Adult Halloween Party Dècor Ideas

Halloween / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve been looking at adult Halloween party décor ideas this week since it isn’t too far away. I’ve always enjoyed Halloween and so has my brother so I’ve been looking at fun Halloween party ideas.

Happy Halloween

Adult Halloween Party

I came across a lot of children’s crafts which are great but I wanted something more grown up. I found some great ideas on this festive lights blog post. They have some great décor ideas amongst others in their free downloadable PDF pack. I decided to try some out to see how easy they were.

festive lights halloween party pack

Pumpkin Carving Challenge

One of the games in the downloadable party pack was a pumpkin carving challenge, complete with templates to print out. I printed a template sheet out and have a go so I was prepared for the challenge.

Adult Halloween Party Ideas

I decided to try carving a few bats using the template pictured above. The game of thrones template looked awesome but slightly too difficult for me haha! For a beginner pumpkin carver I was quite impressed with the end result to be honest. I’d totally win the challenge!

Adult halloween party ideas

Ok maybe not quite. Using the templates definitely looks a lot better than the last mushed up orange mess I produced though! Do you have a much better pumpkin photo to put mine to shame? The bat design is much better than the usual faces I’d attempt too. I think I may try spraying a pumpkin purple first next time, what do you think? 

Decor ideas

Spooky Candles

Next I made the spooky candles! It only took me a few minutes to draw all the spooky faces on the candles. They turned out better than I had expected and I had some fun taking pictures of them. It love that these ideas are quick, simple & cheap décor crafts too. Even with my unsteady left-handedness I managed 2 simple décor ideas.. yay!

Spooky Candles

The PDF also had some fantastic costume ideas including a guide to paint our face like IT! Maybe I’ll have to borrow Eva’s Snazaroo face paints this week and try out a few different looks.

Are these adult Halloween party ideas & pack something you’d enjoy? Do you have any ideas I could use?

Crafty October on The Purple Pumpkin Blog

Healthy Fruit Juices From Appy Kids Co

Children's Food & Drinks / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a selection of healthy fruit juices from Appy Kids Co this week. Appy Kids Co offer a selection of deliciously healthy fruit juices for children. They have a range of licensed characters on all their juices, Dora, Minions, Peppa Pig, Paw Patrol & more!
Appy Kids Co Paw Patrol Juices

We received Paw Patrol & Ninja Turtle juices to try out which are fortified with vitamins A,C & E. I try to make sure the girls drink healthy fruit juices like these regularly across the week and love the Appy Kids Co juices. These delicious juices are great for drinking anywhere, at home, school or the park.

Healthy Fruit Juices

Healthy Fruit Juices

 

Appy Kids Co is on a mission to be the number 1 healthier choice for families. They want to empower families to make healthier choices. Created using ethically sourced premium ingredients ensures the fruit juices are affordable. Appy Kids Co have developed these healthy fruit juices over years to create formulations and delicious flavours with lower sugar and calories. Appy Kids co wanted to achieve lower sugar and calories compromising on taste or quality.

 

The girls loved these healthy fruit juices. Eva’s favourite was the Ninja Turtles Multifruit Juice Drinks & Izzy just loved them all! We tried Peppa Pig juices in the summer which we shared on IG (above). The girls really do enjoy drinking them & having their favourite characters on is always a bonus to them. Making sure the girls are hydrated in a healthy way is a bonus to me!

Have your children tried the Appy kids co healthy fruit juices before?

 

 

My Top 5 Comfort Foods

Food / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
My Top 5 Comfort Foods

Here’s my top 5 comfort foods that I love when I’m feeling a little bit meh. We all find comfort in food at times and I’m no different! Whilst I do struggle with my appetite there are also those times when I just need to stuff my face with something delicious.

My Top 5 Comfort Foods

  1. Chinese – Ordering Chinese just solves everything. Chicken chow mein, egg fried rice, crispy beef, deep fried crispy chicken in lemon sauce, chips & BBQ sauce just makes me feel better. Even if I don’t feel like eating I will finish at least half my plate. I tend to save some chow mein for the next morning too. Ultimate comfort food.Chinese Takeaway - Ultimate comfort food
  2. BBQ Chicken Pizza & Nacho Cheese Wedges – We tend to eat at the table for dinner but this is one of the few meal we sit on the sofa with. Sitting snuggled up munching away on pizza & wedges watching a DVD with the Mr always makes me feel better.
    cheese, close -up, crust 
  3. Cheese & Ham Toasty – There is something comforting about this quick and simple snack. It’s perfect any time of the day and is just delicious.
    Cheese & Ham Toasty
  4. Swedish Meatballs in Gravy & Chips – The Mr recently made this after I refused to try Ikea meatballs for years. I admit I was wrong & they are absolutely delicious! I could now happily eat this most nights.Swedish Meatballs In Gravy
  5. Chicken & Vegetable Soup With Fresh Bread – The Mr makes the best Chicken & vegetable soup in the slow cooker, we add in any veg with lentils & pearl barley to thicken it. A pot feeds all 4 of us for 2 days and is so warming & filling especially with fresh bread smothered in real butter.top 5 comfort foods - chicken & vegetable soup

With the colder months approaching I’m looking forward to comfort foods like this. I can’t pick a favourite out of these 5 as I do enjoy them all no matter how meh I feel!

