The last time I slept in a tent was when I was 17. It was part of my Gold Duke of Edinburgh's Award expedition on the North Yorkshire Moors and it was an eventful trip. We reached our campsite that first night and one member of the team pulled something out of her rucksack and said with a flourish "here's the tent inner". Seconds later another member of the team did exactly the same. Word for word the same. Now, I don't know how much you know about old fashioned tents, but two tent inners isn't exactly right. Especially when it's raining! Luckily things improved from that point on, although ... read more
Stick Man at Wendover Woods #weloveforests
Stick Man, oh Stick Man, beware of the mud... I think that's probably what we should have been chanting as we went round Wendover Woods just after Christmas. After loving the Super Worm trail last year we had been invited back to try out the new Stick Worm trail and we were not disappointed. Stick Man seems to have become a huge celebrity this Christmas. Not only did he get a Christmas Day show on BBC1, but he was also on the cover of the Christmas Radio Times. Do you get any more famous than that? Still not got round to watching everything I recorded last Christmas but that's not ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: How it Works The Husband
Happy New Year Ladybird fans! All that Christmas card and letter writing put me a bit behind schedule in the run up to Christmas, but now the kids are back at school (and most importantly Master C in pre-school on Tuesdays!) Ladybird Tuesday is back to stay. And how else to start, but with the Christmas best seller The Husband. The Husband is one of the new series of comedy Ladybird titles which take a look at some of the modern day problems that now face those who grew up reading original Ladybird titles. All written by Joel Morris and Jason Hazeley these books combine original ... read more
Thrifty Mrs C: 52 Week Saving Challenge
I'm back on the Radio Verulum Drivetime show this evening with my monthly thrifty slot, and one of the things I'm going to be talking about is thrifty new years resolutions. New years resolutions can scare some people, but actually they're a perfect opportunity to help kickstart yourself into a thriftier way of life. It may be that you want to start small and for you the right thrifty resolution might be to start meal planning, or to buy more things secondhand. Possibly to look on a price comparison site and see if you can get a better deal on your utilities bill. Or, if you're someone ... read more
Review: Clangers Squeeze and Whistle Tiny
Being woken up in the early hours of the morning to the noise of a swanee whistle coming over the baby monitor is a bit of a strange experience. That's the risk you have though when you get your little one a Clangers Squeeze and Whistle Plush - or at least it is with my son! Master C was super excited to unwrap a Squeeze 'n' Whistle Tiny and she has soon become a firm friend. After three years of just being attached to his favourite cuddly toy dog he's now started taking a huge interest in other toys and treating them like friends. Tiny Clanger was one of the first and certainly the ... read more
Why I will be sending Christmas Cards this year
If you're on Facebook or email I'm pretty sure that over the next week or so you'll start seeing messages along the lines of: Just so you know we're not doing Christmas cards this year, but we will be making a donation to charity instead. Merry Christmas everyone and Happy New Year! That's all fine and dandy, and everyone's entitled to do whatever they want, not only at Christmas, but for the rest of the year too. But as someone who hasn't given up on Christmas cards I thought it about time to actually shout about why I will be sending them this year, and why I'd encourage others to do the ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Ladybird Book of Commercial Vehicles
Oh Ladybird Tuesday, how I've missed you! When Ladybird Tuesday first started years ago Tuesday was a day when I was childfree and able to ensure a Ladybird post went up every week without fail. Have you realised yet that for the last 18 months I've been running a playgroup every Tuesday and always had at least one child with me and so completely failed to post regularly. Argh! Sorry about that. Something just had to give and Ladybird Tuesday was sadly the victim. Still, only two more weeks left running playgroup - one voluntary role that I'm really looking forward to giving up at Christmas ... read more
Advent House for Master C
It seems hard to believe that it's over a year now since I made an Owl Advent Calendar for Little Miss C (and nearly a year to the day since I blogged about it too). Master C wasn't quite ready for an advent calendar last year, but even then I knew that I would need to do something for him this advent, so it was perfect timing when the team at Ocean Loans got in touch asking if I would like to be sent an Advent house from Hobbycraft and a nice gift voucher so that I could decorate it. This was of course back in early October and I was rather proud of myself for getting on to it straight away, ... read more
Christmas Sticky Toffee Pudding – baking with Whitworths and Edd Kimber
It's not often that I get to spend my Saturday in the kitchen with a winner of the Great British Bake Off, but that's exactly what I got to do this weekend, thanks to Whitworths. Edd Kimber won the first bake off back in 2010 and this year he's teamed up with Whitworths, those people who bring us all the fruit and nut ingredients that you use in your baking, to develop an alternative to the traditional Christmas pudding. Now, I should start by saying that I love Christmas pudding and I was therefore intrigued to see what Edd had come up with, especially as he claimed not to like ... read more
Crafty Catch Up – Spice of Life and Christmas Cards
Do you know how satisfying it is to actually finish a project? I managed to go to my regular knitting group this morning and it was such a lovely feeling to proudly stand up and do my bit of show and tell with my Spice of Life blanket. This is probably one of the biggest projects that I've ever finished (yes the Attic 24 Ripple is still in progress - my latest aim is to get it done by Christmas!) and I'm really pleased with how it has turned out. The finished result is gorgeous and whilst the first set of shells are a bit pulled in at the edges (I'll call that my learning curve - I went ... read more