Little Bird by Jools Christmas jumper twinning at Ashdown Forest

We went to Ashdown Forest this morning for a walk in the lovely sunshine and to take a few photos for a project with Coastal Kids Magazine's Christmas issue.  Here are a few of my favourite photos and look out for my Christmas Jumper round ups soon!  (Kiddie and grown up versions!)

My Sunday Photo - Picking Pumpkins at Sharnfold Farm

I have loads of photos from our trip to Sharnfold Farm yesterday to check out this year's pumpkin display but here are a couple of favourites for now.

We were lucky to get some dry spells and even sunshine amidst the squalls and gusts of wind but the twins loved it despite the weather!

Norman's Pond - Local places, hidden gem review

We first heard about Norman's pond from a friend and were then reminded of it at Maresfield Village Fete where they were promoting it's existence.  Last weekend we finally made it along for a walk and it's a great hidden gem!  Had I not been told about it I'd never have known it was there.  It's near the recycling centre by the Maresfield Bypass hidden away amongst the trees.

Twins' 3rd birthday Halloween party plans!

The twins are nearly three!  I know, how did this happen already?!  The last year has gone even faster than ever before and I'm back in full on party planning mode.  As I'm busier than ever these days with work, the blog and bexphoto (I've had to call in help on Baking Club and Book Club as I just can't cope!), I have decided to combine their birthday party and Halloween as I just can't manage two parties this year and yet don't want to miss out on a Halloween one, you know how much I love Halloween!

So, not only are we having a fancy dress Halloween party for their birthday, but we're also having it a couple of weeks early as that also coincides with when my Mum is in the country (to visit my brand new nephew who I'm heading up to meet after the party weekend).  I'm still leaving things a bit late as all I've managed to do so far is pin some ideas and book the awesome face painter we met at Wakehurst's Science Festival.  I've provisionally booked a hall (as I don't want 20+ toddlers smearing painted faces on my sofa/carpets/anything else) and have some ideas for activities and food but I really must get organised!

Food Rocks Lewes

I'd heard of Food Rocks as they ran the Weald on the Field food festival in Uckfield this summer and having met some of their usual vendors at Joy Festival, I heard about their regular food market in Horsham but I only recently realised they also run one in Lewes every 2nd Sunday of the month and it's obviously much closer for us!

We went along to check it out with the twins and weren't disappointed!  It was set up on the main pedestrianised area of the High Street and had plenty on offer to tempt us.  We are all big foodies in our family so we love to find new food markets and love street food in particular.  It's taking us a while to discover more variation in the food around where we live now.  It used to be so easy in Glasgow where we had SO much choice with new restaurants opening all the time and so many tastes covered.  In Uckfield we're lucky to have some great pubs offering good food plus we've got Italian covered, Chinese and now Thai.  Nik and I love Chaula's in Lewes for Indian food but we have missed having more variety.

Hempstead Park, Uckfield - local park review

Hempstead park is one of our favourites in Uckfield.  It's at the end of Hempstead Road, next to the Guide HQ, and has a car park right next to it which I've never had a problem parking in.  Again, it's got the usual things you'd expect - see-saw, swings, climbing frame (they actually have two - a little one and a bigger one), roundabout (again, two of these in different designs) but it also has a tunnel in a little hobbit hill with tree stumps to balance on, a webbed net climbing frame which also spins, a large webbed swing for multiple kids to swing together and a springy jeep and it's all enclosed and has spongy flooring covering most of it, although the bit by the jeep tends to get very muddy.  There's also a big green area next to it which has a very tall slide, a zip line, adult exercise machines and a big rotating swing set.  Kalyan loves to push me on the roundabout and make me feel dizzy!  

The following photos have all been taken over the last year but clearly on different days.

Parties Taylored 4 You

We were invited along to check out a toddler party run by Parties Taylored 4 you in Uckfield recently and the twins had a great time (once they got over being afraid of Spiderman!)

Parties Taylored 4 you organise various themed parties as well as offering personalised children's party services for birthdays or special occasions.  The event we went to was a fancy dress disco with crafts at Ridgewood Village Hall and there was so much for the twins to do!

A Vogel herbal remedies - review

I was recently sent some A.Vogel products to test and although I tried out one right away, the other one had to wait until I needed it in order to give you my honest opinion on how it works.

The first one was the Bioforce herbal hand cream which has a yellowy tinge, presumably due to the herbs used, but smells quite nice.  I found it soaked in quite quickly and definitely made a difference to my hands.  I suffer from pompholyx eczema when I'm rundown and/or stressed which seems to be pretty much all the time lately!  As a result I need to keep my hands moisturised so this was ideal as it's a handy size to carry around as well as being gentle and not heavily scented.

The second item was the Po-Ho inhaler which contains essential oils of peppermint, eucalyptus, juniper, caraway and fennel.  I loved the smell of this as soon as it arrived and actually find it quite relaxing and as soon as Spider Season hit (OMG those blighters are huge this year!), so did the cold so I was able to test it out.  It is basically like the oils I've used before on a hanky or my pillow, a similar scent but in a handy lip balm sized inhaler you can pop in your pocket although it does also come as an oil.  It definitely seemed to work the same as other brands I've tried in the past and I found it very useful to keep on me when I was out with the kids and feeling bunged up.

I love essential oils (apparently peppermint oil keeps those spiders at bay too!) and have always liked herbal remedies like arnica cream for bruises so it's nice to have a couple more herbal treatments up my sleeve.  The A.Vogel products seem very high quality and they have a great philosophy with their Naturally Beautiful Promise: "Our beauty experts use fresh, active plant extracts to bring you luxurious skincare products. We make our products with love, care and respect for nature. Our beauty range is 100% vegetarian and we do not test on animals." 

Have you used any A.Vogel products before?  Do you have any herbal remedies you swear by?

Spiced Parsnip & Orange Cake Recipe - The return of Pin It Do It! #ODPIDI linky

Its back!  Pin It Do It was requested in my recent survey and I am delighted to bring it back.  I missed it myself and have PLENTY of inspirational pins to utilise and get off my boards to real life.

Original Pin

To make it easier for you to submit your own Pinterest inspired projects, I've added a linky to this post so you can just upload a link to your own post.  I will then choose one or two favourites to feature the following month.  We also have a badge to put on your post (and in your sidebar if you wish), just click on it to be taken to the HTML code you need to add it to your own blog.

Rose & Olive Tearooms in Uckfield - review by Bex

I've been wanting to check out Uckfield's beautiful new Tearooms, named after one of the owner's grandmothers, since they opened back in May but I only recently managed to visit.  It was worth the wait, such a beautiful venue for a relaxed catch up with a friend!