Dishwashing Expert

When we were planning our new kitchen the first thing Boyfriend and I said was that we both wanted a dishwasher.  And let me tell you, the dishwasher has saved our relationship.  Pre-dishwasher we always argued about whose turn it was to do the dishes.  I hate doing dishes and so does Boyfriend and so every day the looming pile of dishes was a huge sore point for us!  Thankfully, since getting the dishwasher our house is very much a harmonious one!  

As neither of us had ever owned a dishwasher before, we didn't know where to start, so we had a look at the dishwasher reviews on Dishwashing Expert to help make our mind up, and in no time at all we realised a slim-line dishwasher would suit us perfectly, and their impartial reviews helped us pick out a good one.

My parents (not known for embracing modern technology!) warned us that using a dishwasher might put up our electricity bills by a huge amount, but a quick look at the Dishwashing Experts interactive page on the costs of managing a dishwasher showed us that we'd actually save money by using a dishwasher compared to washing our dishes by hand.

According to Dishwashing Expert "Most dishwashers manufactured since 1994 use less water per cycle than the equivalent required to wash up, because they recycle the water throughout the wash. Newer models heat only the amount of water they need - and being cold fill, the water is heated in the dishwasher itself, not in the household's hot water tank or central heating system, where heat gets lost in transit".

I was sold!  Cheaper utility bills and the end to all arguments!  And having a baby I've really appreciated just being able to load up the dishwasher, switch it on and go and do something else, instead of scrub at plates and cups.

Dishwashing Expert has some great stuff on their website - including tips for getting the most out of your dishwasher, impartial dishwasher reviews, and an interactive dishwasher troubleshooter in case things go wrong.  

xx

*Although this is a sponsored post all words and opinions are my own*

Sunday Lovely Sunday

Boyfriend and I have always been of the persuasion that babies shouldn't stop us from having adventures, and that one of the greatest things we can do as parents is to include E in our adventures.  Which is why, on Sunday, we pulled on our welly boots, strapped E into the baby carrier, and went on a big long walk in the country.  

The word 'rambling' sounds a bit too sedate for my liking. They call long walks in the countryside 'tramping' in New Zealand, and that's exactly what we did - tramped through big muddy puddles, tramped through fields, tramped over bridges, and endured at least three different seasons in just a couple of hours. 

 Frog wellies!

E had a great time.  She loved looking at the trees and the birds, then she fell asleep like a little koala bear in the baby carrier.

We then made it home to watch the last hour and a bit of the ladies Olympic road race.  Did you see it?  It was so inspiring watching Lizzie Amitstead take silver for Britain.  So much so, we're researching baby seats for our bikes.  I've not been on my bike since the week before I found out I was pregnant - I inexplicably got the fear as soon as I found out I was expecting - but now I'm itching to get back on it.  And again, include E in our cycling adventures.

Anyone have any tips for baby seats?  Ones that secure to the front or to the back?  There's so much choice and I don't know where to start!

xx

Vanish Stain Removal

For some unbeknown reason, most baby clothes are white in colour.  We have heaps of white tops and vests.  Unfortunately white clothes don't go well together with food, particularly my daughter's favourite food - strawberries.  Having only recently started her on solids, we're still at the exceptionally messy stage of eating.  Strawberry stains aren't the easiest to get out of white clothing, but Vanish has always been my go to choice for stain removal.  It makes light work of practically any stain, meaning her pretty tops aren't ruined.  I always keep a spray bottle for small stains and the Oxi-Action powder for larger stains next to my usual detergent, and these days neither are far from my hand!

Here's Vanish in action on one of E's vests that suffered at the hands of some strawberries:

If you're looking for advice on how to get out a particular stain, the Vanish website has some great stain removal tips, based on stain type, which will guide you through the best way to remove your stain using the most appropriate Vanish product.  

It's not on clothing stains that Vanish works well on - on carpet stains it does a sterling job.  There's been many a time, in rented flats, where Vanish has saved the day (and our deposit!) for us.  During the 'Great Red Wine Incident of 2009' Vanish managed to effortlessly remove a large red wine stain from a cream carpet in our rented flat.  Gentle rubbing is the key - scrubbing furiously is not recommended.  

Our current house is mostly hard-floored, but in my daughter's room we recently laid a new cream carpet so have a bottle of Vanish Oxi-Action Carpet and Upholstery Spray to hand in my cupboard in case of any accidents.  Thankfully we've not had to use it yet, but just having it there to hand gives me great peace of mind!

xx

*Although this is a sponsored post all words and opinions are my own*

Colour In: White

This week the colour is white!  Here are my white photos:

Black and white photo of Boyfriend and I on a favourite holiday

Polar bear 

Little horse and owl

Next week the colour is black (and possibly the last week!).  

