This week we’ve been eating what my children like to call ‘real meals’, thanks to a new food delivery service from Hello Fresh. If you’re thinking of giving Hello Fresh a go, have a read of my review and you could get £25 off your first order. Do leave your own comments too if you’ve given Hello Fresh a try recently.

Quite frankly, I think my inspired pasta dishes count as ‘real meals’, but apparently just mixing up pasta with whatever you happen to have left in the fridge doesn’t count as cordon bleu. What do they know?

Still, I have to admit that there is something satisfying about using Actual Ingredients, and following a recipe. It’s not my normal style, mainly because recipes are usually so expensive. You may only need a handful of chopped fresh coriander, but you can’t buy it by the handful can you? You end up spending out loads just to get a teaspoon each of five weird herbs you don’t have and will never use again.

This is why Hello Fresh is so good. Not only do they send you the recipes, but they send you all the ingredients you need, in just the right amounts. Costs are kept to a reasonable level, you aren’t left with an almost full bottle of red wine vinegar sitting in the back of your cupboard for the next five years, and you get lots of cute things in mini packets. It’s really very sweet.

"Hello Fresh review"

Om nom nom

This week we ate a yummy fresh prawn linguine, a smoked mackerel, new potato and green bean salad, and a couscous dish with chicken, chorizo, salad leaves and courgettes.

They were all delicious, although the couscous dish did make us a bit farty…

Hello Fresh isn’t not cheap of course, but the quality of the ingredients really was superb – the meatiest, most flavoursome prawns I’ve ever tasted – and with free delivery and no waste I reckon it’s pretty good value for money. So much so, that I’ve actually placed a regular order. Recommendations don’t come better than that.

If you fancy giving it a try, use this link or the code JOMID for £25 off your first order.

Bon appetit!

Have you tried the service? Leave your own Hello Fresh reviews and let everyone know what you think! 

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Today I’ve been working at a real office.

It is pretty fun. There are real people, I get a security pass, and there’s a coffee machine and everything. Today I got quite excited about having a macchiato, which made me feel a bit like Bryn in Gavin and Stacey experimenting with the wonders of mint Baileys and the World Wide Web.

I am very much a ‘grass is always greener’ person, so when I’m working a nine to five office job I long to be at home in my pyjamas, but when I get there, I’m looking for an excuse to get dressed and go to work.

Fickle some might call it.

I like to think of it more as a Hunger For New Challenges.

It got me thinking though about the way I work at home, and the extra pressures that come with being self-employed. Some I think are self-inflicted, but others must apply to thousands of people managing their own time. Here are some of the things I miss about being self-employed:

Holidays – this is the obvious one. When you work for someone else, you get time off, where they pay you to lie-in the sunshine. I know that effectively it just means they spread your wages out a bit, so you earn less on a daily basis, but it feels so much nicer doesn’t it? When you’re self-employed, all time spent not working is potential income lost. Even if you budget for holidays, it makes it harder to switch off.

Sickies – now obviously I have never taken a sneaky day off in my whole life, honest, but I imagine that if you did, it would feel very exciting, and give day time television a whole new appeal. Taking a day off when you work for yourself is really no fun at all. You don’t get paid, and it just means you have to do more the next day.

Coffee breaks – I’m sure there aren’t many offices nowadays where people take actual coffee breaks, but there is something really relaxing about being able to go off and make a drink, knowing you’re getting paid for it. Same with going to the toilet – you can have a wee and earn a pound. Bargain. I also like the forced lunch break, as I’m rubbish when I’m working at home at taking proper regular lunch breaks, and I rarely go out for any fresh air.

Other people – funnily enough, there are dozens of other people hanging around in my study at home for a chat and a bit of office banter, and if there were, I’d wonder where they all came from, and probably have to call the police. I love having the voices going on in the background, and it’s much more satisfying than just having the radio on, as people will talk back to you.

Regular income – I thought I might enjoy the excitement of not being sure exactly how much money I’d take home every month, but it turns out that it’s actually quite scary. Who’d have thought it?

(Are you beginning to get the impression that I didn’t really think this self-employment think through?)

(I didn’t.)

All in all though, I can’t complain. Yes you sacrifice paid holidays, sick leave, social contact and job security, but you do get to go to work in your pyjamas. And that’s pretty cool.

