Posts by jo

test

14/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Lollibop 2013 Stage Times Announced!

The Lollibop 2013 stage times have been announced!

Lollibop 2013 stage times have been published – the festival starts this Friday at the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park – and if you’re a seasoned festival goer like us, you want to know where to go to make sure you see everything.

Fear not, as the lineup has been made available over on the Lollibop site – the Parent Superhero Pack is available as a PDF for you to download and plan your day.

There’s easy travel instructions, although we’re complicating things by possibly taking a detour via the Thames cable cars, after all we don’t get over to East London very often (despite it being less than ten miles away – probably). Whichever way you go, it’s only a short walk from Stratford’s station which covers the Tube, Overground, DLR and National Rail.

Maybe we’ll have time to visit Westfield Stratford afterwards if we need to get food… mm!

We’re going on Friday and it looks like we’re set for a Rastamouse filled day which pleases me H no end! She’s also a teeny tiny huge bit excited about Hello Kitty too…

One complaint I’ve read from previous years are the queues – so Lollibop have made sure there’s more face painting available (which I think is included in the ticket price?) – so hopefully there won’t be too much waiting around! It’s looking like there’ll be showers on Friday too, so we’ll have our waterproofs packed in case, they’ve also got some on the site in case you’re caught out.

Most importantly of all is the Adult Creche which serves alcoholic drinks, possibly needed when you’ve had too many Hi-NRG nursery rhymes in an hour – phew!

We’re really looking forward to going to the Magic Belles stand in the Village Green. They’ll be there for all three days – they’ve a small marquee with tables and benches where little ones can colour and decorate Magic Belles postcards. As well as that they can write messages to the fairies on the back. After that they can add some special little stamps, and post them in the fairyland post box and quite frankly, I’d like to have a go too! Everyone who takes part will get a special sticker and postcard to keep as well! H is a huge Magic Belles fan so we’re really looking forward to this!

I’m really looking forward to the National Geographic Kids Zone too, as with H starting school soon I think some fun learning could be good (and it’ll mean us adults get a break too, hopefully!)

I’ll be taking photos throughout the day, and probably uploading a lot of them to Instagram – follow me here if you want to see what it’s like at the new site. We’ll be reviewing Lollibop as well.

Don’t forget – get your Lollibop 2013 stage times over here now!

13/08/201323/06/2015 by jo

Dick Bruna Books Reprinted at The Tate Bookstore

There are some Dick Bruna books being reprinted and made available at the Tate Bookstore right now. We placed an order and they arrived today – you can never have too many Dick Bruna books in your collection!

We love all the Dick Bruna books, he’s been one of my favourite authors since I was a little girl and is now one of H’s. She also has a far better Dick Bruna collection than I ever had.

If you head online to the Tate Bookshop you’ll find some editions of the books which haven’t been available in a long time – there’s a book ‘The Apple’ which was the first Dick Bruna book, originally produced in 1959, translated in 1995 and pretty much unavailable since then.

The Tate is doing a 3 for 2 deal so I picked up two other books we didn’t have – ‘The School’ and ‘On My Scooter’.

They’re all such gorgeous books, if you know the Miffy books it’s more of the same – from a time when things felt much more innocent and simple. I’m loving ‘The School’ for the rhymes about a day at school and what they do (and the teacher telling them to ‘listen to what I say!’). ‘On My Scooter’ has a child getting some veg for Pete the Donkey – this only dates back to 2010, but is a 2013 reprint. ‘The School’ is 1964. You can tell which books are older based on the font used as their title.

‘The Apple’ is a short story about an apple that wishes it had legs. The rooster shows concern, and ends up taking the apple for a fly around instead, which cheers up the apple immensely.

For me, these books are likely to be some of the first ones H will read properly as she’s taught at school. She knows a few words now and I love the simplicity of these books with the gorgeous illustrations. If you like Miffy books, head over to the Tate online too. Suitable for all ages, we love Dick Bruna books – from H at almost four to me at 43!

13/08/2013 by jo

What Bugs Lurk In Your Bedding?

What bugs lurk in your bedding?

Bugs are nasty little things and everywhere – I’ve had a dustmite allergy for most of my life. I’ve done all kinds of thing to help prevent me from reacting to them, such as keeping the house dust-free and making sure bedding is changed frequently. Things have improved as I’ve got older so here’s hoping I’m growing out of it!

The Bedding Company have put together an infographic which makes for interesting reading :

What bugs lurk in your bedding?

Courtesy of The Bedding Company. The Bedding Company manufacture and supply premium pillows, duvets, mattress covers, protectors and bed linen at prices which won’t leave you losing sleep at night!

