Have you got a Designated Driver?

In the run up to Christmas we’re all busy going on nights out and being social butterflies. For most people a Christmas party is not the same without a mug of mulled wine or a glass or three of prosecco, but when the party is over how will you be getting home? I’m lucky enough to live near great public transport links, so it’s easy for us to just hop on the night bus home, but occasionally we’ll get invited to a do out in the sticks and someone needs to get us there and back safely.

The obvious solution when you need to take your car on a night out is to have a designated driver – someone who is prepared to forgo a festive drink so that their passengers can let their hair down. Co-op Insurance have created a fun Designated Driver Roulette Tool to help those groups of friends who can’t decide between them who will stay sober and and who will get sloshed. It’s important to share the designated driving duties and take turns when possible so the same person doesn’t keep losing the lottery, unless they really want to that is. The designated driver tool also includes a suggested IOU, so you owe the driver a coffee for example, seems a fair deal!

Designated Driver

In a recent survey by The Co-op Insurance, a whopping 744,000 drivers think that they will be over the legal alcohol limit at some point when they drive this festive season. Of the 2,000 drivers questioned, 10% said that they would be having at least one alcoholic drink per night out over Christmas, with nearly a fifth (18%) admitting to thinking that they would be over the legal drink drive limit when they drive home afterwards.

Despite years of widespread anti drink driving campaigning, there are a number of reasons people will choose to drink and drive over Christmas, some of the more common reasons include –

It won’t harm anyone
A taxi is too expensive
I don’t want to walk home
I’ve done it before
The roads will be quiet when I drive
Alcohol doesn’t affect me / doesn’t affect my driving
I can handle my drink
I know other people who drink and drive
I don’t want to rely on anyone else

Drivers who plan to drink drive perhaps don’t fully appreciate the consequences of their actions on the public and themselves, and if they are caught. According to the DVLA, those caught driving or attempting to drive whilst over the legal limit or unfit through drink can receive: 6 months’ imprisonment, an unlimited fine, and/or a driving ban for at least 1 year (3 years if convicted twice in 10 years).

A fifth (20%) of the drivers surveyed admitted that drink driving is something that they have done before. Nearly half (49%) of drivers who are having at least one drink will be carrying passengers, and are most likely to have their partners and children in the car.

Designated Driver

These days the don’t drink and drive message seems to have sunk in for many people, but many drivers are still underestimating how much they can drink and be safe and legal to drive that night; and many drivers drink so much the night before that they’re still over the limit when they hop in their car to go to work the next day.

If you’re going out this Christmas, please make sure you know how you’ll be getting home, bus, taxi, or a lift home with a sober friend. I don’t want to sound preachy, but 3000 people each year are seriously injured or killed on our roads due to drunk drivers. It’s not worth the risk to you, your friends or loved ones. Please drive carefully, and drive soberly. Merry Christmas!

For more information on the research from The Co-op Insurance click here.

= In collaboration with The Co-op Insurance =

FREE Christmas Printables from Pip Ahoy!

The lovely people who make the brilliant cartoon Pip Ahoy have given me a fantastic set of 12 Christmas Pip Ahoy! printables to share with you.

If you’ve not yet heard of Pip and his friends, Pip Ahoy! is a cartoon about Pip the puppy, and his friends including cute kitten Alba and adorable Alan the penguin in the seaside town of Salty Cove. You can catch up with Pip Ahoy! on Channel 5’s Milkshake and on Cartoonito.

This set of free Christmas Pip Ahoy! printables includes lots of festive pictures to colour in, as well as template letters to Santa and Christmas craft ideas. Lots to keep the little ones entertained throughout the Christmas period.

To download the free Pip Ahoy! printables click here.

Don’t forget to join us for the Pip Ahoy! Twitter Party on 1st December, follow @PipAhoyUK and join in with the hashtag #ISpyWithPip to be in with a chance to win some prizes. You can download your free Pip Ahoy party pack here.

Your invitation is below…

Don’t forget you can win your very own Pip Ahoy! Skippers Bucket Toy in my Christmas competition – it ends on 13th December 2015, click here to be in with a chance to win!

