A Lifestyle & Parenting Blog

Friday 29 November 2013

Fathers Will Be Able To Share Parental Leave from April 2015

Another day, another 'sound bite' policy from the Government - this time we hear that, from April 2015 fathers will be entitled to shared parental leave. A couple will need to tell their employers how they plan to share their leave eight weeks before it starts. They will then have the right to change their proposals twice during the year long leave.




Bosses will have to agree any proposed schedule of time off and will be able to insist that it is confined to a continuous block. Dads to be will also have the right to unpaid leave to attend up to two antenatal appointments.


Now, leaving aside the fact that, at least in my experience, male and female employees are often not treated equally when it comes to management's attitude toward their taking time off, and the fact that small business owners must have their heads in their hands, I'm not sure whether in an economic climate still as precarious as ours, this policy is tenable.


Many businesses may pay lip service to 'Family Friendly' policies, however, when it comes to career progression and security, one suspects that those employees who exercise their new rights may find their rise through the ranks decidedly impeded.


For examples, many large companies are currently engaged in actively buying goods and services to coincide with the end of their budget year. Many small companies are competing by submitting proofs of concept and tender documents (usually followed by a sales presentation). Employees of either sex will not find much favour if they are not there to support their team members during key prospective sales periods. Taking time off for a scan when there is a tender presentation in the offing is likely to dent your popularity with staff and management. And here's where employer / employee relations are likely to suffer - note that the boss must approve the proposed schedule of absence.


Heaven knows it's tough enough for women who take the full year of Maternity Leave (six months' paid, six months' unpaid) who return to work. Return after six months and you can have your job back. Return after a year and you are entitled to return to your job unless there is some reason why it is not reasonably practicable for the employer to take you back in your original job in which case you are entitled to be offered suitable alternative work on similar terms and conditions. (Source: Equality & Human Rights Commission)


And in most of the law firms I worked for, you could forget it if you thought you were going to return to a part time job. Part time was practically a dirty word and I have worked for firms who would ensure that a part time workload was equal to a full time one shoehorned into reduced hours!


Actually though I think that focusing on getting businesses to increase the number and calibre of part time roles would be of much greater benefit to working mothers and those mothers who find returning to work after more than a year away from the workplace so difficult. And what about single mothers who have no partner to support them?


Let's focus on decent part time work provision and, the elephant in the room that has been neatly side-stepped today, the cost of childcare in this country.


Because it's not so much our parental leave we'd like our partners to share, is it?  It's when our children enter education that we could do with more support.
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I've Been A Bit Distracted By ...Thomas Sabo - 29/11/2013

In case you've already had enough of sparkle and glitter, or you're keeping your powder dry for the Christmas festivities, these rock-chic-esq silver skulls from Thomas Sabo's Rebel at Heart range should add a bit of edge to your Saturday night glamour.


Thomas Sabo Sterling Silver Rebel at Heart Hinged Hoop Earrings - £119

The earrings are sterling silver, blackened and with black synthetic zirconia-pave. Great gift for a teenager, a rock chic or (and I'm particularly fond of this option), for yourself.

Delivery is free if you order before 8th December and Thomas Sabo offers elegant free jewellery packaging too.

Further information at www.thomassabo.com
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Thursday 28 November 2013

Bottle warming - Why My Microwave Makes My Heart Go Ping

Just after I had Caitlin in 2007, The Husband and I invested in probably the most ineffective appliance we've ever come across. It was a bottle warmer which you could program to heat the baby's milk to the correct temperature.  It used a dish of water to steam the milk. 

At 3 am in the morning, we would take turns to stand watching this contraption as it whirred and hissed for about 20 minutes to produce a bottle no hotter than it would have been if we'd just held it in our hands whilst waiting and listening to Caitlin cry. For this privilege we payed about £40.

Caitlin as a baby in her highchair at meal time
Baby Caitlin at teatime
We did this because, in the canon of birth and new born raising horror stories already-parents feel duty bound to share - largely with a feeling of  "ha, you'll see what we went through soon enough" - there is one that proclaims with almost Biblical fervour that "thou shalt not use thy microwave for heating thy children's milk" lest the poor infant suffers terrible injuries.

