What my perfect morning would be like...

I can remember the exact moment over five years ago when I decided I was "ready" for children. Only a few months before I was rushing to get ready for work and feeling stressed and thinking, "how do people do this when they have children in tow as well?"
Then one morning I woke up and thought, "they just get up half an hour earlier". BOOM. It was as simple as that. Then I started to get an "empty" feeling on a Sunday afternoon, it was something in between cabin fever and loneliness; something was missing, it was a child. That isn't to say that I don't find mornings stressful, they are easily the most difficult part of my day. Someone usually has a rage (normally me), accusations are thrown, as are flannels, toothbrushes and clothes. Son 2 normally needs a nappy change moments before we leave the house or Son 1 announces he isn't wearing any pants. That must be why I suffer so badly from heartburn, all that shouting has to be bad for the health right?

Sometimes, I visualise my perfect morning and what it would be like. It would invariably include a proper coffee and a croissant, lying in a nice clean bed reading my kindle. This dream is quite far from coming true though as our beloved Morphy Richards espresso maching has BROKEN at only six months old, weep! I'm desperate to get a new one, to complete my fantasy perfect morning if I ever get a chance to actually live it out. So I've been scouting around for a new one, and being a bit obsessed with John Lewis, am happy to report that they have started doing voucher codes! There are some shops who I guess, don't need to offer discount codes simply because they don't have to, but I think times are changing and people are starting to expect them. Anyway, I spotted quite a few John Lewis voucher codes on here including one for a REALLY cool coffee machine. I'm going in!

Lovely Coffee Machine from John Lewis

What are your favourite voucher code websites? Have you got any great deals using voucher codes?

Silent Sunday - Happy Fathers Day #Asda

Father's Day is Fast Approaching!

In the UK, Father's Day can be something we're a little sceptical about. As Brits, we tend to be on red alert, ready to turn our noses up at those Americanised ‘Hallmark’ occasions we love to hate. Sadly, this means that poor old Father's Day can find itself on the receiving end of a lot of cynicism, yet surely our dads deserve just as much celebrating as our mums.

The stereotypical man might never say it, but seeing how much you mean to your nearest and dearest is really important, especially when everyday life (and manliness) don't give you much opportunity to indulge your soppier side. So, to inspire us to show some appreciation for the dads in our lives this Father's Day, here are a few daddy-based traditions from around the world.

Japan
Flowers and perfume may sound like presents for a British Mother's Day but, in Japan, they are common Father's Day presents. Home-made gifts are popular and children make sweeties to give to their dads on the 3rd Sunday of June. Beer glasses are also a common present, along with a dad's favourite alcoholic beverage, complete with personalised labels made by the children.

Germany
Japanese dads may enjoy their drink, but Germany's Father's Day is the booziest. In Germany, Father's Day is an opportunity for dads to escape family life, instead celebrating their macho side with their friends. A traditional German Father's Day involves men hiking into the mountains with special hand-pulled wagons, laden with beer and food for a jolly good day out.

Thailand
A Thai Father's Day is a colourful affair as it is celebrated alongside the birthday of King Bhumibol Adulyade. As the King was born on a Monday and the official colour of Monday in Thailand is yellow, everyone dresses in yellow to celebrate both the King (the father of the nation) and their own dads too. Flowers are a traditional Thai Father's Day gift and canna lilies are given to dads across Thailand every 5th December.

Brazil
Meat is at the heart of the Brazilian Father's Day. Long considered the 'manliest way to cook', a barbecue is absolutely fundamental when celebrating Brazilian patriarchs. Known as a charrascos, these great big get-togethers feature skewers of roasted sausage, chicken, beef and pork – all devoured whilst enjoying each other’s company, of course.

The United Kingdom
We take a personal approach to celebrating our dads here in the UK. A Sunday lunch is probably high on the agenda, but the gifts we give and the activities we get up to depend entirely on the dads we have. If your dad loves all things 80s, perhaps you'll enter a Father's Day retro gaming competition, if he's mad about cycling, perhaps you'll watch the final stage of the Tour of Switzerland together.

However we celebrate, we tend to personalise our activities to celebrate the unique quirks of the most important men in our lives – our dads! How will you celebrate yours?

Miller and Carter, child friendly heaven and perfect steaks!

This post is written by my Hubby and is about a lovely meal we went to at Miller and Carter. 

