Register as a secret shopper on Retaileyes and they will send you details of local businesses that require you to conduct stealth visits to check the service and quality of the output. You can resister for all sorts of different businesses from hotels to airports to pubs depending on your lifestyle and not only will they reimburse you for whatever you spend in conducting the visit (subject to it marrying up with what they want you to check!), they will also pay you some pocket money expenses for your time.

So far I have been a mystery shopper at Subway and a local pub and earned the princely sum of £8.00 for the privilege of having my lunch paid for. Not bad for doing nothing more than giving my opinion!

(In my wildest dreams I would never have imagined anyone would pay me for that.)

Ten bakers have been set the challenge of baking everything from bread to puddings in different British cities and they are gradually being whittled down to one champeen baker as the competition heats up (geddit?)

Who knew there was so much science and skill required to bake the perfect loaf..? Well, to be honest, most of us….but who now understands the techniques required in order to make the perfect loaf  and also feels the urge to home-bake after watching this program?

Everyone. That’s who.

You can almost smell the chelsea buns baking….Magic telly.

They are beautiful to behold and for once in the world of book covers, well reflect the joys within. (Although I am a bit partial to the Penguin originals myself and it could be said that there is not a duller book binding in history….)

This is The Secret Garden, as imagined by Lauren Child…..Lovely…Check out the others here

We were lucky enough to catch a big set of Ikea shelves on freecycle so now my office looks less like an explosion in a clothes factory and more like somewhere that stock is neatly stored and easily accessed. Very in keeping with our drive to make the business more green and less heavy on the planet.

Jensen went to his uniform sale appointment and I was very heartened to see that it was possible to buy second hand blazers and other items of lightly-used school uniform at discount prices. Sadly they didn’t have anything in his size, but I know where his blazer will be going when he finally out grows the long arms in ten years time….

And finally, James’ granny donated a pair of massive leather armchairs to our front room which is currently home to an armchair that we got when we first moved in together and makes scary noises if you sit on it too heavily, and a sofa that I have had since I was a student and no amount of imaginative covering with throws can make respectable. Initially I was a bit ambivalent about the leather armchairs, not really being a leather armchair sort of person (what IS one of those anyway…?). Then I found the little lever that reclines them and I realised that in this, as in so many other things, I have been wrong for a long time. Magnificent. So comfy that there is a very real danger of actual surprise-sleep whilst tipped back, regardless of what you are trying to do whilst reclining.

The good news is we have freecycled our big noisy armchair to a couple that are having renovations done and desperately need something to sit on in their one finished room, and the not-very-respectable sofa will soon be enjoying a new lease of life when I finally get round to getting it re-covered to match my lovely leather armchairs…..I am pathetically attached to these things and it is becoming a quest bordering on an obsession to keep them all going as usefully as possible for as long as possible.

Plus, over the years we have dropped quite a bit of cash down the back of the sofa so I cant afford to let it go just yet….

Further to this shrinking of our produce horizons, in the 1970’s a bill was introduced to make it illegal to sell any seeds that were not on the National List of Seeds. This is great news for big seed sellers but a disaster for small independents who value taste and variety over conformity and mediocrity.

If you would like to experience the Afghan Purple Carrot or the Hannibal Leek you can join Garden Organic, who charge a £20 membership fee which entitles you to six varieties of heritage seeds each year. It is also possible to enjoy informal seed swaps with members without falling foul of the long arm of European Law.

Race you to the biggest King of the Ridge cucumber!

Found this on gullrock’s lovely blog. Paste in some of your bloggage and it will tell you who you do write like…..I write like…

Whether I write like him or not, I certainly look like him – although my beard is more impressive.

Have just finished reading his biog and it turns out he killed himself in 2008 after years of depression. Now I feel bad for involving him in a joke about facial hair on ladies….

I will read his books to make up for it. Ironically, I expect I will find them annoying and not be able to put my finger on why….

Footnote: Just did it again and apparently I now write like Margaret Mitchell of Gone with the Wind fame….wonderful book but I had no idea my blogs were so a) Epic and b) Emotional. Will tone it down from now on.

Found this collection by Laura Bailey for a company called Made…Everything on the website is designed by someone high profile and then sourced and crafted in a fair trade way in East Africa. Trade not aid. Local people are taught skills and given jobs in the workshops and Made is there to hold their hands and support them until they are functioning like any other supplier to a jewellery boutique in the developed world.

The reason I love Made is that they don’t seem in the slightest bit cynical and although the pieces are not made from precious materials, they are beautifully designed and crafted and priced very keenly. Some of them are perfectly worthy of becoming heirlooms.

It makes such a nice change from the fair trade organisations that add a massive mark up simply because they know they can.

Here are some I will be investing in when Mummy Looks Fab finally makes it’s first tenner…..

Brass Four leaf clover pendant £30.00

Manjani Earrings £10.00

Manjani Necklace – £30.00

I still can’t quite bring myself to part with them. There is one cropped, embroidered, tie front sleeveless shirt that I have NEVEV EVER worn, but its very pretty and there it will stay.

One of the things I did do quite recently was invest in a breastvest.in an attempt to turn some of my non-breastfeeding clothes in to ones that work really well, without having to invest in more. We often labour the point on the website that you don’t need to buy breastfeeding clothes to be comfortable breastfeeding and they certainly shouldn’t represent a ticket to successful nursing.

The breastfvest bears this out beautifully as it enables you to turn your entire wardrobe of pre-baby tops in to potential breastfeeding tops. It is basically an adjustable vest top that has got a very, very low (under bust in fact) front. You wear it under your normal clothes and when you want to feed you lift up the “normal” top and the breastvest keeps your tummy, back and sides completely covered, but you can get to your boobs-no hassle.

Designed and produced by a woman it is so simple and so practical. It has the added bonus of extending my available wardrobe and making a dent in the 80% of things that I think I can’t wear easily at the moment….Very green.

We loved it so much we did a Victor Kyam and now we stock it. (I wish I could say we had bought the company…maybe one day)

She uses recycled packaging and makes sure her products are sourced ethically and made using fair-trade guidelines.

This is the website – Also Home

and these are some of my favourite pieces from the site…

There really is no excuse now – check out these certificated bicycle safety helmets from Moody and Farrell

As my husband rightly pointed out, we could travel safely on our bikes whilst doing a more than passable impression of Holmes and Watson….It simply doesn’t get better than that in this life.

Incidentally, Moody and Farrell also do an amazing range of “normal” hats.

I want this almost as much as I want another baby….frankly the baby is looking more likely, as the hat would be more expensive.