tots100 Archives - Munchies and Munchkins

I’m dreaming of a new bathroom

April 25, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · Leave a Comment

Is there anything more comforting than a bubble bath. If you have a hard day at work or a particularly gruelling work out ( ha not me) it eases your aching bones. When you are pregnant it soothes your stretching skin and after your baby is born a lavender bath can ease a world of pain.

I’m a bath girl, I really am. I don’t ask for much. A clean quiet space where I can spend my 30 minutes of me time..a few bubbles..deliciously warm water and a large vanilla candle burning away.

However at present my bathroom looks like this:

My cracked bath.. Patched up.

The mess…

More mess..

It’s rather depressing. I don’t spend much time in here at all.

We had some problems with damp, hence the stripped walls. We have now been told that our bath and sink need to move to the opposite side of the room to avoid this happening again. Our bath is broken – cracked in two places with a panel hanging on by a thread. The floor needs to come up and the walls need to be retiled. All in all it’s a huge job but its not as if we have anything else on at the moment like an incredibly active toddler and oh yes I’m pregnant.

Ahhhh it’s a bit of a mess but at the moment it’s still working ( mostly ) and so it’s being left in sorry state of disrepair until we get the time and money to rectify it.

If I could describe my dream bathroom in one word it would be tranquil. As a mother I value the small amount of time I get to myself and a place to completely relax is the order of the day.

As a family we love the sea and so we would love a beach theme with driftwood and shades of water and sand in the tiles and floor.

I created a dream bathroom Pinterest board which you can see here

B is for bubbles – myself and my daughter love a bubble bath! I want somewhere where I can relax and my child can have fun.

A is aqua.. I love images of water and find it very calming. I want our room to be heavily influenced by the ocean.

T is for tiles. My dream bathroom is tiled from floor to ceiling and is like a wet room. All the better for big, splashey fun!

H is for heated towel rail. Fluffy towels warm and waiting after a bath will be blissful in the colder months.

R is for romance. Big chunky candles and low lighting will make our bathroom a romantic room. Perfect for when the little ones are in bed and we want to share a bath.

O is for open space. The one good thing about our bathroom is that it is big! Bigger than my kitchen which is annoying but I want to keep the open space and avoid too much clutter.

O is for ours. This bathroom is OUR space. As much as I would love a space just of my own, pretty soon I will have two young children who will want to enjoy it so storage for toys and bath play things is essential! Keeping a shower is always something I have to to keep my man happy!

M is for money. At the moment we just don’t have the money to do this. Winning this comp would mean a safer, smarter bathroom and one major job crossed off the To do list before baby 2 comes.

The bathroom I have chosen from the 12 on offer is this one

It’s pretty and functional and ideal for our family!

We would love to win this DREAM bathroom.

This is my entry to the Bathshop321 and tots100 dream bathroom competition.

Spending Women’s day with Women #blogsummit

March 8, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 11 Comments

I spent today – International Women’s Day with some pretty fabulous bloggers – mainly women with the exception of Tom Arber ( photographer and guest speaker).

Having never attended a blog summit/blog camp/bloggers conference I didn’t know what to expect and I imagine I was not alone in being slightly apprehensive..possibly even a little scared ( yes I am a wimp). Thankfully it was a really lovely day learning lots of new ( very useful) blogging tips. I know what SEO means now: search engine optimisation don’t ya know. I know that Google can be pretty evil and will sometimes inspect my blog with a fine toothcomb. I know how to avoid incurring Googles wrath (Thanks to Tom at Fresh Egg) I know to how to take better photos thanks to the very lovely Becky & Tom of the amazing Ar Blog.

I learnt about how to work with charities and the good my blog could possibly do thanks to Annie ( Mammasaurus) – possibly the only blogger we all instantly recognised.. She’s friends with Davina and Jonathan Ross and part of the famous #teamhonk and I learnt a million useful tips from Cathy of Nurturestore – my Pinterest is getting an overhaul and Facebook well I may just venture back into your murky waters. I also met founder of Tots100 Sally Whittle and lots of lovely twitter friends. In fact it was kind of like a game of guess who trying to match the twitter name to the person.

I will be signing up with Blinx and Tots100 ads shortly to help them raise money for charity via advertising as a result of some inspiring chatter today – interesting times for us parent bloggers

Sometimes a group of women can be intimidating but for once I can honestly say I didn’t really worry about how I looked or if my blog stats were higher than whoever I chatted to or how many slots above me they were in the Tots100 chart. I just enjoyed the characters I met and being part of such a supportive community. We have been reminded lately of just how amazing the blogger network can be and today was yet another example of that. Thanks to all at Tots100 who made it such an interesting day, to Fresh Egg, Blinx and the guest speakers.

