We have created a new 2012 Jubilee theme in preparation for the celebrations at the beginning of June. This theme is available in; Our Small Square Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book Our Small Square Leather Customised Cover Photo Book. Our Large Square Leather Customised Cover Photo Book. Below is a flip page version
Making Hokey Pokey Ice Cream with the Kids
Hokey Pokey Ice Cream from the Fantastic Peach Trees and Bumblebees web site Made with the help of Assistant chef Augustus Tasters & bowl cleaners Isabella and Felicity Honeycomb scoffer Andrea (mummy/wife). I had intended to get this page up this morning, as we made this over the weekend, but I spent 3 hours in
Category: Food & Recipes |
£5 Twitter Offer
£5 Voucher for New Twitter followers or Retweets. Photo Books – Baby Books – Cook Books Bathtub Admiral’s “My First Year” baby book is an easy-to-use online solution that lets you create your own baby book of memories that won’t fade away, printed and bound just for you. From your first scan to baby’s first
Category: Bathtub |
Thanks to the Clever Bird Banter Blog
We are aware we are getting a lot of traffic from the Clever Bird Banter blog. Her blog page was written to voice unhappiness with one company; it soon blossomed into a pivotal insight and sounding board for so many others in the same boat. At Bathtub Admiral we are small family run business our
Category: Bathtub |
We have Extended our 30% discount Offer on all Photo Books.
We have extended our 30% discount on all photo books at Bathtub Admiral, this offer is now running until the 12th December 2011 (our last order day for Christmas delivery) at Bathtub Admiral. This offer is running until the 12th December 2011 and the standard T&C’s apply. Kind Regards Bathtub Admiral
Category: Bathtub |
30% Discount on all Photo Books at Bathtub Admiral
Use Promotional code GUS30 in your shopping basket to get 30% off your photo books. Offer open until 1st December 2011, please pass on to your family & friends, together we can preserve your memories. To celebrate our son’s second birthday and the anniversary of the launch of Bathtub we are offering 30% off all
Category: Bathtub |
The Great Jerusalem Artichokes
We’re coming into Jerusalem Artichoke season but sadly our crop this year has suffered from three years of neglect and the bed in which they grow is in desperate need of some nutrients. We have harvested the rewards for the last four years, soups, mashed, roasted, chipped and sautéed, but have failed, as I have
Category: Food & Recipes |
Discounts and Their Value – Photo Book Offers.
For visitors from Clever Bird Banter Blog Thanks to the Clever Bird Banter Blog There is no VAT on photo books, will other Photo product firms drop there photo book prices by 20% now! We could never get a clear answer from H&M Revenue so took the decision not to charge VAT on our Photo
Category: Bathtub |
Review From Parenting Without Tears
We have a great review from the Parenting Without Tears web site. Hosted by Anne Coates, this is a site for “families of all shapes and sizes because babies and children don’t come with an instruction manual!” We are great fans of Parenting Without Tears, and find their Great Days Out section really useful for
Category: Bathtub |
The Stork Wartime Cookery Book
I found two cookery books in our local second hand book store, one dated 1937, the GEC Cookery Book, and the other, “The Stork Wartime Cookery Book”. Both are fascinating insights into the culinary habits of that era. For this post I’m going to concentrate on the Stork Cook Book, with its money and scrap-saving
Category: Food & Recipes |
Three New Birthday Themes
We are pleased to announce the launch of three new Birthday themes in our Special Days & Occsions Category.
Birthday.
Birthday Boy.
Birthday Girl.
These lovely new themes are available in;
Category: General |
Sweet Words of Love
We are pleased to announce the launch of two new themes in our Special Days & Occsions Category – just in time for next years Valentines Day?!
Love is the Word, a photo books based on the words of Love.
Sweet Love, a photo books based on sweets of love, Love Hearts, wedding candy, chocolate, candy and jellies hearts.
These lovely new themes are available in;
Category: General |
Bathtub what?
We’ve been asked on numerous occasions why we called the company by such an odd name. When we first started up, trying to come up with a name was tricky. All the photo book related domain names, such as photobooks.co.uk, were taken, so we looked around at web based companies that have inspired us, Moonpig, Amazon, Virgin, all these company names have one thing in common, their names have no association with what they do.
Thinking of such a name is difficult and we drew up lists and lists and ran them past focus groups of friends and family. This ended up with no clear or particular result, each person favouring a name for their own reason.
