Num Noms Mystery Makeup Surprise - Review

Lily and I have actually been fans of Num Noms for a few years now. We are always really eager and excited to see what new products come out by them. It is a brand new year and so a brand new product has come out and wow we are impressed.

We were sent a nice surprise hamper from Num Noms.

Inside it had a Num Noms Magazine (which I didn't know existed but do now and think its brilliant), some sweeties and 3 of the brand new Mystery Makeup Surprise bottles.

Lily and I really didn't know what to expect from these, but we were definetly excited. Who doesn't love a surprise. Lily has also loved pretending to put on mummy's makeup lately, and although I don't encourage it much, I don't mind her having the odd bit of child's makeup.

I just loved the bottles, they reminded me of milkshakes and you can't get more fun than milkshake drinks. I love the little detail of the straw coming out the top and it really is a brand new surprise design that has not been seen before.

Opening them is such an exciting part of the surprise, I had to start the rip of the plastic for Lily but after I had done that she could remove the rest herself. 

As soon as you have taken the plastic off, the bottle is then clear and you can see what you have got inside. These looked totally different to the usual Num Noms we are used to seeing and so was very intrigued to get them open and have a look. 

To open the bottles you need to first remove the lid and then it opens up by pulling at the bottle until it opens in half. This bottle can then be used as a little play house which later on Lily did.

The items you get inside are one Num Nom character and a lipgloss, also some instructions and a collectors guide. 

I think the new little characters are so sweet. They are still food themed but are made with a thicker plastic, have bodies and cute little outfits. But there is also another element to them. One of the ones we got in our bottle, had a opening on its face and inside was scented shimmer. Lily was super impressed at this and loved that it had a makeup surprise inside.

The surprise doesn't just stop there, you also get inside either a lipgloss, nail varnish, shimmer or body spray. We also got 2 characters that turned into nail varnish and the nail varnish is stored in their body.
As well as that we got lots of different scented lip glosses along with them which Lily loves. As always the lip glosses are really fruity and fragrant. 

Lily was really happy with these and she actually played with the characters for ages using the bottles as little houses and making up her own imaginative play with them.

Each bottle is RRP £9.99 and for the fact your getting a surprise, piece of makeup and a play figure I would say it is money well spent. Especially when you start to create a little collection of them to play with and your child can really get imaginative with them.

They are recommended for ages 5-8 but Lily is 4 and she really loved them.

You can see more about the Mystery Makeup series on the Num Noms Website. 

Is this something your child would enjoy?

Infacare Bubble Bath Giveaway

Isn't it great when you find the perfect bubble bath for your babies and kids to use? 

Infacare is one of my choices of bubble baths that I have always used since Lily was a baby. It has always been really kind to her skin and always smelt great. I still use Infacare for Lily for her bath times and also my mum also uses it as she has sensitive skin. This really does show how gentle Infacare really is. 

Thats why I have teamed up with Infacare to offer one of my readers a chance to win 2 bottles! One is Ultra mild and more for a daytime bath, and the other is a more soothing formula especially for bedtime.

Here is a little more about the 2 bubble baths up for grabs. 

Infacare Night Time Baby Bath and Infacare Ultra Mild Baby Bath 

InfaCare baby bath does more than just clean gently, it helps care for your baby's skin too. While also creating some long lasting bubbles for bathtime fun.

Using a specially selected, safe and gentle fragrance to help baby relax in the bath, the InfaCare night-time bath is ideal to use as part of baby's bedtime routine, just in time for a restful night's sleep. Clinical testing proves that InfaCare is gentle on the skin and is suitable for babies and children who may be prone to dry and sensitive skin. Dermatological and pH balanced, InfaCare night-time is mild enough for babies aged from 1 month. 

The prices of Infacare are also so affordable at £2.15 for the 400ml Ultra Mild Bottle and £3.19 for the 750ml bottle. Then the night time baby bath available for £3.49 for a 750ml bottle. These can be bought from from leading stores such as Tesco's and Superdrug. 

Enter Below on the Gleam app for your chance to win - 

Win a Infacare Set of Bubble Baths

TinPo - The New Kids Tv show coming to CBeebies

I am so excited to tell you all about this new show which is about to be aired on CBeebies. It is called Tinpo and is all about 4 clever and creative characters that set out to solve problems around their town. 

