by jo

Books For Bugs

Books For BugsH is a bookworm – she has an entire Billy bookcase from Ikea full of books (and some toys, to be fair), but I’ll never tire of buying books, and I’m always on the lookout for quirky titles and different ones. I used to be a Barefoot Books Ambassador a couple of years ago, but had to give it up – so if you know the kind of books they do, you get the idea of what we like.

Somehow, I stumbled across Books For Bugs (I can’t remember how!) – they’re based fairly locally to us and do some fairs, and their website and shop is based on selling affordable books to parents. I bought some in their recent sale which arrived today for presents, and they fit perfectly into the kind of books we love. Add to this there’s loads of phonics books (and yes, I do still have concerns about H and her starting school this September, despite her doing really well at her private nursery preschool) and you can buy them at a good price (all their board books and story books are just £2.99 each, no matter how high the RRP), PLUS there’s reviews or short summaries of the books on each page to help you choose.

Their shipping price is really reasonable, and the books arrive well packed and quick – all in all I’m really happy with the service we received and highly recommend them to you – keep up to date with them on Facebook for any sales or deals that might be happening too – they’re running competitions when they hit a certain number of followers!

by jo

It’s a Dog’s Life in Disney’s Superbia

Superbia Logo

From January, fans of Superbia, the popular online game for kids and tweens themed around hit Disney Channel shows, will be able to adopt and care for their own virtual cats and dogs, chosen from a range on offer in a brand new Pet Shop. Superbia has experienced a record breaking launch, with one million players logging in since it launched in February.

Whether or not tweens receive a pet this Christmas, they will be able to practice caring for one in Superbia, where pets’ happiness depends on how clean, well fed and nurtured they are. Players will be able to buy a range of toys and accessories for their pets, and spend time grooming them. In return their pets can be entered into special competitions to win prizes for their owners, or be sent on missions to dig up treasure.

Boel Ferguson, Vice President & General Manager, Disney Channels and Disney Online UK & Ireland, commented:
“We know it’s been a dream come true for many Disney Channel viewers to get the chance to move into Superbia and live side-by-side with characters from their favourite shows. Now, as well as dressing up and making friends, players can visit the Pet Shop and practice caring for animals. What better place to teach kids how important that is, when they’ll be directly rewarded by their happy, well nurtured pets with hidden treasure and competition prizes!”

Disney Channel LogoLaunched in February 2011 and based on the hugely popular Disney Channel Italy game Fun and Friends, Superbia is a colourful virtual world of Disney-inspired places, from the Austin & Ally music store to the Shake It Up dance studio. Following a record-breaking launch, a million players have moved into town, creating their own Disney Channel persona, dressing up, shopping and decorating their new virtual homes. Superbia residents are guided through the game by their new neighbours, Ella and Max who help them to complete quests to unlock new rooms and content.

Players can make friends with each other, send gifts and emoticon messages and visit and ‘like’ other people’s rooms, in a safe environment with no free text chat, or display or exchange of personal information, giving parents complete peace of mind.

Superbia is the latest addition to Disney’s successful raft of digital environments – which includes BAFTA-nominated Club Penguin.

Superbia Activity page

by jo

What On Earth Is Aussiemite?

I was in my local Waitrose on Thursday and got to my favourite yeast extract section (I have a fine selection of Marmite, often referred to as ‘the archive’ in the cupboard, as well as Vegemite to keep Shaun happy), when I stumbled across a classy looking tub of the black stuff; Aussiemite.

Aussiemite

I’ve never heard of it, so had to buy it for that reason alone, primarily for Shaun to try out and share his opinion, but also because I bet he’d never heard of it either, and well, he’s Australian you know – I like to help him feel less homesick.

It’s quite pricey – £5 (where Marmite and Vegemite are much cheaper), but needs must so off I trotted to the till and duly paid.

So – the taste test. It reminded me of Promite (which I’ve not yet been able to find in the UK) – a fruitier taste than Marmite, and less dull than Vegemite (I’m not a fan, though the song is good) – if you can afford it, I’d recommend you try it.

