Friday 21st December 2012 – 'Luncheon' (356/366)
Thursday 20th December 2012 – 'Hello, Can I help You?' (355/366)
The Boy had to come into school with me today as mum is ill, and he had a great morning in the nursery.
Sponsored Post: Sharing Photographs Made Easy With The Sony – NEX-5R
As I come to the end of my second year of the 'Photo A Day, Every Day' challenge I'm beginning to reflect on the shots that I've taken. This year they've been centred more around The Boy and have featured very few still life or landscape photographs. I've also used a variety of photographic equipment while snapping away; sometimes it's the iPad, more often than not it's my phone (I started the year with a HTC Desire and have ended it with a Samsung Galaxy S3) and I try to use my DSLR where possible because the quality of the photograph 99.9% of the time will be significantly superior to any other device.
Here's the thing though; my eight year old DSLR has a 6.3 megapixel lens and my three month old S3 has an 8 megapixel lens. In theory, the photographs from my phone should be better, but they're not because it's all to do with the size and quality of the lens; how much light it can sense and adjust to, the speed of autofocus for those unexpected shots, and plenty of other complicated things that I don't understand. All I know is that it is nigh on impossible to get the same quality from a mobile device as it is from a DSLR.
This, quite frankly, is a shame. Because in this day and age of social media and the use of the Internet to share lives with far-flung friends and family, it is a real pain having to upload photographs from a 'proper' camera to a laptop and then share them onto a social media site like Facebook. It's the reason why I seem to take so many photos on my phone; I can either use Dropbox to access them elsewhere, or I can upload them to my blog or Facebook directly. Something my DSLR is not capable of unfortunately.
However, the new NEX-5R compact system cameras are capable of taking a photograph and uploading it directly onto social media platforms as they contain inbuilt Wi-Fi.
A camera with Wi-Fi? A 16.1 megapixel camera with inbuilt Wi-Fi?!
It's a seriously brilliant idea, and for the photographer in me who enjoys thinking about the composition and the technicalities of a still image, then having a camera which can autofocus as quickly as a DSLR, has a range of ten lenses to ensure each photograph has the best perspective, has a Sony guarantee of quality on the machinery, can upload photographs (which has been edited directly on the camera!) to the Internet, and is capable of shooting full HD videos, it has got to be worth seriously investigating. Why wouldn't you when it would make photography so much easier.
Sponsored Post
Dr. Beckmann Stain Removal
I knew when The Boy came home from nursery one day with yellow paint on his red and blue striped t-shirt that I was going to need to invest in some form of stain removal. Cursing and rubbing doesn't seem to scare the marks away unfortunately. He's getting to the age now where I can't keep putting a bib on him all the time, neither can I have him panicking about dirty clothes:
"What does mummy say? Clothes are meant to get dirty and then I wash them!"
Over the Christmas period when we will have greasy food, radioactively coloured sauces and quite possibly some more yellow paint, I know I'm going to need some serious stain removal to help make the laundry a lot easier! Clothes need to be easily cleaned because I am not spending ages chained to the washing machine. This is where Dr. Beckmann stain removers and colour and dirt catchers will come in handy!
I was sent these products for the purpose of this post.
I Feel Flat
This is a departure for me to write this on my blog but I feel the need to.
This post might not stay for very long but sometimes 140 characters on twitter just aren't enough.
I'm well aware that this blog has been review after review after sponsored post after craft after review posts lately but I really want to clear the backlog that I've allowed to build up.
I hate that I haven't done a Country Kids in weeks. I hate that I haven't written any posts about our life and the silly things my son does. I hate that I haven't posted anything to get conversation flowing.
I'm having a bit of a 'meh' week.
Finally after three and a half years I'm getting somewhere with my issues surrounding The Boy's birth. I don't want to blog about it because it's a deeply personal thing and not particularly positive, this blog is my happiness and light place. Problem is, that a week before Christmas, I'm struggling to find the happiness and light.
On Sunday I met with a midwife practitioner who went over my birth notes in detail for me. She helped me process the timeline of events, helped me understand why I have felt that I blacked out after pethidine (I didn't, I just have an adverse reaction to opiate based painkillers) despite my husband always maintaining that I didn't, explained the reasons why they didn't do an emergency c-section. She also agreed that two or three incidents during my ante-natal and post-natal care were (and I quote) 'piss poor'.
That helped me a lot and I walked away feeling positive about the whole thing and my inner self was happier. I'm no longer angry about his birth. I'm angry at one GP and a couple of other folk, but I understand why.
