Lamb & Bear

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Shimmer and Sparkle Instaglam Doll Review

Hey guys, the sun in shining, the kids are finally on summer break and I’m still working, oh well two out of three ain’t bad! Here at Lamb & Bear we were so excited to receive our newest review to keep our little ones busy. I didn’t tell little lady that we had this on the way, so it was a complete surprise for her to open her brand new Shimmer and Sparkle Instaglam dolls.

For those of you that aren’t aware of the brand, think creative fun makeup for little ones to mess with… gone are the days of hiding my viva glam lipstick from child fingers! Now my little one is super creative and I don’t want to hinder that. So, especially during the past few months, we’ve encouraged her to dress how she wants, hair how she wants and makeup how she wants. If that means she’s modelling a princess costume, hair unbrushed with cat ears and barbie pink lipstick and punk eyes so be it. It’s what she likes and there are only so many years where you can get away with that.

Arabella was luckily gifted two – Evie and Luna, both rocking a cute outfit, funky hair and sassy pose. Each of these are sporting a big head- full of secrets (any mean girls fans out there?). Arabella actually fainted, (pretend fainted as she is a true drama queen) when she unlocked them to find makeup, two eyeshadow, two lip glosses, vanity mirror and lipstick!  Perfect for kiddos to take around whenever they may have a creative moment.

We did search for the applicator brushes as we were a tad too eagar and ignored the paper guide, but how cute is this- it’s the hair clips! You pull them out and they are lip and eye shadow applicator ends- so cool. They also have a little stand for them for when not in use, though right now that isn’t likely to be in use.

 As a plus, the dolls sparkle when using the applicator on them- Evie and Luna looking on fleek! Now these retail for £9.99 and I think that is perfectly acceptable, we will definitely be choosing to buy these for anyone her age and beyond! Honestly how cute would it be to hold a slumber party and each guest receive one of these instead of a party bag – fingers crossed this can become a reality in the not too distant future!

These fab dolls are available from Argos, Smyths and Amazon.

Stevie and Alex xx

 

* We were sent these items free of charge for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are honest and our own.

* I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk.

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Sending Gifts From The Comfort Of Your Home

With everyone spending more time at home recently, and seeing family members a lot less than usual, gifting buying has had to change. We’ve all had to shop online much more.

There are lots of ways you can shop online for gifts. From supermarkets to small Instagram businesses, department store websites to pay weekly online catalogues.

I own my own small business, Ada & Alfred and my sales have increased a lot in the current situation. SO people are obviously doing more shopping online!

Not only can you order lovely gifts online, you can also post directly and even gift wrap to make the gifts even more special.

I’ve decided to list some of my favourite please to shop online for gifts, incase you’re looking for inspiration.

Amazon

Amazon has to be the easiest place to send gifts to loved ones. Even more so if you have Prime. Gifts can arrive as early as same day if you’re posting in the north (where the Amazon depots are). So it’s the perfect place to shop if you’ve left things to the last minute. You can also buy from small businesses who sell on the platform, so can find something really unique. And let’s not forget you can pay £3.99 for gift wrapping on most items. This sounds a lot, but the wrapping is really high quality and stylish.

Instagram

I absolutely love buying from small Instagram shops. Being one myself, I appreciate how hard it is to grow a business, as well as how much love and energy goes into each item. It also means you can buy something unique that is less likely to be bought twice!

Online Catalogues/Spread The Cost

There are a few places I like to shop for larger gifts like games consoles. I don’t always have the money to buy something expensive so I use Very or Studio to spread the cost. It just makes life a little easier for me as my disposable income isn’t very high. I never buy anything I genuinely can’t afford. But if the monthly repayments are within budget I make sure they come out automatically so I don’t miss one.

ASOS

Asos is my go to place for fashion gifts. I have a VIP account so I get free next day delivery. Again, this is great for last minute gifts that I may have forgotten about. You can change the delivery address and post elsewhere, but you can’t gift wrap so I tend to use ASOS for gifts locally that I can quickly wrap and deliver. There’s always a sale and discount code somewhere, so you can get some fab stuff at a great price. There’s even a novelty gift section if you don’t want clothes or accessories.

Alex

* This is a guest post

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Let’s Talk About Our Kitchen Extension!

We are soon to start the plans for a 2 storey extension of our home, including a large kitchen extension. We are so, so excited as this is something we’ve been dreaming of for many years. So far we’ve had an initial quote from a building company, and paid the deposit to our architect. Now we’re just waiting for initial drawings so we can finally ‘see’ what our extension could look like!

Today I’m going to talk about our ideas for the new kitchen. At the moment we have a galley kitchen, which has served it’s purpose well over the last 9 years. BUT as the boys get older (and bigger) the kitchen is getting too cramped to have a few of us in there.

