Mummy Bag Product Review

My Funny Bunny's Mummy Bag









Just found out the lovely Cafe Bebe blog did a tiny review on our Mummy Bag that she bought last summer! Here is a little extract of her article where she mentions our bag:

We love to know people's comments on their purchases with us!

If you would like to have a look at what we currently stock please visit our shop www.myfunnybunny.co.uk

Monica x

£10 Pizza Hut Voucher for you!

Go grab your £10 Pizza Hut voucher now!

Click on Pizza Hut for your voucher! Only valid Fridays, Saturdays & Sundays until 7th of Feb 2010 so go grab it now!

Koeksisters Recipe

I have just found this recipe on the internet and can't wait to try making it as a surprise for my hubby!

It's a traditional South African sweet & I'm sure my hubby will appreciate a taste of home!

I tried this on my first visit to S.A and I must say I got hooked on them! The only thing is you can't eat too many otherwise you wont fit in your jeans!!!

Koeksisters - Very sticky & very sweet South African cake

Approximately 30 mins preparation & 5 mins cooking time

Ingredients

For the syrup:
1kg sugar
500ml (2 cups) water
2 pieces fresh green ginger (each 5cm), peeled and crushed
2ml (½ teaspoon) cream of tartar
Pinch of salt
Grated rind and juice of ½ lemonFor best results, prepare the syrup the day before and chill over-night

For the dough:
500g flour
2ml (½ teaspoon) salt
30ml (2 tablespoons) baking powder
55g butter, cut up
1 beaten egg
250-375ml (1-1½ cups) milk or water

Instructions

Syrup:

1. Add all syrup ingredients into a saucepan and heat until all the sugar has dissolved (stirring continuously).

2. Cover and boil for 1 minute.

3. Uncover the syrup and boil for a further 5 minutes (do not stir).

4. Allow the syrup to cool for a minimum of 2 hours in the fridge (best results chill over night).

Dough:

1. Sieve the flour, salt and baking power.2. Rub in the butter with your fingertips.3. In a separate bowl mix the beaten egg and 250ml (1 cup) of the milk or water.4. Add the dry ingredients to the egg/milk mixture and mix lightly.5. Add more milk/water if the dough is too stiff.6. Knead well until small bubbles form under the surface of the dough.7. Cover with a damp cloth and allow to stand for 30 minutes –1 hour.

Final steps:

1. Roll out the dough to a thickness of 1 cm.

2. Cut strips, 1cm wide

3. Plait either 2 or 3 strips together and cut them at a length of 8cm

4. Pinch the ends together.
5. Heat 7-8cm deep oil to 180-190°C and fry the koeksisters for 1-2 minutes (until golden-brown) on each side.

6. Remove them from the heat and drain on some paper town.

7. Soak them in the chilled syrup for 1-2 minutes.

8. Remove the koeksisters from the syrup and drain on a wire rack.

Hint: To keep the syrup cold, stand it in a bowl of ice whilst soaking the hot koeksisters in it.

Tell me if you try making it yourself! They are yummylicious!

Monica x

Recipe courtesy of www.Zauk.co.uk

Pic courtesy of www.clubexplorer.net

Nuki, Nuki, Nuki - The dummy song!

Today I'm in a happy mood! I've been dancing to this song with my 7 month old, she loves it, my 3yr old loves it & I can feel the burn on my legs, bum & thighs! Result!

Have fun! Enjoy it & tell us what you think!!!

Monica xx

£10 Gift Card in the post???

I just got my post half an hour ago & one of the letters felt like it had a card in it... I thought this was strange since I wasn't expecting anything like that!

When I opened the letter it had a £10 Tesco gift card in it!!! Yay!!!

This month has been a tough one because of Christmas & New Year's and we are "so fortunate" in this family to have birthdays on the 2nd, 5th and 9th of January too, so needless to say that January is a downer for us but this year it was a massive downer because of some other stuff too... but that is a whole other story!

Anyways, this £10 Tesco gift card, that I had forgotten about, is VERY welcome right now!!!

I will tell you how this gift card has come about... I signed up for a website called Valued Opinions, you sign up, tell them a bit about yourself and your household and consequently they send you surveys that match your profile.

The surveys are always interesting for me, many about baby or kids stuff considering I have small children and they always have a reward. I have been doing them as they come, never takes longer than a few minutes & the rewards have been adding up, £1 here, 50p there, £2.00 over there.

Eventually when you get to £10 & you can request voucher for loads of shops (eg.Marriott, Amazon.co.uk, Tesco, John Lewis, HMV, Marks & Spencer, Boots, Argos, Waitrose Wine Direct, Ocado, Burton, Dorothy Perkins, Evans, Miss Selfridges, Outfit, Topman, Topshop and Wallis.) or you can donate it to your chosen charity!

