27/03/201426/03/2018 by jo

Keeping It Local – Tillee Vanillee

If you live in the Carshalton area, the name Tillee Vanillee may already be familiar to you.

Tillee Vanillee are a local business who make Natural Handmade Bespoke Confections – and there’s a lot of choice. If you live in Carshalton you may have come across Tillee Vanillee in our new grocers, Rhubarb and Bramley on the high street, or at the wonderful Calladoodles store.

It just so happens that Rachael who owns the business is a mum at the same school as H, so when the chance to try one of her whisky and ginger marshmallows came about I jumped at it!

Oh my, it was divine too – soft in the middle and just right on the outside – both flavours came through well and I know next time I head into the village I’ll be picking some up.

Mothers Day hearts, soon to be dipped in chocolate – mmm!

This is where those of you who don’t live in Carshalton come in – Tillee Vanillee also do direct Mail Order – so you can order what you need. There are currently some heart-shaped marshmallows dipped in chocolate for Mother’s Day (on sale in Rhubarb and Bramley) – with loads more choice on the official site. Need Wedding favours? They’re covered. Gourmet Marshmallows? But of course. Hand piped gourmet mallows in a variety of flavours? Oh YES! What makes it even better is they’re not expensive – they’re a good price and taste delicious. I love that Rachael says “please get in touch if you like what we do and how I do it! – I’m more than happy to talk you through custom or personalised options if you would like something a little different to the products featured on this site”Tillee Vanillee also has an Etsy store – check out the range on offer there. Mmm!

Tillee Vanillee started making marshmallows, then moved onto macarons, and are now working on other treats from around the world – you can follow them on Facebook and Twitter too. I highly recommend that you do!

26/03/2014 by jo

Your Eggselency Hotel Chocolat Giveaway!

Mum Friendly is like a bus right now. You wait forever for a giveaway and then I launch FOUR in a week. The rest will follow soon…. for this second one we have a rather marvellous prize. I’m a long-standing Hotel Chocolate customer, I can’t even remember when I placed my first order with them it was that long ago, so I’m delighted to bring this one to you.

Hotel Chocolat have an amazing Easter Egg range in store right now, and I’m able to offer you a Your Eggselency Extra Thick Chocolate Easter Egg – look at it! It’s amazing!!!!

Allow me to copy and paste the product details from the website :

When we first started making our eggs 13 years ago, we were advised by experts to make them as thin as possible and put the chocolates on the outside. We did the opposite!

Our extremely distinguished extra thick egg has one 40% milk shell and one 70% dark shell, filled with 12 of our finest real cream truffles with Champagne, port, Amaretto and other delights.

So yes, quite a choc-feast. Oh my. The full menu is here.

In order for the egg to make it in time for Easter, this giveaway is running now, and finishing on April 5th which should leave enough time! UK entrants only please, and good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

25/03/2014 by jo

Go! Go! Go! Show Giveaway!

Last year at Lollibop we must have seen the Go! Go! Go! Show several times in one day, and funnily enough it was Shaun who knew most of the songs…. must’ve been all those mornings he spent doing the ironing before work while watching Nick Jr, right? I also know he’s not the only dad to do this….

Go! Go! Go! Show is a fun five minute segment in the morning on Nick Jr, perfect for young ones (and dads) with simple pop songs and dance routines; and they’re releasing a new CD/DVD album on April 7th 2014, Radio Go! Go! Go!. Join Gemma, Carl, Jade, Steve and Holly plus the permanently confused Mr Baffled and his sock guzzling side-kick the Fluffalope as they take over the Radio and TV airwaves of the Islands of Baffadopolis for a wild and exciting fun-filled pop music extravaganza.

It just so happens I have three copies to give away. Before we get to that bit, let me tell you a few bits I know… they’re heading out on tour next month.

