ManicMammy’s Blog

Our daughter has wanted a dollhouse for ages now, since playing with her cousin Simone’s when visiting, so we decided to splash out for her recent 4th birthday.

Yep, its huge. She was gobsmacked when it was taken out of the box. Three storeys and about 3 foot tall, it now resides on our landing. There were too many little accessories for it to stay in the playroom, the baby was bound to eat some or all of them, so its best kept away from her.

It didn’t come with any dolls, we had to spend a little extra to buy a couple of Barbie to live there and a old shaven haired Bratz regularly visits with teddy. But there’s a large range of stuff to go into it and she spends her time arranging and rearranging the layout, with her Barbies, chatting away. Fully equipped kitchen, bathroom and three other rooms all to be sorted: bed, bath, beanbag seat, dressing table, goblets, vases, coffee table, candlesticks, a lamp that switches on and off, a flushing noise loo and plenty more accessories.

Barbie can travel in style up the the staircase, her legs slot into a holder, a lever is rotated and she glides to the third floor. The sides of the house can fold in to minimise the space it takes up for moving or storing it and its fairly easy to manoeuver as isn’t too heavy.

We purchased ours in Smyths for approximately €130.

I bought a silicone loaf pan on impulse about a year ago in Dunnes Stores. It cost €6 and it looks similiar to this one:

I have found it excellent. Really easy to use, no need for greasing the tin or awkward lining the tin with greaseproof paper. The banana bread mixture now just pours straight in and the loaf is removed by turning the “tin” upside down, once its cooked. No hassle.

It is openproof to 230 degrees C. Its freezer and microwave proof and dishwasher safe.

The only very minor disadvantage is, it is obviously not as rigid as a metal loaf tin so the banana bread is more rectangular shaped when its cooked.

This minor change, is definitely more than compensated for, with the convenience of using this silicone loaf pan.

Santa brought this last year for our then 3 year old daughter. Its a lovely wooden made kitchen and is still going strong, despite having been redecorated in blue biro scribbles by the 2 year old. Its very well made, no sharp corners and very sturdy.

It has a few clicky buttons and a pretend sink and hob. The mock oven door opens to reveal a removal shelf and it clicks shut using a magnet.  The accessories shown in the above photo are not included in the cost, just the bar and the hooks to attach them from.

I think Santa may have purchased ours from MiMiToys at a cost of approximately €150. This, in retrospect, was too expensive. I think she would have gotten more play and enjoyment out of a bigger kitchen/area, possibly just plastic, which came with plenty of cheap, robust accessories.

That said, this is a well crafted kitchen which has withstood a year’s fairly robust play.

As far as I can see, the main distributor is John Crane Ltd, as I’m not sure is MiMiToys still sell it.

I’ve just finished watching another episode of this great series. It follows on from last year’s foray into France for Oz and James. James, being a wine novice and usual presenter of BBC’s Top Gear and Oz, being a wine buff and appearing on plenty of British television food and wine programmes.

The first series dealt mainly with Oz showing James a variety of vineyards and  tasting a large selection wines in France during a month spent there. James, a total novice when it came to wine, gained an appreciation for it, but also exposed alot of pomposity and snobbery that exists.

In this series, they’re off to the new world, touring California in a 42ft monster motorhome. To date, its been very interesting. To be honest, I have avoided Californian wines in the past, nothing had grabbed me tastewise from that region. But I’m now interested in trying a variety of the bottles they’ve sampled on the way.

They’ve met an eclectic mix of wine producers and vineyard owners. They’ve sampled very rare, specialised and expensive wines and also, wine from the largest producer: 2 buck Chuck, whos wine costs only 2 dollars a bottle.

James’ mission is to find a decent bottle of wine from California that costs less than £10. Oz’s abhorance of the money making mass production in favour of smaller, more specialised wineries is obvious. They are two very different characters who personalities clash on occasion but who ultimately appear to get on. It makes for great TV.

Aswell as the wine aspect to the show, it does give you a good feel of California, the people and the landscape.

The original series in France went a long way to demystifying the whole French wine set up, labelling, grape types and what goes into making different wines and affecting their prices. It dealt with and explained clearly the “terroir” influence on wines. This series is introducing me to an entire range of wines that I would previously have avoided.  

I hope it continues and that they head to Italy next as I am completely ignorant on Italian wines. Will be watching wherever they go.

Fionn got this off Santa last year as he was approximately 18 months old and loved pushing things around. He was big into his older sister’s doll buggies so Santa decided he might also enjoy having his own walker with bricks to push around.

He loved it. Its made of wood with rubber wheels and is painted bright primary colours.It is very sturdy and robust. The handle is slightly inclined to give stability for the wobbly toddler. He loves pushing it around the house and it has been used to transport a variety of toys and gadgets.

It comes with a load of wooden alphabet bricks, which to be honest, haven’t really captured his attention.

Photo taken from www.mimitoys.ie website where I believe Santa may have purchased ours for approximately €50.

Recommended for toddlers.

Photo taken from the snuggletots website: 

I purchased one of these fleecy cosytoes well over 2 years now. As 3 of my children are winter babies, and I didn’t want to be housebound all of the cold months.

I spotted the Snuggletots website  and proceeded to buy one of their patterned fleece cosytoes.

They are very versatile and can be fitted to different buggies. I have found it very straightforward to use in the single Maclaren buggy or the twin Mamas and papas one.

There are holes in the back of the fleece to slot the buggy strap fittings through so the buggy own 5 point harness can still be used to secure your baby. There are ties at the top of the back of the cosytoes to secure it to the buggy frame which eliminates the risk of it slipping down the buggy.  The zip on the side ensures it’s very easy to place your baby in the cosytoes, and means it can be opened on a warm day so that the baby doesn’t overheat. All very straightforward and not at all complicated.  

The cosytoes are available in an extensive range of colours and patterns so you can customise them to your heart’s delight! They wash and tumble dry really well and ours still looks as good as new after 2+ years of wear and tear.

The baby and toddler love it, and they look so snug when in it.