Review: The Good Bag Co

I first came across The Good Bag Co in February when we went to the Lakes on holiday as they have outlets in Grasmere and Keswick.  I also bumped into them at the Ideal Home Show in Manchester.

I loved the quirky slogans such as "Chocolate is Soooo Good" , "mums are good", "cakes are good" and with the festive season creeping up on us they have many Christmas variations which are fab.  Soo many bags that would suit me down to a 'T' -

Made in Sheffield: Panache (part 1)

Panache Lingerie have some lovely modern offices in Sheffield (near Crystal Peaks) that they moved into in 2008, myself and some other bloggers were invited along a couple of weeks ago to hear about their range, see their work spaces and have a sneaky peak at what coming up.

We were introduced to Debbie, Alicia and Jenny who all have their own roles to play in bringing you the next seasons must haves in lingerie.

Warning..... this is a longgg post so I have split it into 2.....

Part 1 covers the history of Panache and it's ranges.
Part 2 talks about the creative processes involved in bringing you a new season and what's next for Panache.

Is baby and child clutter taking over your home?

Isn't it amazing just how much space they take up??!!   I cannot believe just how much of the stuff we  moved were boxes of their things.  There were 10 boxes of books! OK s this could be because I am a bookworm myself and a 'set' person.  I cannot just have 1 of the Narnia series we have to have the whole lot, Famous Five erm.... ok anyway....   And being a blogger I enjoy getting new titles through for the boys so they add to it.  In fact I tried to sell around 200 of their books before we moved and no one wanted them (well except timewasters) so they ended up coming with us.
Then you had the large box of board games.  We found some great boxes in Poundland for their other toys so each type could be boxed up seperatly (I must have spent £30 on these!).
Clothes .......... seriously how much have they got!!!  Must stop buying T-Shirts and onesies just because I love them!

This is KIDS mine are 4 and 6 now I dread to think how much I would have had if one had still been a baby with highchairs, prams and walkers to contend with.

Review: Timmy Failure

At 6 years old Ben loves mystery and solving crime but trying to get him to look at this from anything other than a superhero punch up view is really difficult. I was happy therefore to discover the Timmy Failure books by Stephen Pastis which cover the founder of the "best" detective agency in town - Total Failure, Inc.

Ben loves it and keeps a copy of Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made on the breakfast table flicking through, laughing at the pictures and reading excerpts out to me.

Moving House: Last Minute Questions

YAY you have finally got the keys and can move in ..... but first things first .... here's some last minute questions to ask the seller/ previous tenants that may help in the next few weeks....

Just a quicky

Just a quickie to let you know what a fab time I had tonight at the Panache bloggers event.  I'll be letting you know all about it just as soon as..... However tomorrow I am moving house so may not be checking in as much, and certainly no time to write until the weekend,  which is soo annoying at I have so much to tell you.

And I apologise for the formatting. ...I'm writing this on the app which is awful (and won't even let me add photos where I want them)

Tesco Orchard Review: Steak (1) - Steak, chips and Beans

Having never cooked steak before (yes I know!) I had to call on a friend for advice I was feeling a little scared about my next opportunity from Tesco's Orchard programme.  But I bit the bullet and

here's how it went.

Moving House: Involving your children on move day

Moving in T- 4 sleeps.  Actually moving day with the kids is not going to be too painful (she says giggling knowing she will be in work!).
Both boys are at school, unfortunately this means hubby will have to pick them up at  3 o'clock and they will be under feet after that time. So around about unpacking the van time unless we can find/ bribe someone to look after them

So just how do you cope with moving with little feet around?  Hopefully this guide will help whether you are going 10 minutes up the road like us and have them for half the day or whether you are going hundreds of miles with them in tow all day long.  If you can think of anything I've missed please mention it in the comments for others to see.

Move Day is drawing closer.....

After what seems like years the contracts were eventually signed yesterday and we get the keys to the new house on Thursday.  Typically it's this week that I have no chance what so ever of getting time off work so will have to trust the men to move everything .... a very scary thought.  However I have boxed or bagged pretty much everything to within an inch of my life so it should be easy enough for them,  I've also saved a huge box for dumping any last minute bits in on Wednesday night (after I get back from my bloggers night out... great timing eh!).

