| Bakes, Books And My Boys

Bunch O Balloons & Comp

Friday, July 05, 2019

What a weekend that was! Summer has well and truly hit and even the dogs were in the paddling pool late at night! The perfect timing really for Zuru’s Bunch o Balloons! We’re huge fans of these self-sealing water balloons were over the moon when we Zurus set us their latest water blaster to try out! Its great! Both boys adored using it, its light weight and easy to pump. One of them would man the paddling pool with the water blaster while the other tried to conquer it with the balloons!

Our favourite thing about this water blaster is that it means that we don’t need the hose to fill up the balloons! You can pop the balloons on the end of the blaster and for best results put the top under water and start pumping! It is a little more effort than using the hose, but it does mean that it can be packed it our suitcase for holidays this year without the worry of where there’s a hose!

Bunch O Balloons are a must have for any water fight this summer. With 100 balloons on the end the hose fills up 100 balloons in 60 seconds! Really! You are good to go in less than a minute! The balloons drop off and self-seal as they fill up. We stock up on these at the start of summer every year, our local toy shop sells these and they are perfect to pull out for play dates, weekends and any time the temperature rises! Yes we even had a water fight at Easter!

In each packet you buy there are 3 lots of these 37 of these self-sealing balloons in different colours – 9 available. Yes 37 times 3 doesn’t equal 100 its 111 and that’s to ensure that if the odd one or two don’t work or burst as they’re been played you still have your 100!

I think this weekend we spent every minute we could play with these and the parents and dogs joined in! They are great fun and perfect for all ages! You can pick up your own Bunch O Balloons at all good shops – Tesco, The Entertainer, Amazon, ASDA, The Range, Morrisons etc!

Zuru have also offered my readers the chance to win your won set! 3 Packs of Splash to Win and a Bunch O Balloons Soaker/Filler. Enter below to get your own set in time for the holidays!

lifestyle

Bathroom Accessibility Design

Monday, June 24, 2019

Review

Stampin' Up! Geared up Garage

Thursday, June 13, 2019

Being a bit of a crafter I always get disappointed at craft stores. We are a pretty male heavy family and its so disappointing to find everything angled for men at football and not much more. Now while you might not find the brand Stampin’ Up at craft stores you can find them online and I just love this set they set me for Fathers Day to review!

How cool is that? Even the youngest (9yrs old) loved the stamps in this set! Geared Up Garage Cling Stamp Set however is one of those set that are not just aimed at Fathers Day alone! With 9 stamps that you can interchange the possibilities that the set offers are superb!

They also have some fabulous dies, ribbons and embellishments which go with the set to really bling out your card. I personally a lesser approach but take a look at this pinterest page just to get an idea of a small about of cards you can make from this set!

The cards that I’ve made here were from playing around the evening they arrived just to give you a glimpse of what can so easily be achieved from this set even if you aren’t a skilled crafter.

The stamps are so easy to make. You push them out their set and fix the lined template on the back (it helps guide you on a placement) and the reusable sticky effect holds the stamps to your block and then its simple a case of rubbing the black momento pad across the top and press on the blank card. It dries in seconds and is ready to be painted on with watercolours in minutes.

Stampin’ Up were also kind enough to send me their markers. Because their blank ink is waterproof you can easily create a fashionable watercolour effect instead of block colour. I used a child’s watercolour brush and their pens for the colour on these.

I cant wait to really get stuck in to this set and show you some more ideas with some embellishments soon! I love how easy Stampin’ up sets are and they have something from beginners through to the advanced season crafters! And who doesn’t love a handmade card?

asmodee

Choose Your Own Adventure: House of Danger

Tuesday, June 04, 2019

The eldest was very excited about this months board game as part of luck at being one of the bloggers from Asmodee UK bloggers board game club. Having discovered the books last summer, he couldn’t wait to get started on this game during the half term week and it kept him blissfully quiet in the evenings!

House of Danger is a Choose your own adventure game for 1-4players. You play as a detective and psychic investigator who is trying to figure out why he is having strange nightmares. Haunted by the mystery of the missing owner of Mansion in your home time you take the case on. You work on your psychic senses and skills as a detective and choice to solve the mystery. During the story you explore the mansion and all its secrets.

Starting at chapter one you read the text on the card and start the game. A goal card tells you what you need to complete during the chapter and each story card give you an extra part of the story and choice to make….

Sometimes the cards give you a challenge, there are 5 different ones but you roll the dice and if the number matches or exceeds the danger meter you succeed. There are five chapters to work on during the game and taking risks can offer higher rewards.

Aimed at 10 years + its playable from one person up to many. Eldest played this on his own a couple of times – perfecting his skills I think for playing with his friends. It takes a while to play – there are a variety of chapters and the first took just under an hour to complete. I suspect the whole game would take a week to complete if playing solo. He replayed chapter one towards the end of the week with one of his friends and said it was great fun replaying it with his friends and added extra to the game.

If you read the CYOA games when you were younger, you’ll love the nostalgia of the make up and the art work matching the books! The writing is surprisingly engaging for the reader and you do really start to get into pretty quick.

I suspect that having played this a couple of time you might want to swap it for another set but so far it hasn’t lost its shine and its encouraged my son to also hunt out some more of the books! All in all a great game to have round the house!