Playpennies

There are a lot of toys, stickers, cards and books that have the Moshi Monsters label on them and they are proving as popular as the original website that spawned them. But we haven’t done a review of the website itself, and here it is.

I found the Moshi Monsters site purely by accident last year and thought that the idea behind it was perfect for my daughter. She was four at the time, and still learning to read, write and handle basic maths. The site captured her attention immediately but, at first, needed my constant participation as she struggled with mouse control and, obviously, reading the various instructions on the site.

One thing I realised early on was that the site was pretty empty without the paid-for subscription. I looked into the prices and realised that it was worth trying out for at least a month. You pay £4.95 for one month, £23.95 for six months, and £29.95 for 12 months. The latter is, obviously, the best deal and one that I have now opted for.

The reason I now have a yearly Moshi Monster membership is because the site works. I allow my daughter a maximum of an hour a day on the website and she has learned how to: handle a mouse and keyboard deftly, basic general knowledge that even I don’t know, spelling, reading, maths and problem solving. I can honestly say that the Moshi Monsters website and its Super Moshi missions have gone a long way towards encouraging my daughter to learn.

I think one of the reasons she is so good at reading now, six months later age 5, is because she was sick and tired of waiting on me in order to do her various games on the site! Great value for money, well designed, extremely funny for adults as well (Simon Growl anyone?), and has educational merit.

Warburtons has added three new brioche products to its range. There's a chocolate chip brioche loaf, brioche swirls with creme patisserie, and brioche butter rolls. And they sent all three to me, yes to me, all to me mwah ha ha ha!

All right, as exciting as it was to get that much brioche in the post, I am afraid that processed flour and my digestive system have developed a few issues as I've got older. So as much as I wanted to just open it all, stick it in a big tub, and dive in face first, I resisted.

Instead I took them along to a PTA morning to try them out with the ladies who coffee, in between packing sweets for the fundraiser tuck shop, organise meeting dates, and all the other mind numbingly boring stuff we do to help support our kids (well actually it is also kind of fun too!).

Here's their verdicts.

The Flash Drive Bracelets from ChicksRule are totally funky and ideally suited to young people, but a fun loving adult wouldn’t be totally averse to using it either.

The PVC Flash Drive Bracelet is all of those things. It’s a bracelet, it’s a USB Flash Drive, it’s plastic, and it’s a bracelet. The characters on the Heart Noggings bracelet are from the David & Goliath range of fashion items, and along with the funk factor it has a purpose – the 2GB USB drive.

There’s not masses to say about this, from a functionality point of view – stick it in the computer, transfer your files, keep it with you. Doesn’t really get easier. A red light flickers to tell you it’s connecting, and while connected the red light remains on.  The USB bit is what makes the ‘clasp’ for that turns it into a bracelet.

What is fantastic about it, however, is how durable it is. As soon as I took it out of it’s packaging, my two year old was all over it. Obviously, she doesn’t know what it is, but the colours and pictures totally appealed to her and for the next two days I couldn’t prize it out of her hands. I totally expected it to end up broken, but it didn’t. She swung it, twisted it, nibbled on it and did all sorts to it, but it remained as good as new. That really impressed me.

There are five of these bracelets in thee range: junk food, heart noggins, sushi roller, veggies and sweet treats, and they are all really sweet. At £15 they are more pricey than your average 2GB memory stick, but they are very cute and I can imagine most tweens and teens would love them.

They certainly get a huge thumbs up from my toddler!

My heart soars with happiness whenever I get assigned anything from Hampton Blue to review, let me explain why!

First of all you need to picture what Hampton Blue is like, close your eyes and take a little imaginary journey with me...

You're on holiday in a quaint little English village somewhere on the coast; you stroll through the adorable high street and stumble across a little shop selling things you'd use but aren't like all the usual run-of-the-mill versions you normally find.

THAT, is Hampton Blue and I feel it's only fair to issue a stern PlayPennies public service announcement:

Let me start this review by saying that it ends better than it starts, so read to the end to get a full view of this product!

I am just not a fan of things that encourage separation between a mother and child. I don’t like parenting aids that give parents relief at the cost of a child’s attachment. Of course, that’s my parenting style, and different strokes for different folks and all that, but still, I was terribly sceptical about this product when it first arrived on my desk.

Cuskiboo is basically an organically grown bamboo comforter with a stuffed head and ‘hat’. It’s touted as being able to “help create a cozy, safe environment for your little one to drift off to sleep still feeling the closeness of you”.  CuskiBoo is designed to “soothe, calm and reassure you and your baby.”

Becothings ,them of the BecoPotty and BecoStep, have brought out a new product: The BecoFeeding Set.

