Kim Woodburn’s Cleaning Tips & How an Ecoegg Can Save You Money

Archive for Rants and Raves

Kim Woodburn’s Cleaning Tips & How an Ecoegg Can Save You Money

Editor | February 1, 2012 | Comments Off

Kim Woodburn, celebrity Queen of Clean, best known for ‘How Clean is Your House?’ and ‘I’m a Celebrity’, is here to share a few eco and baby friendly cleaning tips to make parenthood that little bit easier. Kim will be visiting the Baby Show at Excel in London on the 25^th of February to show everyone the Ecoegg, a product that no parent should be without. We are sure many of you will see her there!

Hello my loves, I’m Kim Woodburn. I’m so excited to be coming to the Baby Show in February to see all of you lovely mums and dads. I’m here today to share some of my eco and baby friendly cleaning tips with you all. They are really simple to follow, cheap to prepare and of course I never use nasty chemicals that could potentially harm little ones.

So firstly, I’m sure many of you use disposable nappies. Now these are convenient to use but disposing of them can become a problem and
nappy bins can start to smell very unpleasant! A top tip for keeping your nappy bin smelling fresher for longer is to sprinkle a little baking soda inside the bin liner and give it a quick shake. The baking soda should absorb most of the nasty smells but always empty your bin regularly to keep the smell at bay. Alternatively, if you use nappy sacks and dispose of nappies in your general waste just sprinkle a little baking soda into each of the individual nappy sacks to keep the bin smelling fresh.

I’m sure that many of you with children toddling about will be forever noticing sticky fingerprints on doors and windows. One easy tip for getting these sticky paws prints off is to sprinkle a little baking soda onto a damp cloth using a flour shaker, wipe away the marks and buff dry with a fresh cloth. It’s just so simple!

Now, we all know how much our little ones love their cuddly toys, but they do have a tendency to get very grubby rather quickly. To give cuddly toys a quick and easy freshen up between washes, just pop them in a cotton pillowcase outside, sprinkle in a little baking soda and give them a good shake. Shake of the excess baking soda and they should appear as good as new!

Making homemade baby food is a great way to save money and ensure that your children are getting the right balance of nutrients but by heck, it’s doesn’t half make a mess. An easy way to get splashbacks back to their former sparkling selves is to once again use good old baking soda, again sprinkle a little baking soda onto a damp cloth using a flour shaker and apply to the splash backs. Then just buff dry with a fresh dry cloth so the shines is restored. A really easy and quick solution.

I think you will agree that parents with young children are the group of people that do more laundry than anyone else. For such small things, babies can get through an awful lot of clothes can’t they? Babies also have a nasty habit of accumulating tricky stains like baby food and never ending milk vomit. The challenge is finding a product that cleans really well but also doesn’t contain any harsh chemicals that can hurt babies skin. The Ecoegg is just such a product. I’m so proud to endorse the Ecoegg that I put my name and photo on every box. I simply wouldn’t be without mine now. The Ecoegg is the revolutionary new way to wash your clothes; all you have to do is pop it into your machine and wash as normal, no need for nasty and expensive chemicals. Its kind to your skin (in fact it’s so kind it’s been approved by Allergy UK) and to the environment and lasts up to 720 washes, that’s three years’ worth of washing for the average family, just imagine the money you will save. It’s just
brilliant.

I hope you found my cleaning tips useful and maybe you will try some of them out for yourselves. I would love to hear how you get on with them. Hopefully I will see many of you at the Baby Show on the 25^th February in London; it should be a brilliant day! I hope you all come and visit me at the Ecoegg stand. I’m more than happy to offer my cleaning advice, and I’ve always got time for a quick photo and a chat.

