I'm a full-time mummy

Came across this recall article and decided to share it with you guys!

"Disney Store bosses have issued a recall appeal for around 1,000 Doc McStuffins dragon toys.

 The safety alert came after a parent noticed the ears of the blue dragon could be pulled off by a child. It was sold as part of Disney’s Doc McStuffins Bath Set range.  

Disney has now withdrawn the bath set product from sale and launched an urgent investigation into the potentially lethal fault.

The £12.95 Doc McStuffins Bath Sets went on sale at Disney Store branches across the UK and Europe in January.About 1,000 have been sold online and by stores.

One worried British customer alerted the company after noticing the ears of the dragon character had broken away while their child was playing with it.

Customers who have already bought the toy have been advised to return it to their nearest store where they will get a full refund. Other toys in the McStuffins Bath Set are not affected by the recall, which Disney describes as a “precautionary measure”, and do not need to be returned.

A Disney Store spokesman said: “Whilst the product is compliant with all relevant safety regulations, the safety of families who buy our products is of utmost importance to us. “This is why as a precautionary measure we have taken the decision to instigate a full voluntary recall of this Doc McStuffins Bath Set, sold in Disney Store in Europe. “We are also performing an internal investigation to effect any corrective action necessary. No other merchandise is affected by this recall.”"

Personally, there are risks in everything, so as parents, do give a thorough check before you purchase or hand in any toys to your kiddos. And of course, keep a close eye on them when they play with the toys.

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

** Disclaimer:

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review of mine, in fact, I bought this sewing machine with my own money after checking through other peoples' reviews and feedback online. Take note that all opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine.

Please also remember that I am NOT representative of Lazada Malaysia or Global brand, so if you have any issues or questions with your sewing machine, please contact the respective companies directly instead of asking me to help you fix your issues.

Introducing my new baby!

The Global Sewing Machine GSM-505! Waited for over a month for the price to drop before I bought it from Lazada hahahah... The sewing machine was delivered the following day which is pretty cool! I'm still hiding this from my MIL as she already nagged that I'm wasting my money going for sewing classes when I can ask her to teach me instead (I did but it was really tough and difficult to understand when she is using her traditional Singer sewing machine so I'd rather spend a bit for something that is user-friendly, portable and easy to use)

Let's go through the specifications of my new baby now:

It came nicely wrapped in a box. The first thing you see when you opened up the box is the user manual and the warranty leaflet (you can fill up and post it back but I choose to do online warranty registration which is way easier for lazy people like me hahahha... also want to save on stamps)

What you see when you took out one side of the styrofoam covering the sewing machine is this. It lays on its side, you can see the power adapter, foot pedal and a small pouch of thread spools, bobbins, needle threader and needle (size #14).

The sewing machine came all ready to be use! The thread are nicely in place, there's a small patch of cloth which has been tested on prior to delivery to customer (you can see the different stitches on the cloth). All you need to do is plug in the power adapter and the foot pedal (if you want) and sew straight away!

There are 8 types of different styles of stitching you can choose - so far, I go for number 3 and 6. These 2 stitches are close and looks tight and secure to me hahahaha... One feature that I like about this sewing machine is the reverse sewing tab. You just need to press the tab down to trigger the reverse sewing or just release the tab and leave it as it is for forward sewing pattern. Under this tab, you can see a lever indicating [L   OFF   H] which is actually the sewing speed (without using foot pedal) By default it is set to OFF and you use the foot pedal to sew. If you push the lever to left for LOW speed or to right for HIGH speed, then you can sew on without stepping on your foot pedal.

There is also numbering instructions guiding you how to thread the sewing machine. I'm still lost from step 1 until step 3 but I think with practise, I can handle it easily. You can also adjust the upper thread tension level by pushing the button located next to the take up lever. Another cool feature I like on the sewing machine is the built-in LED light button located at the side. You can sew at night with a light press on the button! Hehehehehe!

Right near the LED button, there is a small gap for thread cutting which I don't use as I find it a bit wasting my thread to pull out that long in order to reach the cutter. What I do is just pull the thread to about an inch long then I use my scissors to cut off the thread. If you use the cutter, you will need to pull the thread to about 2-3 inches long in order to reach the cutter.

