A friend of mine has a long-term illness which means she has quite a few medicines to take through-out each and every day. She’s also a Mum with a young child and a lot on her plate, so it’s understandable that she sometimes gets in a muddle as to when she last took her medicine.

I recently sent her two of the Chiggs medicine wheel greetings cards – and made her a very happy person indeed. Such a simple and brilliant idea!

Chiggs also do Baby Feed Wheel greetings cards which I have sent to friends with newborns and they have loved, loved, loved them. If you’re going to send a Happy New Baby card to someone, how fantastic to send them one that is also a very useful thing too.

The Chiggs medicine and baby feed wheel cards are only £3.99 each with free UK postage. They are also stocked at the very best boutique shops too. If you are a retailer, they can be purchased wholesale.

Friday was NO. 1 son’s 12th birthday.

12 is a little bit tricky – what you want to do with your mates is probably not what your parents will let you do. Add a chronic illness to the general age trickiness, and we were a le-e-etle bit stumped.

But then genius struck. And a short phone call later we had five great tickets for We Will Rock You at the Dominion Theatre in the West End. No.1 is a HUGE rock fan, loves his electric guitar, and we were generally feeling rather smug that we had found the perfect solution.

But as the date grew closer we started to wonder if it had been the right thing to bring along the 9 and 8 yr olds too… Boy was NOT a big Queen fan. and Jolly is not known for his powers of concentration. Or even of sitting still. And, of course, We Will Rock You is not even billed as a children’s show. Would they understand and follow? Would it even be suitable?

Hey ho.

Saturday came, and we set of from the conveniently-placed Grandparents house in Essex for the trains.

We had a quick beetle around the city (seeing Leadenhall Market (better known as Diagon Alley of course) and the Bank of England (Gringotts), then found a handy restaurant for lunch.

By 2.10 we were in our seats, and excitement (them) and nervousness (us) was rising. They have visited the local theatre a couple of times, but seen nothing on this scale. Would they enjoy? The lights dimmed, the speakers crackled and with all fingers crossed I settled back to enjoy it myself…

I forgot to worry about them at all as I became engrossed in the story, the music was every bit as wonderful and engrossing as I remembered, the leads were excellent and the whole show was spectacular. As the lights came up for the interval I remembered I was in charge of small people and turned to see what the reaction was so far.

Three stunned, wide-eyed grinning faces looked back at me. I didn’t need to ask the question.

“It’s AWESOME!” breathed Jolly, the boy-who-can’t-sit-still who had just been utterly absorbed for an hour.

“The music… it’s inside me when they sing. I can feel it as well as hear it. How do they do that? It’s amazing” grinned Boy-who-doesn’t-much-like-Queen.

The newly-12yr old No.1 Son just beamed. Words actually failed him, and he was content to sit and smile and wait impatiently for the second half.

By the end of the show they were clapping in the air like Queen concert pro’s. They were emotional about the death of  ‘real’ music, and overwhelmed at it’s rebirth. They were on their feet stamping and cheering. They were gleefully chanting back the call-and-response from Galileo Figaro. And they screamed themselves hoarse through a standing ovation as the final curtain came down.

I think they quite liked it.

To be fair, a stream of the humour went over the two youngest one’s heads. They didn’t know follow some of the pop culture references, nor the more adult innuendo (I hope). There was an occasional strong-ish swear. But the entire spectacle was such that none of this really mattered. They were absorbed by the monumental music, swept along in the search for an instrument, and laughing at so much of the comedy. Jolly, at 8, was probably at the lower end of the age bracket that would enjoy it, but I am so glad we took him too.

They have all absorbed the serious undercurrent the story told them, the threat of losing themselves in a computer-generated world, and it’s something that I know will live on in them for a very long time.

Queen. Ben Elton. Freddie Mercury. We thank you.

Oh, and Scaramouche? I have three boys who would all quite like to marry you when they grow up, please.

