23/03/201326/03/2018 by jo

Megson – When I Was A Lad

Shaun and I met thanks to music and a music community, so it was inevitable H would be brought up with it in her life – and while we’ve embraced it (especially kids tunes and classics), there comes a point where music we like has to make an appearance and take over for the sake of our sanity!

Megson - When I Was a Lad

We were sent a copy of ‘When I Was a Lad’ by Megson which is a collection of Children’s Folk Songs. Megson are a new band to us; they’ve been going a few years now (and have self-released four albums and one EP) who took a break when their daughter was born – and ended up making this album to combine their music and their roles as parents. These kinds of albums are my favourites too – it’s the kind of music you can play in the car and enjoy.

There’s some old traditional classics in there – ‘Oats & Beans & Barley Grow’, ‘Three Little Ducks’ and ‘A Frog He Would A Woo-ing Go’ as well as some songs they’ve written themselves. ‘All The Shops Have Fallen Down’ started as a song about shops on the high street and what you can buy… except there aren’t so many shops on the high street these days…

Megson - When I Was a Lad

It’s a good mixture, when I asked H what she likes the most she told me “I like all the songs!” as her best thing, and that is a good thing; actually, right now H is playing Musical Statues with the album (which is allowing for some good creative dancing too!). The music reminds me of Sundays growing up in the seventies when we’d have days around the house listening to my mum and dad’s music – and that’s a good thing, by the way.

I’ve been reorganising our digital life, and putting more music onto the iPod (after all, that’s what it’s meant for), so we’ve been playing much more music in the car – and mixing our songs in there too, that always goes down well… – Megson is a welcome addition.

Megson Family Folk Show
Megson can be found over here – where there are tour dates and more (look out for the family folk shows – please come and play Beanie’s in Croydon!) – they’re playing at the Larmer Tree festival (which is very family-friendly) this year as well. You can buy ‘When I Was a Lad’ on their website for £10 using this link.

We were sent the CD to review – all opinions are our own

22/03/201328/07/2023 by jo

things we like this week

the new Celia Birtwell collection at Uniqlo – Wandsworth had a decent selection in store, so I got a t-shirt which is pretty cool…

Celia Birtwell at Uniqlo

plus I picked up a Mr Potato Head t-shirt for Shaun as they had the Pixar designs still in stock.

Disney Pixar at Uniqlo

The two Very Hungry Caterpillar iPad games that Night & Day Studios made available this week – the freebie one on Wednesday for Very Hungry Caterpillar Day – Counting with the Very Hungry Caterpillar and the sticker book which was made cheaper – both fab games celebrating Eric Carle’s wonderful timeless pictures. Plus there’s a new book due later this year!

Martha and the Bunny Brothers I Heart Bedtime by Clara Vulliamy – we LOVE everything Clara does and this is another lovely book – beautifully illustrated (I really like the bit where they go up and downstairs) and a fun story too – a full review to follow very soon

Making cheese straws (thanks to Jo for recommending!). Okay, Shaun made them but we had plenty of fun eating them. They’re not too high propoints wise for Weight Watchers either if you switch a few ingredients.

Cheese Straws

Our local NCT Playgroup – we were with the NCT for our antenatal classes, and have made friends we’ll always keep in touch with – watching our kids grow up together and knowing they’ve all known each other since birth is lovely – and having a local playgroup where we can meet more local mums is even better – especially as we’ve now less than a month before we find out where H will be going.

Knitting! The Hooky Knitters met this week, I started knitting a rainbow sock, and we had two new knitters come along – Beka has a blog too and is joining us for BritMums – hurrah!

H&M Kids Basketball shoes H&M – we got a new catalogue and already I’ve placed an order (ssshhh don’t tell Shaun) and shopped in-store. H desperately wants a Brazil football shirt from their new range and being a modern mother who loves football I’m happy she does – Shaun is also happy as if he pretends there isn’t ‘Brazil’ on the back and there isn’t a badge on it, it would be an Australia shirt. On the other hand, I lived my eighties fantasies in this top.

H&M 80's top

How Eskimo’s Keep Their Babies Warm – I’m already chatting about it to mum friends, it’s an interesting book – and I’m only a short way in.

