Are any of your kids getting a scooter for Christmas?

We’re a little bit past the scooter age, but we’ve had our fair share of them in the past. We’ve had the tricky (for me) ones where you sort of have to lean to turn corners, and the metal ones that like to spin around and bash you on the ankles. They can be great for encouraging small people to leave the house, but you do have to be a little bit careful to use them properly. One of my pet hates is when kids scoot on pavements at school pick up time – they don’t seem to understand that other people have to use the pavement too.

*makes effort to stop sounding like an old lady*

Anyway, if a scooter is on the Christmas list, you might want to check out the scooters at Halfords, as they have 10% off until Monday, which means extra money for you for gin. Hoorah! They’ve also put together this scooter guide, to help your kids scoot in safety and do cool tricks. View Post

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So first up, what exactly is sous vide cooking?

Literally sous vide means ‘under vacuum’, but you’ll be pleased to hear that it definitely doesn’t mean you have to seal yourself into an airtight room and attempt to cook a roast dinner in a vacuum, like some sort of horrendous Crystal Maze challenge – only the food needs to be vacuum packed.

The idea behind it is to seal in all the freshness and goodness, so that the food you cook keeps as much flavour as possible. A chef somewhere apparently made a remark about asparagus and how you’d be better off chucking the asparagus in the bin after you’d cooked it, and drinking the water. It’s that.

Sous vide cooking means packing up all of your ingredients into a bag, taking out the air, and then cooking it in a water bath. The water bath is where Clifton at Home comes in.

Clifton at Home are based not far from me in Weston-Super-Mare, and so last week I went along to visit them and find out how it all works. They make their water baths right there in Weston, and have a kitchen on site where they test out recipes and invite chefs to try out the water baths for themselves. They also have a kitchen garden out the back, complete with an orchard and beehives, which you absolutely would not expect in the middle of an industrial estate. View Post

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Do you struggle to buy Christmas gifts for the men in your life? It can be pretty demoralising in the ‘gifts for me’ section in shops – not all men want cufflinks in the shape of golf balls.

To help you out, my fiance has put together a selection of things he would like for Christmas, partly to help you out, but also at a prompt for me I think. As if I would forget the Ashes DVD.

…

Ah, Christmas. It really is the most wonderful time of the year. That said, there is nothing worse that the sad feeling of receiving gifts from your loved ones that don’t quite hit the mark having put in a good deal thought and effort buying for them. Shallow and materialistic? Maybe, but my fake smile would have got me into RADA the year I received a poster of Kermit the frog with “frame to follow” written on the gift tag, (it never has), or the year when I was unsubtly told by my whole family that I needed some exercise. In total, I received 35 pairs of white sports socks.

If you’re struggling to find something for the man in your life, then fear not. Even if he’s a die hard Doctor Who groupie or insists every year on an addition to his collection of cool hats, you can still branch out and get something he will love – here’s my guide to what to buy. There is something for everyone…

A shirt from Emmett

At the top of the class, it’s an Emmett shirt. Let’s be utterly clear about this – Emmett shirts are things of unparalleled beauty. It’s no exaggeration to say that every time I have worn an Emmett shirt it has been commented upon and complimented. Even their plain white shirt. They’re not cheap, but they don’t look or feel cheap. They feel stylish and beautiful, are perfectly cut and last for longer than any other make of shirt I’ve owned. I challenge anyone to wear an Emmett shirt and not return to buy another. And another. And so on. View Post

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I woke up feeling quite sad this morning. The radio comes on at 6.30am, and penetrates my sub-conscious for a good half an hour before I properly wake up. I listen to BBC Somerset so that it will be mainly nice stories about old men who have been making their own cider for 50 years and dogs who have rescued cats from small house fires, but this morning there was no getting away from Syria.

My dreams between 6.30am and 7am then followed a bizarre plot line – I was responsible for finding a new manager for Yeovil Town, who were actually a group of school girls all dressed in orange, at the same time as canvassing MPs for how they were going to vote today.

It was very stressful.

I’m sure it’s a terribly naive way of thinking, but it just feels wrong. It’s just not been the same since they sacked Gary Johnson. I’m kidding, I mean Syria of course. Perhaps there really is no alternative, but it feels to me a bit like blowing up a wasps nest because you don’t want to get stung. Surely you’re just going to make the wasps even madder? View Post

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They put that exclamation mark at the end of their name, not me – that’s just how much fun they are!

(I did that one.)

As you may remember, although I actually haven’t gone on about it as much as I thought I might, I got engaged this year, and so with really not long to go until the big day, I have been doing a bit of planning by designing some personalised wedding decorations through Hello Party!

(And when I say ‘a little bit of planning’, these wedding decorations literally all I have done. I work best nearer a deadline.)

It’s a pretty ace site, and you can make all sorts of personalised decorations, cards and banners, not just wedding related things, but I’m going to talk you through the wedding decorations.

