Top 10 Stress Busting Tips

As a parent I think that stress just naturally waltzes into your life whenever it feels like it, never mind the bills to pay and chores to do....
Just think of the times when you turn around and your little one managed to get on top of something really high and she is imagining she is a bird! Stressed yet?

Naturally when I saw these stress busting tips I was interested in having a read and also sharing them with you!
Monica x

Top 10 stress busting tips

1. Visualize a time when you were completely relaxed and happy – revisit it during stressful times
2. Stop and think – often stress make us react without fully exploring our options
3. Take ten – whether at home or work, ten minutes of fresh air will help you gain some perspective
4. Be good to yourself – be your own best friend and reward yourself for working hard, even if it’s just a tasty cake and nice cuppa
5. Go with it – often events occur that are out of our control, but try not to panic. It’s surprising how often good things come out of an unexpected situation
6. Give yourself time – being late is a common cause of stress
7. Just say no – it’s better than promising something you cannot deliver or will resent doing
8. Keep it simple – do you really need eight different types of vegetable with your roast dinner?
9. Smile and socialize with cheerful people - Happy people generate happy feelings!
10. Have a laugh – call a friend and lighten the load. You don’t have to be miserable, even when you’re stressed!

If you need some help you can also try Kalms Lozenges are perfect for the modern, busy woman, they contain extract of the herb lemon balm widely used in Mediterranean countries to help keep you relaxed. Available in a handy blister pack, the lozenges are naturally flavoured with lemon and lime and can be enjoyed to at any time of the day. Kalms Lozenges contain no artificial colours or flavours and are suitable for vegetarians.

Feature on Tales from Windmill Fields

We were featured on Tales from Windmill Fields on a birthday wish list!

The top 5 items chosen from our lovely online boutique were the Tropical Fairy Dress, the fabulous Red Glitter Angel Shoes, cosy Baby Brown Sheepskin Boots, the fun Wheelybug Tiger which 10% of the profits go to the Sumatran Tiger Trust and finally crafty fun with the Paperpod Aeroplane!

Monica x

Helpful Pregnancy Tools

When I was first pregnant with my son back in 2005 I bought lots of books and researched a lot on absolutely everything to do with my baby.... typical first time mum!

One thing that was really helpful too was the pack that they gave me at my first midwives appointment, it came with lots of information booklets, some leaflets and an invitation to join Bounty.

Bounty for those that are not aware of it yet is a Parenting Club website, not just forums for mummies and mummies to be to share experiences, seek advice and so on but it is also a great website with some great tools for pregnancy.

The one I used most often while I was pregnant was the pregnancy week by week, this allows you to have a look at what is happening with your baby on any particular week and gives you a picture of a baby inside its mothers tummy to help you visualize what your baby can look like at that stage. I have since then used this tool again to show my son what his sister looked like when I was pregnant with her.

My little ones were planned and as soon as my pregnancy tests told me I was pregnant I wanted to know my pregnancy due date before I managed to get to the GP, I am very impatient as you probably know by now!
One thing I didn't use was their Ovulation Calendar its basically a ovulation calculator that lets you input details about your menstruation and then tells you when you are ovulating. This is a great tool if you are trying to get pregnant, so you can do it at the right time! ;)

Bounty was and is really useful to me it has lots of information that is really useful specially for first time parents but there are also special offers, discounts, competitions and great support forums for all parents.

I hope you get as much out of their website as I do.

Monica x

Vla - a Dutch Recipe

When I was little my mum lived in Holland for a few years, so I went to stay with her on school holidays as I was living in Portugal with my grandma.

My fondest memories of Holland are a round bread that I used to get from the shop underneath my mums flat, playing with a girl outside my mums flat (she spoke no portuguese and I spoke no dutch but we were best friends), my mum making my hair curly, dressing me in a pretty dress and going taking me on a walk which we went past a river and Vla....

Vla, in chocolate, strawberry or vanilla.... seriously I could probably drown in the stuff I liked it so much! Its not custard by any means but its similar, only 100 times better...

