For the next two weeks, the independent cinema, Showroom in Sheffield will be host to Showcomotion - a film festival for young people.



As a film lover myself, I'm quite excited to know this is happening in my home town and am grateful that local kids will have the opportunity to see and learn about film. And with tickets at only £2.00 each, my kids are looking forward to a few cinema trips!

When I first saw those TV adverts suggesting we could feed a family of four for £50, I naturally assumed this meant a week's worth of evening meals only. So it did come as a pleasant surprise to find this cost includes breakfasts and lunches too. For a whole week!



Sainsburys have developed an efficient, cost-effective meal plan and recipe guide to cover a week's worth of meals for the whole family to enjoy together. The plan does require sticking to portion sizes and does not include any snacks between meals, though undoubtedly it is a cost effective means of feeding the family on a budget.

Having chanced upon a fly poster outside Tesco the other day, my daughter and I made a last-minute dash to The Baby Friendly Show at the Sheffield Park Hotel.

Despite already having two children, I hadn't yet had the opportunity to experience a show dedicated to babies, and had almost no idea of what to expect. At first, DD and I felt a little out of place in the glossy clean hotel entrance - where were the screaming hoardes of toddlers and their flustered parents? A quick word to the receptionist pointed us in the right direction where we found the show began in the entrance to the hotel's event section and a cheery greeting from one of the organizers.

We'd arrived a little late in the day, at around 1pm when the show had been in full swing since 9am. I guessed at this time that we'd probably missed most of the fun planned for the show, though my daughter was still very excited at being able to participate in the treasure hunt which led us from stand to stand in the main exhibition hall.

Despite our late arrival, there we still many families there, most of whom sported prams and babes in arms (or a growing bump like mine!). It was such a pleasant surprise to see many dads there who didn't seem bored to death, making me wish I'd had the foresight to encourage my partner to come along with us!

The Treasure Hunt for the children was a genius idea - we needed to find the fruit or vegetable hidden on each exhibitor's stand, helping me to discover many local services which I may have otherwise overlooked. Being pregnant, I was particularly interested in maternity events and services; though I was a little too shy to join in, I enjoyed watching the Daisy Birthing taster session and was very pleased to find information about financial help available to pregnant workers on the NCT stand!

My favourite part had to be rummaging through the "nearly new" sale where we found loads of wonderful bargains. For £12, I bought a pair of gorgeous smart maternity trousers, two tees, a long white shirt, a dress for DD and a pair of training roller skates, all great quality and decent labels too! If I'd had more cash on me, I would have also bought one of the lovely travel-systems too, though we didn't notice the hotel had a cash machine until we were on the way out!

Next month, the BFG is hosting The Kids Show at the same hotel which we're also looking forward to attending. If you live in or near Sheffield, we look forward to seeing you there!

This beautiful video by Mama Natural shows a time-lapse of Genevieve's pregnancy belly from 0-9 months. It's a great way to visualize our pregnant changing shape.



I wish I'd had the foresight to do this from the start!

Bump - due to arrive on 30th October, 2011

Being somewhat superstitious, I felt strongly that my partner and I shouldn't spread news of our pregnancy too far until we'd reached the twelve week mark and had been for our first ultrasound scan.

So we kept our little secret, telling only our close family and closest friends right up until the day when we saw bump's heart beating on that black and white screen. And today we made our pregnancy "Facebook official", posting our scan photo on each of our walls and making our news public.

Though for me, it wasn't without much trepidation!

Celebrate Free Comic Book Day!

Although I'm now probably too old to be hanging around comic book shops, I sometimes use my son as an excuse to indulge in my inner child-geek =]

So when I heard about Free Comic Book Day, I was thrilled - free comics just for turning up?

What to buy from Primark (and what to avoid)

In recent years, Primark has become a stable stopover for savvy shoppers hoping to blag quite a few bargains for their cash.

But as the old saying goes, we often "pay for what we get" - while Primark's selection is immense and very cheap, not everything is up to scratch. So inspired by this very helpful thread on the MoneySavingExpert forums, I thought I'd share my personal favourite buys from this budget high-street store.

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