Having a handmade Christmas – Christmas Ink Stamps

The keen-eyed amongst you will have noted that this year I’ve decided to make my own Christmas cards. It’s something I’m doing because it’s a bit nicer to get a handmade card, it’ll save us a few pennies and it’s just a nice calming thing to do of an evening.

To give my cards the final finishing touch I have had a couple of ink stamps made up by Stamptastic. The first stamp is for cards and other handmade gifts and says “Lovingly handmade by the Arschavir Family”, and the other, which is for gift tags and such like says “To…Merry Christmas love from The Arschavir Family”.

Each stamp costs £15, which if you make a lot of handmade cards and gifts will be well worth it. The stamps themselves have lovely crisp detailing and are nice and chunky to hold and stamp with.

I am planning to buy some brown parcel labels and stamp those with the gift tag stamp, I always find gift tags a bit faffy but essential and I think the stamp will give a good finish to a nicely wrapped gift.

The ink pads come in a range of colours and cost just £3.50, and will last a long time, only needing a little spritz with water if they start to dry out a little.

Christmas Ink Stamps

The stamps came from Stamptastic who have an online shop with everything you need for your personalised ink stamps, the designs are crisp, attractive and interesting. They have quite a few different Christmas designs to choose from, so if you enjoy crafting, or want to save yourself the hassle of writing out gift tags, or need an attractive address stamp or similar, have a look at what Stamptastic have to offer.

I’m really pleased with my ink stamps and I think they give my Christmas cards and gifts the final flourish they deserve.

Note: I was given the stamps and ink pads free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are my own.

Merry Christmas!

Hello there, Merry Christmas to you! This post is my final #Blogmas offering of the year. For the uninitiated, Blogmas is a blog every day in December (up to and including Christmas Day) challenge thingy. I’m pleased to say I made it, I didn’t think I would but I did. So hurrah etc!

I thought it would be an idea to do a quick round up of my five favourite posts from December, just in case you missed any, so here goes…

A piece all about the Christmas magic from my childhood and how we’re creating some for the small boy. It’s lovely.
I made my own snow globes – really easy and so cute.
Elf on a shelf – some of what our cheeky Elf has been up to.
My fifteen favourite things about Christmas.
A very Mancunian Christmas – my pick of presents made by Mancs for Mancs.

There’s plenty more if you want to rifle through my archive, but these five are either my favourites or have been incredibly popular.

I can’t leave without giving a mention to my Joulutorttu recipe, which was massive, but it’s from November, so technically not part of Blogmas, but it picked up lots of views every single day, you lot love a Finnish jam tart!

So that was Blogmas. I’m now going to put my laptop away for the next few days and have a well earned rest. Thanks for the love, support, comments, tweets and retweets. I wish you and yours a peaceful Christmas and a very wonderful 2015.

Love, Jane xx

What’s in our Christmas Stocking?

Father Christmas is a terribly busy chap, so we like to help him out by easing the burden of lugging a Christmas stocking about. We like to buy on a budget, but NOT tat, or minimal tat at least. So here’s what’s in the small boy’s stocking this year (shhh, don’t tell him).

Three diecast emergency vehicles from B&M £1 each = £3
Magic, touchable bubbles = £1.50
Mickey & Goofy Pez dispensers £1.50 each = £3
Center Parcs Squirrel = £8
Thomas & Friends Porter engine = £6.99
Glow Sticks 3 for = £2
Mister Maker door hanger kit = £1.99
Mister Maker mini bugs kit = £1.99
Bigjigs carriage = £2.25
Smarties Penguin = 75p
Packet of pirate pencils = £2
Chocolate coins = £1
Satsuma = free from the fruit bowl

Meaning we’ve spent a grand total of £34.97 which when you look at it like that is either a lot of money spent on a bag of little presents, or a tremendous bargain considering all that is in there. I’m going to go for the latter. I think we’ve got a fairly good spread of stocking fillers there, with things that he will play with immediately, a few sweet treats and some craft items we can make together over the Christmas break.

What’s in your Christmas stocking this year?

How we made some Christmas Magic

Growing up my parents didn’t have much money, but my Dad had about as much imagination as it was possible to have. In many ways he was a great Dad, he made us laugh ridiculously hard on a daily basis. At Christmas time he sprinkled his special brand of magic around the house.

