14 MILLION UK MALES ADMIT TO WRECKING THEIR HOME !

Survey by Disney for the release of ‘Wreck-It Ralph' on 3^rd June reveals 57.8% men in the UK have suffered a wrecking mishap in the home

2013 will see the summer of DIY discontent. With no major football tournaments on, men across the UK will be picking up their tools and attempting home renovations. It seems, however, that families will bear the brunt of grand design aspirations as research conducted to announce the launch of ‘Wreck-It Ralph’ on Disney Blu-ray™, digital download and DVD on 3 June, has revealed that over half of UK males (57.8%) have wrecked their home in some way as a result of their DIY mishaps. Just like Ralph, the men of the UK only seem capable of making their DIY disasters worse and end up looking like the bad guy rather than the hero.

It’s not just homes left with gaping holes but our pockets too as half of British men (50.35%) confess to having at least one unfinished DIY project in their home totalling a whopping £2,011,480,093*²  for the UK in total (average cost per job £140.89).

A third of men (29.9%) admit they have been unsuccessful or struggled with DIY and have covered it up as a result, particularly in London (35.07%).  East Anglian men seem to before more proficient with a tool box, however, as only 1 in 5 (21.05%) have struggled with DIY. Looking for the wreck in your home? Head to the bathroom, as most DIY mishaps (18%) in the home will take place there.

The research was conducted to promote the launch of Disney’s Wreck-It Ralph on Blu-ray™ on 3 June. The box office smash hit tells the story of the video game character with a big heart, Wreck-it Ralph.  His entire world is based on his existence as a wrecking machine and being a bad guy.  Fed up with never being the hero, he sets off on a journey through multiple generations of video games to prove he’s got what it takes to be a likeable good guy. The poll also delved into British male attitudes concerning DIY wrecks and fixing solutions to establish how many real life Wreck-it Ralphs there are in the UK with findings revealing that British men fall under the following five main*³ categories when it comes to DIY:

• The Fix-It Felix (19.6%)

Confident in his DIY skills, Fix-It Felix can repair most DIY wreck jobs and is often asked for advice.

• The Cover-Ups (10.9%)

Men in this category start DIY jobs but botch them and hire repairmen to fix the job before anyone finds out, passing it off as their own work

• The Wreck-It Ralph (10.8%)

Wreck-It Ralph has the best of intentions but he wrecks things and continues to do so as he can’t fix the job in question but is too proud to ask for help

• The Daddy’s Boys (14.8%)

Rather than admit his own failings, the Daddy’s Boy often calls upon family members (like his dad) or friends to help fix any resulting DIY disasters

• The DIY Phobics (17.9%) 

Has no aptitude for DIY and is happy to hire a qualified professional to undertake all necessary work where required

Pride gets in the way when it comes to solving DIY calamities, with 14.8% of UK males confessing to being a Daddy’s Boy. As with Ralph as he undertakes his journey through multiple gaming worlds, it seems guys need their friends and family to help them solve their problems.  

With the men of the UK aspiring to become the new ‘Fix-It Felixes’ of the world, it seems their partners are the ones who are suffering as over a third of women in the UK (34.45%)confess they have been affected by a DIY disaster caused by their partner. Furthermore, these put upon partners are literally being left to pick up the pieces as over one million women (1,271,709) admit to fixing the DIY problems their partners caused. Part of a sixth category – named ‘The Solvers’– they often find themselves fixing the wrecks caused by others in their home. Welsh women have it harder as nearly 1 in 10 (9.3%) consider themselves to be solvers.

It’s not all bad news however. In attempt to redeem themselves and make up for their wrecking mistakes, similar to Ralph, UK men end up doing the right thing. Nearly one million women in the UK (960,270 ^*4) have admitted that they request their partner to buy them a gift to make up for their home wrecking efforts.

After reading through this I am not sure where my husband fits, he definitely knows he is not a DIY expert, but he will give things a go, unless he thinks that the job really is too big, then he will get an expert in.

He knows that I am a much better painter, so most of that gets left to me, he can do it, but has a tendency to rush and ends up getting paint everywhere.!!

What about you, how is your husband/partner at DIY, does he fit into the categories above ?

My First Crayola Twitter Party #myfirstcrayolaparty

Next Monday we will be celebrating!

Not only will it be Tyrus's 2nd Birthday (where did those two years go?) but we will also be having a My First Crayola Twitter party woohoo.

During the day Tyrus and his buddies (with a little help from his big brothers and sisters!) will be having a little birthday party with lots of fun and funky My First Crayola goodies, I think his siblings have told grandad - our super cake maker, that Tyrus would like a Batman cake, I am just hoping there isn't too much black icing or it could get very messy!!

As parties are very lively and noisy, the actual Twitter Party will be taking place when, hopefully all of the children will be in bed ( I can dream!) between 8pm - 9.30pm

For more information, just click on the picture above or in the sidebar, which will whizz you over to Danielle at Blog By Baby, who can tell you even more about it.

If you would like to follow me on twitter at https://twitter.com/Hex_Mum please feel free

Hope to chat with you on Monday night, maybe give me a prod just to check that I am still awake and not too worn out from the party!

Haba 75th Anniversary GlobeFish bath Toy

I had heard many people talk about Haba, and to be honest I wasn't too sure what they were all about, I knew they were something to do with toys and that's about it. When a call was put out for Bloggers to celebrate their 75th anniversary I knew they had to be pretty good to have been going that long, so I took a look at their website www.haba.co.uk to discover that they were in fact a German Toy Company.

