Review: Optrex Eye Revive Moisture Mist

I received the Optrex Eye Revive Moisture Mist from Bzz Agent. I had recently joined and this was the first campaign I was selected to take part in. 

This product is designed to care for tired eyes and make them feel good again, it is to be sprayed over a closed eye and can be used over makeup. Optrex say that the hydrating liposomes stabilise the lipid layer of the tear film restoring eyes natural moisture balance so they feel comfortable and soothed.
I have to admit that I was sceptical as to whether this product would work, whenever I think about reviving tired eyes I always thing of eye drops, something going directly onto the eyeball to stop the itching and irritation when I feel tired. 

I work shifts and have a toddler so my eyes are always tired. I suffer from dry and irritated eyes as I have some allergies such as hay fever, dust and animal fur. I can work with the dark circles by using make up but I have found nothing that makes them feel refreshed and is easy to apply when wearing makeup, that is until now. I adore this product. 

Small glass bottle with secure lid

To apply spray one or two sprays over each eye, I found that one spray was good enough as two make it feel a little too damp. It really makes my eyes feel refreshed and a lot less tired.I have noticed that once the mist had dried I am left with lovely smooth skin around the eye. 


I have used this with eye make-up and have notice no running or creasing which is amazing as using eye drops is a definite no-go when wearing mascara. I also find that my eyes look more blue after this is used.

After using the mist of my eyes.

The downside to this product is the smell, I can't really put my finger on what it smells like I just don't like it and would have preferred something odourless. The price is also a little steep and it is currently on sale at Boots for £15.99. However, I really love how this feels especially when working nights.

Recipe: Microwave Sponge Pudding

This is a really quick and easy pudding to make which tastes amazing. My Mum made this a lot growing up, usually after a Sunday Dinner.

Ingredients
100g Butter
100g Sugar
100g Flour
2 eggs
2tbsp Milk
Jam or golden syrup 

How to make the sponge pudding
1. Cream butter and sugar together. I prefer to use granulated but  you can also used caster.
2. Crack in the eggs and stir until well combined. Add milk and stir.
3. Sieve in flour and fold gently into the mixture.
4. Place is a microwave safe dish and cook on full power for 2 minutes. Check after this and put on for another minute if you need too.
5. Heat up jam or golden syrup and pour over the top.

This is best served with custard but also works well with ice cream.

Meet Charlotte

When I started this blog I viewed it as my little space to write about my life, a place to write down memories and something to look back on at the end of the year. I feel I have been a little preoccupied with shopping and nail painting. In this post I want you to meet the most important little person in the world - Charlotte Mia. Yes, I know you have seen her in plenty of my posts but I thought I would use this post to share more about her. I found this toddler tag on Youtube and thought it was perfect for this post.

 

Name 
Charlotte Mia 

Age
18 months

Favourite food 
Sausages 

Favourite snack 
Soreen banana loaf and grapes


Favourite drink 
Apple and Blackcurrant squash

Favourite toy 
She doesn't have a favourite toy, she is more of an explorer and likes climbing most things and being in the garden. In fact, her favourite 'toy' is probably the bin.

Favourite TV show 
Peppa Pig, Pajanimals and Pingu.



Favourite book
Peepo by  Janet and Allan Ahlberg.



What makes them mad/upset?
She gets quite frustrated when we don't understand what she wants, she doesn't use many words but understands a lot so we have a lot of being mad due to communication. 


What do they call your parents/partner's parents?
Charlotte still doesn't say a lot of words yet. She has a two toned screech for my Dad which sounds like grannan.

Comfort item (if they have one)
Her dummy.


Favourite Activities
Climbing, running, bouncing and being thrown about. 

Bed time/nap time (if they nap)?
If we are at home she will nap for 1-2 hours in the afternoon. Bedtime is around 8.30pm.


What makes them a little crazy?
Her hair, fearless nature, the dangerous climbing, talking to spiders and chasing geese. 

What makes them awesome?
Everything. This is such a hard question to answer with anything specific she is just a little ray of sunshine, she has such a strong personality and as her Daddy says 'she gives no damns'.  

My Birth Story

After joining in with the #mummybloggers and #mblogchat last night where the chat was about labour and birth,  I have decided to repost my birth story from my pregnancy blog.

