Category Archives: Children

Lutyens Children’s bench

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I recently went to see my friend Susie, who had a really cute miniature children’s bench in her garden, like a scaled down park bench. My youngest loved it and spent many a happy time sitting on it, getting up, sitting on it, getting up.

Susie was also the friend at whose house I saw the fly curtains that I then bought. Nothing like going round to your friends’ houses to nick ideas. Anyway, in this instance, Susie couldn’t tell me where the mini bench was from so I searched on line and asked all my FB friends where they thought I could get one from. The only place I found was Robert Dyas, it says it’s normally £50 but I’ve never actually seen it for sale for that much, it’s always ‘knocked down’ to £30. Now for some reason this seems a lot to me. Further searching showed that at some point, Tesco’s had had one for the knocked down price of £10 but no more. Of course, I loathe Tesco and never shop there on principle unless it has something I really, really want to buy in which case I forget my principles momentarily..

In our garden we have a Lutyens bench, adult sized. So I was really pleased to see a website that makes them in small size too. In the end, this is what I got because it seemed better value for money, even though it was double the cost of the Dyas bench. I bought it with my birthday money, for my girls. I was going to have it engraved with something cheesy but that cost almost as much as the bench again.

Lutyens children’s bench .

The MaltEaster bunny

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According to The Grocer magazine, in October 2008, this bunny was launched, by Mars, for the Spring 2009 market.

I never saw it. Did you?

It was/is aimed at the “25-44 year old woman”. That seems improbably precise. Also not true since this is an ideal sweet for children but obviously they can’t say that. It was also backed up by a 1m campaign which was surely a waste of money as I’d never heard of them. But then last year I had just had a baby so maybe was too busy stuffing croissants down my face to notice new chocolate launches.

I’m not a fan of Maltesers. Or I haven’t been since I was about 22. They’re really sweet, although I don’t mind finding one in my Revels. So I wasn’t really ready for becoming addicted to this.

It’s not even cos it’s cute. We have hundreds of feral rabbits in our garden and believe me when I say I’d shoot any one of them without a second thought if I had a gun. Which I haven’t had since I was 18, but that’s another story for another time.

So these bunnies came on display in my local Waitrose just as soon as the December page was turned on the calendar. At first I despaired. Easter egg-type things, already? Then I saw the hot cross buns and realised we really were, fully, on the flight path to Easter. My first Easter confectionery purchase was the two-pack Cadbury’s Caramel bunnies. I like a bit of Cadbury’s Caramel. The bunnies were 59p for two and I like that the damage is limited. By that I mean I’m the kinda girl (unfortunately) that can eat a whole bar of something, (well, up to about 100g, I’m not a total pig, but 100g is easy to consume in a day, especially if you have deadlines to avoid). So something small, treaty, but not diabetic-coma inducing is a good idea for someone like me. Incredibly, one Caramel bunny seems to satisfy me and I even sometimes go as far as sharing/saving the other for my boyfy-husband.

But then, because the MaltEaster bunnies were on special (two for £1) I bought them. They’re not like Maltesers, or whatever it is about Maltesers that I don’t like is remedied with this bunny.

Anyway, the upshot is that you should try them. For one, it’s a chocolate that’s not by Nestle – and that’s getting harder to find. For two it’s nice. For three it’s like a giant, chocolate, jelly baby, albeit a bunny, but you get that moment of indecision where you feel slightly psychopathic as you decide whether you go for the ears or legs first. I always eat the ears first.

I will buy one and take a picture of it, if it can live that long, and put it up later.

Chilly children’s cheeks

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I’ve written about beauty products for fifteen years. I’ve always been fascinated by them; where this comes from, I don’t know since my mother (a Napolitan) has never used face cream, even when I’ve given her some. I once gave her something for tired legs which had something in it which was stimulating and reviving, when she still worked in my father’s cafe and after a while she said to me “Annalisa, thata creama you gavea mea, it stingsa my facea.” Then again, I’ve given her a pot of £180 cream for her face that she’s put on her knees. I kinda love that.

Since I had children, and I’ve had two particularly buttery specimens, I’ve realised that although babies are like big balls of juicy fat, as they grow up into little children they get chapped cheeks and lips. The latter especially bad since they constantly lick and bite at their lips.

As this is my first blog about skincare stuff, I need to put in a rider here. No-one is telling you to spend your week’s food shopping budget on a cream, unless YOU want to. Some creams out there are silly money. If you can’t afford them, if you’ve found something that works just as well for less: great. Buy it. But I think you get what you pay for, and this is more or less my whole ethos on spending (not just skincare). I believe in buying well and buying less. I’ve spent more money on various cheap alternatives only to be disappointed. I hate cheap crap.

So. Yes I know. You can’t beat Vaseline, but whilst I find it protective on lips, it’s not particularly restorative. Jo Malone does one of the best lip balms. It’s not cheap, but I’ve had mine for years and as it costs you’re more likely to keep track of it and not lose it. If you think that’s expensive, I’d best not tell you about Sisley’s Nutritive Lip Balm.

This is thick, and works better if you warm it in a pocket before application.

Knowing what to put on a child’s face is a harder option.

Weleda’s Dr Greenfingers used to do a fantastic product called Nose and Cheek Soother that came in a little tube which you could slip into your pocket and apply as you were walking out of the door. Perfect. Why don’t they make it anymore? Who knows.

There is Mama Mio’s Wonder-Full Balm, now renamed with the prefix of OMega. Again it’s not cheap, but nothing I’ve ever found that is, works anywhere near as well and/or smells horrible.

Talking of Vaseline, in a cupboard in northern Italy there is still a round glass jar from my childhood of the stuff. On it there are various glorious illustrations of what you can and can’t do with it, all shown to you by a 1950’s looking housewife.