#Silent Sunday

The Plum Pixie Is Festival Ready

The temperature is rising, the children are officially off school and this mum Is on a mission to keep them smiling not fighting!

For once I’m slightly organised in the fact that I’ve been scheduling! Day trips have been noted for all to see, little man especially (his love of structure is a trait of his Aspergers syndrome).

On the days we are home I’m busy trying to keep their little minds stimulated, I don’t want to hear no “Mum I’m bored” in that pro-longed tone of voice that kids do.
Luckily for me my daughter is rather independent when it comes to keeping herself busy. She prefers to make her own entertainment

We are a family who love a good festival, actually I’m festival mad! We have a few festival trips lined up this year and this gives Alice-Sara the perfect reason to dress up.

When I received an email from the lovely guys at Jokers’ Masquerade asking if the children would like to review some fancy dress costumes, it was Alice-Sara who instantly found hers in the form of the beautiful Plum Pixie.

Knowing Alice-Sara had just found the perfect festival costume I couldn’t wait to order it and get some snaps to share with readers.

The costume arrived just a few days later so I was impressed with the dispatch and delivery times.

The Child Plum Pixie Costume is really good quality yet offers good value for money! Your costume pack has everything your little girl needs to become a little magical pixie. Included is a pretty flower dress in purple, cute purple flower headpiece with ribbon detail, pretty glittery ribbon wand and of course a stunning set of pixie wings.

Alice got out the tongs, face paint and glitter and we got to work transforming my princess into the perfect pixie fit for an enchanted woodland.

As you can see this plum pixie isn’t camera shy!

I love the prettiness of this dress and given Alice-Sara is growing up so fast, I’m making the most out of these days. Soon it will be all GHDs and lipstick which I’m not ready for yet.

As you can see from the above picture, the detail on the dress is very pretty, especially of that on the wings.

The Plum Pixie costume is available online at Jokers’ Masquerade who do costumes for every occasion whether your young or old. They have plenty to choose from if your planning to take little ones to a festival this summer. Alice-Sara will be wearing her Plum Pixie when we head to the Lollibop festival next month.

Plum Pixie is available in three sizes…
3-4 5-7 & 8-10
I find that often fancy dress costumes consisting of fairies and pixies only stock very small sizes! It’s the sizes age 8+ that I find are not readily available. I’m pleased we managed to find such a great pixie dress in the right size at such a reasonable price in time for this festival season.

The Plum Pixie cost just £20.99 and it’s my opinion that for what your getting this is great value for money.

If your looking for something for a special holiday occasion then you’ll be sure to find something from the themed areas of the website. They currently have a huge range of Halloween costumes and Little man will be reviewing one of these over on my other blog A boy with Aspergers during this next coming week.

Disclaimer: This is a review post. I have not been paid to write the post but was sent a costume sample free of charge. Regardless of this it was my decision to post my honest views and opinions which all remain my own.

#Win A Beautiful Disney Book Collection

So, I’ve been writing this blog 6 months now (well, not as regularly as One had first hoped, but it’s still functioning all the same).

As a huge thank you to those who have supported me by following this blog I’ve organised a little giveaway to show my appreciation.

I know many of you have followed me over here from my more established blog “A boy with Asperger’s” which i have now been writing for almost 4 years. Just to know how supportive readers are when I’m starting out a new project is just so very humbling and I thank you all for the time you take to visit and read my blogs.

Well, this is not a sponsored giveaway I actually wanted to organise a prize myself, it’s not much but Harley has a set and loves them… I’m guessing they will bring a smile to another little boy or girls face just as they have his!

The prize…. 4 gorgeous hardback Disney story books.

Included in this beautifully illustrated collection is… The classic which is “Bambi” the loveable “Winnie the Pooh” the fabulous “Up” and lastly one of my favourites “The Lion King”

All four books are beautifully illustrated, each picture will capture your child’s imagination in an instant and you the reader will really enjoy reading these classic tales to your child.

