great-baking-set-contents

Great baking set review – #RealBaking

by with 5 Comments ReviewsUncategorized

I may have mentioned this before, but I really love baking with my children.

So I was really excited when I was offered the chance to review some children’s baking kits from Vivid imaginations.

The first set we unpacked was the ‘Great baking set’ and Nerys and I had a great time testing it out one rainy day recently.

The set is made up of the following items:

  • 1 large bowl
  • 1 small bowl
  • 1 suction cup, to keep the bowls steady on the table, genius!
  • 3 measuring spoons
  • 1 egg cracker
  • 1 silicone baking tray
  • 16 little cupcake cases
  • 4 piping bags
  • 1 icing nozzle

great-baking-set

So basically, it includes everything you need to get started with baking, although a little wooden spoon would make a great addition to the set.

My first impression of the baking set was really positive.  

Everything feels nice and sturdy and I love the bright, funky colours!

The bowls, measuring cups and little baking tray are all really handy bits of baking kit to have for cooking with children.

But the thing I really love?  The egg cracker!

I’ve not seen anything like it before!

Basically, you pop an egg between the arms of the cracker, press firmly down on the yellow button and hey presto.  The egg cracks into the little bowl below and the shell stays put.

We used 2 eggs in our recipe, and both times the eggs cracked perfectly with no little bits of shell making it through at all.

real-baking-set

Now I have to admit, I’ll normally crack the eggs open myself when I bake with Rhys and Nerys, and even then I quite often find little bits of shell that I have to fish out.  So this little device is great for giving them a way to crack the eggs without making a mess.

And honestly, it’s really good fun!

We stuck with our standard fairy cake recipe when we tested out the great baking set, although we did throw in a good amount of cocoa powder too.  Well, we had to test out the measuring spoons in some way!  So yeah, that’s about 1/4 cup of cocoa powder going in.  Yum!

great baking set 2

One thing I will say about the set is that the bowls provided are child size.  

So they’re really not big enough to hold all the mixture if you’re following a standard recipe for something like fairy cakes.

So we mixed everything up in a big bowl, then I transferred some into a bowl from the set for Nerys to add some chocolate chips and then spoon that mixture into the cake cases.

Again, the cake cases are teeny, and the silicone baking tray only holds 4 at a time, which could be a bit annoying if you’ve got impatient little ones who just want cake!

But the way I see it, this set is designed to be used to introduce children to baking and to start teaching them different skills.

And I think it worked really well, the way we did it.

Nerys had her independence to make some little fairy cakes by herself, and I made some standard sized ones for the grown ups!

She did such a good job spooning the mixture into the cases and was, quite rightly, very proud of herself when she saw the end result.

teeny fairy cakes

I mean, come on, how cute are these little cakes!

We iced the little ones with our usual white icing and Nerys then decorated them with little chocolate beans.

For the big cakes though I decided to try my hand at using a piping bag for the first time, using the bags and nozzle that came in the baking set.  I made up a quick chocolate buttercream and got to work, and I’m quite pleased with how they turned out.

I mean, I’m not going to be on bake off anytime soon but still, I think they look pretty good!

great baking set 3

All in all I think the great baking set is a lovely little kit for getting children involved and interested in baking alongside adults in the kitchen.

And don’t tell anyone but I think I’ll be making use of the egg cracker next time I’m making scrambled eggs for lunch!

A little note – the kit is aimed at children aged 6+, so if like me you decide to use it with younger children please do make sure you supervise them at all times.

Disclosure – We were sent the great baking set for the purposes of this review, but all words and opinions are my own.

Family Fever
spot featured

Have some fun with Spot

by with 5 Comments Reviews

A few weeks ago an email popped into my inbox asking if I’d be interested in reviewing a Spot book and some related bits and bobs, and I jumped at the chance.  I mean, it’s Spot!

What really made me happy though, was the fact that when the book arrived (along with a lovely little tote bag and Spot hand puppet) I realised that it was the exact same one that I had as a child.

And as it turns out, my parents still have our battered copy at home!  Does anyone else still have a copy of ‘where’s Spot?’ at their childhood home, most likely with the flaps reattached with sellotape!

Spot1

It was so strange looking through the book with Rhys and Nerys, as all these childhood memories came flooding back.

I love those moments with them, seeing them enjoying things that we loved as children.  Although it did make me feel a bit old when I read that ‘where’s Spot’ is being defined as a ‘classic’, seeing as it was first available in 1980, only 2 years before I was born.

