In the Frame Again – funky photo frames

I love Instagram. I can’t leave the house without my camera phone. I can’t go out for a meal without taking a picture of it. Every move my son has made from the moment he was born has been papped, snapped, uploaded and viewed a hundred times online. The problem with this is there are no photo albums to flick through of an evening, scroll through yes, but it’s not quite the same.

Over the summer I took a picture of my son that I loved so much I immediately made it my lock screen on my iPad (that’s the modern day family photo on your office desk that is). I adore the photo and gaze at it for a few minutes each day. I figured it was high time I got it framed and up on the wall for everyone else to gaze at too. That’s where Frame Again came in.

You might have heard of Frame Again, they were on Dragons Den earlier this year, got an offer from Peter Jones, turned him down and then crowd-sourced the funding they needed to develop their business, anyway, I digress. Frame Again is a really cute, innovative photo frame product. You can link to your Instagram page, or upload pictures directly from your mobile phone onto their website. If you’ve got a picture in mind for framing it literally takes only a couple of minutes to order your framed photo.

I was incredibly impressed with their really simple to use website. I just uploaded the image I wanted from Instagram and then chose my frame to go with it. Because the picture has a black background I went for a black and pink frame. The frames have magnets in them so you can build your collection and they will stick together, perhaps on a windowsill or mantelpiece. They have a small hole in the back if you want to hang them on the wall too.

Now, below is a picture of our photo in its frame, they are terrible pictures of a great product, I hold my hands up and hang my head in shame. It was the hardest thing to take a decent picture of.

The frames are 7×7 inches and are made of plastic, they are currently sold for £9.99 per frame which includes the printing and framing of your photo. There are a large number of colour combinations to choose from to compliment and enhance your image. I also understand that they do international delivery, making them great presents to send to friends and family abroad.

My frame arrived in super-quick time and was stylishly packaged, so it felt like I was opening a little treat. I was really impressed with the quality of the photograph and the frame itself. I immediately stood it on the windowsill in my bedroom, where it stayed for a few days until I hung it from a spare nail in our dining room; it will probably move again, it’s such a lovely object to have, I’m thinking of getting a few more framed up to go with it for my bedroom.

It’s a funky looking frame and I think the price is spot on, I’m really impressed by it and a little bit in love with it too, I can see why the Dragons were so keen on it. If it’s good enough for Peter Jones, then it’s good enough for me.

Note: Frame Again sent me this frame free of charge for review purposes. All images (yes, sorry about that again) and opinions are my own.

First time fish keeping – top tips for setting up your new aquarium

As a parent I think it’s incredibly important for children to have a pet, I think it teaches them some responsibility, it’s a good learning tool for lots of life’s lessons and can give them some companionship. The small boy, like me, utterly adores dogs, but I don’t think he’s ready for the responsibility, so we’ve bought him a fish tank for his birthday instead.

When I was a teenager I suddenly developed an interest in fish keeping. Off my own back I saved for a decent tank and spent weeks lovingly setting it up and getting it acclimatised for my new fish. I then walked a mile and a half to my local pet shop and bought two goldfish, then walked the mile and a half home carrying them very carefully in their plastic bag. It was the start of a long, beautiful but quite silent friendship between me and those fish which lasted a good ten years.

Having just bought and set up a cold water fish tank (ably assisted by and) for the small boy, here are a few tips for practical fish keeping…

You will need…

An aquarium
Gravel
An Aquarium filter suitable for the size of tank
A heater – only if you’ve got tropical fish, you won’t need this for a cold water tank
Lighting – essential in a tropical tank, quite nice to have in a cold water tank, especially if it’s in a dark corner
Some decorations, such as real or plastic plants, castles, that kind of thing
Fish food – what kind you get depends on the kind of fish you’re keeping
A small fish net – to help scoop them up when you need to
Aquarium Glass Scrubber – this is essential, the glass can get murky pretty quickly
A big (clean) bucket

When you get home wash and wash and wash the gravel in plenty of clean water (no soap or detergent) until the water runs clear, give anything you’re putting in the tank a good wash too, again no soap or detergents.

Set the cold water tank up by putting your gravel in, placing your filter in position and starting to fill the tank with cold tap water, once you’ve filled it to the required level, place any weed or ornaments where you want the in your cold water tank, set the filter running and leave for a minimum of 48 hours for the tank to settle and the water to come up to a good ambient temperature.

Once the cold water tank has settled you can pop off to your local, reputable pet shop and choose your fish. Goldfish and Black Mollies make good fish to start off with. Don’t forget to give them suitable names like Bubble & Squeak and keep an especially close eye on them for the first few days at least.

