Being Organised And Saving Money

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Before The Boy was born when I was a full-time primary school teacher, I found that I had to be ultra organised when it came to Christmas. While the vast majority of the second half of the Autumn Term is given over to preparing the children for the magical events with cards, calendars, concerts and chaos, it was very easy to completely dismiss the event when 'off-duty' in the evenings and weekends.

I discovered that I needed to be über organised to avoid the festive season completely passing me by; I always wrote my (January sales) Christmas cards in the October half-term, bought the special edition stamps as soon as they were available and made a note in my phone to send them on a certain day. Wrapping paper and ribbon would be bought and set aside with scissors and sellotape ready for the evening of gift-wrapping with a sneaky Baileys. However, the actual present buying invariably happened when I 'broke-up' from school and I'd end up buying anything and everything, spending far too much money.

Now that I'm working part-time and I'm able to spend more time thinking sensibly about the whole malarky, and I get a chance to enjoy it through The Boy's enthusiasm. We've started making Christmas cards and talking about the special things that we'll do together as a family. I've also got all of his presents sorted out in the spare bedroom, bar small stocking fillers, etc.

The one who I have nothing for is Mr. TBaM! Whoops!

Problem is, that I have no idea what on Earth to buy for him. I know he'd love a Kinect thingy but I'm on a limited budget now and he can carry on dreaming about that. It's at times like this that I settle down with some of the money-saving websites and start scouring them for presents that would appeal to him, buying electronics online is so easy. As he's just upgraded his phone to an iPhone 5, I think he'd really like this iPhone controlled helicopter, that is if he could wrestle it from The Boy (a technical genius in the making!).

However, maybe I'd be better off getting him something that benefits me instead of annoying me? As he never seems to cook anymore I think perhaps this personalised cookbook would be a good idea; lots of easy recipes for him to surprise me with when I get home from work after him!

Let's face it, I'll probably end up buying him a yard-long Jaffa Cakes tube and a packet of Toffifees like last year!

This post contains sponsored links.

Naughty Or Nice?

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Every Christmas with The Boy brings new magic and wonder.

His first Christmas was awash with wide-eyed wonder at the lights and sounds. It was a riot of colour and he couldn't get enough of it all. He also crawled for the first time within days of the big day. On his second Christmas he helped me to 'decorate' the tree, even though it had already been done, and the 'ope' (-ning) of presents was a magical experience. Last year was the first year that he understood the concept of Father Christmas coming and bringing us presents, and that it was a special day.

However, this Christmas?

I can't wait.

The Boy's started to ask when it is and we've talked about it being after Autumn (which is lasting an awfully long time in this house, all the way up until December 1st!). With the shops all decked out in tinsel and goodies to buy, it's hard for him not know that it's going to start happening soon. With our involvement in the 'Countdown to Christmas' in the craft blogging world, we've already been making cards and pictures, I have no fear that my son does not understand the concept of glitter!

The 'carrot' that is used by so many parents of Father Christmas bringing presents to good children is one that I never thought I'd use, but there has been occasion over the past fortnight when I've had to once or twice! I'm very keen for him to understand that he's not just going to receive a load of presents just 'because'. This is the first year that we're going to attempt to create a letter to the jolly man himself (who can of course interpret a whole load of squiggles into the toys that The Boy means) and in return he will receive a letter from Santa Claus himself. The fact that it will be a video with Santa actually saying his name and referring to events that have happened throughout the year will completely delight The Boy and drive home that Father Christmas is always watching!

Do you write letters to Santa with your child? Does he write one back?

This post contains a sponsored link.

Home-Made Christmas Cards

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Before The Boy was born I used to spend hours looking for the perfect Christmas cards which would complement my chosen wrapping paper and the theme of the year. Then along came a perfect little being who looked incredibly cute dressed up in a Christmas costume, and he would be duely photographed and the image printed onto the front of personalised Christmas cards. This year he's going to be three and a half at Christmas and I just can't do it to him anymore; so in addition to traditional Hallmark cards, he's going to be making cards for family this year.

Here are some very simple cards that your pre-schooler can make within a few minutes.

You'll need:

  • red and green card blanks
  • blue card blanks
  • white paint
  • green felt
  • sequins and stars
  • bauble card blanks
  • glue
  • ribbon
  • felt pens

I'm not going to do a ste-by-step guide because the photos really show how self-explanatory the cards are!