A couple of days ago I popped over to Tales from Windmill Fields blog and saw the nice cartons of Vla as her Dutch thing of the week, I think it should be the Dutch thing of forever really, never mind the week but it did make me crave Vla. I went to search for Vla to see if there was anywhere I could buy it in the UK but had not much luck apart from coming across a recipe that looks simple enough to make here on Thomers' website, now I hope he doesn't mind but I had to share it with you and pop it on here for my future reference as I don't want to ever loose sight of it.

I'll certainly have to try and make it and tell you all how it worked out, if you make it before me, let me know how it went. Apparently in America they call this cornstarch pudding, not sure if theirs is the same but hey we won't know until an American tells us so!

Chocolate vla topped with whipped cream

VLA RECIPE:


Ingredients:

• 1 litre of whole milk
• 1/4 litre (1 cup) of heavy cream (or less, down to 50ml or 1/4 cup)
• 70 grams (1/3 cup) of sugar
• 2 additional tablespoons of sugar
• 2 eggs
• 40 grams (slightly less than 1/3 cup) of cornstarch
• a half or whole vanilla bean (or plain old vanilla flavoring)
• optional: yellow food coloring

Add a few tablespoons of milk to the cornstarch and stir until the cornstarch dissolves and the liquid is uniform. Heat up the remaining milk in a large pan with a cut open vanilla bean in it. 

In the meantime, use a (hand)mixer to beat the 70g of sugar with the eggs until foamy—this takes a few minutes. Keep an eye on the milk. When the milk starts to boil, lower the heat and dump in the cornstarch fluid and stir until somewhat gelatinous—this should take a minute or two, but don't worry if it doesn't get gelatinous. Keep it on a very, very gentle boil.

Slowly pour in the foamy egg/sugar mix into the gently boiling milk; keep it like that while gently stirring and beating the mix until the vla is uniform and somewhat gelatinous.

To cool it, pour the vla into a bowl and lower the bowl into a larger bowl filled with cold water. Stir the vla every few minutes and replace the lukewarm water with cold water. Store in fridge.
Before serving, beat the desired amount of heavy cream with 2 tablespoons of sugar until stiff and stir into the vla—use less cream to keep the vla lighter. If you want to make it look more like the real thing, add 10-15 drops of yellow food coloring and stir.

Optionally sprinkle some hagelslag (chocolate sprinkles) on it for the full effect.
Enjoy the taste of Holland.

Monica xx

Lotus Olbas Facial Tissues Review

We got a box of these to try out a little while ago, unluckily enough we all got sick straight after getting them, seriously, I could have tried them out without all the snot involved!

We all liked these apart from my 19 month old daughter who wasn't really fond of getting her nose cleaned with them, I suspect because of the smell, but it was no problem for my 5 year old son.

The more you crush the tissue the more of the Olbas oils gets released, to me this is an absolute marvel! My husband  used them a lot while he was sick to hold it next to his nose to breath in to unblock his nose which helped.

Verdict:
All in all these are a fabulous invention, nice and soft and the Olbas on t is convenient and soothing, the only thing is you can't wipe your eyes with it because of the oils.

Since trying these I have already bought the pocket sized version too and I will definately buy them again when we are sick with the flu or a blocked nose.

Rating:
10/10 from us.

A little but about the product:
Lotus Olbas tissues combines the luxurious softness of Lotus tissues and the vapour releasing power of family favourite Olbas.
 
Originally available in a handy pocket pack it now also comes in the larger facial tissue box - meaning that you can always have a stash of this comforting tissue on hand at home – or in the office - as well as on the go.

The tissues are embedded with tiny oil capsules that when crushed release soothing vapours, so whether you’re busy ‘keeping all the balls’ in the air, or simply recuperating at home, they’ll help you keep breathing easy.

Crush the Tissue, Release the Vapours
Lotus Olbas Facial Tissues are implanted using ground-breaking crush technology. The mixture of natural vapours including menthol, eucalyptus, juniper berries and cajuput are only released when the tissue is crushed.
Lotus Olbas Facial Tissues are available at Boots, Sainsbury’s and other major retailers at £2.29 (RRP).

