The Essential Guide To Keeping Chickens | Easter Ideas

keepingchickensI have always harboured the dream of keeping chickens. One that I doubt will ever be realised as I live in the concrete jungle of London. But I can dream, and watch DVDs like The Essential Guide To Keeping Chickens about how I will look after the chickens that I will (hopefully) have one day.

A lot of great stuff is covered and the DVD is pretty thorough. It covers everything and if you are thinking of keeping chickens this will definitely help you decide. If you already have some, this will cover all of the gaps in your knowledge.

The presenters Jules Hudson and Suzie Baldwin are both brilliant and I really enjoyed this DVD. I learned a lot and the advice is down-to-earth and easy to follow. I don’t think I could clip a chicken’s wing with scissors. This was an entertaining and informative lesson in keeping chickens. An essential for keeping chickens. Good stuff.

Covered in the DVD:

Why keep chickens?
Choosing your chickens
Hen houses and food
Handling chickens
The chicken medicine chest
Mating and murder most fowl!

This DVD from Stitchcombe Productions is perfect for Easter. If you would like a few extra eggs this Easter and can spare a corner of your garden, then why not buy the NEW DVD Keeping Chickens? The DVD is part of The Ideal Life Collection and it tells you everything you need to know – from a list of essential kit to expert tips to ensure that your hens are healthy and happy! Keeping chickens is easier than you think and also extremely rewarding. You could soon enjoy warm, freshly laid eggs every day and, next year, your very own Easter chicks.

Keeping Chickens – Suzie Baldwin has been keeping chickens ever since she was a child and has a real knack of demonstrating exactly how to handle and care for her ‘girls’. Prompted by questions from TV presenter, Jules Hudson, Suzie shows us how rewarding it is to find a clutch of freshly-laid eggs every day.

Whether you already have hens but could do with some extra tips or you’re a total novice, Keeping Chickens will prove invaluable. From practical ‘chicken check lists’ to a demonstration of how to clip a chicken’s wings with a pair of scissors in seconds.

Suzie Baldwin supplies eggs to rock stars and royalty and sells a wide variety of different breeds, hen houses and accessories from an idyllic farm in Hampshire.

Jules Hudson (Escape to the Country) has just started keeping chickens and has a genuine passion and enthusiasm to learn more all about his feathered friends.

The Ideal Life Collection DVDs RRP £14.99

 

 

Frost Loves…Vinyl Coasters

vinylcoasters

Want to reminisce over records and chill with that old school vinyl? With our coaster collection and a cuppa you can! Cool and quirky these coasters are a must for that musically cultured coffee table decor!

Rocking the retro look these stylish coasters will have you buzzing to blast out those timeless tunes, making your home individual with their diverse design and labels.

So ‘turn back time’ with these classics but favour the freshness of vinyl design if you’re a fan!

Just jazz up your home with these chic coasters for that sonic sound of your youth, these records will have your room rocking and raving trend.

Vintage up with Vinyl – Video may have killed the radio star, but we will carry on the comeback of this classic! Sales may have risen for retro, and 1 in 5 vinyl buyers buy a record at least once a week, so purchase this flawless and fashionable find from www.prezzybox.com for only £9.95!

Features:

·      Protects from marks and stains

·      6x Coasters to each pack

·      Dimensions (10x11x11cm)

·      Each have individual labels

 

No Space? No Problem.

Now Christmas is done and dusted for another year, it’s time to start thinking about putting all of your new presents away and packing up the decorations ready to go back in the loft, cupboard or shed. The issue is, however, that with more possessions in the house you inevitably have less room to store them all and you have to think about new ways of putting things away before you start tripping over them all.

bed
The obvious solution for many is to take advantage of the New Year to go through your cupboards (like you’ve been promising for months), and throwing away the things you no longer need or use, or giving your old clothes to charity. However, as good – and kind-hearted – a plan as that might be, some people just can’t throw things away and while there may be a pile of things that are good to go, you still might not have made enough room for everything. What then?

One of the most spacious areas of the bedroom – a room in the house that is usually more cluttered than any other – is often somewhere that most people can’t get to and might not even think about. Underneath the bed you can find tons of room that isn’t utilized, mostly because of the sheer size of the bed you have. However, a solution to that problem could be to invest in one of the frames or mattresses that will not only provide you with a really stylish and comfortable bed, but plenty of storage space beneath it too.

Okay, so the space under your bed isn’t always accessible – that’s fine, because an Ottoman bed can be lifted up using the hinge that is located either at one end or on one side, allowing you to raise the mattress and reveal a storage space that can be hidden from view so anyone who comes round won’t see any of the things you’ve got stashed beneath. It makes perfect sense, especially when you consider that equipment or clothing that you only need at certain times of the year can be stored there to create room in your cupboards and wardrobe.

There’s a major benefit of an Ottoman bed that people don’t really appreciate until they give them a go. When you bring in a new form of storage, either a set of drawers or a shelving unit, you take up valuable floor or wall space. This means that you’re actually losing space to save space and quite often it doesn’t make that much of a difference. With a bed that has plenty of storage, however, all you’re doing is swapping a bed that uses the floor space for one that utilizes it and you get something stylish in the process, a win-win situation if ever there was one.

A Lotto Ticket’s A Winning Wedding Favour

When you get married, part of the fun is coming up those little different touches which will make your special day stand out in people’s memories, and one way to do this is to think carefully about the wedding favours you have on the tables at the reception.

If you’re going to a lot of weddings at the moment it might prove difficult to come up with ideas that haven’t been done before, to make you stand out from the crowd.