I got a new Mia Tui bag – my fourth – a Sofia. This means I can switch bags for all our activities, especially on a busy Wednesday when we’re running around like crazy – I use the largest bag for swimming, the smallest for going to pilates, and the new Sofia for everything else in between when I need to carry things for H.

Mia Tui bags

Blinkbox – we’ve watched two films we’d never have got around to watching had we not had a free trial (and a PeerIndex perk) – and I’m really impressed – we watched ‘Hit So Hard’ the Patty Schemel documentary and ‘Sound City’ the new Dave Grohl film – both great.

Music – new albums from British Sea Power, Iron & Wine, The House Of Love, having an account at Rdio (like Spotify without the ads) and Cherry Red recreating my youth in CD form.. and getting a thankyou on The Breeders LSXX Last Splash reissue is really special!

Disclosure – there are affiliate links in here, we were sent the Martha & the Bunny Brothers and How Eskimo’s Keep Their Babies Warm books free of charge for review, received Blinkbox as a free trial, everything else has been paid for and is recommended because we like it. Music-wise, some are related to my work but this doesn’t affect my opinion.

19/03/201327/01/2014 by Karen

Baby Knits for Beginners – Debbie Bliss

New to knitting? Then this lovely book by Debbie Bliss may well be the one for you!

I have always felt connected to knitting in one form or another. Firstly, it was at the tender age of eight when my Grandma taught me a few basic stitches. I forgot about knitting for many years after this, but became reacquainted again almost two years ago when Jo invited me to attend monthly Hooky Knitters sessions. It was being in a group of like-minded people that made me realise how much I enjoyed knitting and that it was something I’d like to progress.

Whilst knitting was fun, the thought of using patterns terrified me, which is why I’m so glad I got the chance to give ‘baby knits for beginners’ by Debbie Bliss a go. Visually it’s a beautiful book, as soon as I saw it I wanted to dive right in and get knitting!

The book starts by giving the reader an overview of different yarns, equipment advice and stitch descriptions. This book was obviously made with the beginner knitter in mind. The patterns themselves start from the very basic (a plain knit scarf) to the slightly more advanced (a v-neck sweater with pockets). I love the fact that the reader is given the opportunity to gently ease themselves into using patterns if they are feeling unsure, whilst the more experienced knitter can go straight to the slightly advanced stuff.

I have to admit that I went a bit insane with this book, knitting all sorts of lovely items. Shown in pictures are the shawl-collared jacket (minus buttons) and a moss stitch shoe. Admittedly, against Debbie’s advice, I used cheaper synthetic wool as being a beginner I didn’t want the pressure of messing up very lovely more expensive wool. If you do decide to use a different wool it is best to ask advice at your local knitting shop to ensure that your creation looks similar to the pattern… being a novice I didn’t think to do this and as a result some of my knits have turned out a bit lumpy/ odd looking… but I love them nonetheless!

For me some of the patterns took a little getting used to. There are some terms that I had never heard of before and found a little daunting, however Debbie has got a thorough list of explanations and abbreviations in the front of the book. For me I also enlisted the help of on-line videos, as for me it is easier to visually see what needed to be done. However once I’d understood and tried these new techniques a couple of times I felt a lot more confident.

I would recommend this book to anyone who wanted to get more into knitting. It is a fabulous little starter book and if I can do it, believe me, anyone can!

We were sent a copy of ‘Baby Knits for Beginners’ by Debbie Bliss from Love Knitting, a fabulous online knitting store which we’d highly recommend. All opinions are our own.

19/03/201303/02/2014 by jo

Worry Dolls

H is probably going to be a worrier like me. I’m really bad at talking about my problems until I hit THAT point, then there’s no stopping me. Unfortunately this means that often I’ll mention something and I’m sure my friends think I’m moaning… but hey.

Anyway, H seems to also be like me and with school on the horizon and her nursery days spent having best friends then not any more (god, she’s SO like me), and occasional days when she really doesn’t want to tell me what’s wrong, I decided that we’d make some worry dolls. I then worried about this – of course – as she’s very very young, but my rational thinking was that if she had something she’d express her worries to, then this was a good thing emotionally.

So we kept it simple. She’s got plenty of craft supplies so we raided the lolly stick collection. We selected one of each colour and got her sticker collection out too. Then it was a case of naming them – now, she can’t read but I can; she has a good memory, I don’t. So I wrote their names on each stick.

