Mini Mart: MforMiniatures

Supplier: MforMiniatures
Website: Etsy Shop - Ebay Store.

Products: 1/12 doll house furniture and accessories, along with a few items in1/6 scale. Like the ones that caught my attention - miniature condoms! Size is no excuse, after all, when it comes to the importance of safe sex. ;)



Post and Packing: Starts at £3.44 (Canada to the UK), with no automatic multiple item discount. Once your order has been posted however the seller will refund you the difference to the actual postage amount. My order was well packaged and arrived within the week.




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This Week - April 22nd 2018

It's been a sad week - my granddad died on Tuesday and even though we all knew it was coming it's still a hard thing to come to terms with. He was such a big influence on my life and it's awful to think that I'm never going to see him again.

But, for the rest of us, life has to go on. I had Mayoral engagements every day this week, and a Full Council meeting to chair on Tuesday morning. (You can watch the webcast HERE.) Council agreed to create a 'presiding officer' role to replace the Mayor who will come from the pool of people already on an extra allowance - i.e. the new chairperson of Council will have to be one of the scrutiny committee chairs. I think it will be a bit bumpy next year as we work out which events should continue to receive support, but hopefully the teething pains won't last too long.

On Wednesday we went to a floral demonstration with national demonstrator Susan Philips at the Congress Theatre in Cwmbran, organised by the Pontypool Floral Art Society. I know nothing about flower arranging and didn't even know demonstrations were a thing that existed. It was so interesting though; I learned loads and the finished arrangements were so beautiful! Marianna had to come with us and was mostly really well behaved, but she started to get antsy towards the end and crawled about the floor under my seat.

To be fair to her, she had just completed her very first full day at nursery! She started 'Rising Threes' on Tuesday, which she will go to every weekday afternoon now until the end of summer term. We had the option of paying for her to continue to go to playgroup in the morning which I wasn't overly keen on - I worry that it's too much for her at this age, and I'm also a massive cheapskate. But, Anthony got his own way and we're paying for her to go Wednesday mornings. She takes a packed lunch and then goes on to nursery in the afternoon, so she was tired by the time she finished but she seemed to enjoy it just fine.

I had a meeting of the Mic Morris Trust (a great little charity which supports young sportspeople to buy equipment and pay for training, etc) on Thursday. The Mayor has always chaired the Trust meetings thanks to a quirk of history, so it was kind of sad to know that link is broken now. On Friday we went to the Pontypool Community Council annual dinner - the original date was cancelled due to the snow, so the menu was a little out of season. The food was still gorgeous though, and we had a really nice evening catching up with everyone.

Yesterday we went to the induction of the Reverend Branwen Rees as the new URC (United Reformed Church) East Wales Regional Minister at Pontnewynydd. The service was lovely - really uplifting - but Marianna didn't even make it through the doors. Instead she and Anthony stayed out in the sun in 'Jesus' Garden' so she could finish having a sulk!



I reviewed some cute gaming miniatures from Spain on Monday and a toy storage basket from Room To Grow on Thursday. On Wednesday I finally posted my epic guide to GCPD Miniatures. I've been collating stuff on police miniatures in general for a while now, and splitting it by country (and department for the USA) seems the most sensible way to go about it.

I also did the 30 Days of Food tag challenge on Friday, and posted about Healthy Movie Night Snacks on Tuesday. Yesterday I posted a wishlist of super cute kids' clothing from Fashion World.






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Life Made More - Spring with Fashion World

For a few brief moments this afternoon the sun was shining, the sky was blue, and I could almost imagine this endless winter to be finally over. It made me start thinking about the kind of shoes and clothing I can't wait to see Marianna in this year, without the gloves, coat and scarf!

I've been checking out the gorgeous kids range over at Fashion World and loving the fresh styles and bright colours. Just look at this beautiful Monsoon ladybird print dress - it's fit for a princess. (Or, at the very least, a three year old who thinks she's a princess.)


