Green deal assessment booked

I'm so fed up with paying npower £250 a month to heat and light our home that I've booked a green deal assessment for later this week to see if there is any way we can reduce our current spend on utilities.  

I've just sent the assessor a big bundle of information including the old epc, gas and electricity bills so let's see what he comes up with on Thursday.  I'm hoping it will be something a bit more interesting than just changing some lightbulbs to crappy energy efficient ones.

Planning a trip to deep space (well Leicester)

I'm very excited by the prospect of a trip to the National Space Centre a venue which should appeal enormously to our two older boys (and if I'm honest is right up my street as well). 

Of course as part of the trip I'm carefully planning which lunchboxes to take with us for the long journey:  Fortunately Lunchboxesetc.co.uk produce a fine range of Space Lunchboxes which will be perfect (note to the buyer at the NSC - if you want to stock the lunchboxes in your gift shop just give us a call!).  At the moment I can't decide between the Space shuttle on the launch pad lunchbox:

or the amazing solar system view lunchbox:

I'm not sure about filling them with space food though!

Two new personalised lunchboxes now available on lunchboxesetc

Just on time for the oncoming back to school season I've had a burst of creativity and introduced a couple of new designs of personalised lunchboxes.  These new designs might just appeal more to girls than to our male customers but don't let our opinion sway you - take a look yourselves:

Here is our new Owl Lunchbox:

And here is our new cupcake personalised lunchbox:

Each design is £12.99 plus P&P.  To order, simply visit www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk and enter the name or message you would like us to print on the lunchbox when ordering.

Our lunchboxes are made in the UK from food-safe plastic and measure approximately 23cm long, 19 cm high and 10cm deep.  The hinged lid folds flat which makes it very easy to eat from the lunchbox.

Don't forget when ordering your lunchbox, you can also add a personalised PE bag to you order for only £9.99!

sports day beckons...

Off to school sports day in a few minutes - first for two years after last year's event was rained off twice!  No chance of that today its about 30 degrees in the shade.....best take a chilled lunchbox full of drinks!

A perfect day for watching the cricket...

So yes, the first ashes test match was exciting and yes, it was a close finish but that's not the cricket I was talking about!  Yesterday was the culmination of this year's Dartmoor U9's cricket festival with the final round taking place at the wonderful Yelverton Bohemians Cricket Club just on the edge of Dartmoor.  With the temperature at 10am hovering around 30C most parents retreated into the shade of the trees around the boundary edges to watch 5 teams slug it out for the honour of being 2013 Dartmoor U9's cricket champions.  And boy, were the games hard fought, close run, edge of the seat things or what!  I watch 6 games (two sons in two different teams) and I don't think the winning margin in any of them was more than 6 runs making the finish of the Ashes test look like a thrashing for Australia!

With no BBQ facilities on offer the boys were glad of their packed lunches  - In tribute to the former RAF base just across the road from the club both boys were toting Spitfire lunchboxes and kept their lunches cool with a couple of mini icepacks that are the perfect size to slip into one of our plastic lunchboxes.

And the good news is that the Yelverton A's U9 team (including boy1) were unbeaten on the day and picked up the cup as winners of this round.  Congrats to the Buckland boys who ran out overall winners this year....

Promotional lunchboxes from lunchboxesetc

When I'm not in the shop selling second hand baby clothes or at home looking after the kids I run a retail website called lunchboxesetc.co.uk. As the name suggests we sell lunchboxes and associated bits and bobs like flasks and drinks bottles.  But mainly we sell personalised lunchboxes based on a very cool retro plastic lunchbox design manufactured right here in the UK.  Take a  look at this example to see what wer're talking about:



Over recent months we have noticed an increase in order for promotional lunchboxes printed with company logos - we recently completed an order for Dr Oetker for example and they work brilliantly as a unique gift in family attractions gift shops (we can work with you on designs).  Anyone who wants more information can contact me through the lunchboxesetc.co.uk website.

