Gro To Bed – keeping the small boy cosy at night

The small boy is not quite so small any more, in fact he’s now five years old and growing fast. It was a sad day when we packed his cot away and put him in a single bed, at the time he seemed far too tiny for it, but he’s grown a fair bit since. Earlier this year I remember one of my friends telling me about “Gro To Bed”, she’d got one for her daughter and it really helped her settle at night. It sounded like a useful thing to have, so when I was offered the chance to try “Gro To Bed” for myself I couldn’t say no.

gro to bed

Gro To Bed from Gro is an all–in–one duvet cover, bottom sheet and pillow case set, which has been designed with zips to keep the duvet in place and help to stop little ones from falling out of bed. It is essentially a fitted sheet with the pillow attached to it, and the duvet is zipped on so your child sleeps in a huge sleeping bag kind of thing. The duvet can be fully detached if you’d like too.

gro to bed

When the boy grew out of all of his baby sleeping bags he did have a problem with his bedding slipping off in the night so he was cold, and he did fall out of bed a few times, both of which are quite common for lots of children. The Gro To Bed bedding sets are designed to help with both of those problems. They come in a range of nice, bright designs. We chose the Alfred & The Aliens Gro To Bed set which is a white fitted sheet with colourful and cheerful aliens on the pillow and duvet.

gro to bed

It was pretty easy to make up the bed and zip the duvet and pillow into place. The small boy took one look and couldn’t wait to get into bed. He climbed in under the covers and was at first a bit puzzled as to why the duvet was zipped to the sheet, but once we’d explained it to him he snuggled down and got comfy. He has a particularly chilly bedroom so I was pleased that his covers wouldn’t slip in the night and he’d stay warm.

He had a good nights sleep, the covers weren’t so tight so he couldn’t climb out, but they were fixed enough to ensure a cosy nights sleep. I was impressed and quietly kicked myself for not knowing about this when we first moved from gro-bag in the cot to a single bed.

gro to bed

The Gro To Bed sets are made from 100% cotton and seem to be good quality, with no loose stitching. The bedding is all machine washable and designed to fit single beds. They are a little bit more expensive than your bog standard bedding set, but not by much, and I think the benefits of knowing that my child is warm and cosy at night and that he won’t fall out of bed with a thump makes the extra few pounds worth it. I suspect it’s only a matter of time before they make these in adult sizes, who do I need to write to about that?

gro to bed

Note: We were sent the Alfred & The Aliens Gro To Bed set free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are our own.

Is it that unusual to be attached to your family car?

I love cars, I’ve always been a bit obsessed with engines. Growing up my Dad would let me help him out, changing the oil, topping up his battery, looking after the family car. I learned lots of practical skills which have stood me in good stead over the years. Sadly (I’m not sad) I never learned to drive. A broken ankle mid way through my lessons stopped me, and by the time I was ok to drive I was at uni and too poor to pick it up again. Now I consider it my gift to the world that I cannot get behind the wheel. I’m still a massive petrol-head despite my lack of licence, so when hubs does anything to do with our family car, I’m all over it.

We’ve had three cars during our life together, the first (and arguably our favourite) was a Citroen Saxo, a nippy little thing we called Harry we inherited from my mother in law. Harry was a belting little car and we drove thousands and thousands of miles together with hardly any problems. Sadly Harry met his end in a crash on the Mancunian Way. Harry was the only fatality, thankfully. We cried when we said goodbye to Harry and still miss him over ten years later.

After Harry came a Citroen C3, it was a slight panic buy. They’d not been available for long and seemed to be a nicely designed car with the mod-cons Harry never had. Whereas Harry was nippy and a lot of fun, Vera was a sensible workhorse. Plodding along the motorway and cornering like an overloaded double decker bus. The Citoren C3 seemed pretty prone to problems. We were never that much in love with Vera and when I got pregnant and we realised we needed a bigger car we were not that sad to see her go. Sorry Vera.

In 2010 we bought our current car, a Citroen C4 (are you sensing a theme here?). We’ve not actually named this car, which is remiss of us. He is a solid workhorse but with Harry’s nippiness and loads of room for all the baby stuff we needed to cart around with us in the early days. He’s a keeper, or at least we’ll keep him until bits start falling off.

