Grubby kids a thing of the past

 Is bath time a wash out for you ? 

Do your kids hide when they hear the taps running? 

Are you bubbling over with frustration at bath time ?

bath times will no longer go down the drain of disaster  

this super duper Kid catcher and washer will clean up on the dreaded bath time routine

That's right folk those clever people from Lakeland have in stock for only £11.99 the answer to your clean kid dreams 

 Simply catch your child in the tall and flexible basket and with a dunk and a splosh smelly kid is gone.  The tall and flexible basket even comes with wash holes so you can turn the shower on and get at all those dirty bits.

Have 2 children NO PROBLEM the tall and flexible basket will fit them both with ease making it a one wash stop shop.  Get your basket today and eradicate dirty kids everywhere!!!

Disclaimer:  Lakeland did not give me this basket, i purchased this myself no money exchanged hands 

Wot no Comments

So as a new blogger your told to get traffic give traffic !!! go post nice comments on others blogs and they will because they have good etiquette come back and post a nice comment on your blog.  I have been blogging for 4 years now and have been religiously doing this reading, commenting and very often getting no comments back in return.  Also i noticed that the more well standing a blogger is i:e up the food chain of bloggers the less comments they give. What does their shit not stink anymore have they forgotten where they come from??

As a noobie, I was confused, i was following all the advice from all those self help blog posts, but i was duped these posts were to get hits not give advise!!!

I am old skool and have traditional manners i would spend time every week visiting blogs reading and commenting often i would visit a blog 4-5 time leaving tuns of comments before giving up on that person who had obviously not understood the manners of blogging as they had not bothered to reciprocate the love of comments back to me.  If a person came to comment on my blog i would often go back and write 1 - 3 comments on their blog perhaps going above and beyond what was expected, why, because i am nice like that i am good at commenting and a friendly blogger and i wanted to make friends.

Over the 4 years i can honestly say most of these "friends" would only be there if prompted by me with a visit to their blog and a few comments apart from one lady who has been there off and on through the four years and will pop a comment on from time to time and leave a comment .

2 years later, linkies started up a new and exciting way to come together, as many other bloggers were grumbling from the lack of comments and it all started out well and good.  If you place a link your expected to comment on others links, great that seems fair!  which did happen in the start great little communities sharing the same interested sprung up on cooking, gardening etc    Now these linkies are just a waste of time, most often it will be just the host that pops by with a comment saying how nice your thing is and thank you for visiting their >>>insert advertising to their blog here.  There are some linkies that have been going some time, so get about 30 hits for that link, so for me i would visit all 30 leave comments and you would imagine if you followed the rules that 30 people would come back to you and leave you a nice comment...... erm NO most of the time 5-7 ......great i am now more confused than ever, what am i doing wrong, i followed the rules, why is it failing?

Blogger also started taking the piss, they wont comment on your blog unless you comment on theirs ( how bloody selfish...oh lilly lilly dont be so mean share some love) so how the heck is all this commenting supposed to kick off with a crappy attitude like that.  There are also the ninjas as i like to call them, people who just plain wont comment on anyone's post but still join the linkies, seriously i am shaking my head right now.... don't blog if you cant dish out some comments.

So fast forward now to today and this has been changing slowly for the last 6 mths more people have mobile devices so will read a post but wont comment.   Also bloggers have found loop holes (see why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100, britmums, netmums and klout  )

So now these clans are popping up all over where you can get loads of comment on your post, as long as you comment on everyone's else posts in that link day and you really can put any old shit up on your blog and you will get comments.  They don't even have to be good comments as long as the person gets the hits for the scores on the doors as in the above link.  One day i saw someone just right "COOL POST" on everyone's post ..... lazy, yes. No meaning behind the comment, yes. Did they read your post, prob not.  Was it worth your time, again prob not.  However this person had also cut and pasted this well meaning thought out comment of "COOL POST" on someone who had written about how they had lost their baby and how they were feeling about bereavement.  OUCH!!!

