Month: October 2011

Posted on by — 5 Comments

Local Florists with Interflora

This is a Featured Post

This year has been a fabulous year with Interflora for the Scottish Mum Blog.

For Mothers Day, Interflora sent me a gorgeous bunch of flowers to review and gave me one to give away.   They were absolutely beautiful, and I can’t resist showing you the picture again.

There were many smiles in this house (mostly from me), and the vase has been very useful for the bunches of flowers that came after.   I had got out of the habit of having flowers in my home, and Interflora kick started a regular buying habit.   There is just something so welcoming in any house that has a flower in it.

My husbands’ grandmother used to say “a house without a flower or a plant is no home at all.”   Perhaps there is wisdom in that phrase as the smell and sight of a lovely bunch of flowers or a well cared for plant makes many of us feel better.

Interflora also sent a fabulous bunch of flowers to  my mother who really deserved the treat.  She absolutely adored the roses which gave her some much-needed colour and scent to make her little flat seem a more welcoming place to be.

I was pleasantly surprised to find there are 6 Interflora  florists in Aberdeen and that they are easily contactable by telephone.   It was easy to pick from the local florists in my area, and with next day delivery there really is something for everyone.

I know that most of my readers are not just in Aberdeen, so I thought it would be interesting to look at some other cities in Scotland. When someone searches for florists in Glasgow or florists in Edinburgh, they have to enter in the first part of their postcode, and then they can choose from the list of florists close to where they want the flowers to be delivered.

I really like that option, as it means that we don’t have to only order online, and we can call a local shop directly to see what they have available if we need a quick delivery (for when we have forgotten a birthday).

I picked the closest florist to  me, which is the Four Seasons at Rosemount and visited the website.   We all have different ideas of what is safe and what is not, and for me, it was nice to see the Interflora branding on there.   A branding that I recognise does make me feel more comfortable.  I like to know that I am dealing with a reputable supplier, which makes me feel safer when I am handing over my payment details for online or telephone sales.

I couldn’t resist the temptation to go and look at the Interflora Christmas flowers as I would love to get a nice bunch from the man in my life to decorate the Christmas table.   I think I have narrowed my favourites down to these two.

Warm Wishes Festive Christmas Basket

(I may leave some pictures lying around, or simply send my husband the link these flowers by mistake.)

Christmas Perfect Gift

What do you think?  Which one do you think would look fabulous on my Christmas dinner table this year?


 

 

 

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Chocolate Brownie – Blind Bakeathon – Scottish Mum Style

I couldn’t get the internet to work, so I decided to bake a batch of brownies.  The only problem was that I didn’t have all the right ingredients for it, so I compromised – Do you think it worked?

Ingredients

  • 190g unsalted butter
  • 185g chocolate  (I had half Galaxy and half cooking chocolate)
  • 130g plain flour
  • 100g chocolate spread (I used Nutella)
  • 3 large eggs
  • 275g caster sugar
  • 40g chopped hazlenuts or choc chunks or fudge pieces etc.  (I had chopped hazlenuts)
Before you start – put your oven on at approx 150c or 140c for fan asssisted.

Step 1
Easy to do, just put the chocolate and the butter into separate bowls and microwave until melted.   With cooking chocolate you have to do it 20 seconds at a time or the chocolate might curdle.  Mix the butter and chocolate together and leave to cool.

    

Step 2
Put the eggs and sugar into a mixer and whisk.  It may take up to 10 minutes depending on your mixer for it to go light and fluffy in colour and texture.  When the mix leaves a trail if you dip a spoon in, it is ready.

Step 3
Fold the butter/chocolate mix into the eggy mix until completely mixed.

Step 4
Put the chocolate spread / Nutella into the microwave for 1 minute

Step 5

Sift the plain flour into the bowl and fold into the mixture.  Try using a figure of eight in alternation with a regular fold.

Step 6
Fold the nutella into your mixture.

Step 7
Fold the hazlenuts, or chocolate chunks into the mix.  When it is ready the mix will look like a treackly gooey mix.

Step 8
Pour the mix into a greased baking tray.  Mine is a rectangle shape about 20cms long.

Step 9
Bake for approx 45 minutes until the side begin to shrink and the middle doesn’t wobble when you shake the tin.

Step 10
Wait until the brownie is completely cool, cut and turn out of baking tray.

