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I have taken so many beautiful pictures over the years, most are hidden away in folders on my computer, some make it onto facebook and occasionally they even make it into a frame!
Since moving into the new house I’ve decided that I want to be surrounded by more photographs. They capture happy times, memories and love and who doesn’t want to surrounded themselves with that?
One thing I have always loved but never actually done, is canvas printing. I don’t really know why! It is such an affordable way to create a big statement on your wall. Pictures of family and friends or beautiful shots of places you’ve been, give a talking point and that unique touch of your own personality.
So when Your Image 2 Canvas offered a £50 voucher for me to review their canvas prints I jumped at the chance. I was only faced with the dilemma of which photo to choose, I have so many beautiful ones that I love! My gorgeous Littlelish would have to be the subject but now to sort through and find the perfect one…
I loved the recent photo I took on my phone with her fairy wings on, unfortunately the quality of my phone camera is not great so I had to opt for a larger image taken with a camera. This was on the advice of the extremely helpful and patient team at Your Image 2 Canvas who looked over the initial phone image I sent them and even tried to sharpen it. In the end I went for the beautiful picture I took at last years Wilderness festival. She looks so happy and pure with a little sparkly gold butterfly on her cheek. It was a high quality image and they quickly set to print.
The website where you place your order is extremely user friendly and has very clear instructions guiding you to choose exactly what size, depth, edging you would like on your canvas. You can also select if you would like it in black and white or sepia. I opted for a large coloured square (30 inches x 30 inches), deep canvas with the image wrapping around the edges. It cost a total of £58.99 which for an artwork of that size I thought was rather affordable.
Within a day (yes one day! If you order before 3pm your product is shipped for free to you the following day) my finished product was there waiting for me in the porch. Eeeek! I was so excited to see how it had turned out and I am pleased to say it is absolutely beautiful! The print quality and finish is perfect and I really couldn’t be any happier with it.
I’ve already had both the visitors that came to my house since yesterday ask me where I ordered it from! So if you are looking for some personalised wall art I can definitely recommend checking out Your Image 2 Canvas and the huge variety of options they have available. Thank you Your Image 2 Canvas!
We were thrilled to be invited down to London Zoo on a blogger sponsored day out by the lovely people at Virgin Money. It was just what we needed after all the events of late, a little mummy and daughter adventure!
I challenged myself to drive down to London, excited to be heading to the city and my old neighbourhood after many years. The sun well and truly had it’s hat on and we knew it was the start of a great day out :) Driving past my old haunts, the school I used to go to, the cinema at Swiss cottage, we animatedly chatted about the day ahead until we reached Regents Park and our destination London Zoo! We parked up and quickly made our way to the main entrance where our hosts for the day, Julie and Max waited patiently.
After a quick brief and hello to the other mummy bloggers we were let loose into the zoo! What to do first? Littlelish grabbed a map and beamed with pride at being allowed to choose where we went. Our mission of the day according to Littlelish was to find the sweetest, cutest animal in the zoo… what would it be? She decided our first destination was the aquarium, it’s the first thing you see as you come into the zoo and we do enjoy a good aquarium. Littlelish navigated us round, still clutching the map. She definitely liked leading the way. We saw big fish, little fish, our favourite was the show off sting ray who entertained us with his funny ray smile. Littlelish was curious to know why his stinging tail didn’t sting all the other fish in the tank! To which I did not have an answer ;)
After a good look in the dark aquarium we ventured blinking, into the bright sunshine, next destination – the giraffes. Littlelish was convinced there was a baby giraffe who she needed to see! We went via the hunting dogs, warthogs and okapi who Littlelish thought were so cool with their stripey tights on!
Once we arrived at the giraffes we climbed up the frame to get a look at the them up close while they munched away on their branches. Littelish was desperate to get even closer and attempted to scale the barrier. She said they looked very soft and would like to stroke them and I have to say I agree! Lovely, graceful animals :) We didn’t find a baby one, only one which was a little shorter than the others – was it a baby? I’m still not sure…
We then headed over to the sticky rainforest to spot some monkeys but had to leave rather quickly as Littlelish couldn’t stand the stench, puffing her cheeks up and not daring to inhale the smelly air! It did make me chuckle. Our next stop was the nightlife area, funnily the dark didn’t phase her at all! She loved watching the bats and we especially loved the loris because it looked so cool! Definitely a contender for the zoo’s cutest animal don’t you think?