We both drew faces on them and added a sticker to try to personalise them a bit before I got an old Innocent Smoothies carton and cut it down to size, then found some fabric scraps (a nice red with sparkly spots on) and covered the box – the dolls live there.

That was it. Nothing too fancy, and everything we had around. I then demonstrated how I’d tell a ‘doll’ one of my worries and place it in the box, (I think I was worried that Peppa Pig might not come on tv in time or something) and H followed, mentioning friends at nursery and how worried she was they wouldn’t be her friend any more (SOB!). But it was good – she wouldn’t talk to me about it (and just wanted cuddles), but wanted to share her problems with her worry doll.

It’s an easy one to do anyway. More importantly, H understands what they’re there for – and if she can’t talk to me, hopefully she’ll share her worries with these…

17/03/201326/03/2018 by jo

Adventures In Zambezia – A Review

Adventures in Zambezia is a South African movie – a CG Animated one – featuring the voices of Abigail Breslin, Jeff Goldblum, Leonard Nimoy, and Samuel L. Jackson.

Now here I’d love to do a more detailed review, but H and I sat down to watch after her swimming lesson, and she fell asleep about half way so we’re not quite there yet – BUT! What we did see was some glorious colours, and a story about a young falcon named Kai who leaves home to head to the city of birds, Zambezia. His dad (voiced by Samuel L. Jackson) isn’t so happy about that, and eventually finds himself captured by an evil lizard who has plans to attack the city. The story is pretty much Kai rescuing his dad as well as helping save Zambezia with help from his new friends.

With us being half way I can’t be too detailed about the movie but what we saw we enjoyed – H is three and a half and quite sensitive, and there were a couple of moments I wondered if she’d be upset, but she didn’t seem too bothered (which is good!). I think this will be one we sit and watch as a family next weekend, so I’ll add some edits to this when we get there.

There are loads of extras too – it’s a fun family film and what we’ve seen so far we’ve enjoyed! The film is 79 minutes long, so the perfect length for a younger child, and is rated U.

It’s released on DVD tomorrow the 18th March 2013 via Sony Pictures Home Entertainment.

The Official Zambezia website

And!

I have two copies to give away. Fill out the rafflecopter form below, you’ve two weeks and then we’ll pick a winner!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

We were provided with a copy of the film for review, and all opinions are our own!

15/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Arnie and Barnie are back on Nick Jr!

Way back last December we were invited to the Nickelodeon studios to watch some filming of the new series of A Bedtime Story with Arnie and Barnie – and as an added bonus we’d also get to meet the storyteller – Konnie Huq, formerly of Blue Peter.

Becky Overton watches Arnie and Barnie being filmed

We met the children’s writer Becky Overton who writes all the stories for the show and had plenty of time to chat and find out what inspired her to write stories – in a nutshell they evolve from regular stories about regular things with a little twist at the end. Occasionally she’ll write a new fairy tale based on an existing one, adding an alternative ending – and given Becky has done this for ages now, and we’re on series seven I reckon she’s on to a winner! Sometimes Becky has written stories with the person reading it in mind – the first in the new series is a re-imagining of Jack and the Beanstalk, called ‘The Jumping Beans’ read by the Olympian Greg Rutherford (who of course competes in the long jump!).

I asked if any of her stories would ever be compiled into a book – we do a lot of reading and I do feel like sometimes I drift when watching tv, so having a large collection of stories would be nice – and it’s something Becky said she’d like to do.

We were taken into the main studio to have a look at the Arnie and Barnie set (Wormy Glen) – going up for photos which was fun – and fortunately the people behind the puppets were well covered up keeping the magic going for the little ones!

Actually, that in itself is interesting too, as the stage setup means they’re at a quite awkward angle – though in being that way they’re both well propped up! It sounds quite comfy, actually….

So H was terribly excited about having met them, and we were led back into a room for a spot of lunch, including some fabulous Arnie and Barnie cupcakes. Konnie came to join us – giving us time to have a quick chat.

So, what did I find out? I have to say. Konnie looked fabulous (something she disputed having not had a huge amount of sleep the previous night), and we had a good chat – any organised person would have made notes somewhere, but not me, so I’ve forgotten most of what was said – other than when we got a chance to watch Konnie filming she was a natural, switching between accents – I think it was also the first time Becky had seen her stories being filmed too.