Voila – Verdict – They were too nice to leave lying around.  Sadly I will have to make them again.

Posted on by — 109 Comments

Littlewoods Christmas Giveaway….. Ends 15th November 2011 – Goodie Basket

It’s that time again, and Christmas is just around the corner.

I know, I know, I can hear you all sigh, groan, stamp your feet and run for the hills at the mention of Christmas in October and Early November.  The reality is that we either get moving and organise our Christmas presents, or we run around at the last-minute like headless chickens.

I watched this video a few times to write this post, and it made me smile.   Littlewoods seem to have captured a Christmas family favourite to showcase their Christmas gift ideas.

Littlewoods also have some fabulous 3 for 2 offers on jewellery & beauty, and some toys with as much as half price reductions.

Competition

To launch their christmas ideas advert, Littlewoods are offering a fabulous christmas giveaway for one of my readers.

The prize is going to be a goodie basket with the gifts in the picture for a mum and her child.

To enter.

  • Watch the video at the top of this post.
  • Leave a comment here saying which gift in the video would be your favourite surprise gift on Christmas day and why.  Any funny stories will be greatly welcomed to help spread Christmas Cheer around.
  • Make sure you leave your twitter id, or email address in your comment so I can contact you if you win.
  • If you would like to tweet the competition, I would be very grateful if you would click the retweet me icon on the page.

We will end the competition on the 15th November, and the Littlewoods representative and I will choose a lucky winner to receive the basket.

The winner will have 3 days to claim their prize and send their address details to me, or we will re-draw by random generator.

Good Luck and Happy Video Watching
Scottish Mum
x

 

Posted on by — 48 Comments

Tickets Giveaway for LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, Manchester – Ends 15th November

One of the places I have always wanted to go to in Manchester would be the Trafford Shopping Centre.  It is one of those places that just seems to have the ability to draw people toward it.   It is perhaps the reputation that goes before it.  Maybe it also has something to do with Old Trafford and the football stadium that draws us in as my boys are huge Man U fans (don’t ask me why, almost all the kids up here are).

Whatever there is to do, and there is a lot – I think I would have to have a pocket full of money before I headed down from Aberdeen again.  I spent a week there in 2003 for work, and I always vowed to go back, but sadly I haven’t made it down again yet.

There seems to be plenty of things to do in Manchester, and if my children were to have a say in where we go and what we do, then they would definitely decide to visit the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre as they are lego maniacs.

Halloween Manchester style seems to be overwhelmingly colourful at the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre, where they are holding a monster mash LEGO building challenge every day between the 15th and the 31st October.

Giveaway

I have a family pass which will allow up to 2 adults and 2 children to experience the LEGOLAND Discovery Centre park for a day.

To enter, simply

  1. Leave a comment to say what your favourite memory of lego is.
  2. Leave your contact details in the comment, ie email address or twitter id so I can contact you if you win.
– The closing date will be :  Tuesday 15th November
– If the winner has not claimed the prize within 3 days, I will redraw another by random generator.
Good Luck
Scottish Mum
x
Posted on by — 1 Comment

Thank you to the lovely @amelielovesthis on Twitter for the Lovely L’Occitane Basket

Winning Basket from L'Occitane

Winning Basket from L'Occitane

I have to show you all this lovely basket I won from L’Occitane En Provence

It is a fabulous prize with lovely shampoo, conditioner, eau de cologne, soaps, face, body and foot creams, and more.   It is an absolutely fabulous gift.  I don’t win things very often, so this is a very welcome prize.

Thank you very much.

xx

 

 

Posted on by — 13 Comments

Making Soy Milk (Dairy Free) at Home Is this a Fabulous Food Find ??

Looking at the title of this post, I can imagine some of you are making some strange assumptions.

On Twitter, when I first mentioned it, there was a comment or two that arrived joking about cows in the garden.  The milk is dairy free so suitable for those who are lactose intolerant, but it is really the bees knees?

I buy a lot of shop bought soy milk so I reasoned to myself that making it out of the soy beans would be infinitely cheaper than buying ready-made soy milk every couple of days.

A dedicated milk making machine costs upwards of £100, so I attempted to make it by hand – which was easier than I first thought to do.

I am not kidding when I say that it is actually very easy to make the soy milk.  This is what I did, and I will share my thoughts at the end.

