Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Amazon. Show all posts

Monday

The 5 Best Board Games - Need Help!


Everyone loves at least one Board Game.






When we have some people round to our house for a meal we often get out a Board Game.


Several years ago I tried to get our kids (when they were all here visiting at the same time) to decide which games should go and which could stay expecting our second son to tell us he wasn't interested in any of them because he hadn't wanted to play any games for a few years, but instead he decided the very first one I presented was too good to go and we ended up playing it and not even looking at any others.


Then the following year that same son and his wife had a Board Game Theme for the table decor at their wedding reception.


Now again I am thinking of what things can go as I am once again Decluttering & Organising Our Home.  So thinking about the Board Games I decided that at least the top 5 could definitely stay.


Basing this on what we all might play together and the ones we have been playing with others in the past year or so here are my Top 5 Board Games.


Just click on the name or the picture to find out more about these games.



CLUEDO  or  CLUE (US)









Being a Murder Mystery Fan I have always enjoyed the puzzle that this game brings but unfortunately even though I'm good at solving puzzles and have a very mathematical & logical mind;  I am always beaten by our first son or my husband.   But I'm a gracious loser.





RISK








Now to be honest I have only played this once but got hooked for that game and didn't want to stop it until all the world was conquered but others of us wanted to go to bed.  This is however the favourite of our first son and all his friends.  They started playing at university and had many games lasting all through the night until breakfast time and they still like to play it when they meet up at each others homes now 15 years later.




UPWORDS








I know most people would play Scrabble  and on my iPad I play Scrabble but I do prefer the Board Game UpWords  because it gives so many choices for creating more words.

I have one of my Pastor's from a previous church to thank for introducing me to this one.
Plus this is the game I do better in than my husband.





JENGA









I never thought I would enjoy this one but I was wrong.
Our son & daughter-in-law also use a large block version of this for guests to write comments at their wedding instead of a guest book.
Sometimes we have a couple of younger lads from our church for a meal and one of them is so good at this game and has great fun in beating the rest of us.





PICTIONARY  or   TABOO






I just could not decide between these two.


I suppose I just love the first one when I feel more like having a fun laugh a lot at crazy pictures kind of mood and the second when I am more ready to concentrate on linking words. If Fred & I are playing in a team together then I go for Taboo as we can use all our 45 years together and know words which will remind us of places we have been or events that have happened to help each other guess the correct word.







Now I know this is not really a board game or at least I would never have thought of it as one but I have to share this game too because this is the one that our son said could not be thrown out, the one that he decided he liked so much that we played it and played it and played it and didn't get around to throwing out any of the Board Games.



BINGO




















Friday

The Best thing for Bare Walls - Organising My Home


Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post

No matter where we have lived "Bare Walls" have always been a bit of a problem for me.







Fred & I have lived in several houses during our 40 year marriage and we have never been the type of people to immediately decorate any of them and get those family pictures or any pictures up on the walls simply because I (yes I do take the blame for this) can never make up my mind exactly what I want and where I want it.

Sometimes like in this house I have had little ideas each year but haven't even put all of those into effect until months or years later, if at all.  Of course it doesn't help that when you have been married for so long and lived in different countries or even just different houses, you have ended up with loads of items that you can use to decorate your home.

Through the 7 years in our present home I have taken different times to declutter my boxes of ornaments and other decor and have not missed having them around the home but have also gained a few things which I really wanted to have up on display (one of which you will see below).






This is a beautiful wall hanging given to us as a gift from the Korean parents of our son-in-law Pildu (Stephen). 

As soon as I saw it I thought about where would be just the right place to put it and could not make up my mind.  One spot in my hall was a bit too narrow to house it and another was far too wide for it.

Then just before Christmas when we were making up the bed in the guest room for Linda and Stephen to come home for their first Christmas with us I realised the perfect place to hang the gift was in the guest room.

The only other thing up on any of the walls was a large painting over the head of the bed.






So with a large painting on one wall,  two windows which take up most of another wall and a third wall completely covered with built in wardrobes that just left the wall opposite the window which has the door to the hall at one end and the door into the ensuite at the other end leaving just a nice size of wall in between to be perfect for the new wall hanging.


It was a brick wall.

My husband has drills and bits and plugs and always used them to put things up but this was so lightweight that he didn't feel like getting out the drill and having a large hook or nail up so he grabbed his new gadget called the Takker and we set to work which took so little time and effort.

I of course said "hold on I need to get my phone" at one stage, not because I heard it ringing or wanted to make a call but he knew immediately I wanted to take pictures for the blog.

