Review: Trutex School Uniform

If I utter the words “school uniform” and “boys” in the company of the parents of boys a collective sign of despair goes around. The small boy (aged 5) came home on his last day before February half term with a hole in the knee of his trousers, the sole hanging comically off his new (bought at Christmas) school shoes, a white polo shirt that was now grey and covered in felt tip and a too-small school jumper. All of his uniform was beyond saving, so it all went in the bin.

We were sent a few new items from Trutex for him to put to the test. His school uniform is a smart and quite forgiving navy with black or grey trousers. Trutex sent us…

a navy crew neck sweatshirt
a pair of junior sturdy fit trousers
a navy polar fleece

Trutex School Uniform

As you can see he looks pretty happy with his new uniform. He certainly looked very smart and he loved his new school fleece.

The trousers we chose were sturdy fit with an elasticated back, he’s still at the age where he’s pulling trousers on like jogging bottoms, so these seemed the best option. He’s a tall boy for his age and has just had a growth spurt, so these should hopefully see him through to the summer and hopefully beyond. The fabric is thick and good quality, and the seams have been well stitched, they seem like they’d be able to withstand the rough and tumble of the playground.

The crew neck jumper is cosy with good stitching, and at size 5/6 long enough for my long boy to still have room to grow into. It fits well and is easy for him to pull on and off by himself.

Trutex School Uniform

The polar fleece jacket is his favourite new thing, ultra cosy and it fits him really well. He likes the zippy pockets where he can keep his treasures safe and sound. And it fits snugly under his waterproof jacket, so when it’s wet he can still be warm. As we move into spring and towards summer he will wear this jacket more and more, it’s very roomy without looking ginormous, so I’m confident that it’ll last him a good long while, and fleece washed beautifully too, so if he gets it mucky it’s no problem.

Our new Trutex School Uniform items appear to be very good quality, and importantly they operate an ethical trading policy, ensuring that their school uniform items are made ethically, so no child labour, no long working hours, no sweatshops are involved. I try not to think too hard sometimes about the realities of how some of our clothes are produced, but knowing that these are ethically traded does make me feel very positively about them.

Keeping a five year old boy looking reasonably smart and respectable in his school uniform can feel like an uphill battle, buying better quality, hard-wearing, easy care uniform makes a big difference. We’re very happy with this Trutex school uniform, it’s nice to see him looking both smart and adorable!

Visit the Trutex website to find your nearest stockist of Trutex school uniform.

Note: We were sent these items of Trutex school uniform for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

My Sunday Photo 21.2.16

As half terms go we’ve had a nice quiet one, a few play dates, some trips to the park in between showers and plenty of snuggling under a blanket time. We wont win any awards for adventure, but it’s been the kind of restful week we’ve needed. On Saturday in an attempt to blow a few cobwebs away we headed off to Rode Hall near Congleton in Cheshire to enjoy their annual snowdrop walk.

The weather was not kind, but wrapped up against the elements we managed to enjoy two hours of outdoor fun and fresh air; and we were rewarded with a hearty lunch and a warm by the fire when we’d finished.

My favourite picture from our visit is of one of my favourite places at Rode Hall, the boathouse, a small wooden boathouse, covered in moss and clinging to the side of the lake. It fills me full of memories of Swallows and Amazons and more recently a visit to the Dylan Thomas Boathouse.

It’s as pretty as a picture, even on a grim day and fills my head full of adventure and mystery.

You can read about our visit to Rode Hall here.

Days Out: Rode Hall Snowdrop Walks

Having enjoyed a quiet half term at home, by weekend we were itching to get out for some fresh air and exercise, so we headed off to Rode Hall near Congleton, home of the fabulous Just So Festival, to blow away some cobwebs on their famous annual snowdrop walk.