The characters are called Tinpo, Doug-Po, Logi-Po and Hack-Po and they all ride around on their train attending to people problems around the town. They absolutely love problem solving and find fun creative ways to get the problems solved. It is all about trial and error for them and they all work together trying different things until the job is done. They use fantastic and exciting tools to construct ways of problem solving and although they aren't always the most practical ways of problem solving, they are the most fun. 

The show is the perfect imaginative viewing for pre-schoolers and is a great show for encouragement of problem solving and being creative in doing so.

Lily got to have a preview of the show and she loved it.

We was sent some episodes to watch, along with some yummy popcorn, sweets and activities. As soon as Lily was home from nursery I let her sit down to have some wind down time and watch this new show. 

The first thing that Lily thought about the show was that the theme tune was brilliant. She started moving along to it and dancing with her hands with a big smile on her face. I also think the theme tune is great, some tunes can be quite annoying but this one is quite funky and catchy.

Lily was glued to the show and she loved that there was animals involved in the show. She particularly liked the dog that was in one episode. After the first episode was finished, she was soon eager to watch another, and then after she had watched all the episodes, she wanted to watch them again. This does show that this TV show really does interest kids and it is something they will happily watch again and again.

Lily struggled to tell me about what was happening in the show. But I did notice that while she was doing one of the activities that was sent, she went back to the computer screen to see if tinpo could give her any clues to how to do it. So the fact that they are problem solvers must have registered with her somewhere. 

As a parents view of the show, I think it is great. It has many educational aspects showing lots of fun ways of solving problems. But I did notice that the show was also designed in a very educational way with the use of bold shapes and colours.

I also liked that the characters all spoke in a very well spoken manner. I can't stand shows that make voices babyish, use made up words and encourage children not to speak correctly. These characters all used correct wording and spoke clearly, while still being very childlike.

Each episode is around 7 minutes long which I think is a great amount of time to keep children engaged in the episode. It appeals for a younger audience as well as pre-schoolers by the episodes not being too long. 

Lily really enjoyed doing her activities after the show, and then again the morning after. She noticed that each character had a certain colour and made sure she coloured in each character in the right colour. I asked her which her favourite character was and she said the yellow one. She also asked if she could watch it again which shows she enjoyed it.

The show aires at 6.55am and 3.55pm each day on Cbeebies and is also available on BBC iplayer. 

Do you think your child would enjoy this show?

Songmics Storage Shelf Unit Review and Giveaway.

Hands up if your house is cluttered? Mine is fore sure. I have quite a big house but then still never manage to get it looking neat and tidy. There is only my daughter and I living there and somehow I have still managed to fill it.

I have always looked at neat and tidy house and thought, that is exactly what I want to have. I know that my home will never be perfect. With a 4 year old and 2 cats, there is no chance. But I definetly want my house looking a little tidier.

This is where Songmics can help me out.

They specialise in storage and have many handy items on their website that are perfect in aiding your house to become a lot more neat and tidy.

I got in touch with them to see if they would like me to write about their storage solutions and they offered to send me a storage shelf unit.

With 4 shelfs on the unit I thought this was going to be perfect for getting things up of my floor and stored somewhere near. 

The unit comes all dismantled in a box but it is super easy to put together and took me no time at all. There are instructions but it is pretty self explanatory and it all simply clips together. 

I decided that the perfect place for my shelf unit was my spare room. It is a room that always ends up cluttered. I use it as a storage room and so things just get put in there and put on the floor. Which ends up talking up all your space and sometime I have even struggled to walk in there.

The unit is measured at 46cm width, 34cm depth, and is a height of 147cm tall. I found this a perfect fit for my spare room and it looked great. It didn't take up much space while providing a great amount of storage space.

I got this in a lovely grey colour but a black one is also available.

the next job was to fill it. At first I didn't think that it felt to sturdy. It weighs next to nothing and I even managed to build it downstairs and carry it upstairs myself. As you can see from the photo, the shelves are made from poles and material. I thought to myself that it possibly wouldn't hold much weight at all.

But to my surprise it did. I managed to put books on there and some storage baskets and boxes which were filled with things and it held the weight really well.

I think when the shelf is filled it looks really nice, and if this if for storage in your living room or bedroom you could always place matching baskets on each shelf to make it look even nicer.

I could of used this for so many things in my house. It could have been perfect for Lily's bedroom to place all her soft toys on. It could have been perfect for her playroom to put her smaller toy boxes on. Or I could of used it downstairs to place my shoes on as it would make a perfect shoe rack.

For the price of £19.99 it really is worth paying for the storage problems you could solve.

