Fallen Brewing For Father’s Day

Ales and Craft Beers / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Father’s day & the Mr’s birthday are coming up so I’ve been hunting out some gift’s like these awesome beers from Fallen Brewing! He really enjoys his craft beers & ales and loves a chance to try something new. This is a great gift for any craft beer/ale loving dad this father’s day and would go well with a nice home cooked meal too!

Fallen Brewing

Fallen Brewing

 

Fallen Brewing have some big flavoured craft Ales, a range made using only pure, soft Scottish mountain water and the best hops and malts from around the world.

For Father’s Day summer session drinking the refreshing blond New World Odyssey 4.1% (£2.90 hippobeers.co.uk) is Ideal. For a dad with a sweet tooth the limited edition Big Raspberry Dog Chew 10% ABV (hippobeers.co.uk)  made with Salted Caramel and Raspberry Milk Stout and tastes like an alcoholic Ruffle bar.

Blackhouse and New World Odyssey

Fallen Beers include:

  • New World Odyssey 4.1% ABV Blonde,
  • Local Motive 3.9% ABV, Session IPA,
  • Dragonfly  4.6% ABV, American Amber,
  • Blackhouse 5% ABV, Smoked Porter,
  • Grapevine  5.4% ABV,
  • Chew Chew 6% ABV, Salted Caramel Milk Stout
  • Platform C 6.3% ABV, India Pale Ale.

Dragonfly

The Mr really enjoyed getting a chance to try beers from Fallen Brewing as he hadn’t heard of them before. Trying the beers gave me a bit more knowledge about the different types & flavours too. With such a great selection of beers from fallen brewing there is definitely something for everyone’s tastes.

Just the ticket

Where are Fallen Brewing based?

Established in 2014, Fallen Brewing is situated in the old Kippen Railway Station with views towards The Trossachs and The South West Highlands. Fallen brew modern interpretations of classic styles with an emphasis on bold flavours and new world hops.

Where can I Buy Fallen Brewing beers?

Fallen beers are available all over the UK online from www.hippobeers.co.uk and in Scotland from Oddbins, Waitrose and M&S as well as independent shops including The Woodhouse Farm Shop, Cork and Cask, Cornelius and Beer Hive in Edinburgh and Hippo Beers, Good Spirit Company and Valhalla’s Goat in Glasgow.

Would your dad or other half love trying these for father’s day?

Luxury Flowers From Prestige Flowers

Product Reviews / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I Received a beautiful bouquet of Luxury flowers to review from Prestige Flowers. I was sent flowers from their Luxury range. The flowers arrived in a lovely sturdy box with a pretty flowery design on the box.

Just had a special delivery from @prestigeflowersuk 🙊 Looking forward to writing up my review! 😍💐

A post shared by Ember (@relentlesslypurple) on


The flowers had been carefully placed in the box along with a card. Removing the flowers from the box I discovered a lovely box of Truffles along with a vase for the flowers & a flower care guide along with some feed.

Luxury flowers like these currently start at £19.99 for a standard bouquet. For a medium sized bouquet it’s just £5 extra or £10 extra for a large bouquet. You can add on extra’s such as vases, truffles,  balloons, teddy bears, wine, chocolates & even cake! I was quite impressed at the free add on’s & the price of the Extra’s too.

Luxury Flowers

 

Prestige flowers provide stunning flowers for a reasonable price & there is something for everyone. With so many options including a huge selection of flowers & colour schemes to choose from as well as gifts & hampers, you are bound to find something beautiful for someone special.

Luxury Flowers - Prestige Flowers

 

Prestige Flowers cater for all occasions including Birthdays, Mother’s day, Sympathy/Funeral, Thank you, Get well & more all with suitable gifts to match. Delivery options include Next day (7 days a week), Saturday, Premium Sunday & UK same day deliveries ranging from £5.80 – £7.99.

I’m not usually one for ordering flowers in all honesty but I will definitely be using Prestige Flowers in future. I know a few people who would love to receive flowers like these on a special occasion.

Do you buy luxury flowers for anyone? What do you think of Prestige Flowers?

 

 

 

Inspire Enterprising Behaviour With Clever Tykes

Book Reviews / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Clever Tykes are helping inspire enterprising behaviour in pupils/children along with positivity and resourcefulness with their storybooks. They also have the worlds first enterprise education portal too! Supported by the Lloyds Banking Group Clever Tykes were able to send us 3 of their storybooks to help spread the word about these amazing resources.