Next, this is how it looks like from behind. Not in picture is the bobbin winder pin and bobbin winder stop which you can use to wind the bobbin. At the bottom right side, you can see the DC 6V power adapter outlet and the foot pedal outlet. I make it a habit to unplug the power adapter when I am not sewing or need to pause to do other tasks. Very paranoid of kiddos being curious and touching my sewing machine when I am not using it.

There is also a hidden drawer at the right side of the sewing machine, a bit small but sufficient enough to put in small items like needles, bobbins and needle threader. There is a handle on top of the sewing machine which you can use to carry it around, very portable and easy! The sewing machine is about 4.5kg, not that heavy for me.

So far, I've been using the sewing machine to repair the torn clothings (hubby's short pants and jeans), my casual grocery bag and Carolyn's rompers. Also did some personal mini project for kiddos - hooded bath towels for them and the remnants of the towels I sewn into hand towel which I hung around the door knobs in our bathroom. Will share pictures and posts later. Btw, this sewing machine is RM159 (about USD44) after sales promo and discount voucher from Lazada.

To end my post, I am very happy with my purchase and hope to do more sewing stuff when time permits!

Do note that I received no monetary compensation for this review of mine, in fact, I bought this sewing machine with my own money after checking through reviews and feedback online. Take note that all opinions expressed in this post are my own. Please do your own research when purchasing products, as your opinions may differ from mine. Please also remember that I am not representative of Lazada Malaysia or Global brand, so if you have any issues with your sewing machine, please contact the respective companies directly instead of asking me to help you fix your issues. 

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

I came across this article which I must definitely share with you guys as I'm very interested to know your thoughts on this.

Before I begin, I just want to say that based on the feedbacks gathered from so many parenting related articles I shared on my FB page so far, I would say a lot of my readers are very open to the idea of teaching and educating their children about their body parts, the correct naming and what to do to protect themselves and their privacy. On matters related to sex education, there are mixed responses from my readers but I realised I have not asked my readers whether they talked to their kiddos about birth control topics before.

So for this article, I would really want to find out what are your thoughts on this. For your convenience, I have copied the excerpts from the article here:

"An eight-year-old boy is being tested for sexually transmitted diseases after finding a used condom on his school's playground and putting it in his mouth. The young boy, whose mother has asked that he isn't named, is being tested for herpes, hepatitis C, chlamydia and other viruses and infections.

He found the used condom on his school grounds and thought it was a balloon so tried to blow it up, his mum said. She said: "When the teacher took the 'balloon' out of his mouth, it was a used condom." Emails between school officials and the boy's mum show the condom was thrown away by a teacher and was not tested, American news KMGH-TV reported.

 The boy, who attends Bennett Elementary School in Colorado, could now face tests for STDs for years to come, his mum said.

 She said she wants the school district to pay for the tests and the school's insurance carrier has denied her claim. But health officials said there is little risk of the boy contracting a disease from the condom, since it may have been outside the school for a long period of time. The school has no surveillance cameras and no fences and it remains unknown who discarded the condom."

The boy is 8 years old. He found something odd at the playground and like any curious child, decided to find out more. Now my questions to parents reading this are:

• First question: Does your child know what to do if he/she stumbles upon things he/she has not seen / heard of before? Do you teach him/her to run straight to the teacher or to you (or person-in-charge) to inform first? Or he/she is allowed to bring over the object(s) he/she found to show and ask someone else?
  

• Second question: Does your child know what is a condom? Do you teach them what it is and what to do if he/she ever see one regardless whichever location / condition they found it?

To be honest, I am concerned after reading this article as even though our kiddos have been taught not to simply touch anything they found wherever they are (and to always let mummy know first - so far so good), curiosity is a very tempting thing. It doesn't help if the child prods further and like the boy in this article, thought it was a balloon and tried to blow it up.

• Third question: Do you plan to talk about this incident with your child now that you have read this article? If yes, how? If no, why?
  

Do share your thoughts on this!

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.