Posts Tagged "Review"
Our Premier Inn Adventure
There has been lots of new milestones to face since I became a single parent. The first time he was ill, the first time I was ill, the first time we were both ill together (THAT was a fun one)… stuff like that. One I’ve been a bit nervous about facing was taking two year old Kai away somewhere on my own. I don’t have a car, so the whole getting there/what to pack/how to carry it issue was a bit, well, ARGH. But my confidence has grown exponentially over the last year, with Kai anyway – it’s had to, to be honest, so when Premier Inn kindly contacted me about sending us away for a couple of nights to review one of their hotels, I thought I’d take the plunge.
I have stayed in a few budget hotel chains and I have to say from the get-go, that Premier Inn is by far my favourite. It’s no more expensive than its competitors but you always seem to get a lot more bang for your buck, and our stay in the central Birmingham’s branch confirmed that. Birmingham is only 40 minutes on the train from us and within walking distance of the train station, which made it a nice, doable first expedition, and with a trip to Cadbury World thrown in, we were looking forward to a bit of an adventure as Kai experienced his very first two night stay in a hotel.
Read Morei-spin, you spin, we spin – Cosatto’s toddler-perfect pushchair
Kai and I were extremely lucky enough to be sent a new pushchair courtesy of the lovely folks at Cosatto at Christmas, after our battered old one finally gave up the ghost. We’ve been giving the i-spin stroller a good test-drive since and are here, after over a month of heavy use to tell you a bit about what we think of it.
What we liked:
Kai is two and a half and at that slightly awkward age where even though he spends more time out of it, than in it, we’re still fairly heavily reliant on a stroller for when we’re in a hurry or his legs get tired, especially as we don’t have a car so end up doing a LOT of walking in a day. Cheap strollers struggle to stand up to the amount we use it, and are often way too small, meaning Kai was grumpily squished into tiny, shallow seats, often tipped slightly back, too, which always drove him crackers
But the especially roomy seat makes the i-spin a perfect toddler pushchair. Kai is a fairly stocky lad and still has bags of room (especially useful for squirrelling toys under his bum) and Kai loves the very upright position of the reclining seat which stops him feeling too restricted. Now Kai is dropping his naps, I rely on the pushchair for helping him to have a quick snooze when he’s really shattered, and when he does doze off, it’s easy to recline him back almost flat. He even has room to curl up on his side slightly and get really comfy.
It’s fairly heavy duty, too which suits us for all our pavement-bashing, and the four, lockable swivel wheels making negotiating it in tight spaces and through our narrow front door really easy. It’s fairly easily manoeuvrable and I can push it with one hand (usually tweeting with my other hand, obviously).
KAI’S favourite thing is the cool addition of speakers in the pushchair hood. SPEAKERS! Definitely our kind of added-extra, that one. A little pouch on the back means I can plug in my MP3 player and blast out some tunes. This has been great on days when he’s a bit fidgety and we’ve had a long walk to get through. I bought a splitter adapter so I can plug my headphones in, too, so we can both rock out! *cue lots of mutual head banging*
MY favourite thing is a little less funky but has made my life so much easier – the storage on the i-spin is the absolute best I have ever seen on a pushchair. The bottom basket is extremely generous and, (honestly I have raved about the next bit to all an sundry, I think it’s so brilliant), has zips that mean you access the basket from the sides. Not only does this mean you can get loads more in, under the crossbar, but it means that once Kai’s fallen asleep and the seat’s reclined back, I can still get at my keys etc. without having to wake him up. I can fit a fairly decent sized grocery shop in there, which, again, cause I don’t have a car is particularly useful and means I DON’T have to end up hanging heavy bags on the handlebars which we all know is No Good For Pushchairs At All. I’m also a big fan of the fairly deep hood, which, folded back ends up giving you a secure ‘pocket’ to tuck your purse in, or a spare pair of gloves, or toy monkey, or any of the other million and one things you end up carting round with a pushchair.
