Little Miss was sent one of their Robot Playmats £43 to test out. The first thing I noticed when it arrived is it’s nicely padded and is nice and bright.

We tried it out straightaway and Little Miss seemed very happy on there.

It’s really well made and has lots of interesting patterns on it which Little Miss enjoys when she has tummy time.

The playmat has a water resistant base so you can use it outside and we have!

It can be folded up and taken out with you, perfect for picnics or trips to the park. We will be taking it on holiday with us next week.

The playmat also comes in a butterfly design which is really sweet. Matching cushions are available, though I have my eye on a tepee!

The playmats make a great new baby gift.

You can find Catching Stars on Facebook and Twitter

We moved house recently and I was worried about BG and the new stairs at night. She often gets up and comes to us and I didn’t want her to get confused and fall down the stairs. Lindam kindly sent us an Easy Fit Plus Deluxe Safety Gate to use.

OH fixed it quite easily to the top of the stairs.

This gate is great it’s easy for the adults to open one handed but BG can’t work it out. The gate opens both ways which makes life easier.

Product Features:

• 4 point Pressure Fit – U shaped power frame provides solid pressure fitting
• Squeeze and lift handle for easy one handed opening
• Triple opening action
• Double locking option
• One or two way opening for maximum flexibility
• Strong steel construction
• Assembled and ready to use
• Adjusts to fit openings from 75cm to 81cm
• Can be extended up to 137cm with separate extensions
• Safety barrier conforms to EN 1930:2011

I slept easier knowing that BG would be safe it she went near the stairs.

We shall be getting more once Little Miss is active, which from the looks of it won’t be long!

You buy the Lindam Easy Fit Plus Deluxe Safety Gate from £22.99 at Babi

She was sent

Miffy Cute as a Button Squeaker £6.99

This is a really cute little bunny with a great squeaker in it. Her face lights up when we squeak it for her. She also likes to eat the ears at the moment.

Miffy Baby Chime Ball in Baby Pink £7.99

Little Miss loves this ball, we have tied it to her play gym and it’s the first thing she goes for. It has a gentle chime ball inside and she loves making it chime. It is nice and soft. You can tie it to the pram or cot as well as any play gyms.

Miffy Hooded Towel

Little Miss was sent the hooded towel from the Bath care collection £10.99, she is too young for the body wash that comes with it. The towel is really good quality and soft. It washes really well with no shrinkage

Any of these products would make great gifts for a new baby. Visit the Miffy Shop to see their full range of Miffy products.

Thank you Miffy for our gifts.

The food is really nice there was only a few things I didn’t like; the Apple and Cinnamon Rice, the salted popcorn and the sour cream potato bakes. So I substituted my snacks for something of equal calorie content. However the sweet popcorn is really good and just enough to satisfy my sweet tooth.

As I am on the 1500 calorie diet I get to add 75g of wholemeal bread to my lunch and 125g of cooked pasta or rice or a small jacket potato to my dinner plus veggies and a piece of fruit with my breakfast.  I also get a 400ml milk allowance but most days use about 300ml

I had three meals a day plus two snacks one of which was a banana and some almonds or brazil nuts and the other a weightaway snack or one of my substitutes.

This is what I ate this week:

Wednesday

Oatmeal with Apple & Banana plus an Apple

Butternut Sweet Potato Soup and 75g Wholemeal roll

Beef in Ale with carrot and onion, jacket potato, green beans and broccoli.

Thursday

Oatmeal with Caramel plus an apple

Pea and Ham Soup and a 75g Wholemeal roll

Salmon and Pea Risotto, Baby Sweet corn and broccoli

Friday

Original Granola Crunch and fresh pineapple

Tomato and Basil Soup and a 75g Wholemeal roll

Pork in Honey and Mustard, rice, green beans and baby sweet corn

Saturday

Apple and Cinnamon Rice and a Banana (I then swapped the rice for an alternative cereal)

Chunky Veg Soup and a 75g Wholemeal roll

Lancashire Hotpot, Baked Potato and peas.