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When you think of me, as I’m sure you often do, idling away those quiet moments at work or at home, I’m sure that one of the things you think of first is hoovering.

No?

OK, so maybe it’s not the first thing you thing of, but I did once write that post about housework you know. I think I suggested throwing crumbs behind the sofa.

Despite my domestic sluttery however, I was recently chosen to be one of 25 ‘Morphy Richards Innovators’, meaning that over the course of the year, Morphy Richards are going to send me some stuff, and I will tell them what I think. I’m guessing they are looking for more constructive criticism than ‘housework is pointless, you do it once and then you just have to do it all again later.’

The first thing they’ve sent me is this, the Lift Away Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner.

Here it is, for you to cast your expert vacuum cleaner eye over:

"Morphy Richards Lift Away"

Pretty snazzy isn’t it?

Morphy Richards say “The new Lift Away Bagless Upright Vacuum Cleaner features Never Loses Suction* technology with constant pick up performance.”

Sounds a bit like a Lynx advert doesn’t it? A lot of men would love to enhance their pick up performance. I reckon there’s something in it. A man does become a lot more attractive if they do the hoovering regularly. Especially if it’s all by themselves, without you having to say ‘darling, would you mind running the hoover round?’

I’m not sure though that men really appreciate just how much housework can increase their chances with women. My first bit of feedback for Morphy Richards would be this – reassess your target audience. Come up with an ad that shows a normal looking man pushing a vacuum cleaner around, followed by swarms of beautiful women. A bit like the Pied Piper. There are all kinds of puns you work around the concept of ‘suction power’.

What was I talking about?

Oh yes, vacuum cleaners.

Well, I can say, from experience now, that the Morphy Richards Lift Away does pick things up, which is a jolly good start. We’ve got a lot of floorboards, and I liked that it’s so simple to switch the set up from carpets to hard floors. It was perhaps a little more effective on the carpets, but then they’re the important bit to keep clean anyway aren’t they? Slightly dusty floorboards are fine. That’s just shabby chic.

I found the pivoting floorhead really easy to use, and also loved the ‘Lift Away Detachable Canister’, which means, as you may have guessed, that you can detach the canister as you clean, giving you more flexibility.

"Morphy Richards vacuum cleaner"

PIVOT! PIVOT!!

This was really handy on the stairs, especially as I’m a little on the clumsy side, and have a habit of bashing things against the walls (accidentally) if they’re too heavy or unwieldy.

Another great selling point? It’s purple! Funky.

I wouldn’t say it made housework fun exactly, but it certainly made it easy. We’ll just have to wait and see about the never-ending suction.

*cue those bikini clad babes*

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Would you like to make money from your blog? Perhaps you harbour dreams of making the move from amateur blogger to professional writer or journalist?

A while ago I reviewed the expert telephone service from Greatvine, and found it really interesting, so I very happily agreed when they offered me the chance to review their new email expert service.

Because the question and answer are exchanged via email, I thought it would be great to ask a question that you all might be interested in, and to then reproduce the answer in full, so that you can get an idea of exactly what you get for your money.

My expert was Joycellyn Akuffo, a journalist and online business coach, and founder and editor of Mothers Who Work. I asked Joycellyn this:

"Make money from blogging"

Grab that cash

What advice do you have for ‘mummybloggers’ who want to turn their hobby into a job? How can someone go from being a blogger to a paid writer, earning a living while at the same time working flexibly around their family?

The answer came back to me in less than 24 hours, even though it was a weekend, and Joycellyn’s answer was very thorough. I would have perhaps liked to have seen some further sources of information included – it was an email, so it would have been easy to include hyperlinks – but then to be fair my question was fairly broad. I guess too that the experts want to leave scope for further questions!

Here is what Joycellyn said, so you can decide for yourself. Do let me know if you find it useful.

…

Writing and blogging – these days you could be forgiven for thinking that they are all the same. Some bloggers really know their stuff and they have a natural knack of getting the point across to thous ands of people every day or month.

But the two specialties differ, and with it does the training involved or required, and the income can vary too.

Making money from a blog

Let’s start with blogging. First of all a blog can be run by someone who isn’t a writer – most of them are owned by non-professional writers. Some are run by professional writers, journalists and editors.