In scenes unheard of these days, our house did not have a single decoration up until Christmas Eve. My brother and I would toddle off to bed, leaving the house as it always was, save for a few Christmas cards dotted around the lounge.

Christmas morning would come, we’d tumble out of bed to find stockings hanging on our doors. We’d either sit together conspiratorially in one of our bedrooms and open our stockings together, or open them separately, then compare notes.

But under no circumstances were we allowed downstairs. If one of us did creep down for a look, there was nothing to see. Father Christmas had used his magic rope to tie the lounge and dining room doors shut and only my Dad was able to open it. If we gained entry without our parents, we were sternly warned that all the presents would disappear. No one wanted that!

Once my parents were awake (or awoken at some hellish hour) we were allowed into the lounge. The door would swing open and we’d burst in all excited. Father Christmas had put the tree up and all the decorations while we were in bed. Not only that but under the tree were presents for everyone. It was a Christmas miracle!

What I now know and realise is, it wasn’t Christmas magic, it was my Mum and Dad working their arses off from 8pm decorating the house, wrapping the presents and starting to prep the Christmas dinner. No wonder they looked extra awful come Christmas morning and no wonder when after only having 2 or 3 hours sleep they were less than overjoyed at having two excited children bouncing on them until they got up.

They were legends, their Christmas Eve efforts made everything much, much more magical and realistic for us. So I was determined to inject some magic and mystery into our family Christmases.

I’d love to do what my parents did, but that’s an incredible amount of hard work very late in the day. Plus a lot of people think you are stark raving mad if you’ve not fully decorated your house by the 1st December these days. So we’ve struck a balance.

On Saturday we went to Wythenshawe Community Farm and bought our tree, a very handsome 7 footer. We propped the tree up in a cool corner in the kitchen with a promise to decorate it tomorrow.

That night he had an early night, so we sprung into action. The Christmas tree was put into position, decked with lights, baubles and treasured decorations. The mantlepiece was decorated and our stockings hung up, lights and garlands were strung everywhere.

We were exhausted, but the house looked lovely. Our last act was laying out some decorations and a note from Elfie our Elf on the shelf saying she’d not had chance to finish decorating the tree and could the small boy put the last few decorations on.

Morning came, he woke us up and we all went downstairs (hubs sneaking down first to put all the lights on). The small boy walked in and was stuck dumb with wonder. He jumped up and down and said “the tree, the tree!” And then inspected everything with a look of pure joy on his face. After a few minutes he said “is it Christmas time now?” And my heart melted.

THAT is what Christmas is all about. We found true Christmas magic on Sunday morning. He’s utterly delighted that Elfie decorated the tree and we love that we’ve created some actual, real magic for him.

Christmas isn’t about presents, giving and receiving, or vast turkeys wedged in the oven. It’s about magic and love. It’s a beautiful thing to believe in magic, because it does happen, even if it’s manufactured by exhausted parents. Merry Christmas x

Elf on a Shelf – December 8th – 14th

We’re doing the whole Elf on a Shelf thing this year, so far it’s a huge hit. We’re enjoying setting it up and the small boy is enjoying finding out what Elfie has been up to each night. I wrote about week one here if you want to have a look at what else Elfie our elf has been up to so far.

On Monday 8th December we found Elfie in the bathroom, she’d been writing on the mirror using toothpaste, even though she’d been very naughty we all thought it was very funny!

On Tuesday we woke to discover Elfie had found some colouring books and felt tips. The cheeky Elf had been colouring in, so when he woke up, the small boy helped Elfie to finish that page. He thought Elfie was very, very cheeky!

On Wednesday Elfie had had a quiet night and we woke to find she’d found a quiet corner and written his name in smarties. She can be very generous when she wants to be. Bless her.

On Thursday we found Elfie in his bedroom, all of his favourite soft toys were gathered around listening to her reading a Christmas story. We then all snuggled in the big bed, had some breakfast and read the story together before school.

On Friday it was the small boy’s Nativity Play and he was a King. Elfie had heard his news, so we found her tucked up in a cupboard wearing a crown and eating gold coins. Elfie is a King too!