After about three months of counting the kitchen tiles at ungodly hours, we slipped from the path of NASA level health and safety and put the formula in the microwave. It took us about a minute to work out that about 20 seconds was just about right. 20 seconds. Not 20 minutes.

Now obviously, anyone with a modicum of common sense will know that over-microwaving can lead to some very serious burns but we were careful to always check the temperature of the milk and to shake the bottle before giving it to Caitlin and, later, Ieuan.

Once the kids were weaning, the microwave was used again to reheat endless cubes of pureed apple, pear and simple bolognese type dishes gleaned from an acre of Annabel Karmel recipes.

Baby Ieuan laughing in his highchair
Strangely, Ieuan's reaction to my cooking skills has always been the same ....
That appliance that my father viewed as an evil source of energy which, according to him, required lead aprons to be worn when the first ones were tested, and which I had used at the height of my culinary experimentation to zap a range of different sized potatoes (and on one occasion a large Bramley apple), became the appliance that gave us our life back.

Our microwave
Our beloved microwave in the kitchen here at Downton Shabby
And in many ways, it still does today. We can batch cook and freeze then just reheat portions in the microwave when we're tired. The Husband can usually find a portion of curry or chilli to enjoy when he returns home later from travelling. Our microwave heats milk for our coffee. It gives us decent porridge for the kids in two minutes flat in the morning. It melts butter for Victoria sponge making and chocolate for a decadent dessert sauce.

It is a bit of a challenging appliance to clean but a couple of lemons in a bowl of boiling water microwaved for a minute or so easily loosens cooked on sauce and removes odours.

Like any cooking appliance, the microwave needs to be respected and treated with care. It is an oven, after all! But of all the appliances we have, it is the one we find saves us the most time - and for busy parents, time is something you just can't put a value on.

So, it may be a bit battered but it is loved - I love my microwave!
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Win £150 worth of Howick Boys Clothes Competition With House Of Fraser


This giveaway is now closed but you can find all my current competitions on my competitions page.


The lovely gals over at the House of Fraser blog have alerted me to this fab competition.You've got until midnight on 2nd December.  Get clicking the links below.



Win £150 Outfit with House of Fraser by picking your favourite Howick Junior items!

We want to know which pieces you would pick from the Howick Junior Collection?

To enter the competition, simply leave a comment here and tell us which items you would choose if you are our lucky winner.

Good luck!

The Howick Junior collection offers boys aged 2 to 8 years fantastic quality casual clothing in a classic style. With plenty to choose from, you can view the full collection here and make your decision!
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Wednesday 27 November 2013

Spending On Kids' Christmas Presents: How Much Is Enough?

An article in The Daily Mail (26/11/2013) entitled "OUCH! Average child's Christmas list adds up to nearly £900 - and a third believe they'll get every single thing on it" left me feeling distinctly unsettled. 

It seems, according to this article at least, that the average child receives a hefty, and in many parts of the UK surely unbelievable, £207 worth of presents. 

Are we really raising a generation of materialistic, greedy youngsters who, as my parents would say, know the cost of everything but the value of nothing? 

What has happened to parenting when the purse strings are seemingly controlled by the offspring?



stack of Christmas presents



What is really going on here?  Christmas advertising seems to start earlier and earlier with John Lewis, Debenhams and Marks & Spencer all taking each other on for the "Christmas ad of the year". The supermarkets all compete to give us tables groaning with high calorie treats and drinks, with each promoting a cutesy backstory (handsome Mr Iceland takes giggly ingenue to a party for example). 

There is literally no escape from Christmas merchandising and marketing. Even if you turn the TV off, shops are groaning with Christmas themed confectionery and gifts.

In a Twitter Party conversation last night with Tots100.co.uk (@tots100) which runs a well respected index of UK parenting blogs and comparison website Go Compare (@gocompare), several parents said they felt that £50 to £100 was quite sufficient to spend on a child, with some saying that £270 constituted their entire Christmas budget.