I think we’d really struggle without our car. We don’t use it every day any more, but we do use it for big shops and for going on adventures. I am very fond of our car. It’s gone on a million adventures with us with hardly any trouble at all. It was the car we brought our newborn son home from hospital in. We will be sad to see it go when it finally gives up.

Is it so unusual to be so attached to your family car?

Is it that unusual to be attached to your family car?

Getting a good nights sleep

As Autumn edges towards winter I start to think of my bedroom as a cosy little nest to snuggle up in during the long dark winter evenings. My bed becomes my favourite place to be in the house and it quickly becomes covered with squishy cushions and cosy blankets to keep out the winter chills.

I have a very bad back and as much as I’d love to spend my days and nights snuggled up under a thick duvet, my spine won’t let me, but one of the things I do insist on is a good firm mattress, I need to be well supported in bed and comfortable. nothing too saggy or lumpy. I’ve always seen a good quality double mattress as an investment as I spend maybe 8 or so hours a night lying on it.

The dream has always been to have a nice king size bed, so there’s plenty of room for us all, we three like to get in under the covers and read stories before bedtime. Now the small boy is growing up our old double bed seems very small. When we bought our current house I wanted a bedroom big enough to accommodate a new bed with a king size mattress and I think it’s very nearly time to invest in a new bed, one big enough for story time and sleepy cuddles for us all.

Sleep is a serious issue for me, my pain medication means I’m either incredibly alert or very sleepy and I never feel like I get quite enough kip. I’m not alone in that either, according to Mattress Online just 61% of employed people in the UK feel they are getting enough sleep and 22% of people suffer from sleep disorders such as insomnia, snoring and nightmares.

Having a cosy, restful bedroom with a comfy bed is one of the best ways you can help guarantee a good nights sleep, you can take other steps too, like avoiding caffeine, having a warm relaxing bath, not playing with your smartphone before bed and just taking time to wind down properly before drifting off to sleep.

How do you guarantee a good nights sleep?

get a good nights sleep

~ In collaboration with Mattress Online ~

Nursery to boys bedroom – weekend makeover

In September the small boy began school, he’s growing up fast and we couldn’t be more proud of him. One thing that’s niggled us for a while had been his bedroom. When we moved into our house he was 10 months old and we didn’t have the time or money to do much with his room, other than paint it white and get new carpet laid. It was always on our to do list for the future, the list has been ignored for four years now, so it was time to do something about it.

This was his room before…

boys bedroom

With the help and advice of interior designer Joanna Thornhill and Hillary’s Blinds we identified that his room seriously lacked storage space and needed an injection of colour.

His room was a mess, without any proper storage his toys were everywhere and there wasn’t much of a theme going on. The white walls made the room bright, but it felt stark and boring.

boys bedroom

Joanna gave us some short and mid-term advice which we took on board…

1. You could add brighter tones in any accessories or wall art in tones of turquoise and green, using red in small doses as an accent. Industrial style is a big trend right now which your son might like, so perhaps you could bring in touches of this by adding a cage-style light or a grey textured rug, and updating furniture handles with vintage metal-style pulls.

2. Storage looks like it’s an issue – could you opt for a bigger bookcase and swap places with the chest of drawers? The tall mirror could maybe then move to the side of the wardrobes if the space becomes tight for it in its current spot. Invest in some storage baskets for the bottom shelves for toys, with space above for books.

3. His bed sits quite neatly into that alcove but when he moves up to a full-size single – why not look out for a daybed with hidden storage (or a spare trundle bed for sleepovers) underneath? This would fit the space well and allow his bedroom to double up as a living room all of his own. Opt for some plain bedding (denim, maybe?) then dress with fun cushions along the back.

4. Your curtains look great and seem ‘grown-up’ enough to take your little boy through to double digits at least – I’d use these as a starting point and let these influence the rest of the space. They are a greyish teal colour so perhaps you could use these to bring colour into the room, possibly opting for a lighter steel-blue on the bulk of the walls with a bolder teal making a feature somewhere (perhaps in the bed alcove?)

