Christmas Gift Guide - Personal Planner Review

I was very excited when I was contacted by the lovely people at personal planner, especially as they were already on my Christmas list.

See there's that word, LIST, I love a list, at home I have a kitchen blackboard for meal planning, a hall blackboard for the kids activities, I have to do lists, shopping lists and task lists for the house! Give me a spreadsheet and I'm a happy girl. I sometimes think that all the organisational skills I used at work have manifested themselves into my home now that I'm a sahm.

So as soon as I had 5 minutes without children (well as soon as they were all asleep) I was logged on to www.personal-planner.co.uk and creating my new book. It's dead easy, step by step you are guided through choosing all the different options, front cover, back cover, page colour, personalising the pages with lists etc, adding birthdays and special dates, then choosing your back sections. You can have future years displayed, lined or squared paper, even music sheets, maps or colouring pages. I, like many of my mummy friends, chose the colouring pages. What can I say the kid in me was excited at the option to have something to colour in! 

I chose the large size as it's the same dimensions as Termites baby health record book so will sit nicely in my changing bag. I also love photo gifts so the obvious choice was to have my two current favourite pictures as the front and back cover. 

You even get to choose what colour elastic you want, to hold your book closed. Inside there's a sheet to put your details in case the planner gets lost and a plastic pocket for storage of paper etc, although mine is used for my pen.

For my weekly lists I have, Preschool, To Do, List of the Week and Idea of the week. I love that I have enough space to list my household chores, appointments, activities, and blog ideas each day plus have special lists as well! It's like an organising junkies dream.

The planner took around ten minutes to create, I didn't add birthdays as I like to write everything myself, plus I have alarms in my phone for everyone's birthday. Delivery took less than a week and my planner arrived at my door in a lovely box. 

I love this planner and I think it would make a great gift for anyone but mums especially will appreciate how helpful it is for family life. The photos are nice and clear and the pages are lovely quality thick paper.

I'm sad to say both my husband and children have had their mits on MY book Termite as you can see 'needed' to colour one of my pictures. And I shan't go into the display of vandalism that was my husband SCRAWLING a telephone number across Christmas week!! 

I can't think of any negatives to this it really does tick all my boxes, and box ticking,as you may have guessed, is one of my favourite things!

If you'd like to win a personal planner those lovely folks have given me a digital code that one of you lucky lot can redeem against any size planner. Simply fill out the raffle copter options below and a winner will be drawn on 8th December. Please be sure to fill out all your entries correctly, as incomplete entries can't be included in the draw. 

Personal Planner sent this item to review free of charge but all opinions are our own. 

Competition T and C's apply.

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Brilliant Baby Wipes

I've just removed my makeup with a baby wipe (yes my Clarins lady would be itching to smack my hand for this sacrilidge but they were handy and efficient) it's probably the tenth thing I've cleaned today with them! They are so versatile and easy to use, always to hand and I've got packets in almost every room and in the car.

Today's uses have been

• Dusting the tv unit
• Cleaning the baby sick from the arm of the sofa
• Claning the baby sick from my t shirt before the school run (hanging head in shame but I know you've all done it!)
• Wiping pasta sauce from  The Golden Child's face and hands
• Cleaning Pasta Sauce off a Sweatshirt!
• Taking the mucky hand prints off the light switches
• Cleaning peanut's school boots
• Cleaning the whiteboard

So I'm starting a meme to see how many different uses we can find for baby wipes I'm tagging

Colette from We're Going on and Adventure

Kate from Family Fever

Chantelle from Mama Mummy Mum

Let's post our blog links on twitter when we've listed with #wonderfulwipes and see what we come up with. 

The Results Are In

Nursery Trader Best Baby and Toddler Gear Awards

We recently took part in the testing for Nursery Trader  Best Baby and Toddler Gear Awards and the results are in.

We tested two categories, Disposable Nappies and British Design and Made. My most favourite items to test were Tots Bots 

  I was however very surprised at the differences between the different disposables. I will be writing a review of the items we tested very soon.

Ive really enjoyed taking part in the testing but cant imagine the work that has gone on behind the scenes coordinating deliveries and results and compiling data from around 100 testers, phew I'm exhausted just thinking about it

The Perils and Pitfalls of Property

A short while ago Spartacus and I found a bargain property for sale locally, after much discussion we decided that as part of our pension fund it would be a great investment and so we put in an offer. This was quickly accepted but at no point during our dealings with the estate agent did they mention any serious structural problems. One week and £380 later we were informed that we wouldn't be given a mortgage because of a host of issues, no fitted bathroom and no fitted kitchen along with some structural issues. Out of pocket but thankfully armed with the knowledge that we had not bought a money pit, we were cross to find out that we had been the fourth set of buyers to employ a surveyor and infact the estate agent knew the results of the previous 3 survey which had all said the same.