The BecoFeeding Set is an eco-friendly feeding set, made from natural plant fibres found in bamboo and rice husks. These are sustainable and durable, making them environmentally friendly and free from all the plastic related BPA and Phthalates.

This feeding set is available in three different colours, blue, pink and a very natural looking green.

The set consists of three parts – a plate, a bowl and a cup.

The cup is what they call a ‘slim design’, in other words it’s not round, but actually oval shaped, with raised sides to avoid spilling. It is designed in this odd shape to make it easier for little hands to grip onto, which I can agree that it is.

The bowl has the same curved ridges, which is quite good looking, and could easily serve as adult cereal bowls too. It’s quite shallow, which is good for little hands too as they don’t have to be particularly much higher than the bowl to get to the bottom of it.

The plate is really lovely. It is in a flower shape, with the same high sides, although not as high as the bowl, which is great for providing resistance with putting things on a fork, rather than it ending up all over the table.

As with the other BecoThings products, this Feeding set is made from natural plant fibres, is ethically manufactured, and is biodegradeable, so it won’t be in landfill when your little one’s children have their grand children, which is always a nice thought.

From a practical use point of view, the BecoThings BecoFeeding set is top drawer dishwasher safe,  and it is food safe. It is not,  however, microwave safe, but then child and baby food shouldn’t really be microwaved anyway.

The set is available from BecoThings, and a few other stores and RRP’s at £11.99, which really isn’t bad for the quality of the product you’re getting.

There’s just no end to what’s available for children these days, but statements about there being more now than there was when I was a child just make me feel old. There are so many beautiful ways of commemorating and celebrating children and childhood, and Little Ollie is one such a company making beautiful hand-made products.

Little Ollie Handmade Gifts is a husband and wife team with many years’ experience within crafts and bespoke furniture making. Their products are hand made to order, and nothing is mass produced   - with the exception, I expect, of the electric bits for the clock.

Little Ollie have a selection of themes to choose from, including Sail boat, Space Rocket,  Cupcake, Butterflies, Pirate Ships and Transport,  Fairytale and Hearts. Personalised gifts include a money box, photo frame, clock, decorative wall hangings and announcement plaques.

You know those sleeping bags for babies? Well, my firstborn hated them. She would twist and contort her body in ways I didn’t think possible, and end up with half her body out or the bag around her neck. It was rather frightening. We found that if we kept the shoulder bits clipped shut, but unzipped the body, she’d kick it off. Now, two years later, she still kicks off every blanket you put on her, regardless of the temperature or time of year.

I wish we’d had the Gunapod with her, because it’s a fantastic baby sleeping bag and we’re loving it with our new baby.

What makes it different? Well, it has the standard front zipper and shoulder snaps, but then it also has a unique all around zipper, which allows for simple nappy changing, for a start, as you can open just the bottom and baby can remain dressed and warm with minimal disturbance.

You can open the Gunapod in a variety of combinations, as it actually has the option of opening from under one arm all the way to under the other. This means you can also open parts of it if baby is like my eldest and just gets too hot.

For older babies or children, you can also leave the bottom open for free movement of feet or walking around, but staying warm. The fabric is also super soft and incredibly cuddly. It makes for snuggly babies. It’s also great for use in the car seat or if you’re out and about as there’s no need to add a blanket – just transfer baby and off you go!

The only improvement they could make is to add sleeves that could be zipped on and off for long or short sleeves!

The Gunapod is available from Tesco online, and is a highly recommended buy if you’re going to be buying baby sleeping bags!

There was a time when I thought all soft toys were a bit rubbish. I mean what are they for exactly? It seemed like for the most part my son, then a toddler, felt the same way. He wouldn't have anything to do with them. Fast forward five years and he can't go anywhere/to sleep without his penguin, parrot, teddybear, and Remy from Ratatouille.

There's something just so comforting about them, and lovable. And why not have a little bit more love in our lives? Which is why we were interested when Hallmark told us that they were launching  a new interactive toy called Abigail (£19.99).

Abigail is part of their range of interactive Story Buddy soft toys. She's a soft, brown bunny and joins Watson the Racoon, Cooper the Bear and Jingle the Husky Dog.

The blurb on the website describes her as a real 'girl's girl', which might be the case but this soft little thing also turned out to be a real boy's girl as well. At least in my house.

Abigail comes complete with her own story book, ‘Abigail and the Balance Beam’, which follows the chatty bunny trying to make her mum extra proud of her by performing gymnastics.  As passages from the book are read aloud, Abigail springs to life and joins in the story!

