Father's Day Gift - SodaStream Home Drinks Maker

 

Are you running out of ideas for what to get for your father this coming Father's Day?  Why not get them a SodaStream Home Drinks Maker! 

Recently SodaStream was voted one of UK's Cool Brands, SodaStream is all about making smart, simple soda.  They received the prestigious Good Housekeeping Institute approval for its Yves Béhar-designed Source drinks maker.

A couple months ago, Jamie Oliver mentioned making 'champagne' using white wine and a SodaStream on the Jonathan Ross show!  What a great tip! 

I was so excited to review a red SodaStream Home Drinks Maker!  My first impression was that it is arguably one of the most stylish kitchen gadgets I have ever owned!  We have had it for over a week and we have been using it every other day trying different flavours.  There are over 60 different flavours, including sugar-free, energy, isotonic, naturals, mixers as well as fruit flavours and colas to choose from.  

There are so many ways of using SodaStream beside making fizzy pop.  Instead of buying sparkling water which will cost you a lot more, just use a SodaStream and you can add a few drops of fresh lime/lemon juice in it!  Or if you have fussy children who wanted a fizzy pop, add freshly squeezed blackcurrant to the carbonated water.  It works and you know what's in there.  All children love fizzy drinks!

My first questions I asked myself was does it need to use electricity and where does the gas come from?  How do we assemble it?  It turned out to be really simple to use.  The pack comes with a 60L CO2 cylinder and there it doesn't need electricity.

Open the back cover, place the 60L CO2 cylinder and turn clockwise until it stops.  Fill water up to the fill line in the carbonating bottle.  Insert bottle and the snap-lock mechanism will catch the bottom firmly.  The bottle will then drop to a vertical position.  

The next step was the most challenging part.  As a first time user, I was so afraid of pushing it too hard and messing up the drink.  It did scare me when the gas bubbles inside the bottle during the carbonation process.  After a couple of uses though, I had mastered it.  Simply press it until you see the LED indicators light up.  There are 3 LED lights, for low medium and high carbonation and I always go for high!  I love fizzy drinks. I tried it with mild fizz but it just tastes flat.  

Another point to be aware of is the sound of excess gas releasing when releasing the bottle.  It did scare my kids as I had not warned them beforehand.  Also never squeeze the SodaMix too quickly into the bottle, I had a massive explosion of water.  Just let it drip slowly and roll the bottom not shake.  We have tried most of the flavours provided in the pack.  They all taste great, and the carbonation process makes it tastes like it's fresh from a can!  We love it!  I rate this 5 stars of of 5 for the simplicity, usage and styling.  We can even bring it out for camping or use for party!  It is a great gadget!

They are available to buy at John Lewis, Argos, The Range, Lakeland, Robert Dyas, Comet, Currys Megastores, Dunelm Mill, Ocado, Amazon, Selfridges, Harvey Nichols, ASDA, Sainsburys, Tesco, House of Fraser and other forward thinking retailers.  

For those who live near Lichfield, The Kitchen Shop is doing a demonstration of the SodaStream from 11 am and running a prize draw this Saturday 25/05/2013 to win a Union Jack SodaStream machine.  There will be other deals and freebies on the day.

For more information, please visit:

Website: www.sodastream.co.uk

Facebook: www.facebook.com/SodaStreamUK

Twitter: www.twitter.com/SodaStreamUK

Disclosure:  We were given this product to do an honest review.

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Review: Paper Themes Personalised Poster

I love having a personalised poster as it is very unique and personalised to myself or family.  Paper Themes have offered me a personalised poster for review.  This is something that I couldn't refuse.  

Paper Themes offer a fantastic range of personalised posters to create a unique gift for someone special!  There are designs to suit a whole array of occasions including; weddings, births, anniversaries, to celebrate your family or even map out worldly travels!  Each design allows you to add special personal details such as names, locations, dates & some designs even allow for images!  These beautiful personalised posters are perfect for the home or to decorate wedding & party venues.

I had Meet The Poster for review.  It is a fun graphic family keepsake poster which offers you the opportunity to add all your family members and the pets!  The poster allows for 7 characters per poster.  As we are a family of four, our poster does look a bit bare so it may suit larger families.  I love the bright colours and the images of each individuals.  They are very cute.   It comes unframed and is A3 size (297 x 420mm).  It seems quite small for a poster and the paper is quite thin.

