Mummy and Me - May 2018

This month Lily and I had the perfect opportunity to have some lovely photographs taken. We attending a 1940's weekend at Haworth and I decided to dress up wearing my 1940's wedding dress. Lily has a little white dress and so I thought it would be perfect to dress her up also. 
I love this photographs which show Lily and I really having fun together and enjoying the day. 
Quite a few photographs this month. Hope you like them. 

My Sunday Photo 27/05/18

Two Tone Fingerling Review and Giveaway

Fingerlings have to be the cutest toy to ever be invented. 

If you are new to what a fingerling is, it is a cute little pet that hangs from your finger. You can get baby monkeys, sloths or unicorns. 

WowWee toys have just launched some two toned monkey Fingerlings and so we were sent one to review. 

Lily was so pleased when hers turned up and could not wait to get it opened. We got Sydney the purple and pink monkey. 

As soon as you switch on your fingerling, it says "hello" and starts interacting with you straight away with all sorts of cute noises. It has over 40 different sounds to listen out for.
The way that the fingerling is designed, is so that it hangs from your finger and so its feet and arms are closed together to allow this. They are super cute and all have a little tuft of hair on their heads. The new two tones just adds a nice extra prettiness to them.

As well as speaking, they also move. It moves its head from side to side and also closes and opens its eyes. Lily was super delighted when she turned it on and it started talking and moving. 

But the fingerling isn't actually as simple as that and actually comes with tons more features. It has 2 sensors on its head, each one to the side of the little tuft of hair. Tap it once or twice for a range of different reactions. 

Then if you hang them by their tails. They love it and they may even laugh hysterically. Also if you stroke its head, it loves the affection and will make cooing noises.  

If you want your fingerling to go to sleep, you could also lay it on its back and rock it like you would a little baby. 

The features of the Fingerling get even better. You can even make them toot or burp by cupping your hand around the top of your head. Even I think this is a hilarious little feature of it.

Next you could try blowing your fingerling a kiss. It reacts to the sound and may even blow you one back or it may cause it to sneeze. 

I love that the fingerlings are so interactive and they make the perfect toy pet for a child to own.

The Fingerlings are £15 each and you can buy a variety of colours. Head to the website to see a list of retailers that sell them. 

Your in luck, I have one Two Tone Fingerling to giveaway to one lucky winner.

Enter below on the Gleam app.

Win a Two Tone Fingerling

Mid Month More About Me - RIP Trixie Pixie

You may have noticed I have been pretty quiet this week. As well as being super busy lately, we have also had something sad happen in the family. 

We have lost one of our lovely pet cats Trixie.

So I thought that this months mid month more about me would be all about my cat Trixie. 

I got Trixie 9 years ago when she was 7 weeks old. She was the tiniest cutest little thing, I took this picture the day after I got her.

Trixie has always been a strange and timid little cat. She liked her own company and was quite happy to snuggle up in her bed and not move much for the day. When I decided to get some more cats to be her friend, she was never interested and always spent her time on her own. She used to love night times when she would climb onto my bed for cuddles before I went to sleep.

She has had some adventures though. She moved all the way to London with me, moving into 2 different homes and then moved all the way back up north last year when we moved back here. 

Just before I moved to London, I gave her to my friend to look after for 2 weeks while I was moving my things up there. This is one time we thought we had lost her. She was so scared of being somewhere new that she ran away. Or so we thought. 2 weeks of looking for her and walking around the streets shouting "Trixie Pixie". People must have thought we were mad shouting that out.

It was only when my mum went round to my friends house and shouted her name there that Trixie suddenly appeared. She had managed to find a gap some where and had gotten under the floor boards. She wasn't lost after all and I was so pleased to have her back.

When Lily came along, again Trixie wasn't very interested. She has always been such a quiet little cat. But over the last 3 years Lily has become friends with her and now that Lily is old enough to understand to be gentle Trixie did enjoy getting stroked and brushed by Lily. In the last few weeks with Trixie Lily was super kind to her and would look after her and give her treats. She knew Trixie was poorly and so there bond grew so much more. 

This is where the sad part comes. Unfortunately at this time, we had noticed that Trixie's back legs were going, she was really struggling to walk, and so I decided to take her to the vets and this is where we got bad news. The vets thought that she either had a tumour or something wrong with her spine. She said either way, to prepare for the worse.

We had the choice then that we could either put her through scans and operations, or let her go. 

We decided that it wasn't fair to put her through all the scans and operations, especially because she has always been such a timid little thing. So we knew it was only a matter of time before we would have to say goodbye and decided to give her a few more weeks with us. We set up a corner in the room, with a litter tray that was easy to get into and her food and water and some blankets. She was cosy and quite happy there. She was still using the litter tray and still eating a drinking and so she had a few more weeks with us.

Soon enough though the time came where she could barely walk, and she was struggling to get into her litter tray and she seemed in pain. So we made the decision to take her and put her down.

