Personalised Alphabet Book: Find My Name In The Alphabet Train

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Dr Niamh recently launched her first fully personalised Alphabet book: Find My Name in the Alphabet Train , Illustrated by Valeria Leonova. I received a lovely copy for Izzy in exchange for an honest review.

Personalised Alphabet Book

Personalised books are always a lovely gift idea for children. A gift children can both learn from and cherish for years to come. Children benefit greatly from being read to and reading, personalised children’s books are read on average 9 times more than traditional books. Children love being centre of attention and books like this encourage early learning and a passion for books.

Izzy

Personalised Alphabet Book

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 adding a personalised message, printed on the last page which makes this alphabet book extra special. I love that you can personalise the book, Izzy’s personalisation turned out great!

The personalised Alphabet book contains great animal characters who take your child on a journey through the entire alphabet to find special letters in your child’s name. This gorgeous personalised alphabet book written in rhyme and uses phonics throughout the story. Learning phonics help’s young children learn the sounds and personalities of each letter. Perfect for Izzy’s age group!

Find your name in the alphabet train

The Storyline

The storyline and animals throughout the book make it colourful and lively. I found the book fantastic fun to read out loud with the phonic sounds and rhymes making the story sing. Books like this are a fantastic gift for Birthdays and Christmas which is just around the corner.

Izzy

The end of the story is laid out with the last page containing your personalised message & their name on the train. Dr Niamh’s Personalised alphabet train children’s book really is a gorgeous gift for any little girl or boy.

What do you think? Would your little one love this too?

 

 

Burnished Chaos

 

Woodland Garland – Crafty Creatives Subscription Box

Craft Subscriptions / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve been making a woodland garland after receiving the Crafty Creatives Subscription box to review. A fun crafty box with creatives in mind. Crafty Creative boxes are £15 plus p&p (£2.95) each month. My box contained everything needed to make a woodland garland, felt, threads, eyes, stuffing and templates.

Crafty Creatives Subscription Box

Crafty Creatives

The woodland garland looks so cute and I knew it would be something that would no doubt end up in the girls room. I decided to start when the girls were in bed so I definitely wouldn’t get disturbed as I’m not great at sewing. I love to craft and crochet is usually my go to but I couldn’t wait to see how I got on with the crafty creatives box.

My Woodland Garland

I started with the Squirrel, cutting out the templates first then finding the correct felt. With so many shades of brown I was a little confused to be honest. I think a colour chart would have been quite helpful. Once I had got over my colour confusion I got to work pinning the templates to the felt. I then cut out each piece & stitched the details on. Finally I stitched the back & front together adding stuffing as I went.

Squirrel

The instructions are easy to understand and in no time I had made my first stuffed animal for this fantastic woodland garland. I was quite proud of myself as sewing isn’t my strong point yet following the simple instructions I managed to make something that actually does resemble a Squirrel.. yay me!

Stuffed Squirrel - Crafty Creatives subscription box

Seriously, how cute is that Squirrel!?

I made each one in order so I didn’t get too confused or mix anything up. It was lovely to see each one coming together piece by piece and really enjoyed making them. I usually find sewing stressful but everything is so small and cute I found it quite relaxing!

Woodland Garland - Mushroom

I loved that I only needed scissors and pins to complete this project. Unfortunately I ended up having to use a little of my own black and white thread. That is highly likely to be down to my poor sewing skills in all fairness. I tend to find the back of my work looks an absolute mess when I sew. Making the woodland garland has made me consider sewing a little bit more as I really did enjoy making each one.

 

Woodland Garland

Crafty Creatives work to put together a new box each month and collaborate with small businesses to do so. I think this is a fantastic idea and I would love to see what they come up with next!

What do you think? Does the Crafty Creatives Subscription Box sound like something you would enjoy too?

 

Gingersnap Lightbox And Pastel Letter Pack Review

Product Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I received a fantastic Gingersnap Lightbox to review along with a Pastel letter pack containing 120 letters, numbers & symbols.

Lightbox

I’ve wanted a lightbox for a while but never got round to actually getting one so I jumped at the chance to review this fantastic A4 Black Shell Lightbox by Gingersnap. Cinematic style lightboxes are great for all occasions, birthdays, Christmas, weddings and of course for bloggers they are great for creating post title images.

lightbox

Gingersnap A4 Lightbox

This illuminated A4 LED Lightbox includes 120 black & red letters, numbers and symbols, and USB cable. It can also be powered by DC adaptor (not included) or 6 1.5v AA batteries (not included). With plenty of power options you can pretty much use the Lightbox anywhere. The self-timer turns itself off after 6 hours. It can be used freestanding and is also wall mountable.

Lightbox Fun

The Gingersnap Lightbox and letter packs are so much fun! There are a range of fun symbols you can use to pretty up your text. Being a Big Bang Theory fan I of course spotted the batman symbol and decided to do Sheldon’s ‘I’m batman’ quote. I love how it looks and it made a few friends giggle too!