Cybermummy 2011 Sponsorship Opportunity

Me after a very long day!

CyberMummy 2011, is the UK’s premier blogging conference devoted to parent bloggers and this year I would like to attend for the very first time!

If you don't know much about me already from reading the blog or stalking me on twitter, I am a work at home mum to a lovely bossy 20 month old and a precious almost 5 year old boy!

I am looking for an awesome company to sponsor me to attend Cybermummy 11!

In exchange for sponsorship, I can offer a variety of services, all detailed below.

Cost of sponsorship:
A CyberMummy 2011 ticket – £103.15
Travel (from Essex to London & Return) – £40
Total: £143.15

Services Offered:

• A badge on our blog with your company logo stating you are our Cybermummy 2011 sponsor that will be displayed until end of October 2011. (worth £160)

• All posts relating to Cybermummy 2011 will have you mentioned as a sponsor. (worth ££)

•  An introductory post to our readers about your company and products and the fact that you are our CyberMummy Sponsor. (worth £50)

• 2 blog posts about your products on this blog to be done throughout 2011. (worth £60)

• Numerous tweets about your sponsorship of me to attend Cybermummy 11 and retweets of any of your Company’s tweets that I feel are relevant to my audience. (worth £100)

•  I will be your Company’s representative at the CyberMummy 11 conference, wearing a branded badge that you supply and informing other parent bloggers about your business (worth £££)

Total: Over £600 of services and exposure including the invaluable representation of your brand to other parent bloggers at the Cybermummy 2011 the UK's Premier Blogger Conference!

If you would like to sponsor me or have any queries, then please get in touch by email adminATmyfunnybunny.com , with a deal as good as this you better be quick and not delay!

I'm looking forward to hearing from you.

Monica

Special Boy Boosters

A few minutes ago I was in the kitchen cleaning up and as it is half term the kids are full of energy and driving me absolutely bonkers!

So as great as I am at multi tasking I am busy arbitrating my daughter and sons racing... one is almost 20 months and the other is almost 5 years old.

Here I am saying "Ready, Steady, GO!"  a thousand times while my kids basically run up and down the sitting room and kitchen racing.

On the last race of the evening my son reaches the winning post first and rips out a massive bum burp... yep a fart!! I looked at him in amazement and with a smile on my face and said "What was that?!?" to which my son replied " That was my booster! A special fart booster for racing!"

I wish everyone had an imagination and sense of humour like him!

Boys... typical!

Monica x

We have been featured on Joanne Dewberry.co.uk

We have been featured on www.joannedewberry.co.uk, a business mum's blog.

You can read our feature "A day in the life of Monica of My Funny Bunny" here!

Grandpa in my Pocket Volume 3 DVD Winner!

 

The winner of our Grandpa in my Pocket Volume 3: Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks DVD give away is....

Jumbly Mummy! 

Congratulations!!!

We will get in touch and please make sure you get back to us within 7 days to get your prize.

Winner was picked at random by Gadget Dad.

If you didn't win this time, you can always get yourself a copy at your nearest retailer or online.

Putting all your eggs in one basket

Image: m_bartosch / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Egg donation was in the news recently and whilst watching ‘Loose Women’ where they were discussing it and the procedure you go through, as I sat on the sofa, I thought – would I do that for someone close to me that was unable to have children any other way?

Later that month I was speaking to a very close friend of mine, who I have grown up with since being 5 years old and she mention egg donation and whether I would consider it. Now, this said by anyone else would be a general question but my friend has a genetic disorder which she could very easily pass on to a baby, they have been through lots of disappointing stages to try and have a baby both naturally and looking at IVF where only healthy eggs, without this gene were planted but their options are running out and their hopes have been slashed.

It got me thinking back to the programme and the procedure you have to go through so I looked it up online. I didn’t realise that it was such an invasive operation with quite a few risks, including damage to your bowel or bladder and potentially making you sterile, obviously there are always risks during any surgery but egg donation for a women is not like it is for a man, who has to wander into a private room clutching a cup and a magazine from the top shelf!