Enterprising behaviour with clever tykes

At Clever Tykes, we’re passionate about instilling enterprising behaviour and the associated skills in children. We know that enterprise education has a key role to play in helping children adopt a positive mindset and attitude towards work and their future.

So what is enterprise education?

Enterprise education isn’t just about the skills needed to be enterprising but also the behaviour, attitude & mind set needed.  The 3 storybooks created by Ben & Jodie Cook help children develop a fundamental outlook on life & a can do attitude. Enterprising education enhances positivity, resourcefulness, independence, resilience & endeavour.

Enterprising Behaviour

It is much easier to instil these traits in younger children so introducing enterprising education during primary years is ideal. Whilst it doesn’t necessarily need to be a subject on it’s own Enterprising education can be integrated into PSHE lessons & more. A lot of children lack a positive role model to teach them new skills & ways of thinking.

Clever tykes aim to educate and inspire children to be high-achieving and empower children.

Our Thoughts

Eva read the Clever Tykes Change It Cho book first and quickly flew through it with plenty of smiles! Once she had read it I asked Eva what she thought. She really enjoyed the book and reading how Cho decides to change how much junk food kids eat. Cho starts raising awareness but faces several challenges along the way. Eva said her favourite part in the book is when Cho stands up in assembly in front of other children to tell them about healthy eating.

clever tykes change it cho

Personally I think these books are fantastic. Eva’s attitude has changed since reading the book. She has started putting a lot more effort into everything. Challenges no longer end in tears since Eva read the Clever Tykes books. Eva is stopping to think of ways she can solve problems rather than getting upset & feeling defeated. Definitely a sign the books have helped instil positive enterprising behaviour.

Resources for Teachers

Clever Tykes have the worlds first enterprise education portal which contains plenty of resources for teachers. Over 100 pages of teachers materials and lesson plans can be accessed via the portal. UK schools can use portal.clevertykes.com to create their account. There are a range of ways in which enterprise education can be integrated into PSHE lessons and other areas if the curriculum.

Ben & Jodie believe enterprise education shouldn’t be a mandatory part of the curriculum. They do however feel it can be incorporated in other lessons to encourage enterprising behaviour in children.

Overall I think Clever Tykes books & resources are amazing and brilliant way to improve enterprising behaviour. 

My Sunday Photo – Beer Garden

My Sunday Photos / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This week’s #MySundayPhoto was taken in one of our local beer gardens. This particular beer garden (The White Hart in Grays) has some absolutely beautiful flowers dotted around. This shot is definitely on of my favourites, what do you think?

The White Hart Beer Garden


Beer Garden Flowers

Beer Garden Flowers

The girls loved the gorgeous red roses at the back of the beer garden, they are their favourites. The girls really enjoyed wandering around looking at the different flowers & deciding their favourites! It’s always lovely to sit in the sunshine surrounded my stunning flowers like these.

Beer garden - roses

Izzy enjoys looking at flowers but it’s gnomes that really catch her eye. Gnomes seriously amuse Izzy, she loves talking to this gnome as well as the ones on the way to Eva’s school. There must be something about gnomes that attracts children’s attention!
Beer Garden - Gnome

Do you have any lovely beer gardens near you?

 

Photalife

Animalcolm Book Review

Book Reviews / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We were sent a copy of the Animalcolm book to review written by Daniel Baddiel, Award winning author of ‘The Parent Agency’ and ‘The Person Controller’. Animalcolm is aimed at 8-11 year olds.

Animalcolm Book

Animalcolm Book Review

Eva loved the design on the front cover and spent the entire afternoon reading Animalcolm on the sofa! Although she only just turned 7 she found the book easy to read and really loved the illustrations throughout the book.

Unlike his family Malcolm hates animals do when he gets a chinchilla for his birthday which he is really not happy! To make things worse his year 6 school trip turns out to be a trip to a FARM. More animals..

At the farm Malcolm comes across a wise goat who grants wishes. He quickly changes in many ways, thinking differently, speaking differently, eating differently & smelling differently too! He learns what it’s really like to be an animal but will he ever be the same again!?

Animalcolm is David Baddiels third children’s novel and I would definitely recommend it as it seems a great read. Eva was completely captivated by Animalcolm and has already hidden it away in her room along with her favourites! I can see why Baddiels children’s books are winning awards.