On Saturday we discovered that Elfie had been up to her old tricks again! She’s a little daredevil and we discovered her abseiling down from the light in the lounge carrying some candy canes. Silly Elfie!

On Sunday we woke up to find that Elfie had put the tree up and decorated the whole house overnight while everyone was asleep. It was brilliant and it saved Mummy and Daddy so much hard work! The small boy loved that the house was full of Christmas magic. Elfie had worked so hard but hadn’t quite managed to finish everything in time, so left a note asking the small boy to finish putting the last few decorations on the tree. Elfie is so lovely.

Seasonal Scents from Febreze

Having grown up in the 1980’s I have a slight phobia of air fresheners; back then they came in a huge aerosol and were available only in cloying fragrances like “pine forest”, which just smelt like toilet cleaner. When your mum liberally sprayed the house before visitors came, it was like she’d washed the walls with cheap toilet cleaner; so determined to be different, my method of freshening up the house was always to light a scented candle and open a window.

That was all very well and good until we started a family; whilst I’ll complain about the odours the small boy produces, I wouldn’t like to inflict them on other people. Since day one of being parents, we’ve always had some Febreze on hand to spritz the house with if visitors were expected. We were really pleased when Febreze got in touch and asked if we fancied having a sniff of their Winter Collection. Then they sent this…

The hamper contained –
Febreze Air Effects Apple & Spice Air Freshener
Febreze Apple & Spice Scented Candle
Febreze Apple & Spice Set & Refresh Scented oil diffuser
A tub of Whittard of Chelsea Mulled Wine flavour instant tea
A colour in stocking and fabric pens

It was a mightily impressive hamper! I was impressed with the range as it’s versatile enough for my house. The scented oil diffuser is ideal for my downstairs loo which is located right next to the front door. I won’t go into detail, but I live with two boys who don’t always focus enough on the task in hand!

The scented candle is a winner for me, during the run up to Christmas I especially like lighting a scented candle in the evening, because I like the house to smell a bit more Christmassy and if you get cinnamon scented ones it smells like all the baking you’ve not got round to doing yet. Happily the Apple & Spice does contain wafts of those Christmas cooking spices, more of which later. The candle itself is attractive and wouldn’t look out of place as part of a display.

The Air Freshener isn’t at all like those 1980’s monstrosities. You don’t need to spray much, because unlike my mums “pine forest” it eliminates odours, it doesn’t mask them. This is just right for giving the place a quick spritz (take note mother) before visitors arrive.

The apple and spice fragrance itself is very pleasant, it contains a Christmassy blend of cinnamon, cloves, apples, berries and vanilla bean. The vanilla bean is very faint, which is a good thing, vanilla is a lovely scent but used in excess it can be quite sickly. The apple and spice blend is uplifting and comforting, the perfect kind of fragrance for this time of year.

The Febreze apple and spice range in their winter collection is lovely and they’re something I would fragrance the house with from autumn up until Christmas. I’m particularly impressed with the candles, so I’ll be getting a few more of those in to light in the run up to the big day. I’m looking forward to colouring in the stocking with the small boy on Christmas Eve too. Thank you for my Christmas hamper Febreze, Merry Christmas!

Note: We were sent the hamper free of charge, I was under no obligation to review or write it up. All images and opinions are my own.

My Fifteen Festive Favourites

I’ve been tagged to do my Festive Favourites by Old Fashioned Susie. So here’s how we roll at Christmas…

Favourite Festive Food-
Without question it’s the Christmas dinner leftover sandwich, with slices of solidified bread sauce. I’m veggie so it’s all the veg, stuffing and sauce. It’s even better than Christmas dinner and my favourite thing to eat full stop.

Favourite Reindeer-
Rudolph. Maybe. He seems a decent kinda guy.

Favourite Day of Christmas-
Christmas Eve. A spot of last minute baking and present wrapping. Going to the Christingle service with my family. Mulled wine and a wind down in the evening. Carols and a whiskey before bed. Love it.

Favourite Christmas Song-
Christmas hasn’t begun until I’ve heard Fairytale of New York in a shop or on the radio. In terms of carols I love Oh Come All Ye Faithful, it’s really rousing and Christmassy.

