September 13th 2015 - Potion bottles

September 13th 2015 - Potion bottles

It's not that long until Halloween now.  At the beginning of the year I started making some potion bottles for my friend.  I had loads more empty bottles to use but just hadn't got round to doing them.  I  have spent today making some more bottles and finishing off a few of the others.

I'm really pleased with how they are looking, once they are dry they will be moved up to the box in the loft with the rest as i'm not sure if halloween is happening at my house or my friends where it is meant to be.

All bottles and jars have had medicine, herbs, air freshner  or something in  and have not been bought to use.

September 12th 2015 - Save a Life September

September 12th 2015 - Save a Life September

As a member of St John Ambulance I am helping to promote SJA and our "save a life september campaign".  This is the 4th year it has been run wiith various activities taking place - from first ai demonstrations in shopping centers to the nationwide guerrilla style bandaging stunt.  

I have taken part in the bandaging stunt to try and raise awareness of SJA in my area.  My taking part consisted of Bandaging a Lamp post outside my house (on a main road):

 Bandaging a statue at Whitehaven harbour:

and Bandaging the railings down by the beach with Whitehaven Light house in the distance:

Whilst I in the process of bandaging the statue a man passing by asked me what I was doing - so I told him "bandaging a statue".  He then asked me why with a very puzzled look.  I explianed to him that St John Ambulance are doing their Save a Life September campaign again and they have asked unit members all over the UK to place bandages an stickers on things like lamp posts, post boxes and statues in and around their town to raise awareness.  He smiled (probably thinking i'm a total loony) and said he didn't know that Whitehaven had a St John Ambulance Unit.  He walked off and kept looking back me!

So it has worked, it has made my unit more aware to at least 1 person.  There were a few other people who walked past but didn't say anything, and I did notice after I had left they had gone to look at the bandage.  I really wanted to place 1 in the center of town somewhere but being a Saturday and market day it's really busy so I wasn't brave enough to do it.

I really hope that the campaign helps raise awareness of SJA across the UK.

September 11th 2015 - Android Tablet

September 11th 2015 - Android Talet

Just over a week ago on the Martin Lewis Website there was a freebie come up for a free Alldaymall 7" Android Tablet in pink.  You entered the money off code and selected free shipping on Amazon and the order went through. It turns out that this was a BIG mistake on the comapnies part, and the code shouldn't have been to get the item free.

Sadly I didn't know this until after I had ordered it, received it and allowed my children to use the free tablet that I got.  Well i'm not a cruel mother and was not prepared to take it away from my children.  I do feel sorry for the company as a lot of people took advantage of the freebie, but I will give it an honest review and write up here.

The item was packed very well and was protected and it arrived a day earlier than I was told it would arrive.   The package contained everything that it should it would.  If this tablet had to have been bought it would have been £29.99 plus shipping.

The device had no power to start with so we put it on charge for an hour and then turned it on, my first thought was how loud and clear the sound was, not bad for a cheap tablet.  It took you through a start up menu of which you could customise to suit yourself.  The colours and display were very bright and clear, the only thing was the screen didn't go fully edge to edge.

Once set up the tablet was actually quick to load and run pages, it worked well unless my children tried to open too many things which slowed it down (but this happens on all devices).  The screen is great for looking straight at but if turned or angled slightly you can't fully see what is on the screen.

It has both forward and rear facing cameras, I can't comment on the quality of pictures it takes as we have not tried this yet.  It also has room for a memory card to be inserted, again we haven't done this but probably will.

It is small and light weight and ideal size to fit in a bag.  It will be used a lot at hospital appointments as wont take up much room to take with us but is enough to keep the children amused whilst waiting.  It has a hard plastic shell around the tablet which i'm sure is strong enough to protect it but I plan on buying a rubber one just encase it does get dropped.  It is a well built little machine.

The tablet is able to connect to wi-fi which is great an it is also bluetooth enabled.  It runs on Android which is what myself and children are used to (they have use my mobile phone for games etc).  Apps install on it quickly, but as it has low memory I wouldn't advise you to add too many, unless you plan on adding a memory card to boost it.

It can be charged via mains plug or the mini usb cable.  My youngest son is happy to play on it whilst on charge from my laptop so that he can sit and snuggle with me before bed.  The battery life isn't the best and is about 2-3hrs depending on what you are using the tablet for, but I really don't want my children glued to a device for this amount of time let alone longer!

For the price the tablet is (and even better for me as was free) I can safely say it is a great little device, it does what you would hope a small tablet could do etc.  It is ideal size etc for children and slipping into a bag for waiting rooms or even whilst shopping.

I would recommend this product to family and friends.  Thank you for sending it to me an i'm sorry that I wasn't aware of the mix up and that it shouldn't have been free.  I hope that you accept my apology and review as fair exchange.

