Posts Tagged ‘Treats for mum’

Competition time

Thursday, September 1st, 2011

There’s always a competition or three running at angels & urchins. You’ll find them on our home page at www.angelsandurchins.co.uk. But to whet your appetite…

Win a year’s subscription to Maths Whizz worth £149. This online learning system uses games, animations and a personal learning plan to whizz children through Key Stage One and Two numeracy.

Maths Whizz Competition

You can win a Smudge hamper packed with personalised goodies, including a backpack, large pencil case and Santa sack (hey, might as well get  organised. Only 120 or so shopping days till Christmas…).

Smudge-hamper-competition

And last but never least because it always pays to be prepared, you can win a Scouting Adventure Annual 2012, featuring the wonderful Bear Grylls on the cover. He’s worth joining the Scouting movement for in my opinion, but I suspect I’m too old. Good luck!

Scouting-Adventure-Annual-Competition

Those lovely baby bumps

Monday, August 29th, 2011

Congratulations Beyonce. Not just about the pregnancy news (though bump is going to be one beautiful little baby with two of the world’s best looking people for parents) but for getting the most Twitter RTs ever. Not to mention the most Google searches. Perhaps we’re all looking for a happy story amidst the chaos of this history making summer.

©BBC News

©BBC News

I must admit, though, that the news has made me very happy that child-carrying days are behind me. Because Beyonce has launched a new fashion moment. In my day (less than 2 years ago when I last announced a pregnancy) you told everyone accompanied by a rueful, ‘Yup, only 12 weeks in and already in the saggy maternity jeans’. You then, if you’re anything like me, anyway, you lumped around for the rest of the pregnancy and gradually turned into a Space Hopper. Beyonce turns the announcement into an excuse to devise a whole new outfit. Her entire MTV appearance get up was designed to show off her baby bump with a final ‘Ta da!’. Already designers are following her lead. Here’s what Emily Evans of uber gorgeous (perhaps I should re-think that ‘no more bumps’ wish…) maternity boutique 9 London has to say:

“I think we will now see more women choose a big event to reveal their bump to the world. It is a really exciting way to announce the news and to see so many different reactions at once. It’s also a wonderful excuse to buy a statement outfit for such a special occasion.”

So there you have it. Gwen Stefani, Kate Moss and Kate Winslet are just some of the A-listers who invested in stylish maternity pieces at 9 London. Expect to see Beyonce bumping up to its Sloane Square doors very soon.

Middle-aged Mr Men

Wednesday, August 10th, 2011

Mr Men 40 YearsI’m glad the Mr Men have reached middle age before me. Makes me feel slightly less old to discover that they’ve reached 40 before I will. I loved Roger Hargreaves books as a child, particularly the one in which Mr Small got lost in a jar of sweets, and when Mr Tickle’s long arms attacked a teacher who looked nothing like any teacher I’d ever met.

In a nostalgic frame of mind, I discovered a website selling all kinds of artwork based on favourite children’s characters. Art You Grew Up With is packed with gems, many of them signed, and many of them limited and signed editions. Which I think makes them perfect for all those 4oth birthday parties I’ll shortly be attending. Not that anyone’s counting the years or anything…

There's nothing funny about turning 40

There's nothing funny about turning 40

Are you a child of London 2011?

Friday, August 5th, 2011

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity

World renowned advertising photographer Richard Bradbury, in association with Great Ormond Street Hospital, is once again searching for candidates for the iconic Children Of London publication for 2011.

Last year’s book was launched with an exhibition at The Mosaic Rooms in Kensington on 6th December. Hollywood actor, Kevin McNally from Pirates Of The Caribbean was the M.C. and during the evening presented a cheque to Great Ormond Street Hospital.

Children of London 2011 Image

Children of London 2011

The Book comes in its own presentation box with 200 pages and a hard back cover. It is an emormous publication measuring 13 x 17 inches and contains over 150 images of London’s children. To order your copy please click on ‘Order A Book’

The competition is looking good

Monday, July 18th, 2011

If you’re an infrequent visitor to London’s most sophisticated family magazine’s website (that’s us!), you might not know how many competitions we run.