One tip: start making them now because pre-schoolers are not known for their ability to sit down for a few hours and make cards, then write them!

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'Counting Down To Christmas' is a craft bloggers link-up held each week in the eight weeks preceeding the big day itself. Each week we will be posting a different Christmas craft activity.

This week the co-hosts are Rainy Day Mum ~ Mummy Mummy Mum! ~ Life at the Zoo ~ Here Come the Girls ~ The Fairy and The Frog ~ Jennifer's Little World ~ Playful Learners ~ Making Boys Men

 This post contains sponsored links. The content is original, honest and uncontrived!

Rock Of Ages (Review)

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Tom Cruise, bare-chested in leather trousers and guy-liner.

I'll just let you think about that for a few seconds shall I?

…

need a bit longer?

…..

I know, I didn't think it would work either. Especially not when I heard he was going to be singing '80s classic soft-rock anthems.

But the thing is, it really does!

And I think it's because it's such an unexpected sight to see the usual clean-cut Cruise acting in such a racy, rock-star manner that it completely works.

The concept of the film is of a young girl who follows her dreams of heading to Hollywood in 1987 and making it big as a singer alongside all the other soft-rockers. Through a fateful mugging, she ends up working as a waitress in The Bourbon Room which had launched many a career. A relationship between Sherrie (for she has a name) and Drew (another wannabe singer) starts up, as it was always going to, and provides many a beautifully sang duet.

That bit is all lovely and sweet, but I'm 35 and a bit beyond a 'young love' story now (unless it involves Chuck Bass on the Upper East side).

After about 25 minutes the secondary storyline (and possibly the most important) starts up. Enter Stacee Jaxx, otherwise known as Mr. Mission Impossible himself. He returns to play at the bar which helped launch his career and whose owner (Alec Baldwin – I know!) is being threatened with a campaign to close it, led by Catherine Zeta Jones.

And this is where the film gets good.

Really good!

I cannot, and will not, tell anymore about the adults' escapades because it would spoil it. However, this film is way more than a sweet love story between Sherrie and Drew. It's about Tom Cruise showing he's actually a very comedic actor using an incredibly funny script, while showcasing the best songs of the era. And unlike Pierce Brosnan in Mamma Mia (because this film has come from a stage-show as MM did), this action figure doesn't let the whole film (and the fans) down by not being able to sing. He can, they all can. Especially Mary J. Blige who also makes a surprise appearance.

Rock of Ages has become my new favourite film, I've watched it three times since being sent it, and I only haven't watched it more because I lent it to a work colleague and she's not given it back yet! Hire it, buy it, download it, but watch it! It's really air-guitar rockingly good!

I was sent this DVD for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

ToyJeanius: Haba Tack Zap On Duty (Review)

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Even though The Boy is getting older and therefore more independent in his choice of toys, I still try and steer him towards the quality end of the spectrum; wooden toys that encourage creative play. Haba is a brand that caters just for that.

As an online wooden toy specialist, ToyJeanius was more than happy to send me something that she thought The Boy would really enjoy playing with; something to get his teeth into.

The Haba On Duty tack zap game is a toy which involves laying out brightly coloured, wooden, pre-shaped pieces to create a picture, and then tapping them into place (through the pre-drilled) hole using the tacks and light hammer onto a thick corkboard. The theme of this set is construction/emergency vehicles and provided inside the box are three heads, four wheels, two tracks, eighteen other pieces and enough tacks to nail them in. (There are other Haba tack zap games which could be used alongside it to create different scenes.) There is also a handy pamphlet with nine templates to follow if inspiration is needed.

For The Boy, this is an ideal toy as he can either copy the templates or make a picture up himself, and he pretends to be Grandad hammering as he's playing it. The corkboard is of a good quality that the tacks don't fall out, giving them a little press first when tapping them in is something I'd recommend as it gives a grip to start off with. The tacks obviously have a point to them, but they aren't dangers and the wooden hammer is just the right size for little hands. I would say that it's to either do one piece at a time, or lay them all out and push a tack into place, as otherwise the pieces bounce all over the place when hammering them down.

This toy has given The Boy hours of fun, and as it is for 3-7 year olds I can see it lasting for a few years yet!

