Category: Reviews

I was given the lovely option of choosing something from the Heritage of Scotland website to review.  I’ve bought from there before, so I knew whatever I chose was going to be great quality.

I could have chosen a dress, or a bodice or something dressy, but I figured I’d not get as much use out of something like that as I would a cape.  It might have been a different if I attended functions and dinners, but I can count on one hand how many I’ve attended in the 11 years since I adopted my boys.

I made a fabulous choice as it happens.

Along with the heritage cape, I chose a wee sterling silver brooch, which I thought I’d need for the neckline, but it wasn’t necessary.

The made to order Ladies “Edinburgh” Cape comes with two silver coloured buttons at the neckline to fasten it.

I had hundreds of tartans from the Lochcarron Mill to choose from and found it difficult to pin one down.  It’s 100% pure new wool and it’s gorgeous.  Have I said that already?  If I haven’t I really need to say it many times over.

I dislike the tartans I am entitled to wear, but finding something I’d love for years to come was difficult.  In the end, I went for the Scotland Forever tartan.  The blues and purples are perfect for me to wear with the jeans I seem to perpetually live in these days.

I actually have a cheap version of the cape that I never wear as it is such a light tartan that it floats in the breeze and the colours are too light for me.  The made to order version is very much higher quality, which is reflected in the higher price range at £187, but I absolutely love it and it will last for years.

The colours are gorgeous.  My lovely sister in law came for a visit on Sunday so I snaffled her to model it (yes, I know, I’ve been very lucky with my SIL).  She wasn’t keen on handling my camera for me, so she happily stood and let me take pictures.  She’d have walked away with it there and then if she could as she said it was so cozy, so that’s always a good sign.

The cape can be worn as a cape with the scarf element thrown over a shoulder on warmer days, and it even has a hood built into the scarf so it can be put up to keep misty weather out.  It’s a clever design.

She said she wished I’d warned her that she’d be my model as she’d have done her hair and make-up, as well as wearing high heels.

I couldn’t lend her mine as she’s got tiny wee feet, so here she is.  Didn’t she do well?

Coca Cola asked if we’d like to try the new Coca Cola Life.  They’ve replaced some of the sugar with stevia for the first time so there is a third less sugar and a third fewer calories.  The cans are green and quite distinctive and tempting to buy for the kids instead of the full sugar Coca Cola.

I do often buy Coke Zero or Diet Coke, but I’m not completely happy with aspartame and saccharin.  My preference would be for a project made fully with stevia and also having zero calories, although I know that could prove difficult as stevia tends to leave foods it’s cooked with a distinctive flavour.

I’m not complaining though.

Some of the stats:

Coca Cola – 139 Calories

Coca Cola Life – 89 Calories

Coca Cola Zero – 0 Calories

Diet Coke – 0 Calories

The Life Drinking Child’s Verdict:

‘It’s really nice and love it if they put my name on it.’

I have to admit to often buying the Diet Coke that is caffeine free.  It tends to fizz more than caffeine laden drinks, but where I can buy it, I do.  I often wonder if it’s the colour of the caffeine free packaging that stops people or shops buying it.

My ideal drink would be Caffeine Free Diet Coke Life, sold everywhere.

I’ve made some things with Stevia – mostly using it as a sugar replacement in cakes, sorbet and ice cream.  It works very well, so I’m happy to see some big manufacturers taking it on board and using it in their products.

Stevia is a leaf that is produced from the Stevia plant from Paraguay.  It’s 200 times sweeter than sugar, but has no calories.

I thought it was worth mentioning that all Coca-Cola bottles are fully recyclable.

What I didn’t know was that 97% of all Coca-Cola projects sold in the UK are actually made here.  Coca-Cola Life will be the same.  That’s quite an impressive statistic.

My kids love the green colour of the can.  We’re looking forward to seeing it in the shops.

Relaxing is something that is pretty difficult to achieve when there are children running around a house.

I tend not to watch TV very often, so most of my relaxing time is around sitting at my computer and either writing, researching, tweeting or blogging.