What was it with pink custard? Lusciously gorgeous in colour and texture and comfort factor – and universally adored. Pink custard just made any school dinners pudding a real treat, no? Remember the sponge squares with a thin layer of jam and coconut on top? Or fudge tart squares (produced further to mucho requests from cornflake tart eaters)? Or my husbands personal favourite chocolate concrete? All made slightly-more-perfect with that creamy pouring of pink goo.

Now, I always thought that pink custard was simply yellow custard with some food colouring in. Not So! Recently I have discovered why whenever I make some, it simply never looks or tastes the same as memory tells me it did in the 70′s.

A recent tip-off has alerted me that it is actually a  little more devious… I tried it. It works. It so, SO works.

Ladies and gentlemen, I give you… School Dinners Pink Custard.

What you Need:

1 pint milk
1 packet pink blancmange mix
(strawberry and raspberry both work, but for me raspberry is where to put your money)
2 or 3 tbs sugar to taste

What You Do:

• In a heat-proof bowl empty the contents of the blancmange packet.
• Add the sugar and two or three tbs from the pint of milk and mix to a paste.
• Warm the remaining milk in a pan  – do not boil.
• Pour a little of this milk on to the paste and give it a really good mix.
• Pour this bright pink goo into the warmed milk and then bring to the boil.
• Keep stirring (it has a tendency to catch and burn if you decide this would be a good time to empty the dishwasher/make a cup of tea).
• Simmer for about a minute (if the custard is very thick add a little more milk to thin it down – remember you are supposed to be pouring it smoothly, not ladling it out in gloops!).
• Serve with your school dinners pudding of choice… Nom nom nom…

Coming Next Week – School Dinners Fudge Tart.

We are giving away a beautiful sterling silver alphabet initial necklace to one lucky winner. If you want to be in with a chance then you’ve got to be quick because this competition closes at midnight tonight.

Click here for further details and entry form.

On these chilly, chilly days is there nothing nicer to wear then a pair of warm, soft, perfect-shade-of-brown cords? If you’re pregnant you can have the perfect pair of Winter trousers too. Everyday Maternity have these gorgeous Noppies brown cords for £58.20. They have an over-the-bump adjustable panel (which, in my opinion, is the most comfortable type of maternity trouser).

While you’re there, you might also want to browse the many fab maternity & breastfeeding clothes in their sale.

That little lego brickmaster set there (books which have all the bricks you need to build the 30-odd models detailed inside) is fabulous. Really, honestly quite a stroke of genius. A book – AND lego. Genius.

And you get BOTH books in one box for just £20. If you’re the proud owner of any kind of small lego fan, you’ll know JUST how good value that is.

They do contain the all-important figures, most necessary for any kind of lego action.

And for the connoisseur, these are older sets which are not readily available; and that, of course, makes them even more desirable. Woot!

Jolly, who’s 8, got one of these for Chrsitmas. It has probably been the 2nd best present of birthday and Christmas combined (coming only just behind the huge Playmobil castle).

Lego Brickmaster books are available from The Book People. Fab fab FAB bargains and selections, just perfect for gift giving.

Just saw this on the fabulous BODIE and FOU website. It’s the little birds sitting on the lines that make me smile everytime I look at it. Wouldn’t it look just perfect in a child’s bedroom? Something about that perfect simple lettering that just makes everything all right with the world for just a few moments. It’s £43.00, made in England and of recycled material and arrives unframed in a tube for safe shipping (and will fit standard frames from IKEA). Available in azure blue too!

I fell in love with this coat instantly. Just flippin gorgeous, from the colour to the cut to the practically-shaped hood, the zip AND toggle front and the thoughtful snug jersey sleeve lining which stops the drippy snow and arctic winds going up your sleeves.

For me, it’s a wee bit thin for a duffle coat – but with a jumper underneath she’s never felt chilly (and in case you hadn’t noticed we’ve had a bit of chilly weather recently).

You can get your own paws on one of these for £29.95 from Vertbaudet, but be quick – they’re in short supply…

The three amigos – Bannernina (aka Byootiful Rabbit), Fred and Mary Jane.

