Monday 30 January 2012

Charnos Tights Tester

Back in November I spotted a post on the Charnos Facebook page looking for people to test their tights. I tend to struggle with tights as I am 6' tall and most tight manufacturers tend to think women only grow up to 5'10." I have tried wearing the tights for women up to 5'10" but they are just not long enough, quite obvious really but very frustrating! I have lost count of the number of pairs of tights I have ruined by trying to pull them up far enough, they either ladder at the top or my toes go through the foot. Occasionally I think I have found a pair that fit but they go on OK in the morning and then gradually start sneaking their way down my legs and I spend all day trying to hoist them up and make them comfortable again! For this reason I tend to wear trousers in winter as whilst I prefer skirts my legs are just too pale to be seen without tights in winter. When I saw the post I was quite excited as I realised Charnos had recognised the very problem that I have with tights and had come up with a website to help women decide what leg shape they are and to match the right tights to their shape - Fantastic!!!

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.
Armed with this information I emailed Charnos and was quite excited when they emailed me back and asked me to be a flamingo tights tester for them.

I was sent two pairs of tights to review for them, Luxury Knit Cable Rib Tights in grey which are £12.50 and Mary & Charnos Sheer 10 Tights in Super Shadow, £9.50 and you can see me wearing them in the two pictures.

The thick grey luxury knit cable rib tights are brilliant, I have worn them such a lot with my denim skirt and they have kept my legs lovely and warm, especially on a very cold Sunday at Blackpool Zoo. They fit perfectly and have washed superbly well. I would not normally have considered grey tights however now I have tried them I really do like the colour and they go really well with denim. They are also available in black and chocolate.

The Mary & Charnos Sheer 10 tights were lovely and soft and again fit perfectly. The tights are very natural looking and you can hardly see them when you're wearing them. The cardboard packaging is very attractive and would stand out on a display of tights as it is so stylish and different to other manufacturers packaging.

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 questions@bigbookbabble.co.uk. 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.