Back to school 2013

It only seems like a few days ago I was posting about the 2012 back to school season and now, before you know it, we are all a year older and its time for us to gear up for back to school 2013 and what is one of our busiest times of the year on lunchboxesetc.co.uk.

We've introduced lots of new designs in our range of personalised lunchboxes  and also begun producing personalised PE kit bags. 

June frenzy on handmedowns-online 50% off everything!

It's the time of year when we refresh our stock online. That's right, finally the thermometer has crept above 20c so we can upload hundreds of summer weight items of second hand clothes. Just one thing first though - we need to make some room on the servers so we're having a massive June frenzy sale that's 50% off everything on the website for the whole of the rest if the month. Take a look at http://www. Handmedowns-online.co.uk for a massive selection of excellent quality used childrens clothes and maternity wear.

Squiddles lunch top

We've had a bit if a mystery to solve here at lunchboxesetc.co.uk HQ: We keep getting orders from the US for photo lunchboxes bearing the same photo image. After a few minutes research we found out all about squiddles (completely unknown over this side of the pond), and I have to say I think our take on the squiddles lunch top is pretty accurate!

Finally, a new tenant is almost signed up

We moved business premises last year and since October our old shop unit has been vacant. After a couple of very frustrating false starts we have at last found a prospective tenant who is actually capable of doing what they say they are going to do and signing on the dotted line. With a bit of luck well be able to reveal all in a weeks time and tell everyone about a new exciting shop in Tavistock.

Cooking with boy no 1

Dad on wire's eldest son (boy no.1) turned 8 just after Christmas and I've been encouraging him to take on some cooking challenges. Just to make a change from biscuits, cakes and cookies we had a bash at some pasta the other day. I have to say I was impressed by the results; and he did enjoy using the pasta machine and making the ravioli.

Maybe 8 is too young to start the beer tasting though. The rather excellent local ale was strictly for dad!

Bouncing around with the boy

Thank god for tesco vouchers.  Boys 1 & 2 have been trampolining on Saturday mornings for a few months now at the local leisure centre and were desperate to get a trampoline at home.  Tesco came up trumps with a great summer offer that increased the value of our stach of clubcard vouchers to a point where we could buy a 12ft trampoline basically for nothing. 

Its been a great investment as they have spent much time on it when they would otherwise be under my feet at home.  And, whilst their bouncing skills are improving, the safety net and enclosure have given it something of a cage fighting feel which is not lessened by the amount of wrestling and play fighting that goes on in there!

The end of two eras...

January is a great time for a clear out.  And once I'm in the mood I do actually enjoy the feeling of decluttering my life by getting rid of a few old possessions that I no longer use.  This year I've taken it a little further than before and decided to sell two of my most precious (but still never used!) possessions.  Both have been part of my life for over 20 years and both bring back some very fond memories.

Back in sixth form our group of friends split down the middle when it came to the analogie vs digital music debate.  I was firmly in the analogue camp (those pesky CD players will never catch on right?) and to prove it I dropped a huge amount of money on a beautiful Linn Axis turntable which has been the centrepiece of my Hifi ever since and has given faultless service for nearly 25 years.  Well now, with 3 kids, ipods, ipads, spotify and cds I've come to the conclusion that I am likely never to ply a record again so, being ruthless with myself, I've listed it on ebay in the hope that someone with more time and a quieter household will buy it and cherish it for another 25 years.

A few years after buying the Linn Axis I went mad and bought a lovely Marin Pine Mountain MTB that saw me all through University and beyond but has spent more and more time in the garage in recent years and, after I bought a new bike in a fit of pre-christmas optimism last year I'm afraid the old warhorse has to go! Once again its been listed of ebay, but I have an interesting question about when something that is simply "old" becomes "vintage"!

New marshmallow lunchbox - Sweet!

I'm pretty pleased with how our new marshmallow lunchbox has turned out.  You can see it (and buy it on our website www.lunchboxesetc.co.uk