Product Reviews

On The Move with Boys Scooters

October 29, 2014 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

Not long ago, scooters were considered a passing fad. But today, they are an ever-present fixture on pavements, in playgrounds and even at skate parks. Boys of all ages have gone mad for these push-powered modes of transportation thanks to their ease of use, range of designs and perhaps most importantly, street cred.

Therefore, parents struggling to find the perfect present this Christmas don’t need to worry anymore, as boys scooters are available in abundance. But how did they come to be so popular and what are some of the best models on the market?

Scoot back in time

There is a good chance that any parents reading this probably had a similar toy during their childhood, as scooters date back decades. In the past, inventive fathers or imaginative kids would make them by hand using roller skate wheels and a board of wood or an old box. The handle was simply there for balance, as the rider had to lean one-way or another to make the scooter turn.

However, bicycle manufacturers soon recognized the need for a mass-produced scooter and started to introduce various products. Some of these featured chunky rubber tires, different sized wheels, foldable frames and even suspension. But it wasn’t until the late 1990s that scooters hit the big time, which was mainly down to their popularity in Japan. At first, commuters used scooters in an urban environment to get to work, but children soon adopted them everywhere else.

Scooting around today

Regardless of your kid’s age or ability, they’ll be a suitable scooter out there. Younger children will appreciate a scooter featuring graphics of popular children’s TV and film characters such as SpongeBob SquarePants, Hello Kitty and Disney’s Frozen.

However, scooters for older kids are built to incredibly high specifications in order to withstand outlandish tricks and stunts, just like the Ozbozz Torq Chaotic. Its aluminum construction and robust steering column means it will definitely stand the test of time. Full deck grip helps with balance while a large AI rear brake ensures the rider can stop quickly too.

But for something a bit different, consider buying the Razor E300 Electric. Designed with older teenagers and even adults in mind, this electric scooter can achieve speeds of up to 15mph. Its super-sized deck and frame along with extra wide tires make it extremely comfortable to ride, while the 24V battery system affords up to 40 minutes of continuous use.

So what used to be a fleeting trend is now a tremendously popular pursuit. Therefore, any boy would appreciate receiving a scooter this Christmas. Just be sure to talk to your kids about scooter safety before they step on board.

Add Colour To Your Daughter’s Hair Without The Need For Dye

April 11, 2014 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

This is a guest post…

At some point, most little girls start to want to experiment with their hair. It might be learning how to plait a perfect fishtail braid, having fun with wash out glitter sprays, or just wearing it in a different style every day for a week – the desire to experiment is a natural thing. Whilst it’s all fun and games for little ones, such transformations can be uniquely stressful for a parent – especially if the little one in question has their mind set on doing something a little too grown up. It’s not unusual for young girls to ask for hair dye – every day, they’re exposed to a thousand different images that work to manipulate and mould their notions of beauty.

With the glut of glossy hair commercials currently clogging up the tube, it’s almost inevitable for a daughter to want to experiment with expensive hair dyes at some point. It’s your job, as a parent, to explain why it’s something best left for when a girl is much older. It’s your job to stem the tide of tears, when you eventually have to put your foot down. Fortunately, the super clever guys and gals at Clip Hair have made the job a whole lot easier. With their range of pre-coloured clip in hair extensions, your daughter can experiment without the need for harsh chemical based dyes. Here are just a few of the reasons why clip in extensions should be the way forward for you and your child.

No More Nasty Chemicals – obviously, a responsible parent isn’t going to permit a child to use anything that might cause them harm. Whilst commercial hair dyes are safe if used properly, they can still cause a huge amount of damage to follicles and the scalp. Plus, the fumes aren’t particularly healthy and the effect is far too permanent for a young girl. With clip in extensions, none of these things need be a problem – they contain no harmful chemicals, they’re easy to apply and they can be removed in a matter of minutes. What’s more, clip in extensions come in a wide range of different styles and colours.

Easy To Apply – when it comes to ease of application, you simply can’t go wrong with clip in extensions. It should take around five minutes to apply one, or even several, separate pieces. It’s so easy to achieve – all that you’ve got to do is open up the plastic clip on each extension, match it up with the hairline and then snap it closed again. As these extensions clip right into the hair, they won’t ever damage the follicles or put too much weight on the scalp. They can be comfortably worn for forty eight hours – after this point, they should be removed and brushed to ensure longevity.

