Regular readers will know I love a charity shop bargain. This Christmas I’ve upped my game, I’ve bought loads of gifts for the boys from charity shops, local Facebook selling groups, and eBay.
Continue reading “Would you give your children second-hand gifts for Christmas?”
Another two months has flown by (life, work, finishing off the house extension) but now I finally have time to catch up with blogging as I’m recovering from an operation!
I found out about 5 years ago that I had a large (7cm) cyst on my left ovary. It explained why my periods were irregular and that I had spotting. Continue reading “I’m back… with one ovary removed! Ovarian cyst operation update…”
Everyone’s writing family bucket lists for the year ahead… I thought I’d try an alternative take on the must-do things for a toddler in South Wales… forget Barry Island and St Fagan’s…. what about… Continue reading “6 alternative things to do with a toddler in Cardiff”
Long story short, we lost our internet connection at home, we now have a temporary solution (EE box thing) so for about 6 weeks I was surviving on my phone’s 4G data….
On the one hand it was a really nice break! I’ve written before about being addicted to my phone... it felt almost liberating to only check my email/FB/twitter a couple of times a day instead of a couple of times an hour. I didn’t miss out on anything!
I got shit done! I ticked off things from my to-do list that had been on there for months and months!
I got smart…. If baby S was asleep in the car I’d drive around finding places where I could access free WIFI from the comfort of my car! I used free internet in our local library….
You see the thing is, it’s only when you don’t have the internet you realise how integral it is to our lives…. online banking, googling anything e.g. Phone numbers, directions, opening hours, online shopping – food, booking holidays (!), booking anything, staying in touch with people… friends but also people like solicitors, estate agents when you’re buying and selling houses…. watching anything on YouTube or catch-up TV…. hearing of any breaking news… and of course blogging went out the window!
So I’m glad to have it back and not have to worry about the cost of my mobile phone bill. But hopefully I’ve learnt how to use it a little bit less for the non-essential stuff and try to live in the moment a bit more! We’ll see….. have you ever given up the internet?! Could you?!
I’ve loved Miffy since I was a little girl so I jumped at the chance to plant some Miffy tulips when they asked me…
Why are they so special? Well they’re the very same colour red as features in the Miffy book… and it’s taken 15 years of cross-fertilising and cultivating to get to that perfect red! Continue reading “Planting Miffy’s very special tulips “
My cousin died last weekend (see news story here) but I’m not after your sympathy, I can pass that on to his wife and 3 young children, his mum and his siblings, his nephews and nieces. And his hundreds of close friends.
Have you ever broken a world record?! I have and it was an awesome feeling…
Nearly 10 years ago, I was one of thousands of Joneses who held the coveted record of being in the largest gathering of people with the surname!
I believe another group of people broke our record… So next weekend I have the chance to break a similar, but different, record….
I could be part of the largest gathering of people dressed as elephants!!!
As a family, we’re elephant-mad, ever since my other half and I saw them in the wild in Sri Lanka… I think every room in our house has an elephant in so I don’t need much persuading to join a gathering of them!
So some details if you’d like to join us:
Where and when: Saturday August 13th 2016, Millenium Stadium, Cardiff starting at 2pm
Rules: you must be dressed head to toe as an elephant. There are strict rules about the costume eligibility: check them here before you attend!
Why elephants?: the event is being organised by child bereavement charity 2wishuponastar and the elephants represent:
The story behind 2wishuponastar is incredibly sad… The founder lost her son, then her husband… And set up the charity to improve bereavement services in hospitals across Wales.
So as well as the chance to dress like an elephant, you get to (hopefully!) break a world record and raise awareness of a great charity – see you there!
Disclosure: I wasn’t paid to write this, I wrote it for free as I think it’s a great event and great charity!
Since John Lewis opened their shop in Cardiff a few years ago, I’ve been in love with them… loved the ambience of shopping there, loved their little baby feeding area, loved their brand and Christmas TV ads… And I even did my pregnancy yoga classes in their community room last time around!
But they let me down this year, and I wanted to share it as they’re still mis-selling to customers which I can’t believe (spoiler alert… It’s only over a £40 bag but it’s the principle!)
So the last screenshot I took a few weeks ago (so 4 months later) and it clearly says ‘leather’ twice…
Now checking it today I can see they’ve changed the first sentence to ‘leather look’ but they still have a misleading sentence ‘mature-looking black leather’…. IT’S NOT LEATHER!!!
So I know this might read a bit ‘first world problems’ and I know we have far bigger things to worry about… But I needed to get it off my chest!
I think it’s been pretty poor for a company that has such strong brand and customer service values and ‘never knowingly undersold’. The most frustrating thing about it all has been how long it’s taking them to update the website… Working in marketing and being a blogger, I know it’s a 2 minute job and surely they’d prioritise inaccurate info?!
Rant over. Thanks for reading.
I honestly can’t believe it, it’s flown by and the next 3 months will go so quickly.. before you know it I’ll be sat back at my desk with my work head back on!
Apart from the parenting malarkey, I had visions that I would learn some new skills on my maternity leave like:
I haven’t done any of those! I think the only new thing I’ve done has been blogging… which is a time-consuming hobby but one I’m enjoying and it will also come in handy for my day job (read about it on my ‘about me’ page if you’re interested)
So here’s my mum’s list of things I need to and want to do over the next 3 months – some are chores, some are new skills – either way I find them equally difficult to devote time to without missing out on any of baby W’s time, or catching up with much-needed rest…:
Bit of a random list eh!? Did you use your maternity leave to do anything new (apart from learning how to be a parent obviously ;))? I’d love to hear from you in the comments below, or tweet me at @yummyblogger
Little W got nappy rash quite early on at a few weeks old, we tried a couple of creams including Sudocrem but family members recommended Bepanthen and since we’ve tried that we’ve not looked back!
It cleared up a sore rash within 1-2 days (using it every time we changed his nappy, making sure his skin is clean and dry first) and now we use it to prevent future rashes coming back (it looked so sore bless him!) by using it nearly every time we change his nappy.
I’d recommend it to anyone so imagine my delight when I saw this offer in Boots (Cardiff) today… Buy any 2 Bepanthen products and choose a free cuddly toy! (Apologies for the rubbish photo, I was in a rush as W needed feeding!)
I had a really tough time choosing between the tortoise and the dragon (the bunny is a bit too girly for W!) but plumped for the tortoise as mummy and daddy love tortoises! It’s good quality, soft, mostly blue with some pink….
I have no idea how long the offer is on for (update: scroll to bottom!) and I can’t see it online but if it’s still on next time I pop in I will probably buy 2 more tubes to get the dragon as it was the softest, cuddliest thing ever (but not enough to justify buying 4 tubes at the same time….)
The 2 tubes cost £15.42 (£7.71 each) but you get 150 boots points on it if you’re in the parenting club) which is £1.50 I’m sure you can buy the ointment cheaper online but if you’re like me and do most of your shopping on the high street and love Boots then I think it’s a good deal – hope you manage to find it in your local store before they run out! (Update: scroll to bottom!)
UPDATE (25/09/14) A lot of people seem to be finding this blog post when they’re searching for ‘Bepanthen toys’ – the Boots offer is now finished so I got in touch with Bepanthen to see if you can buy the toys anywhere. You can’t buy them but they do have some competitions where you can try to win one – good luck!
https://www.facebook.com/BepanthenUK/
http://www.netmums.com/baby/bepanthen-baby
http://www.netmums.com/pregnancy/bepanthen-pregnancy
UPDATE (27/11/14) – the offer is back on in Boots! You can buy it online…
yummyblogger.com 