I’ve lived in Taunton on and off now for nearly twenty years and in that time there have been certain shops that have probably always been there, but which have passed under my radar.

And then you buy a house and suddenly you start noticing things and thinking about things that you’ve never thought about before, like boiler insurance and bespoke shelving and built in wardrobes.

We have a Sharps showroom in our town centre, but all this time I honestly thought it was just one bed and a wardrobe, just casually in a shop window. Oh and sometimes balloons advertising special offers.

Sharps fitted wardrobes review

When we knew we were buying this house, and that we were going to go from having big built in bedrooms cupboards to NOTHING, I decided to pop in to the Sharps showroom with Belle and my MIND WAS BLOWN. Turns out it isn’t just a bed and a wardrobe. That place goes back for MILES. Okay, maybe not literally miles, but a long way. I smelt a nice juicy blog project…

Let’s back it up a bit first though.

Let me set the scene in our bedroom so you can see what we have to play with.

It’s not a massive room – roughly 4m x 3m – but part of that is a fairly deep alcove, approximately 2 metres wide. I was VERY proud of myself remembering to take a photo of the empty space before we moved in: View Post

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If you follow me on Facebook, you may have seen that Belle and I have recently been in Greece, on the island of Leros. We were there as part of a trip organised by Blog Authentic, to find out more about the refugee situation and to help out in any way we could. It was a fantastic trip, and I’ll be writing more about it over the next few weeks, but I just wanted to share something that I’ve been thinking about a lot since we got back.

It’s essentially about luck.

Take a look at this picture:

Greece refugees

It was taken by Kirby from Blog Authentic one afternoon when we went with some of the refugee families on a trip to the local beach. It’s only a ten minute drive away from the dilapidated ex-mental hospital building they currently live in, but they can’t visit often because the centre doesn’t have any transport. It’s only a small thing, but we were pleased to be able to organise some cars for the afternoon.

The boy on the right is called Winston. He is five years old and he lives in Yorkshire with his mum and dad and his two brothers. He likes colouring and drawing and he has beautiful handwriting. His mum Esther writes the blog Inside Out and About and we absolutely loved sharing our experiences in Greece with them.

The teenage boy on the left is called Matez*. He likes swimming and he loved Winston. They posed for dozens of photos together. He is currently living in Leros in a refugee centre all alone, as an underage minor, without any of his family. His mum and dad and brother are still in Damascus in Syria. We asked Matez where he hoped to live eventually. He said he just wanted to go home.

So what has Winston done ‘right’ that means he gets to live with his family in a safe country? What has Matez done ‘wrong’ that means he is alone in a foreign country with no idea of what’s going to happen to him?

Nothing.

It’s just luck.

It was just luck that Winston was born in the UK. Just luck that Matez was born in Syria. It’s just luck that you’re reading this now, probably from a perfectly comfy sofa or office chair, knowing that your family are safe and that you live without fear for your life.

What feels doubly unfair to me though is that so many people feel like they are somehow ‘better’ than people like Matez, that they can sit on that comfy sofa and judge him – package him up in their mind into a group of people who are somehow less deserving of love and support and kindness.

Matez is a CHILD. An ordinary boy. He likes swimming in the sea and making new friends. He just happens to have been born in Syria and is now on his own, missing his family. It feels so sad and wrong to me that life deals out such different hands to people, purely at random, and yet we can’t open our hearts to everyone, regardless of where luck lands them.

Winston talked about his new friends all the way home and wants to go back and visit them, but how can you explain to a five year old that Matez doesn’t even know where chance will take him next?

We’ve set up a fund to raise money for the refugee families on Leros. Please donate here. Belle and I have seen for ourselves what a big difference a small gesture can make. Thank you.

*Some names have be changed.

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Okay, straight up, this is a review of a bin. I’m not gonna lie to you.

But when is a bin more than a bin? When it’s a waste separation and recycling system.