INGREDIENTS

125g white dried soy beans for “approximately” 1 litre of milk.   I bought Tesco soy beans to practice with.

METHOD

1 –  Soak the beans

The beans are dried, and they really need soaking overnight so that they are soft and pliable.  Cover the beans in a container with water.  Change  the water a couple of times if you can and then just leave them to do their magic.

Some recipes seem to say that it would be good to dehull the beans after they are soaked, but considering they are going to be liquidised later, I don’t see the need to do that.

Make sure you take out any discoloured or damaged beans as you don’t want to spoil the quality of your soy milk.  Soaking can probably be done from 6 – 24 hours to be able to use the beans, and they are ready when they are soft to the bite or soft and pliable when you squeeze them.

2 – Microwave the soy beans

Some recipes recommend heating up the soy beans before using them for milk as it takes away the beany taste.  I was not sure about that, but I did micro mine for about 2 minutes before doing anything else with them.

3 – Liquidise / Blend the Soy Beans

In a blender or liquidiser (or a coffee bean grinder which I used) put the beans AND 1 litre of water in if you can.  I had to do  mine little by little as I used the small grinder to do mine, but I would root out the blender next time and do it in one go.

     

4 – Boil the Liquid

As with any heated milk, it has the potential to froth up very quickly when you get it to boiling point.  Anyone who has heated milk in a pan for slightly too long will know what I mean by that.   It is a good idea to use a fairly big pan so that the milk doesn’t boil over the top as you will need to boil the mixture for about 5 – 10 minutes to get it right.

Stir the liquid while it is cooking all the way through.  I did not stop stirring with mine, just in case, but I imagine you could get away with some time away from the pot at a time, but I wouldn’t risk it.

As with any milk that you boil, if you are taken by surprise and it looks like it is going to boil over, add some cold water and the foam should shrink back into the pot.  If you don’t take care at this stage, you could end up with a right mess on your cooker top.

When it is ready, the milk will have separated from the curds and the mixture will look slightly grainy.

5 – Separating the curds from the milk.

To separate the curds (ochra) from the milk, use a fine sieve, or a cloth bag and strain the mixture.  A bit of squeezing of the mix, or using a spatula might get every last drop out of the mix.  The ochra can be used for soup, stews as a filler, but I just threw mine away.  In future, I might be tempted to give it a try to see what it tastes like and how it cooks.

     

——————————————————————————————————————————————

To end with it, I forgot to take a pretty picture of it in a glass to make it pretty – sorry.    Next time.  There will have to be a next time as I really did not get much milk out of my recipe.  I would guess that I needed much more water than I used and on my next attempt, I will add 2 litres of water to the mix.

I might also microwave it for much longer at my next attempt, as it tasted very very beany to me which I really didn’t like.  I’ve read that cows milk has a lot of salt added so I might try adding some sugar or salt to see if I can get to a taste that I find palatable for using in coffee, which is what I really use it for.  It looks idea for making tofu, so that might be an idea for the next time as well.   I definitely left mine too long and too much water boiled off.

Have a go yourself it really is quite easy.

 

 

Posted on by — 10 Comments

The A-Z of Me

Thank you to the lovely Mummy Musings for tagging me in this meme.

This meme originated from Lauren of The Real Housewife of Suffolk County.

So here is the A-Z of me!

ANORAK…Do you have a sad side?

I remember what people tell me and I seem to be able to tell when they are telling white lies.  It means I get a red face when I know that someone is standing in front of me telling me a lie about why they have changed their mind about something or are making excuses and then they think I have something to hide.

BODY…What physical attribute would you most like to change? 

My size and weight battle.  It’s been a life long issue for me.  I am a sugar and carb addict.

CELEBRITY…Which one would you most like to date and why? 

I agree with Mummy Musings – Robbie Williams.   What’s not to like there.

DEBUT …Tell us about your first ever blog post. What made you start blogging?

I can’t remember my first blog post, as I lost my first blog, but I remember I began blogging as a way of venting, and then found the fantastic community out there who blog and talk to each other.

ERROR …What’s been your biggest regret? 

I have a few.  I think most of us have them by the time they get to 40 +.   One of them would be the fact that I didn’t stand up to a bully when I was 25.   Every so often, I think about what I could have done or said, but hey ho, that’s life.

FUNNY – who’s making you laugh?