The big plus points? It’s GM-free, gluten-free and vegetarian too – also the nutritional information is identical to Marmite and Vegemite. (I’m not so sure about the website’s claim about Australia pioneering yeast based spreads, as Marmite came first, I thought? So Vegemite was a response? But that’s me thinking too much) Anyway, more importantly of all, Aussiemite is Australian-family owned and they want it to stay that way. Aussiemite has been sold in independent shops down under for around ten years, and was relaunched last year as a gourmet spread. It’s also not to be confused with a new spread launched by Dick Smith last year, for the record. Okay?

Anyway, it’s available over here now in all Waitrose and Selfridges stores so I’m officially going to declare it posh. It’s pretty yummy too, and gets the thumbs up from us – could it be the middle ground in the battle of the yeast extract in our house?

by Karen

Teething Bling – Smart Mum

As a result of his teething my son has suddenly started biting me… it currently feels as if I’m being followed around by a little vampire! Due to this, when the chance to try Teething Bling, an item of jewellery designed for teething babies, came about I jumped at it!

Teething Bling comes from a company called Smart Mum, who knew that a lot of mums don’t wear jewellery as it would no doubt get pulled, hurt baby or possibly get damaged. They wanted to find a solution that would keep all parties happy and this is how the necklace came about. I had heard of the product not long after Jacob was born, but having been bombarded with thousands of different baby products I was a little sceptical so decided not to buy. All I can say is that I wish I had as this has turned out to be a very useful little product!

Teething Bling by Smart Mum

The necklace itself is very pretty, it looks like normal adult jewellery, and could go with many different outfits. The teething part of the necklace is very unusual, it looks as if it should be made of a hard material like stone but on touching one finds that it is rubber and bendable. I have already had compliments from friends, who were very keen to find out more about Teething Bling.

Jacob was very curious about the necklace, fiddling with it and enjoying chewing it. I have to admit that it hasn’t stopped him biting me completely though the necklace has proven to be  a really handy distraction. I think that Teething Bling would be wonderful for younger children and only wish that I had gotten into this sooner. The material of the necklace is very secure and I reckon it could go through a lot of punishment from little one! What I especially like is the safety release at the back, which goes to show that the design of this item has been very carefully thought out.

The necklace costs £12.95 from the website, which I don’t think is bad at all, especially considering it could be worn out without little one and not just necessarily as a teething ring. The company also have other items for sale such as bangles available at £8.95. The website is clearly laid out, very user-friendly and is definitely worth a nose.

I was sent a necklace for the purpose of review – all opinions are my own!

by jo

Too Easy Cheese and Vegetable Lunchtime Wraps

Wednesday is my day off work in the week, my day with H. Pre-WeightWatchers we’d have pitta bread with falafel and tzaziki plus some vegetables to dip into the tzaziki, which I thought was fairly healthy. THEN I did WeightWatchers and found that meal came in around 15 points (over half of my daily allowance). We like a sandwich and will often do cheese toasties, but after swimming we’re usually quite tired and need some good energy food. This seemed to work, and was part-inspired by Sally’s comment on the quesadilla post.

So, chop your veg – we went for a red pepper, a courgette and two carrots. I chopped up the pepper then grated the courgette and carrots. After that I added some ginger Gourmet Garden to add some extra flavour, let it lightly warm in my pan (with one oil squirt) until it felt warm, but not too warm. It looked something like this :

Pepper, Carrot and Courgette

So then it was just a case of lying the wrap down, keep it unbuttered (as the veg is quite moist anyway), and putting a good mixture of the veg on top.

veginthewrap

Then just wrap them up and leave for a couple of minutes to let the vegetables melt with the cheese. Voila, one cheesy vegetable wrap – and low saturated fat too (if you use WeightWatchers cheese – I can’t compare to other brands, so check beforehand).

Points-wise, I calculated them to be 7 points total for the Vegetable wraps, as long as you use Weight Watchers wraps – each wrap comes in at 3 points, but if you have two it lowers to five. I used WeightWatchers Mature Cheddar slices (1 point each) and all the vegetables were free. The oil was such a small amount it doesn’t register on my tracker. That’s more food than I’d eat at work for lunch and I felt good and full afterwards!