On what was probably one of the wettest and miserable days we’ve seen so far this year, we were undeterred by the weather and determined to enjoy a day out at Rode Hall. Wrapped up against the elements, we headed off into the Old Wood to explore the glorious hide and seek woodland, and to see if we could find all of the willow animals dotted around. These are new this year and the simple act of looking up and down and all around for these willow creatures makes for an interesting adventure for children and adults.

Rode Hall Snowdrop

We were given the job of finding the seven woodland creatures, some were hidden up trees, around corners, hovering over ponds, lurking in the undergrowth, it was a real job to find them all, but there’s a certain satisfaction in finding them all and having a good look at these beautifully made willow animals.

The woodland walk is approximately a mile long, but we spent a little over two hours exploring the woodland and finding all the interesting little nooks and crannies, like the grotto, the stew pond and the sugar pool, it felt very magical and you can see why it is the perfect place for the Just So Festival. Walking down to the lake we enjoyed drizzly views of the boathouse and Birthday Island, it all felt very Swallows and Amazons.

Rode Hall Snowdrop

I was thrilled to see that as well as the snowdrops we’d come to see, that some of my favourite winter flowers, Hellebores (the pink flower above) were in abundance. The Old Wood is a fantastic place to explore whatever the weather and even in the depths of February it is full of life and interest.

After our time exploring the woods we headed to the more formal areas, the rose garden, past the summer house and Colonel’s Walk and into the walled kitchen garden. By this time we had worked up an appetite for some lunch and thankfully they have a rather excellent tearoom complete with a roaring fire.

The tearoom is a gem of a place, the menu is packed with homegrown and homemade treats. I opted for a couple of Staffordshire oatcakes filled with melted cheese, hubs had a chicken and bacon pie with peas and gravy and the boy had a sausage bap. The homemade cakes looked so good we were powerless to resist, so we didn’t, besides we’d earned a treat!

I love a good tearoom and I can say with confidence that the Rode Hall tearoom is one of the cosiest and best I’ve been to in a long time.

The Rode Hall Snowdrop Walks end on 6th March, but if you miss out this year, their bluebell walks begin on 30th April, an event we have already penciled in our diary!

Rode Hall Snowdrop Walks 30 January – 6 March
Open Tues – Sun 11-4pm (Closed Mons)
Admission £5/Children 5-15 £1
For more information visit their website www.rodehall.co.uk/snowdrops

Rode Hall Snowdrop

Review: Hope’s Relief Intensive Rescue

I’ve had patches of eczema on my body since I was a toddler, and generally I’m very prone to dry skin, more so these days now I’m on the countdown to 40 (hard to believe I know *coughs*). When I was asked to try out some Hope’s Relief skincare products I jumped at the chance.

Hope’s Relief is Australia’s best selling hand cream, and they have a range of other products designed to relieve eczema prone, itchy, cracked or dry skin. The Hope’s Relief range includes intensive rescue cream, moisturising lotion, body wash and herbal haircare products, all of which are made with natural products and is free from parabens and other nasties.

I sampled the moisturising lotion, the intensive dry skin rescue and the goats milk body wash.

Hope's relief

The moisturising lotion is suitable for face and body, it’s a general lotion which sinks in quickly, leaves no smell on your skin and helps my skin to feel moisturised and soft. I slather it on all over after a shower and my skin very quickly started to feel softer, smoother and it had fewer dry patches on it.

The intensive dry skin rescue cream is altogether a much more intense product, it is thicker and better for rubbing into patches of eczema, psoriasis or just really dry bits. Like any cream of this nature it’s best to do a little patch test first to make sure your skin likes it, my skin did, it drank it up. I applied it to some of my drier patches and it did give them a boost and within a few days they started to look and feel better.

Probably my favourite product of the three I tried was the Hope’s Relief Goats milk, shea and cocoa butter body wash. I was almost expecting it to smell goaty, but it doesn’t, it’s got quite a neutral smell, it lathers up beautifully and really leaves my skin feeling great. I really love the body wash and have expressly forbidden anyone else from using it!

