I mentioned in my CyberMummy recap that a significant portion of my day revolved around the topic of working with brands and so I am writing a clear explanation here of my stance. For the purposes of clarity I am assuming that anyone reading this is a complete newbie to my blog.

When I started this blog three years ago it was to catalogue my attempts at sewing, knitting and cooking with a dash of parenting. As time has moved on and I’ve found a comfort zone with my writing, I’ve expanded the parenting element somewhat and in the process I have attracted many offers from companies wishing me to review their products, some of which I’ve accepted. My criteria for accepting products for review has been simple: Would I use it? I have rejected probably 75% of these offers as being irrelevant to my readership or simply unattractive to me but for the products that I do elect to keep & review I will be using a more defined method so that you – my readership – know what drives the review you’re reading.

1. I will always be honest if I am reviewing a product I have been sent for free.
I do talk about products that I love with fair frequency and I realise that could be confusing in establishing my motives. From this point forward, any product reviews will have a note telling you at the start of the article that I have been sent this product for free.

2. I will not accept payment for reviews.
I will not put myself in the position where I could be accused of putting financial gain before my integrity. I have built this blog up through investing my time and energy, it’s not worth throwing that away.

3. I will tell the truth about the products I’m reviewing
I recently did a product review for a company that ticks all of my boxes – environmentally conscious, morally agreeable, affordable product – but didn’t write up the review because the product didn’t work for my family. I fed back to the PR company but have felt distinctly at ease since then. From now on, I will tell you if I haven’t liked something I’ve tested but I will also offer my support and feedback to the companies sending me review products.

4. I will not review any product which is manufactured by any of the Nestlé brands.
As a family we actively boycott Nestlé and all subsidiary companies as a result of their appalling marketing practices and continued use of child slave labour. I could not in good conscience ever accept a product of any kind from Nestlé.

5. I will only review products which are true to the ethos of the blog.
If it relates to cooking, crafting, family life etc then I’ll review it. If it’s not something I’ve talked about here then chances are I won’t be interested.

Additionally, at present I have no advertising on my blog. That’s not to say it’ll always be like this but as of this date I receive no payment for anything posted here. Everything I write is my own opinion and words – I will not simply rehash press releases, nor will I change what I’ve written. I do have an Amazon associates link but in the three years of writing this blog I have made £0.10p so I don’t think we have much to worry about there!

If you have read this and would like to send me something to review, please do email me.

As the people I write for, your opinion on this is extremely important to me and so I would welcome your comments on this post.

Thanks for reading

Posted under site stuff

So after discovering that I had something ridiculous like 12000 unread posts in bloglines I – for the first time in four years – marked all as read to start again. Woe is me! Before doing this I looked at any blogs that I hadn’t made a concerted effort to check and unsubscribed from them (mostly big American ones with thousands of readers) but this means that if I haven’t commented on your blog lately, I haven’t read it and I’m sorry. I’ll make an effort to keep up this time!

Anyway, one of the benefits of cutting out the deadwood is that I’ve actually been able to keep up with my favourite blogs and I’ve recently discovered a new one that I think my sewing friends are going to love. Zoe (who actually reminds me a lot of Melissa from All Buttoned Up) is participating in “Me-made-May” which does as it says on the tin – participants are going to spend the month of May clad in clothing they’ve made themselves. Which I think you’ll agree is quite an audacious feat and one which I am green with envy over. Can I just show you some of Zoe’s stuff?

Click on the image to go to Zoe’s blog post about it.

So I’ve decided now that the Business Plan of doom is finished and I have a Bona Fide Fashion Design Graduate working for me that I have no excuse anymore. It’s time I made my first garment for me. Bearing in mind that I’m a bigger lass (UK16 on top and UK16-18 on the bottom) have any of you got recommendations for flattering dress patterns that I could attempt?

I have fallen in love with Zoe’s bird blouse, made from this pattern which was in Burda 01/2008. I can’t seem to work out how to buy back editions on the Burda website, I can’t locate this edition on eBay and nobody on twitter has a copy to lend me. Can any of you lovely lot help me?

Posted under recommendations, sewing