SwingBall Pro....

If you are as old as me you shall certainly have fond memories and remember the days of playing swing ball in the back garden. Oh my, I used to love that game, though I always ended up playing against my brother who would always whack the ball SO hard I would practically fall over. The Poppins children and I were sent the new SwingBall Pro to have a play with and see what we all thought.

Now obviously I am not as young as I was in those swingball playing days I remember so fondly, though I know it was indeed a favourite game I used to play as a child, and was pretty confident my own children would love it as much as I did. The pro is aimed at 6+ yrs and a super, ultimate Swingball, which is perfect for older children and adults who enjoy hitting a real tennis ball. The all surface base, which also has markers to enable players to keep score as you play, allows you to play on any surface. Simply fill the base with water or sand and you're ready, literally anywhere. As the swing ball pro packs away neatly in the all surface base with carry handle, we think would be a super duper item to take on holiday, especially in our little retro caravan and where there is water, and sometimes even sand, always on tap.

So, how does SwingBall Pro compare to the classic Swing Ball?

SwingBall Pro is taller and faster....

It has stronger power bats....

It also has a real tennis ball....

And a more stable all surface base....

Well, what can I say, there were four pairs of hands eager to get the swingball pro out of the box. As an old player I kind of got the idea on how to set it up and get playing, though I did have a little read of the simple constructions ( as Master P calls them ) as I went. Although aimed at 6+ I was more than happy for my just turned 5 year old Master Popps to have a gentle go with adult supervision. So we got it set up quick flash and got playing. So some actions shots of the little Poppins....

You can have a lovely browse over at the Mookie Toys website, where you shall find a wonderful world of play. So, even though the weather looks like it needs a little cheering up, am off to play some Swing Ball and get those aging muscles of mine working....

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Jungle Speed Review....

There has been great joy, fun and laughter in the the Poppins house playing this wonderful game, which was sent for us to try out.

In Jungle Speed, you must rely on your keen sense of observation and quick reflexes. It requires a steady hand which can be hard to keep up, especially for me during all the fun!! The little wooden Totem had us baffled for a little while ( we are a family who doesn't really do instructions, we just like to get stuck in, not always the best way ) though soon realised that it sits in the middle of the table, waiting for the player with the fastest reflexes to snatch it up and win the game.

Each player is dealt a hand of cards, which are shared out and in order to win you must be the first player to get rid of all of your cards. On each turn, all of the players reveal one of their cards, and if two cards are identical, those players must make a grab for the Totem. The faster player then gives their cards to their opponent. To make this game a little more difficult ( Oh dear mummy does really do do difficult ) certain cards are almost identical, which can trick one ( mostly me ) into grabbing the Totem by mistake. This is a real fun game, enjoyed by us all, a little too tricky for the four year old, but he had had fun grabbing the totem anyway!! I can only praise this game, which is fast, furious and trains ones quick thinking and lightning reflexes to outwit opponents. It is aimed at 7+ and I know many adults alike, enjoy this fun game, especially over a nice cold glass of vino. I can only imagine the game having a little extra fun to it ;0) The game can be purchased from many lovely independent retailers that can be found here at Find Your Game Store or indeed over at Amazon

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Had A Sneaky Play....

Is it wrong that I want my son's christmas present. I couldn't resist a little play, it is super fun!!

It spins, has flashing lights, does acrobatics, and goes like a rocket. We have been very late getting some presents for the children, and thankfully one or two have arrived before the big day. Though am very tempted to wrap this one up all for myself ;0) Do you play with your children's presents before you wrap them?

Or am I just a big kid....

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I Have Won A Prize....

I thought a week or so ago it would be nice to enter a competition. The competition was held by the lovely people over at the Make It And Mend It website. The competition was to write a couple of sentences  describing the homemade project you’re most proud of – and to send a photograph of it in. Well for me there was no contest, and it had to be the wonderful project I handmade and that I posted about here The beautiful patchwork quilt that I made with the encouragement from this lovely lady. It was for Miss. Poppins' bed and was to be made from all her old baby dresses. I had such fun making it, well over a year ago now, and it is still going strong, been washed many times and used for picnics, holidays away and is definately a much loved handmade item of mine.

Anyway here is the photograph I sent in and what I said about my enjoyment at making it.

“The homemade project I am most proud of has to be a beautiful patchwork quilt I handmade for my 8 year old daughter, using fabric from all her old baby dresses. Even though the first dress I cut into I shed a little sentimental tear, it got much easier as I went on and cut into more dresses. I am so proud that I made something so special to me and my family. It was my first attempt at quilting and indeed produced a passion in me for crafting, especially using pre loved fabric, and the quilt shall hopefully hold special memories for my own daughters children one day.”