You can buy yourself one of these from the Songmics store over on amazon.

If you love this storage shelf then your in luck. I have one to giveaway! For your chance to win enter on the gleam app below.

Win a Songmics Shelf Storage Unit

Lily's Tidy Up Star Chart

I have not often had to use star charts to encourage Lily's behaviour. Apart from being a little madam at times, she has never been to bad with tantrums and most of the time done as she is told.

But one thing she really isn't very good at is tidying up. Usually when I have asked Lily to tidy up, its either a "i'm tired" or a blatant no, or she would make it look like she is when in reality I was the one doing it all.

Also Lily has never been very good at playing with a toy, and then putting it away after she has finished playing with it, leaving my home looking like a bomb has hit it.

It was only after Lily kept going on about being on the "Top Star" at nursery did I think to myself, why not make a chart for tidying up.

This star chart isn't like the ones where you place a star on a chart for good behaviour, my star chart I made already has the stars on it and the ideas is that each time she does a really good job tidying she gets to move up a star. Then when she reaches the top star she gets a treat.

It was so easy to make, I got a large piece of card, and some coloured stars. I stuck on the stars in a nice pattern leading up the page with a different coloured one to show the Top Star! Then I made a tag with Lily's name on it.

I simply use blue tack to move Lily up and down the stars.

But did this work??

Yes and no, I think maybe in time when she gets used to the idea she gets treats when tidying then it may work, but for the moment I am still having to remind her that if she tidies she gets to move up a star.

As soon as I tell her that, she is well on with the tidying and happy to put things away. She is always pleased when she see's herself moving closer to the top star.

This idea doesn't just have to be for tidying up and can be perfect as a behaviour chart or a potty training chart. 

Would you use a chart idea like this?

My Blogiversary - 3 Years old Plus giveaway!

I can't believe today marks the day that I first started my blog. It doesn't feel like 3 years since I started it and it doesn't seem 2 min since I was writing this post last year celebrating my 2nd birthday.

I must admit, this year has been very full on and I have taken a slight more back seat with the blog due to personal life things going on. I haven't written as many posts this year and haven't put as much creativity into them either. But I was determined to still keep my blog going and I plan to carry on keeping it going at what ever pace I manage.

Would you believe now that my total blog posts I have written is 735! I was never very good at writing so If you would of told me years ago that I would have written that many blog posts I would have never believed you. But writing for me has now become such a love of mine and I am really quite proud of myself for progressing with my writing. I look at this blog just like I look at Lily, it is something that I have helped grow, by putting lots of effort and love into. 

Something you may have noticed, is that I have stopped doing My Sunday Photo. For me I felt that I was panicking if I hadden't got a photo for it or if I had forgotten to do it and this last year I have wanted to take a little bit of pressure off myself and that was one little way to do it. 

But Lily has changed so much over the year from the first Sunday Photo to the last photo of her placed on here. 

So now to look at my social media followings as I always do on this day.

Twitter last year - 6825

Twitter this year - 7923

Followers Gained - 1098

Facebook last Year - 3230

Facebook this Year - 3592

Followers Gained - 362

Instagram last year - 2198

Instagram this year - 2614
Followers Gained - 416

Not had as many people follow me this year as I did last year but considering I haven't been posting as much that would make sense. Facebook really is the hardest to gain followers for and so would love to try and get that built up more this year.

This year I have made a huge leap in the Tots 100 score. I am now up in the top 250 and have a number displayed. Last month I was at 204, this month 220. But very happy to be in the top 250 instead of top 500. 

I haven't as many new plans for the blog this year. I am very much going to be trying to throw myself back into my photography. I also want to get out more. So this year is going to be a year of more days out and going for more walks. So I think I will try and document all the walks I take and write all about them on here. 

So as always I have a giveaway for you to celebrate. 

I have a American Sweetie Hamper to give away to one lucky winner. 
For your chance to win, enter on the gleam app below. 

*Please note prize items may vary from in photograph*

Win an American Retro Sweetie Hamper

Win a Baby Annabell Changing Bag and Outfit Bundle

We’ve teamed up with Baby Annabell to give away a change bag and outfit bundle! Baby Annabell has a host of exciting new ranges this spring, adding in new themes and additions to its popular collection of dolls, outfits and accessories.

The beautiful princess changing bag with adorable sheep accents will help you out whenever there’s a little accident. Your Baby Annabell Changing Bag comes with a sturdy changing matt so you can change your doll wherever you are. 