 

How to get a 'proper' meal to satisfy the grown ups whilst keeping the kids happy?  This is not a question but more an ongoing conundrum that faces most parents each time they venture out with the little ones.  Bored with the usual fare of eating burgers, pizzas or sandwiches the resident family blogger and I were fortunate to be offered the opportunity of a real treat on a Sunday afternoon; Steak and wine!

Here it is, in all its glory.

So, we headed off to Miller & Carter in Leeds city center with the 'terrible twosome' in tow to see if the kids could be happy in a more grown up environment with Mummy and Daddy able to read a menu aimed more at those who lost their milk teeth some time ago!

Obligatory restaurant colouring in.

The greeting was very warm and friendly and straight away it was apparent that the restaurant both welcomed and catered for children, ours being aged 5 and 2 weren't quite ready for a 16oz T-Bone so the varied kids menu was a great boost.  The boys also received the now almost obligatory pencil and colouring-in sheet, a well trodden path no doubt but a saviour all the same.  For the boys, we ordered an excellent fish and chips that in truth would have satisfied some grown up appetites but was attacked ferociously by our two.  The key, as with all meals out, was to ask for the kids meal to be cooked and served asap to limit the potential for playing up. The manager, Sean, couldn't have been more helpful and was really friendly and great at recommending dishes to us. The restaurant was really quiet which was great for us with noisy kids but Sean assured us they had been heaving the evening before.

Yummy child's meal at Miller and Carter! He's rubbing his hands together with glee!

As for the main menu itself, it contained a good selection of tempting dishes but lets be honest - if you go to a Steakhouse, lets order from the Grill.  When in Rome etc..... The waiter provided a good source of info on what steak to order, how each cut should be cooked and also which wines would go with each order.  We actually took no notice of the suggested cooking times as we both like our steak to be still mooing so ordered very pink, but was nice to see someone demonstrating knowledge about the menu and wines on offer. 

The steaks were superb, my wife had the 12oz Sirloin and I had the 12oz Ribeye, proving again there is something about men and large slabs of cow.  Each was succulent and full of flavour, and more importantly cooked as wished for rather than often overdone by chefs who have probably other things to think about as can be the case.  On the side came an iceberg 'wedge' with choice of dressing, choice of potato (we both were good and choice baked as were thinking of waistlines but the chips the kids had were truly fab!), onion bread, tomatoes and a sauce.  All washed down with a cheeky glass of Shiraz or Malbec, perfect.

Lovely pink steak, just the way I like it!

My meal in all its glory!

Wedge of lettuce, what's not to like!

 Dessert for the boys was an easy choice, ice-cream and plenty of it with 3 scoops of icy heaven in each bowl.  As for us, an Eton Mess and Creme Brulee soon nullified the no-chip approach but was a great way to end the meal.

Very grown up ice cream for two grateful boys!

All in all, a great choice and we'll be back.  After all, whats not to like with good food, kids being kept occupied and enjoying their food and parents feeling they've had a more grown up experience than perhaps at some of the more obvious 'family dining' chains on most high streets.

These thoughts are all hubby's own but we did receive the meal for free.

Silent Sunday

Holiday Song Time!

Do you remember your childhood holidays? I do, in fact they are some of my most vivid childhood memories. I remember long hot car journeys with my brother and I regularly punching each others arms, or him pretending he had eaten all his chocolate bar when in fact he was saving it for when I was really hungry so he could eat it in front of me, what fun. The thing that always brings back the memories though, is the songs we used to listen to in the car, things from the distant past called "cassettes". Do you remember them? My dad always used to go to Asda and pick up one of the "Now" albums just before we set off. Before "Now" existed, there were cassettes called things like "Greatest hits of '86 (showing my age now) and I could sing those songs even now word for word. These days, I can of course plug in my iPhone and play songs from that. Unfortunately they just play alphabetically, so every car journey I seem to listen to exactly the same songs. Some of my favourite holiday car journey songs are:

• Hips don't lie - Shakira
• Nine Million Bicycles - Katie Mehlua
• C'mon people we're making it now - Richard Ashcroft
• Elephant Stone - Stone Roses
• Old Man - Neil Young
• California Girls - Katy Perry (I know I know)
• Poker Face - Lady GaGa
• I dreamed a dream from Les Miserables
• Fallin' - Alicia Keys
• Tangled Up in Blue - Bob Dylan
• All you good people - Embrace
• New York New York - Ryan Adams
• So called friend - Texas
• Sign no more - Mumford and Sons
• This is the last time - Keane
• Crazy as me - Alison Krauss
• Briliant Disguise - Bruce Springsteen

A pretty bizarre mix I grant you! Thing is, I actually hardly ever get to listen to my own songs, things seem to be taken over by listening to Balamory and Timmy Time, it's time to take the music back! Course, if like me, you can't be bothered to make your own playlist, it is kind of annoying after all, you could always just use a ready made one like this one by Cumbrian-Cottages.co.uk that you can find here.