My partner took her for me as I didn't want to see it happen and I stayed with Lily. We told Lily that Trixie was going somewhere where she would have no more pain and her legs would work again and she could run around with other cats. She is a little young to understand death and so I felt that this was an extension of the truth for her that was better.

Its been just over a week now that this happened and Lily has spoke about her a few times. The vets were ever so nice and sent a card with some seeds to plant. Also my parter paid to get Trixie's paw prints printed into a card which was lovely and these will be framed. 

We had 9 special years with Trixie which we won't forget. 

Trixie's Favourite Food - Chicken Iams
Trixie's Favourite Past Time - Being Brushed and Sleeping

Trixie's Favourite Toy - As a kitten she loved a little blue elephant teddy she would carry around.

RIP Trixie Pixie 

April 2009 - May 2018

My Sunday Photo 20/05/18

Baby Secrets Review and Giveaway

There is one type of toy that always goes down well with Lily and that is anything that is baby related. She thinks there all so cute and she just loves playing the caring role. 

So when I got offered to review the new Baby Secrets toys, I just had to see what Lily would think to them.

A wonderful bundle turned up and just as I thought she would be, Lily was super excited to see babies.

She was so happy that she even posed for a picture for me. 

We were sent 2 baby secrets packs that both came with baby's, a surpise baby in a bath and an accessory. Which happened to be a rocking horse and a pram.

We were also sent some additional surprise single packs.

Lily was so excited to get them opened and wanted to open all the bath tubs first. She found it so exciting that she didn't know what baby she would find inside. She ripped open the packets and said Awwwww at each baby she found inside. The packets wern't to hard to open after you got the plastic off and so she could do that bit herself. 

Inside, was a baby, a collection sheet and a birth certificate. 

On the birth certificate you can write the baby's name, date of birth, parents name and if they are a boy or a girl.

There is a very fun way of finding out if they are a boy or a girl and that is via the nappy. You fill up the bath tub, dip in your baby, and the nappy will change colour. If its a girl it will turn pink, and if its a boy it will turn blue. We got some doubles in our packs and so it was great that one ended up a girl and one a boy. Lily and I found this such a fun way to find out the sex of the baby.

We then opened the main packs which also had surprise bath tubs to open. Lily loved all the little babies and there arms and legs also move which makes them even better. I thought they were great quality and designed really nicely.
In the accessory packs, there was a pram and rocking horse. The prams wheels move which is brilliant and the rocking horse rocks which is great. Lily really loved that she had these to use with her babies.

After we had opened them all up we had a brilliant collection. Lily really loved playing with them and I could hear her making little conversations and making them cry which she then would say "its okay baby" and take care of it. 

On the collection leaflet that they come with, it tells you how rare or common each baby is to find.

I think these are so good to collect and I would definetly be buying more mini packs for Lily to add to her collection. 

The accessory packs are £12.99 and the little mini packs are £2.99.

Head to the Baby Secret website to find out more about them. 

I now have a special prize to give away to one lucky winner. You could win 10 mini mystery packs! For your chance to win, enter on the gleam app below.

Win 10 Mystery Mini Baby Secrets Packs

My Sunday Photo 13/05/18

My Photography Post - May

One thing that happened last month was the weather got better and so that meant I got to go on on some nice Spring walks. Of corse, I decided to take my camera and so todays photography post are all the images I got on that walk.

When it comes to photographing things, as well as taking photographs to make things beautiful, I also like to make things look a little abstract by using shadows and contrasts and photographing in black and white. So todays set of pictures you will see some beauty and you will see some abstract.

Hope you like them. 

1. The Pond - I decided to sit at this pond for quite some time. Such a beautiful little area with lots of colour. 

2. Frogs at the pond - While I was sitting at the pond, 2 cute little frogs paid me a visit, one was sat on the back of the other. 

3. Dino Branch - I loved this branch that I found, such a strange shape and it reminded me of a dinosaur with a long neck, or a strange lock ness monster. I have always noticed shapes in the things I find. 

4. The Tree - Another one that I could see shapes in. I spotted what looks like a stags head at first, which I found interesting but then a friend pointed out that part of it looked like a ballerina and now I can definetly see that. I also see a devil and angel sort of shape with the horns and lady looking figure. It really is a wonderful tree. 

5. The Hill - This is Pendle Hill, it has always been on of my favourite hills and it looked great on this beautiful day. I love how the sunshine brings out all the colours and makes everything so vibrant.

6. Spring flowers - I just loved the way that the light has fallen on this flower. It really highlighted it amongst the rest. 

7. Spring Flower close up - another view of the spring flower. I love how vibrant it is and the light that fell on it really helped bring out the colours. 

8. The Nettle Leaf - I found a little area while I was walking which had a mixture of metal fence and nettles and instead of photographing it in colour, I decided that in black and white it would make it look a little more abstract and different. It is amazing how dark you can make an image look on such a bright day. 