I do love the fact that Spot is still going strong though, and is being made available to a whole new generation of readers through the new website www.funwithspot.com.

The website is lovely and colourful and Rhys and Nerys both rushed over to see what I was doing when I had it up on the computer!  The site is fab as, along with information about the books, there are games to play online (great for practicing computer skills), a great recipe to download and also some lovely colouring sheets that you can download and print out.

Spot2

We were sent some ‘fun on the farm’ colouring sheets and both of my two had a great time playing with them.  Rhys took it very seriously and asked if he could have the ‘Where’s Spot’ book in front of him to make sure he got the colours right which really made me smile!

Nerys, as ever, was my maverick colour-inner and went straight for the green crayon to colour in the pig.  Well, why go for the right colour, that’s so unimaginative!

Spot3

Along with the new website, there’s also a really fun ‘Spot goes to the farm’ app that’s just been released.  We were one of the first families to try it out and it’s been a big hit here!

It’s a bright, colourful app that’s nice and simple for toddlers and young children to use, and Nerys has been really enjoying moving Spot around the farm and discovering the different games and surprises that are hidden around the app.

Spot4

The app is available for the iphone and ipad, and you can get it here on itunes.  The recommended age for it is 2-4 and I would say this is about right as it didn’t hold Rhys’ attention for that long, but Nerys really enjoyed it.  I love the fact that it’s simple enough, and intuitive enough, for her to play by herself but it’s also fun for us to play together.

I’ve really loved bringing Spot back into our lives, and have a feeling ‘Where’s Spot’ might just be the start of a little collection of Spot books for us!

Did you read the Spot books as a child?  Have you already introduced your children to Spot?

 

We were sent the book, bag and puppet and a code for the app for the purposes of this review, but all words and opinions are my own.

Cuddle Fairy
Wicked Uncle review

Wicked Uncle review

by with 4 Comments Family lifeReviews

You might not know this about me, but I have 6 nieces altogether.

So that’s 6 little girls ranging in age from 3 to nearly 9 that I buy presents for every year.  And even though I have children of my own, I still find it hard at times to know what to buy for them.

Holliday Grandchildren 2014
Look at all those girls – poor Rhys is so outnumbered!

 

So I quite often find myself spending hours browsing the internet to see what inspiration I can find for presents.  Other times I just go straight to the source and ask my siblings what the girls would like!

See, I quite like the idea of being the ‘cool’ Aunt.  The one who sends really awesome presents every year.  But it’s not always as easy as I imagined it would be!

So I was really pleased to come across the Wicked Uncle website.

The site is designed to help clueless Aunts, Uncles and friends find presents for the children in their lives.

The site is really simple to use, you just select the age and gender of the child you’re buying for and then you can either browse all the options or narrow it down further by identifying if the child likes things that are outdoorsy, creative, snuggly etc.

To put the whole thing to the test I signed up for the Wicked Uncle challenge, which involved me asking friends of mine who don’t have children of their own to chose a present each for Rhys and Nerys from the site, with no help from me.

They were really up for the challenge and within half an hour I had a message saying it was done, and then I just had to wait to see what arrived in the post!

Honestly, I was so excited to see what they’d chosen!

The box arrived a few days later and the children were so eager to open it up when I told them that it was presents from Uncle May and Auntie Heidi in there.  I did film the grand opening, but, well, let’s just say it didn’t go quite to plan!

They were so excited to open the box, Rhys pulled out his present with shouts of ‘wow’ and I think Nerys then thought that was it, that there wasn’t anything in there for her.

Cue sad face.

And even when Rhys dug about in the box and found her present she still didn’t stop pouting.

See, even at 2 years old she’s quite stubborn like me, and you have to give her time to come round once she’s decided she’s upset about something!

It didn’t take long though, before she went back and had a good look at what she’d been given, and then she didn’t stop smiling.

So, what did they get?!

Well, Rhys, our 5 year old lego fan, who loves building things and who recently told me he wants to be a mechanic when he’s older had a brilliant Meccano junior set.

Honestly, I don’t think we could’ve chosen better ourselves, he absolutely loves it!

With the parts in the set he can build a plane, a helicopter, a racing car or a truck, so it keeps him entertained for ages.

And it’s a really lovely quality toy too, the pieces all feel really sturdy and, once built, the toy feels nice and solid.

wicked uncle meccano review

And Nerys?