The Haba On Duty tack zap game is available from ToyJeanius for £14.95. Readers of this blog can receive a 10% discount by entering TheBoyandMe at the checkout.

We were sent this item for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

Photographing Sparklers

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I'm not an expert at this, in fact I am as novice as novice can be at using the manual settings on my dSLR. Something in my brain fails to comprehend all the technicalities and as soon as I've remembered what ISO is, I've forgotten about aperture. My poor husband sits and patiently explains it to me over and over again while I hold my head hoping to keep the information in, but it all just seeps out.

Thank God my Canon has an amazing selection of automatic settings.

However as good as it is, it can't photograph sparklers properly. Especially not if you want to write with them (like @babberblog did).

And this is where several amazingly tolerant people and twitter came in handy last night. Thanks to this post on the Tots100 by the über clever Becky, I found out the settings that I needed to use to photograph moving sparklers. But then on my EOS 300D there's about eleventy billion manual settings which confused me even more than I thought possible. So I took to twitter sobbing and found in my favourites a tweet from the fabulous @Doobietots (who is a bit of a wizz at photographing things at night) who had gone to the trouble of finding an online manual for my camera.

Out we traipsed onto the patio for The Boy's first ever experience of sparklers, which is where I managed to take these. (The top one is the first sparkler lit, hence the delight on his face as he'd never seen one before)

long exposure photography

We had so much fun drawing patterns and writing our names in the air, The Boy's face was an absolute delight all the way through; sparklers are such magical things!

Settings I used to photograph sparklers: ISO = 100, aperture = f/11, exposure = 20 seconds.

(Becky has since suggested an external flash set off in the last second before the lens closes would freeze The Boy's movements and effectively 'over-ride' any other movements he has made.)

After I'd uploaded them onto the computer and The Boy had gone to bed, I realised that the photos I'd taken with more than one word written were difficult to read because it was all joined. I had a brainwave from a tweet that @cakesphotoslife had sent me about using black card over the lens during the shot to black out additional light. I decided to try it over the lens when I'd got to the end of writing a word in order to create a space, and enlisted Mr. TBaM's help.

(For a while all you could hear from the patio was, "Now! Now!" and thinking on it now, I'm sure the neighbours thought something dodgy was going on!)

Anyway, five sparklers later and this was the end result.

long exposure photography

What do you think?

Little Dish: New Recipes & A New Look

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As I've said many times before, I'm fussy with the food that I let The Boy eat, always have been. In his first year I cooked everything from scratch for him so that I could guarantee the contents and quality of the food. When it came to loosening the reins a little there were very few brands that I trusted, but I genuinely always trusted the quality of the ingredients in the Little Dish meals. Now I'm back to work part-time and my mum is feeding him, I do tend to buy the ready meals as a standby, to make it easier for her if she's not up to cooking from scratch.

Recently, Little Dish have refreshed their ready meals, both visually (by introducing the 'zoo crew' to the packaging) and recipe-wise, and have a fantastic range of eight ready meals to choose from (all suitable from 12 months+). The range includes The Boy's favourites of Chicken and Butternut Squash Pie, Pasta with Cheese, Peas and Brocolli Trees, and Spaghetti and Meatballs, but also has a mild Chicken Korma too. The Boy always enjoys the flavours of these meals, and wolfs them down!

Little Dish

However, The Boy's utmost favourite meal is cheesy pasta with ham so I'm really pleased that Little Dish have done it again and produced a brand new range, this time it's fresh, free-range egg, filled pasta!

These (child) bite-size pasta come in two flavoure: Mini Tortellini with Cheese and Tomato, and Mini Ravioli with Spinach and Ricotta, and are perfect for little ones and their little tums. I also like that it gives you the freedom of which sauce you can use to accompany it and add vegetables (or ham!) as appropriate. I knocked up a bowl of Mini Tortellini with Cheese and Tomato in a cheese and ham sauce, and The Boy couldn't get enough of it!

The pasta is made with 100% natural ingredients, and cooks in just three minutes which makes it ideal for tea-time, weekend lunches, play-dates or eating in a hurry. The 230gm packets contain between 2-4 servings, depending upon how big your child's tummy is, and are ideal to keep in the fridge on standby!

Little Dish Filled Pasta is available from Waitrose and Ocado.com, priced at £1.99.

I was sent samples of these products to try, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

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