We scooted past the meerkats, lemurs, otters and reindeer and decided we would make our way to see some monkeys! The Gorillas had a fantastic enclosure and the coolest of play areas, Littlelish and I decided we would like one of these rooms in our house!!!
It was now time for a spot of lunch we wrestled our way to a free table where we could snack on our packed lunch. We’d been warned that the restaurant was pretty pricey but I have to say the food did look excellent and I felt a little hard done by tucking into my sandwich while everyone was having a nice hot meal. We treated ourselves after lunch with a nice refreshing ice lolly :)
After refueling we headed off to meet the other mummy bloggers and the virgin media team for the penguin show over at Penguin Beach! We managed to get a spot and heard all about the new penguin pool, how the Zoo are trying to keep the environment as natural as possible, they even feed the penguins through a ingenious drain pipe construction which means the penguins are not being fed by human hands but rather the fish is falling directly in the water for them to catch it more naturally. They also explained to us just why a penguin is black and white and no it wasn’t a cheesy joke! The birds are black on their backs so as not to be spotted by predators from above against a dark blue sea and light on their fronts so as not be be spotted from below against the white light as it shines into the water – camouflage, how clever!
It was now group photo time by the lions who were lazily lounging in the sun. There was no time for lordly lounging for us as we still had plenty to see! We headed back to the butterfly pavillion to admire the beautiful butterflies. Littlelish was particularily pleased they weren’t in cages and were free to flutter around. After the butterflies it was on to the other creepy crawlies which I was rather glad were in cages! Spiders, cockroaches and scorpions… no cuties in here!
We had made our way all the way to the back corner of the zoo but here tucked away is in my opinion one of the best areas of the zoo – Meet the Monkeys! An area of the zoo where you can enter the squirrel monkeys home where they run and jump free. On our way in Littlelish noticed the picture of a little boy with only nine fingers! Needlesstosay touching the monkeys was not allowed. She listened well to these instructions but I wasn’t sure she would! Especially when the little boy next to her stroked one and said, mummy it’s soooo soft! Ooops!
One part of the squirrel monkey home is a hide where you could look through binoculars to see the monkeys in the bushes. The cheeky monkeys only came to say hello at the side window, jumped onto the binoculars and off out the other side window!! These were definitely the zoo sweeties we were looking for, absolutely my favourite!!
Next along our path was the area of the zoo designed especially by children for children – Animal Adventure. Always a recipe for success this was definitely Littlelishs favourite part of the zoo. A giant tipi where they do storytelling, chickens roaming around, a special childrens cafe, even a water play area for on a hot day. The specially designed playground was awesome, creative and original and I literally had to bribe her away from the teletubbies style climbing hill! Luckily there was something even more exciting round the corner, the petting zoo! Littlelish has always loved the farm and has absolutely no fear of petting animals. And finally she had found her cutest, cuddliest animal at the zoo… a goat!! She named it whitey black black and spent a good 20 minutes hugging it much to the amusement of some Japanese tourists who started taking photos of her! It was rather cute.
The sun was starting to set so we popped past the llamas and alpacas and tried to spot the difference between the two, watched the camel spit, took a quick peak inside the old elephant house which I remember from being a small child. We said hello and goodbye to the hippo as we made our way to the exit.
I was proud of Littlelish, she managed to walk the entire way round the zoo, never complaining, taking it all in and loving every minute. We had a fantastic day together, it was good to be doing something fun together and making some memories. I have such fond ones of London Zoo as a child so it was lovely that it was something we could now share.
And Littlelish found her cutest zoo animal… Whitey Black Black!
A huge thank you to Virgin Money and Carat Media for organising a wonderful day out.