If you're playing along on your blog then remember to let me know so I can have a little look!.

xx

Baking Mad

I do enjoy baking, however I'm the first to admit that I'm not the world's best baker.  Give me a good recipe and I'll turn out something that is a vague approximation of said recipe.  It won't look particularly pretty or neat, but if you screw your eyes up it might look a bit like the picture in the book.  Mary Berry and Paul Hollywood would tear me to shreds, but thankfully my family and friends are forgiving and eat whatever I present to them (well, apart from my sister and my niece, who turn their nose up at my chocolate cake!).

I think my trouble with recipes is that sometimes they are a little difficult to follow.  For example, when a recipe tells me to fold in the eggs I always have a mini debate in my head - 'How do I fold?' , 'Is there a difference between folding and stirring?' , 'Am I stirring or folding?'.   It's enough to bring on a meltdown!  

I've recently discovered the Baking Mad website, which is bringing an end to my bakery woes through their excellent selection of how to videos.  All the videos are very informative and easy to follow, even for novices like me.  Even if you consider yourself a dab hand in the kitchen I'm sure you'll pick up some good tips.  The how to make pancakes video has taught me lots, especially to use a palette knife instead of a fish slice to flip my pancakes.  I'd always wondered why I could never flip my pancakes properly - now I know!  

There is also a video on how to make cupcakes, which gives a great basic sponge recipe which will work well with any flavour of topping.  I always wondered where I was going wrong with cakes, but thanks to Baking Mad I now know not to open the oven for at least the first half of the baking time, as the cold air interferes with the rising of dough/cake.  

They also have videos on various techniques such as rubbing in butter and flour, that had previously perplexed me.  

Baking Mad also has an great selection of recipes, which aren't just confined to cakes.  Boyfriend is the cook in our house, so I showed him this how to make pizza dough recipe, and since then we've been enjoying lots of yummy pizzas.  Goats cheese, onion and olive was his latest (and best!) creation!  I've got his word that the recipe was easy to follow and you've got my word the base was delicious!

Check out the Baking Mad website for lots of recipes, videos, advice and ideas on kid's baking, competitions, money off vouchers and more!

xx

*Although this is a sponsored post all words and opinions are my own*

Snapshot of Daily Life

This picture sums it all up really:

Teething gel and teething powders for E.  Wine for after her bed-time for me (the super cheap stuff as it's a week away from pay day!).

We're in the throes of teething.  On Saturday night, after hours of trying to get a grumpy tired baby to sleep, we had to take E for a walk round our village at 11pm to see if that would put her to sleep.  It felt rather odd going on a walk at that time.  We overheard some unrepeatable conversations outside the village pub, reminding me of why I don't miss going out to the pub!  

She finally fell asleep after half an hour of walking - when we got home we then had to attempt a Mission Impossible style manoeuvre to move her from her pram into her cot without waking her!  Thankfully our mission was successful!

Unfortunately on Sunday, after a good night's sleep, she was just as grumpy.  And again today.  Pesky teeth!  We've been trying everything to ease her pain.  We have cold teething rings, knobbly teething rings, a knobbly dummy (pacifier), as well as the teething gel and powders.  

The question to all you parents out there is (besides wine) how did you survive teething?  Any tips or advice will be gratefully received!

xx

Twinings Tea

With all the relentless rain, dark skies and cold weather we've had recently I've gone into full on autumn mode around here.  The thick tights and cardigans are on, the blankets have been looked out of the cupboard and have been snuggled into, and the central heating has even been on - in July (hitherto unheard of!).  The kettle has been on and the teapot filled with steaming hot tea on a never seen before scale in an effort to keep warm and boost spirits.  

We've been mixing up the kinds of tea we normally have to try out some of the Twinings range.  Twinings White tea has been heavily brewed around these parts lately (you might remember my previous post, here, about it).  We really enjoy the sweet taste of it and being caffeine free makes it the perfect evening beverage.

Another favourite is Twinings Green tea, particularly the Lemon Green tea with it's light citrus taste.  I find it particularly good  in the morning, when I want a tasty and refreshing hot drink and also a gentle bit of caffeine to wake me up without the buzz you get from coffee.  

As well as being tasty, the British Journal of Nutrition found that drinking more than three cups of green tea a day was enough to protect against cell deterioration. DNA tests showed the equivalent of five extra years on the green tea drinkers' lives.  Five extra years just by drinking tea - thank you very much!

Now I've got my morning and evening tea sorted, Twinings have even stepped in and covered the afternoons as well with their Afternoon tea range, featuring Rose Garden tea - a delicate lightly floral black tea - and an exclusive Dawn Chorus range of patterned Portmerion crockery and cutlery to make afternoon tea extra special:

I'm definitely an afternoon tea kind of girl.  What's not to love about tea, sandwiches and cake all served up on pretty plates?  

