Magic wand scratch art craft Baker Ross Review

Harry Potter would be jealous of this collection of magic wands. These scratch art wands are from Baker Ross and a pack of 12 are £2.99.  As you can see from the kit there are 6 stars and 6 hearts and 12 plastic scratch pens as well as 12 multi coloured ribbons.  The wands are simple to do and would make a great activity for a play date where little ones can use the scratch pens to remove the black wax to reveal the rainbow of colours below creating their own designs on the wands.  Sophie had good fun as did mummy as i couldn't resist to help out and after attaching the ribbons we think they are really pretty.

*Disclaimer we were  sent this product  for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are 100% honest and my own

Alex update

Brilliant news Fund raising for Alex has now reached £255,000 in 7 days what an amazing achievement.  Flights are now booked for Alex to fly to Boston on Monday and his life saving treatment can start on Tuesday, Alex and his family will be in Boston for 8 weeks depending on how the treatment goes for his rare brain tumour.

As of today the funding is at £307,000 which is great as the £255,000 is just for the surgery only and Alex will still need support afterward to help him to full recovery.

Here is some more information about Alexander and his treatment 

http://www.alexandersfund.net/#!alexanders-story/chvk

This is his fund raising page 

https://www.justgiving.com/treatmentforalex/ 

Here is his facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/AlexandersFundraisingPage?ref=hl

Dolly face painting

Sophie and i have been larking about with the face paint again.

Raising funds for Alex with a wear a hat mufti day

Well its Wednesday and the people of Aylesbury will mostly be wearing hats today all in the aid of raising funds for Alex.  Click the link to find out more.  Here is Sophie all dressed up in her feather crown and fairy make up ready to support the day as most schools in Aylesbury will be doing today.

With only10 days to raise funds to help save Alex's life and be able to send him to Boston for the proton surgery, since Friday the funds which were £40k the town has come together and has now raised £238k now that is amazing community spirit and generosity. Still more needs to be raised as the £255k is just for the surgery and funding will continue until Alex has fully recovered

Everyone has been working so hard coming up with lots of clever ideas to fund raise and working tirelessly collecting money and spreading the word about Alex so many people have been doing lots of ideas like exercise classes, shaking buckets, quizzes, bake sales, packing bags at super markets, tombolas and This weekend see a night for Alex with a hog roast, entertainment and a raffle, here is hamper i have put together for a prize.  There has been lots of press and Alex has even appeared on the BBC in the hopes to raise funding.

Here is some more information about Alexander and his treatment 

http://www.alexandersfund.net/#!alexanders-story/chvk

This is his fund raising page 

https://www.justgiving.com/treatmentforalex/ 

Here is his facebook page

https://www.facebook.com/AlexandersFundraisingPage?ref=hl

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Cake pop people

Sophie and I were busy this weekend in the kitchen as Sophie wanted to make some cake pops as people which is all well and good until you come to the hair that is, so we came up with the ingenious idea of using candy floss which stuck really well to the drying chocolate coating.  I wouldn't recommend doing these if you want to keep the cake pops for hours as the floss doesn't last and can squash easily, so this is probably better for cake pop parties where the kids get to much the pops straight away.

I not sure if i like or am scared by these ghoulish faces as they are a bit clown like however Sophie loved them and loved making them and that's all that matters.

Please help raise life saving funding for Alexander

There is a little boy that goes to Sophie's school that has been given the devastating news that he has stage 4 brain tumour, Diagnosed with medulloblastoma, a type of malignant brain tumour and life limiting condition, the tumour has broken up and traveled down his spine.  The outlook is bleak and the plan was to start aggressive chemotherapeutic approach followed by radiotherapy and then move to chemotherapy as well as stem cell harvest.

Dinosaur shapes, pens and pencils Baker Ross Review

School Holidays can seem never ending, so to stop the little monkey goggle boxing here is a great fun activity  from Baker Ross where creative minds can go wild and re invent what the dinosaurs looked liked. These brand new cut out dinosaur shapes are £1.99 for a pack of 10 so call up your friends and have a rip roaring dino party.

10 hour cooked chili

Gosh i haven't done a recipe in a while in fact i haven't done much cooking as this pregnancy is making me so poorly.  However i made a 10 hour chili which is a great dish to cook at breakfast and leave cooking all day long and eat at dinner time.  I find that cooking this dish long and slow gives the dish real depth in flavour.  I tend to cook this dish on about 100 for half the day then knock it down to 50 for the rest of the day, make sure the dish is covered so it does not dry out and give it stirs through the day as you walk past your cooker.

I don't use mince meat but use lumps of beef, as this is cooked long and slow stewing beef which is a cheaper cut can be good for this and will hold its shape due to any fat and grainier meat structure. A slightly better cut of beef can also be used but the cooking process really makes the meat tenderise so it could fall apart when eaten which is just as good and delicious.  I also use a bit of pork in my dish to give a difference in texture and flavour.   

