by Helen | Sep 3, 2026 | Interiors
There’s something very satisfying about a piece of tech that works well and looks good enough to leave on display. This compact projector from CREATE (create-store.com) manages to do both — and at a surprisingly accessible price point.
I was initially drawn to the design. With its clean, contemporary shape and soft sage green colour – matching our Create winter heaters – it feels much more like a considered piece of home décor than a traditional projector. It sits happily on a bookshelf when not in use, without becoming an eyesore, and its compact size makes it easy to move from room to room.
designed to fit around you
One of my favourite features is the 180° rotating design. Rather than having to find exactly the right stack of books, table or stand to position the image, you can simply tilt the projector to where you want it. Wall, screen or even ceiling — the flexibility makes it incredibly practical, particularly in smaller spaces.
It’s also genuinely portable. You can move it between the bedroom and living room, take it away for a weekend, or pack it up when you don’t need it. The ergonomic design makes the whole experience feel refreshingly uncomplicated.
easy connectivity
Setting it up was pleasantly straightforward. With Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity, it feels designed for the way we actually consume entertainment now, without needing a complicated collection of cables and equipment.
For something so compact, it offers a lot of versatility. We now have movie nights, curled up in the courtyard. We’ve been streaming the Ripley Netflix series, which is just even better when projected onto a wall outside, under the stars. It has very quickly becomes one of those gadgets you find more uses for than you originally expected.
style without the premium price
What really stands out for me is the value for money. Projectors can easily become an expensive purchase, particularly once you start looking for something attractive and user-friendly. This one combines a stylish aesthetic, useful connectivity, portability and that clever 180° rotation without feeling like an extravagant investment. And unlike a lot of tech, I don’t feel the need to hide it away when I’m not using it. In fact, it looks rather good sitting amongst the books.
the verdict
If you’ve been tempted by the idea of a home projector but don’t want something bulky, overly technical or prohibitively expensive, this little CREATE projector is well worth a look. Although, it is worth bearing in mind if you are tempted and decided to purchase from Create, because they are based in the EU, you will have to pay charges on delivery. Brexit, eh? I have seen UK companies selling similar, but none quite as beautiful in sage green…
Stylish, portable, easy to set up and surprisingly versatile, it’s a great-value way to bring a little big-screen magic into your home.
by Helen | Sep 1, 2026 | Lifestyle
There are certain things you expect to find outside your front door in an Andalusian village. A neighbour stopping for a chat. A delivery van attempting the seemingly impossible task of squeezing along a narrow street. Perhaps a procession, a horse or two, or the distant sound of flamenco drifting up from the square. What you don’t necessarily expect is a man in swimming trunks carrying an enormous inflatable tyre past your window.
But this was Feria weekend in Jimena de la Frontera, and apparently anything goes.
four days when the village changes gear
Our annual Feria is one of those occasions when normal life in Jimena is temporarily suspended. For four days there is music, dancing, flamenco, bands and processions. The square becomes the centre of village life and people who might ordinarily be heading home for dinner somehow find themselves still outside several hours later. It’s noisy, colourful, sociable and wonderfully Spanish.
And then Saturday afternoon arrives…
Someone had decided that what Calle Sevilla — the steep street running directly past our house — really needed was a giant waterslide. Not a children’s paddling pool. Not a modest inflatable. A proper, enormous, street-length waterslide.
first, find your inflatable
Preparations began at home. Out came the swimming costumes, along with an assortment of inflatables, pumped up and ready for their moment of glory. Our beautiful vintage style green and cream ring, along with a pink, glitter filled unicorn, courtesy of a visiting guest, sat ready and waiting in our living room. Outside, more inflatables, some carried at head past our window. Then we opened the front door. And discovered half the village snaking up Calle Sevilla, past our house. And a giant, inflatable waterslide running down the middle of the road.
calle sevilla, but not as we know it…
The transformation was extraordinary. Where there would normally be cars and people making their way up and down the hill, there was now a brilliant blue river of plastic stretching along the street, edged in red and yellow. And beside it, an ever growing queue. Children, teenagers, parents and grandparents. People in trunks, bikinis and swimming costumes standing outside whitewashed village houses clutching inflatable rings, tyres, lilos and anything else they thought might get them to the bottom faster. All directly outside our front door.