It's amazing just how much stuff you can hide in Attic eves and toy boxes, seriously who would have thought we would have sooo much stuff - and that's before you start taking the furniture to pieces.

And of course in the last week...........
.......... the kids have got orange paint over the upstairs playroom carpet
........... the husband has melted candle wax into the bedroom carpet.
............. the oven has broken down
...............I can't sleep!
................The job I've been waiting to be advertised finally has been.

Buyer Bingo

Another day ... Another Time waster.

If like me you've ever tried to sell an item (or indeed a huge declutter mission) or even if you are giving the item away for free you have probably come up against all the excuses under the sun as to why someone no longer wants it or couldn't be bothered to collect it when agreed.

Oh Yes, I've been there - waiting in until 1pm for someone to collect an item who doesn't turn up!   Spending time sending 6 or 7 emails back and forth to arrange collection for them to decide 20 minutes before pick-up they no longer need it.

The Ideal Home Show Manchester (part 2)

WOW what a day out ........  but where to start .......... the beginning??

After a delayed train from Sheffield, getting lost in Manchester and missing the bus and disorganised security staff at Event City I finally made it to the Red Tape (well green ribbon) opening of the Ideal Home Show 2015 for the start of their 4 days.

Whilst Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen entertained the crowds with his great sense of humour Amanda Lamb did that posing nicely for the cameras thing (ok yes I am very jealous of her ability to wear such amazing heels all day long!)   The ribbon was cut and we were in......

Tesco Orchard Review: Ice Cream - Ice Cream Roll

Whilst flicking through the various ice cream options on Tesco's website I came across Arctic roll or as Tesco call it "Ice Cream Roll".

With Home made Turkey Twizzlers planned for tea one night this had to be the perfect compliment to our school dinner themed evening.

The boys loved it.  The idea that they could have cake and ice cream and 'jam' all in one dish it's safe to say it was a hit and has been requested many nights since.

Moving House: Move Day

Even without any kids to bring into the equation there is still LOTS to do when moving house on Move Day.

Whether buying or renting this guide should help you prepare (even it everything else goes wrong...)

Make an essentials box/es

Yup I mentioned it in the kids post and I'll mention it again as it's the most essential element.

Pack a moving-day essentials box containing snacks, kettle, tea, coffee, milk, sugar, mugs and spoons.  Don't forget to add loo rolls, general-purpose cleaner and any medication you might need, it's always a good idea to add paracetamol/ ibuprofen too, just in case.

Make sure these boxes are either unpacked first or travel with you so they do not get lost.
If you are making more than one trip you may want to buy a cheap kettle to have one for each house. It can be very thirsty work!

If you are making sandwiches do these in advance, buy fruit and have bottles of water to hand, personally I find it easier to have a good cooked breakfast in the pub and snack during the day or have normal brekkie and pop to Greggs or Subway for a takeaway lunch.

I'm still here......

Yes, despite my best attempts to move house I am now having to unpack boxes as I go along due to still not having a completion date,

As you will know moving out has been a contentious point for us.  Our new house contracts keep being delayed and we have made both our landlord and Blundells aware ever since our notice of tenancy ending came through that we would not be out by the date given.   All along they have said that's not a problem and, up until 3 weeks ago, we were told we'd be able to stay here as long as required (long story).  Come the week of the tenancy ending and they took back this word and expected us to move out.  Well like it or not they were not making 2 small children homeless so we went .... no where... and still remain in the property  and will do until the keys for the new place come through.  We have offered to pay the landlord rent (we have tried to keep this an amicable situation all along) but as we currently have no legal contract this is impossible.

With no clear completion date I am already feeling as disorganised as can be.  My "who to contact list" is impossible to do as how can I give someone my new address or re-arrange my utilities when the papers haven't been signed yet?

So you can imagine my surprise the other week to have a voicemail left from Yorkshire Water telling

me Spark Energy had called them on my behalf (a company I had never heard of) to tell them my
husband was moving out and could I confirm that I was too.  Either way they had stopped my account with them and could they have my forwarding address to send the refund too.

ERMMM - is someone winding me up????????

Go Dad Run 2015

Everyone knows about the pink runs that occur for breast cancer but until today I'd never heard of Go

Dad Run. This is a series of 5k runs for men and boys, helping to raise funds and awareness of Prostate Cancer UK.