With an outfit bundle included, you’ll be fully covered for any situation - no matter how messy it gets! For age 3 and over.

For your chance to win this cute bundle, simple enter on the gleam app below. 

Win a Baby Annabell Changing Bag and Outfit Bundle

Keeping Household Costs Down this Winter

One thing I find about Winter is that it always seems to cost a lot more. You spend more time in the house, the heating is on more, and if your anything like me then you just can't get warm no matter what. 

So here are a few tips on what you can do to try and keep your costs down at winter. 

1. Wrap Up Warm
Rather than blasting the heating on, it is much cheaper to add an extra layer. Find your thickest jumper and chuck that on, or snuggle under your warmest blanket. Did you know that you can loose a lot of heat from your feet? So there is nothing wrong with wearing big fluffy socks indoors or even a snuggly pair of slippers. Sounds silly but for when I am working on my computer I even wear fingerless gloves to keep my hands warm. If you already own the items then all of this costs nothing to keep household costs low. 

2. Close Your Doors
There are certain areas of everyones house that easily looses heat. The landing for example. So when you do put the heating on, its best to try and close doors and keep the heating inside that room. It is surprising how many little sneaky area's there are in our houses that let the heat escape.

3. Get it fixed! 
That hole in the door, that gap in the skirting, that hole in the roof. All of these could be things that you might want to start to think about getting fixed. In the long run you would spend a lot more money keeping the house warm with heating than it would to spend a little cash getting the problems fixed. And if you are needing the money fast and don't have it available you can always think about getting yourself a loan from somewhere like cashlady.com which would help you with those well needed home improvements. 

4. Turn it off! 
I will admit I am terrible for this myself but it is something that I am trying to do a lot more off. But as you go out for the day, turn the heating off. It is nice to come home to a nice warm house, BUT if it is anything like my house then it does heat up quickly and you will soon feel the benefit as you warm up along with the house. It is also possible to put your heating on timers so then it turns off at bedtime and comes on in the morning. 

5. Insulate 
With this I don't mean pull down your walls and throw insulation behind it. (Although that definetly could be done in some places of my home) I mean hunt out where you can feel the draught and use things like draught excluders to keep the heat in. You would be surprised where you feel drafts coming in. I have a built in wardrobe in my house and when stood next to it I can feel the cool draught blowing against me. So I have a draught excluder in front of my wardrobe now. Every little helps!

How do you keep your costs down in Winter?

*This is a sponsored post though all words are my own*

Baby Annabell My Special Day Doll Review

Lily's most play with toys at home are dolls. She is always pushing them around in her prams, taking care of them, giving them love and cuddles. So when I was offered the Baby Annabell My Special Day Doll to review, I could hardly say no!

This doll is a very special doll, it is limited edition and it is to celebrate the brands 20th anniversary.

The doll is beautiful and she comes nicely displayed in her box making her look so inviting for children to want her.

Lily loved her as soon as she saw her and she got so excited. She wanted her out of the box straight away.

After we took her out he box Lily gave her a hug straight away.

She is a really decent sized dolly at 43cm and she has a soft body and plastic arms, legs and head. She is really lovely to cuddle.

The first thing I thought about her was that I loved her pretty little dress. The design of it is a little party dress as it is her special day. It is pink and has a really pretty pattern on. She also comes with the cutest little cardigain and hat. My favourite thing about her outfit though was her shoes which are so adorable.

I really like the look of this dolly, she really does have a cute expression and looks very baby like.

She also comes with a baby's bottle and dummy. You will need 3 AA batteries which are placed into her back. When you place batteries into her and turn her on, she starts to coo, cry and laugh.

Lily though that is was so lovely that her doll made noise and really tried to console her baby when she was crying. Her noises that she makes are really nice and realistic, clear and loud enough to able to hear really well.

Baby Annabell also opens and closes her eyes when the batteries are in and so your baby Annabel will go to sleep. She also sucks on her dummy and bottle when it is placed in the mouth.

When she is moving she does sound very robotic but this didn't seem to bother Lily.

But the functions of baby Annabell doesn't just stop there. She also can really drink from the bottle, cry real tears and also use a potty. These all make her so lifelike and so are perfect for a role play experience for your child.

Baby Annabell also comes with a cute little cake set which is made up of 4 cupcakes with 4 little plates. You also have little decorations that can be placed into the cakes. Lily found most of these easy to push into the cupcakes to decorate them.

The cupcakes just added a whole new role play experience to having a dolly. Lily was loving feeding her baby the cake and also loved singing happy birthday to her. 