Its great for getting some extra £££ to treat yourself, your kids or to put them aside for some extra dosh for Christmas! Who knows, it might even come at a time when it comes in really handy for some groceries!

I thought I could share this with you, as it might be of some use! I belong to a few survey websites but this one is by far the best & not a waste of time at all.

Join in here: www.valuedopinions.co.uk

Good Luck - The more details you fill in on the questionnaire the more relevant surveys you get!

Monica x

Peaceful feeling...

Monica xx

Crazy people at the airport in Portugal!

As probably many of you already know, I am Portuguese, I was born and brought up there until I was 10 years old at which time my mum decided to wizz me up and bring me to England to be with her (I was brought up with my nan).

I have now been here many more years than I was there and am as "English" as my next door neighbour.

A lot of you have probably been to France, Spain or Portugal on holidays and though you want to stay there forever! I am exactly like that except I was born in Portugal, speak the language and have many fond childhood memories.

I miss the weather (don't we all! lol) and the warmness of the people.

Sometimes I think I would love to go and live there, "immigrate", but then we would have to start all over again & life is very hard over there, specially considering I have 2 small children.

My mum is the total anti-Portugal, she loves her country and her people but says it's only great for holidays not for living.

Sometimes I wonder if I would be happier with a simpler life in the sun?

The video below just shows you a bit of the creativity & friendliness they have over there. You'll have fun watching it but you can tell they had a blast doing it!

PS. TAP= Tap Air Portugal, ANA= same as BAA in England

Handmade Marketing Feature

Old news really but the folks over at Handmade Marketing, a great website for all handmade artists, did a great article on "Giveaways the Ins & Outs" and I was featured in it!

<--- Extract from the article

Monica x

Teething at 6 months old

Baby Girl has really been moaning about her teeth for a while now, the usual drooling, biting when breastfeeding & "eating her own hands" has been there for a while now but so far we had seen no teeth!

About a week ago a sharp little bugger actually popped out to say hello to my.... boobs! Arghhhh the pain! Little Missy always decides (at some point) while nursing that she should bite down on my breast, pull her head back as far as she can so my breast springs out of her mouth!

This happens so fast & its soooo painful that I have no time to do anything about it... and guess what?!? She smiles at me straight after!!! Cheeky hey?

Well, I must say I am quite glad she just gets moany and a bit cheeky cause with Mr Serious it was a completely different story! He used to get all messed up during the night not wanting to sleep as normal, he would get temperature and not want to feed, that then contributed to crying etc.

I wish I could take a picture of her little tooth but its impossible cause you barely get a glimpse of it unless she is crying, and then I'm too busy attending to Little Missy's requests to take pictures! Lol

She doesn't like to use teethers so she results to eating her own hand or her pink taggie blanket (you can get one here).

This first "sprouting" tooth is on her right hand side on the bottom, the one next to it is "knocking" too because you can see the white underneath the gums! Oh Joy... another one to give me pain!

Monica x

PS. Don't forget to check out this month's give away here! Good luck

Coochie Coo - January Give Away

NOW CLOSED
I am very pleased to present to you Coochie Coo, this month's generous Give Away Sponsor!

For the duration of the give away, Coochie Coo is offering our readers a 10% discount on the basket value of your order (not inc. p&p).

Just enter the code FBUNNY01 when you shop at www.coochie-coo.co.uk this January!

Coochie Coo was the brainchild of Tim and Sarah Rowe and was officially born in September 2009 to provide a store for parents which offers a stylish line of luxurious, practical and stylish mother and baby products.

Tim and Sarah are modern parents themselves, and so they understand the needs of parents from childbirth and beyond and are committed to ensure their products are of the highest quality. One of the brands Coochie Coo are very proud to be stocking is Itzy Ritzy™ from the US, a perfect example of the type of brand you will find at Coochie Coo.

Itzy Ritzy™ was created to deliver exceptional and hip baby, toddler, and adult products designed with beauty, sophistication, function and fun in mind.

Loved by celebrities including Rebecca Romijn & Jerry O'Connell, Sean "Diddy" Combs, Melissa Joan Hart, Nicole Richie and more, Itzy Ritzy™ proves that just because you become a parent it doesn't mean you lose your style!

Now wouldn't you love to win some Itzy Ritzy™ goodies from Coochie Coo?

Here is what's up for grabs!

Bitzy™ from Itzy Ritzy™ (worth £13.28)

Bitzys come in sets of 2 burp cloths in coordinating colours and prints bundled up with Itzy Ritzy™ ribbon.

Made from baby bamboo and with a splash of designer fabric, these soft burp and wash cloths are sophisticated as well as highly functional.

The ideal size for slipping into your changing bag they could be used as a mini-blankie and are great for removing make up too.

