In July 2013 my partner developed, and mostly recovered from, Meningitis. He still has memory problems, hearing loss and some pain in his limbs. Just over a year later on August 15th 2014 we lost our family's eldest girl, Elspeth, to suicide. To help me through that time, each month I posted the smiles that are the reason and the reminder for why we carry on, and for over 8 years I also hosted a popular #TBCSmiles linky on Instagram - where anyone could add their smiles.
Although I no longer collect the smiles monthly on my blog, they are all still there on Instagram to brighten your day, and you can still add yours at any time. They are always welcome.
The Brick Castle is mainly about our lives and the things we get up to, with honest reviews, giveaways, and a moan every now and again. Our young people are now aged 16+ and mainly moved out. We have 2 young people still at uni and 2 younger teenage boys who help me with reviews. They have the following birthdays 09/08 and 03/10.
I have a background in Education and love children's literacy and STEM supporting toys which promote skills such as Engineering, Maths, Technology and Science. We are also a big gaming family and play a lot of board and computer games, as well as being movie and theatre fans.
I work (very occasionally these days) with brands to share information, reviews and giveaways that I feel will be relevant to my readers. I work hard to keep my blog running and spend a lot of my time, including during evenings and weekends, staring at screens. If I accept payment for that time spent then I will always tell my readers, and I will never endorse anything my family would never use. I write my own material and if you see something written by someone else, they've generally had to pay me to put it on my blog.
Over the years we worked regularly with some fantastic companies, including Drumond Park, Bandai, University Games, HASBRO, Asmodee, Studiocanal, Ravensburger, Warner Brothers, Dr Beckmann, Troubador/Matador Publishing, Carlton Books, Scholastic Books, National Geographic and LEGO.
We love LEGO, Superheroes, Lemon Drizzle Cake and VW campervans, and we don't like chicken pox, nits or Marmite (well, I don't like it anyway, except in baking when you can't really taste it).
Contact Me
If you wish to contact me for any reason then you can email me at thebrickcastle@gmail.com.
You can also find me on -
Twitter
Facebook
Pinterest
You Tube
Instagram
I am PR Friendly (I'm usually friendly to most people), and I accept paid posts, review items and giveaways for things I like, things my family would or do use. I always disclose as per UK Law, and don't work with gambling, baby milk or floaty loans. Some of the people we do work with are below...
The Brick Castle is mainly about our lives and the things we get up to, with honest reviews, giveaways, and a moan every now and again. Our young people are now aged 16+ and mainly moved out. We have 2 young people still at uni and 2 younger teenage boys who help me with reviews. They have the following birthdays 09/08 and 03/10.
I have a background in Education and love children's literacy and STEM supporting toys which promote skills such as Engineering, Maths, Technology and Science. We are also a big gaming family and play a lot of board and computer games, as well as being movie and theatre fans.
Over the years we worked regularly with some fantastic companies, including Drumond Park, Bandai, University Games, HASBRO, Asmodee, Studiocanal, Ravensburger, Warner Brothers, Dr Beckmann, Troubador/Matador Publishing, Carlton Books, Scholastic Books, National Geographic and LEGO.
We love LEGO, Superheroes, Lemon Drizzle Cake and VW campervans, and we don't like chicken pox, nits or Marmite (well, I don't like it anyway, except in baking when you can't really taste it).
Contact Me
If you wish to contact me for any reason then you can email me at thebrickcastle@gmail.com.
You can also find me on -
You Tube
I am PR Friendly (I'm usually friendly to most people), and I accept paid posts, review items and giveaways for things I like, things my family would or do use. I always disclose as per UK Law, and don't work with gambling, baby milk or floaty loans. Some of the people we do work with are below...
I'm new to blogging, and trying to see what's hanging in the world wide Web and I'm loving your blog!
ReplyDeleteThank you Helen! That's a really lovely comment :)
DeleteOnly just realised today that you are blogging Jenny. Going to start reading your back catalogue. Just read an awesome post.
ReplyDeleteBhiggLove
x❤️x
Thanks Tony! That's a lovely comment. I don't keep it a secret, I have no idea how you missed that! :D
DeleteLove the idea of sharing smiles for elspeth, I went to NCS with her and I hope you wouldn't mind if I used your idea xx great blog by the way <3
ReplyDeleteHiya Leanne - Thank you for your comments, it means absolutely masses. You go ahead! Collecting my smiles helps me so much, I think it would be unfair to do anything other than encourage people to join in :) Please tag me at least occasionally, so I can enjoy them too. Best of luck in wherever life takes you this year, and thank you, truly, for taking the time to comment xx
DeleteHiya, I think you will recognise my name, I enter a lot of your competitions and read your blog a lot. Today I've took the plunge and bought the domain name for my blog, which I've wanted to do for years. I've just started to write content this evening and I've been visiting my favourite blogs for inspiration for the introduction. As I said I'm a regular reader of your blog, and I am very aware of 15th of the month, but until tonight, when I was reading your "about" I never realised the reason you lost Elspeth. I am truly so very sorry xxx
ReplyDeleteHiya Jennifer. Of course I recognise you, you are one of my longest standing giveaway entrants! I'm pretty sure you have won a few over the years too!
DeleteThank you for your kind words - it means a lot, it really does. I actually tried to keep the competitions and blogging about real life fairly separate, so in a way it's good that I was obviously successful in that.
It's lovely to hear you've taken the plunge - enjoy yourself and have fun, I wish you the very best. I started as a comper and so did a lot of others, it's a really natural progression :)
Hi Jenny, I had never seen your blog until the other evening when, by pure chance, I spotted your February review of my children's novel 'Charlie Palmer Says' written at the request of Matador. It was a wonderful surprise to come across it and to read your very positive remarks. I'm so pleased that you enjoyed it. It was always meant to be a stand alone book but, after receiving some requests to write a sequel, I'm now having great fun writing 'Charlie Palmer Says More' which I shall also send to Matador when it's finished. Thank you, again! It's feedback like yours that spurs me on to keep writing. :)
ReplyDeleteThank YOU! It's lovely of you to take the time to comment, an very much appreciated. It's a great book - and well deserving of a sequel. Best of luck that your audience finds you! :)
Delete