As someone who makes her own candles, it was lovely to try a couple of new scents from Pied A Terre.  I tend to light a lovely candle when I sit down to type as it distracts me from the daily housy smell.  My husband doesn’t get on well with spray air fresheners as they tend to make his asthma worse, so candles and reed diffusers tend to be my only option for nice smellies.

Strawberries tend to make me think of green fields, while orange and clementines transport me to lazy holidays in lovely climates.

When the House of Fraser offered to let me try some of the range available, it was the fruity ones I leaned towards.  I’m always a sucker for fruity smells and new ones are gratefully welcome.

I chose to try the Plun & Black Amber Luxury Candle, and the Clementine and Sweet Geranium.

I have the clementine and sweet geranium candle in my lounge, and the plum and black amber in the small office where I do most of my thinking and typing.

They are gorgeous candles, which I know I am going to love over the next few weeks while I burn them away.  Thank you to the House of Fraser for sending them, they really are lovely.

Thanks for our review samples for Jordans Country Crisp Cereal with Sun Rip Strawberries.

They’re baked cereal clusters, made from wholegrain oats grown in our own UK.   There are some chopped hazelnuts and strawberries mixed through.

I’ve often found cereals with fruity bits to look dull and unappealing, so I was happy to find the strawberries in this cereal actually looked nice and bright.  It’s always nice when food looks appealing in a plate.

What did I think?

I like it.  I’m sure I will buy it as a cupboard staple as one of my boys also thinks it’s delicious.  True to the name, this cereal is crunchy, which is pleasing.

It’s available from larger supermarkets such as Asda, Tesco, Morrisons, Sainsburys, Waitrose and Ocado

The coconut water industry has a new kid on the block.

The Vita Coco people have introduced a new kids range which is flavoured with natural fruit.

We tried some samples of Apple & Blackcurrant, as well as Mango & Pineapple.

The kids verdict was mixed.  While two children loved them, one thought the Apple & Blackcurrant was too weak and wished it had a stronger taste.

There are no artificial sweeteners, flavouring or colours, so that’s a great reason to try it for school lunch boxes.  I’d certainly buy it for my two youngest childrens lunch boxes.

Vita Coco Kids is on sale in Sainsburys, Tesco, Holland & Barrett and other speciality and health stores.

We’ve had some Weight Watchers Biscuits to try recently.

The new Dark Chocolate Digestives are only 51 calories each.  Regular Dark Chocolate digestives tend to come in around 80+ calories, so it’s a big difference per biscuit.

The ProPoints value is 1 per biscuit and they are free from artificial flavours and preservatives, as well as being suitable for vegetarians.

The biscuits are good for a sweet treat but still staying within a healthier food choice.

Dark chocolate isn’t my personal chocolate of choice, but the boys do like it, so they ended up eating them.  I can’t complain at that either, as with less calories, it’s a healthier option for them too.

The biscuits retail for approximately £1.69 for a 12 pack.  Personally, I’d choose milk over dark, but if you’re a dark chocolate fan, they’re not bad at all.

Thanks to Yumbox for our review box to use.  As always, we’ve had ours a little while to test out.   The Yumbox is a lunchbox with a lot of thought gone into it.

The YumBox lunch boxes come in either green or pink so far and are bento style boxes, where there are little compartments inside a hard plastic case.  With the Yumbox, there are pictures for the relevant food groups in each compartment and helps with one of my boys who really isn’t a bread fan.

The Great Bits

Portion Sizes

The Yumbox has it’s compartments set out for us.  There are 5 individual compartments with drawings on them to indicate the different food groups of fruit, vegetables, grains, dairy and protein.  It guides us into knowing the right portion sizes and makes it easier for us to give our kids healthy options to school.

Leakproof Lid

The lid is a single lid with silicone automatic closure to stop the food in each compartment leaking over into another.  It means that kids can have sauces or dips and they won’t spill over into the food compartments.   The lid closure is one piece so there are no separate lids to lose, which is always a good point when it comes to packed lunches.  We’ve got loads of plastic containers without their lids as they’ve been left at school.

