Christmas: Book Advent

This has become another tradition in our house. We've gathered books as we go along and add new ones each year.

Every day in December the kids open a parcel and we share that book.

Christmas: Portable North Pole (PNP)

If you've never set foot in the Portable North Pole (and I cannot believe after raving about it every December I am still finding people I know who don't know about it!!) then get ready to step into Santa’s enchanted universe. A virtual gateway that reveals stories about the North Pole that now, thanks to the PNP Console and the power of the Internet, are available for all the world to share.

PNP is now in its 8th year and I've been using it for the last 7! Every year the videos get better and better with new scenarios year on year.  A few years ago you'd have never caught me spending money on a message from Santa but this is worth every penny when you see the look on your child's face.. there is a free version as well.

The Body Shop at Christmas

Last week Sophie at The Body Shop in Meadowhall invited Sheffield Bloggers to a closed door event where we could try their newly launched make up range for Christmas as well as their everyday body products.

It was love at first sniff when I discovered their Glazed Apple range and even more excited when I found out the body mist and lotion had glitter in.

Christmas Craft: Paper Plate Trees

We're making this one at Beavers as part of our Christmas Craft night so thought I'd share it with you as it's so quick and easy but looks fab.

Take a paper plate and paint it green.
Tip: If you use sponges and some different shades of green then it looks more 'leafy'.

Event: The Cake and Bake Show

You may have already read my post about my trip to Manchester last week for the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, which this year had decided to co-locate with the Cake and Bake Show.   This post is all about the Cake and Bake Show element of the day, as my first visit to one of these I really enjoyed it, although it was a little smaller than I expected.

Here are my highlights.

The Great British Bake Off Live

We were lucky enough to see Flora Shedden from this years GBBO cook her Sugar Free Pistachio and Apple Cake.  She gave a brilliant demonstration and answered questions.    There were some TV's so you could see what was going on on the stage.

  

Event: The Ideal Home Show at Christmas

Last week my mum babysat while myself and hubby took ourselves off to Manchester for the Ideal Home Show at Christmas, which this year had decided to co-locate with the Cake and Bake Show.   With hundreds of cooking at Christmas ideas to explore of course I had to go.

 

 

There was so much to see and do, 4 different stages of talks and demonstrations that fitting it all in was going to be tight, so I had to be selective.  Here's my favourite things that grabbed my attention from the Ideal Home Show at Christmas (I'll add another post for some top pics from the Cake and Bake Show).
 

  

  

Spacerframe

If like me you get bored of looking at the same pictures on your wall Spacerframe have the solution - an innovative picture framing system which uses clear acrylic pockets.   The frames are fitted with a specially formulated re-positional self-adhesive tape, giving you the flexibility of being able to move and reposition your display.  They also have a spacing tool which means you can consistently space your frames with your choice of either a 10mm or 30mm gap and enables you to ensure that your frames are always level by using the spirit level incorporated in the tool.

Spacerframe's come in a variety of sizes too.

I wasn't allowed to buy any but have definitely added them to my Christmas wish list.

Check them out here:  http://www.spacerframe.co.uk/
Twitter: @Spacerframe1

Riverco Trading

I love furniture and this kids bench was soo cute (excuse the blurry picture).  At £199 it was a little out of our budget (and may have been interesting taking home on the train).

You can find them here: http://www.riverco.co.uk
Twitter: @RiverCoUk

sorry for the blurry picture, silly auto-focus/ broken screen camera

Bus Bar

The husband spotted this and told he to pick him up when I'd finished..... no chance .... who's carry my bags.

The Bus Bar Company own and operate two 1960’s Routemaster buses which have been converted to fully functional mobile bars.  They have a fully licensed mass serving bar on the lower deck and on the upper deck there is an open top hospitality seating area.  A great idea to book for a party as they are fully licensed, insured, come with all their own equipment and have hard working reliable staff on hand to take care of your event.

Their website is: http://www.busbarcompany.com/
Twitter: @RoutemasterBar

StudyBed

The StudyBed is amazing.  I saw this in June and tried to explain it to the hubby, but this time he could see it with his own eyes.

The StudyBed combines a full-size bed with a very large desk and converts quickly and easily in just a few seconds without the need to remove any items off the desk nor any of the bedding.

The boys are in bunk beds at the moment but what a great idea for when they are older.

