Last week's Currys PC World Christmas in July event featured a particularly great goodie bag for gadget lovers. The first things I pulled out were a Google Chromecast and a Google Chromecast Audio. Now I've heard of the Chromcast before (and more on that later) but the Chromecast Audio was completely new to me. The thing was that I couldn't quite understand what the point of it was. And chatting to the friend that I roped in to pull together a video review for me, neither could he initially. So the idea behind the Chromecast Audio is that you use it to "cast" (or in non Google language ... read more
Lidl Back to School Range
I know term hasn't quite finished yet (that's coming soon enough!) but if you're a parent trying to be organised then thoughts are already turning to school uniform for when our little darlings go back in September. Master C will be starting school pre-school come September and so this will be the first year that I will have two children requiring school uniform and hence I'm really starting to see how the cost increases when you need to kit out more than one child. As a bargain lover I'm always on the look out for cheap ways to buy what I need and for a good few years now supermarkets have ... read more
Camping for real
With our trial run over Spring Bank half term saw us head off on our first proper camping trip as a family. This time we didn't have the luxury of our warm dry beds being just 20 minutes away. No, this time it was a proper family holiday. We decided to head up to Derbyshire and after reading about it on a couple of websites selected Callow Top as our base for three nights. I lived not too far from Derbyshire for most of my childhood and there were loads of local places that I wanted to revisit with the family and the convenience of it only being a couple of hours up the M1 made it an ... read more
Review: Shine-a-light books
I hate taking a long time to do reviews and for that reason I need to start this one with an apology. It was a long, long time ago that I was sent copies of the Shine-a-Light books On The Plane and On The Space Station to review and whilst Master C absolutely loved them I was struggling somewhat with how to review them. The thing is they're interactive books. Just writing about them didn't somehow seem sufficient, but I had a bit of a break from vlogging for one reason or another and it's only now that I've got round to actually talking about them properly. The magic of Shine-a-Light books ... read more
Confessions of a Summer Parent Challenge – the laid back approach
I'm not going to lie - I do kind of dread the six week summer holidays. My kids like the routine of school and pre-school and enjoy spending their days there with their friends. I'm simply not the kind of parent who manages to set up a Pinterest style set of educational activities for my kids every day, and to be honest life's too short for that. Truth is that whilst the kids are off school I still need to do all the various jobs around the house, plus my self-employed work too, so the six weeks ends up with a hell of a lot of juggling in this household! I keep thinking to myself that I ... read more
Historic Newspapers Vintage Recipe Books
I'm a complete sucker for all things vintage and that includes the piles of old magazine and newspapers that you sometime find in charity shops and at car boot sales. I think they tell us so much about the time they were written, not just from the news stories and articles, but also from things like the adverts they contain. I was intrigued therefore when Historic Newspapers sent me a couple of their news books which are Recipes and Cookery Ideas from newspapers of decades gone by. The two that I was sent were from the 1940s and 1950s, probably my two favourite decades in history. Have a ... read more
When the gift really does count
With all the drama of Master C trying to eclipse his sister's birthday it's only now that I've found myself sitting back and thinking about what Little Miss C's sixth birthday really means. It seems hard to remember a time when she wasn't here with us, yet at the same time I can't believe that it's been six years ago since I was introducing her here on the blog. She's gone from a tiny baby that we dressed up in a cute England baby grow whilst we watched the football, to a six year old little lady who can, and does, very clearly tell us when she doesn't want to watch the football on the ... read more
Surviving a poxy week
I feel like Master C has been dodging chicken pox since before he was born. His sister had them whilst I was pregnant with him and I remember all the mad googling about what the risks of chicken pox were to an unborn baby. It was all fine though as I'd had them myself as a child (still have the scar to remind me) and there was no risk to him at all. But when you're pregnant you do just worry anyway. That was nearly four years ago and ever since then he's managed to be exposed to the pox loads of time and never caught them. Playdates with friends who came down with it the next day. It going ... read more
The Isle of Wight Island Line
Real life has got a bit in the way of writing about our trip to the Isle of Wight last month, but there's still plenty more to share with you. My inner train geek has wanted to go to the Isle of Wight for years for the simple reason of wanting to take a trip on the Island Line. Many people may not realise that the Isle of Wight has its own little railway, but it does. Running from Ryde Pier Head (where you connect with the ferry to Portsmouth Harbour) the route is just 8 and a half miles from there to Shanklin, but the route itself isn't the most exciting bit about this particular train ... read more
A Day at the Needles and Alum Bay, Isle of Wight
When you think of the Isle of Wight, the Needles, the Lighthouse and neighbouring Alum Bay with its colourful sands have to be some of the island's most iconic images. I vaguely remember going on a boat trip around the lighthouse when I was there on a school trip when I was about 8 and I knew it was somewhere that we had to visit again when holidaying on the island as a family. The Needles are right at the far west tip of the Isle of Wight and when you're on the island you always seem to be seeing adverts featuring the Needles themselves, the famous lighthouse and also the cable cars that ... read more