First up, you choose a theme. Hello Party! very kindly came up with a new design, based on my favourite colours, so if you like ‘rustic watercolour’, you have me to thank. View Post

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My sister has always believed that I would have a surprise third baby in my late 30s. I’m 37 now, 38 in April, so I’m pushing it to be honest. Besides, as much as I love my two existing children, I really don’t think I need another one. Not now. Not when I am only a few years from the second one leaving home.

I had a moment when Belle was about three months old that sticks in my mind. This is unusual for me, as not much generally sticks, but I made such a point of it at the time, to make sure that it did.

I was lying on the bed, at about 9pm. Belle was lying next to me, feeding. We had been in this position for about two hours. Every twenty minutes or so I would think that she was asleep, and I would slowly and carefully begin ‘the roll’ – moving myself away from her on the bed, trying not to wake her. As soon as my boob was out of sniffing distance though, she would start snuffling and squirming.

At this point I would have a choice – shove said boob back in her mouth and sigh heavily, or attempt to get further out of the room, only to suffer the wrath of Belle, in the form of piercing screams. Not exactly a win win is it? There is a particular type of exhaustion that comes with a new baby, especially a breastfed one – a feeling at times that the life is literally being sucked out of you. You know too that there is no opportunity for rest on the horizon, no period of more than an hour or two in the foreseeable future when you won’t have a small person attached to your chest.

I remember thinking to myself right then – ‘If you ever consider having another baby, think about this moment now, this moment where you feel so tired, so done – you don’t ever want to feel like this again.’ View Post

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I had a bit of an early start to Christmas this year. On November 22nd I went to see a live performance of The Snowman at my local theatre, performed by its resident orchestra, Southern Sinfonia.

As a child, The Snowman was a Christmas Eve staple, although looking back, I think it was probably more just a way to kill time until going to bed and waking up again on Christmas Day. This performance was something extra special though – the film was projected in silence onto a screen, while the orchestra played along live with the action. It was absolutely beautiful. Being able to see the instruments playing in time to the film, to see how each sound was created, brought a whole new kind of magic to proceedings. I felt like I was seeing it for the first time.

I’m sure a lot of families would consider The Snowman to be a part of their Christmas traditions, but it’s always interesting to take a peek into other people’s lives at this time of the year because everyone does things so differently. Apart from The Snowman then, what rituals make Christmas for me?

Here are four I wouldn’t do without: View Post

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As it is the season of giving, I have another new giveaway for you all! How generous am I?!

This time I’m giving away something lovely to drink, (wait, why are you automatically assuming it is gin?) from one of my favourite tea companies, Piacha. So not gin at all, but tea. Which is a lot better for you in the long run and dare I say it, even tastier.

Piacha is not only an online tea store but is also a tea bar on the very glamorous Upper Street in Islington. If I lived in London I would be going there to do my work all the time. In Taunton, when I’m not in my office, I have the choice between Starbucks or Costa, and it all gets a bit depressing after a while.

Why do Taunton cafes not have beautiful things like this? Christmas mulled tea Piacha 1_s

In fact, if you DO live in London and are a freelancer without a desk, I would highly recommend Piacha as a place to go and work. They have a lovely range of teas specially brewed for you to order and relaxing and grown up jazz music is always playing in the background, in amongst chic designer ornaments and pretty things to make tea with. When I visited as part of my London cafe crawl, I felt very proper and grown up indeed sat in there with my laptop doing my work.

I know that most of you don’t live in London, so if Piacha sounds like your kind of place, you can recreate it in your own home by entering my giveaway!

I’m giving the lucky winner a set of coloured teas, one of each colour, which you will get to choose, should you win. Each colour represents a different type of tea – black, green, oolong, herbal, white and rooibos/hibiscus. The prize would not be complete without something special to make your tea in so we’re throwing in a stainless steel tea infuser as well, so you can feel like you are in a glamorous and grown up tea bar even when you are just in your own kitchen that, if it’s anything like mine, usually has a dollop of ketchup encrusted on the counter top.

Piacha tea

To win, all you have to do is take a look at the website and decide which tea you think looks like your cup of tea. (See what I did there?) Leave your answer in a comment on this post, and make sure you let me know you’ve done it in the Rafflecopter widget. There are lots of other ways to enter too – do as many as you can!

The competition will close on Piacha’s first birthday – 16th December at midnight. Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

UK and over 18s only. The winner will be notified within 7 days and has 30 days to claim their prize. Judge’s decision final. By entering the competition you agree to be contacted by Slummy single mummy and Piacha for marketing purposes. You are free to unsubscribe at any time.

Competitions at ThePrizeFinder

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You know those awards that I wrote about last week? The parenting award that I really wanted to win but was trying not to get excited about? Well, I only went and bloody won it! Even better, they had a surprise category at the end, for the overall Best UK Blog, chosen from the winners of all 13 categories, and I won that too! 

