Autumnal Crafts with Baker Ross

I love working with Baker Ross. Back when I first started working with them, I remember writing that C was a little too young to do quite a lot of it by himself but here we are a year later and he is speeding through them.

This is one of my favourite times of year. Halloween is coming up, nights get darker and I get excited for Christmas. Rugby World Cup starts too (tonight actually!) so Baker Ross sent us a wonderful little bundle of crafts perfect for this season. In our box, we received:

Bat Treat Bucket Kits (£3.60 per pack of 3)

Rocket Stained Glass Effect Decorations (£3.96 per pack of 6)

Squeezy Flashing Hedgehogs (£2.99 per pack of 4)

Halloween Glitter Foam Stickers (£2.99 per pack of 120)

Leafy Hedgehog Decoration Kits (These are out of stock at the mo but I will update with links and price details)

Skull Whistles (£1.99 per pack of 4)

Rugby Player Colour-in Finger Puppets (£2.49 per pack of 24)

We started off with the Rocket Stained Glass decorations and C was so excited when I told him to put glue all over it. He really got stuck in! I helped a little when it came to cutting the "stained glass" sheets but he had fun sticking them on and I think he did a great job! They're super easy to do and even have ribbons so you can hang them up.

Next, we gave the Bat Buckets a whirl. C has recently become very excited about Halloween. We've found some preschool Halloween songs on YouTube and he loves to sing them so I knew he'd love this one, I just didn't realise how much! The foam stickers make crafting with these sets so easy. I just have to peel the backing off and C gets to work. Ever since we made these, C has carried one everywhere with him, even into town! He absolutely loves them!

As C can't wait for Halloween, I told him that he could use the Halloween Glitter Foam Stickers to make me a fun picture that I can hang up on Halloween night. I wrote 'HAPPY HALLOWEEN!" in the middle and just let him stick until his heart was content. The bag contains spider webs, haunted houses, ghosts, pumpkins, anything you could think of that Halloween-related and they come in black, white, orange, purple and green - perfect spooky colours!

The Rugby Kits were something that he wasn't too sure about. He doesn't really know what rugby is and he hasn't ever had finger puppets like these before. We broke out the felt tips and coloured the people in. I showed him how to put his two fingers through the holes as though they were running and he thought it was absolutely hilarious!

What I really like about my Baker Ross parcels, are the little toys that we get too. C was totally mesmerised by both the Skull Whistles and Squeezy Flashing Hedgehogs. He knew right away what they were and my ears got a little sore from all the whistling! I think the whistles would be perfect for party bags if you're hosting a Halloween party!

I'm not a crafty person in the slightest but I always said that I wanted my kids to explore and be imaginative. Baker Ross make this so easy with their fabulous 'ready to make' craft kits. You can browse their entire range at the Baker Ross website and you can also keep up to date on Facebook and Twitter.

(Disclaimer: We received a craft bundle for the purpose of this post.)

Thinking of Becoming a Mystery Shopper...

I am such a stickler for good customer service. When I go shopping, I like staff to be friendly and helpful. I want to enjoy the whole experience. I have complained about companies in the past and sometimes I've been put off completely and never gone back. Alternatively, I have had exceptional customer service in other places. A while ago, I actually wrote a blog post on how amazing the staff at my local Clarks Shoes were.

A few months back, I looked into mystery shopping. I love to review on the blog ad I like to share my experiences with items, putting across both positive and negative points with some constructive criticism and mystery shopping is exactly the same. I did, however, think that living in Northern Ireland would be downfall as not living on the mainland always seems to go against us.

Places such as Amber Arch operate all over the UK which is fab! If you follow me on social media (or just read my blog) you'll know that I enter a lot of competitions, try to save money as best I can or seek out bargains. I thought that mystery shopping would be perfect for me as I could be completely honest with my experiences to help the clients improve their stores (something that I do a lot anyway) but it's also a great way to make a little extra cash! Okay, it's casual work but all those pennies add up!

Are you/have you been a Mystery Shopper? 

Would you recommend it?

(Disclaimer: This is a sponsored post.)

Siblings: September 2015

This month has been testing with the siblings. E is becoming more and more active and C gets a little annoyed as he just wants his own space. I think it's just E's age though. When she's a little bigger and can talk to C, maybe it will be better. I do feel a bit sad as I thought having two children close together meant they'd be best friends. There's still time I guess! This is also why I haven't got many photos of the two of them together this month.