Lumps of beef (not mince meat)

2 onions

strips of pork lion 

Tbsp Cumin toasted and ground

1/2 Tbsp Coriander seeds  toasted and ground

1/2 a stick Cinnamon toasted and ground
Chili powder to your taste
Medium strength fresh green chilies about 5
Fresh coriander
Wooster sauce
1/4 tub of Beef stock
3/4 bottle San Miguel large beer
Tin tomatoes
1 tin Kidney beans
1/2 tube tomato puree
1/2 bar of 70% chocolate

• Soften off the onions slowly and remove from the pan
• Cover and coat the beef, pork in flour cornflour salt and pepper and seal off in a large pan this helps to thicken the sauce
• When flour looks like it sealed onto the meat stir the meat and liberally covering in Wooster sauce still stirring let this seal in also
• Coat the meat in the toasted and grounded cumin, coriander and cinnamon meat and finally brown off
• Put the onions back in the pan 
• Add the beer and  beef stock de glaze the base of the pan.  
• Add the dried chili, tomatoes, puree, kidney beans
• Slice up the fresh green chilies add to mix seeds as well
• Add the chocolate
• Cook for min of 5 hours just before serving add chopped fresh coriander and serve with sour cream and rice.

Crafting foam glasses Baker Ross Review

We are styling high fashion in the house today with our friends from Baker Ross and these Fantastically Fun Foam glasses  These are a brand new line ready for all that summer fun and keeping little ones minds creative  over all those bank holidays and summer holidays coming up.  There are a pack of 6 foam glasses of two different shapes and lots of fab bright colours for only £3.60 for the whole pack.  If you have a playdate or a party Baker Ross even do whooping 18 pack of glasses for £10.08, so you can go designer mad and make your very own special style glasses to pout in.

We had loads of fun we are feeling all spring like so made a nature pair with lots of flowers and leaves we found in the garden.  We made a big boat as the round glasses inspired us with two port holes, and we got all Hooty and made some feathery owl glasses to help us see at night not forgetting to keep intouch with our glitzy glamour side with a pair of all sparkle and glitter very sheek and a winner down our cat walk!

*Disclaimer we were  sent this product  for the purpose of this review.  All opinions are 100% honest and my own

Chickenpox

Well we finally have it at last, Chickenpox!!!  We have been to many other children s play dates trying to catch the darn stuff and failed i was beginning to think Sophie was immune.  After spending a weekend at Grannies house we have come back with one extra Easter present.  We are glad they have come now rather than later as the new baby is due in 9 weeks.

They popped up on the Monday just 1 spot and then 5 more on Tuesday and then Wednesday i took her to the Dr's and by Thursday we had a full explosion, luckily none seem to have hit her face as of yet.  Friday and Saturday have been the worse days where they have been at their height of angry itching popping blister spots.

Our top tips for helping soothing the chicken pox.

• Allerief relief from itchiness
• Calpol  great for taking down temperatures
• Calamin lotion with  soothes and cools itching 

 The above 3 are generally prescribed by pharmacies

Here is one tip that we found gave instant relief and took Sophie's mind off the fact she was covered in spots, We made her a luke warm bath, then blended up some oats into a flour consistency and added a very generous amount to the water where she floated and soothed her skin in the milky oat waters.  It was also good fun as the oat particles swelled up with the water and became soft and squishy and were great for making a body mask on the angry spots taking away a lot of the redness.  Not only did the oat bath sooth it made the skin really soft to so a nice treat even if you don't have chickenpox.  The effects of the oat bath seemed to last a good hour after she had it.  Also i am really happy to be a soap maker as my oats, goats milk and honey soap also helped clean her skin gently and helped sooth some of the itching, i can see why i have a lot of people with eczema buying this soap from me.  Now all we need to do is lots of distraction from itching and making sure she doesn't scratch to cause scaring and hopefully they will clear up in 5 days.

Also another great tip we found made life easy for Sophie was hydros ointment massages which can be got from the pharmacy and i gave Sophie a full body gentle massage for 45 min after the oatmeal bath ( after all the blister stage had finished of course ) and this sent her off to sleep for a good 3 hours so no irritation or scratching and if you read a previous blog post about massaging scarring tissue you know that we found that massaging really helps reduce scar tissue, but the hydros ointment was fantastic for soothing the scabby areas making them less itchy and we are sure this also helped with the healing process.

My Question to you 
Now the next part i need some help with is a question to you reader.  Sophie is due to go back to school next Tuesday and she still has a full body of scabs.  I have had to cancel an appointment for a serial doppler at the antinatel this week as in talks with the micro biologist at the hospital they say that Sophie will still be infectious for 2 more weeks which means that a total of 4 weeks Sophie is considered infectious.  How long was it before you took the red cross of your front doors and let your children see the light of day and re join school???