Review - Enchanted Forest & Friends Clothing for Children

The Enchanted Forest and Friends brand has been created by Scottish husband and wife team, Bernie and Mariessa Devlin. I love the concept behind the range, which features a series of five forest friends: Zed Fox, Humbellina Bumblebee, Sirrell Squirrel, Bertie Bluetit and Miss Bun Bun.

"In the Forest a magical tree exists, with a secret door which lies slightly ajar showing a golden glowing light shining bright. Enter through this door and it leads to the Enchanted Forest, a magical world full of discovery, exploration and adventure. Beautiful flowers, gigantic trees, colourful mushrooms, sparkling lakes and enchanting sounds can be found."

The Forest Friends characters feature on the clothing, and we received the all over print short sleeve tunic for the littlest to test.

The littlest turns 4 years old this month but she's tall for her age; we had ordered the 4-5 year t-shirt which was the perfect size for her. The T-shirt has washed well and has become a firm favourite in the littlest's wardrobe.

Girls All over Print Short Sleeve Tunic Top, £13.99 (on sale just now at £10.99)

In addition to the T-shirt, we were also sent a Character Backpack... meet Miss Bun Bun:

Children's Character Backpack, £22

The concept of this backpack is great... the head can be used as a pillow, within the backpack is a blanket and there are detachable reins (which the littlest at nearly 4 years old does not need, but she liked pretending to be a baby!). My daughter fell in love with Miss Bun Bun immediately and has been wanting to wear her ever since she arrived. 

Miss Bun Bun 

We removed the blanket to put in some toys and special bits & pieces, but I think once it was emptier coupled with the heavy weight of the head meant that the backpack didn't sit very well on my daughter's back. Perhaps we needed to spend more time adjusting the straps, but as we reduced the straps to pull it tighter into her body, the rabbit ended up folding in two a bit. 

For me, the backpack perhaps has a few design flaws but the idea is fantastic and my daughter certainly adores it.

Which is your favourite character? I think mine is Zed Fox!

We received two items from Enchanted Forest & Friends to test and review. As always, opinions are honest and are my own.

{#JanuaryJoy - plan a girls night in}

'Plan a girls night in' is today's #JanuaryJoy prompt.

Once the kinder are in bed, I tend to not do very much... work on my blog, watch a bit of TV, have a general tidy up... it's nights like these that would be perfect to host a girls night in, and I have a couple of girls in mind that are yet to see my new house ;-)

So Roz, Lauren and Becky (although I appreciate that Becky you've already seen the house, but I'm hoping you may be up for a night in anyway?) - let's get a date in the diary for a wee movie & popcorn night at mine?

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{35 at 35: #ShareAdvent Afternoon Tea, Done!}

For today's #ShareAdvent topic, 'mulling', I'm going to share with you the details of the festive afternoon tea I hosted in my new house.

It's the last #35at35list item that I'm going to be able to tick off this year :-)

I had planned to have a lavender-themed afternoon tea party in my new house as a civilised house warming party and had pinned a whole host of inspiring pictures here of lavender hot chocolate, lilac macarons and blueberry cupcakes...

Anyway, I ended up deciding that a festive afternoon tea would be much easier, and I went ahead and organised a child-friendly afternoon for a few friends.

We had cheese & crackers, puff pastry canapes, warm mulled wine from the slow cooker and mince pies with Baileys cream. Yum!

The cheese & pate

My festive wreath!

Kids hard at work cutting out pastry shapes for our goats cheese and onion chutney puffs!

The living room, complete with "roaring fire"!!

{Host Your Own Cocktail Party}

When I was asked if I would host a cocktail party in my own house with Social and Cocktail, I didn't need to think twice! I love a good cocktail and I love to host parties...

Basically, Social and Cocktail will provide the cocktail bartender, a mobile bar, cocktail ingredients, glassware, ice etc and will make amazing cocktails in your home for you and your guests.

This is the bar!!!

