Southern Mummy - Page 4 of 12 - A UK Parenting and Lifestyle blog

30
Oct
2017

Advent Calendars for Him: Xmas 2017

A few days ago I posted my Alternative Advent Calendars for the ladies. Today it’s the gents turn! I think sometimes they can get a bit left out. Especially as a lot of the alternative calendars in recent years have been aimed at Women and Kids (find my Kids recommendations, here), I mean most men wouldn’t want to open up a luxury beauty product on the run up to Christmas, would they! Fear not my masculine friends I have scoured the internet and have compiled some of the best Alternative Advent Calendars for him!

My Protein, Chocolate Advent Calendar, £4.99

One for the Gym Fanatic, 24 festive, high protein chocolate balls. Made from delicious cocoa Butter and Whey Protein Isolate. There are no nasty artificial sweeteners either so rest assured this calendar will help keep your guys festive training on track!

Beer Hawk, Craft Beer Advent Calendar, £75.00

The Perfect Gift for Beer Lovers!… Read More

28
Oct
2017

Advent Calendars for Her: Xmas 2017

categories: Blogmas, Christmas

Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without an advent calendar, but recently the tides have changed. Gone are the days of weird tasting cheap chocolate. Hello to calendars full of premium chocolates, alcoholic tipples, jewels, luxury beauty products and much much more! There are so many alternate advent calendars now available, you can really spoil yourself or a loved one. I have found 11 of the best Alternate 2017 Xmas calendars for us girls. (Here are my recommendations for him). Either spoil yourself or leave a big fat hint for your other half, here’s what I’ve found!

ALDI, Wine Advent Calendar, £49.99

ALDI is offering us 24 mini bottles of Wine in Red, White and Rose from prestigious regions around the world, there’s even a couple of suprise bottles of sparkles in there too somewhere! This goes on sale on November the 01st instore and online and at roughly £2 a bottle, be quick, this will sell out fast.… Read More

26
Oct
2017

2017 – Our Year in Review!

categories: Blogtober17, Lifestyle

What a fantastic idea for Blogtober17 – A year in review. This year has been jam packed for us. Some highs and some lows. I really can’t believe were almost at the end of October already though. Honestly, where has this year gone?! I hope time begins to slow down, it’s beginning to scare me somewhat. So what has this year dealt us? Read on to find out.

January

January was quite a hard month for me personally. I had been diagnosed with Gestation Diabetes a few days before Xmas. During January I was trying to get my head around altering my diet to help manage it. During weeks 32 – 36 Gestational Diabetes ramps up a notch, due to hormones and growth spurts. It was during January I hit this mark. I was quite stressed this month. Struggling with food and not knowing how GD would affect my birth choice for a VBAC.… Read More

24
Oct
2017

How to Make a Superhero Birthday Cake!

categories: Activities, Blogtober17, Recipes

Blogtober17 is drawing to a close, the topic a few days ago was Villains and Superheros. I wasn’t sure how to approach this topic even though I have a superhero obsessed little boy! Then I remembered for his birthday way back in February I made him a Superhero birthday cake and it was relatively simple to make. So I thought I would share with you how I did this, in case anyone ever needs to make one. Please excuse the poor photography, I didn’t get a good shot at the time!

What you will need

2 x 7 inch round Madeira cakes

Butter Icing and Jam

Icing sugar

Fondant Icing in white, black, blue, yellow and red

Cake/Floristry wire

Printer and paper

Method

Now, I’m not going to go into recipe details or cooking, but you will need a simple Madeira cake recipe. You can use A SIMPLE Victoria sponge, but a Madeira is denser and will hold the weight of the fondant icing better.… Read More

23
Oct
2017

Magic Santa Letter | Review | Giveaway | Discount Code

categories: Blogmas, Christmas, Giveaway, Reviews

Christmas is my absolute favourite time of the year, I am so excited it’s almost here! I always try my hardest to make Christmas as magical as possible for Finlay, I mean they don’t stay little for very long at all nowadays. So it’s really important for me to keep the magic alive for as long as I possibly can.

One of the traditions we will be keeping up with this year and one I truly love is ‘Letters from Santa’. It’s a great way to bring the magic of Christmas into your home, literally by dropping onto your doormat all the way from the North Pole! Magic Santa Letter create beautiful, high quality, personalised, Santa letters that are delivered to your door. When Magic Santa Letter offered me the chance to review one of their fully personalised letters and I jumped at the chance!

