Candyfloss & Dreams

Tag: review

  • My Fairy Garden: Fairy Kitchen Garden Review #AD

    My Fairy Garden: Fairy Kitchen Garden Review #AD

    My Fairy Garden: Fairy Kitchen Garden was sent to us in exchange for this blog post. All opinions remain my own. This post may contain advertisement and affiliate links.

    I thought the Fairy Kitchen Garden would be something my mum would enjoy doing with Evie as she loves gardening and Evie is always picking her raspberries and “helping” her in the summer. My mum looks after Evie for a couple of hours every other Friday before she goes to her dads so it was a good chance for them to do something together.

    Fairy Kitchen Garden comes with a planter, Fairy, Fairy House and some pea shoots for planting. You just need to provide your own soil to create a lovely little Fairy Garden. When the pea shoots have grown through you can snip them off and eat them so I also thought it would be a great chance for Evie to learn a bit about growing food too.

    The Fairy Kitchen Garden is lovely and currently has pride of place in my mums Kitchen. Evie and her spent some time putting it together and then planting the seeds. The seeds need to be soaked in water between 6 and 24 hours before planting so I would recommend taking them out and popping in water the night before you want to make the Fairy Kitchen Garden.

    It’s quite simple to put the Fairy Kitchen Garden together and really does look very cute. It’s so quick and simple and a great activity to do with kids as it’s something that is quick to do at first but takes a bit of time to see something grow so it’s nice to see Evie want to help look after something, and hopefully, be proud of what she’s grown.

    We have just started seeing some of the first shoots come through which has really excited Evie!

    My Fairy Garden: Fairy Kitchen Garden is from Interplay and is available to buy on Amazon.

  • BakedIn Baking Subscription Club for Kids

    BakedIn Baking Subscription Club for Kids

    I’ve always loved baking and over the years I’ve had my fair share of brilliant bakes and utter disasters, usually because I haven’t followed a recipe or I’ve missed a vital ingredient. This want of cooking has passed on to Evie who is always asking to make cakes. Having had the opportunity to try BakedIn, a baking box subscription service, I thought this would be a great chance to try a new recipe and have some mother daughter time. My time has mostly been dedicated to Felix but now we are settling into a routine we were actually able to do something together and we made some pretty delicious Whoopie Pies. I’ve never made Whoopie pies, I’ve never used a piping bag and usually when it comes to something with a bit more effort than cupcakes I get a bit flustured. However, this was not the case with the BakedIn Baking box.

    The best thing about the box is getting all the ingredients pre-measured and labelled. There are also really easy to follow instructions, with pictures, and as the ingredients are labelled you always use the correct thing at the right time. All of the dry ingredients have been provided for you and it clearly states on the recipe card what you need to include which is the fresh ingredients so things like eggs, milk, butter etc. However, as these are all staples most people have in their homes it is not really too much hassle.

    We had a lot of fun making our first BakedIn box recipe which included all the dry ingredients for the Whoopie Pies. We decided to make halve and freeze the other half of the biscuit dough for another time. I have to say I have never made anything like this at all and it was really nice to do something together with Evie. I was so surprised with how easy everything was to follow. The only thing I didn’t like was getting stuck in with my hands to make up the dough but that is personal preference and is usually the nature of baking. It’s not a factor that would stop me using BakedIn and I am strongly tempted to sign up myself so that we can try a few more recipes together and share our bakes. Its a great way to spend time together in amongst the new baby madness.

    You can sign up to BakedIn from £8 a month however using the code KAYLEIGH299 you can get your very first box for just £2.99 when you subscribe which is a complete bargain and well worth trying out!

    Disclaimer: We received a BakedIn box in exchange for this review. 

  • Slush Puppie Maker Review

    Having a Slush Puppie maker at home over the summer has been so good. Especially for Evie who loves these cold drinks and they have helped keep me cool throughout the extra hot heatwave during my pregnancy. We were kindly sent the Slush Puppie maker and red cherry syrup in the summer holidays and have been giving it a good test. It is exactly like what you get in the shops and you have slushies within about 30 minutes or so.

    Slush Puppie Maker, Making Slush Puppie Drinks At Home

    You will need a lot of ice, I recommend buying a bag rather than constantly filling up ice cube trays, salt, slush puppies syrup and water. Best results happen if you can freeze the metal canister first to keep the ice cool as it’s mixing. The slush puppie maker is easy to set up. You simply switch it on to mix, half fill with ice, add some salt, add more ice, more salt – following the instructions and then add a litre of syrup mixture. Its then just a case of keeping an eye on the maker until the mixture forms icy peaks and adding more ice and salt as and when you need to. This takes about twenty minutes or so of mixing. You then flip the switch to dispense and pour!

    We have loved having a slush puppie maker and now our red cherry flavour is running out we are looking at trying more syrups and flavours. You can only use one syrup per canister so if you’re looking to mix it up you’ll need more than one machine! I’m eager to try blue raspberry next as it’s my favourite!

    The slush puppie maker detaches from the habit really easily and is pretty easy to clean. Once set up again it’s good to go! If you find that ice is getting stuck or jammed you can flip the switch from mix to dispense to rotate the opposite way and this usually fixes the problem.

    Red Cherry Slush Puppie Mix

    Having an at home slush puppies machine has been brilliant. They’re tasty, cool and refreshing and it’s saved me a few pennies buying them constantly out and about! The Slush Puppie machine is currently available at Menkind for £49.99 (with an RRP of £59.99) You can also purchase Slush Puppie cups and Syrups alongside for £6.99. Current flavours include Red Cherry, Blue Raspberry, Cola or Green Apple. I can’t wait to try more refreshing flavours!

