Review: Galt Paint a Garden Set
May 19, 2012 at 4:35 pm | Posted in Reviews | 2 CommentsTags: Craft Activities, Face of Galt, Galt Toys, Paint a Garden Set
Earlier this year Bear won a competition to be one of four new faces of Galt Toys – a dream job for a three year old because he gets to be a toy tester as well!
The first product we are putting to the test from Galt’s huge range of educational and craft base sets is this Paint a Garden Set. Which I actually didn’t know about until the morning of my birthday when I was presented with these beautiful herb heads, painted by Bear with a little help from Daddy.
Apparently the painting sessions spanned several afternoons and bear was definitely a hands on project manager, painting the base colours and providing insutrctions for the designs. I was amazed when my husband said he hadn’t lost interest after the first five minutes which usually he does when he has to sit down for any length of time – like most boys.
Maybe because he could see everything coming together and because it was for a gift he enjoyed it even more.
We’d definitely recommend this for a rainy day and definitely to buy and decorate as a special gift.
The Galt Paint a Garden Set costs £9.99 from Galt Toys. Bear was awarded with £250 of toys as the prize for winning this competition, and this is on of the items we chose.
I let my son eat dirt
May 17, 2012 at 8:30 am | Posted in Daily Life | 6 CommentsTags: chicken pox, Dirt, eating food from the floor, germs, kids and germs, kids illnesses, kissing slugs
Our three-year old son is a little adventurer – he has to know to the tiniest detail about the who, why, when, what and how – and that usually involves getting a bit grubby in the process.
He usually has his signature line of black grot under his fingernails and bath time involves a lot of fussing over face wiping. He’s a typical boy – just how you want it.
But some parents may draw the line in a cleaner spot than I tend to. Because he drops lollies on the floor and I let him eat them – conditions permitting of course, if it was directly into a cow pat we’d give him another lolly – probably. But the five second rule definitely applies on the pavement.
If our son sees a school friend in the supermarket, a full on display of affection follows – a swooping hug followed by multiple kisses – on the lips – regardless of whether they’ve just had swine flu, a sickness bug or chicken pox. He even got a telling off at school for over-zealous hugging and kissing of classmates – I think he may have wrestled one unsuspecting child to the floor. Oh well.
He also likes to lick things. The trolley handlebar goes without say and this habit extends to the car door, tables in cafes, lampposts and a collection of other random and probably germ laden things. Soft play centres are a haven – the balls in the ball pit being a particular favourite. Never mind.
At Grandma and Grandad’s house he tries to catch the fish from the pond with his hands – sometimes stopping to inspect his fingers, drawing them closer to his mouth and having a little taste – just to see what it might be like. He also has a tendency to pick up slugs and snails and other garden pests to inspect, prod and sometimes kiss as well. Not quite with the same gusto as his love for his school friends.
But actually I think I might let him carry on with his grubby ways because I can count on one hand the number of times he’s got sick – one dose of swine flu and three sickness bugs. Oh and maybe an ear infection and a chesty cough.
However, no-one can avoid chicken pox for ever – and that’s what we’re contending with today. Pass the calamine…
Win tickets to The Baby Show and nearly £400 goodies from tommee tippee®
May 11, 2012 at 1:48 pm | Posted in competitions | 27 CommentsTags: Baby Show Tickets, competition, The Baby Show, Tommee Tippee
The Baby Show is back and offering a shopping haven for new parents and parents-to-be at the NEC Birmingham from 18th-20th May 2012. Forget the hassle of the high street, The Baby Show takes out the stress and confusion of shopping for your baby by offering the UK’s biggest baby brands all under one roof, so you can compare and try products before you buy! The UK’s leading parenting experts will also be on hand to offer advice on sleep, breastfeeding and first aid. Don’t miss this brilliant day out! For more information visit www.thebabyshow.co.uk.
tommee tippee® – the UK’s Number One baby essentials feeding brand (source: IRI data Dec 2011) will be at The Baby Show (stand D40) and will be providing all the very best advice and facilities such as a private breastfeeding area to make your day as easy as possible.