What's going to be on your summer holiday playlist this year?

£2 H&M top, lovely French Connection dress and some stuff I sent straight back...

I'm still in a bit of a quandary about what I'm supposed to wear at the ripe old age of 34. I keep edging towards new shops and then getting blasted back because something about them annoys me. I saw this Hobbs top in a Sunday paper last week and immediately thought about getting it. I realised that if I ordered it from ASOS rather than Hobbs then I wouldn't have to pay delivery, seems like a bit of an oversight from the point of view of Hobbs but there you go.

Hobbs NW3 peplum top £35

Anyway, when it came it was nothing like the picture promised - in fact it was pretty shapeless and the peplum part of the top sat far too high on the waist, back it went (god bless the easy returns policy of ASOS).

I went to a party last week and was determined to find a pretty party dress, however after ordering this dress from Oasis, I was AGAIN disappointed. The straps were far too big and it was also scarily static, which isn't usually a quality I look for in a dress, do you? ;)

Lovely Oasis dress, shame about the static.

In better news, I'm pretty happy with my £2 H&M top, at that price who wouldn't be? It's a little flappy if not tucked in, but that's ok, I just tuck it in. It's great with a pencil or fifties skirt as long as you have neutral shoes.

Bargain £2 H&M top!

My other fab buy this week has been this lovely LOVELY stripe dress from French Connection. Me and two other women were practically running to get the last size on the rail and luckily I was the only one who could squeeze into a size 8 (ha!) so it's all mine! At £62 it's pretty pricey, especially considering only the day before I bought it there was 20% off, but I,loved it so much I didn't care. What do you think? I've also worn it with the zip at the front for a completely different look.

Bad photo of lovely French Connection dress! 

From the back, can be worn  both ways as proven by moi!

All we need now is for the weather to warm up, slightly!

DIY Heaven or Hell?

I was reading an article, here, about a common problem in our house, neither of us are good at what I call "blue jobs". What I mean is, we are terrible at anything that involves: measuring accurately, hanging, drilling, or basically anything that involves a tool kit. I don't think it's our fault either, I just think its something people have lost the knack of. The information just isn't passed down like it used to be. If I had known it was going to save me lots of money, I would have paid far more attention in CDT at school. We learned all sorts of things like sawing, hammering and planing wood, but I hated it and was constantly sawing parts of my finger off and other such accidents, I guess it put me off.

I do wonder if the reason hubby is so un-keen on DIY is because he gets told off by me if something isn't exactly to my liking. I remember when I was six months pregnant and I suddenly demanded that he paint our bed room. I took Son 1 out for the day and left him to it. He painted the entire room, but foolishly I had gone for the Dulux blended paint rather than a normal colour, it was so ridiculously watery it just dripped down the walls as soon as it went on. Anyway, needless to say, the room looked terrible and I went beserk. Husband said he would repaint it the next day if it made me happy, and that was two years ago now! Still, at least that means we can redecorate soon. Other DIY disasters include wonky shelves, plunging a blocked up shower resulting in water pouring all over the house, including into electric circuits, buzzing noises, you know the score.

DIY "fun".

I've heard it said that instead of doing your own DIY you should instead work extra hours in your own job that you are good at, and pay someone else to come in. This is a theory I heartily agree with! 
Professional tradesmen at Local Traders also underlined on the importance of calling in a professional tradesperson, where advance “DIY” is concerned – as it may essentially call for more than you can actually master “doing yourself”. They further said that “Jobs like plumbing work, rewiring and boiler or appliance installation should definitely be done by a qualified tradesperson. It really is better to invest in a quality job rather than cut corners trying to reduce the price and end up with it costing you in more ways than you might initially expect."

Amen to that! Have you had any DIY disasters in your house?

