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Mum’s the Word Recommends: H&M Summer Basics

/ May 29, 2012 / Opinion, Review / Permalink

Just so you know, this is in no way, shape or form a sponsored post or a review, it’s just a genuine shout-out for something we love, totally unsolicited.

I tend to find it a bit difficult to find summer dresses for ladies who are slightly larger of bust. Cotton dresses have no give in them and never fit over my chest and anything that is big enough for the girls is usually like a sack on me everywhere else. During our recent trip to Lakeside (the day after we got our car!) I dragged Husband and Sausage around the massive H&M in there and found these dresses:

It’s as though someone made them specially for me! They aren’t too low cut so you don’t get major boobage on show, they’re a perfect length (I can put Sausage in the car and not show the world my bottom), they have a tie round the middle which gives you a bit of shape and they’re cool and light. They also come in loads of colours, I think there are yellow, orange and white in addition to the ones above and can be dressed up of down, accessorised in a million ways and are just generally super versatile. But do you want to know the best bit?

They’re £7.99 each! I have the five above (and I only don’t have the others because the yellow and orange don’t suit my colouring and I have issues about fat girls in white!) which will basically see me through the whole summer for less than £40!

It gets better.

Got a little girl?

£2.99 EACH! The pictures don’t do them justice, they are really pretty little dresses, a great length and perfect for summer. The prints are gorgeous and at less than three quid each, Sausage can roll about in the mud in them for all I care! They actually wash up very well too and have withstood some serious stain-remover soaking! Sausage teams hers with leggings on cooler days and if it was really cool you could every put a t-shirt underneath. They look great with trainers, Birkenstocks, all sorts!

Hennes have properly sorted us out this year and I think Husband is secretly glad to have been dragged in there as, in the long run, we’ve saved him a small fortune in more expensive summer clothes!

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Cybher – The Mum’s the Word Run Down Pt. 2

/ May 21, 2012 / Cybher, Personal, Review / Permalink

So, this is the second part of my Cybher debrief and the last post ended just before lunch…

Sian To, interviewing Zoe Margolis.

Lunch was…well, how do I put this? I found the food to be pretty mediocre. Some bland sandwiches, crisps in jars and not much else. The sandwiches were okay but  they didn’t seem all that fresh and I was all that keen on eating crisps out of a jar that literally hundreds of other people had put their hand in. I know it’s not about the food, but I had hoped for better, given the price of the ticket. 

During lunch, I had a mill about, got myself measured by the ladies at Freya and spoke to some people, as well as getting a sneaky peek at the rooms of the hotel, thanks to the lovely Laura (The Mummy Life), who let me use her loo and charge my phone! We were late down to the next sessions, which wasn’t too much of a problem as I wasn’t that into any of the sessions on offer straight after lunch. We went back into the main room and did a bit more milling (as well as me, furiously picking the brain of Jax, who is my new guru, about homeschooling!

I noticed, at various points throughout the day that the atmosphere at Cybher seemed very subdued compared to the atmosphere at last years Cybermummy and I do have a theory about why this was. Last year, from the moment we arrived, we had dozens of brands, vying for our attention, giving away freebies. People (myself included, to an extent) seemed to go into a bit of a frenzy for seeing how much loot they could collect, most of us had to decant things into smaller bags or leave things with the coat check to enable us to carry on. I also know several people who went to barely any sessions because they were too busy being courted by PRs.

This is by no means a criticism of either CybHer or the attendees, I would hazard a guess that Sian’s exact intention was to strip away the commercial maelstrom of last year and focus on content, which I admire greatly, but it did seem to affect the atmosphere. The content of the sessions was a vast improvement over last year but people didn’t seem as excited as they did at Cybermummy. Everyone loves a freebie, I guess.

As I said, I managed to miss the session straight after lunch, but for session 4 I attended ‘Is There a Book in Your Blog?’, which I found really informative, I love hearing about Violet Fenn’s site and thinking about niche writing. The final session was ‘Revamp Your Blog for Under £50′ with Peggy Poyser, which I think was my favourite session of all (did anyone else find it really cute they way she said about three sentences then said “Oh, I’m French, by the way. That’s what the accent is”!). Peggy gave us some brilliant tips and I think I’ve thought about the content of her session the most since the day, spending ages looking at complimentary colour swatches and background patterns!

