Tiny Tickers BBC Lifeline Appeal*

Hi everyone,

A bit of a different post today. This is a pre-written post by the charity Tiny Tickers. I would be grateful if you could take the time to read this. 

Airing Sunday 21st May 2017, 4pm on BBC 1
& Wednesday 24th May 2017, 1pm on BBC 2

Every two hours a baby is born in the UK with a serious heart condition. Congenital heart disease (CHD) is one of the biggest killer of babies in the UK, causing one in every 13 infant deaths. Early detection of heart defects means babies will get the treatment they need from the first opportunity – which can save lives, improve post-surgery survival rates and lead to a better long-term quality of life.

Tiny Tickers is the only national charity with a focus on improving the early detection, diagnosis and care of babies with heart conditions. Congenital heart defects are the most common type of birth defect and it is Tiny Tickers’ ambition that no baby should ever die with an undetected heart defect.

Tiny Tickers’ work can literally be life-saving. They provide specialist, on-site training in maternity hospitals to sonographers and health professionals who perform pregnancy scans. To date, they have trained thousands of health professionals, helping improve detection rates of heart defects at 20 week scans and giving the babies a better chance.

At 20 weeks, a baby’s heart is only the size of a grape, making detection very difficult, which is why Tiny Tickers provide their specialist training to sonographers. Unfortunately, not every single heart condition can be picked up at this stage so  as well as providing the specialist training, Tiny Tickers also provides a safety net for those newborn babies who are sent home with an undetected heart condition. They do this by increasing public awareness the signs of heart failure in babies, with campaigns such as Think HEART. 

On Sunday 21st May at 4pm on BBC 1 Tiny Tickers will be featuring in a BBC Lifeline appeal, presented by Gabby Logan. By sharing very different stories of two babies born with heart conditions, Tommy and Rocco, the appeal demonstrates how Tiny Tickers’ specialist sonographer training can save lives.

The appeal begins with Natasha sharing her story. Her son, Tommy, had a congenital heart defect called Transposition of the Great Arteries, which sadly wasn’t detected before his birth. When he was born, he displayed all the signs of heart failure - his skin was a blue colour, he didn't want to feed, he was always asleep and cold to touch. At the time, Natasha had no idea Tommy was in heart failure but she knew something was wrong. She voiced her concerns to numerous medical professionals, but the diagnosis came too late. Tragically, at 11 days old, Tommy passed away.

The second story has a far happier ending. Like Tommy, Rocco also has Transposition of the Great Arteries. But unlike Tommy, his heart defect was detected at his 20 week scan. This enabled him to receive life-saving treatment as soon as he was born and at six days old he had open heart surgery. Today, Rocco is a happy, healthy three year old and a huge Chelsea fan!

The sonographer training carried out by Tiny Tickers, coupled with their awareness campaigns, saves lives. Heart defects can happen to anyone - 90% of pregnancies with congenital heart disease have no historic risk factors. Tiny Tickers’ BBC Lifeline appeal is an amazing opportunity to help more babies like Rocco and prevent tragedies like Tommy’s. The donations generated from the appeal will help train even more sonographers and save more lives.

Make sure you tune in to BBC 1 on Sunday 21^st May  at 4pm (and repeated at 1pm on BBC 2, Wednesday 24th May) to watch the appeal. If you miss the appeal on TV, you can catch it on the BBC Life website here*. Anything you can give will help Tiny Tickers train more sonographers and spread awareness of the signs of heart failure.

●       £5 could pay for two ‘early diagnosis packs’ to be sent to expectant parents who have just been told the devastating news that their baby has a heart defect. This pack will help them understand more about their baby's condition, and what to expect during the rest of pregnancy and after birth.

●       £10 could pay for 1000 heart cards to be produced. These cards alert parents to the signs and symptoms of heart problems.

●       £25 could provide 40 doctors surgeries with life-saving information on spotting the signs and symptoms of heart problems in a baby, information they can also share with their patients.

●       £75 could pay for one sonographer to receive specialist training. He or she could identify a heart condition in a  baby and save its life.