I rate this poster 2 stars out of 5 as I have to take into consideration that £25 is a lot of money for a poster of this size.  For the money, I would expect a much bigger sized poster. 

Disclosure: We were given this poster to do an honest review.

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#CookWithPyrex - Pyrex Twitter Party 10/6/2013

We have some exciting news to share!  After Our first party with SA Fruit, we are getting ready to host our 2nd Twitter party! This time, sponsored by Pyrex.

On 10th June Monday from 10.30 -11.30 am, we will be getting together on Twitter to chat about cooking convenient but healthy family meals, sharing tips and ideas, and of course giving the opportunity to win plenty of prizes!

The party will be hosted by me (@etspeaksfrom) from ET Speaks from Home, Pippa (@redrosemummy) from Red Rose Mummy, Jenny (@TheBrickCastle) from The Brick Castle and Anna (@theplayroomblog) from In the Play Room. 

Pyrex are kindly offering 4 prizes of £25 worth of Summer dining essentials – making £100 worth of Pyrex being given out in total!

This will include the Cook and Store dishes and the Kitchen Lab salad shakers, but may vary.

Have a look here to see what we thought of our Pyrex so far:

Pyrex Cookware – In The Playroom

Cooking with Pyrex – The Brick Castle

Pyrex Impressions – ET Speaks from Home

Chocolate Pudding in Pyrex – ET Speaks from Home

Spicy Prawns with Pyrex – ET Speak from Home

Marinated Salmon using 4 in 1 Pyrex – Et Speaks from Home

We would love to see you all at the Twitter party! 

Date: 10th June 2013

Day: Monday

Time: 10.30 - 11.30 am

Using #CookWithPyrex to tweet us to win prizes!
Please made sure you follow us on twitter!

Thanks to Anna for writing this.

Pyrex is a trademark of Corning Inc, used by permission

If you like to know more, please visit their:

Website: http://www.pyrexuk.com.

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Pyrex-UK-Official

Twitter: https://twitter.com/PyrexUKOfficial

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Project 365 Day 140 & Silent Sunday

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Project 365 Day 134, 135, 136, 137, 138 & 139

Day 134 Sodastream

Day 135 Chinese Club

Day 136 Peppa Pig

Day 137 Herb

Day 138 Writing review

 

Day 139 B&Q

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Best Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Technology has improved so much over the years.  There is always something new in the market.  Mr C is always interested in his sound system.  We bought a home cinema speaker bar and upgraded to full surround sound.  He even bought a clip on speaker for his laptop to get better sound and some fancy noise-cancelling headphones for travelling so we have embraced a lot of technoloogies in this household.

BassBoomz is a great little portable bluetooth speaker which is a great little speaker which does a great job of enhancing the sound of your portable devices.  It is so light, compact, portable and has good sound quality for a very reasonable price.  

It only weighs about 160 grammes and is so small that I can put it on my front pocket or keep it in my small handbag.  I love the twist and release the bass expansion system.  It is so simple to do it.  It measures 5 x 5 cm when it is closed.

The sound quality does varies depending on the devices I used with it.  I felt that using my Sony Ericsson phone does not give as good a sound quality as my iPad and laptop even though I am using the same video clip from YouTube.

It comes in eight different colours: pink, red, green, gold, black, blue, purple and silver.  The choice of colours are awesome.  They have a brushed metal finish.  I love the varieties of colour as I can match it with my bassbuds!

It is so easy to connect to BassBoomz.  There is no set up at all.  Turn on the BassBoomz and the bluetooth network on your music player.  The devices pick up the signal very quickly and connects within seconds.

It comes with a USB charging cable and AUX cable.  It is compatible with all wireless devices with a bluetooth connection, e.g. smartphones, MP3 players, tablets and laptops or any audio device that has a 3.5 mm audiojack output.  There is an option to connect 2 BassBoomz together using the enclosed splitter wire for double the sound

It has a very respectable battery life of 5 - 6 hours and takes 1.5 hours to charge.  You can either charge through your laptop or any AC adaptor with USB output.  

The bluetooth range is about 10 metres which sounds right to me.  I had tested this inside my house in direct line of sight.  It does not work through thick walls and I found that when people walked between the music player and the speaker, it would break the signal.

