Fa-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay!

Fa-Ra-Ra Boom-De-Ay! is a great fun read of a book written by mother-and-daughter author team Ann McLauchlin and Jill Law, with some stunning, colourful and absolutely gorgeous illustrations by Emily Walker-Vaughan. 

The book is described as a flower girl fairytale. Farrah is a bit of a dream girl, always enjoying daydreams. 

Farrah's mummy is about to get married again and Farrah is going to be her mummy's very own flower girl. This is making Farrah a little bit nervous. But she's excited to visit the boutique with her mummy for the dress fitting. 

The ship is so beautiful, the dresses all look to be properly magical and Farrah, of course, decides to go for a bit of a wander and learns that Miss Singh's boutique is really a very magical and most wonderful place!

Farrah meets with many magical creatures including fairies and a unicorn that she gets to ride on through the air, taking her on a whole host of magical adventures before she returns, just in time, for the fitting. But what did Miss Singh really know about Farrah's magical adventure?

And what new magical adventure would happen later?

This book is a rhyming delight of a book and is aimed directly at moms and their daughters, especially if they are, have been, or will soon be a flower girl, aged six 'til nine. It's designed to be shared, maybe over mugs of hot chocolate, all wrapped up in dressing gowns?

It's published by Troubador at £10.00 and will make an ideal Christmas present for all little girls, even those who aren't going to be a flower girl. Well, at least not yet! 

This is their debut work, hopefully we will see more from them in the near future.

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More Christmas treats from Livia's with their Million Squares

Livia's Million Squares are absolutely mouth-watering and utterly delicious little squares of joy, which are ideal for Christmas gifting and Christmas chomping!

We checked out Livia's Salted Caramel Million Squares and also Livia's Million Squares Chocolate Orange Million Squares.

They are both delicious but there's a difference between Livia's and other people's chocolate orange. Please let me explain why. With Livia's the orange taste is definitely there, but it is a subtle, natural flavour of orange that plays gently on the tongue and really works well with the chocolate flavour.

The Salted Caramel Million Squares were also a real joy. It's utterly irresistible, fully natural and an interesting tasty twist on the classic millionaire shortbread.

Livia's Salted Caramel Million Squares combine layers of gooey date caramel, oat biscuit and wears a dark chocolate topping with more than a little swagger.

The idea of using dates to produce the caramel is a very good one and it works extremely well. 

They'll make a great purchase for Christmas as they are perfect for Christmas stocking fillers, will make ideal treats between meals (even over the Christmas holiday period) and they'll be okay for everyone to eat, as they are 100% vegan plus they are dairy free and gluten free, so are good for coeliacs to chomp along with the rest of their family, so nobody need feel left out. Which at Christmas is a pretty good feeling to have.

You can order them direct from Livia's online emporium at https://livias.co.uk or you can find them at good retailers. Actually, if you are a good retailer who likes to supply your customers with nice, natural nibbles you can make enquires at https://livias.co.uk/pages/contact-us.

Incidentally Livia's has really worked hard on ensuring that they are as eco-friendly as possible. For example, two years ago they took the decision to stop using plastic trays.  In 2020 they switched their plastic Million Square trays for recyclable, uncoated cardboard trays, cutting their annual use of plastic by over 3 tonnes!  They slashed the amount of plastic in their Million Square sharing packs by a staggering 84%!

How you can fund a School Bag for Christmas

This Christmas, for £20 you can fund a SchoolBag and give the gift of education to an underprivileged child around the world.

School in a Bag is a small charity based in the county of Somerset and a £20 SchoolBag is a totally personal gift (and an ideal alternative to Christmas cards). 

School in a Bag is a UK registered charity, born out of the Piers Simon Appeal, a charity set up in memory of the founder and CEO’s brother who died in the Indian Ocean Tsunami on Boxing Day in 2004. 

School in a Bag distributes SchoolBags to poor, orphaned, disadvantaged and disaster-affected children around the world.

To date over 132,000 SchoolBags have been handed out to children in 54 countries. Every SchoolBag is new, individually numbered and trackable on the School in a Bag website. More often than not, donors are able to learn details and see an image of the beneficiary of their SchoolBag.

Each SchoolBag is filled with essential resources that will enable a child to write, draw, colour, calculate, express themselves, eat, drink and above all, learn. 

A typical SchoolBag contains: pencils, biros, colouring pencils, a maths set, ruler, pencil case, 6 exercise books, a water bottle, a LunchBox with Spork and a hygiene kit which includes a flannel, soap, toothbrush, toothpaste and a face mask. 

With some of their projects, a LifeStraw is also included. This is an amazing bit of reusable kit which changes even the dirtiest of water to drinkable water and it lasts for years!  

A SchoolBag can be purchased through the School in a Bag website. And you can buy on behalf of a family member or a close friend. Thinking about it, it would also make an ideal Secret Santa present for someone who has a social conscience. 

It's just £20 to fund a numbered, trackable SchoolBag. Purchasers will receive their own SchoolBag Gift Card (digital or paper) containing the number/s of the SchoolBag/s they have funded. 

As just pointed out, a SchoolBag can also be funded in someone else’s name, making it an ideal present. With the Gift Card option, there’s still something to put under the tree to be opened on Christmas Day, or in email format, it can be sent to anyone in the world, from anywhere.

www.schoolinabag.org. 

SIAB was launched in 2009 and to date in excess of 134,000 SchoolBags have been distributed to 54 different countries all over the world. 

In 2018, the charity reached its fundraising milestone total of £2 million and are well on the way to raising its 3rd million.

Looking for a great Christmas gift? Then you need Poetry for Neanderthals!

Poetry for Neanderthals is a great game for all members of the family and for wild and willing friends, too!

It's aimed at anyone from ages seven and upward (including any Neanderthals you might still have in your family) and is suitable for play by two players or more.

How does it work? You play the part of a Neanderthal poet who has to get your primitive family members and friends to guess a word employing only words of one syllable. 

For example, if you have the card with the word "campfire" on it, you might use the phrase "hot place where you roast soft white cube."

If your team makes a correct guess, then you win points! (Cool!)

But what if you do not get it right? For example, if you inadvertently employ a word that is more than one syllable, for example "marshmallow", then the other team gets to belt you a traditional Neanderthal hit with the NO! stick and they get to remove your points for themselves! 

There's a great deal of fun as you attempt to get your team to guess as many words as possible before your time runs out to become King (or Queen) of the Neanderthal poets!

Included in the game is the inflatable NO! stick, the timer, Grok's cards, the poetry cards and full instructions to make sure you have a head hittingly good time!

It's a fun, wild game that's sure to bring out the Robert "Neanderthal" Burns in the best of us!

It actually encourages innovative use of language as it demands we explain complicated concepts using simple words. Which is probably pretty close to how Neanderthals communicated, at least at first.

It's produced by the Exploding Kittens folks. To learn more about the game or to buy your very own copy please visit https://www.explodingkittens.com. It will cost £20.