Not only did I take pictures but I took some very short videos as well.

There are two types of Takker.       
UPDATE Or Instanhang as it has now been renamed.


One drills a small hole and the other doesn't - I'll write another blog post sometime about how we have used it as well.


The one we needed for this job was the one that drills a hole but it's not a large drill and it doesn't plug in or work by battery.






You do it by hand and it is so easy.






The instructions are clearly printed and illustrated on one sheet of paper for ease of use.






On the centre of the flat edge you can see the drill bit neatly inside, 
not protruding to catch on anything.


After marking the place for your hook or "Tack" to go to hold your object you simply line up this centre drill section with the mark and drill by hand - see the video below





When the hole is drilled, the "Tack" needs to be inserted and the red part along the curved handle is the hiding place for the Takker Tacks






Just pull the red part open and you can easily lift out the tack.










The Tack is placed into the round hole on the side of the Takker.






Then you can see in the video just how easy it is to insert into the wall





Now when I first saw the Takker and asked my husband what he thought of it he was quite interested but then said "Probably a hassle to get more tacks for it."

To which we quickly saw that quite a few tacks came with it and also some other larger hooks to fit over the tacks to hang other things.

Then also more Tacks can be bought in separate packs.

So far we have only used tacks for each thing we have hung up but I'm sure we will use the other hooks later.






So I put all of the tacks and hooks from both Takkers into a plastic storage box which is about the same size as the Takker Drill and now everything can be easily stored together in a small crate.


Also in the box you can see part of the other Takker  which is used instead of hammering a nail into your wall for small and light pictures etc.








This should mean as well as being easy to use it is easy to bring out and put away so that we do not put off the jobs we can now do more quickly & easily.








Now back to the Korean Wall Hanging.

It is very light and easily hangs on the one tack which you can hardly see in the picture below under the ribbon.




This means that it is hardly noticeable on the wall of the Guest Room and just leaves the beautiful hanging to be admired.







Having bought the Takker a few months before Christmas we realised we had now had the idea for a great, useful and appropriate gift for our second son who moved into a new house a few months previously.  So although we may have had a strange look from him when he opened his gift on Christmas Day because he had no idea what we had bought him; now has made good use of it in his home too.


You can also see how I have recommended the Takkers in my post
  10 Gift Ideas for the Men in your Life











Disclaimer:
I did / will not benefit in any way from this post




Saturday

The Temporary Detective - Book Review



I need to state clearly to start with that I was not given a free copy of this book to read in return for my review.

I did not need to request this as I was able to get the ebook on Amazon for free.

That was however a few years ago (even though I only read it last month) and at the time of writing this review it is available for £1.99 but if interested keep an eye and it could well be offered free again.








AMAZON Book Description

Phones, light typing…and murder. 

Think breaking into show business is hard? Try landing a temp job without office skills. That’s the challenge facing aspiring actress Isobel Spice when she arrives in New York City, fresh out of college and deficient in PowerPoint. After being rejected by seven temp agencies for her lack of experience, Isobel sweet-talks recruiter James Cooke into letting her cover a last-minute vacancy at a bank. New to his own job, and recently sober, James takes a chance on Isobel, despite his suspicion that she’s a trouble-magnet. His misgivings are borne out by lunchtime, when she stumbles across a dead secretary in a bathroom stall. With her fingerprints on the murder weapon, Isobel sets out to prove her innocence by investigating the crime herself. While learning to juggle phone lines and auditions, she discovers an untapped talent for detective work—a qualification few other office temps, let alone actresses, can claim.



This is the first of three books (so far) in the Isobel Spice Mysteries

Author Joanne Sydney Lessner




My Opinion


A great title and a very enjoyable read

The title is definitely related to the story which I so often lament about not being the case in books these days.

Now I am not saying that this is a "whodunit" in the league of Agatha Christie but I enjoyed the easy reading style the novel was written in and the main characters were definitely believable.  The plot may not be the most intricate or serious but then I like humour in any book.

I started it in the hairdressers and finished it in the hairdressers - although not on the same day.  It was an easy book to grab and read a few chapters at a time and keep up with the story.

I would almost go as far as to say it was a Cosy Mystery but then some people may decide not to read it and that would be a pity.

As for the next two in the series I will watch for them to be free and grab them too - in fact might just get them if they come down to 99p.

I think you can tell from that last statement that I probably have too many ebooks waiting in my kindle for me to get round to reading.


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