The more I look at my vintage Ladybird collection, the more I see loads of hobbies that I just can't imagine today's children doing. I hope I'm wrong, but do kids today really do stamp collecting? I remember trips to WH Smiths as a child on a Saturday with my parents where as a special treat I might be allowed a packet of stamps for my collection, or possibly just a new packet of stamp hinges if I needed some. After helping my mum clear out her house I even still have my old stamp albums in the cupboard! In fact, just typing that above made me go and search them out and then ... read more
Review: Washable Cleansing Pads
Since meeting and chatting to Jackie from Green and Natural Living at BritMums Live! in June I have been putting a huge amount more thought into just how green I'm managing to be at the moment. In some areas I'm sure I actually score quite highly, but there are others where I know I could, and should, pull my socks up. The amount of waste that I'm putting into my "black" bin for landfill each fortnight is creeping up and I'm determined to do something about it. I'm currently running a little exercise where I'm trying to keep track of everything ... read more
Making the most of my TASSIMO in the hot weather
Back in June I was asked to become one of the bloggers working with TASSIMO to help promote their brand. Now, whilst I love my tea (being a Yorkshire lass) I am also rather partial to a nice cup of coffee. I hardly ever drink instant coffee at home, but when out I do treat myself to a "fancy" coffee, especially when at my weekly knitting group meet-ups. The idea of being able to make good coffee at home really did appeal, especially as it was supposed to be so easy. For the first month I really enjoyed being able to make myself a latte, cappuccino, or even a caramel macchiato ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Learning to Sew
A very quick dash in for this week's Ladybird Tuesday after a stupidly busy day out of the house with Master C. When I headed off to Fibre East with my knitting group last Saturday I wasn't expecting to find any Ladybird books, but that's exactly what I did find on the first stall I came across. Obviously destined to happen. I've been looking out for a copy of Learning to Sew for years and was so pleased to find a copy in such good condition. Mrs Fox wrote about this for Ladybird Tuesday back in February and that just made me want a copy even more. The Hobbies and ... read more
Featured Post: Making our home work for everyone
Four years ago last week Mr C and I moved into what is now our family home. Our first house. The place where we hoped to raise a family and live "happily ever after". We'd had a long wait for this house. For nearly a whole year after getting married we spent weekend after weekend viewing potential houses. In that time we saw pretty much everything on the market locally that was in our budget. Some we hated, some we loved. Three of them we tried to buy and failed. We managed to sell our flat, but by a stroke of genius stay living there by renting it back from the new owners (and ... read more
The Charcoal Challenge – A Birthday Bloggers BBQ
I'm pretty sure there must have been more BBQs in the UK in the last three weeks than there were in the whole of last "summer". The weather has been stunning and for once it was so nice to arrange a BBQ in advance without having to worry about the weather. When Money Supermarket launched the Charcoal Challenge and offered bloggers £50 to host a BBQ it seemed appropriate to invite another blogger to join us, so that's exactly what I did. Kirsty from Damson Lane lives just down the road from me and it was a delight to have her, her husband and son come to visit us. ... read more
Goodnight Little One – Margaret Wise Brown
We're very familiar in this C household with Margaret Wise Brown as Goodnight Moon was one of the first books that Little Miss C had read to her at bedtime, and right now it's in the pile of books that we read to Master C before he goes to bed. It was interesting therefore to see Goodnight Little One by her in the books that I was asked to review from Parragon Books when I met them at BritMums Live last month. Little donkey on the hill, Standing there so very still. Making faces at the skies, Little donkey close your eyes. In this book we go round various animals as it ... read more
Walking with my Fitbug
Now, normally when an email arrives offering me diet or exercise products I politely ignore them. It's not that I don't want to be fitter and lose some weight - I've had two kids, so of course I do - but I just really struggle to find the time in my day to fit in formal exercise. When the email came from Fitbug I initially wrote a similar response, but then something made me stop and re-read their original email and look into it a bit more. So why was Fitbug so different? Very simple, I saw the word "walk" in what they were saying. Now, whilst I hate running, I LOVE to ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Football
Sadly no royal books in my Ladybird collection so we going to have to do with a spot of football today instead. I've had an old tatty copy of The Story of Football in my Ladybird collection for a while, but last week it was joined by a new copy with was re-released in 2012. My original has the matt picture boards as a cover, but the newer re-issue actually goes back to the plain board cover and printed dust-wrapper instead. Inside - everything is identical. When first published in 1964 this book was very much written for boys who enjoyed football and wanted to know more about it. ... read more
Magpie Monday: Children’s book classics
It's ages since I've been able to have a proper mooch around a car boot sale, and with a three-year old in tow I still didn't get to do so this Sunday. But, at least I did get to go to one! It was the first time that I've been to the regular Sunday market at the Herts Showground since it was taken over by a new company. Like most car boots that I was familiar with it used to be held in the morning and getting there with small kids was pretty tough. Now though it's an afternoon sale making it much more likely that I can actually attend. Their own website keeps you on your ... read more