Win A Brilliant Ecoegg Here

Kim x

Kim Woodburn for EcoEggOnline.com

WIN BABY SHOW TICKETS HERE

Category: Mum Stuff, Rants and Raves | Tags: chemicals, cleaning tips, Ecoegg, Kim Woodburn, washing

Trick or Treating: The Etiquette of…

Mummy Lorrie | October 31, 2011 | Comments Off

321108_10150885506565517_612500516_20762467_2018853040_n_2

sure, a bunch of us grown-ups think trick or treating is a cheap and tacky American construct that fosters the inner hooligan in children. i’m here to tell you that you’re soooo wrong. where good manners exist, there is fun to be had in DROVES!!!

i’ll tell you how i do it, shall i?

my little boy and i will be Trick or Treating after school and will only walk down our road (granted, it is a long road lol), but he will have had his tea, will be adorably attired as Buzz Lightyear – i will be the accompanying WitchiePoo [no jokes] and after half hour, we’ll go home and entertain other Trick-or-Treaters at our residence until 8pm. hubby will be at home to put out the decorations before we get back and will be dressed as a ghoul or zombie [again, no jokes lol]. when we get home and check out his sweetie hoard, he’ll only be allowed to keep wrapped sweets (health and safety, and all that)…

first off, if a house has NO Halloweeny accoutrements or decorations visible from the front gate, then the residents are NOT INTERESTED in sharing their sweeties. DO NOT KNOCK at that house! if you are lucky enough to find some participating homes, you wait patiently for the door to be answered and say ‘TRICK OR TREAT!’ and then WAIT to be offered sweeties! DO NOT GRAB at the bowl as if you’ve not had dinner! (note: feed your kids and make sure they do toilet before leaving home!)

at the age of 4, our little boy’s a seasoned trick-or-treater and is fully aware of the required etiquette.

so you bitter grumps out there [yes, you!] who prefer to label this day as a day of trouble, think about what you can do to change that. want some suggestions?
try this:

don’t open your door to strangers after 8pm – all respectable trick-or-treaters will have finished by then;
if you do want to participate but don’t want to spend any money on the day, have a bowl of your old, left-over sweets hanging around the door (just in case)
if you DO want trick-or-treaters to knock, give some indication to the non-mindreading public that you HAVE TREATS TO GIVE by putting a sign or a decoration on your door or gate
NEVER GIVE MONEY! that’s not fun and it’s not what trick or treating is about!

now, i know you’re wondering about the flip side of the coin. yep, i know you thought you’d got away. no you haven’t. if you come to my door trick or treating and you’re NOT in costume? you’ve wasted your time walking up my garden path. if you appear to be over 16 and have no younger children in costume about you? again, you’ve wasted your time ringing my bell. looking for money? seriously? i think you’ve figured out what my response to that would be!

Happy Halloween and have fun trick-or-treating! muhahahahahahahahaha

Category: Children's Toys & Games, Mum Stuff, Rants and Raves, The Kids, Travel, Holidays and Hotels

The Clocks Go Back This Weekend

Kathryn | October 24, 2011 | Comments Off

As from this weekend Winter is officially on the way! The clocks will go back on Saturday night (Well Sunday morning really) and our evenings will get progressively darker. This weekend too, The Fire Kills Campaign are asking us all to take a few moments when we change our clocks to keep ourselves and our families safe by testing our smoke alarms at the same time.

Did you know that if your smoke alarm is not working, statistically you are more than four times more likely to die in a fire. Yet only 50% of people who own a smoke alarm say that they test it to see if it is working on a regular basis. Testing the smoke alarm is kind of thought about as something to do ‘later’! So, as we are already all going to be changing our clocks this weekend, it’s a perfect opportunity for us to turn ‘later’ into ‘now’.

On a lighter note, for those who can never remember if the clocks go back or forward, simply say to yourself ‘Fall Back, Spring Forward‘ and you’ll remember it easily then.

Category: Mum Stuff, Rants and Raves | Tags: back, clocks, smoke alarm

Is Routine Key to a Peaceful Life?

Editor | September 14, 2011 | One comment

As all new mums will testify, looking after a baby can be extremely demanding. Some parents will have you believe the key to grabbing some precious time for yourself is routine – but can this be taken too far?

Routine is important for babies as without it, you are likely to find yourself permanently at their beck and call, which is both exhausting and impractical. As first time mums often get pulled from pillar to post with wanted and unwanted advice, I’ll keep mine simple; “Start as you mean to go on.”

How you start your relationship impacts massively on the relationship you will develop with your child as they grow. Many new mums are so fearful of getting things wrong that they over think it, turning from one book, or piece of advice to another, becoming more and more anxious.