Our top 10 things to see and do at London Zoo
1. Meet some cheeky squirrel monkeys and see if you can climb like a squirrel monkey
2. Have a play in the childrens area, see how fast you can climb the hill!
3. Hug a goat in the petting zoo!
4. See if you can spot the Loris in the dark
5. Listen to a story in the childrens tipi
6. Admire some beautiful butterflies in the butterfly pavillion, see if you can spot the camoflaged ones!
7. Say hello to ray the show off sting ray
8. Watch the giraffes munching on their lunch with their long tongues!
9. Learn more about the penguins and meet ricky the rockhopper at the penguin show at Penguin Beach
10. Go and meet an okapi! What’s an okapi? Go and find out :)
Top 10 reasons for using Virgin Money Travel
1. Virgin Money Travel Insurance was voted “Best Online Travel Insurance Provider 2012” at the Your Money Direct Awards.
2. You can be sure when you purchase travel insurance from Virgin Money, you’re covered by the people who know all there is to know about travel.
3. Annual cover from just £35.20 (based on European policy for under 50s)
4. Kids covered free – up to 3 under 18s per insured adult
5. Winter sports covered – from off-piste skiing to snowboarding
6. Protection if your holiday is delayed, cancelled or cut short
7. Over 65s cover also available, and we even cover some pre-existing medical conditions
8. As a Virgin Money Travel Insurance customer you have access to a travel advice line for support before you leave and also while you’re away on your trip.
9. As a Virgin Travel Insurance customer, you’ll be provided with access to Virgin group discounts which can help cut the cost of your
travel expenses.10. Virgin Moneys goal is to make “everyone better off” – this philosophy underpins their approach to business by offering good value to customers, treating employees well, making a positive contribution to society and delivering a positive contribution to shareholders.
We’ve been busy learning to read for sometime in our house. Littlelish turned 3 in the summer and is therefore a pretty early reader. She picked up her phonics very quickly and was soon ready to move onto the trickier stuff like blending and segmenting. Unfortunately I’m not a teacher which has meant I haven’t always been able to know how to support her in her learning besides reading lots and lots of books! I went looking for online games to support her learning but often they were poor quality, not using the phonics system, very American or expensive!
And then the lovely people at Teach Your Monster to Read told me about their brand new, FREE, online game developed for the Usborne Foundation, a charity set up by Peter Usborne (who also founded The Usborne Publishing company).
The game has already won gold in both the Practical Preschool and Primary Teacher Update awards. It’s what we’ve been waiting for – a fantastic, educational, engaging way of teaching little ones to read… and what’s more it is free!
The game’s primary aim is to develop children’s speed and accuracy of grapheme (letter) recognition. Children work through each grapheme (in the same order as Letters and Sounds) practicing each one using one of four minigames. Complete the minigame and you will receive a letter and a prize reward for your hard work. Along the way, there are opportunities for the child to practice aspects of reading like blending or segmenting.
Littlelish particularly enjoyed customising her monster and selecting her reward for completing each section (interestingly her choice of prize was 9 time out of 10 food related!!). I was pleased that there were 4 minigames to choose from as this added variety and also meant the game could be geared to the level of the child. Littlelish got bored quickly of the first level games so it was good that there were more complicated games for her to play too.
Teach your monster to read is unlike any free online game available. The illustrations are superb, contemporary, amusing and they create a spark of imagination in the child so the adventure really comes alive. The game play is also brilliant, we didn’t encounter any glitches and the game didn’t freeze up on us like many online reading games I know!
I’d definitely recommend you pay Teach your monster to read a visit…While you are there why not check out their blog as they also have a cool Draw a Monster competition running until the 9th of November http://blog.teachyourmonsterto
The prize is a fantastic £150 worth of Usborne books! I’ve been checking out the entire set of first level reading books for Littlelish http://www.usborne.com/veryfir
Keeping warm is all about wrapping up and layering on the clothes until you look like an Eskimo, isn’t it? So how do you stay warm and look sexy? With thermal underwear? Really?
Sexy is perhaps not the first word that comes to mind when you think of thermal underwear but then you might not have seen Bella Di Notte yet! Bella Di Notte are a British company who work exclusively with an artisan family business just north of Milan to create stunning thermal underwear from natural Merino wool.
Bella Di Notte sent me the very beautiful Rosella long sleeved vest to review. The vest arrived perfectly gift wrapped in tissue paper and a lovely burgundy box complete with ribbon which made me really excited. It is so special when it’s all wrapped up gorgeously isn’t it? But the real surprise was waiting inside. I was delighted!
