Lamb & Bear

Brand & Blog

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Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere Review

As part of the Parragon Book Buddies group this month I was sent a well suited book called ‘Pumpkins, Pumpkins Everywhere’.

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This is the first year Lamb understands about Halloween and has been loving watching Halloween movies like Hotel Transylvania. We even took him to the cinema to see Hotel Transylvania 2 at the weekend.

The first time we read this he was hooked straight away. In fact he kept making me go back a page to look at the pictures again! IMG_5517

I’ll be honest, the lack of words was quite annoying for me, some pages only had 2! However this is perfect for little ones who are learning to read. The words are repetitive, bright and bold and will stand out to them as they read through the book.

With that said, I’ve grown to love the lack of words. This gives me the opportunity to create my own story with Lamb. Together we point out things on the page, talk about what the characters are wearing or doing, what scary monsters you can see. The pictures are so inviting and every page is full of detail.

Parragon books are beautiful. They are high quality and the range available is vast. I’m loving being a Book Buddy and look forward to sharing some more amazing reads with you each month.

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Happy Halloween!

Ax

*I was sent this product free of charge as part of the Parragon Book Buddy club in return for my honest opinion and review.

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So it’s time to take this blogging stuff more seriously…

So it’s time to take blogging more seriously. Life is about to get pretty tough. But I’m going to embrace this life change, and do great things.

What a month I’ve had.

Car crash. You can read about my experience here. Scariest day of my life.

Fast forward 4 weeks and I’m made redundant without notice. Yep that’s right. I turned up to work and they sent me home, unemployed.

I won’t go into details. I was almost made redundant in January but they managed to keep me on. So this didn’t come as a shock, I was however, shocked that it was instant. No warning.

Anyway I’m not dwelling on that.

I’ve got to look forward, and fast.

We’re down to one income, one very small income. If you read my post on redundancy at the beginning of the year, you’ll know my husband was made redundant in December. He’s now working as an apprentice electrician and is at college one day a week.

I couldn’t be more proud of him. He’s 30 years old and starting again. Everyone around us are pretty much in established careers, and well, we’re both now starting from scratch.

Both of us. Not one, but 2 redundancies in the space of 10 months. What are the chances?!

So what’s in store for us?

Financially I have no idea. I have bills, quite a few. I need at least £300 a month to cover them. I’m hoping we’re entitled to benefits to cover this. I’ll be calling them tomorrow, but I’m not holding my breath.

I could look for another job, but part time jobs that pay 20k pro rata are impossible to come by. Trust me I’ve looked, a lot. And said job would need to take on a mum with a toddler and responsibilities… Yeah good one.

We have a small amount of savings that will help pay the mortgage for a couple of months, but this won’t last long.

I’ll be able to claim for unpaid wages, redundancy and notice. So should have a bit of money by December, but hey us part timers don’t earn much you know, so this won’t be much.

I can however, see a silver lining to this awful situation.

I get to work harder at blogging, build up my following and hopefully get some paid work. I’m already registered self employed as I’ve earned a tiny bit already (I mean really tiny), so I’m going to push to earn more.

I never thought I’d be a stay at home mum. Ever. I didn’t spend 6 years in further education to stay at home. But I’ll embrace the time with my son. I love him more and more each day and miss him when I leave him. It’s just not something I saw myself doing.

Then there’s my little business venture I haven’t quite announced yet (other than a few comments here and there and photos on Instagram).

I’m launching my own Lamb & Bear clothing line.

You may be reading this thinking, there’s your new career, what are you worried about?! But trust me when I say, I won’t be earning an income from it for a long, long time. And who knows if it will even take off? Although I’m confident it will, or I wouldn’t be doing it!

I’ve got to grab this opportunity with both hands. I’ve been given something so precious to parents. Time.

I now have more time to design for my clothing line. To write for my blog. To promote my brand. To spend time with my son.

