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Home education. A new era and the end of another.

Almost three years ago my seven year old son started school and there was so much hope, so much joy, for us all. Three years on, this week, we withdrew him from school and at the moment we will not be entering him back into state education.  We will be homeschooling. Why? The honest truth is that for us and for a lot of children with additional needs and their parents that the system is broken. I have spent a lot of time in the last two years feeling I was banging my head against the wall when it came to provision and the fact that my son was bored and being denied that chance to just be himself, his manic, amazing complex but beautiful and kind self. He was spending his time silent in lessons a lot of the time and feeling anxious as he was given work he did not find challenging or that was impossible for him to acheive in equal measures. Meetings after meetings drained me and promises were given and never were followed through with. School brought in an expert then
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Lush is going solid with new Naked shower gels and I feel cynical

Sometimes, I get the feeling that either a company is going down a path that just makes no sense or that I am just getting old, and perhaps I am just not down with the kids any more. Lush has been giving me that vibe in the last few days. Having used Lush for almost twenty years as there was a shop in Birmingham city centre when I was a teen, I have seen things come and go such as Bnever and their beautiful cosmetic containers, bubble bars bought by weight, ladyboy perfume (I must not cry that it may never come to the kitchen), and also seen a fair few of the products I used in my late teens/ early twenties discontinued. But, despite seeing all those things, I have not quite seen any products quite like those being introduced in the lush kitchen this week, and assuming coming to a shop near you soon. In an attempt to remove the packaging from their products they are making a few more products solid. They have already made their shower smoothies solid in the uk to the
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Where have I been? (23/08/17 update)

I'm not sure how many people will read this, as this blog has been effectively dead for quite a few months, but I just want to update anyone who is reading this to my current situation. Since Christmas, things have been go go go for my family and bean started school in September.  So, we spent the year at school dealing with some schooling issues for bean and also making sure that he learned to read well (shortening the length of time I have had to spend with Biff and Chip- Thank the Lord for that!).  That has been our priority, quite rightly in my view. At the moment, though, this blog, and my life, is in a transition and I very much doubt that it will ever return as purely a beauty blog and will return as a life blog detailing books and candles and advent calendars. But, going on my life in the last few years, I'd never say never in terms of it being a part time beauty blog! x-J-x 
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Day two

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It is the second of December and after some lovely goodies yesterday I am looking forward to getting more goodies today. The first advent calendar that I will reveal today is by busy bee candles. Today is a melt in the scent 'Christmas Cookie'. It is a sweet scent that is rather like the cookie scents from the larger companies and these scents are a mainstay of the christmas lines for many customers and for me this will be a great year round melt scent. The next advent calendar today is by Youbeauty and this has a small aperture today. Inside the number two door is this Burt's Bees Tinted Lip Balm in the shade Rose.  It has a lovely red tint and looking at the ingredients I am quite happy as the four largest ingredients in this lip balm are coconut oil, vegetable oil, beeswax and olive oil.  On trying it I found that it was very soft on the lips and was very moisturising but looking at the ingredients it's not really surprising. 
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Advent calendar day one 2016

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I'm back (although that is hardly a surprise if you are reading this) and it is to this blog that I have returned to restart my yearly ritual of showing you advent calendars. It has been almost a year since I posted with regularity and hopefully these posts will be better timed than last year. But, enough of that. Here are my first items from this years advent calendars.  Welcome to December 2016 and my day one items. The first advent calendar today is tinc and the item was a luggage tag. It is really cute (as I expect from tinc) and I will probably use it on bean's luggage when we go on holiday this year. Although this is a useful item it is not something that I was desperate for. The next advent calendar item tonight is from busy bee candles and is a melt in the scent 'elf crazy'. To me this has a scent of mint and it is reminiscient to candy cane lane and candy cane forest from Yankee Candle to me. This is very sweet and would be a great s
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Complete advent calendar contents 2015

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Here are the pictures of my advent calendars in the order of my preference of the contents for this year and here is the order. 1. Youbeauty has been the advent calendar that I recommended to everyone the last two years and this year didn't disappoint. I got this for just under £50 as I had a £10 off code and it was well worth the price and I will use it all apart from the tweezers. 2. Marks and spencer was fabulous for 2015 and I will definitely repurchase this year. It was £25 with a £25 purchase and it was fabulous value and I loved opening the little boxes every day. A really great value and with more 'classic' products it will be great for all. 3. In third place was lookfantastic and this one is here as it was £70.70 which makes it £20 more than youbeauty and £45 more than M and S and I can't see the value. I do prefer it to the others as I prefer the beauty calendars but not sure I will get it next year unless I get it on an
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Day 24 multi brand advent calendars

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It is the final day for two of the three advent calendars. Look fantastic does have a day 25 so I will be on the box saying that in the contents post for all the advent calendars as well as the Smiggle advent calendar which also has a day 25. But back to day 24 of my multibrand advent calendar.
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