Happy St Patrick's Day

Stacey Collins  
It seems bizarre that the English tend to celebrate St Patrick’s Day more so than St George’s Day but boy, do businesses know how to capitalise on our love for the day. You may have noticed the influx of people wearing green leprechaun hats around the city centre, pubs flogging pints of Guiness as though it was about to go out of fashion and Google luring people to their search engine by adopting an Irish theme for their homepage doodle. Commercialism aside, Happy St Patrick’s Day.

From Louis Vuitton to Marc Jacobs

Stacey Collins  
If you’re a fan of either Louis Vuitton or Marc Jacobs, or simply need an excuse to plan a trip to Paris, France from now until 16th September 2012, you may be interested to hear of an exhibition at the prestigious Musée des Arts décoratifs which has been held to showcase the talent of both designers and how the fashion industry has changed over the years.

Good food advice for toddlers

By Baby Blogger Kate Richards
Having been poorly and off his food recently, Ben has now started eating for England. He's obsessed with baked beans (low salt of course) and banana. Makes me wonder if his fondness for banana is sentimental, as it was his first ever food... no that's just silly, isn't it?

Toddler Taming

By Baby Blogger Kate Richards  
Well we have certainly entered toddlerhood, if not the (premature) "terrible twos" with Ben this week. Granted, he has been poorly with a cold, but his grumpiness has reached terrifying new heights.

Every mealtime, bath time, going in the buggy time it's "doh doh doh" accompanied by a shaking of the head and a tragic whimpering. The only thing he agreed to eat this teatime was some of Daddy's cheap sausage roll, even refusing his usual favourite, Greek yoghurt.

Dinner party dread

Stacey Collins  
Who doesn’t enjoy a good dinner party? Come Dine with Me fever seems to have spread like wildfire across the entirety of the UK with socialites stirring up a banquet of canapés and crème brûlée, friends and families fluffing up eggs for their four tiered, pink meringue towers and students saving up to buy a multipack of pot noodles to put on a ‘pucka’ pasta feast.

However, research from Weight Watchers UK has revealed that an invitation to tea is more likely to be received with dread rather than delight as 81 percent of people admitted that they worry about being asked and 85 percent of people fear hosting a dinner party.

Weight Watchers UK found that there were a multitude of factors which resulted in guests fearing a dinner invitation being dropped through their letterbox.

And the award goes to...

Stacey Collins 
Award ceremonies always generate interest amongst the public for its glamorous presenters, stunning performances and best dressed on the red carpet. However, the Brits this year caused quite a media stir for one particular stunning performance in particular. Despite the spectacular routines from Florence Welch, Coldplay and Rihanna, Adele’s middle finger got more media attention after she was cut off by James Corden halfway through one of her acceptance speeches.

Feeding the future generation culture

Stacey Collins

British children are being starved of culture- that's what an organisation called Visit Birmingham are now saying. You may have found this reflected in your child's list for Santa this year - or in their demand to go shopping instead of that visit to the theatre you had planned for the family.  

The research has revealed that four in 10 children have never been to an art gallery or museum, and a quarter of kids had never been taken to the theatre because parents thought that their child wouldn't be interested.

Happy Shrove Tuesday

Stacey Collins 
It’s that time of year when everyone begins to book their summer holidays to exotic destinations and consequently, begin to think of booking themselves into gym programmes in order to unearth their bikini bodies that need arising (or de-rising) from their winter hibernation.

Is spoon-feeding really so unhealthy?

By Baby Blogger Kate Richards  
I recently read about a new study comparing the two main methods of weaning: "baby led weaning" (i.e. finger foods) and traditional spoon feeding. Ok, I have to admit a vested interest here, as I spoon fed Ben when he started on solids. Although I'd heard about the baby led approach, his weight gain was slowing and I was keen to fill him up as much as possible.

Anyway, the study compared 92 babies who were weaned with the baby led approach and 63 who were spoon fed. When tested once at the age of 20 to 78 months, those who were baby led had a tendency to prefer carbohydrates and those given purees tended to prefer sweet foods.

Zeitgeist revealed - by search engines

Stacey Collins
Suppose you applied for Million Pound Drop and the final question asked of you was ‘What’s one of the most commonly searched terms on the internet?’ and your choices were ‘Premiership League’ ‘Pictures of Brad Pitt’ ‘How to sleep’ or ‘What is the point of life?’. Take a guess which would you put your million pounds on?