Tree Fu Tom Toys

The new range of Tree Fu Tom Toys is due to hit the shops from the 16th February j

Tree Fu Tom Party!

There is excitement brewing here as we have been asked if we would host a Tree Fu Tom Twitter Party on the 19th February between 4pm - 6pm

This has pleased Mikey no end, last year when we first saw Tree Fu Tom, the Cbeebies show about an 8 year old boy called Tom, who uses movements to perform magic, it quickly became a favourite, and as with anything the children like, Mikey soon started asking me to make him his very own Holopax and magic belt. I heard many parents asking for the same, and wondered if there was due to be any merchandise to run alongside the series, and then we were told that we would have to wait until Spring 2013 until we saw products appearing in the shops.

Well that wait is now over, as Flair have produced a fantastic range of toys,which are due to be released next week,  including figures and playsets, role play dressing up accessories and even great interactive movement rap mat to extend the Tree Fu moves into your own home.

The range of toys sounds fantastic with items that are pocket money prices right through to top wish list toys, and we will be putting them through there paces with the help of our party guests to let you know if they get the thumbs up of approval.

You are all invited to come and join us so you hear first about this exciting new range of toys, be sure to join in on Twitter where I will be live tweeting about how we are getting on, there will also be lots of fun and game ideas, printable activities so you can join in, or you could use to host your own Tree Fu Tom birthday party, and plenty of chances to win prizes. So be sure to come over to Twitter and follow the hashtag #TreeFuTomToys

And if you haven't yet seen the show then keep an eye out for it. It is an enchanting show which really captures the imagination of children, Tom encourages children to join in the actions and this helps assist their development, the moves have been designed especially to help children with movement disorders such as dyspraxia, but the are fun for all children.

Tree Fu Tom plays on Fridays on cbeebies at 5pm, or you can catch up on episodes on BBC Iplayer.

Take a look at what we have in our party box in my video below.

Postcard from Ghana #goodwork

Over the past few days three fantastic bloggers have formed #teamhonk and have been visiting Ghana with Davina and Jonathan Ross, to showcase Comic Reliefs #goodwork and mark their 25th birthday. I was lucky enough to be sent a digital postcard from them to share with you all and here it is:

Dear Sarah

Jonathan Ross talking to Capital FM live from the the vaccine centre in Ghana. He was recording live appeals for Red Nose day as well as live link ups to UK television shows throughout the day and radio interviews. Everyone was working really hard to get the #goodwork message across as quickly and efficiently as possible. Around us women cuddle and feed their babies as they wait for lifesaving vaccinations.

Love Penny

This is a digital postcard sent from TeamHonk (www.mammasaurus.co.uk;www.aresidence.co.uk; www.mummybarrow.com) during their travels with Comic Relief in Ghana celebrating #goodwork.

If you would like to see more from #TeamHonk please visit their website  where you will find all the links to other digital postcards, each with a individual photo straight from Ghana, go on pop over and show your support.

Make Health Fair

We are lucky to live in a country which has a National Health Service, and even with its faults it gives people in the UK access to health care as and when they need it, however there is still many inequality between the level of medicines available, and this really does result in deaths. 

Did you know that there is almost a 10% difference in life expectancy between those who live in the richest and poorest London boroughs? That’s almost 10 years! Poor people really do live shorter, less healthy lives even within a country where there is a National Health Service, which is supposed to provide medicine to all.

Unequal healthcare really does effect everybody, not only the people in the poorest parts of our country, but all across the globe the differences between the type and level of health care is huge. 99% of mothers who die within childbirth are from developing countries.

The London School of Medicine want to see that everyone has equal access to the things they need in order to life healthier lives, affordable shelter, clean water, sanitation and electricity.

Having these equal rights should hopefully prevent the huge differences in poor health and short lives.

In China the average life expectancy is 83 whereas in poorer parts of the world people are living only till there  40's

Please take a second to watch this short video which highlights some statistic to drive home the message that EVERYONE no matter where they live, how much they earn or what their sexual orientation is, everyone should be entitled to the same standard of healthcare.

.

We know how to improve lives with medicine, and health care that really does save lives, and this knowledge and these vital resources really don't cost that much at all. So it is really hard to understand why so much inequality is still present.

If you want to know more about the London School of Hygiene and their work you can check out the website here, where you will find a number of experts giving their opinions on different sectors of health care and what can be improved.

You can also show your support to their work on twitter by using the hashtag #MakeHealthFair

If talking about this, bringing it to peoples attention has even the smallest effect and can help the people who are in need get the help they need, then lets make sure we shout it out. Please share the message today.