Magic Santa Letter have three different letters available, Babies 1st Christmas, Magic Santa letter and ‘Truly Magical’ Santa letter.… Read More

23
Oct
2017

Easy Halloween Popcorn Mix – Spooky and Simple!

categories: Blogoween, Halloween, Recipes

Are you looking for some Halloween themed snack inspiration? Well look no further, here is my easy Halloween Popcorn Mix ! A perfect treat to go with my suggested Horror Com Movies or my Not so Scary Kids Movies! Popcorn is a great treat to make because it really is super easy to and relatively cheap. I would also suggest it’s healthy (it can be) unfortunately I jazz mine up a little too much, but there’s a few times a year we should all be allowed to indulge and Halloween is definitely one of those times!

Easy Halloween Popcorn Mix!

What you need:

50g of Popcorn Kernals
1tbsp Oil
40g of White Wilton Candy Melts
Orange and Black Sprinkles
Orange and Green M&M’s (or smarties)

Method:

Heat the oil in the saucepan for a few minutes. Add the Popcorn Kernals (Make sure you use a lid).

22
Oct
2017

Blogtober Day 21 – Unusual Crushes!

categories: Blogtober17, Lifestyle

As some of you are aware I have been taking part in Blogtober17 all of October. A post a day to a predetermined topic. I have tried really hard to fit them in with what I was planning to talk about, have talked about or closely linking the topic into the whole parenting niche thing. Well, day 21 has stumped me with unusual crushes. My poor tired little head can’t think so I am just going to post away today, you can call it getting to know ‘me‘ better!

My top 5 Unusals Crushes

Name: Taylor Hanson

Unusual Because: He had long blonde hair, most people thought he was a girl!

I can imagine a lot of you, especially the younger lot are thinking who? But let me tell you, when I was 13, I was in Love with this boy. I seriously thought he was the one and we woulget married and have a hundred kids.… Read More

20
Oct
2017

DIY Kids Halloween Basket Ideas – Peek if you dare!

categories: Blogoween, Blogtober17, Halloween

Are you looking for some spooky DIY Kids Halloween Basket ideas this year? Look no further, I have been putting together a little DIY Halloween basket for Finlay! I first came across these baskets many years ago from Oh So Amelia. I was so impressed but at the time, BUT Finlay was still very little and I didn’t think he would get much out of them back then. Fast forward a few years and now Finlay is older, I thought it would be an ideal time to throw one together! With a couple of baby bits thrown in. Plus if you have been visiting my blog over the last few weeks you may have seen I have gone Halloween stir crazy, as I love it, so it was perfect to post up for my Blogoween series!

DIY Kids Halloween Basket Ideas

As suggested by Kerry from Oh so Amelia, I went searching on EBAY for my basket and I managed to get hold of one for about £4.… Read More

20
Oct
2017

An Interview With My Toddler – Finlay!

categories: Blogtober17, General, Lifestyle

I haven’t been tagged to take part in the Interview with my toddler series. However, I have been reading through a lot of them and I do love them. I decided to help catch up with Blogtober17, I would interview Finlay for the topic of Quotes! Although technically he’s not a toddler anymore, he is only just out of that bracket. The idea is you ask your toddler a series of question and share all the answers! So as I said I haven’t been tagged, I will link back to Cheryl’s post from Mummyof5miricles. Hers was the last interview I read, I hope she doesn’t mind! So over to the interview!

What’s the best Thing about being a ~~toddler~~ little boy (I had to change this!)?

Erm, going to school!

(you like going to school?)

and nursery!

(but you finished nursery though, you’re a big boy, you go to school)

yeah!… Read More

19
Oct
2017

Yankee Halloween Candle Review!

categories: Blogoween, Blogtober17, Halloween, Reviews

When I saw that Yankee Candles had released a Halloween range of Candles I began to smile. That smile turned to laughter and before knew I was cackling like a witch high on eye of newt! Why? Well, I am a huge fan of Yankee candles! They are my all time favourite scents and I just couldn’t hold in my excitement. Yankee, wonderful sniffy scented candles and Halloween! Two of my favourite things together. Imagine my delight when I found out I was being sent some of the range to review. I hopped on my broomstick and did a few loops for joy!

So for those of you not in the know. Why are Yankee Candles so great? The simple answer is they last for a very long time and they smell divine, before, during and long after burning. I find many scented candles, just don’t do what they say on the tin.… Read More