Becky my teen is nearing the end of her mock exams. She has her last one today and she is so glad.
She started the exams a couple of weeks ago feeling positive and raring to go but now she's had enough. Not because they are too hard but because she's worn out with them.
Becky is still going to revision classes at school and is still revising at home. These mock exams are just practice for the real GCSE's in May and June. Even though she has taken the exams she is still having to revise. At least in the summer once she has taken the exam she will be able to stop revising for that subject.
She feels that she has done well in most of the subjects. She had a maths paper she struggled with the other day but from what I can gather everyone did. It was algebra and other random things that she will never use in her real life. She really enjoyed one of the Science exams (she's had 4). I think it was biology as it was mostly multiple choice. She seems to do well at them. She would much rather tick boxes than write essays. hehehe
We have parents evening next week where we will find out how she has done and get feedback. I think this might actually be the last one we have for her. I still can't get my head around the fact that she is just about finished with secondary school.
We have had a slow week this past week. We haven't really got up to much. We baked over the weekend and made mermaid cupcakes and llama biscuits. We still have a lot of baking supplies so I think we will be making more cakes over the weekend. Of course we had pancakes too. The girls didn't bother with savoury ones and went straight for the sweet one's. Yum!
Mermaids and Llamas are cool say my girls and luckily Dr. Oetker has launched 2 six piece decorating kits to help us make some mermaid cupcakes and Llama & cacti biscuits.
We were send these kits to try and the girls were very excited. Ellie loves mermaids and Becky loves llamas!
I will admit, when it came to making the mermaid cakes I cheated and used ready made cupcakes. I wanted them to be perfect and mine sometimes don't rise or rise too much.
Mermaid Cupcakes.
The pack contains everything you need to create 6 mermaid tail cupcake toppers and decorate up to 12 cupcakes.
- Fondant icing for moulding into tail shapes
- 2 Food Colour Gels for a blue/purple mermaid style
- Gold writing icing to create shimmery detailing
- Ocean inspired sprinkle sachets
Firstly you need to have your cupcakes ready.
You make your mermaid tails using the fondant icing. You colour half with the blue colour gels and the other half with the purple. You can use the template which is inside the box which really helps.
Divide each coloured fondant ball into 3 pieces (3 x blue, 3 x violet). Roll out each coloured fondant to a thickness of approx. 1cm (approx. a pencil width). Then place the template on top of the icing and cut around the tail using a knife. It is advised to leave them to set for a few hours. You then insert a cocktail stick into the base of the tail to help it stand in the buttercream.
To make the icing you make your buttercream icing and divide it equally between two bowls. You add 1 teaspoon of Blue Colour Gel to one bowl of icing and half a teaspoon of the violet colour gel to the other bowl of icing and mix.
Fit a piping bag with a 1cm star nozzle. Using a spatula spread the blue buttercream up one side of the bag so it fills half the piping bag. Repeat for the violet buttercream filling the other half of the piping bag. Then put the icing on your cakes then decorate with the sprinkles and finally adding the tails.
In theory this kit is such a good idea but the kids wanted to be involved and they didn't exactly go to plan.
Obviously you need cupcakes but there is a couple other things you need too like the piping bag. That isn't something I would always have in but I did this time and we did not have any cocktail sticks so just had to balance the tails.
I don't think they were too bad for a first try. I will be buying the kit again myself and trying it alone without the distraction and help from the kids.
Llama & Cacti Biscuits.
This kit contains all the decorations you'll need to create some wonderful llama and cactus biscuits.
- Templates to cut out your biscuits.
- Fondant Icing
- Food Colour Gel
- Writing Icings x2
- Sprinkles Sachets x3
There are templates in the inside of the box to cut out and you use these on your biscuit mix when it rolled out. I usually hate these cardboard templates but these actually worked pretty well and the biscuits looked like what they were supposed to be, llamas and cacti!
The biscuits turned out so well. I am not usually great at making cookies or biscuits (I blame my oven) but this time I sat in front of it watching so they didn't burn. hehehe
You then take the fondant and take some and use the green colouring gel to make it green for the cacti and keep the rest white for the llamas. You are supposed to roll it out and cut it using the templates but ours just wasn't rolling. It was too sticky despite using more icing sugar. We would go between too sticky then too dry. In the end we gave up and just took bits and pushed it on. To make the icing stick to the biscuits you need to use honey like a glue. We had none so we used Golden Syrup which is similar, right?!
You can then decorate them using the writing icing and sprinkles.
I loved making these biscuits until it came to rolling the icing. I am guessing it had been in the kitchen where it was too warm. I think they look like llama's and cacti!
These kits are available to buy from most supermarkets and places you expect to find baking kits for £4.00 each.
They are something a little different from the baking kits you usually get with the cake/biscuit mix, icing and a topper. I like them even though they are a bit of a faff on. I think if you have the time, patience and two kids not trying to help you could come up with some amazing creations.
As well as these two kits we were also sent a whole heap of Dr. Oetker decorating goodies which we are very excited to use and will be very soon. I already have unicorn cupcake cases which will go so well with the wafer unicorns.
I am a big fan of the Dr. Oetker products and use them all the time, the colouring gels especially.
You can see how we got on with the decorating in the video below. We are not an Insta/Pinterest perfect family. We try our best but most of the times things don't work out perfectly. We always have fun giving them a go though.