So that's the story behind Abigail. What was she like in real life? Read on to find out.

A couple of years ago, when my son started school, I began a tradition of making him a photo book. Just to show him what he did, what he liked, and what had been important for him that particular year.

These have been a huge success, and what I love most about these books is that I can use them to keep everything. All his school projects for example. I won't be able to keep all those projects themselves, but he will always have the photographs.

I really wanted to extend this to other things, and tried valiantly to keep scrapbooks for him. But you know, these take a lot of time, and more than a little bit of organising. And I just don't have that sort of spare time.

My husband makes notes in his diary. First time son did X, cute thing son said, when we went to X, and so forth. Really love to look back over the years and see these notes, but a little bit impersonal just jotting these things down in a paper diary.

So then the wonderful Tamsin at PlayPennies had this fabulous idea. What about something in between? A journal that you can keep about and just make notes in.

For someone like me who adores stationery with a passion, this was like a dream come true. I spent hours drooling over just the right sort of book, and then Paperblanks offered us the chance to try out two of their specially made journals.

Would I ever, in a million years, pay £16.99 for a blank notebook? Nothing comes into this house unless it is good value for money (unless it is a tie in merchandising for some US TV show but that's a whole other rant) and what could possibly make these worth the money? There was only one way to find out.

Click here to read more...

I recently took advantage of the Polly Pocket Super Fashion Collection deal that is running at Argos right now. The entire box of Polly Pocket goodies has been reduced from £43.98 to £16.49 which is substantially less than half price. My daughter begged me to take her to buy this with her pocket money and now, five days later, I can tell you what the pack is like.

First off I have to say that there is no way on this Earth that I would spend nearly £50 on this kit. At the reduced price it is just about value for money. The Polly Pocket kit comes with five dolls and loads of accessories and within 24 hours one of the head connectors had broken as had the strap of one of the dresses. That is ONE DAY later!

The concept is genius, I will grant you that, and the texture of the plastic outfits is awesome. You can slide them on and off, enjoy changing outfits for ages, and really get into the whole thing. Even I enjoyed playing with them and my daughter! It brought out my inner child.

The dolls are ace but can’t sit down or stay standing and some of the outfits are fiendishly difficult to put on – especially for a six year old. However, my daughter absolutely loves these Polly Pockets and their fashion accessories. She plays with them constantly and for that alone I have to give them a final positive result.

I think that if you can get Polly Pocket sets on sale, then they are worth the spend as they offer fun and imaginative play. I wouldn’t advise spending £40+ on the bigger kits though, rather wait until they are on sale and grab them then.

I am quite ridiculously sentimental in a way that my practicality would hide rather well. Each of my piercings have special memories, as does each of my tattoos. But as I’m not a punk rocker or a teen ager, I don’t particularly want to be covered in metal or pictures, so have had to find a new form of commemoration and remembrance: Jewellery.

I think that’s why Cutey appeals to me. The descriptions on individual items are romantic and dreamy, like “This rich and unusual bracelet is full of remembrance, memory and wisdom” or “this bracelet embraces the soil and foliage, the roots and the branches of life on our planet.” Of course, that’s all fine and well, but it doesn’t really mean anything, does it? Except that it speaks to the intention of the pieces of jewellery, and makes them romantic and classical.

I have the Momus style with beautiful glass beads, two star charms and a tower charm – you can choose tower or bell with this style – to signify a place of safety.

Quality wise, I think these bracelets belie their costume jewellery prices:

They’re made out of good materials, and feel weighty and look expensive. They certainly don’t look like they cost as little as £12.99.

The clasp is the most unusual I’ve ever seen. I can’t explain it, but have a look at the picture. That clasp opens to have two distinctive parts, one that links in to the other. It’s unusual and lovely and looks like another charm.

When the clasp is open, the charms and glass beads can be pulled off the bracelet so you can change the order or add and remove them to personalise it to your own style.

The only downside to the bracelet is that it is a one-sized bracelet, and I found it quite tight fitting on my large-ish wrists. But most watches and bracelets usually sit quite tightly on my arm, so if you’re blessed with delicate bones, or even normal sized wrists, it won’t be a problem at all. Even so, I can still close it – it just doesn’t jangle on my arm.

Apart from the actual appearance, the presentation is nice enough too. Each bracelet comes in a sealed see-through bag, with a ‘Cutey’ tag attached to it with black ribbon. It’s all very elegant and pretty, and at that price, is a total steal.

We’ve been reviewing a range of baby food accessories from Annabel Karmel  and NUK over the last few weeks, some of which we love and some of which are perfectly fine, but didn’t rock our world.