Although Eva loves to read she tends to find a lot of books quite boring so I was pleased to see her totally absorbed in this book, and enjoyed the silence of course! We haven’t written a post on ‘Our favourite books this week’ recently for this very reason. It was lovely to see her enjoying Animalcolm and she couldn’t wait to tell me about it after. I think I will be ordering David Baddiels other books for her too.

 

Have you read Animalcolm or either of the other two books he has written?

My Sunday Photo – Along The Sea Wall 

My Sunday Photos / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This weeks #MySundayPhoto was taken during a walk along the sea wall. Having this on your doorstep when the weather turns nice is always a bonus! I’m a little obsessed with taking pictures of the river & boats when we walk along the sea wall. I definitely need to work on my photography skills but thought this shot didn’t turn out too bad!

Along the sea wall

Photalife

10 Blogging Tips To Stay Motivated

Blogging / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
10 blogging tips to stay motivated

I’ve put together 10 blogging tips to stay motivated. We all get a little stuck at times and it can be so hard to keep yourself motivated. Remember everything you need to do on the blog can be stressful. With products to review, personal posts, keeping up with social media plus the real world getting in the way it’s easy to lose track.

I am always complaining that I am slacking so I decided to try and keep myself motivated and last week it most definitely worked, I managed to post on 6 out of 7 days! 6!!! I usually struggle to get 3 done! So what changed? How did I manage it?

10 blogging tips to stay motivated

  1. Post it notes – Yes, that’s right those simple little pads of paper you can stick anywhere & everywhere! I have always loved post it notes and I have a few that have lines on for lists. I’ve been using these to note down all my account links, special days coming up (WMHAW17 etc.) as well as my weekly stats for each platform.

    Post it notes

  2. Weekly Planners – It can be difficult to remember which products you’ve agreed to schedule for which days and trawling through emails can take hours. To save time & keep me on track I use these awesome weekly planners, which you can pick up in most pound shops, to jot down which posts need editing, scheduling, pictures uploaded & of course sharing across social media. This in itself has kept me on top much more than before!
    weekly planner
  3. Notebooks – I love stationary, purple pens & notebooks make me way happier than they probably should but having a few notebooks handy has helped me jot down some ideas to go back to later. The Mr bought me a few different sized purple ones so now I have them EVERYWHERE!
  4. Set goals – We all set goals but how many of us keep to them or actively work towards them? Jotting down my stats each week lets me see which platforms I need to spend time on. I generally go up in 10’s, 50’s, 100’s then 1k for each goal. Seeing the difference each week helps me work out what I need to do more or less of on the blog & social media.
  5. Read other blogs – When I find myself stuck for something to write I often head to Stumble upon. I spend an hour or so flicking through a billion posts. Although it doesn’t always happen it usually gives me an idea of something to write about. Even finding new crochet stitches can be useful as I can write about them as I learn them.
  6. Take a break, Go for a walk – Ever sit at your desk and feel like your head is going to explode & you just can’t think? Take a break & do something else, maybe go for a walk. Sometimes we waste too much time stressing about what we need to do. Stepping away gives you a chance to think without feeling pressured to do so. Sometimes just going for a walk can give you ideas. Take your phone/camera too as you never know what you will come across.
  7. Chat to other bloggers – Sometimes running ideas past another blogger can be so helpful! General chats can lead to ideas for posts. Tracey from Hooks & Dragons recently struggled to remember which WordPress plugins she needed to use after buying her domain. I realised it’s something I had no clue about when I began. Sharing My Top 10 WordPress Plugins I helped Tracey & other bloggers find useful plugins they didn’t know about.
  8. Chat to friends & family – Whilst they might not know about or understand blogging sometimes the best ideas can come from those around you. A lot of my ideas come from talking to the Mr, the girls, my brother & friends like Mike (Slim to me) from Keep it Mike who I introduced to blogging before he went off on his travels last year.
  9. Clean workspace – Having a clean workspace can make the world of difference! If your desk is cluttered your mind probably feel’s that way too. If you can’t find paperwork or samples you need because they are buried it can get pretty stressful. I keep clearing my desk as I find if it’s cluttered I tend not to sit & do much at all. If it’s clear I enjoy sitting at my desk & get so much more done.. even with my granny squares taking up some space haha!

    clean workspace

  10. Use time saving apps – IFTTT is an absolutely amazing app Martyn from Inside Martyn’s thoughts passed on to me. It allows you to link social media accounts. Say I share a picture via Instagram, I have it linked so that it then shares to my Facebook & twitter too. I use Buffer too to schedule tweets/posts across the day. This frees up time leaving me free to write or chat with others on social media.