Congenital heart disease takes the lives of more babies than any other birth defect. Your donation can help  save the lives of babies with heart conditions. Please watch the appeal and give what you can. Thank you.

*The appeal will only be live on the website from broadcast time

Organyc beauty review*

Hi everyone,

I have recently been in contact with the lovely people from Organyc beauty. They kindly sent me out some products to review:

You may or may not know that this coming week (15th-21st May) is Organic Beauty Week. I love to use organic/well known products especially when it comes to things I use on Darcie. This way I can be assured that there is nothing nasty going on to her delicate little skin. This is one reason I was excited to try Organyc. Organyc are also certified vegan and 'eco cert' certified too.

So I will start with these Organyc beauty cotton wool pads:

The first thing I want to do is give a big thumbs up to the packaging design. I love the fact you can open these 2 different ways. You can even open them from the top and use the handy drawstring close. Your second option is that you can open them from the bottom and use the packet as a handy dispenser. I tried opening from the bottom and they don't all fall out you can pull one round pad out at a time. A bit about how the packaging is made:

'The packaging is made with renewable raw materials, and it is biodegradable and compostable.'

Overall the perfect packaging.

Moving on to the cotton wool pads themselves. They are made of 100% organic cotton and have 70 cotton wool round pads in a pack. Honestly, I couldn't fault them. The first thing I tried with these was to take my nail varnish off. They are tough and did not break into pieces like others I have tried. These would 100% be perfect for removing makeup. They are lovely and soft and have an 'embossed side for gentle and deep cleaning'. This is great so you can get 2 uses out of one product. The quilted side does all the hard work of removing makeup, whilst the other is smooth to carry out the rest of your skincare routine.

These are £2.49 a packet and you can buy them here.

Another thing I received were these cotton wool balls:

The Organyc cotton wool balls come in a pack of 100. These are £2.59 a pack and you can buy them from here. Again the packaging is great and has a drawstring top to easily close the packet and store them. They are very soft and can be used for a variety of different tasks. I have also given these the job of removing nail polish (I think this is one of the toughest jobs for cotton wool, as the majority of the time they break). I thought that these were going to break and leave trails of cotton wool all over my nails. Much to my surprise they didn't. They were tough and I managed to get one hand of nail varnish off with one cotton wool ball! These would also be good for taking makeup off and for applying your skincare products. Not only that but, they are soft enough to be used with water and on a babies bottom. If I was still using cotton wool and water on Darcie I would love to use these because of how strong they are! These are also 100% organic cotton and have the same style packaging as the cotton wool pads above.

Another thing I received were these cotton wool buds:

I have a new favourite cotton bud! I love these! One obvious thing I use these for is to clean up my ears. They don't bend, they are not to big, the cotton wool hasn't come off in big tufts for me, they've been just brilliant! I would love to use these to tidy up any makeup mishaps as well. Again made with 100% cotton. They have designed the packaging well on these as well! They have a handy open bit at the front to turn the box into a dispenser. You can even tuck it back in again to keep them all neat and tidy. These are £2.69 a packet and you can buy them here.

The last thing I received were the Organyc sweet caress baby wipes:

I am really, really fussy with baby wipes. One reason is because I am using these wipes on my delicate babies skin, the last thing I want as a parent is for a wipe to harm her. Secondly, I don't have time to be fussing with wipes that break, I can't get out of the packet properly or if a wipe doesn't clean up properly. These wipes are tough, clean up good and after using the couple of wipes on the top they pull out easier. The wipes are not to wet and they are not to dry either. They also clean that left over bit of nappy cream up well as well. We are still new to using these, but so far so good. I have no complaints about these. They come in a packet of 60 and are made with organic cotton and formulation. The wipes have extracts of camomile and calendula. I also love the smell of these, they smell so refreshing! The wipes are £5.29 a pack and you can buy them from here.

You can find Organyc over on their social media:
Organyc website
Facebook
Twitter
YouTube
Instagram

Have you tried anything by Organyc before?

Tasha x

Perfect Glasses Review*

Hi everyone,

I had recently been contacted by Perfect Glasses. Perfect Glasses sell prescription (or non prescription) glasses online.

