With a large family and a love of Volkswagens we've always been fond of camping holidays in the UK, and one of our favourite places to stay is the Isle Of Wight. surrounded by gorgeous and fascinating beaches, full of history and blessed by far better weather than Manchester, it is also a very affordable place to holiday with a family.

Last August we returned to the Isle Of Wight on our first proper holiday in 3 years. We took 5 of our children and young people down to the Isle Of Wight for 10 days, staying at an amazing short-season eco-campsite that belongs to some very good friends of ours - Camp Wight near Yarmouth on the Tennyson Trail.  

Fuse Chicken have sent me their Titan Charge Cable to review. Marketed as the toughest cable on Earth, it was even tested using a chain saw and won. A US company who launched their first product with a ridiculously successful Kickstarter campaign (that raised well over 20 times the proposed launch cost), the Founder and CEO of Fuse Chicken is so proud of his own products that he deals with customer service personally.


My household get through a lot of USB charging cables. There are 6 people aged 16+ here now plus the 2 little boys, which means 6 computers, 6 mobile phones, various tablets, MP4 players, strings of fairy lights and a multitude of other USB items. Micro USB is now a standard and that's great because 1 cable fits all - especially as we all have Android phones - but with all of the use and abuse any cable doesn't generally last long.

We like unusual things here. There's nothing better than finding that perfect present for someone who is difficult to buy for. Peach Perfect is a website which specialises in 'perfectly inspirational gifts'. Here you'll find the unusual and sometimes eccentric, there are some items that are generally quite hard to find dotted amongst a few more everyday and traditional gifts.

If you are tempted by a Bee Hotel, a Handmade Wooden Wand, a Gerbera Umbrella or Airplane Nightlight then you are probably in the right place!

The Epson Eco Tank ET-2500 Printer is pretty much everything you'd hope for in a home printer/copier. Equipped with wireless network access, it connects to your computer, phone or tablet via your household wi-fi network, and promises to save a small fortune on ink (average 70% cheaper). Easy to set up and use, I was printing within 25 minutes of opening the box.


Occasionally when you get an email about a review you do a little happy dance. I did a big happy dance when I was offered this household printer - it arrives with enough ink to last the average family over 2 years - 6,500 colour pages or 4,000 black & white pages worth!

If you are in the Manchester area over the next 2 days and visit the Arndale Centre,  you will be able to bag yourself some delicious sugar-free Ricola Swiss Herbal Sweets in exchange for binning your sugary snacks.


Research about to be revealed shows that 65% of Manchester’s adults are careless about their sugar intake and Ricola want to introduce more people to a lower sugar lifestyle. Expert Dietician Kirsten Crothers will be on hand to give advice and information, and they will have plenty of their Stevia sweetened sweets to hand out.

Welcome To Salty Cove is the brand new release from Pip Ahoy! and is available on DVD and Digital Download from today!! Made by Cosgrove Hall Fitzpatrick (the people who brought us Dangermouse and Count Duckula) and voiced by a cast including Emma Tate and Sir David Jason, Pip Ahoy! centres around the inhabitants of the fictional seaside resort, Salty Cove.

Although Pip Ahoy! is most suited to younger children aged 2-6, my boys both enjoy snuggling on the sofa watching it, especially when they're tired after school. It's a calmer show rated as universally suitable, with an easily understood storyline and very distinct, likeable characters.


We previously reviewed Christmas Ahoy!, a special festive Pip Ahoy DVD. Welcome To Salty Cove is the first DVD from the TV Series as seen previously on Channel 5's Milkshake! and features 13 full episodes and an impressive 143 minutes runtime.

Last Summer we had a fantastic 10 days holiday on the Isle Of Wight, and we took the LEGO Scooby Doo Mystery Machine with us on tour. I posted all of my photos on Instagram and Twitter at the time, but in case you missed them, here's our holiday - the LEGO version....

It's a long way from Manchester to the Isle Of Wight, so an early start, 15 toilet stops, 2 spilt drinks, 1 stalker bee who chased us for miles, and when we boarded the ferry that afternoon Manchester was 10 degrees colder than Portsmouth, and rainy...


We stayed on an amazing eco-friendly campsite, (and I'm not just saying that because it's owned and run by 2 very good friends of ours). I have never had such a fabulous view while I washed the pots, or such sunshine while I ate my breakfast at 6.30am...

The Cut And Colour Playbook: Seasons by Anouk Boisrobert is a completely different style of book to most children's colouring books. Beautifully illustrated and very cleverly designed, it not only challenges your child's precision with a pencil, but it will also help increase their cutting skills. The works of art they end up with will be very different to regular 'flat' pictures, with a real 3D feel.


The pages of the book form layers, which are cut so that part of each page is visible in the end product. Seasons is rather obviously split into 4 sections, and Winter is the first, plus very topical, so we started with that.

Monday 25th January sees the release of Paper Planes on DVD and Digital Download. A bright and funny family movie, Paper Planes is a heartwarming story of friendship and perseverance centering around 12 year old Dylan (played by Ed Oxenbould), a boy obsessed with flying who discovers he has an innate talent for making paper planes.


We were sent a preview copy of Paper Planes to watch and my 5 and 7 year olds absolutely loved it. Full of comedy moments and with a very likeable cast, my young boys laughed out loud regularly at the humour and really related to the characters.

Over Christmas a lot of people I know have made the announcement that they're expecting, and in the last week two of my close friends have announced pregnancies, it seems Spring really has sprung early this year! My oldest child has now reached 22 years old, so it isn't just children that I'm seeing announced by my friends, it's grandchildren....

When I was pregnant with my older children the internet was new and exciting, but quite empty, and I was one of the first people I knew to order anything for my baby online. In 1998 I ordered a step to fasten to the back of my pram for my toddler to stand on. It was very basic, unlike anything anyone in Derby had ever seen, and came all the way from Sweden. I loved my step and it's no surprise they're so commonplace now. The world has changed and become smaller, and if you are looking for baby equipment now you really don't have to struggle to find everything you could ever need in one location.