Ooh I almost forgot there was free Actimel! Lots of it. The coconut flavour is divine and I’m not being paid to tell you that 😉

Here is a fellow blogger @optforoptimism with her Actimel stash:

I forgot to take any other pics. I was engrossed 😀

Picture me happy – PrinterPix Competition

February 18, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 8 Comments

I’ve always liked taking photos and never really liked being in them. When I had Izzy I went into overdrive taking photos of her every 5 minutes it seemed. When I realised I had taken thousands of pics in her first year ..it seemed a bit mad. Is it mad though to want to capture everything? Childhood is so fleeting and that funny little face they made for 5 seconds when eating their first strawberry may last a long time in your memory but wouldn’t it be nicer still if you could have that image perfectly preserved forever? Even if its only ever used to embarrass them at their 18th birthday party. Definitely.

In 95% of the photos we have of Izzy, it’s her on her own or with family members or mostly with her handsome daddy but very rarely with me. I don’t like being in front of the camera and well her first year I felt like I had hardly a minute to brush my hair so I may not have been at my most photogenic during that time! In the photo below my OH has captured me and Izzy at last years Camp Bestival dancing around to Mr Tumble on stage, it was such a happy happy weekend for us and for once the absolute pleasure on her face far outweighed my tired eyes or lack of make up. I felt radiant in the glow of my love for my family. Cheesy? Yes for sure but true. This may not be the most perfect photograph and you could do better with an actual camera ( this was an iPhone snap) but to me it is me as a mother with my ever so beautiful little girl, smiling at the man we both love. It couldn’t be more perfect in my eyes.

Thank you to Tots100 for making me dig through my photos and reminding me of some special times. Its also made me realise that even if I don’t want to be in pics, I should be as at some point it will be lovely for my daughter to look back and remember. Tots100 are running a competition where you could win a stack of goodies from Printerpix. This is my entry. I am camera less at present so it would definitely come in handy!

This post is Becky’s entry into the PrinterPix photo competition

Probably the best day out in Britain….?

January 14, 2013 · by munchiesandmunchkins · 8 Comments

This may sound a little bah humbug but sometimes after all the fuss of Christmas it’s nice to do something which is totally not Christmassy.

On January 4th 2013 we headed to Bristol Zoo after being offered a chance to review it for Money Supermarkets Britains Best Day Out!
Can you believe I have reached the grand old age of 29 without ever visiting this popular attraction?? I was possibly more excited than Izzy who at 16 months was probably more excited about the car journey snack pack.

We arrived at around lunchtime on an unusually bright, sunny but most importantly dry day with only a handful of other visitors – a definite perk to visiting out of season.

A typical British attraction entrance through the gift shop had Izzy excitedly exclaiming at the stuffed toys and garish masks before we even entered the Zoo. She was a happy girl.

First stop was to visit the Lion.. We were sad to discover that Kamal the Lion had died and that Lioness Shiva was nowhere to be seen 🙁 We hadn’t noticed this on the website so were disappointed but quite glad that Izzy was so young so we didn’t have to explain it. She had plenty of fun with the Lion cut out anyway 🙂

In fact had there been no animals I think Izzy would have found some fun.. There is lots to climb on, peep through and play with.

Climbing

Exploring

Pointing

Chilling

The penguin talk had been cancelled but we did see a real life version of Happy Feet.. Kinda

We also went under the penguin tunnel to see them swimming about which was one of my personal favourites and Izzy loved it too

We saw cuties

And oddities

And what looked like a giant guinea pig.. I’m sure I’m wrong here but look at the pic:

The Aquarium was the biggest hit! Izzy was entranced by the brightly coloured fish and happily babbled away at them, pointing and saying hiya repeatedly. I think we will have to watch Finding Nemo soon.

We stopped for a quick bite of lunch and in the spirit of MoneySupermarket we took a picnic from home, there are lots of benches and some beautiful gardens to admire whilst munching away.

Back to exploring and we found some giant tortoise

I found some monkeys

As always we all kept an eye on Izzy

Measuring up

All in all we had a fabulous day, I would say its good value for money at £15.50 for adults and £9.50 for children ( free for under 2’s). There is a lot to do and see for all ages and although we had a few disappointments due to attractions being closed ( due to difficulties, winter weather and animal death which was unavoidable) it didn’t spoil our day. Not many people think to go to places like this in the winter but for many reasons ( particularly lack of crowds) it’s a great time to go.

The stuff you need to know:

There is hot and cold food available as well as a gift shop and numerous clean toilets and baby changing facilities. Lots more info and timetables to plan your visit by clicking here

Wherever you plan to go this year check out The MoneySupermarket Voucher site here and save yourself some pennies.

What day out is complete without a fairground ride?

A little video for you to see just how much fun we had 😉

* Thanks to moneysupermarket and Tots100 for providing a family ticket for us to visit Bristol Zoo – we had a great day.

BRISTOL ZOO SITE

I’m dreaming of a new bathroom

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Spending Women’s day with Women #blogsummit

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Picture me happy – PrinterPix Competition

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Probably the best day out in Britain….?

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