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My Ideal Holiday

By Mum's the Word on May 3, 2013 in Sponsored Posts

I’m not even kidding when I say this; I have been to paradise. Not only have I been there but I was lucky enough to get married there. When it came to a toss-up between the concrete-tastic registry office in our town or swanning off to warmer climes and doing it elsewhere, there was no competition. Husband (then Fiance) and I, spent a while researching our options and eventually decided on here:

That is the very island on which we said our nuptials and it was one of the most incredible experiences of my life. I’d love to go back there one day, but now that I’m a parent my idea of the perfect holiday has changed somewhat. As much as Vakarufalhi Island in the Maldives is my dream destination, it was a very adult-oriented holiday and I think Sausage would have got bored after a while!

Something that we have considered is a family camping holiday. When I was a kid, we took regular camping holidays, sometimes in Devon or Cornwall, but sometimes a lot closer to home, in places like Dymchurch or Walton on the Naze and I have really fond memories of our trips. When I was 14, my friends family took me to France and we did what I suppose was an early form of glamping – sure, our walls were made of canvas, but we had beds, a fridge, electric lights and rooms in our tent! I recently discovered Thompson Al Fresco, a company that offers European camping holidays for families which work out really reasonable on price.

The parks all look packed with entertainment options for kids and adults alike and there’s a variety of accommodation to choose from, which means that whether you’re a small family or a large one, there’s something to suit your needs. You can also secure your booking for as low as £100, which is great if you want to pay for the holiday over time.

Take a look at the Thompson Al Fresco site for details of all of their destinations and accommodations on offer – I quite fancy Lake Garda. It’s somewhere that I’ve wanted to visit for a long time but I always thought it would be prohibitively expensive or not very child-friendly, so it just shows how wrong I was!

What would your ideal destination be?

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AlexandAlexa Kids Clothes – Our Picks of the Range

By Mum's the Word on April 6, 2013 in Fashion...that's what I want., Parenting, Sponsored Posts

Sausage is getting to an age now where she’s becoming interested in clothes and fashion. Largely, that interest revolves around the frilliest, brightest pink ‘princess’ dresses that she can get her hands on, but she does have very good taste when she branches out into other areas of the wardrobe, too!

Just recently, she’s had a real growth spurt and having been ill on and off since Christmas, her appetite has suffered, so my little girl is now looking like a tall, slender reed. What this means is, the clothes she has are suddenly big on her waist but short on the ankles, so it’s that time when Daddy has to flash the cash (what with Mummybeing a jobless layabout ) and get Sausage some new duds!

We were kindly pointed towards the AlexandAlexa website, which carries some gorgeous branded kids clothes, so I thought I’d pick out a few outfits for Sausage and show you what’s on offer.

OUTFIT ONE

OUTFIT TWO

OUTFIT THREE

OUTFIT FOUR

What do you think of my choices? What would you choose from the range?

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My Dream Kitchen

By Mum's the Word on April 5, 2013 in Sponsored Posts

Living in a rented house means that I spend a lot of time dreaming about what my house would look like if it really was MY house. The kitchen is probably where I splash the cash, starting with some oh-so-covetable kitchen appliances.

This KitchenAid toaster reminds me of old 50′s diners and given that I love a bit of Americana, this would take pride of place.

I’ve always wanted a kitchen trolley; they remind me of kitchens in French houses where the units aren’t fitted, but a collection of furniture that can be moved as and when needed. This would provide a great practical working surface and the hygiene aspects of the stainless steel top is very appealing.

Following on a French theme, the Le Creuset pots and pans are a dream item for me and the iconic ’Volcanic’ orange glaze are a beautiful addiditon to any kitchen.

I’d love to hear which items you’d have in your Dream Kitchen too, let me know in the comments.

(Sponsored Post)

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Win a Silentnight bed and interior design consultation worth £2,000

By Mum's the Word on March 27, 2013 in BritMums Live, Sponsored Posts

As the eagle-eyed amongst you will know, Silentnight are sponsoring me to attend BritMums Live this year and have asked me to let my readers know about a fab competition they’re running at the moment. On offer is the chance to win:

An exclusive standard double, platform top, non-storage 1400 Natural Luxury bed with a headboard (RRP £1,000) from our Diamond Collection.
£1,000 worth of consultation from Allyson Houghton of Ideas Interiors, a professional interior design consultant to help you to revitalise your bedroom!
A selection of runners up will also be chosen to receive a Memory 3 zone-rolled mattress, listed as a ‘best buy’ by Which? Magazine.

How to enter

All you need to do to be in with a chance of winning is write a blog post about what you’d like to do to give your bedroom the perfect spring makeover. Feel free to be as creative as you like – they’re looking for funny, insightful, eye-catching articles about the challenges and rewards of creating a personal sleeping space. You could talk about the things you like about your current bedroom as well as the things you’d like to change.

Simply publish the article on your blog and fire them over a link via

Silentnight’s Facebook page mentioning Silentnight Spring Bedroom Makeover Challenge
Or follow us on Twitter and send us the link with the hashtag #springmakeover.

