My Sunday Photo this week is one of my son telling me about the bauble he’d painted.
This Saturday afternoon it was raining cats and dogs, so we cancelled our outdoor plans and spent an hour or two doing some Christmas crafts. We each painted a bauble; mine was plain red with gold spots on, and his was multi-coloured. He was keen to tell me that he’s painted the world and pointed out which bits were the sea, America and Didsbury – the part of Manchester where we live.
We’ve actually done quite a lot this week, he’s been a donkey in his school nativity, he’s had a big birthday party (50 kids!), we’ve been to the theatre, visited a farm to buy our Christmas tree, but probably my favourite bit was quietly painting a bauble with him. Simple things eh…
I am seriously enjoying receiving my monthly Degustabox. It’s pretty exciting to be sent a box of nice things to eat on a regular basis, especially as right now I’m feeling really burnt out and lacking culinary inspiration.
This month I was told to expect a box of festive treats, and they weren’t wrong. My idea of festive treats are some nice nibbles and something a bit special for the cheese board, and I was not disappointed.
You can watch me unbox my Degustabox November 2015 here –
Including some special Degustabox Discoveries…
Jim Jams – Choc Spread
Williamson Tea – Lemon Sunshine
Tuckey’s – Digestives
There were some real treats in this Degustabox, I loved with salted caramel popcorn and really need to get my mitts on more. The Jim Jams chocolate spread was a hit with both the boy and me – you can’t beat chocolate spread on a toasted bagel!
I loved the Riveta crackers (both kinds) as I’ve already started to nibble at the Christmas cheese stash, likewise the Branston chutney and Bourne & Wallis pickled onions have been excellent accompaniments, as have the Tuckey’s Digestive biscuits – I love digestive biscuits with cheese and these have a slightly more savoury note, and are less sweet than the brand leader.
I’ve also been enjoying the gourmet coffee drops from Britvic – if you like flavoured coffee these are great, just a few drops in you mug of coffee or hot chocolate and you get a lovely vanilla or caramel hit.
There are lots of lovely treats in this latest Degustabox – lots going on and lots to enjoy. A merry Degustabox for a Merry Christmas!
Grab your discount! If you’d like to try Degustabox for yourself, you can get£6 off your first box with this discount code BLDEG15. You can find out more about Degustabox on their website.
Note: I was sent this Degustabox free of charge for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.
If you can’t guess from the giant Zippy Santa, this is Manchester Christmas Markets. Santa sits on the Town Hall and oversees the goings on at the market, which when I visited mainly involved mulled wine and a very very good plate of pie and mash.
I love the Christmas Market, I go every year with my best friend Bob who is also a freelance copywriter, it’s our annual “works Christmas do” and something I look forward to for months.
This was taken with my Nokia Lumia phone, a quick snap in between mulled wines, but it turned out pretty well. I like the way the bright lights are captured.
I love taking the small boy to the theatre, there’s something magical about watching him watch a live performance, seeing him fall into the story and immerse himself in the show. It’s something of a family tradition to go and see a show at Christmas. I think he’s a bit young (he’s 5) to understand the nuances of panto, but this year Mr Popper’s Penguins is on at The Lowry, so we plumped to book tickets for that.
Mr Popper’s Penguins is based on the popular book by Richard and Florence Atwater and of course the Jim Carrey film. The story follows Mr Popper, a painter and decorator by day, he dreams of Antarctic adventures. One day he is astonished when a packing crate arrives on his doorstep, out of which waddles a penguin!
This musical adaptation of Mr Popper’s Penguins is packed full of original songs and puppetry which bring life to a remarkable family of performing penguins. The performance is suitable for children aged 3+ and is 55 minutes long – ideal for small children and their short attention spans.
You can watch the “behind the scenes” video below…
Mr Popper’s Penguins is on at The Lowry, Salford Quays from Thursday 10th December 2015 to Sunday 10th January 2016.
We’ll be going, so watch this space for our review!