She had something that I don’t think I would’ve picked out for her, but that is just fab, so I’m really pleased I wasn’t the one chosing these presents!

Our friends chose a really sweet kids gardening kit for her.

It’s a little pink bucket, and a bag to put it in, with pockets around the sides holding wooden plant markers, a spade, a hand fork and some incredibly cute spotty gardening gloves.  Now we’re just waiting for a sunny weekend so she can help us do some much needed gardening!

wicked uncle gardening set

From our end then, the Wicked Uncle experience has been really positive.  Delivery was nice and quick, and the items were packaged up well.  And there was even a brilliant pre-addressed thank you card in there, you just need to tick a box, write your name, add a stamp and pop it in the post.

The children really loved the presents that were chosen for them too, and it was so much fun for it all to be a surprise for me too!

I spoke to the gift-choosers a few days ago and their feedback was really positive too.

They said the site was nice and easy to use, and visually appealing too.  They did comment that there seemed to be a jump in price though, with not many options for presents for about £10.

They also suggested that it would be great if there was a feature where you could enter your budget, add a gift and then be offered suggestions of what else you could get that would go nicely with it and bring you up to your budget.  That really would be useful wouldn’t it!

 

All in all, I would highly recommend Wicked Uncle to anyone looking to buy a gift for a child.  I know it’ll be my go-to site come Christmas time!

 

Cuddle Fairy
ivel valley ready peck bird seed mix

Ivel Valley wild bird food review

by with One Comment Reviews

The other day I was stood at my kitchen window, watching the different birds that were happily eating at our bird feeder and suddenly realised that I was doing exactly what I’ve watched my Mum do so many times over the years.

She often stands in her kitchen, looking to see which birds have come to eat up the treats she leaves out for them (and this bird watching is even more special when there’s a grandchild around to share it with!).

DSC_8619

And now here I am, doing the exact same thing with Rhys and Nerys, holding them in my arms and showing them the birds in the garden.

My Mum and I really are quite similar it would seem!

Before we moved into this house we lived in a flat in the middle of town, so we didn’t have any outside space at all.  So I was really happy when we moved to this house with it’s ever-so-slightly wild garden, because there’s so much to see out there.

And I was especially happy when I realised that the landlord had left a couple of bird feeders at the top of the garden, so all we had to do was fill them up and wait for the birds to come.

We’ve been picking up random bags of bird food here and there since we moved in, but it’s been a bit hit and miss with what’s in stock, and what I can carry home from town with Nerys in tow!

So I was really pleased when I was offered the opportunity to test out some bird seed from Ivel Valley, especially because you can order their products from their website and have them delivered straight to your door – perfect!

We were sent a big tub of their Ready peck 5 a day seed mix, along with some 5 a day suet pellets and 5 a day suet balls to try out, and they’ve all been a big hit with the birds here!

Ivel valley wild bird food

I was particulary impressed with the 5 a day seed mix because it came in a brilliant reusable storage container.

One of the issues we’ve got in our house is that there’s not a huge amount of storage space, so our bags of bird food were always sort of in the way, stashed in a corner by the back door.

Well this storage container solves that problem because it’s vermin proof and, after being tested out in the Welsh weather, waterproof, so we can keep it out of the way in the garden.  Which is a perfect solution for us.

The seed mix itself is really high quality, and contains suet, oats, seeds, nuts and insects and is designed to attract a fab mix of birds including Tits, Sparrows and Finches.  We’ve definitely seen a variety of birds at the feeder since we started using this mix, and it really is fun to stand at the window and see what we can spot.

ready peck bird food

We do also seem to attract pigeons though, which is pretty annoying, but when we chase them away the other birds then hurry over for their turn to feast!

The 5 a day suet pellets and the 5 a day suet balls are also great quality products, which attract even more birds to the garden, including Robins, Starling and, my Mum’s favourites, Wrens.

The pellets I tested were the apple ones, which are made up of suet, oats, seeds, nuts and fruit and are designed to either be scattered on a bird table or the ground, or in a mesh feeder.  I simply scattered some on the decking in my garden, underneath the seed feeder.  The pellets didn’t last long out there at all!

Along with the pellets we tested the suet balls which are designed to go in a suet feeder, and contain suet, oats, seeds, nuts and insects.