You can find out more about the whole Twinings range on their website.  While you're there, why not check out their range of tea gifts?  

My favourites are the literary tea gifts (above), comprising of a mug, a book and a free box of tea, because few things in life beat curling up with a good book and a nice cup of tea!

xx

*Although this is a sponsored post all words and opinions are my own*

Colour In: Blue

This week the colour is blue!  Blue's quite easy for me - our living room is mostly blue.  Rather than feeling cold, which is what we worried about, it actually feels quite cosy.

 Wallpaper.  When we first moved into our house we got a bit excited about the idea of being able to do whatever we wanted to the place.  Having always lived in rented flats before where we couldn't even do so much as hang a picture on the wall, the idea of painting and wallpapering sounded so very appealing.  In our excited state, we rushed out and bought probably the first wallpaper we saw.  As soon as we put it up in our living room we regretted it.  Now every day I think I wish we'd never put the wallpaper up and just painted the wall.  You live and learn!

Globe. I'd love more but Boyfriend isn't so keen on them.  I'd go so far to say he hates them!  Maybe I could sneak some mini ones in and he wouldn't mind?!

Little blue bowl from Morocco.  I haggled like a crazy lady for this bowl.  It makes me think of sunnier times.

Storage jar (and notice it's still raining!).  I'll let you into a secret.  They're fine for keeping tea and sugar in but terrible for keeping coffee in.  They're not quite airtight, even though there's a seal on them, so it dries up the coffee.  Just so you know ;)  

Next week the colour is white.  Hope you can join in!

xx

A little note...

...to say you might have noticed I've done a couple of sponsored posts lately.

I thought long and hard about whether or not to do sponsored posts here on the blog.  I came to the decision that if I only connected with brands and products I love (and thought that you might love too) then it would be ok.  I've already turned down a few requests from companies promoting their products (ear plugs and cables to name a couple), so you know I don't just feature any old thing.  I also won't feature anything ridiculously expensive either.  I wouldn't pay over the odds for products and I wouldn't expect you to either.

Posts will be clearly stated as sponsored posts, and I will always endeavour to write posts like normal blog posts rather than just being "a word from our sponsor".  Opinions and words will always be my own.  And I can guarantee you if I try something and I don't like it, it won't get featured.  

Sponsored posts will be evenly spaced out - you'll never read two in a row.  I value the integrity of my content too much to let that happen.

I hope that's ok with you guys.  And if I ever come across as sounding like a prat then please do let me know!  Promise?!

xx

Cabin Fever

We had summer here in Scotland at the end of March for a week, and for a week in May.  It looked a bit like this:

 

 

It was glorious.  I blinked.  I almost missed it.

But then the rain came, and it hasn't stopped in well over a month.  Things look a bit like this round here on a daily basis:

The dinosaurs are clearly not impressed (Boyfriend likes to *hilariously* sit them by the plants!)

I'm seriously getting cabin fever.  Sometimes it's quite difficult being in the house all day by yourself with a baby. I like to be out with E, showing her different things, and doing different things to keep her amused and stimulated, but when it's so wet it's no fun for either of us.  I'm guessing it's easier for us because E is so young - who knows how parents of toddlers and older children are coping!

Apparently it's the jet stream's fault, which is stuck much further south that what it normally is.  All I know is I would like some much needed sunshine and vitamin D please!

Is there sunshine where you are?  If so please package it in a jar and send it my way please!

xx

Heartbreakingly romantic

I read the most beautiful article in the Guardian on Saturday and thought I would share it here - it really brought a tear to my eye.

A widower planted six thousand oak trees in a meadow with a heart-shaped centre as a tribute to his late wife, which was only discovered by a hot air balloonist.

The point of the heart faces in the direction of her childhood home.

It really is the most beautiful and thoughtful tribute.

The full article can be found here.

xx

Colour In: Green

So this week the colour is green.  Green is pretty difficult for me: I don't have that many green things (apart from my green bathroom!) and of course I completely failed to take any photos while I've been out this week!  I've done a post on green things before so I'll try and show some different things this time:

A green baby owl 

Another green owl - this print 

 From E's wardrobe

From my wardrobe

 Lovely little chickens

Next week the colour is blue :)  Hopefully that'll be a bit easier!

xx

Just popping in...

{image from here}

...to say I've updated my favourite blog reads.

You'll find them over in the bottom left hand corner.

Enjoy reading, and if you pop over to say hello to anyone then please do tell them that I sent you! ;)

xx

Plain Packets

Something I feel quite strongly about is the campaign for plain packaging on cigarette packets.  Anything that makes cigarettes less appealing to teenagers is certainly a good thing in my book:

The Plain Packaging Campaign have shared their smoking facts for kids:

Protect our children. Visit the Plain Packaging Campaign for more information and to pledge your support within the next 30 days.

