I've never liked cats and so Gary The Cat wouldn't have been the sort of thing I'd have thought to buy, but Gary has been with us a week now and although we've not had chance to test all of the features, we've found he's been popular with pretty much the whole family.


Gary was delivered by means unknown, without so much as a note or delivery ticket, and as soon as he realised we were awake, screeched and scratched and cried at our door for an hour until we gave in, opened it and let him in.

In less than a week's time you are meant to present your Mum with something fabulous, which you haven't bought yet. If it's looking like chocolates from the garage on the way there yet again, then here are a few ideas and you still have time to order online!

Peach Perfect have some lovely gifts to suit all budgets, and you may have seen on my social media that they sent me one of their Homemade Naturals DIY Beauty Craft Kits. I have the Relaxing Lavender Bath Melts Kit (£15), which is incredibly beautifully presented, 100% natural (free from any parabens or synthetic preservatives). In Eco-friendly packaging, it's also vegan and cruelty-free. The kit is really easy to use and contains everything you need to make around 10 cocoa butter based 'cakes' which melt in the bath to release gorgeous relaxing aroma and essential oils. My skin feels amazing...


My Passport Ultra from WD (£62.99) is an amazingly simple and good looking portable hard drive that you can set to back up your laptop or PC as regularly as you'd like. Protect those treasured family photos and videos or your entire music collection against the heartbreak of accidental deletion or hard drive failure. I have a giveaway to win one and my full review here...

To help celebrate World Book Day on Thursday 3rd March, the kind folk at the holiday letting agency www.Cottages.com are offering my readers the chance to win a fantastic collection of 15 Roald Dahl books to keep your young fiction fans busy for a while.


www.cottages.com has more than 15,000 properties across the UK, and to help you choose your next holiday destination, they have put together a map of places to visit connected with some of our favourite children’s authors and stories.

Britain has a rich history of literary connections, and visiting somewhere you have read about and imagined is magical for adults as well as children. To help you find the perfect day out I've teamed up with www.cottages.com, who have created a map of some of the best places to visit if you want to immerse yourself into the worlds of your child’s favourite authors and stories.

I've been lucky enough to visit a few of the places that inspired some of my favourite authors, and it gives a real insight into how they and their characters lived and felt, and it helps make your favourite stories come alive.

If you are looking for an unusual Mother's Day gift that protects what is of value and could save a lot of heartache and annoyance as well as being beautiful, then My Passport Ultra might be just the thing.

Western Digital (WD) are specialists in making sure you don't lose any of those precious memories saved on your phone, tablet or computer. They sell a huge range of back-up and storage solutions to meet any need you may have, and one of their most popular is the My Passport Ultra portable hard drive. Not only user-friendly and useful, available in 4 colours and with matching accessories it looks darn good too...

One of the biggest changes you face as a parent is the loss of sleep, and as a parent of children aged from 5 to 22 I've had a lot of broken nights, and I still can't claim to have ever found the secret of a great night's sleep.

Bed Guru are trying to find the best sleep tips for parents in their #Bedtimeguru campaign and have asked me to share my best tips. These are what worked for me...

I'm not a person who can leave a baby to cry, I'd rather cart them around with me and plot them on the floor or wherever nearby to whatever I'm attempting to do, with the end result that my children would sleep anywhere. This is a really handy thing.

The latest Littlest Pet Shop release from Hasbro on March 7th this year is Sweetest Pets, featuring over 2 hours of episodes from the universally suitable children's TV show. Available on DVD and Digital Download.

We've watched a lot of Littlest Pet Shop over the past couple of years, and it's still one of the more gentle animated children's TV shows that my boys enjoy. Featuring Blythe Baxter, a young lady who lives with her Dad above the Littlest Pet Shop, and spends most of the time she isn't at school or sleeping playing and having adventures with the animals.

This Spring Egmont have released a series of new Star Wars books for children. We really enjoyed the Early Readers they sent us to review last year - but these are even better. We have 3 story books for competent young readers, a colouring book, and our favourite - 'Where's Wookiee?'!


Star Wars has long been a favourite here, it really is a timeless classic that spans generations. It is one of the rare films you can put on and everyone will watch together. We all got into the spirit and with light sabres from wrapping paper tubes and gaffer(duct) tape, in a flash (and a dressing gown or two) Jedi and Empire were battling in my hallway!

Kaya Jewellery sell 'Meaningful Jewellery For Baby, Child And Mum'. A company founded by Dutch Mum Tanja, Kaya specialises in personalised jewellery gifts, including gifts for mothers and daughters, and everything is handmade in the UK.  I really couldn't have said no when they asked me if I wanted to choose something from their website to review for Mother's Day.


The website is incredibly easy to navigate, products are split into really useful, clear categories, and often the same items appear on several pages, which better is much than having to search for something you spotted a while ago and can't find again.

We're long time fans of Interplay crafts, science and nature kits, and one of our favourite ranges is Rivetz. Models made from thick glossy paper fastened together using plastic rivets. They're a bit trickier than your regular papercraft kit, so are mainly suitable for children aged around 8+.
You may have previously spotted our Rivetz Hornet - which lived on our wall for a few months last year and appeared in the background for many of my photos. It's a definite talking point, and a really impressive model.