Do you have a list of top 5 comfort foods too?

My Sunday Photo – Stained Glass 

My Sunday Photos / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We spotted this gorgeous piece of stained glass in the Thurrock Museum yesterday. We popped by after dropping our books off at the library to see if there were new exhibits. The girls loved the pieces of stained glass on display & this piece is our absolute favourite!

Stained Glass

The girls were so excited and dragged me around so quickly I didn’t get a chance to read about this piece but I think it’s beautiful. You can see so many details in the glass itself even after all these years. It would be interesting to know who made this, when & why. I think I may go back in the week alone to check it out & have a read.

What do you think of this stained glass?

Photalife

Christmas Gifts For 3 Year Olds Under £40

christmas / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

It’s tricky finding Christmas gifts for 3 year olds, there is just so much out there these days. What do you buy!? I’ve put together a list of perfect gifts for 3 year olds this Christmas. I try to cover a little bit of everything when gift buying and I’ve found some fantastic gifts for 3 year olds! I’ve found a toy, a book, Santa letter, costume & colouring book all under £40.

Christmas Gifts For 3 Year Olds

A Toy

My First Scalextric £39.99 is a great gift aimed at children 3+ that everyone can join in with. It’s a great way to get the whole family playing together in a friendly race. This is a great gift to introduce children into the world of Scalextric racing.

scalextric

My first Scalextrics promotes Hand/Eye Coordination, Manual Dexterity, Risk-reward thinking, Face to face interaction, Three dimensional & Motor skill development.

christmas gifts for 3 year olds

Assembling the figure of 8 design is simple and comes apart easily for storing too. The set also comes with two rally cars and adjustable power hand-controllers. The cars & controllers are colour coded in red and yellow to match the chevrons on the circuit. Scalextrics Magnatraction technology helps to keep the cars on the track. My first scalextrics

The My First Scalextric is fully compatible with our Micro Scalextric range of sets and cars, allowing you to extend your track and add new cars too. A gift that can be added on to is always a bonus for us! Find out more here.

A Book

Next on the list of Christmas gifts for 3 year olds is fantastic personalised book from Dr Niamh . Find your Name in the Alphabet Train is available for £16.99 in soft back or hard back. I reviewed this book in full recently and I have to say it is definitely an ideal gift for Christmas.

Personalised Alphabet Book

Personalised books make lovely Christmas gifts for 3 year olds. Children benefit greatly from being read to and reading, personalised children’s books are read on average 9 times more than traditional books. Books like this encourage early learning and a passion for books.

Izzy

The Find my name in the alphabet train book is available in soft or hardback. The story can be personalised with your child’s name, gender, skin & hair colour. The personalisation includes a personalised message printed on the last page, making this alphabet book extra special. I love that you can personalise the book, Izzy’s personalisation turned out great.

A Santa Letter

Lapland Mailroom have a fantastic Santa letter & Activity pack with free nice child certificate for £8.95. Nothing beats the magic of a letter arriving addressed to your little one from the big guy himself and Lapland Mailroom make it quick and easy to order one.

Giveaway

I’m running a giveaway in my Lapland Mailroom Santa Letter giveaway too so head HERE to find out more about Lapland Mailroom and enter for a chance to win one for free!

A Costume

All 3 year olds love to dress up & Pretend To Bee Have an amazing range of costumes. Costumes make perfect Christmas gifts for 3 year olds, helping them explore their imagination. Pretend to Bee’s Garnet Fairy Dress for £25 posted makes a gorgeous Christmas fairy outfit too and can be teamed up with a Santa hat. Izzy still prefers the headband though!

Garnet Fairy Dress From Pretend To Bee

 

Pretend To Bee also have this fantastic Deluxe Elf costume ! A boutique-quality novelty children’s Elf Costume, hand made with the best Fabrics and Trim. The costume includes a jacket, belt, trousers with boot covers and Hat for £19.95

Pretend to Bee - Elf costume

A Colouring Book

I think it’s always nice to add in a lovely colouring book at Christmas. When everything calms down it’s nice to just sit and colour. We found these fantastic Princess & Fairies Dress Up Masks book in Aldi for just £1.99! A bargain & so pretty!