The JosephJoseph Totem 6o waste separation and recycling system in fact. Like this one, which now lives in our kitchen:

JosephJoseph Totem 60 review

Ooooh!

As you know, we moved house a few weeks ago and although in some ways we have a lot more space, like a garage and a garden and a loft, we do have a smaller kitchen, and you can’t keep your kitchen bin in the loft can you? NOT handy when you’re cooking tea.

In fact, in the weeks leading up to the move I started to freak out a little bit about the kitchen. Belle must have been sick to death of me talking about where we were going to put a table, and I’d say that by the time it came to moving day she was DONE with all talk of recycling storage options.

(I don’t blame her. I was BOOORING.)

In the old house we had a big space under a worktop where we could keep all that kitchen crap like carrier bags and recycling and potatoes, but in the new house we don’t have anything like that. What I needed was some kind of genius system where I could keep rubbish and sort recycling without it taking up any more space than a regular bin.

OH WELL HELLO JOSEPHJOSEPH TOTEM 60! View Post

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Looking for flexible shelving? Read my Tylko review!

I want to introduce you to what may well be my very favourite thing in my new house – my shelves from Tylko:

Tylko review felxible shelving

Well hello there!

Let’s start at the beginning though. How exactly did I create this masterpiece of shelving?? Easy peasy actually. I’ll show you.

First up, you have to go to the Tylko website, then click under the ‘shelves’ menu to find the kind of shelving you need. They have split it into categories to help get you started, like bookshelves and sideboards, but essentially they all do the same thing as everything is totally customisable.

Pop in the dimensions of your space, then play around to get the design you want: View Post

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I was in two minds about telling this story, as there isn’t a really funny punchline or anything, but then I remembered that while I had my legs in the air I told the doctor and the nurse that I would be writing an account of it on my blog – I gave them the address and everything – and I didn’t want to disappoint them.

So. My cervix.

It’s always been a little elusive, as you may remember from this post I wrote about a smear test. This one was way back in 2010, but it’s very funny so you should definitely read it. (I HAVE had a smear test in between, just in case you were worried about me.)

Anyway, I’ve been have a few issues with random bleeding, and although I’m very much of the ‘have a snack and a lie down’ school of thought when it comes to any kind of ailment, I thought it best to get it checked. The GP said that she thought I probably just had a ‘fragile cervix’, which immediately created an image in my mind of my cervix sobbing quietly to itself as it watched a family reunion on a TV chat show, but that she’d refer me for a closer look just in case.

OH JOY.

cervical exam

Image by Giles Kent/shutterstock

(I searched the word ‘speculum’ for a suitably scary image to go in here, and it came up with this picture of a pigeon, which I thought was much nicer. Apparently ‘the speculum is a patch, often distinctly coloured, on the inner remiges of some birds.’ I have tagged the image ‘cervical exam’ though, as a nice surprise for anyone googling that.) View Post

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I had a very interesting day on Thursday last week.

For those of you who didn’t know, (which is probably most of you), Thursday May 11th was Somerset Day, a day for celebrating all things Somerset. I live in Somerset and I love it, so I wanted to get involved, and ended up getting roped into a day long A to Z challenge. The idea was to showcase the diversity of industry in the county, by travelling around Somerset meeting as many different people as possible, finding out more about the jobs they do. (Check out the activity on @SomersetHour for Thursday if you want to see pictures.)

Because Somerset is a pretty big county, with lots of hills and moors and what not, we split into areas and I was given Sedgemoor, which is the bit in the middle that includes Bridgwater, North Petherton, Burnham-on-Sea and Cheddar:

Get Fruit Somerset Day

It’s a pretty big area, but not the biggest district in Somerset, and it does have a handy stretch of motorway through the middle, so I think I got a pretty good deal.

It all worked out very nicely actually, as it coincided with me having a Hyundai i30 to test drive, plus the lovely team at Get Fruity stocked me up with their yummy fruit and oat bars to keep me sustained during the day. View Post

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Did you know that this May is National Walking Month?

