Tuesday 31 October 2017

Chimasu Subscription Box - Review!

My girls and I love trying new and different foods and snacks so when the lovely people at Chimasu got in touch and asked if we would like to try one of their boxes we jumped at the chance.


Chimasu delivers an assortment of your favourite Asian snacks on a monthly subscription basis....

All of the snacks are original and originate from all countries in East and South-East Asia including: Japan, China, Korea, Taiwan, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Singapore. You will receive at least 12 different snacks per box....


When opening the box I was surprised....I imagined a box with just a few things it.....There were 16 different things ranging from noodles, biscuits, sweets and teas and four of those items there was more than one of....


Myself and my girls hadn't heard of any of the products. Soy sauce rice cakes, shrimp flakes, Japanese Black thunder chocolate and Koala biscuits but we were keen to try them....

There was plenty that we loved and a few things we weren't so keen on....The girls didn't like the sound of the Soy sauce rice cakes but loved them.....I thought my youngest would have been a big fan of the banana flavoured crisps but she was not keen. My teen loved them and I did too....They were strange. They have the consistency of Wotsits but they taste of bananas. They really mess with your head. Obviously everything that contained chocolate they loved....

It is a really fun box...It was good to try those things just so we can say we have....I am rather annoyed that I can't find these snacks in our local Tesco because there are things I would gladly eat again but I suppose that is the appeal of the box. Trying the things are a real treat!





You can choose between monthly, 3 monthly, 6 monthly and annual recurring plans for your subscription to the Chimasu box or order a one off box for £20.00.

I would say the boxes are well worth the money just for half an hour amusement going through everything and trying it.


Once signed up, you will be given the opportunity to tell Chimasu about your favourite snacks they and handpick a box for you each month from the hundreds of snacks they have to offer....

Orders placed by the 10th of the month will be shipped on the 12th and will arrive with you around about the 15th of that month....

If you want to subscribe you can get 6 pounds off your 1st box and a free Japanese Kit Kat using code "NORTHUMBERLAND"

We were sent this box free of charge in exchange for this blog post. All thoughts and opinions are our own.

A few thoughts about You Tube. Day 31 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: You Tube...


In case you didn't know I have a You Tube channel....Do go and follow it. Please. hehehe

I love You Tube and every night when I go to bed I will watch quite a few videos each night. I have my favourite You Tubers.

Philip DeFranco who talks about the biggest internet news stories of that day. Brummy Mummy of 2She's real and just a lovely person and deserves every single follower!! Louise Pentland who I've followed for years and Logan Paul who hate but I can't stop watching....He is such a daft kid. Becky my teen introduced me to him. Can you remember that TV show on MTV, Jackass. His whole life reminds me of that. Doing silly things for the views....

I am not going to pretend my You Tube Channel is anything like these amazing one's but if you ask a couple of kids at Becky my teen's school, they are big fans...lol I really don't know why I just record special memories, days out and fun things we get up to....It's nothing amazing to strangers but it is to us! Like one of Becky's friends said I'm just a "mummy vlogger, what's so interesting about that?"! He meant it in the nicest way...I know my You Tube channel is nothing to anyone else but it is to me...


I might only have just over 300 followers but my top viewed video has had over 40,000 views! It isn't anything amazing to anyone else but to us it is one of those memories for us. Ellie opening her birthday pressies in 2016.




Earlier this year I shared my favourite You Tube videos. (the one's I've made).


The only thing that annoys me about You Tube is people starting channels and thinking they can be the next PewdiePie or Zoella....Doing prank calls to McDonalds, their top 10 favourite lip glosses, reaction videos to something shocking or trolling videos which are so 2014. Making videos and copying/imitating big You Tubers is never going to make you famous...To make it on You Tube now you have to be something special. Something unique!....You have to be different or in the words of Logan Paul "a Maverick"! hahaha


Ellie has suggested to me that we take part in #Vlogmas. Putting a video up on You Tube every day during December. That is never going to happen....I put one video up and then the next one could be three weeks later....There is no consistency to my YouTube channel. We do have a few ideas for some Christmas videos. Baking, crafts and some fun things so do keep an eye out....



