Another day of the summer holidays, another competition! (The first one was for all that chocolate remember? Go and enter that now if you haven’t already.)

This one isn’t edible. (Unless you like to chow down on a scooter, which I’m hoping you don’t.)

The prize for this giveaway has been given to me by Poppets – a really lovely independent kids’ clothes, toys and gifts shop based down in Hove. They just got in touch and were all like ‘hey there, wanna give away a scooter?’

And I was like ‘hell yeah I do!’

(I’m paraphrasing but that’s basically what happened.)

So here I am, with a scooter to give away. The winner gets to choose either a Mini Deluxe Micro Scooter, which is suitable for 2-5 year olds, or a Maxi Deluxe Micro Scooter, for 6-12 year olds.

win a Microscooter scooter competition

 

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How’s everyone getting on with the summer holidays? All good?

Ours are slipping by fairly quickly so far. We’ve still got quite a few things to do in the new house, including hatching plans for turning our patch of gravel into a tropical paradise and getting fancy built in wardrobes in the bedroom. (Post coming about that soon.) We’ve been to Greece too, on our volunteering trip with Blog Authentic, which you can get a flavour of here, and Belle is sometimes getting up before midday, which is nice.

I know that summer holidays can be hard though if you’re juggling work and kids and tropical garden plans, so I thought I would offer a small carrot – a chocolate hamper that I can dangle in front of you on a stick to see you through the summer.

TADA!

win chocolate

It looks LUSH doesn’t it? Cadbury aren’t sponsoring me or anything, I just thought about what I would like to win if it was me, and then I’m going to buy it for the winner out of my pocket money. View Post

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must see kids movies

We didn’t have a video or a computer or anything like that when I was younger. Sometimes though, my Dad, who was a primary school teacher, would get to bring home some bit of equipment from school for the summer holidays, which was VERY EXCITING INDEED.

(Kids nowadays are spoilt really with everything being so instant – the BBC computer arriving home at the end of July was an epic experience.)

When I was about ten years old and my sister was six, we had the video one holidays, so we went to see the slightly dubious man across the road who did dodgy videos, and he lent us E.T. In the opening sequence, where E.T. gets left behind, my Mum put on a baby voice and said ‘Mummy, Mummy, don’t go!’ My sister and I both burst into tears and pretty much cried for the whole of the rest of the film.

(We didn’t often watch films so we may have been a little over sensitive to the whole situation.)

ET must see kids films

Image by 360b/shutterstock

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I had a bit of an embarrassing moment about 12 years ago when a man came to the door of my house at about 1am, thinking I was a prostitute.

His English wasn’t good, so there was some confusion while he tried to invite himself in and I wondered what on earth was going on.

‘For sex?’ he kept saying, much to my utter bemusement.

‘What?’ I replied, unhelpfully.

‘I come in for sex?’ he kept repeating.

It was all a bit awkward.

Finally he pointed up to Bee’s bedroom window, where I could see that she had left her light on. She was about nine years old and had bought this red light bulb from B&Q for some reason, and had gone to sleep with it on. We lived in a family terraced house in a nice part of a small Somerset town, off the main road, but apparently the logical conclusion to jump to was that I was running a brothel.

So that was a lesson learnt for everyone.

Technology has come a long way since my light bulb/sex worker incident, so I wasn’t deterred when TP-Link got in touch to see if I fancied trying some of their smart Wi-Fi LED bulbs.

Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking: light bulbs, that’s hardly the sexiest of topics is it? Well you’re wrong, because these bulbs are AWESOME.

The first one we tried was the smart Wi-Fi LED bulb with colour changing hue.

TP-Link smart bulb colour changing

I’m not sure how it works exactly – I think it’s actual magic – but all you have to do is pop it into your light socket, as you would a normal bulb, follow the instructions to connect it to an app on your phone and TADA! View Post

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‘Sandra is always putting stuff on Facebook about what a good stepdad Pete is,’ Fiance said to me the other day. ‘Why don’t you do that?’

‘What, do you want one of those weird poems about dancing between the raindrops?’ I replied, ever the kind and compassionate girlfriend.

‘No,’ he said, looking a bit sulky, ‘just a bit of praise now and then?’

And so I showed my love and appreciation through the only medium I know – GIFTS!

I arranged for him to try out the Cornerstone shaving kit, and here’s what he thought…

Cornerstone shaving review View Post

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Advertorial in association with Quaker Oats

Following on from my Quaker Oats recipe for PB & J overnight oats, I’ve got a great giveaway for you today, so that you can create an aspirational breakfast to make your family proud! Read on to find out more…

There are plenty of moments that, as a parent, have not been my proudest.

For example, Belle seems completely unable to forget the one time I made her a tea that consisted simply of four burnt fish fingers. I can’t remember the context – I’m sure there was some – but of course, that will be the one thing she remembers forever and ever. Will she care that I have built myself an entire career around school hours, just so I can be there for her in the morning and after school?

No.

She will remember the fish fingers.

Very occasionally though, I have one of those amazing parenting moments, where I actually do something that the mums on Pinterest do. Like when I made those pink doughnut helium balloons, or the time I made these Pingu cupcakes for Bee’s birthday. (And by ‘made’ I mean ‘paid someone else to make’.)

#vegan Pingu #birthday #cupcakes 🐧🍰☺️❤️

A post shared by Bee ✨ (@teachezbee) on

That was a very proud day for me.