Made out of a mix of merino wool and silk the first thing I will tell you, it is soft, veeeery soft, I couldn’t wait to get it on! As soon as I had it on I received several compliments from my admiring husband ;) The shape is very flattering with a wide deep V neck. The stunning Italian lace details adds a really special, modern, feminine touch.
So it passed the looks test with flying colours but did it keep me warm? Did it! It was fantastic :) I never realised how good it feels to be super warm and cosy at skin level without sweating in 5 layers! I put the Rosella vest to the ultimate test and wore it underneath my outfit that I wore for the charity Halloween carwash this weekend. Outside, washing cars for nearly 4 hours with cold water and those UK based readers will know how chilly it was on Saturday! Amazingly though I was not cold at all, the only part of me that felt it was my poor little fingers!
The Rosella vest can be worn in a variety of ways, as sleep wear, underneath a cardigan or other outfit, it is even gorgeous enough to be worn on its own! I did not own a single pair of thermals but if they look and feel this good I might have to start adding to the collection.
They really do make a difference and I think this piece is going to be totally invaluable going into these winter months, sooo looking forward to staying snuggly and warm and looking hot!
The lovely team at Bella Di Notte are offering the chance to WIN one long sleeved Rosella vest in your colour of preference. Just in time for the cold weather. All you need to do to enter is follow the instructions on the rafflecopter below and share with your friends. Leave a comment for an extra entry and tell me your winter warming tip :) Good luck everyone.
Well I’ve made it to the middle of FrOctober and worn a dress every day – go me! If you’re wondering why I am applauding myself for wearing a dress (strange woman) then check out my earlier post about FrOctober and how we (myself and many other mummy bloggers) are raising awareness (and hopefully donations) for Post Natal Illness charity PNI ORG UK.
The lovely team at Lands’ End UK heard about our fundraising efforts and kindly offered to send me one of their beautiful dresses to review for FrOctober. I was delighted!
I received the beautiful crepe jersey wrap dress in purplette (£59.95) which is perfect for my office days. Feminine without showing off too much flesh, I loved the modest and flattering length which stopped just at the knee. The low but not too low V neckline is flattering and gives you the chance to wear a lovely statement necklace or scarf with it (as pictured on the Lands’ End site). The fluid stretch jersey is lovely and it really does skim over my ‘ample’ curves/belly ;) It feels very comfortable to wear and most importantly it is nice and thick/warm for these cooler Autumn days.
I absolutely love the purple which is of course THE colour for Autumn, all the shops are going berry mad! I decided to style it with brown/tan boots and tied the waist tie (which is normally at the front of the dress) behind so I could accessorise with a small tan belt. This worked well and added an extra element of colour which I like. The necklace is one from many many moons ago but I love all the tiny different coloured stones on it which again just inject an extra bit of colour. (I do like colour, can you tell?).
Sorry for the slightly akward looking photo, I’d make a rather rubbish model wouldn’t i? It was absolutely FREEZING outside and my husband was doing the photography. He has the patience of a flea, took 2 shots and that was my lot! Oh and we desperately need a new camera…
Thank you very much Lands’ End. I was really pleased to add a flattering, comfortable dress that is suitable for work, easy to pop on and look good. If you want to know what else I’ve been wearing this month, check out my instagram. A month is a long time so I’ve had to be somewhat creative, dragging out dresses that haven’t seen the light for quite some years!
Please remember all this dressing up is for a very good cause. PNI ORG UK is a charity that offers vital support to women suffering with post natal depression.
INFOGRAPHIC: What Big Questions are on Your Child’s Mind?
One day I really should take note of just how many questions Littlelish asks me a day! It is literally a constant stream from the minute she wakes up, one after the other after the other! She really is the Queen of questions. So far this week I’ve had – Do dogs get splinters? Why do cars have ears? How do flowers get their colours? What would happen if you cooked a person? Do jellyfish have eyes? I do my best to answer them patiently but sometimes they are just too bizarre or complicated to explain! My school days feel like quite a long time ago…
So when we got the chance to review the new BIG questions from little people book we jumped at the chance! This is absolutely perfect for Little Miss Curious :)
Complied by Gemma Elwin Harris, the book contains over 100 real questions from children age 5 – 12 and more importantly the answers from some of the most knowledgeable experts in their field like David Attenborough, Richard Dawkins and Noam Chomsky. Conceived to raise money for the NSPCC, over half of the advance and royalties from sales of the book will go directly to the charity – brilliant!
