On festival days, the streets surrounding Heeley City Farm are usually crammed bumper to bumper with parked cars. But not today.

I tell Sarah it's because of the rain which is bounding off the windscreen like a hailstorm of ping-pong balls. "Some of the activities might have been cancelled, are you sure you still want to go?"

Of course she does. Ever since she saw the flyer I picked up in the reception at school Sarah has not stopped asking if she could get her hair braided. Personally I was looking forward to picking up a pretty wreath for the front door and some Christmas crafts to adorn our seemingly virginal tree. So hurriedly we packed Cassius into his pram and bolted across to the main centre, seeking shelter under a thatched roof where the tombola and a woodcraft stall had set up their wares.

Last year, my aunt inspired us all by creating beautiful handmade cards to send to family members - they were a Christmas treat in themselves!

So this year, Sazzy and I will be following her lead, using this great tutorial for origami Christmas trees as the basis for our designs:

We Grow By Our Dreams: Origami Christmas Tree Tutorial

We've found some lovely quality festive wrapping paper at only 25p a sheet in the local post office, already have gold star stickers, metallic pens and beads to embellish, and are scouring eBay for budget-priced blank cards (Hobbycraft is way overpriced!).

I'll post pics once we've made a few (and I finally have access to a camera-enabled phone!)

These days, almost all of us will operate a Facebook account, whether to keep up with family and friends or extend our social reach.

Image credit: Carbonnyc,

Like all modern technologies, there are no hard-and-fast rules for how we should operate our accounts, but there are guidelines we could follow in order to avoid embarrassing ourselves or others.

Make use of these etiquettes as you see fit and help make Facebook a more appealing place to socialise.

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!