Cable & Cotton make some amazing strings of lights and when they asked for people to review I was immediately keen. Up here in Manchester we have mainly very grey days and early nightfall all year round, and spend a lot of Winter needing lights on all day. Because we need it so much we make effort to have interesting lighting rather than just a big bulb in the middle of the ceiling.


I was given the opportunity to choose a string of lights. There are pre-selected strings, but I chose to pick my own colours. The entire selection and order process only took me a few minutes - most of the time spent was choosing exactly which colours I wanted and what 'feel' I wanted them to give to my room.

Everything about these lights is really beautiful and carefully thought out, starting with the packaging.









 

This is a very special photo, on a very special day. 

This is a man who four weeks ago was seriously ill and developing Meningitis, and a week ago was still incredibly ill with a throat infection, and this weekend he came with his family to a Volkswagen show to see our friends and play with their children, and buy ice creams and look at things we can't afford and don't need..

I love this photograph because he's standing with us while we eat ice cream, leaning on the pushchair carrying our friend's sleeping baby and looking out over the show smiling. It's our first trip out since before he became ill and it was a fantastic day. He did it. It's a win.

We went out! Our children have been really brilliant so far this Summer and entertained themselves at home, but finally we've reached the point where we are able to take them out for the day as my partner is recovering well now from his Meningitis. The Tatton Park Volkswagen Show is an event that I've been to every August since 2003 and it would have been a shame to miss it as it's so close to home. It's organised and staffed by members of VW North West - who do an absolutely fantastic job.


It is held in the grounds of Tatton Park, which is a gorgeous place to visit and has an amazing play area for children. This is also the venue for the Foodies Festival and many other events throughout the year.

It is a one-day event, so camping is only available to traders who need to set up their stalls. Last year we accompanied our friends from Campertronic, Dave and Kate, as Kate was very heavily pregnant and had a 2 year old to wrangle too. Campertronic sell all kinds of vehicle electronics and accessories and Dave spends most of his day cycling around fitting alarms and central locking kits to people's vans and cars.

We had a fantastic weekend last year and this time we were due to stay with them again and help with the children while they manned the stall, but when my partner became ill it looked unlikely we'd be able to help. Because of his improvement over the last week we thought we'd give it a go and stay as long as we could, but camping was definitely still beyond us, so we travelled down bright and early Sunday morning. 

The Campertronic stall - all of our spare house keys were made here!

If you've ever been to any classic car show then you'll know it's mainly about the vehicles - but there's also room for shopping and food!

Plenty of  VW's to look at (often with their engine lids open - this is the default position for VW's).

You can buy almost anything with a VW printed onto it - bur out 4 year old's favourite stall was the stickers! He was desperate to spend his precious £2 buying some!

A hot dog, a balloon, a cupcake and an ice cream, what more could you ever want?!

......except maybe one of these - the perfect VW for a 4 year old...

My partner did an astounding amount of walking (as did the little boys) and we managed to see the whole show and be helpful and entertain our friend's children. There was also quite a lot of sitting in deck chairs soaking up the gorgeous weather - another sign of improvement on the part of my partner, who last week couldn't bear the sun in his eyes.

My partner managed until lunchtime before a very well-earned hour or so napping..

....while our 4 year old had fun with his periscope - spying on all the people in the stall!

We even got to actually test the 1stfone in use, as on our return to the stall at one point our 4 year old walked straight past and immediately realised he'd lost us, so stood still and rang me! I hadn't even realised he'd got lost because I could still see him - but he couldn't see us. It worked a charm and I was able to tell him to stay still and walk over to where he was waiting. Without it I'd have had to run to catch him and he'd have been far more upset than he was.

Some people are less scared of Tiggers than others

The weather was gorgeous, we had a bit of rain around 3pm, but by then my partner was flagging and it was time to start saying our goodbyes anyway. We couldn't have asked for more really.


When we got home I made a quick tea and we ate, and then my fella went to bed....and stayed there until 8.10am this morning. The children examined their selection of VW t-shirts and models and flashing bouncy balls, and I lathered myself in aftersun! How it is that we have all these gingers who come home pasty white while I ended up beetroot red I'll never know!

I recently reviewed Marbutopia marble run for What2Buy4Kids, we really love it and the boys have had a great deal of fun playing with it. Our full review on their website is here...


Marble Run is a real classic and something that will be played with for years because it grows with your child.  It's fun at first to make the simplest constructions and watch your marbles fall to the ground, and then as you get more proficient your designs can become more complicated and intelligent.


It encourages all kinds of development including physical (fine motor skills, hand-eye co-ordination), intellectual (including problem-solving and spatial awareness) and academic (including understanding of speed, friction, gravity).