All in all, I’m glad I went to Cybher, it was a great day which had far more positives than negatives and the whole Cybher team did an amazing job. When I got home, I told Husband that I probably wouldn’t be going to any more blogging conferences, as I didn’t think I had anything more that I could get from them…until I got my hands on a ticket for BlogCamp London that is!

(Technorati claim code 6ETC6N6E7UUR)

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Cybher – The Mum’s the Word Run Down Pt. 1

/ May 14, 2012 / Cybher, Review / Permalink

“Muuuummy, come and fiiiiind meeee”

That’s how I was woken up on Saturday morning, and thank goodness for Sausage because my alarm on my iPhone failed to go off for some unknown reason, which meant that my planned 6am rising became a 7.20am rising…and my train was due at 7.58am. Somehow (and it must’ve been magic or a fold in the space-time continuum) I managed to shower, wash, dry and straighten my hair, get dressed and to the station in a cab in time to get the right train! Actually, sod magic, I deserve some credit here; the reason it was so easy to get ready is that I was organised to the nth degree and had my bag packed, clothes laid out and shoes by the front door. I threw my make-up into my handbag and did it on the train.

The train journey was uneventful (except when “I Don’t Smoke The Reefer” came on my iPod and made me laugh out loud, like a mad woman, in a packed carriage) and I watched Twitter and Facebook as the excitement built amongst the blogging community. Because Sian had the genius idea to hold Cybher so centrally, I only had two tube changes and my travel was super easy. Once I got out of Charing Cross station, it was just a short walk to the venue and I didn’t get lost once, quite an achievement for me in London!

The venue was beautiful, a mixture of old-fashioned glamour and modern clean lines, it oozed class. We queued to get in and lots of bloggers were moving up and down the line, recognising each other from their pictures online. Once we checked in, we got to choose our very own Cybher branded leather satchel, which is probably the best free gift I’ve ever got at an event. The bags are so well made and utterly gorgeous.

The main ballroom is where the action began with the intro from Sian and then the panel discussion, which was informative and totally relevant to what’s going on. I saw a few tweets about people’s opinions of one of the panel speakers, who made it clear that blogging was a business and that it didn’t matter what the blog was about, as long as it was commercial. I think it highlighted the division in the blogging world, about what people want and expect from their blogs and really made me think about Mum’s the Word and where I want to take it.

The next talk was from Zoe Margolis, who is my new hero. I’m sure you’ve read about all of this on other blogs, but I found her really inspiring. The thing that struck me about her was that, even this many years after what happened to her at the hands of the press, you could still see a genuine sadness and vulnerability, however you could tell that she’s extremely strong and has real character, the combination of which makes for a very interesting and urbane person. I’d love to go to the pub with her and just have a chat, you know?!

We stuck around in the ballroom to hear Spark and Fuse with Di Coke talking about the laws and rules surrounding competitions and not only was the material (which had the potential to be quite dull and legislation-heavy) delivered brilliantly and I found every scrap of information useful in this session, I’m really glad I went.

During the next session, I attended Phillipa Davies’ talk ‘Blog to Book in 30 Days with WordPress’, which was great but not what I thought it would be. Phillipa was so charismatic and natural, I could have listened to he for hours and her anecdotal style was very comfortable to watch.

I have to say, I heard several people say that the sessions were not very clearly titled. Two people I spoke to ended up in the Digital Diaries session, which happened to revolve around having kids, though neither of them have children. I wonder how many other people ended up in sessions that were unsuitable, because of lack of clarity?

To be continued….

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Peppa Pig Minis – A Review

/ May 2, 2012 / Review / Permalink

We’re big fans of Peppa Pig in this house – I think I get more exicted than Sausage  when new episodes come out! A little while ago, we were asked to review some Peppa Pig mini games and we’ve been sent three different items to play with.