September 10th 2015 - Day trip

September 10th 2015 - Day trip

As me and my hubby are not available on the 23rd for our wedding anniversary and we needed to speak to the man we hired my wheels from 2weeks ago, we made a day trip today.

We dropped the boys off at school and headed to Keswick, just over 45minutes away.  We went and spoke to the man about the mobility scooter and he will sell it as soon as we have the money for it, so we have put in for a benefits loan so  that I can get it.  After we spoke to the man I hobbled round the market and the shops, managed to pick up a few books for me and a Christmas present for my sister.  We were going to go to the pub for lunch but they didn't serve food until 12noon and it was only just gone 11am, so we went to the fish & chip shop instead as they were open.

After we had eaten we went up to Ashness Bridge, which is where my parents ashes were scattered.  It was quite busy up there, but there again it always is, but it was still very quiet.  We got talking to an older couple that were up there about the area and how we came to live here etc.  We left ashness bridge and headed for home.

However, I decided we were going to go the scenic route - we went through Thornthwaite village, there's not much there except very big houses.  We then got back onto the A66 and just before we reached the Buttermere turning I said to hubby to go there.  So we took another diversion and headed into Buttermere village, where we bought ice-creams and sat by a stream to eat them, with lovely views of the mountains.

When we left Buttermere we headed towards a place called Mockerkin, which we had been told had a lovely tarn.  We found the tarn, but it didn't look as nice as it had been made out to be and the only access to it seemed to be over a locked gate, not much use when your on crutches with a bad knee!

We had a lovely day, saw lots of nice scenery an plenty of sheep in the road!

September 9th 2015 - rock house

September 9th 2015 - rock house

A few weeks back my lil man found 2 leprechauns in a charity shop.  They were salt & pepper pots but he asked if he could have them for his fairy garden.  I bought them and put glue in the holes, touched up the bit that was chipped with nail varnish and off he went with them to the garden.

I didn't think much more about them but last week he said to me that his leprechauns needed a house as the fairies and gnomes all have  houses.  I asked him what sort he wanted and he said made from rock like some of those outside but must be green and have a rainbow on it as leprechauns are found near rainbows.

I have an assortment of rocks in the garden that we have found as we cleared it etc so I foun 1 that was sort of rock house shaped and set about drawing bits on it - windows and doors and flowers, a roof and a rainbow on the back.  I then set about painting it.  It looks really good and lil man is pleased with it.  He asked me to put silver sparkle nail varnish over the rainbow so it looks magical.  So out came the nail varnish again (1 day I will do a post on my many uses of nail varnish lol), and I i it.  All I need to do is varnish it.

I will add a photo during day light so it looks better.

September 8th 2015 - New author

September 8th 2015 - New author

A few months back I bought a book in a local charity shop for 25p that sounded really interesting, it was Entranced by Nora Roberts. At the time I didn't realise it was part of a set.  I have since read book 1 and I am trying to get books 3 and 4.

This bargain find has got me hooked on a great author and I am now looking to buy more of her books.  From what I have found online she has written over 200 books in the name or Nora Roberts and even more under her pseudo name of JD Robbs.  I will be looking for those as well.

Yesterday whilst I was shopping I found 2 more of her books in charity shops - birthright and treasure.I bought them and I now need to find the extra books for treasure.  If I plan to buy all her books I am going to need to buy/make some more book shelves, not that I am sure of where to put them as have no room.  I do like the idea of bookshelves built around windows and doors so that they are set back. 

September 7th 2015 - What a day

September 7th 2015 - What a day

I had planned on writing a nice post about the boys starting back at school today and how smart they looked etc.  But  thing took a different route.

After school the middle son was still complaining that his wrist hurt alot.  On saturday he was playing on a space hopper, fell off and landed on his wrist, we went to a&e and the doctor was in quite an ar*e (not my fault) but after prodding n poking it, son saying it really hurt, the doc said my son had sprained it - no xray etc.  But to keep giving calpol and to go back if no better.  Well he was still in pain so we went back.

The doc we saw today was really nice and helpful.  He sent us for an xray as believed my son my have bent the bone and when we came back he said that he had, only slightly but enough to show up on xray.  As it's only a mild bend he said he didn't want to put it in plaster but would put a splint on for a week to give it support.  Well they couldn't find a splint small enough and only had tuber grip, but said that I could pic 1 up on ebay fairly cheap.  My Son is not allowed to do anything for 2 days and needs to rest his wrist and no sport for 2weeks.  he has an appointment back in a&e next week.

So now i've posted about the drama you are probably thinking that I have lost the plot talking about bending bones etc.  Well this info has been copied from a medical website - "Most  youngsters, broken bones are either “greenstick” fractures, in which the bone bends like green wood and breaks only on one side, or “torus” fractures, in which the bone is buckled, twisted, and weakened but not completely broken. A “bend” fracture refers to a bone that is bent but not broken, and is also relatively common among youngsters."