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Category Archive: Product Review
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Red Nose Day: Comic Relief 2013-A bag, a mug and a tale of 2 noses
I’ve managed to avert a disaster in our house tonight – you know the sort … One daughter has a Red Nose for Comic Relief bought for her by her friend, the other daughter doesn’t have one. School were selling them yesterday but guess who only turned up with her £1 after they had sold out? Argh! Well never fear, one of the girl’s godfathers works at a local high school and happens to be in charge of selling Red Noses. Phew! He is kindly dropping one red nose into reception especially for Violet tomorrow. Doesn’t exactly make me feel like mother of the year though! I’m sure my kids must despair of me sometimes – I try not to be to hard on myself though by reminding myself that at least I’ve never sent them to school in their uniform on a non-uniform day. Yet! If Red Noses aren’t your thing for tomorrow’s festivities though, there are other Comic Relief goodies that you can buy to show support for the cause. I was sent a fabulous mug and bag which are available to buy in TK Maxx. I particularly like the mug as its a proper sized brew cup more »
Hotel Chocolat Valentines Review
It has been rather a difficult week in the Costello household. Parenting has definitely reminded us that life rarely runs smoothly. We appear to be over the worst and so I feel great delight in spending this evening relaxing on my sofa with my favourite people, munching on Hotel Chocolat goodies. We have been sent one of the latest in the Valentine’s range to try out, the Open Your Heart To Me set. I cannot resist anything Milk Chocolate and so this is right up my street with a large milk chocolate heart and a selection of dark, milk and white chocolates inside of it. The chocolates have lasted a mere milli second – even my mother demonstrated the ultimate sacrifice in offering to help taste test the chocolate. The chocolates themselves are beautiful and very luxurious to eat but there are only 8 of them. Because they are rich, you don’t need many more and it is nigh on impossible to eat even one half of the milk chocolate heart in one sitting. The Open Your Heart To Me set is available from Hotel Chocolat at £25 making it rather a special Valentine’s treat but ideal for sharing with more »
Project Complete – Lego Campervan Review
We are a massive Lego family – we have whole cupboards, huge boxes, small boxes and now a Lego Head dedicated to the stuff. Its become an important element of Christmas that on Boxing Day the dining room table is cleared and our comes the Lego kit that Santa delivered a day earlier (He’s never let us down yet!) We’ve had alsorts over the years – A plane, An Airport, A House, Fire Station but I reckon this year’s is my personal favourite… A Lego VW CamperVan (I’m sure I’ve mentioned here before about our other obsession of VW Campers too – and yes, I still haven’t finished that knitted Camper!) The kit came with over 1300 pieces and said that it was designed for age 16+ – Not a family to be deterred by a challenge, we set about it after our Boxing Day lie in. There were about 12 bags of different sized Lego pieces (some of which were the teeniest I’ve ever seen). If you needed 3 of a certain size, you couldn’t guarantee that all 3 would be in the same bag – You have to be a Lego fan to know that this is the more »
Tagged lego campervan, lego review, toy review
Morphy Richards Soup Maker Review: Perfect Last Minute Gift
I have to admit to being a bit clueless about Soup Makers before I got one. I wondered how they could be better, simpler or quicker than just cooking veg in a pan and blitzing it. When Morphy Richards invited me to try out their Morphy Richards Soup Maker though, I thought I’d give it a whirl. A friend had just bought one and was in the early stages of getting to know it but other than that I didn’t know anyone with one. Well, it didn’t take us long to be won over – we absolutely love this machine. It is so much less faff than the pan/blitzing combination. The instructions for the simplest quickest vegetable soup are below, but here are a few facts first: * Soup takes just 21 minutes from raw to completely ready to eat – I’m still fascinated when it comes out. * You can choose either a smooth or chunky setting * The maker is easy to clean – as long as you rinse it out as soon as you empty it. You cannot immerse the whole machine in water though. * There is also a setting to make smoothies * Cooks 1.6L more »
The Costellos visit Chill Factore, Manchester
These are pictures of my children having a brilliant morning. A morning that they are still rabbiting on about 3 days later. Ok, I know the picture of Tara looks like I’ve squashed her into a rubber ring (and to be truthful I had but she looked really funny) but believe me she was having fun. Last Saturday saw a rare visit to Manchester that didn’t involve a pool and all 5 of us could take part in. The Costellos landed at Chill Factore. We were there to take part in sledging (anyone aged 4 +), Meet Father Christmas in Santa’s Grotto and encounter Peppa Pig. When we first arrived we were quickly whisked through to the changing area. There’s no messing here so you don’t feel like you are wasting time. It was here I developed a love of ski pants that can be worn over jeans – I’ve never felt so comfy and cosy! Myself and Tara were only going to the snow play area suitable for ages 2-4 so we didn’t need helmets but were still given trousers, boots and jacket (I wore my own). Clever Tip: Put the bottom of the trousers over the heel of more »