I'm Batman

Of course my next thought was one for the adults.. well the Mr mainly haha!

it's beer time

The lightbox is also a fantastic way to congratulate people. How cool and colourful does this look? I love the pastel colour pack, it really brightens up the message. With so many cool symbols in both packs you could have fun for days creating messages.

congrats

I think it’s safe to say the Gingersnap lightbox & letter packs are both a great way to display a message and tons of fun! I’ll be using this for a few blog titles and counting down to Christmas with the girls

What do you think?

 

 

Role Play Teacher Pack From Wannabee’s

Gift Guide / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a Wannabee’s Role Play Teacher Pack to review at the perfect time! Eva has had a fantastic week at school and had her sharing assembly. Standing up and reading the most lines enthusiastically Eva caught the assistant head teacher’s attention and was asked to stand at the end. When asked what she wanted to be Eva told everyone she wanted to be a P.E teacher.

Wannabee's role play teacher pack

At 7 years old Eva’s aspirations to be a teacher are high, she can’t wait to grow up and be a teacher and regularly writes her own registers pretending to be Izzy’s teacher. When I showed her the Role Play Teacher Pack from Wannabee’s she literally squealed with excitement.

Role Playing - Teacher

Wannabee’s Role Play Teacher Pack

Created by 2 working mum’s, Wannabee’s stemmed from one of their daughters asking for a “grown up Teachers pack just like the one that they use in school”.Wannabee’s offer 3 different role play packs – Teacher, Café & Doctor. All roles children generally enjoy the most. The role play packs are full of everything your child needs to be whatever they want to be. At just £14.99 they are fantastic gifts for children. Wannabee’s also offer a 2 pack deal for £24.99 and a 3 pack deal for £32.99.The role play teacher pack includes everything your child could need to be a teacher with several sheets of each too! The pack stands up and uses high quality paper and coloured inks which is really noticeable.

There are 12 different parts to the Teacher pack:

Registers –

 

Timetables

Role Play Teacher Pack - Timetable

Lesson Planner

Role Play Teacher Pack - Lesson Planner

Classroom Jobs List

Role Play Teacher Pack - Classroom Jobs

Lunch List

Role Play Teacher Pack - Lunch List

Weather Chart

Role Play Teacher Pack - Weather Chart

 

Counting Sheet

Role Play Teacher Pack - Counting Practice

Letter & Number Sheet

Role Play Teacher Pack - Letter & Number Practice

Reading Log

Role Play Teacher Pack - Reading Log

School Report

Role Play Teacher Pack - School Report

Achievement Certificates

Role Play Teacher Pack - Achievement Awards

Stickers

Role Play Teacher Pack - Stickers

We really loved the Wannabee’s Teacher Pack and we are definitely going to buy the Café & Doctor Packs too as they are so much fun. Eva has spent all weekend using her Teacher Pack with Izzy and it has kept them both happy for hours. I remember as a child my friend had one of those old post office role play toys and the Wannabee’s Role Play Packs remind me of those and the fun we had pretending to sell stamps.

Watching the girls go through the register, lesson plans and watching Eva set up activities is been great. It’s encouraged the girls to play together too which is always lovely. The Role Play Packs are perfect for kids.

What do you think of the Role Play Teacher Pack? Do you love the sound of the Café & Doctor Packs too?

Burnished Chaos

My Sunday Photo – Home-grown Happiness

Uncategorized / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This week’s #MySundayPhoto – Home-grown Happiness photo’s were taking straight after the girls picked the peppers they have been growing over the last few months. The girls look so happy and proud that they have planted & grown the peppers to perfection. They helped us make a delicious salad dinner with their freshly picked peppers which we all thoroughly enjoyed.

Home-grown happiness

Home-grown Happiness

The girl’s faces in these pictures show how amazed and happy with what they have produced. From a tiny seed and a bit of soil on a tiny windowsill they produced these delicious peppers. The peppers grew to a great size, especially Eva’s.

Eva & Izzy's Peppers

There was even more excitement when we discovered Eva’s big red pepper had another pepper trying too grow inside! It looked so pretty with the red and green together.

Pepper inside a pepper

Do you grow your own fruit or vegetables? Do you get that home-grown happiness when you harvest too?

De-stressing With Thrive: Feel Stress Free

Uncategorized / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve been de-stressing with the  Thrive : Feel Stress Free  app over the last fortnight. I introduced Thrive here, a fantastic app created for mental health conditions and designed to gradually build resilience to and manage stress, anxiety and mild depression. Using clinically proven techniques such as mindfulness and CBT over a few weeks can have huge benefits.