Dress-Ups Masks

What do you think of my Christmas gift guide for 3 year olds? Which products to you like best?

 

 

Burnished Chaos

Personalised Mugs From Brinley Williams

Personalised Gifts / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I ordered 3 personalised mugs from Brinley Williams this week and I am in love with them! Brinley Williams offer a range of fantastic personalised products including over 180 personalised mugs. Personalised products like this are a great way to show off your personality at home or in the office. The personalised mugs make great gifts too at £9.95 fitting most budgets.

Brinley Williams Personalised Mugs

Ordering Personalised Mugs

The personalisation options vary depending on the design chosen & include colourful designs, font colours, fonts, text & more. I had a good look through the personalised mugs on the Brinley Williams site before I decided which mugs to order.

Brinley Williams site is quick and easy to navigate and personalisation takes no time at all. I made my order and then received an email to double check one of the personalised mugs had intentionally been left without personalisation. Once I had confirmed the order was correct, because the Mr is a grumpy git (haha!) my order was processed.

My Personalised Mugs

The personalised mugs arrived 3 days after I ordered them, well packaged & in PURPLE packaging. Obviously that made me even happier! I am so happy with how all 3 mugs turned out.

 

Obviously the ‘Relentlessly Purple’ Mug is for myself. I can’t review mugs without a cup of tea first! I was over the moon to discover I could use different fonts and could make mine much more like my blog logo. Perfect for IG photo’s. I couldn’t wait to have a cup of tea and of course pose with my Relentlessly Purple mug, even if I do look rough at 7am!

The Red Campervan mug without personalisation is of course for the fussy Mr. He loves the design & the fact he didn’t have to have his name on it! He isn’t keen on personalised gifts & it is beyond awkward trying to find anything he likes at all. The Mr seems really pleased with his mug though and has already used it too!

personalised campervan mug

This colourful cat mug is for my Brother with his & his cats name on. I’m sure Alex will love his mug and I am so excited to give it to him. I am hiding this one away until Christmas for him though.

Personalised cat mug

Ordering personalised mugs from Brinley Williams is such a quick and great service. I’ve added their sirte to my bookmarks for future gifts buying.

Personalised Calendar From Potato Print

christmas / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I received a personalised calendar from Potato Print who offer a fantastic range of calendars. Potato Print offer a whole range of personalised gifts but I especially love the calendars. Each year for Christmas I get the girls a calendar for their room which they love. Buying their favourite characters isn’t that exciting but they will LOVE discovering pictures of themselves each month. I also think personalised gifts mean much more.

Ordering

The ordering process is so simple. Potato Print offer desk calendars, wall calendars and calendars for parents at £14 each. Postage is £6 no matter how many items you order which I think is great. Each calendar has several options for you to choose from. I selected a wall calendar as the girls already have a hook to hang their calendars.

There are 3 options for wall calendars, adventure, art gallery and geometric. I went for geometric as I love the way it’s laid out. We’ve never had a personalised calendar before so I was quite excited to fill the calendar with all my favourite photo’s.

Personalised calendar Geometric wall calendar - A3Personalising

Once I selected the A3 geometric personalised calendar I was taken to the product editor where I could upload the photo’s I wanted to use and position them how I wanted too. I managed to fit in a few themed ones like the girls birthday months, Halloween and Christmas. Once I had filled up the calendar and was happy with it I ordered the calendar which arrived less than a week later!

Our Personalised Calendar

Our Personalised Calendar

Our personalised calendar arrived well packaged in bubble wrap and cardboard and arrived signed for. I couldn’t wait to open it up and take a look at the end result. I am really pleased with how the calendar has turned out and can’t wait to give it to the girls as a joint present for their bedroom!

What do you think of our personalised calendar from Potato Print?

UK Gift Shopping Habits Infographic

Gift Guide / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

With Christmas approaching I’ve been looking at UK gift shopping habits. What2buy4kids has provided a fantastic infographic (below) which shows how much we spend in the UK on gifts, when we buy them and more.  It’s quite interesting learning more about the UK gift shopping habits & reading the facts.

Women spend more money on average than men in the UK gift shopping, with over £100 difference! I guarantee we get more for our money though 😉

Over half of the UK buy gifts 2 months earlier. The majority of Christmas shoppers start in November. I always hope to buy gifts with plenty of time and have managed to over the last 2  years. I find last minute gift buying way to stressful, it gets far too people out there!

Mothers day is the most popular gifting occasion in the UK outside of Christmas and Birthdays whilst gifting new parents is the least popular. For both occasions gifts are usually bought a week before unlike occasions like Christmas and birthdays.

Shockingly UK parents spend the most on toys for their kids beating the USA, France & Germany. I guess we must get a little too excited. Lets face it though there are some awesome toys out there!