Yesterday I had my first counselling session to help me combat the issues. It didn't help going over everything again with another new person so close to having done it on Sunday. I came away from the session exhausted and confused. She asked me one or two questions that left me feeling bamboozled and actually a little outraged. I discussed this with a friend last night and she helped me think more rationally, but today I'm flat.
I've lost my mojo and I don't like it.
Oh bugger, I wasn't going to write all of that.
Galt Mega Marble Run (Review)
One of The Boy's favourite toy that he has is a simple Marble Run. He adores creating different routes down to the ground, often drawing in a side table or his stool to create platforms, whereas Mr. TBaM will sit there trying to engineer routes that allow for multiple possibilities or use every piece. With the set we have, it's not possible though.
However, we've been sent this rather amazing Mega Marble Run.
It has; 3 vortex drops, 3 paddle wheels, a wiggly bell chute (which marbles chime as they roll past), a 'staircase', 180 degree turn and most importantly a two way chute which means that the marbles have a choice of routes. It also means that Mr. TBaM is happy and his eyebrow can stop twitching with frustration.
For the sheer variety of different parts included and the possible routes down to the ground, this is the best marble run around (aside from the one in Techniquest which stands 6 foot high and 10 foot long) and for the price of £29.99 I think that it's brilliant value and allows for hours of entertainment.
I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.
Wednesday 19th December 2012 – 'Help!' (354/366)
Tuesday 18th December 2012 – 'When You Dream…' (353/366)
Orchard Toys: 'What's Rubbish?'
I've got a little bit of an eco-warrior on the sly, he's keen to put rubbish in the bin and is most insistent on knowing whether he can recycle the items or if they go in the compost bin. Very rarely does it occur to him that the rubbish may go in the 'normal' bin, and I'm quite proud of him for this.
We were recently sent the Orchard Toys game, 'What's Rubbish?' to try out and it has gone down a storm (it's even knocked 'Crash, Bang, Whallop' off the top spot, and Inever thought that would happen!).
'What's Rubbish?' is a fun recycling game which features a board with interweaving paths on, four counters, a 3D wheelie bin, four recycling bank player boards (two of each type: metal, bottles, paper and clothing), a spinner, and a selection of 'rubbish' cards.
- Each player chooses two different coloured recycling bank boards.
- The corresponding small cards are placed face down on the table. If four people are playing all recycling bank cards and corresponding small cards are used, remove unused recycling bank cards and the corresponding cards for fewer players.
- Choose twelve small cards and place them on the pathways all over the playing board.
- Choose a playing piece/counter and place this anywhere on the board.
- The youngest player spins the spinner and moves that number of spaces in any direction across the board. The aim is to pick up as many small cards on the board as possible to fill up your own recycling bank.
- If the spinner lands on the litterbug section then a small card is taken from the table and added to the main playing board.
- When you land on or pass a card, pick it up and see if it is one of your materials. If so add it to a space on the board, if not return it to another space on the main playing board.
- Occasionally there are 'litterbug' pieces which are picked up. When they appear, everyone must return one of their materials from the recycling bank to the table upside down. That litterbug card is then put in the wheelie bin.
- There are also some small cards which cannot be put on a recycling bank card, like a broken tv, alarm clock etc which are put into the wheelie bin.
- Each time a material is added to the recycling banks, or is put in the wheelie bin, then a replacement small card must be put onto the main playing board.
- The winner is the first person to fill their two boards.
'What's Rubbish?' is a really fun game to play as a family; it does involve some form of strategy when playing (for example Mr. TBaM and I are very careful to ensure we lay the small cards down on the board in our counter's path – or The Boy's if he's losing), but likewise it's purely chance as to whether a litterbug is picked up and pieces are lost. Even The Boy has started to realise that he needs to think carefully about the path he takes while playing.
Aimed at 5-10 year olds, I actually think that a child younger than that and capable of logical processing would be able to play this as well as The Boy does. As always,Orchard Toys games aren't just about having fun (although that is the primary aim!):
- develop strategic thinking
- encourage personal and social skills (turn-taking, etc)
- linked with National Curriculum Maths (counting, number recognition, shape and colour recognition.
- scientific development (identifying different materials and whether they can be reused or not – a tricky concept)
- moral and spiritual development (taking care of our world).
This is one of the entire family's favourite games from Orchard Toys; it's fun, educational and allows for a little bit of devilment whilst playing it with other adults. Excellent games and top marks from us!
I was sent this product for the purpose of this review, my opinion is honest and unbiased.

- «Previous Page
- 1
- …
- 92
- 93
- 94
- 95
- 96
- …
- 266
- Next Page»