After agreeing on a date, I was then tasked with selecting 5 cocktails from their menu, which they've helpfully categorised into Dessert, Vodka, Rum, Classics and Non-Alcoholic.

I picked:

• Raspberry Mojito - Raspberry liqueur, white rum, lime juice, soda water, mint, sugar & raspberries
• Passionfruit Daiquiri - Rum, Passoa, Lime juice & sugar syrup
• Cosmopolitan - citrus vodka, Triple Sec, cranberry juice, lemon and sugar syrup
• Toblerone Martini
• Caipirinha - originated in Brazil where they are regarded as the national cocktail and contains Cachaca, sugar & lime

On the night, Evan & Damien arrived with Marc the photographer about an hour before the guests were due to set up the bar.

It was a bit like Transformers... and this is what the box became:

I had decided to use a scoring system for each cocktail for a bit of fun... so we each rated the cocktails in four different categories, Appearance, Smell, Initial Taste and Overall Impression, giving them a score out of 5.

I had a few moustaches dotted about the place.... we're supporting Movember!

Evan doing his thing behind the bar!

The Toblerone Martini... really creamy and was so nice! (spot the tache on my son's baby photo in the background!!)

Enjoying my passion fruit dacquiri

Katie had a shot and made her own cocktail...

Half way through we took a break as I had made a big pot of chilli which was warm in the slow cooker and I served with nachos, guacamole, sour cream and salsa. Just as well we all ate, as the evening wore in it proceeded to get messy! By the end of the night quite a few of us were playing Dance Central on the XBox!! Great fun.

So for the scoring...

Katie's comments were the funniest, the Toblerone Martini appealed to her oestrogen and for overall impression for the raspberry mojito, "marry me" was in her notes!!!

Here are the cocktails in order of preference with their total score *drum roll please*

1. Passionfruit Daiquiri - 84%
2. Raspberry Mojito - 81% 
3. Caipirinha - 77%
4. Cosmopolitan - 77%
5. Toblerone Martini - 65%

The Toblerone Martini score surprises me as I really enjoyed it, but I guess it's not to everyone's taste.

Our only real suggestion would be that the order the drinks are served could have been given a bit more thought as we started with the creamy dessert cocktail, whereas it might have been nicer to put this in the middle of the other more alcoholic ones to mix things up a bit. 

But all in all we were thoroughly impressed.

The cocktails were all lovely - as you can see from the scores above - and everyone was uber impressed with the service.

I would definitely consider hiring a bar in the future. For £25 per person for 5 cocktails, you can't really go wrong. It's less that what you'd pay if you were in a bar in town and yet you don't even need to leave your house! Fantastic given the freezing weather and the wait that you can sometimes have in a cold taxi queue! Evan even cleared up after himself and at the end, the glasses, bar etc was all packed up and away it went. Very professional and I'm seriously really impressed. Great value for money I reckon.

The Social and Cocktail bartenders are all professionally trained and they focus on three key aims - service, mixology and entertainment. Evan was brilliant and we were all really impressed! He delivered on all three :-)

We were suffering the next day... so a cooked breakfast was in order!!

We enjoyed a cocktail party at home free of charge in exchange for this review. Opinions, as always, are my own and are honest.

{35 at 35: Log Fire, Check!}

Item number 12 on my 35 at 35 list was to 'spend an afternoon in front of a log fire' and I did just that on Saturday at my friends Kath and Peter's new house. Ok, so it wasn't an afternoon, it was an evening, but I'm going ahead and ticking it off the list. We even went one better... we drank champagne in front of the log fire!!

I'm going to do a separate post on their house as it's just beautiful and there are so many lovely things that I want to share with you about it. But for now, here's a sneak peek at their fireplace and their terrace...

Kath even made me a paleo dinner so I could stick to my diet! Thank you, you are amazing! xx

Just perfect!! Good food, good company, champagne, log fire... it was a brilliant evening in.

