Is the sight of your bathroom driving you crazy? Many people avoid remodeling their bathrooms because of the cost. After all, a full-scale remodel can cost up to £15,000. That’s money most people just don’t have. However, there are lots of ways you can cut costs if you want to upscale your bathroom. In fact, it’s possible to do it for under £1000 if you’re willing to put the work in. A new bathroom will also make you money in the future by adding value to your property. So, if you’re ready to get your bathroom looking a sanctuary, here’s how you can do it. Pixabay Avoid ... read more
Pork Pasta Bolognese #HealthyRedMeat
Over the summer life at home has been somewhat disjointed. Moving house, and changing family dynamics, mean that I've followed the advice of someone who very early on told me that the key thing in the early days of all this change was to remember to eat something, and to remember to make sure everyone else eats too. For a little while I was allowed to not aim for a nutritionally balanced home cooked meal every evening, but I just had to make sure that I had a meal every day and that the kids didn't go hungry either. It was quite seriously one of the best bit of advice I could have been ... read more
How to Go About Upgrading Your Family Home
Is it finally time to start doing work to your family’s home? If so, you might already be thinking about the kind of approach you want to take. It’s important to think this over because it can be pretty disastrous for you and your family if you get your overall approach wrong. Your family home could become less suited to the needs of your family than it is now, which is not what you want. Luckily for you, this guide is going to detail the kind of approach that you should take if you want the best outcomes for your family home. It’ll talk you through which upgrades to make first and how to ... read more
Celebrating the weekend with Weekend Box and Snazaroo
Parenting can be tough at times. Especially if your kids seem to think that you model yourself on that Pinterest and Instagram mum, who always has a new craft activity or similar lined up ready to do at a moment's notice. Reality is that your child is likely to ask to do something, you begrudgingly agree to their crafty ideas and start rummaging in drawers, cupboards and boxes to find everything they need. Half way through the project the child, or children, will suddenly declare that they need something else to complete their masterpiece so you then start plouging through the entire contents ... read more
Every Little Helps; Teach Your Kids About Charity
Avid readers of my blog will know that I am a huge support of charities. I regularly shop there and often find some great hidden treasures at charity shops. I am also completely aware of how much light these organisations bring to the world and how by supporting them we can help change things. We can give money to cancer research to fight back against a disease that takes so many lives. We can donate our time to causes such as information on Ectopic Pregnancy. One in ninety pregnancies are ectopic, and by supporting charities that help mothers who have experienced this condition, we can help ... read more
The Stresses Of Being A Supermum
OK by supermum I don't mean that you wear a cape and fly around, although it can feel like that sometimes! I think a supermum is one that does her best to get as much on the never ending to do list done while looking after the little ones. It's not about perfection though, although it can still be pretty stressful. So, with that in mind here are some things that might relieve a little of the stress that many mums feel on a day to day basis. Picture source Keep your energy up When you have little ones to look after, everything can end up being focused on them, including the meals ... read more
Bedtime stories with The Book People and WIN a bundle of picture books
When I first discovered I was pregnant with Little Miss C one of the things I really looked forward to was being able to snuggle up and share bedtime stories with a little one. I've always loved books, and remember loving them as a child too and so wanted to share that with a child of my own. That happened and I'm delighted to say that LMC now loves books and reading about as much as I did when I was a child. It was wonderful seeing how in awe she was to meet Jacqueline Wilson recently and made me so happy to see her getting that pleasure from meeting an author. Little Miss C may now be 7 ... read more
The best things in life are free
It may sound like a bit of a cliche, but the the truth is that the best things in life are free, especially if you're having to tighten your belt a bit financially, like were having to at the moment. Years ago, free samples were the sort of things that you might get given as you walked through a shopping centre or past all the shops in the centre of town. Occasionally you might even get someone come to your door offering things like washing powder or other domestic products. The advance of the internet has changed all that though, and the people giving out free samples in the street have been ... read more
Five go to a Festival – BerkoFest 2017
Five go to a festival sounds a bit like a modern Enid Blyton book title, and I suppose in a way it could have been. Five of us going off to a festival in a beautiful bit of English countryside on a (sometimes sunny) Saturday afternoon. All that was missing was lashings of ginger beer. A couple of pints of local ale took their place though – for the grown ups in the five at least! I was delighted to be invited along to BerkoFest in the nearby Chilterns town of Berkhamsted last Saturday afternoon. I’ve been to “Berko” quite a few times before and have always really liked it as a town to ... read more
Don’t Let Your Summer Health Disappear Into Autumn
Summer has finished (rubbish), the kids are back at school (phew), and you’re probably getting used to the morning routine and the change in weather (although, there wasn’t loads of sun over the summer holidays). The longer days and the sunshine make it much easier to enjoy healthy food and get outside to keep active, which results in you feeling pretty good about yourself from about May through to September. However, once autumn is in full swing and the days are short and far colder than before; it’s a challenge to keep up with the active side of life and munching on healthy food all day ... read more