Category Archives: Consumer

Thermals for girls, or pyjamas

4 Replies
Autograph for M&S girls’ thermals. Not overly easy to see design but pretty floral stuff.

As a veteran fisherman, I can tell you that no-one makes thermals as efficient as Damart. But the problem with Damart thermals is what makes them so good: what works outside doesn’t really work inside and you end up sweating like a pig on market day indoors.

Anyway. For every day wear I wear Uniqlo heat tech. But this isn’t about me, it’s about thermals for children or more specifically, girls (much as I’d love to say boys too, the set I’m going to suggest is flowery and no boy I know would wear them under the age of five. If yours would then great).

When my eldest was small, I’d buy her thermals from Petit Bateau. They are brilliant: wool on the outside and cotton next to the skin. But expensive. All her old PB thermals have passed onto the youngest now.

What I was looking for were some thermals as layers for my eldest, for when it gets really cold here in the country and I found these in M&S Autograph section. The reason I want to tell you about them is that they have proved a huge success with my girls. I ended up buying them for the nine year old, but the youngest wanted a pair too and even though she has the Petit Bateau hand me downs, I ended up buying her a pair too. I even bought myself a pair in age 15-16 and they almost fitted but not quite..

They are comfortable, really cosy, warm, pretty and they wear them as thermals, PJs and the tops as outwear too. So a pretty hard working two-set. I recommend. Buy.

In sizes from 18mths to 16 years, £11-£14.

Pretty fairy lights, battery operated

5 Replies
John Lewis LED finewire snowflake lights, £6

Some years ago, as a present, Tesco sent me some really pretty blue flowery fairy lights that were battery operated. Doesn’t sound like much now, but at the time, they were pretty innovative (the battery part). They cost £5 in the shops and I wish I’d bought more as they’ve proved strangely useful. My children use the in tents, we drape them over any corner that needs a little pretty illumination. I’ve been tempted to go out wearing them (you could, with the battery pack in a pocket. I mean, come on). I don’t know, they just make me feel good. Even though they are, you know, from Tesco’s.

Anyway. These are not like them. They are very very fine and delicate. The wire between them is really fine wire. But they still look nice on my mantelpiece and every evening, as dusk fades and “the clouds turn pink” as my daughter says, I switch them on and they make me go aaah.

I’m easily pleased.

They also come in little green trees, red hearts or blue stars. And the size above is about actual size.

Buy them here.

Head torches

2 Replies
Petzl Tikkina XP 2. My headtorch. Pick it up for between £35-£50.

Whenever anyone asks me what they should someone for a present, be that person a child or an adult, the first thing I always say is: a head torch.

They are fab. Admittedly if you live in a city, and are an adult, you probably don’t fully understand the need for them; but if you’re a child they can be used in tents, hidey holes, under bed clothes etc. And if you’re an adult and you live in the country they are, I think, essential for getting firewood, putting the bins out, getting to your car (this will sound crazy to those with street lighting…). I also use mine when cycling or running.

The one I have is, of course, top of the range with a price tag to match: the Petzl Tikka XP 2 (but I have just the head torch, not the charger etc). Mine has three different white light permutations (bright, economy, flashing) and it can also go to a red light (which preserves night vision) in constant or flashing. It tilts (a really useful facility so you can look at things on the ground or straight ahead) and is very bright. Most normal people don’t need this but as I also use mine for the aforementioned cycling and running, it’s pretty imports for me. Mine costs between £35-£50 (do a search on Google they’re not difficult to find), but although it’s top of that range, there are others that go up to £200, but really for people climbing Everest..

Petzl Tikkina 2, for about £15.

Otherwise the Petzl Tikkina 2 is the one to get. It has two white light modes (strong or economy) and tilts and is really everything you’d need. You can pick them up for about £15 and they’re – Petzl’s -vastly superior to any other head torch I’ve tried. Also comes in pink, blue, green, gold.

Tab grabber, aka a clever way to keep hold bits of paper

Leave a reply
Tab grabber. Just one small section..

Tab grabbers are those things you see in restaurants. You place an order, the waiter writes it on a piece of paper and then s/he sticks it into a tab grabber for the kitchen staff.

