Let’s Grow! With Great Little Trading Company | AD

Tuesday, June 1, 2021 Permalink
Review of Great Little Trading Company's Wooden Garden Toy

Disclosure: We were sent the Wooden Garden Toy by Great Little Trading Company, in exchange for this blog post. All words and opinions are my own. As a family, we love to grow things. We've always grown a few bits here and there, but over the past couple of years our efforts have expanded massively, to a home veg plot, and more recently an allotment too. Gardening is definitely a family affair for us, and I think it's so important for children to discover the joy of nature and of growing. When I saw Great Little Trading Company's newest addition to their role play toy range, I couldn't have been more excited - the wooden Growing Garden toy, perfect for the ...

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Best Children’s Books for Winter

Monday, December 14, 2020 Permalink

Disclosure: This post uses affiliate links marked *. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Noticing the changing seasons is always so exciting for children, and I love to create a winter themed bookshelf, filled with children's books about winter. These are some of our favourites. Snow - Sam Usher I love this series of books which depict the relationship between a young boy and his Grandad, set against the backdrop of the changing seasons. The snow has fallen and the boy is keen to get outside before everyone else. Grandad however, is a little slower to get going, but they still end up enjoying the magic of the snow. I love the slow pace to this, and the sweet and ...

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Reflecting on our first real growing season in the garden

Monday, December 7, 2020 Permalink

Although we've grown edibles in our garden in previous years, this year has felt like the first time that we've really managed to produce a good harvest. We installed two raised beds near the house in early spring, which gave us so much more growing space than we'd had previously, and then one of the benefits of the coronavirus lockdown meant that we had more time than ever to dedicate to nurturing our plants and flowers. We had made a planting plan for this year and we had high hopes for what we wanted to achieve, so as winter and the start of a new gardening year rolls around, I thought it would be useful to reflect on what went ...

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Best Children’s Books for Halloween

Monday, September 28, 2020 Permalink

AD - This post contains affiliate links indicated with an *. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases Halloween seems to become bigger every year, and with it the number of Halloween themed children's books is growing all the time. I love nothing better than creating a themed display for our bookshelf so I look out all of our books which include monsters, witches, pumpkins, skeletons and ghosts to fill our display (but nothing too scary for little ones!). These are some of our favourite children's books for Halloween... Pick a Pumpkin Hot on the heels of the success of Pick a Pine Tree, which we loved last Christmas, comes Pick a Pumpkin. It's a beautifully illustrated tale, which talks ...

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Our Favourite Children’s Books for Autumn

Monday, September 21, 2020 Permalink
An autumn children's bookshelf, including The Squirrels That Squabbled, On A Magical Do Nothing Day, Storm, Sweep, Autumn Story, Autumn, Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn

AD - This post uses Affiliate links marked with an *. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. I love creating a seasonal bookshelf for my children, and autumn is hands down my favourite season for collecting together all of our favourite children's books for autumn. There is so much to love about autumn as a child - kicking up leaves, collecting conkers, picking pumpkins - and I love introducing my children to the magic of it all. Goodbye Summer, Hello Autumn This series of books by Kenard Pak is one of my all time favourites and this one which welcomes autumn is just beautiful. The writing is simple but effectively connects you with nature and encourages your child ...

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What I’m Growing in the Garden This Year

Monday, April 20, 2020 Permalink
A navy blue seed storage tin sits next to a watering can with two seed packets next to it (Beetroot and carrots)

With the house now in a reasonable state following our renovations last year, this year's focus was always going to be the garden. We completed a patio area at the back of the house late last summer and our big plan for this year was to add two large railway sleeper raised beds at the foot of the patio. We have one raised bed right at the far end of our garden, which we've been growing veg in for a couple of years, but I really wanted to have more growing space. We'd cleared the space for the new raised beds over the winter, and luckily had ordered all of the materials we needed just before lockdown hit, so it's ...

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What I Read in March

Thursday, April 16, 2020 Permalink
A pile of 3 books. The Immortalists, The First Time Lauren Pailing Died, and The Heart's Invisible Furies

March was a bit of a funny reading month for me. I started off great guns with The Heart's Invisible Furies, but then the Corona Virus ramped up and I found it really difficult to sit down and focus on reading. So I didn't quite manage my usual number of books, but I definitely had a few great ones in there. The Heart's Invisible Furies - John Boyne This was my Book Club's choice for this month, although sadly we never got to meet up to discuss it as we were on lockdown by that point. And I'm quite sad about that, as I really loved this book and could talk about it for ages! It tells the story, from birth until ...

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What I Read In February

Monday, March 9, 2020 Permalink
What I read in February: A stack of books, featuring Where The Crawdads Sing, Big Sky, Quiet, and The Mandibles

February was a great reading month for me! I feel like I've found my reading groove again, and I got through quite a few books that I've wanted to read for quite a while. Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World that Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain I am very much an introvert, and it's taken me a long time to learn to accept that about myself. I heard about this book a long time ago, and it's been on my to-read list for ages. It sets out just how much the modern world is set up for extroverts and how extroversion is seen as the only way to succeed. I found myself nodding along with so many of the ...

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A Festival of Tulips at Standen House

Monday, February 17, 2020 Permalink
A festival of tulips at Standen House in West Sussex

When I was looking at the best places to see tulips in the UK, I came across Standen House, which puts on a festival of tulips every year. We are big fans of the National Trust, and Standen isn't too far from us, in West Sussex, but for some reason is a place we'd not visited before, so I was keen to head down last year to see the tulips. Standen is an Arts and Crafts house, filled with Morris & Co wallpapers and prints, and really is worth a look round. We arrived a little before the house opened, so we took a stroll around the grounds, finding this beautiful cottage, and then at the back of the house, ...

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Review: The Massage Company, Camberley | AD

Thursday, February 13, 2020 Permalink
Exterior of The Massage Company in Camberley

Disclosure: I was invited by The Massage Company for a massage in exchange for this blog post. When I think of massage, it tends to be something that I think of as a luxury and a bit of a treat. I love a spa day, and the massage is always my favourite part of that, but it's not something that I've ever done as a regular thing, and I suspect many people are the same. But The Massage Company want to change that, and encourage more people to make massage a part of their regular routine. There are so many health benefits to regular massage, including decreased stress levels, improved circulation, reduced muscle tension, reduce anxiety and depression, improved sleep, and increased ...

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