‘Tis finally the season to be jolly which means I’ve been snapping up everything gingerbread to show you over the next couple of weeks. My energy levels are disappearing but I have a few swaps to honour before the arrival of Second Baby. This week I’ve been making a new type of gingerbread house for one swap partner, very simple with a red and white bead hanger and a metal heart on the door. I’m hoping my crafting mojo will return soon. I’ve been struggling to pull out my sewing basket after Edward has gone to bed yet there are…
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This week it’s all about the one that got away. I was browsing the charity shops in Muswell Hill when I spotted a lovely set of specimen drawers in the Oxfam shop. It was a small wooden unit with three full length drawers and four drawers of different sizes. It was beautiful and I started to think of all the things I could put in it and how I would clean it up. As I was hungry I decided to have lunch before buying the drawers which were priced very reasonably but looked bulky and heavy. I had a lovely…
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I never thought that we’d be affected by half-term with a pre-schooler but all our normal activities stop! This time we tried to be a bit more ingenious and made the most of activities at our local library, autumnal walks in the park as well as a trip to the Tower of London. Half-term fun at the Tower of London We’ve been meaning to go to the Tower of London for ages. It’s one of those iconic places which would be in my fantasy London Guide which represent London, along with Big Ben, black cabs and red telephone boxes. Despite…
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Following the success of last year’s campaign that sold over 11,500 bears, Pudsey and Blush Bear (who is Pudsey’s ‘BBF’) are back and now available at Build-A-Bear Workshop stores nationwide. Pudsey and Blush fans are able to make their beary own BBC Children in Need mascot at any of 55 Build-A-Bear Workshop stores across the UK with £5 from the sale of each Pudsey and Blush Bear going directly back to the national charity Appeal. Build-A-Bear Workshop teams up with BBC Children in Need New for this year is a furbulous Pudsey, who has been re-designed to feature a beary…
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My biggest fear about our new addition is the sleep deprivation! I have awful memories of the first few weeks with Edward where I quite literally wanted to gouge my burning eyes out I was so tired! At least I know what to expect this time. The people behind BBC Dragons’ Den success, Magic Blackout Blind, have launched a new book,‘Diary of a Sleep Deprived Mum’ written by a mum, inspired by mums and aimed at every parent suffering at the sharp end of sleep deprivation! It’s a fun book to read but also aims to inform via anecdotes and…
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I bought some gingerbread puddles from Hotel Chocolat and, although they taste delicious on their own, thought I would use them in baking. This was a good excuse to try out the classic cupcake recipe from the Primrose Bakery but make my own buttercream using the gingerbread puddles. The cupcake recipe is simple and so delicious they almost didn’t get iced 🙂 I baked them using the new Primrose Bakery app which was quite fun. The app was nice and easy to use but has a special feature which I haven’t seen before, basically you can wave your hand over…
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Just how do you introduce the idea of a sibling to your only child? I’ve been thinking about this for a while and got some great book recommendations from my local independent bookshop. We’ve been reading the beautifully illustrated
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Simply Tap would like to offer all of the lovely readers of the gingerbread house a chance to win one of 10 boxes of Thornton’s chocolates worth £15 each. Simply Tap is a new instant mobile checkout available on both iPhone and Android. It allows you to pay for things in seconds when you see something you like in magazines, out and about, on-‐line and in store. Its the sort of app that makes busy people’s lives so much easier. Simply Tap offers you a secure way of paying for things through your mobile without having to enter card details,…
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As a stay at home mum I never thought we would be able to afford the luxury of nursery sessions for Edward. We’ve made the most of free story time and singing sessions at the local library, and since he was born tried baby signing, music classes and swimming lessons. As my second pregnancy progressed I found I needed to cut back on some of our activities but Edward needed more energetic things to do! We began to look at putting him in nursery for a couple of sessions a week and the only place which was willing to take…