Mini Stick on Felts (RRP £9.99)

These were a big hit with Sausage, she loves being able to make a million different scenes and then start all over again by simply peeling the felts off of the board. I don’t know if I’d recommend them for travel as I reckon you’d be finding Peppa shaped felts down the back of your car seats for years to come, but they were still very popular with Sausage.

Mini Sketchy Fun (RRP £5.99)

This was the biggest hit of all with Sausage as she’s MAD about drawing and writing. It’s a product with so many uses too, she uses it for drawing by herself but Husband and I have also been using it to test her on her words and letters in as many inventive ways as we can think of. I’d recommend this for any kid, but especially if they’re learning to read and write as the novelty value makes learning even more fun.

Mini Dough Set (RRP £6.99)

If you’ve read this, you’ll know how I feel about play dough.

ACK.

In terms of the moulds and tools that came with this set, they were lovely, very cute little toys. Again, I’m not sure of these as travel toys, play dough and cars is just asking for a royal mess. I’m not a fan of dough and, as predicted, one pot dried out within about 48 hours from being left open and the other one is currently in the process of being scraped out of my carpet, but if you have a slightly older kid (or one who is unusually tidy) this is still a nice set.

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Rammstein at The O2

/ April 26, 2012 / Review / Permalink

A few weeks ago, Husband and I were given the chance by Superbreak to go and see Rammstein at The O2 arena and we jumped at the chance…only to be ill on the day and unable to go. Luckily, we knew someone who was able to take the tickets and review the show for Mum’s the Word, so without further ado, here it is:

The O2 on the banks of the River Thames has become synonymous with the biggest acts in music today. The likes of Lady Gaga, Rhianna and Take That have all tread the boards and performed to thousands of screaming fans in one of London’s biggest venues. Let’s just hope none of those people got caught up in the queue for tonight’s show…

Rammstein is not a band for the feint hearted. The heavy german industrial outfit has been on the circuit for over ten years and initially their shows, world renowned for their pyrotechnics, had to be moved to arenas when rows of the audience were getting frazzled at the front of their gigs in smaller venues.

Back then, question marks hovered over whether they could fill a venue but tonight, back to back and side to side, Rammstein had brought in their hordes, showing heavy metal is far from dead.

They played a plethora of their hits, from the earlier slow and powerful ‘Mutter’ to the more up-to-date, heavier and slightly commical ‘America’ with equal measure of rawkus reaction from the crowd, who never shunned from singing the German lyrics.

But, this wasn’t so much about the hits; it was about the stage show. As the house lights came down an industrial walkway slowly descended from the ceiling, surrounded by smoke and with regular explosions of sparks flying into the crowd. The band emerged at the side of the stage to take a procession around the audience, brandishing flags – both Rammstein’s own logo and St George’s Cross – and a flame to lead them in their solemn march.

Once they took their places and built up the anticipation for the first note, they never missed a beat. Perhaps the treadmill keeping the keyboard player both exercising and in time during the show may have helped, but each member gave their all, diminishing all doubt the band were a generic industrial outfit.

Stand out performances came from lead singer Till Lindemann, who regardless of all the chaos going on around him, didn’t miss a note and sung with more passion than many of his genre fail to achieve. Also, founder of the band and still the driving force behind the guttural sound, Richard Z. Kruspe was true to form, showing real talent with his six strings and making the thumping melodies of each song come to life.

Fire rose up from the floor, masks with flame throwers attached criss-crossed the stage, fireworks exploded to the words ‘bang, bang,’ all the time with an eerie green or red backdrop that looked somewhere between the Crystal Maze Industrial Zone and the few minutes before a nuclear plant melts down.

Rammstein might never take over the charts, but with a loyal following, superb industrial beats, sing along songs – regardless of their native language – and sold old arenas, this band aren’t going anywhere for a long time. Forget the West End or a Las Vegas show, make sure you catch Rammstein next time they are round.

Review by Jennifer Scott / Photos by Bert Sowerby

Thanks to Jennifer, Bert and Superbreaks!