Even now these closed groups are having in moaning about that they comment on people blogs but the Ninja bloggers that i mentioned earlier have become more prolific (ninja bloggers naturally breed more ninja bloggers). So what is the point in joining these closed groups ??? i think bloggers are just grateful for any scrap attention from comments and getting some comments is better than no comments.


NOW If only bloggers did what they said all those years ago with the polite etiquette of sharing the love of comments and traffic!!  i wonder would we be in this predicament now???


Other grumbles 
Why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100, britmums, netmums and klout
Why i wont beg for your vote

Why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100 ,britmums, netmums and klout

Apart from never getting any traffic from these sites over the four years of blogging and scores fluctuating or not being correct, which gives loads of confidence for a blogger as to what systems these people are using to judge us.

Blogging has totally changed, long gone are the days when bloggers scores were a true reflection on how their blogs were performing.  Which is great for SEOs and bloggers who want to work together as an advertising and earning revenue.  Scores opened doors.

These are now being falsified and skewed by bloggers, which is pretty shit.  One way through the etiquette or NOT of comments ( see Wot no comments) is through closed groups on facebook.  There are many clans out there that bloggers can join where they round robin comment each other to create traffic, post hits, comments and even boost klout scores, ( Really !! thats kinda cheating isnt it ??? erm now i know why that tinned tuna and pasta post got 40 hits ).

i can understand the frustrations of bloggers spending time writing, taking photos, joining linkies and getting little or  no action on their blogs, so this being a way to get action. But it feels and is fake and false. So now there are communities faking up the scores which feed into all of the above in my title making blogging a compleatly different animal a wolf in sheeps clothing, not a true representation of what and how a real blog is performing.  So i am now removing them as they mean absolutely nothing.

Other grumbles 
Wot no commnets
Why i wont beg for your votes 

Why i wont beg for your votes

There are so many awards up all the time and so often i see loads of bloggers shamelessly grovelling that their readers vote for them so they can win the bestest blogger ever award and get some self satisfaction that they are achieving all their blogging dreams and feel worthy that all those posts are worth it.

However i find all these awards and back slapping to be not about who is actually writing and presenting a great blog but a popularity contest on how many bloggers can convert readers to votes which seems a total false.

I see a constant flow of dull posts, such as i mixed a can of tune with a tin of tomatoes and plonked it on some pasta or i chucked some sweets on a cake or i bought this from Primark as a post (Seriously!!!), or something as equally hum drum filling up the bloggersphere from bloggers that not only have 40 comments after them (WHAT how did you manage that !!!).  (See wot no comments as to why ) They also are the ones getting all the votes, just because they are constantly verbally vomiting their voices with these above mentioned posts and managed to get readership, have loads of mates or are shaking down the right people at the top.

Seriously these are not ground braking inspiring posts worthy of awards but lazy.  I read many beautiful blog with wonderful writing and gorgeous photography, inspired stories and recipes that just seem left in the ditch, ignored with no one handing out a pixel badge saying how fab they are.  There really are quite a few out there where the writer has taken their time to create something that really looks like it belongs in a magazine.

So why is it that the creators of these pixel awards are not delivering and handing out what they propose on the tin instead of choosing from the pool of the well connect bloggers at the top, most of which you see year in and year out winning.  yer yer they have the new blogger category but most of the time its the same old faces.

Now i am not saying my blog is great, boy it really isn't, just that i wont play the stupid games,  my feelings go to all those that enter that do have nice blogs and don't get picked as they just were not popular enough, or the big boys at the top just wont step aside to let new fresh voices through. This must be very demotivating to bloggers of talent trying to make a go of it.  Perhaps if you win one year you cant enter the next just to give a bit of space for others,  Afterall those at the top stay at the top, they have been their for years, all know each other, all vote for each other, massaging each others egos and lots of back slapping.  which is naturally tipping the scales of voting a askew. They say the work place is like an old boys club, were woman find it hard to break through as the men hold fast their positions of power.  i think us woman are doing the same thing here.  Is it fair?