Hope’s Relief is made with a range of natural products including Hospital Grade Organic Manuka Honey NPA 10+, Gotu Kola, Aloe Vera, Organic Calendula and Licorice Root to soothe and repair damaged skin. Their range is suitable for all ages, even for newborn infants and is free from sodium laurel sulphates, parabens, coal tar, artificial colours and fragrances and contains no mineral oils or petrochemicals.

I found that using these Hope’s Relief products for a couple of weeks did make a difference to the feel of my skin and that the cracks and cuts on my hands in particular are looking much better.

For further information please visit http://www.hopesrelief.co.uk/

My Sunday Photo 14.2.16

Ah-ha! I bet you were expecting something with hearts and flowers since it’s Valentine’s Day, sadly not. Yesterday we visited SEA LIFE Manchester and had a whale of a time (pun intended). You can read all about our aquatic adventures here, but for now I’ll leave you with this picture of the boy, tackling a tunnel and finding Nemo.

SEA LIFE Manchester

Half Term Fun at SEA LIFE Manchester

February half term is a tough one, the weather is unrelentingly gloomy, and I have no desire at all to stand shivering in the park afternoon after afternoon watching the boy hit muddy puddles with an equally muddy stick. The sensible thing to do is to plan a week of mainly indoor activities, where they can explore, have fun and maybe learn a little something too. SEA LIFE Manchester have launched a new attraction just in time for half term, so we went along to check out the new Octopus Hideout.

SEA LIFE Manchester

We’ve never been to SEA LIFE Manchester before, the small boy loves an aquarium, so he was very much looking forward to his visit. We were in for a real treat, the layout and design of the centre has been incredibly well thought out, with atmospheric lighting and mood music playing throughout, as well as lots of interactive displays so you don’t just feel like you’re looking at things, you’re getting involved too.

We were wowed by the range of aquatic life they’d managed to fit into the aquarium, with sharks, turtles and rays swimming about, as well as more fish than we dared to count. There were weird and wonderful species of fish, most of which were imaginatively displayed in shaped tanks, some of which you could walk under, peep into through portholes, or just stand in awe at the underwater scene in front of you.

SEA LIFE Manchester

The Octopus Hideout is a brand new attraction which was launched just in time for this half term, we met up with Dan the curator who was able to tell us more about the creatures in the new Octopus Hideout. Although technically we were looking at more than just octopus, we were looking at cephalopods.

Cephalopods include octopus, squid, cuttlefish and nautilus, they can change colour, texture and body shape to blend into their surroundings, and if threatened they can squirt a cloud of ink as a smokescreen or decoy. Cephalopods have three hearts and blue blood, and they are thought to be among the most intelligent creatures in the ocean.

We met the Nautilus, a slightly weird looking cephalopod with a hard shell. It can alter its buoyancy by filling its chambers with water. They were quite hypnotic to look at, pulsating and bobbing up and down in the water. Nautilus is an ancient creature which has been around for more than 500 million years. We also met the Common Octopus (called Octopus Prime), as well as the tiny Atlantic Long Arm Octopus and Cuttlefish.

Hank the Giant Pacific Octopus, Photo courtesy of SEA LIFE Manchester

Dan showed us Hank the Giant Pacific Octopus, he explained that octopus were nocturnal and Hank, like me, isn’t great in the mornings. Hank was pretty big, but was fast asleep on a rock, having disguised himself as a rock, so he was grey. Dan told us when they fed him earlier (he enjoys a crab three times a week) he was bright red. Hank was fascinating and we learned a great deal about this mysterious creature.

We took our time looking around everything, paused mid way to let off some steam in the soft play room half way around, had a funny photograph taken, touched a starfish or two and learned all about life under the sea. It beats shivering in the park any day!

To find out more about the Octopus Hideout and to book tickets for this half term and beyond, visit the SEA LIFE Manchester website.

Note: We were invited guests of SEA LIFE Manchester. All opinions are our own.