This is a Sponsored Post from SpreaditFast

Treasure every moment

My Love and thoughts are with Jennie and David, Ester and William and the rest of their family tonight.

I have no words, but my thoughts are with them as they come to terms with the loss of their beautiful daughter Matilda Mae, the world lost and angel but heaven gained the best.

Life is terribly cruel and there seems no reason,  if I could take away their pain and sorrow I would in a heartbeat.

The happiness and love filled months with Matilda Mae will be forever remembered by every one she touched with her spirit. I hope the beautiful pictures and stories Jennie shared on her blog bring comfort in the future.

Life is fragile and precious, grasp it with both hands at every opportunity, hold your loved ones close and store your memories in your heart.

Sleep Well Matilda Mae and Fly high 

xxx

Silent Sunday

Touching Base - Youtube - Blogging - Monetising

Wow February already! how did that happen? This year seems to have started with such a whirlwind, and I have hardly had chance to sit and recap and organise things.

Regulars readers might have noticed my slight silence over the past couple of weeks, I didn't even manage to post up a Silent Sunday last week, which is a shame, as I haven't missed many of them over the lifetime of my blog, and I didn't even post about Jakes birthday - I am now a mother of an 11 year old and it doesn't really seem possible, maybe I'm in denial (if I don't blog it can I pretend it didn't happen?)

So what has been happening? (Other than spending 4 days last week feeling REALLY poorly, which is the reason for the absent Silent Sunday!) There has also been some more exciting, less sickly things.

Just after Christmas I was nosing around online, like I spend most of my days, and I happened to stumble across a article about a young girl who had made some make up tutorials on youtube and had managed to build up a bit of an income, it interested me enough to pop over to youtube to take a look at her channel. (the articles here if you fancy a look)

It intrigued me because I also have a youtube channel, although I am terribly  neglectful of it, and to be honest have spent very little time and effort on the videos that are there. A few months ago when I last checked I was surprised to see that my videos had attracted a few hundred thousand views. (555,000 back in April 2012 when I last checked)

So upon visiting youtube to see the channel in the article, which had just shy of 2 million views, I decided I should sign into my own channel and take a look how it was doing, I had noticed the option to turn on adverts several months ago, but I dismissed it because I was never sure if the income would ever amount to much.

However I was gobsmacked to see the view count rocketing over 2.5 million for my videos, meaning I had had more views than the channel in the article, I then pondered what had I missed out on by NOT adding the ads all those months ago.

So with the gentle shove from Hannah - A New Addition, I added the ads to my youtube. this was a fairly straight forward process, which I wish I had done years ago. And I sat back being rather sceptical thinking that maybe I would see a few pounds in their after a few months, but how wrong was I!

The very next day I had an email in my inbox telling me to verify my adsence address and bank details as I had hit the payment bracket  to update these details, I was shocked and signed into my account to see over £10 sitting there already. I did as it asked and a week later I had a fully verified account and over £60 in the account, now 3 weeks later I have over £220 clocked up!

I was abit overwhelmed by this, having been so unsure about the revenue you can make using adsence, and was eager to know more, so I took to google+ and decided to go and try to find some info, I found a really great community with some helpful people in it, I joined, and joined in a few discussion, and am trying to find some spare time to put things into practise.

I wanted to share my experience so I offered to join in with IzziWizzi playfest on blogging, if your not familiar with IzziWizzi kids then take a look at my video below, and come over to join in on Twitter or facebook, there are lots of great bloggers there sharing advice.



As you can see I'm not a natural behind a camera, I am somewhat unnatural behind it, infact I'd say I am totally useless, and most of my videos include the same unplanned errmming and aarring because I never think to plan and read from a script! But  I do want to improve my videos so I am going to try to experiment abit more with some hints and tips I have picked up the past couple of weeks and hope to make them less cringe worthy, and if you have a youtube account, even if you think your videos aren't that great, do look out for the monetise option, and add it when it appears!

On other news, somewhere along my travels round the interweb, I managed to attract the attention of a SEO who needed a hand with some graphic design, and we hooked up on Google+  and struck a deal which I hope continues with exciting things in the future.

You may remember this post I wrote at the start of January, pondering what the year would bring, the last couple of weeks  have far surpassed my expectations and I feel like I am the start of a new journey with my blog, but am not really sure which direction it will take yet. I don't know if I should take a minute to sit back and plan, or just carry on like I always do.. I guess I will just keep on carrying on, and holding on tight!