Board Games are getting a “Second Life” + Games Quest Giveaway

As we all know by now the gaming industry is growing bigger every day… more gaming consoles, more gaming tablets, phones handheld devices, more options to simply isolate ourselves from the outside world and just play…

One could easily start to think that this whole boom in computer gaming would “kill off” board games, but one would be wrong. Actually board games are having their own boom and were never as popular as they are right now.

According to Doctor Tomasz Sobierajski sociology Professor from Warsaw University “we miss the need to be with other people”. Computer gaming can be fun but most of the time we are isolated; it is just us stuck in the room staring at a screen whereas board games give us the opportunity to be interact with others and at the same time learn something new, have fun and relax.

Board games are extremely important part of growing up. They help with intellectual development, social rules as well as interpersonal relationships; they teach us how to win and more importantly… how to lose.

How to choose the perfect board game?

Well, I am not sure I have a perfect recipe for success when it comes to game choices but I have a few pointers which might help with this task.

Read information on the box

This would give you the general idea about the game and the ever so important age bracket the game is designed for.

Read the rules

Every game has its own rules. When picking something new we need to make sure that the rules are not too complicated and that the participants will be able to follow them.

Time frame

Some games can take a long time to finish. It is important to pick the right game that suits the time frame available to you to finish the game – too long and kids can get bored.

Number of players

Different games require different number of players. If there are only two of you most of the time then don’t get a party game…

Type of the game

Fantasy, simulation, adventures, logical… you know best what you like, you know best what your friends or kids are good at… take it into consideration when making your choice… If your players aren’t good readers don’t pick the game which requires a lot of reading in order to progress… games should be fun… this is their main role and everything else we learn during this time it is just a bonus!

We have a lot of board games in the house. We might not play them as often as we would like but there is nothing better than a friendly scrabble session 🙂

Games Quest was started by people who love games and love having fun. They stock over 30,000 of the world’s favourite board games, toys and books. If you are looking for it, I am sure they have it.

Games Quest have kindly offered £40 of site credit to one of my readers, so you can pick something you and your kids or friends can bond over and enjoy during these long winter evenings.

If you have a board game on your wish list and fancy winning £40 to spend at Games Quest please just follow the link to my rafflecopter giveaway.

Enter to win a £40 voucher to spend at Games Quest

 

Good luck!

Do you like board games?

Do you think their future is bright?

Do you play with your kids, partner or friends?

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
Loquax – Home of The Lucky Duck
SuperLucky Blog Giveaways Linky

Thank you Secret Santa

Yes, you guessed right; this is a heartfelt thank you post to the blogger who was my Secret Santa 🙂

I totally love the idea of the Secret Santa – you get the name of the blogger and a budget and off you go… read, and then read some more and then go hunting for the perfect gift.

This year I took part in Twin Mummys Newbie Bloggers! Facebook group Secret Santa. We all were allocated one blogger each and given a budget of £10.

I think sometimes it is not so easy to find the right thing. I struggled a lot with the choice of my gift… I’ve read post after post… changed months… dug deep into the archives but I was still not an inch closer to finding something personal about my gift recipient that could guide me to a nice gift… Finally there was one post which gave me some insight into their likes and dislikes and this was all I had to go on… I hope I did well with my choice… or at least partially good…

I think my Secret Santa did a fantastic job… here are my gifts…

We use coasters a lot as we have wooden stained furniture and I even featured some on the blog and of course we love our pets so it works out perfectly.

The coasters are really well made and I am very pleased with them but my favourite part of the gift is by far the key ring…

I normally don’t use key rings as I have my keys on a lead around my neck just to make things easier but this one I will use for sure. It will be joined by my car keys.

I love this key ring and I totally love the quote on it.

Home is where your Dog is!

This is so true!

Secret Santa, you where spot on with this gift; it is just right for me and it put a huge grin on my face; Thank you!

Did you ever play Secret Santa to someone?

Merry Christmas

What’s Cooking – Christmas Gingerbread Man Cookies

The Christmas season is in a full bloom so it is time to get some festive food ready. What can be more festive than some tasty little gingerbread cookies?