There is something particularly surreal about opening your door onto a familiar street and finding a woman in a bikini waiting patiently with a giant rubber ring. But within minutes it all seemed completely normal.
and they’re off…
One by one, people launched themselves down Calle Sevilla.
Some approached proceedings with considerable confidence. Others discovered, rather too late, that steering an inflatable at speed is not an exact science. There were elegant descents. There were spectacularly inelegant descents. There were collisions, spins, shrieks, enormous splashes and the occasional expression suggesting that somebody had just reconsidered all the decisions that had brought them to this particular moment. And then they’d pick themselves up and join the queue to do it again.
Looking down from above, the sight was quite extraordinary: a huge ribbon of blue running between Jimena’s old white houses, with a procession of people and inflatables stretching along either side. It looked less like Calle Sevilla and more like a temporary water park that had accidentally landed in the middle of an Andalusian pueblo.
and this is why we love village life…
Perhaps that’s the thing about living somewhere like Jimena. The architecture may be old. Traditions run deep. Feria itself belongs to generations of celebrations that came long before us. But tradition here doesn’t necessarily mean taking yourself too seriously.
There can be flamenco and processions. There can be music in the square until late at night. And apparently there can also be several hundred people wandering past your house in swimwear carrying inflatable doughnuts.
For one hot Saturday afternoon, one of Jimena’s streets stopped being a street altogether. It became a playground.
People laughed. Children raced each other. Adults behaved like children. Neighbours stood in doorways watching the spectacle and the whole thing had that slightly chaotic, spontaneous feeling that the best village celebrations somehow manage to create.
By the following day, Calle Sevilla would start becoming Calle Sevilla again.
The water would disappear. The enormous inflatable rings would be deflated and returned to cupboards. Eventually the Feria music would stop and normal village life would resume. But for a few wonderfully ridiculous hours, we had a waterslide outside our front door.
And really, how often can you say that?
by Helen | Aug 24, 2026 | Lifestyle
Some ingredients don’t look particularly exciting sitting on the supermarket shelf. Then you bring them home, start experimenting, and suddenly wonder why they haven’t always had a place in your kitchen.
Aldi’s Asia Green Garden Panko Breadcrumbs are one of those finds.
Panko breadcrumbs are lighter, coarser and flakier than traditional breadcrumbs, which means they create that wonderfully crisp, golden crunch that can transform an otherwise simple dish. And this little box delivers plenty of it without requiring a trip to a specialist food shop – or a specialist-food-shop price tag.
the traybake that started it
My first experiment was a comforting tagliatelle, leek and chestnut mushroom traybake with crème fraîche and fresh thyme. On its own, the combination is delicious: silky pasta, sweet softened leeks, earthy mushrooms and the gentle tang of crème fraîche. But it needed something to contrast with all that creaminess. Enter the panko.
I mixed the breadcrumbs with tangy grated cheddar, scattered them generously over the pasta and baked everything until bubbling underneath and crisp and golden on top. And that crust was the bit that made the dish. The panko stays noticeably lighter and crunchier than ordinary breadcrumbs, while the cheddar melts through it and catches around the edges. Underneath you have creamy, comforting pasta; on top, a deeply savoury, cheesy crunch.
It’s exactly the sort of contrast that makes you go back for another spoonful.
small ingredient, big impact
That’s probably what I like most about panko. You don’t need to build an entire recipe around it. Think of it as a finishing ingredient. A handful scattered over something soft or creamy immediately introduces another texture. Mix it with cheese, herbs, garlic, lemon zest or a little olive oil and suddenly you’ve created a topping that tastes far more considered than the effort involved.
And because you only need a relatively small amount at a time, one box can stretch across several meals.
what else can you do with them?
Quite a lot, as it turns out.
Try panko mixed with Parmesan, lemon zest and parsley over baked salmon or cod. Toss them with garlic, olive oil and herbs and scatter over roasted tomatoes or stuffed mushrooms. They’d be brilliant on cauliflower or broccoli cheese, where that crisp topping would cut through the richness of the sauce, or sprinkled over macaroni cheese before it goes into the oven. For something completely different, use them to coat chicken strips, halloumi, prawns, courgette or aubergine before baking or air-frying for an extra-crunchy exterior.
