Reviews
Beat the hosepipe ban: Installing a drip irrigation system
This isn’t about breaking the hosepipe ban rules, it’s about saving water & money whilst watering my garden at 4am when I’m...
My best things to buy when you are over 50 to survive a heatwave
As someone firmly in the over 50 club, heatwaves hit differently these days. These are the intensely researched, sometimes a bit expensive, but...
My favourite gardening products I have purchased and tested 2026
A couple of years of intensively researched solutions, hard-learned lessons, and a few too many mosquito bites later — here are the products I...
My top 5 essentials you need for your log burner
How to make life easier when you have a log burner We had our first log burner installed 6 months ago, and I did a lot of research before and after...
Review of our Heatable Boiler Installation
What do you do when your boiler breaks unexpectedly? We moved into our house in December 2023 and on the (long) list of things we would like to...
How to keep warm when working from home this winter
With energy bill going up, and more people working from home and responsible for paying their own heating bills whilst working from home, there are...
Review of the Netvue Birdfy Smart Bird Feeder Camera
I love feeding the birds in our garden, we already have multiple bird feeders and I spend a lot of time watching them from our kitchen window. The...
Making personalised gilded Christmas baubles
These personalised gilded Christmas baubles make a beautiful gift for anyone and are easy to make and look stunning when done. I used them as part...
Tilly and the Buttons pyjama bottoms sewing pattern review
Making clothes from sewing patterns is not totally new to me, I did G.C.S.E. textiles 3 decades ago! But I haven't made any clothes from a pattern...
Making personalised dog bandanas
Before Christmas, I decided to make all our dog friends personalised bandanas. I purchased a pdf pattern from Etsy*, the pattern and instructions...
My top 10 buys for your dog
We have a sprocker spaniel who is like most other spaniels, full of life (AKA a bit of a loon!) These are my top ten buys, after 6 years of being a...
Review of Magic Glass Etching Cream from Hobbycraft
After seeing many videos on TikTokI I wanted to try out glass etching, it looked like a really easy and simple craft, that had amazing results. I...
What is the best way to clean lego sets?
We have a lot of LEGO in this house, first of all, the small boy collecting lots of LEGO over the last 10+ years, and then the husband also has many...
Review of Bazoo Toilet Paper
Bazoo contacted me asking if I would like to try their toilet roll. I hadn't heard of Bazoo before but checked out their website. Their toilet...
Who gives a crap toilet paper review
Last year I started to look more closely to the big and small changes we could make at home to make our daily impact on the environment smaller. As...
September 2017 Skincare products update
18 months ago I wrote this post about tackling my adult acne, and all the products I was going to use to tackle it. I am very glad to say, my skin...
Clinique Take The Day Off Cleansing Oil versus Take The Day Off Cleansing Balm
I discovered the Clinique Take the Day off (TTDO) Balm a year ago, through a combination of people talking about it on social media and Caroline...
This iron will change your life | Philips PerfectCare Steam Generator Iron Review
I love ironing. There I said it. OK well maybe it is more honest to say I love the result of ironing. Piles of beautifully smooth pillow cases,...
Review – La Roche-Posay Effaclar K
The La Roche-Posay Effaclar K is a daily renewal moisturiser for irregula skin texture. Which is a much kinder way of saying it is is for those of...
Review: Real Techniques Make Up Brushes
**2023 update** I still have these same brushes nearly 10 years on, and have added many more of them to my collection. They just keep going. I...
Review: Estée Lauder Double Wear Foundation
At the start of the summer when I was beginning to get a tan I realised that all my foundations were doing me no favours, either in colour, coverage...
Bobble versus Brita Water Bottle Reviews
When I did the paleo thing and stopped drinking anything but black coffee and water I decided I needed to have good tasting water. And well...
Effaclar A.I. Targeted Breakout Corrector Review
I was sent a tube of Effaclar a.i. targeted breakout corrector to try out a few weeks ago. The cream is an intensive local treatment that deeply...
Review of e-cloth Phone & Sat Nav Cloth & MP3 Pouch
Sometime in life 2 different areas of your life collide perfectly. The clean and shiny people over at e-cloth asked me if I would like to try out...
Life with Jo Blog
It started as 2 stars and a swirl baby blog in 2008.
Now, it is a blog about what I love doing, and TikToks about everything I am doing, including DIY & Decorating, crafting, and gardening.
Come and follow me on my socials (I am better at posting there than here!)
Brands I Love
(these links are all to places I have purchased from myself, and are affiliate links)
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