Category Archives: Family

Map Geekery

June 28, 2012 By in Family, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , 18 Comments

Barefoot Books atlas

I mentioned in my BritMums post earlier in the week that once I’ve fulfilled my current commitments I’m not going to do any reviews on the blog… but that doesn’t mean that I can’t still have a big old gush about a company if I love them. This is one of those gushes. 

I’ve always been a map geek. I love them. Sometimes when I was a wee girl, instead of asking for a bedtime story, I used to sit with my Dad or my Grandpa and pore over a map of some place I’d never visited before. Maybe the Pennines, or Kansas, or Madagascar – it didn’t really matter – maps meant possibilities, adventures, fulfilling dreams. I had a brilliant jigsaw puzzle of the world, where all the countries were different colours, and you had to work out how they fitted together.

I am only slightly embarrassed to admit that I never really grew out of the map geekery; when I was eighteen I won the award for being the top geography student in Scotland. Give me a packet of colouring pencils and a map to colour in, and it still makes me happy.
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Toucan Box Review

June 22, 2012 By in Family, Reviews Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , 4 Comments

Text 'Toucan box review' on top of an image of green felt coaster

There has been a lot of chatter online about something called a Toucan Box.

If you’re even an occasional reader of this blog, you’ll know that crafting is not really my thing. My only (slightly tongue in cheek) attempt to post something creative on here involved a lego man and a champagne cork. It wasn’t pretty.

But I’d like to change that. It’s the one area of parenting where I feel I let DorkySon down slightly. He has unlimited access to paper, crayons and pens at home, but we rarely do anything more exciting than that, especially since he has started nursery. I have handed all responsibility for his craft activities to them. At home, his glitter glue is going crusty in the tube, and his paint box hasn’t been opened in weeks.

So when I started to read more about the Toucan Box, I actually got quite excited. It’s a monthly subscription box that is delivered to your house, containing all the materials you need to do a range of craft activities on a certain theme. When I was offered the opportunity to test a Toucan Box, I couldn’t resist.
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A wet wedding weekend in Edinburgh

June 19, 2012 By in Family, Scotland, Travel Tags: , , , 5 Comments

Angels with Bagpipes Edinburgh

We were up in Edinburgh at the weekend. DorkySon and I have been back once since we left, and DorkyDad has been up a couple of times for work, but this was the first time we’d all been back together. It was only a quick visit for a family wedding, but we packed in as much as time and the weather would allow.
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Dad

June 14, 2012 By in Family Tags: , , , , , 8 Comments

practicing wedding speech

Whenever the lovely Donna at Mummy Central asks me to do something, I find it hard to say no… so I’ve been walking around all week trying to compose a post about Fathers Day. I’m bending the rules slightly – it doesn’t feel right to write it in the style of a letter – perhaps because I’m actually going to be seeing my Dad this weekend for the first time in about eight months, so I want to keep all my news for then! But it has given me an excuse to revisit some lovely memories, and look back at some old photos.
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Remembering

June 13, 2012 By in Family Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

grey stone

I have a wedding to go to this weekend.

It’s just a small one, but there will be a handsome groom and a beautiful bride, standing together in a wee room in Scotland that is just busting with love.

There is a reasonable chance I will be the only one there with a camera, and I want to try and capture some of that love. So tonight I am reminding myself that I have more than one lens for my camera.

This shot has reminded me to focus on the details.