Charlotte Mia Crompton arrived into the world on the 7th October 2012 at 7.38am weighing in at a whopping 9lbs. I am completely and utterly smitten with her and it was worth every single second of pregnancy and labour. Below is my birth story which was originally posted on 28/10/2012. 

I went into Warrington General Hospital on Thursday 4th October to be induced; this made me 38 weeks pregnant, 2 weeks before my due date. Jonathan and I arrived on ward C23 at 3pm; however, they were so busy it was 7pm before anything happened.

I was put onto a monitor to make sure baby was happy, due to the midwife having trouble finding the heartbeat (weight blamed once again) I was sent over to the labour ward to be put on a more sensitive machine. After this I was scanned to check the baby was still head down which it was at 11pm I was given an internal examination and a pessary was inserted into my cervix. I was monitored at regular intervals throughout the night and this time there was no trouble finding the heartbeat.  At 5am I had another pessary inserted. At midday on Friday a registrar examined me and found that I was 2cm dilated and therefore, didn't need another pessary which was a relief as it was quite painful and at that point, one of the most undignified moments of my life. I was told that once there was room on the labour ward I would be taken over for my waters to be broken, this didn't happen for a long time.

On Saturday at 4.30pm I was told there was now room for me on the labour ward, I was again monitored to make sure baby was happy. I then had a cannula put into each hand, well on my right hand after several attempts it was inserted into my wrist. One cannula had the hormone drip to bring on labour and the other had a sliding scale of insulin and glucose. I was unable to eat anything and could only drink water whilst in labour; I also needed to do the finger prick test to check my blood sugars every hour throughout labour. I was then examined and was still only 2cm dilated, my waters were broken and the drips started. I was unable to move during labour which made it really uncomfortable particularly on my lower back as the baby was back to back.

My contractions started at 10.30pm, they felt like bad period pains and were short but regular. My back was still aching and I was very uncomfortable I was given some paracetamol through a drip to ease the pain, however, it didn't work so the midwife suggested that I use gas and air which worked a treat it took the pain away and also regulated my breathing. I was re-examined 2.30pm and at this point I was only 3cm dilated, I was devastated that I still had another 7cm to go before I could even begin to start to get the baby out.

Things are a bit hazy from this point as I relied heavily on the gas and air so was out of it for most of the time. I remember being incredibly thirsty and shouting at Jonathan to get me water. The next thing I remember from being 3 cm was being 9cm dilated, at this point the urge to push was overwhelming but I had to keep breathing through the contractions, Jonathan was shouting at me every time I was pushing instead of breathing as the baby's heartbeat was falling. My Mum arrived back at the hospital at this point and I am glad she was there to see her grandchild being born.

Charlotte got her shoulders stuck during delivery (shoulder dystocia) which meant the alarms were raised and about 20 people rushed into the room to get her out quicker. I have googled it since and it can be fatal and only happens in 1% of vaginal births, so I am very grateful to those who helped deliver my baby safely.

I was in active labour for 4 hours and 43 minutes. I had a 2nd degree tear to my perineum which required stitches and I also grazed badly.

The midwife ran me a bath which Jonathan helped me with whilst my Mum stayed with Charlotte, we were then taken back over to the ward. Once on the ward Charlotte had to have her blood sugars tested 3 times over her first 24 hours, she was also very cold so was placed in a warming cot. We were discharged on the Tuesday afternoon, unfortunately, we ended up back in hospital on the Friday for the weekend as Charlotte was badly jaundiced and had lost 15% of her birth weight (they allow up to 10%), this meant she went down to 7lb9oz. After tests at the hospital it was found she had to have light treatment for the jaundice, she was dehydrated and had raised salt levels. I felt she was breast feeding well however, she wasn't as my milk supply wasn't good enough; I made the decision to switch to formula and expressed as much as I could. I am still devastated about not being able to breastfeed but the most important thing is Charlotte is healthy and she now weighs 9lb 1oz.

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Toddler Meals: Herb Crusted Chicken with Creamy Gnocchi

Ingredients

Chicken breast
Garlic
Sage
Gnocchi
Tomato and basil Sauce (recipe can be found here)
Onions
Peppers
Mushrooms
1 Dairylea triangle


How to make the meal

1. Cover chicken breast in dried sage and crushed garlic
2. Wrap in tin foil and place in oven on 180c for 30 minutes. Make sure the the chicken is cooked all the way through.
3. Meanwhile, cook the gnocchi according to packet instructions.
4. For the sauce fry onions, peppers and mushrooms until soft and add the sauce and Dairylea triangle.
5. Once the Dairylea is melted into the sauce mix in with gnocchi.

