An afternoon of fun, with Greens!

Greens have revamped and re-released  their fabulous children’s cake mixes and we were sent two Green cupcake kit boxes for Kieran to make up, devour, and let you know what we thought of them!

The two boxes that we received, which were Tom & Jerry and Thomas The Tank Engine, were more than “just” cakes, they provided a whole afternoon of fun!

Kieran couldn't wait to get inside the boxes!
This is different! All the usual cakey ingredients and goodies but also stickers and a large double-sided activity sheet
As with all Green kits the instructions are easy to follow and Kieran loves baking independently - the only thing he needs help with is the oven.
With the cakes done Kieran spends time doing the puzzles and playing the mini games with Daddy
And by himself!
Then it was time to eat! Kieran loved the cakes! Yum!
Daddy enjoyed his pink Tom & Jerry cake too. Kieran was really proud of how well he did the decorating!

So cake, family time, independent skills, baking, puzzles, games and to be honest… some terrible jokes (the Thomas ones were the worst!), well worth the £1.69 RRP! Would we buy these again? Yes- the cakes were great on their own, the puzzles and collectible sticker really were the icing!

To see more about these, general info about Greens and more, pop along to the Greens website!

E-Cloth Green Clean Challenge – One week in!

The Soundtrack to My Eco-Cleaning This Week!

Well it’s been a week of chemical free cleaning – and so far, so good! (You can read more about the challenge here!). With Glenn Miller booming in the background I have been well away, a cleaning diva, and have actually found it much easier than expected – so much for the convenience of modern methods! The three products I want to tell you about this week are below!

The E-Cloth Glass & Polishing Cloth.

My favourite so far! I loathe cleaning mirrors, which is unfortunate as I have two large ones in my bathroom alone. Regardless of what cloths and sprays I have used in the past they have always look streaky. To be honest I didn’t really expect this to be a whole lot better (after all I have tried a LOT of different cleaning methods to counteract my lack of glass-cleaning skill) but was very pleasantly surprised! Using just water I cleaned my mirrors easily, even the one over the sink with toothpaste spatters all over it (thanks Kieran!). No streaks or residue, perfectly clean and shiny mirrors. Good as new. I would highly recommend this product for this alone, but can also report it is great on all shiny surfaces I’ve used it on, taps, kettles, mirrors…. perfect! With a RRP of £4.99, this is a staple item now in my cleaning cupboard. See the E-Cloth website for more.

Eco-Zone Washing Balls

EcoZone Ecoballs

Curious looking thing! Each box contains two of these balls and refills and a tube of eco stain remover for heavy stains that need pre-treatment. The pack info says the contacts should last 150 washes and I completely believe it! I have been washing pretty much constantly this week and the pellets barely seem to have broken down at all! No messy powder or tablets, easy to use, saves you money and is eco-friendly. Works for me.

You can buy these from EcoZone (via Amazon!) for £10.56 with free delivery, which may seem a lot but unless you use very cheap laundry powder, these will save you money. You don’t need to buy new ecoballs when they eventually empty out, but can get pellet refills instead for £8ish. I fully intend to replace my powder with these from now on.

It’s worth noting that ecoballs don’t have any scent so if you like scented washing, a few drops of essential oils in your drawer might be an idea, or if you use tumble drier sheets these will do the same. Scent doesn’t bother me with washing so these are perfect.

Natural Air-freshener

This is a non-aerosol air freshener from Australian company Bio-Logic. It contains essential oils, purified water & sugar cane ethanol and is organic. Despite being called “Rosa” it isn’t an old lady rose smell, in fact if I had to describe it I would say it was a mixture of an expensive flower shop & turkish delight! A lovely fragrance which lasts – freshens and really lifts the room. It comes in a 125ml spray bottle and is very economical. You can purchase this spray from MyPure for £5.99 (expensive I think, but that depends on whether it lasts the length of the trial ie longer than a big brand plug-in or room deodoriser) and is available in two other scents, lavender and Alpine Air.

I love the Rosa scent (I’m big on smells) but I think I’d balk at paying out £5.99 each time I wanted to replace it (plus P&P). Eco yes, economical – the jury is still out on that.

So do I think I will be able to change over completely to eco-cleaning considering cost, ease and results? Too early to tell but so far, so good!

More from E-Cloth on their website or over on Twitter.