For absolutely ages now Little Miss C has been obsessed with the idea of becoming an explorer and naturalist of some kind. She loves nothing more than being outdoors and hunting for insects and bugs. We have so many bug hotels situated around the garden - many of them made from old shoeboxes and other things pilfered from my recycling bin. It therefore seemed perfect to ask her to review the Pocket Microscope from Interplay. We've had handheld magnifying glasses before in various kits, but this is the first time that she's had a microscope to play with. In the box you get the microscope ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Do-Gooder
And we're back! With the most irregular regular blog feature ever - Ladybird Tuesday. Now, keeping in with the theme of all my other recent blog posts here, I'm doing something a little bit different again this week and I'm going to be talking about another new Ladybird title. This time it's The Ladybird Book of the Do-Gooder. Just in case you haven't worked it out by now I should probably explain that this special title has been released to coincide with this year's Comic Relief, and at least £2 from the sale of the book go to Comic Relief. As with the other modern day Ladybird titles ... read more
Seeing how Comic Relief Support the New Horizons Youth Centre
Let's be totally honest. Fundraising can be a bit of a funny thing. You do something to raise money for charity, and you get a bit of a glow as you see the donations stack up on a webpage, but then what happens next? Your personal challenge is over and you might get an email from the donations site you've used telling you how much you raised. And that might be followed up by an email from the charity itself saying thank you, and giving you some examples of how money is spent in general. I guess it can leave you at times feeling a bit flat. But the truth is that behind all that money you ... read more
The Honk Line Reality: Jamie Oliver, Miranda style galloping and a portable pizza oven!
When Team Honk sat and planned The Honk Line walk around London I'm pretty sure that their list included a bullet point saying something like "A-list celebrity to start the walk". After all that's what they managed to pull off! And as evidence, here's Jamie Oliver at the start in London's Waterloo Park. Photo from Mummy Barrow on twitter The reality might be that we were just about to leave the park, slightly later than planned as we were all busy faffing around drinking tea and taking photos of Tanya posing with her teapot, when I saw a man fly down the hill on a kid's scooter with ... read more
The Honk Line: 10 miles, a purple unicorn onesie and afternoon tea
When I first started writing in my little corner of the internet I had no idea quite where blogging would take me. The thing that has probably been most surprising though is the amazing blogging community that I now find myself part of. As I sat alone in my flat back in those early days (nearly nine years ago) I wasn't even sure that anyone would read what I wrote, let alone that I would through my blog meet people that became firm (real life) friends and that we'd all come together to do some amazing things. One of the most amazing projects that I've been involved in has to be Team Honk. ... read more
Having the confidence to wear a dress everyday
I found myself in Islington the other evening, meeting a friend for dinner before we both went to a gig thingy together. Between the restaurant and the venue we walked past a shop that had some dresses in the window and it somehow sparked a conversation about how sometimes you need to not be scared to wear a dress. I will happily throw on jeans and a t-shirt in a morning, or even a top and certain skirts, but wearing a dress seems to take things to an extra level strangely. What is it about having your outfit in one piece that somehow makes you feel slightly scared of what people will think? ... read more
The Powerpuff Girls Story Maker Dine and Dash Playset
I'm not quite sure how the Powerpuff Girls arrived in our lives, but they most certainly did so with a bit of a bang. Little Miss C just suddenly knew all about Blossom, Bubble and Buttercup and their father Professor Utonium. LMC loves nothing more than having strong female role models to look up to and that's exactly what these girls are. It does seem slightly bonkers though (and makes me feel rather old) that next year the series will be 20 years old. How is that possible??? LMC was therefore thrilled when I brought home the new Dine and Dash Storymaker playset for her to review. ... read more
A Cinderella Story: If the Shoe Fits
One thing that I love about classic stories like Cinderella is how they just keep on going all these years after they were originally written or told. It is thought that the Cinderella story was first told in China, whilst the first record of it here in Europe was in Italy. A version of the story closest to the one we know today was published in Paris back in 1697, but I'm pretty sure that 300 years ago no one imagined that we'd be sat here in 2017 discussing new versions of the story being released on DVD. Heck, they wouldn't even have known what a DVD was! Out on DVD on the 6th February ... read more
Dreaming of that big win with Lottoland
Have you ever worked out what you would do if you won the lottery? I mean properly worked it out? I know many of us talk in wishy washy terms about what we'd like - holidays, new cars, bigger houses, not to have to keep working etc - but I found myself sat on a train the other day, daydreaming, about what I would actually like to do should I suddenly find millions in my bank account. Firstly I think I'd pay someone to come and take control of all things domestic at home. Clean the house from top to bottom, sort out all those piles of paperwork that keep appearing and totally clear my kids ... read more
Writing with the Parker IM Pen
As anyone who knows me in real life will know, I love writing things down. I love handwritten lists and action plans. I often jot down notes for blog posts in a notebook before sitting down and typing them up. I'm one of those people that nearly always has a notebook on them and it's full of everything from what I need to buy the next time I'm in town, through to my travel bucket list. I'm also a huge fan of handwritten letters and cards. I may not have the time to write as many of them as I'd like to, but there's something special about sending and receiving things in the post and a ... read more