The recipe I want to share with you today is from The Christmas 3D Cookie Kit from Parragon. The kit contains 3D cookie cutters (so you can make your own 3D snowman and 3D Christmas tree) and a recipe book with a fantastic selection of Christmas cookies.

The recipe I’ve chosen was originally for a Mini Gingerbread House Cookies, but we thought that a gingerbread man shaped cookies will be a better choice 🙂

Ingredients:

125g butter

2tbp golden syrup

175g light muscovado sugar

300g self-rising flour

2tbsp ground ginger

1 large egg

Method:

Prepare 2 large baking sheets, ideally pre-lined with a baking paper.

Heat the oven to 160C.

Place the butter and the golden syrup in a pan and heat gently, stirring all the time until melted.

Remove the pan from the heat, add sugar and stir until dissolved.

Sift the flour and ginger into a large bowl and make a well in the middle ready for the wet ingredients.

Pour in the warm, wet ingredients and add the beaten egg into the mix.

Stir thoroughly to form a smooth dough.

Wrap it in a cling film and chill in the fridge for about 20 minutes.

Remove your dough from the fridge and prepare to roll it out; ideally you want your rolled dough to be about 5mm thick.

Cut desired shapes using a cookie cutter or an upside down glass if you want to make a classic round shape or even a knife if all else fails.

Transfer your cut cookies to your baking sheets.

Chill in the fridge for a further 10 minutes.

Bake in earlier preheated oven for about 12-15 minutes or until firm and lightly brown.

Remove from the oven and allow them to cool down.

Now the fun can begin…

It is time to decorate!

If you are good with decorating you can make your own royal icing (just mix 150g of icing sugar with 2tsp of white egg powder and 2 tbsp of cold water)… I am not a master decorator so we used shop bought icing pens to make this job easier 😉

Happy baking!

Baby #ootd – Ready for Christmas dinner

Shirt – Zara Baby (similar here)
Sweater – F&F (similar here)
Jeans – Next (similar here)
Shoes – Bobux

Weekly Photo Challenge: Twinkle

Challenge set by The Daily Post

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How To Make A Fresh Green Christmas Wreath

This festive season most household will have (or already have) a lovely fresh Christmas wreath hanging on the door. We can go and simply buy one or we can make a craft project and create one ourselves.

The process isn’t as complicated as one might think. All you need is:

• Wreath frame
• Wire
• Cones
• Ribbons
• And of course green bits 😉
• And some tools for cutting

Get ready!

Step one: attach your wire into a frame – this will keep all the greens in place.

Pick a bunch of greeneries and start attaching them to the frame… with your wire.

Continue fitting until the frame is nicely covered.

Once this is done you have your base now all that is left to do is to decorate it.

Make a nice bow and place it to on the top or bottom to define a direction of your wreath.

Add cones to make it look more attractive.

If you fancy more colour, you can add berries or colourful ribbons.

Remember it is your creation so it can look however you want it to look!

To make my vague instructions more clear watch the video below to see how it is done from the beginning to the very end 🙂

Have you ever attempted to make your own Christmas wreath?

* All pictures in this post were taken by my friend Agnieszka

A gift guide for that person who appears to have it all

Men, women, teens, kids – there is always someone who seems to have it all and when asked what would they want or like the answer is always the same – nothing.

This is not necessarily the truth. I personally don’t believe they have it all but this type of person may just not have any immediate needs which need fulfilling, so… buying for them is kind of a nightmare.

We can always pick the easy way out and go with a pre-boxed gift from our favourite store or we could try to find something which will actually suit them and they might actually need or even want, even if they don’t know it yet.

I was wondering about some gift ideas for “those” type of people. So I created a list, in spending order, which might give you some ideas.

Experience Days

There are a lot of options for picking something suitable from experience days. I’ve looked at Virgin Experience Days and prices start from just £5 and go up and up and up all the way to space soon… so I am putting it on top of my list. Driving, flying, days out, spa days, photo shoots… there are literally 100s of different options to suit any budget and of course to suit any person we are buying for. Last year I won a driving experience and gifted it to Mark; he totally loved it even though they wouldn’t let him keep the car despite Hollywood levels of pleading.