Other grumbles 
Wot no comments 

Why i am removing Tots100, Foodie100, britmums, netmums and klout

Sophie Grows

We love our gardening and it is something that rubs off on Sophie and she also loves to plant seeds and grow food and is proud as punch that we have tea that she has grown.

This year planting is very limited as we have a big adventure planned this year so she choose simple salads and raddish to grow and we did a bit of recycling buy turning two 5 liter containers into mini veg plots for her to grow in and be in charge of.  Little fingers are great for poking seeds into the soil and having such fast growing plants makes it very easy to be attentive to watering them  

Being a total nature girl she is not afraid to get to grips with the local wildlife as we found the biggest worm ever.

 Even the frogs and toads are starting to make them selves seen and again as soon as Sophie sees them they need to be picked up and inspected

Silverstone head to head race day

 Ali had a race day booked at Silverstone race track which i had bought him for Christmas, it was a head to head experience where he got to drive and Aston Martin V8 Vantage his favourite against a Ferrari F430 coupe.  He really enjoyed the day which i was happy about and now he wants an Aston Martin for real !!! It was great spectating the day as not only did i get to watch him wizzing about there were lots of other cool cars revving their engines which would make any petrol head satisfied.

Lamb Shawarma

I love lamb especially with a good pile of salad and great garlic roast salad potatoes on the side, even though the ingredient list looks a faff it really is not and the flavour has great impact with lamb.

Ingredients
2 tsp black peppercorns
5 cloves
1/2 tsp cardamom pods
1 tsp fennel seeds
1 tbsp cumin seeds
1 star anise
1/2 cinnamom stick
1/2 a nutmeg grated
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tbsp smoked paprika
1 tbsp sumac
3/4 tbsp maldon salt
25g fresh ginger
3 garlic cloves
40g fresh coriander
60ml fresh lemon juice
120ml ground nut oil
1 leg of lamb

• Pre heat the oven to 170c
• put the first 8 ingredients in a pan and roast off for 2 mins until the spices pop
• add the nutmeg, ginger and paprika and toss for a few seconds
• transfer all the above roasted spices to a grinder and grind to a powder
• add the powder to a bowl and add all the remaining ingredients except the lamb
• score the lamb and rub the spices all over 
• cook in the oven for 30 mins then add one cup of water over the meat 
• cook for a further 4 hours basting the meat every hour add more water if needed cover for the last 3 hours of cooking so the spices do not burn
• rest for 10 mins before carving

3 Great Natural Cleaning Products

Warning this post contains grot and grim that will turn your stomach, the gross yukness of this post has been allowed to build up for the purposes of this post and not because i have been drinking to many gin cocktails and haven't been bothered to clean.

I really am loving NOT buying those expensive cleaning products and mixing up batches of my home made cheaper and frankly far better than the overpriced and branded products in the shops, i know whats in mine which are more natural, non toxic and what they can do and having 3 THINGS that can pretty much clean my house is GREAT!!  I have been cleaning with these now for almost a year and really haven't looked back.

my 3 favorite cleaning products are

Citric Acid great at limescale removal with out scrubbing, softens water, removes rust ( they use this on old ships and planes they life from the sea they want to preserve for history) even removes wax and grease without scrubbing.  Safe product used in cosmetic and food.

White Vinegar Anti bacterial, kills mould, removes odors, stains, removes soap scum, removes grease, shines floors, cleans windows great all round cleaner non toxin

Barcarbonate of soda Freshens and removes odors,  Cleans silver, removes scuff marks, de greases, great in laundry, softens burnt on food, removes mould, drain cleaner, carpet cleaner,  non toxic 

Let me show you how quick and easy these are to use all of which can be bought off the internet easily, the below i used my spray gun with 100% vinegar and 2-3 spoons of citric acid as they were hard core jobs, i have a second bottle which is a 50/50 mix of water and vinegar and this is great as an all purpose cleaner.

I have left my kitchen tap for two weeks for limescale and grot to build up, i mixed up in a spray bottle white vinegar and a couple of spoons of citric acid gave it a shake before spraying.  Sprayed over my tap and left it for 30 seconds ( slurp of tea) and wiped it over with a cloth no scrubbing and WOW shiny Tap.