It must be soul destroying if you are struggling financially to have the added burden of child-induced guilt as they request the latest computer gizmo or branded toy. You can see why people are so tempted by pay day loans with their catchy advertising. Both my children recognise the Wonga old people and think they're 'funny'. I don't find APRs of 5853% particularly amusing. 


The Government has said it will introduce a new law as part of the Banking Reform Bill to cap the cost of these loans. This level will be decided by a new industry regulatory, the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). As yet, we have no idea what this cap will be or whether it will be effective in helping those who quickly find themselves in over their heads when they cannot pay off these loans as quickly as they had anticipated.

It's funny really because the old fashioned skill of 'housewifery', apart from having had a mild renaissance and a new cupcake and retro apron image, has always been slightly looked down upon. But the related skill of maintaining the household budget (and sticking to it) must surely be worth its weight in gold.


It became clear from last night's Twitter chat that some parents had their budgets by the horns and were actively seeking out the best rates for savings and credit and benefiting by canny use of cash-back and comparison websites. I came away with the realisation that managing your money, particularly at Christmas, HAS to be an active and not a passive activity. No wonder Martin Lewis shouts. It's so easy to put your head in the sand.


When I was a child, my sister and I would always receive one 'main' present and a couple of smaller ones from our parents which would be supplemented by gifts from grandparents, uncles and aunts. But what I remember more than anything else was the stocking my dad would meticulously prepare for us both every year. 


It was always one of his old walking socks and there was always an apple, a satsuma, one or two walnuts or hazelnuts and a small novelty gift (one year it was a cap gun which we both loved) but, the ultimate in decadence was the small tube of liqueur chocolates he always included. I can still taste the shock of a mouthful of sherry followed by the sweet, gritty chocolate.  I hasten to add that we were of a respectable age for such adult treats.

As for the 'main presents', do you know that, apart from an Action Girl doll one year and a Sindy doll another, I honestly can't remember a single one. 


Makes you think, doesn't it?

How much do you think is acceptable to spend on your children? I'd love to know.
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Tuesday 26 November 2013

Giveaway: Beautiful Sterling Silver Sparrow Pendant Worth £55 From Oorla Jewellery

This giveaway is now closed but you can find all my current competitions on my competitions page.

I have a beautiful silver pendant from Oorla Jewellery worth £55 to give away to one lucky reader. 

The pendant is a dainty yet detailed sterling silver sparrow charm on a delicate sterling chain. 

Three labradorite gemstones add a splash of iridescent colour and meaning. 

Did you know that Labradorite is said to give protection from negativity and misfortune and it has always been considered a magical stone which helps develop spirituality. 

The sparrow is also a symbol of good luck!  

The pendant comes packaged in a gorgeous white ribbed gift box - an ideal Christmas gift for someone special or as a treat to fortify yourself against the stress of all that Christmas shopping and being nice to relatives!


The ‘tiny sparrow pendant with labradorite’ is available from http://oorlajewellery.co.uk/
Price £55

Based in Surrey, Oorla Jewellery specialises in high quality contemporary handmade silver and gemstone jewellery inspired by colour, pattern and texture in the natural world. 

The company was set up in 2010 by jewellery designer Oorla Morgan who, like me, is also an older mum to two beautiful kids.
Oorla can be contacted on 07725009333 or by email info@oorlajewellery.co.uk.

Entry to the competition, which ends on at midnight on Friday 13th December is via the rafflecopter widget below.  The usual terms and conditions apply.


a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Giveaway: Gorgeous New Mum & Baby Socks & Booties From Perilla Worth £35

This giveaway is now closed but you can find all my current competitions on my competitions page.

After featuring Perilla's gorgeous baby alpaca bed socks in one of my Daily Distraction posts (21/11/2013), the lovely Sandra at Perilla has given me a gorgeous New Mum & Baby box worth £35 to give away to one lucky reader.




Perilla is a real British success story.  


Home to the finest quality British made alpaca socks, the company was born in 2006 by business woman Sandra Morton after a chance meeting with a leading local alpaca breed who had an interest in producing knitwear. 

Based on an idyllic farm on the Hereford / Worcester border where Sandra also breeds horses and ponies, today Perilla is home to a magnificent range of alpaca socks, knitwear and luxury gifts, importing over 1.8 tonnes of the softest baby alpaca fibre from Peru.