Even better, H loved them – she wanted more and wasn’t fussy about any of the vegetables. We’ll be doing these again… I guess the next challenge is doing some for my lunch at work…!

cheesevegwraps

Disclaimer – this isn’t sponsored by Weight Watchers – I need to lower my cholesterol and lose weight,
so am sharing recipes I’ve found work and are quick.
I am a Weight Watchers Blogger Ambassador, but this hasn’t affected my opinion.

by jo

Review – Nordic Berries

Gleaner Trolls have the best vision in the village—only they have the unique ability to see which cloudberries are ripe and ready to pick, and which need a few more days of sunshine. Every day at twilight, Gleaner Trolls gather ripe cloudberries along the banks of the Norwegian fjords to make Nordic Berries. Nordic Berries multivitamin captures the delicious sweet-and-sour citrus taste of cloudberries, and makes an ideal companion to any of our fish oils.

Nordic Berries Multivitamin Gummies

We’ve been fairly rubbish at making sure H takes the vitamins she needs to – although she does eat a LOT of fruit and quite a lot of vegetables so is getting plenty of goodness from that. Nonetheless, vitamins are a good thing to take and need to be considered – and when we were offered Nordic Berries Multivitamin Treats to try, we jumped at the chance.

These berries resemble jelly tots – but bigger. They’ve got a sour taste to them, and have plenty of goodness in them too (see below). The thing that swung it for me is that H doesn’t see them as some boring vitamin she has to take – she sees them as a sweet that tastes nice that she enjoys – so much so she asks me for them!

Now, the packaging doesn’t say they’re vegetarian or vegan – BUT – they don’t contain gelatin. I’ve been vegetarian for almost thirty years now, and I don’t know any alternative names that would indicate they contain animal products (so I’m going to get clarification). They’re also allergen free.

They also provide 100% of the daily value of the most essential nutrients—including zinc and vitamins A, B, C, D3, and E – you take four a day with food.

The berries are suitable for age 2 and up – suitable for adults and children.

Each tub contains 120 berries which is 30 days supply and costs around £12. For more information please head here.

Nordic Berries Multivitamin Gummies

We were sent a tub for the purpose of review, all opinions are our own

by jo

Activity – Painting Stones

I don’t know about you, but every time we go anywhere H comes home with pockets full of stones. We were at home on Wednesday, our last day of the holidays before nursery and work kicked in again, so decided to do a spot of painting.

Painting stones, that is. It’s a really simple idea, messy enough it’s fun and allows your child (or you) to get creative.

I used watercolour paints (the ones in tubes) as they seem to take a better colour on the stones and wash off your hands easily. We did some one-colour ones, and some dual colour, and even a ladybird which was fun. (the large black one with red spots is H’s seal)

We’ve run out of our paints now, so I’ve more on order arriving next week, so here’s what we did the other day – and even better, we both worked on all of the stones. Now H has a train set to play with, we decided she should paint some stones golden, for the ‘Gold Rock’ station – now I’ve just got to build a station…

Painting Stones

by jo

Easy Quesadillas

This recipe is a so-obvious-I-can’t-believe-we-haven’t-done-this-before one.

You need :

Tortillas (we used the Weight Watchers ones, 3 points each, though 5 points for two which was good)
cheese (I had a WW cheese slice – 1 point)

Whichever vegetables you want (we did a red and yellow pepper)

splash of oil

Spray the oil in your pan and cook the vegetables a tiny bit – add spice here if you want some.

Get your tortilla – put the cheese on it, then when the pepper is cooked add that.

Put a second tortilla on top

Weight Watchers Friendly Quesadillas

Place into oven, which should be on a low heat – enough to melt cheese and warm the tortilla, and leave in there for five minutes

Take out, and slice into four or six pieces. Eat straight away. If you want to add some cream to it, Quark is a good substitute and is low points too.

Yum! They’re a slightly more interesting variation on toasties too.

by jo

Weight Watchers Weekly Challenge 1 – Sort Your Fridge

As a Weight Watchers blogger ambassador with badge, I’ll be getting weekly challenges – I won’t have to do them all, but if I can, I’ll try. Week one is a nice simple one – Sort Your Fridge.

My Fridge

I’ve found that a few of my friends who’ve followed my journey so far have wanted to think about starting Weight Watchers – and asked for advice – especially after Christmas when we’ve got tons of cakes, chocolate and biscuits around that need to be eaten (especially those fresh ones). So, the challenge involves us checking our fridge to see what we’ve got that have high ProPoints value (PPV) and either portion control them, or find things to substitute them with once they’re gone. I would say that having already done WeightWatchers for three months, that the portion control is our way – though actually we were pretty good over Christmas. However, there are things which aren’t so friendly…

Hummous (good for a few more days yet), passata (ditto), cheese (needs to be used up) and loads and loads of vegetables. There are potatoes in the cupboard too.