 

This whole situation left us feeling a little angry but on discussion with other home buyers we feel like we have had a lucky escape, at least our surveyor found the faults. Some people have been affected terribly by surveyors negligence, not discovering until properties have been bought that there are serious problems that need fixing, dry rot and subsidence can be costly and worse still dangerous if left unresolved. We ourselves have had a 'drive by survey' during a recent remortgage.A practice which it seems is more common than you would think, this practice means valuations are being placed on property's based on age and surrounding area, unfortunately this method can't possibly highlight any areas for concern for example older electrics or evidence of copper piping or inadequate cavity wall ties.

In our experience and in my humble and non professional opinion, if you find yourself looking at property to buy always use an independent chartered surveyor, a list of which can be found on RICS









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Silent Sunday

Christmas Crafting

This morning saw the eagerly awaited arrival of our Godmother, and she came bearing gifts from Hobby Craft. The thing I love the most about this situation is she is fully prepared to roll up her sleeves and oversee the crafting chaos.

The kids had lots of fun painting money boxes.

Then they moved on to spoon puppets

and that's where it started to spiral...., you see when kids (well certainly my kids) hear the word puppet they think of puppet shows. Peanut suggested she might use a box to 'build a stage'. No finer words could be said to Mummy and the Godmother! Soon enough there was cutting and sticking and box rearrangement happening 

Within half an hour we had cut rectangles from the front and back of a medium box then stuck it onto another to form a base, mummy's sewing box scraps and sewing machine had been put to use to make curtains and Peanut was using some old packaging to make 'snowy hills'. 

And then there was the show

A to Z of Me

 This super Meme has been doing the rounds and the lovely Chantelle from Mama Mummy Mum tagged me in it. So here is a list of things you may not know about me.....

A - Adverts, I hate watching them especially cash til pay day adverts.

B - Blackberries, one of my favourite fruits

C - Children, my 3 little monkeys make me very happy

D - Dog Poo, or rather dog poo in the street, oh this makes me angry  if you can't pick it up YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE A DOG

E - Eggs, I like mine poached in tomatoes

F - Friends, I care a lot and worry a lot about my close friends, it's the born worrier in me. They are referred to as my 'urban family' 

G - Grandparents, we grew up very close to our Nana so I place real importance on my monkeys spending time with their grandparents.

H - Holidays, oh how I love going on holiday, I love looking for them, booking them, planning them, packing for them.... Just about everything about them makes me smile

I - Ice cream, I have recently discovered a quick and easy recipe for home made ice cream and it's delicious, I don't think I can eat shop bought again! 

J - Jelly on the plate, you know the song my kids have all loved this long especially the last verse. 

K - Keys, or rather lost keys. I can never remember where I put mine it drives Spartacus bonkers.

L - Love, just one word but I think we should all share a bit more love, just tell someone you love them or something you love about them, it makes a real difference in someone's day.

M - mammy, mamma, maaaaaaaaaam, all variations on what I hear all day.... And I love every single way my kids address me! 

N - Nighttime Kisses, you know the ones you sneak late at night when you are on your way to bed, the one when you do that final check and tuck the kids in and pop a kiss on their sleeping heads? That's one of my favourite things.

O - Octanouts, Barnacles, Kwazi and Peso (yes I'm typing this with the tune in my head) this is my sons favourite show at the moment. 

P - Prejudice, I really just don't understand prejudice, how boring would the world be if we weren't all different and unique. Everyone one of us deserves to be treated with respect and equality.

Q - Quiet Time, something we try to encourage very day.... We don't always succeed but it's important to try.

R - Red, my favourite colour. 

S - Seaside, I love spending time at the sea side, even in the winter there is something renewing and energising about sea air.

T - Tea, yes I'm a tea drinker I love it.

U - Umbrella I miss mine, I hate that there is no real solution to staying dry with a pushchair 

V - Vintage, oh 50's dresses and glamour how I would love to have the time and figure to be a glamorous 50's housewife 

W - Welly boots, I never imagined I would appreciate anything as much as I do my Wellies! Such a lifesaver on the school run.

X  - Xylophone, perhaps the best and worst toy we own, lovely when played with nicely but oh my the headache when it's just bashed.

Y - Yassu, this is how they say hello in my favourite place, Crete

Z - ZZZZZZZZ's something I would like more of.

So now to find out more about....

Colette from We're Going on an Adventure