The box contains a pair of cream bed socks for mum and a pair of the softest, cutest, baby booties for their new arrival (you can choose the appropriate pink, blue or natural colour). 

The bed socks are 90% baby alpaca and the booties are 100% baby alpaca and are slightly more hard wearing.
Perilla sagely tell us that if your feet are warm at night it apparently helps your kidneys work better and aids restful sleep. And if there's one thing a new mum needs - it's surely sleep!

To enter the giveaway, which closes at midnight on Friday 13th December (lucky for someone though!), just complete the Rafflecopter. The usual terms and conditions apply.



a Rafflecopter giveaway
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Monday 25 November 2013

You Won't Get Stuck At Instajunction.com

Now this is a fun way to give something a bit different this Christmas that even the most technologically challenged can manage.

Instajunction is a really fun way to add your photos to a range of products to make Christmas gifts that are definitely unique. 


Instajunction allows you to use your Instagram, Facebook or uploaded pictures on a range of different products - from framed prints and magnets to mini books and coasters. 

You can make keyrings or cufflinks or how about a wall vinyl, calendar or poster? 

I have to say I wish Instajunction.com had been around in my marketing days because business gifts would have been a cinch. 

As it was, it was golf balls, mints and the never-ending excitement of blue ballpoint pens!



Just think of the fun you could have.  

Coasters featuring your slightly plumptious self as a reminder not to scoff too many snacks and glasses of vino? Or a fridge magnet of Daniel Craig.  

Just because really. 

I chose to make a charm bracelet featuring my kids which was simplicity itself and took literally minutes.  


You simply download 5 of your favourite photographs and Instajunction will create a bracelet with five 1.9 cm diameter charms for you in a presentation box - at a cost of £24.95 & delivery. 

The easiest method is to download the photographs from your Instagram feed (there's a clue in the name - Instajunction!) but as mentioned above, you can use your Facebook pictures or those on your PC too.

This is how the charm bracelet will look.

An individual charm
And, best of all, I have been given a code for you to use to get a generous 25% off for orders placed before 8th December 2013 (and you can use the code as many times as you want).

Here's the code FRIEND25CB

Why not have a look at www. instajunction.com to see what you could create?

*I was given a discount code to select any one product from Instajunction.com.  
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Sunday 24 November 2013

Can We Have Our Christmas Back Please - The Way Dylan Thomas Wrote It?

It is 9 am on a Sunday morning and my inbox is full of Christmas offers for clothes I could never afford, food I'd never dream of eating and presents which would last precisely two minutes before being constructively destroyed by Ieuan in his ongoing quest to find out how things work.

Some companies are even claiming that I need to order now in time for Christmas which rather implies they need Hilary Devey to sort their freight logistics out since it is only the 24th of November. What network are they using? A hoard of one legged, disenfranchised elves (probably admitted to the country by the Home Secretary on the grounds that wearing tinkly bells constitutes some form of repression)? I'm sure the Daily Mail's columnist Littlejohn will put us straight on that one shortly. 

But isn't it strange how the more we buy, the more we eat, the more we drink, the less satisfying Christmas seems to be. 
 
Baby Ieuan in his Christmas hat in 2009
Ieuan's first Christmas in 2009
In fact, we're lucky we can even call it Christmas because left to some councils the festive season would be some ghastly multi denominational TV fest with a microwaveable chicken dinner and a rubbery pudding all washed down with non alcoholic lager and a never ending tin of out of date nuts. Christmas cards of the future are likely to feature council leaders and particularly scenic multi-storey car parks. 

Now, I don't know if they've noticed, but Christmas is a Christian festival. There is after all a whacking great clue in the name, although the bleedin' obvious seems to frequently bypass our councils, viz, if you leave wheelie bin rubbish for two weeks at a stretch during a hot summer it tends to pong and attract vermin.

We've ended up with a sort of, ironically, low fat Christmas except it's got none of the taste and all of the calories. What I think we really miss is nostalgia. The real reason Christmas seemed to start on the 1st of November this year is that we are anticipation junkies. We love the waiting, the hoping, the general bonhomie that even the grumpiest among us seem to manage a modicom of. 