NOTD: Rimmel Salon Pro Purple Rain

I love this colour and picking this up for £1 makes it even better. It's a gorgeous springtime purple which is opaque in 2 coats and is a dream to apply. This stayed chip free for 5 days. I'm in love and think this will be on my nails a lot during spring and summer.

NOTD: Bourjois and W7.

This nail look is courtesy of Bourjois and W7.  The Bourjois polish used is the Anti-Choc No chip in number 15 and W7 in Multi Glitter on the accent nail. I loved the look of these two together.The Bourjois polish was opaque in one coat.

The Bourjois polish claims to last up to 10 days, I got a day and a half before chipping occurred which is probably why I managed to pick this up in a poundshop.

NOTD: Nails Inc Porchester Sqaure and George at Asda Pink Glitz

Today's nail features Nails Inc and George at Asda. Generally I am not a fan of Nails Inc and think they don't last as long as an £11 bottle of nail polish should. I got Porchester Square in my Boots advent calendar and loved the colour. I had previously worn it alone and it had chipped after just 24 hours wear. This time I teamed it with a Pink Glitz from George at Asda which I love. It looks great over most polishes and with it being shimmer it lasts a long time. This look was on my nails for 4 days before it began to wear off at the ends, no chipping though. 

Porchester Square is a lovely mushroom colour which is sensible enough to wear for work but really good to wear at weekends. Pink Glitz is a sheer polish with pink, silver and blue shimmer running through it, it is best used as a top coat.

My Mothers Day

This year marked my second year as a Mummy and it was nice to be treated on Mothers Day. Every day since becoming a Mummy has been special, however, it is lovely to be appreciated and treated a little extra special on Mothers Day.

Below is what I got from Charlotte.

I absolutely adore my gift and card. Here is Little Miss and me on Mothers Day, it's the best we could manage all day, an active toddler doesn't have time in her busy schedule to fit in a photo!

Hope you all had an amazing Mothers Day.

Review: Flavourly Box March 2014

I came across the Flavourly Box when browsing on Groupon it was on offer for £4 for the box plus £2 postage. Normal selling price is £13 with £2 postage.  Flavourly states that it is the 'easiest way to discover new and exciting fine foods, snacks and delicious craft beer at an affordable price'. 

From the dispatch email being sent to me the box was delivered within two days which is always good. The box is shoebox sized and comes neatly packaged with brown paper and just like the beauty boxes you get a few leaflets. The first is a meet the makers which tells you all about the products inside. A recipe card and offers for Hello Fresh and Simply Cook which will be getting used.

Below is what I received. 

As you can tell it's a pretty full box and everything in it I had never tried before, in fact, the only brand I had heard of was Beyond Dark.

Overall, I was impressed with this box so far I have enjoyed the Beyond Dark chocolate and Hectares Sweet potato crisps. My little girl enjoyed the air dried apple crisps.  I loved that all were brands from the UK and that there was a selection of sweet and savoury snacks as well as items to make a main meal.

As with any subscription box there are going to be items you either don't like or aren't keen on. I hate olives, no matter how hard I try to like them I just don't, however, these were gratefully received by my Mum. I would have also like prices of the items to be included in the meet the makers leaflet.

Family Day Out: Blue Planet Aqaurium

We visited Blue Planet Aquarium in Ellesmere Port for a family day out, with the weather being rubbish and Charlotte's aversion to her pushchair something indoors was needed. Jonathan and me visited here around 6 years ago and really enjoyed it.

Entry is £16, however, if you book online you can save £2 per ticket. At the time we went the Voucher cloud app had a 20% voucher. An added cost that I didn't expect was parking, there is plenty of car parking on site and it costs £2.50, which when you are paying up to £16 per adult to get in is a little cheeky!

There are plenty of sea life to see at the aquarium which is split into the following areas; Coral Cave; Amazing Amphibians, Aquatheatre; Underwater Aquatunnel; Amazon; Lake Malawi; Mangrove Swamp; Rock Life; Freshwater Life; Reef Magic; Venom and Outdoor Otter enclosure.