No Commitment – it’s a bad idea to allow young daughters to commit to anything, really. They might be absolutely sure that they’ll never change their mind about having neon pink hair, but it’s the job of a parent to know better. Of course, it’s difficult to explain exactly why such things are ill advised to a seven year old girl – it’s much easier and a lot more fun to be able to indulge such silly whims. With clip in hair extensions, you don’t have to worry about commitment – as soon as she’s bored with her new style, they can be removed almost instantly.

Author Bio: Jean Mendoza has been a hairstylist for five years. She recommends Clip Hair for a wide range of affordable and reliable clip in hair extensions. As a mother of two young girls, she believes that self expression is an essential part of childhood and growing up – even if it means sitting at the dinner table with yellow hair and a glittery cat suit.

A Potted History of Kitchen Appliances

October 3, 2013 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

The kettle, the toaster and the microwave are all items that people take for granted these days. Whilst kitchen appliances may not be the most glamorous of items, without them we’d have to do some serious re-thinking!

Products such as the kettle are among the most widely used appliances in the home, but how much do you really know about the humble kettle and its various kitchen brethren?

The Kettle

The origins of the kettle stretch all the way back to before the birth of Christ where, in Mesopotamia, the first forms of kettle were used. The Chinese were the first to really use the kettle for the purpose with which it is associated today, namely boiling water.

What may come as a surprise to some people is just how long the electric kettle has been in existence. Back in 1922, Arthur Leslie Large from Birmingham in the West Midlands developed the world’s first plug-in electric kettle as an alternative to the standard stove-top model. The next decade saw the electric kettle begin to take off in terms of sales and, in the 1930’s, models with automatic cut-outs were introduced. Today, with famous brand names such as Delonghi, Kenwood and Breville dominating the market, it is difficult to imagine a world without them.

The Toaster

The perfect companion to the kettle – the toaster has been around in various formats for well over one hundred years. At one time the only way to toast bread was to pop a slice onto the end of a toasting fork and hold it over a roaring fire. That is until 1893, when Alan MacMasters from Edinburgh patented the very first electric toaster. Named the Eclipse, this early model was prone to setting alight as it used iron wiring which melted very easily.

The first automatic pop-up toaster arrived in 1919 and just a short time later in 1925, improvements were such that the very first model with a timer and the ability to toast both sides of the bread simultaneously was released.

The Microwave

The microwave oven is one of the more recent kitchen appliance innovations but has still been in existence for a number of years. In 1947, Percy Spencer, an American engineer, invented the very first microwave oven. Called the Radarange, it used radar technology which had been developed during World War II but was not released for home-use, mainly due to the fact it was nearly six feet in height. The first microwave released onto the market for home consumers arrived in 1955. However, these were very large in size and considered too bulky for general home-use.

It was not until the 1960’s that the first counter-top microwave oven was developed for general home consumer use. Today there are not many households which do not have a microwave oven in their kitchens.

Often taken for granted today, these kitchen appliances are possibly some of the most under-rated inventions of all time and are sure to be around for a long time to come yet.

How Often do People Play Online Bingo?

September 30, 2013 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

While many might have imagined that the advent of the internet would have been bad news for the bingo industry – with so many distractions online, venturing outside to a bingo hall might seem a rather archaic idea in 2013 – but in fact the game is enjoying a surge in popularity and in particular is winning over large numbers of younger players, enticed by a wealth of flashy online bingo sites, tempting cash prizes and the ability to chat with other players online. Such is the appeal of online bingo that many players play several times a week, or even more than once a day and many people say they are attracted as much by the social element of the game as by the chance to win cash.

The Social Side of Online Bingo

The internet is often blamed for a perceived lack of ‘real’ communication in the modern age, but in fact many people who are obliged to spend long periods of time at home – from new mums to the elderly – are finding that the internet offers a wonderful opportunity to keep in touch with friends and family while making a whole host of new acquaintances. Bingo halls have traditionally been focal points of communities, with many players saying that they love bingo more for the social side than for the possibility of winning.