There are a number of ways to make money from a blog, but they all require one basic thing – traffic and lots of it. So here goes:

1. Search Engine Advertising – this can be using the age-old Google Adsense ads. You would have seen text ads on some blogs, with Google Ads written on them, and sometimes banner ads, again with the Google branding on them. These won’t make you rich, but  if your blog gets lots of traffic, you could probably pay for your hosting or a handbag and shoes three or four times a year. How much you make will depend on the top ic of your blog (these ads are keyword based), and the cost that advertisers are prepared to pay for each click in the sector. Some keywords cost as little as a penny, others cost a couple to a few pounds.

Other search engines like Yahoo and Bing also have their own advertising programmes that basically do the same as Google Adsense.

2. Affiliate Marketing – this is when you promote other people’s products and services on your blog. You can sign up to affiliate platforms like Tradedoubler.com, Affiliatewindow.com and Clickbank.com and start adding links and banners from well-known brands to your website.

These can bring in commission as little as 5% per sale to around 20% per sale. Some schemes (though few and far between these days) will pay per click like Google Adsense, but they are mainly cat per action (this can be per sign-up for surveys, for example, or a purchase).

Many people like promoting relevant products on Amazon th rough their affiliate programme, but like all of these schemes, it won’t make you a millionaire.

3. Direct Advertising – this is when you deal with a brand or company directly. Either you call and speak with their marketing department or they contact you. This form of advertising could be a sponsored post, where they supply you with an article (or you can charge a little extra to write a post yourself).

A lot of advertising agencies do this and will contact blogs offering a pittance to put a post up to see if the blogger will either be too inexperienced to know they are being ripped off, or are too desperate to tell them where to go!

Sponsored ads can bring in from say £50-£500 per post, and will depend on not only your website’s traffic, but also your page rank.

If you’re interested in this form of making money, you should really create a media pack. This is usually a PDF which you can send out to advertisers when they request it (or when you’re trying to get advertising off your own back), and will contain details about your blog’s traffic stats, the type of people who visit your website, a rate card (cost of advertising) and contact details.

4. Selling Products/Services – if you can sell products or a service (like webinars, membership or other service), you can start to make ‘proper’ money. You will basically be providing something that your website visitors need and want and keep them coming back for more. It doesn’t have to be lots of products or services – sometimes just one or a handful will do the trick.

To move from being a mummyblogger to a money-making mummyblogger, you could use a mix of the above, or option 4. With a product that people want and need, and with enough promotion, your blog could become a business run by you, in your own time, generating the income that you need to sustain the right work-life balance that your family needs.

Writers

Without teaching a chicken to suck eggs, a writer is usually a person who writes books, or may come from say a medical background and is seen as an expert, so starts writing a column or a regular feature for a publication or website. Journalists are sometimes (incorrectly) lumped into the same group – especially freelance journalists, but clearly they come from a media background and have had the training and experience looking for a story and crafting it etc.

Writers of books and novels may not necessarily be trained. Some may have taken a creative writing course, if their interest is in books.

Journalists, like I said earlier are trained. They would usually have done a media writing course, a media law course and have worked on various publications – some have a specialty and some don’t…a journalist is trained to be able to write about any subject, you see.

If you are a blogger who is an expert, you could make money spiriting books. These days, you don’t need a great big publisher to succeed – thanks to Kindle and just having the ability to sell your own ebooks from any website. How much you make really depends on how much interest or need there is for your subject area, and how much promotion you can do. A lot of these types of writers often get a break with one good media push and then they get in a bestseller’s list and start raking in the cash!

Journalists usually pitch an idea to an editor. This is a small proposal of a few paragraphs which details what the article is going to be about, plus an idea of case studies/expert quotes etc.

What they are paid will vary – smaller publications can pay as little as £250 for a 1,000-word article…maybe less if the journalist has less experience. Larger publications like the nationals can pay up to and in excess of £1,000 for an investigative piece or a good celebrity interview. Again, it depends on the experience of the journalist and the editor’s budget.

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There are plenty of things in life that I am good at. I can read and write, score the odd goal at netball, hold down a job and fold an excellent origami prawn.

There are other things that I’ve just had to accept that I can’t do. Roast beef is one of them. Style hair is another. When I was asked then to review a pair of the new limited edition peacock ghd hair straighteners, it was not without a sense of impending doom that I accepted.