As for the rest of it, it’s all fairly standard. The rain cover is a good size and the pushchair covers all un-clip and un-velcro for easy cleaning. It has carry handle on the side which we love, too, and that Kai uses to hold on to when we’re walking somewhere busy and I need him close.
What we haven’t found so great:
It’s fairly heavy for a stroller, this one, and tipping it back to get it up kerbs with a chunky toddler takes a bit of huffing and puffing, it has to be said. I also find the fold-up mechanism a complete faff, no matter how many times I do it. That’s about as bad as it gets though and on the whole I’ve been really impressed. If Cosatto could crack the umbrella fold a bit better (it just seems to catch and requires about two more hands than I own every time), I’d have almost nothing to complain about.
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Pros: Wide seat; great recline and upright position; manoeuvrable around tight spaces, mp3 speakers for rocking out; absolutely fantastic storage.
Cons: Heavy; folding it up is awkward.
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Overall though, we absolutely love our i-spin and it is by far the best stroller we’ve owned. Huge thanks to Cosatto for giving it to us x
Is he a bird? Is he a plane? Actually, he’s both.
Before Christmas I had a lovely email from the people at IKEA offering something to review that they thought would be especially suitable for my imaginative boy as part of their ‘Make the World Play More’ campaign, a sentiment Kai and I were more than willing to get behind.
A couple of weeks later the LOMSK swivel chair arrived, a bright red half-cup shape wonder with an orange pull-down hood that pulls all the way down, and that made an extremely funky addition to our front room.
As you can see, it went down a storm.
He loves it. It is absolutely perfect for him.
Kai soon got stuck in thinking of things he could do with his new chair. It’s been a car, a train, a space rocket, a handy receptacle to burst from whilst doing your best Buzz Lightyear impression… (see bottom right photo!) My absolute favourite has to be the other day when he pulled down the cover to hide and then started tap tap tapping from the inside. All of a sudden, Kai thows the hood back to run round the room flapping his arms and squawking to land on my lap. He now rather adorably refers to the chair as his ‘egg’.
Needless to say, we both think it’s brilliant. The LOMSK has a heavy swivel base meaning that it can stand a fairly hefty toddler throwing himself into it and spinning around – I have no worries about it tipping over. Kai loves hiding and dens, and it’s big enough for him and a cushion and toys with the hood pulled down, and with the sun shining through the cover it makes a really cosy, calming place for him to sit. It’s not that comfortable, that’s the only thing, although I’m planning on getting a bit creative and making up a seat pad for the bottom. I am even told that the spinning action can help develop a child’s sense of balance too. (Actually, maybe I should try it since I still routinely fall over in flat shoes).
So thank you IKEA! Definitely a hit with us.
As part of IKEA’s’ ‘Make the World Play More’ campaign they’ve launched a whole range of fun initiatives and projects for families, all of which you can keep track of through their Facebook page
My favourite is the ‘Your Fridge Door’ – where you can upload a photo of your child’s artwork and each week a winner will be chosen who will win a fab MALA art set, most of which we already own and use almost every day. Details of how to upload a picture and take part can be found on their Flickr page.
They’ve also launched a brand new project called Toy Stories, a Facebook application that allows children with their parents to create and share their own book featuring some cute characters from their soft toy range.
So there you go. Go forth and play more. Now I’m going to go and have my go spinning in the chair before Kai wakes up and throws me out.
Read MoreReview: Ms Harris’s Book of Green Household Management
It’s not often I get pitched decent things to review on the blog, in fact, thinking about it, this is the first time. It’s usually giant Christmas Trees or mushy baby food or an invitation to get Kai to do creative things with porridge… But THIS one? This one was bang on the money.
Last week I was sent a copy of Ms Harris’s Book of Green Household Management ‘The Essential Thrift Bible’ by Caroline Harris.
Described as “A Mrs Beeton for the 21st century”, Caroline’s Harris takes the view that living a more sustainable life is easy AND can save you money and has packed her book full of helpful tips and information to help you change your lifestyle habits.
