#VanishGoldForWhites Challenge One - The White Shirt

This month sees the first of my challenges as a member of the Vanish Blogger's Club.  Ordinarily I am someone who steers away from white clothing (due to my general inability to keep clothes clean!) so the number of items of white clothing in my wardrobe amounts to... one.  During February, to celebrate London fashion week, Vanish sent me over a white Karen Millen shirt.  Very nice, I hear you say, but there was a twist...

Day One - Grey!

...My white Karen Millen shirt had been pre-treated.  This shirt was not so much white, as light grey.  Vanish challenged me to use Vanish Gold for Whites to bring it back to life.

Vanish Gold for Whites claims to be able to make whites upto three shades whiter than they were in their worn, greying state.  The instructions on the packet of Vanish Fold for Whites makes it quite clear that you can expect it to take around 5 washes for clothes to show this three-shades improvement but I was really pleased after the very first wash; I didn't pre-treat the shirt, I simply bunged it into my normal white wash and added one scoop of the Vanish Gold powder and yet the shirt was clearly at least one shade whiter.  

The cynic in me wondered quite how they had managed to "grey" the shirt in the first place so I had also added a few of my own, more challenging white items into the wash including a tea-towel (that normally gets washed in a dark wash), a hand-towel and lots of Lara's school polo shirts.  For every item in that wash, I could see a difference after just one wash.  The most noticeable of all was the tea-towel.  I've no need to have a pristine white tea-towel but it was interesting to see the difference it made.

After the first wash - already more than 1 shade lighter

Over the next couple of weeks, I washed the Karen Millen shirt another 3 times, so that is 4 times in total and yes, true to the statement on the packet, the shirt is now looking three shades whiter than it was originally.  Where before, I would have been embarrassed to wear the greying shirt, now it looks bright and white and I'd be happy to wear it to work!

After 3 washes - approaching white!

I still don't think I'd describe the shirt as "like new" butnow I think that's more to do with creases than colour!

After 5 washes - nearly as white as the door!

Challenge One...Complete.

Leapfrog Leappad Disney Games Video Review

Myself, Holly and Lara are proud to have been asked to be 2015 Leapfrog Blogger Panelists this year and to start 2015 we have been trying out some of the educational games from Leapfrog available for the Leappad learning tablet and Leapster GS handheld console.

This month we were introduced to two mathematics games for the Leappad featuring some of our favourite Disney characters - The Little Mermaid and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

Lara very much enjoys using her Leappad at present; she is nearly 6 and I think she has really grown into the right age range to make the most from her learning tablet.  My girls own a Leappad 3 and a Leappad Ultra XDi and the Leapfrog games cartridges run on both.  The games cartridges (or online downloads of the same game) are more expensive than many iTunes or Google Play games but with Leapfrog I do know that the games will be a good quality, totally advert-free and will have a good educational grounding.

I found both Jake and the Neverland Pirates (recommended for ages 3-5) and The Little Mermaid Ariel's Princess Adventures (recommended for ages 4-7) to have clear numerical and mathematical themes. I particularly liked the Little Mermaid games which mixed girly "fashion" activities with fairly challenging number pattern recognition up to 100 and I could see Lara enjoying the challenge of the puzzles and the reward of the play.

Leappad games can be bought as plut-in cartridges for the Leappad or Leapster GS range OR downloaded from the Leapfrog App Center online, or through the Leapfrog Connect software which can be downloaded for free and connected to your Leapfrog products.

SwimShop - A Review for Mummy and Lara!

As part of my half-marathon training plan, I'm supposed to cross train at least once a week.  At present, my cross-training consists of me joining Holly for her mother and baby swimming lesson for half an hour every week!  Once my first half marathon is out of the way, later this month, I have made a promise to myself that I will go swimming, for myself, once every week and so Swimshop got in contact to ask me to try out one of their items of swimwear as part of my new training regime.

You know me, I'm not one to go with plain colours or something subtle so I chose this Speedo Women's endurance muscleback swimmng costume which comes in a set of colours that they call adriatic blue, papaya yellow and ecstatic pink!  Despite being colourful and fun, it is actually a dedicated sports suit which can withstand speed and is designed to be resistant to damage from chlorine (something that my swimwear always succumbs to, sooner or later).  I love this suit although I would say that I always struggle with Speedo costumes as a tall woman... it is phenomenally hard to find swimwear which has a long enough body shape.

I paired my new costume with a brand new pair of goggles - the Keifer Raptors.  I was sorely in need of a new pair of goggles having discovered that it was so long since I had last been swimming that my old pair had perished!  Woops.

Oh well, I'm back in the zone now and I'm really looking forward to adding a new dimension to my training.  Swimming is an entirely different discipline to running.

But it isn't just Mummy who gets to go swimming regularly now.  Lara, who is nearly 6, is also swimming at least once a week, sometimes more.  Despite a wobble at the start of the new term, Lara is now LOVING her swimming lessons and I am so proud when I see her swimming breast stroke and butterfly confidently in the pool.  Lara is now sporting one of these very grown-up looking Slazenger Girls Racerback swimming costumes from Swimshop which start at age 7 and cost from just £4.49.  When I see her swim, I can't quite believe how grown up she looks.  She is my little swimming superstar.