Health: 8 benefits of drinking sour cherry juice

After reading about the benefits of drinking sour cherry juice I have decided to give it a try to see if it makes me feel any better. It is no hardship for me, as I love cherry juice with something of a passion, so a small glass twice a day is actually something I really look forward to.

Sour cherry juice is different to cartons of juice you might buy from the supermarket. You only need 30mls of this highly concentrated juice which I dilute with water to make a refreshing drink. It certainly puts a spring in my step after I’ve drunk it and it makes me feel really great, it’s hard to describe but I feel super-healthy for about an hour afterwards and I’ve only been drinking it for a week now.

What are the benefits of drinking sour cherry juice?

A glass of juice is one of your recommended five a day. Drinking one glass means I’ve made a start on my fruit and veg portions for the day.
Optima sour cherry juice is made from high quality Montmorency cherries which are packed with powerful antioxidants known as flavonoids. These are a type of antioxidant which is known to fight infection and can have a positive impact on the function of your immune system.
Research by the Macrothink Institute in 2012 revealed that the antioxidants in sour cherry juice can reduce pain and significantly reduce inflammation from osteoarthritis. As a chronic pain sufferer I think that this is worth trying out.
Sour cherry juice is naturally high in potassium, which helps to maintain your blood pressure, nerve impulses, digestion and heart rate. A glass of cherry juice contains about 10% of your daily allowance of potassium.
Cherries are an excellent source of vitamins A and C.
A 2007 study in America looked at the effect of sour cherry juice on rats and they found that including sour cherry juice in your daily diet could lower cholesterol, lead to reduced abdominal fat storage and help to protect against metabolic syndrome.
Some recent research in America had indicated that sour cherry juice may help improve the quality and duration of sleep, reduce the severity of insomnia and increase overall sleep efficiency.
A 2014 study by Northumbria University found that cherry juice promoted faster recovery from exercise, maintained muscle function and reduced the incidence and severity of exercise-induced inflammation.

cherry juice

I’ve been trying out the Optima Montmorency Cherry Juice. It is a 500ml bottle and I have approximately 60mls a day, a little goes a long way. The ingredients are Montmorency Cherry Juice Concentrate (99.8%) and the preservative: Potassium Sorbate, so it’s not packed full of sugar or chemicals. Each 30ml serving of the juice contains 78 calories, but you can dilute this down as much as you want.

As someone who lives with chronic pain, I am constantly taking pain killers including anti-inflammatory medication and I really struggle to get to sleep every single night. If all of these health benefits are true, then for me drinking sour cherry juice is a no brainer, and I love how it tastes too, so it’s an easy, pleasurable thing for me to do and one which could potentially promote my own good health.

Review: Valley Mill Wax Melts & Soap

Working from home I often like to light scented candles to fool my brain into thinking I’m left the building and gone to work, it sounds a bit silly, but it’s just something I do when I start work for the day along with switching on my laptop. One of the things I sometimes have on the go are scented wax melts, I was sent a box of these perfumed treats from Valley Mill to try out for myself.

Wax melts (sometimes known as tarts) are little disks of scented wax which you melt in a special burner using the heat from an unscented tealight. The wax sets again once the candle has gone out and it can be reused and reused over and over, all you need is a new unscented tealight to warm it through again.

As with all candles the wax melts should never be left to burn unattended and shouldn’t be used when children and animals are around. Better safe than sorry!

I chose the Welsh Cake Soy Melts which are currently £6.25 for a box of 5 melts. The melts are set in a distinctive cog shape, which obviously melts into a puddle of scented wax when in use.

The Welsh Cake melts really do smell of Welsh Cakes, they have a really good throw too, meaning my whole house was filled with the fragrance of baking, These would be great to burn in the kitchen to give the impression of domestic goddessness without ever switching the oven on!

valley mill

Valley Mill also sent us a chunky bar of their Rosemary & Lime Natural Soap to try. With two mucky boys in the house I wanted a soap which was natural and nourishing, but which also had antiseptic properties.