We’ve got three on the go at the moment (whizz over to our home page to have a look), and enter. In each case all you need to do is correctly answer a question. All winning entries go into a virtual hat, and the computer picks a lucky winner. So if you fancy:

Winning tickets to the South Bank’s Le Cirque Invisible, click here.

Click here for your chance to win tickets to Le Cirque Invisible

Click here for your chance to win tickets to Le Cirque Invisible

Perhaps a set of five signed copies of Hachette Children’s Books’ Mr Croc books is more your thing? Click here for you chance to add some classics to your child’s library.

Win some snappily titled Mr Croc books

Win some snappily titled Mr Croc books

Older children would love CBBC’s Dan and Jeff in the hilarious Potted Potter – the Unauthorised Potter Experience. This retelling of all seven Harry Potter books in 70 minutes involves numerous costume changes, ridiculous props and a game of Quidditch involving the audience. Don’t forget your broomstick. For you chance to enter, click here.

A magical West End experience could be yours

A magical West End experience could be yours

Go for it! Someone has to be a winner, and it might well be you.

The most beautiful party in London

Monday, July 11th, 2011

Tug of War, Cupcakes and Champagne – angels & urchins celebrates 10 years with a gorgeous tea party to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity

Co-editor Annie Reid welcomes guests © Sandi Friend
Co-editor Annie Reid welcomes guests
© Sandi Friend

angels & urchins raises £20,000 for Great Ormond Street Hospital to celebrate their 10th anniversary.  The focus of celebrations was a traditional tea party for 200 children and their parents, along with editors, Annie Reid and Emily Turner.

Editors Annie Reid and Emily Turner © Sandi Friend

Editors Annie Reid and Emily Turner ©Sandi Friend

The venue was the Hyde Park Tennis Club in a marquee beautifully decorated with flowers by Annie Daniels. Miniature tables were set for the most perfect afternoon tea with colourful plates piled high with cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches, fruit sticks, miniature cup cakes and chocolate crispies, all prepared by children’s party catering company Porgie’s Pudding and Pies.  The adults were treated to canapé sized scones and champagne, while they took their chance at the Tree of Promises, bought raffle tickets and put in their bids for the Silent Art Auction.

Beautiful party programmes
Beautiful party programmes

Editors Annie and Emily cut an angels & urchins cake and were presented with personalised angels & urchins bracelets from the rest of the team.  And as Annie Reid put it, “Bringing everyone important to angels & urchins together for such a fabulous occasion and for such a wonderful cause is like a dream come true.”

Party tables groaning with goodies © Sandi Friend
Party tables groaning with goodies © Sandi Friend

After tea, games took centre stage, led by party experts Sharky & George. The children’s favourite game seemed to be Rocket Balloons where mini balloons were filled with water and catapulted into the air into the crowd of children who tried to catch them.  Luckily it was a sunny afternoon as everyone got pretty wet!  A Punch and Judy show kept the little ones entertained while older children enjoyed the giant tug of war, face painting and seemingly never-ending supply of candyfloss.

Non-stop fun with Sharky & George © Sandi Friend
Non-stop fun with Sharky & George © Sandi Friend

The Silent Art Auction raised £5,000 and was made up of original artworks from the magazine’s favourite illustrators including Helen Craig, David McKee, David Melling, Neal Layton, Chris Riddell and Axel Sheffler.   Highlights of the raffle included a Mark Warner holiday, one night at The Grove Hotel, a £500 voucher from children’s clothing boutique I Love Gorgeous and one week at the Mum and Baby bootcamp in Tuscany!

On leaving, adult and children were presented with angels & urchins-branded cotton goodie bags filled with lovely things from the many generous sponsors.