My mother-in-law looks after Lamb on Mondays, and will continue to do so, he also goes to nursery on a Thursday (we’ve put him down to one day a week for obvious reasons).

I can’t take him out of nursery altogether. It’s taken us over a year to get him to a point of being happy to go to there, and he will be going for free in April anyway. So we’ve agreed to find the money each month to keep him in. He’s our priority.

That gives me 2 full days a week to work on the brand and blog.

It’s time to get organised. It’s time to schedule my time.

I can do this. It’s going to be so hard. Pennies will be tight. But we are both actually in a happy place and that’s what matters. We are spending more time together and strengthening our family bond.

So what if Christmas is cancelled this year? We have supportive friends and family around us that will help make it special.

So let’s raise a glass to the start of our new life.

And hope we can pay the bills!

Ax

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Autumnal Arts and Crafts

Now it’s well and truly Autumn I thought it was time to get the arts and craft stuff out, and keep it out. No more strolls around the zoo, no more quick trips to the park (unless we are kitted out head to toe in warm clothing). Arts and crafts is a winter activity for us, and we have been doing quite a bit lately.

This week we used our Bostik craft box to make some paper plate Halloween characters which you can see here. We also made a lovely Autumnal picture.

Almost anything can be used for arts and crafts. Toilet roll tubes, newspaper or magazines, old cereal boxes, sweetie wrappers, anything. For autumnal art, try collecting things that are orange, red, brown, and yellow to create outdoors art. Exactly what we did this week!

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IMG_5408As with the Halloween arts and crafts, we got a bit of help from Daddy. I love watching them together. Daddy tries really hard and is really patient with Lamb when he’s making a huge mess of things. Me however, I get a tad frustrated when he doesn’t stick things in the right place… perfectionist comes to mind!

Thanks to the fab box from Bostik, our Autumnal picture was pretty straightforward to make and super effective. Not everyone will have a felt owl at home, but it wouldn’t take long to make one out of card or felt. Or I’m sure you could grab something from your local craft shop.

 

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I was really impressed with the finished piece. I thought Daddy had used the coloured leaves and feathers really well to create and autumnal landscape. The crescent moon was a lovely touch.

Have you been doing lots of arts and crafts recently? I’d love to see what you’ve been getting up to!

Ax

* The craft box was provided to me free of charge by Bostik as part of the Tots100/Bostik Craft Bloggers Club.

The Freerange Family

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Top 5 Prams Suitable from Birth

After stumbling across this post on Oh So Amelia blog I’ve decided to start a TOP 5 series on my blog. Whether you’re a new parent, grandparent, or looking for gift ideas, the amount of products out there can be pretty overwhelming.

Since launching Lamb & Bear I’ve been lucky to try a handful of prams and buggies. I’ve also tested for the Mother & Baby awards for 2 years running and both years I have been sent prams and buggies to test and review. I have to admit I’ve developed a slight obsession with prams and currently have 5 at home, have given 2 to my brother and sister-in-law, 1 to my mother-in-law and one to a friend!!

From all the testing I’ve been doing I feel I’ve gained knowledge in what you need in a pram and which ones I think are worth buying. Obviously I haven’t tested every pram on the market so I’ll make sure I update this list if my opinion changes and I find even better ones!

So here’s a post on my top 5 prams suitable from birth. Let’s begin with my absolute favourite.

  1. Baby Jogger City Mini

This is the pram we currently use with Lamb. We actually bought this pram because we heard so many great things about it, and it was worth every penny! It’s designed like a stroller, but is heavier and much sturdier. My favourite features are the one hand fold (there’s a handle on the seat you pull and the whole pram collapses), the extra large hood, and how easy it is to push (even one handed). This is suitable from birth and can also be converted to a travel system by attaching a maxi-cosi car seat (something I will do when we have another baby). It’s pricey for a stroller but really worth it.