Well they’re also a great way of holding other bits of paper in the home. I have an entire run of them under my window sill, right by my desk. And although a part of it is used to keep drawings that my children do for me, I use them largely to hold invites to forthcoming work events.

You can get them in all different lengths, or obviously use more than one. They’re like metal bars with marbles inside, and it’s the marbles that hold the bits of paper up.. Bit hard to explain unless you know what I’m talking about…No sticky tape or drawing pins are needed so it’s a great way to just hold stuff and because of this especially easy and safe for children to use. Purposeful, industrious, totally unmarking. You can stick them on the wall – they come with sticky pads – or screw them in, I strongly recommend the latter.

We also have one on the back of the front door for things to remember: shopping lists, letters to post, those bits of paper you have to return to school. Note: you can also use them for photographs, but you lose about an eighth of the photo in the marble bit.

They cost from about £10. Just put Tab Grabber into Google. You can get them from various places on line that don’t pay their taxes. Or try commercial kitchen shops.

Hot Dog and Hot Duck

5 Replies
Hot Duck and Hot Dog. 

I bought these last Christmas for my girls to give each other in an incredibly contrived gift exchange.

They are cuddly toys with some sort of stuff inside that you can heat up in a microwave. Hence why these are called Hot Dog and Hot Duck.

Living in the country it’s colder here, sooner and for longer than in the city. Plus I keep the heating right down, because I’m mean like that. So Hot Dog and Hot Duck make a nice companion at bedtime, or on cold early morning car journeys; my youngest has even been known to take it with her in the front of my bike. They feel like bean bags so are actually pretty tactile. I am not a cuddly toy person but have even been known to treat these quite well.

You chuck them in the microwave for a couple of minutes and bingo. I got mine from a large organisation which is now being investigated for tax reasons, but you can get these anywhere. Perhaps even support your local shop…Mine cost under a tenner each and are made by Intelex and the range is called ‘Cozy Plush’ (sic).

Two things I really want to tell you about: boots and socks

3 Replies

I’m going into my third/possibly fourth winter with the best boots I’ve ever bought: Ecco Voyage.

I first wrote about them here.

When I say going into my third winter, I mean I wear them every day from end of September til about April.

They may be slightly superfluous if you live in a city (you’d still find them useful though), but living in the country as I do they are fantastic and vital and here’s why:

They’re warm
They look smart
They’re waterproof
They’re comfortable
They have a great grippy sole

I have a love/hate relationship with Ecco in that several of my walking boots that I bought from them (and my partner has had this same problem) have fallen apart after only a couple of years (not what I’d expect). But these seem different. Not cheap at £160 this year but on a price per wear basis they’re a bargain.

And these are the socks to wear with them from Uniqlo. Warm, comfy, keep their colour in the way that other black doesn’t (because they’re synthetic but don’t be scared of this, synthetics are so much better now). And they’re not overly thick.

Not easy to see detail but they’re these. £9.90 for two.

UPDATE, October 2013

I’ve had so many enquiries about these boots because I wear them in my full length byline picture in the Guardian. The link above no longer works. But I haven’t corrected it because although Ecco still makes Voyage boots, they are not the same. If you Google them it’ll take you to the Ecco site and you can find them. But they’re not the same as the ones I write about here – the design is different and of course, I have no idea if they are as good. I feel a bit sad that I didn’t stock up on them last year, but I’ve also long learned that there is no surer, faster, way to go off something than to buy more than one of them..

Update, September 2014

Joy. Ecco has brought them back. From what I can see from the picture they are the same, just now called Voyage V. But they go in and out of stock..

Conkers, moths and spiders

1 Reply
Conkers, not to be confused with chestnuts

Although September is spider month, October is conker month. The two are connected because spiders hate conkers and having conkers around the house can keep spiders away.

Why it works, I don’t know. This isn’t science. But it does seem to work.

The other thing conkers seem to repel is moths. I get asked a lot about moths and moths are subject close to my wool-clad heart as I’ve suffered much at the jaws of moth caterpillars.

It is of course, not the moths that do the damage  but the baby moths, aka caterpillars. Moths usually only reproduce twice a year, but because we heat our houses now, they can reproduce all year round (if you want to protect your clothes, and your bills, keep your house heated to below 20C, which I now do, look at me, I am so virtuous).