Also, being a mum – only 4 months into the job, but I can see characteristics of me, I can see little bits of me from baby photos and nobody in this world could prize me away from my little girl, how would I feel if I saw those characteristics in a friends child? I think I would be insanely jealous and part of me would want my child back. I know I couldn’t do surrogacy for this reason, there is no way I could hand a baby over that I had looked after for 9 months. I would also wait until I was happy that I had had all the children I was going to in case it did make me sterile.

On reflection I came to the conclusion that emotionally I don’t think I could do it and also weighing up the risks and potential problems of surgery, bearing in mind I have had a lot of bowel problems so have a very thin lining which could be punctured very easily, I decided that my answer would have to be no. Having said that, I feel desperately sorry for my friend and a bit selfish as I have a beautiful baby girl but I know that she would never expect me to do anything or think bad of me if she did come and ask me straight out and at least I can tell her my thought process.

What do you all think of egg donation? Would you do it for a friend or family member or would you do it for money? I look forward to your comments.

Emily x

Supergran is the Bom!

I was on the phone with my mum yesterday and she told me about this amazing story that she saw in the newspaper about a lady (Ann Timpson of Northampton) in her 70s that beat up some robbers in motorbikes.

My mum told me someone had got it on video, the whole incident, so nosy as I am I went looking for it... here it is "Supergran to the rescue!"



Now the lady actually ran to the robbers and beat them with her handbag, she wasn't defending herself, she actually ran to and attacked them!

I admire this lady, she has, as they say in Spanish, big cohones!
It is also sad really to see that in our communities people can see all kinds of atrocities and stand back and not do anything about it, the people in this video only came to help once one of the robbers fell off his bike and went at her with a hammer. Now should it really take that much for someone to go and help?

When I was a teenager, I was talking on my mobile phone walking in Queensway (West London) from work and a kid on a bicycle punched me and grabbed my phone, I ran after the kid as fast as I could and kept shouting for people to help me, amazingly NOBODY did... until a guy that worked with me recognized me and then he ran after the kid with me.

Unfortunately we never caught him, but to this day I still think about the fact that no one cared, and that my work colleague only cared once he recognized me.

It depressing to think that people only care about themselves, and it scares me that if something happens to my children while I am not around, no matter what age they may be, no one around them will help.

I think that its depressing to think that human beings are not "connected" anymore.
But don't worry if I see something happening to you or anyone else on the street and I don't know you, I will help or comfort you if needed.

What are your thoughts?

Monica

Celebrate with me!

Have you seen the Tots 100 icon at the left hand side of the blog yet?
I've had it there for a few months now very proudly displaying my position which has ranged from 200 - 400 and considering it's the Tots 100 UK Parents Blog Index... I was ranking pretty low, but hey, I had the icon there to help kick me into getting better!

So this morning when I go check out the blog and see on the icon position #84 I sincerely could not believe it... I had to check on www.tots100.co.uk to see if it was true or was the icon bonkers??

Yes! I was #84, I had made it in the top 100!!!! Yay!!!!!!!

Seriously, I am pretty pathetic really, I even did a happy dance sitting in my chair and called my husband over to see it on the website... I had gone up 265 positions!

I guess I can't loose rhythm now, I have to keep climbing ;)

I'd like to thank our resident and guest authors for helping us get there too, if you want to join us or just write a guest post for our readers, please do get in touch.

So go on, do a little happy dance in your chair for me... but please, do make sure nobody is watching you or I DARE YOU to do a video of your happy dance post it on your blog and link it here (so people know why you are doing it!) and come and tell us by commenting below ;)

Come on... I dare you... if someone does it, I'll show you mine too!!

Monica x

Born Free Coolflow Soother Review

My little girl had taken to sucking her thumb to comfort herself – she was even sucking it on my scan picture! We decided to use soothers as we have seen the damage thumb sucking can do to a childs teeth and as my partner always says “You can take away a dummy, but you can’t take away a thumb”.

