Relentlessly Purple

The Mad Hatter – My Sunday Photo

My Sunday Photos / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We met the Mad Hatter in town! After a busy few weeks, we are finally back with a #MySundayPhoto after chasing Alice and The Mad Hatter through town to get this shot haha!

Mad Hatter

Alice: I don’t want to meet mad people…

Cheshire Cat: But you can’t help it. Everyone here is mad. I’m mad. You’re mad. It’s only by chance n’ careful planning if you’re not!

All the characters from Alice in Wonderland wandering around town for an event in town this week much to the girls’ amusement. We’ve been stuck in all week due to rubbish weather so it was nice to stop and have some fun in the middle of shopping.. plus we got a free cupcake each! Total win.

Stomp School Book Review

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received a copy of Stomp School from Little Tiger Books written by Jeff Norton and pictures by Leo Antolini. The front cover is colourful and full of fun looking Monsters ready to stomp. Aimed at toddlers this fantastic book is all about creativity and destruction, 2 things toddlers LOVE!

Stomp School

Rikki, a little Kaiju (Japanese for a strange breast) is determined to build biggest, best city ever. He couldn’t wait to show his daddy but baby brother Torik wants to play too. Poor Rikki couldn’t stop Torik from stomping, crushing and smashing the city to pieces. Which of course Izzy found hilarious, what little monster wouldn’t?

Stomp, crush, smash

When Rikki gets upset and Stomps his dad decides it’s time for Stomp school, where little monsters go when your favourite monsters go to work. The first day at Stomp school starts and Rikki just wants to go home and build. Instead he stays and builds with Miss Bronte the whole class, ALL day!

They all work hard to build the biggest, best city ever… then of course everyone decides it’s to stomp, crush and smash it.

Smash

Poor Rikki is sad he still doesn’t get to show his daddy the biggest, best city ever and stomps himself. Miss Bronte tells Rikki it’s time to paint what they had built before stomping. Rikki paints his biggest, best city ever to show his daddy.

Rikki

Relieved to be able to show his daddy his hard work Rikki joins in having lots of fun, stomping, smashing and crushing the city to pieces. He proudly shows his daddy at the end of the day and heads home looking forward to returning the next day.

Our thoughts

We love Stomp School as it is such a fun book with a relatable story. Eva read with us and mentioned she feels like Rikki sometimes. Izzy is Torik as she smashes Eva’s creations down. She also saw the funny side and decided next time Izzy smashes down her tower she will join in and enjoy the stomping and smashing too! Izzy just loved the idea of stomping and smashing things.

With fun peek-through holes and flaps to lift this is a really fun story to read and stomp to together! Stomp school is available now from Little Tiger Press Books for £6.99. A great addition to any little ones bookshelf.

Looking for new books for your toddler? Check out our review of 10,9,8 Owls Up Late by Little Tiger Press too.

Pretend To Bee Garnet Fairy Dress & New Arrivals On Our Wishlist

Gift Guide / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

We received the gorgeous Garnet Fairy Dress from Pretend To Bee for Izzy’s 3rd Birthday. Pretend To Bee are a small family run business. I love to show small businesses like this my support especially when they are outstanding in what they do. All costumes go through rigorous training and conform to EN71 Toy Safety Standards and carry the CE mark. Pretend to Bee also offer free UK delivery on orders over £25 & free International delivery on orders over £50.

Garnet Fairy Dress

Garnet Fairy Dress from Pretend To Bee

The beautiful Garnet Fairy Dress would be top of the list for any little girls birthday! Izzy wanted it on from the second she unwrapped it. She was in such a rush to get it on we had to leave her pyjama top on to begin with!

😍

A post shared by Ember (@relentlesslypurple) on Aug 7, 2017 at 11:37am PDT

With soft velvet straps and a stunning rose detailed body any little girl will feel like a fairy princess wearing the Garnet Fairy Dress. When we finally managed to remove the pyjama top we got some lovely photo’s like the one above which I shared on Instagram.