Using her advice we decided to paint a teal feature wall and decorate it with stars, we had a shade mixed for us at B&Q which was evocative of the night sky without it being too dark. I bought some luminous stars from my local toy shop, Giddy Goat Toys, decorated the feature wall with them and added the blue star light he’s always had. I wanted to keep things simple so we could change things up a bit as he grows.

boys bedroom

We bought some extra storage from Ikea and put the bookcase on top of the chest of drawers to make a bit more space. We also gave him a little stool to use to climb up and choose his bedtime story.

boys bedroom

His bedroom looks and feels more like a boys bedroom now and less like a cluttered nursery. It’s a room that will grow with him. There are still a few more things we need to do, but we ran out of time over the weekend. We need to sort his lighting out, put a new blind up and eventually get him a full sized single bed. Not to mention sorting through his wardrobe and clearing out his old toys.

We didn’t blow the budget on it either, the paint and the stars came in at under £30 and the storage unit with boxes was about £100 from Ikea, we bought a few other things for his room too, like a new lampshade, a blind and the footstool, but I can safely say we got change out of £200.

But what did Spider-boy think of the transformation? I think he liked it!

boys bedroom

But my favourite bit is the starry-night wall which I’m actually very tempted to recreate in my bedroom too. I think we’ve managed to makeover his room in a way which will grow with him. The stars can easily be removed and replaced by something else if he wants, the storage has already made a massive difference to his room, and it looks fantastic too.

boys bedroom

The makeover was done in conjunction with Hillary’s Blinds, you can find out more about our makeover transformation, and see how the other bloggers involved transformed their homes on the Hillary’s Blinds website.

Review: Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle

It is no exaggeration to say when I opened the box containing my latest Yankee Candle – Sparkle On, Gorgeous I let out an audible gasp of adoration. Not only was this candle beautifully different to any other Yankee Candle I’ve seen but it smelt intoxicatingly different to my normal go-to fruity scented candles.

The Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle is part of a new range of tumbler candles designed to be given as a gift. The range is based on some of the most popular and classic Yankee Candle scents and features bold colours and a striking design. I personally loved the design of my Sparkle On, Gorgeous candles, not only is it my favourite colour, but the contemporary styling worked really well in my house.

Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle

This 10oz tumbler candle should burn for up to 40 hours, retailing at approximately £15, my slightly wonky maths makes that just under 38p per hour – pretty good value. The candle wax itself is almost black, it has two wicks and sits in a lovely decorated glass tumbler. Its contemporary styling and brushed metal lid would suit a wide range of rooms and it would make a very lovely and stylish gift.

The Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle features the classic “Midsummer’s Night” candle. It’s an intoxicating and musky blend of masculine scents including patchouli, sage and mahogany cologne. At first sniff it’s very like a delicious musky aftershave. It’s masculine, but it’s not just for men, I can imagine many women would burn this scent because it is so evocative.

Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle

The “throw” on this Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle is pretty good. It takes maybe half an hour for the scent to start to fill the room, but once it gets going it’s delicious; reminiscent of hot sultry summer nights, but still perfect for burning all year round, whatever the weather.

As the autumn nights begin to draw in, burning this lovely candle will remind me of warm summer evenings and the heady almost Mediterranean scents of patchouli, sage and the aftershave of the man I love. Delicious.

Note: We were sent the Sparkle On, Gorgeous Yankee Candle free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Gas Safety Week 2015 – Keep safe from Carbon Monoxide

Gas Safety Week this year falls on 14th – 20th September. The end of September is generally the time when many households give into temptation and put their heating on, only to find that it’s not working properly or even at all. The start of autumn is a good time to get your boiler and central heating system serviced by a suitably qualified professional, just to make sure everything is working properly, efficiently and most importantly safely.

Looking back over my Facebook memories the other day I was reminded of a time in our old house, I was very pregnant and we were getting everything shipshape for the baby, we decided to get our boiler serviced. The engineer came, ran a few tests and then shut the whole system off. It was leaking dangerous carbon monoxide gas, and although it was a bit inconvenient, I’m very glad we got it checked and then repaired properly. I dread to think of what would’ve happened had we just left it. Now we make sure our whole system gets serviced annually and we have a couple of carbon monoxide sensors in the house.

It’s important that you get your boiler checked by a suitably qualified and registered Gas Safe Engineer. A check could help protect you and your family from dangerous carbon monoxide poisoning. Fitting a carbon monoxide detector is another useful safety precaution.

For more information on Gas Safety Week and for advice on getting your boiler properly serviced visit the Corgi Homeplan website. You can find out more about the harmful effects of carbon monoxide in this blog post I wrote last year too.