Ritzy Sitzy™ from Itzy Ritzy™ (worth £45.97)

If like us you aren't thrilled with the thought of having to put your child in a dirty germ filled trolley to do your shopping, or a wooden restaurant high chair then the Ritzy Sitzy is the perfect solution for you!

The Ritzy Sitzy puts a barrier between your little one and the germs so you can be comforted by the knowledge that your child is protected.

Designed with sophistication and function in mind, the covers have 2 handy toy loops and pockets to keep toys from endlessly falling to the ground.

The Ritzy Sitzy is suitable for single or double seated shopping trolleys, and these reversible and machine washable covers are also padded for ultimate comfort and even cover the trolley handle so your hands are protected too.

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Unisex & trendy, these prizes are scrumptious!

Now do you want to know how to enter?!? We always give you as many chances as we can to enter!

HOW TO ENTER:

You must visit www.coochie-coo.co.uk and come back to tell us what your favourite products are and why (by commenting below), then do at least 1 of the things mentioned below & tell us about it too!

If you wanna boost your chances, do as many as you can, as many times as you can but make sure you come tell us about it (with links if applicable)! Not only does it count as an extra entry each but we will also luuuuuurve you!

DON't FORGET TO TELL US ABOUT IT BY COMMENTING ON THIS POST!

Join our mailing list by clicking on the big green bunny button on the top right ---

(this lets you know about our give aways & much more!)

Tweet this give away with a link back to this page & tag us @myfunnybunny

Follow us on Twitter

Blog about this give away with a link back to this page

Facebook this give away with a link back to this page

Follow our blog publicly

Just spread the word & come tell us about it!

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Don't forget to come back & visit us! We are the home to the best give aways!!

You can also visit our parent website www.myfunnybunny.co.uk

Give Away closes on the 31st of January 2010 & is only open to UK entrants.

Winner will be notified by e-mail & has 7 days to reply to claim prize or another winner will be chosen at random.

Thanks for visiting us, we hope you come again!

Monica xx

Christmas 2009 a time of happiness & sadness

Christmas 2009 was very mixed up for us here at My Funny Bunny Towers, we had a christening, a passing and Christmas celebrations.

First was my baby girl's christening or blessing as we call it in our church.

It was a time of much excitement and planning, we made it so close to Christmas as my grandparents were due to be here on holiday then, it was important for them to be present at this event, specially because they were not able to be there when my first was blessed.

We planned everything and it went lovely, from Mylie's dress down to the cupcakes, everything went right and everything was beautiful. I was worried everything was gonna be terrible as we were terribly low on cash but luckily my husband got an unexpected tip at work so we just made it!

First the dress that I bought for little Mylie arrived but it was damaged so it had to go back, luckily so resourceful that I am I had bought 2 dresses and the "back up" dress was lovely & it turned out to be even lovelier than it showed on the internet! It is a silk Monsoon cream dress that had some pink & cream flowers "embroidered" with ribbon on the chest and bottom of the skirt. It was beautiful and my little girl looked stunning!

I also wanted to have cupcakes instead of a cake to celebrate, again I felt so devastated cause before that tip my husband got at work I couldn't even buy a cake that day let alone cupcakes! I had money coming into my bank account the day after the christening, what good was that?!

But as God works in mysterious way I was able to get something for my little girl! I looked around for cupcakes but they were either not what I wanted, expensive, too far to collect or couldn't be made in time! So I though to myself "Why the heck am I being so lazy?! If others can do it, so can I!!!" I then went in search for all the bits I needed, bought them and though "I have only one shot, the Christening is tomorrow... God help me!"

So I made the chocolate cupcakes, using my moist chocolate cake recipe and they came out great! After that was what I thought to be the hard part... the buttercream icing and making my icing butterflies with glitter... as it turns out I have quite a flair for cupcake decorating!

The end product was what you see on the picture above, I made 25 muffin sized cupcakes, I did go to bed at 4am so obviously the cupcakes looked better than I did the next morning! Lol

We had a great time that day with our family and friends, we had lunch at a great Chinese buffet restaurant in front of Stratford Picture House in London. At the end of the meal I gave everyone a cupcake to enjoy and everyone loved them!!!

I was over the moon at how the day ended and everyone had a great time.

Unfortunately a week later my hubby's grandma passed away, she was a very kind & gentle person which we love dearly, she lives on in our hearts forever.

A week after that was Christmas, which was specially hard on my husband, after what had just happened we were still grieving.

He was very home sick wanting to be with his family, unfortunately we couldn't go visit them as we didn't have the funds for us to go to South Africa.

We are still very sad that our dear Ouma Bokkie has passed away, we are dealing with it, but she was very frail and I believe that now she is at rest and she is looking after us and our little ones from above.

Rest in Peace Susanna Strydom "Ouma Bokkie" 31 Dec 1929 - 16 Dec 09

An angel on earth, now an angel in heaven.

We love you forever, and forever you are in our hearts.

Monica xx