When we first got the book I turned to the list of questions at the beginning to see if any of them particularly captured her interest. Turns out she really wanted to know “Why we dream?” which I thought was great as I am fascinated with dreaming too. She also wanted to know if “bees sting other bees?” which had a really interesting answer, which I did not know! I LOVE the idea for this book, I love it so much I wish I’d have come up with it myself. The book is so well executed with a brilliant variety of questions, ranging from the serious to the very silly! All the questions are answered in an incredibly clear, understandable, appealing way which make it great for kids to understand. Even Littlelish who is only 3 listened closely to the answers. The humourous way in which many of the answers are written definitely helps to keep attention of little ones.
I’d say it’s the perfect gift for inquisitive children of all ages – heck even this big kid here LOVED reading it…. and perfect for mummies and daddies who like me, don’t know the answer to questions like “why does the moon shine?” “why is wee yellow?” and “why do we have music?”
Big Questions by Little People goes on sale on the 4th of October for £12.99 (hardback and ebook)
Find out more about Big Questions from Little People at
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/bigquestionsbk
The lovely team at Learning Resources heard that Littlelish was learning to read and kindly sent us the Hot Dots Jolly Phonics set to try out.
Hot Dots is a clever educational concept where learning becomes interactive with a self correcting electronic pen. Children select an answer on the multiple choice cards by touching the pen to the corresponding dot for an audio/visual response which motivates the children to work through the cards. With ten different key areas of learning (maths, vocabulary, spelling etc) there are Hots Dot sets for just about every area of early learning.
The set we received is created in combination with Jolly Phonics (who we are big fans of!) especially with young readers in mind. Littelish just loved the fact that the pen was shaped like a cat, made a noise and lit up! She was very curious as to how it worked and started trying it on all the furniture just to see what it said. Hilariously she initially thought it was some kind of oracle pen that knew the answer to everything! She asked me “Can we ask the pen if animals get blisters??” Huh? Have you met my quirky daughter?
Once she got over the miracle pen she checked out the cards with the pen and quickly got the hang of finding the right answer. Hot Dots is not a game for children to play on their own, although Littlelish did love playing with it just to see what happened with the pen. The child has to be quite accurate to hit the hot dot so a little guidance might be needed for younger ones. To get the full educational value out of the product your child will need to work with you as you do need to read the question at the top of the card. These change as you progress through the cards so explanation is necessary. Ie which sound is at the beginning of the word? or which sound is at the end of the word?
Littlelish really enjoyed working through them and it was great to introduce her to the extra phonic sounds (other than the A-Z sounds she knows) like oi, ar, er, th, ch, sh, etc. This for me was the biggest plus point as often phonics games often only use the A-Z phonics and this set from Jolly Phonics uses all 42 phonetic sounds. It got us talking about the words, listening to the sounds at the ends of them and breaking them down. I also definitely think this educational tool is reaching its goal in motivating children to learn as the pen element makes it fun and the cards are well thought out and clear which eliminates any confusion. I’m sure you will recognise it when I say Littlelish will NOT learn through anything other than play or fun but we had lots of giggles with this one (as you will see)!
This time I thought it would be fun to make a video of her trying out the Hot Dots. She is not even 3 yet (in about 2 weeks time) so needed a little bit more guidance than older children might but this video will show you how we looked at the words, broke them down and found the right answer. Towards the end she starts to get silly (which is rather funny) a clear sign we needed to stop and move on to play something else! Remember never make learning a chore for children :)
Is your little one learning to read too? What resources are you using? Have you used Jolly Phonics or Hot Dots? Would you like to give them a try? I have one set of Jolly Phonics Hot Dot cards and special Hot dot self correcting pen to giveaway from Learning Resources to one lucky reader! All you have to do is have a look at the range of Hot Dot cards on the Learning Resources Website and leave me a comment answering the following question “If you could create a Hot dot set especially for your child what would it be?”
