QVC Bank Holiday weekend and Gardening Day

Easter arrives this week and with it comes the promise of chocolate treats, days outside in the sunshine, flowers blooming, new born baby lambs gamboling in fields and maybe the odd bonnet or two. (I am already burning my Chocolate Eggs candle from Yankee Candle in anticipation).

Easter never actually saw us making or wearing Easter bonnets but it did see us rolling our eggs. I don’t know if it is a tradition specific to my hometown or is common nationwide but on Easter Sunday we would climb a big hill near us and roll eggs down it – the more smashed up they were the more pleasing it was for some reason. Maybe that was just the boy in me? Did anyone else roll their eggs on Easter Sunday?

Oh, the excitement over chocolate eggs when I was a child. We didn’t get sweet treats too often when we were younger, mostly because mum was strict with us but partly because we couldn’t really afford it. Oh, but the joy that a quality chocolate egg brought was sublime. We often got cheap eggs from aunts and uncles that weren’t really made of actual chocolate but rather some sickly sweet chocolate flavoured substitute and they didn’t taste the best (we still ate them though, because as I said sweet treats were rare!) but when we got a ‘quality’ chocolate egg, oh they were the grand Easter prize, the Holy Grail of Easter! There was a strict order to the eating of such ‘quality’ eggs too! First, carefully separate the two halves of the shell to get to the sweets inside the egg and eat those first, then the next day, one half of the shell and then the day after, the other half. That meant three days per egg as we were usually only allowed one chocolate sitting per day. So if we had a bumper year and got a few eggs the chocolatey bliss of Easter could last for a week or more.

All this chocolate eating happened whilst we were hypnotised by an onslaught of epic Easter movies from The Greatest Story Ever Told to The Ten Commandments and then onto The Robe and for some light relief, The Song Of Bernadette. Lol. It was religious story after religious story. I loved every minute of it though. It has instilled a love of epic movies and classic films in me that has stayed with me my whole life.

Family traditions are so special aren’t they? I take such pleasure and joy in remembering them. What are some of your traditions around Easter?

It really is a time of year for joy and renewal and celebration, and if ever there was a time when we needed that… well, I don’t need to go into all of that. Suffice it to say, we are all well and truly ready for Easter this year and permission to mix outdoors with friends.

As a child, in my mind anyway, we had Christmas and then the next week we had Easter. For some reason when I was very young my brain never remembered the intervening months between these two events. Did anyone else do this as children?How nice would it be to have a year that was made up just the way I thought it was constructed as a child. A year that naturally segued from Christmas to Easter, then onto birthdays (my family’s birthdays are mostly in June), then summer holidays, quickly followed by Halloween and then right back to Christmas again! A year of celebrations, one after the other with all the humdrum bits in between completely dispensed with. What joy!

The in-between bits can be fun too though, depending on what you do with them! What have you been doing with yours? With the new spring season my ‘in-between bits’ will be filled with time spent outdoors and sorting out my containers and plants on my balcony. They are rather a state, I have to confess.

Not to worry, as this Easter there will be plenty on at QVC Towers to help with that. I’ll be hosting some Michael Perry’s Garden shows that will be starting on Thursday evening at 9pm with the launching of a Today’s Special Value from Wolf when they bring us the 4×4 2000 165Bar Pressure Washer with Accessories, which is available to order online right now! Its on 3 Easy Pay interest free instalments and there is a big saving of over £57 compared to buying direct from Wolf.

So if you are looking out at the patio or the decking and thinking how they really need sprucing up or you had an overflowing gutter or drain this past winter because it had gotten blocked up or maybe, like me, the lack of open carwashes during lockdown has meant that the car isn’t exactly looking it’s best, then don’t worry because this pressure washer will handle all of that and much more. Thanks to an array of specially designed nozzles and brushes included in the kit you clean almost anything outdoors and because it has four 360 degree swivel wheels with brakes that can be locked in place, five metres of power cable and a lightweight design this power washer can be taken almost anywhere as well.

Well once all the cleaning up is done, it’s the planting that I’ll be taking care of next, but what to plant though? Well, to be honest I’m spoiled for choice. Whether it’s Hayloft Plants Wisteria Amethyst Falls or Thompson and Morgan’s set of 2 Buxus Ball and Biscotti Pots (I do love a bit of Box Ball for shape and structure in the garden) or perhaps summer long colour the Hayloft Plants 2 x Geranium Antiks 60cm in 3 litre pots.

Summer always feels more like summer to me when I see beautiful displays of geraniums like you see in Spain and Portugal so these will be a must on my sunny exposed balcony as they can handle it.