For many, of course, this time of year is a pretty lonely and miserable one, made even more so by the ever increasing rampant materialism, and the reduction in what used to be a sort of spiritual and moral benchmark, that is to say, the community created by church going and the regular practising of faith, only seems to highlight the isolation and alienation many must feel.

It's no coincidence that, at least in our house, the TV programmes we love to watch at Christmas are the old favourites. I particularly like the Christmas episode of Midsomer Murders set in a country house where the brother had been denied a fulfilling career as a magician and his surviving family subsequently peg it in-between Midnight Mass and the Boxing Day Hunt. Don't move to Midsomer. The properties look lovely but I shouldn't bother registering to pay council tax as you won't be around long enough to receive your Christmas card with Midsomer Council's Chief Exec on the front. Or the old episodes of Morecambe & Wise with Andre 'Preview' and Shirley Bassey? Every time the film "Elf" is shown on TV, the Twittersphere fills up with people saying how much they love it. Nostalgia wins hands down over novelty every time.

Would we enjoy Christmas more if we went back to putting up tinsel in December rather than September? If we sent cards rather than e-cards? If we occasionally remembered and celebrated what Christmas is actually about?

I'll leave it to one of Wales' literary greats, Dylan Thomas, to give you an idea of what, to me, nostalgia sounds like in his magical "A Child's Christmas in Wales".

"Get back to the Presents."

"There were the Useful Presents: engulfing mufflers of the old coach days, and mittens made for giant sloths; zebra scarfs of a substance like silky gum that could be tug-o'-warred down to the galoshes; blinding tam-o'-shanters like patchwork tea cozies and bunny-suited busbies and balaclavas for victims of head-shrinking tribes; from aunts who always wore wool next to the skin there were mustached and rasping vests that made you wonder why the aunts had any skin left at all; and once I had a little crocheted nose bag from an aunt now, alas, no longer whinnying with us. And pictureless books in which small boys, though warned with quotations not to, would skate on Farmer Giles' pond and did and drowned; and books that told me everything about the wasp, except why."

"Go on the Useless Presents."

"Bags of moist and many-colored jelly babies and a folded flag and a false nose and a tram-conductor's cap and a machine that punched tickets and rang a bell; never a catapult; once, by mistake that no one could explain, a little hatchet; and a celluloid duck that made, when you pressed it, a most unducklike sound, a mewing moo that an ambitious cat might make who wished to be a cow; and a painting book in which I could make the grass, the trees, the sea and the animals any colour I pleased, and still the dazzling sky-blue sheep are grazing in the red field under the rainbow-billed and pea-green birds. Hardboileds, toffee, fudge and allsorts, crunches, cracknels, humbugs, glaciers, marzipan, and butterwelsh for the Welsh. And troops of bright tin soldiers who, if they could not fight, could always run. And Snakes-and-Families and Happy Ladders. And Easy Hobbi-Games for Little Engineers, complete with instructions. Oh, easy for Leonardo! And a whistle to make the dogs bark to wake up the old man next door to make him beat on the wall with his stick to shake our picture off the wall. And a packet of cigarettes: you put one in your mouth and you stood at the corner of the street and you waited for hours, in vain, for an old lady to scold you for smoking a cigarette, and then with a smirk you ate it. And then it was breakfast under the balloons."

- A Child's Christmas in Wales - Dylan Thomas 
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Silent Sunday - 24/11/2013



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Saturday 23 November 2013

Giveaway: Tomb Raider for XBOX 360



This giveaway is now closed but you can find all my current competitions on my competitions page.

I was given this as a present by someone who thought I was more up to techno-speed than I actually am. 

No, I do not own an Xbox 360 so I thought I'd bequeath this fresh, unopened, brand new Tomb Raider game to one of my lovely readers.

In this latest installment in the Tomb Raider collection, Lara Croft must rely on her instincts and physical ability to combine fierce combat with stealth tactics in this game of survival. Sounds pretty much like a normal day of motherhood to me.