This is my hair normally. You can see that I could use a little help in the volume department.

Peacock GHD review

Me before I look like Anne Hathaway

First things first, I got out my new peacock ghds, which come in a rather gorgeous box and satin bag, and are embellished with lovely peacock designs. I have a bit of a penchant for peacocks, which was what swung me to say yes to the review in the first place.

Twenty minutes later, feeling rather flushed from the close proximity to such efficient ceramic plates, I didn’t really feel I had quite captured the catwalk look.

“How’s the hair going?” asked Belle, bounding into my bedroom and stopping dead when she saw me. “Oh, I see, not so good is it?”

“No, not really,” I said.

“It does look better from the front than the back though,” she added trying to be comforting. “Would you like me to get a mirror so you can see?”

“No!” I shouted. “I mean no thank you,” I said more quietly. “I think just the front view is enough.”

The trouble was that the more I tried to fix it, the worse it got. I just can’t explain it. I’m not stupid, and the ghds are fine – they are beautiful, they heat up in seconds, they’re easy to use – hair just always goes wrong when I touch it.

Here is my finished style:

GHD review

Still not looking at all like Anne Hathaway

You see?

*sighs and resigns self to a lifetime of sloppy buns*

I was sent these to review by Regis Salons.

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Today I accidentally created a science experiement. It cuaght me unawares, but I have recreated it for you here, so you can be impressed.

Sometimes when I make coffee I like to heat up an inch of milk first, and then add the coffee and hot water. Today I thought I’d go nuts* and make my own mocha, by heating up a bit of chocolate milk instead.

My ingredients were Kenco Millicano instant coffee sachets and Kara dairy free chocolate coconut milk:

coffee experiment

My lab kit

Here’s what happened next…

Once it (and I) had calmed down and I’d given the sides a bit of a wipe, I topped it up with boling water and it was very tasty.

*I’m mad I am! *jazz hands*

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Last week I turned 34. I may still get asked for ID to buy a bottle of wine*, but I am noticing a certain general achiness creeping up on me. Basically I am getting old.

If you are someone who has always been sporty, you are not likely to let wear and tear in your joints get the better of you.  If however, you are someone like me, who has, until my recent discovery of netball, been more of a ‘glass of wine up to mouth’ type of exerciser, then you might be a bit more wary of where to start.

Fear not. Light sporting activities such as the following, carried out regularly, can help keep joints healthy and mobile. If you have any aches or pains, try out CBD products to help relieve pain. There are plenty of products on the market, so make sure you do your research around the CBD oil UK options to find the best fit for you and your circumstances.

You could also consider kratom, a relative of the coffee plant, as a method of pain relief. Kratom can be bought in capsule form, or check out this article if you’re interested in how to make your own kratom capsules.

You could also consider CBD oil for weight loss if extra weight holds you back when it comes to sport.

Swimming

Movements that can be painful if done out of water can seem a lot easier when swimming. The resistance of the water ensures evenness of movement, and it’s a great way to relax the joints, loosen muscles and to avoid stress overload. Physical activity in the water helps to strengthen the heart, improve circulatory and respiratory functions, stimulate metabolism and relax the muscles.

sports to keep joints healthy

Going for a casual stress-free swim

Dancing

A personal favourite, dancing is not only fun, it also keeps you fit and is good for your health.  Movement and pressure on joints is controlled by the tempo, length of the steps and positions of the body.  Due to the low risk of injury, dancing is recommended even for people with arthritis in the knee, and really old people like me.

Walking and hiking

Walking keeps you fit. Fact. Nordic walking, which uses sticks, (to help you walk, not to knock slow people out of the way with), is a great way to relieve the pressure on the knee joints, and both walking and hiking are knee-friendly alternatives to jogging. Due to the fact that one leg is always on the ground, this means there is no shock impact to the joints and spine. Make sure you have all the correct gear too, to minimise risk. Check out Onlysportsgear.com if you need some inspiration.

Cycling

When cycling, your body weight rests on the saddle, (poor saddle), taking the pressure off the knee joints. Make sure you pedal round and evenly with not too much resistance. If pain occurs it means that you have overworked your knee and that the step resistance is too high. The best form of training is on an exercise bike because then you can adjust step resistance, height of the seat and handlebars according to your needs.