Dyson Hot + Cool

Unless the person you are buying for has an air-conditioned house they will love the new Dyson Hot + Cool. I personally don’t have one (I wish we had) but I’ve seen it in action and it is amazing. It looks amazing and it performs just as described. It isn’t cheap though as prices starts from £359.99 but if you have that amount of “spare” money I can guarantee a smile on the recipient face.

Redmond Multicooker

Reading different blogs I see that a lot of people are using a multicooker. These smart appliances can fry, steam, cook, stew, bake… they can reheat food or keep it warm until you get home… pretty clever. It is like all your cooking requirements in one piece of kit. The price does vary depending on which model you opt for – the basic 6 program multicooker will set you back £69 going up to an amazing 55 programs in one model for £184.90.

Personalised Gifts

With personalised gifts the choice also is almost endless – bags, mugs, frames, chocolates, clothing… whatever you want I am sure someone will personalise it for you. ToxicFox have a huge selection of personalised gifts. I particularly like their wine or champagne selection – personalised of course – as they might just be the perfect gift for a fussy adult.

They also offer a full ClaireaBella collection – cushions, stationery, suitcases, bags to name a few things plus a lot of clothing including PJs, hoodies, zoodies, t-shirt, onesies. With ClaireaBella you can not only personalise with your name but the whole Mr or Mrs ClaireaBella 😉 Prices starts from £4.99 for a personal bar of chocolate going up to £134 for a suitcase.

Water Pillow

Yeah, I know, it sounds awesome, doesn’t it? £39.99 will give you a Mediflow Waterbase Fibrefill Pillow; clinically proven to improve quality of sleep and reduction of neck pain. They can be adjusts to fit the shape of any person and continuously responds to changes in the sleeping position. I actually have one and it is a pleasure to sleep on. People might have a lot of things but I bet most of them haven’t thought about getting themselves a water pillow 🙂

“Posh” Candle Collection

Candles aren’t only for the older women. They have a practical use of course but they might also be used as a decoration, a mood enhancement or just a nice reminder of something or someone special. The Country Candle Company offers the most beautiful range of British, highly scented candle collections to suit any preferences. Prices start from £6.50 and go up to £22.50 for a lovely gift pack.

So, what do you think?

Are any of my ideas useable for you?

What would you add to the list?

RockFace taking care of your man – Review and Giveaway

If you like to look good and smell great with a minimum of effort and fuss leaving you more time to work hard and play hard, then Rockface is the range for you.

RockFace is a brand designed for a real man. All their products have the same citrusy woody fragrance so you can streamline your grooming and fragrance regime in one easy step.

Currently there are 8 products in the range:

• Shave gel – priced: £3.95 for 200ml
• Shave butter – priced £4.99 for 75ml
• Post shave balm – priced £4.95 for 100ml
• Moisturiser – priced £5.49 for 100ml
• Shower wash – priced £3.95 for 100ml
• Face and body scrub – priced £4.99 for 150ml
• Deodorant spray – priced £3.45 for 150ml
• Active body spray – priced £3.49 for 150ml

Recently Mark was kindly sent a range to try out. I must admit I was a little surprised by his reaction to this giant gift packet.

Normally he is a quite fussy “client” when it comes to skin care – he has a few products he likes and it is not easy to even get him to try something new. I think it is all about the fragrance – yet he liked RockFace and he was more than happy to give them a try, including the face and body scrub… which I tried to make him use for years with no positive outcome.

So what were Marks findings: “Good selection of useful products though I still haven’t figured out the need for an active body spray. The fragrance is indeed very attractive and I like the green colour of some products; not sure why but using them makes me happy”.

From my point of view I wanted to check if a “male” version of a face and body scrub is any different to the girly ones I know, so I tried it. To my giant surprise it was an amazing experience. This is one of the best scrubs I’ve used. It is quite gentle yet does its job perfectly well and it leaves your skin unbelievable smooth… no wonder Mark’s forehead doesn’t feel like a sheet of a sand pepper any more.

Mark likes it, I liked it, therefore with some confidence I can say I am sure you would like it too.