I was intrigued and very pleased to be chosen as one of the Bloggers to test out some of their toys (well, I say me, in fact the toys are in fact meant for Tyrus!!)

Our first toy was a bath toy called a Globefish, it is a very brightly coloured fish with lots of bobbles on it.

When we first gave it to Tyrus, he eyed it suspiciously, but after a while he worked out that it did actually belong in the bath and it wasn't some strange creature that was there to attack him!

Do these bobbly bits come off?

As you can see from the photo below, this has become quite a favourite with Tyrus, I like it because it doesn't squirt too far, meaning his older brothers can't soak the entire bathroom

 It empties out easily once bath time has ended, meaning that it doesn't go black and horrible as some bath toys do.

Look out tomorrow for another Haba toy, this one is definitely worth reading about, as it has become Tyrus's VERY BEST toy EVER....

#CBias Dairy Milk Night In

I am a member of the Collective Bias®  Social Fabric® Community.  This shop has been compensated as part of a social shopper insights study for Collective Bias and their client.

We LOVE doing things as a family, with six children all with different interests, it is hard to pin everyone down in one place long enough to spend family time together.

For the final day of the Half Term Holiday, it was a good weather forecast, so we decided on a Barbecue, followed by a family film, and the fact that we had to include Dairy Milk was a HUGE bonus!!
We took a little outing to our local Morrisons supermarket as we are basically related (I wish they gave everyone with the name Morrison shares!!)
You can view our shopping trip on my google+ album here

So many different bars to choose from!

The girls were very keen to try the new Dairy Milk additions, so we ended up with a bar of Cookie Nut Crunch, a bubbly bar, and a bar of Dairy Milk Caramel, which all sounded perfect for snuggling up and watching a DVD.

Then we found even bigger ones!!

We got to the next aisle and found even larger bars of chocolate, for not much more money, so we obviously HAD to buy two more bars!

The children had a good look through the DVD choices at the shop, but we decided that we already had a film at home from the DVD hire, which we had not seemed to get round to watching this week, so that was our film chosen
Next stop things for the barbecue...

I am soo strong!

I can't reach the skewers!

We were nearly out of charcoal and fire lighters, we also saw some wooden skewers, a bargain at 50p for a pack of 50!

After we had chosen all of the things we needed for our barbecue and night in/out, we travelled home to light up the barbecue!! The children were concerned that the milk would be spilt, but they had a solution!

Once we arrived home and put away the shopping - chocolate in the fridge, I HATE soggy chocolate! We began the cooking, well Asa began the cooking, with some help from a few willing volunteers, whilst I prepared the other essentials in the house!

Barbecues wouldn't be the same without Garlic mushrooms

 I crushed up some garlic and mixed it with some butter, then placed it on the mushrooms, then wrapped each one individually in little foil parcels, all ready to place on the barbecue! Next up, slicing all of the rolls for the burgers and hot dogs. I then added butter, brown sugar, lemon juice and cinnamon to a pan and heated until bubbling, the fresh pineapple that I had been wanting to use in a new way was sliced and made into rings, then dipped in the gooey mixture, all ready to be cooked on the barbecue later.

Two responsible barbecue people!

 Asa was very confident that Lochlan and Neva were responsible enough to look after the barbecue, I forget they are both growing up so fast...
In no time at all the smell of burgers and sausages wafted through the house, and six hungry children began to devour, you learn in this house very quickly that if you don't get in quick the male members of the family would eat the lot!!

Stop taking photos we are trying to eat

 As well as sausages and burgers, we had baked beans, barbecue beans and of course garlic buttered mushrooms (the little tin foil packets)

A tasty looking barbecue

 After the children made swift work of the savoury food, we moved onto the sweet stuff (my favourite part!)

Just got better now the sweet stuff is starting

 First we cooked the pineapple rings, with lovely heart shaped middles! (I couldn't find a round cutter)

Toasted marshmallows anyone ?

 Next the children toasted some marshmallows, lots of gooey mess assured!! We then broke up a large bar of Cadburys Dairy Milk into a foil tray and melted on the barbecue

Or maybe chocolate strawberries ?

 The children had great fun dipping the marshmallows and strawberries in the chocolate!

Very tasty

 Eowyn and Tyrus didn't get too messy, by their standards...

Have I made a mess

 All six children went extremely quiet whilst they munched their way through their sweet kebabs, much to the frustration of the chickens that had been banished to the other end of the garden!

Fruit and marshmallow kebabs anyone ?

 After we had finished the barbecue, the children got ready for bed, and washed their chocolate faces, next part of the evening, settling down to watch a DVD called Zambezia.

Chilling with some chocolate and a DVD

 I would have thought that the children would have had a chocolate overload during the barbecue, but they did manage to each taste a couple of squares of each different flavour, but did leave some for another day

Sharing a bar of chocolate

 Neva and Eowyn were very impressed with the Bubbly Bar

All Mine!

Tyrus preferred the new Marvellous Creations Cookie Nut Crunch Bar, although we did wrestle if off of him before he was sick!!

We had a lovely afternoon and evening as a family and it was the perfect end to half term.

Cowboy Boots and Inexpressible Longing (Cowboy Boots 5) by Natalie Acres