Seriously, I very nearly cried walking up onto that stage a second time. Other categories had been won by proper bloggers like The Londoner and Guido Fawkes, so I never thought for a minute that I would win that one too.

Truth be told, I’d got into rather an anxious state waiting for the first award to be announced. The parenting category was near the end, and so I had plenty of time to wind myself up. I had Bee and my fiancé with me, and they were both being very positive about everything, but that just made it worse. Every time one of them said ‘you’re going to win it’, I just imagined how much more of a disappointment it would be for them if I didn’t. I really wanted to win, but I didn’t want to want to, if that makes sense – I didn’t want to feel silly if I got excited and then my name wasn’t called out.

“We’re on a table in the second row,” said fiancé, “that must be so that you’re nice and close to go and collect your award! I checked one of the other parent bloggers and they’re on table 36, so we know they’re not going to win.”

By the time it got to the parenting category then my heart was properly pounding in my chest. It was a good job that we’d been told already that no speeches were required as I’m not sure I would have been able to talk, and I’d have probably panicked and said something inappropriate. That morning, in the shower, I’d come up with a joke about shaving your legs and getting lucky, but when I told Bee and fiancé about it in the afternoon, to test the water, they had both looked horrified, so I’m glad that didn’t have the opportunity to slip out.

They announced the finalists and I started making all kinds of assumptions in my head – they had announced mine first, so that would surely mean I wasn’t first? The person presenting the awards – Jen from Britmums – was on my table, so that must mean it wasn’t me? 

And then it was me!!

Best UK Blogger

I tottered up onto the stage, worrying a bit about my dress. It was new, and when I had picked it off the rail in the shop a very old lady had cooed over how much she liked it. I wasn’t sure that was a great sign. There was a voice over saying nice things about me, and I had really wanted to be able to listen to this and feel a bit smug, but I didn’t hear any of it – my head was full of the noise of my heart beating and little me inside going ‘Yaaaayyy!’ in a tiny voice.

After coming off stage I was whisked away for an interview, where I tried to say clever things but probably just said thank you lots of times in a squeaky voice, I don’t really remember. Then it was back to the table just in time to hear them say that they had a surprise final category, for an overall winner. I honestly didn’t think for a minute that I would win that one, and I don’t think anyone else did either. When they called out my name my fiancé looked genuinely chocked and said ‘Oh my God!’

Another careful stagger onto the stage, another missed voice over, and another interview where I’m sure I sound even worse, because I’ve already used up all my good stuff in the first one.

And here they are – tada!

Best UK Blogger

I even took my pants off the radiator behind them, because now I am officially the best blogger in the whole wide world* I have to be fancy like that.

So a big thank you again to everyone who has ever read my blog and for all your support – I couldn’t be more chuffed!

*Not strictly true.

 

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Today I have a guest post from Bee, about her favourite Christmas traditions.

Christmas presents

All of my 20 Christmases so far have comprised of the same basic elements that I rely on to officially make it Christmas every year. Things generally happen in about the same way every time and I like the way things are. This year, however, I am going for my first Christmas in Ireland. I’m going for four days, which I am currently trying to manage in my mind as I really don’t like being away from London, let alone being abroad. Hopefully Christmas will still be nice though, even if I have to get my head around not having the usual Christmas traditions to look forward to. View Post

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Yet another competition! I’m just too good to you. I’m just throwing competitions at you, you’re entering them to win lovely things… I think this relationship is working really well, don’t you?

This week I have a great competition for you courtesy of Muddy Puddles, a company that’s committed to making durable, practical and protective clothing that ensures your children can go outdoors whatever the weather. Their clothing is particularly useful for those times when you have had a particularly stressful day and ask the kids if they would ‘like to go and play outside for a bit’ when what you really mean is ‘get out of the house for an hour so I can drink this cup of tea and look at a magazine in peace’. Now you can kick the kids outside whatever the weather! Or take them on a wholesome family walk, whichever you prefer.

Muddy Puddles competition View Post

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Have you given any thought to the hackability of your Christmas gifts this year?

Have you given any thought to whether hackability is even a word? It’s probably best you don’t, as I don’t think it is.

Intel Security recently conducted some research into the most hackable Christmas gifts, with a view to offering some top tips on how to protect yourself and your family. Christmas wouldn’t be a terribly jolly affair after all if you ended up the victim of online fraud now would it? That would take the thrill out of your Trivial Pursuit win.

The results surprised me if I’m honest. I always figured that it was just things like laptops, phones and tablets that were susceptible to hacking, but it’s actually a far wider reaching problem than that. The top four, according to Intel Security, are as follows:

   1. Smartphones and Tablets

   2. Drones and Camera-enabled Devices

   3. Children’s Gadgets

   4. Smartwatches and Fitness Trackers View Post

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