Review: The Philips Man Iron

Just before Christmas I was sent an email which offered to send me a pampering set in exchange for sending my husband an Iron which he was to test out. How could I refuse such an offer? Especially as I absolutely hate ironing and I am keen to train the man up as I seem to spend ages on his work shirts.

The Man Iron is clearly targeted at men, its a sleek black machine with a simple dial which makes it easy to put it on the correct setting, even if you aren't used to ironing and material identification. However I think its a pretty good iron generally. I had a quick go with it and I think its easily as good as my top of the range Bosch iron, if not better. I really liked the weight and the simplicity of it and so I can recommend it from that viewpoint. The other great feature is the quite narrow pointed nose which makes it easy to get into corners of fabric.

In the spirit of the challenge I didn't explain how to use the iron to the husband, I merely pointed him the direction of the ironing board, the pile of washing and the ironing board. Thirty minutes later I checked on the results. I was surprised, he had managed to iron four work shirts (in record time) and seemed quite happy about it.

This iron comes in a sturdy case which to be honest I thought added to the general stuff to store but if your lad was going off to university or leaving home it would be perfect for them as they have a case to store it in. I'm a little bit torn about the idea of making domestic appliances appeal to a particular gender. I have to admit, I'd love a pink iron, but that's not really a great thing to say in this age of equality and the fact that this iron is designed to appeal to men specifically seems to sit uneasily somehow. However, like max strength medicines which clearly appeal to men and encourage them to take them, if this Iron encourages men to do their ironing that can only be a good thing.

All I need now is a manly ironing board, shame mine has flowers on it...

And a word from the Husband:

Contrary to popular belief I do actually do some ironing and I'm not too horrific at it. My problem is mostly I like to stick a long film on and drag it out over an evening. I think the fact I was watching Big Trouble in Little China, which is only 99 minutes long and is pretty good helped the ironing, as did the iron itself which seemed to positively glide over the shirts. It wasn't too heavy either and was in a decent non poncified colour. Shame it was lacking go faster stripes, preferably orange, but aside from that it was spot on.

Review: The Philips Man Iron

Things you think about whilst night-time feeding babies

• Should I have made different comment to a school mum?
• I wonder if there is some sort of mathematical formula which gives you quantity of poo resultant of numbers of feeds according to developmental age/ weight
• I hope this noise doesn't wake the other kids
• I hope this noise wakes that husband up as he seems to sleep through anything
• Why am I wet?
• Shall I just go and start doing chores as soon as this baby goes to sleep
• Why does this baby only ever sleep during daylight or with his head resting at a really uncomfortable angle on me?
• I hope the boy isn't going to be bullied again
• I hope Fifi and Ned don't get bullied
• What shall I wear tomorrow
• I wish it was light enough to read my book
• What shall I give the kids for breakfast
• I must buy some more leggings
• I wish I had bought those curtains I saw in the John Lewis sale
• Shall I have another baby
• Do I want a career?
• Shall we convert the garage to a playroom
• Do I need a haircut?

Not a lot of sleep happening at the moment...

Things you think about whilst night-time feeding babies

Struggling to take a picture of them all!

One of the issues with having three children is trying to find the moment to take a picture of them all. It's also finding the patience to take one where you can see all their faces and no-one is pulling a funny face. Unfortunately this is the best I've managed so far....

Struggling to take a picture of them all!

Review: Ellos Clothing

Just before Christmas Fifi and myself were asked if we wanted to select an item of clothing from fashion retailer Ellos. As I have never shopped with them before I thought it woul dbe interesting to see what they had to offer.

I selected a lovely cardigan which unfortunately had sold out, so you clearly need to be quick off the mark with the best stuff. My second choice was this cardigan as I thought it was so unusual. When the cardigan came I was not disappointed, the quality was good and it was as I expected. However, I have to say I thought it was a bit on the small side. I have washed it several times and its come up as good as new. It looks great with jeans and I'm slightly disappointed to say that you can now get it for nearly half the price in the Ellos sale! A good bargain...

Fifi chose this really cute little dress its a lovely colour and pattern and one of those comfortable dresses with no frills or bits to stick in her. I thought it was really well priced and now its a total steal at a fiver! My only issue with it is that I ordered an age five and she is only three and it still has very little room in it. I think Ellos are one of those continental shops which are sized for children smaller than the average British child. I think the lesson is that provided you purchase a nice big size their kids clothes offer good value and something different to what you can find on the high street.