Tour Dates:

12/4 Sheffield University
13/4 Leeds City Varieties
14/4 Mill Volvo Tyne Theatre Newcastle
15/4 Palace Theatre Manchester
16/4 Town Hall Birmingham
17/4 Leamington Spa Assembly
18/4 Ipswich Regent Theatre
21/4 O2 Shepherds Bush Empire

The album is a CD/DVD package, and features all the Go! Go! Go! songs you know and love – ‘Wake Up Smiling’ of course, ‘This is the Life’ and ‘Lay the Rhythm Down’ to name just three. Here’s the tracklist –

CD Contents
1 Wake Up Smiling
2 This Is The Life
3 Lay The Rhythm Down
4 Blue Sky Sunshine Day
5 My Picture Of The World
6 Choices
7 The Get Along Song
8 Questions Questions
9 It’s Your Birthday
10 Holiday Bay
11 Let Him Go
12 Hey There Sleepy Head

DVD Contents
13 Wake Up Smiling (Karaoke)
14 It’s Your Birthday (Karaoke)
15 Wake Up Smiling (Music Video with Intro)
16 This Is The Life (Music Video with Intro)
17 Lay The Rhythm Down (Music Video with Intro)
18 Choices (Music Video with Intro)
19 The Get Along Song (Music Video with Intro)
20 Questions Questions (Music Video with Intro)
21 Hey There Sleepy Head (Music Video with Intro)
22 Wake Up Smiling (Learn The Dance Moves)
23 Questions Questions (Learn The Dance Moves)
24 Go!Go!Go! At Work and Play

Have a little video taken at Lollibop last year

So yes, we have three copies of Radio Go! Go! Go! to give away! So that’s three winners – fancy your luck? Here goes… Ends on the 3rd April 2014 at midnight – so not long!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

25/03/201431/03/2018 by jo

Lollibop 2014 Has a New Home!

LolliBop 2014, the UK’s biggest kids festival, has announced this year’s festival will take place at Hatfield House, August 15-17 2014.

Lollibop 2014 has been announced! Lollibop is our favourite kids festival (though to be fair it is also the only one we’ve been to) – we loved it last year, oh, and H did too. They’ve moved venues again, moving from Stratford over to the North of London. Situated in Hertfordshire, just off the A1 or a 22 minute train journey from London Kings Cross, the stunning country house and gardens of Hatfield House offer an incredible array of spaces to house LolliBop’s vast activity and entertainment programme.

Renowned for bringing some of the biggest names in children’s entertainment to its live stages, LolliBop 2014 will also play host to science and educational zones, craft areas and adventure activities. The 2014 lineup promises to be more diverse; exciting and extraordinary than ever before, with a host of brand new names, partnerships and play never before seen at LolliBop.

Hatfield House is famous for its beautiful gardens and attractions, including the incredible sundial garden and fountains, a magical woodlands and the famous knot garden adjoining the Tudor Old Palace where Queen Elizabeth I spent much of her time as a child.

Festival Director Gareth Cooper said: “For a family destination, Hatfield House can’t be beaten. LolliBop has taken place in numerous locations over the years, and we firmly believe our home for 2014 is our best yet. The setting is breathtaking – with stunning gardens, lush green areas and a woodlands just waiting to be explored – it’s allowed us to open our imaginations and programme an event like never before.

“We’ve been working hard to secure some of the best-loved names in children’s entertainment. Lollibop’s lineup will be jam packed with big names for the main stage, alongside an unprecedented number of live theatre performances; plus sporting activities; creative workshops; nature talks and brand new areas and acts, never before seen at LolliBop.”

Hatfield House is one of the Treasure Houses of England, making it one of the top 10 most magnificent palaces in all of the UK.

With good motorways links, extensive on site parking and just a five minute walk from Hatfield train station, LolliBop 2014 is more accessible than ever before.

LolliBop 2014 Early Bird tickets go on sale on March 28, priced £17.50pp.

www.lollibopfestival.co.uk / facebook.com/lollibopfestival

21/03/2014 by jo

Blinc – ing Nora.

Today a good friend of mine shared the latest email from Blinc. Now, Blinc look pretty fab – makeup you can wash off that stays on and is waterproof. I’d quite fancy trying it as it sounds like my kind of thing. However, this email has really put me off. I’ll leave it up to you to make your own minds up, but really, seriously. Read on…

If you’ve hatched any of your own little chicks in the past few years
you’ll know just how hard it is to keep up appearances, never mind maintain
them. If you’re just starting out on that road, read and learn.

The total life change Mums go through leaves little in the way of me time.
In fact ‘me’ seems to be something that barely gets a look in for Mums,
putting all their energy once spent on carefully executed beauty regimens
into wiping, feeding, entertaining and generally seeing to every demand
placed on you by your very important little person. Parental duties done
for the day, you can be forgiven for collapsing in front of the TV in a
comfy dressing gown and slippers and hugging a cuppa before dragging
yourself off to bed.

