If you're of a sensitive disposition I'd definitely recommend grabbing some tissues before you read The Storm Whale for the first time. Whilst this is a lovely little story, it's also rather sad. Noi lives in a small cottage by the sea, with his dad and six cats. His father is a fisherman and leaves the house early every morning and comes home after dark. Poor Noi is lonely. One morning after a great storm Noi heads down to the beach to see if anything interesting has been washed up. As he walks along the beach he spots something in the distance. When he gets ... read more
How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth – Michelle Robinson & Kate Hindley
Well, How to Wash a Woolly Mammoth has certainly raised some questions in our house! "Mummy, what's a woolly mammoth?" "Mummy, can we see a woolly mammoth at the zoo please?" "Why do we need to wash it mummy?" "How did it get dirty mummy?" They always say books are good for discussion and this one is no different. This book is basically exactly what the titles suggests - a step by step guide as to how to wash a wooly mammoth. I was left wondering why you'd want to wash one, but sometimes with children's books you just ... read more
Why this week I’m going to shout praise for Tesco!
On my Working with Mrs C page I've always said that if a company really impresses me then I'm more than happy to provide them with some free advertising here on my blog. In the past I've happily dished out some of this free love to small independents and local shops, but today it's time to actually give praise to a huge company who I know already have a substantial advertising budget. But, they've impressed me so much with one little thing that I want to tell you about it here anyway. The company in question is Tesco and what has impressed me so much is actually ... read more
The Little Lowry – Catherine de Duve
As we sat in my mum's dining room one day having Sunday lunch, Little Miss C suddenly pointed at a Lowry print on the wall and exclaimed "just like Grandma's shopping bag". That to me is what sums up Lowry's individual style so perfectly - the fact that a then two year old could recognise a piece of his work. As someone born and brought up in the North I find that I really love his industrial and mill scenes in particular and feel like I can really identify with them. A few years ago I was also lucky enough to visit The Lowry gallery in Salford and really enjoyed seeing such a large collection ... read more
Review : Ecover Bio Laundry Gel
I've been a fan of Ecover products for several years now so I was rather pleased to be asked if I wanted to review some of their range. I first chose to try the range as I was impressed by the company's eco credentials and then I found that I really liked the products too. Win, win. First up I was sent a bottle of the Ecover Bio Laundry Gel. Now, I should say that I normally use the Ecover non-Bio Laundry Liquid for all the household laundry and I've been happy with it for a couple of years now, so that is what I will be comparing the laundry gel to. The first big difference I ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: Stamp Collecting
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