Lily has really taken to this doll and has been playing with her loads. I would highly recommend her if your child loves dolls and Zaph Creation have gone all out with this one. 

The doll is recommended for children aged 3+ and is RRP £59.99.

You can buy her from Smyths Toy Stores. 

What do you think to the Baby Annabel My Special Day Doll? 

£2.50 from the sale of every Baby Annabell® My Special Day doll (RRP £64.99) at Smyths Toys Superstores within the UK from October – April will go towards a donation to Barnardo’s.

For ages 3+

My Year of 2018

So I did this questionnaire a year ago and so I thought it would be a nice post to do for my first post of the year. Reading through last years answers it doesn't like 2 moments since I was doing those things and writing those answers. I swear each year it goes faster and it scares me where the time is going.

Hope everyone has had a lovely 2018 and enjoyed Christmas and New Years. Here is all about my 2018! 

1. What did you do for your birthday this year? 
My Birthday is right at the start of the year on the 8th of Jan. Which means in 6 days I will turn 32 years old! Last year didn't really do anything special, just ate out and did some shopping then had a games night. I expect this year will be very simular.

2. Whats the biggest thing to happen to you this year? 

There hasn't really been many highlights this year. The year feels to have past with no major highlights. But there has been a change this year for me which I haven't wrote about on my blog and that is the break up of me and my partner. Its been over 4 months now since it happened, and so he has moved out and Lily and I are living alone. I don't like to class my self as a single parent though. Just because I am single, doesn't mean I am parenting alone and Lily's daddy does still see her plenty and do plenty. 

3. What was the biggest thing to happen for your child/children this year? 

I would say her daddy moving to his own house. Lily has had to deal with this big change and she has done brilliantly. She actually finds it really exciting that she now gets 2 houses to live in, and 2 bedrooms, and at her daddy's house she has moved into her own big bed rather than being in a toddler bed. I also must mention her birthday this year. Lily now has a ton of friends now from Nursery and so this year I had a big Birthday party for her. She loved that loads of her friends came to play and it was so nice to see her be so social. She has come on in leaps and bounds with her confidence and how social she is. 

4. Could you pick a favourite week of the year? 
As always it would be my holiday in Weymouth. Me and my partner was still together at that point and this was the first year that we had a family holiday just us. We did have a lovely week although poor Lily was poorly that week. Lucky for us that I had a second week on holiday in Weymouth and that was with my parents. You can read all about those 2 weeks here. 

5. Do you have a favourite photograph of yourself from 2017? 

Tricky to decide but I think this picture of us at Christmas would be my new favourite. It was a simple visit to father Christmas in my local town. I didn't think it would be anything special but they went all out and made a big effort. This year to my surprise Lily wasn't scared and she was absolutely amazed. It was such a special moment seeing lily enjoy visiting father christmas for the first time with no tears. It was also really nice to have a Christmas family photograph taken where both Lily and I are really happy. 

6. What was your best day out? I think it may be the day we went to Eurika museum with my brother and his girlfriend. Who Lily knows as Auntie Charlotte and loves to bits. It was really fun and also really nice to spend the day with my brother and charlotte. I know that Lily loves her uncle to bits so it was really nice seeing then play and bond that day. I must make sure that more of this happens in 2018. 

7. What is the best film you have seen this year? 

I imagine that is was probably one of the Marvel films as I don't think I have seen many this year. Although the new Johnny English film I saw was definetly a nice night and a good laugh and would have to be up their with one of the top. 

8. Is there anything you wish didn't happen this year? I don't really do regrets so no I am not looking back and saying that I wish anything didn't happen. 

9. What would you like to achieve or improve for 2018? Looking back on last years, I managed to do exactly what I wanted to achieve which was getting fit. I have been doing loads of aerial work outs which I have really loved doing over the year. So this year I plan to try and up my game a little. I need to work on my flexibility which means stretching more then the once a week I do. Also want to build more strength so then I can master the bridge. Other than fitness, I just plan to try and become happier. Doing more of the things I love like walking and photography. I really should start to try and take my camera out where ever I go. I also plan to learn to drive. I have just sent of for my provisional so I am already on track for this. 

10. How will you be celebrating/did you celebrate New Years Eve? This year we had a family night in playing games. I am not the biggest fan of new years eve and so its not something I ever go out of my way to celebrate. But it was lovely to be around my family and have some fun. 

Do you have a highlight of 2018?