My lovely blind dog makes me laugh a lot.  She still does silly things to get attention.   I don’t know how the boys are going to cope when she goes.

GRAND…If we gave you one right now what would you spend it on? 

Easy – I’d get my eldest son some help at school.

HOLIDAY… What’s your favourite destination?  

I am going to be a bit boring here.  Anywhere that my family is.

IRRITATE… What’s your most annoying habit? 

My bad habit of repeating what I say.  It drives me nuts, so I don’t know what it does to other people who have to listen to it.  I can’t stop.

JOKER…Whats your favourite joke {the one that makes you laugh everytime you hear it}?

I can’t think of anything that isn’t a joke my kids have told and some are not printable, so I’ll keep those to myself.

KENNEL… Do you have any pets? 

1 lovely blind lab, and 1 needy and haughty ex wild cat

LOVE…Are you single, married, engaged, living with a long term partner? 

Married 16 or 17 years.  Can’t remember which year we got married, I never can.

MEAL… Whats your ultimate starter, main and dessert?

Starter – Melon and Grapes or Breaded Garlic Mushrooms with Mayo (depending on the diet), Main – Anything that has no meat or peppers in it.  Dessert – Easy, cheesecake anything.

NOW…If you could be anywhere right now where would you be and who with? 

In a relaxing spa retreat on my own with a kindle full of books……….

OFF DUTY…What do you do in your spare time? 

Blog, tweet, read & the odd day out.  Hmmm, I think that is common among blogger, tweeter, readers.

PROUD MOMENTS …What are you most proud of? 

My Degree.

QUEASY …What turns your stomach?

The smell when people or animals pass wind or vomit.  “you did ask”

 RELAX…How do you relax? 

Tweeting, Reading, Blogging

SONG…Whats your favourite song of all time? 

Robbie Williams – Angels

TIME …If you could go back in time and relive it again, when would you choose? 

From age 24, as long as I know what I know now.

UNKNOWN…Tell us something about yourself that no one else knows? 

My weight.  You didn’t think I was going to tell you, did you.  I don’t even know.

VOCAL…. Who is your favourite artist? 

Robbie Williams tho I think Matt Cardle is coming a close second if he could get some better songs to sing.

WORK….. What is your dream job, and are you doing it now? 

Not doing it just now.  What I do for free would be nice to get paid for though.

XRAY…Any broken bones?

Arm, Leg and Nose.   All as a child and nothing as an adult (yet)  *touch wood*

YIKES…What’s been your most embarrassing moment? 

I can’t tell you that, it’s too embarrassing.

ZOO…. If you were an animal, which one would you be? 

A contented, well loved and well looked after dog.  I treasure loyalty.

And now I have to tag some other victims bloggers to take part in this meme.

@helpfulmum
@glasgow_mummy
@welshmumwales
@cazbattweets
@julesey10
@seasiderclaire
@mi_shmash

A very similar post I did is here.

 

Posted on by — Leave a comment

Winner Princes Breakfast Box Giveaway

Hi everyone, thanks for the huge response to this competition.

The winner of one of these fab boxes is :

@beachpebble

I have followed you on twitter, could you follow me back and DM me your name and address so that we can get your details out and deliver your box of goodies to you.

 

Thanks
Scottish Mum

Posted on by — 8 Comments

Guest Post – Adoption & Drug Users

Firstly, thank you very much to Scottish Mum for letting me guest post on her blog.

I wanted to write something relevant to her readers and I wasn’t sure which route to go down. However, I was listening to a debate on a radio show the other day about adoption and the lengthy process it has become and how this in itself is causing more potential trauma to children in care and I thought this seemed a good topic.

According the BAAF statistics, from April 2010 to March 2011, there were 3660 children under the age of 1 in care. Yet, only 60 babies under 1 were adopted in the same period. The average age of a child at adoption is 3 years and 10 months. To me, this seems rather old to have such a massive change of circumstance. They will have started at nursery and be not far off starting school by that age. If children were placed earlier in their lives, surely there would be less risk of them being scarred mentally by the whole process.

 

Whilst the adoption process is long for prospective adoptive parents, it needs to be, to ensure that the right number of checks have been carried out, and steps taken to prepare those wanting to adopt. However, the court process to get a child into an adoptive family is what seems to hold the process up. The reason for this is that the court puts the mothers needs above that of the baby. Whilst this is reasonable (they might be able to look after their children once they have dealt with issues), what kind of impact is it having on the child? What, I thought, about the babies born to drug users who are unable to look after their baby? Well, it appears that the interest of the mother comes first in these cases too. The courts will keep the baby with the mother (or in foster care) whilst the mother sees if she can ‘get clean’.