To enter, just complete the Rafflecopter. The usual T&C's apply. The competition ends on Friday 20th December.



a Rafflecopter giveaway
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I've Been A Bit Distracted By ...Chanel No 5 - 23/11/2013



Acres of words have probably been written by now about the only thing Marilyn Monroe allegedly wore in bed. This is a perfume which, love it or hate it, signifies a woman rather than a girl. Keira may swan about on a moped but the Chanel No 5 woman has a chauffeur. 

Less prosaically, the perfume is described as 'floral-aldehydic - a bouquet of abstract flowers with an indefinable feminitity". It does have a strangely sweet top note which I took a while to get used to. And The Husband does drive us to Tesco occasionally.  Spoiled, moi?

For those lost in blokedom come 4:45 pm on Christmas Eve, just head to the Chanel counter. You won't go far wrong.  Better that than another black/red lingerie item that even David Blaine would take a week to get out of.
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Thursday 21 November 2013

I've Been A Bit Distracted By ... Perilla - 21/11/2013

What could be nicer than snuggling up with your toes encased in the softest baby Alpaca from Perilla. These loose ribbed bed socks are suitable for men and women and are made from 90% Baby Alpaca, the highest grade available . 

The cream socks are woven in their natural un-dyed colour and there is a range of other colours, although the largest size is available in cream only. Perilla say they are "strictly for bed use only and not for padding around the house". 


Alpaca Bed Socks from Perilla - £16

Perilla also stock a range of knitwear and, they say, "all things gorgeous and luxurious, like our glamorous alpaca fur hats". I have a wrap from them and it is indeed soft and luxurious. Take a look at their slippers, cushions and hot water bottle covers too.

Nice to know Nuzzle and Scratch finally found a job they're good at  - isn't it?


CBeebies famous alpacas, Nuzzle & Scratch - probably not helping Perilla

I'll be putting several items on my Christmas list!

Further information at www. perilla.co.uk
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Wednesday 20 November 2013

Win A Bottle of Bio-Oil With Their Big Thank You Facebook Campaign



This giveaway is now closed but you can find all my current competitions on my competitions page.


Bio-Oil is a specialist skincare oil that helps improve the appearance of scars, stretch marks and uneven skin tone. It is also effective for ageing and dehydrated skin. 

I'm not sure whether you've caught it, but Bio-Oil have been running a campaign which ends at midnight tonight, (20th November 2013) called "The Big Thank You" on Facebook. 

The campaign allows you to say thank you to those friends, family members or professionals who have supported you and made a real impact on your life. 

You can post your special message of thanks in Bio-Oil's Big Thank You Gallery on the Bio- Oil Facebook page for all to read and feel inspired by and, if your story is selected, your nominee will receive a surprise gift delivered to their door with your message of thanks attached.

“The ‘Big Thank You’ was inspired by some of the stories Bio-Oil received from customers. 

They realised that they are often part of some of the best and worst times of people’s lives from the excitement of a first pregnancy through to miraculous recoveries from accidents or major operations. 

So they created their ‘Big Thank You’ campaign to help people celebrate the people in their lives who have helped them through these times; whether it’s a mum who has done more than her fair share of baby-sitting to a husband who supported his wife through a major illness.

There's still time for you to add your "big thank you"until midnight on the 20th. 

To get involved:-

*follow the campaign on Facebook at www.facebook.com/bio-oil-thank-you
*fill in your details so Bio-Oil can let you know if your Big Thank You has been chosen
*choose the person you'd most like to thank and say why
*submit your entry and you're done!

And don't worry if you are unsuccessful because I have 5 prizes of a bottle of Bio-Oil to give away. 

Simply complete the rafflecopter below by clicking on the rafflecopter link.  

The usual Terms & Conditions apply.  The competition ends at midnight on Sunday 24th November.

Good luck!

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I've Been A Bit Distracted By ...Carvela - 20/11/13

I love these black cut out detail high courts from Carvela at House of Fraser. I also love that they come in a size 8.  The House of Fraser website will do a stock check for you and tell you how many pairs they have left (just 2 at present in my size). Useful. What the website can't do at present is tell you how many pairs are available in House of Fraser's individual stores but no doubt that will come with time.