My Washing Hell!

We have a LOT of washing to do, mainly because I have so many clothes that's true, but also because we are a family of what's known as "one wears". That is, people who don't take care and can only wear an item of clothing for one day before it has to be washed. I am sure that before I had children I could comfortably wear a pair of jeans for a week before having to wash them. This, inevitably, takes it toll on the amount of washing I have to do. It mounts up and up until I just don't know what to do with it all!

The worst is, what to do with it once it's washed. We don't have a tumble dryer, the reason is that I think they are too noisy and I don't really know where we would put it. I do wish we had one though, I really wish it in fact.

Here is a picture of our hung up clothes, and the ironing basket is in the background. It's overwhelming, I really don't know how other people manage their washing, where do they put it all?

The washing from hell.

A few weeks ago, I was sent some Vanish Stain Removal to try out, to see if this would solve my woes. One of the problems I have is that I find it difficult to get stains out of white clothes, I normally don't bother buying whiteners as I don't like spending money on stuff like that.

Vanish!

I have to admit that with the non whitener one, I couldn't really tell a difference, mainly because I don't think any of our clothes were actually stained enough for it to have an impact. The Crystal White Vanish, was however a different story. The way it works is that you had a scoop of it to your normal wash, I just popped it in the machine with the clothes. I noticed an impact straight away, it got stains right out more importantly, everything was whiter than white, like on the adverts on TV! Perfect!

I really recommend the Vanish Crystal White if you like your sheets and baby vests nice and white. My son's school uniform unfortunately has a blue shirt rather than a white so I was unable to test it on that, but I'm assuming it would be just as good!

These products were sent to me for review, but all thoughts are my own.

Just what is posh?

This weekend we've had a lovely break visiting friends down in Cambridgeshire.Since my knowledge of the Geography of the UK is rather limited, I actually had no real idea where Cambridgeshire was though I was aware it's about five hours drive from where we live in Yorkshire. This might not sound far to people outside the UK, but for us it's a big chunk of our spare time. Having said that, if you don't make the effort to do things like visit friends, then pretty soon they stop asking you to visit, and before you know it, you have no friends left at all! I'm sad to say that in this past year, I have had days on end pass by without one person saying a kind word to me, it has been a very rewarding year but also incredibly lonely. Then when a friend or even a stranger does something kind, I get really emotional, perhaps because I'd forgotten people can be like that.  The point I'm trying to make is that going to visit these friends was really important to me, because it was so nice to be amongst people who are just nice for nice's sake. So anyway, in the village they live, posh took on a whole new meaning. In Yorkshire, if people are well off/have a well paid job, there is a tendency to show off and shout about it. What does that indicate? I'm not really sure. But in this lovely village people were clearly well off, but I never saw any showing off or making a point of it, people were just quietly getting on with things, and actually seemed downright happier about it too.

So for me posh has taken on a whole new meaning; you work hard, you reap the rewards and you celebrate your success in other ways - none of the brash "IN YOUR FACE" ness that I am becoming more and more aware of.

Anyway, back to the people I came across, so one thing they all had in common was a love of fleeces, nothing wrong with that, I enjoy getting wrapped up in a good Berghaus myself. But they ALL, and I mean ALL had lovely watches. Now I've got what I consider to be a VERY expensive watch, I treasure it but I do wear it everyday, otherwise what's the point in having it. One lady was wearing something like this watch...

Raymond Weil watch

Now I would never recommend spending more than you can afford on a watch, but I do think it's very lovely. This I also love for its understatedness... (though not the price!)

Lovely understated Raymond Weil watch

Now these watches are very pricey, but I've just had a browse on the site I found them on, Watch Warehouse and found some far more reasonable models that actually look quite similar (believe me I am quite sure there are many differences but not to my untrained eye).

DKNY Neutrals watch

This one is a snip of the price of the Raymond Weil ones and equally as lovely.

Anyway, I've somehow got off track, but the point is; keep in touch with friends even if you have to make a big effort, don't forget that most people are nice, if you aren't happy, make a change! That is all!

My new office AND "if I had a city centre apartment"....

We really need to overhaul our house.  We've made an attempt downstairs which was a playroom and is now my office. I feel mean changing it but the boys hardly ever play down there anyway and I had nowhere to work, is that bad? Anyway, we got a desk to fit onto an existing bookshelf and voila! Instant office.