Apparently rosemary and lime have been used in skin care for hundreds of years for their cleansing and revitalising properties. This natural soap contains shea butter, coconut oil, olive oil, palm oil and castor oil to make it even more nourishing for hardworking hands.

The Rosemary & Lime Natural Soap is colourful and chunky, when you rub it between your hands it foams a little, but throws up a delicious scent (rosemary is one of my all time favourite fragrances). My hands were squeaky clean and sweet smelling after I’d used the soap. I think this would look eye catching in any soap dish and is good value at £4.

Valley Mill stock a selection of lovely products and gifts, all handmade in Wales, and almost all on my Christmas list!

For more information on these Valley Mill wax melts and natural soaps visit their website.

Note: We were sent these Valley Mill products for review purposes, all images and opinions are our own.

The FoodMaestro App – managing dietary intolerances

We were asked to review the FoodMaestro app. All images and opinions are our own.

Growing up I had no food allergies; though I remember being tested to try and get to the bottom of why my eczema would sometimes flare up. It’s not unheard of for people to grow out of some allergies, but I managed to grow into some.

I turned vegetarian when I was 13, before the days of Quorn and Linda McCartney products. After about ten years of vegetarianism I developed an intolerance to mushrooms. I get hideous cramps and other things I won’t go into. Suffice to say it’s not worth me eating mushrooms.

More recently I’ve developed an intolerance to rich dairy; so cream and ice cream are out, cheese is eaten in moderation. I try and have a few entirely dairy free days a week to reduce the unfortunate consequences of this.

The boys are thus far ok, able to eat anything and everything put in front of them. It’s just me, the mushroom and dairy intolerant vegetarian who makes meal planning more difficult at home.

I was introduced to the newly launched FoodMaestro app which allows you to create personalised dietary profiles for each family member; logging allergies, intolerances and lifestyle choices that affect their diet.

The app was built in partnership with Guys & St Thomas Hospital Trust and makes it easier to manage food-related conditions. It currently has a directory of more than 75,000 products and 25,000 ingredients, with more products being added all the time.

It’s easy to search for food products by name or category and find items that are suitable for your diet. The app checks the nutritional information on each product and tells you if it isn’t suitable for you or your family to eat. This allows you to easily build lists of ‘safe’ foods and identify potential problems.

FoodMaestro

Once you’ve downloaded the free FoodMaestro app you just put in the details of your family members and their dietary requirements; it’s a simple swipe to choose from a range of allergy and intolerances as well as filtering into vegan, meat free, gluten free options, to name just a few.

You can then set about creating a shopping list. I went about my kitchen scanning the bar-codes of the items we were starting to run low on; as each item scanned the app would tell me if it matched our dietary requirements. You don’t have to scan the bar-codes; you can write up your list and the app will check each item for you. Once you’ve finished you can share your list, I chose to email it to myself so I could view my list when I went shopping. I normally have my shopping list on my phone anyway.

The FoodMaestro app currently lists products from most large brands as well as the supermarkets; Waitrose, Morrisons and Asda, and they are adding Tesco products to the app shortly.

I can see this app being very useful for me. Although I’m a keen reader of labels, sometimes I think a product is ok and it turns out not to be; then I’m poorly for a few days. This will also be great for when we have people round for tea who I know have food allergies and intolerances; helping me to double check that I’m not going to make them poorly. I think the FoodMaestro app is a big step forward.

You can find out more about the FoodMaestro app on their website and you can follow them on Twitter for news and updates.

FoodMaestro

= This is a collaborative post =

Top Ten Toy Picks from Spring Fair 2016

Over the weekend I went to Spring Fair in the Birmingham NEC, if you’ve never been, it is THE event to attend if you’re a retailer looking for new suppliers and stock. I went with two hats on, as a blogger and as the Marketing and PR person for a toy shop I work for. The Spring Fair was huge, every hall in the NEC was filled with a different category, but we (me and That Lancashire Lass) were primarily interested in the children’s toys. It was a long and tiring day, but it was incredibly interesting and I’ve got a better idea about what will be under everyone’s Christmas tree this year (too soon?).