What2buy4kids sell some fantastic Birthday and Christmas gifts and created this infographic to show the UK gift shopping habits. I think they have put together some brilliant statistics and interesting facts on our gift shopping habits, what do you think?

UK Gift Shopping Habits

uk gift shopping habits

 

My Ever-growing Yarn Wish List

Crochet / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I have an ever-growing Yarn wish list right now. Whilst I do have 2 projects on the go right now, a granny square blanket for myself and one for my brothers cat Mia. I’m still using up all my sparkly yarn but I’ve been eyeing up some lovely new colours and brands I’ve discovered.

I still consider myself a newbie when it comes to crochet and I openly admit to being clueless when it comes to different yarns but some are just sooo lovely! I love self patterning yarns, anything purple, grey or super soft. The girls regularly point out yarns they like and want used on a project too but this list is just for me.

My Yarn Wish list

 

Caron Cakes

Anyone who loves to crochet or knit has no doubt heard of Caron cakes, self-patterning yarns that come in a glorious array of colours. These are fantastic for a range of projects and look especially lovely when used for shawls. Here are my favourite 4 Caron Cakes.

Yarn wish list- Bumbleberry caron cake

Bumbleberry

I love the gorgeous combination of purples in this Bumbleberry Self Striping Aran Yarn. I could use this on so many projects for myself!

lilac frosting caron cake

Lilac Frosting

The Lilac frosting would make a lovely scarf for winter with just a hint of lilac throughout. I usually avoid lighter colours but I do love the way this Caron cake turns out.

 

Mixed Berry Caron Cake

Mixed Berry

I’ve had my eye on this gorgeous Mixed Berry Caron cake since I first discovered them. I think this would be perfect for a project for Eva. Maybe a nice cardigan if I can work out how to crochet one!

Faerie cake caron cake

Faerie Cake

The last yarn on my Caron cake wishlist is this gorgeous Faerie Cake. I just love the colours in this, I’ve no idea what I would use it for but I definitely need it in my yarn stash asap.

 

purple fizz

Purple Fizz

Stylecraft Wondersoft DK Merry-go-Round in Purple Fizz is another self-patterning wool which I would love to make some cushions out of. I want to funk up my sofa soon and have a few different cushion cover ideas.

candy

Candy

King Cole Flash DK Knitting yarn in Candy is gorgeous. I would love to make some cushions for the girls room. Ok I know I said this list is for me but I couldn’t help but slip one in for the girls too!

What’s on your Yarn wish list right now? Which of the above yarns is your favourite?

Personalised Santa Letter Giveaway From Lapland Mailroom

christmas / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’m offering my readers a chance to enter my personalised Santa Letter giveaway from Lapland Mailroom. The girls letters were ordered this week and I’ve teamed up with Lapland Mailroom to give you a chance to win a letter from Santa for your child too.

Christmas is quickly approaching and lots of parents have begun buying and planning in time for the big day and we are too. Letters from Father Christmas are always top of the list for the girls. Nothing beats the magic of a letter arriving addressed to your little one from the big guy himself and Lapland Mailroom make it quick and easy to order one.

Packages Available

Lapland Mailroom offer 3 packages, each as lovely as the other for either £7.95 or £8.95 depending on which package you select. Each letter comes with a free Nice child certificate worth £2.95.

Personalised Santa Letter Giveaway

The 2nd package also includes fun activity pages for your child to enjoy. I love the Santa please stop here sign, my girls love things like this. We chose this package for the girls to keep them busy, Izzy will love colouring in her sheets.

Giveaway

 

The 3rd package for Baby’s 1st Christmas is just £7.95 for a beautiful Santa letter and free nice child certificate. A lovely keepsake for them to look back on and adds to the magic of their first Christmas.

Baby's 1st christmas letter

Personalised Santa Letter

After selecting a package you can then choose from 3 different letter options or the baby’s 1st Christmas letter. Lapland Mailroom offer a selection of personalisation options.

Enter your child’s first & last name, gender, age and which town/city they will be in for Christmas eve. You can then enter anything your child left out for Santa last year, their best friend or family member’s name & the gift they are hoping to get from Santa. A personal note can also be added to your child’s letter. I made sure to add ‘Be nice to your sister!’ to Eva & Izzy’s letters this year. You can then choose for the letter to be signed from Santa or Father Christmas.

The personalisation form is so simple & easy to fill out and takes no time at all to order your child’s letter.

Personalised Santa Letter Giveaway

Now for the best part! As I mentioned, I’ve teamed up with Lapland Mailroom to run a personalised Santa letter giveaway. Giving you a chance to win a free Santa letter of your choice from Lapland Mailroom!

a Rafflecopter giveaway