And here’s one I particularly like: toast a handful of panko in a frying pan with a little olive oil, garlic, chilli and lemon zest, then scatter them over a simple bowl of pasta. It’s sometimes called poor man’s Parmesan – although there’s nothing particularly poor about the flavour.
a good little aldi find
There are glamorous ingredients and there are useful ingredients. Occasionally you find something that manages to be a little bit of both. These aren’t going to dominate a dish, and that’s precisely the point. They’re there to provide the crunch, texture and golden finish that makes everything underneath taste just that little bit better. For me, that’s what makes them such a good-value cupboard staple.
One little box. A lot of crunch. And considerably more possibilities than I expected.
Next on my list? Panko-topped cauliflower cheese – with an unapologetically generous amount of cheddar.
by Helen | Jul 21, 2026 | Lifestyle
Every now and then you cook something that quietly takes you by surprise. Not because it’s complicated or particularly clever, but because every mouthful makes you pause for a second before reaching for the next.
This swordfish dish was one of those meals.
I’d found a recipe by Chef Dennis (which I’ll link to below, because it’s absolutely worth making), but what I wasn’t prepared for was just how incredible the kitchen would smell while everything came together.
It starts simply enough. Butter melting gently in the pan. Then the garlic.That unmistakable aroma that fills the whole kitchen and somehow makes everyone wander in asking, “What are you cooking?“
Then comes the fresh ginger. Warm, fragrant and just a little peppery, it lifts the richness of the butter in the most beautiful way. Add the lemon and suddenly everything feels brighter. Fresher. The sort of smell that makes you hungry before you’ve even laid the table.
The swordfish itself is wonderfully uncomplicated. A quick sear gives it the most delicate golden crust while the inside stays beautifully moist and flaky. It doesn’t need fussing over or a cupboard full of spices. It simply lets the butter sauce do what butter sauces do best. And the finishing touch? Spooning that warm garlic, ginger and herb butter over the fish.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen dinner disappear quite so quickly. In fact, I didn’t even manage to take a photograph of the finished plate. By the time it reached the table, we were both far more interested in eating it than documenting it – which is probably the best compliment I can give any recipe. It’s one of those meals that feels just a little bit special without requiring hours in the kitchen. Perfect for a weekend supper with a glass of chilled white wine, good bread to mop up every last drop of the sauce, and nowhere else you need to be.
If you’d like to make it yourself, the recipe is by Chef Dennis, and you can find it here: Ginger Garlic Pan Roasted Swordfish. It’s beautifully written and easy to follow, so all the credit for this delicious dinner belongs to him.
Sometimes the best recipes aren’t the ones that look the prettiest. They’re the ones you can’t stop thinking about afterwards.
by Helen | Jul 9, 2026 | Renovation
Our Istrian renovation, looking back now, wasn’t really a renovation. It was a series of jobs (some quite big, so we’re not underestimating what was done) carried out by different people, with differing levels of availability and skills. All of the work was carried out over a long period of time, meaning that nothing was really co-ordinated, but the big advantage to this was that we weren’t always living on a building site. The big disadvantage was that when we weren’t living in chaos, and everything was lovely and just as we wanted, we knew it wouldn’t be long until it was a building site again. We were working largely with individuals, too, meaning that they all operated differently, in terms of start times, lengths of days, billing, what tools they had and what they didn’t have. All a bit stressful at times. This time, we’ve done it all very differently.
So, what did we do?
Firstly, we appointed a family team of builders, right at the outset. They are from the town, so are known locally. They specialise in renovating old townhouses, so know the quirks of these types of houses. They know all of the local suppliers, so as well as sourcing everything, they could get the best prices. They are a team, so there’s always sufficient tradespeople to work on the project, without us having to wait until someone became available. They are professionals – each member of the family team has a skill set and they work on that skill, from start to finish, whilst co-ordinating everything with other members of the team. They keep meticulous records – time spent, money spent, changes made. Absolutely invaluable when it comes to paying, as everything is evidenced. They have all the tools/equipment needed to carry out a full renovation, without us having to rush off to the DIY store and buy something. They have a wider network, so if there’s something they don’t do, they can source someone who does.
Secondly, we kept our own records – we had a file for outcomes of meetings, things agreed going forwards. Everything was documented, because in the initial days of a full on renovation, so much is happening, and decisions are made being quickly – and in our case often from a distance, not on site – that things can just be forgotten. We kept all orders, receipts, delivery notes. We diarisied everything, and notes were jotted down, as a fallback, in case we forgot anything. Highlighters became our great friends.