I am offering you the chance to win a pair of tickets to the show and a baby essentials set from tommee tippee, worth £396 at RRP as well as three pairs of tickets for runners up. The winners set includes:
1) closer to nature® Digital Video Monitor with Movement Sensor Pad (£199.99)
2) closer to nature Complete Starter Kit (£99.99),
3) closer to nature Digital Ear Thermometer (£34.99),
4) closer to nature Healthcare Kit £15.49
5) closer to nature Single Bottle Travel Steriliser £10.49
6) explora® weaning kit £12.99
7) explora first sips £3.99, cup £3.99 and beaker £3.99
8) explora roll & go™ bib £4.99
9) Sangenic® wrap & go™ dispenser & refill £4.99
To win one of these fantastic prizes, simply enter by leaving a comment below saying why you want to go to The Baby Show next weekend.
One winner and three runners up to be picked at random using random.org. Decision is final. There is no cash alternative. Prizes cannot be substituted. Winner will be drawn on Monday 14th May 2012.
Why an anti-swag blogger-do is best
May 8, 2012 at 7:44 pm | Posted in CyberMummy | 3 CommentsTags: anti-swag, blogger events, crocs, Cybermummy, Cybher, Duplo, huggies
So, we’re less than a week away from Cybher now, and it’s set to be a new dawn in the female blogging revolution. And swag free too.
For those who attended CyberMummy for the last two years, you’ll know what incredibly exciting, inspiring, rewarding, entertaining and enlightening events they were.
You’ll also know that in year two in particular, we were greeted by a barrage of promotional activity and goodies on stepping through those grand doors. Now I’m not disputing that there is a place for brand and blogger engagement, I’m currently a Lego Duplo Mum and have been a Huggies Mum too. Plus I’ve reviewed many (relevant) products in my time. But these events are a rare opportunity for people to come out from behind their computers and interact for real – yep, real people all in one room at one time, actually talking to each other.
There are people I became very close to via Twitter like Susan Mann, who I went on to meet in person at CyberMummy two years ago. And last year, as I prepared to take to the stage for my crowd sourced speaker slot, she was my supporting arm, willing me on.
So back to that barrage. I will never forget the scenes surrounding the Crocs stand last year – rows of frantic mums sifting and flinging shoes from bins organised by his, hers and kids. Now forgive me but Crocs are actually just moulded plastic shoes right?! And considering most of the women breaking out into a sweat trying to find the right sizes for themselves and their offspring were very well dressed, high-heel wearing lasses, I doubt very much if they’d wear them if they weren’t being given away.
Whilst the draw of free stuff was too much to resist for many, with bloggers being pulled in as if there was a magnetic force under the branded t-shirt of each cheerily faced PR person, others stood nervously in the background, feeling slightly overwhelmed by the chaos. ’Shouldn’t I want a free sachet of that, a taste of this and a goodie bag containing mystery things?!’ These were the people who had come to talk.
At CyberMummy year one I totally confess to bringing home such a huge bag of swag that I had to drag it along behind me. The bottom of the bag was totally shredded by the time I got to my destination. A fellow train passenger tapped me on the shoulder and handed me a Vodafone frisbie – ‘you lost something’ he said. I was mortified. I felt even more embarrassed by my haul when I saw others tweeting photos of their mountains of stuff, equal in size to mine. We could argue that if brands want to give it away then why not take it? And I confess too that the Garafalo Pasta was some of the best I’ve tasted. Random for a goodie bag, but I tweeted my love for it.
The real arguement for me is, why put 400 bloggers in one room who would maybe never get a chance to meet otherwise and take away from valuable talking time with bargain shoe buckets?