I was paid to host this infographic.

11/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Porridge On Tuesday – an Update

Porridge on Tuesday is a healthy eating plan I’m working with as an Ambassador.

Porridge on Tuesday has loads of delicious recipes and is helping me organise my life at the moment – when I can’t get things done there’s still one thing that needs to be organised, and that’s food.

I went a bit off-track the last couple of weeks with trips away and other things, but I feel like I’m back and on the case. Fortunately I haven’t put on any weight in the process.

I have made a few lifestyle changes. One thing I’m going to write more about soon is sleep and my general lack of – so I now only drink coffee on weekends and Wednesday when I’m off work. When I’m at work it’s water all day – I need to stop relying on it to keep me awake.

I also haven’t been drinking as much – we’re not big drinkers but cutting out alcohol apart from once a month (when I knit) as well as the no coffee has made me feel much more alert and ‘with it’. There was an unofficial Porridge On Tuesday July dry month which I kept to pretty much, apart from when I went to York and my sister ~~forced me to drink a pint~~ invited me for a drink in her pub.

One of the things I’m finding is that I can lose the weight, but I still see myself as the big girl in the background – some things don’t change. You don’t lose weight and a magic wand makes everything okay, so I’m working on the other things one at a time.

ANYWAY. Without further ado, I have organised my plan for next week, starting Tuesday. Being a creature of habit I have my breakfast and lunch logged as I keep to the same things, with the Porridge on Tuesday meal ideas for the evenings, as well as healthy snacks for through the day. My plan runs from Tuesday every week and we’re out on Friday and Saturday so I haven’t planned anything specific.

I’ve placed my Ocado order so I’m ready. We’re eating a lot of salads at the moment thanks to the previously mentioned Salad Wine Box so this makes things much easier and quicker. For me, I can see Porridge on Tuesday really working for me once H starts school and I’m finishing work at an earlier time every day – giving more time to prepare food in the evenings. While the meals I do are quicker ones I feel like a little more time will benefit us all.

I’ve kept Friday blank as we’re at Lollibop and I’ve no idea what foods will be on offer there – but I want to be healthy. I figure I’ll do plenty of walking too so I’m getting some exercising, as well as bopping to Rastamouse…

Porridge on Tuesday can be found over here.

I have been provided with twelve weeks free to use the service and give my honest opinion.

11/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Grow Your Own Crops In Pots by Kay McGuire

Grow Your Own Crops In Pots by Kay McGuire is a book we’re getting a lot from. The author McGuire is Kew-trained, so we’re putting our trust in her – and so far it’s all good!

Vegetable Wine Box - Grow Your Own Crops in Pots

Grow Your Own Crops In Pots is a book by Kay McGuire, covering something ideal for our inner-London lives – we rent, we don’t have a garden and we’re not about to join a waiting list for an allotment.

Having said that, we do have a back yard. Shaun picked up Grow Your Own Crops in Pots when The Book People came to his work and it’s been an interesting read. It breaks down over sixty fruit, herbs and vegetables and shows good ways to plant them – even in the smallest of spaces.

One thing we’ve done is to make an old wine box into a salad garden. Back in March one of our chairs in the garden broke, and now makes a handy wine box salad garden stand! It would never have occurred to us had we not had this book – and the wine box was sat in the shed doing nothing.

So, what to do? Get your wine box, drill some holes in the bottom, add soil and that’s it. Shaun also varnished it to keep it watertight as much as possible.

So look – this is how it started and this is what it’s like now – we’ve been eating salad every night this week fresh from the back yard.

H got some free seeds from Pizza Express and we’ve some mint growing there too – can’t wait to try it!

Were it not for Grow Your Own Crops in Pots we’d probably still be buying shop-bought salad – this way it involved minimal effort and the lettuce just keeps on growing. (n.b we bought lettuce from a garden centre, next year we’ll do it from scratch, okay?)

You can find Grow Your Own Crops in Pots here at Amazon

10/08/201327/01/2014 by jo

Movie Night – What We Ate

Who’s in for Movie Night?

Movie Night is something we do from time to time, get H bathed and ready for bed, make some nice food to eat and settle down in front of the tv with a film she’s chosen.

Tonight we’re watching Mary Poppins, I managed to brainwash H quite well so I’m happy with that – it’s one of her favourite films. Our movie food is going to be simple and home made – two pizzas and a garlic bread, a salad, and some blueberry and pear ice cream. We have all the ingredients to make it so it’s going to be a pre-payday cheap treat – good job really as the car insurance is due next week!