De-stressing with Thrive: feel stress free

De-stressing with Thrive

Me being me I haven’t managed to religiously use the app. I had hoped to use it much more. The Zen garden and Zen challenge does keep drawing me back in however and I feel it’s been beneficial for me. Most evenings I will sit and design a Zen garden or try one of the challenges. I can feel the stress disappearing as I rake and arrange my pretty little gardens. The challenges are simple, a little bit of thinking involved but it’s very enjoyable. With a star rating you can go back and try to think of better ways to solve the challenges too. It really does help me de-stress.

Zen Garden

Managing Better

Anyone who has seen my tweets this week will no doubt know we have had a stressful month which seems to be continuing. Normally these stresses would have me in tears, feeling helpless and useless.We had our washing machine breakdown the first week back at school. Although we managed to borrow money to replace it only for it 2 breakdown less than 2 weeks later.. with school uniform in.. AGAIN! Using the Zen garden each night seems to be helping me stay calmer. Whilst I am annoyed and frustrated I am managing to keep a hold on my temper and emotions much better. I’m not instantly reacting and being much more mindful.

Using Thrive

As mentioned in my previous post there are subscription costs for thrive, having used the app I feel they are actually very reasonable prices.

The Thrive app is available on all Android and Apple devices. 3 different subscription packages are available.

Monthly –  £5.99

Quarterly – £14.97 for 3months of unlimited access. That’s just £4.99 a month!

Yearly  – £47.88  a year brings the cost down to £3.99 a month.

For my readers however I have a special code to use through October so you can try out Thrive: Feel stress free for yourself and hopefully start de-stressing like I have! Use code FSFOCT300917.

 

 

 

Vitra Kitty Blackout Blind From MakeMyBlinds

Interior Decor / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve just received a lovely new blackout blind from MakeMyBlinds.co.uk for the girls room. MakeMyBlinds make made to measure blinds in hundreds of colours. They cover Roller blinds, Wooden blinds, Vertical & aluminium venetian blinds. MakeMyBlinds has a lovely selection to choose from covering all rooms of the house and styles. It’s no secret we are slowly but surely making improvements around the flat. Blinds, curtains & carpets are currently on our list of things to change so I was thrilled to have the chance to review some made to measure blinds.

Ordering A New Blackout Blind

Ordering a blind with MakeMyBlinds is so simple and with plenty of how-to guides, fabric videos, free samples and a fantastic customer support team the whole process is completely stress-free. Not only can you order your blinds to the exact measurements you need but you can save up to 50% compared to high street prices. There are plenty of guides to help you find the perfect blind for your needs. Their shipping covers the UK using DX or DPD to deliver your blind depending on your location.

Ordering Blackout Blind

Our Order

The girls chose an exact fit Vitra Kitty Blackout Blind to go with their very pink bedroom. Their blind recently broke and we’ve had to use a peg to keep it up during the day! As promised we were kept updated throughout the entire order process. I received an email to let me know the order had been confirmed, dispatched from the factory and when the blind was due to arrive. It’s really reassuring to know exactly when your order will arrive.

Installing The Blind

The Vitra Kitty Blackout Blind arrived rather quickly, much to the girls delight! They have needed a new blind for a little while now and were so pleased they would still have a lovely pink one to match their overly pink bedroom. It arrived well packaged with the brackets needed. It was fairly simple to put up (once we charged the drill!) and it looks lovely in the girls bedroom.

Vitra Kitty blackout blind

The Vitra kitty blackout blind goes nicely with the other pinks in the girls room. As we were able to order to measure and have the overlap we needed it actually blocks out the light even during the day. Our last one let far too much light in, the main reason Izzy rarely naps! I’m hopeful that she will actually manage to sleep in the day now when she does need it. The fact the blind works so smoothly is a relief too, I couldn’t open or close the previous blind myself. Now I can open and close it with ease making the odd occasion I put the girls to bed alone slightly less of a challenge. Win all round!

With guides to help you along the way and free samples to help you pick the prefect blind, MakeMyBlinds make ordering blinds a stress-free process.

Have you heard of MakeMyBlinds before? Did you know you can order blinds made to measure?

DIY Daddy

 

Chilean Easy Peelers Clementines & Mandarins

Family / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a box of Chilean easy peelers clementine’s & mandarins to help make back-to-school snacks & lunches tasty and convenient. Chilean clementine’s and mandarins deliciously juicy and full of vitamin C. They are also a great source of water to help keep you hydrated. The UK demand for Chilean easy peelers is growing due the convenience, seedless fruits, sweet flavour and hydration. UK demand for Chilean easy peelers has grown by 32% year on year and last season 2,000 tonnes were sold in the UK.