Well the winners were announced after the closing date and guess what, I was one of them :0) I have to say I was quite proud as there really is a bunch of love wrapped up in that quilt and to find that somebody thought it was worthy of me winning a lovely prize made my heart sing. Here is what the judges said,

We were really touched by the way Mary described this project and all the love that went into it. And what’s not to love about the end result! WINNER.

And as for the lovely prize, I won a brand new copy of The Homemade Home. A wonderful book for Make and Menders. Sania Pell has written tutorials for some wonderful ideas and projects that are easy to do as well as pretty and creative. Sania is a stylist and designer with a background in textile design, who is very passionate about making and mending. The projects in the book are all a clever, fun way of cheering up your home whilst saving money too. I have really enjoyed winning this superb book, and look forward to having a go myself, at some of the projects for my own Homemade Home.

I love the idea of framing special clothing.

Appliqued table linen.

And I adore these butterfly curtains.

So a lovely book for me to be inspired by.

What else I am being inspired by is a lovely ribbon and trimming swap I did with Sue from Vintage From The Village We realised we both have a thing for pretty ribbon, trimmings, lace, fabrics, lavender, well lots really, so did a little swap. Here are the delights I received from the very lovely Sue.

As well as these gorgeous note cards

Sue sent a fairy box full of treasure

Lovely handmade lavender sachets

Oh so pretty notebook and ribbon flowers

Thank you so much Sue, I was so touched by the beautiful and pretty treasure you sent and shall have fun making pretties using the lovely array of ribbon, buttons, trims and lace.

Here is what I sent to Sue. Some lovely Rosali fabric and pretty stationary.

And here is the treasure I sent.

I chose some very pretty buttons to send to the lovely Sue.

Thank you Sue, I really enjoyed our little swap.  

Well I have had a busy couple of days making at the Poppins home. I have been fortunate enough to have had some very lovely sales in my Folksy shop, and as many of my sales have been handmade to order items it has kept me close to my chine. Here is what I have been making for some very lovely people.

For a special birthday boy.

A mummy who wanted one of these for a girl and boy in time for Fathers Day.

For a very special and cool little boy.

And for a special little girl.

After a little break from the button sewing, I have got back into the swing of them again.

I have even managed to list a couple of new pretties too.

And the back, which I have kept nice and neutral.

And keeping with the cowboy, some bunting perfect for a cowboy loving boy (or girl) :0)

So making something, hopefully, every day is certainly keeping me motivated and the mojo for now, is well and truly here. 

And saying that I shouldn't be here, but in here

Everyone is waiting for me to get out in the garden and camp out for the night, Yes I know, all this fun and frolicks, and on a school night,  norty Mary P ;0)

Thanks And A Little Ramble....

Hi Di Hi ;0)

Well thank you very much for your lovely comments on the mice thing. I tell you friends I have thrown/given away maybe half my house in the last couple of days. I think I have come to the realisation that I am rather partial to hoarding and I am fed up of it now, so with spring a coming, my home is in for a thorough spring clean. And actually I am finding it all rather therapeutic. I even threw away a romantic and beautiful Christmas card Mr. P gave me years ago, yes I keep everything, and you know what, I didn't bat an eyelid.

 Hey, with our little mice thing, Mr. Poppins wanted to do the man thing and go a searching for any holes that Mr. or Mrs. Mousey may be using, and what did I find him using, only my pink tools. Now he has about 20 tool boxes so why he was using my little pink screw driver I shall never know ;0)  Anyway he seems to have done the trick, as so far so good and the mice may have upped sticks :0)

I have some lovely thanks to two lovely ladies. The first being the ever so talented Luluiz who kindly sent me some VERY special paper. There has been a project in mind I have been wanting to do for what feels like donkey's years, but you know how it is, these things always get put on the back burner, blah, blah. Anyway with seeing the fantastic and wonderful project here that Liz was doing, I had to email her for a little advice. I kind of knew the basics but it is so nice and helpful isn't it when someone out of friendship and support helps you out when you have a question. I am very, very grateful Liz :0) So look what act of kindness Liz has sent me out of the goodness of her heart, may look like a little paper to you, but to me means so so much more. Please do say hello, Lululiz is offering a wonderful Giveaway to celebrate her 100th follower.

I can now crack on with my project. I think you may have guessed what I am doing, but if not here is a little clue ;0) Since I have had my adorable children, so for 8 years now, I have always wanted one of  these, sigh. Every Christmas and Birthday I look out for a bag shape ;0) I know the exact style I want and have my photograph ready. So now with the special gift from Liz lets see if I can produce my very own version for now.