So you start off with your ingredients, the breadmaker and ice cream maker on hand. The dough for pizza (300g strong white flour, 1 tbsp olive oil, 1 tsp salt and 1/2 tsp yeast plus 170ml water) takes 45 minutes and the ice cream takes around 40 once you’ve made the mixture. I got everything ready nice and early so it would be ready for a 5.30pm start.

I crushed the fresh garlic with my favourite contraption the Royal VKB garlic crusher. I bought it years ago and still use it a lot – the biggest plus point – you can wash your hands with it afterwards and it gets rid of the smell on your fingers. It crushes up the garlic really nice and chunky too.

You get the food prepped and it’s almost time with it looking like this (this is about the time we realise our greaseproof paper isn’t very good and we need a pizza stone):

Pop in the oven for 20 minutes or so, and then before you know it it’s time for movie night :

I think it’s all a bit Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious myself. Spit spot.

(this post contains an affiliate link)

07/08/201326/01/2014 by jo

Banana and Egg Pancakes with Fruit Splodge

Recently a friend, Kelly, posted a recipe for Banana and Egg pancakes – so we had to give them a go as they look so easy.

Banana and egg pancakes are a really simple meal to make with just two ingredients. We added a fruit topping to it which in our usual style was a little over the top…

What you need :

for the banana and egg pancakes:

a ripe banana
two eggs

small frying pan
oil for frying

for the fruit splodge:

however much frozen fruit you want (any fruit will do, but I like the cold of frozen fruit)
half a banana (chilled)
a splash of milk

Get the banana and mash it up until there are very few lumps left – the riper the banana the better as otherwise they can be quite stiff.

Add the two eggs. Beat the mixture until it’s a pancake-like mixture. A lot will depend on how well mashed the bananas are.

I then got one of my measuring cups and scooped the mixture, putting it into the pre-warmed pan. Remember these are pancakes you’re working with so you don’t need a lot of mixture.

Each banana and egg pancake should take no more than 30 seconds to brown – turn them over and do both sides. They can burn easily so don’t forget they’re there. The mixture will make approximately 8 small pancakes or 5 bigger ones.

Once each banana and egg pancake is cooked, place on some kitchen roll to cool.

Fruit splodge

Get your frozen fruit (we’ve tried with frozen blueberries and with frozen black forest fruits from the Waitrose Essentials range) and put into a blender. Blend.

Once the mixture looks like this, add half a banana. I have no idea why but it gives it a bit of an extra thickness. I add a tiny bit of milk too, and the mixture feels a bit like ice cream but without the sugar and cream. It should be too thick to pour but too thin to scoop, and you’ve got it just right.

Spoon on top of the banana and egg pancakes. Find you’ve made way too much but it’s okay as it’s all pure fruit anyway.

If you’re doing Weight Watchers the only things which would count are the eggs and milk for this which would come in at 2.5 points. They’re gluten-free and really filling too!

I think the preparation time is around five minutes, cook time the same.

07/08/201320/11/2017 by jo

Head Lice Helpful Tips – This Is What Works For Us.

Head Lice are the bane of my life as far as things my child can catch goes. We’ve tried several methods of prevention and I figured it was time to write some Head lice helpful tips.

My head lice helpful tips won’t cost a lot either – you just need a few essentials in and you’re covered.

I hate head lice. Almost all children will experience it, especially if your child goes to nursery or preschool where they’re around other children.

A female head louse lays eggs close to the root where the scalp keeps them warm. They’re tiny and really difficult to see. After 7-10 days the lice hatch and the eggshells stay glued in place – these are nits. They become more noticeable once they’ve grown from the scalp and look a bit like dandruff but are glued to the hair.

Head lice feed by biting the scalp and feeding on blood. They take 6-10 days to become fully grown and once mature they can crawl from head to head. (taken from here)

There was a time when H had it for what felt like three months – they’d clear and she’d be reinfected, and it was so frustrating. Here’s our helpful tips to get rid :

• Get a good nit comb. We have a Nitty Gritty which is good at getting the eggs off the hair shaft. It will also occasionally pick up the lice too. I’d advise splashing out and getting the Nitty Gritty as it has been the most reliable, though it’s not easy to clean. Wet conditioned hair is the best way to get the blighters – though dry combing works too – it just hurts more.
• As well as a nit comb, I’ve found our electric Robi Comb Pro will loosen the lice from the hair – it occasionally zaps them. Working the two of these intitially will clear the hair pretty well.

Robi Comb Pro Head Lice comb - head lice helpful tips - these are good for getting the actual lice out of your hear. Scratch scratch

• Look out for the signs when your child has them. I know H may have them if she has a red patch at the back of her neck and behind her ears. You can also see little bite marks on her scalp – red blood spots. Or she’s scratching a lot…

Head lice helpful tips - bottles of Hedrin, Vosene Kids and Anovia Head On which are all reasonable and work for us.