On the list of names we showed to people were several expressions from both the Tintin and Asterix books that I was brought up on as a child and in fact I rummaged through attics and bookshelves to dig out all my old books for my son. Unfortunately my collection of Tintin and Asterix books were not only in a very bad state, but many of them were in German and French – books not available in English all those years ago.
One of my favourite Tintin characters was Captain Haddock, a rum-loving, insult hurling merchant naval captain and friend to Tintin in many of his adventures.
Captain Haddock’s colourful insults included bashi-bazouk, visigoths, kleptomaniac, sea gherkin, anacoluthon, pockmark, nincompoop, abominable snowman, nitwits, scoundrels, steam rollers, parasites, vegetarians, floundering oath, carpet seller,blundering Bazookas, Popinjay, bragger, pinheads, miserable slugs, ectomorph, maniacs, freshwater swabs, miserable molecule of mildew.
But the one that stuck in my mind was Bathtub Admiral. I suppose the image of someone in a bath commanding their own fleet of toy battleships always made me smile.
The expression was used in the book “Red Sea Sharks”, and we have scanned and inserted it below.
I hope this goes some way to explaining our name.
Category: General |
Sweets for my Sweet
We are please to announce the launch of another new theme in our Classic Category. Sweets, a photo book based on retro sweets, White Mice, Cola Bottles, Flying Sauces, Shrimps and others greats that appear to be making a comeback.
This fun new theme is available in for
Category: General |
New Halloween Theme
Just in time for the spooky end of month we are happy to offer our new Halloween theme.
This fun new theme is available in our
Our Small Square Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book
Our Portrait Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book.
And has a small, but scary, selection of Halloween clip art to add to your book.
Category: General |
Some Great New Themes
We’ve added some great new themes to our library. These have been developed in line with what we’ve seen in the books coming through our system. We’re also working on other themes, including new Wedding and Photoshop books.
We also want you to let us know what themes you’d like us to build, so please send us your suggestions to info@bathtubadmiral.co.uk.
Two new Christmas Themes
Parcel
And Present
New Life Theme
A selection of background photographs from the everyday and not so everyday life.
If you think you have images to add why not get in touch, info@bathtubadmiral.co.uk.
New Hen Party Theme
We’ve seen a huge number of Hen party books come through and thought it would be well worth adding this very pink theme.
Jubilee Theme
With the number of street parties, parades and just great days we have kept this Jubilee theme, we plan to switch this to a Great British Theme at the end of the year.
Seventies Theme
The seventies seem to be making a comeback, parties, food and music. Here’s our blast into the past.
All the above themes are available in:
Our Small Square Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book
Our Portrait Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book.
We’ve also added a new background folder named Cooking, that contains images from the kitchen, which we’ll add to as we can. Again, if you’ve any images you think would look good just get in touch, info@bathtubadmiral.co.uk.
Category: General |
Mummy News Photo Book Review
Another great review, thanks to all at Mummy News.
“This is a perfect keepsake for now and for the future, we can all look back at the photos in the book and remember good times.”
Bathtub Admiral Photo Book
Posted on 21 June 2012 by Admin
I was offered the opportunity to make up a photobook of my choice with Bathtub Admiral. I could choose any book I’d like from a wide range available and choose either a photo or recipe book.
I chose a photobook.
The first thing I had to do was register and choose the book that I would like, I chose the ‘My First 12 Months’ in baby pink. Although I did not actually decide to make the book with my daughters first 12 months I decided to do one from birth to present.
I next had to upload lots and I means lots of photos as the book I chose was was 44 pages and 200 x200 in size.
Once all the photos were uploaded I could then choose the layout of the photos, background and wording in various text styles and even personalise the back of the book, so it was completely personalised.
This did take some time in making I think it was about 2 or 3 days before I had completed it to what I wanted.
When I had finished I just had to place the order and wait for delivery. It took around a week for the book to be delivered to my door.
I was amazed by the quality of it. The cover was hardbacked and pink just like I had requested, The text looked perfect and all the photos looked great printed inside the book.
This is a perfect keepsake for now and for the future, we can all look back at the photos in the book and remember good times.
I would definitely recommend this to any one that wants a keepsake of the children, grandchildren, parents or even pets, there are so many possibilities and 100% personalised by you.
The book we ordered was just £21.75 which I think is a fantastic price for something so priceless.