I had another of those aspirational parenting moments this week when I tried my hand at making some overnight oats using one of the new Quaker Oats MissPrint mason jars. I actually made PB & J overnight oats with a home made raspberry and chia seed jam, so bonus points to me. Skip back a few days and you’ll find the recipe post. View Post

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Belle has ALWAYS wanted a beanbag.

You know how kids sometimes get a thing stuck in their mind and they just can’t let it go? Bee was the same with a mini fridge. She wanted a mini fridge in her room for ages – roughly from about birth until her mid-teens when my sister gave in and bought her one.

But with Belle it was a beanbag.

I don’t really know why, during all this time, we haven’t ever actually bought a beanbag. Perhaps because it reminds me of when Bee and I first lived by ourselves when she was three and I was 20 and we didn’t have any chairs, only a beanbag that we took turns on?

big bertha beanbag competition

Isn’t she a cutie?

Anyway, much to Belle’s delight we have one now. A huge, snuggly, furry thing from Big Bertha Original Beanbags. Belle has it in her room and seems very happy with it. It’s very sweet actually.

‘I think I might sit in my beanbag for a bit before bed,’ she said last night as we were saying goodnight, which almost bought a little tear to me eye. View Post

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Yesterday we had one of those days that doesn’t really turn out how you expect it to. We were planning on doing a car boot sale, as I am ‘gently encouraging’ other members of the household to think about downsizing things a little before we move, but then rain was forecast, and then Belle didn’t feel well, and then it all got a bit complicated and we ended up going to Devon instead to a barbecue restaurant.

You know, one of THOSE days.

(I wonder if I mention that it was the Pig and Pallet in Topsham, whether than means I can include the journey their as a business expense? Probably not.)

Anyway, I happened to be wearing by new bird dress from Lily & Me, and there was a casual boat leaning against the wall outside the restaurant, as we were by the water, so I thought I would pose for a picture. Birds, water etc.

Lily & Me competition discount code

That’s me doing an ‘aye aye captain’ kind of a pose. You know, because of the boat? (Sorry it’s a bit blurry. I asked Fiancé to take a couple of pictures and so of course he took a random burst of 125. Boys eh?) View Post

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I’m not one of those people that’s massively into new clothes, shoes and handbags, but I DO love it when I discover a brand that’s not afraid of colour and pattern. If you were to open my wardrobe you’d see what I mean – I’m not even sure I own a plain black dress. Inside the wardrobe is just a mass of floral prints.

My new bits and pieces from Alice’s Pig fit right in.

Alice’s Pig creates vintage inspired clothes and statement pieces that have a lit bit of magic to them – think Alice in Wonderland, with an edge of sassiness. Dressed in something from Alice’s Pig, I feel you’d always be ready for an adventure.

Alice's Pig View Post

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Read on to find out how to win £50 to spend on luxury Bramley Products for your bathroom.

Do you remember, a little while ago*, when I went to spend the night in a treehouse?

If you do, you may remember the amazing copper bath. The bath and the shower were actually two of my favourite bits about the trip, as the treehouse came with the whole range of Bramley Products. I’d never come across Bramley Products before, but I totally fell in love with them. They are made with all these wonderful smelling natural ingredients, so that when you’re washing your hair and you take a deep breath you get this wave of loveliness through your whole body.

Bramley Products do not contain harmful or unethical ingredients, they’re produced in small batches for freshness and quality and all their essential oils are fair trade, wild crafted and grown sustainably.

Since the treehouse, as you can imagine, I have coveted all things Bramley.

Bramley products competition View Post

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Loaf crockery competition

About 15 years ago a friend gave me a set of four dinner plates from a shop called The Pier. They were really beautiful – a dark red colour covered in swirly floral patterns. I loved them and was terrified of breaking them, so inevitably the first time I used them I chipped one. A white chip really shows up on a red plate.

After that first chip though, they seemed to take on an indescruitble quality – we used them every single day, they moved house with us often, and all four remined intact. Until one day just before Christmas. Belle was washing up, and accidentally dropped one into the sink, where it promptly broke in two.

She was horrified, terrified that I was going to be cross. (I wasn’t, it was just an accident.)

It got worse when we discovered that the plate had actually fallen onto a second one, hidden below the surface of the water, and that that one had broken in half two. All those years and there we were, half of our plates taken out in one soapy hand incident.

It felt like the end of an era.

*sigh*

Still, you can’t let yourself get down in the dumps really can you? They were just plates after all, it wasn’t like one had dropped on the floor and chopped off Belle’s foot. Perhaps it was a sign. A sign that it was time to move on, and take the next step on our crockery journey. View Post

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So, Easter holidays. Are you excited?

The school holidays are a bit of a double edged sword for me. I love that I don’t have to spend an hour trying to motivate Belle out of bed every day, but is it really any better if she just stays in bed until 2pm watching make-up tutorials on YouTube?

Leaving the Internet in charge of babysitting is handy, but the Internet is well known for NOT having an up to date CRB check. Even if you do your best to set up parental controls, you’ve still got viruses and hackers to worry about. Cyber security becomes increasingly important during school holidays as internet usage goes up and children and teens become a prime target.

Today’s competition could help on that front.

I’m working with a company called PureVPN to help you to keep yourself and your kids safe online, plus they’ve offered me some very cool prizes to give away. I know you love a competition.

WIN A KIDS’ TABLET AND 2 YEAR PUREVPN SUBSCRIPTION View Post

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