Monday 30 October 2017

Our Weekly Meal Plan!! - #mealplanningmonday


Considering the kids were off school last week stuffing their faces any chance they had we just about stuck to the meal plan. 

I love this time of year with all the party food appearing in the shops....I spotted the Halloween party food in Tesco and I couldn't resist. We had a little party tea on Saturday night which included pizza so we didn't really go off plan.....hehehe


This week I really want to get a big chunk of the Christmas presents bought so I didn't do much shopping apart from the party food....We have so much in the freezer and cupboards which need using up.....

I had planned to take Ellie to our local soft play during half term but she wanted to stay home that day. Of course over the weekend she wanted to go. Ugh! I said I would take her after school this week which works out better as kids eat free after 3.30pm.

This week on the menu we have:

Monday - Saucy sausage pasta....
Tuesday - Hot dogs in buns with corn on the cob.
Wednesday - Out for tea at soft play....
Thursday - Vegetable Fingers and Rainbow Fries....
Friday - Fish and chips....
Saturday - Pizza....
Sunday - Leftover Sausage casserole or Chicken curry out of the freezer......

What are you eating this week?

How I use Pinterest. Day 30 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: Pinterest


As a blogger I am supposed to know how to use it to my advantage to get blog views. I don't have a clue....I do keep meaning to look into it though. I will get around to it one day....lol I use Pinterest for myself. I pin things I like so I can look back on and gain inspiration.

I love finding new recipes to try. There are some weird and wonderful one's to be found....Ellie was looking at Pinterest the other day and searched for Unicorn Recipes! Oh my goodness! Everything is so pretty!

Fish Finger Pie was an Pinterest find and so was the idea for making Ice cream in a bag. I often look at my recipe board for meal planning inspiration. When I see a recipe I like I pin it.


As you know I read a lot of blogs and plenty of them review toys....It is very handy to have somewhere to save the toys that have caught my eye and look back at them in the run up to Christmas.

I can see me getting a lot of use from my Halloween and Christmas boards....I save everything from recipes, crafts, tips and ideas on these....


Pinterest was where I first discovered the idea of Elf on the Shelf....I think this will be the 3rd year we have been doing it so I will be scouring Pinterest for ideas. I really need some new things to do with our elf....

How do you use Pinterest? What do you like to pin?

Sunday 29 October 2017

Carving Pumpkins. #MySundayPhoto




The Not an Insta Mum Challenge... Day 29 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: Instagram

I saw the #NotanInstaMum challenge over on Afra's blog Mad Mum of 7 and it made me chuckle and made me think of the photos which never made it onto my Instagram or if they did I never told the full story behind them....

Disclaimer: I don't go out often. I think I have been out two or three times this year at the most....These photos are spanning over about 4 years....Don't judge me too much. 


Photo One -

A lovely photo. I was at a friends birthday party enjoying a glass of wine....This is a nice photo. I think I even had it on one of the banners on my blog a few years ago.


What it doesn't show is my friend who is making a big cocktail in a bowl with bottles of alcohol which didn't have much left in. The dregs. lol She made it classy though. She added a tin of fruit cocktail. lol I may have ended up slightly drunk. 

Photo 2 -

A night out....Obviously in a pub. I'm smiling and I'm having a good time.


I did have a good night.....One of the best. I was sweating like pig. Why did I think it was a good idea to wear my hair down and not have a hair bobble....I kept nearly falling out of my top....I ended up on the stage with the band dancing with my friends, I lost my phone and I don't remember getting home.....I do remember being sick in the bath though when I did get home....Oopsie!

Photo 3 -

A lovely summers evening seeing a band.


Yes that is a cigarette in my hand. I smoke sometimes when I am out and I am having a drink....

This was one of the best/strangest night's I've ever had. 
It was a Bank holiday Monday and my friends and I went to see a band in one of our local pubs. They only did a short set and said they were off to a pub in South Shields. My friends husband wasn't drinking so he drove us all to follow the band...

