Holly Made Life - Reviews Archives » Page 2 of 11

Finding the Right Childcare

This is a sponsored post with Childcare.co.uk

After deciding not to return to work after my maternity leave, I enjoyed a wonderful twenty months at home with Pickle before I threw myself back into the world of office work. It came about a little unexpectedly… I wasn’t particularly job-hunting, but just happened to spot a job I quite liked the sound of and it felt like the right time to try something new. Before I knew it, the job was mine and all of a sudden, I had just a few weeks to find a childcare option we were happy with. With a lot of mixed feelings and totally clueless as to where to start, I opened up Childcare.co.uk and the search began. read more

Parenting, Reviews
/ March 4, 2019
Hockey, Photoshoots and Black Jeans: Pushing My Own Boundaries

This is a collaborative post.

If you follow me on Instagram, you’ll know I proudly declared recently that after thirty years, I finally own my first pair of black jeans. To some of you, this may sound ludicrous, as I know how many people consider them to be a pretty basic wardrobe staple. But I’ve held this long-standing irrational belief that black just doesn’t suit me, and so owning black clothes in general was something I generally steered well clear of. read more

Fashion, Lifestyle, Reviews
/ February 25, 2019
Theatre Review: Little Gift – M6 Theatre at Birmingham REP

This is a press review of the 11.30am performance of Little Gift at The Birmingham REP on 23 February 2019.

If you read my February children’s theatre post, you’ll know I was particularly excited about seeing Little Gift, the latest touring production from M6 Theatre, performed by Guy Hargreaves, someone I’d had the privilege of working with many years ago through the National Youth Theatre. Sometimes, I can get an idea in my head of what a theatre production might be like before I go (rightly or wrongly), and it can often set me up for a fall – anticipating the show to be one thing, when the reality is quite different. Not this time. read more

Aged 2+, Culture, Days Out, Parenting, Reviews
/ February 24, 2019
Theatre Review: Kite – The Wrong Crowd at Warwick Arts Centre

When I heard about The Wrong Crowd‘s production Kite, I loved the idea of a theatre show for children without words. Some of my favourite productions I’ve seen aimed at younger audiences have had little language – so I know the idea works well. Sadly, Pickle and I weren’t able to attend this particular run at Warwick Arts Centre, but my two foster brothers and my Dad were. They joined a varied audience ranging upwards from about four years old on Monday 18 February, and I caught up with them afterwards to hear all about it.

My foster brothers are aged twelve and ten, and it sounds like they were completely won over by the performance. In typical pre-teen grumpiness, the youngest wasn’t sure what to expect and trudged into the Arts Centre determined that he wasn’t going to like it… but when I spoke to him about it afterwards, you’d have never have guessed he had any kind of reservations! read more

Culture, Days Out, Parenting, Reviews
/ February 19, 2019
Lessons Learned from How to Train Your Dragon

This post contains items that have been sent for review.

Now that Pickle is of an age where he will happily cosy up and watch a film (especially if there’s popcorn), I’ve loved the excuse to watch all my family favourites without the guilt of feeling like I probably should be watching something a little more hard hitting. read more

Parenting, Reviews
/ February 17, 2019
Did we choose the right tent?

Almost a year ago now, we bought our first proper tent. Before then, we’d made do with little pup tents – which are fine for the odd night away or a weekend in the summer, but not practical when camping as a family and for longer periods. We excitedly went along to the Caravan and Camping Show at the NEC and came home with our Kampa Paloma 5 Air tent.

Kampa Paloma 5 Air Tent

Finding the Paloma 5 Air tent felt like we’d stumbled upon the perfect tent for us. On paper, it ticked all the boxes we could have hoped for, and it was just on the cusp of our budget. read more

Aged 2+, Camping, Countryside, Parenting, Reviews
/ January 5, 2019