Each story takes around 30 minutes or more to film, then gets pictures and more added to it which takes an additional two to three months until finally it’s ready to go – and tonight was the first episode in the new series.

I spotted this link on YouTube about the Importance of Bedtime Stories (which will be a live broadcast in just under a week!) and looks pretty interesting too.

Actually, the best thing in all of this is how A Bedtime Story With Arnie and Barnie keeps the same format – songs and stories and chatter and it’s really good at engaging H – she’ll sit listening (and laughing) at the stories – we tend to catch the Nick Jr 2 showing at 6pm (which are earlier series – we’re recording the new ones!). Nick Jr have launched a new section with some stories in too which is worth checking out!

A Bedtime Story With Arnie and Barnie is on Nick Jr every Friday at 6.30pm. The list of episodes coming up are…

15/03/13	Greg Rutherford	The Jumping Beans
22/03/13	Konnie Huq	Three Princes and the Pea
29/03/13	Samantha Womack	Freddie The Brave
05/04/13	Stacey Soloman	The Grimble
12/04/13	Kimberly Wyatt	Sausage on Sticks
19/04/13	Kara Tointon	The World Behind Walls
26/04/13	Stacey Soloman	The Horse with Funny Hats
03/05/13	Helena Dowling	Be Quiet Benny!
10/05/13	Konnie Huq	The Sheep That Couldn’t Sleep
17/05/13	Kevin Duala – Blues Clues	The Great Pillow Fight
24/05/13	Gemma – The Go! Go! Go! Show	The Secret Club
31/05/13	Steve – The Go! Go! Go! Show	My Cat’s a Superhero

Disclosure – we received no payment for this post, just an invite to the studios. All opinions are our own.

14/03/201302/02/2014 by jo

Weight Watchers – a Big Catch Up!

Firstly, as I can’t remember if I updated, I am now my ideal weight. I’ve not hit my target yet, but we’ve had a couple of weeks of feeling unwell here, so I switched myself to maintenance mode to get my head around having more points (which promptly led me to have some left from my 27 some nights, you can’t win!) – but has meant for the last two weeks I’ve stayed the same which is nice.

I’ve got my routine in place and I’m bringing in different things to add a bit of variety, while keeping them healthy and low in calories – I’ve recently discovered some Special K bites, which my Sainsburys Local has for sale, so I’ve been eating those as they’re pretty delicious. They’re 90-something calories too, so still two points.

I’m getting loads of comments as well – when people compliment you and you don’t feel like they’re glazing over when you chat about it, it’s really nice! A definite confidence booster.

Things don’t stop here though, I’ll be switching back to weightloss mode from Saturday to get those last few lbs lost.

Our first thing to talk about is ‘me time‘. This is an alien concept to me these days – me time used to be that time from H going to sleep and me being on my own until Shaun finished studying – now he’s downstairs and we’re spending time together again (apart from tonight when he goes out for a run) it’s nice, but weird! I can’t even think of the last time I’ve done something FOR me in my time, or made time for it. However, this weightloss has been for me, and two of my friends have signed up and are joining in with it, which is great – so we’ll all compare what we’re doing and think of ways to do things and so on – it’s definitely made things fun.

One thing I could have done (rather than switch to maintenance mode) was a few ‘healthy and filling days‘ – they’re worth looking at if you’re still working on your weightloss, there’s recipes to try and more.

My final thing is Workplace Weight Loss – and as previously mentioned I’m terrible at leaving my desk – though now the days are getting warmer I’m making myself leave my desk and walk down the hill and back (which can be worth two propoints on a good day). However, my way around this is to pick low calorie foods and plenty of fruit. I’ve made it work for me, and haven’t been up the road to the corner shop for crisps or chocolate for well over six months now – and that’s a major result coming from me who would have a finger of fudge in her top drawer and a pack of crisps sealed up in the middle drawer.

So the journey continues, and I’ll be a little more up to date with these updates, I promise!

I have been provided with six months of Weight Watchers membership, all opinions are my own.