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Happy Feet 2 Review

/ April 25, 2012 / Review / Permalink

Sausage is a bit funny about films, there are only a few feature length titles that she’ll put up with, everything else gets the elbow after about 20 minutes. On the list of successes, we have Lilo and Stitch, Lilo and Stitch 2, Stitch the Movie (can you see a theme here?!) My Neighbour Totoro, Arrietty, Ponyo, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Rio and Finding Nemo, amongst others. On the list of “Hmm, not so much…” we have The Aristocats, Cars, Lady and the Tramp and Bambi.

Just before Easter, the lovely peeps at Warner Brothers asked us if we’d like to review a copy of Happy Feet 2 on Bluray and I thought this would slot nicely into Sausage’s rotation, especially as she seems to love anything that involves animals. It also worked out well as we were both poorly almost the entire two-week period, so a bit of extra entertainment wouldn’t go amiss.

I have to say, I never anticipated just what a roaring success Happy Feet 2 would be. I’m being deadly serious when I say that Sausage has watched it almost EVERY DAY since it arrived. She knows the dialogue, the songs – she even dances along, penguin stylee!

It’s a brilliant film, I love the fact that it’s one of those kids films that has just as much for adults as it does for the kids. The soundtrack is hugely diverse, compiled of covers of Queen, Janet Jackson, sixties doo-wop band The Rivingtons and even an aria from Tosca! It also helps that a lot of the songs are sung by P!nk, who I like a lot.

The voice cast is impressive too, with the likes of the aforementioned P!nk, Common, Hank Azaria, Elijah Wood, Robin Williams and Brad Pitt and Matt Damon playing Bill and Will Krill!

Happy Feet 2 really is an amazing film, Sausage and I love it to bits and if you have a PS3 or dedicated Bluray player, I can wholly recommend you pick it up in this format as the quality is breathtaking.

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Frankie and Benny’s Southend on Sea – A Mixed Review

/ April 11, 2012 / Review / Permalink

Here at Mum’s the Word Towers we, along with myriad other bloggers and their families, were given a £50 voucher to take along to our local Frankie and Benny’s to give their menu and service the once over. We went on a Wednesday afternoon and it was moderately busy, with probably a third of the tables taken. We were seated promptly, although we were unclear when we walked in if we were supposed to seat ourselves as there didn’t appear to be any staff around.

The first thing we noticed as we were seated in our window booth, is that the windows were filthy. They’d obviously had kids sitting next to the windows as it looked caked in dribble and sticky hand prints, which I understand is a hazard in any family friendly restaurant, but it still made our experience a little unappetizing, right from the word go. We also had to swap Sausage’s fork for a clean one.

Our server was super friendly and came over to take our drinks order right away, leaving us to peruse the food menus. There was a fair variety of meals and a lunch menu including cheaper options for just £5.95, which is quite reasonable, as well as a kid’s menu with more child-friendly options. Sausage chose Spaghetti Bolognese.

Five minutes after we ordered, our waitress came over to tell us that the steak burger that Husband had ordered wasn’t available, so he chose a chicken burger instead. Our food was served about 15 minutes later, which wasn’t too bad a wait. The first thing we noticed was the my mother-in-law had been served the wrong thing, I had ordered her the All Day Breakfast from the lunch menu but they brought the larger All Day Breakfast, which she had not chosen as she didn’t think she could manage it all. I was going to complain but we decided to leave it.

Sausage was very happy with her Bolognese, which I tasted and though was very bland, but she seemed satisfied. Husband was a little disappointed with his chicken burger, which he described as “two overpriced chicken nuggets in a bun”. My mother-in-law, despite being given the wrong meal, really enjoyed hers although she said she was really disappointed to have wasted so much food because, as she predicted, she couldn’t manage the whole meal. I had the ‘chicken and ribs’, which was a mixed bag. The chips were really lovely, crispy and tasty. The chicken was okay, although a bit dry and clearly a cheap cut of chicken as it was about 40% bone. The ribs – well, goodness only knows what animal the ribs came from but they were the smallest ribs I’ve ever seen. To be totally fair, the meat on the ribs was melt-in-your-mouth tender and very tasty, there just wasn’t enough of it. It also came with coleslaw which was okay, just a little bland.

