September is a bit of a crappy month for parents. You’ve spent pretty much your life savings in Clarks, standing for hours with one of those deli counter tickets, like you’re queuing for cheese without even getting to eat any cheese*, which means nothing left to update your own wardrobe ready for autumn.

Perfect timing then for another competition from Lily & Me.

I’ve written about these guys before, and you know I love their bold patterns, and the thought they put into the quality and cut of their clothes.

Here’s a little sample to give you an idea:

Lily & Me competition discount code View Post

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Today’s post has not one but THREE parts to it! First up, I have a review from Bee of her planner from Unique Planner from Pirongs. Then we have a competition so you can win your own, PLUS we have a discount code, in case you just can’t wait. Woohoo!

First up, Bee..

Hey Youtubers!!!! 

Welcome to my new blog post all about plannerzzzzz. 

So recently I absolutely totally am OBSESSED with planners! Like seriously oh my god guys. 

No but in all seriousness, I did get a new planner and it is really good. I got it quite a while ago but then I went on holiday and then I moved house so I haven’t got round to writing about it but basically it’s a great planner and especially useful for me because I am a freelancer so I have to make sure I’m planning my time and remembering to do everything. 

Sure, you might be thinking, planners, yeah, great. But what is really special about this Unique Planner from Pirongs is that you get to completely design it yourself! Here’s a little video to get you in the mood before I show you mine:

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Are you a natty knitter? Into outrageous origami? Crafty with crochet? Turned a passion into a profession?

Er…

Okay, I’m done with the craft alliteration.

If you are a bit of a crafter though, and like to create things to sell, then I have a great competition to tell you about, so put down your wire cutters and listen up.

But first, a bit of a confession… Here would really be the ideal spot for me to casually drop in how I regularly attend craft fairs and sell my hand-crocheted sloths or beautiful glass jewellery or something, but I don’t. I can barely craft a sandwich really. That’s disappointing isn’t it?

My mum however, is a bit of a dab hand with the old wool, and as much as we mock her, (sort of fondly), for the fact that her house is basically a haberdashery, she is pretty talented.

Have a look at a few of her craft fair creations, including a crocheted pizza. (She gets bored easily and so likes small things. A personal favourite was when she knitted sushi. Let me know if you’d like to commission any woollen snacks and I’ll put you in touch.) View Post

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Today I have a cool competition to win a tea delivery from Piacha, in celebration of their new tea subscription service. Hooray for tea!

I have developed a bit of a subscription habit.

It all started a year or so ago, when I signed up to Cardnest, and then cranked up a notch this year when I bought an Odeon Limitless subscription, asked for a subscription to Living Etc magazine for my birthday and then signed up to Papergang. Oh, and Pact coffee. And last night I accidentally subscribed to the V Gd Fun Club. Gosh, it really IS a thing isn’t it? I’ll be joining the gym before we know it.

(Haha! That will never happen obviously.)

There is something though about that feeling of being part of a club, and of knowing you’re going to get a little treat every month, that’s very seductive. It’s why I’ve added one more subscription to my list this month – the new tea subscription service from Piacha.

tea subscription Piacha View Post

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How would you feel if buying yourself a pair of new shoes could make a positive difference to someone else’s life? It would be ideal wouldn’t it? ‘Oh, these new shoes darling? They’re just me supporting children and families in Africa. You know I like to do my bit.’

Well, that’s what Soul of Africa is all about. Have a watch of this short video to find out more:

Not only will you be doing your bit to support a good cause, but your feet will be super comfy too. Soul of Africa’s shoes are made using ‘Vivobarefoot’ technology, which means they are designed to recreate as much as possible to action of walking with bare feet – soles are ultra-thin and flat and the shoe is shaped to allow the foot room to expand and contract naturally with every step. View Post

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What would you do if you won the lottery? Don’t pretend you haven’t thought about – we all have haven’t we? It’s the sort of question Belle asks me a lot. She always wants to know specifics though.

‘What’s the first thing you’d do?’ she might ask.

‘Well.’ I say, ‘I’d probably buy a house.’

‘No, I mean the first thing, what would you actually do? Where would you put the ticket? Could I order some Dance Moms dancewear?’
She also asks me things like ‘what would you do if a burglar came in right now – would you attack him?’ She is pretty demanding.

Anyway, what you do if you won the lottery? Would you invest it wisely, and keep up your day job? Travel the world like a rock star? I’d always thought I’d give up work, but I don’t think I could give up my blog. Instead, I think I’d spend loads of money making it EPIC. I’d have a cool Slummy single mummy office, full of funky stuff, and a team of staff, and brilliant designers, and make it the most amazing blog in the whole world, read by everyone.

Then ITV would get in touch, wanting me to take over This Morning from Holly Willoughby, and it would go from there really. Oh, and I’d probably buy some new shoes.

This is what my fantasy lottery Slummy single mummy headquarters would look like: View Post

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Do you remember a while ago when I played those computer games with my vagina?

Well, Elvie – the pelvic floor gadget that I played said games with – is celebrating this week. Elvie is about to launch with John Lewis, which is very exciting indeed – both for Elvie and for mums. It’s about time that our pelvic floors got some attention, and it’s fantastic to see a store like John lewis recognising that new parenthood is about so much more than pretty blankets and organic teethers.

Elvie pelvic floor exercises kegels

To celebrate this new partnership, Elvie have very kindly given me one of their very personal trainers to give away. They retail at £149, so it’s a fantastic prize, plus, what price can you really put on not weeing yourself uncontrollably in public? Priceless, that is.