These really are beautiful and they would defiantly look grand on any child’s book case! What’s more, this is just the start to a great collection, you can add to these over the years maybe adding additional titles on birthdays or maybe a stocking filler for Christmas… I know I will be building upon this collection as Harley grows. I want him to enjoy the magic of Disney, just as I did as a child.

It really is easy to enter… If your not already signed up for email alerts then register now! Then just tweet…

“I want to win a Disney book collection with @clairelouise82 https://mummyofmanytalents.wordpress.com/2012/07/22/win-a-beautiful-disney-book-collection/”

Leave a comment with your twitter handle so I know you’ve entered.

For additional entires just use any of the share buttons below then leave a comment for each action taken.

Lastly for one last extra entry… Pin this competition and as above comment to let me know you’ve pinned and how to locate it.

Competition will run till 5pm on the 10th August 2012

Open to those in the UK and Europe only.

You must leave an email/twitter handle so I can contact you if you are lucky enough to win.

Once winner is notified, they will have 72 hours to claim their prize. If they don’t this may result in a redraw.

Winner will be picked at random.

Thanks and good luck

#Silent Sunday

A muddy affair

Last Sunday was the day of Danson festival despite the sun shining the rain failed to stay at bay but in true festival Spirit myself, friend and two of my three monsters dragged our wet butts to Danson park.

Little man really didn’t fancy getting wet amongst the crowds, so he stayed at home with dad.

Sadly the toddler refused to put on his Wellies which resulted in some very muddy new trainers… But that’s life.

Despite the on and off rain the festival had remained pretty busy. We had a look around the large number of craft stools as we munched on hot donuts… Yes i know, So fattening but extremely yummy!

The toddler usually has this fear of getting dirty (well his hands more than anything) however, somehow the trip to the festival seemed to have cured him. I’ve never seen so much mud nor have I ever seen one child so interested in the stuff!

I’d quickly turned from a mad crazy mother, continuously wiping mud of her 2 year old, to one who had given up and could now be seen quite happily jumping in muddy puddles as she danced with him. Yes… I had somehow found myself in muddy heaven

The festival was a blast and all seemed to be enjoying themselves. My 9 year old daughter included.

I love a good festival. Each with it’s own unique vibe but all as laid back and carefree as one another. Yes it’s July and I should be wearing my flip flops as opposed to my Wellies but this is England after all.

The best part of the day had to be the dancing over at the main stage ( in the mud of course). Even the toddler was giving it some of his best moves.

There was a large fun fair and plenty of stalls to keep the family entertained. Nonetheless we didn’t do much walking around, choosing to instead stay by the stage dancing till we could dance no more.

At one point, right towards the end, my daughter who had managed to remain reasonably mud free, accidentally slipped while getting her groove on! The result… A very muddy monster.

As the sun began to set and the band sang its last tune of the evening the heavens suddenly opened and OMG did it rain…

Did we run for cover? Hell No! I wiped out a umbrella shattering the toddler as he continued to do his groovy moves in possibly the muddiest puddles I’d ever seen. My daughter Alice tried sharing her umbrella with a somewhat very wet and muddy Daisy (my friends dog) and me… I just quite happily got soaked as I danced in what some may refer to as a monsoon (yes I did resemble a scary panda, what with the running mascara round my eyes).

As the music came to an end so did the rain, looking up towards the sky, there it was… A beautiful rainbow! What an awesome way to end a festival.

Finally we all headed home for a shower… Wet but smiling.

Danson festival is located at Danson Park in Welling. It’s free to attend and is set up every summer.

#Silent Sunday

VTech come under fire for exploiting and abusing its staff

At times we are blinded by ignorance myself very much included! We hear about things in the news that in this day and age we don’t expect to hear. It’s frightening, shocking and worrying, more so when we discover that big name toy manufacturers such as VTech are the centre of such worrying allegations.

If you haven’t already heard from the news then you will be unaware of what I’m talking about. VTech (those who bring smiles to our children with its disruption of electronic learning toys) have been accused of breaching human rights laws by running prison style sweatshops which drive its workers to Suicide!