My new office, yay!

I have a feeling that the police would advise me not to have my equipment so near the window but to be honest the laptop keeps turning itself off all the time anyway, so if it was stolen they would be getting a dud. So anyway, I've  been trawling the internet for my next project, our lounge. It's pretty dire really, but then it is quite small and what can you do with a room where the door is in the middle of the wall and there are radiators on the other side? I've come across this website, Roomes which I think is pretty funky. they seem to have lots of good inspirational ideas plus Sealy beds (a la Center Parcs!) which give you the best night sleep EVER (that is unless you have a screaming child with you).  Anyway, back to our living room problem. The thing I most hate about our living room is our leather sofas. When we bought them we thought they were the way forward as they are "wipe clean", what we didn't consider however was the fact that they are cold in winter and sticky hot in summer, urgh.  As my regular reader (!) will know, I have a bit of an eye for lovely things and in the sofa section of Roomes I've spotted a corker, this lovely Hampshire scatter back sofa. What's not to like? Comfy? Yes! Lovely looking? Yes! 

Lovely Hampshire sofa!

Now in a world where I had a lovely city centre apartment and no children, this is what I would get, along with a chaise longue and lots of glossy magazines...argh, one can dream.

Idyllic Kensington Sofa!

What's your perfect sofa? 

For better or worse?

Sometimes it can seem that when you are working parents with two small children, you become like passing ships in the night. It almost gets to the stage where you can't remember when you had a "non child" conversation or talked about something just for the sake of talking rather than to pass on information. I have a bit of a complex about knowing lots of details about other people's lives and them knowing nothing about mine, it's seem to be in constant contact with really self important people who don't bother to listen or ask about others. All the same, I was a bit annoyed to find out that my husband also fell into this category when he failed to recall the name of my primary school. Not that it's a bit deal really, but I know the name of his primary school and I suppose if he doesn't take an interest in my life, who will! Now he is very clued up, I like to quiz him every now and again just to ensure he's paying attention.

So tonight we are going to have a try on this "for better or worse" app to see whether we are REALLY singing from the same hymn sheet. I'm not competitive (!) but I know I will win. If there are any winners of course in marriage.....

This post was sponsored but all thoughts are my own.

Things I do that annoy my two year old..

I was reading a post of much hilario the other day about things that we do that seemingly annoy the hell out of our children. Many of them are inexplicable, but what the hey, none of that matters to a toddler. Sometimes I'm utterly perplexed by exactly WHAT my toddler wants, he doesn't seem to know himself, or does he....
My toddler hates it if I....

• Sleep.
• Take a shower, cue screaming and trying to break down the door, or instead he decides to wash his toys with the door partially open soaking everything.
• Put him in the car.
• Take him out of the car.
• Give him cereal for breakfast
• Give him anything but cereal for breakfast, in the same day.
• Read him "Owl Babies" less than three times in one evening.
• Attempt to use my own phone.
• Put my shoes on.
• Desperately have a cup of tea.
• Speak to my other child.
• Tell him "no" if he puts his finger near something hot
• Speak to any other adult for longer than ten seconds.
• Sit down.
• Attempt to make any sort of phonecall.
• Won't take him to Thomasland every day.
• Won't let him wear his too small shoes.
• Don't let him drive my car.
• Steer him away from vicious dogs.
• Attempt to go to work so I can earn money so we can eat and stuff.

Poor thing, how does he sleep at night with all this mean stuff happening to him?

The poor child, not even allowed four ice creams and a theme park a day. We even stop him from hurling his ice cream on the floor, shame on us.

Silent Sunday

Collective Bias Cooking Challenge Shop!

One of my pet hates is supermarket shopping. A little while ago I discovered the joy that is online supermarket shopping, however, there was one slight problem, whenever the driver delivered the shopping there was always an awkward pause where I was never sure if I was meant to tip or not. One of my friends once told me that the drivers are not allowed to accept tips, but still, the moment persisted. I find things like that really embarrassing so back to the supermarket it is! Usually, we shop at our local supermarket which is Asda, I kind of feel a bit brainwashed as I've attended a few events at Asda house in Leeds and really do like their stuff (plus it is VERY good value!). However, usually around pay day I like to splash out and do a Waitrose shop. I love shopping in Waitrose, it's so calm and relaxing, even on a Saturday. There is always a parent and child space really near the entrance, you don't have to put a pound in the trolley (I guess because Waitrose customers don't need to steal trolleys, they can afford to buy their own!), the staff are also VERY lovely. I don't know where they find the clean cut youths who work there, but they are very very polite and seem genuinely happy in their jobs (this is in the Otley branch of Waitrose, the one exception being the staff in the cafe who are a bit offish!). To me, this makes a big difference and is the main reason I don't shop in Morrisons; I simply wouldn't want to shop somewhere when I know the staff are poorly paid and are always utterly miserable, presumable because of poor working conditions. I'm considering trying the "feed yourself for a £1 a day" that a lot of people are doing this week, but it's going to have to be next week now!

