We’ve just renewed our insurance policy, and as I was about to pay the nice chap on the phone said “would you like to take out Personal Possessons cover which would cover your valuables outside of the home?”
Big gulp.
You mean we hadn’t already? It was an oversight, but one we’ve put right now. On the plus side this cost us £40 for the year so I can cancel our monthly phone insurance policies I’ve been paying for the last god knows how long. I had no idea we had no cover and had assumed it was included in the policy.
So really just a heads-up – make sure you’re covered! If something had happened to our phones, iPads or laptops we wouldn’t have been covered – and that doesn’t bear thinking.
BritMums Live 2013 was a week ago, and it’s taken a week to catch up on sleep (as well as then catching a stinker of a cold which hasn’t helped). Here’s a quick summary of the brands I saw:
Panasonic had all their latest gadgets out on display – and of course I had to check out the breadmaker – and yay! – you can make jam in it now! My old Panasonic one doesn’t have that function, and while there are lots of new things you can do, it’s something I’m familiar with. There’s also a slow-yeast release section – which was interesting as that would be for when you put a loaf on the timer and don’t want the yeast and water to be mixed together. There was a combi oven which looked fantastic – a good microwave replacement for baking cookies and brownies and a lot more – which also works out energy-efficient compared to a regular oven and heats up really quickly. I may have taste-tested several of these cookies and brownies to make sure; I can report they were very good.
As well as the kitchen gadgets there were cameras on display – as mentioned on the previous post I love my Lumix camera – the zoom on it is great. The camera has progressed a lot since I bought mine in 2008.
We’re currently planning a break with H’s best friend before they start school and Butlins is on the shortlist – so it was nice to chat to the people on their stand to find out more. I hadn’t realised we only have three Butlins in the UK now (the last time I went was 1980 to the one in Pwllheli which is now Hafan-y-Mor the Haven place), but I do know Butlins have amazing entertainment, especially for almost four-year olds. Oh, and they have eighties weekends too!! (I may have got a little bit excited about Madness)
Argos had a stand, where I gushed about their new system and how I’ve started to enjoy shopping there again in the last year (as it’s so quick) – there isn’t really a lot to say as everyone knows Argos – it’s just a much better shopping experience in there nowadays! I just need to remember you can redeem Nectar points in there too…
I got a personalised Diet Coke bottle and learned some facts about the caffeine amount in each bottle (it’s more taste related than caffeine related) which was interesting – especially as I have had Diet Coke when I’ve felt like I need a caffeine boost – anyway, a personalised label! Can you believe no shops near us had a Jo one? Crazy. Anyway, it doesn’t matter as I have one now. It’s a brilliant idea. Coca Cola have a caffeine calculator too which is handy.
Having had about two hours sleep the night before I was on the strongest coffee I could find by this point (so already the calculator was helpful), and found myself at the Visit Orlando section where this video was made: (this is why I could never be an actress)
I would LOVE to go to Orlando, but our biggest problem is having family in another country (Australia) that would always take priority. One day, maybe. H loves Disney and I know would have an amazing time. There is so much to do in Orlando that there’s a handy planning tool over here.
I saw a Vitamix! They are SERIOUSLY impressive. If I didn’t have all the gadgets I do in the kitchen I’d be saving up for one – hummus in two minutes? Ice cream in not much more? The food tastes so good too. I made the mistake of asking if it was dishwasher-friendly and was looked at like I was crazy “you just rinse it with water, it’s self-cleaning” – like I said, impressive. That’s my kind of gadget which involves easy cleaning. There may have been margaritas too, they may also have been amazing.
Fox’s Biscuits had a coffee lounge, including the most expensive coffee which was SO good (and strong) – and plenty of samples of their new Caffe Thins range designed to be eaten with a cup of coffee – and just the right shape to dunk too. We had a pack in our goody bag so got to try the hazelnut variety (which I wouldn’t normally have chosen, but they’re really quite yummy).
Parragon Books had a stand (and delicious cupcakes) and we received two books from their range suitable for H – both are fabulous books – ‘Goodnight Little One’ and ‘Things You Never Knew About Dinosaurs’ (set for release here this August). Keep an eye out for a We Love Books for these – plus the Egmont titles we got in our goody bags (which includes a William and Kate story, much to Shaun’s anti-royal horror – I like it though, back in my day it was factual Penguin books about Charles and Diana! plus a new one from David and Carrie Grant – more on those soon too). We’ve joined Parragon’s blogger club which is really exciting.