As always Sharks are always impressive to watch swimming around and even more amazing when you can see them swim above you as you walk through the aquatunnel. Seeing a Clown Fish is always a highlight and looking into Coral Cave from above was also an amazing sight. We walked around twice and liked the fact that you are able to do this, it was also nice to see the Otters being fed. There is a playground which can further lengthen your visit if it's not raining and a well stocked gift shop.

Even with my moan about the cost Blue Planet Aquarium is a really good family day out. Charlotte is 17 months old and loved looking at all the fishes and if she could speak her only complaint would be being stopped putting her hand in the water and being made to be sat in the highchair when having dinner.  So, if you are in need of a place to go in the North West I highly recommend going to Blue Planet it is much better than the one at The Trafford Centre and with Cheshire Oaks next door you can round your day off with a bit of shopping.

Review: Denman baby D hairbrush

Charlotte received this brush from my Mum for her birthday back in October. Up until this point I had been using a brush that I purchased from Poundland.

I love the design and haven't seen another brush with a similar design. It has the brush head which is white with a pink rubber Denman logo with the word baby and a loop for the handle which is also pink rubber. The loop handle is really easy to hold and grip whilst brushing Charlotte's hair and is also great for her when she wants to help.

The bristles are so soft and have a lot of flexibility in, at first I was worried as Charlotte has really thick curly hair but the hairbrush glides perfectly through her hair. I would recommend this for any baby.

Denman baby D hairbrush is priced at £5.80 and is also available in baby blue.

Recipe: Tzatziki

This is so easy I'm not even sure I can use the words 'I made this' I don't have the exact quantities as a lot of my cooking is guess work but use as much or as little as you like of each ingredient.

Ingredients

Fat free natural yogurt
Cucumber
Fresh mint

How to make tzatziki

1. Finely chop the mint and dice the cucumbers.
2. Mix with natural yogurt


Below are two meal ideas using Tzatziki.

Diced lamb steak, salad and feta cheese in a Weight Watchers wrap

Chicken breast and quinoa pilaf.

Review: Graze Box

I love Graze boxes and over the years have had quite a few boxes, usually when they are offering them free or at a reduced price. For those of you that don't know what a graze box is, it's a selection of 4 snacks sent through the post for £3.89 a box. You can choose to have these delivered weekly, fortnightly and monthly. The website allows you to mark products with bin, try, like and love as well as a tick box to send soon. 

When I first tried Graze a few years ago I wasn't too keen as most of the products had dried fruit in which I don't like but in recent years they have developed some really delicious snacks ranging from cakes to beef jerky.  They also have a kids graze box and an upcoming breakfast box.

The box I am reviewing is my third box this year as I got a deal for 3 boxes half price. I received Brooklyn Bites, Cheddar Gorge, Graze Brownie and Vitamin E Defence.

Brooklyn Bites contains poppyseed pretzels, cheese cashews and roasted pumpkin seeds. I loved this one it was so tasty and had a good variety of textures. This is 157 calories for the portion.

Cheddar Gorge is a regular in my box and is most definitely my favourite graze punnet. It contains cheese cashews, baked herbed bites and salsa corn sticks. There is a good mix of flavours with a little bit of heat added with the salsa corn sticks. This is 139 calories per punnet.

The Graze Brownie was a welcome edition to this box, it is split into three small pieces so in the interest of losing weight this can be portioned out, however, at 110 calories for the punnet you may prefer to have it in one sitting.

The Vitamin E Defence was my least favourite out of this graze box, it contained cranberries,roasted hazelnuts, jumbo raisins and  red skinned peanuts. As mentioned I am not a huge fan of dried fruits but loved the nuts that came in this punnet. I was able to share this with my little girl as she loves raisins. The punnet is 177 calories.

I do enjoy receiving my Graze box but I am currently taking a break as there is always something I don't like sent no matter how hard I try to weasel out all the dried fruit ones. I would like Graze to introduce a service where you could choose a couple of the things you would be sent.

Try yours at www.graze.com

Banana and Pumpkin Seed Flapjacks

This was a recipe I found in the Weight Watchers magazine which I changed up a bit. The first thing I did was use real butter instead of low fat margarine as I don't like the chemical taste of low fat margarine, secondly because I didn't have enough oats I used 90g less and thirdly I didn't add muscovado sugar as I forgot. However, these little beauties are amazingly good.