2. Joie Chrome

IMG_8240We were sent the Joie Chrome last year to test for the Mother & Baby Awards and I really liked it. In fact, we’re still using it now! The Chrome is a travel system and can be bought with a car seat, carry cot, plus the standard seat (see photo) which can be parent or world facing. This pram is now sold as the Chrome Plus. What I loved about this pram was the huge storage basket which was easily accessible, it’s super lightweight and easy to push, and the seat sits up nice and tall for Lamb to look around. I would definitely consider buying the car seat and carry cot for this pram to use when we have another baby. Another bonus is you don’t have to remove the seat the fold down like you do with most travel systems. You can read my full review here. I also reviewed the Joie Stages car seat here.

3. Britax Affinity

The Britax Affinity was sent to us last year for the Mother & Baby awards. Oh my is this a stylish travel system. I mean, just look at it, it’s stunning. For a travel system I was really impressed with the weight, much lighter than the huge Silver Cross I bought off eBay when Lamb was born (we didn’t keep that for very long). It has a large storage basket, good size hood, comfy, padded seat and additional features like a bumper bar. I found this pram really easy to push. The seat can be both parent facing and world facing, and what’s even better is you don’t have to remove the seat to fold down! Bonus! Quite pricey, but if you’re using for 3 or 4 years definitely it’s worth it.

4. Cosatto Ooba

IMG_7095I do love Cosatto products. It’s so refreshing to have a brand produce such fun and colourful products. We absolutely love our Robot Cotbed which you can read our review on here. We were give the opportunity to try out the Ooba for a day while we were at The Baby Show in Birmingham. I’ve only used this pram briefly so I can’t give you my full opinion, but I found the pram really easy to push around, however make sure the big wheels are facing backwards! I began with them facing forwards which is more for off road. Oops. There are loads of fab features like a hand brake, adjustable handle (can switch the handle from from facing to rear facing), leather accessories and large hood. Take a look at other Cosatto prams if you want something really special.

5. Silver Cross Reflex

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This year we were sent the Silver Cross Reflex to try out. As far as strollers go, I much prefer 3 wheelers, however I actually really liked this pushchair. From a distance the Reflex looks like your standard umbrella fold stroller, however it is much more than that. It has so many extra features. It can actually be fitted with a car seat and adjusted to be parent facing. It fully reclines, has an extra large hood and comes with a bumper bar. If you’re a family in the city then a pushchair like the Silver Cross Reflex is perfect for you. It folds small is pretty lightweight, but looks really stylish. The price tag of £250 for the stroller (not including the car seat) is more than you would expect to pay for a stroller, however like I said, this is more than just a stroller.

 

So there’s my top 5 prams suitable from birth. Like I said earlier this is based on prams I have tried out myself, so you may find better alternatives by reading other reviews.

My advice when looking for a new pram is be realistic. Do you really need a travel system? If so how big is the boot of your car? Will it fit? Would a stroller that can fit a car seat be more suitable? If so do some research and read plenty of reviews about the ones that are more suited to you.

Do you want one pushchair for the whole time you’re child is using it, or are you happy to buy a travel system, then buy a lighter one when they get bigger? Pushing a toddler in a pram isn’t as easy as pushing a newborn so keep that in mind when buying your pram. If you buy a heavy one to begin with, it’s only going to get heavier!

Do you travel a lot? Do you need something more suited to off road? We’ve tried out the BOB Revolution Pro before which is absolutely massive, but unbelievable off road. It’s heavy and bulky but so smooth to push, a real shocker!

I hope you’ve found this post useful. If you have any further questions about the prams mentioned please leave a comment and I’ll get back to you 🙂

Ax

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Facts and Favourites #Vlog Stars

I’m linking up with Mr and Mrs T Plus Three and You Baby Me Mummy for this months #VlogStars which is facts and favourites questions.

I’ll be linking up with them every month so look out for my next #VlogStars video!

Ax

 

Mr and Mrs T Plus Three

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