Mind you, as usual I don't know where I'd wear them with two kids in tow and I don't know if I could walk in them but it's never stopped Victoria Beckham, has it?

Further information:  www.houseoffraser.co.uk
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Tuesday 19 November 2013

Nursing a sick child - is it Supercalifragilistic - Calpol - alidosis?

It's that time of year again when the lurgi awakes and knocks down school kids like a bowling ball hitting skittles. 

Ieuan has a bad cold and a cough which has kept the whole house awake through most of last night. 

Of course, we have been to our doctor to add yet another entry to the Encyclopedia Britannica sized file of our medical records. Thankfully records are online now otherwise we'd have a row of filing cabinets just for us. 

The Husband of course is 'never ill', despite hacking and sneezing and leaving a trail of mansize tissues in his wake. Why they are called man-sized tissues I'm not sure as they patently aren't!

Ieuan ill in bed having his temperature taken
Poorly Ieuan
Ieuan was prescribed the antibiotic amoxicillin. So far so comforting but there's the rub. There have been many articles lately about the fact that the population is becoming resistant to antibiotics and that the antibiotics we have are no longer able to fight off the increasing number of superbugs like MRSA because we have taken so many of them. Yet we keep taking them because we trust them. We trust antibiotics, I'd suggest, more than we trust the vaccinations our children are given, even though, it would be considered extremely bad parenting not to get our kids innoculated. We know that liquid paracetol has been implicated in childhood asthma.  (The Telegraph, November 2012) but it's so easy to reach for the Calpol, or ibuprofen isn't it?

I have read numerous books about natural medicines and the need for the body to cure itself. When it is a child though, the temptation is to reach for the medicine spoon as it is so painful to see them suffer. Of course, we can try them with honey and lemon in warm water. We can try to get them to stay in bed (good luck with that one), load them with fruit, disguise vegetables (yes, we're still disguising vegetables) and use old fashioned cures such as Vicks Vapour Rub, or high tech cures, like state of the art humidifiers (just as effective to stick a damp flannel on a warm radiator). But these never really feel like 'proper medicine'.


I recently visited a natural healer who reminded me that GPs will often address the symptoms but not the cause. After all, how much diagnosis can properly be done in consultations averaging 8 minutes or less (source: www.patient.co.uk)? Perhaps we need to take a more integrated approach to staying healthy  - more akin to Eastern, than Western philosophy. I'm not suggesting, to quote that doyenne of random judgemental TV opinion, Katie Hopkins, that we should "knit our own yoghurt" but rather that we need to stand back and observe before rushing to the medicine cabinet.


Anyone who has been reading self help books with a Quantum Physics theme will have read that "thoughts become things";  our health and that of our children is perhaps therefore just as much a product of general happiness and emotional security (i.e. our thoughts and feelings about ourselves) as it is prey to the germs and viruses circulating once the school heating is cranked up.


At the moment though, trusting to herbs and natural healing and eschewing an antibiotic prescription requires a quantum leap of faith.
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Monday 18 November 2013

I've Been A Bit Distracted By .... Aerin Lilac Path From Estee Lauder - 18/11/2013

This is one of five gorgeous new fragrances from Aerin Lauder, granddaughter of Estee Lauder and it is my favourite out of the collection which also includes Gardenia Rattan, Amber Musk, Ikat Jasmine and Evening Rose. Aerin's "Lilac Path" is a blend of lilac, Galbanum and Jasmine together with Angelica Seed Oil and Orange Flower.




Aerin Lilac Path Eau De Parfum From Estee Lauder - £85

"Lilac Path captures the spirit of Spring and makes it last" - Aerin Lauder

It has a lovely fresh, slightly sweet top note which evokes a real feel of spring warmth and garden flowers. It is one of those scents where, once sprayed, you return to sniff again and again to give your senses a wonderful jolt.

And need I remind you that for an extra £50 you can purchase the Estee Lauder Make Up Artist Professional Collection.


  

Both are definitely on my Christmas list.