Pop Party 10 CD Review
If you want to be cool with your 10 year old, just get them a copy of a CD with Gangnam Style is the first toon! Well, that moment of coolness lasted all of 10 minutes when I realised I didn’t know who most of the groups/acts were. Good heavens, soon I’ll be talking about who is in the Hip Parade like my Dad used to. Aside from me being an uncool mum, I had better get on with the job. What did the girls think of the latest Pop Party CD? They blinkin loved it of course! The verdict from our house is that if you are needing a Christmas Gift for someone around the ages of 7-12 then this could be the one for you. I will admit to thinking previously that Pop Party CDs were full of party tunes but this has a good selection of varied chart hits. (Oh god, whatever I say about it makes me sound like an old croc!) If you want to buy a copy, it retails at £10.99 and can be bought here There’s CD included, a DVD of 13 of the songs’ videos and 2 Behind the Scenes exerpts and more »
Music For Kids Princess Recorder Review & Giveaway
I’m a bad mother. I will come clean. About 4 years ago when Millie (then aged 6) wanted to start learning the recorder, I told her the sound made your ears bleed. Not a parenting moment I’m proud of and it more than came back to bite me on the bum when she starting learning the violin 12 months later! Fast forward 4 years and I find myself presented with a 6 year old Violet. There’s no fobbing her off with made up tales of bleeding ears. So onto recorder lessons we go. To Violet’s delight her first recorder lesson happened at the same time we were sent a sparkly new pink recorder courtesy of Music for Kids. Actually, what we got seemed so much more than just a recorder. Packaged in a Princess box, the clear pink descant recorder is just what I yearned for as a child. (Did anyone else have to suffer a wooden recorder with a mouthpiece that went soggy the longer the lesson went on? Just me then?) The recorder also has its own little bag to keep it in and was promptly covered in the fun stickers that came with it. There is also more »
Win a week’s worth of dinners for 4 with Flora plus Apple Cakes
Remember the marzipan apples, I blogged about at the weekend? Well, here are the cakes that I made them to go with. I was recently sent some baking goodies courtesy of Flora Cuisine and asked to bake a recipe out of their new cookbook, Lets Get Cooking. I’ll admit to being a little nervous of baking with a liquid form of butter and including fruit too but happily the recipe came off without a hitch. Flora’s cookbook is rammed full of recipes supplied by Mums and Dads on Facebook. The apple cake recipe in particular was sent in by Sian Hallewell. The recipe itself was really quick and easy to make. An ideal recipe for baking with the children I’d say. Once I’d got my head round measuring out the liquid Flora and looking through the little window on the bottle, I was all systems go and it was SO quick! If you fancy a go at making apple cakes, the recipe is here Me, being me, I had to go one step further and added Cinnamon Frosting. I was too intrigued to see how the liquid Flora Cuisine coped with buttercream/frosting not to have a go. One tip I more »
Leapster GS Explorer Review
I didn’t bank on my girls being quite so pleased as they were the day the Leapster GS Explorer arrived at our house. We had squeals galore from both of them. I was asked to review the latest offering from LeapFrog – a handheld games device with a focus on educating children designed for ages between 4-9. I’m happy to report that as I type, my 10 year old is busy playing away on Squirrel Summer Games and has described the game as ‘Fab!’ – so its beaten its own expectations there. Our Leapster comes with 2 free games and a learning app, Pet Pad (This is Violet, aged 6′s favourite bit). It is available in green and pink – we got the green one for a welcome change from all the pink in this house! The device itself seems hardwearing and robust – I can’t promise it will never get dropped but I’ve got a feeling it would survive! Once you have exhausted the games that the Leapster is supplied with, you can connect the device up to the LeapFrod Connect Apps Centre where there are over 300 downloads to choose from at a variety of prices. (Range from more »
Twinkle Tower Dolls House Review
It’s pretty safe to say that our house is a shrine to baby dolls and prams. Having 3 girls means they are everywhere. It may be a stereotype but the fact is that these are the toys that get played with the most. I’m on a constant search though to find something that little bit different that can be played with by a variety of ages. When Dollshouses.co.uk sent us a Twinkle Tower to review, we were happy to give it a go. There was much excited in the Costello household the day it arrived – even Millie at 10 enjoyed setting it up. At under 50cm high and 22cm wide, I was pleased that it didn’t take up too much room. Setting up didn’t take too long either – the unit comes complete in the box – you just have to add the furniture and the dolls – but that’s the fun bit isn’t it? The main thing I noticed was that the quality was lovely. Beautifully painted with smooth edges and good quality wood. I always think its really hard to judge those sort of things by just looking at a picture on the internet. The Budkin dolls more »
Tagged product testing, small dolls house, toy review