Garnet Fairy Dress

I love the matching headband, wings and wand. The wings are much better quality than any we’ve bought before and are decorated with silver glitter. Of course every fairy needs a matching butterfly wand too!

Sizing

I make no attempt to cover the fact Izzy is pretty big for her age, at just 3 years old she is on the 95th percentile and is already in 4-5 years clothing with a little belly room due to her height. We asked for 5-6 years as we’ve previously had issues with dresses being far too tight and a little too short. Izzy is pretty stocky and it can be difficult to find dress up clothes that A) Fit well and B) Don’t feel like they will fall apart when pulled on. Using Pretend To Bee’s size guide I was pleased with the outcome as she will be able to wear it for a while.. until another growth spurt at least!

Having seen the quality and detail of this dress we couldn’t help but take a look around the Pretend To Bee website to see what else was available, especially for Izzy as she is lacking dressing up clothes at the moment.

New Arrivals

We couldn’t help but notice the fantastic new arrivals such a this Giant Peach Costume with a worm puppet for just £16.95! Such a fun costume for world book day or a Roald Dahl party for 3-7 year olds. We are great Roald Dahl fans and the girls instantly recognised which book it was from.

Giant Peach Costume From Pretend To Bee

Both girls absolutely love this Pink Unicorn costume which is also for 3-7 year olds and super cute! Eva is a little sad that she is too old for it though haha! We love the wings and tail and at just £15.95 it’s a great addition to any dressing up box.

Pink Unicorn Costume From Pretend To Bee

For Nursery children these High Vis Nursery Jackets are absolutely fantastic at just £2.95 each. Available in 4 colours – Yellow, Orange, Pink & Blue and in 2 sizes – 2 to 3 years and 3 to 5 years. These are great for Nursery day trips or useful during the holidays when going to busy parks.

High Vis Nursery Jackts From Pretend To Bee

Children love dressing up whether it’s for a special occasion, world book day or just for the fun of it. Pretend To Bee have a wide range of choices and is such good value for the quality. We have bookmarked the website so we can add to our dressing up box as soon as possible.

Pretend To Bee are over on Facebook & Twitter too so head over and give them a like/follow.

Do your kids love to dress up? Would they love any of the costumes mentioned here?

Relentlessly Purple – 2nd Year Of Blogging

Blogging / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I can’t believe Relentlessly Purple is 2! My second year of blogging as Relentlessly Purple has been awesome, I’ve learnt a lot over the last 2 years.

Relentlessly Purple Bloggerversary!

Changing over to Relentlesslypurple.com last year was a scary and exciting move but one I’m so pleased I made! With a great friend looking after my hosting (so I don’t break anything) I’ve been lucky to escape the big issues most bloggers face. I am extremely grateful for that! If you haven’t already check out my post on his new subscription box and take a look at his fab new project, Bytesize Box UK.

Bloggers

I’ve continued to meet some awesome people in the blogging world too which has made a huge difference. Whilst I am still struggling with my mental & physical health amongst other concerns, the support I’ve had from the blogging community is absolutely amazing. It’s nice to know someone is always around for a chat about absolutely anything from blogging, crochet, crafts, days out & more!

Opportunities

Some of the review opportunities I’ve had have been fantastic. The girls have had a chance to play with gorgeous toys such as the Lucy Locket Wooden Fairytale Tea set. We’ve met Authors & Illustrators at Little Tiger’s 30th Party and had some fun days out with Martyn & the boys at events like the Medway English Festival and the Rochester Dickens Festival. I’ve worked with Hallmark at Christmas & for fathers day too. So many great opportunities & hopefully lots more to come.

Growing Relentlessly Purple

Looking back I can’t believe I walked away from blogging before. Setting up Relentlessly Purple has been amazing. It doesn’t feel like I’ve been blogging for 2 years which I’m taking as a good sign! I never expected the blog to grow so much in so little time. Although I lose confidence at times and have days where I just can’t hit publish, I am getting braver and enjoying blogging in my spare time.