What do you think of my 10 blogging tips? Do you have any tips for keeping motivated?

My Sunday Photo – Purple Angel Flowers

My Sunday Photos / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

This week for #mysundayphoto I’m sharing 3 of my favourite shot’s of these purple angel flowers the Mr has taken this week. I took a similar photo which I shared on my Instagram & people pointed out how it looked like a purple angel! I love these different shot’s of the stunning ‘purple angels’ and how they seem to bleed into the white, some with small splashes of purple around the edges too.

Purple Angel flowers.. aren’t they pretty!?

#mysundayphoto

 

Purple angel flowers

 

purple and white flowers

I want an entire garden full of these when we finally escape the hell that is living in a high rise! They are so pretty & interesting to look at too.

Do you think they look like purple angels or something else?

 

Photalife

Living In A High Rise With Anxiety & Chronic Pain

Physical and Mental Health / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple
Living in a high rise with chronic pain & anxiety

Living in a high rise can be hell for me! My regular readers will know quite a bit about my anxiety & chronic pain and those that read my #worldmentalhealthawarenessweek post will know a fair bit more about my mental health. Living in a high rise flat makes all of this much more difficult. When I’m having a bad day it isn’t a case of just opening the door & stepping out into the sunshine. Being 11 floors up makes it feel like a full blown mission just to get out of the building. Sometimes it leaves me feeling so trapped I lock myself away for days at a time just to avoid the going out & coming in the block.

I definitely spend more time worrying about going out now than I did when we were in a house. Living in a high rise means you WILL bump into people on your way in and out which stresses me out, especially on bad days. I’m not a people person, I can’t do small talk, I feel awkward and panic about how I look & sound. Knowing I live in a block with some extremely violent neighbours including the guy above us (who attacked the Mr back in March) can make me panic.

The worst part about living with anxiety & chronic pain on the 11th floor is when there are issues with the lifts. If they go out of service I am either stuck upstairs or downstairs or have to push myself through the pain which generally leaves me struggling for DAYS! Our lifts go out of service quite regularly even though they were ‘replaced’ last year.

On Wednesday, after over 12 hours of hearing one lift screeching up and down and people screaming, banging and ringing the bell getting stuck in the other lift the Mr got stuck for 10 minutes. Eventually he got up to the 14th floor & the doors opened, the Mr instantly called the council to try and get them fixed.

I tried to go out an hour or 2 later and found the lifts just wouldn’t open at all so I had to brave going down the stairs with Izzy. Going down isn’t so bad but with a 2 year old sliding down the concrete steps for 11 floors my back was agony by the time we got downstairs. Relieved to have at least got out we wandered off to town and the lifts seemed to be working when we got back.

We ended up stuck for 5 minutes but we were luckily let out again at the 14th floor and the Mr ran up to meet us and help Izzy as she was a little panicked. Fuming the lifts were still in service and trapping people the Mr went off to hunt down the caretakers to try and get the issue resolved. My anxiety was quite bad at this point and I kept going very dizzy. Trying to remember my calm breathing from CBT I slowly managed to calm myself down.

I’d agreed to do the afternoon school run as the Mr needed to wash his jeans (he’s a nightmare and ruins them instantly) so I started worrying about that too. We left quite early so Izzy could try walking to the school & back for the first time, roughly a mile each way. It’s a good job we did as the lifts were still not working. Again we had to go downstairs & I was dreading coming back.

After a lovely walk to the school & back we stopped a caretaker on our way home to check what was going on. He rang through to the council for me and told me the engineers had fixed it in the time we had been gone. When we got to our block though 2 other caretakers were stood at the bottom with a lift open but dropped a good few inches. They told us it should be fine but there may be a step.

Panicking I asked if they were sure & even joked if we got stuck I’d blame them. The lift stated to move ok, no noises until we got to around the 7th floor where the lift stated banging and jumping/dropping. We had another lady and her teenage son in the lift with us & we were all trying our best not to freak out, especially as I had both girls with me. With the lift doors refusing to open and the lift dropping along with ‘Doors opening, door’s closing’ repeating over and over I had to seriously work on controlling my breathing.

The girls were getting quite upset at this point so I tried to calm them down by giving them juice as the lift was getting extremely warm. Suddenly we heard the Mr’s voice asking if we were ok and what was going on. I managed to shakily shout back that we were ok and explain what was going on. We didn’t realise at this point but the 2 caretakers had come up in the lift beside us and had got stuck too. They managed to get out & the Mr asked them to call the fire brigade which they apparently aren’t allowed to do if people are stuck in the lifts!?