Gas Safety Week

Review: Blueberry Scone Jar Candle from Yankee Candle

I love scented candles. My work room at home is filled with them. If I’m going to be at my desk for a few hours invariably I’ll light one to invigorate my mood, often I’ll light them in my bedroom to help me wind down before bed, hardly a day goes by without me lighting a candle, especially now the boy is a bit older and can be trusted near naked flames.

I was sent a summer fragrance Yankee Candle to try out, I received the Blueberry Scone large jar candle (rrp £21.99). It’s a big jar which should burn for 110+ hours or more. The heavy glass lid keeps the candle fresh for when you’re ready to light it.

blueberry scone yankee candle

The fragrance is lovely and really does smell of freshly baked blueberry scones. Warm blueberry scents with a soft undercurrent of fresh from the oven scones with a hint of vanilla, just a hint, because vanilla can be an overpowering fragrance.

Often with scented candles they “throw” the fragrance only a short distance from the actual candle. Some scents travel better than others. I lit the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle and it quickly filled the room with the smell of fresh blueberry scones, the smell travelled reasonably well but didn’t fill the house, which to my mind is fine, but I know others prefer a lengthier throw.

This candle has a home in my work room now and will be burnt on a regular basis. If you like a fruity, warm scented candle, then this is worth looking out for. I adore the warm spiced autumn candles full of cinnamon and apple, but this is a good summer version, smelling of kitchens and cosiness.

Yankee Candles are widely available online and in gift shops, you may have to hunt a little for the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle, but it’s worth hunting down and having a sniff to see if you’d like it. Fragrance is such a personal thing, these remind me of a trip to America I took when I was a teenager and I briefly became obsessed with everything blueberry.

Note: We were sent the Blueberry Scone Yankee Candle free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are my own.

Carbon Monoxide: The Silent Killer

There have been a number of quite horrifying news stories in recent years about deaths related to carbon monoxide poisoning. Each year more than 200 people are hospitalised with suspected carbon monoxide poisoning and around 40 people die.

Carbon monoxide leaks are commonly found in incorrectly installed or poorly maintained household appliances such as cookers, heaters and central heating boilers. A blocked flue or chimney can also cause carbon monoxide levels to rise to lethal levels in an enclosed space. When we had our chimney opened up so we could have a real fire, we had an extra air vent fitted for this very reason.

Carbon monoxide

The problem with carbon monoxide is that it’s a colourless, odourless gas. You can’t taste it, see it or smell it, which is why it’s known as the silent killer and why it kills so many people each year. It’s something I’m frankly terrified of, so I make sure our boiler and appliances are checked out annually by a Gas Safe registered engineer and that our chimney is swept regularly too.

It’s also a really good idea to get a carbon monoxide detector which work in a similar way to smoke detectors, these are relatively inexpensive and could save your life. They’re also really useful to have if you go camping or boating, as a number of deaths occur each year in caravans and boats due to carbon monoxide poisoning.

If you suspect you have a carbon monoxide leak (or any gas leak) then turn off all of your appliances including the boiler, make sure your house is well ventilated by opening doors and windows, if you can access your gas isolation valve, turn it a quarter turn so the lever is at 90 degrees to the upright gas pipe, then ring the National Gas Emergency Service on 0800 11 999.

Corgi Homeplan are currently campaigning for every home to have their own CO detector and they’ve launched a new website to help people be aware of the dangers of gas appliances in their own home. The website has lots of easy to follow advice as well as information about the warning signs to look out for. The Corgi Homeplan website is a great resource for homeowners unsure about how to protect themselves and what to do when things go wrong at home.

In association with Corgi Homeplan.

That Facebook Positivity Meme

Ugh, I hate forced positivity about as much as I like making awkward small talk with strangers at weddings; so when I saw that Facebook positivity meme doing the rounds I kept my head down and prayed no one would tag me, but they did *sad face* and now I hate my life and all of my friends.

The premise is that some evil relentlessly cheerful person tags you in their post, and for the following five days you have to come up with three positive things and tag three poor unsuspecting people to do the same. This automatically ensures that each day you make three fresh Facebook frenemies. What joy. What endless, positive joy.

Here’s the record of my forced positivity, there was some significant barrel scraping at times, but I thought it would be interesting to keep a record of my thoughts and the reaction I got to each post. I may put together some pie charts and Venn diagrams to illustrate the results. Or not. I mean who has the time?