Family Fun

Blogging has become a fun part of our family life too and the girls love getting involved. Even the Mr has had a chance to try some awesome beers like Goody Ales & these Fallen beers as we’ve started trying more craft beers and share our discoveries. All round blogging has been pretty positive for all of us. Hopefully I’ll carry on for years to come & get a chance to work with more brands I love & continue making amazing blogging friends!

I decided to celebrate my bloggerversary and 27th birthday on the 14th August to run a small giveaway for my lovely readers!

After running a twitter poll it was quite clear we all love chocolate and stationery so I have decided to fill this lovely gift box below with a few surprise treats for the winner! Want to know what is inside? BEST GET ENTERING 😉

a Rafflecopter giveaway

How long have you been blogging for? Has your blog exceeded your expectations?

Izzy’s 3rd Birthday Weekend Celebrations

Family / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

It was Izzy’s 3rd Birthday yesterday! Thanks to Martyn, Hannah & all the kids Izzy also had a lovely BBQ party. Izzy loves food so although she said she didn’t want a birthday party a BBQ was acceptable.

She loved munching away on sweet treats, sausages & burgers across the day. I caught her looking pretty chilled out with all the kids watching TV, munching away haha!

Hannah had some fab party supplies that the kids all loved, especially the Pinata and party bags! All the kids had fun scrabbling to get the most sweets.

We loved the pirate cake candles too & this lovely birthday cake. 😍 I totally need those for my birthday too! 😉

We had a slight accident where Izzy hit her head quite hard and ended up with a small cut. She was soon happily playing and eating again though. She even seemed slightly impressed looking at herself in the mirror!

Izzy loved spending the day with everyone and singing her favourite song with Martyn. ‘Beer Beer Beer – an ode to Charlie Mops’ she heard at the Rochester Dickens festival and has loved it ever since!

Izzy’s 3rd Birthday

After a very long busy day and a rather late night she finally woke up after an hour of me waiting impatiently to celebrate her 3rd birthday. Snuggling up on the sofa with daddy to help her unwrap her presents she squealed excitedly as I passed each one over.

Along with my Paw Patrol haul all from pound shops apart from the lookout tower I think she did fairly well! Izzy also got a cool looking scooter with tilt steering which she couldn’t wait to try out. She is slowly getting the hang of tilting it and pushing herself along.

Garnet Fairy Dress from Pretend To Bee

She received this absolutely gorgeous Garnet Fairy Set from Pretend to Bee which she couldn’t wait to put on! Complete with wings, wand & headband this gorgeous outfit is adorable & something Izzy would have picked out herself. She has barely taken it off since and wanted it on first thing this morning! I wouldn’t definitely say it is well worth £25 for this stunning fairy set, the dress is so well made and lovely and soft inside.

Across the day a few of our friends came by with even more presents & she was most definitely spoilt! It was most definitely all about Paw Patrol this year, she has a huge Sky & Everest balloon and lots of new characters & vehicles! Eva got a lovely soft Rainbow Dash too so she didn’t feel left out which was lovely!

We ended Izzy’s birthday with yet another birthday cake. Afterwards she happily went off to bed hugging her Skye LED Night light. I think it’s safe to say she has had a fantastic 3rd birthday!

I always worry that lack of family will make special occasions a bit rubbish, most kids have aunts, uncles, cousins etc to play with so Martyn & Hannah organising a BBQ for Izzy means a lot. It meant she got to spend the day playing with other kids and having fun!

International Beer Day – Beers We’ve Tried

Ales and Craft Beers / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Today is International Beer Day! With the Mr’s love of beers we decided to put together a selection of Beers he has tried over the last few months from local pubs & supermarkets. We’ve previously tried and reviewed Beer52 and Fallen Brewing beers on the blog and share the Mr’s finds over on Instagram too so we thought a round up would be an awesome way to celebrate International Beer Day.

International Beer Day

The Mr tried a selection of beers from Tesco a few weeks ago for his birthday.