Whether cycling is performance-based or simply for pleasure, there is scarcely another sport that keeps the knee mobile and stress free. The seat height should be adjusted so that your leg is almost fully extended when the pedal is at its lowest point.

Pain relief

If you do find yourself suffering from any joint pain, Arnica is a great remedy, and will be familiar to many people as a treatment for bruises.  Pain relief in stiff muscles and joints can be soothed using a herbal remedy made from fresharnicaflowers in an easy-to apply gel form – ideal for muscle aches and pains, stiffness and after sporting injuries.

Of course, not all pain comes directly from working out. If your pain is the result of an accident that wasn’t your fault, it provides you with a few different options from which to choose. For example, in situations where a sports injury has caused you a great deal of pain, a personal injury lawyer might have the ability to get you some sort of settlement, in addition to rehabilitation support. Many lawyers will take your case on a no win, no fee basis, so you will not have to pay for these services unless you are awarded some compensation.

For more information about Arnica visit the www.avogel.co.uk/herbal-remedies/arnica-gel-atrogel/

*This actually happened to me yesterday. It was annoying but cool at the same time.

Photo credit – notsogoodphotography

 

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Looking to shift a bit of weight? Have a read of my Skinny Sprinkles review to see if this product could help you…

I’m one of those people who love eating. I love the taste of food, I love how it feels in my mouth and I love how it makes me feel. To me, eating isn’t just a survival thing, it’s a total pleasure. I often think that if I could have one wish, I’d choose to be able to eat and drink whatever I wanted and it never have any adverse effect on my weight or health. Sod world peace.

Which is all well and good, except eating does make you fat. There’s no escaping that, and eating at my normal rate, which is me being fairly restrained, seems to equate to putting on about half a stone every year. Half a stone may not seem like much, but add that up and it means that by the time I’m 50 I’ll have put on eight stone. Not pretty.

Now generally I don’t buy into the whole dieting culture, and I certainly don’t think women need to be thin to be sexy or desirable or feel good about themselves, but I also don’t particular want to be a heffalump when I retire, so when I was asked if I’d like to review Skinny Sprinkles, I thought I might as well give it a go, and see if I could shed some of 2011’s excess.

I was slightly worried at first that I’d signed up for one of those diet regimes where you eat nothing but shakes, but thankfully Skinny Sprinkles are snack replacements, rather than meal replacements, designed purely to control your appetite between meals and your portion sizes, rather than turning you into a starving, caffeinated lunatic.

When they arrived, I got rather excited by the idea of having three ‘smoothies’ a day as a treat, and after I’d made up the first one, (paying careful attention to the instructions, and not simply opening the sachet and sprinkling the powder into my mouth*), I began sipping my tasty snack. This was a big mistake. These ‘smoothies’ are not delicious. They taste a bit like soluble paracetamol with strawberry pips in. I would recommend stirring them really fast until everything is floating nicely, and then gulping it down in one. [Update – Skinny Sprinkles have improved their recipe since I wrote this – check out my later Skinny Sprinkles review for more info.]

Still, they are a diet aid, not a Mars Bar, and actually the fact that they were a tad gruesome worked in their favour. If I did find myself wanting something else to eat, I just remembered the smoothie, and asked myself ‘do I really want to have drunk that for nothing?’

I’m being a bit melodramatic, and they did grow on me after a while to be honest – I just needed to get into the right frame of mind, and not expect them to be an actual replacement, enjoyment wise, for three chocolate Hobnobs.

How do they work then? Well, here’s the science…

“Glucomannan is scientifically proven by the EFSA to aid weight reduction as part of a calorie controlled diet and is a water-soluble dietary fibre from the root of the Konjac plant. By delaying the absorption of glucose by the stomach, it slows down the digestive process and absorbs up to 200 times its weight in water – swelling when it mixes with water in your stomach – making you feel fuller.”

They also contain caffeine in the form of guarana and green tea for an extra pick me up, although I did check, and a whole day’s worth of sachets contains less caffeine than one fresh coffee, so you’re not going to be bouncing off the ceiling or anything.

And you know what? They actually worked. Whether it was the sachets themselves, the boost it gave to my willpower, or a combination of the two, I don’t know, but at the end of a week I had lost four whole pounds!