Now, I have a confession to make… eco-living has always been important to me but since Kai was born I have slipped into some baaaad habits. Mostly it was just laziness, understandable as I was knackered all the time and the easiest option became the most attractive. Plus we were broke. My cleaning cloths began to get usurped by paper towels and wipes; we’d buy cheap convenience foods over ‘proper food’, the slightly more expensive eco/organic/fair-trade brands got replaced by budget alternatives. Fair enough – I don’t claim to be perfect when it comes to responsible living and understandably our minds were on other things (like why, for the love of god, will this child not SLEEP!). But for a while now, the little green chimpanzee that is my conscience has started nagging me again and I decided that I need to make some changes.
So Caroline’s book has landed in my lap at the most perfect time and I have absolutely devoured the contents in the hopes that it might be just what I need to help me make some much needed tweaks to my daily life.
First of all, let me get some things straight. I am no Stepford Wife. In fact, I am a TERRIBLE housewife. My cleaning skills (and frequency) leave much to be desired and I show about the exact polar opposite amount of creativity and imagination in the kitchen that I do in this blog. Secondly, I am no martyr to the environmental cause. If being ‘green’ means I have to dedicate all my free time to to very labour-intensive strategies that cost me a lot of money, I’m probably not going to bother. So what I was NOT looking for was some sanctimonious, preachy woman to make me feel guilty or suggest unrealistic and unsustainable changes to my lifestyle.
Thankfully, this book is none of these things. A mother herself, Caroline is all for making life easier and the tone of the book is friendly, practical, and pragmatic.Caroline herself admits to not following all her own tips all of the time (with a penchant for her power shower) and stresses that, “You don’t have to be perfect (or an austerity fiend) to be a green householder, but simply try to do what you can”. That’s my kind of message!
Divided into easy chapters, it’s perfect for dipping in and out of (helpful given my attention span of a goldfish) and covers the whole range of ‘home’ living and green household management, from the expected topics of energy efficiency and waste management, to more traditional household skills that have the added bonus of being environmentally kind, such as sewing, growing your own veg, home cooking and a cultivating a thrifty attitude. There’s also a chapter on green issues to think about when having children.
Advice is usually based on Caroline’s personal experience and extensive research and told in a style that is easy to read. Website addresses give opportunities for further reading on subjects that interest you and helpful lists and summaries mean you can refer back easily when needed.
Reading Ms Harris’s Book of Green Household Management has been just the kick up the bum I needed. Caroline recommends making small changes, gradually over time rather than trying to do too much all at once so that’s what I’m planning to do.
We’re already pretty good with our waste management and ‘making do’, so I’ve decided to start with two new areas for me: eco-cleaning and laundry. Kai’s eczema has flared up and I suspect our washing powder is partly to blame so I’ve got an added incentive to try and reduce the number of chemicals in our home. I like the Ecover brand and will be switching back to some of their cleaning and laundry products, but reading the book I’ve also been inspired to try out some more ‘traditional’ cleaning methods. Caroline points out that most products are simply not necessary and that most cleaning jobs can be done just as easily and efficiently with more minimalist options: namely baking soda, vinegar, lemon juice or just plain water on a cloth.
To this end I’m starting a little experiment: we’ve run out of some of our usual cleaning products so today, rather than opt for my usual brands, I went out and bought the following:
The whole lot cost me less than a fiver. Bargain! For the next week or so I’m going to try doing my normal cleaning jobs with these ingredients, following the suggestions in the book. If it’s too much work or isn’t that effective I shall probably abandon it and opt for buying eco-versions of conventional products, but considering how cheap these ingredients are I think it’s definitely worth a try. I shall be reporting back so watch this space…
Caroline Harris’s book ‘Ms Harris’s Book of Green Household Management’ is published by John Murray in paperback and costs £12.99. It is available in all good books shops and to buy online at Amazon. If you’re interested in making some simple changes to help make your lifestyle that little bit greener I would highly recommend it and would love to hear back from you if you too decide to adopt some of her ideas.
In the meantime, if any of you have any ‘green tips’ to share to help me in my new project I’d love to hear them!!