The US-led probe is centred around the Vtech plant in China. I only discovered the news when reading the SUN newspaper today.

I have done past product reviews for VTech on my other blog, I’ve also brought many of their flashy children’s gadgets such as the Innotab for the children on their birthdays and Christmas. I now feel somewhat strange and slightly freaked out about having done so.

I’ve seen documentaries covering exploitation where workers are forced to work amongst dirt, for long hours, given little food and paid very little money. I’ve even watched some coverage where children are being exploited in such a way.

Yet somehow I do still find myself shocked and extremely saddened when big named brands worth billions come under the spot light, especially when it’s on my trusted list.

The Vtech plant in China have been accused of exploiting its staff by forcing them to slave on production lines for some 15hrs a day, beating those that don’t comply.

Workers are reported to be feed a diet of just rice and rotten spuds, forced to sleep in overcrowded factory dorms on hard wooden bunk beds without mattresses and receive a pay of just 70p an hour.

Workers have to stay at the factory as the wage is not enough to live on and those who do try to flee are reportedly beaten or have their meagre wages confiscated leaving them to starve.

I also came across an article online which states “Every year, 80 percent of employees attempt to leave, but in these cases they would have to forfeit the previous month’s wages. The factory does have a union, in line with Chinese labour laws, however the employees are either unaware of it or do not trust in the system”

The claims have been made by the ‘Institute for Global Labour and Human Rights’. It is said that the institute who lead this investigation is one that is very well respected.

Workers at the Hong Kong factories have been reported to have attempted suicide. The Institute have told how one 20 year old jumped from the 6th floor dorm and how a 24 year old female took an overdose in her dorm. A dossier that has been put together by the institute has exposed the sickening degree of exploitation it’s young workers have been subjected to. It highlights how workers have leapt to their deaths in a desperate attempt to free themselves from life in these Chinese factories. Workers are quite literally trapped, one worker tells watch dogs that working at the plant is like entering a lions den and becoming a shackled piece of livestock.

What saddens me most is the fact that VTech are said to have known about that of the suicide attempts but instead of taking action it’s said to have sworn staff to secrecy.

The factories involved are also the plants who make cordless phones for “Phillips” (and a number of others). However it is said that Phillips bosses have launched a full investigation into the institutes findings.

The Sun newspaper claims that VTech however have rejected such claims stating they are a responsible and caring employer which had harmonious staff relations.

We as parents buy these toys and give them to our children to enjoy. Knowing that some young person on the assembly line at these factories has been expected to fit four or five components to a circuit board every 11.25 seconds and those who fail to do so are then expected to work unpaid until they have, makes me as a person feel some degree of guilt for unintentionally contributing to toy demands.

Moaning at Argos during the crazy run up to Christmas when the stock is low on Innotabs, will certainly be something many parents may think twice about having read this.

I’m just a blogger and a mother writing about something I’ve read! I don’t want it to be true, who does but this shit happens… It’s sad but it does. Having done work to promote the brand, this now obviously leaves me a little sour and disheartened (it’s like being on the other side of the school gate, we never truly know what goes on in till someone points it out).

The human rights laws are their to protect, those in this country sadly protect the bad as well as the good. It seems that those in other parts of the world fail to protect anyone at all.

I know for many this will be a passing story that leaves little inprint in their memory when rushing to toy retailers come the Christmas rush. For others it will leave a mark, a memory that therefore changes the choices we make when Christmas shopping this year.

I look forward to any updates from VTech, a brand that supplies toys that I as a parent I have put my trust in when purchasing educational toys for the children (ones in which they all love to engage with)! A brand I have promoted on my signature blog and recommended to my readers.

Have you read the stories? I’d love to hear your thoughts. Especially those of the parent bloggers who like me, have done their bit to promote them.

Disclaimer: Information within this post has been drawn from recent news reports on and offline on the 1st July 2012.

#Silent Sunday