Goody bags included treats from Boden, Mister Maker and Weleda © Sandi Friend
Goody bags included treats from Boden, Mister Maker and Weleda © Sandi Friend

Katie Simmons, Senior Fundraising Manager, Great Ormond Street Hospital said, “We would like to say a huge thank you to everyone who attended on the day and supported Great Ormond Street Children’s Charity. The money raised will help to fund life-saving research and equipment and to redevelop the hospital, so we can help even more of our sickest children. Thank you.”

I was there with my children, and can vouch for how fantastic the tea was. And here’s to another 10 year (at least!) of angels & urchins.

Jamie Oliver’s Big Feastival

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011
Big chef at the Big Feastival 2011

Big chef at the Big Feastival 2011

Here’s a lovely shot of Jamie Oliver at his Big Feastival. The thumb in the bottom right corner of the image is, of course, completely meant to be there. Ahem. Fortunately, His Jamieness is a much better festival organiser (or at least his people are) than I’m a photographer. Big Feastival took up a corner of Clapham Common, and was designed to promote food and music in a family-friendly way. This meant a few things to taste, lots more dishes to buy, talks from famous chefs, a meet ‘n’ greet Peppa Pig, free face painting, carousel rides and lots of balloons.

We got there early on Sunday 3rd June, at about 10.30am, before it got busy. The main stage acts had got going, but it was a tough crowd for them because it was such a small crowd. In both senses – the average age can’t have been older than nine. Things might have hotted up by the evening when Guillemots and The Bees came on (The Charlatans headlined on Saturday), but by that stage I’d headed home with the teenies. Note to self: next year organise babysitters for the evening.

Thrillingly, for me anyway because the children didn’t know who he was (not that Jamie will care, but my oldest is six and far more interested in Star Wars Lego than famous chefs) we saw Jamie in person. His camera crew were permanently in tow like pilot fish cruising with a whale shark. He pressed flesh, high-fived, and generally acted like Jamie. But he looked tired. I wanted to sit him down and feed him some quite incredible Zizzi ice cream before letting him sleep in the Little Dude’s Den, a tent with live story telling and painting tables just for children.

My boys ate and enjoyed, and collected stickers from anyone who’d hand them over. Under 12s get in free, tickets start from £35 for adults. Which seemed a bit steep had I been on my own, but as I had three teenies in tow felt like great value.

Mini men enjoying Mussel Men's wares

Mini men enjoying Mussel Men's wares

It was busy, and there should have been more to taste for free. Give me a sample of tapenade and I’ll buy loads of jars of the stuff. It also got pretty hot, but even Jamie Oliver can’t control the weather. And food washed down with rainwater never goes down well.

Win tea with a Waybuloo?

Monday, June 27th, 2011
10 years of a&u Waybuloo Raffle

A birthday party for 20 children, with a visit from a Pipling, is one of our 10 year anniversary raffle's top prizes

Only two days until we draw the angels & urchins 10th anniversary raffle on 29 June!


A real Pipling turning up for tea, along with 20 Waybuloo-themed goody bags and all the trimmings for a fantastic party, is just one of the prizes in angels & urchins’ 10-year anniversary raffle. And the Waybuloo party winner even gets a £100 M&S voucher to spend on all the party food.

10 years of angels urchins Mark Warner raffle

How about a holiday for for at Mark Warner's San Lucianu Beach Resort, Corsica?

The raffle is part of a month of celebrations to mark angels & urchins 10th anniversary, and to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children’s Charity.

We’ve blogged about this before (don’t miss our Silent Auction for your chance to own an original piece of art by Axel Scheffler, Mick Inkpen and many more), but make no excuses for that – what better charity could a London family magazine associate itself with than a hospital that helps children from around the world?

Other prizes include a week’s holiday to Sicily with Mark Warner, and a state of the art and limited edition Night at the Menagerie Mountain Buggy from Out n About. There are vouchers for gorgeous clothing from 9London and Amaia, and a photography session from Coral Garlick so you can show off your new look. Add a gift hamper worth more than £500 from award-winning gift company The Handpicked Collection, and three month’s membership, including joining fee, to swanky member’s club Cupcake,, and we hope you’ll agree that we’ve some prizes that are seriously worth a £5 per ticket investment.

