Royal Mail is celebrating one of the nation’s best-loved children’s authors, Roald Dahl, with its first stamp issue of 2012. The presentation pack of six stamps celebrates six of Dahl’s most famous books that children and adults alike came to know and love, including Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, Fantastic Mr Fox, The Twits and Matilda. The stamps themselves recreate the magic of the Dahl books, using the beautiful illustrations of Quentin Blake. For the launch, Royal Mail Stamps is running a competition on its Facebook page to win Roald Dahl’s Scrumdiddlyumptious Story Collection featuring seven of his best-loved books,…
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I’m at war with my pram. I don’t understand it. It was expensive and the ‘must have’ accessory where we live but it’s by no means ideal. At one point late last year we had 6 prams stuffed in every corner of the house and sheds (yes sheds, our house is overflowing!). We sold 2 and left one at my mum’s so now we have just 3. That leaves our Voyage which I love. I can’t bear to part with it and I live in hope that one day we will leave the house with BB walking and LS in…
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As a busy mum of two I am happy to cut corners where possible. I love anything that saves me time so loved the look of a gingerbread dough block which I came across in Sainsbury’s recently. At £2 for a 350g block it is quite expensive but great to keep in the fridge if you have unexpected guests coming round and need to whip up some biscuits without getting your hands dirty! You need to keep the dough in the fridge and remove 30 minutes before you want to start baking. It’s quite a heavy dough and was quite…
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Big Brother is turning into a typical boy and loves anything with wheels. His absolute favourite programme is Chuggington which he would watch pretty much all day if I let him. Before Christmas he had a couple of Chuggington books, engines and a board book which he loved. They’re all well-loved and splattered in food (before I introduced a ban on toys at the table!). We knew what to get him for Christmas although I think we may have gone slightly overboard. It was all a bit Chugtastic and I only hope he doesn’t fall out of love with it…
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My changing bag isn’t working for me. Not when I need another couple of bags to simply leave the house. Today we decided to go on a family shopping trip to Westfield Stratford, the super duper new shopping centre next to the Olympic site. I’m gradually getting used to getting us all out of the door but find I take a silly amount of ‘stuff’ with us. First up there’s my faithful old Orla Kiely changing bag, stuffed full of old receipts, my wallet, phone, packs of tissues and broken pencils. The only useful thing it actually contains are numerous…
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Just before Christmas I came across another seasonal product from Sainbury’s – gingerbread flavour sauce. The picture on the front looked delicious so I foolishly added it to my basket. Of course I then needed something to eat with it so bought some treacle sponge pudding too. I was really looking forward to trying the sauce so waited until my dinner had gone down before heating the sauce and pouring it over the pudding. Hmmm. I have to admit that although it smelt good (just like gingerbread!) it didn’t taste as I expected and wasn’t that nice! In fact it…
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I spent most of my childhood with my nose in a book and I’m really keen to pass this love of books on to my children. Firmly believing that it’s never too early to start reading with your child, I was delighted that Little Sis was sent a soft book and rattle for review from JellyboxUK.com. They sell luxury children’s and baby gifts including a selection of cloth books. We received Captain Calamari’s Treasure Hunt, a lovely story which Little Sis loves looking at with me. The bright colours and tactile formats will delight little readers keen to explore. Bold,…
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Big Brother surprises me with his grasp of technology, already completely au fait with using our iPhones and iPads. We love discovering new apps for him to use and were excited to hear that one of his favourites, Peekaboo Barn, has been decorated Peekaboo Barn for the holidays – bunnies in beanies, cows in hats and horses in knee socks! This new, holiday version is a free update inside Peekaboo Barn, just upgrade to the latest version to get it. The app will revert to its “regular” self on January 6th so you have a couple of days left to enjoy…
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Signing up for festive swaps seemed like a good idea in the months before Christmas and my favourite was the Advent swap, organised by Hookin’ with Laalaa. The idea was simple – to buy, make, gift or thrift 24 small gifts for your partner to open each day of the advent. These could be very inexpensive, or even free (think skincare samples or teabags!). The parcel was also to include a larger gift for your partner to open on Christmas Day. The swap was fun to collect for and I ended up with lots of little gifts which I put…