Adnams Southwolds – Ease Up I.P.A

Adnams Southwold, an independent family brewery founded in 1872 in Suffolk, is one of the Mr’s favourites. He would pick a beer from Adnams any day! This Ease Up I.P.A is gold in colour, with big aromas of mango, flavours of pine, melon and hints of grapefruit. At 4.6 ABV it’s a perfect session beer with a clean, dry finish, accompanied by subtle sweetness from the barley.

Stone Brewing – Go To IPA

Stone Brewing – Go To IPA is a hop heavy India Pale Ale at 4.8% ABV. With a hoppy, dry, melon flavour perfected by employing the hop bursting technique. This technique involves an irrational amount of hops being added in the final phase of the brewing process. Extreme flavours and aromas while also imparting a burst of desirably pleasant bitterness. The result is an alpha-acid-rich beer which the Mr quite enjoys.

Oskar Blues Brewery – Pinner IPA

Oskar Blues Brewery began the craft-beer-in-a-can craze with their funky little Colorado grown brew-pub in 2002. Cans keep beer fresher, longer by eliminating the damaging effects of light and ingressed oxygen. They are infinitely recyclable and portable. Pinner IPA is a India Pale Ale at 4.9% ABV. With tropical fruits, citrus juices, pineapple and spice berry up front in the aroma and flavour, the biscuit & toasted bread at the back to balance out all the hops.

Flying Dog Brewery – Snake Dog IPA

Flying Dog Brewery is a craft brewery in Maryland. Founded in 1990 Flying Dog Brewery is the largest Brewery in Maryland. Snake Dog IPA is an India Pale Ale at 7.1% ABV. Snake Dog has a big citrus (notably grapefruit) hop aroma and flavor with caramel malt notes. The cans artwork is rather interesting and designed by Ralph Steadman. Steadman’s Flying Dog artwork consists of strange, twisted imaginations of dogs with wings. They are rather eye catching with a vast array of bright and vibrant colours.

Have you tried any of these beers or any of those pictured? What’s your favourite beer?

Social Anxiety – Struggling to get involved

Physical and Mental Health / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

I’ve been struggling with social anxiety for as long as I can remember. Whilst I am getting better at going out & socialising my anxiety still holds me back.

Recently I contacted my local community project to get involved. I figured I may be able to help spread the word about events & fundraising and maybe get to meet a few more people locally. Feeling brave I typed out a message & hit enter. I got a reply and we organised meeting up for a chat.

Izzy fell ill and I missed meeting the guy who runs the project. I contacted him to apologise and agreed to rearrange. My anxiety is preventing me from messaging again though. I’m just a small blogger who writes to pass the time especially when I’m in pain. How could I actually help?

I was also invited to the community house meetings which are on a Thursday evening. Of course I let everything get in the way so I was ‘too busy’ to go. This has annoyed me. I’m preventing myself from moving forward with the blog & getting to know more people in the community. Why? Because I’m scared. I’ve always been the weirdo’s kid, the outcast and I still feel that’s how people see me.

Whilst my confidence has grown in some areas my personal confidence is still struggling. I know I can offer something to the community, I’m doing well with the blog but I don’t have the confidence I need to get that across. Getting to know people locally could be nice but at the same time I quite like being unnoticed. I guess I am a bit of a loner. Realistically though I need to get out more, I need to meet more people, I need to have more confidence in myself and start getting involved more in the local community.

I’m determined to work on this but I know it’s going to be tough. I feel perhaps looking at online therapy may be helpful rather than face to face.

Do you have social anxiety? Do you have any confidence building tips? Has getting involved in a community project helped you overcome social anxiety?

10,9,8… Owls Up Late – A Bedtime Book

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

10,9,8… Owls Up Late is a fantastic bedtime book aimed at 1-4 year olds available from 10th August from Little Tiger Press. Written by Georgiana Deutsch and Illustrated by Ekaterina Trukhan, 10,9,8… Owls Up Late is great for counting down to bedtime.