Starting with the Stackable Food Pots, I must come clean on something first: my eldest daughter is two years old and my youngest is a month old today, so we didn’t use these for purees. In fact, we practice Baby Led Weaning, so my eldest rarely saw a puree, and I never mushed up food for her, so I don’t really have much of a basis of comparison of these as suitable for purees. However, they are fantastic pots for snacks when out and about and we’ve actually been using them for breakfasts too.

I make a litre of yoghurt for our family about once a week, and then disseminate the yoghurt from the maker into portions for the week. Add a few nuts, fruit and so on, and pop them in the fridge and my hubby can pull one out in the morning for her. The portion size is perfect – it looks a bit small, but honestly, it’s about as much as she eats.

The other thing they are perfect for is snacks while out and about – raisins, small cubes of fruit and so on. I’m not so good at the ‘snacks on the go’ thing yet, but when we do, it’s the perfect size.

Being a photographer, on the odd occasion,  in my offline line, I LOVE to see people actually do things with their photographs.  Far too often they just sit in the 'My Pictures' folder on their computer and rarely see the light of day.

You could buy a photo album, buy some photo paper, stock up on printer ink (which is dead expensive and often costs more to replace than the printer cost to buy - what is WITH that?!) then print your photos, cut them out and stick them in.

But WHAT a faff!  It will also, most probably, cost more than creating a personalised photo book with BonusPrint and won't look anywhere near as good. I know this because BonusPrint asked me to go through their 'create a personalised photo book' process and let you know how I got on.

I miss Barry Scott*. He was in many ways the perfect man. What's not to love about a man who is so enthusiastic about cleaning? And Barry liked cleaning with a definite manly fervour. Bang! And the dirt is gone!

It sold me on Cillit Bang cleaners I have to say. Maybe that makes me a bit sad but when you're staring at rows of cleaning products with no real way to tell the difference between some of them, you go by price and what jumps out at you. Barry Scott could jump out at me at any time. If he did that in Sainsbury's though it might be a bit awkward.

Living in a hard water area, I've found that their cleaners are the only stuff that really works on my bath.

Did I really want to put that sort of cleaning power on my ... dishes? That was the first thought that crossed my mind when I got the latest product from the company. The Cillit Bang All In 1 Dish and Surface cleaner is designed for just that purpose. You can use it to clean your dishes and the surfaces in your kitchen. The starter pack is currently only available on their Facebook page, and at the special price of £9.99. For this you get a dispenser and a refill.

So how did it pan out? Did I dare use all that bang on my crockery? Read on to find out more.

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We all know, and most of us love, the traditional Moses Basket. There’s something so cute and newborn about it. It just feels baby-ish, I guess because it is.

We’ve had two Moses Baskets for our two daughter, and each has come from Freecycle, which is great, because they’re pricey for what they are and for how long they last – especially with babies born in the second have of the 50’s centimeters in length.

The Shnuggle Moses Basket is a Moses Basket with a difference. For a start, it’s made of a hypoallergenic polymer, rather than wicker. This means that it’s less of a dust trap, and is easy to clean and sterilise. If it’s been in storage for a while, it can be wiped off and be as fresh as a new one. If baby wets or spits up, wash and clean, easy as pie – no seeping into the wicker. That’s really great if you have a child with allergies, especially against dust mites.

The Shnuggle doesn’t creak like a traditional Moses basket, so putting baby down or trying to rock them in the basket isn’t noisy and won’t disturb them.

The Shnuggle comes with blankets, a stay up hood and a lovely mattress. It is a complete set although you need to buy the stand separate.

The Shnuggle is also larger than the traditional Moses basket, so your baby will be able to use it for a little longer than most newborns use them, and it is a lot sturdier than the traditional – espeically if it’s been handed down a few times. This is particularly useful if you have an older sibling who likes peeking in to see her baby sister – or whatever the genders in your family are. I feel a lot more secure with the Shnuggle, which we use downstairs for daytime sleep, as I know that my daughter isn’t going to tip the baby  out accidentally.

A Moses Basket is one of those expensive baby items that doesn’t last long, so having one that not only lasts longer, but can be safely stored and used for the next baby is a bonus – especially when it is hypoallergenic and hygenic.

The Hydrant is a hands free water bottle that is marketed to those on bed rest, in wheel chairs and so on, and is specifically useful during childbirth or breastfeeding. Basically, it’s a standard water bottle with a clip handle so that it can be hung in unusual places, with a 44” pipe and mouth piece.

