Find the perfect gift for everyone

In my experience, it is possible to find a perfect gift for anyone by simply listening to them. In every conversation, listen out for what people enjoy, like, would like, wish to do etc, and this will help in searching for a perfect gift for them when you need one. If someone loves ice-cream, look at buying them an ice-cream maker - this may sound expensive but if you shop around, it's amazing what you can find. If someone enjoys craft, buy them a voucher for a craft shop so they can buy what they'd like.
Also think about experince gifts as this can be a great and memorable gift to someone, e.g. buying a gift voucher for 'Build-A-Bear' for a child or someone who loves cuddly toys, will give a great experience and a gift to take home.
In addition to this, look out for bargains both online and in local shops. It's amazing what can be found if you keep your eyes peeled! Don't just look in regular shops either, many charity shops now stock their own ranges of new merchandice, which are lovely and very well priced.
Another tip is to stock up on gifts when you find them on offer, that way, when a birthday comes along that you'd forgotten about, or there's a child's party you dodn't know about, you may have something appropriate in your stock that you can give.

Liven up lunch! Inventive packed lunches for fussy eaters

My 2 sons are both extremely fussy eaters and because of their fussiness, have always taken a packed lunch to school as they generally don't like cooked food. I found very early on that just making sandwiches every day would soon become very boring for them and tried to come up with some other ideas to make their lunches more interesting while remaining fairly healthy (I state 'fairly healthy' as I do include chocolate spread, but it is occassional and the school don't mind). Here are some alternatives I've found to work, I hope they help you too:


Cheese scone with butter
Plain scone with butter and jam
Brioche with jam or butter or chocolate spread
Scotch pancakes with butter
Bread rolls with filling
Pitta bread with filling
Bagel with filling

Finding affordable fabric

If you need fabric for something and find that buying from a fabric shop is too expensive, I'd recommend buying clothes to cut up instead. Often charity shops have a great range of clothes (therefore fabrics) to choose from or clothes shops with sales on can be also extremely cheap. I recently managed to get a ladies top from a factory shop for only £3. I also made sure I got the biggest size (as they were all priced the same) therefore getting the most fabric possible for the money.