I do like books that go against the gender stereotypes and that's exactly what happens in The Carrot Cake Catastrophe. It's Jenny's Mummy's birthday, so Jenny and her Grandad decide to bake her a carrot cake as a surprise. Only, it seems that Grandad should have gone to Specsavers and watched a few more editions of the Great British Bake Off as his interpretation of the recipe is far from correct! Instead of butter a bar of soap is added. He makes the common episode one of Bake Off mistake of adding salt instead of sugar (when will they ever label those Kilner jars they ... read more
Making Do
Well, we're five days in to The Year of Thrift and I'm pleased to report that things are, so far, heading in the right direction. I realise it's only five days, but in that time I've put in place quite a few different ways of doing things and I'm hoping that by the end of January at least I should be seeing some real differences. Being a project manager at my core I'm very much of the opinion that you've got to take stock of where you are to be able to tell if you've made a change or not. I'm therefore starting the year by making a real effort to keep track ... read more
Crayon – Simon Rickerty
When we were sent a copy of Crayon by Simon Rickerty I wasn't really sure what to expect as we hadn't really enjoyed his previous book Monkey Nut all that much. But, that had gone on to win the Roald Dahl Funny Prize, which goes to show just how much book reviews really depend on what type of thing you like and just because we enjoy or dislike something doesn't necessarily mean that everyone else will think the same - life would be dull if that was the case! The idea in Crayon is relatively simple - red "blog" has a blue crayon and blue has a red one. Both are ... read more
2014 – The Year of Thrift
Even if you drank enough over Christmas to spend the last few days hidden under a duvet, it can't have escaped your notice that we're in a new year. 2014 is here and from what I can gather hanging around for another 365 days, so I guess we'd all better make the most of it. Last year I wrote about the resolution to end all resolutions I which I pledged to give everything I do 110% over the year. I tried to do that, but I have to be honest and say that I don't think I always managed it. I did learn that to give 110% to everything it is very easy to forget yourself in ... read more
So that was Christmas 2013…
... and what a damp squib it ended up being! After more than a month of being ill I felt woefully unprepared for Christmas and therefore spend the last few days running round like a mad woman trying to sort everything and make sure I'd done all the practical stuff like send cards, buy gifts, wrap them and pick up the pre-ordered Christmas cake and other food bits that my mum had asked me to provide. All was going well when we piled in the car to head up north and apart from forgetting to pack my slippers it seemed like we'd pulled it off without incident. How wrong I was. On Christmas ... read more
A Wartime Christmas – Carol Rivers
There are many, many reasons why I love social media. I could probably go on all day as to why, but one simple reason is that it gives me the ability to talk to people that I might not normally talk to. Not just friends I've made, but people I see on TV, read about in newspapers, or whose books I have written. That's exactly what happened with Carol Rivers who tweeted me one to day to say thank you for a review I had written of one of her books - I've actually written two before Lily of Love Lane and Lizzie of Langley Street. We got chatting over twitter, as you ... read more
Woolly and Tig iPad App Review
Little Miss C is rather a big fan of the CBeebies series Woolly and Tig. If you've not seen it this series features a three year old little girl Tig and her friendly toy spider Woolly. In each five minute episode Tig goes through a new experience with the support of her spider friend. When you're three years old something new like a first day at nursery can be rather scary, but when faced with things like this Woolly suddenly comes to life in animated format and he's there to help Tig through the situation. I'm rather fond of the TV series myself as I think it's really helpful to guide LMC ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Your Body
This is one of those Ladybird books which I remember so vividly from my own childhood. It's a little bit different rom the rest of the nature series (536) in that it covers the human body in detail rather than other bits of nature. Even as an adult reader, this book provides and excellent overview of the human body and its main functions and features. The diagrams also remind me of ones that I had to draw into my school GCSE biology notebook, especially the one of the digestive system. I'm not sure if the same illustrations were used in my school text books or if I'm just ... read more
What the Debenhams Secret Santa brought me for Christmas
When I was asked if I wanted to take part in a Christmas Secret Santa with a group of other bloggers for Debenhams I jumped at the idea. Firstly the idea of being able to buy something for one of my blogging friends was lovely - these were a group of women that I chat to daily on twitter and Facebook. We share all life's up and downs and see crazy numbers of photos of each others lives every week. I've been fortunate enough to meet some of them in person and without exception they're all as lovely in person as they are online. And secondly - I was being given money to buy someone a ... read more
Review: Soak and Sleep Nordic Christmas Throw
After being ill all my Christmas preparation seem to be a bit behind schedule this year. I'm playing catch up now though and trying to get into the festive spirit again. The decorations are up at home and our sofa has also had a bit of a makeover with the addition of this gorgeous nordic style festive throw from Soak & Sleep. As I went to look through their website I was instantly drawn to their nordic Christmas range and completely fell in love with it. The obsession that I've had with all things Scandinavian over the last couple of years shows no sign of disappearing and ... read more