Drinks on the terrace, yes please!

{Fallen Angel}

On Tuesday this week I was working the late shift at work, and so when the doorbell went in the morning I knew it would be the postman with another delivery for me and I was pleased that I wouldn't need to make yet another trip to the depot for a missed package! (I'm supposedly their best customer and the guy knew my house number last time I was there without me even needing to hand over my ticket! Spot the online shopper!!). 

Anyway, I was rushing a bit, but was intrigued to see what was inside the large white box that had arrived. I grabbed the kitchen scissors and cut open the package. As I peeled back the layers, I was found this staring back at me:

I freaked out slightly. My initial thoughts were that I have a crazy stalker... who would send someone an armless angel??

However, when I removed the angel from the box, I did discover her arms at the bottom of the box, so I guessed she must have been damaged in transit.

For the life of me I could not figure out who it was from. The invoice that came with the angel had my own address as the invoice address and the shipping address. There was also no gift note or message. I called the company and they agreed to send me another one that day, and all they could tell me was the last three digits of the mobile phone number associated with the order. This didn't help me either!!

The person had to know me, because I didn't have an angel on my Christmas tree and my tree decorations were all gold and so the angel was a perfect gift.

I texted and tweeted a few people, but they confirmed that it wasn't them... so I was getting in more and more of a muddle.

That evening I was meeting some of my mummy friends for a Christmas dinner in town, and I had started to think that it was maybe my good friend Kath (who is always doing lovely things for me... like when she bought me a beautiful scented candle after reading that the light was not there at the end of my tunnel) and it turns out, yes, the angel was a gift from her.

Spread your wings and fly

She had tried to write a lovely message to accompany the angel... acknowledging the rubbish Christmas I had last year, but here was an angel to watch over me this year... but when she got to the payment page it popped up saying gift messages weren't accepted for this item and she had planned to text me the message but forgot. Hence the confusion on my part!

The story ends well however, and I now have a lovely angel in my living room to watch over me and the kids. Thank you Kath for being so thoughtful and kind.

{35 at 35: Thoughtful for Friend, check!!}

One of my friends has been going through a really tough time lately. She doesn't live in Glasgow unfortunately, so I don't get to see her as often as I'd like to.

I sent her a box of brownies from Brownie Boo with a little message telling her to stick the kettle on, put her feet up and take a break for a little me-time.

It was these Smartie Glitter brownies that I picked - don't they look yum!

I got a message when they arrived to say 'thank you so much for the GORGEOUS brownies that you sent me, they are really yummy!'. I'm just pleased that they brought a smile to her face and I wanted her to know that even though I'm not there with her, I'm thinking of her. Hugs xx

This was part of my 35 at 35 list (number 3 to be precise!), but to be honest, it was an easy one to tick off my list as I am a really thoughtful person (*toot toot* - blowing my own trumpet!). I sent my sister sweets in the post last year from Send Happiness, and I sent my friend a cake when her baby daughter was born. (Not all my thoughtful gifts are food related, but I do have a very sweet tooth!!). I'm sure there will be many more thoughtful things to come in the next 5 years...

{Grooving, or not as the case may be...}

I'm linking up again this week with Kate on Thin Ice for her weekly #groovingmums Blog Hop. This is week #6 already, and we're now into November... where has the time gone? Grab the badge that features above and check out Kate's blog if you fancy joining in.

I've had a bit of a mixed week if I'm honest.

My dad was here last week which was lovely to catch up with him and his wife. My son adored having his granddad around - we went to the garden centre and you could here my son shouting at the top of his voice from all corners of the store... 'Granddad, where are you?'. My sister also came down for one night and we had a mini-celebration for my dad's 60th (which is actually in November, but we won't see him again until April). I enjoyed being the hostess (I used to love hosting dinner parties b.c.) and I prepared a few nibbles for our friends & family which went down a storm (big thanks to my friend Claire for the inspiration for all the canapes). We also had a day trawling round some fabric shops and I'm feeling inspired to get the sewing machine out to make some curtains for the house (watch this space!). My sister has already made a cushion amongst other things with the fabric she purchased (she's child-free so can get things done much quicker than me!).