Anyway, back to Waitrose; so before I set off I worked out my weekly menu which goes something like this:

My shopping list! I like to plan each meal day by day.

So this is my list for the week, (slightly different from above in the end!).

Saturday
Us: Duck breast, spinach and new potatoes
boys: cod fillet, sweet potato and peas.

Sunday
Duck green thai curry - duck, thai sauce, noodles and stir fry veg.

Monday
Pork loin with cauliflower cheese and sweet potato mash.

Tuesday
Pork curry with spinach and rice

Wednesday
Bought filled pasta, us crab and crayfish, boys pumpkin and pine nuts in a homemade cheese sauce.

Thursday
Meatballs and pasta

Friday
Homemade pizza with peppers and spinach.

You can see here a picture of my fridge "before" I like to make sure I've emptied all the minging food before I go shopping so I can put it away as soon as I get home.

My emptyish fridge, ready and waiting!

Even though we only do one actual shop, we do pop down to our local co-op during the week for things like yoghurts and milk if we need them. I don't really like co-op though, it's all pork pies and ready meals, not nice ones either.

Our nearest Waitrose is about a twenty minute drive away, because it's quite far, we usually call in on our way back from shopping or theatre going in Leeds, though that usually involves one of the staying in the car with the children as it's just too stressful taking them both in sometimes. Unfortunately, even though it was only 10am, my youngest fell asleep in the car, then it started raining, then a police car flashed me and I thought my time was up, luckily he only wanted me to pull over! Not the greatest start to my day though!

Little man playing sleeping lions, he was actually quite happy to go in the trolley which is a rare thing!

My whole shop came to £113, e££y!

My whole shop came to £113 which is quite a lot more than I usually spend, normally about £75, but it was payday and I also bought several items like washing powder and toilet paper that put the price up quite a bit.

The young man on the checkout was very friendly and interested in what I was doing, I explained I was writing a blog post and we started talking about the £1 challenge, he even came up with some ideas of how a person could try to eat for £1 a day though we both agreed it would be a rather joyless experience. When I bought wine I fully expected to be asked for i.d., but it seems at the ripe old age of 34, married with two children, I am no longer deemed to look 17, sigh. He did though, have to ask his supervisor to approve the purchase for him.

So, here is my recipe for my *new* duck dinner!

Ingredients
Duck crown
"Whoopsie" Rose Val potatoes
Spinach
Plum Sauce

As per instructions on the duck packet, brown the skin of the duck in a really hot frying pan, preferably with duck fat in it. Fry for about ten minutes on a high heat.

Lovely browned off duck!

Then place in the centre of the oven for 45 minutes with your choice of potatoes cut up small and underneath the duck so they get the benefit of the duck fat.

Duck with soon to be roasted in duck fat potatoes!

When the duck is finished, fry the asparagus in the leftover duck fat and blanche the spinach in salted boiling water for about a minute.

Spinach and asparagus, health and stuff...

In our case, warm up hoi sin stir fry sauce, much cheaper than other sauces!

And serve! Here is the final result!

The final victorious yummy Saturday night dinner! Duck and all!

Whenever I hear the words "hoi sin" I remember Dom Jolly claiming they were Korean for one, two, haha!

So there you have it, a week in the life of my fridge and a lovely duck inspired Saturday night dinner, yum.

Disclosure: I am a member of the Collective Bias™ Social Fabric® Community. This content has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias® #CBias #SocialFabric but all opinions are my own.