If you look after your tank, keep it clean and healthy, feed your fish regularly then you can have a happy tank for life. I love having an aquarium in the house, sitting and watching the fish is a pretty restful thing to do. Fish keeping is a lovely hobby, once you’ve bought all the kit (we got ours from allpondsolutions ) fish keeping is a fairly inexpensive pass-time. I can’t wait to populate our cold water tank and start teaching the small boy how to care for even smaller creatures.

New Autumn Boots from Jacamo

The adorable Hodge, aka The Husband spends his days in work boots and his evenings and weekends in trainers. I love it when he puts the effort in and dresses up a little bit when we go out, it’s nice seeing him look smart, for somehow he miraculously becomes extra good looking. This week he’s been trying out a pair of slouchy desert boots from Jacamo.

The slouchy desert boot is a classic but fashionably attractive design. We ordered the lovely deep chocolate colour boot, though it’s also available in stone, which is a paler brown boot. It’s made from suede and the sole is sturdy but not too thick. They look brilliant with jeans worn on a casual night out and I think they are a nice looking autumn boot.

I asked Hodge to put it to the man test. He walked to the pub and back wearing them. Did they rub? No, they were comfortable, he has one foot slightly wider than the other which means sometimes one shoe rubs or the other shoe is virtually falling off, but he informed me that these were comfortable and fine to wear.

He stood at the bar for an hour or so, were they kind to his feet? He said they didn’t make his feet hurt and he was comfortable standing in them.

I can already tell that Hodge will wear these to death, he’s pretty fussy about his footwear so I’m pleased he’s found something which suits him, looks smart and isn’t a pair of trainers.

Well, I think that’s quite enough from me, here’s what Hodge had to say about his fancy new Jacamo boots…

“The boots were very comfy and it was nice to be wearing something which smart yet casual looking and which, I think will go with the vast majority of jeans. Due to my different sized feet, it can be quite difficult to find footwear which keeps both feet happy, but after wearing the desert boots for a couple of hours, neither foot was putting in any complaints. I’m very much looking forward to wearing them again”.

Note: We were sent these Jacamo boots free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are our own.

Chatterbox Walls – personalised prints

Being the daughter of a printer and then marrying another printer, I am a huge fan of typography. I used to be a bit of a font geek, but times change, but I still on occasion admire quality kerning. The small boy’s birthday is rapidly approaching and I was looking for something special for him, something which fits our style and I stumbled across Chatterbox Walls who do creative, personalised, typographical prints, at what I think are reasonable prices.

They have an extensive range of prints available for all occasions. We chose the superhero print from the kids range, it’s so easy to customise, just choose your colour, input your information and you see a preview of your print. It is incredibly simple.

You can choose from a range of different print sizes, you can have it printed on high quality glossy paper or on canvas. They also stock frames for your prints too. We chose the unframed A4 print on glossy paper; we ordered it and it arrived quickly and well packaged.

We were very impressed with the quality of the print, the printer husband examined it carefully and his professional opinion was that it was very high quality and an excellent gift.

There are lots of plus points to Chatterbox Walls, the prints will make excellent presents for all occasions, I love that you can personalise them completely, and that there are a range of finishes to choose from. Our print cost £14.99 and the canvas prints start at £39.99, which I think is reasonable, they have free standard delivery on all orders too.

I can’t wait to give him the framed print for his birthday, I think he’ll love it and hopefully treasure it for years to come.

Note: We were sent the Chatterbox Walls print free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are our own.

Review: Easybelts for Big Boy Pants

Come September my small boy (and only baby) will be toddling off to join the nursery at school, which means it’s school uniform time. Over the last few weeks we’re been stocking up on uniform bits and pieces from supermarkets and specialist shops, but we needed a belt to go with his big boy trousers, something that his small boy hands could manage. Step forward the Easybelt.

The Easybelt is a canvas belt designed for little fingers and people who’d struggle with normal, fiddly belts. You pull the end of the belt through the D ring, pull it back and press it securely against the Velcro. It is a ridiculously simple idea and I can’t believe it’s taken so long to invent it.

The D rings come in two sizes, which make them really easy for little fingers to use. We put the belt on the small boy and instinctively, without us showing him, he started to thread the belt through the D ring. It’s such a simple, instinctive design.

The belts come in a range of sizes and designs. We got him a plain black belt to wear with his school uniform, and a funky brown belt with a racing car design on it for casual wear. There are lots of designs to choose from and different coloured belts to mix and match with outfits.

The belts range in cost from £5 – £7 which I think is a very reasonable price. They’re excellent quality and seem comfortable to wear. Because they’re Velcro the belt will grow with the child, meaning you’re likely to get a good few years of wear out of the belt.

