As a freelancer working from home one of the most important things in my old house was having a bit of office space. Somewhere where I could sit and work and then when I'd finished close up my laptop, walk away, and get on with the rest of my life. Since moving I've simply not had the space to do that, and I've noticed the detrimental effect that it's had on my work and also on my work-life balance. Working on the sofa or the kitchen table is fine, but it's far from ideal. The faff of having to pack everything away anytime that someone else needs the table or wants to sit on the sofa and ... read more
Morphy Richards Toaster and Kettle set
Role play is such a vital part of a child's development. Talk to any Early Years practitioner and they will tell you about what an important stage it is and why pre-schools, nurseries and reception classes all have role play areas and how much the children gain from playing in them. It's part of how they make sense of the world around them and understand their roles within the world. It stimulates their imagination, aids their social development and can also help children understand scenarios that they may have encountered in real life. For most children role playing home situations is ... read more
The Twelve Dogs of Christmas – Alison Ritchie and Marisa Morea
Christmas picture books are arriving on my doorstep on an almost daily basis right now, with The Twelve Dogs of Christmas one of the most recent, and I'm actually really enjoying starting to get into the Christmas spirit. Master C has already asked how many sleeps there are until Christmas and, for now, seems satisfied with my answer, so I just have to hope that the requests to put up the Christmas tree don't start just yet! The Twelve Dogs of Christmas is a lovely little tale about a puppy's excitement in the lead up to his first Christmas. The lovely rhyming text makes it the perfect sort ... read more
Evil Pea Rules! Sue Hendra and Paul Linnet
It feels a bit weird to think that when I first discovered Sue Hendra Little Miss C was tiny and only just starting to discover picture books, yet now here I am enjoying her books with Master C as he comes to the end of his first half term at "proper school". Where has time gone? Sue Hendra still delights me as much as it does him though, and I still love sharing picture books like hers with the kids. Supertato has become a bit of a star in our household and when I opened up the package containing Evil Pea Rules! there was a shriek of delight from both kids. In this latest book Evil Pea ... read more
Ravensburger Despicable Me 3 Sneaker 3D Puzzle
What do you do with a completed jigsaw puzzle? For years I've loved doing jigsaw puzzles but then when you've finished them it's hard to know quite what to do with them. Ages ago I stayed in a little B&B in Brussels where all the walls were decorated with jigsaw puzzles. Massive ones that measured over a meter square. It was quite simply one of the strangest things I've ever seen. I'm pretty sure that normally you finish a puzzle, leave it on the table for up to a week and then pop it back in the box before moving on to another one. Fast forward to now though and jigsaws have moved on a ... read more
Baking Biscuits with Bacofoil and their Non-Stick Baking Paper
If you follow me on Instagram you'll know that I do a fair bit of baking. Especially of biscuits. My late Gran's ginger biscuit recipe is well known locally as they've been enjoyed at numerous WI, school governor and other committee meetings over the years. I was thrilled therefore to see an invitation pop into my inbox from Bacofoil to join a baking masterclass with Great British Bake Off Quarter finalist Benjamina Ebuehi where we would be creating her new white chocolate and coconut cookies using Bacofoil's non-stick baking paper. Over the years I've been lucky enough to meet a few bake ... read more
DJs Play Park – Soft play in Hemel Hempstead
Soft Play is one of those worlds that you don't encounter until you have children. But once you do have children you soon get to know what to look for in a soft play centre. Ever since Little Miss C was tiny we've been going to DJs Jungle in St Albans and both kids absolutely love it there. I was therefore thrilled to hear about the new sister soft play centre that they are about to open in Jarman Square (or Jarman Park as we oldies all know it!) in Hemel Hempstead - DJ's Play Park. The wonderful thing about DJs for me is that it is run buy someone who actually has kids. Helen and her ... read more
A gift that stands the test of time #PopularBirthdayGifts
What birthday gifts do you remember from childhood? Is there one thing that still stands out all these years later? Something that perhaps you still own and that has accompanied you on the journey into adulthood, through various house moves and more? I may not have her any more, but one gift I do remember so fondly is the Jemima doll that I was given by my mum when I was little. Years later I bought the kit again, to make Little Miss C a version of Jemima, and she still has this in one of her bedrooms and for ages slept with it in her bed every night. My mum must have spent hours ... read more
Satisfying my little train addict with a Family and Friends Railcard #maketracks
Anyone who knows me will know that Master C is a massive train fan. He's just obsessed with them. One of his most common questions at the moment is "Mummy.... When are we going to do something trainy?" Combine his train addition with my love of all things thrifty, and it will be no surprise to hear how big a fan I am of the Family and Friends Railcard. We've had one since Little Miss C was old enough to need train tickets buying for her (children under the age of five don't need a ticket on most trains) and it must have saved us hundreds and hundreds of pounds in that time. Living in St ... read more
Ladybird Tuesday: The Circus Comes to Town
Oh how the circus has changed since today's Ladybird Tuesday book was first published! The Circus Comes to Town was first published in 1957 and I am led to believe that the first editions of this book came complete with dust jacket, as the very early Ladybird titles did. My copy is probably slightly later, but it's definitely an old edition. The pages are made from the shiny paper that Ladybird trialled in a few titles. When I featured the Ladybird Book of Commercial Vehicles on here a few years back, I wrote about how it was experimented with in series 584, but I hadn't realised that ... read more