You don’t need to be scared of all moths, well, not so far as your clothes are concerned. The moth larvae that does the damage is a clothes moth, of which there are three in this country. The most common is the webbing moth, which is small (no more than 10mm long) and is the sort of colour Martha Stewart loves: beigey caramely.

All moth repellents, at least that I know of, work on repelling the adult female. And that includes my conkers but they’re so much nicer than conventional moth repellent, natural and free. Repellent is fine if your clothes are egg free, but if they’re not then they won’t kill the eggs already laid (which, incidentally, are often deposited where there is any food spills, which is why so much damage is done across the chest area…). You cannot tell if an egg has been laid, you can only see the caterpillar. If you suspect you have eggs on your woollens – and yes they do favour high quality cashmere (it’s softer) and colours like caramel, because they’ve had less done to them – the only way to get rid of them is to clean (hand, machine wash or dry clean) or freeze. Conservationalists freeze items at a temperature of minus 28 to 32C for seven to ten days. If your freezer doesn’t go that low, just freeze for longer.

If you want to store precious items, do so after washing/cleaning/freezing and put in individual closeable plastic bags to limit any damage if you have missed eggs. But really, as moths like dark, undisturbed places, the worse thing you can do is pack things away in a dark, undisturbed corner; the best thing you can do is take your dress/coat/jumper out frequently. I once had a precious dress hang on the back of my bedroom door and it never came to any  harm. My gorgeous wool dress in the cupboard was eaten to pieces.

If you do use moth repellents, change them every three months, and once you’re sure you’re moth free, keep your cupboard doors closed. (I always, always go in and check on favourite pieces regularly having lost many precious pieces to the moth.) If you hoover your cupboards out, change the bag as a closed, dark bag full of dust and clothing fibres is like a moth nursery that’s been rated Outstanding by Ofmoth.

At room temperature, it takes 7-10 days for the eggs to be laid and them to hatch and start munching, so you see how quickly the damage can be done.

I think it’s time for tea now.

BTW: if you’re wondering how I know so much about moths it’s cos I interviewed an entomologist at the National History Museum a while ago.

Snuggle suits, aka all in ones

Leave a reply
Fleece snuggle suits. Be warned, they also come in adult sizes.

All in ones are an inescapable feature of your wardrobe when you’re a baby. But as you get older, these frankly super useful items of apparel are jettisoned in favour of separates.

Some years ago, Gap sold waffle cotton all in ones for grown ups. Think cowboy style long johns and long sleeved vest combined, in jolly colours like red. Reader, I had some and they were fantastic. I wish I could tell you that I saved them for nights in alone. But no, I didn’t.

I won’t go into any further detail on this.

Last year my mother, who is able to find items of clothing I never find in shops, that my children both love and find incredibly useful, found an all in one navy PJ thing for my eldest (who is eight). Okay, it had a picture of Mickey or Minnie Mouse on it but my daughter loved it. She felt all cosy in it and it was great for after a bath in the way that draughty separates just aren’t.

We live in a small, draughty house in the country and after a bath, I wanted something for my children to be able to put on that would be snug, so I was thinking: fleece. These all in ones with a front zip are so easy to find when your child is under 24 months, but over that? Forget it.

I eventually found the All in One Company.  I ordered two – made to measure as they all are. I ordered them in a colour that had chocolate in the title, because you can’t really go wrong with this I thought. I was right. Although my children do look like small bears wearing them.

Do please read the sizing instructions as you can’t return them unless they are faulty, but you have to order a basic ‘age’ size and then you can customize it so if your child has particularly long legs or arms or bodies – they can do it accordingly. The variations – colours, combination of colours, add ons (tails!?), etc, are a bit mind boggling. But you’ll get there in the end.

They are all made in the UK, so they’re not the cheapest you can get. But let me tell you that the customer service was INCREDIBLE and the quality of the finished items superb. The only extras I had were hoods, to keep the costs down.

Cashmere cowl necks

3 Replies
Clearly  nicked off the M&S website and I can’t get a better picture but here’s the cowl neck which is £99.

My penchant for cowl necks probably dates back to one of my primary school teachers, Miss Evans. She used to wear angora cowl necks (they had a high fluff factor) and she used to read us stories on sleepy afternoons. Some of us used to sit behind her, perched up high, and comb her hair.