Lovely gifts for him, for her and for children at The Handpicked Collection

Lovely gifts for all the family from The Handpicked Collection

Tickets are £5 each and you can see the full list of prizes here.

GOOD LUCK!!

Scott Dunn painted my nails

Friday, June 24th, 2011

You read a lot about guerilla marketing and tricksy advertising campaigns. I can’t work out if I loathe or love Fitness First’s bus stop weighing scales, below, though do know that my handbag, boots and probably even my clothes would have headed south before I sat on it.

Fitness First

But I am a fan of some delightful cars bedecked in fake grass driving around our neighbourhood streets advertising an astroturf business. And I like them even though I’m not a fan of environment unfriendly fake grass. At BlogCamp, a blog event I attended earlier this year (fantastically useful, held in various locations around the UK, and FREE! And at the one I went to, delegates – ooh, get me – even got Ben & Jerry’s ice cream) I learnt a great tip from Muirrean from Bangs and a Bun. “Ruthless”, in her own words, about “Getting that extra reader”, Muirrean leaves her business cards everywhere she goes, from Starbucks to train carriages.

So last week I was more than keen to attend Scott Dunn‘s pop-up creche event to be beguiled by talks of pureed organic food and kid-friendly Brazilian holidays offered by their Family Friendly Hotels. The pop-up creche was hosted in a beautiful house only four streets away from my home, and while eating divine cupcakes and canapes I chatted to Scott Dunn staff about the resorts that might suit my family. It was like Location, Location, Location on holiday with real food. A team of nannies was on hand to take care of the children (I took my baby and two-year-old), and they had a great time playing in the garden while I got my nails done (yes, a ‘beauty nanny’ for the mother’s was there too).

Scott Dunn - letting you have your cake and eat it

Scott Dunn - letting you have your cake and eat it

Hot tips include British Airway’s new flights, from November, to Mexico’s Cancun, and Puglia’s new Borgo Egnazia, already setting the likes of Conde Nast Traveller’s Hot List on fire. Pine Cliffs in the Algarve is one of the company’s family bestsellers, and having been I was able to give feedback to the Scott Dunn team (note: lots of space, great kids’ club, children’s menu could be better quality).

Italy's new Borgo Egnazia is creating a buzz in Puglia

Italy's new Borgo Egnazia is creating a buzz in Puglia

So lucky old me to get the holiday feeling even on a wet and windy day in south west London.

Silent art auction for GOSH

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

angels & urchins 10 years logo

Want to own your very own piece of art from the illustrators behind Angelina Ballerina, The Gruffalo and Kipper the Dog?

Welcome to angels & urchins’ Silent Auction of original artworks to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital

angels urchins 10 year art auction Pip and Posy

Axel Scheffler's original Pip and Posy piece of art could be yours


One-off illustrations from Emma Chichester Clark, Helen Craig, Alex Scheffler, Mike Inkpen, Chris Riddell, David McKee, Sarah Dyer and Neal Layton are just some of the famous children’s book illustrators who have generously donated specially commissioned pieces of original artwork of characters from their children’s books to raise money for Great Ormond Street Hospital in a special silent art auction.

Blue Kangaroo, Mr Benn, Angelina Ballerina, Emily Brown and A Little Fiend are among the original illustrations which will be auctioned.  Bidding online starts on Wednesday 22 June here. The auction will close at an ‘Old Fashioned Tea Party’ being held in Hyde Park on 29 June. The art auction forms the centrepiece of activity to celebrate the 10th anniversary of parenting magazine angels & urchins.

angels urchins 10 year art auction Angelina Ballerina

Imagine Angelina Ballerina dancing on your wall!