(seen here with their newest pal, set to become the fourth Amigo, aka Rosa the Maileg Mumma- Mouse)

In the grand scheme of things, they’ve not been with us so very long. But what a very sad place we would live in without their peaceful smiliness lolloping in quiet corners when we least expect it.

And what an emptier place bed would be too, of course.

(seen here just as I found them in Pink’s room this morning, with their newest pal, set to become the fourth Amigo, aka Rosa the Maileg Mumma- Mouse)

Sadly, in the writing of this post, I have discovered that Bannernina Byootiful Rabbit (from the wonderful Natures Purest) is no longer for sale. And Fred the stripy dog is also missing from Linden French’s shelves – although she does have a fine crochet stripy rabbit, which is obviously the next best thing.

Happily, you can still get your hands on your own Mary Jane traditional rag doll from Silver cross (they will insist on calling her Bronte, but what do they know?)

This is pink whilst camping last autumn – can you spot all three of the Amigos?

The good people at IKEA have been rather busy with new fangled technology and social media stuff. Have you seen their new Facebook page and iPhone app? See, it all started with a research report called the Playreport – apparently it’s the world’s largest study of play and kid’s development. It found that 89% of parents agree that play is important to encourage their child’s imagination.

So, to inspire and promote creatvity and fun IKEA have launched a Facebook application called ‘Toy Stories‘ and it let’s kids (and grown-ups!) make their own digital story book using some of characters from IKEA’s soft toy range.

They have also launched a new free iPhone application called LEKAR which is actually rather good! My 4 year old and I gave it a go. The idea is, you shake the phone (and all the cute little little critters go flying around the screen which the 4 year old thought was hilarious!) and it randomnly lands on a game suggestion. These are games that involve running around or doing bonkers things such as musical statues (head spin – ouch!), charades, follow the leader, musical chairs etc… all aided by the iPhone. We had a very funny 20 minutes racing around the house looking for the objects (toothbrush, pair of socks) in the Scavenger Hunt. The Bird Fish or Inbetween I skipped ’cause the idea of letting Ben hide my iPhone somewhere in the house was to scary to contemplate.

It’s a very neat, well designed little app that doesn’t cost a penny and encourages little moments of fun. Give it a go, you might just find it a lifesaver when you’ve got a spare hour to fill with energetic little people that just wanna have some fun.

I am an oddball, so I’ve been told, because I’m really not that fussed about chocolate (shock!). Listen up all those with kind hearts who have, over the years, bought me boxes of luxury chocolates. I don’t mean to sound ungrateful but a buncha beautiful flowers (but not yellow ones, ‘k), make my heart sing that bit louder.

However. There is an exception to my little oddball-thing; chocolate chip cookies, more specifically; warm, homemade chocolate chip cookies. Nom nom nom. I have even been known to eat half (ok, all!) of the uncooked cookie dough because I just. can’t. stop. myself.

I have spent many a happy hour or two trying out different recipes and here, for you, is my perfect-so-far recipe for chocolate chip cookies…..

100g butter or margarine (my personal choice is salted butter)

60g soft brown sugar

1 beaten medium egg (free range if you please)

150g flour

half a teaspoon of baking powder

100g chocolate chips (plain is my choice but milk or white, it’s up to you)

dribble of vanilla extract

I’m blessed with a rather attractive food mixer and it does the whole job but the baking. My method is to cream the butter and sugar then add the beaten egg then the flour, baking powder, vanilla and lastly the choc chips. Takes about 5 mins max on a low speed.

Then put cookie-sized blobs of the dough onto your greased baking sheet (or sheet with parchment) and bake at 180C/gas mark 4 for about 10 minutes and voila.

Best devoured warm. Oh yes. Mmmmmm, mmmmm, mmmmmm… pass me a glass of ice cold milk please.