Blogs should be no less than 300 words in length and adhere to our competition Terms & Conditions. Use of photos and video content is highly encouraged. Please also include the following sentence: ‘This blog post is part of the Silentnight Spring Bedroom Makeover Challenge’ within your article.

They even have some swanky badges for you to use too!

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The Healthy Approach to Getting Your Figure Back After Pregnancy

By Mum's the Word on February 27, 2013 in Guest Blogger, Sponsored Posts

One of the biggest things that can happen in your life is having a baby. Pregnancy changes everything, from your lifestyle and your priorities to your figure, but not all changes are welcome.

After having a baby, some women immediately rush to get back into shape and get their youthful body back, trying everything from extreme dieting to getting breast enhancement surgery. But is there a right and wrong way to do it?

The key to getting back into shape after having a baby is not to overdo it. This is crucial, as taking things too fast and pushing yourself too hard can be terrible for your health. Don’t put undue pressure on yourself by reading stories about celebrities who have lost their baby weight in six weeks. Not only do celebrities have personal trainers and all the time in the world to devote to losing weight and firming up, but they are also in an industry where looking a certain way is elevated to a ridiculous level of importance.

So, what should you be doing to bounce back after pregnancy? Follow these tips and you’ll reach your goal in a healthy and measured way (and you’ll still have the energy to enjoy time with your new baby):

Don’t try any extreme diets

Check with your doctor before starting any intense weight loss regime. Crash and extreme diets are not the healthy way to lose weight, and they could even trigger post-natal depression.

Start your new fitness regime with walking

Take the baby out and use the pram as a fitness tool, walking further and further each day. You’ll be amazed at the effect walking has at burning calories and improving muscle tone.

Tone your muscles and build your core strength

Supplement your walking with some light exercises to build your core strength and to tone your body. Do just a few minutes every day and you’ll soon start to notice big improvements.

Leave it six weeks before making any drastic changes to your lifestyle

In this time, you need all your calories (especially if you are breast feeding) and rest to help your body recover from giving birth. You’ll also need all your energy to keep up with the demands of your new baby.

You should also leave it a while before making any decisions about more drastic measures; have a good think before going ahead with a tummy tuck or a breast enlargement. Give your body time to settle down and yourself time to learn to love your new shape.

This is a Commissioned Post

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The Truth About Sleep

By Mum's the Word on January 9, 2013 in Personal, Sponsored Posts

Sleep is a hot topic in the Mum’s the Word household. Husband is an insomniac and Sausage displays some remarkably zzz-averse traits at times too. I, on the other hand, am like a hibernating bear and am always in search of that extra nap here and there!

That’s why I found this infographic from Ibis so interesting.

I’m definitely a ‘free fall’…! I was surprised to see that so many of us get more than 9 hours a night and even more surprised to see that almonds can help us to get a good nights sleep.

Do any of the results surprise you too? Are you more soldier that starfish? What’s your magic number for hours per night?

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The Big Move

By Mum's the Word on January 7, 2013 in Sponsored Posts

This week marks a big event in the Crammond household. No, we’re not moving house. Sausage is moving into her own room. Before you ask, yes, Sausage is 4 and a half and yes, she has slept in the same room as Husband and me until now. There have been various reasons for it, none of which I’ll bore you with, but before Christmas we all decided, as a family, that it was time she had a big girl room.

We bought her a new bed a few months ago, a cabin bed with a tent underneath, which we’ll be moving into the room she currently keeps all of her toys and books in and the TV we bought her for Christmas will be rigged up in there with her Wii so that she can watch films and play her games whenever she wants.

It’s going to be seriously weird not being able to wake up in the night and just wait a few seconds for my hearing to adjust to the gentle sound of her breathing, but it’s for the best. She’s at school now and she wants to have friends over to play, being able to do so in her own bedroom is a basic right! But I’ll miss her presence. In fact, I’m dreading it a little bit. I’ve shared a room with her for so long, I can’t imagine not, but I’m sure we’ll all adjust. She’s only going to be one wall away, I’ll be able to see her if I roll over in bed as her bedroom door is so close to ours.

As a parent, I’ve not found letting go very easy. Sending her to nursery, although something I was adamant would be good for her, was tough and her first weeks at school were probably some of the worst times in mine and Husband’s lives, knowing she was crying on and off all day and not being able to be there for her. This, really, is a small step but Sausage, Husband and I are so close, our little family unit of three (+Chuck) that it feels monumental. Maybe if we’d have done it sooner it wouldn’t be so tough, but we didn’t so there’s no point dwelling.

I have to focus on the positives. I have this week to sort her new room out, make it fabulous for our little Princess and I’m looking forward to seeing her face when it’s all done.

I’ll let you know how we get on!

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Another Housework Post…

By Mum's the Word on October 19, 2012 in Personal, Rant, Sponsored Posts

Now that Sausage is at school, I have a lot more time on my hands. I have some work to do here and there, but largely I’m a free agent. You’d think this would be a good thing, but it’s not. Here’s why:

1. Instead of taking care of another person, I’m doing a lot of sitting on my bum and eating crisps. It’ not good for my sanity or my waistline.