Website: http://www.studybed.co.uk/
Twitter: @StudyBeds


Christmas Theatre - Laurence Llewelyn-Bowen

Laurence was back for the Christmas show to tell us how to decorate our trees and tables in a coordinating but nontraditional way using wallpaper as a starting point.
I was sceptical but the results really worked and I came away with loads of ideas to try from snow in baubles to home-made crackers and napkin rings.

A great day out and have promised my mum she can come along with me next year.

Disclaimer:  I was offered a pair of tickets to the Ideal Home Show, Manchester in return for writing a couple of posts,  All opinions are my own, the companies mentioned are my own selection and have not been consulted about this post.

Christmas: Advent Calendars

It's almost the first of November and that means only 4 weeks to get an Advent Calendar in.  Every year I look for one that we would all love, every year I refuse to spend too much money, and every year we tend to end up with about 4!

Here's my favourites from those I've spotted so far, please share your finds in the comments.

The Ideal Home Show At Christmas, Manchester

4 months ago I was packing my day bag and heading off to Manchester for the Ideal Home Show, I was just a little (ok a lot) excited.

I had a great time, looking at homeware stalls, watching celebrities in the Ideal Super Theatre where I learnt about colour, organisation and clutter.  I came away with plenty of ideas to re-decorate my new home, I'm just waiting for the money fairy to drop by. You can find out more about the brands I saw over here.

A night in with Lush

There's few shops I enjoy going in but as you've probably gathered from my blog Lush is one of them. I can't fault the staff at Meadowhall, whenever I go in with the boys they spot the frazzled look a mile off and take the boys to investigate a bath bomb or two while I have a good look.  So I was really excited to be invited to their special VIP night to celebrate the opening of their new store (still in Meadowhall but a but further along).

Christmas: The list you never knew you needed....

As Christmas fast approaches it's time to look at those gifts that you've only realised you need now you know they exist.

For years people have lived a happy existence 'making do' and just muddling through life but now there are gadgets to do those jobs and we wonder just how did we ever live without them,  Or fun things to make life just the little bit more interesting.

Here's my top tips of what to buy the person who has everything....

Stainless Steel Egg Topper
or "Egg scissors" as they have become known in our house.

No more holding your egg still in the egg cup while you battle with a knife to chop the top off this little gadget will snip it off for you.

Lush: October haul

This week Lush launched their Halloween and Christmas goodies, there were soo many lovely new releases, including the return of some from last year, that I could justify buying them all.

Here's what I picked........

Summer Holiday: Stockeld Park, Wetherby

I stumbled upon this place a few months ago when we were looking for something to do.  Me and the kids think Mr Bloom is great and as he was appearing I tried to persuade him to make the 3h journey (each way) on public transport to go.... he wasn't amused and put his foot down.   So when mum asked me for places I wanted to go when we were camping at Sheriff Hutton I immediately thought of here, in a car it's only an hour from mine.

If you haven't been and you have small children it's definitely one to put on your to-do list, the boys (and us) had the most amazing time.

The park is split into 8 zones (9 if you count the cafe) and we explored most of them, this isn't a trip that takes a couple of hours, we were here from 12-5 and could easily have stayed another hour if we'd had the time.

My Organised Christmas 2014

That's it, Christmas is over for another year.  But just for reference for next year (or if you need to start planning in July) here's the list of everything I did in the run up to the big day.

I loved sharing the excitement with Cate over at Me Add Three and her
Christmas Countdown.

Plus huge thank you's to Izabela Peters, Lapland Mailroom and the Portable North Pole for their gifts this year,

Follow the links as I post them below to keep up with my planning (where I will be following Organized Christmas as it applies to me, however I may throw in some extra things) and let me know how you are getting on with yours.  Are you super organised or a Christmas Eve shopper??

Chickywiggle's guide to .... Christmas Party Food

This season we have mostly been eating and ... well yup that's pretty much it.  From roast dinners to party food to chocolate you name it, we've eaten it.  But that's what Christmas is all about right?  **tucks into another piece of shortbread**

I did a big online food shop that was delivered on Monday 22nd.  To be honest the experience I had using the app was far from perfect.  I booked the slot in good time and it was really convenient to open the app wherever I was to be able to add an item (or delete one if I got it cheaper somewhere else).  Every time I went in to add an item tho the chicken in the basket became unavailable and I had to replace it with another.  5 times this happened in the run up to the delivery and I was beginning to think I would have to go shopping somewhere else on Christmas eve.  Thankfully I was able to add the original chicken to my order the night before so Christmas was saved.