Ingredients

140g butter
140g golden syrup
260g oats
2 mashed bananas
2 tbsp of pumpkin seeds

How to make the flapjacks.

1. Preheat oven to 140c
2. In a saucepan melt butter and golden syrup together until it is a nice smooth sauce.
3. Add mashed banana, oats and 1 tbsp of pumpkin seeds.
4. Combine ingredients together and press into a greased tin and sprinkle the remaining pumpkin seeds on top.
5. Bake for 25-30 minutes until golden on top.

NOTD: OPI Gouda Gouda Two Shoes

Just before Christmas I was lucky enough to pick up 3 full size OPI nail polishes from TK Maxx for £2.99. Gouda Gouda Two Shoes was one of the shades which I tried for the first time last week. The colour is a little hard to describe as it is an orange but not too bright and wouldn't fall into the brown category. I also feel that it is almost like a dusky pink colour in some lights. It reminds me of the colour of terracotta plant pots. It has a lot of lovely gold shimmer running through it. 

It applied really nicely and needed two coats to be opaque. This lasted 3 days on me before the ends started to chip but I didn't use a top coat and maybe with that it would have lasted longer. It's an unusual colour and is lovely for the days you want to paint your nails but you want something a little bit conservative.

Slatterys

If you are local to the North West you will have either been to Slattery or heard people rave about it. Up until Valentines Day I was in the camp of never been but definitely needed to because of the rave reviews.

I don't celebrate Valentines Day, however, I do celebrate my little sisters birthday. Along with my friend we arranged to take her to Slattery for cake and of course Charlotte came along with us.

On approaching Slattery you can't help but see the amazing cakes in the window; massive, lavish cakes that make you marvel at the skill and effort that has been put in to make it. After parking the car we made our way inside.

Passing cakes made for birthdays and weddings was like being in a museum of cakes each displaying prices, who knew wedding cake was so expensive? Definitely worth getting married for! Downstairs consisted of the 'cake museum', cake supplies, freshly baked bread and cakes and pastries that you can just pop in and buy. At the back on the shop you are also able to watch the amazing cake makers at work.

The tearoom was upstairs so off we trotted to get our table. We were seated and began to make our way through the menu. There was more than cake on there, it had a lovely selections of afternoon teas, sandwiches, salads and platters. We ploughed through onto the cake menu, it all looked so delicious and making our minds up was difficult.

I ordered Charlotte apple and chocolate dip from the Children's menu and for £1.95 was very reasonably priced. A plate with slices of fresh, green apple with a chocolate pop and dipping chocolate arrived for her. It didn't take long for her to dive and there was chocolate everywhere, if you can't get chocolate all over your chops as a kid when can you?!? I would also like to point out Charlotte did not eat all of this! She would still be awake with the sugar rush now.

Between the adults we ordered the chocolate sampler platter and a Manchester Tart served with raspberries. This was delicious, lovely pastry, sweet jam and a divine creamy custard with a coconut topping.

The platter came with 4 different chocolate cakes and two chocolate pots; one filled with whipping cream and the other with melted chocolate. The cakes we received were a millionaires shortbread, white chocolate cookie, chocolate orange brownie and a chocolate covered chocolate cake. This was chocolate overload, we struggled with the sweetness of this between the three of us, amazingly this wasn't part of the 'sharing desserts' and people were having this to themselves.

If you are after somewhere a bit special for cake or afternoon tea I would definitely recommend a trip to Slattery, I will be returning this month to take my Mum for Mother's Day.

Family Day Out: Pennington Flash

Pennington Flash is one of my favourite places to visit. It is a country park located in the North West of England. It's a gorgeous place to walk, feed the ducks, bird watch, play on the park and to take stunning photographs

Before Charlotte arrived we used to go for walks, to feed the ducks and on a few occasions I took part in the Race for Life which is held there. When Charlotte was a baby I used to go for walks with the pram and sometimes we would be joined by my friend and her little boy.  Now Charlotte is walking it's lovely to take our time to walk with her without being hindered by the pram.

On this particular trip we took bread to feed the ducks, this was Charlotte's first time feeding the ducks and she loved it. She loved walking after the ducks pointing at them and throwing bread into the flash for them to eat.

If you are looking a for a nice, family day out for the cost of car parking (£1.50) definitely give Pennington Flash a visit.