Day One
1. Told my husband just what he means to me today.
2. My son is making dry-nights progress.
3. Meeting a lovely friend for lunch & a catch up.

Response: Four likes and a small whinge from one of the poor buggers I’ve tagged.

Day Two
1. Had a lovely afternoon with some good friends.
2. Found out my blog is ranked 155 on Tots100
3. I heard that rarest of phrases… “I’m proud of you”

Response: Five likes and a good natured “why me?” from someone who will curse my birth within 48 hours.

Day Three
1. I’ve had a lovely day with the small boy, despite the plethora of bowel movements.
2. Hubs is ace and he makes me laugh pretty much every day.
3. I’m busy work wise, which is nice.

Response: Three likes, one “I’m pregnant so I can’t do it” and one flip this shizzle I’m at the end of my tether.

Day Four
1. Had a chilled day with the boys
2. I enjoyed watching the storms last night
3. Visited my mum & my dad, which means I’m a half decent daughter for once.

Response: Two likes and one person asking to be tagged the following day. People like this worry me, they really do.

Day Five
1. Greedy day out at the foodies festival, great fun with the boys.
2. Had a delicious and rare afternoon nap in anticipation of a loooong night ahead.
3. I’m loving the small boy to bits right now, love our proper conversations and he’s really funny and affectionate.

Response: Five likes and a “god damn you to hell for tagging me”.

Conclusion: Facebook memes were fun like five years ago, now they’re just dull. Put your bra colour as your status, but don’t say it’s your bra just to confuse the boys. Really? No thanks, is this the most fun thing you could think of?

Whilst I think the hellishly annoying Facebook Positivity Meme was started with all good intentions, I pretty much hated doing it, it was a chore and it annoyed me that I had to publish it publicly, if it’d been private I might have been more honest and less Facebook “isn’t life just peachy” about it.

From the responses I got, and from seeing other peoples positives each day, I think the meme is loved and loathed in equal measure. Me, I’m falling down firmly on the side of loathing it. So whatever you do, don’t tag me again. That would not elicit a positive response from me.

Holiday Inspiration for the Home from Culture Vulture Direct

The thing about going on holiday is that when you return home you tend to look at your house with fresh eyes. Sometimes you look and think “I love my little house”, sometimes you just think it needs a bit of a spruce up. I often return home with a head filled with visions of shimmering blue oceans, hot sands and inspired by the culture I’ve spent the last few weeks visiting.

In my case, though you may not feel it exotic, we’ve just had a glorious fortnight in Cornwall. The sun shone and we spent our days pottering around fishing villages, relaxing on the beach and eating al fresco. When I got home I wanted to recreate a little bit of the coastal vibe in my suburban home and bring a bit of the seaside sunshine back with me.

On my return home I checked out Culture Vulture Direct, a lovely little online shop full to the brim of beautiful things for your home and garden, inspired by and sourced from all over the world, including New England, Scandinavia, India, Greece and Morocco, amongst many others.

Having returned from Cornwall, I wanted to fill my house full of the beautiful blues of the sea, they don’t have a Cornish section, but they have the next best thing, Greece. I was immediately drawn to the beautiful hydra jug, a gorgeous chunky water jug, with an interesting and practical design, perfectly blue and only £24.99, it really jumped out at me. It’s now in regular use at mealtimes, it’s possibly my favourite thing on my dining table!

The unofficial symbol of Cornwall these days seems to be the mackerel, it’s everywhere. We already have some fishy themed things in our kitchen to remind us of our Cornish adventures, so we decided to add to our existing collection. I chose a useful fish trivet (£14.99) which will be great for everyday use, as well as for when I need to plonk a hot casserole dish on the table, as well as a shoal of (fridge) magnets (£12.99). The magnets are hand carved and painted in shades of blue, they look lovely on our fridge and they really fit in with our fishy theme.

Lastly I bought these beautiful shantou bowls (£22.99) from China, they come in sets of five and have been hand painted. I loved them on sight. We eat a lot of Thai and Chinese food so these will be used for our takeaway and fakeaway nights.

Wherever you’ve been on your travels, or if you’ve been inspired elsewhere, then Culture Vulture Direct is a lovely, easy to use website with reasonably priced products for your home and garden. They also sell clothes, jewellery and accessories. I enjoyed shopping with them and I’ll be dipping in and out throughout the year, buying treats for me and presents for others.

Written in collaboration with Culture Vulture Direct.