Warner Brothers had a room, and we got an entire series of Speedy Gonzalez which I’ve introduced H to and she’s enjoying – that’s one for the iPad and handy to have when we’re out and about. We also got to meet the owl (not literally, stand next to him) who was Hedwig in the Harry Potter films as well as hold a wand. I was a bit nervous. Warners gave us a goody bag which also included the disgustingly marvellous Bertie Botts Beans in there – I had to pick out all the bad flavours as they are truly vile (and as one friend pointed out, how do I know what grass or dirt tastes like? The flavours are way to accurate and I never knowingly have eaten any) – brilliantly done.
We got a Kattoo sample pack which we’ll be using at Lollibop on H – so a review of that to follow in due course, but I think they’re a brilliant idea! Then there were the Pilot Frixion pens we got – ones you can rub out the ink if you make a mistake? Genius. I’m won!
I think that’s everything, there was a lot to get through. I’ve come out having spent lots of money in my head for things I know we need, and things I’d really like! Thank you BritMums Live! Also, as a footnote, the wine was provided by Asda – and it was seriously good. Now if only I’d remembered to take a photo of the wine names….
In September H will start in reception, properly starting school for the first time. Tonight we had our first visit to her classroom to meet staff and have a look around and get to know other parents. As luck would have it I recognised a few which has made everything feel much more reassuring.
So the next thing we need to think about is school uniform. Gulp. Four years old and in uniform… I had a look in the shops near work, mainly as I wanted to see what was available but also I want to check what the sizing is like. All my local shops in Wandsworth FAIL! I tried Sainsburys (who to be fair are having a refit, so have removed all clothes), Next (order online only, which I’ll happily do if I know they fit), H&M (some polo shirts and some skirts but not much, and really only bigger sizes) and Primark (“sorry, we have nothing in at the moment”).
What do people do when they need to buy emergency school clothes at this time of year then?!
As it was, advice on Instagram said M&S who are also doing 20% off for the rest of this week. Yesterday H and I went to our local one in Sutton and took a load of clothes into the changing room. She loved doing the dressing up and I looked at my grown up baby about to head into the world of school for the next fourteen years. Asda also had a range in, though not a huge amount – good prices though.
So right now I have uniform basics in – polo shirts, dresses, skirts and trousers. I need sports things, shoes, school-branded sweatshirts and tights.. then we’re done. Then it will be time.
My nerves are frazzled though things are slowly calming down. Roll on September, I think we’re nearly ready… what am I going to forget? What did you forget? Please share!
There are going to be thousands of free events for babies and toddlers up and down the country, as well as activities and resources at the Bookstart website. There will be copies of ‘The Ugly Duckling’ beautifully illustrated by Masumi Furukawa given away at all events courtesy of the publishers Child’s Play. An audio recording of the story, read by Coronation Street star Julie Hesmondhalgh will also be available on the website.
The Bookstart programme (which offers packs to babies and pre-schoolers) only has secure funding until 2015 – and it has been one of our favourite things to get for H. Research has shown that children who received the Bookstart packs are more likely to choose reading as one of their favourite activities, and parents were more likely to share stories more fully, reading the whole text and discussing the story afterwards. Children also performed better at school compared to those who had not had Bookstart packs.
To help celebrate we’re going to attempt to catch up with as many books as we can and write (or maybe even video) reviews of them – we love reading in our house – check the link above to see if there’s any events near you!
This Friday it’s BritMums Live – and it will be my first time attending. I know on the Friday it’s a bit more ‘dressy’ than the following day, so have been trying to decide what to wear. I popped into my local New Look to check out their dresses – I like the Skater dresses in stock, but they’re a bit too short for me, alas – a bit of length and I’d probably have bought four of the styles!