One way you could potentially give a whole lot back to your guests is to buy each of them a lottery ticket. In many ways a lottery ticket is the perfect small gift – it doesn’t cost much but it has the potential to absolutely transform a person’s life! Of course, you’re going to have other favours to go with the lotto tickets on the tables, but those little tickets could end up meaning the most. Make it more fun by asking guests to choose the ticket from a basket as they sit down at the table – thereby doubling the role chance has to play!

Today, it’s so much easier than it used to be to take part in the lottery. You can buy tickets online and when you play lotto in UK you can check the results online at any time. And it’s not just the UK lottery that you can get involved in when you play online – you can buy tickets for other big lotteries in different countries. For example, UK residents can now buy tickets for MegaMillions and Powerball in the States, and what’s more, if you won either of these, you’d take home more than an American winner who is taxed heavily on their winnings. Maybe you could spread the chances of your wedding guests winning – by buying some UK lotto tickets and buying others MegaMillions or Powerball tickets.

Even if no-one from your wedding party wins a big prize, it’s a fun idea and one that will stay with your guests long after you’ve headed off on your honeymoon!

 

Choosing The Perfect Anniversary Present

anniversary giftsIf you have a wedding anniversary coming up and you’re at a loss as to what you could possibly get the special someone in your life to mark the occasion, help is here! There are loads of great ideas for wedding anniversary gifts online, but often they can seem too impersonal and generic. If you’re a bit of a romantic and prefer a personal gift, a box of chocolates or a bunch of flowers
can often feel just not good enough for your other half.

A great way to celebrate an anniversary is to look at wedding anniversary gifts by year. Each year of marriage has a theme associated with it, and buying a present to reflect that theme is the ideal way to narrow your options down a bit whilst still ensuring that the present you choose has some special significance for you and your partner.

For couples who have been married for one year, for instance, the theme is paper. This might at first seem like an odd thing to base a present on, but in fact there is plenty of scope for choice and imagination within each theme. So for paper, you could choose to put together an album of pictures from your honeymoon, or frame a particularly good picture of the two of you. If photos don’t float your boat then an alternative paper-themed gift could be some lovely stationery or, thinking outside the box a little bit, how about a year’s subscription to a magazine based on something your other half is really interested in?

Maybe you’ve been together a little bit longer, say fifteen years. In which case, your anniversary theme is crystal. This theme also has lots of scope for imagination and choice. For instance, you could choose crystal champagne glasses, a crystal faced watch or you could really go for it with a weekend skiing break for two!

Wedding Ideas | Make A Badge

Good weddings have fun, personalised details. These very cute and quirky badges work for weddings and the hen/bachelor party. The wedding badges are only £1 for the standard size, and £1.50 for the large one with free personalisation, they work to let people know who is who, and also as mementos of the day for bridesmaids and such. Great for those on a budget (which is pretty much everyone at the moment!) We think they are great. From Makeabadge.co.uk

20140117-232833.jpg

What do you think?

Calm: Secrets To Serenity From The Cultures Of The World

Calm: Secrets To Serenity From The Cultures Of The WorldIn the run up to Christmas we got sent a lot of books about being calm. Rather aptly when you think of the stress and craziness of Christmas. Calm: Secrets To Serenity From The Cultures Of The World is a different type of book, it takes inspiration from cultures around the world to add to your life. A smart and great idea. The book has fifty calming cultural secrets as well as the methods for applying them at home. Each one brings a new idea to bring to your life. Unlike other books on being calm, this one is actually calming to read. You just have to relax and learn, then implement what you learn into your life.

The book is easy-to-read and fun. Each cultural calming secret comes with the secret, the tradition, the date to try it and the country it originated from.

For example, Reap What You Sow has the secret: Be self-reliant, the Tradition: gardening for self-sufficiency, Date: Any time, Originated in: Chartreuse Monastery, France. It then goes into detail.

Calm: Secrets To Serenity From The Cultures Of The World is a very good book, a great buy that is a step up from most of the self-help books out there: one with real, helpful advice and great cultural secrets: self help whilst learning about travel and culture? Enlightening and entertaining. I loved it.

Calm: Secrets To Serenity From The Cultures Of The World can be bought here.

 

Douvall’s Argan Oil Gift Set | Christmas Gift Ideas

Gifts from Harrods are the ultimate decadence, and this gorgeous and stylish Douvall’s Argan Oil Gift Set from Urban Retreat at Harrods is affordable luxury for someone you really love. And I mean really love. Don’t be scared of keeping for yourself, it is that type of present.

argan gift set, christmas

Upon trying the Douvall’s Limited Edition Christmas Gift-Set I was impressed at how my skin looked after. I am a fan of face oil anyway, massaging it in and using the muslim cloth to take if off after really leaves the skin exfoliated and clean. Something about the massage and the face oil really has an effect on wrinkles and skin tone. The organic argan oil moisturiser is not only light enough to use on the face but can also be used on the body, on split ends, cuticles and in the bath. I love both of them, they are products that really work.

unnamed

The limited edition set includes 50ml of Douvall’s best-selling Organic Argan Oil Moisturiser, which protects the face, body, hair and cuticles whilst minimising the appearance of fine lines, and 150ml of Douvall’s All-in-One Argan Oil Cleanser, enriched with natural almond, safflower seed and grape seed oil which leaves the skin smooth, dry and moisture balanced.

Douvall’s Christmas Gift-Set – £48. Available from Urban Retreat at Harrods www.urbanretreat.co.uk/beautique and www.douvalls.com