#Chileaneasypeelers

 

Chilean Easy Peel Clementine’s & Mandarins

Now in season the Chilean easy peelers clementine’s and mandarins provide a rich source of fibre, calcium and magnesium. A fantastically nutritious snack for everyone available from September to November, perfect for the back to school season. Containing around 87% water they are perfect for keeping children hydrated, perfect for hot days. Chilean easy peelers are low in calories & fat, they are a good source of vitamins and minerals. Helping to provide children with fibre, folate, vitamin C, potassium, calcium and magnesium they are an ideal fruit.

A Quick Snack

Short on time? Chilean easy peelers clementine’s and mandarins are a quick and easy snack to give your child. A great start or end to the day even when you are in a rush.

After a busy day at school children can feel exhausted, giving them a Chilean easy peelers clementine’s or mandarin Is a great way to hydrate & give them a boost. Eva has recently started swimming lessons at school and has been coming back very pale & tired. We gave her a Chilean easy peelers clementine and she loved it, no stressing she couldn’t get it open at all.

Chilean easy peel

Ideal For Packed Lunches & School Trips

Chilean easy peelers are great alone as a snack or with other fruits to make a delicious fruit salad. Easy peelers are great to add to packed lunches or snacks for school trips to ensure your child has something nutritious throughout the day. As children can easily peel the fruits themselves they are more likely to eat them. Waiting for a teacher to help peel fruit can mean they get left untouched. Being able to peel the fruit themselves means children are less likely to leave them untouched.

Chilean easy peelers

Have you tried Chilean easy peeler clementine’s and manadarins before? Does your child find them easier too?

*This post is an entry for the BritMums #ChileanEasyPeelers Challenge, sponsored by Chilean Citrus Committee.

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies is the second book in this hilariously quirky series written by Karen McCombie. With fantastic illustrations by Becka Moor this sure to have children aged 7-9 years giggling away! Eva recently read and reviewed the first book in the series, St Grizzles School For Girls, Goats and Random Boys which she loved. Eva couldn’t wait to get stuck in to the second book having read the first in the series.

St Grizzles School For Girls, Ghosts And Runaway Grannies

St grizzles school for girls, ghosts and runaway grannies

With Karen McCombie’s fantastic storylines accompanied by Becka Moor’s hilarious illustrations this book draws in young readers who are looking for something with a bit of humour. Eva loves anything a bit quirky and funny and this series really fits the bill. Who couldn’t love a book where the head teacher wears a unicorn onesie!? How funny!

St Grizzles School enters a short-film competition between the local schools and Dani is made director. Dani struggles to concetrate, whilst she has a ton of ideas there is too much weirdness going on!

Whilst students at St Grizzles work hard on the short-film but village school boys, Spencer and his mates are determined to sabotage their work. Granny Viv secretly takes up residence in the schools treehouse with Down boy the dog. Granny Viv has come to help Dani, much to her surprise! Can they finish their short film & win the competition? With ghost’s and runaway grannies accompanied by funny illustrations this book is sure to give you a laugh.

Granny Viv

St Grizzles School definitely has a great amount of appeal to young readers, think Mallory Towers & St Trinians. Covering friendships and video blogging, St Grizzles will appeal to the younger YouTube generation.  Eva would love to Vlog herself but there’s always something getting in the way (usually a noisy sister!). It definitely appeals to children aged 7-9 especially those with a quirky sense of humour.

Growing & Preparing Our Windowsill Peppers For A Delicious Salad

Family / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Eva & Izzy's Peppers

The girls have been growing peppers on the windowsill over the last few months. It was much easier to grow our own food when we had a garden but we still try to see what we can achieve on our windowsills. Peppers are something Eva & Izzy thought we should try, so we gave them a go. You may have seen some of my Instagram posts from when they first began to grow. The one below is Eva’s huge red pepper!

The First Pepper

The girls peppers are growing nicely on their windowsill!

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Changing Colour

Over the last 2 months the peppers have slowly changed colour from green to red on Eva’s plant and from green to yellow on Izzy’s. A complete accident but a great way to tell them apart! We all enjoyed keeping an eye on the peppers changing and couldn’t wait to see how they turned out and tasted.

The girls peppers are growing and changing colour this week! They can’t wait to try them 😊

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Ready To Chop!

Both girls were really excited when the Mr told them their peppers were finally ready to chop. They headed out excitedly to buy the other bits they wanted to create a delicious salad for everyone to have Sunday night. With a bit of help from the Mr they both cut their own peppers off!

The girls have cut off their peppers & are making a delicious salad for everyone with them tonight 😍

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Preparing The Peppers

We explained to the girls they needed to wash their peppers before they could eat them. They were more than happy to get their hands wet and give them a good wash.

Peppers

Peppers

Once the peppers were washed and dried it was time to cut them up for our salad. We were surprised to find another pepper had tried growing inside Eva’s red one! 

The Delicious Salad!

 

The peppers were absolutely lovely & we all enjoyed them. I could quite happily eat it all over again!

Have you grown & eaten your own fruit & veg?