Of course I will be planting everything up with the help of good old Richard Jackson and his Multi-purpose Compost and the extraordinary Flower Power, which I use all year round because I use it on my indoor plants as well.

We will certainly have the weather this week as temperatures will be soaring in the south of England and we know summer won’t be far away. It’s at this time every year that the perennial argument begins about when the heating needs to be turned off! Sound familiar? As our weather can be so changeable it’s always a gamble knowing when is the right time. That’s why at this time of the year my Dyson AM09 Fan really starts to get used much more because I can cool things down when the sun really starts to shine as it has done this week or use it to warm things up when the chill sets in again. We have the Dyson AM09 Hot and Cool Fan coming up as a Today’s Special Value this weekend and I will be launching it on Friday evening at 9pm and then it will be on air all day Saturday.

I have had my Dyson AM09 for a while now and it gets used a lot. I have it on to cool things down when I get on my exercise bike (eventually!) or when there is a nip in the air in those changes of season like Spring and Autumn, I simply pop on the heat setting.

I will say that last summer it was a lifesaver in the blistering heat of summer. I still remember the day it was 37 degrees and I was helping my brother move house, I definitely needed the cool setting on my fan when I got home that day. The last couple of summers have been real scorchers haven’t they? I’m sure this one will be no different, so don’t wait until the heat arrives and then try and get one. Now is the time to to give it a go with our 60 day money back guarantee.

So whether you want to to heat or cool a whole room using the Air Multiplier Technology or you want to cool yourself with the Jet Focus, you’ll be able to do it all at the touch of a button on the remote control and best of all, because there are no blades, there’s no choppy air – that’s why it has the Quiet Mark too, in fact it’s up to 75% quieter than previous models, so that combined with a sleep timer means you can drift off in total bliss.

Easter Sunday sees a Today’s Special Value for all of you who love to create a flawless look: it’s from the fabulous range that is Doll 10.

With a passion for developing make-up to suit all lifestyles and skin needs, Doris Dalton’s Doll 10 range offers a considered edit of colour cosmetic formulas to help reveal a more radiant and confident you.

The Today’s Special Value has everything you need – with a foundation, buffing brush to create a perfectly polished base, plus a mascara and lipstick, this collection offers the tools you need to create a fabulous full-face look. Why not give your make-up bag a little refresh and treat yourself to a whole new daily regime?

Here’s what you get:

T.C.E. (This Covers Everything) Super Coverage Makeup is the solution for skin troubles. One drop provides concentrated, clean coverage with a real-skin finish while wrapping your skin in a cocoon of hydrating, soothing ingredients including vitamin C, magnesium, green tea extract and aloe vera extract. The special blend of silk pigments is weightless on the skin and it will never crack, crease or settle into texture.

The Lash Remedy Deep Conditioning Mascara was formulated as a solution for dry or extension-damaged lashes! This game-changing mascara delivers dramatic length and volume for the appearance of fuller, more dramatic lashes. The miraculous primer and mascara are infused with lash-lifting polymers, hydrating oils and biotin to help maximize the look of your lashes while treating, conditioning and rehabbing them back to the look of health.

T.C.E Supremely Bold Clean Lip Color is a full-coverage lipstick, handcrafted with mineral pigments, giving you extra intensity and a creamy finish. Get bold, long-wearing lip colour that stays smooth and disguises any and all imperfections on the lips. This indulgent formula glides on to your lips like silk, drenching them in ultra-hydrating botanical oils like rosehip oil and vitamin E, as well as reparative amino acids.

As well as this, the T.C.E Foundation is available in eight different shades to match your skin tone perfectly. Packed with soothing ingredients and boasting a high coverage formula, this creamy foundation offers a weightless, real-skin finish and it will never crack, crease or settle into pores or fine lines.

If that doesn’t seem like quite enough for you, this Today’s Special Value comes with an Auto Delivery option so you can get it all again in 60 days at the same Today’s Special Value price! Boom! (As the kids might say!)

Well the sun is shining and mercury is rising so I really have no excuse but to get out there and get cleaning and planting up for the season ahead. Whatever you get up to this Easter, and wherever you are or whoever you are with, I hope that the sun shines on you, that you get to spend some time with someone you love and that the Easter Bunny leaves you at least one chocolatey treat. Perhaps this year you may even consider climbing a hill and rolling your egg or maybe you’ll just watch an epic movie?

Whatever you decide, a happy and peaceful Easter to you all.

Until next time,

Miceal Xx