Shopaholic? Me?

I don’t know if you have heard of Kopi coffee but recently I had the opportunity to try it and I must say that I am intrigued.

Let me tell you how it works. Basically they offer a coffee subscription service which sends you 250g of coffee every month for a fixed fee – £48 for 6 months or £84 for a year. What is special about that… well first of all you get to sample different coffee every month and secondly it is great quality coffee.

The one I sampled was strong smelling yet on the weakish side flavour wise. It had an intriguing flavour and interestingly a strong after taste. It came in a resealable foil bag (though I struggled to seal it properly) which also has a “spot” which does something for preserving the flavour (but not quite sure what).

Kopi aim to source unique and rare single-origin coffees from around the world. They also include a leaflet with every pack sent out explaining the coffee; its provenance and taste.

I do think if wine selection packs were this good, I’d probably subscribe especially as I do not know much about wine. Not that I know enough about coffee, which means I am off to convince my hubby to get us a subscription (particularly great as it is implying a new lifestyle to go with our new house).

I wonder if I can convince him to make me a cup now!

If you have pets like me, then you know the frustrations of pet hair. I did not realise just how bad things were until I tested CarPET. I used it on a patch a foot square that had already been vacuumed with a pet hair vacuum cleaner. And in a couple of sweeps, you can see the ball of hair I picked up. I was astonished. I thought it was clean and I was so very wrong.

It is so good, I do not even know where to begin. I thought I was just testing another gimick except it actually works. The only recommendation I have, is they need to make it as an attachment to a vacuum cleaner so that it can suck the hairs up as you clean.

And if you are interested it is not just for Cats and Dogs but can even be used for horse hair.

I have a great belief in enhancing everything you can to give children the best start in life. Fish Oil is renowned for being a brain booster. So, obviously I have been giving them my kids since they were old enough. I remember my mum giving me Cod Liver Oil as a spoonful and it was disgusting, no matter how it was disguised. But with modern technology, fish oil tablets have come a long long way.

Anyway, recently I had the opportunity to test 3 different brands. I had Boots Smart Omega 3 Chewable Capsules for kids, HalibOrange Kids Omega – 3 and Brain Boosters . As you can see from my picture they are quite different and even taste different. Besides my testing the oils, I also asked my 5 year old his opinion.

HalibOrange (the designer brand) just did not make the cut. He did not enjoy them at all and nor did I?

Now the other two was interesting. My son liked the outside of Brain Boosters better than the Smart Omega but prefered the inside of the Smart Omega. However, the day after the the experiment… I gave my son the Brain Boosters again… and he replied, ” Oh Good, My Favourite Ones”, which I guess means the Brain Boosters are definately prefered.

So my over all conclusion is Brain Boosters wins hands down but if it could be improved, perhaps a nicer inside could be conjured up! The best bit is I can order direct from them and have them delivered too!

Just for your info, their nutritional info is …

• Brain Boosters -  Fish Oil 303mg
• HalibOrange – Fish Oil 200mg + Vitamins A, D, E, C
• Smart Omega - Fish Oil 204mg + Vitamin A, D, E, C

Brain Booster, Smart Omega & HalibOrange

As strange as it sounds I like winter. I like the cold dark nights, the smokiness when you blow out into the cold air, and best of all the warmth when you get indoors. I like sitting by a glowing fire and drinking hot chocolate with melted marshmallows. I like huddling up with my hubby on a cold night in front of the fire. I like snow, skiing and snowmen!

The only issue is the icy fingers and most of the time gloves are so bulky you cannot do anything. You struggle to hold children’s hands and you cannot do anything. But I found a pair of gloves that work. They are warm enough to beat the most freezing of conditions, yet soft enough for comfort and movement. They fit well, though I suspect you might need to go for a larger size as a general rule because I am a female and these are Men’s Ski Gloves. Although they are men’s, I think they are very unisex and frankly I love them.

The gloves are water proof and breathable. They have “DryShell” inserts inbetween the glove and lining  to prevent moisture getting in but still allowing air to circulate. How cool is that? I won’t just be keeping them for skiing but for my every day use too!

In case you want to know you can find Barts Men Ski Gloves on Twitter and FaceBook.

I must say that I really enjoyed reading The Golden Prince, by Rebecca Dean. It bears a similar story line to Prince William who is in love with a regular girl. In the book, The Golden Prince, is in love with someone, who although from a noble family is not royal and they have to try to come up with a solution to their royal dilemma.

Personally I felt like I was there sharing and living the romance and I struggled to put it down. Obviously I don’t want to tell you how it ends…. but I needed my tissues (for the happy and sad) throughout the book. Although not normally the sort of book I would normally go for… while reading it I almost felt princess like.

And if you want to read the book just get it from Amazon!

We had a wedding recently and I paid a lot of attention to what my kids were wearing. My daughter had a nice new dress, my sons were in suits. And I had not got round to buying myself anything. Despite being a shopaholic, with twin babies, most of my shopping is online and er food comes first. However I was able to add a flower corsage to my dress and to my daughter’s and suddenly I felt special. I felt important. At just £15 for a corsage it is far cheaper than a new dress and you do feel really special.

(I must confess the photos were taken the day after the event and they still look beautiful).

This range of corsages is available from Interflora. Check them out, they have a great range, and I’m sure you’ll find something that can accent what you’re wearing.

I know that I said I would review coffee but I thought perhaps I could review something coffee-like! I discovered Chocolate & Love and their “expresso beans”. Devine. So I thought let’s review a sample selection of their chocolate. For obvious coffee reasons, I will start with my Expresso Beans:-
Expresso Beans : Dark chocolate coated expresso beans. It has a lovely warm coffee flavour in the chocolate and the centre is a real coffee bean with crisp texture. Unfortunately, it leaves your mouth feeling a bit gritty. This can be solved by eating another etc etc. I found that I liked eating a number of them at one go better than one at a time. Maybe that is just me. Great to serve as a petite four in a little petite four case with hot sweet liquid coffee. These are by PACARI but can be bought from Chocolate & Love for £2.95.

The Coffee Affair : For a coffee chocolate, it is quite mild and subtle. I think the level of coffee in it is perfect as most often I find coffee flavour chocolates over powering and this isn’t. It simply blends well. I would however not serve with the expresso beans as the flavour would get lost. But if you want a chocolate and a coffee fix (bar pocket coffee which actually has a real shot of coffee in it), then this is highly recommended.

Orange Mantra : I’m not an Orange lover. I must say it probably stems from my childhood when all medicines were orange flavoured, so I do tend to avoid orange flavours. This chocolate has a mild sublte orange flavour with a really nice strong bitter chocolate blend. When it runs out… you simply want more! This is only for dark chocolate lovers but it does not preclude people who are not fond of orange. Fantastic.

Filthy Rich : A strong and very dark chocolate which melts very nicely especially for dark chocolate. It is nothing striking but it does have a nice smooth flavour.

Nirvanabar : This chocolate melts even nicer than Filty Rich and probably one of the best dark chocolates I have tasted in ages. It is sweet despite its darkness, which makes it a winner in my book. It was even enjoyed by my dear hubby who isn’t too fond of dark chocolate. Pass me some more…. Oh! It’s finished!

Ah well, I guess it means I need to buy some more. The bars cost £2.90 and delivery is £2.98 for delivery to the UK within 2-4 days or £15.74 for the rest of the world, so anyone can order.

And if you are still not sure, they also have a tasting club where they deliver chocolates to you. You can select what type of chocolates you want to receive and what level you want to be on. And if you let them know that you heard about the chocolate club from Shopaholic, then maybe they will send me more yummy chocolate to er review!