That’s why I think it’s fantastic that Cybher has taken an anti swag policy this year. The event is totally dedicated to talking, learning, laughing and hopefully a few drinks too. I’ll be there with bells on – if you haven’t read my Meet & Greet yet, pop over; you need to know I’m little so you have to try extra hard to find me.
See you at the weekend. You better all talk to me now I’ve said all this…
Review: Lego Duplo Creative Sorter
May 4, 2012 at 6:53 pm | Posted in Reviews, Toys & Books | Leave a commentTags: construction toys, Lego, Lego Duplo Creative Sorter
As a Lego Duplo mum we have the exciting responsibility of road testing new products and recently we’ve put the Lego Duplo Creative Sorter through its paces.
It quickly became a firm favourite with me because it’s one of the few construction toys we have that involves a box for all the pieces to go back into. We often take it when we eat out as it’s a great table activity. As well as feeding the shapes back into the box with the plastic inserts, you can lay out the shapes in their templates and make up each of the animals.
When your children get to three or four, there are a select handful of toys that have stood the test of time, are still played with on a regular basis, and still have all of their pieces intact – I expect that this will be one of those classics.
From a learning perspective, our son quickly understood how to put together each of the animal shapes, copying from the images on the templates and at the age of three he enjoys repetitive play patterns so was happy to put the shapes together and take them apart over and over again.
My parents still have our Lego from when we were small, and I’m sure we’ll have our son’s Lego for many years to come and it will be hopefully passed on down to the next set of children.
This is a sponsored post. We were sent the Lego Duplo Creative Sorter to review. I stick to the Bloggers with Integrity code to post honest, open reviews.
What I Wore Wednesday: Spotty dogs & spotty shoes
May 2, 2012 at 7:03 pm | Posted in What I Wore Wednesday | 9 CommentsTags: Bershka, Boden, Matalan, Primark, What I Wore Wednesday, Zara
So it wasn’t until I changed into my after work ‘loungewear’ that I remembered that it’s Wednesday. And because I’m lazy I couldn’t be bothered to get dressed again….
Jacket - Boden last summer
Top – Primark last week
Trousers – Berksha in the last few months
Belt – Zara in the last year
Shoes - Matalan in the last few years
Stop over at Transatlantic Blonde’s place for a little fashion fiesta.
Review: Touro Mobile Pro Hard Drive by Hitachi
April 25, 2012 at 7:18 pm | Posted in Reviews | Leave a commentTags: cloud storage, external hard drive, Hitachi, Mobile hard drive, photo back up, Touro Mobile Pro
Last year I had a three-week mini-breakdown. Endless crying. Bouts of ‘why me’ and ‘what now’. All because my external hard drive failed – and it was the home of three years of pictures and videos of us and our son. £350 later and much had been recovered, but we lost all of our videos from 2010 and hundreds of photos too. It may sound ridiculous but I felt like I’d never get over it at the time!!!
So I vowed never to let it happen again. What was recovered is now on a new hard drive and a duplicate copy is now on a second drive, kindly sent to us by Hitachi to review.
I quite like gadgets. I very much dislike instruction manuals. So I was pleased to find that with the Touro Mobile Pro I could just plug and go and it’s very straight forward. Installing the software takes a few minutes and from there you can set it up to automatically back up certain files specified by you when you connect it to your computer.
I did struggle to set up the automatic back up initially; for some reason it only copied a small selection of the files I’d chosen but I got there quite quickly.
It also comes with 3gb of free cloud storage. I don’t think you can have files backed up in too many places these days – we store so much data that if it’s all in one place, the loss can be heart breaking. You can upgrade to a premium account to receive 250gb of storage.
The transfer speed was a big bonus for me too – I always seem to end up needing to back up files when I’m in a rush to get out the door, or realise I haven’t done it for weeks just as I’m switching off the computer. So the fact that it will transfer hundreds of files in minutes is fantastic.
My only comment would be (and it applies to all hard drives of this type), is they should come with a little soft sleeve to keep them even safer. I’m so paranoid about breaking them that any extra protection would be great.