Overall, our food was pretty disappointing. The bill came to £46, which included three soft drinks and a cup of tea, so an average of £11.50 per head, which isn’t too bad for lunch, but I don’t know if I’d go back. The service was great, our waitress was attentive without being overbearing, but between the hygiene levels in the restaurant and the underwhelming food, I’m not sure I’ll be rushing to go back.

Sorry Frankie and Bennie’s, I gave it a go!

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Schleich Farm Life

/ March 22, 2012 / Review / Permalink

When Sausage got to a certain age, she started to really get into animals and was keen to learn everything she could about them. My little sister is 8 1/2 years younger than me and I remembered that when she was about Sausage’s age, she too was mad about animals and collected miniature rubbery plastic models of them from a particular childrens toy shop. She’d go in there once a week and get a new species for her collection and it was the highlight of her week.

This shop is still around so I went to see if I could find the same toys, and the toys were still there but the range was hugely diminished and seemed poor quality.

A few weeks ago, I was asked if Sausage would be interested in receiving some toy animals from Schleich, a German company who specialise in animal toys and action figures, so of course we agreed.

We were sent a selection of farm animals including a couple of horses, a cow, some bunnies, a puppy, a sheepdog and a giraffe. I’m not sure how the last one works on a farm, but nevertheless we were happy to receive it! We also received a water trough.

One thing that struck us about every single one of these toys is that the attention to detail is superb. The animals look almost lifelike, the painting is beautifully done and the toys have a certain heavy quality to them that makes you think that these toys will last for many lifetimes. I certainly intend to save them and give them to Sausage’s children, in a couple of decades time!

One thing that I didn’t realise until I started looking for pictures to go with this post is just how  extensive the range of toys really is. There are no less than 34 breeds of horses available, with several models within each breed, and that’s not to mention the dozens of different dogs, humans, vehicles, buildings and hundreds of animals available. I’m impressed and overwhelmed by the amount of choice available and recommend these toys to just about anyone.

Go over to the Schleich site and have a butchers at wants on offer, I can guarantee you’ll be as impressed as I am. Sausage, of course, loves the toys and has set up a farm on her bedroom floor that no one is allowed to move! I think we can safely say that these toys are a hit with us.

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Zhufari Playset Review

/ February 24, 2012 / Review / Permalink

Last year, Sausage was sent a Zhu Zhu Pet to try out and instantly fell in love, then on her first ever day at nursery, while Husband and I were hovering around in the Waitrose opposite her school, refusing to go home and be more than 1000 yards away from her, we bought her another one as a present. Another came along at Christmas and soon we had a mini Zhu Zhu army zooming around the house!

Just recently, we were asked if we’d like to try out a Zhufari Playset and a special Zhu Zhu  pet to go with it and with Sausage’s love for them, how could I say no?! We were sent the Zhufari Lion Park play set and the little critter pictured below:

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Obviously, Sausage is in love with her new Zhu Zhu pet, she loved the things anyway and then someone went and made a PINK one, which is just a win-win situation for her, being the pink-obsessed little lady that she is! The playset is a nice little addition to the range, it gives it a sense of cohesion, like the pets have more of a point now they have a dedicated place to zoom around.

If I could think of anything negative about them it would be that the tube that runs along the top of the set, like a tube on a hamster cage, seems a bit too small for the pets to fit comfortably through, but they do go through with a shove, so it’s not too bad!

The range of Zhu Zhu pets is huge and there’s one to suit just about every kids taste. We’ve also just learned that with Zhu-Fari you can even win a break for all the family at the Safari Hotel at Chessington World of Adventures. It’s a great competition, you can enter here.

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A Christmas Extravaganza – Two Competitions!

