/mister Maker!

Advantages: Jack likes it
Disadvantages: i am not too keen

...Mister Maker - Cbeebies.... Mister Maker is a programme that is shown on the Cbeebies channel (614 sky or 71 digibox). It is repeated twice a day and is shown pretty much 7 days a week, meaning we have seen this show a lot. The show, as with all programmes shown on the Cbeebies channel, is aimed at small children of pre-school age and just over meaning it is watched by children from 0 to 4. The show is, as its name would suggest, about a man who makes different things and a lot of it is very simple to make using things that one would have around the home. Mister Maker himself is a 20 something year old man who is a little bit wacky and slightly annoying. The set of the show is all very brightly coloured and appealing to the younger child for this reason. I have made a couple of the things shown on the programme with Jack...

newby2 27.03.2009 · Read review
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Review of Mister Maker

The Witch Maker

Advantages: Good story with interesting support characters
Disadvantages: Lack of firm evidence

...Hallerton. It is a small and extremely close knit community who dislike and distrust all outsiders. It is a place controlled by the head of the community 'the Witch Maker'. But one morning he is found dead at the stake where the witch was burnt. DCI Woodend and his glamorous assistant Monika Paniatowski must unravel 350 years of history to discover the truth. They must do this within the next three days as that is when the next witch burning is due to happen. He has already been told by his boss that this event cannot be cancelled at any cost. As the villagers every 20 years celebrate the burning of the supposed witch Meg Ramsden at the stake in front of them. What DCI Woodend soon discovers is that several of the wives in Hallerton in the past 20 years have committed suicide. Is this related to the other murder? And is it just...

CPTDANIELS 29.11.2008 · Read review
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Review of The Witch Maker - Sally Spencer

The Famous Log Maker

Advantages: Ability to produce free fuel to burn on the fire or in a multifuel burner.
Disadvantages: Messy, takes quite some effort to prepare the paper and dry the logs after manufacture.

...'The Famous Log Maker' is a small manual device for making bricks of compressed newspaper to burn on a fire for heating. To use it, waste newspapers are collected, mulched with water until they are thoroughly soaked. This mulched newspaper is then placed in the 'maker' and the two handles are used o compress the paper to squeeze out much of the water, idealy leaving a damp brick of compressed paper. This brick is then left to dry out for a time and then once dry can be used as fuel for an open fire or a multifuel burner/stove, thus giving free fuel for space and/or water heating. After approximately 45 'logs', the item's inserts are deforming and showing fatigue cracks, this deformation is producing rounded logs and causing less water to be squeezed out. The 'logs' are very difficult to extract and the best way I've found is to...

sledgenoumea 20.11.2006 · Read review
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Delve into your family's past with Family Tree Maker 2009 Deluxe

Advantages: Straightforward and porwerful
Disadvantages: Slow to load large trees

...Family Tree Maker is a series of packages designed to help you build and enrich your family tree, originally designed by Broderbund and then sold to become part of Ancestry.com's line of products. As of writing, the 2010 version has just been released, but prior versions are still very popular within the genealogy community and I personally still use 2009. The main feature of building your family tree is straightforward to use and will work with as little or as much information as you can provide. The tree builder utilizes two screens - the family screen and the person screen. On the family screen you can see all the connections between family members, although one drawback is that children and siblings of ancestors are not shown until that person is clicked upon. Either double clicking or selecting the person and clicking "Person...

poisonkitty 17.10.2009 · Read review
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Review of Family Tree Maker 2009 Deluxe

Arcsoft Panorama Maker 4

Advantages: Easy to use, Affordable, High picture quality
Disadvantages: None identified

...Although I'm a fan of Photoshop for all of my post production work as a wedding photographer, nothing compares to the excellent Panorama Maker from Arcsoft when it comes to stitching sequential images together in a panorama. It's so simple to use and I would challenge anyone to see the join in the final image. My daughter was 7 when she took a series of pictures overlooking Akaroa bay in New Zealand on a small compact digital camera. We used Panorama Maker to stitch them together and I got the resultant image produced on canvas. The picture now hangs by our front door and visitors comment every time they come about the quality of the shot (taken from 5 originals). The intro version can be downloaded freely so effectively you can try before you buy. I did this with version 3 a couple of years ago and now have full versions of 3...