I was asked to review these soothers, which I was really pleased about as I was using another leading brand and my baby wasn’t able to hold them in her mouth properly making her more frustrated rather than soothing her. When I switched to Born Free at 2 weeks old, she took to it straight away and held it in her mouth a lot better.

I like the shape of the soother it looks like my baby is comfortable and it doesn’t come too close to her nose like others do. Another bonus is that there is no ‘right way up’ for the soother like there is with others, making it easy to pop in a frustrated babies mouth rather than faffing around working out which way up it goes.

When I met up with other mums who have babies of a similar age they were all envious of the soother and asked what brand it was as they had similar problems with the ones they were using not staying in the baby’s mouth and were getting annoyed with having to put it in a certain way up.

The colours of the soothers (purple and green) are very bright, which I was a little put off by at first but having used them have come to like the fact that if they do fall out into her rocker or moses basket I can find them quickly and easily unlike the transparent ones I was using previously.

They come with a little cap that fits over the teat of the soother so you can carry them around easily and hygienically.

The soothers are also BPA, PVC and Phthalates free and are sold as being orthodontic which is a must in my eyes.

Overall I would recommend the Born Free Coolflow Soothers, they tick all the boxes are good value for money and I will be purchasing another pack and ditching the other brand I previously used.

Emily x

BornFree™ CoolFlow Soother / Dummy / Pacifier Information:
An orthodontic silicone soother with a rounded cherry shaped teat. 100% free of BPA, Phthalates and PVC, this innovative BornFree™ soother features a breathable shield with extra large air holes to reduce moisture around the mouth and, raised soft edges to protect sensitive skin.  Supplied with a hygienic snap-on cap, simply pop over the teat to keep clean.

Available Stages
Stage 1: 0-6 months
Stage 2: 6 months +
Twin pack £5.50 from www.babybornfree.co.uk

Win Grandpa in my Pocket Volume 3: Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks DVD!

Win the NEW Grandpa in my Pocket DVD!

We have a copy of Grandpa in my Pocket DVD to give away to our readers!
The NEW, Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks, features Grandpa (played by James Bolam) and grandson Jason getting into even more magical mayhem than ever!

Jason lives with his parents, sister Jemima, dog and Grandpa in the beautiful seaside town of Sunnysands. Everyone thinks that Grandpa likes to spend all his time sat quietly in the armchair, but only Jason knows the truth about Grandpa’s magic shrinking cap. When Grandpa wears the magic cap, he becomes small enough to fit into Jason’s pocket and adventure is always sure to follow!

In Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks, the adventurous duo team up to save Jemima’s party. Mr Marvelloso, the local magician is booked to perform, but when he turns out to be grumpy and not very good at the magic tricks, the party looks sure to be a disaster. It’s time for Grandpa to step in, put on his magic shrinking cap and try a little magic of his own!  Can Grandpa and Jason turn the magic show into a success?

Read what we thought about the DVD on our review here

Grandpa in my Pocket, Volume 3: Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks will be available nationwide from all good retailers from 7th February 2011. Suitable for children aged 4 – 6, RRP £7.99

Good Luck! x

To Enter:

Follow our blog and comment on this post telling us why you'd like to win the dvd and who is it for.
Tell us how to get in touch if you win by providing twitter id or email address or similar.

For Extra Entries:
Tweet " I've entered @myfunnybunny blog giveaway to win a @GrandpaAndJason DVD, u can too athttp://bit.ly/dRuSN4 "
Follow @myfunnybunny on Twitter
Follow @GrandpaAndJason on Twitter

Don't forget to tell us what you did by commenting below :)

Terms and Conditions:
Competition closes on 12th of February 2011.
You must be over 18 and reside in the UK to enter this competition, if you are under 18 please ask a parent or guardian to enter for you. We will contact the winner, if there is no response within 7 days we will select another winner. Winner will be sent DVD directly form Grandpa in my pocket's pr advisors.