Fortunately I bought a long ditsy print skirt from New Look a while back, so will definitely be wearing that – and have bought some clothes recently from Next – in black of course – a nice top and jumper to wear. I just have to work out which shoes now… (hence me being barefoot on the picture)
Saturday is a bit easier – I’m a t-shirt and jeans kind of girl, so will be wearing that, along with my RocketDog shoes I bought from Schuh (and got cashback from Quidco!) – cashback sites are great for good deals and I almost always remember to check. T-shirt wise it’ll be something from UniQlo or my cassette t-shirt from Teefury, and of course both days I’ll have my Mia Tui Amelie bag to carry everything I could ever need. I learnt my lesson after Cybher…
The other thing I’m looking forward to at BritMums is chatting to the brands and companies there. Butlins will be there and I’ll be heading over for a chat, as well as Parragon the book publishers. Panasonic will be there too, so I’m sure I’ll be talking breadmakers with them and whether I can make jam in them yet. One brand which has stood out for me is Kattoo who do temporary tattoos for kids to wear when you’re at an event – which sounds brilliant (and I’m already looking ahead to Lollibop)! I’ll also probably end up gushing at Argos for their new computer system and how shopping there is so painless these days…
So yes, I apologise now for my nervous gushing that will probably happen, but I’m intending to have a brilliant time and catch up (and meet!) some of my favourite bloggers – wheeee!
Warmer days are with us now (with plenty of rain of course), and although we’re later than usual we’ve been planting various seeds and things. As part of MoneySupermarket’s Kids Grow Wild challenge with BritMums we received some seeds for flowers, as well as a mini gardening kit for H which includes gloves, a watering can, a trowel and a fork – and a garden bag to keep them in. She loves having a ‘kit’ to do things and this makes her really enthusiastic when we try things like this as she’s got her own special things so gets properly stuck in.
So plenty of digging and planting and re-potting was done. Our seeds range from various flowers to radishes, to carrots, to peas, lavender (of course) and more pretty flowers. The majority of these were already growing, so Shaun picked up a large pot for H’s new project and they’re off!
H has always been quite picky about having dirty hands – if she falls over and gets muddy she’s more upset about that than having fallen, especially if it’s her hands – so gardening seems a good way for us to make her realise it’s okay to have mucky hands (plus having the gloves is a genius move, we hadn’t thought of that!). They set to work – Shaun put plenty of soil in the pot, and H added seeds, a few at a time.
A week later and it looks like this!
I was quite amazed how quickly radishes start – I bought a £1 tray from Tiger and some seeds, and within a week really big plants had appeared – so they were repotted today.
Last year in the garden we grew potatoes, carrots, peas and peppers – and had a failed attempt at courgettes. This year we’ll have peas and carrots again as well as some of the seeds you get in Pizza Express – I know there’s some mint in there, I can’t remember what else. Then there’s the radishes, and we’re going to try again with cress (how can you fail at cress? We managed). H is out there every night after nursery watering the plants and making sure they’re okay with daddy.
With the next week set to be sunny and rainy it’s good plant growing weather – so keep an eye on our instagram feed and you’ll see how we’re getting on! Also, Shaun bought a new book last week which uses old wine boxes instead of pots to plant in and it looks great too. Now there’s an idea, a little salad garden… that and when we’ve cleared H’s toy tubs they might make a good plant pot..
This post is an entry for BritMums’ #KidsGrowWild Challenge
We made our annual Father’s Day trip to Painshill Park today, where dads go free – which works out (as of June 2013) at £6.50 for one mum, one dad and one three and three quarter year old.
We didn’t brave a picnic as it was raining so had waterproofs and umbrellas – although the sun came out mid-way round and it became way too hot to walk up the hill to the Turkish Tent.
Nonetheless, we walked, saw The Grotto and how the restoration is going (it should be open for a few hours every weekend in two weeks) and got around a lot of the park, including the two new bridges. Things are changing at Painshill and in a good way – they’ve received money to do essential restoration work, and the next plan is a proper boat shed for their barge (which lives at the side of the main lake and has been known to sink).
We love Painshill – it’s somewhere we can go back to many times and spot something we’ve not seen before – plus there’s several long walks you can do there, and several good places you could stop for a picnic (we had picnic envy when a large group of friends with kids walked past with their various supplies).
If you got the Gardeners World 2 for 1 coupon you can get to Painshill Park using that card, otherwise it’s £6.50 per adult.
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!
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.
I got a personalised Diet Coke bottle and learned some facts about the caffeine amount in each bottle (it’s more taste related than caffeine related) which was interesting – especially as I have had Diet Coke when I’ve felt like I need a caffeine boost – anyway, a personalised label! Can you believe no shops near us had a Jo one? Crazy. Anyway, it doesn’t matter as I have one now. It’s a brilliant idea. Coca Cola have a 
