Review - FancyDressOutfitters.co.uk

I have been sent a great fancy dress outfit for Zane from www.fancydressoutfitters.co.uk, with Halloween being imminent they sent me a Vampire costume to try out.

When I first opened the package up I was very pleased to find that the costume came with everything that we needed, so no need to buy additional accessories. The costume comes complete with waistcoat printed top, black trousers, shoes, red cape and vampire headpiece, all for a price of £17.77. I think that is a very reasonable price for saying there is no need to buy anything else and it saves you the hassle of running round the shops to find a whole outfit.

I tried the outfit on Zane straight way, and he really looked the part. The trousers and top were a good fit for saying the size was Toddler 1-2 and Zane is a large 22 month old. There was still plenty of room in the trousers and the sleeves were still long on him. I loved the cape, it is silky and has a nice shimmer to it, I only wish that it was held onto the top with something other than Velcro or more of it, as it made the cape easy to pull off, although the outfit still looked great without it. The only problem that we had was that Zane didn't like the headpiece, but that is down to his personal preference, he doesn't even like to wear hats. One thing that I noticed whilst reading the details on the website was that the outfit is dry clean only, which I don't think is great for children's outfits because I can imagine that at parties they get jelly and ice cream down them and they wouldn't be so simple to clean.

FancyDressOutfitters.co.uk don't just do children's costumes, they also do adults with a wide variety of choices such as theme fancy dress, movie, music and TV characters, and Hen night and Stag Do. The adult costumes are still a very reasonable price too. Have a look on their website to see their full range, I'm sure you will find something you like.

I feel lost......

I've lost my phone, or rather Gary has lost my phone. We know where it is though, its in a scrap yard, in his car, which is now cube shaped. I have never lost a mobile phone before and I feel lost. Its bad enough when you don't wear a watch and feel naked without it, but who needs a watch when you have a mobile phone. I now don't know the time, what the weather is like, or what my Facebook friends are doing. I cant spend every idle minute on baby forums or google-ing everything which I don't know to find the answer in seconds. I am twitchy, when there is a spare minute I reach for my phone, but its not there, life is dull.....

Until this afternoon. A normal Saturday afternoon catching the bus into town and as usual the buses are really early and you miss it, or its late and your waiting around and two come at once. Today it was early so we had a 15 minute wait. Usually Zane would happily look at the many cars and ambulances that go past the bus stop, and I would point out vans and have Facebook on my phone having a nose. Today I didn't have my phone so I thought how bored I was going to be and time would go so slow! Within 5 minutes of waiting and watching the traffic I spotted two colleagues walking down the street and we stopped for a chat. Me, being social without it being in front of a screen! Usually I would be too engrossed in my phone to even notice people passing by. I caught up with some interesting people who I hadn't seen in a while, we had  great chat and caught up, and in actual fact it made time fly, before I knew it my bus had arrived, it was a refreshing change, so in conclusion social networking actually stops you being social in real life, and I can honestly say that I am happier after having a face to face conversation with two people rather than looking at what my 200+ Facebook friends are up to.

I don't know how long I can last until I crack and buy a cheap phone or beg someone to lend me one until my insurance sends me another one. Hopefully I will remember the positives of not having the Internet at my fingertips and maybe use it a bit less, or at least start to look out of the window to see what the weather is like rather than looking on my phone.

Review - Little Dish New Addition

Little Dish have sent me the new addition to their toddler meal range to review with Zane, Chicken & Two Veg Pasta.

Little Dish was founded by mum of two Hillary Graves in 2006. It is the only brand offering a range of fresh, natural meals for babies and toddlers made from 100% natural ingredients and no added salt or sugar, so you can be sure that by giving your toddler a Little Dish meal they are getting a healthy alternative to home cooked food.

Chicken & Two Veg Pasta is a combination of bite sized pieces of  British chicken, carrots, broccoli trees and pasta swirls with cheese sauce. The meal is the perfect balance of proteins, carbohydrates and fats as well as a great source of calcium.

The meals are simple to cook, just pierce the film and pop them in the microwave for a couple of minutes, cool to desired temperature and serve. The first thing that I noticed was when I pierced the film the smell came through instantly, it was delicious, and it smelt even better once cooked. I knew instantly that if it tasted as good as it smelt then it was going to be a hit.

One thing that I really like about Little Dish meals is that they actually look like a proper home cooked meal, I have bought meals before for Zane and they haven't looked like something which we would all eat together, which is important to me as we have always fed him what we have eaten and with these meals each element is as easily recognisable as home cooked food. The pasta is just like what we use at home, the veg is perfectly cooked, not too soft and not too firm, and the pieces of broccoli and carrots are obviously brocolli and carrots but perfectly sized so that they aren't daunting. I always taste meals for Zane before giving them to him as I wouldnt feed him anything which I wouldnt eat myself. I could have eaten all of it! The cheese sauce tasted great, cheesey, perfect consistancy, and it didnt mask the flavours of the chicken and veg. There was enough of each element to get a forkful of everything each mouthful. It was a great combination and the flavours went really well together.

Zane really enjoyed eating it too, he loves anything with cheese in like his mum so as soon as he tasted it he didnt stop eating. He can sometimes be a little picky about veg but he ate all of what was on his plate, I think the size of the pieces contributed to his enjoyment, as at home he has much bigger pieces but with the ones in the meal being smaller he wasnt phased at all.

I would really recommend Little Dish Chicken & Two Veg Pasta, it went down really well with my toddler. The meal is available to buy in Tesco from 5th October, andOcdo later on in the month, and will retail at £2.49.

If you would like to find out more about Little Dish and the rest of their toddler meal range take a look at their website http://www.littledish.co.uk/.