All in all, I think its worth checking out Ellos if you like to wear clothes you wont find on the high street which are reasonably priced and good quality. I know I've bookmarked them.

Review: Ellos Clothing

Review: Argos Kids Clothes

Did you know that Argos even sell kids clothes? I was amazed, I know they sell nearly everything but it never occurred to me to look in there for clothes for the kids. When I was asked if we wanted to review some, I thought it would be interesting to see what they had on offer. Fifi had a good look and picked a Tinkerbell Sweatshirt and a selection of Peppa Pig T-shirts. Boy picked a Lego Star Wars Sweatshirt and some Star Wars pyjamas. Frankly these clothes were perfect for my kids as they really like wearing stuff with their favourite characters on them.

When they arrived all the clothes were surprisingly good quality given their price. Fifi has been wearing the Peppa Pig T-shirts over and over again and they have washed up as good as new over the course of a month! What's more the sizing is accurate, rather than on the small side which pleased me as this is becoming a rarity.

I'm honestly impressed with this range for toddlers, it's exactly what they like to wear (as opposed to what I like them to wear- which is another matter). The products we received have washed and washed and they are very good value for money. The range is available for Toddlers to children aged 2- 10 years and you can find it either in the catalogue or at http://www.argos.co.uk/.

Review: Argos Kids Clothes

Review: Leapfrog Leapster Explorer

The Leapster Explorer is aimed at 4- 9 year old age group, so when we were asked if the boy would like to review one we thought it might be perfect. For Christmas, our four year old boy was lucky enough to get a Nintendo DS, but to be honest, even though we have age appropriate games for it, he still finds it a bit to advanced and requires a lot of help with it. From the minute we got the Leapster out of the box it was different. The boy could use it straight away and has enjoyed using it ever since.

The Leapster is a sturdy little games console which offers a range of 'learning experiences' , you can get games, e-books and so on. Its intuitive to use and in our house at least has withstood some man-handling, including getting dropped and a water spillage. In that sense it seems ideal for the age group. Its chunky buttons and general 'feel' means that I don't feel that I have to observe the kids whilst playing with it.

One of the brilliant things about this is that Fifi has also been able to enjoy using it. At just three years old she sits with it for a really long time concentrating on what she is doing. The only other time I have seen her so engrossed with a bit of technology is with her V-tech Storio Cars 2 game. I think the Leapster has the edge because its a bit smaller and more portable and seems to immediately offer a wider range of activities.

I'm really impressed with this, it surprises me because its not something I would have gone out and bought as I'm not all that keen on this sort of thing myself. However, the kids are genuinely enjoying using it and I think it has helped Boy with his letters and sounds learning. It's great to see them concentrating on an activity for a while, this doesn't happen very often in our house! The Leapster feels like a good quality piece of kit.

My only reservations are that the games and apps which you download are quite expensive and its a bit fiddly to do. I can see that although the console is very reasonably priced at around fifty quid the overall cost could soon add up especially when you factor in the cost of batteries.

Overall though, I think its helped the boy with his letters and sound learning and he hasn't even realised. For that alone I give it five stars

Disclaimer: We were given a Leapfrog Explorer to keep in exchange for a review

Review: Leapfrog Leapster Explorer

Having our pictures taken!

Over the past year I've been lucky enough to tweet with loads of local people.  St Albans has a nice community on-line and there are lots of things going on and lots of people willing to help with stuff. We were really lucky to be offered a family photoshoot with local photographers Kim and Jeanette of Cocoon Photography. It was a fun experience in Verulamium Park and we got some lovely pictures to boot!

Kim and Jeanette are unlike a lot of other photographers that I have met in that they instantly made us feel at home, they laughed and joked with us and captured some really special moments. If only we could have bought all the images. Anyway, the ones we got take pride of place on our wall and I cant recommend the whole thing more highly. I'm hoping to get a few more of the images shortly.

So, when they offered to take some newborn shots of little Ned I jumped at the chance. I was a little bit concerned that the little fella would be incredibly fractious, but far from it, he stayed asleep the entire time. It was great having a photoshoot at home, we were all totally at ease and it was much easier with a new baby than having to travel anywhere. Have a look at their blog about it here. I wish I had taken the plunge and got some professional shots of Fifi and Boy, that's a lesson learned.

You can follow Kim and Jeanette on Twitter @cocoonphoto

Having our pictures taken!