We give it a 5/5 because it really is great fun as well as being a brilliant tool for learning.

Ilumi are a County Durham company who make a range of nut, milk and gluten free foods. In their own words:

Our mission: to create delicious, colourful, deeply flavoursome foods that our customers can trust, to make them accessible and convenient, and to spread the word about eating for wellness to the wider community.

I arranged to review Ilumi Curries before my partner became ill and my parcel arrived just after he came home from hospital. Because his tummy was still sore he was unable to really test the curry, and I had stupidly not mentioned the fact I'm a vegetarian, so for a couple of days we had 2 chicken curries and rice, and 2 Celia beers sitting on the kitchen table.


It was all too much for my 2 curry-loving teenage step-daughters, so after much pestering I allowed them to take a turn at reviewing - but I had the terrible task of preparing my own curry to accompany the beers (it can be a hard job sometimes). 


The meals are presented in very attractive pouches, ready cooked and simple to heat up in the microwave. Both girls had them ready in what seemed moments, in fact one had eaten hers before I could get there with my camera!

The house smelled gorgeous, the curries were incredibly aromatic and even the rice had a lovely fresh-prepared smell.  It looked really nice on the plate too, not too much oil, and a very appetising colour.


The girls' verdicts were very favourable. Their comments ranged from "delicious" and "just like a curry from a restaurant" to "well-cooked" and "smells lovely". They did comment that there was a lot of sauce, but I've found that whenever I buy them any chicken curry it tends to have a lot more sauce than a vegetable curry, and they ate the lot in a couple of minutes, so it obviously wasn't an issue. My partner tried a few forkfulls and he was also delighted with the depth of flavour.

I'm really impressed and I very much enjoyed my gluten-free lager. There was definitely no loss of flavour with any of the meal, even though people with allergies can be confident that they are buying something which will not adversely affect them.


As a vegetarian and someone who cares about what my family eat, I love the fact that Ilumi have the ingredients on the front of the pack, as it is what I would always refer to first when choosing something new. The packaging is lovely and clear, and you can tell at a glance that you are buying something which is made with care and consideration.


I will definitely buy Ilumi meals in the future, I'm very jealous that I didn't get to try them on this occasion and my partner is keen to sample one of their Pork, Mushrooms and Madeira pouches. The prices are very good and easily competitive with other brands which aren't so thoughtfully prepared. They have a large and interesting range of sauces and meals, soups and rices and their website is amazingly simple to use, with the option to exclude and include specific ingredients, so you can view exactly the products which are appropriate for you.

Ilumi Thai Red Chicken Curry (275g) costs £3.50 and Yellow Basmati Rice (175g) is £1. Ilumi currently have a special offer of £4 discount, free gifts and free postage on orders of £20 or more.
 
Anna at In The Playroom reviewed the Vegetable and Chick Pea Jalfrezi. You can find her review here.

This is my van.

I love my van.

When I took my partner to work yesterday to drop off his sick note and show everyone he was getting better, it dumped all it's water on the car park. In the pictures above and below it has no radiator. That's because I have spent a lot of today fetching a new one and replacing my old one - which had sprung a leak. It's a good job I love my van.

No radiator!

I met my partner because we had a love of Volkswagen Camper Vans. He rang me for advice on what to look for when he bought his. I knew where the rust patches are, and what is serious and what's normal in an old van.

The children have inherited our love of vehicles

It might not be a camper, but we still use it for camping - we have silver screens for the windows and the 2 older boys especially have slept in it many, many times rather than put up a pup tent. We use it to tow a trailer and have a huge tent that 7 of us can sleep in very comfortably.

Cornwall 2012

Two years ago our van did us proud on a road trip of Europe. We took all 7 children through France and Belguim, The Netherlands and into Denmark to Legoland, Billund. We came home through Germany and never once in all those miles did our van let us down. It's a star.

Apparently you can still sleep in my VW van even though it doesn't have a bed! (Waiting for a ferry)

So kids, what was the best thing about your 2000 mile European Tour? "Sitting on top of the van"

Saying 'Goodbye' to Legoland Family Hostel, Billund, Denmark

I love my van, we have so many happy memories which have been made possible because we have it. That's why I am not upset I spent my day changing it's radiator, it deserves it.... Any RV must be well maintained to have a comfortable trip with no problem - you may want to rent an RV for travelling with the whole family,

This is my very last minute entry into the Photo Your Mota Competition. I've been tagged twice and because of what's been happening at home I really hadn't the time to give to something that I hadn't committed myself to, but today I realised that I really want to give my van some credit, so the teenagers are making tea while I write!

