Book Review and Giveaway How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers

How to Catch a Star by Oliver Jeffers
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This special edition of the book was brought out to celebrate 10 years since it was first published. My children have grown up with Oliver Jeffers and have read most of his work so it was a delight to be sent this to review.

"Once there was a boy and the boy loved stars very much" so he sets off to catch one to keep with him as a friend. Jeffers quirky illustrations and simple texts tell the story in such a delightful way. As adults we know that everything he tries is bound to fail but from a child's point of view things might just work.

I read this to my 7 year old and then discovered that my 10 year old had been listening too and her reaction was that it was 'delightful' and she came out of her room to run off with the book!

This is a must for any young child's book shelf and story you will want to share over and over again.

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I have another copy to give away to one lucky reader! Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter (UK residents only I'm afraid):


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A Review and Give-away with Canvas Design

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I was offered a free canvas from Canvas Design in return for a review and a competition. I have also wanted one of my photos turned into a canvas so I jumped at the chance and sent off a photograph to them. They quickly told me that the one I had sent wasn't high enough resolution so sent them a further version that I was told was good enough for a 40" by 30" canvas - i.e. pretty big!

It didn't seem long before I got notification from the courier of the scheduled delivery date which I was able to adjust as I was going to be out. On the day I could track the delivery online (with an initial 1 hour estimated time slot) as it got closer and closer to my house:

Shortly after I took that screen shot the parcel arrived looking incredibly well wrapped up:

There were a couple of layers of corrugated paper and then bubble wrap:

By now we were getting pretty excited as we could see the photo coming through! I was very, very impressed with the print quality:

Can you see my daughter some where behind the jaguar? I just wish that I had noticed the woman walking behind it with the water bottle - I had cropped the photo to remove strangers faces! This size canvas costs less than £40 from the company which I think is excellent value for the quality of the canvas.

It comes with a wall hanging kit so I just have to decide where I want to put it up. We don't have too many large wall spaces so I think it's going to go opposite my bed so that I can see it when I wake up in the morning - hope it doesn't give me nightmares..

My children now want to have some of their own photographs turned into canvasses. With prices from £5.99 I will look at getting them one each. The company have given me a 15% discount code to share with my readers of BLOG15 which you can enter on their website. 

I am also able to give away one canvas to a UK based reader from a 6 x 6 to a massive 40 x 40! Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter:

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Workout Wednesday: Week 1 in 2014 plus Competition with Thinking Slimmer

It's been a while since I did a Workout post as Christmas plays havoc with everything as there are extra activities and then 2 weeks of no school... So here I am in 2014 with my goal of finishing off the job of getting myself fit and healthy. With a wedding to attend at the end of May I've set myself a goal of dropping another dress size by the big day.

By the time the fireworks had gone up on New Year's Eve my belt had got too tight (I blame a Chinese takeaway). So I started 2014 as I mean to go on by going out for a run (in the rain and sleet!). It may not have been the fastest run in the world but I at least tried...

Once I got back home I realised I had been failing to listen to my slimpods for a few weeks so I started listening to them again every night. I also drank the last glass of wine in the house on the 1st January and ditched the booze again for a month. So after a few days my belt once again does up on that last hole even by the end of the day!

One of the things on the slimpods is that you are encouraged to not distract yourself whilst eating i.e. be on laptop or watching TV. So as part of my house sorting I have reclaimed the kitchen table as an eating area and not as a craft, homework or everything else area it became in the run up to Christmas! We had slipped back into bad habits of eating our evening meals in front of the TV which is not good for any of us...

Another thing is to increase our quantity of vegetables and fruit that we consume. This is toughest when you have a small boy who only eats limited varieties but we will get there in the end. My daughter created a 5 a day chart and we aren't allowed a naughty treat unless we have had a minimum of 3. My children are hyper-competitive so hopefully this will spur them and me on for a while until it becomes a habit. It's led to finding creative ways to get veggies into our meals such as my daughter suggesting putting peppers and peas into couscous:

Couldn't get my son to eat it with the veggies in but at least he ate the plain version (minor victory).

I went out yesterday for a much better run but I still have to regain some of the fitness I've lost in 2 weeks. Just hope that doesn't take too long! With a few events signed up to in the spring and summer I need to get my legs going...

The slimpods have been such a help last year that I have signed up as an affiliate. This means that I can offer readers a 15% discount:

* Train your brain to lose weight without dieting

* Feel full quicker, eat less and choose healthier

* NHS consultant’s verdict: ‘It’s life-changing’

* Works on its own or as a diet plan booster

* Comes with 100% money-back guarantee (T&Cs apply*)

* Take the pain out of weight loss - no more diets

(*T&Cs apply. There's no tricks or catches to their T&Cs as you can see if you click here to read them >>).

Here is a wonderful success story:

I've also been given a chance to give away not 1 but 2 of their slimpods to help you lose weight. There are pods for women and men so its good for everyone that feels they need to get slimmer in 2014. So please use the Rafflecopter widget to enter (you have 2 weeks to enter:

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Barefoot Books Review and Give-away

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We love books in this house so when Barefoot Books asked us to review some and give away another we were very excited. The children were so keen to look at the new books that we had read all of them the same night we got them!

First up The Princess and the Pea which is a reworking of the classic story for 4-8 year olds:

It tells more of the Prince's travels in find of a princess who meets his expectations of being a real princess. Of course he fails and comes home and the Queen uses the pea test to discover a suitable bride. My daughter was very taken with the beautiful illustrations:

It is a lovely re-working of the story and I thoroughly enjoyed reading it to her and having her read some of it to me. It would make a beautiful gift as its hardback and comes with a CD of the story teller Xanthe Gresham reading the story herself.