You can join the auction by emailing your bid to annie@angelsandurchins.co.uk with your name, address and contact details. The auction results will be announced on Wednesday 29 June at 6pm. There will be regular updates of the paintings, and other 10 year birthday celebrations, online at the a&u 10 Years news icon at angelsandurchins.co.uk.

The illustrations available for auction include:

Emma Chichester Clark (Blue Kangaroo)

Axel Scheffler (Pip and Posy The Super Scooter)

Helen Craig (Angelina Ballerina)

Charlotte Voake (Ginger)

David McKee (Mr Benn and the Shopkeeper)

Chris Wormell (George the Mouse)

Sarah Dyer (Fiend from Five Little Fiends)

Chris Riddell (The Emperor of Absurdia)

Neal Layton (Emily Brown)

Mike Inkpen

Annie Reid, co-editor, says, “I’m sure that these illustrations will be familiar to many as the books are firm fixtures on any child’s bookshelf.  We would like to thank the illustrators for their generosity in donating these wonderful and inspirational artworks. “

Celebrating books and reading is at the heart of angels & urchins.  Over the past ten years the team has reviewed thousands of picture books to offer concise and heartfelt reviews in each issue.   To celebrate their 10th anniversary, the editors have pored over their favourite books and chosen their top picture books of the last ten years. And here’s the list in full:

angels urchins 10 year art auction giraffes can't dance

2001 Giraffes can’t Dance by Giles Andreae (Orchard)

The Other Goose by Judith Kerr (HarperCollins)

Fix it Duck by Jez Alborough (HarperCollins)

2006 That Rabbit Belongs to Emily Brown by Cressida Cowell (Orchard)

The Princess and the Pea by Lauren Child (Puffin)

2002 Pants by Giles Andreae illus Nick Sharratt (David Fickling)

Harry and the Bucketful of Dinosaurs Ian Whybrow illus Adrian Reynolds (Puffin)

2007 Grillpan Eddy by Jeanne Willis and Tony Ross (Andersen Press)
2003 Some Dogs Do by Jez Alborough (Walker) 2008 Hansel and Gretel by Michael Morpurgo illus Emma Chichester Clark (Walker)

The Bog Baby by Jeanne Willis illus Gwen Millward (Puffin)

The Lamb who Came to Dinner by Steve Smallman illus Joelle Dreidemy (Little Tiger Press)

2004 The Snail and the Whale by Julia Donaldson (Macmillan) 2009 Don’t Dip Your Chips in Your Drink, Kate! by Caryl Hart and Leigh Hodgkinson (Orchard)
2005 Mr Large in Charge by Jill Murphy (Walker) 2010 I’m the Best by Lucy Cousins (Walker)

The Heart and the Bottle by Oliver Jeffers (Harper Collins)

angels urchins 10 year art auction giraffes can't dance

Annie continues, “What is it that makes a book great?  Story time is a delight when both child and adults find the book engaging.   The wonderful thing about this list is that they are all so different and there is something for everyone.   For those of us who love fantastic rhymes it doesn’t get better than ‘Hairy pants, fairy pants, run away from scary pants’ in Giles Andreae’s Pants and it always made my children scream with laughter.  Michael Morpurgo’s brilliant retelling of Hansel and Gretel with beautiful illustrations from Emma Chichester Clark is quite dark and doesn’t shy away from the original story.  Who doesn’t empathise with Gerald in Giraffe’s Can’t Dance?  This story came out the year we started angels & urchins and it was an instant hit; ten years on, I am reading it to my three-year-old twins and it still brings a tear to my eyes.”

Emily Turner, co-editor, angels & urchins says, “The technical advances in production of the past decade have meant that illustrators can have even more fun with the way their ideas are presented. Lauren Child’s stunning sets in the Princess and the Pea never fail to amaze me. Some of our chosen titles have generated spin offs, complete with sensory stimulants and soft toys.  But, in every case, the reason they withstand reading and re-reading is because of a magical synergy between the words and the pictures.  When it works, it is one of the wonders of childhood.”