The band we saw was a Rockabilly group but play everything from The Monster Mash, U2, Spice Girls, Chitty, Chitty Bang, Bang, The Bay City Rollers, Moterhead and Gangnam Style in a Rockabilly style....They're a lot of fun!!

My friend and I were moshing and dancing to the most random of songs among those who were real rockabilly fan's and had all the fancy dresses, we drank Jagermeister from a bottle that the band had. My friend is the type of person that can drink triple what I can and not get drunk....She was tipsy so you don't want to imagine how I was. I just have to think about Jagermeister and I feel sick even now! lol

Please do go and follow me on Instagram.


Saturday 28 October 2017

A photo everyday for a year - Week 43 #Project365

This past week the girls have been off school for half term....I love having them at home. Well most of the time I do. They do still have their moments when I wished they were at school but on the whole I love spending time with my girls. We've had a fun week....

Here's a photo for every day.


273/365 - 21st October
My fella made his own burgers for tea. I wished I had waited so he could have made mine. His looked so good.

274/365 - 22nd October
I love my flowers from Tesco. These were over a week old and still looked so pretty.

275/365 - 23rd October
Trying out some banana flavoured crisps....Of course Ellie's Monkey had to be involved.

276/365 - 24th October
Halloween baking gone wrong....lol

277/365 - 25th October
The girls did some Halloween crafts...

278/365 - 26th October
A lazy pj/computer day for Becky...

279/365 - 27th October
Ellie was making use of a cardboard box....She was making furniture for her little dolls.


My Twitter History.... Day 28 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: Twitter


Twitter is by far my favourite social media platform.....It wasn't always that way though.

I was a Facebook lover until I realised it was so easy to enter competitions on Twitter and win.....A simple click and a retweet could bring me wonderful things. Things have changed now though and there is so many more entries to RT competitions. I rarely do them now.....

I think one of my first competition wins was on Twitter. I won an Andy Pad in 2011....It was a 7 inch tablet and it was put away for Becky for Christmas. That was the start of Becky's love of tablets and my love of Twitter....


When I started my blog at the end of 2012 I still didn't know I was supposed to promote my blog posts on Twitter.....I used it to follow bloggers but still mainly entered competitions with it.....I remember on a Wednesday and a Friday when there was the most competitions I would always get banned for a couple of hours for retweeting too much.....lol

In 2014 I made up a new Twitter account after having some issues with some app which linked to my twitter account and started sending out spammy tweets.....By the time I had figured this out with the help of Zoe from Mama Geek I'd already made a new account up and was begging people to follow me there....lol 


It did me a favour....I had been meaning to change my name for ages but couldn't stop entering Rafflecopter giveaways with my Kimmer2111 account. lol 

Over the years I have seen Twitter change so much....When I started blogging and following more and more bloggers I could see people chatting. Now I struggle to see a chatty tweet. It is all retweets and self promotion. I know I am guilty of retweeting other peoples blog posts but I do make sure that for every couple of RT's I do I have a chatty tweet. I usually chat a lot of rubbish but the chat is there.....

My most famous follower is Sandi Thom...She followed me first. She's a singer and a pretty good one....


I have have no idea why she followed me. I haven't been brave enough to ask but of course I followed her back.

From what I remember my top tweet has been about a random CH4 TV show. The People Next Door. 90 retweets and 200 likes! I have had some others which have came close about Corrie and Hollyoaks....

Do you like Twitter?


Friday 27 October 2017

It's all been about Halloween. #WotW

This week my Word of the Week is:


This week all our thoughts seem to have been about Halloween. The kids have been off school for half term too so we have have been having plenty of fun.

The kids kindly reminded me that I had forgotten to buy their Halloween costumes....Oops. 


Hooray for online shopping and Tesco. Ellie wanted the Zombie Prom Queen outfit and Becky has decided she is too old to get dressed up and just wanted a t-shirt. I love it! hehehe

We have baked. I got some cake & biscuit mixes from Tesco a few weeks ago and the girls did a great job and we did some crafts. I got a few kits from Hobbycraft. All Halloween related of course....The girls love painting and these and the end result was brilliant.