Overall I give this 4 stars out of 5 as it is excellent value for money, has impressive sound quality and I love the portability.

This is my video review:

Disclosure: We were given this product from fuelmyblog to do an honest review.

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Giveaway: Ben & Holly's Little Kingdom live stage show

SEE BEN AND HOLLY ON STAGE FOR THE FIRST TIME!

From the makers of Peppa Pig and the producers of the two hugely successful Peppa Pig theatre tours comes the first ever stage version of the BAFTA award-winning TV animation, Ben & Holly’s Little Kingdom.  And we have tickets to give away!

The Little Kingdom – where everyone is very, very small – is home to Princess Holly and her best friend Ben Elf.  Holly is a young fairy princess who is still learning how to do magic properly and sometimes her spells don’t work out quite right.  Ben is an Elf. Elves don’t do magic but they are very good at making things.  Ben doesn’t have wings like Holly but he flies on the back of Gaston the Ladybird.

In this exciting new musical adventure, Ben and Holly have fun and games helping Gaston clean up his messy cave; they go on a trip to The Big World with tooth-fairy Nanny Plum; and still have time to plan a surprise for King Elf’s birthday party, complete with an unplanned jelly flood.

Packed full of games, songs and laughter, this is an enchanting and magical visit to the Little Kingdom, live on stage for the very first time.  This beautiful story of elves, princesses and childhood innocence will delight all the family.

This brand new UK tour is now on the road until August 2013 and we have 1 family ticket up for grabs at the venue of your choice, subject to availability.  A family ticket is for 4 people, minimum 1 adult.  The tickets are non-transferable.  No cash alternatives, accommodation or travel are provided in this competition.  For further show information and tour dates: www.benandhollylive.com

To enter please submit your answer to the question below, together with your performance and venue choice.

Q: What is Gaston?
A. Caterpillar
B. Ladybird
C. Snail

Follow @benandhollylive

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Competition starts on 17th May 2013 and ends on 26th May 2013.

One winner will be contacted by email within three days of competition ends.

UK Residents only.

ThePrizeFinder - UK Competitions

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Review: Rechargeable Batteries and Ansmann charger

Ever since I had my children, I've been amazed by the amount of batteries needed to operate each toy.  Almost every month I'm having to buy multi-packs of batteries to keep up with the power-hungry demands of these toys.  It is getting so ridiculous expensive to buy batteries.  The worst offender is the VTech camera but there are a group of toys that follow closely behind such as the Arc FX Gauntlet Iron man..

Being an environmental concerned consumer, instead of buying normal batteries, it occurred to me - why not get rechargeable batteries!  Rechargeable batteries are great for the environment, they save you money and reduce waste by replacing hundreds of standard Alkaline batteries!  These starter kits are not too expensive either.

Rechargeable Batteries kindly offered to give me an Ansmann Energy 4 Speed Charger with AA NiMH 2700mAh Batteries and a Sanyo eneloop for review.

Ansmann Energy 4 Speed Charger

The Energy 4 Speed Charger is a microprocessor controlled fast charger designed to charge 1-4 AA and AAA size rechargeable batteries.  This is a great superfast charger for home or when travelling as it is supplied with both a three-pin UK AC adapter charger and a 12V car charger. 

The electronic controlling circuit ensure high performance, fast charging, whilst ensuring that the lifetime of the batteries are kept to a maximum.

The charger comes with build in fan to cool the batteries while charging which can be quite loud.  It can be quite annoying if charging in a quite room.  The length of the AC adapter lead is a good length.  The charger can be used in the UK, Europe and USA.

With the benefit of an electricity monitor, I could see it consumed 9W of power when charging and it took about 6 hours to fully charge.  This equates to under 2p at our current electricity rates!  The charger notifies you when it's finished charging your batteries by displaying a solid set of led lights and it still consumes 1W of power.

I rate this 4 stars out of 5 due to the noisy fan and the waste of standby power otherwise it works really well for me.   

Sanyo Eneloop Rechargeable Battery

The high power XX range features up to 500 charge cycles, retains up to 85% of their charge after 1 year and are pre-charged in Japan using solar energy making them Sanyo's greenest high capacity rechargeable battery!

Pre-charged Nickel Metal Hydride (NiMH) batteries are the latest in rechargeable battery technology. They provide superior performance, can be recharged hundreds of times, come ready to use straight from the pack and are suitable for all devices and uses.