We had regular site meetings with our project manager and main builder, so that key decisions could be taken quickly and any problems ironed out efficiently. Both sides kept notes and we swapped these, so that we were all on the same page, at all times.
Because we were working with an experienced team of local builders, they also knew all of the permissions we had to apply for, and did this on our behalf, with the local town hall. This made us feel very reassured that everything was being done properly – and did make us think that we might have been very lucky to fly under the radar in Croatia, as we didn’t apply for any permissions to do anything. Although, when the the little house to the rear of the main was demolished, we did have surveyors come out and redraw the boundaries – perhaps the MOST important thing, certainly in Istria, where land definitions are everything.
So, if you are thinking of, or are, renovating certainly in Andalucia, our key takes from our own experience, are as follows :
- Appoint, and work with, a team of local trusted builders – if they’re local you should be able to see examples of their previous work, as we did;
- Make sure that records are kept on both sides, but especially on yours – keep all receipts, information relating to delivery, emails, make notes of all meetings, keep records of all financial agreements and transactions;
- Meet regularly – it wasn’t possible for us to be on site all the time, as we were living two hours away, at the start of the renovation, but we did have regular facetime meetings, as well as calls.
If you’re renovating, we’d love to know how you got on/are getting on. And, if we can offer any advice, I’d be happy to chat via email – helen@wearelife.co.uk
by Helen | Jul 9, 2026 | Lifestyle
Have to admit, until fairly recently, we’d never heard of the butter bell. We just did what I suppose most people do – keep the butter in fridge, where it’s always too hard and cold. Or, leave it out in a butter dish and return to a swimming pool of buttery oil in warmer weather. It never seemed too much of a problem, as I didn’t know there was a solution. I didn’t even know there was a problem, especially as I’m not a huge butter fan, so had never really questioned our storage of it. Until I chanced upon a butter bell on Instagram, and our buttery lives changed forever.
Since finding out about these ceramic pots, I now realise that probably everyone else has always known about them. But in case, like us, you haven’t, here’s the lowdown on butter bells and why you definitely need one in your life…
The butter bell, also called a French butter crock or butter keeper, dates back hundreds of years. Well before refrigeration, it is known that French cooks crafted ceramic bell-shaped crocks – known as “beurrier à eau” – to preserve butter at room temperature, by sealing it from oxygen with water, in designs especially made in Vallauris, a town famous for its pottery, or in Brittany or Normandy, regions renowned for butter production. However, the invention of refrigeration meant that the use of butter bells started to decline at the beginning of the 20th century. In the 1970s, North American craft potters apparently rediscovered, and began producing these crocks again, selling them at fairs and boutiques, bringing about a resurgence in their popularity, and in the late 20th century, interest increased in traditional methods of food preservation, and the butter bell, gained popularity once again.
L. Tremain, Inc. trademarked the name “Butter Bell” in the US in 1995 and modernized the traditional French design, creating the “Original Butter Bell® Crock”. As I now know, they are widely available these days, and some of the designs are really quite beautiful. It’s such a simple concept too. The lid, filled with butter, is inverted into a water-filled base, creating an airtight seal that keeps oxygen and bacteria out. The important thing is that it’s an airtight seal, not that the butter is touching the water. That little pocket of non‑circulating air isn’t really apparently a big deal in the world of butter bells. This seal preserves butter for up to a month when kept below about 27 °C and with regular water changes.
Today, butter bells are appreciated for their ability to keep butter soft and spreadable without refrigeration, as well as their undoubted aesthetic appeal, and their connection to traditional food preservation methods. And, do you know what? They really DO work! I ordered one – obviously – but was very sceptical. I mean, summer heat in Andalucia and you expect to keep butter out of the fridge and it doesn’t melt?
In the cooler months, this is the perfect receptacle for butter. It keeps it cold, but spreadable. No more tearing bread. The butter is smooth, but still with substance – perfect buttering conditions. We’ve had to adapt a little in summer months, as temperatures rise into the forties. Leaving the bell out on the kitchen work surface is no longer the best idea, as the butter definitely does become much, much softer. So, we keep it in a cool cupboard and problem solved. It is important to remember to change the water regularly – every two, certainly three, days – and to always hand wash the whole thing before re-filling.
It’s easy-peasy to refill, too – the bell (or at least ours) seems to take just under a normal sized pack of butter, so we use what’s left over first. It’s best to let the butter soften at room temperature first (don’t melt it), then press it firmly into the bell-shaped lid to remove air pockets. Finally, level off the top with a knife or spatula for a clean seal.