We were sent these products free of charge in exchange for this blog post.
A few weeks ago I didn't have much recorded on my Sky planner and I had caught up with watching all the YouTube videos I wanted to and I like something on the TV while I am pottering about the house or blogging so I turned to Netflix.
I had no idea what I wanted to watch so I went to YouTube to see the most popular trailers and that's where I found some things to watch.
On the same day in October 1989, forty-three infants are inexplicably born to random, unconnected women who showed no signs of pregnancy the day before. Seven are adopted by Sir Reginald Hargreeves, a billionaire industrialist, who creates The Umbrella Academy and prepares his "children" to save the world. But not everything went according to plan. In their teenage years, the family fractured and the team disbanded. Now, the six surviving thirty-something members reunite upon the news of Hargreeves' passing. Luther, Diego, Allison, Klaus, Vanya and Number Five work together to solve a mystery surrounding their father's death. But the estranged family once again begins to come apart due to their divergent personalities and abilities, not to mention the imminent threat of a global apocalypse.
This made me think of the X-Men films with superheroes being raised together but that's where the similarity ends. It's not a typical superhero show. The first episode was a bit slow but after that I was on a mission to watch it. The humor, action and mysterious plot keeps you engaged and the soundtrack is brilliant. Klaus was my favourite characters. He is hilarious!
Russian Doll follows a young woman named Nadia. On her 36th birthday she is struck by a car and killed, only to find herself alive and back at her own birthday party earlier that night. When she dies again and her timeline resets, Nadia begins to question her own sanity as she strives to unravel the mystery of why and how this is all happening.
It is a dark comedy and it is so easy to watch as there is only 8 half hour episodes. I watched it in one day. There were points in it where I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. Dirty John. Debra Newell has a seemingly perfect life: she's successful, beautiful and lives in one of California's most desirable coastal cities. The only thing missing is love. So when she finally meets charming and handsome doctor John Meehan she's quickly swept into a whirlwind romance, much to the dismay of her daughters. Their fast-tracked relationship creates tension between Debra and her girls, leaving them no choice but to investigate the stranger who has swept their mother off her feet. As Debra gets drawn deeper into his lies and sinister game of psychological manipulation, it results in horrific consequences for an entire family. This is based on a true story. I knew that when I started watching but didn't know the story at all. It is madness what happened, went so far and ended like it did! I found myself shouting at the TV lots. At Debra. I know it's hard to get out of an abusive relationship but I couldn't help but call her stupid, John for being such a creep and the daughter for being brats but I suppose they were only looking out for their mother. I watched this in a couple of days and if I was single it would put me right off online dating! lol All my finds on Netflix haven't been amazing. I started watching Making a Murderer and The Staircase and they just didn't keep my attention and I gave up a couple of episodes into both. After hearing news about the new series of Game of Thrones I have decided to watch it all from the beginning! I know it's good, obviously but I forgot how good it was. It's funny looking at people thinking he's dead, she's dead and he's Aquaman now. hehehe I thought I might struggle to get it all watched in just over a month but I'm halfway through the first series already. What have you been watching lately?
I was recently contacted by a lovely man called Dom from Critically Endangered Socks. They are a sock company that helps to protect some of the world's most critically endangered animals.
We all know that the rainforests are being destroyed and the earth’s most beautiful creatures are on the brink of extinction but what does that have to do with socks?
Dom, the founder of Critically Endangered Socks thought up a company that would go where no company had gone before, using funds from sock sales to help the Friends of the National Parks Foundation protect the Borneo rainforest. The idea quickly grew into a company that would support five of the world’s most endangered species. And that’s how Critically Endangered Socks was born.
For each pair of socks that is sold 20% of the total sale price goes to charity. By choosing which sock you buy, you're also choosing which charity you help. TheWildCats Conservation Alliance, Friends of the National Parks Foundation, Whale and Dolphin Conservation, The International Elephant Foundation and the Oceanic Society!
The socks themselves are made from a soft blend of 40% bamboo, 40% cotton, 15% polyester, 5% spandex. The materials used are Oeko-Tex Standard certified which means they are certified free of harmful chemicals. The socks come in sizes Small - UK 4-7 or Large - UK 8-13.
The pair I was sent to have a look at is helping out the International Elephant Foundation. Critically Endangered Socks is helping fund the IEF's conservation Response unit (CRU) based in Way Kambas national park in Sumatra. These units protect the Critically Endangered Sumatran Elephant from poachers, bordering villages and deforestation. For every Elephant pair that’s bought, they work with the organization to provide 2 days of care for all Sumatran Elephants in a CRU camp.
On each sock there is a picture of the animal it's helping to protect which I think is a lovely touch.
They have only created 1,000 of each style of sock so each design is critically endangered, much like the animals they are helping!
The socks are £12.00 each and they come in 5 different colours. You can buy 5 for £48.00 which means you get all the colours and a pair free! There is also an option to buy a gift card where the person receiving can chose the pair that they want!
I think these would make a lovely gift for someone. They are not just a pair of socks they are so much more. Mother's day is coming up and I would be very happy to be gifted a pair of these. (obviously if I hadn't have been sent them to review).
I was sent this pair of socks free of charge in exchange for this blog post.