So. What works well with those last few Christmas bits? Soup, of course!

Soup veg

Here’s the recipe :

Leek (two) (0 PPV)
Butternut Squash (half) (0 PPV)
Courgette (one) (0 PPV)
Sprouts (five – one was a bit yucky on the picture) (0 PPV)
Broccoli (two sections) (0 PPV)
one low salt stock cube (1 PPV)

cheese to splosh in there once cooked (3 PPV)

Sprouts

Mars Galaxy ‘A Gift For You’ Chocolate for afterwards (5 PPV) (well the chocolate isn’t going to eat itself, is it?)

Wash and chop all the vegetables. Stick everything in your soup maker, and add water up to the maximum. Leave until ready – when ready open lid and add cheese to let it melt a bit.

Result? This : Christmas Vegetable Soup

So I ate the Mars Galaxy bar, which has taken me to the maximum for my points today – a grand total of 29. I should have broken it in half and shared it with Shaun. (he’d agree with that).

Anyway, if you take away the chocolate, then the soup comes to around 4 PPV, which divided into our portion sizes I reckon would come in at 2 points. However, I had bread with it. I didn’t have any WeightWatchers bread in the house (I’d normally have a WW bread roll with soup – 3PPV) so used my home-made, which has now taken me six points over my daily allowance. Sob! If only I hadn’t had that chocolate..

So yes, we’ll be living on vegetable soups and stews for the forseeable future which is absolutely fine by me…

I’ve been given six months of Weight Watchers membership and various goodies to try, all opinions are my own.

by jo

Achica Love

We were introduced to Achica a few months ago by Rachel, and I was immediately drawn to the things they have for offer. We rent (rather than own) our house, and always have done (though all furniture is our own) – which means when we move we have a mish-mash of things which don’t quite match, which I like to think has some kind of charm.

Which is where Achica comes in – they have loads of homeware items, and what with the new year being here I’ve been browsing and dreaming of my ideal bedroom and living areas – after all, our decor is neutral with only our various settees and beds that don’t quite match – I feel like we need some colour!

So I had one of those imaginary spending things I do from time to time – have you ever done that? You browse online, add all the things you want to your shopping cart, but don’t check out… sort of like you’re spending, and then you’re left admiring a hefty shop which you have to sadly let go.

I chose some really nice things and got a bit excited by it all!

I’m a sucker for spots and stripes, and this jumped out at me – it’s grown up without being too grown up – it sits with what I like (and what Shaun has to put up with!) and is still quite grown up looking – a Mocha and Cream super king size duvet set. Mmmmm.

Achica Mocha and Stripe Super King Size Duvet

Our two settees don’t match at all – they’re from different places, so I tend to cover them with a throw or two to blend them in a bit – however, one thing you can never slack off on is bright colourful cushions – you need something that jumps out a bit, fits in with our style (or lack of) and looks good. In fact, the only downside is that it is dry clean only, so will be kept well away from the three-year old…

Achica Spot Cushion

Finally, way back when H was born, she was sent a gorgeous quilt cover/throw for her bed for when she gets older – it’ll be perfect for the summertime, and is almost identical to this cushion I spotted. We didn’t get a pillowcase to match (though to be fair, I think a cushion would suit it better than a pillowcase), but I can see this on H’s bed with the other cover – while I look on jealously at how lovely it looks.

Extra bonus – it’s machine washable, so perfect for the three-year old! (then again, maybe I should just keep it for myself…)

Achica Patchwork Cushion

Now, earlier I did say about a hefty shop that I’d be doing, adding these to my shopping cart – but actually, all of these come in at £46.98!! Which when you consider most super king size duvet sets can cost more than that, is a really good bargain.

So I window shopped a bit more and drooled over the Pantone dining things on offer, dreamed about them a bit but knew as we bought new plates not that long ago that it’d be silly to buy more. Well, maybe just a Tangerine Tango cup… swoon…

What I like about Achica are the brands they offer – and the discounts. I don’t like paying full price for something if I feel it’s a lot of money – whereas with Achica I feel like I’m buying good quality goods at a fantastic price. This must therefore mean that I win!

I received a voucher for this feature, all opinions are my own.