I first used the Hydrant during my second baby’s birth. We had a home water birth and there wasn’t space to put a bottle that I could reach it, so having a bottle that could rest on the floor with a drinking nozzle that reached all the way up to me was pretty perfect. I drank deep mouthfuls of fresh water between contractions, as I found the gas and air really dried my mouth out, so it was perfect for that.

Then, afterwards, I also found having a waterbottle handy for breastfeeding, which also makes me terribly thirsty, was particularly helpful. I have a bottle I carry around with me, but when a newborn wants to feed they want to feed now, so being able to pop onto my ‘spot’ on the sofa and have a one litre bottle there ready and waiting dedicated to this purpose is pretty great too.

The most useful place for me so far, however, has been in bed at night. I take it up with me when I go to bed and clip it onto the basinet which currently serves as a blanket storage basket. As I cosleep with two under three at the moment, I get very, very thirsty during and after night feeds, and theres little worse than lying in bed with your tongue stuck to your pallet from dehydration, but not wanting to move because you don’t want to wake up your babies!  The Hydrant is just there, I can grab the tube and rehydrate to my heart’s content, without moving much other than my forearm. Fabulous.

This bottle is meant for cold drinks, not hot, and it is dishwasher safe. If used in hospital the tube and valve should be changed and sterilised daily – and as this bottle is highly recommended for c-section recovery, it would be worth having spares.

I’m really chuffed with The Hydrant. It’s such a simple idea, but so useful. And it seems the NCT agree as they sell it in their shop, and there are great reviews on the NCT site from other mums who’ve used it too.

I love babywearing. For us it’s become a way of life, and with our second baby we don’t even have a pushchair, because we ended up carrying our first until she was 18 months, and have every intention of doing the same this time. It’s wonderful going about your business and your day with your baby warmly and securely strapped to you, freeing up your hands and in many ways, freeing up your time.  In a sling, both my babies (so far!) cry less*, they’re warm and content with the body heat and what’s more, they don’t develop flat heads! With my first I even did Latino Bambino – a form of salsa dancing where you carried your baby in a sling while you danced and exercised!

We have a variety of slings, and recently we’ve been testing the Caboo Carrier, sent to us from the NCT shop.  In babywearing speak, it’s a sort of a hybrid between a Moby and a Mai Tai, as it has straps to fasten, and a length of material to wrap too!

It is hard to review chocolate because everybody is different. Some think that anything less than 70% cocoa is not chocolate, others believe that it can only be made in Belgium, and others think it is not allowed to be flavoured. I believe that if it tastes nice, then I love it.

When I decided to review the Thorntons Easter Range I got one very unusual Easter egg that has actually taken over this review. It was the Lemon Meringue Pie egg. Yes, you read that right. This chocolate egg is part of their Great British Puds range, it costs £14.99 and you can also choose Eton Mess Egg or Banoffee Pie Egg if you prefer.

The Lemon Meringue Egg had this sort of ruffled up area in the front that had us poking it nervously, sadly the post had killed it a bit and it looked nothing like the photo anymore. None of us wanted to be the first to eat it. I bravely stepped in and took a chunk and OH EM G it was GOOD. The entire egg – all 425g of it – was gone in two hours. We all hoovered it down and could not stop. The end of the night saw us all lying on sofas and groaning.

This egg was an unexpected treat. It tasted very creamy and light, and yet it still managed to throw a little lemon meringue in there without being overly sweet and icky. The chocolate was smooth and that special kind of white chocolate silky I love, and the funny bit in the front was this utterly divine chewy lemon curd style decoration that we actually fought over.

While the Lemon Meringue Pie Egg is not online at the moment, it may be sold out, you can get the other two flavours that I am willing to bet taste just as good. Now, if you’ll excuse me, there is a Banoffee Pie Egg with my name on it…

Have you watched Pointless on BBC1?  It's hosted by Alexander Armstrong (of funny Armstrong and Miller fame) and is almost the reverse of Family Fortunes in a strange kind of way.

Basically, 100 people were asked a question and their answers to it totaled up - so if the question was 'name the signs of the zodiac' and 50 people said Libra then the answer 'Libra' would be worth 50 points; if two people said 'Aquarius' then the answer 'Aquarius' would be worth two points.

If no one said 'Gemini' then the answer 'Gemini' would be deemed as a pointless answer because it's not worth any points - and THAT is the point of pointless, score as FEW points as possible to avoid being eliminated.

It's quite fun to watch on TV when you've got your head around the concept that the most popular answer earns you lots of points that you don't want, and a wrong answer will net you a whopping 100 of them.

So we've been doing a bit of 'homework' in readiness for this review by watching a few episodes of Pointless and we - my daughter and I - were feeling quite confident, last night, when we unleashed the board game version.  Here's how we got on...