You can purchase personalised photobooks, cook books and much more from http://www.bathtubadmiral.co.uk/
Category: General |
Home Grown Pleasures
We used to be very keen gardeners, in fact we still are, but with three young children it has not been a priority. We believe that it is important the kids understand 
where food comes from, so for the last six years the only thing I have grown, except the fruit the fights for itself in the garden, are tomatoes and mini cucumbers. From early May to late Septem
ber our conservatory is crammed with buckets, supports, trays and ultimately a couple of varieties of tomatoes and mini cucumbers. The kids love this and spend the summer grazing on the resultant fruit. We have always involved the kids in the process of growing these plants, helping with the planting the seeds and looking after them as they grow, and now they understand how and where tomatoes and cucumbers come from.
We have grown many varieties of toms and cucumbers over the years and 
have fine tuned this to the F1 Hybrid “Apero” which is the best tasting cherry tomato I have ever eaten, and F1 Hybrid “Cucio” a snack sized cucumber that the kids adore. Interestingly there was an article in the Saturday Telegraph a few weeks ago naming Apero as their plant of the month. We plant the seeds in sieved compost in 3″ pots in a propagator around mid March. Once the plants are big enough to handle we transfer them plastic buckets (bought from Wickes a couple of years ago and holes drilled in their bases, these are a lot cheaper to buy than pots from the garden center), the buckets are filed with compost and stand in grow bag trays to make wateri
ng easier, these plants get very big and very thirsty in during the summer months.
A few things I have learnt over the years about growing toms; try not to handle the plants (especially if you smoke, in which case wear gloves). 
Tomatoes like watering from their bottoms and feeding from their tops. We grow them up bamboo canes, tying them in every foot or so, pinching the main growth when they reach six foot and removing all side shoots. Once the first flowers have set, fruit has started to form, we feed them once a week with a seaweed based food, we have found that Tomerite is the most effective. I am also very fussy about cleaning everything that comes into the conservatory, jet washing the buckets and trays, using new 3″ pots each year to try and pre
vent disease or insects getting to the plants. We have lost several outdoor crops to Blight, watching plants you have grown from seed and laden with unripe fruit rotting away in under a week is heart breaking.
I will write a update when the plants start to fruit. Good Luck!
Category: Food & Recipes |
Our New Seventies Photo Book Theme
Are you a child of the seventies, can you remember the great styles, colours and patterns of that incredible decade? To relive those great days and to celebrate anyone turning 40 (Happy Birthday Niki) we have created a new Seventies theme for our photo books.
This funky new theme is available in;
Our Small Square Custom Hard Cover Perfect Bound Photo Book
Our Small Square Leather Customised Cover Photo Book.
Our Large Square Leather Customised Cover Photo Book.
Below is a flip page version of the book that we have created, why not take a look and let use know your thoughts and comments.
Category: Bathtub |
The Best Shortbread Recipe ever?
I recently had major knee surgery and had to spend a very frustrating eight weeks resting at home. During this time one of my wife’s patients very kindly made me some shortbread biscuits as a get well present. These biscuits were out of this world and I had to fight tooth and nail to stop rest of the family from scoffing them all.
Once I was up and mobile again and having passed on my thanks to Joyce, the lady whom made the biscuits, we asked for the recipe. Joyce very kindly passed this family recipe on to Andrea, who came home with it scribbled on a post it note. We have now cooked these biscuits three times and everyone who tastes them wants the recipe, so I have added it to our family cook book (online version click here and go to page 167, this is a large flash file and may take sometime to load but is worth waiting for), included it in The Recipe Collection and also would like to share it below.
Please try these, it is such a simple recipe and is out of this world, we are going to try half dipping these in melted chocolate next time!
Joyce’s Shortbread
Makes 10
4 oz unsalted butter – softened
2 oz caster sugar
5 oz self-raising flour
Icing sugar for dusting
- Preheat the oven to gas mark 3.
- Softened cubed butter with wooden spoon (beaters are okay).
- Gradually add the sugar whilst beating.
- Gradually add the (sifted) flour, stop beating as soon as everything is combined. Should look like large breadcrumbs.
- Grease baking trays, place walnut sized pieces of the lightly squeezed dough onto the trays – very well spaced 3 to 4” apart.
- Using a wet fork flatten each ball to 3- 4 mm thick.
- Bake for 15 minutes, turn and rotate trays every 5 minutes.
- Remove and cool on wire rack – they will be very soft when hot/warm.
- Dust with icing sugar while warm
Category: Food & Recipes |