I also want to thank my wonderful and special pal, Mary my Bargain Hunt buddy. Apt actually that I mention out stint on BH, as although has been lovely and sunny, is a little chilly as the day draws in, so guess what I am wearing right now as I type, yes the fabulous and ever so fetching BH Fleece. I am so glad Mary and I insisted on being The Red Team, we wouldn't do it if they gave us blue, honestly, we wouldn't. The red suits our completions so much better. Is funny, when I go on my own little bargain hunt I always wear my lucky BH fleece, and it ALWAYS gets me a couple more pounds off a pretty than I think it would if
I was not wearing it. Hmmmm I wonder how often Mary wears hers ;0)   

Well look what pretties came for me. Mary knew I was after a couple of knitting needles, as I have decided I don't like crochet, it doesn't like me and I am no longer going to pretend I am any good at it, so I had a go at knitting. And you know my hands seem to likey. I won a lovely Yarn giveaway at Karen's and am now looking to make a knitted bag. Look at the Ohooo so cute knitting needles Mary sent me to help me along, aren't they adorable. Beautiful colours in their own special case, two cool chunky ones too, and also pretty CK tissues and a sweet card. thank you so much Mary, my forever friend.

I have also been enjoying making some of my doorstops and pretty hearts for a little order that came my way. I adore this fabric, one of my favourites. Even though it is now running out, I don't mind it going to a good home too. Hopefully I am not too precious over my fabric, I think there may be a couple of you that have had a little of this special one. And I know I have certainly had more than my fair share from you all for my kitchen project. Spread the fabric love, that is what I say :0)

I have also made a couple of sweet hearts for a lovely  lady.

And then of course there are the other 352 projects I have on the go to be getting on with ;0)

I have been tagged by the lovely At Home With Mrs M. to talk about shoes, my shoes. Well I love shoes and I shall look forward to chatting about one of my favourite subjects with you. For now, I shall leave you with a sneak of my newest pair, of course there is a flower or two and sky scraper heels to boot. And the price, was a bargain. 

So hope you are all gearing yourselves up for the weekend. We have had a little exciting news regarding Miss. and Master. Poppins' work  getting paid to have fun. I have to take a little jaunt to London for the day next week, on my own with two young children, eeek. I am a little nervous I have to say, I can't remember the last time I went down there on my own. Though shall be fun and a little adventure for us, I bet I shall have a tale or two to tell upon my return. It is a casting for an advert, and hope you can have your fingers crossed for us all, tis all fun and games in this Poppins' house I tell you ;0)

Happy Days....

Well it has been a very exciting couple of days for Mary Poppins :)

Some of you may know I have a love of the theatrical world and entertainment, I also love a bargain, so what a wonderful idea I thought it would be to apply to the television programme BARGAIN HUNT, Ohooo yes a wonderful idea I thought, now I need a like minded friend who is a jolly soul to come on too. Well I think I thought for maybe 2 seconds and of course there was only one person it could be my lovely Blog and Internet friend Mary

Luckily for me she agreed, we had never met, though had built up a lovely friendship over the year and knew we would get on perfectly. So we applied, had interviews and auditions and seemingly they loved us and we eagerly looked forward to filming.

Of course being the fiesty gals we are, only went and asked, well if I am honest, demanded that we would very much like to be the red team, suits our complexions better and is so us. So what a fun day we had with the production team, I think we were good entertainment Mary and I. We are yet to go to the auction and see if we have indeed won the programme by making the most, if any profit.

Though actually win or lose, makes no difference to me as we had a ball.

Mary bought along some wonderful presents for me. The cake stand that I have for her as seen in my previous post I forgot to bring, yes I am a ditsy, so was a little embarrassed that I had nothing in return for her when she handed over some pretties for me.


One of her wonderful handmade tote bags, an adorable wooden hanging heart with exquisitely hand painted Butterflies and Daisy's, some adorable wrapping paper that I fell in love with and a cute and very thoughtful hand knitted chocolate cake with cream on the top, made by Mary's Mother who is in her 80s. Very touching, I blubbed.





Being as ever generous Mary also saw some wonderful original oil paintings, that she says were a bargain from the CB, aren't they the sweetest little things, and one of them, the little girl holding the dog, is one I have on a card and one I love, so very heart warming that Mary saw it and thought of me.











Thank you so much Mary, I had a wonderful, happy, special day with you, I thought we made a brilliant team, was fun wasn't it.

Of course I couldn't leave the antique fair we were filming at without purchasing a couple of pretties for myself. We were allowed half an hour or so to browse and these are what took my fancy.


Two lovely vintage irons that I am going to use as bookends.





A wonderful vintage Perter Pan card, I think I am a little Peter Pan, never wanting to grow up.





Some wonderful embroidered tablecloths, I have never been lucky to get as good a bargain.





And a lovely little treasure that summed up the wonderful day.





With a sweet little inscription.





Right I have a Birthday party to organise, someone very special in the Poppins house hold is 3 :)





Happy Days

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