New Bed Time

Do you remember in days gone by when people would keep skanky old things for like, forever. Oh and you had to actually save up for things before you bought them, pah. I do wonder sometimes if it made things a little more special, knowing you had worked hard in advance to buy them, possibly. We are slowly paying off our credit card bill, that embarrassing, we stacked up about 5 years ago on a holiday to Canada. When we got there, the bank refused to let  us withdraw money from Canadian cash machines, so we had to pay for everything on credit cards. Then foolishly when we got back we just never seemed to get round to paying it of. It's been transferred from one 0% deal to another, one day it will be paid off I'm sure :/

Anyway, I remember when I was a child stuff in people's houses was always kind of worn out. I guess people just held onto stuff for longer. These days if I've had something more than about 5 years I start to think, "oh time for a replacement". It's the same with beds. I know people say that you should only keep a bed for about 10 years, as they do need replacing. It's really important to have a good bed for the sake of your back and health, plus don't they get full of those dust mite things? With that in mind, we've now had our bed since 2004 (when we bought our first house), it's a nice silent night divan, it's comfy but not at all pretty. Thing is though, those beds with bed steads take up an awful lot of room and I think I would always be stubbing my toe on the frame, is that what happens?

I personally believe it's worth spending about £1000 on a bed. Last year, at the end of the summer, Laura Ashley had some eye wateringly good deals on their beds, but again, they were frames and the bed heads were made of wrought iron, I just can't see how that it is at all comfortable. I guess the best thing to do is to find a bed that is normally around £1000 and get it in a really good offer.  After doing a google search, I found this deal at Oldrids, the bed is normally £699 but it's £349 and looks really good. I'm all for the drawers as well as they are a great place to store sheets and the like, we just don't seem to have any storage space in our house at the moment.

Oldrids bed was £699 now £349

What is your bed like? How long have you had it? How much do you think we should spend?

Bargain H&M Top for £2, Baukjen half price shirt and loving the maxi look?

It's been some time now since I wrote a "fashion" post (if you can call it that) as I am desperately trying to stop spending so much on clothes. Partly this is because my wardrobe simply won't take any more, it is full to bursting. That said, it is Spring now, which does warrant a bit of a wardrobe update.

A few weeks ago I started up with the idea of wearing black skinny jeans, a vest and a shirt tied with the bottom of the shirt tied round my waist (i.e. cinched in). Hubby really liked the look which prompted me to snag this lovely Baukjen shirt (currently half price at £49.99) in red.

It looks kind of creased as it's been packaged up, but you get the idea...

Lovely detail on the cuffs...

Baukjen Red CoCo shirt.

I'm a bit unsure exactly of how I'm going to wear this, but I'm thinking about pairing it with my Next black harem trousers that I mentioned in this post a few weeks ago.

Black jersey Next harem trousers with black vest, red shirt to be worn over the top!

The other BARGAINOUS things I've seen recently have been in H&M. I would never buy their stuff in winter as frankly, it melts on my iron. But for summer it's fine, usually I wear their stuff for two summers then recycle, if you can afford it then ideally one summer of constant wearing pretty much does it.

 

Anyway, I bought this top in Coral for £2, I see myself wearing it under a blazer with black trousers or dark blue skinny jeans, great for those in between days.  Unfortunately this top is now sold out, but there are other similar ones for not much more money, I even used two codes from hotukdeals (one for 25% off and another for £5 off) and bought a lovely skirt as well, though unfortunately delivery isn't until June. On an aside, it does annoy me that when you go to order on H&M it doesn't make it clear that something is actually out of stock for the next few weeks until right before you order, humph!

H&M Maxi skirt £12.99

H&M Top in Coral £2!

That's all for now, I really must stop spending! 

Garden Overhaul?

We've been in our house over five years now, though sometimes I think it looks a bit like we've just moved in. It's big enough, but because it's on three storeys it's a bleddy nightmare to maintain and look after, it drives me wild. Worse still is the garden, because our house was a new build, the garden seems to be bottom of the list of priorities for the builders. It is pure clay, with rocks and all sorts of things in it. We've literally spent thousands trying to get it right and make it workable, but as one of the gardeners once told us, "this garden is a money pit". Of recent years we've more or less stopped bothering trying to make it look good, my husband mows the lawn every week in summer, but that's about it. In fact, to be quite honest, we hardly ever go out there, it's always water logged and a swarm of mosquitoes seem to have taken root in our dry stone wall.