My first suggestion to all new mums is follow your instinct; you’re their mother and you’ll quickly pick up on their different cries. If you’re baby cries a lot, don’t take it personally. As long as you’ve checked the basics and they’re warm and comfortable… relax! Research proves that babies, both human and animal, are intuitively honed into their mother. If you’re anxious or worried they will often react to you. Decide what routine works for you and your partner. Prioritise what’s most important, is it a sleeping routine, or an eating one.

It’s important to find a compromise that works, but remain flexible. Whilst there’s nothing wrong with having a plan before they’re born, much like our birthing plans, they often don’t work out as we envisaged. Don’t be attached to that, learn to be flexible, this will help so much.

My dad once told me that children don’t change much from babies to adults and, while I really didn’t understand this to begin with, now I do. My eldest son was sensitive to his milk and was colicky and sickly but overall he was pretty easy going and, with some consistency from us, he fell into a nice routine. My middle son Jack arrived with the word ‘relaxed’ stamped on his forehead, so easy going, yet constantly hungry. Had he been my first I know I would have worried that I couldn’t give him enough breast milk (no matter how many times the midwife told me to persevere it wasn’t going to happen). Trusting my own judgement and adding a bottle feed alongside the breast feeding was the best decision I made with him, despite all the advice to the contrary.

My youngest, however, was demanding right from pregnancy; constantly moving about, turning somersaults and kicking me all day and night and then being a very demanding baby too. Thankfully, being my third I went with it, to a degree, but I wasn’t prepared to compromise my own sleep, so we persevered with his sleeping routine for weeks until he got it.

Interestingly all the boys still have some of the same traits they had as infants; Phil is sensitive and caring and fussier than the others about his food. Jack is incredibly relaxed and easy going and eats like a horse! And Connor is still a fidget, is strong willed and doesn’t need as much sleep as the others.

My reason for sharing this is that I believe when it comes to babies, working with your instinct and learning to trust it is important. Change the things you can and accept the things you believe are inherent in their nature.

While I’m not a strong advocate of Gina Ford I do, however, think it is important to establish a good sleeping routine; otherwise you’ll have kids in your bed for years. You could end up with spoiled children that think they can always get what they want. So go, relax and enjoy all those little miracles you hold in your arms while they’re still tiny and continue to love and cuddle them loads while they grow.

Ali McCloskey – Parenting coach and mum-of-three

Ali is also founder of Good Parents Getting Better

Category: Baby Things, Rants and Raves | Tags: Ali McCloskey, baby routine, baby sleep

it’s a weird feeling that i’m feeling…

Mummy Lorrie | September 4, 2011 | One comment

i know i’m not the only one to feel this ‘feeling’ and i know this is something that every parent experiences sooner or later. i know this is a ‘rite of passage’ so i know that the feeling will pass or evolve into something else. it’s just that right now, right here, at this time and place, i am dreading Nathan starting primary school.

yes, you can laugh – at or with me, same difference lol – but i’m having palpitations and night sweats over this.

you see, i’ve finally fulfilled my ambition and had the opportunity to be a full-time mummy when Nathan left nursery on 23rd June and we’ve had an awesome time doing whatever we pleased whenever the mood took us. we’ve been to meet daddy in the City for lunch, taken a day trip to Paulton’s Park, spent days and nights at friends’ homes, been to the local parks, did an intensive swimming course, attended a local church’s playscheme, helped the elderly paint with watercolours at the Holiday at Home scheme, spread a duvet on the living room floor and ate popcorn for hours pretending it was a cinema, gone shopping for his school uniform and shoes, had a toy sale one Saturday and have had random visits and sleepovers, we played bingo in the summerhouse, had a BBQ, been to various magic shows – all of which have been excellent fun! yet i’m dreading him going off to school…

i’ve spent every waking moment with him, absorbing him in these last months, weeks and days before he becomes a schoolboy. that’s it, that’s my problem right there! he’s not going to be a little kiddywink going to nursery anymore. no, my little pumpkin is going to be a schoolboy.