She was a particularly benign and gentle teacher. But I don’t remember a single other thing about her other than these lovely dozy afternoons and her jumpers and hair (flicky, blonde).

Now that I’m fully a grown up, and not scared of womanly things (although I still have problems with writing words like ‘womanly things’) I can embrace the wonderfulness of a cowl neck. It’s a big, blousy jumper you can play with, hide behind, pull up the neck on if you’re cold. And for the last three years, I’ve searched, not extensively, but enthusiastically, for a cashmere cowl neck in some wonderful jewel colour.

The other day, when I was already late, I was in the corner entrance of the M&S in London’s Marble Arch. Possibly one of the busiest shop entrances in the world. And some lazy shopper had not put back a cardigan, a long cardigan the sort that would be part comfort blanket, part apparel. A cardigan which I happened to touch and which immediately told me this was no ordinary cardigan.

This wasn’t even an M&S cardigan.

This was the cardigan. Of course it looks like nothing here, but it is snuggly and has pockets and is warm and you’ll live in it this winter. It costs £129. Gasp.

It was something better.

It was 100% cashmere with a price tag to match and the label said M&S Woman. A title I found a bit nauseating but I ignored this. So I went in search of the rest of the M&S Woman stuff and found it tucked away opposite the Per Una collection (not my favourite bit). There was so much cashmere. Cowl necks, short cardigans, long cardigan, ribbed cardigans, round necks, twinset cardigans, sweatshirt and hooded jumpers. Cashmere cashmere cashmere. In blacks and navys but also COLOURS, including pinks and purples and greens.

I’m going to cut a very long story short. A story which sees an assistant called Maree spend an hour with me (not then, but later as I had to go back) watching me whilst I tried on every colour of every jumper. Watching me in a helpful way, not in a security kinda way. I learned about every place she’d ever lived so it was a reciprocal arrangement.

It involves my friend Karen, a professional personal shopper, altering her plans to come and meet me to watch me trying on lots of knitwear in various colours. It, further, involved a quasi 3hr stay in the M&S cafe with Karen whilst I deliberated over what to buy, in what colour and gave myself my own advice: about how you should always buy something when you see it, because when you need it, you can never find anything you like to wear. (We did also talk about other things. I’m not that self absorbed.)

So. I bought some cashmere. I can’t tell you how much as people I know in real life read this. And if my mother is reading this, I DIDN’T buy any cashmere.

Anyway, what you need to know is this: this is a good collection with some lovely pieces. But in the way of the world, by the time it’s cold enough for you to be thinking “I need a cashmere jumper” they will have sold out and swimsuits will be on sale. So if you need cashmere, buy it now. The cowl necks are gorgeous, so much better on than off. And cashmere is so warm, you can delay putting the heating on.

I’m sweating as I write this because I feel so guilty, although it could of course be the heat retaining properties of 100% cashmere.

Fantastic, fun, outdoor chalky crayons

Leave a reply

I recently took advantage of having four strapping men round to lunch (with their partners) to move our very large outdoor table off the patio. Revealing a moss, alge covered set of paving stones which I am currently blasting with a pressure washer (Karcher, fabulous). I intend to turn this into a back yard kinda thing for the children to play in. I am all about giving my children more fun, outdoor things to do. It has, of course, absolutely nothing to do with them but everything to do with the inner child in me who was brought up in a two bedroomed flat WITH NO OUTSIDE SPACE.

Anyway. The therapy has been booked and I’m working through it. In the meantime, when I went to some friends for lunch recently they had a set of giant crayons and the children were going crazy graffiting all over the yard (I love the word yard, it featured large in my childhood stories of Mrs Piggle Wiggle). I got these which are really bright chalks rather than crayons (not sure why they are called crayons) but all you need to know is that they are REALLY BRIGHT, fun, and it says washable but I like to live dangerously and haven’t tried that yet.

I paid 10p under £7 for a packet of 15 from Amazon. I think these are a perfect thing for your children to do in the autumn.

You’re welcome.

2016 note: for some reason the crayons above are now £63 from Amazon which is, of course, madness. I think it’s because you can’t really get them and they have been replaced by these.

Save

Save