Listography: Top Five Random Things I Like

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I've been rubbish recently with the Listography but I really wanted to make an effort to do this week's theme of randomness.

Just one word of warning though – random is not 'I like chocolate' – that's just not going to cut it round here. However 'I like chocolate sauce with my chips' is getting a bit warmer.

  1. Pub chips must be eaten with mayonnaise. End of.
  2. When I am in the classroom, the groups of tables must be parallel or perpendicular to the walls.
  3. I like to eat my custard slices by squeezing the pieces together, licking the custard out around the side and then eating the 'sandwich'.
  4. David Tennant was the best Doctor Who ever. Matt Smith is rubbish.
  5. I like a jam sandwich and half a glass of milk every night before I go to bed every night.

I know, possibly not as random as some but hey-ho!

Pop over to KateTakes5 to see the other link-ups using this little widgetty doo-dah!
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The Tent of Imagination

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When I was a tiddler I used to love making dens, and I was incredibly lucky because our house and bedrooms were big enough that my mum would keep them up for a day or so. I even used to make dens with the sheets on the whirly-gig washing line! Ever since I've had The Boy I have been looking forward to making dens for him, but he didn't particularly appreciate them at five weeks old for some strange reason. I've tried various times since, but not in the last few months.

Therefore when a 'ready-made' den arrived for him, I was hoping that he'd love it as much as I already did!

I didn't need to worry! He knew instantly that it was a tent, and loved the fact that it was a wigwam.

Standing at just over 6 feet tall and with a base diameter of approximately 4 feet, the wigwam is a good sized tent to have in the corner of your dining room during these cold months. If The Boy had a bigger bedroom, it would be up there for him as a hiding place, I can see it making a great reading corner in the future.

There are six wooden poles (each is in two parts and joins in the middle with a plastic tube to strengthen them) which slide through elastic loops along each join in the wigwam with a deep pocket for them to slot into at the base. They then protrude through the hole at the top of the thick canvas and are joined together with an incredibly clever, but slightly tricky, lacing and beading technique, ensuring the correct shape for the wigwam.

The canvas is simply stunning. A really thick, good quality canvas with bright colours which aren't brash, and the simplistic animal designs are spot on for little ones. It's bright and attractive and, when the Spring has returned, will look beautiful in the garden! I'm quite impressed with the 'doors' on this, the design has been adapted so that it now uses three Velcro patches to hold them closed, as opposed to the original fabric ties (something which would have been too difficult for pre-schoolers).

The Boy adores his wigwam and has taken his cushion, cuddly toys and a few books in there to get some peace and quiet. It is most definitely his domain, although he lets Mr. TheBoyandMe or me come in sometimes.

I loved wendy houses as a child and I'd thoroughly recommend a wigwam for your pre-schoolers, it's great fun for development of the imagination!

Big Game Hunters have a variety of wigwams available, the one we were sent retails for £49.99, which is the cheapest price that I've seen it available.

I was provided with this wigwam for the purpose of this review. Our opinions are honest and unbiased.

Review: Do Crafts

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In a previous life I used to be quite the arts and crafts fan; painting, drawing, pastels, applique, cross-stitch, making, baking, cooking up the next crafty idea. However, coinciding with the fact that I haven't slept since May 2009 is the fact that I have had no time to even remember how to draw a flower, let alone paint one.

I was recently sent some craft equipment from Do Crafts, including a Papermania Henbury Lane scrap-booking kit, a Creativity magazine, a pair of non-stick Art and Craft scissors and a Stick it permanent adhesive roller.

I've never tried scrap-booking before, but there is everything that you could need in this 1500-piece kit to make a start; including a large A3 square book, backing sheets, lettered stickers in a variety of designs and various cut-out embellishments with flowers, butterflies etc. There also card letters in four different prints which can be popped out and glued on giving a more 3D finish. It's a very comprehensive kit and ideal for scrap-booking fans.

The non-stick Art and Craft scissors are fabulous. Teflon-coated, sellotape doesn't stick to the stainless-steel precision blades, and they have soft-grip handles which is great for when you're cutting out a gazillion things! I couldn't get the Stick It permanent adhesive roller to work properly unfortunately. The theory is brilliant in that there is a roll of gummed paper and that it is rolled along the area to be stuck, leaving a line of permanent adhesive behind. In practise, the roller didn't roll and the glue had dried up.

I'm really looking forward to getting to grips with the Creativity magazine as there are so many different ideas in there. At only £2.95 per copy there are a wealth of projects inside it's glossy pages ranging from making Christmas wreaths to baubles and bunting. The latter I am definitely going to be giving a go! I particularly like the photo workshop for making your own photo Christmas cards, something I'm working on later today.

The Do Crafts range of equipment and resources is wide, and reawakened my inner crafty beast, just in time for Christmas!

I was sent the aforementioned products to try for the purpose of this review. My opinion is honest and unbiased.

Sunday 13th November 2011

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I know that Silent Sunday is supposed to be 'silent' but I'm taking the advantage here to highlight the fact that Pampers have joined with Unicef and are donating a vaccine for maternal and newborn tetanus for every pack sold. You can help without buying Pampers by popping over to their FB page and 'liking' them, which will result in them donating the cost of a vaccine to Unicef. It's just two clicks away!

My Empire

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I have been tagged by both the marvellous MummyMummyMum and the wonderful Would Like To Be a Yummy Mummy in a little meme which asks us to reveal our blogging haven; where we sit and converse with the world through our 14inch screens.

It's not saintly at all, it's a complete and utter comfort zone of blogging ease. This is my seat in the living room, woe betide anyone who sits here. Several reasons that it's mine; table for my constant glass of water and access to the power-leads for the laptop and external HDD. You'll also notice the USB lead for my camera, the Ultra Flip-Cam HD on the table and the remote control. I've noticed that I need to wash the sofa covers.

So there you go, I'm a slob and will pretend to be nothing else.

And I like the colour blue!

I tag:

ShowOff ShowCase: The One That Should Have Done Better

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There's always one post that we've written that we were proud of, that we put the final punctuation mark to and thought "yep, that's a good one! They're going to love it!"

And then either no bugger read it, or, like I've had before, about 50 people read it but no-one commented!

I used to think it was the stats that counted, but it's not; it's the comments. They confirm that your writing is decent and that your readers find your ramblings enjoyable.

Hence this linky to help other ShowOff the posts that were underappreciated. This weekend, I'd like you to help those posts to hold their heads up high! Brush them off, stick my badge at the bottom of the post and show them off for everyone to see. Don't be ashamed of them, help them shout at everyone:

I SHOULD HAVE DONE BETTER!

ShowOff ShowCase

I've added two; one was a competition post but I love the video and I wanted to share it again. Comments on it are closed so if you want to comment on the Oreo video, please can you do so below? Thanks!