Category: Life

Play Snow by Zimpli Kids - Snoball | Review

Play Snow by Zimpli Kids – Snoball | Review

Posted on by Dann Sullivan

[Ad- gifted product] It doesn’t really snow in England. Where Jupiter grew up, snow covered the ground by Halloween, causing snow days and road closures by Christmas. She is very fond of the memories of snow, though she never enjoyed the cold, snow down the back of the shirt events that would come with a white, winter dusting. Snow ball fights are something you can see in most TV shows and movies around the time of Christmas, but in England, that’s just not really possible.

This year, we got some Snoball mix from Zimpli Kids. Not sure what to expect, we figured this would be perfect to play with in the holiday before Christmas. The children seemed very interested in the idea of a massive snowball fight outside, and the answers was either chopping up lots of little bits of ice into snow or trying out these Snoballs. The snow itself was very easy to make; we simply mixed the powdered mix in a large bowl with the listed amount of water.

Snoball
Snoball

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Mini Christmas Trees | Craft

Mini Christmas Trees | Craft

Posted on by Jupiter

[Ad- gifted product] I really love the look of little Christmas trees, and making them out of twine makes a sort of rustic, lovely looking tree that looks great on a fireplace, on your TV stand or wherever else you want to add some festive cheer. These little trees were super easy to make and quite fun to work on. They don’t need a whole lot of materials so you can totally work on them last minute as a centre piece.

Materials:

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A Night Out at Ashford Illuminates Carnival of the Baubles

A Night Out at Ashford Illuminates Carnival of the Baubles

Posted on by Jupiter and Dann

Love Ashford has ran a bunch of festival, local events this year for their town! We were able to go down to the Carnival of the Baubles, unsure what to expect as it was their first year doing this event. The Carnival of the Baubles is the last of the three holiday events, which include an illuminated house and a magical illuminated forest. This last event had illuminated baubles made by all of the local schools, which were paraded through the town.

We didn’t really know what we were doing when we arrived. I suppose, looking back on it, we probably should have just been watching the carnival instead of joining in, but here we are. Standing near everyone lining up, there were several people asking if anyone wanted to hold the baubles. These came in so many different shapes and sizes, all hanging from different poles you can walk with. I grabbed one of the spare ones for Phoenix Primary School as many of the kids were not there to hold their bauble. Once we were in line, Dann went off to take some outside shots as I was told we were going to weave when we walked, given a headband and figured out exactly how high I needed to hold this pole.

Carnival of the Baubles
Carnival of the Baubles
Carnival of the Baubles
Carnival of the Baubles

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Lindisfarne Mead | Review

Lindisfarne Mead | Review

Posted on by Dann Sullivan

[Ad- gifted product] The kind people of Lindisfarne Limited sent us along a bottle of their original Lindisfarne mead to try. Its a drink with a lot of history – predating wines, beers and every modern-convenience. But old doesn’t always mean gold.

Near where I grew up there is a place called Barn Mead, as a matter of fact, a good friend of mine from my schooling days, Sean, lived there. Growing up in Harlow, I was always told about the presence of a lot of historical relevance littered around the region – even though the town itself had only really been thrown together post-WWII it was laid out across half a dozen small villages which had Roman and Anglo-Saxon roots. I’m pretty sure that Barn Mead was simply just somebody lopping ‘Ow’ off the end of ‘Meadow’ but the word Mead had stuck with me since.

Lindisfarne Mead

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Spiced Clementine Gin Fizz | Cocktail Recipe

Spiced Clementine Gin Fizz | Cocktail Recipe

Posted on by Jupiter and Dann

[Ad- gifted product] Sue Telford has written a new book called How to Drink Gin – which contains all sorts of information on gin; from various gin types to how to make garnishes, you’ll have everything you need to know if you like gin. Not only does this book touch on sipping gin vs mixing gin, but it also provides a lot of tips and subtle differences between loads of different aspects of drinking, making, and mastering the art of gin. It’s a great book for someone who enjoys gin and wants to start making their own cocktails or someone who likes to entertain and would like to start with gin! There are lots of information on the methodology of mixology, rather than just being a recipe book. Personally, we tend to like citrus drinks, so when it came to covering one of Telford’s recipes, we went for the Spiced Clementine Gin Fizz.

The Spiced Clementine Gin Fizz has an almost sherbet taste, being on the sweet and botanical side, which is probably a combination of the citrus and the cloves, possibly leaning on the botanical from the gin. The syrup flavor is very present – it’s a really fun drink – one that would be good for entertaining, as apposed to a drink for late in the evening.

As this cocktail used soda water, we used tonic water provided by Yorkshire Tonic, as apart of our cocktails made with Yorkshire Tonic series.

Sue Telford

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