Now I may be cynical but, having worked with drug users (and previously covered the topic on my blog here), I have never once met someone addicted to drugs who didn’t put the next hit before everything else in their lives (however much they insist otherwise). So should the interests of these babies not be taken into account? They have potentially already had a rough start in life, like many babies born to drug users, they might have already had to withdraw from the drugs passed to them in the womb by their mother. How many times does a baby or toddler need to be taken into care whilst the mother ‘gets clean’ and is then returned to the mother only to be taken back into care when she falls foul to addiction again?

Research by Drugscope back in 2003 suggested that there were between 250,000 and 350,000 children born to drug misusing parents. With the numbers of drug users rising year on year, the number of children affected is increasing. The only way to stop this, is to offer effective, realistic treatment to the parents.

Whilst I appreciate that there are drug users out there who desperately want to stop taking drugs and will do anything in their means to make sure this happens, they really are the minority. Unless the mother moves away from her current situation, contacts and friends, she will find it all too easy to slip back into the old habits. It is possible to beat addiction and fight for your children, as the article here shows. 

I am absolutely not advocating snatching babies from drug users as soon as they are born, but maybe the balance needs to sway towards what is best for the baby. The first three years of their lives are so valuable in how they are shaped as individuals and how they judge the world in the future.

Sources: http://www.baaf.org.uk/

 

Written By
@helpfulmum from You”re Not From Round Here

 

 

 

 

Posted on by — 11 Comments

Direct Payments for Care of a Disabled Person – Worth it or not?

Some of you may not actually be aware of what direct payments are.

Social services come out and assess a person with a disability or child to see what their care needs are.  From that, a parent (or the person with a disability) can be offered a set amount of hours per week that they are entitled to “buy” the services of someone else to care for them.

We were assessed and approved to receive 8 hours worth of Direct Payments a week for middler.

I can use them for

  • short breaks (take this to mean a few hours a week with a carer who takes them out)
  • nursery place / after school clubs with specialist support  (read £37.50 per day for special needs after school club).
  • club fees (not many clubs going around that will take special needs children)
  • personal care (hahahahahaha)
Finding someone to help

Direct payments means that we need to find our own staff to carry out the jobs above.    Aside from the fact that most of the people who could benefit from direct payments don’t have the ability to interview staff and deal with their employment, the pool of staff who are any good is very very low.

The council may advise and carry out police checks on staff, but the responsibility for the staff shifts from social services / the council – TO YOURSELF.

This means that if anything goes wrong, it’s your own fault.

Employing someone

When you do find someone who you “trust”, you then have to sort out the employers insurance and their tax and national insurance contributions – oh and pay the PAYE to the inland revenue.  Yes, you can use a payroll company, but you still have to sort out hours, payslips and HMRC.

The biggest problems with it are:

  • Finding good staff that don’t make a fool of the service users (middler to me).
  • Finding good staff who have enough time to do it.
  • Arranging the staff time with your child and having to pay for that as well.
  • Risking losing the care package as there are not enough people to do it.

What happens is, that if someone doesn’t manage to use up their direct payments because they can’t get staff, then when they reach the next review, they may well have some of the money taken back, and their hours cut as they will be seen to be not needed as they were not used.

Biggest Bug Bears
  1. My package is for my child.   As well as the huge mountain in finding someone to take responsibility for our children at times we need to find the time to do the regular stuff that other people can do with their kids as part of their daily lives (like homework).
  2. My biggest bugbear (not including not being able to find employees) is that I really could be done with someone doing my housework or making the supper sometimes so that I can spend quality time one to one with my middler.
  3. The person who I PAY to take him out gets to spend the quality one to one time with my boy on  my sterling, and I still have to stay up late to do chores as they have to be done as I have to spend the time he does go away doing the homework etc for the other two.  (yes, direct payments covers the cost of their time, but I have to pay for the carers share of where they go and what they do).
The potential is there for it to be a good way to go in buying the care that we need, but if the social services don’t also start a way help find staff, then it is always going to be difficult to work.
Leave me a comment to say what you think about it.