It’s a clever invention, simple but intuitive, as the best things so often are.

Note: We were sent two Easybelts for review purposes. The opinions expressed in this review are unbiased and my own. The images are also my own.

New Shoes

I don’t actually like shopping. All that walking around looking at things and trying to decide if you need them in your life or not. It’s just not for me. I tend to do most of my shopping online these days, but there are some things you can’t get away with buying online. I’m talking about shoes.

My pesky little monkey keeps growing and I’ve heard rumour that he won’t stop for another 13 or 14 years. Every so often he has a massive growth spurt and overnight seems to be wearing clothes at least two sizes too small for him. His feet too. We get him measured regularly and despite this overnight he goes from sprinting round the place like Mo Farrah in a soft play centre, to hobbling about and crying because his shoes don’t fit. It is at best exasperating.

On Saturday we went on a shoe buying mission. The brief: to buy shoes and wellies since he’d grown out of them, again. Being shopping haters we left home at the crack of dawn (about ten past nine) to avoid most of the shoppers, the plan to be in and out before most people had finished their breakfast.

As ever the plan worked and we sped into Clarks. We sped around Clarks, got him measured and picked up what we needed. In this case a rather fetching pair of blue wellies, ready for our English “summer” holiday later this year and a pair of Dino-tastic shoes for general use with a dinosaur hologram on the side. He was happy. We were happy and what’s more, we were home in time for Saturday Kitchen.

My Unique & Special Mother’s Day Gift

Mother’s Day is nearly here and I don’t know about you, but I really struggle to find inspiration for presents for my Mum which aren’t the usual wine, chocolates and flowers. Now I love wine, chocolates and flowers, but sometimes it’s nice to pull something a little bit special and a little bit different out of the bag.

When I stumbled across local Manchester company, Feb25 I knew they were definitely a little bit different and a little bit special. They create lovely, unique and personalised designs and prints for any occasion. From something unique and lovely for your baby; a present for a new home or for a birthday, or on this occasion, Mother’s Day.

The prints are designed from scratch following an easy consultation about the recipient. Feb25 then put some ideas together and come up with a few designs to choose from, you can then tweak them as much or as little as you want for no extra charge.

Feb25 are so helpful and professional, I can’t fault their service. They worked with my boys to come up with a design that was very me, I was blown away by the results. So much so that I commissioned them to do a similar version for my blog redesign (more of which at a later date).

For such a personal and personalised, professional service you’d expect the prints to cost the earth, not so, they start from around £20 depending on what you want, but they’re a brilliant price considering the work that goes into them by their talented design team.

So if you want something unique, special and lovely, for your unique, special and lovely Mum this Mother’s Day, then I can heartily recommend Feb25. Check out their website, drop them a line and see what loveliness they can create for you.

Disclaimer: Feb25 worked with me and my family to create my gorgeous bespoke, just for me print. The print was given to me for free in return for an honest write-up of their brilliant service.

For more gift ideas check out my Mother’s Day gift guide here.

Top Tips for Buying a Used Car

I am a bird and I don’t drive. I never learned, well I did start to learn but an accident (yes, I have more accidents than Mr Bump) meant that I never finished my lessons and ultimately I couldn’t be bothered. This does not mean by any stretch of the imagination that I hate cars, quite the opposite, I love cars.

At the webuyanycar Negotiation Academy a few weeks ago I got to reconnect with my inner petrol head and meet a real life petrol head, Richard Evans.

Richard is the Head of Technical Services at webuyanycar.com and has been a mechanic for over 30 years. What he doesn’t enthusiastically know about cars isn’t worth knowing. On the day we got to give a car a once over, checking for things that might give clues to a cars history and things to look out for which might be costly at a later date. Richard was amazing and is a key part of the webuyanycar academy team. His top tips in full are written below, but I urge you to check out his YouTube video.

Richards’ Top Tips:

Essential checks on a car forecourt to make sure you’re paying what the car is worth.

Colour panels: Stand 2m away from the car and check the panels match. If they don’t, work has been carried out -ask what and why.
Dashboard: Make sure no lights are illuminated when you run the engine. Especially engine management, anti-lock brake and airbag lights as they point to problems that are very expensive to fix.
Integrated satnav: Make sure that a dis is there. If not, it’s useless and a replacement is costly.
Tyre tread: Beware of anything that is less than 3mm as they will need to be changed.
Bolt-on panels: Check bolts to see if they have been turned. If the paint chips off the car has had work done – again ask why.
Modified cars: Enhancements are often done by DIY enthusiasts – meaning dangerous wiring, expensive insurance and a car thrashed to within an inch of its life. Check for alloy wheels, low suspension and souped up exhausts.
Air conditioning: Turn on and test it to avoid an uncomfortable or costly summer!
Service history: Check the paperwork is correct by calling the garage last to see it.
Mileage: Check the stats add up by visiting www.gov.uk/check-mot-history-vehicle.
Upholstery: Lift up any mats in the car, look out for any rips, tears and burns or even holes from high heels.