If you’re not backing up your photos already, you should be. A mobile hard drive like this is a worthwhile investment and costs around £70 from Amazon for the 500gb version.
This is a sponsored post. Hitachi kindly sent us the Touro Mobile Pro to review. I stick to the bloggers with integrity code to only post honest and open reviews.
Does every parent feel like their own child is a genius?
April 20, 2012 at 6:28 pm | Posted in Daily Life | 13 CommentsTags: academies, child genius, Choosing a school
Today we found out that Bear got into our school of choice. It’s the primary school of the pre-school he already attends so it’s a logical move, in walking distance and having met the head teacher and looked around we’re happy. We originally saw these milk bottle elephants being made by one class and promptly copied them.
Over the past week or so Bear has learnt to spell his surname – and with a name like Warrilow, I can’t help but think that’s pretty good going. Which makes me wonder, does every parent think they have a child prodigy on their hands?! Please say yes; humour me.
Don’t get me wrong, he can’t play chess – yet. I’m not a delusional mother that’s putting him forward for his first Grand Masters. Or is that golf? I should really check. Actually, he’s got a mean swing and with a bit of coaching from Grandad he’s showing promise with a club too…
So when we found out that we got our school of choice I just started thinking, will it be enough for him? I have a sneaking suspicion that our son will be the type to be disruptive and arguementative if he gets bored. Can’t think for the life of me where he gets that trait from…
I worry that if he’s not constantly engaged, enjoying what he’s doing and is able to do something hands on and not desk based for the majority of the day that he’ll be trouble. One good aspect of the school he’s got into is that they operate a play based learning approach for the Early Years. As long as they’re doing something linked to the learning objective of the day, they can do what they please – indoors or out. When we looked around three little girls were creating a bug club on the playing field – complete with signage, beds and space for accessories.
Anyway, it’s like when you win £20 at the dog track, you instantly think ‘damn I wish I’d put a bigger bet on’. It’s always the way; whatever we get, we want a little more. Does anyone still go to the dogs?! I couldn’t think of a better analogy.
We’re going to see an academy tomorrow also – they teach the children bilingually from the age of four. I know – sounds a bit intense, but they’re sponges at that age right? And husband is a natural at languages so he can help with homework. I’ll find myself another role – I’ll be in charge of packed lunches, field trips and new uniforms. It’ll be fine.
I’ve failed miserably at being a pre-school mum – turned up at 9am on inset day, not known about the nativity play until the night before, lost all of the letters containing important dates, brought in the wrong sort of yoghurt pot lids to exhange for books or computers.
So, I am determined to be a good school mum and that starts with choosing the right school. Someone tell me it’ll all be ok – please?!
Three Mobile/Prima Baby winners photo shoot
April 10, 2012 at 7:49 pm | Posted in Daily Life | 1 CommentTags: parenting dilemmas, Prima Baby, Samsung Galaxy 2, Three Mobile
Today Bear and I headed to the city along with the other winners of the recent Three Mobile / Prima Baby competition to win a Samsung Galaxy 2 – a whizzy smart phone designed to make life more straight forward.
To be in with a chance of winning you had to submit a dilemma and put the Three and Prima teams to task, finding ways to help you overcome said dilmemma – the winners will also be blogging about their experiences in the Three forums and on their own blogs too. I’ve posted my submission below; hopefully some will be able to relate to different parts of it.
Us ladies were primped and preened; I had a smallish diva moment (which I am embarrased of) which saw one of the stylists dashing out for tights – well we’ve had no sun yet this year!
Bear was his usual charming self whilst not plugged into the iPad watching episodes of Ben 10. He did eat most of someone else’s packed lunch though which I tried to overlook but was acutely aware of – sorry Charlie! I am confident that both stylists, the makeup artist, two from Prima, two from Three and the four other families all know that Bear’s Transformer is called Optimus Prime and that his favourite colour is Batman black.