Ivel Valley have developed their products over 5 years, taking time to really perfect everything, and the result is a really great range of products that are high in energy and low in waste and that really have help us attract a beautiful mix of birds to our garden.

And with the huge tub sitting in our garden we’ll be bringing in the birds for ages, which is fab because Rhys and Nerys have been really enjoying seeing all the birds coming and going.

Do you put food out for the birds in your garden?  What type of bird do you see the most?

 

We were sent the bird seed mix, pellets and suet balls for the purposes of this review, but all words and opinions are my own.

mpow lens kit selfie stick

Mpow lens kit and selfie stick review

by with No Comment ReviewsUncategorized

If you’ve visted my blog before you’ll most likely know that I love taking photos, mostly of my family and our everyday life.

For the most part I take photos with my ‘proper’ camera because I love the control it gives me to get the image I want.  But, saying that, I am also a big believer in the quote, “the best camera is the one you have with you”, which is very often the one on my phone.

I think I just got out of the habit of taking photos on my phone after I cracked the screen and lens on my old one which basically rendered the camera useless.

Now I have a new phone though, I really want to get in the habit of taking more photos with it, and so I was really pleased when Mpow gave me the chance to test out some of their equipment.

mpow lens kit selfie stick

They sent me their 3-in-1 lens kits and selfie stick to try out and, honestly, I’ve had so much fun playing around with them!

I never thought I’d be a selfie-stick kind of person but I really love it!  I’m really quite passionate about us parents getting in more photos with our kids and a selfie-stick makes doing it so much easier, and a lot more fun than trying to cram into a normal selfie together.

The stick itself is really quite compact when you first get it out of the box, which is great as it means it wouldn’t be too awkward to pop in your bag if you want to take it out and about with you.  All you have to do is flip the phone holder round, put your phone in, tighten the clamp at the angle you want it and then extend the arm.  It took me a minute to position my phone in the holder just right, because the power button is on the side of my phone and was the holder was pressing on it when I first tried!  But once I’d sussed that it out was all good!

The selfie stick connects with your phone via bluetooth and this was really easy to set up by following the instructions on the box.  Then it was just a case of having a play.

mpow selfie stick review

Nerys was really intrigued by the selfie stick and loved posing for photos with me using it.  Next up is to have a go at getting all 4 of us in a photo together using it, which I think will be a lot of fun, although I’ll have to get over the thought of us being ‘that family’ if we do it out in public!  I do really like the stick though, it’s easy to use, nice and compact and just a really great way to avoid that crammed in feeling you normally get when you take selfies on your phone.

 

Next up for exploring was the 3-in-1 lens kit.  Now, I was really excited to give these a go.

As a photographer I love the way the lens you use can completely change the image that you create, so I was really looking forward to seeing how effective these little lenses would be.  And I have to admit I was really impressed.

I took the lens kit with us to the park to test it out and you can see in this set of photos the difference the lenses make.

The top photo is with no added lens, the middle one is with the wide angle and the bottom one is with the fish eye, and you can really see how much the lenses change the look of the photos.

mpow 3 in 1 lens kit

The weather’s not been that cooperative recently (that’s summer in Wales for you!), but I’m really looking forward to another nice, dry day when I can take these lenses out for another spin.  You have to be careful to get the lens in just the right spot over the phone’s existing lens, to really get the photos spot on, so I’m excited to have another good go with them to really get the best out of them.

What I am really pleased with though, is the result of my playing around with the macro lens.

Now, I have to admit, this one took me a few minutes to figure out as there were no instructions with it.  I attached the lens to the camera and the image was just really, really blurry.  I couldn’t seem to get it to focus at all.  Until I held the phone right up close to the object I wanted to photograph, like, practically-touching-it-close, and hey presto!  A gorgeous, close up shot.

Once I’d figured out that this was how it worked then I was away.  I went out into the garden to find a flower to practice on and this was the result.

mpow macro lens

For a photo taken with a phone, I’m really impressed!  I absolutely love the depth of field this lens produced and can see me having so much fun experimenting with it.

I would highly recommend both the 3-in-1 lens kit and the selfie stick, for both those who take most of their photos on their phone and who want to experiment and push the limits of what their phone can do and for those who, like me, tend to take most of their photos on their big camera and who want to have more creativity with their phone when that’s the camera that they have with them.

Keep an eye on my instagram for the results of my future efforts with these bits of kit!