While you are there why not check out the other amazing educational toys and learning tools they have for children of all ages. I am a big fan and we are already building a little wishlist of things Littlelish would like for her up and coming birthday! Not only do they sell to parents like you and me looking for toys and games with a bit of a difference they also supply into the classroom and have a section of products for special needs learning.
For extra entries you can follow the rafflecopter below. Sorry UK residents only. Good luck everyone!
Recently I featured the gorgeous jubilee dress by Wild Things – Funky little dresses. So many of you loved it that I thought I would showcase some more pieces from their gorgeous range. Sorry boys this one is all about the girls!
British designer Kirsty, set up Wild Things after working in the fashion industry for many years. She has her own little wild things at home and was inspired to make clothes that children (and adults) would love. The clothing range is very creative and made with children and their imaginations in mind. Clothes to play in, have fun in. The shapes are simple, comfortable and based on Scandinavian design.
Kirsty kindly sent us the playsuit made of organic cotton with an apple print for me to feature as this weeks ‘Green Dream’ which is just adorable. Littlelish absolutely LOVES it and doesn’t want to take it off, she doesn’t have many playsuits and something about this does capture her imagination. She is running and leaping around in it hence why I couldn’t get a picture of her still in it! It is extremely well made and the fabrics are beautiful. The perfect outfit for a beautiful sunny day. Unfortunately we haven’t had very many of them recently so Littlelish wore it with a long sleeved T shirt underneath. Still utterly gorgeous.
We also love love love the animal dresses and struggle to chose which one is our favourite as they are all brilliant. I think it is the fox, or maybe the mouse or the badger… anyway which ever one takes your fancy I think they are genius. Dress up clothes to inspire imagination but without actually having to take your child to the supermarket dressed like a pantomime horse. I think we will have to get one of these for Littlelish very soon too, although I can quite imagine her not wanting to wear anything else!
Wild Things – funky little dresses are for sale on www.etsy.com, www.notonthehighstreet.com and www.folksy.com. Kirsty has kindly offered one of her fabulous dresses to us as a giveaway! Do you have a daughter, granddaughter or little friend that would look adorable in one of Kirsty’s creations? Enter into the competition below, the winner will be selected at random by the Rafflecopter. Good luck!
The lovely lady at Bambino Green (100% world friendly) sent us some incredible soy crayon rocks to try out and we loved them! Being an artist and working with lots of different mediums I am not particularly fond of crayons. I know, I know, they are for children but crayons just have this horrible more »
The lovely lady at Bambino Green (100% world friendly) sent us some incredible soy crayon rocks to try out and we loved them! Being an artist and working with lots of different mediums I am not particularly fond of crayons. I know, I know, they are for children but crayons just have this horrible scratchy feel and let’s face it, it is not easy to make something pretty with them is it? But Crayon Rocks are not like normal crayons, no siree.
Packaged in a small calico bag Littlelish took great delight at the small (2 inch) rainbow pebbles inside. Not only are they fun to look at but they are specially shaped for little fingers to hold and cleverly improve their tripod grip which is very important for when they start writing (this is excellent for us with Littlelish being a lefty). They also draw like a dream. The texture is much softer than normal crayons and the bright vibrant colours glide smoothly on the paper. Littlelish and I took them out to play in the sunshine yesterday….
Crayon rocks are made with American soy bean wax and other natural waxes and are available at www.bambinogreen.co.uk. Bambino Green is an online gift shop for children stocking 100% world friendly products (which means fair trade and created with respect for the environment). Their products are all carefully sourced and beautifully wrapped which means they are perfect for sending straight to the lucky receiver!
We are definitely planning on doing a style spot on Green Bambino in the near future because they have so many FAB items we want to share with you all but for now Bambino Green are kindly offering some Crayon Rocks to one lucky winner!
All you need to do to enter is fill in your details with the Rafflecopter below. The winner will be chosen on the 31st of May.
Good luck!
I’m a freelancer in creative marketing with a background in design and styling but when I'm not working I'm doing the most important job in the world, being mummy to my beautiful little girl! I love to create and craft and have a passion for colour and beautiful detail. This blog is all about my life, my amazing daughter, my inspirations and creations!
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Get rid of baths
Do not take baths, take showers. You will save about half the amount of water that you would if you were taking a bath.