Meeting People Online

Traditionally, bingo winnings have been small in comparison with casino games, but the social interaction has long been a huge selling point for the game. And this continues to be a major draw for fans of online bingo, where sites often offer chat facilities in which players can meet new friends. The chat rooms quickly become a community of their own and many ‘real life’ friendships are born here.

An Addictive Online Experience

Bingo is very rarely associated with gambling problems – the stakes are generally low and with winning entirely down to chance, bingo halls are not really the turf of hardened gamblers. That’s not to say that the game isn’t addictive, however; many players find themselves heading back time and time again to their online bingo hall of choice, whether to enjoy a quick game or to catch up on gossip.

Bingo as a Social Experience

Few people who like to play bingo regularly – either at a physical bingo hall or online – would say that are ‘in it for the money’ and most players say that they come back regularly simply for the fun of trying to get a full house and to catch up with other players that have become friends. That said, bingo does offer some enticing cash prizes for those lucky enough to win and many bingo websites offer incentives and bonuses for newcomers and also as a loyalty bonus for regular players. Incentives such as impressive bingo promotions from www.bingocams.com often entice people into playing the game on a particular site and they may soon find that it becomes a regular habit, with bingo finding a place in even the busiest of lifestyles.

MonaVie RVL Program Review

December 3, 2012 by Painter Mommy Leave a Comment

This is a guest post product review. The content and opinions expressed in this post are not my own. I do not have any personal experience using this product.

Guest Post Author: Kristen Lowry – Kristen is a happily married mother of two and lives in sunny California. When Kristen enjoys fitness, health, being a month, and strolls by the ocean.

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I have always struggled with weight management. My weight has fluctuated over the course of my life for various reasons, but I was never able to achieve and sustain a healthy weight. Every time I put on weight, usually after I had a child or after the holidays, I made a commitment to losing weight by any means necessary and was usually able to achieve the weight loss I was looking for by dieting, but I had a hard time keeping the weight off. Often times I would lose the weight and a few weeks after completing my diet, I was right back at the weight I started at. After the 4th time of losing weight and putting it back on, I decided to try the MonaVie RVL program with Mark Macdonald.

Mark Macdonald is an award-winning author, who appears frequently on CNN. He worked alongside MonaVie to help people ditch their diet. I quickly found out that this was not a typical weight-loss diet that I was accustomed to. Instead of counting calories, the MonaVie RVL program helped me truly change the way I thought about nutrition. RVL helped me realize that if I wanted to lose weight and keep it off, I was going to have to change not only the things I ate but also the way that I cared for my body. With the MonaVie RVL program, I was able to not only lose 15 lbs., but I have now kept it off for a full year. This was unlike any other weight loss plan I had been on, but what exactly made it different.

As I hinted at above, MonaVie RVL is not a diet; it is a change in attitude. The first thing I received with the RVL program was an incredible 8 DVD workout pack. Each DVD targets a specific type of workout. Throughout the DVDs you will find upper/lower body workouts, exercises to strengthen your core, as well as cardio and flexibility exercises. These DVDs, led by Mark Macdonald, target every muscle group. These interactive DVD workouts will leave you feeling great and is one of the keys to getting your body back in shape.

Also included in the RVL package is a nutrition booklet that will teach you the importance of eating right. Along with this booklet you are given access to a robust online nutrition system. This system allows you to input your personal nutrition facts as well as food that you enjoy eating. When I did this, I was given thousands of recipes that would help me lose the weight that I wanted, but were also foods I wanted to eat. This helped me eat foods; I wanted to eat while still maintaining a healthy lifestyle through the foods I ate. This is by no means a cookie cutter system, and I could not believe the level of detail that was put into my individual workout plan. There are also optional meal substitution shakes that are available for purchase and, quite frankly, they taste great.

I am living proof that the MonaVie RVL program works. I was able to lose 15 lbs. in 6 weeks and keep it off. This is not a quick fix diet program, but a legitimate way to change the way your body looks for the long run. I would highly encourage anyone that is looking to lose weight to look into the RVL program with Mark Macdonald.

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This is a guest post product review. The content and opinions expressed in this post are not my own. I do not have any personal experience using this product.

Guest Post Author: Kristen Lowry – Kristen is a happily married mother of two and lives in sunny California. When Kristen enjoys fitness, health, being a month, and strolls by the ocean.