These 15 Cats are LITERALLY Better Dressed than You or I Are.

Images from the yearly United Bamboo cat calendar,  2014 available to buy now. All mini-feline-versions of the collections.

Hard to Find Kids' Party Themes On Sale at Birthday Express

Birthday Express is the US-based site I used to get all the Aquabats party decorations for my son's sixth birthday. They literally have hundreds of party themes based on cartoons, films, sports etc. and right now there are savings to be had. So if you're planning to use them this calendar year, it would be worth placing an order now to take advantage of the bargains.

Cheeky Baby & Parent Merit Badges from Twisted Twee

Takes me back to the Brownie days. £3.50 per adult badge, £6 for a pack of three infant merit badges, here at Twisted Twee.

Ye Olden Times Tardis Print Dress & Other Doctor Who Frocks Hand Made to Order at Polka Dot Polly's Shop.

Polka Dot Polly is a made to measure, online, uk-based dress shop. Polly can whip you up a dress to fit like a glove, with hundreds of fun fabrics to chose from. She also makes skirts, blouses and men's shirts. I'm really taken with this old fashioned fabric with a subtle TARDIS motif running through it.

And if Doctor Who isn't your thing, Polly has hundreds of fabrics to chose from. I'm sure if you sourced the correct amount of fabric of your own choice, she could work out a price for the frock of your dreams too. 

The £14.99 Home Ice-cream Maker that Actually Works! The Chill Factor.

When I was a child I wanted, and finally got, the Mister Frostie Slushie Maker. My parents would have this look of utter misery when I'd ask to use it, as it never really was me using it, it would be them. Twenty minutes of cranking the almost impossible to budge handle, to make half a cup of broken ice. When the Chill Factor arrived with us yesterday for review, Mister Frostie was the first 'person' who sprang to mind. As my son bounced about excitedly deciding which flavour of ice cream to create first, I thought to myself, 'this is Mister Frostie's revenge'.

Nevertheless we stuck the cone in the freezer overnight, and picked up the ingredients we needed to make Oreo Ice cream this morning. All we actually needed was 100ml of cream, and some crushed biscuits. In fact all the recipes suggested in the Chill Factor instructions are two or three ingredients long. That means you know exactly what's going into your home made ice cream, sorbet or frozen yoghurt. No additives, and you can flavour using fresh fruit.

For £14.99 it's a very reasonable price for something that doesn't take up a whole cupboard to store, like a large ice-cream maker, and can help you with healthy eating as you control the ingredients. I love it. I'm freezing it up again as I type, I'm going to make myself some frozen toffee yoghurt to have while I watch tv tonight.

Let me know if you get one yourself, and which recipes you come up with.

12 Reasons Why Lidl Should Become Your New Local Deli in 2014

Everyone is too broke to be snobby about Lidl anymore. But take a trolley around the cut price supermarket & you may be pleasantly surprised at the range of products available. One of the reasons I visit Lidl once a month, is to feed my habit for loving the new and unusual. Each visit to my local Bangor store brings a new selection of treats I haven't seen elsewhere. As well as European foods, Lidl NI offer great priced local produce, their meats are especially good quality.

Here are 12 products that may tempt the foodies amongst my readers to try their local Lidl store. 

1.  Pear Balsamic Vinegar, also available in Apple.

2. Jalepeno pepper relish. This would be awesome on crackers with mature cheddar.

3. Irish Pea and Ham Soup. This is amazing, one of my repeat purchases. Probably not a suitable soup if you're on a diet (such as the Limmy porridge and soup diet) as it's made with cream. 

4.  Lemon Curd Yoghurt.

5. Devon Style Toffee Yoghurt. These are 59p each. If I've been at Lidl before you there will be no toffee variety left because I LOVE them. They have little toffee pieces through it. 

6.  Toffee Spread

7. Coconut Spread. If you follow me on Twitter you'll know I'm addicted to this stuff. You know the white versions of Ferrero Roche? This tastes like the inside of those. I currently have three jars of this stock piled. 

8. A big pile of smoked salmon for £2.69, yes please.

9. Smooth Irish Cheddar with Seaweed. SEAWEED! 

10. Black Forest Ham. This is a Parma ham style meat and at a fraction of the price you would pay in a deli or posh supermarket.

11. Honey cure bacon

12. Lardons. I honestly can't get these anywhere else. Super handy for in omelettes or pasta dishes.  

Loafun.com Made Me Some World of Kitsch Shoes!

Loafun is a fledgling, fun, design community which allows members to design their own converse style shoe. The site gives you the tools to put together your custom design, then the in-house artists will hand paint your trainers, and ship. They also plan on running design competitions around a theme, a bit like Threadless does with t-shirts. So you can also buy designs by talented underground artists. 

For any user/buyer the whole idea behind the concept is "shoe is you" and you can create exactly what you want on the shoe using the online design tools. If you are a designer who just wants to exhibit your designs you can do so as well by uploading your designs and making them available to public. Once approved we display these on our site for people to purchase. We pay designers a royalty based on what design sells online. The designer earns points which he can later redeem for cash/ merchandise as he/she wishes. The designer has absolute control over his designs at any given time as he can control whether to display hide or delete a design he has created unlike blackbox submissions which other social commerce portals (including threadless) currently have.

Loafun wanted me to see for myself how a shoe turns out from design to finish, so here are my very own World of Kitsch shoes, with the logo which was designed for me by Neal McCullough.  The ordering process was very simple, and the trainers are with you quite quickly too, even to the UK.

Engage with them on Loafun's Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest to be part of the movement.

Subscribe to the Resolution of Wearing Good Pants All Year Round, With the 'Who Made Your Pants?' Monthly Box

I really am finding some unusual monthly subscription boxes along my way of investigating what the Internet has to offer.

Who Made Your Pants? is a little business in Southampton which pays a living wage to its  female employees, some from a background of having a hard time in life. Everyone who joins the business starts at the sewing machine, and from there, profits are reinvested to train the women up in other key business areas like admin, taxes, marketing and finance so they can follow their ambitions within the same company they took a first step with.

And the pants? Well I can testify they are soft, lacy, top quality and very pretty. The December box came with candy canes and matching holiday coloured pants. 

The monthly subscription costs £21.50 per month and you get a range of their different designs in pants packages over the year.  Right now there's a special New Year offer where you get 13 months for the price of 12.

You can also shop for single pairs of your own choosing in the Pants Shop. So get clicking, get sexy pants and know you're helping out your fellow women.