Reusable – No Bags

With no need to wrap different foods in cling film or bags, making a packed lunch is actually very simple.

Strong Latch

The box is quite light and fits into our regular lunch boxes so we can add an extra sandwich in the bag if we need to.  Yumbox have said it is suitable for children aged 3 and upwards, but I think it would be great for carrying around a toddlers lunch too as it would fit in any buggy, changing bag or backpack.

Removable Tray

It’s quite neat how the food container is a one piece removable section that can allow the bottom of the box to be used as a plate.

Dishwasher Safe

All parts of the Yumbox are dishwasher safe.

What Do I Think?

The Yumbox is really quite good.

If you use yoghurt or fresh dairy, you would need to put the Yumbox in a thermos container, or add some ice-packs.

There’s no room for a drink, so you would need to add this separately, which isn’t really a big deal for us.

It’s a great sturdy box and it looks like it will stand up to a lot of little finger accidents.

Magical World Journals recently sent us a Dragons The Journal to try out.  I’m not sure what I was expecting, but this is a substantial journal.

My youngest’s eyes popped out of his head when he saw it, and the possibilities of filling it with his own drawings meant he was keen to have it, and NOW.

He’s treating it like it’s a precious secret book and planning how he’s going to fill it up.  I expected him to simply start drawing and writing, but he seems to want to use it as a keepsake for the future, so no scribbling allowed.

There are 128 pages, each with a border or small illustration that follows the escape of the dragon and its rampage through a castle.  It’s a bit like a story within a drawing book, and one my boy is keen to make use of.

There is a dragons eye and claw which rises from the journal, from a 3D wall cover and the tail comes out of the back.

The inspiration behind the 4 journals is to inspire kids to use their creativity and imagination by creating their own stories, drawings, poems and secrets in a lovely magical way.

I’m really pleased with this, and I think it would make for a great birthday or Christmas present for any child.

I’ve bookmarked it to order one for my nephews birthday later this year.   He’s one of those kids who has everything, and it’s going to be nice to have something unusually simple and fun to give to him.

I’ve had these for a wee while now.  It’s about time to let you know how I found them.

The CHARGEKEY and CHARGECARD were sent for us to try out by NOMAD.

The key part fits onto my keyring and means that as long as I can get access to a USB port of a USB plug, I can charge anywhere without tangled cables.  The CHARGECARD fits perfectly into a credit card sized slot in a wallet or purse.     They are chargers and not battery packs, so they do need access to an electricity supply, whether it is charging direct to a computer, through a USB plug, or from a back up battery.

I have the lightning charge key that works with my iPhone and the mini iPad.  I have a regular mini usb port on my iPhone 5, as I use a Mophie battery case, so in reflection, a mini usb charge key would probably have been better for me.

It’s quite deceiving actually as it really IS very little.  I have it on my keyring as if I desperately need charge in someones else’s house, I can actually get it without too much hassle.  The USB end is a lot than you expect a cable that plugs into a USB charger to be.  It’s about half the thickness of the regular USB cable end that you’d expect.

The cables are VERY short, so are not practical on my PC, although they’d be fine for a low lying laptop.  It’s unlikely that gadgets would be much use when plugged in to charge.  It’s not impossible, but the cable part is so very short.  Using it would be quite uncomfortable with the inability to turn devices around.

The cables are very very bendy.  I was wary of them snapping, but they seem solid enough and have stood up to my kids testing them out.

The short version of a review is:  they work perfectly.

I find them easiest for using in the car or our motor home as fabulous chargers that take up little space, with no cables to get tangled.  They’ve pretty much proved themselves very handy for that indeed and I keep the lightning connector on my keyring – just in case, as in desperation, I could remove the Mophie base to charge up a dying phone.

Note:  My older kids haven’t broken them, but I’m not sure how they’d stand up to a toddler.  I’d look after these chargers in the same was as you do the regular sized cable chargers and keep them away from children and pets.