Out waterlogged garden

I have heard that the weather this summer is going to be slightly better than the last few years, I really hope so, because now the boys are older and a bit more mobile, it would actually be quite nice to get a little more use out of the garden. We do have an outside "security" light, until the police told us that they actually help burglars break in rather than scare them away! So now we've switched it off, and at night time our garden is really really dark as we aren't near any street lights. It would be nice to get some solar lights, just to brighten things up. As a bit of a bargain hunter, I like these dragon fly solar lights that are only £9.99, just to add a bit of fun to the proceedings, I wonder if our garden does lack a bit of colour.

Solar dragon fly lights, £9.99 bargain!

Another fav of mine, B and M bargains has some good deals on solar lights as well, these are £7.99 for a pack of four.

B and M bargains solar lights £7.99 for a 4 pack.

It's all about having a bit of fun and adding a splash of colour (did I hear someone say tacky?!). I've also come to the decision that solar lights start to look pretty sorry looking after a year or so, so it makes sense to buy cheap ones you can regularly replace once they start to look tatty.

What's your garden like? Do you have any lights and where did you get them from?

Carpets or Rugs?

We desperately need new carpets, thing is, it's a bit pricey. The other thing is, Son 2 is not yet potty trained and I'm a bit reluctant to shell out on new carpets when they are bound to be, well, stained (to put it frankly).

When we bought our house, it really was perfect. It was brand new and had that lovely newish smell, with carpets and new wooden flooring galore. Five years on and in theory everything should have lasted ok, but it hasn't, it all looks old and stale. I guess part of the problem is my general reluctance to clean, with two little boys, it's hardly worth it. So now I am starting to wonder about getting some rugs as a bit of a stop gap before we shell out on new carpets (that will potentially get covered in, stuff). Always a bit of a bargain hunter, I lie the selections at World Rugs and particularly like the Fusion Cream Rug which is only £31.

Fusion Cream Rug £31

 In days gone by, we would always go to Ikea for rugs, this is one of my favs, though it didn't last very well in our dining room (no prizes for guessing why) and it looks lovely in a playroom (priced £18)

I guess the rug thing is the way to go, at least that way we can keep our old carpets for another year or so.... what do you think? Rugs or carpet?

Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game Review!

So it's not news to me that my four year old son is struggling a bit with his writing. His reading is fine, but he just doesn't see the POINT in writing. It kind of annoys him, as it's all a bit pain. The only time I can get him to write anything at all is if it's either a birthday party list or some sort of birthday/Christmas present list. He would never ever draw or write just for the love of it, which is ironic really seeing as how I love writing so much. Having said that, my handwriting is pretty awful really, it looks like I'm writing under the influence of something. These days though, I tend to type everything anyway, which I'm pretty good at. However, although it's anyone's guess as to whether anyone in the future will write by hand at all, it's still good to learn. The problem for my son is, his fingers just aren't very strong, he's fine playing with small toys and doing things like that, but he just doesn't seem to have the dexterity to grip a pencil particularly well. I'm always on the lookout for games and activities I can do with him that will help him with this. That's where Sneaky, Snacky Squirrel Game from Learning Resources comes in! I was sent this a few weeks ago, and we've been playing it loads, it's a really easy, simple yet effective game for children, with or without fine motor skills problems.

Sneaky Snacky Squirrel Game by Learning Resources

As a parent, I really liked the simplistic nature of the game. Basically how it works is you all have an acorn holder that comprises various colours. You put all the acorns in the lid of the box and roll the dice. The dice then tells you what you have to do on your go. Mostly you have to use a squeezy squirrel to pick up acorns and carefully drop them in your acorn holder. The squirrel squeezer requires a certain amount of dexterity and strength to squeeze (if that makes sense) but isn't so difficult that a small child wouldn't be abele to do it. The best thing about the game is that it's so EASY, my two year old could play it (albeit without reference to the "rules" but so could my four year old, who started to appreciate some of the strategies he could use in order to win.  As a teacher, I also liked the game for things like, sharing, turn taking, strategy, fine motor skills, colour matching, all sorts really!

Son 2 aged 2 putting his acorns in his acorn holder!

Son 1 with the squeezy squirrel, matching the colours up.

I think this game would work really well either at home or in school or nursery. There are loads of elements to it so it doesn't get boring and best of all, a real range of ages can play. We had loads of fun playing this game and I would recommend it to any parent or teacher!

All thoughts are my own though Learning Resources did send me this game to review free of charge!