I didn't notice this until i posted the pictures but where the spray went on the wood by accident it killed off the black mould !!!  i think i will go back and get the rest.

Dishwasher grim down the side of the doors and hinges are a bugger to clean, sorry the first grot picture might be hard to see due to my flash going off but trust me grim is lurking there.  In a cup i mixed up white vinegar, a spoon of citric acid and enough Bic soda to make a fizzing paste.  The reason for making a paste is the dishwasher needed a deeper clean and just spraying vinegar and citric would run off using the bic soda makes the product stick to the upright parts and also add OXYGEN power cleaning which seems to be the latest craze that companies want to charge you extra for, those little bubble really do get under and lift of the dirt.

Ok the dreaded LOO we have a second loo and i have deliberately left this for 2 months before cleaning HOW GROSS but i really want to show you how amazing this is, there is a reason people throw cheap cola down there loos, citric acid power!!!

i mixed 1 liter of white vinegar with 4-5 tbsps of citric acid, i also added lemon verbena fragrance oil to make a lovely fresh smell around the loo, i keep this in a spray gun and go round once a down and put a few squirts around the loo to get rid of limescale, stains and germs.  For a dirty loo like below i  threw a mixture some of mixture down and left  for 6 hours and Bling Bling, and this is before i have even scrubbed it, not that i will need to scrubbed my loo now.

Sophie Temple

So this is a virgin cocktail just for Sophie it is the Shirley temple just renamed !!

1/4 shot of Grenadine

1/2 shot of lemon juice

topped up with Ginger ale 

Courgette and hazelnut salad

Yummy i do love courgettes and this is a really tasty side salad and simple to do.

Ingredients

50g Hazelnuts

3 large courgettes or several small ones

4 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp balsamic

30g or 1 pack of fresh basil

80g parmesan thinly sliced

salt and pepper to taste

• Roast off the hazel nuts in the over at 150c for 12 mins and allow to cool then chop up roughly
• Cut the courgette on the angle at 1 cm chunks 
• Toss the courgette in a mixture of oil and salt and pepper and add to a very hot griddle 2 mins each side once cooked put in a bowl and add the balsamic toss and allow to cool
• Once cooled add the olive oil from first tossing before cooking, parmasan, basil and hazlenuts      

Edible paint for babies

I do love crafting with my girls and it seems to be on hold atm due to one thing or another in life getting in the way and also with Ella being so small has ruled out playing with tiny sequins, globby glue and real paints.  I was really itching to introduce my littlest lady to being creative so now she is of a decent size to enjoy it we made some edible paints just incase little fingers went into the mouth while we played, however i didnt need to worry about that as she must have my creative gene and had loads of fun finger painting she didnt want to put it in her dribbly chops

So how do you make edible paint, OH so easy mix up some flour and water to a nice moveable gloopy consistency and separate little blobs of gloop and with a toothpick add Wilton food gels as they are bright, strong and have excellent colours ( i think i need to contact Wilton the amount of exposure i give them on my blog)

The consistency is brill and hold on the finger to make marks and also sits great on paper and the colours stay good and strong when spread about.  Here is my little Picasso's first work of art now proundly on my art wall, good job Ella !

Ducks & Ducklings, Geese and Goslings

We just love getting out and about and today we took a walk around the lake to feed the ducks and it was very busy not with people but ducks ducklings geese and goslings.  Frisky mallards waiting on female ducks,  broody mummies sitting on nests, ducklings taking their first plunges into water it was a wonderful time to be out seeing all the water fowl.

Check out these handsome black and white geese, i dont know what they are called but they are very striking. Below a family of Canadian geese taking their new gosling for a walk.

Mummy Duck and her many ducklings i have trouble keeping my two under control imagine having 8 babies !!

We saw these grey geese with orange bills again very lovely looking and i dont know what they are called

As we walked around the lake the lovely fresh air and gentle movement of the pushchair rocked Ella off to sleep and as we came across a path the ducks refused to move