I used this on my daughter's VTech camera and it lasts her for a while longer than normal disposable batteries.  They are super batteries and they hold their charge for a long time.  The RRP is £12.98 which I think it is very reasonable as pack of 4 alkaline costs you around £4 for one use.  Paying a bit extra, you get to use these again and again for less than 2p per charge cycle.  Save money and save the environment!

Delivery from Rechargeable Batteries was fast and efficient, and they provide a unique despatch note that contains a photo of your actual product(s).

Have you ever thought about using rechargeable batteries?

Disclosure: We were given these products to do an honest review.

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Review: La Jewellery Give Me Some Honey earrings

Of all types of jewellery, I adore earring the most.  I love  the way earrings moves around and can add a look of sophistication or bling, depending on what you fancy!

When La Jewellery offered to give me a set of Give Me Some Honey earrings for review, I could not stop smiling!  I had a look at their website and fell in love with them.  I do find the name of the earring quite unusual.  In fact, the earrings are inspired by the acclaimed healing qualities of Manuka honey and the love of two parents for a child.  They are perfect for casual wear or as a gorgeous gift.

La Jewellery is made from 100% recycled silver which is environmental friendly.  I think this is a great idea of upcycling silver!

I rate the earring 5 stars out of 5.  I love the story behind the earrings and it looks great for any occasion.  It is light and small but it fits beautifully on me.  The RRP is £19 which I think is very reasonable and good value.

There is something I would like to share with you.  I have never known how care for my jewellery nor how to store them properly.  It was great to pick up some tips from La Jewellery:

1. To keep your jeweller free from tarnish, keep it in your jewellery box, wrapped in a cotton or silk cloth.

2. Clean your silver and gold jewellery using an appropriate cleaning cloth and after every use.

3. Do not use harsh chemicals as this will tarnish the lustre of your pearls.

4. Remember to place your jewellery on last of all, as hairspray and perfumes can affect the look of jewellery over time.

Disclosure: I was given this product to do an honest review.

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Inspect A gadget - 7" inch LélikTec® Android Tablet

This month, Money Supermarket wanted to find out which cheaper travel gadgets can live up to their more expensive counterparts.  They offered bloggers the chance to review these gadgets so they can put together a list of the top budget travel gadgets in time for the summer holidays.

This is their list of cheaper variants of the top 5 most packed holiday tech items below £50:

• Philips Esee HD CAM295BL Camcorder
• Kobo Mini eReader
• ESSENTIALS C7PDVD12 Portable DVD Player
• 7" inch LélikTec® Android Tablet
• SONY Walkman NWZB173 4 GB MP3 Player

Out of those five items, I reviewed the 7" inch LélikTec® Android Tablet.  It comes in 6 different colours: red, white, black, blue, pink and purple.  I chose pink as it is Miss C's birthday soon and this tablet will come in handy for her to play and learn while travelling with us.

Inside the box, there is a power adapter, micro usb to usb cable, instructions and of course the tablet.  Curiously the power adapter does not plug into the tablet all the way which does leave a little bit of the metal connector exposed.  The tablet is made with shiny plastic which may mean it's easy to clean but you have to be careful it doesn't slip out your hand.

Turning it on, the user experience is instantly familiar if you have used Android phones or tablets before.  We were quickly able to log in to the Play Store and download a host of popular apps such as You Tube, BBC iPlayer, Facebook, Twitter and Skype.  All these apps work well and we were able to video call using the front facing camera using Skype.  Adobe Flash Player is installed on the tablet so surfing the web using the stock browser is a pleasant experience.  Another big plus point it scores is with the micro SD memory card slot, which gives additional storage space for your large files, such as songs, photos and videos etc.  A side effect of a week's work of testing has resulted in a heavily scratched screen.  I'd recommend getting hold of a screen protector before you start using it!

I have been pleasantly surprised with this little tablet.  Having used a number of Android phones and tablets in the past this has been the cheapest I've come across, but it does everything I've asked of it well. 

I would rate this tablet 3.5 out of 5.  It's not as fast as top-end or mid-range Android devices but for the price and size, it makes for a great little travel gadget.

Disclosure: We were given this product to give an honest review and to enter Money Supermarket's competition challenge.

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