For my son we had The Little Red Hen which is another reworking of a well known story:

It's good to have a story about people not pulling their weight but wanting to share the rewards any way. It has really fun illustrations on every page:

The book was in paperback format and again came with a story CD narrated by Debra Messing. It also includes a recipe for making your own bread which my son is keen to try (watch this space!).

Our final book was A Hole in the Bottom of the Sea which is a singalong with cumulative lyrics:

The book is a great way for children to learn about how the food chain works under the sea:

After the song has finished there is a simple explanation of the marine food chain and blue holes that exist at the bottom of the sea. I wish my laptop had a CD drive so I could make full use of the enhanced CD with audio and video animations.

Any of these books would brighten up a child's Christmas and bring much enjoyment. 

Competition finished! There is also a chance to win your a book using the Rafflecopter widget, just browse the web site and comment as to which book you would like to win:

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Music Review and Giveaway: Zeamu Music

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Like many parents I love listening to music with my children but find that many songs have totally inappropriate lyrics for youngsters. Songs about sex may top the charts but I don't really want my children going around repeating the lines from them! So when I was offered a chance to review a new kind of music album aimed at primary children I was very keen to give it a whirl. Zeamu Music aims to provide music that the whole family can listen to and enjoy together. The band is a range of cartoon characters each with their own distinctive look:

I put the CD on in the car and after a very short whinge about something new my children quickly got into the music. In fact we now have the CD on in the car every time they are in it with me! Just as well I've been enjoying the music too. 

Each of the tracks is about issues or life events that children can relate too. Some are serious like bullying:

My children's favourites are the funny ones about embarrassing parents and annoying relatives. Here is my daughter singing along to Relatives (whilst her brother is doing Andy Murray impressions in the background!):

It's great to have songs that mean something to my children when it comes to friendships or being left out of things. There are good messages about not needing to be the same to have somethings in common. I think the line What's the point in growing up if grown ups won't grow up may be used against me at some point! Though I've sure I'm not the kind of embarrassing parent mentioned in Doing the Robot:

This album will be our soundtrack for the summer and I'm sure it will get plenty of plays on our long drive to France when we go on holiday! 

I have been given the chance to let one lucky reader win their own copy of the album so please use the Rafflecopter widget to get yourself some entries into the draw. Competition ends at midnight on 23rd July:

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Quick Reads Review and Giveaway

Quick Reads is a literacy charity whose aim over the past seven years has been to introduce millions of people to the joys of reading by providing short, gripping, exciting books by bestselling writers and celebrities. The bite-sized books use clear language making them easy to read with fast-paced, brilliant story lines and are ideal for those who might feel too busy to try a longer book or for reintroducing those who haven’t picked up a book in a while to reading for pleasure. 

These books are priced at only £1 and are designed to only take a couple of hours to read and are not off putting to people that don't read a lot of books. They have just launched a new set of six books for 2013:

I was sent 3 of them to have a look at and today I picked up and read the first one:

Now I am a voracious reader so it only took me 30 minutes to finish whilst I was having my lunch! Its a romantic story about a young woman down on her luck and a policeman trying to decide on his future. Even in such a short story the characters have plenty of detail and there is a decent plot line. A nice way to fill your lunch hour or to read on the train to work. 

I will be having a read of the other two books as the week goes on but meanwhile here is your chance to win your own complete set of books. Just use the Rafflecopter widget to enter:

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Change4Life: Be Food Smart

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It's a while since I've written a post about Change4Life so I pleased to be asked to promote their Be Food Smart campaign. Apparently too many of us still don't know about the hidden sugar, salt and fat in our foods. The majority of respondents (including me!) scored 50% or less in the quiz... The Be Food Smart campaign wants to show parents where the hidden ingredients are so that we can make better choices when feeding the family.

Everyone signing up to Change4Life will get a free meal mixer:

This has ideas and recipes for healthy breakfasts, lunches and dinners! You just flip over the cards to get a combination of meals for the day.

In order to promote the campaign I've been asked to run a competition to give one lucky reader a £50 voucher for the Co-Operative plus their very own Meal Mixer. What you need to do is pop over to the Be Food Smart IQ Quiz take the test then post your scores in the Rafflecopter widget. I also want you to give me your top healthy eating tip for families - be it a recipe or any other way you keep your family healthy. There are additional entries possible once you have left the comments.

Good luck and stay healthy!

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Little Dish Shoes giveaway

As part of my membership to the Sainsbury’s Bank Family Blogger Network, I can offer you four limited edition packs of Little Dish shoes and a meal for your toddler. All courtesy of Sainsbury’s Bank Car Insurance.

Little Dish are supporting this year's Barnado's Big Toddle and they will be selling limited edition toddling shoes in special packs of our Chicken and Butternut Squash Pie for just £5. The shoes will come in three different sizes for toddlers, on sale exclusively in Sainsbury’s from the 23rd May for 10 days only.

You can find out more about the Barnardo’s Big Toddle and how to register here, and find them on facebook.

If you’re too busy to Toddle but will still like to contribute, you can text TODD123 to 70070 to instantly donate £3 that will go directly towards transforming the lives of under 5s. You can read more about where the money raised goes here.

Sainsbury's Bank are giving away 4 of the packs from my blog using a rafflecopter giveaway:

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To enter:

• log in to Rafflecopter with your Facebook account or your email address and...
• ...enter the draw up to 3 times by leaving a blog post comment, tweeting about the giveaway or ‘liking’ the blog post.
• The more times you enter the better your chances of winning.
• The winners will be chosen via Rafflecopter (which uses random.org) and announced on this page. Entrants must state the required size.