Here are my top picks from the toy hall at Spring Fair 2016 (Hall 5).

Hippychick Ltd (stand 5Eo1) – Pl-ug Den Building Kits, retailing from £12.99, it is an innovative den building kit, by using the specially designed hooks, suckers, clamps and pegs you can build your own indoor or outdoor den. All you need is a sheet or blanket and some imagination.

Bigjigs (stand 5G01) – I’m a big fan of the Bigjigs wooden toys, but their “Green Toys” were new to me. The Green Toys are classic toys constructed from recycled plastic and other environmentally friendly materials. I particularly liked their selection of chunky vehicles which had a nice retro vibe. Suitable for ages 1+ I know my 5 year old would very happily play with these.

Fiesta Crafts Ltd (stand 5L04) – Fiesta Crafts are well worth looking at full stop, but my favourite new thing on their stand were their “Stickabouts”. A bit like modern day fuzzy-felt, the Stickabouts have a scene on a board and a load of “stickers” to place, but these glue-free stickers easily peel off and re-stick anywhere you want. If they stick to the wall then they easily peel off. This is a bit of a welcome sticker revelation to me, all the fun of stickers but without having to spend hours scraping them off the wall.

Clockwork Soldier (Stand 5M49) – these are a new brand to me, but I loved the look of the products and I want mentally picturing them on the wall in my son’s room and seeing him playing with some of the craft kits. They have a beautiful range which includes space, dinosaurs, robots, superhero and dress up. I’m going to campaign hard to see these in the toy shop, I think they’ll sell incredibly well!

Keel Toys (Stand 5D20) – I can’t resist a cuddly toy, but my eye was drawn to the Christmas Elves, these are soft, cuddly and smiley Elves which would be a great gift for December, they’re reasonably priced and would be a jolly visitor from the North Pole is you were going to do Elf on a Shelf this year.

Brainstorm Ltd (Stand 5L27) – one word, StikBots. I think these are going to be pretty big this year, these are small pose-able plastic robot figures with suckers on their hands and feet which you can use to create stop-frame animations with using a downloadable app. They come in an array of colours and will be great for creative kids.

Orchard Toys Ltd (Stand 5K41) – this stand is worth visiting just to see the Giant Railway Puzzle linked up to the Giant Road Puzzle, and the village and the airport. The Giant Road Puzzle is a classic, and they’ve recently launched a whole raft of new puzzles to accompany that and I know that these will sell incredibly well in the toy shop and kids will love making their own town and transport system at home. Fantastic.

Marbel Ltd (Stand 5K50) – the Marbel stand was showing off some of their new Hape wooden toys products, I’m not sure what if anything I’m allowed to say, but if I use the words “wooden train”, “xylophone” and “just awesome” you know what to look out for later this year. Hape products are really well made wooden toys at a good price, great for babies and toddlers.

Stepping Stones Marketing (Stand 5L47) – are the UK distributors for Lilliputiens baby and nursery toys, these are quite captivating soft toys, but with hidden surprises designed to stimulate the child’s senses. We were quite taken by the lemur cot and pram toy as well as the adorable fox, we liked the gender neutral colouring and the quality of these products.

Jamm Toys (Stand 5L10) – I’m new to Jamm Toys and I was impressed by their range, in particular the cool retro wooden scooters stood out to me, they look like Vespas but for small children. I’d be surprised if I don’t see a few of these being scooted around our local park come Christmas!

spring fair 2016

Spring Fair was enormous, if you’re going then go with a game plan, wear comfortable shoes and be prepared for a very long day.

I’ve picked out just ten things I loved from my day at Spring Fair, but honestly there were hundreds of fantastic toys to go and marvel at. I had a really interesting time and I learned an awful lot about toys and what will be big this year. Fantastic!