The downside I’d say is the cost. At £29.95 for a week’s supply, this certainly isn’t a cheap long-term solution, but I reckon for just a couple of weeks a year, if it means that for the other 50 I can eat my usual amount of cake for breakfast, then it’s not a bad investment at all.

Have you tried Skinny Sprinkles? Why not leave your own Skinny Sprinkles review in the comments and let me know what you think!

*This was an actual warning. Who would do that??

PS I am currently on the short list for the ‘Style’ award in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Please take half a minute to cast your vote and tick the Slummy single mummy box.

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Women love shopping. That’s a fact isn’t it? Particularly for shoes and bags, so the legend goes.

Which means I must be a man trapped in a woman’s body, because I actually don’t like shopping at all, especially not for shoes. In fact, I’d go as far as to say that shoe shopping is one of my Worst Things. After making packed lunches and remembering INSET days.

I’d love to be able to do it online and save the hassle, but shoes and clothes never fit me properly, so it’s a waste of time. Finding handbags online is easy though, handbags I can do, which is why I said ‘yes please, thank you very much’ when Zalando asked me to choose a bag and review their online shopping experience. If you’re looking for eco bags, check out jute bags online.

If like me you don’t relish the idea of having to actually get up off the sofa and go from shop to shop, trying to pick out something that, when you catch sight of yourself in the unflattering changing room mirrors, doesn’t make you want to be sick a bit in your mouth, then Zalando could be the place for you. They’ve a massive range of clothing, as well as loads of gorgeous women’s accessories, and the ordering process was extremely smooth.

The only thing I found a little bit annoying was that the images were quite small, and you had to click through to each individual product page to see them properly. Perhaps a larger image could pop up when you hover over something? Other than that though, it was all very easy and stress free. After some serious browsing, cup of tea in hand, I chose a bag.

Then all I had to do was sit back and wait. A couple of emails kept me informed of my parcel’s progress and, as promised, 3-5 working days later I was eagerly tearing open the box and deciding which of my many notebooks I was going to carry around in my new bag. I do like getting parcels. And buying notebooks.

The packaging was excellent, the bag was in perfect condition, and it was delivered by courier, so I didn’t have that annoying ‘Royal Mail red card even though I was home’ scenario. All in all a very smooth and stress free shopping experience – thanks Zalando!

I am currently on the short list for the ‘Style’ award in the Brilliance in Blogging Awards. Please take half a minute to cast your vote and tick the Slummy single mummy box.

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Last weekend I had the whole weekend to myself.

I will say that again for emphasis. The Whole Weekend.

It doesn’t happen often, but the forces of nature and orbits of the planets and such like all aligned so that everyone apart from me was somewhere else. The prospect was quite overwhelming, and by Saturday night I had resorted to making origami animal friends for myself, but we’ll brush over that part.

Keen to make the most of it, I set off on Saturday morning for a day of doing all the things that no one else in my family enjoys terribly much, like mooching about in book shops, and spending money in cafes. One thing I particularly like about being on my own is that you can leave places as soon as you like, so after fifteen minutes or so in a modern art gallery, when I realised I didn’t really understand what was going on, I could just leave, nodding sagely to myself, and know that no one would judge me. View Post

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Exciting times today my virtual chums.

I’ve had a couple of competitions running over the last few weeks, one to win a fabulous 3D mobile phone, and another to win a book of sex tips. And no, they don’t come as a package, although that could be fun too.

*mind wanders*

Anyhoo, today I am announcing the winners of both competitions, so hold on to the edge of your seats… View Post

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I had a bit of a quandary this morning. Part of me wanted to spark some sort of timely political debate, and ask you what you felt about the government’s decision to downgrade vocational course like fish husbandry(?), but then I thought ‘Nah, who cares about that, I’m what’s important here.’

So instead I want to ask for your help – help of a literary nature.

I’m putting together a feature for a regional magazine, and I’m looking for towns, cities and landmarks that are featured in well-known novels. They have to be in the south-west, in Bristol, Bath, Wiltshire, Somerset, Gloucestershire, Dorset, Devon or South Wales.

I know you’re a clever lot, so I thought you might have some good ideas for me. I also thought it might be interesting for you to read other people’s suggestions. Selfless I am…

Thank you!

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