"Don't limit your challenges, Challenge your limits"

I love those occasional emails that we get where we are asked to show our creative side. If you are a regular GFTP reader then you will be fully aware that we are big crafters and love to show a bit of creative flair when we can. We have only ever been asked once before to come up with something creative using those amazing bricks that we love though. When one of our readers came up with an idea for an interesting build. That was until I opened a recent email titled 'The Debenhams Big LEGO Challenge'. These are the sort of emails I love to open and when I explained the rules of the challenge to the boys, like me, they couldn't wait to get stuck in.

The Rules:

After being sent a LEGO kit from Debenhams awesome LEGO Range, along with a Mechanical timer we had 15 minutes to come up with 'the most adventurous creation' using the bricks inside. I know what you LEGO enthusiasts are thinking "I could build something cool in 15 minutes" and I thought exactly the same thing but when you get into it, 15 minutes really isn't that long at all.

So... We had to be strategic.

We couldn't start as soon as we received the kit so the boys and I spent a little time assessing the kit on the front of the box trying to decide what we were going to build. It didn't take long for Seth to come up with an amazing idea, so we sat and worked out what parts were going to go where.

On the day we got the all clear to start, we didn't dive right in and start building, as I said 15 minutes really isn't that long. So we opened the bags and separated the parts clearly so we knew exactly where the parts we needed were. I'm used to building under pressure because Opeie is always coming up with ideas for things he wants building and he is really impatient, but I've always had a lot longer that 15 minutes to play with. This was going to be tough.

After discussing what each of us was going to be doing, Seth wound up the timer and we started building, completely focused on what we were trying to create.

I know it probably sounds like we had our plan well mapped out but when it came to the execution it started falling apart pretty quick and those minutes kept ticking by at what seemed like a crazy speed. We lost Opeie in the first two minutes when he decided he was going to go rogue and build the Minifigures and freestyle his own creation which he named the 'Ultra Jestro Super Suit'.

As for me and Seth, we stuck to our plans and attempted to create a mask that you could wear like a pair of glasses that resembled Jestro, the Nexo knights antagonist. While Seth worked on the glasses section using those awesome translucent wheels as eyes, I worked on the nose and mouth section making the most of all those teeth included in the kit. Had we have had a little longer we could have used a lot more of the parts included in the kit but we stuck to the timer and here is our creation...

Attaching both Seth's part and mine together was really tricky and to finish it off Seth did an awesome job of making curved arms that sat behind the ears. I don't think it came out as either of us had planned but it was a really fun and exciting build and as always the perfect father/son bonding time together.

Seth said it would be really cool if we were set a challenge to create something using every piece of a lego kit, which I thought was really interesting So the offer is there if anyone wants to take us up on that haha. LEGO kits are amazing but it's sometimes easy to forget that they are a creative building toy too. I think Debenhams has done a great job of reminding us that.

You can find their full LEGO range HERE.

Now get building!

"Where words are restrained, the eyes often talk a great deal."

I love reviewing great products that are sent to us, But i also love to write about places Ive been, experiences Ive had and things I'm passionate about.

It seems that I am reminded weekly that I am getting older, not in a bad way at all, I just have a completely different outlook on life these days and I'm evolving. My most recent reminder was my latest eye test, that probably sounds like a set up for 'my eyes are deteriorating and I'm falling apart' but it's not at all. My eyes are naturally getting worse that's a given but it's more about the glasses, the style of frames that are these days Gracing my face have definitely matured. Years back the aim of my look through the use of my glasses was to look a little like a cartoon character...

 (Yes that's me during my 'I'm going to wear red lip liner round my eyes' phase. I was something of a trend setter back then)

My oversized specs would get passed around by my friends for fun and there was no shortage of photos that would end up splashed across Facebook etc. It was like i was Mr Potato head and everyone wanted my accessories...

My 'play glasses' enevitably ended up in the boys dress up box (probably where they belong) and i know Mrs M was secretly happy about that. It was time for some big boy glasses.

It had been a good two and a half years since my last eye test and spec savers were starting to hound me via post with their 'you are due an eye test letters. I find eye tests depressing, it's like being stuck on an invisible conveyor belt while being examined by robots (or maybe that's just our local spec savers). It seems that customer service has taken a back seat in the optometry experience and i was never thrilled when i needed a check up.


Recently though a new opticians has opened not to far from ours. HD eyes has broken away from the conventional corporate high street eye specialists and has given the experience of the eye test a well needed makeover. I was greeted by very friendly staff and offered a hot drink as soon as i walked in, when does that happen really. The staff were friendly, fashionable and very approachable which put me at ease. The eye test was different from ones i had had previously with new techniques and a very personal approach. i chatted to Kally who owns the opticians with her husband Dil at great length during the test, she asked all about me, Mrs M and the boys. She told me about her family and we talked about the blog a little. It was like meeting up with a friend for lunch if of course you sit with your friends faces a couple of inches away from your own.

I knew that my eyes were going to be a little worse but after seeing the frames they had available i was secretly hoping for it so i had an excuse to get new ones. There's that horrible feeling after having most eye tests where the optometrist marches you out into the shop, you look at frames and you politely say 'yes they are nice' and try on about 20 different pairs of glasses that you know you are never going to buy, the styles are horrible, many of them being not far off from the old NHS frames you used to be able to get. I always see celebrities wearing nice specs and think 'where have they got those'. Well after my eye test at HD Eyes i was in frame shopping heaven. There were no end to the amount of glasses id love for my collection. Kally, Dil and Sam are definitely doing something right. Some classic, Some a little more obscure but all very stylish.

Despite pining after a beautiful pair of bright green Oko by Oko frames (I'm just desperate to go back to being that trend setter) i decided on a more classic pair of William Morris frames that i fell in love with as soon as i saw them.

They were perfect but it wasn't long before Mrs M went back there shopping for another pair as a Christmas present. I love wearing glasses, they are a part of me now and i would feel lost without them. I think i was about 14 when i had my first pair. I'm not 100% on the age but i do clearly remember how excited i was picking frames. It was the start of something big and something i was going to fully embrace. I could see exactly where my new look was going and now it was all a little less blurry.

HD Eyes may be a little out of the way for many people that read this but honestly, If i moved away from Shropshire i would come back to HD for my eye tests, it was an eye opening experience.

"I think all great innovations are built on rejections."

 I think that it was only fair that i get Seth to write this review, the truth being that i really didn't enjoy playing with it. maybe i have become a bit of a building material snob but i just wasn't happy with anything that i made and i sat playing with Seth for quite some time. I'm the sort of builder that gets an image in my head of what i want the finished piece to look like and this was never going to happen with plus plus. I found only having one shape very restricting. It would have been unfair of me to write the review when it is aimed at children so i will hand you over to Seth who surprisingly didn't agree with me at all....

"Hi it's Seth, when we ordered the pirate dress up we were sent some Plus Plus too by the nice lady at The Toadstool. I had never seen it before and I was excited about playing with it. When I opened the box I thought it was good and I wanted to build lots of objects. I told Pauly I was broken and needed him to make a key to wind me up. I had fun making spaceships. I thought they connected really good. Then we made a pair if glasses which was funny.

Pauly made an Incredible Hulk and a Muno (from Yo Gabba Gabba). I wish they made curved bits so that I could make some different things. Opeie likes to empty them out all over the sofa and then we have to save the pieces from getting lost. I also wish there was gold and silver pieces. The pieces were really easy to connect together which was good because sometimes i find some building things hard to do. I will play with these loads."