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Wednesday, October 30, 2013

Wordless Wednesday 30th October 2013 {Halloween}



Up until a few years ago, Halloween wasn't something I acknowledged.  I always made sure I had lollies in the house for Trick-or-Treater's {who never came a knocking mind you!} but aside from that it wasn't a celebration we 'got into' but a few years back, I threw up my hands & said 'why not?!' The result, a fun time each year on October 31st..  Above is a glimpse of our Halloween decorating this year.. Simple but effective for a very eager 2 year old :) 

Tomorrow we plan on watching the Nick Jnr Halloween Cartoon line up, Trick or Treating at home (the kids can trick or treat us.. Unfortunately our neighbourhood doesn't get into it) and having a little Halloween party after school. All in the name of fun of course! 

Does your family celebrate Halloween? 

Thanks for stopping by! 
Why not pop back to yesterday's post to enter my 2kool4skool.com.au giveaway :) 

Linking Up with Trish from My Little Drummer Boys for Wordless Wednesday. 

Monday, October 28, 2013

Still 2kool4skool.. A follow up review from www.2kool4skool.com.au

A little under a year ago, I was approached by a local up and coming company who sought to put the 'cool' back into school.   Kathy and her team from 2kool4skool.com.au launched their fantastic online store that was filled to the brim with funky stationary products promising to 'rock your pencil case'  right down to the uber kool pencil case that you could fit all the goodies in.  With kids who regularly harassed me for Smiggle products I was more than a little excited to have a look see at their product range and happily road tested some of their products for back to school 2013. 


For those of you that didn't get to read the review, feel free to catch up here; http://www.severalkindsofcrazy.blogspot.com.au/2013/01/heading-back-to-school-with.html

Fast forward 11 months and I was happy to accept a follow up review to let you guys know how I found their products throughout the past year & if they were holding up. 

I am happy to report that I have so far been impressed with the products I was given for the review and the additional products that I purchased from 2Kool4Skool.com.au.  



One of the BEST products that I cannot recommend highly enough is the 2kool4skool book covers.. Available in exercise, A4 & Scrapbook size, they were an absolute winner for back to school 2013.  One year, no word of a lie I covered 120 books for the kids & at the end of it, I wished for such a product... Kathy made that wish come true! Not only was book covering 'effortless' I was proud of the books I sent in to school with the kids & still to this day I am proud when I see their books at school or when they come home, because they are still so neat & tidy. Check out my Stepdaughter's Music book and my Son's Homework Book (my personal fave design ~ peace).  These are two books that travel back & forth weekly & they still look fab! Imagine how shiny the ones that sit in their desks still look, top notch! The spines are still in great condition and with no rips or tears in the PVC I could easily reuse these next year if I wished.


The kids said the covers were great because their books were easily recognisable & lots of their friends commented on the cool designs and searched for the ice-block (the built in game on every cover). 
Their pencil cases withstood the test of time, albeit a zipper tag has fallen off, but that's not bad going for an item that's used daily.  When they bought them home over the last school holidays, I did a quick inventory of their supplies, gave the case a wipe over with a chux (so handy they are all PVC) and refilled them ready for 4th term (a red pencil & red felt pen are a necessity for term 4!) 

Their pencils, erasers & sharpeners were all well loved or pinched by the end of term 2, they were just that popular. Mr 8 often complained of his funky smart phone sharpener going walkabout & would always find it on a neighbouring desk.. He stopped taking his gym boot pencil case to school a few weeks into term 1 because he was getting too many girls stopping by his desk to check out his kool stuff, too much female attention.. I'm sure he won't be complaining about that in a few years.. 

I didn't complain though because I scored that pencil case for my teaching bag, where it gets tons of positive comments & stores all of the cool products I snaffled for myself including my favourite scented pens (strawberry is divine) and a stock of the double ended scented markers (yes I like smelly stuff ~ who doesn't!?) And with scents like Choc Chip Cookie & even Pizza, you won't be able to stop sniffing your pencil case.. {warning might result in odd looks LOL} 

I was absolutely devastated when our school announced that they were supplying the books for 2014 & along with that, slip covers for the books... How bummed was I?! Thankfully the school is allowing us to cover the kids books as I wasn't going to miss out on the exciting new range of covers that 2kool4skool has released for back to school 2014.  No way! And I highly doubt with our Principals taste that his covers will be half as cool.. :) 

So with all that in mind, I'd happily shop & continue to shop www.2kool4skool.com.au the staff are lovely, they still have a great presence on social media such as Facebook, Instagram, Twitter & Pinterest & really, who doesn't want to make back to school shopping easier... Pop over to their website & start checking them out.. You will not be disappointed & have many hours to gain NOT covering books!
 
You can find 2Kool4Skool here or follow them on Facebook to find out about all their cool upcoming products & stationary lines for cool stocking fillers and back to school 2014 here!  

For those that want to try out a fantastic pencil case from www.2kool4skool.com.au enter my giveaway below as I have 5 fab pencil cases to give away to my lucky readers. *Please note those that don't have Facebook, please just leave a blog post comment to enter :) 


a Rafflecopter giveaway

Linking up with Jess from 'Essentially Jess' for IBOT. 





 


Sunday, October 27, 2013

Recipe of the Week ~ Mixed Berry, Cream Cheese & White Chocolate Jaffles



I came across this recipe last week in the November edition of the free Coles Magazine & the beauty of this recipe is, if you can make a toasted sandwich, you can make these!!!

To buy all of the ingredients for the recipe wasn't terribly cost effective,  infact the ingredients were about $15/$20
 However, if you have some of the ingredients already its a bonus (I didn't!) but depending on how many you make, you will have lots of leftovers. As I only made these for my Hubby & I (4 Jaffles) we had plenty of leftover Cream Cheese, Berries & White Chocolate melts... Seconds!  

As I said, super easy recipe; 
Ingredients;
A loaf of white bread
Cream Cheese
Frozen Mixed Berries 
White Chocolate Melts 
Butter
Icing Sugar & Maple Syrup to serve (optional) 
* I used the Coles brand cream cheese & frozen mixed berries as outlined in their magazine but any brand would work fine. 

You will need to cook them on; 
Either a sandwich press or a frying pan. 
* I used a 4 sandwich, sandwich press. 

Start by buttering as many pieces of bread as you will need to make the desired amount of sandwiches. 

Turn the bread, buttered side down & spread cream cheese onto the bread. Place the defrosted/softened berries onto the cream cheese and sprinkle with white chocolate melts. 

Spread the top slice of bread with cream cheese & place it buttered side up onto the sandwich. You are now ready to place it into the Sandwich press. Cook until it is golden, remove, cut & dust with icing sugar to serve.. You may want a drizzle of maple syrup as well but as I had neither in my pantry, the sandwich still tasted fantastic without the icing sugar or maple syrup! 

These were a fantastic alternative to our usual Sunday cooked breakkie of Bacon & Eggs but would also make a yummy dessert as well. 

Try them out, you sure wont be disappointed!