To enter couldn’t be easier – it’s simpler than finding a toilet in a hurry in a busy shopping arcade, that’s for sure, and I should know. All you have to do is leave a comment on this post, telling me why you’d like to win, and then register your comment in the Rafflecopter widget below. Once you do that, a few bonus entries will unlock – enter as many as you can to increase your chances of winning.

The competition will close on midnight on June 26th. The winner will be notified via email within 7 days and has 30 days to claim their prize. UK and over 18s only.

Good luck!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Competitions at ThePrizeFinder

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I have to admit that when I think of Ryvita, I think of my mum on a diet in about 1989. I wouldn’t normally think about Ryvita as an everyday sort of food.

Oh how wrong I am.

Did you know for instance, that Ryvita do an apple and cinnamon flavour?! It’s immense. Even Belle, who really prefers just to just eat Weetos and Fry’s Chocolate Creams, will happily munch on these, dry, as a biscuit alternative. I prefer to smear mine with a thin (i.e. thick) layer of peanut butter, but either way, they are really tasty. There are in fact 12 different flavours to choose from, so there is bound to be at least one that takes your fancy.

I’m as guilty as Belle of eating a fairly restricted diet, in the sense that although I’m always happy to try new things, (unlike Belle, who made a retching noise at the weekend when I put some samphire near her), I just don’t ever really get around to it. Every day I fall into that classic office lunch trap of boring sandwich, a cup of tea… you know how it works. In my mind I want to be eating a delicious vegan quinoa salad with fresh herbs and pomegranate, but I just can’t be arsed.

Ryvita though. I feel like I could get creative with a Ryvita, (so long as there is no quinoa involved), and so I have taken up the #MyVita challenge to liven up my lunch, by coming up with some new topping ideas for my Ryvita. I had a browse of the Ryvita website initially for some topping inspiration, and must say that I was pretty impressed with their take on the classic fish finger sandwich. It looks pretty ace doesn’t it?

Ryvita fish finger recipe

Image – Ryvita

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Ask any group of children what they want to be when they grow up, and ‘professional athlete’ normally tops the list. More often than not, what this really means is a footballer.

There’s no denying that if you make it big in football, you’re not going to be doing badly financially, but I don’t think it’s about this for kids. Children were dreaming of becoming professional footballers long before they all started earning such ridiculous salaries, so I think it’s something much deeper than money. Football for many is a passion, something that stirs the emotions, engenders a sense of loyalty and determination, and provides a focus.

Barclays’ sponsorship of the Premier League is about more than money too. Since Barclays became the title sponsor in 2004, they’ve been working hard to champion a generation of football. For starters, they’ve worked with the Football Foundation (the largest sports charity in the UK) and invested £40 million, setting up over 200 sports sites for young people across the country, largely in deprived inner city areas. This kind of support is often invaluable to these communities, providing young people not simply with a space to take part in sport, but somewhere to go to feel part of a team, and to develop all sorts of other social and personal skills.

Barclays also support employability programmes for young people, most recently Barclays Premier League Works – clubs that use football as the catalyst to get young people trained and ready for work.

Who knew Barclays did so much to support young people? View Post

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As you may have noticed already from earlier blog posts and some of my Instagram posts, I’m a big fan of Lily & Me. Their prints are just gorgeous, the quality and cut is excellent, and they are always very flattering.

The spring/summer collection does not disappoint.

I’ve been rocking a couple of items from the collection over the last few weeks – a beautiful bird print dress and a yellow skirt. Seriously, I just love wearing them – they’re so comfy, but also manage to make you to feel smart and sophisticated, even though you know you could comfortably lie around on the sofa watching repeats of Dinner Date in them. (You know, only if you wanted to. *cough*)

Unfortunately, try as I might to look super cool and stylish in photos, I normally end up looking like an excitable three year who has been shown a lollipop and asked to smile for the camera. Hopefully you get the idea though.

Lily & Me

Lily & Me
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Spring officially sprung this week.

Did you notice?

I was up at out of the house before 8am on the first day of spring. It was a beautiful fresh morning here, with clear blue skies and that smell that makes you feel like anything is possible. I strolled into town, and sat outside with a cup of coffee, planning my day, before heading to my office. By the time I sat down at my desk it was still only 8.30am. Bliss.

To celebrate spring, I’ve put together a bundle of three gorgeous gifts, worth over £200. If you’d like a treat to see in the new season, or know someone who needs one, then this is the competition for you!

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We’ve only ever been on one Center Parcs holiday. Bee was about eight years old, and Belle was coming up for two. We went with our friend Lucy, who at the time only had one daughter, Ella, who was just a few weeks younger than Belle. Ours days fell quickly into a lovely routine of swimming, feeding babies and early nights, and it was all very lovely.

In fact I can tell you exactly when it was, I’ve just remembered – it must have been April 2004, as my Gran had just died, and while we were there I had to write the eulogy. I’d never been to a funeral until then, which is good going I think for a then 26 year old.

That’s jolly isn’t it?

Actually, in a morbid sort of a way, it fits quite nicely with the theme of this post. No, Center Parcs isn’t giving away some sort of funeral holiday package, but they are running a competition where you have to think about what your family means to you, and what your favourite thing about them is. Fitting then don’t you think that my time at Center Parcs was spent thinking a lot about my Gran and the important part she played in my life?

It’s a reminder too that we have to cherish our families while we can.

We go along with our everyday lives, getting annoyed with our kids when they forget to switch lights off, and wishing our partners would learn to read our minds so we didn’t have to explain every time we were irritated by something, but how often do we switch it around, and think instead about all of the things we love about them?

Center Parcs competition

Some of my favourite things about my family: View Post

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