Walking is such an important part of my exercise routine. Who am kidding? It’s the ONLY part of my exercise routine. If I didn’t walk to work and back every day, and potter about in between, I’d basically be a sloth, lying around all day on a huge, comfy branch.

Walking has all kinds of benefits. It’s great physically obviously to get your body moving and your heart pumping, but I find walking really useful mentally too. If I’m feeling a bit grumpy or miserable or cross, going for walk makes a difference. Not immediately, but after ten minutes or so of swinging my arms and pounding my feet I start to feel more relaxed. Things seem to shift and fall into line more neatly than before. I start to get ideas. The world takes on a rosier glow.

To get as many people as possible enjoying the benefits of walking, Westfield Health is launching its Walking Lunch campaign to coincide with National Walking Month, in partnership with the UK’s walking charity Living Streets. The theme of national Walking Month for 2017 is ‘walking cities’, which is why for Walking Lunch 2017, Westfield Health are cosponsoring the Crumbs City Trail app. You can register as a team or as an individual, track your steps on their UK leaderboard AND win fantastic prizes if you’re one of the most active participants. Prizes include vouchers, fitness trackers and £1,000 cash towards a health and wellbeing initiative in your workplace.

To celebrate, and encourage you guys to have a go, I took Bee and Belle out for a walk to try out one of the Bristol Crumbs City Trails.

Aren’t they adorable? My two little cherubs.

National Walking Month View Post

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I think it would be fair to say that Belle and I approach make-up and skin care from totally opposite ends of the spectrum.

For me, it’s all about protecting my skin, moisturising, using sun protection and generally keeping it healthy. For Belle, who turns 15 in a few months, it’s all about contouring, Kylie Jenner lip kits and getting the perfect winged eyeliner. (None of which I understand.) Sometimes I worry that I’ve neglected my parental duties by not teaching her how to apply make-up, but to be honest, she already knows way more than me.

One of her very favourite things is to do other people’s make-up. She loves creating different looks and experimenting with different colours and products. She spends most of her pocket money on make-up palettes and is very particular about who gets to use her make-up collection.

Because I really am a lovely mummy, even if I don’t know much about mascara, I let Belle do my make-up this week, and took the opportunity, while she couldn’t walk away, to talk to her about taking care of your skin.

Whatever your age, whether you’re 14 like Belle or 21 *ahem* like me, looking after your skin is really important. Whatever you want to do make-up wise is kind of irrelevant – the need for healthy skin is something that applies to us all, whatever your age.

Boots No7 serum View Post

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cures for a cold

I don’t know about you, but it feels like we’ve had about 27 colds between us already this year. Yucky ones too – proper colds that leave you feeling grotty and exhausted and like it’s almost too much effort to reach for the remote control. It’s not much fun.

A cold can leave you feeling seriously sorry for yourself. I tend to go as far as actually sticking my bottom lip out and trying to widen my eyes when I look at people, to extract maximum sympathy when I whine pathetically ‘I don’t feeeeeel very welllll.’

It’s a sorry sight.

Just in case you’re in a similar predicament, I’ve put together a list of nine nice things you can do for yourself when you have a cold that will help you feel not quite so awful as you otherwise might.

 

Accept that you have a cold. This is tricky because we all like to soldier on don’t we? It’s like there’s glory in working even harder than normal, to prove you’re somehow much more capable than everyone else. Accept that you have a cold, be kind to yourself and lower your expectations. It’s okay if some things don’t get done until next week.

 

Get yourself some wholesome snacks. You might not feel like cooking, but don’t fall back on crappy things like biscuits and ice cream. Your body needs good things to help the healing process, so stock up on things like good soups, fruit, smoothies – stuff with actual nutrients in. Shop online for minimum hassle or bribe a child to go out for you.

 

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I’ve never particularly been the sort of woman to have girl crushes.

I did have girls at school that I wanted to BE like (and as a result named by daughter after, because I was 17 and what else would you do at that age?), but that was really just because I dreamed of being as popular as them.