It's unfair to tag anyone at this very late stage, but I will reference the two bloggers who tagged me - Anna from In The Playroom and Laura from Tired Mummy Of Two. Thank you.

In our latest package from the Little Tiger Press we received a canvas bag and a copy of I Spy in the Sea, a lovely lift-the-flap book by Joanne Partis.


The book is written in rhyming couplets and introduces several interesting words (such as scuttling and rippling) and lots of different sea creatures.

This hardback book is smaller than A4, so it is much easier and lighter for my 3 year old to hold than a lot of books. It has 12 very brightly coloured pages, and each pair has a really large flap that is very cleverly made so that when it is lifted the creature below pops out of their hidey-hole.


My boys really like this book, especially my 3 year old who has read it to himself many times of the past few days. I love that it introduces so many new words, yet they are very easy to get to grips with, so the book is accessible to young children while still expanding their vocabulary. I Spy in the Sea has a recommended age range of 3+, but I think a younger child would still love it - although you'd have to be careful that it didn't get damaged.


We were also sent a really attractive canvas shopping bag, with a lovely image of the Little Tiger Press logo. Definitely nicer than most of the supermarket reusable bags, and something I love!

The other day Kids Chaos blogged about walking through a sheet of A4, and I said they were cheating.because when I was a child we used to walk through a postcard.
 
I was then challenged on Google+ to prove it was possible by Kids Chaos, Cathy Ranson of Netmums and Paul Stickland - the author/designer of some truly amazing children's books.

You can't ignore a challenge, so I set my teenagers onto it!



We took a standard postcard as a template and cut cereal boxes to size, and then made the slits in much the same way as Kids Chaos explained, but more finely.
 
 

And then.....step through it!

It's amazing what 48 hours of antibiotics can do. I think I love Alexander Fleming.

When I consider how scared I was on Sunday night, and how close I was to taking him back to hospital, and then I look at him 72 hours later, sat next to me laughing at the TV with no fever and no shortness of breath (well, okay, maybe a little, everything is still a bit more of an effort for him), it's magic.

Yesterday I delivered Girl no.3 to her friend's house for a sleepover and stayed for coffee. I'd left my partner fed, watered and  having his 4 hour afternoon nap and it was lovely to get out for a while and spend time catching up with their family - they just moved up here from Derby, and I moved up here 6 years ago. When I got home with the little boys it was my partner who opened the door to let us in, with a big grin on his face. If I could have bottled that moment I'd save it forever.


He continued to improve last night and over today and he even came with me this afternoon to collect my daughter from her sleepover and have a coffee - no big nap. He was flagging after an hour, but it's a really big step. I feel like a Mum listening to her child say a new word.

I really feel we are well onto the right track again. He has new pain in his hands and feet now because when he was ill over those 3 days they swelled up and were burning hot, but otherwise we're back to where we were and beyond it.

We were due to camp over the weekend with trading friends at a VW show at Tatton Park, and then on Monday we were going to Wales for a week. Camping is still far beyond us, we had to cancel Wales, but we're planning to go to the show for the day and see our friends and let the children spend money on ice creams and plastic tat they'll break before we get home. Normal stuff. My partner can sit in a deck chair on the stall all day and go have a nap in our friend's van whenever he needs to. It's bound to rain all day, but it won't matter one bit.

We recently reviewed the 1stFone and now they have kindly offered to give one away to one of my readers along with one month's free airtime, all together worth up to almost £90. We think 1stFone's are great, and our review is here.

1stFone have recently introduced the 'Image Phone', which is even more accessible to very young children and also to anyone who is unable to use a standard mobile phone. It still only takes moments to create your own design and upload your chosen images.
It arrives ready to use and pre-programmed with the telephone numbers of your choosing and your accompanying photographs, so that all the user needs to do is press the correct button and it will ring the person shown.


For your chance to win your very own 1stFone your choosing and a month of free airtime please enter using the Rafflecopter form below.

a Rafflecopter giveaway


UK entrants only please. The prize is a 1stFone your choosing and a month of free airtime - after which you can choose from any of these Payment Plans. The prize will be supplied by 1stFone directly. Once the competition ends the winner will be selected randomly from all entries by Rafflecopter. The winner will be informed by e-mail within 48 hours. If the winner does not respond within 5 days then I reserve the right to instruct Rafflecopter to choose another winner.If the winner does not fulfil the entry then I reserve the right to choose another (e.g if you enter by following on Twitter, but have unfollowed before the end of the competition). The competition will close at midnight on Wednesday 28th August 2013.