Fuller Hair?

I've been lucky enough to be selected by the lovely people at Super Savvy Me to try out Nioxin Diaboost.  It's meant to thicken hair, I have horribly fine hair so it sounded the perfect product for hair like mine.

Trying this product out in no way biases my opinion of the product.

First impressions are excellent, it comes in sleak, high-end looking packaging.  It's really easy to apply, it dispenses via a fine spray, the instructions on the box state to massage into the scalp.  I've tried it on wet hair so far, then dried as usual.  My hair does have a bit more bounce about it, certainly my fringe does, which I thought was pretty good for first application.  It has a nice smell about it too, I'd say unisex, so good for men or women.

Great first impressions, I'll keep you posted as to how things go with longer term use.

Amazed by the battery power!

I was selected to try out Duracell's 45 minute battery re-charger over the last month by Super Savvy Me.  I was thrilled to be part of the team as battery use in our house is pretty extensive.  I seem to be forever changing batteries in those Wii Remotes, digital cameras and various other electrical items, so this seemed ideal.

The fact that I got this product for free in no way biases this review of the product.

Duracell in my mind are an outstanding brand when it comes to their standard batteries so my expectations were pretty high.

When the charger arrived I was surprised it was so compact, it folds up too when not in use.  It plugs directly into the wall, so the charger looks wall mounted.  Amazingly, it really did only take 45 minutes to charge the batteries.  There's a little light at the bottom of each battery - it takes 4 at a time, it glows red where the battery needs more charge and green when ready.  I've since charged the batteries from being completely flat, they too only took 45 minutes to charge.

I initially used the batteries in a Wii Remote, I was surprised to find that I could use the remote from places in the living room that I wouldn't have been able to before, they were more responsive than before.  I can honestly say these batteries lasted 4, maybe 5 times as long in the Wii Remotes than previous batteries.  We hadn't been using cheap batteries either....mainly high power rechargeables, sometimes branded disposables, but we were all shocked at the longevity of these batteries.

They've since been used in digital cameras and our GPS all with similar results, they last so much longer and the convenience of being able to charge in 45 minutes really is handy.

Highly recommend the Duracell 45 minute recharger, if you use a lot of battery power in your house, you'll certainly appreciate it.

War with stinging nettles and signs of new veggie life in the garden

The watering rounds tonight with my littlest Berry bought much excitement.  The radish and second lot of spinach seeds had germinated and popped up in nice little rows.  My littlest Berry had planted these with me, so he was thrilled.  He stood happily for ages watering the rows with his mini watering can.

Much as I love this beautiful weather, we could do with a bit of rain overnight, my garden and allotment water butts are nearly empty!

Busy prepping allotment beds for courgettes, pumpkins and marrows - nearly there now.  The plants are currently growing on my windowsills and haven't been hardened off yet, I'm not in a hurry.

I did 'war' with some rouge stinging nettles behind my allotment this morning, despite wearing rigor gloves I still bear the scars - parts of my fingers and arms are numb!  According to my Dad they are particularly nasty at this time of year - wish I'd known that before I started my battle!

It's mainly about the Allotment - getting there!

We're finally getting on top of our allotment - I'm not going to lie, it's been graft.  When we took it on last autumn it was severely overgrown with nettles, grass and dreaded doc leaves with roots three times longer than the plant.  If anyone has taken on a plot or bit of garden that had been badly overgrown I'm sure you can empathize that it does grow back much quicker.

The bottom of our garden was like this when we moved in some years back, it took a good three years to get it to a state where we could do a little light weeding to keep on top of it.  I keep telling myself I'm saving a fortune on gym fees with all this digging and pulling.

Husband heard a tip on the radio saying to put in bigger and higher growing plants was a good way to start growing on a plot like this rather than sew seeds.  I agree.  I kinda already had that plan in mind - perhaps by accident.  All my direct sewing has gone in the garden.

I'm quite excited to see signs of life from my Spinach Beet plants in the garden this week.  We had a great crop a couple of years ago - just kept picking the leaves and using them in salads etc.   I hope this does as well....

The peas are busy sprouting in pots on the window sills, runners planted indoors as well as courgettes  pumpkins and marrows.

I received some raspberry seeds last week which I've also planted inside.  We already have a few plants in the back garden that do really well and three or four healthy looking plants on the allotment.  We all love raspberries so I hope these grow for me.  This is a complete experiment, lets hope I don't manage to kill them before I've started!