Buying products to help the head lice stay away doesn’t come too costly either.

Poundland have sprays and shampoos in stock a lot (Anovia Head On), and I’ve spotted some Tea Tree ones that Ocado sell, also for £1 each. Vosene Kids have a spray which you can leave in the hair which I’ve found is a good preventative measure.

Hedrin is one of the popular options for head lice removal. The cheapest I’ve found is for £5, there are several kinds of treatments available.
We’ve tried a few and have found them all to be as effective as the other.

You might find your child keeps getting them. We found this happened until there was a clear break when the children don’t see each other – for example Christmas holidays. Everyone needs to get rid of the lice at the same time for them to disappear.

The good news is that head lice like any kind of hair. It doesn’t have to be clean or dirty, any hair will do. They’re not fussy, they want to feed.

I feel itchy now… do you have any head lice helpful tips you’d like to add?

06/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Fitbug Air Progress

I’ve had my Fitbug Air pedometer almost permanently clipped to my waistband this last month and a half, and the results so far are interesting.

I’ve been using the Fitbug Air – a pedometer which sends your data by bluetooth to the Fitbug app on my iPad – where it breaks down what you’re walking into the kind of data I understand.

I’ve found there’s been occasional days when I completely forget to wear it but generally I’m doing well. On days at work I can average over 6000 steps which includes walking down the hill at lunchtime (at a fast pace, I only have 30 minutes lunch) while when I’m at home my levels drop.

The Fitbug app has had an update recently too, and I’m finding scrolling between weeks to compare my data is a lot easier. In July it looks like this :

I can break that down into week and see a few times I’ve beaten my aerobic steps target, so it has been adjusted – the Fitbug Air doesn’t make it easy for me and adjusts according to what I’ve done.

There is a section to put in your goals, although you can’t just do 12.2 for 12 stone 2 – it has to be in pounds, so I haven’t filled it in yet. It’d be good to have an option as more often than not I’m tired and don’t have the time to think.

Today’s steps are pretty good – see here :

My aerobic step count is pretty high, which I’m putting down to running like crazy for the train this morning as well as walking fast at lunchtime, the totals please me a lot and I like the breakdown of my steps.

The next thing I need to look at is nutrition, but while I’m doing Porridge on Tuesday that may be too much logging, so I’m going to leave it for now and work on my fitness. The Fitbug Air stays on my waistband and has only fallen off once (I knocked it with my hand) which is great as I often just forget it’s there.

My next task is to work on understanding a bit more in the menus, so far it all makes a lot of sense and I’m feeling healthier exercise-wise.

I’ve been told the Android version of the Fitbug app should be launching around October time although this hasn’t been confirmed. I also realised you can’t transmit your data to your iPad from the Fitbug Air without a wireless connection – so having it compatible with my phone would be a huge bonus.

For more information about the Fitbug Air head over here.

05/08/201326/03/2018 by jo

Uniqlo Kids launches in the UK

Uniqlo Kids launches in the UK.

Uniqlo Kids is finally launching in the UK – I’ve been a loyal customer of theirs for over ten years now, and I’m so excited!

From August 15th all the UK stores will stock clothes as well as online! This makes me VERY excited.

Uniqlo (for me) make really good quality clothes, have worked with some fantastic designers and companies (Cath Kidston, Laura Ashley, Celia Birtwell, Lulu Guinness, Greengate, Disney, Pixar and more) – moving into kids clothes in all stores is a great thing! (though not for my bank balance)

The range will be the same high-quality fabrics and aesthetic you already know, the range will offer basics and key on-trend pieces, fun outer items and more, with kids needs in mind.

Uniqlo started in Japan around 1985, with the words ‘unique’ and ‘clothing’ amalgamating to become Uniqlo. I’ve found their clothes to be affordable and really good quality. Their jeans are one of the best fits for me too – and since I’ve been losing weight I can buy their women’s jeans again which is great. The Uniqlo kids range has been available in Japan for a while now, and I seem to recall a UK trial run in the West End stores and Bluewater, so to see this being rolled out to other stores is brilliant news. I’ll be there on the 15th (thank goodness it’s payday…) and probably buying way too much – though not spending a lot (I hope!).

Make sure you drop in on August 15th to check out how your favourite one-stop clothing shop has made life even easier, offering easy style solutions for the whole family under one roof.

I am a Uniqlo affiliate, if you want to see their adult range of clothes please click on the logo at the bottom. Uniqlo Kids range to follow soon!

Mum Friendly

the things we do, the things we like

Author / jo