The Mr rung the fire brigade instead, he’s not one to hang around when something needs doing & explained there were young children in the lift and people with anxiety. I was sat with the girls at the back of the lift, both of them crying because they were scared. I honestly just wanted to scream myself but I knew I had to keep calm for the girls so I kept them talking instead. ‘That’s daddy, he’s the other side of the doors, it’s ok. You know daddy will fix it, daddy fixes everything’ I told them. Izzy bless her said ‘Just like he always fixes things’. That seemed to calm them down slightly.

Whilst waiting for the fire brigade the Mr kept trying to call the lift to different floors to see if the doors would open at some point. Each time it got stuck I told the other people to ring the alarm so they knew the lift had stopped again. We went up to the 14th but nothing happened, we went back down floor by floor with the lift still jumping & banging as it went. The doors finally opened when we reached the 7th floor with the lift dropped down a good few inches and we all got out as quickly as we could.

As soon as we were out we headed for the stairwell & made our way back up to our floor. I was visibly struggling & the caretaker suggested I stop & sit down but I explained I have chronic pain as well as anxiety so needed to keep going before my legs gave in. Living on the 11th floor of a high rise is not fun! I needed to get us all indoors so I could calm down as the pain was making me shake & struggle to breath along with my heart & head racing like mad. The Mr came looking for us and met us at the 9th floor & took over helping the girls up which was a huge relief.

We got through the door & all collapsed on the sofa, except the Mr. The fire brigade had arrived a minute after the doors opened so the Mr ran down to let the firefighters know what had happened. They agreed the lifts needed turning off until an engineer had been out again like the Mr had been asking the caretakers to do all day. Finally they were shut down & it seems an engineer came out in the early evening as one lift now works but the other is out of service.

I’m extremely nervous about going out again now, more so than before. Living in a high rise is so damn stressful for such a range of reasons. I can’t deal with the pain throughout my body after so many flights of stairs in one day as well as walking. I’ve taken all the meds I can safely take and it’s barely even taken the edge off.  The girl’s are still a bit shaken up & Eva was so worried leaving for school this morning too. I hate living in a high rise with chronic pain & anxiety, things like this just add to it and make me panic and worry more.

The most terrifying part was finding out the alarm isn’t connected to ANYTHING. It simply rings & your best hope is someone will hear it and try to call the lift to get it working again. How can I calmly step into the lift knowing if I get stuck it could be ages before someone hears? We were lucky the caretakers had known & the Mr had been watching for us to come in the block knowing the lifts were playing up & then kept an eye on them. My head keeps going over the what ifs even though I am trying to block them out. We got out safely, we are fine… But what if it happens again?

Do you live in a high rise? Do you struggle with it too?

 

 

 

Rainbow Rabbit Puzzle Review

Product Reviews / 9 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I received an adorable Hape’s George Luck’s Rainbow Rabbit Puzzle, suitable for 3+ from Debenhams to review with Izzy. Wooden toys are always a favourite for us, the quality can’t be beaten! This colourful wooden puzzle is made using eco-friendly water based paints too.

Rainbow Rabbit Puzzle

Rainbow Rabbit Puzzle

I showed Izzy the puzzle and she excitedly took it from me and tipped the pieces onto the floor. Looking at the picture on the back of the box Izzy quickly pieced the puzzle back together again. We have a few wooden puzzles but the rainbow rabbit puzzle is different as the pieces fit together instead of separately.

This gorgeous 7 piece wooden puzzle makes up an adorable rainbow mama rabbit and baby rabbit. The design is so cute even Izzy aww’d when it was complete again. The rainbow rabbit puzzle kept Izzy busy for quite some time. After a day or so the box was no longer needed as Izzy had remembered where the pieces go.
Izzy playing with Hape's George Luck rainbow rabbit puzzle

 

Wooden puzzles are one of Izzy’s favourite thing’s to play with. Puzzles help toddlers with hand-eye coordination and problem solving skills, two important factors in child development. You can also use the puzzle to help teach your toddler their colours & count to 7 as they piece the puzzle together.

This puzzle is great fun for any toddler and would make a brilliant gift or addition to the toy collection. Izzy keeps going back to play with the puzzle and I’m sure it will stay a favourite for quite some time.

Do you love wooden puzzles too? What do you think of the Rainbow Rabbit puzzle? Would your little one love it too?

 

 

 

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