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Tesco Orchard/Fresh Flowers Review - Sponsored Post

If you haven't heard of Tesco Orchard yet you're missing out. Tesco Orchard is a little coupon scheme with the aim to promote their products and improve their services. (Sign up here.) You get a coupon usually for £5, plus a couple for friends. This time my coupon was for Fresh Flowers.

With my £5 coupon I can go in store to purchase Fresh Flowers, by doing this I could get some for free as they have plenty under £5 and with no minimum spend it was a wonderful idea. I could pick any flowers I liked. Unfortunately I'm allergic to flowers so I didn't really want to go on a mission to my nearest Tesco and then have my throat swell shut. But I was in luck! The coupon is also valid for online purchases. The only catch being that with "Free Next Day Delivery" and a "Free Vase" they have nothing under £20. So instead of free flowers, I'm paying £15 for flowers.

Now I would like to say the website (here) itself is wonderfully informative, easy to use and I feel it personally can be used in so many different ways it doesn't matter if you know exactly what you want or have no clue where to start. You can chose by budget, type, occasion, colour, season or browse all.

My only really disappointment being that with £20 being the cheapest, they seem to be missing out on a budget option. While £20 isn't a bad price, you can get flowers online with free delivery and gifts for slightly less.

I would still recommend this service and in fact plan to use it again.

#TriedForLess

Catch up

Well I'm back, I've missed blogging. In fact I did try to blog elsewhere this last year. But it wasn't the same. This is my home. My blog. My outlet. Thing is for a while I didn't feel like I could post here, but I'm realising it's okay.


This isn't a family blog anymore. I wasn't ready to be a Mom, to be a wife. I was only 17 when I had my son. Only 20 when I got married. And quite frankly most of this blog was a lie.

I wasn't in some perfect, happy marriage. My son didn't live with us, he hasn't for most of his life but I felt so ashamed. I'm starting to see that I shouldn't be though. I held my hands up and admitted I couldn't do it. I made sure my son was in a stable, loving environment and I tried to be a mother to him. I stepped away from my marriage, re-evaluated and realised we weren't happy and we weren't in love. It was still painful, but I needed to leave while we were in agreement. I didn't want to be one of those couples who blames each other, hurts each other and needs to be the winner or the victim. We entered into our marriage as a team, we will exit as one.

I don't know what he's up to, who he's dating or even if he's dating. I could go and google and honestly a couple of times I've started to, but I stop myself. I remind myself that he isn't mine and he deserves to be happy as do I.

So now I'm starting to date. I'm studying. Spending time with friends. Reconnecting with family. I've just moved into a lovely house which I'm redecorating and I'm getting back to money saving and being creative.

I'm sorry for vanishing, I'm sorry for not giving any indication to what was happening. But I'm not sorry for taking some much needed time to work on myself and be okay.

Kitchen Wall Stencil

Since we moved in, this wall has annoyed me. It runs out of the kitchen and joins the hallway, so anything we did to it needed to be subtle and fit in with decor choices we make for the kitchen, bathroom and hallway. We decided on blue, but that was as far as our decision making went. And yesterday I was staring at this wall again and decided I'd had enough.

See what I mean? Unfortunately we are not currently able to replace the heaters, so decorating the wall would have to do. I had the perfect stencil in mind, I saved it a long time ago hoping I would one day get to use it and now was that time. It was subtle, cheerful and I could do it now. So I popped upstairs to the office, printed it out and covered it in sellotape (a poor mans lamination) before cutting it out. It was a slow, painful process but I got there in the end and could finally get to work.

And I discovered the hard way that using a brush wouldn't work, even though I had been careful it had bled through.

Luckily tissue and water cleared it quickly and I headed back to the drawing board. Then it hit me, my original idea had been to use a sponge. So I googled and sure enough, it could work. So I grabbed the big bag of make up sponges I bought last year (£1 in poundland!) that I insisted I needed, finally they are earning their keep. And yes, it did make my husband laugh.

Isn't that so much better? I liked the sponged look, but if you want a solid look you could do a couple of coats. How much prettier is the wall now?

And here's a little before and after!

Chessington World Of Adventure

Earlier this month me and my husband had the exciting opportunity for a day at Chessington World of Adventure for free, so armed with sun cream and some spending money off we headed.

One of the my favourite discoveries was their new locker system. It is a very simple and easy system, but an incredible idea. You pick a locker size (small is £1 an hour or £5 a day, large is £2 an hour or £10 a day) and pay. Then it asks for your date of birth and to pick a colour from the on screen selection, these are your password. It then unlocks a locker for you and tells you what locker to open. You can open it again at any point during the day using the screen and locker number/password, no keys to lose!

You can also buy a bottle for £5 that gives you unlimited refills through out the day which was brilliant as it was so hot! So we headed off to explore and check out some of the many rides.

Bubbleworks was probably one of our favourites. Perfect for getting away from the hot sun and cooling off. You start off going through a “factory”, there is a rubber duck hatchery among other displays. All of which made us smile a little. But after the casual boat ride you reach a giant sign, “BATH TIME” it announces. Your little boat splashes down a ramp and you are surrounded by jets of water that spray over head, catching the light and giving the perfect relaxing vibe to really bring you into a peaceful mood. It was the quite frankly the perfect pallet cleanse (but for your eyes, ears and skin as opposed to your taste buds).