Now there is only one question left: when is the after shave or a perfume with the same scent coming out to complete the routine?

Now Rockface whose generosity has no bounds has very kindly offered 3 products to one of my lucky readers. The winner will be able to pick what they fancy to try out and if they are fast, it should arrive just before Christmas, so you will have one gift less to worry about.

To be in chance of winning the three RockFace products of your choice please follow me and RockFace on Twitter and RT the following tweet:

Follow me and @Rockface4Men to #win 3 products of your choice from http://t.co/tOnmhypGTa Full T&C on: http://t.co/DbEwR2fXhg #RockFaceXmas

— Agata @ BarkTime (@AgataPokutycka) December 9, 2014

Good Luck!

T&C:
1. Open to UK readers only.
2. One obligatory entry per reader – follow me and RockFace on Twitter and RT the tweet as stated above. Any extra RT will be counted as an additional entry.
3. There will be 1 winner in total.
4. The winner will receive a bundle of 3 RockFace products of their choice. The prize will be provided by RockFace.
5. Winner will be picked at random and informed within 7 working days via Twitter.
6. Winner will have 7 working days to claim the prize, after this time, a new winner will be selected.
7. Closing date is Wednesday 17-12-2014 at 23:59pm, any entry made after this time will not be counted.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
Loquax – Home of The Lucky Duck
SuperLucky Blog Giveaways Linky

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20/12 WINNER UPDATE

Well done Laura ‏@LAFhusky

Zoflora, Pets and Christmas – Inforgraphic and Giveaway

We are a nation of pet lovers, there is no doubt about it, but how good are we at making sure our beloved dog, cat or parrot lives in a clean and safe environment?

If you are a regular reader of Bark Time you know that I am huge Zoflora fan. I have been using it for years and I have no problems with recommending it to others. It ticks all the right boxes when it comes to cleaning and disinfecting certain areas in the house… one of those areas is the dog den aka the conservatory 😉 I like the fact that Zoflora kills 99.9% of both bacteria and viruses additionally it is very good with odour elimination, the result it helps me keep the house clean and with winter having arrived “wet dog” odour free.

Zoflora has made a cute infographic about pets and Christmas – have a look…

91% of pet owners buy their pets Christmas gifts… hmmm… what is wrong with the remaining 9%? I guess these must be people who don’t celebrate Christmas… or perhaps they just don’t do any kind of gifting during this festive season…

73% of pet owners will add their pet’s name to any Christmas cards they send – we admit to being one of those owners… our cards always include all our animals names and if we are feeling artistic the paw prints as well.

Whilst on the topic of cards, Zoflora shared with me their selection of pet cards, which you can print out yourself.

If you would like any of these cards in a large file then please just drop me a line and I will email it to you.

And now for the giveaway… this festival season one of you will receive a Zoflora product bundle and a £25 Pets at Home voucher. So now there is no excuse not to buy your pet a Christmas gift, which is great news, isn’t it?

To be in with a chance of winning this lovely prize, please tell me: do you personally have any special pet related Christmas traditions you carry out?

As an additional bonus entry you can follow me on Twitter and RT my giveaway tweet:

Follow me and RT to #win @LoveZoflora bundle and £25 @PetsatHome voucher. Full T&C at: http://t.co/Tpp3PRpU9U #giveaway ends 15/12

— Agata @ BarkTime (@AgataPokutycka) December 6, 2014

Good Luck!

T&C:
1. Open to UK readers only.
2. One obligatory entry per reader – leave comment on my blog plus extra daily entries in form of a RT.
3. There will be 1 winner in total.
4. The winner will receive 1 x bundle of Zoflora goodies and £25 Pets at Home voucher. The prize will be provided by Zoflora.
5. Winner will be picked at random and informed within 7 working days via email or Twitter.
6. Winner will have 7 working days to claim the prize, after this time, a new winner will be selected.
7. Closing date is Monday 15-12-2014 at 23:59pm, any entry made after this time will not be counted.

ThePrizeFinder – UK Competitions
Loquax – Home of The Lucky Duck
SuperLucky Blog Giveaways Linky

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16/12

WINNER UPDATE

Well done @JudeVFR400