2. Daytime TV is truly, truly rubbish, but I can feel myself getting sucked in. I got all antsy today because I didn’t get to watch Jeremy Kyle.

3. Before, when the house was a dump, I had an excuse. “I’ve been running around after a 4 year old!” I’d cry. Now, it’s just me, wallowing in my own filth, which is so not a good look.

There’s definitely an element of me being a lazy cow in there (obvs…) but I also blame my house. No, honestly, hear me out.

I have the smallest kitchen in the whole world. This means I have no space for a dishwasher, so dishes build up on the side and to compound this the ‘side’ is bloody tiny, so the kitchen looks condemnable after just one meal. I have a decent enough washing machine, but it’s LOUD and as our kitchen is basically just a sectioned off part of our living room, this is by no means convenient. Also, there’s no space for a dryer, so washing is an ordeal. I can only stick a load on when I can get it hung out, and living in England means that this is for about three and half weeks of the year. The rest of the time, it’s on clothes horses or sitting in piles which eventually smell like mould.

I’d absolutely adore one of these Bosch Washing Mashines from Appliances direct, which would be quieter, more efficient and look a damn-sight nicer too. I’d need an extension (or a new house…) before I got all of my other wishes, but this would be a start. ‘Cause let’s face it, there’s nothing worse that sitting down to watch Jeremy Kyle and not being able to hear it over the noisy washing machine!

A girl can dream, can’t she…?!

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Safety at Home

By Mum's the Word on October 14, 2012 in Family, Sponsored Posts

“BBBBZZCKKKCKKZZZZZZzZzzzzZZ tap tap tap tap BBBBZZCKKKCKKZZZZZZzZzzzzZZ“

You know how you can just be sitting there, minding your own business, watching TV, looking at cats on the internet and then something sneaks into your consciousness, bringing you out of your bubble and back to the real world?

“What IS that bloody noise?!

It was a combination of a buzz/crackle/tap and I think I’d been hearing it for a while, just not letting it actually register at the Reception Desk of my Brain, preventing it from getting through to the Processing Room. Plus, it was piddling down with rain outside and our living room is in an extension with a flat roof, so as soon as you get the slightest drizzle, it sounds like someone is jet-washing your eardrums, so it was quite normal for me to have not heard the buzzcrackletap above the din.

So, I got up to investigate, following the noise with my less-than-keen ears and found myself in the kitchen, looking around and shouting “SHHHHHH!!!” at anyone who made a noise near me. And then…

DRIP

I felt it land on my head and my heart simultaneously sank. The roof was leaking. And worst of all, the roof was leaking THROUGH THE LIGHT FITTING.

CRAP.

I may not be that Tesla fella, but even I know that water+electricity=BOOM, so I hastily turned the kitchen lights off, unsure whether touching the light switch would give me a belt and exited swiftly.

We had a guy come round and fix the roof yesterday and touch wood, we have no more buzzcrackletapping since, but it has got me thinking about the fact that we don’t have any fire protection in the house, hence spending my Sunday morning looking at Fire Extinguishers found at Fire protection Online and wondering seriously if this is something I should be investing in. It’s not something I’d thought about before but I’m honestly thinking it might be a good idea, otherwise next time that annoying noise that interrupts my LOLcat time might be a buzzcrackletapBANG!

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Home Improvements

By Mum's the Word on October 8, 2012 in Life, Personal, Sponsored Posts

I’ve been doing a lot of thinking lately about how I can brighten up our very…bland home. We live in a rented house which I call ‘The Magnolia Palace” (although it’s hardly palatial) and we’re not allowed to hang pictures on the walls or change the aesthetic of the house in any way.

It really takes some imagination to make the place look warm and homely without changing the colours of the walls but we’ve given it a good go! The first thing we did was change our black leather sofas for a three piece suite that’s upholstered in a terracotta coloured fabric. It changes the room greatly and makes it look more homely right away. We also use lighting to change things up a bit, using a tall lamp and table lamps to light the living room at night, rather than a stark overhead light, giving a much cosier feel to the room.

One thing we’re also thinking about is adding some rugs to the rooms. Both modern rugs and slightly more traditional rugs have a way of adding colour, warmth and depth to a room and also help with ‘zoning’ if you live in a more open-plan space. Fortunately, as well as very neutral walls, our larger furniture is white so we only really have to take the colour of the furniture into consideration when finding something to match!

As a keen sewer, I also had an idea while back about how to add to the room with minimal outlay. I wrote to a large upholstery and fabric outlet and asked if they had any offcuts that were just taking up space that they could send me and they kindly obliged. There are some great patterns in the dozen or so scraps they sent me and I reckon I can make a great selection of throw cushions that will add a soft, slightly mismatched but very comfortable feel to the main living space.

If any of you live in your very own magnolia palace and have any idea of how I can brighten the place up without hammering in any nails/painting the walls/spending a small fortune, I’d love to hear them.