download and plan your day.

There’s easy travel instructions, although we’re complicating things by possibly taking a detour via the Thames cable cars, after all we don’t get over to East London very often (despite it being less than ten miles away – probably). Whichever way you go, it’s only a short walk from Stratford’s station which covers the Tube, Overground, DLR and National Rail.

Maybe we’ll have time to visit Westfield Stratford afterwards if we need to get food… mm!

We’re going on Friday and it looks like we’re set for a Rastamouse filled day which pleases me H no end! She’s also a teeny tiny huge bit excited about Hello Kitty too…

One complaint I’ve read from previous years are the queues – so Lollibop have made sure there’s more face painting available (which I think is included in the ticket price?) – so hopefully there won’t be too much waiting around! It’s looking like there’ll be showers on Friday too, so we’ll have our waterproofs packed in case, they’ve also got some on the site in case you’re caught out.

Most importantly of all is the Adult Creche which serves alcoholic drinks, possibly needed when you’ve had too many Hi-NRG nursery rhymes in an hour – phew!

We’re really looking forward to going to the Magic Belles stand in the Village Green. They’ll be there for all three days – they’ve a small marquee with tables and benches where little ones can colour and decorate Magic Belles postcards. As well as that they can write messages to the fairies on the back. After that they can add some special little stamps, and post them in the fairyland post box and quite frankly, I’d like to have a go too! Everyone who takes part will get a special sticker and postcard to keep as well! H is a huge Magic Belles fan so we’re really looking forward to this!

I’m really looking forward to the National Geographic Kids Zone too, as with H starting school soon I think some fun learning could be good (and it’ll mean us adults get a break too, hopefully!)

I’ll be taking photos throughout the day, and probably uploading a lot of them to Instagram – follow me here if you want to see what it’s like at the new site. We’ll be reviewing Lollibop as well.

Don’t forget – get your Lollibop 2013 stage times over here now!

13/08/2013 by jo

What Bugs Lurk In Your Bedding?

What bugs lurk in your bedding?

Bugs are nasty little things and everywhere – I’ve had a dustmite allergy for most of my life. I’ve done all kinds of thing to help prevent me from reacting to them, such as keeping the house dust-free and making sure bedding is changed frequently. Things have improved as I’ve got older so here’s hoping I’m growing out of it!

The Bedding Company have put together an infographic which makes for interesting reading :

What bugs lurk in your bedding?

Courtesy of The Bedding Company. The Bedding Company manufacture and supply premium pillows, duvets, mattress covers, protectors and bed linen at prices which won’t leave you losing sleep at night!

I was paid to host this infographic.

05/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Uniqlo Kids launches in the UK

Uniqlo Kids launches in the UK.

Uniqlo Kids is finally launching in the UK – I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs for over ten years now, and I’m so excited!

From August 15th all the UK stores will stock clothes as well as online! This makes me VERY excited.

Uniqlo (for me) make really good quality clothes, have worked with some fantastic designers and companies (Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley, Celia Birtwell, Lulu Guinness, Greengate, Disney, Pixar and more) – moving into kids clothes in all stores is a great thing! (though not for my bank balance)

The range will be the same high-quality fabrics and aesthetic you already know, the range will offer basics and key on-trend pieces, fun outer items and more, with kids needs in mind.

Uniqlo started in Japan around 1985, with the words ‘unique’ and ‘clothing’ amalgamating to become Uniqlo. I’ve found their clothes to be affordable and really good quality. Their jeans are one of the best fits for me too – and since I’ve been losing weight I can buy their women’s jeans again which is great. The Uniqlo kids range has been available in Japan for a while now, and I seem to recall a UK trial run in the West End stores and Bluewater, so to see this being rolled out to other stores is brilliant news. I’ll be there on the 15th (thank goodness it’s payday…) and probably buying way too much – though not spending a lot (I hope!).

Make sure you drop in on August 15th to check out how your favourite one-stop clothing shop has made life even easier, offering easy style solutions for the whole family under one roof.

I am a Uniqlo affiliate, if you want to see their adult range of clothes please click on the logo at the bottom. Uniqlo Kids range to follow soon!

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