It’s all too easy to slip into a dowdy matronly state and before you know
it everything is too much effort and your confidence is knocked for six.
For your own long term wellbeing don’t make motherhood the ‘be all and end
all’ of you. Keep something back for you, because believe it or not you
will at some point in the future eventually get back to the ‘me’ thing you
left behind.

If you have a considerate partner who really appreciates the commitment of
parenting they’ll treat you to an Easter gift, a Faberge Egg maybe, it is
Mother’s day coming up after all. Perhaps treating yourself to some blinc
cosmetics is more likely to get you what you want and clearly taking care
of your looks is the ideal gift in return. What better than cosmetics that
won’t smudge or smear regardless of how frazzled you get.

(information here about a discount code)

Have a wonderful Easter and Mother’s day, thanks for loving blinc.

===

Speechless.

What do you reckon then?

19/03/2014 by jo

Some New Music from Koo Koo Kanga Roo and Happy Wags!

We’re big fans of the happy world of Mike Park in this house – his solo album is compulsory when we’re on a long journey (and it’s a great short album which needs playing at least five times in a row). Fun Fun Records is his label, where bands like Play Date release their music. As well as this is the offshoot Asian Man Records, which has two new releases coming up from Koo Koo Kanga Roo and Happy Wags.

Mike Park’s view on his releases is a great one – “After being subjected to mounds of kids music, I thought there’s got to be a better alternative than this cookie cutter stuff. My hope is that FUN FUN RECORDS will be an alternative for parents looking for more than just your run of the mill children’s music” – oh yes, and it really is too.

Let me tell you a bit about each album…

Happy Wags is Jesse Wagner the frontman of the largely popular “dirty reggae” band, The Aggrolites.

After the huge success of The Aggrolites’ “Banana” on Yo Gabba Gabba in 2007 (which has also been covered by Dinosaur Jr – hunt it down on YouTube), Jesse often found himself thinking about ideas for a full-length album for kids. With some rare down time at home between non-stop tours he picked up his acoustic guitar and started coming up with rhythms and hooks for potential songs. The eventual result was a collection of songs, some reflecting his reggae roots, and others venturing into punk rock, country, even funky 1980’s-style R&B.

Tracklisting
1.The Lion, the Snake and the Monkey
2.Use Your Words
3.Don’t Touch the Buttons
4.Pee Pee in the Potty
5.They Wanna Play
6.Adding Numbers
7.Firefighters (featuring Mike McColgan)
8.Learning Like the Animals
9.Baby Dean

Happy Wags’ self-titled debut CD will be available June 24th 2014.

Happy Wags can be found on Facebook here

Koo Koo Kanga Roo love having a big ol’ dance party. One night you can see them performing with Yo Gabba Gabba and then the next night with Dillinger Four. You might have seen them on tour with Frank Turner and The Smith Street Band or your kids might have told you about this crazy band that played their school cafeteria. Regardless of the age, KOO KOO are all about FUN.

“Whoopty Whoop” is the band’s debut release with Fun Fun Records/Asian Man Records. Songs about Fanny Packs and pizza might sound trivial, but once you hear the groove it will hook you in immediately and the body will follow suit with dance moves you never knew you had. Oh, and a few earworms.

“I thought it was strange that a children’s music band was on tour with Frank Turner, but when I saw them live I understood how genius the band was and it all made sense” – MIKE PARK (label head Asian Man/Fun Fun)

Tracklisting
1.All I Eat Is Pizza
2.Fanny Pack
3.The Coolest Person
4.POGO
5.Get Yo Body Moving
6.Shake It Well (feat. P.O.S.)
7.I Like Cake
8.Left 2 Right
9.Unibrow
10.Superheroes Unite

‘Whoopty Whoop’ is out on May 13th on CD and digital with vinyl following June 24th.

Koo Koo Kanga Roo’s official site is here, and they can be found on Facebook here.

Asian Man Records site is here too, Fun Fun Records are over here, and they can all be found on Facebook.

We were provided with a free download of Koo Koo Kanga Roo and Happy Wags to help spread the word – all opinions are our own!

16/03/201426/03/2018 by jo

Super Chicken! – The Best Chicken Recipes

Super Chicken is the latest book we received as a Parragon Book buddy. This would be another review where Shaun (chicken lover) steps up and tells us his thoughts but he claims he can’t review things very well, so instead I’ll do it and he can dictate.

Super Chicken! isn’t a superhero, it is in fact a collection of dishes which have one thing in common – they include chicken. Having been vegetarian for over 30 years, this isn’t my kind of cookbook. However, that isn’t to say dishes can’t be adapted.