He does like to give her kisses and cuddles, especially at bedtime, but they always have to be on his terms. He does share his toys now and will give her her dummy when she cries. I've recently started bathing them together as E us getting bigger and watching the two of them splash and giggle together is the most beautiful thing to watch.

Giving his sister tickles

A little sneaky kiss (knocking her headband off in the process!)

Look in my Letterbox #23

I think the postman was at my door every day last week! What I did realise though, was that I seriously need to calm it with the Instagram buying! Here's what I received and as ever, I'm linking up with Alice Megan.

Reviews: 

Roald Dahl's The Twits

I received these as yesterday was Roald Dahl Day!

Scooter

C got this gorgeous scooter from Decathlon to try out. I know he'll love it. I went for a yellow one. Apologies for no pics as I haven't unboxed it yet!

Youngsies bee onesie

As soon as this arrived, I had to get it on E. How adorable!

Wins:

Bows from bambinoboutiquex

I played a game of tag to win a "bow blind bag" and I received these two surprise bows! I'm a sucker for leopard print.

Sleeping beauty book

I won this book from Miles Kelly for E but both kids will love it.

Powerful water

This was an Instagram win from a while ago. I've never heard of it before so eager to give it a go.

Tantruth

I won these on Twitter from SallyBeautyUK. I'm not a big fake tan wearer but my sister is. I'm making her a beauty hamper for Christmas so this is a start!

Clown cake toppers

Thank you to Alice, the lovely host of this linky, for tagging me in a game of tag on Instagram. Stop was said under her comment and as she tagged me, we both won! It's C's birthday next Monday so perfect timing!

Bow

I won this surprise bow in a game of tag on Instagram with _bobbins. It's so beautiful!

Purchases:

Shorts

Lovely Kelly who write at More Than Just a Mummy opened an Instagram account to sell her children's old clothing. I saw these gorgeous shorts and just had to have them for E!

Bows

I bought these from The Bow Room at one of their discount nights, not that E needs any more bows!

Patches

Chris and I bought C a denim jacket on eBay a while ago and we have decided to stick patches on it to jazz it up a little for his birthday. He loves dinosaurs and Adventure Time so I think he'll love it.

Bow

Chris's mum bought E a beautiful Next dress for her birthday. A few Instagram shops sell bows specifically to match the Next prints so of course I had to buy one!

Shoes

Chris and I decided to treat the kids to new shoes. Unfortunately, Schuh didn't have their sizes in store so we had them delivered to our house. 

Enough of the mama-razzi vest

I have had my eye on this vest from Miss Boos Boutique for ages. So glad to finally get my hands on it!

Bows

I bought these from leahannboutique on Instagram at one of her discount nights.

Others:

Finally, the letter I've been dreading - E has her one year jabs tomorrow! It's gonna break my heart, I hate this part of being a parent!

Did you receive anything nice?

Roald Dahl Day

I have always loved Roald Dahl. As a child, I read all of his books and as C got older, I couldn't wait to introduce him to the wonder that is Roald Dahl as I know he'll love them too.

Roald Dahl's birthday is on September 13th so it's the perfect date for Roald Dahl Day! To celebrate, the focus is on The Twits (especially Mr Twits beard!) this year which is one of my absolute faves. Booksellers have been turning their stores into beard boutiques specially for the occasion.

To really get involved, we received two copies of The Twits; one paperback, one hardback, and we were tasked with making our own Twit beard! The paperbacked book came with scratch n sniff stickers which do not smell good and the hardbacked one has a little beard on the front - C thought that was pretty cool!

As the books are very long compared to anything that C has read before, I spaced it out a little, reading a few pages a night. He seemed to really enjoy it and I will definitely be buying more Roald Dahl books for him!

If you aren't familiar with the story, The Twits are a husband and wife who live in window-less brick house with the Muggle-Wumps, their mistreated family of pet monkeys. The Twits are always playing tricks on each other such as Mrs Twit dropping her glass eye into Mr Twits beer mug.

Mr Twits beard is described as covering his entire face (except his forehead, eyes and nose), it's spiky and hard as he never washes it and it always has scraps of food in it that he picks out and eats. We decided to create our beard from this description and I think we did pretty well!

C wasn't being co-operative so little sister E showed it off!

What's your favourite Roald Dahl book?

(Disclaimer: We received two copies of The Twits for the purpose of this post.)