I have to admit that when I received an email asking me to review Plenty Super Strong my first thought was "what on earth is there to say about kitchen roll?" But this particular PR had written a lovely personalised email so I took the time to read it again properly and agreed to go ahead. I sent over my postal address and didn't think much more of it. When a delivery man knocked on the door a couple of days later and handed over a large heavy parcel I was a bit puzzled. When I unwrapped it and found all this I was both delighted (after all there were Yorkshire tea bags AND ... read more
Go wild with Next at London Zoo
I've got a confession to make. One which might affect Little Miss C's political aspirations unless I declare it now. About a year ago she tried to shoplift a pair of shoes from our local branch of Next. There we were looking for a new pair of pumps for summer when I suddenly realised that she was no longer at my side. I had that panicky feeling in the pit of my stomach as I abandoned my quest for pumps and instead started shouting her name and running around the shop like a mad woman. As I happened upon the area full of seats for people to try on shoes I found a very ... read more
Little Miss C standing for election?
Local Council elections take place on Thursday 2 May this year and not only have party political leaflets been dropping through my door, but the local branch of the Lib Dems have also been rather busy on local streets getting residents to put up signs encouraging others to vote for their local candidate. I'm not sure if it's because the other parties haven't made an effort yet, or if everyone round here is planning to vote Lib Dem, but at present they're the only ones I've seen and with the orange colout they do seem to stand out well, especially on a slightly dreary day ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Story of Furniture
Sorry, but I admit this has to be one of the least inspiring book titles ever and I struggle to imagine many children rushing out to buy this with their hard-earned pocket money! The Story of Furniture is part of the Ladybird Achievements series (601) and sits rather strangely alongside The Stories of Radio, the Motor Car and Flight. Others in the series do include Churches and Cathedrals, Clothes and Costume and also Arms and Armour - slightly less thrilling than Exploring Space that's for sure! I'm amazed how much there is to say about furniture and this book covers everything from ... read more
Challenging…
I think that's the most politically correct word to use for today, especially when today followed the weekend we've just had. This last weekend has been a particularly emotional and tiring one. We picked LMC up from nursery early on Friday and drove north to my Mum's house, before heading further north on Saturday to scatter my Dad's ashes on the North Yorkshire Moors. After weeks of cold windy weather we were lucky to see the Moors in their full sunlit glory and it really did feel like a very fitting final resting place for my Dad. He loved the Moors and many family memories ... read more
Science Filled Sunday
Little Miss C is still very much in love with her science kit and we get regular requests to do "speriments" with her, or she'll look through the experiment cards and decide which one she wants to do next. Easter Sunday was very much the same and she pulled on one particular card where the experiment was to look at the fact that oil and water do not mix and that water is also more dense than oil, meaning that the oil will float on the surface of the water. A bit of blue food colouring in the water made the difference between the two liquids a bit more obvious and she ... read more
Tuff Spot Play Ideas – Rice and Diggers
Inspired by Jennie from Edspire I started off the other day by taking the children to Wickes. Now as it went this might not seem that exciting an outing for a toddler and a baby, but I was there on a mission. I've been reading about the messy place adventures that Jennie has with her twins in their tuff spot and realised that this would be perfect for Little Miss C. If you're not familiar with them a tuff spot is simply a large octagonal plastic tray that you can put on the floor to provide a playing surface for small children. They were originally sold as mixing trays for ... read more
Sponsored Post: Planning a space for Master C
Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post. When we bought this house three and a half years ago there were just two of us and we couldn't quite believe that we had so much space. Our furniture didn't really fill the space that we had. Fast forward to today and there are now four of us living here and we've already extended up into the loft to give us a new master bedroom. Little Miss C has outgrown and moved out of the box room that the estate agent sold to us as a nursery and Master C is currently in there. At six months old he's already starting to need a bit more space. The room ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: We like to help
In the months that I've now been running Ladybird Tuesday here on Being Mrs C I've not touched much on the huge number of learning to read books that they published. The Keywords reading scheme (series 641) was vast and many, many children remember learning to read with these "Peter and Jane" books. I've not as yet tried to list all the books from the series that I have in my index, mainly because I have so many, but also as I'm trying to collect sets with each of the different cover styles - the ones that they were launched with and the later style which I remember ... read more
Crafty Fox Box Purse
I bought myself an Easter gift this year in the form of the March Crafty Fox Box as put together by the lovely Emily of The Startup Wife fame. I've known Emily for a couple of years now and know what a keen crafter she is, so was delighted when I heard about her latest venture. My box arrived last week and it was a lovely treat once I'd put the kids to bed one evening to unpack it and start thinking about making things from its contents. I'm not going to share everything yet, but spending time with my sewing machine on Saturday made me itch to do more. So I managed to make the time ... read more