Shaun and H had a good scan through the book to find a dish for our evening meal tonight, and opted for Chicken Satay Skewers. I had the same dish but with Spicy Quorn pieces to replace the meat.

With a prep time of 15 minutes and a cook time of 10 minutes (plus soaking the skewers time), this was an ideal dish for our Sunday evening – we don’t really do traditional Sunday dinners in this house.

Shaun found the instructions easy to follow, and the final results looked like the pictures. I found the satay sauce to be pretty good too – easily one of the best ones I’ve tried (aren’t home made ones always the best anyway?). It’s something we will definitely make again.

If you’re in a vegetarian and meat eating house, this book has some good ideas. I checked and all the sauces seemed suitable for vegetarians, and are prepared separately anyway.

Super Quorn Satay

Back when I first met Shaun and we went back to Australia, his mum brought out some writing he’d done from around the age of ten. He declared a big dislike for girls (ha), but big big love for chicken, so I know Super Chicken is a book he’ll be using a lot more as unlike the former, his opinion hasn’t changed.

Shaun did say he’d like to do a few more recipes from the book before I posted a review, so I’d say that was another good sign, chicken-lovers.

Super Chicken! contains several recipes broken into sections – Starters, Snacks and Sides, Lovely Lunches, Chicken Dinners and Food for Friends, with several choices in each section.

Super Chicken! is available now from all good bookstores, rrp £6.00 The Parragon page for it is here.

(contains an affiliate link)

We were sent the book for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

10/03/2014 by jo

New Miffy Books? Almost… but yet they are!

Simon and Schuster are the new publishers of Miffy books. We’re long-term fans – they’re books I read when I was little and now H loves them too.

Miffy was first brought to life by Dick Bruna way back in 1955 by the Dutch artist Dick Bruna. We have a mighty fine collection and one of the things I’ve found the most charming is the not-quite-right translations of the books. Words that would never rhyme being used in the stories. I’m sure I didn’t care when I was young, I just read and got on with it.

So I have a sense of loyalty – and was a little wary when it was announced the books would be getting a bit of a revamp for modern times. I’m not a fan of change unless it’s for a good reason.

Fortunately, there is a good reason. The Miffy illustrations stay the same, and most of the rhymes stay the same or similar, but have a better structure. For example – there is a picture of a pear and some peapods, the original book mentions a cauliflower (probably to make the words flow better) yet it isn’t pictured. The new version of the book is much simpler and sticks to what you can see. See the two pictures for more examples.

I quite like them too. I bought ‘Miffy’ and ‘Miffy at the Zoo’ today and have compared both versions we own. But yet it says the translations date back to the 1990’s – so what did we have before this? What did I read in the seventies? Would it be unreasonable to buy a third version of the books purely for my own curiosity?

If, like me, you weren’t sure what was going to be done with the books, rest assured, it’s fine. It’s a job done well and very faithfully. Would I buy all the books again? I’m unsure – as we own them all already it could prove quite costly. Fortunately they’re being made available in small batches (Miffy at the Gallery is the third in the series – which was published via the Tate Bookstore not that long ago) so won’t break the bank. I’m hoping that the last book, Njintje is Stout (Miffy is Naughty) will get a translation, as I’m fairly sure that’s the only book that hasn’t been.

October is a bit of a cop-out with Miffy’s Dream getting republished! The only one without words – maybe new translator Tony Mitton needed a break 🙂 We like and have read a few of Tony Mitton’s books – though only own ‘The Somethingosaur’ which we reviewed a while back.

I can see there are also activity books available too, though didn’t buy those. It looks like Miffy is going to be well stocked in bookstores again which is quite frankly, a fabulous thing. You can find all the books over here – Miffy – the New Books (contains an affiliate link).

09/03/201426/03/2018 by jo

Wisley!

The sun finally arrived this weekend, so plans were hastily made to pay a visit to Wisley with friends. I knew it was close to us, but had no idea by quite how much.

Wisley is just a little further down the A3 from Painshill Park, close to the A3/M25 junction. To get the most out of Wisley, a RHS membership is essential. I’ve spotted a 20% cashback deal via Quidco, or if you collect Tesco Clubcard points then you only need £17 which are pretty good deals. Otherwise it’s around £45 a year for one person, you are able to take a guest for free and children under 5 go free. A RHS membership also gets you into a few other gardens around the country, though the guest rule doesn’t apply.