    Disclaimer: We received the Slush Puppie Maker in exchange for this feature, all opinions remain my own. 

    At Home Slush Puppie Maker, Making Red Cherry Slush Puppies At Home

  • Betty Box for Girls – Review

    I started my period when I was eleven but I’ve known girls to start much younger than I was. I’ve also known girls not to start until they’re a bit older but it’s something I feel like I really need to prepare myself for because it’s one of those things you simply don’t know when it will all begin. My daughter will be eight in September, which is quite a way off yet and I also hope that her first period is still years away. In the meantime though, I want to do all I can to normalise and prepare her for starting her period. At her age she hasn’t done any form of body or sex education but that doesn’t mean she shouldn’t know how her own body works. I also want her to have self respect and put taking care of herself as a priority.

    I think this is why I think Betty Box are really great. A period subscription box that’s aimed at preteens to help them learn about their bodies, take care of themselves and the importance of feminine hygiene products. Evie hasn’t really seen a lot of pads and tampons around the home because when I was on the implant I didn’t have any periods. I didn’t even have a need for an emergency stash because for five years of Evie’s life I didn’t have them. This isn’t a problem as such but having the products in the home where they are easy to see and recognise hopefully teaches girls that it’s just a normal part of being a woman. It’s normal to have periods, it’s nothing to be ashamed off and there are ways to keep yourself clean, fresh and feeling a bit better about the whole thing. You can sign up to Betty Box here.

    Let’s be honest, it doesn’t matter how much you normalise them or talk about them, periods really suck. They’re painful, uncomfortable, come with constant hormone changes, emotional changes…there’s nothing nice about them. No one likes them but we have to deal with them. Having a treat like Betty Box each month might just make things a little bit easier. I love that with Betty Box you have a right now supply in a colourful bag that you can pop into a backpack, handbag or school bag. You then have seperate night time and day time pads for the main part of your period. Again showing that pads come in all shapes and sizes because everyone’s periods are different. You can also have a mix of pads and tampons depending on your personal preference.

    Then you get goodies. A little box of skincare, stationary and chocolate treats. This is absolutely something that would have made me feel better as a young girl every month. Betty Box is a great idea for young girls that will help them educate themselves, take care of themselves and show them that even though periods aren’t very nice, there are people out there that want to make them as comfortable as possible.

    Disclaimer: I received a Betty Box in exchange for this feature. All opinions are my own. 

  • Final Fantasy XV Review

    Final Fantasy XV Review

    FFXV is a bloody good game and I have loved playing it for the last couple of weeks. I mean, truly loved it. Final Fantasy has always been a big part of my life as a gamer and FFXV has not let me down. This has surpassed all of my expectations and has given me hope and perhaps a little insight on what to expect with the FFVII remake. I recently played World of Final Fantasy to help pass the time a little as I have been waiting for this for such a long time.

    The only think I didn’t particularly enjoy was Chapter 13 and that’s because it was full of jump scares which did get me gasping…for normal people I’m sure this would be nothing but for me…no, that wasn’t my favourite part of the game but I did admire the darker side of it. In the chapter you’re at a pretty vulnerable position for a good part of it which is tough and the second time I played it through (yes, that’s right, I’ve gone through the story twice…) I found it easier as I had actually taken time to level up a bit – rookie mistake. You need to level grind in Final Fantasy games, it makes the end game easier and saves doing it all in the post game content.

    The graphics are just stunning and the world map is absolutely huge, there is so much to discover which is good because the story mode is considerably shorter than previous games. This game relies on the post game content and sidequests to fill it out which I really enjoyed. FFXV was a welcome upgrade and combined the very best of 12 and 13 for me but it went right back to the original type of gameplay I enjoyed in the earlier games. I don’t want to give too much away really but FFXV is so much better than those two games.

    The story is well thought out and has plenty of emotion. The story is pretty interactive too as you can make different decisions for the characters. You play as Prince Noctis and throughout the whole game you only control him and his actions however you do have three buddies teaming up with you to help with hunts and to progress the story. I really enjoyed the story, the characters were interesting and relatable. The villians were easy to hate too and the enemies provided plenty of challenges.

    Combat is very different but I actually really enjoyed it all. Each character has a set of special moves for extra damage, a bit like limit breaks which I was happy to see return and for them to be easy to use was good. The game stops you relying on summons and magic to power through too which I really liked. Summons come when they want to really after you’ve met a certain amount of criteria in a battle like being low on HP or the battle taking too long but usually their attacks are pretty devastating to whoever you’re fighting. It was great to see the classic summons return for a different interpretation. I have to say I really liked Ifrit and I hope he stays like that from now on! Bahamut did not disappoint either. Magic can have a damaging effect on your allies and react differently depending on your environment however I liked being able to craft spells. There wasn’t a huge amount of boss fights throughout the main story but the ones you come across do provide a bit of a challenge. I didn’t find any too hard though and actually I believe the dungeon bosses are harder.

    The environment really impressed me and it just made me excited. If this is what they’ve done now then I can’t wait to see what future Final Fantasy games hold. I can kind of see how they will make FFVII work now I’ve played this or at least how I would like it to play out. It was the first Final Fantasy game that I’ve played where I actually felt like I was in the world. It’s hard to explain but I guess it’s because things were more to scale than they have been before and you could see so much more.

    I have just been really impressed and I have loved playing FFXV and I will continue to do so as there are more trophies to get and a pretty tough enemy to slay. You can grab Final Fantasy 15 on Amazon.