Sunday

Tropical Muesli and a banana

Butternut Sweet Potato Soup and 75g Wholemeal roll

Beef Meatballs, pasta and salad

Monday

Oatmeal and Strawberries and an apple

Pea and Ham Soup and a 75g Wholemeal roll

Wild Mushroom Risotto, cauliflower, carrots and green beans

Tuesday

Oatmeal and Plum and an apple

Tomato and Basil Soup and a 75g Wholemeal roll

Salmon in Spinach & Tomato, Rice, sweet corn, broccoli and carrots.

My favorites so far are the Granola and the Mushroom Risotto they are so good!

Ok weigh in time. I was really shocked when I weighed myself this morning that I actually went to Boots after dropping BG off and weighed myself there but they were correct.

Last Wednesday I was *whispers* 16st 12lbs. Today I am…..

Yes that’s right I have lost 6lbs this week! I know the first week of a diet generally sees a large weight loss on previous diets I have lost 4lb in my first weeks but this huge. I am expecting this to steady out and will probably lose 1 -2lbs a week going forward.

It just goes to show how much food I was eating before to have such a huge weight loss. The 5k Race for Life on Sunday helped as well.

I feel better already, have much more energy. For the first time in a long time I am actually having my 5 a day and drinking plenty of water. I have also had two portions of fish this week which is unheard of!

This week I will only be doing the Weight- Away  plan until Saturday as Sunday I go on holiday. I will be trying my best to eat well when I am away but there might be a few treats! I will try and do a weigh in Sunday morning before we go but if not I will do a weigh in when I get back.

Weight- Away  are doing a special offer at the moment buy one get one free on the monthly hampers, see the website for more details.

This weeks Books by Bloggers is Maggy Woodley who writes the craft blog Red Ted Art. 

My Journey – Blog to Book

The last few weeks have been a rollercoaster ride of emotions – as my very first book was FINALLY published. Without a shadow of a doubt a super exciting and special time for me – seeing my crafts and my kids (!) in print is really quite something. To a degree it still all feels rather surreal. Especially, as it takes SOOOO long to go from book deal to a book in your hands.

It all started well over a year ago – nearer 18months ago, when I received my first “book deal” offer. I was excited, over the moon and new it was something I always wanted to do. I would have been ready to take ANY offer, so long as I got my crafts in print! Luckily though, I got in touch with an agent, who was able to get me a slightly better offer with Square Peg (part of the Random House group).

It is definitely worth not taking “whatever comes” along, but to talk to the experts and find out what else is out. It isn’t just about the book, but also about the editor – will you get along and the publisher’s location (can you easily make it for meetings and photoshoots etc).

Fastforward 18months (and a lot of craft and hard work later) and I am published! SQUEAL! Yes, published! How did that happen?!

• Firstly – I found my crafty “voice”. I grew in confidence and create more. I became known for certain things (i.e. loo roll crafts).
• Secondly – I improved my photography – enabling me to show case what I do better.
• Thirdly – I spent A LOT of time on social media! I grew the blog and my social media networks.
• Fourthly – I persevered. And with that – I kept asking publishers and other author’s agents, whether they would be interested in a Craft Book with me. I had my blog to show case and my social media stats to support the interest in my book.

And then it happened. 16 months ago, we were sitting in the Square Peg offices. I met my editor for the first time and she was taken by our little Dwarf Peanut Puppets (I had brought some along to show) and impressed by my stats.  A contract soon followed and the hard work began.

It has been an incredible journey of “Stay at Home” to Craft Blogger to Writer. I loved every minute of working with Square Peg and learning about the publishing process and now I have my very own book in my hands. Simply wonderful.

If becoming published one day, is a dream of yours, I recommend looking at the four points above – content of course is King, but by having an established “fan base” you are are much more interesting to a publishers. In the old days, publishers would tell their authors “get online, start a blog”… now frequently it is the other way “get a blog, prove yourself… get a book deal”. I see more and more bloggers making the switch from blogger to author. I am sure you can too!

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Red Ted Art, Cute and Easy Crafts is available from Square Peg publishing via Amazon (currently at £10.23), Waterstones and boutique booksellers across the country. Maggy Woodley is a mum of two (Red Ted (5) and Pip Squeak (3)), writes at Red Ted Art, as well as about life in general at Life At The Zoo andTheatre, Books and Movies.

If you would like to be featured on Books by Bloggers then email me at carol@parentpanel.co.uk