10,9,8… Owls Up Late

10,9,8... Owls Up Late

10 cheeky, bouncy, noisy owls are playing in a tree. Mummy calls for bedtime but the owlets are having far too much fun to go to sleep! Aimed at reluctant sleepers, 10,9,8… Owls Up Late uses the count-down of owls to make bedtime fun, educational and relaxing.

We recieved a copy from Little Tiger Press and Izzy has fallen in love with 10,9,8… Owls Up Late. For £10.99 it’s a great bedtime book for all toddlers! Izzy loves this book, especially the peep-through pages. The muted colours and count-down helps children relax. Creating a tranquil mood with it’s warm and loving conclusion, children effortlessly drift off to sleep.

The soothing use of rhyme with the peep-through images adds an intriguing, interactive element, revealing different amusing animals & their expressions. Georgina Deutsch’s gorgeous owl illustrations definitely caught Izzy’s attention and the fabulous counting guide at the back teaches children numbers.

10,9,8… Owls Up Late is a superb bedtime book and we would definitely recommend it! Joining in and shouting ‘We’re having too much fun and we won’t go to bed!’ really amuses Izzy. If you are looking for a bedtime book to help settle your little one this is a brilliantly helpful book.

Do you read at bedtime? What’s your little one’s favourite book to fall asleep to?

Jungle Jam In Brazil Review & Giveaway

Book Reviews / 7 years ago / RelentlesslyPurple

Jungle Jam in Brazil is an inspiring music based story where Mikey the monkey and his friends take a trip to Brazil! You may remember our review of Jungle Jam from last year when Eva also braved the camera for the first time to give her thoughts too! This is the second book in the Jungle Jam series. We received copy to review and have a copy to give away too!

Jungle Jam in Brazil

Mikey the monkey and his friends go on an exciting adventure in the second book by Noam & Louise Ledermen – Jungle Jam in Brazil. They head to Brazil to play huge show trying new things along the way.

Gina the giraffe is anxious about her trip & trying new things. Each time Gina the giraffe gets nervous her friends help her through. As someone who suffers from anxiety I found the storyline quite comforting. I’m certain any children with anxiety will find the story helpful and uplifting. I know I’ve been anxious about the same things as Gina before.

It can be scary going on a plane to a new country, trying new food, doing new things & performing in front of an audience. With friends by your side, it can be much easier to do & try new things though. Gina is encouraged by her friends which helps ease her fears.

It is a fabulous book for children. With bright colours & rhyming sentences Jungle Jam in Brazil is sure to bring a smile to any child’s face! Jungle Jam had a fun activity in the back for children and Jungle Jam in Brazil has one too!

Fancy winning a copy for your little one? Enter the competition below to win a copy of Jungle Jam in Brazil!*

a Rafflecopter giveaway

*The Winners email address will be passed on to the publisher to arrange delivery.

Alice: I don’t want to meet mad people…

Cheshire Cat: But you can’t help it. Everyone here is mad. I’m mad. You’re mad. It’s only by chance n’ careful planning if you’re not!

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Stomp School

Our thoughts

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Garnet Fairy Dress

Sizing

New Arrivals

Do your kids love to dress up? Would they love any of the costumes mentioned here?

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Relentlessly Purple Bloggerversary!

Bloggers

Opportunities

Growing Relentlessly Purple

Family Fun

How long have you been blogging for? Has your blog exceeded your expectations?

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Izzy’s 3rd Birthday

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International Beer Day

Have you tried any of these beers or any of those pictured? What’s your favourite beer?

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Do you have social anxiety? Do you have any confidence building tips? Has getting involved in a community project helped you overcome social anxiety?

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10,9,8… Owls Up Late

Do you read at bedtime? What’s your little one’s favourite book to fall asleep to?

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Do you ever notice a picture in a cloud? Do you see the same as I do in this cloud or something different?

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Jungle Jam in Brazil

Fancy winning a copy for your little one? Enter the competition below to win a copy of Jungle Jam in Brazil!*

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