Sidthemanager 21.03.2008 · Read review
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Review of Arcsoft Panorama Maker

Philips Senseo Coffee Maker - a coffee lovers heaven

Advantages: Perfect coffee at the press of a button
Disadvantages: Pods can be hard to find at times

...I am a complete coffee addict, I admit it. I can't function until I have had my caffine fix of the day. I drink my coffee stong,black and unweetened - because of this I like good coffee and it is one product that I will not economise on. Over my married life ( 38 years of it) I have had all sorts of coffee machines in my quest for a good cup of coffee, not just one that smells good when you walk in the kitchen but also tastes as good as it smells. I have had caffetieres, traditional expressom makers that you heat on the hob, an all singing and dancing cappuchino and espresso maker and umpteen different filter coffee machines. But I never did find the Holy Grail of coffee machines - the tatse wasn't quite right, or they were very difficult to clean or I ended up with a jug of stewed, bitter coffee. That was until six years ago...

oldchem 30.05.2009 · Read review
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Fun Smoothie maker

Advantages: Looks good in the kitchen
Disadvantages: wire cord not long enough

...The disney smoothie maker 1 Litre jug capacity in Mickey measures safety interlock lid preventing non-secure use. tap for easy dispense unique stir stick £29.99 This smoothie maker comes from the new collection of kitchen appliances from Disney. It has a clear jug, so you can see the contents, the bottom is red and is like Mickey's shorts, it has a red lid and white feet. It is a fun looking smoothie maker. It works just the same as any other smoothie maker and is a good product as it is from the Kenwood range. The difference with this one is, not only does it look cute, but it has a stir stick in the lid, it is easier to get to those bits that always seem to get stuck in the bottom. So start blending, stop and stir then carry on, then when finished stir again. This one a good feature to include. The pourer is...

scooby32 13.09.2006 · Read review
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Review of Kenwood Disney Smoothie Maker

Senseo Coffee Maker

Advantages: Quick, easy to use, price
Disadvantages: None

...My husband bought me the Senseo coffee maker for a Christmas present 2006, I must say it was one of the best things he has ever bought me.I love my coffee and have used it most days and more than once a day since. It is still going strong! The Senseo doesn't have all the fancy bits to it that other coffee machines do, but it makes a nice cup of coffee and is very easy to use. The coffee comes out hot, but not boiling (my mum was never impressed with it when she came over as she likes her coffees scolding). I have occasionally had trouble with leaks, but not very often. All in all, I like it. Its a good price and makes nice coffee, itt is also easy to clean, which is another bonus for me. You can buy the pods easily in supermarkets or online, where you get quite a wide selection. Although, the pods can be quite expensive in...

ashton08 08.08.2008 · Read review
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Review of Philips Senseo Coffee maker

Lakeland Bulk Yogurt/Yoghurt Maker

Advantages: reliable easy results
Disadvantages: no built-in timer, easy to use a plug in timer = less to go wrong

..., After reading this review, I was in two minds as to whether to buy the flask type yoghurt maker ( easi yo or similar) or the Lakeland electric Bulk Yoghurt maker. I didn't want to be stuck with having to buy sachets in order to create yoghurt, but I also wanted foolproof results. Initially you need about 3 teaspoons of live bought yoghurt - I used Tesco own bio yoghurt, once you have your yoghurt on the go you save a few teaspoons to start the next one, add longlife milk at room temperature ( and I add some dried milk - explained later), swith on - eight hours later switch off, cool then refridgerate - I'm told it will last for five days but it never stays that long! I went to Lakeland to ask their advice, and, my local store is new and they were unsure how to advise me. However, they explained that Lakeland has a policy that...

fatcatz123 23.11.2007 · Read review
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Review of Lakeland Bulk Yogurt Maker

Prima donut maker

Advantages: Great tasting donuts
Disadvantages: The lid doesn't stay up very well.

...I bought this donut maker so that i could make my own donuts & so i'd know what was in them as i've been trying to cut out the E's from my kids food. This donut maker is small & can easily be stored in the kitchen without taking up too much room. There is a recipe included but it doesn't state how many donuts it made so i followed the instructions & ended up with 48 mini donuts lol. The lid was a bit of a pain as it fell down once whilst i was putting the donut mix into it, luckily i managed to move my hand out of the way in time or i'd have been burnt, so be careful. It's a bit fiddly to get the mixture into the donut rings as they are very small. The donuts at the back of the machine cooked alot quicker than the front ones which tended to need cooking for an extra 2-3 mins. On the whole this is a great little machine...

margarets_angel 05.08.2006 · Read review
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Review of Walford Donut Maker