Stop yer yawning, this may just be a waterproof thingy for cots to you and me, but to a small person with small bladder control it’s kind of a big deal. And actually, you’ll think of me next time you’re stripping sheets at 2 in the morning, cursing your foolishness for not listening to what I have to say.

Right – paying attention now?

Good.

So – waterproof sheets. Stinky rubber or rustly plastic yes? Necessary, but horrible, yes? Well, actually, maybe not.

Until now, my favourite type was the rubber-backed cotton mat (of which I talk about here – do go have a read, it’s one of my favourite posts). But the mat has one teeny tiny flaw – it can shift. But more importantly, your child will shift. And inevitably, at some point, they are going to choose to leak when they have reached the part of the mattress the mat is not protecting. Of course.

And in steps B.Sensible with their new 2-in-1 fitted sheet and mattress protector. Yes – it actually feels  liek a real sheet. Smooth, soft, cotton-y, and fitted. But on the back it has this mad plasticy film, which makes it breathable – but waterproof. how does that bit of magickery work, then, eh?

Well, I don’t know. All I know is that it works. And there’s no sweaty plastic-attached child in the morning, either. It’s made from Tencel, which is 100% natural and made from wood pulp of all things (I’m guessing that’s the magickery bit – it’s a bit of a wonder product) – and just as an aside is not only hypoallergenic to help protect small bodies prone to reacting to dust/housemites etc, but it’s made using eco-friendly processes too.

AND… it comes in 24 colours.

What more are you looking for?

The cot version is a smidge under £20 (there’s moses baskets and cotbed sizes available too), and is available from Baby and More.

The Green Mums website have given the lovely readers of LittleStuff a fabulous 10% off discount code until the end of February. They also have free delivery until the end of February. Marvellous!

Green Mums is a fantastic website for all things baby and eco and they have a superb range of cloth nappies. Their Green Mums Articles section is invaluable.

I am really liking this Sack’n Seat portable highchair. Such a clever idea and so portable and machine washable! Genius.

OFFER: 10% Off

CODE: LITTLESTUFF

EXPIRES: 28th February 2011

Another school dinners favourite, these chocolate rice krispie cakes were always made in huge trays and served in square chunks with the obligatory oodles of custard.

Best of all, they are also a classic cook-with-children recipe; easy and fun to make and always a favourite to eat! This is the original 70′s recipe I used myself as a child, that’s been carefully tucked away in one of my Mums recipe books – looks like it was probably torn off a Rice Krispie’s box!

Traditional Chocolate Rice Krispie Cakes

Preparation time
15 – 20 minutes

• 3 cups Rice Krispies (I just use a small mug)
• 4 tbsp golden syrup
• 1 tbsp sugar
• 1 tbsp butter (margarine in original)
• 1tsp cocoa powder
• few drops of vanilla or almond essence

Put syrup, sugar and butter/marg and cocoa powder into a pan, melt (stirring) until everything is smooth and chocolatey.
Remove from heat, add essence and Krispies.
Mix well and pour into a greased 7″ square tin (I use a swiss roll tin). Mark into squares and remove from the tin when cold.
Alternatively, divide mixture between 12 cake cases in a bun tin.
Put in the fridge to set.

No freezing, but will last a few days in an air tight container. Not that it will actually, you know, LAST once everyone knows where it is being kept.

You can leave the cocoa powder out if you don’t want a chocolate version, of course.

(next week: real proper actual school dinners pink custard to go with it!)

How snuggly does THIS Mala rinkobaby all in one baby fleece suit look?! It’s reduced from £34.00 to £23.80 at Tootsie and Fudge.

How about an awesome keep-yer-ears-warm hat with stars for reduced from £18.50 to £11.10?

Much more to be found in their Winter sale with up to 50% off.

Are you looking for really nice, bright and colourful pictures on canvas for your child’s bedroom? Have you seen Art Adventure?

I love this castle print (£48.00)! So much to look at and think about and make up brave knightly adventures about!

They do personalised ones too for £28.00 and this flower fairies is just so pretty.