Our butter bell is a retro style, in white ceramic, with a lovely bone handled butter knife. Not at all expensive, but it definitely looks like a kitchen item with a little bit of history. There’s something rather satisfying about using a butter bell. It feels like one of those old-fashioned kitchen ideas that quietly solves a modern problem without any fuss. Ours now lives permanently on the worktop for most of the year, and it’s become one of those small everyday things that makes breakfast just that little bit nicer. Sometimes the simplest inventions really are the best.
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by Helen | Jul 7, 2026 | Lifestyle
If you’ve been wondering why the renovation updates suddenly stopped, you’re certainly not alone. When we bought our Andalusian townhouse, I had every intention of documenting the journey as it happened. I imagined regular posts showing each stage of the transformation, sharing the discoveries, the challenges and, hopefully, the successes along the way. Eighteen months of dust, discoveries and bringing an Andalucian townhouse back to life
Then reality arrived.
As anyone who has taken on an old property will know, renovating a house is a full-time occupation in itself. Add in learning new skills, dealing with unexpected surprises (and there have been plenty!), sourcing materials, managing tradespeople, navigating Spanish bureaucracy and somehow fitting normal life around it all, and something had to give. Unfortunately, it was the blog.
Over the last eighteen months we’ve spent far more time covered in dust than we care to now think about. When we haven’t been working on the house, we have been plugged into laptops, focusing on our client website design work. Most days have ended with just enough energy to admire what we’d managed to achieve, either renovation or design wise, before collapsing into bed, ready to start again the next morning. The good news is that while the blog has been quiet, the renovation certainly hasn’t.
We’ve made enormous progress. Some projects have gone exactly to plan, others have taught us lessons we’d rather not have learned, and there have been moments of sheer delight alongside the occasional “What on earth have we done?” experience that anyone restoring an old house will probably recognise.
Looking back, perhaps there’s a silver lining. Instead of isolated updates, I can now tell the story properly—with the benefit of hindsight. I can share not only what we did, but what worked, what didn’t, what we’d do differently, and the many unexpected discoveries that only reveal themselves over time. So over the coming weeks and months I’ll be catching up. I’ll take you through the renovation room by room and project by project, sharing plenty of photographs, practical tips, costs where they’re useful, and the little moments that have made this adventure so memorable.
Thank you to everyone who has continued to visit the blog and ask how the house is progressing. Your encouragement has meant a great deal. The renovation story isn’t over—far from it. In many ways, it’s only just beginning, and I’m looking forward to bringing you along for the next chapter.
by Helen | Jul 3, 2026 | Lifestyle
Now that the dust is settling – quite literally – on our renovation project, I’ve started to reflect on the mad journey we have been on since July 2024, when we finally left Istria. In fact before then, because the journey started for real, when we finished the renovation of the Istrian house and put it back on the market, selling this time, to the first couple who viewed it. We’d been tinkering around the edges with this house and despite many viewings and lots of love for it, it just wasn’t selling, so we had to take some big, decisive action. We knew that if we were to ever sell out home in Istria, we had overcome some hurdles because of its location – it was in a very small village, at the top of a valley, and lacked easy amenities. So, we took the bull by the horns, and invested money into the demolition of a second small house we owned at the rear, creating the space to create a Mediterranean style walled garden, on different levels, covered in white stones, filled with greenery and with access from the living room. And, bingo – it sold.
So, the first why. Why Andalucia as our next step?