Tesco had kindly sent me some money off vouchers as part of the Orchard Programme for their Finest* Party Food.  It wasn't easy to find these online (as I've said before our online Finest* range is not brilliant) but with some googling and looking at what others had purchased I discovered there was more to the Party Food range then I first thought.... couldn't get the profiteroles tho :(

Our Tesco Finest* Party Food  range helped out in 3 meals over the festive period.

The Dinosaur that pooped.............

Nothing says Happy Christmas better then pooping dinosaurs does it?  So this year I won't be saying "Happy Christmas" to you, I will be sharing with you the fabulous creations of Tom Fletcher and Dougie Poynter (yup them guys from McFly) and "Poop, presents and prehistoric creatures".

We were really lucky to be asked to review that funny series and when the postie (eventually) decided to deliver it just before Christmas it was in great time for a 3h train ride to London.

I am sure the rest of the train enjoyed the hysterical laughter from our seats.  From mummy, who found it difficult to actually stop giggling long enough to read some of it, the boys who, well lets face it, it mentions the word poop - need I say more, and even Grandma managed a smile!

Snowman soup

You know Christmas is near when mums everywhere start referring to snowman soup.  It's become a tradition in our house and this year is no exception.

Unfortunately, being unworldly, my husband had not heard of it, and when the kids got up yesterday and declared that was what they wanted to drink we had a situation....and a frantic text at work, "wtf is snowman soup?".... I explained ... the next question "can I use mint herbs?".... some people just can't be helped :)

So, while the shops are still open and there's time to pick up any missing ingredient, let me introduce you to snowman soup.

Place marshmallows and a candy cane (or in this case a bit of candy tree) in a mug. 

Add your favourite hot chocolate mix.   

Add boiling water

Stir stir stir stir stir

Drink once cooled.

And it's that simple.  If you have any you can always decorate with whipped cream.

Enjoy.

Chickywiggle's Christmas guide to .......... essential TV viewing (part 1).

It's the 20th December tomorrow and do you know what that means???

OK, as it's Christmas I'll let you try again, .. here's another hint .... it's the last Saturday before Christmas.....

Got it??

YUP, It's Christmas TV guide day - the official day that the Double Christmas Guides Start and this year they run from the 20th December to the 2nd January.


Are you a circler or a highlighter???  when I was little we all had a different colour highlighter pen and went through the TV guide as soon as it arrived in the house marking out what it was we wanted to watch.... this year I couldn't find the highlighter pen so I had to draw rings around things.  It is most definitely not as easy to see what you have marked out so I shall be buying a new highlighter and amending it :)

In the first of a 2 parter, here is my Top 7 picks (1 a day) of what we shall be watching this holiday season, not including films (I'll cover them tomorrow).

Chickywiggles Christmas guide to...... Songs

One of the best bits about Christmas for me are the songs.  How can you not resist the urge to sing along to Frosty the Snowman as he bounds over the hills with a "Thumpety thump, thump, thumpety thump, thump"?


Admit it, we have all screamed along with Kirsty McColl and the Pogues during "Fairytale of New York" it's probably the most unseasonal Christmas song but ohh soo festive all the same.

This Christmas we will mostly be wearing.......

I love Christmas clothing, between Primark, Peacocks, Morrisons and TJ Huges me and the boys can get kitted out in long lasting clothes and at competitive prices.

Not including daddy, because he's a Grinch, me and the boys were all kitted out for Christmas jumper day, Christmas parties and of course the day itself.

Mummy

I bought a jumper from Primark last year, a gorgeous green comfy sweatshirt.  So to save the pennies I'll be wearing it again this year.      **sob sob** the husband just tumble dried it and now it doesn't fit..... what's a girl to do so close to the big day??

Christmas gift guide..... for kids

I have had so much fun Christmas shopping for the kids this year, however it was really hard to get something they wanted, needed and wasn't tat.  As much as I believe Christmas should be about getting presents they wouldn't normally get I don't believe in buying for the sake of buying. 

My mum, dad etc have been asking what they want....but what they want is very different to what they might get.
   For example give ben £20 and he'd probably want sweets and some bit of plastic that he'd play with for 2 days until he gets bored.

   I know both he and Noah would love a full set of teenage mutant ninja turtle figures and the shell raiser.  However I know that this would mean countless fighting, arguing and next month they'd want something else. With this setting you back the best part of £70 it's not something I'd consider a sensible present.  And while they are still at an age where I can have a say over their spending habits.....I will!