There’s nothing like the Christmas episode of your favourite programme to get you in the Christmas spirit. We were lucky enough to get our paws on a preview copy of the Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! DVD before its release date on 14th December. I can hand on heart say that you’re in for a treat. The DVD features the 22 minute long Christmas Special which will be shown on Christmas Day, as well as 4 other Pip Ahoy! episodes. The first 200o copies of the DVD sold will also include a bonus 9 track CD with 4 additional Karaoke tracks.
Take a trip down to Salty Cove this Christmas and join the festive fun as Pip, Alba and Skipper decorate the lighthouse; meet Alan’s special Christmas visitors – one of whom doesn’t like bouncing (can you believe it?) and meet Father Christmas!
I don’t want to give too much away, but the Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! episode is wonderfully heart-warming and full of festive fun. It truly made my heart melt a little, definitely made me want to get my hands on a penguin snowball, and really got me in the mood for Christmas. As for the small boy – he watched it four times in a row, which I think is a pretty good indication of how good it is.
The pre-school series Pip Ahoy! features Sir David Jason as the voice of Pip’s kindly uncle, Skipper, along with singer and reality TV star Stacey Solomon who sings the theme song and is the voice of the pink flamingo, Fuchsia.
The Pip Ahoy Christmas Ahoy DVD is released on 14th December, is rated Cert U and has a running time of 66 minutes (approx). The Pip Ahoy! Christmas Ahoy! DVD is available for order from Amazon today.
Working from home has many benefits and I know I’m very lucky. I’m generally disciplined enough to go to my home office every morning at 9am, and work virtually uninterrupted until the boys tumble in from school and work wanting their tea. One of the downsides of working from home is that my office is horribly cluttered. After getting sick of working from the sofa, a few months ago I set up a makeshift office space in the “man-room”. This has been great, but the room is still half filled with man stuff and my workspace is a chaotic mess.
I’ve been mulling over various solutions for a while now, but what was clear was that I needed more shelves which would accommodate books, files, boxes and various other bits. Motivating myself to put stuff in files and on the shelves would be a different matter entirely.
It was suggested I have a look at Shelfstore, they make made-to-measure shelving units for use around the home and in the office, so perfect for my home office then! The place I wanted to put the shelves was in an unusual spot, below a sloping ceiling, so I needed a shelving solution to fit my non-standard space. I also needed a few shelves I could access without having to bend.
The online design wizard – surprisingly simple!
Once I’d measured up, I just put the measurements into the Shelfstore online design wizard, selected how many shelves I needed and what my requirements were, and a design was suggested. It looked like a simple and robust design, and seemed ideal for what I needed it for. Tempted by the thought of a tidy and organised office space, I put my order in. A few days later my flat-pack shelving units arrived and just needed assembling.
The shelves arrived in several well-packed boxes, yes they were heavy but you’d expect that from proper wooden shelving. On a rainy Sunday my husband took them upstairs and began to put them together. They were supplied with a set of simple instructions and seemed fairly self explanatory. It didn’t take him that long to do, maybe 90 minutes for a pretty big shelving unit and there wasn’t that much swearing involved either!
When he’d finished he called me upstairs to show off his hard work. I have to say that I was really impressed. The shelves fit the space really well, they were the right height for my needs and seemed to be really strong (their website says each shelf can hold up to 100kg, which is just as well given how much clutter I have). I really like the pale pine colour of the shelves which brightens up the dark room too.
Made-to-measure shelves designed with the Shelfstore online design wizard, quick delivery, sturdy, attractive shelves built by a handsome man (not supplied). I’m a very happy bunny. Now I just need a PA to do my filing for me….
On Friday night, me and almost every blogger with a northern accent (and a few rogue southerners) went to the On The List Co-Op event in Manchester.
It was a lovely, glittery, if very damp evening. I was part of the Q&A Panel (which you can read about here, should you wish), a role I was very much dreading and had managed to work myself up into a ball of anxiety about for most of the week.
My picture (taken by Karen Hannah, aka Grumpyish Mum) shows me enjoying a post-panel drink and feeling relieved that I didn’t quite make a complete fool of myself for once.
I think you can see the relief on my face. It was a great night though, and it was lovely to see everyone again.