Dragon Falls was great fun, but very much a “once and I’m done” experience for me. Much to my husbands amusement I dragged him over all excited to go on, but decided it wasn’t for me about halfway through. The ride is essentially a log style ride. You float along casually for a little while before the “log” locks in to some rails and takes you up the first ramp. You’re up and down the other side in under a minute. You shake a little bit as you land and get splashed, but nothing too scary. Unfortunately that shake was enough to make me nervous. You see, there are no bars or harnesses in your boat. You hold yourself/each other in. And while it doesn’t actually tip you out, knowing there was a much bigger ramp coming made me slightly nervous. So as we locked in to the second ramp, I closed my eyes and told my husband not to let me die. It took what felt like an eternity to reach the top, by which point I had opened my eyes to see how far and promptly got nervous again. You are quite high, you could see across the roofs (not the most gorgeous view up close, but ignore them and look straight ahead and you can see the other rides between trees which is much more beautiful) and you float along for another couple of minutes before you prepare to drop. At which point I closed my eyes again and held on tight haha. It was over quite quickly and while quite enjoyable wasn’t something we were rushing to get back on. I think I would have enjoyed it more if they took out the first ramp and extended the second so you go up and then relax into the statues and trees before the drop.

By Dragon Falls is the Tomb Blaster. A little slow rollercoaster designed for all the family. You go into a dark cave armed with laser guns and shoot the little green dots to collect points. My gun unfortunately didn’t work (laser pointer was broken) so my sweet husband switched with me and then I kicked his butt ;) it was quite a lot of fun. Each “cave” had a different statue set up to look like it was carved into the walls and there were hundreds of the green dots to find and shoot (which go red when shot, then go green again after a moment for the people behind you to shoot) and there is the occasional rumble noise to really make you feel like you are in the depths of a cave system. The ride seats you in 3’s, your gun is next to you and your point counter is in front of you (warning, it updates almost as soon as you reach the end so keep an eye on your total if you want to know it).

The Zufari was a little disappointing. The queues move quickly, the staff were friendly but the ride was very dull. In the jeep there is a large display showing a number of animals they have but they only take you to the giraffes, zebra and white rhino. Then you enter a cave, drive through a waterfall and go back to base.

My absolute favourite had to be the Scorpion Express though. Especially as we managed to do very little queuing. The first time we went on we were able to walk right up to the bridge ready to go on next, after that we were lucky enough to walk straight up to get on. The standard seems to be about two laps, but depending on how busy they are sometimes you will go an extra lap or two. They also love to slow you down as you are turned on your side going around and then get you with the scorpion. The flame was disappointing as you only see and feel it while queuing, once on the ride you don’t know it is there. But the scorpions water jet definitely gets you and had everyone laughing. In total we did 10 laps – so about 5 goes during busy times, but we were lucky enough to compress that into 2-3 goes due to being there during a less busy time.

We also walked around the zoo and sealife areas. Unfortunately the zoo was a little empty, with only really the Tiger and the Gorillas out to see. But none the less it was a lot of fun and they were beautiful. I spent ages taking pictures, and after saying “c’mon handsome, look at the camera” he finally glanced my way and I got this amazing photo! Which I posted on Instagram the other day and Chessington liked and commented on it to tell me they thought it was a fantastic photo which made me smile.

The Sea Lions were out enjoying the sun.

We saw a really clever Gorilla holding one of the ropes so he could have a drink without falling in.

And a starfish gave me a wave.

Thank you Chessington, for a wonderful day.

These views are my own and would be the same regardless of whether I paid for the tickets or not. The free tickets were given to attend Chessington, not as payment for my opinion and we paid parking and food expenses. Only the tickets were free.

Twinings Fruit Teas

We all have routines. Morning ones, work ones, bedtime ones. Well in October, mine changed. I quit smoking and switched to herbal teas.

I have tried many different brands and flavours and continue to try more as time goes by, but right now Twinings Fruit Teas are my choice. Of all the flavours I have tried, Cranberry & Raspberry is probably my favourite.

For the best cup of tea I find leaving it to stand for 5 minutes is perfect for it to infuse. But if you feel it is too hot, make up a jug of tea (make sure you add enough tea bags) and leave to stand until cool. Remove tea bags, pour a glass and add ice cubes for a delightfully refreshing summer drink!

I find them the perfect way to unwind, re-engage my brain and help me to focus. They are only 4 calories a cup (although possibly more for me, as I am guilty of adding some sugar), which is always a bonus. If I am honest they keep me sane and are a vital part of my routine, in fact you will usually find me armed with a cup of Twinings Cranberry & Raspberry when I sit down to work. Especially at the moment, as my little baby netbook has died. Hopefully a new charger will fix it but until then I am using my husbands laptop which is far too big and bulky for me which is incredibly frustrating!

They cost £1.49 for a box of 20 tea bags here.

What's your favourite flavour?

Fun In The Sun

With the sun shining down on us and a picnic packed we headed off to the park today.

We hadn't been to this one before, we had no clue where it was and almost got lost. Luckily my phone picked that moment to connect it's GPS and direct us the rest of the way. And boy was I glad that we did, it was gorgeous!

It had a little cafe and toilets off to one side, always a good thing. The beach was running along one side, free parking and then in the middle was this big park. It had a multitude of things to climb on, swing on and bounce on. Oh, and let's not forget the pool. That's right, a huge shallow pool in it's own enclosed area. Perfect to splash your feet in on a hot day!

So after trying out every piece of equipment and scoffing our picnic, I dragged the boys down to the pool to splash our feet for a minute before we left. But my incredibly courageous boy (who gets a bit freaked out by water) decided with Mommy by his side there was nothing to be scared of, so in we waded...

We splashed around until it started to get chilly and then we dried off and stuck our shoes on (and dry trousers for a certain little chap) before heading back to the car. A little voice complained that his feet hurt and he was sleepy (it had been a long, eventful day) so my beloved husband scooped him up...

(I apologise for the grainy picture, but it was taken while walking haha).

What did your family do today?