i’ve got a home visit from his new teacher this Monday – lovely lady, met her at the introductory and induction sessions – (what do i discuss with her? what will she want to know? will she give me tips? OMD this is some serious pressure! will tomorrow’s visit determine how she views Nathan for the rest of the school year?) then he starts in full school uniform on Monday 12th for mornings only (settling-in period) and from Monday 19th September 2011, my little boy will be at school all day, every day.

will he still want to curl up on my lap, play with my hair, sing lullabies into my ear? will he still want ‘huggles’? will he still think that Eskimo kisses are the most affection you can show someone or will he think he’s too grown up? will he still want to hold my hand in the street or hug my leg and put my arm around his shoulder as we walk along together?

over the past couple years, people on the street often mistook Nathan for being older than he actually was as he is quite tall, so i took great satisfaction in informing them that he was only 2 and therefore entitled to still be in a stroller if he wanted to be or that he was not at school because he was not of school-age so i was not being a negligent parent having him at home on a school-day. that smugness has been stripped from me now. if i put him in a stroller or walked with him in my arms because he was tired or kept him at home then i would be an unfit parent! how unfair the other side of the coin is!?!

i don’t want to lose my little pumpkin but i can’t see how i can make him stay this way without social services or police getting involved lol. my hubby thinks i’m being an over-dramatic saddo (i think he’s in denial about his own feelings ha ha!). i can’t help how i’m feeling. is this normal? have any of you experienced anything like this? how did you cope?

how am i going to deal with these feelings? *no violence, please! lol*

please, please, please reassure me that i’m not alone!

Category: Mum Stuff, Rants and Raves, The Kids

eyelash extensions…here’s what happened…

Mummy Lorrie | June 28, 2011 | One comment

last Friday, i had a bit of a splurge on myself at the salon and had my eyebrows threaded, dyed semi-permanent, had a manicure, had my hair blow-dried and had the ‘cheaper’ eyelash extensions applied (£35!!!!)…i looked the bomb when i walked out of the place!

i had asked the technician how i was supposed to keep these eyelashes looking good for 4 weeks (while i was there, a lady came in to have hers removed after FIVE WEEKS!!!) because it was a serious sting to the pocket…the technician told me that i had to make sure not to get them wet and to stay out of steamy areas

okay, let’s list some of those places: the shower, the sauna, the steam-room at the gym (for those who go to the gym, that is – not me, ha!), standing over the cooker (for those who cook, that is lol)

i thought it was a bit odd but then thought i was just unaccustomed to the new beauty regimes seeing as i’ve neglected myself for a few years and things have changed dramatically (remember my Hollywood experience? ) i decided to consult with the internet on care suggestions – surely i couldn’t be alone in this quandary!

note to self – sleeping: either sit up to sleep or sleep with an eye mask hmmmm…i had one skulking about in a drawer somewhere in the house (who’d have thought that BA would come in so handy, eh! ) found it! at least now my luscious extensions won’t get either squished, distorted or come unstuck during the night…yeah….right

so, cue Saturday morning and i’m going into the shower…how the frack am i supposed to wash my face without screwing £35?!?!?! i wet my hands and apply cleanser gingerly then wash it off the same way (fracking laborious and long-winded )…yet, despite my efforts, noted i’d dislodged 3 strands of extensions…checked in the mirror and i didn’t look like a singed dog so carried on with my day

note to self – another scenario to avoid: eye drops. no matter how distressed your eyes get due to hayfever symptoms, applying it can cost you your extensions!!!!

Sunday morning. i still look glam but have lost 2 more lashes. feeling a deep longing to just put my face under the shower spray but must resist.

Sunday evening. glamour is overrated. my face needs to feel the refreshing spray of the shower. ah, well, i’ll protect them with my eye mask while i sleep.

Monday morning. sleeping much better with the eye mask but it makes not a blind bit of difference to the confounded extensions. they’re still sticking out in all directions when i wake up. two dropped out on my cheek when i take off the mask.

Monday afternoon. hayfever is a biatch today, eyes streaming. need eye drops. frack eyelash extensions. for the money i paid, they need to be able to live my life with me – good and bad days! lost another extension.