/ December 10, 2011 / Christmas, Competitions, Review / Permalink

Every so often, I get asked to review something or do a giveaway on my blog and just recently I was offered the chance to give away a whole bundle of things, which should make Christmas a whole lot easier for one lucky Mum’s the Word reader.

Courtesy of UKMums.tv, I’ve been given 12, yes TWELVE toys to give away to one reader and the haul of goodies is as follows:

1. A Zhu Zhu Pet – These little critters are super popular at the moment and make a brilliant stocking filler for a little Zhu Zhu fan!

2. Mould and Paint Christmas – Perfect for your budding crafters, this set comes with everything you need to make and paint your own Christmas decorations.

3. Klutzy the Crab from Disney’s Club Penguin

A six-inch plush of Klutzy, from Disney’s ever-popular Club Penguin.

4. Childrens World Map Puzzleball

This one’s brilliant, not only is it a 3D puzzle, at the end of it, you end up with a fully functional rotating globe, so it’s fun, educational and stimulating all at once. (I quite want one of these for myself…!)

5. Rastamouse Talking Plush

If you’ve read this, you’ll know that we reviewed one of these a month or so ago, and Sausage loves hers! Full of songs and sayings from the show, this plush is a brilliant addition to the toy box.

6. Sylvanian Families Squirrel Family

We’ve bought Sausage a whole bunch of Sylvanian Families stuff this year because we just love it all, but the Squirrel Family is especially cute, even by Sylvanian standards!

7. Mission Earth

Not only is this family board game a great way to teach your kids how to be eco-friendly, it’s all made from recycled cardboard, contains no plastic and was invented by a group of school girls for the Young Enterprise Scheme.

8. Wild Science Face Mask Laboratory

I absolutely love this one, it’s essentially a good ol’ fashioned chemistry set, but it’s aimed at young girls and the end result of your experiments is that you’ve made some lush face masks. A brilliant way to get girls into science.

9. A Selection of Animals

We discovered Schleich toys a while back as Sausage is mad about animals I wanted her to have something like the ELC animals that my little sister used to collect. Brilliant quality and beautiful toys for girls or boys.

10. Fireman Sam Ambulance

Fireman Sam is one of the programmes that I remember from when I was a kid, it started in 1987 and it’s still going strong! This ambulance comes with a Nurse Flood figure and first aid box.

11. A 50th Anniversary Etch-a-Sketch

Speaking of things that’ve been around for a while, Etch-a-Sketch is celebrating its golden anniversary with a, well, GOLDEN Etch-a-Sketch! Create something amazing with this classic toy.

12. Morbs Ultimate Triple Pack

According to Amazon, these are “sensational ‘Ping Pong’ looking balls that instantly MORPH into fun looking fantasy characters, simply throw, roll, blast, bounce your ball… as they land they transform from small little balls into big-headed small bodied warriors and monsters”. Apparently!

So, here’s the awesome part…I have another thing to give away too!

About a month ago, I was sent one of these sensational and truly pretty Cake Pop Makers, which bakes six cake balls in four minutes. The cakes come out perfectly spherical and perfectly moist, ready for you to decorate as you wish. Sausage and I made about ten batches of these for her nursery’s Christmas fair and we decorated them with white chocolate and edible glitter, to make magical snowball cakes!

My next plan is to make chocolate balls, covered in milk chocolate and topped with a drizzle of white chocolate and fondant holly made with this to make perfect bite-sized Christmas pudding pops!

All in all, the toy bundle is worth almost £200 and the Cake Pop Maker is worth £20, so you could win yourself a seriously good haul to make the festive season that much easier.

If you want to enter, leave me a comment below telling me whether you want to win the toys, the cake pop maker or both, along with a way to contact you (email address, Twitter ID etc.).

Also, if you’d like to pop over to the Mum’s the Word Facebook page and give me a like, follow me on Twitter or subscribe by email (in the right sidebar of this page—–>), each of these will earn you a super-dooper-extra-free entry into the competition, just let me know in the comment you leave which you’ve done, if any.

Good luck, the winner or winners will be drawn next Saturday 17th December 2011 at 8pm so that I have time to post the goodies out before Christmas.

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