Today the pumpkins should be arriving with the shopping so this afternoon will be spent carving them....I think I may have gone a little over the top with them. I've ordered 6 I think.

If I didn't have kids I think Halloween would just pass me by and I wouldn't get involved but the girls love it.

We're planning on having a little party tea tomorrow night while watching Strictly and The X-Factor and Ellie wants to wear her Halloween costume. Any excuse to dress up. lol


Those annoying Facebook friends. Day 27 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: Facebook

I used to be a Facebook addict....I would update my status about 10 times a day, play all the games and chat to people on there....Now. I don't. I use it to share some photos with my dad now and again and now I mostly use it for blogging things....


I skim through it now and again and read some of the statuses from people and sometimes I am left rolling my eyes. These are the people on Facebook who annoy me!

The Attention seekers - Those who say "I'm so angry" or "I'm so upset" then when you ask about it they say they don't want to talk about it....Ugh!

The novelty account for a pet/foetus/pre-vocal childNo. Just don't! As a dog you lack the language skills necessary to impart anything worthwhile to my life. It's just weird! 

The let me tell you every detail of my day person - "I'm waking up." "I had toast for breakfast." "I'm bored at work." "I'm stuck in traffic."....No moment is too mundane for some people to broadcast. Just because you have 1274 Facebook friends doesn't mean we all want to know when you're going to the toilet! Ugh.


The Spoilers - Those who love to ruin my favourite TV shows before they've even been shown on TV!

The stupido who always falls for the latest scamEvery time without fail. Giant spiders, satanic soft drink logos, scam giveaways. But don’t bother correcting them - they’ll only get defensive. “I was only trying to raise awareness!”. Ugh! 

I have a Facbook friend who's daughter received a heart transplant but then sadly passed away....Her photo was used in a scam. One of those "if this photo gets 5000 likes the kid gets a new heart and can live"....It was sickening! I can't even begin to imagine how the family felt. A like on FB can not save a child...

The stalker - These friends never post on your wall, never really even communicate with you on Facebook but when you see them in real life they know absolutely everything you’ve statused for the past year. 

The “I'm taking a break from Facebook” personEverybody needs a break from Facebook from time to time. Most of us just disappear without notice but not these friends announce it! It's usually someone who's had a minor argument with someone on Facebook....Just go! I probably won't even notice. lol


The sellers - Those who are trying to get me to sign up for Juice plus things and things like that. They try to get all of their friends to jump on board with the latest and greatest money making program out there. Ugh!

The Checker in - The one who checks in to every single place they visit....I think I've checked into a couple of places but that was only because my friend tagged me in it....I have seen someone check into a hospital and then not tell anyone why....Ugh!

The one's who ask stupid questions - Like how long do I boil an egg, how do I get paint out of the carpet? That's what Google is there for. If you can get on Facebook you can use Google. Ugh!

The guilt trip person 90% of people don’t have the guts to change their FB status, blah, blah, blah....One Like = One Prayer.” What they’re really saying is “Pay me some attention or you’re wishing bad things upon all your loved ones. Ugh!

Do you have these type of annoying friends on Facebook?


Thursday 26 October 2017

Some Halloween crafts...

I couple of weeks ago I did a little shopping at Hobbycraft and bought some Halloween related things....Each set only cost a couple of pounds each and it was well worth the money to keep the girls amused for an hour or so....


Yesterday the girls got busy decorating the Pumpkin tea light holder painting sets and the Halloween suncatchers.

The girls started off painting the pumpkins...


I loved how the pumpkins turned out. So bright and colourful. Way better than boring, every day orange one's. hehehe

Next up was the Suncatchers....Ellie was not very impressed with this as the paint to go on was nearly see through. (It was meant to be like that) She just wouldn't wait for it to dry and hang up to see the effect. She got a little carried away with the paint from the pumpkins so it's not much of a suncatcher but she had fun and that's all that matters....