Tuesday morning. who would ever have thought that you could miss WASHING YOUR FACE?!?!?!? it’s now been 4 days since i’ve had eyelash extensions applied and i can say that i will NOT be wasting that kind of money again!

see ya…i’m off to have a lovely shower and i’m gonna stand under the stream and blow water bubbles because i just missed the feel of running water on my face.

Category: Mum Stuff, Personal Care, Rip-Offs

What happened to good old fashioned kids parties?

Editor | June 17, 2011 | 3 comments

Why have kids birthday parties turned into big events costing more than a ‘grown up’s dinner party and taking virtually as long to plan as a wedding?

Organise your games in advance and make sure they involve audience participation.

What happened to good old fashioned kids parties when just a few friends and family were invited over for coffee, cake and a handful of presents?
Planning for my daughters 4th birthday party just recently, I started to question what happened between 1970 and today? Why do we parents feel compelled to host extravagant, large and expensive kids parties? Who in their right mind pays £150 for one hour of entertainment for TWO year olds? We do! I put my hand up – one year I foolishly spent over £300

for my three year old’s Pippi Longstocking party!!!! I could have got a nice pair of shoes for that? A REALLY nice pair!
Who is the party for – us, other parents or the kids? Help me out here, I’m not sure. All I know is that no matter what you spend or do, the one and only thing ALL the kids look forward to is the CAKE – so this year I decided to go back to basics, and keep my 4 year old’s party simple! Apart from the CAKE – as after all that is the highlight of any kids party!

Decorate a colourful table to get everyone in the party mood

Was I nervous? Yes! Was my 4 year old going to notice that mummy hadn’t hired a venue and entertainer? Was she going to feel let down? Disappointed? Sad? I decided to bite the bullet and planned for a basic party at home. I was determined to spend as little as possible but still make sure everyone had a great time. My husband was horrified and wondered how we were going to entertain 15 kids in our house. So this is what I did. Here is the back to basics party guide:
• Make sure your party is ‘drop off’ – that way you can concentrate on the kids and stop worrying about entertaining the parents. P.s Make sure you ask your closest girlfriends to stay for extra pairs of hands. You’ll need them!
• Keep it as small as you possibly can. Remind yourself who the party is for!
• If you are hosting at home make sure you clear your home of ‘precious’ items, that way you can relax and allow the kids to have fun without worrying about breakage .
• Spend a bit of the money you’ve saved on making your space look cosy, exciting and party like! Decorate with balloons and bunting. Splurge on nice table decorations for the kids…
• Get some nice music ready for when the kids start to arrive and play some nice simple music games. If you don’t have a lot of music, grab a spotify account – there’s literally thousands of kids songs including classics like Hokey Cokey and Simon Says.

Ask a friend to do the entertainment. Cost: £0.00

• Plan party games in advance and make sure you have one ‘game’ or form of entertainment which requires them to sit down calmly. Classics like Pin the Tail on the Donkey can be found online and printed off.
• Don’t hire an entertainer. Ask a friend with special talents to help . You will always find someone and the kids wont know the difference.
• For younger kids, keep the goodie bag simple: a book, bubbles or one good toy! Don’t waste your money on lots of cheap plastic toys which will break by the time they get home.
• Tell everyone what you’re doing so they know what to expect. Spread the word, and get everyone to go back to basics. Who knows, they may just like it!

by Corina Papadopoulou, who is the founder of Scandinavian Children’s Store Kidsen. Check out delicious birthday cakes at www.dolcidigio.com

Category: Rants and Raves, The Kids | Tags: cakes, children's clothes, kids parties, Kidsen

Marli Harwood and Her Baby

Kathryn | May 24, 2011 | 16 comments

A particularly persistent PR blokey has been nagging us for months to ‘mention’ Marli Harwood but I’ve been deliberately digging my heels in and not playing the game. No way am I going to listen to a CD just because someone who is paid to big an artist up, asks me to!

More fool me, it turns out though as it looks like I’ve just been cutting my own nose off to spite my face. Stuck in the car on a longish journey on the weekend, I fed the Marli Harwood album into the slot and sat back to listen. I was determined not to like it but found myself intrigued and dare I say it, impressed! Woah, this is good, I reluctantly admitted to myself and the other half agreed.

