This last week has been like living in the Mediterranean hasn't it? It has been so, so hot that I think everyone has wished they were on holiday instead of trying to get on with their day to day lives in the extreme heat. For me though, that holiday feel comes not only from the weather, but also from the food. Years ago I went to a conference in Sorrento in Italy and had one of the best food experiences of my life. Simple Italian food that was so delicious and plentiful that I still talk about that meal years later. I love Italian food and therefore it was a complete pleasure that I was asked ... read more
Staying active at the office with #OfficeYoga
One of the benefits of being self employed and working from home is that I don't have work colleagues watching how I work. I can either sit at a desk or table like a "normal" working person. I can sit on the sofa with my feet up, or even sit in bed in my PJs with my laptop balanced on my knee. I can get up at any point and wander around and sometimes I even find myself walking up and down the garden whilst on the phone. Basically, I can be as comfortable as I want and as mobile as I want, but I realise that not everyone's as lucky. If you're sat in a traditional office and hunched over a ... read more
Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzle
Back before Christmas I was one of those parents desperately trying to get my hands on a Hatchimal without having to remortgage the house to do so. Unfortunately Father Christmas didn't come up trumps on this one and Little Miss C hasn't let me forget it. That's why, for her recent birthday, I made sure that I bought her a pack of Hatchimals CollEGGtibles which she loved. She was beyond thrilled when a few days later I produced a brand new Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzle for her to help me review. The way these Hatchimals CollEGGtibles Mystery Puzzles work is that you get a 48 ... read more
How To Get Free Makeup & Perfume
It might seem unbelievable to get free makeup, but the truth is that it is quite easy to get many great samples and some full sized ones too. Getting free makeup is as easy as visiting makeup company websites, visiting makeup counters in department stores, and clipping coupons in the Sunday paper. If you want to learn about some additional strategies for getting free makeup, keep reading. 1. Free Makeup from Department Stores Go to your local department store like John Lewis, Debenhams or House Of Fraser and head for your favorite makeup counter. It is important to check online as well ... read more
The Minions return to Specsavers
I know it won't have escaped your attention that the Minions are back soon with Despicable Me 3, and the kids and I are so excited about going to see the new film when it comes out at the end of June. Specsavers are celebrating the release with adding four new frames to its exclusive Minions range. Master C and I were invited along to the Specsavers store in St Albans to see the range when it launched on 31 May, and to choose some glasses for him from the range. The frames in the range are priced at £64 each and are free for under 16s with an NHS optical voucher. The Despicable Me 3 ... read more
Making the most of your Amazon Prime Subscription
Let's talk about the last minute reality of being a busy mum can we? The way that we're pulled in about a million and one directions at once, and working out the logistics for your little darlings can sometimes feel like you're planning to take a whole army into battle for six months. We've got Little Miss C's birthday this week, so as well as all the usual things that keep me busy all week I've also been trying to also do all those extra things like arrange a party, sort part bags, buy presents and bake a cake. Finding time to do all of this can be a bit of a challenge, but thanks to ... read more
Blue Skies Campsite – Wells-Next-The-Sea, Norfolk
I briefly mentioned our latest family camping trip in a recent review post on here (the Discovery Kids Digital Walkie Talkies, if you're interested), but it is a trip that deserves more than one blog post if I'm honest. We'd been meaning to return to Norfolk for ages, and were determined that this time we'd be taking our tent with us. Our last trip to the area was a last minute stay in a holiday cottage and we'd loved the area so much that we were keen to return. Wells-Next-The-Sea is a lovely little place and we wanted to go back and spend more time there so we set out to look for a campsite ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Public Services – Water Supply
Way, way back in the early days of Ladybird Tuesday I dipped into series 606E, The Public Services, looking at Electricity. I even commented at the times about how the whole concept of Electricity, Gas and Water being public services was vintage in itself. Years on, it's time to revisit the series again, but this time we've moved on to the Water Supply. I still smile to see this book labelled as being "A Ladybird 'Easy-Reading' Book", but then when I consider some of the slightly obscure titles that Little Miss C brings home as school reading books maybe it isn't as strange as I used to ... read more
Taking to the road with Young Driver
On Sunday morning I found myself being driven around the roof top of a shopping centre car park by six year old Little Miss C. Yes you did read that correctly, and no you don't need to be calling social services at this point. I guess I'd better explain... I'm pretty sure that most of you have heard about driving lessons for children that are not yet old enough to be legally driving on the road. It makes complete and utter sense to me that if you can start teaching children to drive earlier in a safe way then when they get to be actually on the road with other road users they can ... read more
Animating with StikBot #StikBot
Things were different when I was a kid... I know that is such a cliche, but as I come to write a review of StikBot Zanimation Studio it's a phrase that keeps going over and over in my head. When I was a child animation was those little flick books that you drew and Morph on the telly. That's as sophisticated as it got. And the though of ever managing to do something yourself that was anywhere near as good as Morph was just unimaginable. Fast forward twenty plus years and my kids now have StikBot to take their animations to a whole new level. Now I've been aware of StikBot for a while, ... read more