We did our homework this time. We looked at lots of parts of Spain, but kept coming back to Andalucia. It’s a region we have visited before and there was an element of romanticism about it, with all of whitewashed villages, mountains, sparkling Mediterranean coastline and sandy beaches (there are no sandy beaches in Istria…). We searched online for properties and made spreadsheet after spreadsheet, listing each one and which of criteria each one hit. We had a big criteria list, and this did help us to narrow down properties, eventually. However small, or strange, your requirements are, add them to your list – they are important. These, from memory, were what we wanted the most, not necessarily in order of importance:
- a view;
- a large village/small town, and ideally a pueblo blanco;
- easy access to larger towns/cities
- close enough to the coast that we could there easily, but far enough away to not be living at the coast, and its associated costs – so about 30-40 minutes away;
- proximity to a social life – bars, restaurants, local shops – not necessarily large shops, as we could drive to those;
- proximity to an airport, ideally no more than 2 hours away – and we were realistic about this because Andalucia is a huge region and we knew that we were looking at Malaga as probably the main airport;
- ideally a townhouse, not needing a full renovation – hmmmm…
After seven years in Istria, we knew also what we didn’t want :
- an isolated location – not because we ever felt lonely or actually isolated, because we are very self-sufficient, but because we wanted to reduce the amount of time we had to spend in the car;
- a village with just locals – which initially is very exciting because you have to pitch in, but ultimately it can become quite limiting, especially if your neighbours rarely leave the village and once the interest in you as the “newcomers” wears off and they realise that you are actually never really going to become a “local”, it all becomes a bit difficult;
- a location that had no amenities to speak of – no shops, no bars, no restaurants – in walking distance;
- a location that had admittedly lovely summers, but in absolute contrast, long, cold, wet, dismal winters;
- somewhere that effectively shut down over winter;
- somewhere that was difficult for visitors to get to, especially out of season.
So, as I say, we did our homework, and all paths were leading to beautiful Andalucia – it was just a question of working out where, as the region does stretch from Murcia in the east to Cadiz in the west. As in, the whole stretch of southern Spain. We had intended to fly out and do a trip for a couple of weeks before we sold up in Istria, but time constraints and obligations didn’t allow this to happen, so our first recce was when we actually landed in Spain, off the ferry in Barcelona from Genoa, and drove south.
No idea at all where we might end up, just a handful of houses we’d seen online that we wanted to view. So, we made the most of the freedom we had, and took a couple of weeks driving down through Spain, revisiting places we hadn’t been to for years, discovering new ones and generally feeling like we were actually on holiday. Yes, it’s true – living abroad doesn’t equal one long holiday, especially when you have to work and are renovating and well, just, living a normal life. So, this did feel like a break – and we made the most of it, because we knew what potentially lay ahead…
by Helen | Mar 19, 2026 | Lifestyle
To be honest, a mouse in the house, was probably the last thing we needed after the last couple of months of storms and leaking roofs and the onset of a big repaint job throughout the house. But I suppose mice don’t take into account the fact that you’d like a little bit of respite, especially when they discover a very cosy pile of sheepskin (faux!) in which to snuggle down. Thankfully, after rodent adventures of the larger kind in Istria, we knew this one was a mouse and nothing more. Truth be told, when we did spot it, it was actually kind of cute – tiny and chocolate brown, but we didn’t really fancy homing a Andalucian mouse, so it had to be dealt with.
It put in its first appearance when we had friends staying – perfect timing. They had just gone to bed and we were winding down for the night, when out of the corner of my eye, I spotted a flash of brown, and knew immediately what it was. Keeping to the corners of the living room, it ran along the walls – and vanished. As they do. So, a bit of a restless night, being alert to every noise and wondering if it was a solo mouse or if it had brought its family and friends along. The next morning a trap was purchased – one of the old fashioned kind, as it was all we could get, and it was loaded up with pieces of a Snickers bar. Two days later, the trap was still intact, but the little minx had eaten all of the chocolate pieces, including the peanuts! We definitely weren’t dealing with a dimwit with this one, and so we had to have another plan.
Poison wasn’t an answer. I’m not a fan of rodents, however cute they may look, but we definitely didn’t want to use poison. We were also loathe to load up the spring loaded trap again, as I had visions of a bloodbath up the white walls. So, the only answer was a humane trap and I found these on Amazon. (Yes, I know we should try and avoid Amazon, for a variety of reasons, but sometimes it’s quicker for us, being where we are currently).
These traps are made of eco-friendly ABS material, chemical free, non-toxic and odorless, reusable and durable. They are also very easy to clean. They are designed with multiple air holes to enable free airflow on the top and on the left and right sides of the mouse trap, so any caught rodents won’t suffocate.
The traps are extremely easy to use, and with no dangerous metal spring loaded parts, are harmless to people and pets. You simply slide out the food compartment, insert the bait and slide the compartment back in. At the opposite end of the box, you just press the “door” down – the rodent(s) will smell the bait, and enter through the door, and once inside, their weight will trigger the door to spring up and close. The bait is entirely enclosed inside the plastic compartment and so almost impossible, I’d say, for household pets – or small children – to get to.