9. Thorns and flowers - In the same area I found some thorns and little delicate flowers which were also along side the metal fence. Again rather than photographing the colour of these little flowers I decided to make the image a little different with taking it in black and white. The dark background almost makes it look like it was taken at night where as really this was a bright sunny day. 

10. Thorns and Flowers - Another view of the little flowers I found. 

Which of the 10 photographs do you like the most and why?

Our day at the Fair

We had such a great bank holiday this year! Lots of sunshine and so it was great that that day we planned to go to the fair which was being held at Townley Hall. 

We went their last year and Lily had a great day then. You can read about last year here. 

Looking at last years pictures it was much warmer this year, which meant that it was a day for shorts and t-shirts and summer hats to be worn. 

We went as a family and we were also meeting my brother and his girlfriend there. When we got there Lily was so excited, she could see everything going on in the distance and was hurrying us towards all the rides.

The first thing she wanted to do was go on the bouncy castle. So I payed £2 for her to go on. Lily can be really funny with bouncy castles, some days she loves them and some days she doesn't. Today was going to be one of those funny days and she didn't want to stay on for long. I did convince her to jump but I had to stay near her and hold her hand for most the time. Still, she enjoyed bouncing up and down as long as I was hold of her. 

Next Lily wanted to try and win a prize so we headed to a stall with some prizes. It was one of those games where you have to whack to hit the bell. Lily couldn't manage it on her own though she gave it a good try. So her Uncle Dan helped her out. She was excited to win a prize and decided to choose a golf set (which mummy encouraged her to pick). Perfect for some summer fun! 

After this I tried to encourage Lily to go on some rides but she didn't want to. She loved rides last year, but has seemed to have gone off them again lately. So I didn't push her and instead I decided I would go on a ride with my brother and his girlfriend. While we did this, daddy took her to go and get some ice cream. Lily's favourite dessert!

After relaxing in the sun and finishing ice cream. We went to go and play another fair ground game. Hook a duck! We had to help her play it but she was so excited when she caught a duck, she wanted to take the duck home but we had to explain how its a prize you get to choose and so she chose a plush doughnut. 

Lily then decided she wanted to go on the giant inflatable slide but we decided that it was probably something I would pay for and then when it came to climbing up it, she would probably not want to go up it alone and parents couldn't go up it. So we decided to play golf with her new golf set. 

It was lots of laughs and I haven't seen Lily enjoy playing with something for so long before. Also lots of giggles for me as her daddy helped her play and got hit with the gold clubs many times. She was so excited every time she got the ball in the hole and would jump up and down shouting "Yey I win!"

After this we headed home. Lily was starting to get tired and we had been in the sunshine for quite a while. 

Overall it was such a fun day at the fair, hopefully there will be another one next year. 

What did you get up to on bank holiday monday? 

Pointless - The Mini Game Review

Who has seen the Tv show Pointless?

It is a game that me and my family all love to watch. So when University Games offered us the Mini Game to play I thought yes please! Perfect game for me to play with my family. 

So the idea behind Pointless is to get the lowest or pointless scoring answers. Each question has been surveyed to a group of 100 people and the amount of people who got it right EG 20, has determined the score. The question might show 5 Hans Christian Andersen Fairy Tales and you have to be able to give the answer to the least well known answer. The least well known answer will give you a low number score. 

In this Mini Game, there are 6 rounds where you have to score the lowest total score to be the winner. 

The game comes in a travel size box, which is brilliant for taking to someones house for games night, or perfect for taking on holiday. Inside there are 120 questions on cards, a card holder, an answer sheet and 1 set of rules. 

The game can be played with 2 players to 5 players or if there is more of you, you can play in teams. It is recommended for ages 12+

One person is needed to be the Games Master and read out the questions and there are times that the cards need to be passed around so then everyone can read the anagrams. The card holder is designed so then no one can see the answers as the cards are passed around. 
It would also work if you were sat around a small table to be able to read the anagrams. I have a whiteboard and so ended up writing them down onto that and holding it up so everyone could see.

Each person has a score sheet which they write their chosen answer on. You then reveal the answers and everyone gets a score which is also written down. 

I played this game firstly with my brother and his girlfriend. 

So what did we think? 

The first thing I would say, is that you need brains for this game. We all had a good giggle when a round came up which was about biscuits as I said we should all manage to get these answers seen as we have biscuits for brains! We found a lot of the rounds very hard and skipped more than half of them. I do think that it would be a very tricky game for a 12 year old to play.

So I was a little disappointed to be honest. I think the people who go on game shows are generally quite knowledgeable and so I did hope that the questions would be a little easier for families and people to play the game at home. I found a lot of the questions to be about things that my generation and younger may not know about unless it was their specialised area. Such as Art for me.

That said, If you are someone who watches the TV show at home and manages to get a lot of the questions right. Like my Dad or my Grandad. Then this is the game for you. I will be taking it on holiday with me to play with my parents. But I will probably stick to being games master for it. 

This game is £9.99 and can be bought from Amazon. 

Do you enjoy the game pointless?
Would you like to play this game?