I do have a teeny tiny crush though on Reese Witherspoon. I think she’s just awesome and I love her in absolutely everything she does. If I had to put together a top ten favourite films of all time, it would contain Legally Blond AND Legally Blond 2. That’s how much I love her. I watched Legally Blond on a plane a few months ago and that scene in court where she nails Chutney for the murder of her dad – it actually gave me goosebumps.

‘Isn’t the first cardinal rule of perm maintenance that you’re forbidden to wet your hair for at least 24 hours after getting a perm at the risk of deactivating the immonium thygocolate?
…and wouldn’t somebody who had, say, 30 perms before in their life be well aware of this rule, and if in fact you weren’t washing your hair as I suspect you weren’t because your curls are still intact, wouldn’t you have heard the gunshot, and if in fact you had heard the gunshot Brooke Windham wouldn’t have had time to hide the gun before you got downstairs…’

*swoons*

When Sky Atlantic asked then if I fancied driving around for an hour in a Volvo XC90 to watch the first of a new Sky Atlantic series called Big Little Lies, starring Reese Witherspoon – well, I knew I was going to love it before I even saw it. (Volvo sponsor Sky Atlantic, it wasn’t just a weird PR with an overly specific interest in car manufacturers.) 

I was not disappointed. View Post

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This is the follow up in my Innovo reviews series. 

I’ve been using Innovo for about six weeks now. In case you need a refresher, take a quick read of my introductory post here or, if you’re too lazy to click a link, (shame on you), then you’ll just have to pick it up as you go along. It won’t be the same though, so your loss.

So what is Innovo?

Didn’t I just say that you had to read the post introducing Innovo? Well I meant it. Off you go.

Okay, okay.

Innovo is a non-invasive way to strengthen your pelvic floor muscles, which basically means you don’t have to insert anything anywhere. It’s essentially two big, wide straps, that you attach to your thighs, and which then send electrical impulses to key muscles. These in turn stimulate your pelvic floor muscles to contract – six times per minute – in a bid to strengthen your pelvic floor and stop you doing a wee in your pants every time you sneeze or go on a trampoline. (Both of which *may* have happened to me.) If you’re interested generally in how things like Innovo work, and how you can take care of your health, you can read more on various health topics at digitalhealthpost.com.

Innovo reviews easy pelvic floor exercises

NOTE: Innovo has moved on since I did this review and now comes in much handier all in one shorts!

What does Innovo feel like?

I’m not going to lie – Innovo is uncomfortable to start with. You’re advised to start off slowly and build up over a few sessions while you get used to the sensation. When you first start, it really hurts at 30, and you wonder how you’ll ever progress, but you do very quickly adjust. Just experiment with upping the pulse bit by bit but don’t worry, you will get there in the end.

It’s an odd feeling, because you lose control of your own muscles, and get to watch them contract and relax independently of you. Once you have built up a bit of resistance though, it’s quite satisfying, and you can definitely feel it working your pelvic floor muscles. View Post

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review No7 Lift & Luminate range

Well here we are. Four weeks on and I’ve been using the No7 Lift & Luminate range every single day. (There is a post here from when I started if you need to catch up.)

Belle is very proud.

‘Have you done your creams?’ she asks, morning and night. (She is very strict.)

‘Yes, I’ve done them!’

I beam proudly, like a toddler trying to impress their mummy.

Four weeks on then, have I noticed any difference using the Lift & Luminate serum, eye cream, day cream and night cream?

All of the products contain the same triple action technology, designed to tackle the three most common signs of ageing, (namely wrinkles, firmness and tone), and the idea is that when you use the products together, rather than individually, you get better results. 88% of women who tested out the No7 Lift & Luminate range found that they saw even better results when they combined the products.

Does the No7 Lift & Luminate range make you look younger?

No7 is the number one serum brand, with clinically proven anti-ageing results, so let’s have a look shall we? View Post

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