Anyway, over the coming weeks we’ll be getting to know our new phones and useful apps with help from the Three Store experts so watch this space to see if our dilemmas can be resolved!
My parenting problem is that there are never enough hours in the day! I need to somehow find more downtime and space – without going overboard with order, organisation and lists as I’ve spent the past year figuring out how to relax and live without obsessive amounts of to do lists! And it’s made me a much happier person!
I run my own small but successful PR agency in Oxfordshire and we have a beautiful three year old son called Noah. We’d desperately love a second child and have been trying for over two years to conceive. I do wonder if the reason we can’t get pregnant is because there is simply too much going on in our lives at the moment.
My husband works long hours, I’m very dedicated to growing my business and our down time is focussed on quality time with our son – so how can we make space for a baby?! We want to desperately but of course we want to give that child the same love and attention we have with our first. And we don’t want to compromise what we give to Noah either.
What do we do to simplify our lives whilst having demanding jobs, a son and hopefully one day another child – can you really have it all or does something have to go?!
Maybe there is a way that technology can help us to be more efficient and give ourselves a few extra nights off!
Could you live without carrier bags?
April 5, 2012 at 7:49 pm | Posted in Daily Life | 6 CommentsTags: Aldi, Envirosax, Groupon, Modbury, Reusable carrier bags
In the boot of my car is a big canvas bag. Inside of that bag are many, many other canvas bags. Ones with hand prints by our three-year old and the rest of his nursery class. Ones with illustrations by celebrities, produced to raise money for good causes. Ones I’ve snaffled at trade shows and admit to purely going to that stand to get one. There are probably 20 in total.
So why is it that more often than not I find myself at the checkout without them when I come to pay for my shopping?! Brain will not compute.
It’s fine when I do my ‘big shop’ because we opt to self scan. During which my son scans his face, bashing it against his hairline trying to get a response from it. By the time we leave he looks like he’s had his brains extracted by aliens via his forehead.
Having discovered the absolutely beautiful reusable shopping bags from Envirosax via a Groupon offer including their particularly lovely Slingsax, I realised that (after adding these to my collection of course), that I really have no excuse not to use my own bags every time I shop. And yes, there is something very ego-massaging about pressing on the ‘yes I did’ button when asked ‘did you use your own bags’ today?’ Once I said yes and stated that I’d used 11 bags when it asked me how many. The machine didn’t believe me and called for a supervisor. Ok so it wasn’t quite 11 but I’m pretty sure it was eight. Or seven… I said none then next four times that I had actually used my own bag to compensate….Not really. I’m not that honest – which was probably evident in the fact that I pressed 11 in the first place.
So I’m going to vow never to use a carrier bag again. Maybe I need to stash reusable bags in different places so I am triumphant in my quest. In my handbag, the buggy, the glove box, at work, behind a tree on the way to the shop. Then I will never forget. Maybe Tesco customer services could retain some of my reusable bags for me in case of emergencies.
I’m interested to know if you use your own bags. If a whole town can ban plastic bags, like Modbury in South Devon did, then surely we can start to phase them out nationwide. Apparently it’s totally antisocial to walk down the road in Modbury swinging a plastic bag with your four pack of Tenants in it. However if you go about your business with your lager in a wicker basket or waxed canvas holdall, then that’s going to make you one of the in crowd for sure. In Oxford where I live, people twitch curtains when they think a celebrity may have moved into Jericho. But no, in Modbury it’s to see whether the lifespan of your carrier bag is more than a few hours. And this all started in 2007, which by today’s measures is like centuries ago.
I have to agree that charging for carrier bags is a good idea. It may feel like a total con to pay 8p at the Co-op but if it works then great. A tree planting charity or something equally as eco-concious should get the profits though. And I’m a particular fan of shopping at Aldi because they have boxes – often pretty boxes with pictures of pineapples on them which I like using even more than pretty reusable carrier bags.
I shall start my quest tomorrow.
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