Perfect Glasses offer, designer glasses, prescription sunglasses, Men's and Women's glasses all at great prices.

I was given a budget of £50. My first honest opinion was 'a pair of glasses for £50?! My glasses cost me £175+, surely I can't get a pair for just £50?' Well blow me down, they had a wide range of products for £50 and under! I decided to go for a pair of sunglasses, the nice weather is here (well, when it wants to be) and I need a new pair. I went for the sunglasses pictured below and they are part of the Opium range. You can find my sunglasses here.

I chose to have them without prescription lenses as I couldn't remember/find my prescription. As you can tell from the picture on the website my lenses are a different colour. I asked if I could change the tint of my glasses to red. This was no problem. I thought this would make the glasses take forever to come. However, they came a lot quicker then expected. They also offer free returns should you have any problems and a 'no quibble guarantee'. On feature I love on their website is the 'try it on' feature. I know buying online can be quite scary not knowing how the product will look on you. I struggle buying glasses for my face shape so this is an amazing feature for me. You can even upload a picture of yourself instead of using a model. So overall for service 10/10!

The quality frame itself sturdy and the lenses wipe clean well. That's perfect for me, especially as come the summer I am going to have mucky mitts trying to get hold of them.

I am thinking about buying a back up pair for those 'just in case' moments. Not only that there is a wide variety of styles and I think I want more then one style. I'm also thinking about buying my 'everyday' glasses off of Perfect glasses too.

Here are a few 'everyday' style glasses I like:

• 'Vogue'
• 'Walden Snob'
• 'Walden Kylie'

Here are a few of my favourite designer 'everyday glasses:

• 'Juicy Couture Ju15 Bg9'
• 'Marc Jacobs MMJ638 AUF'
• 'Juicy Couture JU132 807'

A few of my favourite sunglasses:

•  'Morocco'
• 'Rubylicious'
• 'Opium OP1396 C05'

A few of my favourite designer sunglasses:

• 'Marc Jacobs MMJ354S 469J6'
• 'Esprit ET13102 C535'
• 'Jimmy Choo Sophia Dlnfm'

I will update this post with a sunglass selfie, but right now I have a hideous spot on the bridge of my nose. Nothing is covering it, so watch this space for an update.

Don't forget to follow Perfect glasses on:

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Pinterest

Tasha x


*I received this product in return for a fair and honest review*

Where do I start? Career choices

Hi everyone,

You may have seen my recent tweet:

I have so much I want to get out of life. I just don't know how. I want to express myself so much and do the things I want to

— Tasha (@itsatashathingg) 3 May 2017

Now this basically all boils down to a career path. I'm 21, I know it's young but I just feel stuck. I feel it's too late for me to change career now. Really it's not, but I feel everything is very limited or that everything costs so much money.

In the UK you leave school at 16 and then go on to college or to do something like an apprenticeships. Now this basically all boils down to a career path. I'm 21, I know it's young but I just feel stuck. I feel it's too late for me to change career now. Really it's not, but I feel everything is very limited or that everything costs so much money if you are an adult learner.

My problem is how do I get there?

How do I achieve what I want to set out to do?

I have 3 dream careers. The first is to be a receptionist or work in some kind of office. Sounds simple. My Mum is an administrator, I love what she does and I could just imagine myself doing her job. I don't know why I just don't apply and see what happens.

The second is a career choice I have had since I was a young girl, to be a makeup artist. It's obvious I love makeup and have an unhealthy obsession with it. I would love to be able to do the whole package, hair, makeup and nails. It would be a dream come true.

The last is a dream that is highly unlikely. This is to become a full time blogger. I'd love to be able to blog and look after Darcie. It would be wonderful.

I think it's so hard to choose a career now. There's so much out there. So many doors to open. So many different paths to choose, but how? How at 16 can you truly determine what you would like to do. I know it is never really too late, but sometimes it just feels it. Even now there's so much to do and there is so little time.

I feel there has to be a job I am made for, but what is it? Does anyone else ever feel like this?

If you could choose your dream career what would it be?

Tasha x