Disclaimer: I was invited to attend the Negotiation Academy, given a scrummy afternoon tea and my travel and childcare expenses were covered.

Anticipation

This is something I wrote ages ago that I found when I was sorting out some paperwork. I still open all parcels the same way…

A parcel arrived in the post, my name and address written in neat black ink, the sides of the parcel were stuck in regular lines with brown tape.

I gave the box an excited shake, whatever it was thudded around inside. I put the box down and thought hard about what it could be. I picked it up again and felt the weight of it in my hands. Intrigued and excited I tore at the paper, but the brown tape got the better of me. I desperately gnawed at it with my teeth. Breaking through and ripping the paper off.

Finally the contents began to reveal themselves to me. A bright orange box, embossed with four letters. D.K.N.Y. I squealed with excitement.

The box was cellotaped shut which slowed me down a little. I was desperate to get in. I rushed to the kitchen and grabbed a knife, using it to hack at the tape until I finally managed to break through. I frantically scrabbled to open the box.

And there, inside, resting gorgeously, all new and lovely were a pair of beautiful D.K.N.Y shoes.

It was a D.K.N.Y dream come true.

Coeur and Cava on The Cobbles

Approximately 12 million years ago when I was a mere slip of a girl, I had a Saturday job on Warburton Street in Didsbury. I worked for Morten’s Bookshop doing the lowest paid job in the history of the world. It did however mean that for years after, I had a Rain-Man style ability to name the author of any book you could think of. That’s gone now. These days I can barely name the people I’m actually related to, but I digress.

Last week Harriet & Dee invited me back to the second most famous cobbled street in Manchester, (the first being Coronation Street, obvs) to have a look at their range of Coeur De Lion jewellery and have a gander around their gorgeous, glittery Santa’s grotto of a shop. They also said something about Cava and mulled wine, but we all know I rarely touch the stuff (what? Don’t look at me like that).

Harriet & Dee is a gorgeous boutique gift shop, there’s one in Didsbury and one in Chester. I frequent the Didsbury one and it’s a cracking little shop with a really interesting and well sourced array of cards, gifts and jewellery. It is like no gift shop I’ve ever been in. I basically walk in and just mutter “I want that, I want that, I want that” under my breath all the way round.

I do love what Harriet & Dee have done to Warburton Street; they’ve taken the lead in turning a little hidden corner of Didsbury into a sparkling gem. The Christmas lights and displays along the lane are beautiful and really stand out against the corporation lights on Wilmslow Road. It’s a festive treat just walking past.

Being teacher’s pet (Who Sir? Me Sir? Yes Sir), I was first through the door to meet an affable chap from Coeur De Lion. He showed me some of the Coeur range, talked me through the ethos and history of the company and even (get this) let me touch some.

For those not in the know, Coeur De Lion is a German jewellery company who hand make all their pieces in Stuttgart. Their jewellery is stunning and right up my cobbled street. It’s simple, colourful and versatile. To be honest I could sit here and struggle, like I am now, trying to find words to describe them, but life’s too short, just have a look at these pictures instead.

I love the style and simplicity of the pieces. A lot of them could be every-day wear which you can dress up or down. I’m not much of a jewellery wearer, but Coeur De Lion is so different, special and eye catching I quite fell in love. It’s also not hideously expensive. I have a brochure at home and I’ve already been through and circled what I’d like Father Christmas to bring me, that’s if he thinks I’ve been a good enough girl.

After I’d finished coveting shiny, gorgeous things, I tottered across the cobbles to the gift shop part of the Harriet & Dee empire. It was there I was forced, yes, FORCED to drink my first mulled wine of the season. I exchanged disdainful glares with Laura the shop cat and then decorated a bauble.

Now, I’m not very arty, but I was quite pleased with my efforts. If anyone wants to make me a Dragons Den style offer, I’m happy to discuss rolling out a range of baubles along similar lines. Or not, it’s fine.

So, if you want to start feeling festive, get yourselves down to Harriet & Dee. If you’re lucky Laura (the cat) might deign to say hello. Whatever you do, keep your eye out for my range of wonky baubles (not) coming soon to a shop near you!

Harriet & Dee is located at 8 Warburton St, Didsbury, Manchester M20 6WA Tel: 0161 438 2500