Also, if you’re looking for a birthday or christening gift, perhaps one of these personalised ceramic money boxes for £12.00 would be well received?

I know what you’re thinking, “Pah, but there will be a delivery charge too.”. Not so! Free delivery on all orders :-)

For some of the very best natural, organic, sustainable and ethical products for your baby The Natural Nursery is the place to look. They have so much good stuff from baby carriers to breastfeeding support products to natural skincare and organic baby clothing.

Here’s just a small selection of some of the things we love very much;

When I discovered baby sleep gowns with my 2nd child it was a night-time revelation. Oh, they are just perfect and do away with that middle-of-the-night awfulness of fiddling with too-many-poppers on babygros! Ugh. Baby sleep gowns have elasticated bottoms that keep the feet all snugged up but make for easy, minimal-disruption access to dirty nappies. The very nicest of baby sleep gowns, such as this gorgeous birdie print one from The Natural Nursery, have no-scratch mittens integrated into the sleeves. Huzzah! A revelation indeed. Also, it is currently reduced from £11.99 to £8.99.

Oh! Aren’t they just beautiful?! They are hand crocheted in the UK from organic colour grown cotton and are just the sweetest little shoes for £11.99.

This child’s rucksack makes my heart sing. Not only is it made with fairtrade cotton, fully lined and has adjustable straps is it just gorgeous. I don’t think I know of one toddler who would not adore carrying their snack, drink and favourite toy in it and it’s only £12.99.

This is the final call for entries to our fabulous Jonny’s Sister’s Letter Soaps competition! It closes at midnight tonight so click here for further details and entry form, pronto!

On receiving the travel cot it was already on to a winner for just being block colour in design and not having any generic disney images of winnie the pooh or a rubbish picture of a giraffe on it! Score! Why must all baby equipment have ‘stuff’ scrawled on it? Bleurgh! The pale pastel colours are sweet, although plane black would be perfection too be honest or even single primary colours.

Now, in terms of putting the thing together, this is something I am quite experienced at. And also rubbish at. Experience does not equal good unfortunately. I used to be a childminder so was always having to beg the Husband to put the travel cot up in the spare room for kiddy nap times. And this time , true to habit I did exactly that. And buggered off. And waited for the huffing and puffing. But in the words of the Husband  ‘easiest travel cot I’ve ever put up.’ According to him the instructions were clear and it was a case of a few clicks and it was done.

Blossom took a while to settle, not sure if this was due to the fact that it has a typically hard base as most travel cots do or due to it being a different environment for her as she is a creature of habit and does like to sleep in her own bed! But once settled she slept all night so no complaints from me.

In all it’s a good cot, and only some sleaker colour options and a thicker mattress could be improved on. Nice one!

Reviewed beautifully for us by lovely blogger Bec (ably assisted by Blossom of course) from Beetroot and Gherkins – do go have a meander at her blog, it’s a nice place to spend ten minutes with your cup of tea.

The Hauck Dream ‘n Play Travel cot can be yours for a smidging under £60 from allgoodretailers – you can find out your nearest access point from Haucks site, here.

Oh, how I do love Bibaloo. Such glorious, gorgeous, quirky, stylish and above all DIFFERENT childrens clothing (French, don’t yer know).

And the sale? Tis immense. No, really. 40% off. 50% off. Look… (excited readers who Know About Bibaloo – click here to visit the Bibaloo sale page right NOW and skip the rest of my mutterings)

That’s a French Connection Apple Blossom Skirt – for £11.50!

Or how about this delicious ‘shining star’ skirt from NotSobig, reduced from £34 to just £13.60

Oh, you have boys I hear you cry. Girls stuff is easier to find. Not So! cry I. What about this fantabulous double breasted navy parka from IKKS, down from £60.50 to just £30.25?

Or maybe this Grand Nord Hoody form 3 Pommes is for you, delicious and just £16.74.

Why are you still here? GO! There’s pages and pages of yummy stuff in the sale. Go, now, investigate…