Ted wears organic

Ted Wears Organic

by with 4 Comments PersonalReviewsUncategorized

I’m really excited to announce that Nerys and I have been given the opportunity to be brand reps for a lovely children’s clothing company – Ted Wears Organic.

Ted Wears Organic is a practical and funky new independent children’s clothing line, created by a lovely Mum called Vicky and named for her son Ted.  Vicky uses high quality organic cotton in several designs and patterns that you can mix and match to create your own unique outfit.  And I just love this idea!  The range starts from just £6 and includes t-shirts, leggings, harem pants, dresses, shorts, skirts and maxaloones, which grow with your child.

It works like this, you visit the Ted Wears Organic store and choose an item, then comes the really fun part as you get to choose what fabrics you want to use!  Say you’re ordering a t-shirt, well then you chose the fabric you want for the body and then you can get creative and chose a coordinating or contrasting fabric for the arms, such fun!

All of the fabrics have been specifically chosen by Vicky to co-ordinate, but if you’re not sure that what you want will ‘work’, then get in touch with her and she’ll talk you through it and make sure you’re completely happy with your choices.

Ted wears organic

Nerys was so excited when her outfit arrived in the post – she walked round the house hugging it!  Her outfit consists of a long sleeve t-shirt and leggings in a gorgeous ‘over the sea’ design with co-ordinating pink dotty fabric.  It really is lovely, so well made and beautifully soft.  I can see us getting a lot of wear out of this outfit!

Ted wears organic clothing

You can check out the whole range at the Ted Wears Organic Etsy store, and as one of my lovely readers you can get 15% off your first order by using the code ‘GLORIOUS15’ when you check out.

If you want to keep up to date with the latest news from Ted Wears Organic you can also find them on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.

 

I am a brand rep and was gifted this outfit, but all opinions are my own.

 

The dinosaur that pooped daddy

The dinosaur that pooped Daddy – book review

by with No Comment ParentingReviewsUncategorized

Both my children love books, and we read a couple every night at bedtime as part of our nightly routine, so we were really excited when we were offered the chance to review a couple of books from Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter – The dinosaur that pooped Daddy and The dinosaur that pooped a rainbow.

I have to admit I hadn’t heard of this series of books until a few months ago, when Rhys was given a copy of The dinosaur that pooped a planet for his birthday and he really enjoyed it.  Well, he is a 5 year old boy after all, anything to do with poo is funny!

So he was very happy to see two new ‘the dinosaur that pooped’ books arrive in the post the other day.

The dinosaur that pooped Daddy is an eye-catching little board book, much shorter than the dinosaur that pooped a planet, and was written with younger children in mind.  Even so, Rhys really enjoyed it and I loved the fact that it had an educational element to it for Nerys.

The book counts down items around the house from 10 to 1, as Danny and Dino search for Daddy which is great for Nerys who is learning to count at the moment (we’re still at the 1, 2, 5, 6, 2, 10! stage at the moment), but the fun rhymes and the poo-related ending kept it entertaining for Rhys too.

The Dinosaur that pooped a rainbow, as you might have guessed, is all about the different colours of the rainbow, with the addition, of course, of the colour brown.  It’s silly, it really is, but that’s a big part of it’s appeal.  It’s just a fun way to help young children learn colours.  And the simple, rhyming text makes it nice to read, as it has a good rhythm to it.  I don’t know about you, but when I’m reading books out loud to my children it’s much nicer when the text has a good rhythm to it!

The dinosaur that pooped daddy

To celebrate the release of the book, The dinosaur that pooped Daddy, there are some really fun printable activites available to download.  We printed out two copies of the Father’s day card so that Rhys and Nerys could each do one, and then they got stuck in to the other activities and had great fun with it.

The sheets are lovely and colourful, and there was a fab mix of things for my 2 year old and my 5 year old to do, so no one got left out which I thought was great!

dinosaur activities sheets

I will say this, if you don’t really find poo funny and are trying to steer your kids away from toilet humour, then these books probably aren’t for you.

But, if you have a young child who finds all that stuff hilarious then these books will be a big hit.  They’re a bright, colourful, fun way to introduce kids to numbers and colours, and to make reading books fun if you’ve got a bit of a reluctant reader on our hands.

If you want a fun Father’s day activity for your children then you can click on these links for the Father’s day card and activity sheets and print them at home.

 

Disclosure – I was sent these books in exchange for an honest review.  All words and opinions are my own.