After spending the best part of a day at Wisley I’m pretty sure it would take a minimum of four trips to get to know it better.

There is a lot of parking, a good thing as it was pretty busy. There are good garden shops too, something Shaun made the most of, getting a Burgon & Ball Verti-Plant which will make our back yard look lovely and is an ideal solution for us – we have no garden here, just pots and plants.

It was a glorious day – we started out with layers and ended up with just t-shirts it was so warm. For some reason I had visions of Wisley being like a large garden centre – I was wrong – it’s a huge garden with many areas and plenty to do for everyone.

There’s water, flowers, sculptures, walks, mud, hills, more hills, plenty of food areas, a great outdoor play area and so much more. Areas to sit and take it all in, and areas to wander around watching the world go by. We spent a while on top of the Fruit Mound – a hill with two spiral pathways to get up to the top (check it on Google Maps, it’s pretty cool), where there are seats and fresh air aplenty.

Wisley

Then there’s the butterflies – so many of them in the hot and humid Glasshouse – we queued for around five minutes to get in though had to keep escaping outside to breathe! The butterflies were amazing, many different kinds (with a handy leaflet to help you identify them – good when you don’t retain information easily like me) – though the exhibition ‘Butterflies in the Glasshouse’ finished today.

If you like National Trust gardens then Wisley will appeal. It gave H and her friend a freedom she hasn’t had for a few weeks, where they could play together in the dens, run around the grounds, spot fish, admire the butterflies and so much more. The daffodils and snowdrops were out, and Wisley was such a lovely bright colourful wonderfully floral smelling kind of place. That and there was also a giant apple to study – part of a sculpture exhibition in the grounds running until the end of March 2014.

H was pretty tired after all the walking around, but enjoyed it. We ate in the Glasshouse Cafe and found the food to be reasonable, a decent vegetarian choice and good strong coffee. They do kids meals in a box with plenty of healthy choice on offer as well.

Linking in to Country Kids, Wisley’s site is over here. Huge thanks to Lianna for allowing me to be her guest!

Country Kids from Coombe Mill Family Farm Holidays Cornwall

07/03/201426/03/2018 by jo

Scratch, Scratch, Headlice is Back. Lyclear Saves the Day

It’s one of the letters you don’t want to receive at school and one of the topics which provokes a reaction with almost everyone you talk to – usually they start scratching their head (like I am now) – the dreaded Head Lice letter. As luck would have it, Lyclear sent us a bottle just as we got our first letter this year! We’re no strangers to this wonderful world, but I’m always willing to try anything which helps!

Lyclear is available as a shampoo, spray and a new sensitive variety from most shops; I’ve seen it in a variety of places. It’s a simple spray on-comb out spray which claims to have a 100% success rate. H was showing all the signs she had them other than anything in her hair. I do know she reacts to some shampoos, but we couldn’t take the risk as other children had it, so gave Lyclear a go.

Step 1 – you check the hair for Lice using a headlice comb. Our shampoo came with a comb which is handy, though I do swear by the Nitty Gritty comb. It looks like all varieties come with a comb, it’s clearly marked on the front of the box.

Step 2 – Apply the shampoo onto dry hair. Make sure you cover the back of the neck and behind the ears. Leave for 10 minutes.

Step 3 – Wash it out – add water and work up a foam. Rinse thoroughly.

Step 4 – comb through the wet hair to collect all lice and eggs using your fine comb.

Don’t forget to clean the comb! This needs repeating after seven days to break up the life cycle of the lice, but two treatments should be enough.

So how does it work? So many other mums say they do the conditioner and combing routine because they don’t want to use pesticides on their child’s head, so what does Lyclear offer? From their official site : All Lyclear treatments provide a double physical action attacking both head lice and their eggs. Lyclear Spray and Lyclear Shampoo suffocate and dehydrate head lice and their eggs, whereas Lyclear Sensitive attaches onto the respiratory orifices of head lice and eggs to suffocate them and penetrates into the heart of the eggs to stop their development.

If you’re not scratching too much then there’s more information about head lice over here. While I’m not 100% sure whether H had it, we got the letter and treated her as she seemed to keep getting it at nursery, and her head is clear.

I like that Lyclear includes everything you’d need, so you’re not buying a separate comb (though I do swear by my Nitty Gritty one) so if you had to rush to the chemist to get stocked up once receiving the dreaded letter, Lyclear would be a good place to start!

We were sent a bottle to try out – all opinions are our own.