Monday, 17 December 2012
Spin Mania Review
Spin Mania is a brand new game from Drumond Park, the UK's leading independent games company.The game consists of a motorised spinning machine with an electronic timer, three orange helicopter-like rotary plates, a "spin spike" and three purple stands on which to set the plates once they are spinning correctly.
The challenge is to 'spin-up' the three plates on the spinning machine one at a time - and then, using your spin-spike, transfer them, still spinning, to the three separate stands. All three plates must still be spinning on their stands as the player rushes back to the timer, stops the clock, and marks the time taken. Then the next player or players strive to beat the time recorded. What is special about the game is that the payer's opponents are going to make things very tricky indeed! Before the game starts, all payers must agree the paying area - this will be a specific room or rooms inside the house. Each one must be reasonably easy to see, they can't actually hide a stand, although it can be quite difficult to to, eg. under a table.
Initially we all found it quite tricky to even remove the plates from the spinning machine without dropping them however with a bit of practice everyone got the hang of it! My 7 year son enjoyed playing the game with his cousins and they delighted in finding obscure places to put the stands. I think they enjoyed hiding the stands more than actually playing the game!! The game tended to last a while due to the thought that was put into hiding the stands.
Overall this is a great game and will be fun to play in teams at Christmas.
It is worth pointing out that this game requires 2 x C/LR14 batteries and whilst we generally have spare batteries in the house we don't tend to have this type of battery so if you’re buying this for Christmas make sure you buy batteries at the same time.
The game is aimed at children 6+ and has a rrp of £22.99
We received a copy of Spin Mania by Drumond Park for the purposes of this review.
Monday, 8 October 2012
Barefoot SOS Face & Body Rescue Cream
Saturday, 22 September 2012
Weleda

Cupcakes
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Ice Cream |
Sunday, 2 September 2012
Grandma's Greenhouse
It has taken 20 years but here is a pineapple!
Monday, 27 August 2012
Fruit Shoot Smencils

Home made Lemon Meringue Pie
Here's the recipe I used
1. Roll out enough sweet pastry to line the cake tin.
2. Prick the pastry with a fork and cook for 8 to 10 minutes.
3. Make the filling by mixing 45g of cornflour with 75g of unrefined golden caster sugar and 2 tablespoons of water.
4. Bring 200ml of water to the boil, reduce to a simmer and then mix in the cornflour paste and the zest and juice of 3 large lemons.
5. Mix until thickened and remove from heat then whisk in 3 egg yolks.
6. Pour the filling into the pastry case.
7. Make the meringue by whisking 3 egg whites with 175g of unrefined golden caster sugar.
8. Spread the meringue over the filling and bake in a cool oven for 40 to 45 minutes.
Monday, 20 August 2012
School Uniform
The added bonus of these shirts is that they are easy to iron! Very important in our house as anything that helps save time is fantastic.
As well as shirts Next have a wide range of school uniform - have a look at their wide range here.
Baking
Wednesday, 25 July 2012
Sudocrem Mousse Facebook competition
Saturday, 14 July 2012
The Blue Harbour Spa in London’s Chelsea Harbour
Monday, 2 July 2012
FYFO


Thank you to FYFO for letting me choose a bag from their site.
Monday, 25 June 2012
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Monday, 19 March 2012
Kitchen Inventions - the mixing bowl cleaners




Monday, 30 January 2012
Charnos Tights Tester
The first thing I needed to do before I could apply to be a tester was to determine what my leg shape was by going to the Lessons in Legs website where there were 6 leg types to choose from. Being 6 foot tall it was quite easy to decide which of the pictures was most like my legs and I now know my legs are the Flamingo type! The description for Flamingo legs is "long and slim, most would be envious but you'd like to add some more shape to really make your legs stand out." The website suggested that I should try texture and pattern to give my legs a fuller look, keeping it shapely and feminine.

Wednesday, 25 January 2012
Big Book Babble
Red House and Scholastic have created a fantastic online book resource aimed at children aged 7 to 11 called Big Book Babble. The aim of Big Book Babble is to encourage children to enjoy reading and each programme will feature a popular children’s author interviewed by comedian James Campbell. The programmes will also feature work submitted by children and include a profile of a second author, illustrator or poet, plus a question and answer session involving both the live and virtual audience.
The Big Book Babble show will be streamed live promptly at 11am and will last approximately 30 minutes. It is recommended that you sign-in 15 minutes earlier to ensure that you can access the website.
The website tells you the dates and authors and there is also an option to sign up to the newsletter to keep up-to-date with news of the authors, illustrators and poets who are being featured in each show.
The first Big Book Babble is at 11am on Tuesday 24th January 2012 and features Andy Stanton and Liz Pichon. There is also the opportunity to ask questions and this can be done by emailing [email protected]. For those that can’t watch live you can also access on demand later which is great as it means we can watch it later in the evening together.
As there are schools in the audience there is a lot of audience participation and online viewers can also take part with the interactive chat box under the film. We watched the Andy Stanton Big Book Babble and thought it was very well done, Andy was very funny and my two sons who are 10 and 6 both really enjoyed it too. We haven’t read any Mr Gum books but after watching this I will certainly be getting some for my sons!
Big Book Babble looks like it will be fantastic for children and I am looking forward to seeing what other authors take part in Big Book Babble in the future.
Sunday, 22 January 2012
Tractor Ted Mighty Maize Machine DVD

The combination of living on a farm and having two sons has resulted in an ever growing collection of books, DVDs and toys, all with a farming theme. One of our favourites is Tractor Ted and Luke was really excited when I asked him if he could review the Tractor Ted Mighty Maize Machine DVD.
As we have quite a lot of Tractor Ted DVDs I was interested to see what he thought of the new DVD and after watching it 4 times on the trot he declared that this DVD is his favourite because you get to see the huge forage harvester!
The DVD lasts approximately 40 minutes and is narrated by Tractor Ted. During the course of the film we get to see real life footage of farms including cows and sheep being milked as well as the highlight of the film, the huge forage harvester. The DVD shows real people working on their farms and it is interesting seeing the different jobs that the farmers do. There are plenty of tractor and machine shots to keep children interested and the narration is excellent, it appeals to both children and adults.
As with all Tractor Ted DVDs there is a catchy song that you find yourself singing again and again. The Harvesting Song is a great sing-a-long song and has a tune that really sticks in your mind.
Overall this is a fantastic DVD that is educational and fun and has been watched many times over the last couple of weeks.