We’ve always dreamed of a sociable kitchen/living space so that’s what we are hoping to achieve with the new extension. We are moving the location of the kitchen, making it bigger and more spacious and including a large island with bar stools.

Style

We want the style of the new kitchen to be modern but still have some character. Our house was built in the 1980s, and has lots of original features throughout, so we want the extension to reflect this. We are considering plywood cupboards with marble worktops, so there’s a mixture of textures. We also want one of the walls to be red brick as a feature wall.

There’s still lots of planning to do and decisions to make, but we’ve been busy on Pinterest saving images we like.

Appliances

The new kitchen will of course need new appliances throughout. We would like to add a large, American style fridge freezer, as we currently have a small integrated fridge, with our freezer located in our cellar. We would also like wall mounted ovens, rather than in the base units. The one thing we will keep the same is a gas hob. I love cooking with gas. I just find it much easier to control and if there’s ever a power cut, I can still make a coffee!

My husband is an electrician, so we will save money there, but will make sure we hire someone for the gas cooker installation.

There’s still a lot we need to decide on, like lighting features, flooring and a colour scheme. But I think this will be easier to decide once we see the plans from our architect.

Ax

* This is a guest post

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How to get more from life after retirement

Spend enough time with anybody and eventually you’ll hear them say one of the most clichéd sentences in the history of language: “I can’t wait to retire”. On the face of things, of course, retirement looks like a pretty sweet deal. There are no more early starts unless you say so. No more commuting through bustling lanes of traffic. No more cutting your evenings short and saying no to plans because you have to get some rest for work in the morning. You can stay up late, eat pizza, and make impulse purchases online for things you don’t really need, but, why not, there’s nothing else to do. Or is there?

People retire for many different reasons. Sometimes you don’t check your watch for half an hour and 20 years go by. At least, it feels that way. Sometimes the company you work for goes bust, and you take early retirement rather than retraining in a new career for the short handful of years you have left before retirement. Sometimes it’s health related (which could mean you are entitled to a disability allowance – for example, see getting long-term disability (LTD) benefits for lupus). 

Whatever the cause or reason for your retirement, you’re going to need to know what to do with your new found free time, because somewhere around day three or four of having no plans, you’re going to miss certain elements of the hoi-polloi.  

Pursue love 

There’s an old saying in the fiction-writing world that goes a little something like this “People only find three types of stories interesting, those about love, death, or diamonds”. 

Your life is your own story. And you are the main character. Pursuing love is a great way to spend your time. If you’re single, dating apps can help you to contact many people roughly your age in your area. If you’re already married, go on picnics, take a trip to Paris, renew your vows, take a cruise together, start a business together, etc. When you put your relationship at the centre of your day, things become more interesting than only thinking about yourself. 

Pursue an interest (properly)

Everyone knows a retired person who dabbles in a hobby of some sort. From part-time sewers and knitters to woodwork and model making and handicrafts of all kinds, everyone has some sort of rainy day interest. BUT. When you do it right, you could open up a new life for yourself. Take astronomy, for instance. The stars and the planets and all of the various man made satellites (and the International Space Station) are fascinating, and a reasonable telescope won’t break the bank. Join a club. Make new friends. Buy a warm coat. Hours of fun. 

Ax

* Collaborative post

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Word Search Junior game review

Keeping the kids occupied at home (especially during the school holidays) can be tricky. Well, unless I stick them in front of YouTube or the xBox for hours… which I obviously don’t want to do.

What’s even more tricky is finding things to do that are educational without being boring.

Well, I found a solution!

Word Search Junior is the perfect game for both my boys when I want them to use their minds while playing.

The game is recommended for age 4+. Bear turned 4 in May and enjoyed a game with me yesterday. I was really pleased with how well he understood the how to play. For Bear we used the picture cards, searching for a particular pattern of fruit.

For Lamb, the words were a perfect way of practicing literacy.

There are 3 levels to the game which are colour coded on the cards. The blue cards are picture rounds, perfect for the younger ones to search for patterns. The next level is green and great for early readers. These cards have a picture with the word following, so if they’re unsure on the word the picture is their to prompt them. And finally the red cards are just words jumbled together, which is ideal for Lamb who is 7.

Word Search Junior is quick and easy to set up, but also quick and easy to play! Games like this are ideal for our busy lifestyle (I work from home plus have a retail job part time) as we don’t always have time to play long winded games like Pokemon Monopoly… which Lamb insists on playing!

Ax

* We were gifted this product free of charge for the purpose of this review. All words and opinions are honest and our own.

* I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for sites to earn advertising fees by advertising and linking to amazon.co.uk.

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