Some nibbles.... healthy-ish!!

On Thursday after my dad left I had a 'Keeping in Touch' day at my work. I'm due to start back in January, but had a day of training organised. I have to admit it was nice being back, even though I spent the afternoon reading Standard Operating Procedures! I wore my new Gok Wan dress (size 10!) and got a few nice comments about my new slim figure.

At work.... 

I also had a lovely night away in a 5 star hotel with a friend. We had a day of pampering at the spa followed by a lovely dinner that we got all dressed up for...

Dressed up for dinner in my new Wallis spotty dress

For Halloween on Monday I took the kiddies in their pirate outfits to visit granny & grandpa and they had a lovely day. My sister-in-law also came along with her two little ones so my son had great fun playing with his older cousin.

Last night, my friend Becky and I went to a flower arranging course. It was a one-off 2 hour course at a local florist and I had a great time and learnt loads. I'll do a separate blog post on this, but here is a quick photo of my creation:

However, here are the negatives (thought I'd start with the positive, up-beat bit!)...

Sticking to the healthy eating has been difficult now that Maria, my personal trainer, has said I can ditch the food diary. I've had too many nice cakes with my dad when he was here followed by a weekend of indulgence... must try harder this week.

I've also not been feeling great. I've had a bit of a cold and my tummy has been a bit sore too. I've been a bit of an idiot when it came to my Crohn's medication. With my weight loss I should have really reduced the dose of my medication, so I've technically been taking an overdose and I've been getting some not-so-nice side effects! My own fault really. My dose has now been lowered, but it's going to take a wee while for things to settle out. 

I've also not been doing much exercise... partly because I've been too busy and partly because I've been feeling a bit rubbish. I'm finding it difficult to go out running in the evenings now as it's so dark and it's not really safe to go on my own. I would go in the morning before hubby & the kids get up, but again it's too dark. I'm finding it really tricky to keep to the exercise plan at the moment and I'm feeling sluggish and a bit bleugh...

I feel like all I do is go round and round the house picking up stuff all the time and don't actually get anything done... dirty nappies, messy clothes, toys, more toys and even more toys...

Here's hoping the week picks up!

{Support, in more ways than one}

One of my tips for new mums is to get yourself a support network of friends and/or family. I'm lucky that, in addition to my husband, I have both. And don't be afraid to ask for help.

My in-laws are lovely and have been a great help to us. I'm thankful that they live nearby and are always willing to give me a hand, even at short notice. My own mother died when I was university 10 years ago and my father is currently living in Oman. My sister does live in the UK, but she is based in Aberdeen which is a 2.5-3h drive away (depends how fast you drive!)... I just wish she lived closer.

I attended yoga classes when I was pregnant with my son and I'm still in touch with a number of the girls from the class and we meet as regularly as we can (with and, more importantly!, without little ones). I also have two very good friends that live in Glasgow not far from me... one of whom is getting married next month and I am honoured to be one of her three bridesmaids.

Which brings me onto my other support... Spanx! With the wedding looming I'm conscious that I'm still carrying some baby weight (I know, I need to give myself a break... she's only 8 weeks old). I recently headed into Glasgow city centre to House of Fraser to hit their lingerie department and purchased a Spanx strapless slip and a Wonderbra ultimate strapless. A great investment and the Spanx has made me feel a million times more confident about my flabby, post-baby tummy. A friend had suggested I go to Frasers, and she was right - the customer service was amazing. I was a little rushed as my daughter started to scream to be fed (she does know how to pick her moments!) but I do intend on going back when I have more time and I think I will use their complimentary personal shopping service.

I'll just quickly mention that Becky, the bride-to-be, also has a blog and you can read all about her wedding planning here.