Favourite Present-
I’m not much into getting gifts and trinkets for myself. My favourite gift is my family. There’s nothing nicer than us all in bed together, unwrapping our stocking presents on Christmas morning.

Favourite Festive Film-
Elf. But also Kiss Kiss Bang Bang, a bit of something for the grown ups.

Festive Favourites

Festive Favourites Cracker Toy-
Anything blowy. I love a kazoo or something similar. For no other reason than I enjoy being vaguely annoying.

Favourite Cracker Joke-
What do you get if you cross Father Christmas with a duck?
A Christmas Quacker!

Favourite Christmas Decoration-
A few years ago we bought some new lights to hang in our window. They’re not gaudy, they’re pretty classy. They’re LED and they slowly change colour and they’re shaped like stars. They are much admired. They sound awful don’t they? Trust me, they’re not.

Favourite Christmas Candle Scent-
I’m a bit of a Yankee Candle-holic I’m afraid, I like their Christmas candles, especially the ones with cinnamon spices in, but we also get similar scented ones from Ikea or other budget friendly places. I don’t like vanilla though, it’s far too sickly for me,

Favourite Christmas TV Advert-
Annoyingly I don’t really watch that much TV and what I do watch tends to be the BBC channels. I guess I like the Sainsbury’s advert. I know it conjures up mixed feelings, but I first heard that story 20 odd years ago and I’ve been intrigued by it ever since.

Favourite Festive Tradition-
Pre-baby it was going to midnight mass on Christmas Eve, these days we can’t do the late night, so we go to the afternoon Christingle service instead. Lots of Carol singing, seeing people we know and love, huge amounts of Christmas spirit and a small mug of mulled wine. Perfect.

Favourite Place to Spend Christmas-
It’s got to be home. I like the parts of the day when it’s just the three of us. Occasionally we think about going away to a quiet cottage in the country, but home is where the heart is.

Favourite Christmas Fact-
Before Turkey became popular, the traditional Christmas meal in England was a pig’s head and mustard.

Favourite Snowman Accessory-
A carrot for his nose, obviously.

Elf on a Shelf – December 1st-7th

Love or loathe Elf on a Shelf, it’s something we’re embracing this year. I first encountered Elf on a Shelf a few years ago, one of my American cousins was doing it for her children. Back then in my pre-child days I thought it was a bonkers idea, but now I have a small boy of my own we’re loving it.

On 1st December a mysterious, yet beautifully wrapped parcel appeared, attached was a note from Father Christmas. He was very busy and unable to keep an eye on the small boy during December, so he was sending “Elfie” the elf to keep an eye on him. Despite being one of his favourite elves Elfie, we were warned, was cheeky and might get up to mischief while she was staying with us. Cheeky Elfie!

One signature of Elfie’s mischief is that she leaves a sprinkling of snow wherever she goes in the night. It must be when she returns from the North Pole after visiting Father Christmas each night. What a messy elf!

On 2nd December we woke up to discover that Elfie had been playing with the small boy’s beloved train track and she’d also brought with her a liberal sprinkling of “snow”.

On 3rd December Elfie got very cheeky and rolled a toilet roll down the stairs, not only that she’d got tangled in it at the top and right at the bottom she’d left a handful of magic money (chocolate coins) as a special treat.

On 4th December Elfie obviously got a bit thirsty and we found her in the fridge drinking his milk. Naughty Elfie had left a sprinkling of “snow” outside the fridge too.

On 5th December Elfie decided we needed to add a bit of festive cheer to our as yet undecorated house, we came downstairs in the morning to find she’d strung up some lights at the window and got herself tangled in them too!

On 6th December we discovered Elfie in a marshmallow bath, she looked happy enough and seemed to have had a good soak. The marshmallows didn’t last long either!

The small boy was by now getting the hang of waking up to discover Elfie’s adventures.

On 7th December the house awoke to a mess, Elfie had discovered the scissors and had been busy in the night cutting out snowflakes and sticking them all over the house.

Elfie has been wonderful company so far this month, we’re really looking forward to seeing what other mischief she gets up to!

Are you doing Elf on a shelf?