The pack of four traps arrived at 5pm, and we immediately loaded them with small pieces of kit-kat, knowing the mouse had a taste for chocolate and placed then around the ground floor of the house. At 8pm, we heard the VERY satisfying click of the door of the trap, and there it was – our chocolate brown mouse, inside. The mouse was initially a bit shocked – obviously – but very quickly it calmed down, and after about five minutes was curled up, very chilled, inside the box. All we needed to then do was take the box as far away from the house as possible, away from other houses, and release the mouse. And, off it went scampering into the fields, to join its mates. As far as we know, it’s very happy as it hasn’t returned – the boxes have been left out just in case, but nothing. And no further sightings, either. Once the mouse has been released, the box does need to be washed thoroughly in very hot water, to get rid of any smells, which may attract more mice.
So, a real result. No mess. No drama. No traumatised mouse. And four very cool looking traps – the transparent amber is actually a very beautiful colour, and you could actually forget that these boxes were mousetraps! So, very highly recommended, if you have a mouse (or two) in the house, especially as this is a multi pack, for just €19.99.
This is not a sponsored post. We just wanted to recommend a product that we rate highly, and which has worked 100% for us.
by Helen | Mar 18, 2026 | Lifestyle
We seem to forever buy pots of herbs – hello, basil and coriander, especially – which will often end up withered and only fit for the bin. They’re always bought for a specific recipe, and whatever isn’t immediately used on the plant, never seems to thrive, however much we look after them. We have resorted to buying those triangular plastic packs of fresh herbs – these seem to fare better as one pack usually is what’s needed for a recipe, but I hate the plastic packets they come in. So, I was intrigued by a hydroponic system I saw online, which seemed to be the solution we were looking for.
According to the website, the system :
…requires no plant knowledge or constant monitoring. Click & Grow gardens, equipped with grow lights and passive watering systems, use proprietary Plant Pods that provide everything the plants need. Compared to traditional pot-and-soil or complex hydroponic systems, there’s minimal maintenance and fewer chances for things to go wrong. Plant Pods come pre-seeded with all necessary nutrients, require no water quality or pH checks, and need less frequent cleaning. Simply plug it in, add pods and water, then do occasional plant care for best results…
As the systems go up in price to nearly €3,000 for the Wall Farm Vertical Indoor Garden, I decided to go entry level and test things out, opting for the least expensive model – the Smart Garden 3, for just under €100. This price includes the actual white garden, with water tank, extendable arms, LED lights, three plant cups, three domes for germination and three basil packs. The plant pods – already seeded – are pesticide free and provide everything needed for the plants to sprout. And set up really is as easy as it says on the website – you literally insert the Plant Pods into the chambers, add water to the small water tank at the side and plug it in. Automated grow lights and passive watering take care of the rest. It really does take less than five minutes to set up and five minutes a month to maintain. And the maintenance consists of filling the water tank – we’ve found every couple of weeks – and removing any leaves which are not doing too well. So far, in two months, we’ve removed two or three from all three plants. We turn the LED lights on overnight, and off during the day, and this has worked well.
The system was bought in January and we’ve just started using the basil very recently, so I suppose two months is quite a long time to wait for your first “crop”. And, we’ve now realised that by staggering the insertion of the pods, we can have herbs at different stages of growth, to avoid in future, what we have now, which is a bit of a glut of basil. Probably fine in the summer when we use it a lot more, but I’m not sure if this time around we’ll get through three plants – although we’ll see what a bit of pruning does too, to add to the life span of the plants.
I’m also going to mix up the types of herbs next time around – and this is where Click & Grow clearly make a lot of their additional income. You can’t buy packs of three mixed seed pods – say basil, coriander and oregano. Each triple pack seems to contain only one type of herb, so it seems a bit naughty that to get three different herbs, you need to buy three packs of three. The triple packs are only €13, so not expensive, but I’d much rather have the choice of a mixed box, than having to stockpile. However, a small issue and one which won’t lessen our pleasure of having fresh herbs “on tap”. And, I suppose, once you’ve ordered your seed pods, in whatever quantity, you then have them and can rota the pods to ensure you always have the freshest of herbs.
We planted ours up at the end of January, and have been quite excited to see the initial tiny sprouts (after about 5 days) developing into thick, healthy basil plants…
This is not a sponsored post. We paid full price for our Click & Grow and have not been asked to do a review. We just think it’s a great product, and if you want to minimise your food waste, we’d definitely recommend this great little product.