Oh, my friend popped this on my Facebook wall tonight, I think it's such a wonderful idea.  I'm dusting the sewing machine off tomorrow to try and make a dress for 'Dress a Girl Around the World'.  What a great idea:
http://dressagirlaroundtheworld-va.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/how-to-make-best-dress-ever-tutorial.html

Home Pedicures - at anytime you like

The Wonderful people at Bzz Agent have supplied a Scholl Express Pedi to test. Their timing is excellent, as soon as the sun starts to appear in Spring is the time that I start to think about getting my feet summer ready - usually including lots of scrubbing time with my pumice stone in the bath, anything that sounded like it  might help with the task of de-wintering my feet sounded very good.

The Scholl Express Pedi comes well packed, it didn't occur to me that it was electric until I realised that the box was still heavy even though the device had been removed and I found the battery in the bottom.

Once the battery was in place the Express Pedi was easy to operate with a very obvious on-off switch and clear removable cap for the top.

The leaflet says to use the device on clean, dry feet.  I had to rummage a bit through it to find that in English.  Maybe a quick start guide on the side of the box would help some keener users.  It also states not to try and remove all the hard skin at once, to do it over a period of time - although I did find the idea of doing it all at once very tempting.

The noise from using it was very minimal, the roller rotates and you simply apply the device against the area of your foot that you want to treat.  For me it's usually the backs of my feet and heel area, then around the sides of my big toe - I get that hard skin that needs to be removed for my feet to look respectable in summer shoes.

The device removes the skin with ease, it doesn't hurt at all and is very quick and easy to use.  I can honestly say that the first couple of times I used it, the device removed the same amount of skin in around two minutes which would have taken 15 - 20 minutes of pumice scrubbing time in the bath.  I get a lot of stubborn skin on my feet.  When you're a busy Mummy that's valuable time.  I also felt I was getting a more 'even finish' from the Express Pedi than from the pumice stone.

It's worth doing it in an area that can be easily swept or perhaps over an old towel or newspaper as it does tend to generate a bit of dry skin (looks a bit like fine sawdust!).  The first time particularly that I did this there was quite a lot of skin, I couldn't believe how easily the Pedi tackled it on my feet, it felt like no effort at all.

After using the Express Pedi I've been using a foot moistursing cream to soften everything up.  I've got into a little habit now of just giving my feet a quick whizz with it before my shower/bath, then popping cream on afterwards.

For the future you can readily buy replacement heads on the high street and on-line, there's a little lock switch on the side that you simply move to remove the head, then the new one pops on.  Very straight forward.

I love my Express Pedi - oh and so does my husband, although he's banned from mine.  I've bought him his own that did the trick and the pumice stone is in the bin.

It's the perfect home pampering device, it really is worth every penny.

Post Bath Pampering

I have to thank Bzz Agent, I'm currently testing E45 Nourish and Restore Moisturising Lotion for them, somewhere in the midst of 'Mummydom' I guess I forgot how taking one minute out of my day to Moisturise after a bath or shower made me feel somewhat pampered.

This cream is seriously lovely, it has a very light fragrance to it, the skin absorbs it very quickly, its light but has such a wonderful moisturising effect.  The more I use it, the better my skin seems to look.

I use an epliator so my skin is often a little irritated - I don't know if it's because the lotion is dermatological but it seems to have a cooling effect on my skin rather than irritation.

Actually don't just take my word for it - get yourself a free sample and give it a try yourself:

E45 Free Sample

Allotment Excitement

After years of waiting, we were finally given an allotment plot this October.  A lot of digging has already been done.  I'm now getting stuck into the planning, I can't wait!

Our cat has the serious hump as every window sill is covered in pots of seeds.  At first I bought a couple of propergators from Homebase at £3.99 a piece.  It quickly occurred to me that if I wanted to plant everything I had on my mind, that this was going to get VERY expensive.  So off I went to Tescos and sought consent to raid the plastics bin dumped in the middle of an aisle.  I came back with a couple of bags of shopping and around 15 odd assorted shaped plastic yoghurt trays.  Treasure at it's best.

I took to planting up the trays with my little Berries, they loved getting their hands dirty and planting the seeds.  Littlest Berry said 'night night' seeds when he covered them over.

Three days later we have a result in one of the propergators, unbelivably the Calliflower had germinated!  Older Berry noticed and bought the propergator to us to see with a massive grin on his face.  It's wonderful seeing them so happy that they'd made something grow.

We're waiting on germination of leeks, giant leeks, sweetcorn, parsnip and courgette.  I have some hanging Petunia seeds on their way too - I better go raid Tesco's plastic tubs again.