It's the first time I've used the Hobbycraft website and I was very impressed. Everything is very reasonably priced and I can see me making another order for Christmas goodies....I have already seen a lot of things that the girls will love.



Have you done any Halloween crafts?

10 fun facts about zoos. Day 26 of #Blogtober17

I am taking part in Blogtober17 and will be writing posts with various themes/prompts throughout October...Today's prompt is: Zoo

The last time I visited a zoo was when I was a child....I was probably about 10 years old. It was at Flamingo Land in North Yorkshire. As it was a theme park and zoo I had no interest in my parents dragging me around to see the animals. I wanted the rides.....Now I would gladly give up riding roller-coasters to see the animals. 

I always remember a story my dad used to tell about how him and his cousin were young and they were taken to a zoo....I have no idea which one but there were monkeys there and my dad and his cousin gave them chewing gum and they made such a mess....They got into so much trouble and escorted from the zoo by security guards....lol


A bear cub named Winnipeg was exported from Canada to the London Zoo in 1915. A little boy named Christopher Robin Milne loved to visit Winnipeg (or Winnie for short) and his love for the bear cub inspired the stories written by his father, A.A. Milne, about Winnie the Pooh.

There was a temporary ban on guests wearing animal print clothing at Chessington World of Adventures in 2013 as it was confusing the animals. Animal print-wearing visitors were given grey boiler suits to wear everywhere in the park so as not to antagonise or excite the animals. lol

An orangutan named Fu Manchu repeatedly escaped from his cage at the zoo using a key he had fashioned from a piece of wire. Every time his zookeepers inspected him, he hid the key in his mouth.

During the outbreak of World War II, London Zoo killed all their venomous animals in case the zoo was bombed and the animals escaped.

During the 18th century, the price of admission into a zoo in England was three half-pence, or the supply of a cat or dog to be fed to the lions.

Some zoos offer a special public service such as providing medical staff with antivenin, an antidote for snake bites that may take place outside the zoo. Such a service has saved lives. 

Before Sylvester Stallone hit it big in the movies, he had a job cleaning the lions' cages at the Central Park Zoo in New York City.

There have been reports of people breaking into animal cages or tanks, and even one event where a Bengal tiger and two camels were stolen while in transport to a Canadian zoo.

Maruyama Zoo in Japan unsuccessfully tried to mate a pair of hyenas between 2010 and 2014, before realizing they were both males.

The Henan Province Zoo in China actually dressed up dogs as lions, leopards, and wolves. When confronted about the timber wolf that was actually a dog the zoo officials tried to play it off by claiming that the dog was the wolf’s pet...lol

Wednesday 25 October 2017

A bit of Halloween baking...

Over the last couple of days my girls and I have been having a bit of Halloween fun....

I bought some fab cake and biscuit mixes from Tesco. This is the first year that I have noticed their Halloween range. £2.00 a mix was a fair price and it gave the kids something to do.


They were simple mixes. Add an egg and butter to the cake mix and just butter to the biscuit mixes....Ellie made the cakes and Becky the biscuits.

The piping bag to put the icing on the cakes wasn't supplied. Thankfully I had some in the cupboard. 

We decorated them and I think they turned out quite well.....The buttercream which made the ghosts on the cakes melted a bit but you can still sort of see what they were meant to be....hehehe


Making the witches hat biscuits were a bit of a faff. There was no cookie cutter just a template on the inside of the box you had to cut out....We hat to cut around it. That was new to us. There was a cutter for the skeleton though. Phew! 

Decorating the skeleton biscuits was easy. It was just a case of squeezing the icing out to make the bones....

To decorate the witches hat biscuits was a bit trickier. We had to roll out the supplied icing and use the cardboard as a template to cut the icing out...We then used the white icing to decorate too.


I got to use a fancy piece of paper I saved from something as a background and took a picture of the prettiest one's we made! 

I'd liked to have said these are going to be saved for closer to Halloween but I think there is only a few left. hehehe

Have you done any Halloween baking?