Marli Harwood Album

There’s a track called ‘Clock With No Hands’ which most of us can identify with – a song about life going too fast and encouraging us to grab every opportunity going. And ‘Billy’ is one of those heartrending songs about unrequited love which made me feel quite tearful. Mind you, I cried at Waterloo Road last week so that’s not really much of a benchmark.

Marli has a genuinely interesting story behind her too as she’d been trying to make it in the world of music for 16 years and had given up to start a family. It was when she was 3 months pregnant that Radio 2 made one of her songs, ‘It’s Called a Heart’, Record of the Week. This sparked off a flurry of recording contract offers and she eventually settled with Island Records who built a unique maternity clause into her contract – so now Marli looks like fulfilling 2 dreams. She’s going to be a Mum and on the basis of her new album ‘Clocks And full Stops’, she’s obviously going to be a successful recording star. Buy the CD, Download or whatever – it really is well worth it!

Kathryn C

I have 3 sample CDs with 5 of the best tracks on to give away. Just comment here if you’d like it.

Category: Rants and Raves, Television, Cinema and Entertainment | Tags: Billy, Clocks and Full Stops, Island Records, Marli Harwood, Maternity Clause

£1 a question

fiffes | April 28, 2011 | One comment

As most mums of a newborn know, everyone will stop to have a wee look, especially a premie. Also, there is tradition of putting silver into the pram. I made a small fortune this way with Ella.
Things are worse with twins. I struggle to walk the length of myself without folk stopping to look in the pram. It is actually funny not to talk walkin about the shops and listen to all the ” aww look at the tiny baby” comments. Most people stare on their way past only commenting to people they are with.
However then you get the really brazen ones. They appear at your back, almost standing on top of you to get a look. Not only do you now get the traditional silver in the pram, but a barrage of questions.
Are they twin? Are they both girls? What age? What weight? What’s their names? How do you tell them apart? Are they identical? Are they yours? Is this the big sister (sometimes ‘is this the big brother?’ even though Ella has her hair in bunches and is wearing pink! ). Most are the most ridiculous questions. I mean why would I have a monster pram with nothing in it or my favourite are they real? No. They are dollies you nugget! Some folk even butt into a conversation you are having with people you actually know, and then these very strange people demand you answer their questions rather than finish the conversation you are already having.
So I have come to the conclusion I will start charging. The sign on the pram is going to read:
50p a stare / passing comment to your friend.
£1 a question.
£2 for very stupid question including are they real, is it girls ( no they are dressed in pink to give them a complex in later life) and how do you cope?
Give your payment to the adult pushing this pram. Thank you!
I reckon I will make a small fortune. Enough to pay for them go to uni is my hope

Category: Baby Things, Rants and Raves

Selective Hearing in Men!

fiffes | April 26, 2011 | One comment

Well it seems that exhaustion in men is just like man flu. Always much much worse than what a woman suffers. 2nd day in a row we have had almost no sleep thanks to the twins. Sunday night Neil had been moaning all day how he was exhausted after having only 4 hours sleep. Actually he has almost 6, but what is a few hours between friends. So Sunday night, I head to my bed about 10.30, but by the time I got jammies on, teeth brushed, taken medication etc it was almost 10.45pm.

An hour in the delightful land of nod, and was awoken by Abbie screaming for food. She was downstairs with Neil – would say heard her through closed doors, but exhaustion has caused Neil to loose the ability to shut doors. After feeding the hungry monster, we headed to bed about 1am. Neil fell into a nice deep sleep almost instantly – well that is what he had me believe cos he certainly never heard the twins cry. Within 10 mins, Katie was screaming. having refused to drink much milk she had decided she was no hungry – despite having being screaming louder and longer than Abbie for midnight feed. So up I got to soothe her. 2.30 I managed to crawl back to bed, only to be awoken half an hour later by Ella. 3am and I fell asleep again. Another half hour later both girls were up for next feed. 5am we went back to sleep, with Ella getting up for the day at 6.30 am. Now repeat the same process on Monday night.
But how on earth could Neil sleep through all this. Even Ella heard the girls crying, hence why she was up during the night. So the big question is do men have selective hearing, or do they just plain ignore their children crying?