On Friday night I took part in the Blogger Q&A Panel at The Co-operative #OnTheList event in Manchester. I was, it’s fair to say, as nervous as hell. Unaccustomed as I am to public speaking and all that. If you know me then you know that I have raging social anxiety. I remain perplexed as to why I was asked to be part of the panel, but now it’s over it was a great (confidence building) experience and it had made me reflect on what I do and how I do it.
I don’t present myself as any kind of blogging expert, it’s an ever evolving world and I think even the best of us struggle to keep up at times. I’m lucky to be part of the North West blogger community, an incredibly supportive and hilarious bunch of friends who would do anything for anyone. Anyway, I digress.
Photo credit: Karen Hannah
The panel were sent most of the questions the day before so we could look things up and prepare ourselves a bit. I know on the night my answers were not as in-depth as they would be here, plus we didn’t manage to get through all the questions during the panel, so for those who may be interested here are my answers in full. Feel free to ask me anything, or almost anything…
Which social media channel is your best referrer, and why do you think that is?
I get a significant number of referrals from Twitter, then Facebook. I have a fairly respectable following on Twitter and I tweet and auto-tweet regularly. I could and should do more to promote my blog posts across the board, but I don’t have the time to do everything.
Do you vlog? If so, why, if not, why?
I don’t think I’d ever call myself a vlogger, I don’t think I’m very natural in front of the camera and I lack the technical skills to make decent vlogs, but brands want video content so I have done the occasional one. < Insert plug for YouTube channel here >
How do you prefer a brand to approach you, in order to work with you?
Preferably with a bottle of prosecco… A nice personalised email is always a good start, a PR or brand who are open to having a useful dialogue about what they want and what I can offer. I don’t mind if I get a “Hey Bloggers!” email, I do mind it when they get my name and the name of my blog wrong, which is either careless or rude.
I like to know specifics, what they want, when, how much etc, I don’t have the time, energy or patience to go back and forth for days, I don’t want vagaries, I want specific detail which I can work with.
Do you actively engage in SEO tactics, if so, which do you find the most useful?
My blog is self-hosted and is a WordPress blog. I have the Yoast plug-in which was recommended to me by nearly every blogger in the world and a whole bunch of SEO professionals. It’s really easy to use and it takes the thinking out of SEO, so I just follow the Yoast instructions and suggestions until it gives my blog post a green light. I get a lot of traffic from search engines, so I think I must be getting something right.
Do you have your own domain and if so, why, if not, why?
Yes, I’ve been self-hosted for about two years now, it doesn’t cost that much and it’s not that hard to go self-hosted. I blogged on the free WordPress for about 6 months before I made the leap and never looked back.
Do you think it’s acceptable to sometimes blog about something “off topic” or should we stick to what our readers are expecting from us?
My blog is HodgePodgeDays, hodge-podge literally means a jumble, so theoretically nothing is “off topic” for my blog. I think it’s your blog, your little corner of the internet, you can write what you damn well please; go off topic, what’s the worst that can happen? You might even get some new readers.
Do you stick to a regular post frequency and rhythm, or just blog spontaneously?
I used to try and blog regularly and did blog most days. These days I have less time due to work commitments and life so I blog less. I find I get a day or two every few weeks and I blog my socks off then, I try and schedule them out a bit. I think my lack of consistency in terms of frequency and content topic lets me down and is something I need to work on.
What opportunity do you see on networks like WhatsApp and SnapChat, if any?
I’m not on either. I’m a bit of an old skool Twitter junkie who is having a passionate affair with Instagram, as well as a love/hate relationship with Facebook.
Affiliate partnerships, do you partake and if so, are they worth the hassle?
I think I’ve been an Amazon affiliate for about two years and I’ve not earned a penny, so I’m obviously doing something very wrong. I know some people can earn good money from affiliate partnerships but I’ve yet to motivate myself to properly monetise my blog.
How is best to get to know new brands, to prospect opportunities?
Get to know brands via social media, be nice and chatty as well as open. I’m not a pushy person so I don’t often make the approach, I’d rather PRs and brands approach me, because then I don’t feel so much like a blagger. I sometimes cruise the #BloggersWanted and #BloggersRequest hashtags on Twitter, but some of the best relationships I’ve got with PRs and brands are where someone has recommended me to them and they like what I do and my helpful, professional attitude.