Grandpa in my Pocket Volume 3: Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks DVD Review

We got a copy of Grandpa in my Pocket Volume 3: Mr Marvelloso’s Magic Tricks DVD in the post to review and our (almost) 5 year old boy wouldn't stop pestering me to put it on... eventually I gave in to all the jumping around waving the dvd in my face and put it on.

My Funny Bunny watched from beginning to end (with a couple of breaks for snacks) with lots of laughter and calling me to see what grandpa was doing in amazement!

I did find myself stopping what I was doing to see what grandpa was gonna do next too!

I do like Grandpa in my Pocket as it is entertaining but also educational, it teaches lots of things like not being greedy and other things. The characters are great and very good actors too.

This DVD definitely gets a 10/10 from me and my little boy!

Monica x

Don't know where to start? You need Joanne!

Since I entered the world of Twitter I have met some fabulous and inspiring ladies, Joanne is definitely one of the top ladies on my list. She is everyone's cheerleader and always has "a virtual" smile on her face.
She offers really good value business services in social media and pr and when you see how successful she is doing it for herself then you will definitely want to give her a try!

I asked Joanne to guest blog for us and tell us all how she got about starting her business, and here she is. Over to Joanne!
Monica x

Unless you are mega rich or working a full time paid job funding your small business idea can be a real headache. For myself and other budding mumpreneurs - and I’m mainly thinking in terms of those who are full time mums with small children at home with them under 5, this can be the make or break factor when proceeding with a business idea.

So how did I get started??

Well as crazy as it sounds my initial ideas formulated during the end of my pregnancy with Megan, Charlie had not long turned one and I had enjoyed the first year of motherhood but was in need of brain stimulation. So what was my plan?? I bought £56.65 of wooden fillers from a friend who ran a shop and sold them at school fetes and village carnivals. Daddy Moo and Charlie would come along help me set up and come back towards the end and help me pack up.

I did this for 2 reasons:-

To gage interest in the fillers
Generate money I needed to drive Charlie Moo’s forward

I actually sold products at Ferndown Carnival 2 weeks before my due date. Once Megan was born (August 2008) I started working on my website … well what else do you do at 3am up breastfeeding. So now I had a website (www.charliemoos.co.uk) through which to sell but this doesn’t happen over night so I still needed to do local events. I would take Megan with me as newborns tend to sleep most of the day and Charlie and Daddy Moo would enjoy sometime together. But I still needed more capital to invest in things such as branding and my business identity.

I replied to a media request in January 2009 for Take a Break about career changes after children. I was paid £150 and generated National Media coverage for Charlie Moo’s. I had my first 100 bags made for me by a local crafter. These sold really well and quickly so I started making them myself. At this point I had a product, a website, a brand but I needed to take it one step further.

I joined the Prince’s Trust Business Mentor Scheme in April 2009, a four day intensive course at the end of which I received a fabulous business mentor and support for 2 years. I also benefited from a £200 ‘will it work grant’ where I made up x amount of pre-filled bags which I send out to businesses as samples and I sold at events.

I became an expert in PR and marketing via social media and ultimately have saved myself a lot of money. 2.5 years later I still haven’t needed to seek larger investments. Sometimes I have to wait to pursue new ideas as Charlie Moo’s funds itself, which I’m really proud of as I have not risked my families finances nor taken out loans etc … Now with the skills I have learned I'm keen to teach and share with other mums looking at taking the step forward into becoming self-employed business owners.
You can find lots of useful advice, tips and cases studies on my blog www.joannedewberry.co.uk and low cost services from me. So pop along and say 'hello'.

Joanne Dewberry

Dorset Business Mum of the Year
Highly Commended PR Comp mumsclub.co.uk 2009
Future 100 Young Entrepreneurs 2009
TGF Best Rated Awards 2009
Langtry Manor Best Green Business Finalist 2010
Nominated MADS Blog Awards 2010
Short Listed Make your Mark in the Markets 2010
Short Listed mumsandworking Awards Best Parent 2010

www.charliemoos.co.uk, www.networkingmummies.com and www.joannedewberry.co.uk