This year, the 5k runs will take place in six cities across the UK, so it’s easy for anyone to get involved. They’ll be in:
Worcester - June 14th
Bristol - June 18th
Warrington - June 14th
Llangefni - June 7th
London and Cardiff will both be on Fathers Day - Sunday 21st June.

Moving House: Packing

I've touched on this subject in other posts but it really deserves to have one all of it's own.... after all I'd say a good 70% of the things you have to do is pack.

Speaking from experience there is nothing worse then bad packing.  Last time we moved we thought "how hard can this moving thing be?!".  combine that with 2 small children, parents who work 7 days a week between them and no one on the scene to babysit and actually it becomes a pretty big challange.

We bought loads of those huge re-useable bags from Tesco, Hobbycraft and other various locations and, along with lots of nappy boxes basically stuffed them to the top with books.

Then we got loads of re-usable plastic crates and filled them with anything we could find as we went along.

There was no method to the 'packing', no consideration of where it'll go the other end (I labelled a couple of boxes) in fact there was no planning went into anything.

Clothes were pretty much left on  hangers and dumped in a corner to go.

lampshades, lights, and anything to big for a box well they landed in another pile.

Then hubby told me a week before we got the keys that he couldn't get the day off work to help me move house!  But it was ok because he had around 5 friends and our neighbours to help (one who had a van).

So on the day of the move (with no one in sight) I set off with the boys to get the keys ..... and wait for someone to come and help move.  (but anyway that's another story in itself)  Lets just say moving day (which turned into moving week) was a complete and utter disaster and had me crying in many many corners.   Had the packing been done properly it would have been a far smoother operation.

Make it: Turkey Twirls

Lots of things recently have had be reaching for the past and none more so then the other day when someone mentioned those immortal words "Turkey Twizzlers".  Produced by Bernard Matthews back in 2005, when your school dinner cost 45p a day, these yummy items were removed from schools and discontinued because Jamie Oliver branded them unhealthy.
  Excitement mounted in this house when, in 2014, Bernard Matthews applied to trademark "Oliver Twists" which sounded very similar, there doesn't appear to have been any movement since unfortunately.

So it got me thinking... how hard can they really be to make? They were basically turkey (34%) and 39 other ingredients (approx) including water, pork fat, rusk, wheat starch, three sweeteners, hardened or hydrogenated vegetable oil, colourings and flavourings. OK so mine will have to be a bit healthier then them
  Obviously Turkey Twizzlers would be trademarked so Ben re-named our version "Turkey Twirls".

Lush: Brightside Bubble Bar

Do you remember Christmas when my hubby brought me some Lush treats but they'd accidentally been labelled up wrong?  Read about it here.  Well I have finally got around to trying Brightside out for myself and all the lovely stories I've heard about it were ohh so true.

Tesco Orchard Review: Ice Cream - Pigs in Mud

For years I scoffed at Ben and Jerry's - seriously who pays that sort of money for ice cream I thought (can you tell I am a budgeting queen?) ....... then I tried some and my heart screamed out for more.

I don't eat a lot of ice cream and therefore when I do I treat myself to some 'posh' ice cream, unfortunately for me the kids also like it so I need to **shudders** share.   You can therefore imagine I was pretty chuffed when Tesco asked if I would like to try their ice cream range... and when I found they now did their own Limited Edition 'posh' ice cream "Pigs in Mud" why I bought us a tub.

Moving House: Books for kids

As I mentioned in my post about preparing children for a house move (here) one of the ways is to read stories with young children as a way to discuss their feelings and concerns.
My boys are HUGEEE Topsy and Tim fans so when we discovered "Topsy and Tim Move House" it was an instant addition to our collection.

Topsy and Tim: Move House (Ladybird)
Join Topsy and Tim as they prepare to move house with Mummy and Dad. In Topsy and Tim Move House, the twins are moving house but there is a lot of work to do. There are curtains to take down, toys to pack and pets to look after. It is an exciting time for Topsy and Tim, but Kitty, their cat, isn't quite so sure about the move...

But this got me thinking - what other books are there around?
Here's some of the ones we found - perhaps you have some other tried and tested suggestions?