What’s the best opportunity you’ve had, because of your blog?
Three things really stand out for me. Earlier this year we went to Bluestone Wales and had a fabulous holiday we probably wouldn’t have been able to afford otherwise. I also got to be a judge at the International Cheese Awards, and in September I went to River Cottage with Foodies100 and a group of other food bloggers. There are no words to describe how amazing that experience was.
What’s the next step for you and your blog?
I don’t think there are enough hours in the day for me to be able to do what I really want with my blog. I know I need to re-balance the content and post more personal and family blog posts, because that’s what people really want to read about. I’d like to earn more money from my blog, not least to justify the time I spend on it.
So that was me and my answers. Any questions?
PS. Thank you to everyone who was lovely to me, you’re all so very kind xx
She thinks it’s all over…. it is now… phew! Photo credit: Karen Hannah
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!
When Duerr’s asked me to try their new Chunky Ginger Preserve, my first thought was lebkuchen. I’ve never made them before but I thought it might be nice to try. If you like ginger, you’ll like the Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve, it is sweet and spicy, full of chunks of fiery ginger, and great for cooking with, especially for my Lebkuchen cake.
One of my favourite things to eat around Christmastime is lebkuchen. Lebkuchen are a German cakey-biscuit, usually a soft spiced gingerbread covered in icing or chocolate, sometimes filled with jam, sometimes not. I find them irresistibly moreish and any bags which find their way into our house have to be kept from me and a small ration allocated daily.
You can find the recipe for my Lebkuchen Cake below, don’t be put off by the large-ish list of ingredients, it is literally stick them in a bowl and give them a good stir. It is probably the best cake I’ve ever made and a great alternative to the traditional Christmas cake if you don’t like all that fruit!
Recipe: Lebkuchen Cake
Serves 10
A delicious cake version of the traditional German Christmas treat – easier than it looks to make and truly scrumptious!
Ingredients
125g of butter, softened
150g sugar
1 egg yolk
3 eggs
200g of runny honey
3 heaped tablespoons of sour cream
300g self-raising flour
1 tablespoon cocoa powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon of baking powder
5 teaspoons of ground ginger
A pinch of salt
2 tablespoons of Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve
For the chocolate glaze
150 g dark chocolate
180 ml double cream
Instructions
In a large bowl beat the butter and sugar until well combined. One at a time add the following ingredients and mix – one egg yolk, honey and sour cream.
In a separate bowl mix the dry ingredients – self-raising flour, cocoa, baking soda, baking powder, pinch of salt and ginger together. Add the dry ingredients to the wet ingredients and gently mix.
Mix the eggs and add to the cake mixture and stir.
Pour the cake mix into a lined cake tin. I used a large loaf tin. Bake in a preheated oven at 180ºc. for about 50 minutes until it is cooked through. Remove from the oven and leave to cool, preferably overnight.
When cool cut the cake in two lengthways and spread the Duerr’s Chunky Ginger Preserve on the bottom layer, then sandwich back together.
To make the chocolate glaze, put the double cream in a saucepan and bring it to the boil and remove from the heat. Add the crushed chocolate and stir until dissolved, keep stirring until it has cooled a little, but is still liquid.
Pour the hot chocolate glaze on the top and sides of the Lebkuchen cake and leave it for a few hours to cool and set.
Notes
Five teaspoons of ground ginger does sound like a lot, but once it is cooked the fiery ginger tones down a little.
This does make a large cake, so you could split it into two cake tins and make two smaller cakes if you’d like.
If you don’t like dark chocolate you could use milk chocolate instead.
To taste test the lebkuchen cake properly we bought some proper lebkuchen from the Christmas Markets and I’m pleased that the two were comparable. Despite the long list of ingredients it was so easy to make and I will be making it again, probably several times before Christmas for various occasions.
With my Christmas recipe repertoire now including Finnish Joulutorttu and German Lebkuchen cake, we are in for a truly continental Christmas – and it’s all the better for it!
is available for order from Amazon today.