14/03/201326/01/2014 by jo

Souptastically Souper Carrot and Leek Soup

It’s been a while since I posted up a soup recipe – we’ve been lazy lately, just doing left over vegetables in our recipes and not thinking ahead – that was until last night when I prepared extra vegetables to be tonight’s soup. It worked pretty well too.

It’s a simple one, and actually I think could have been a bit sweeter (maybe add some parsnip?) so here goes…

I peeled and chopped up about six or seven large carrots

Wash and chop four leeks

Get a decent chunk of ginger and peel and chop it up.

Do as you would with the soup maker, setting it to smooth, and once your time is up you’re left with a soup which has a nice thickness and taste. Now, the only reason I think it could do to be sweeter was the addition of a gorgeous goats cheese we picked up from our local farmer’s market last weekend – I sliced it and the inside of the cheese was gorgeous and gooey – perfect for putting in the middle of the soup. This probably bumps it a few points, but considering the soup is 0 points I think we’ll let that one go – and of course add it at the end once the soup is in bowls!

If you leave out the cheese then it’s pretty good – and I’d never think of mixing leek, carrot and ginger. Total time taken was around 30 minutes, including the time in the soup maker.

13/03/201318/01/2015 by jo

We Love Books – Love Our Library

We went back to our local library and took out two more books today, so without further ado, here’s this weeks duo…

Love Our Library Books

Pip and Posy – the Big Balloon by Axel Scheffler. I know nothing about Axel Scheffler other than his Gruffalo history – so to find out he’s written a book was what attracted me to it – and it’s a nice short pleasant story. Pip lets his balloon go, it bursts, Posy has a good idea – that they should blow bubbles, which of course pop, and everyone is happy. I like this, it’s a simple story but a good one when you’ve a slightly fickle three-year old who remembers everything she’s ever had which has broken and been (cough) discarded by her loving parents… and of course it has fabulous illustrations as you’d expect! It’s published by Nosy Crow Books.

No! by Marta Altes is about a dog who thinks he’s called No, what with being a mischief. Actually he’s called something else altogether and just has people shouting “NO!” at him a lot. H is starting to recognise words, and funnily enough ‘no’ is one of them – it’s another simple story with plenty to talk about on each page (over tea H asked why the dog “broke the boy’s teddy”) and has been fun to read. Published by Child’s Play (International) Ltd.

Hey look, I started one of those linky things. Do you write about your library books? Link up here. Who knows, I might even make a badge or something.

11/03/201331/03/2018 by jo

Film Night

We decided to start having a family film night at home – we’ve Virgin TV so have a few movies on demand, as well as H’s collection. Last night was our proper first one – and to make the night easy for all of us, we ordered in our food from Domino’s.

Toy Story 2 was the film of choice for H, while we chose a pizza each, plus starter and a small dessert. Being vegetarian and a Weight Watchers Blogger Ambassador I managed to keep my points low (and eat half a pizza and be full) – I switched my cheese to a lower calorie version, so while I’ll still have used a lot of points it could have been worse!

H only likes cheese and tomato pizza although will try bits of ours – and Shaun picked the new Chimichurri pizza – Chicken breast strips, red and yellow peppers with a drizzle of Chimichurri sauce (parsley, garlic, olive oil, oregano and white or red wine vinegar). He found it interesting (trying to work out what the flavours were) although wasn’t that keen on the taste of the sauce. The pizza itself wasn’t overloaded with topping, just the right amount of everything. I’ve since read that a member of the public won a competition on This Morning to devise a pizza – The People’s Pizza – and this is it.

Thanks to my newly found wine knowledge we even picked a wine which went with the food which was pretty good (apart from when Shaun knocked his glass on the floor), and of course Toy Story 2 was great, even though H still asked what was happening all the way through.

One thing I really like about ordering with Domino’s is being able to choose your time of delivery – we opted for 6pm, so H was in her pyjamas and ready – and we were tracking the order online from being cooked to being out for delivery (she found it really exciting) – in fact our driver only turned up late because he was confused where we are (we’re on a main road, but off the main road) – otherwise it would have been with us by 6pm – though that wasn’t a problem as our pizzas were still nice and warm.

Now we’ve started our Family Film Night, can you recommend us any films we need to be watching please? I’m thinking Finding Nemo is the next one!

We were reimbursed for our pizza for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own.

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