Conversations in our House

Me: Do you know that Paul Simon song?

Boyfriend: What Paul Simon song?

Me: The one with the Africans singing that they're harmless.

Boyfriend: Homeless.  It's homeless.

---

Boyfriend: It's not rocket surgery.

---

There is no hope for our daughter!

xx

Moving on our Mind

...we've got moving on our mind.  Our house is nearly finished, but now we've had a baby we've found it's a little too small for us.  When we bought this place babies were the furthest thing from our minds, and now we've got a baby we're finding it's not the most suitable house for a child. 

We're hoping to have made a tiny bit of money on the renovations we've done to it, and hoping to buy somewhere slightly bigger.  Not massive, just slightly bigger that what we're in now.  And in a slightly different area.  So it should be easy, shouldn't it?

Unfortunately, it's not.  We've made some calculations about what we might make on the house, and had a look on property websites, and it turns out that a slightly bigger house in a different area is way out of our small budget.  It seems all we can afford are homes no bigger than our own in less than desirable parts of town.  It's pretty depressing.

We've been pretty wide-ranging about where we can live - we've looked at moving back into the city (Edinburgh), or moving to East or Mid-Lothian, or even further afield to Fife or the Borders, but still haven't found the magical area that is both nice and affordable to us.  And to add to this, we now have a new criteria for house-hunting that we've never had to deal with before - making sure we're in the catchment area for a good school.  I didn't go to a good school, and my teachers spent more time controlling unruly kids than teaching.  I don't want E to have the same experience, so it's imperative that where live is local to a good primary and secondary school.  It's enough to make my head hurt.  Which it does, on a daily basis.  

If someone wants to find us a cheap lovely house (at least 2 bedrooms) with a decent-sized kitchen and bathroom, and a small private garden, in a nice area, near to good schools and with good public transport links then please search away!

xx

Have you heard...

...of new online shop Urbanara?  I love buying beautiful things for my home, but some stores can be astronomically priced.  Thankfully Urbanara believe in beautiful, high quality homewares without the sky-high price tag.  They carefully source and hand-pick their products directly from the people who make them, meaning all products are of high quality and at their real price, without any inflated overheads.

Urbanara asked me to show you my top picks from their website - here they are:

Mahina Bed Linen - from £45

Bright, fun, crisp and stylish.

Gotland Blanket - £49

Stylish and cosy - perfect for summer evenings outside or for cuddling into during chilly winter evenings indoors.

Arolla Cushion - £22

Understated and elegant.  

Vanoise Apron - £24

I love the quirky lobster on this apron.

Bergama Hammam Towel - £24

A beautiful colour, and just perfect for the beach.

All of their products are carefully hand picked from suppliers around the world – they say "if we wouldn't have it in our home, we wouldn't put it in yours". Which is definitely true, it was hard narrowing my selection down to just five items! Visit Urbanara to see their whole beautiful selection of home, garden and beach wear.

xx

*Although this is a sponsored post all words, opinions and product selections are my own*

Rain rain go away...

...we're all a little sick of all this rain we've been having lately.  As soon as I saw this image pop up on Kate's Pinterest feed I knew it was apt for today:

By Sarah Illenberger.

Isn't it amazing?

xx

Yellow (Again!)

We've endured a lot of heavy rain, and dark skies and dark dark mornings around here lately.  So much so it feels like we've bypassed summer and headed straight for autumn.  The other morning E woke at 5:30am.  I went into her room to see to her.  I always sing to her (she's the only person in the whole world who appreciates the 'uniqueness' that is my singing voice!) and it's always first song that comes into my head that I sing.   Some rare sunlight was filtering in through the edges of the blinds, which made me sing this song to her:

It's one of my all-time favourites.  It can make me feel summery even though the sunshine on that particular day only lasted a few hours before the rain set in again.  

And it seems yellow seems to be a theme around here this week.  I should just call my blog "Yellow Boots" and be done with it!  

Is it summer where you are?  If it is then please do tell me about all the outdoor sunshine adventures that you're having so I can live vicariously through you!

xx

Colour In: Yellow

This week I took some more photos around my house based on the theme of yellow.  I hadn't realised how much yellow things I owned until I started looking for things to take photos of!  Here are just a few yellow based photos:  

 I bought this bag last year, from Breagha, as a present to myself for my 30th birthday to ease the pain of turning 30!  Mairead that runs Breagha is the nicest person, and her hand-made bags are all just gorgeous.

A toy lion

Thrifted dress

Favourite shoes from Seychelles

Vintage owl (and fox)

Thrifted squirrel and flower brooch (from Breagha again!)

Again, if you'd like to take part on your own blog please remember to leave the link to your blog post below so I can have a little look!

Next week's colour is green!

xx