For further information, go to www.esteelauder.co.uk
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Sunday 17 November 2013

We Made A Hash Of The Princes Corned Beef 20 Minute Challenge

Somethings are indisputably British. Afternoon tea, bad weather, being rude about all the other entrants to the Eurovision Song Contest and dancing around castles and stately homes (the latter may just apply to my relatives).

We are very fond of anything involving pastry or custard and cope with all national emergencies by putting the kettle on.

A firm family favourite is corned beef hash. Easy and quick to make, nicely warming and filling and popular with young and old alike.

Princes Corned Beef
A British Classic - Princes Corned Beef In Three New Varieties
Princes, the Nation's favourite corned beef brand has done something jolly daring and launched a new range of corned beef with three new flavour combinations - with chilli, with mustard and with onion and dared us to create something inspirational with the new flavours in just twenty minutes.

So it was over to The Husband to do his best Jamie Oliver impersonation in the kitchen and he chose to prepare corned beef hash with onion.

Unfortunately I have been banned from the kitchen due to the last baked potato farago where the hedgehog I lovingly created for the kids looked like it had already been run over.

But I digress.

Hi tech mulching and hashing bloke style
After much faffing with a potato ricer (no idea why such a gadget was invented) and hiding various mulched vegetables in the vain hope of getting a modicum of nutrition into Ieuan, The Husband proudly presented his corned beef with onion hash.

Is it hash or is it the surface of planet Oki Doki?
No Sunday afternoon being complete without a marital tiff-ette or two, this was the point at which I was designated sous chef and tasked with the onerous challenge of putting the baked beans in the microwave.



Just 7 minutes. I ask you. I'm an artiste for heavens sake.

We then assembled the crack tasting panel who had already half-inched the patriotic box the corned beef came in to fill it with random doll body parts and broken jewellery as per usual.

The Tasting Panel
I'm afraid we didn't quite make the 20 minute challenge - we made it in 25 and the hash was extremely tasty. The addition of the onion definitely perked up the flavour and the kids cleared their plates in record time.

Happy kids.  Note, this is not what Ieuan looks like when given anything green
We really liked the combination of corned beef with onion and are looking forward to trying the other versions in sandwiches this week. For a quick, easy, substantial meal, you can't beat it.

Princes new Corned Beef varieties are available at Sainsburys priced at £1.99, and are currently on offer for £1.50.

Further information at www.princes.co.uk
*PR samples were sent for the purpose of this review.
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Silent Sunday - 17/11/2013



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Saturday 16 November 2013

Review: The "Save The Blow Dry" Shower Hat

Now I love anything a little retro and have already had two lovely vintage style shower caps which, due to the volume of my hair have long since given up the ghost. This one, the "Save The Blow Dry" claims to be the "moisture eliminating Queen of shower caps" and I think it's a definite keeper. It offers a 100% guarantee for the best blowdry protection and promises no more frizz or flattened style horrors.


It is designed to avoid the irritation of undoing all your hard work adding oomph to your hair after ages spent with rollers / straighteners/ hairdryer by plonking a shower hat on top of it (comparable only to the horror of "helmet hair" for those of us who can claim to be biker chicks, well, moped chicks in my case).


It is a lovely girlie pink and has an internal layer of super absorbent micro weave towelling covered by an outer layer of PVC. You can wear it with the plastic on the outside to shower or turn it inside out with the towelling layer uppermost if you are colouring your hair. This will allow your colourant to work more effectively and avoid any carpet staining drips.




The "Save The Blow Dry" is big enough to cope with really long thick hair and the elastic is flexible enough to keep the hair inside whilst being comfy to wear. You do have to make sure, though, that after using the cap for a shower that you shake the water off and allow it to dry well. I found that the cap worked well, was comfortable, kept my hair bone dry and made the entire family chortle.



Very me, don't you think?
The "Save The Blow Dry" cap retails at £14.95 and can be purchased here

The company is also currently in partnership with Khandel Light, a charity working to improve the lives of communities in and around Khandel, in Rajasthan, India. Every "Save The Blow Dry" cap sold via the website directly funds a fortnight's safe drinking water for a family in this desert region where temperatures can soar to 45 degrees.


Worth thinking about the next time you take a shower.


*A PR sample was sent for the purposes of this review.
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