In fact, the range includes so many pretty dresses that even the most exacting budding fashionista is sure to be spoiled for choice. Here are a few more of my favourites:


First up is the Monsoon Corelia 2 in 1 Dress (£30), with sequin detailing on the neckline and the mermaid tails! I love the full skirt, and how the striped bodice adds to the kind of nautical air which is fitting for a would be mermaid. Next we have the Monsoon Evelyn Unicorn Dress (£26). Again, the dress is a lovely shape, and next to mermaids unicorns are Marianna's favourite mythical creature. :)

My final dress pick is the Monsoon Fruity Frill Dress (£26). The colours in this are so pretty together, and it will be perfect as the weather - hopefully! - continues to get warmer and we move from Spring into Summer.


Of course, no outfit is complete without a fabulous pair of shoes. My favourites are the blue patent Start Rite Sunflower (£40), pictured on the left. T-bars are the cutest shoes for little girls, in my opinion, and the delicate colour is just perfect for Spring. Marianna, wanting to be involved in what I was doing, decided that the pair on the right - the Sparkle Club Pink Sparkly Low Heeled Shoes With a Pink Bow (£24) - were the most beautiful princess shoes she had ever seen. Who can argue with that?


Fashion World also sell a great range of toys for outdoor play - and indoor too for when the British weather just can't help reverting to type! Here we have a Ring Toss game (£16), Little Tikes kid active pop up play set (£30), Paw Patrol Marshall Bubble Machine (£15), Fairy Watering Can and Bean Pots (£25), and the very spring looking Bush Baby World Princess Blossom (£20) and a Hatchimals Colleggtibles Secret Scene Playset (£25).


Which item is your favourite?

* This is a collaborative Post. *

30 Days of Food

30 days of food blogging challenge, adapted from A To Za'atar.

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#01. Your Favourite Food

Bread and butter.

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#02. Your Favourite Restaurant

I'm not a big foodie or anything, so I don't really have a favourite restaurant. I'd sooner call in the local chippie!

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#03. What's In Your Fridge?

Not a lot. Shopping day is almost here again...

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#04. Your Favourite Chef

Fanny Craddock, obviously.

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#05. Your Favourite Meal From Mum

Porridge. Nothing makes me nostalgic like porridge, and nobody makes porridge like my Mum. ♡

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#06. Favourite Condiment

Salad cream.

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#07. Your Favourite Cook Book

I'm a big fan of retro kids' cook books. Just check out these bad boys! :)

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#08. Favourite Snack

Crisps! I never met a crisp I didn't like enough not to eat it...

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#09. Most Exotic Food You've Tried

I'm not very adventurous... Maybe goat or something?

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#10. Favourite Starter

Has to be prawn cocktail. They knew how to live it up in the 1970s.

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#11. Favourite Main Course

You can't go wrong with some kind of mix of cheese and pasta.

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#12. Favourite Dessert

Ice cream - especially the whippy kind. Spinkles and sauce are a definite plus.

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#13. Restaurant You're Desperate to Try

Not a restaurant as such, but I'd love to try an Ice Bar.

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#14. Favourite Food TV Show

Does Rosemary and Thyme count?

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#15. What Are You Best At Cooking?

Toast, though Anthony says I burn it because he believes toast should be slightly warm bread rather than toasted bread. *sigh*

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#16. Dine In or Take Away?

It's nice to go out sometimes, but nothing beats the comforts of home! I mean, you've gotta wear shoes and everything at a restaurant.

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#17. Best Hangover Food

Crispy bacon sandwiches. :)

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#18. Favourite Drink

Ribena, tea, and strawberry milkshake.

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#19. Lunch: Make It or Buy It?

In an ideal Pinterest world I'd love making it, complete with cutesy little labels and a pretty lunchbox. In reality I like to pop into Tesco for a sandwich meal deal...

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#20. Favourite Food Blog

I don't really follow any in particular.

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#21. Where Do You Do Your Food Shopping?

Aldi mostly, supplemented by Morrisons because it's the closest supermarket to us.

(I say this like Aldi itself isn't a fifteen minute walk away... We're spoiled for choice with six major supermarkets in walking distance of our house.)

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#22. Favourite Fruit

Kiwi.

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#23. Favourite Soup

Tomato. To be honest, it's the only soup I really like.

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#24. Sweet or Savoury?

I like sweets, don't get me wrong, but savoury is better in my opinion.

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#25. Favourite Vegetable

Carrots.

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#26. Favourite Fast Food Restaurant

McDonalds, for sure.

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#27. Your Favourite Food Memory

Making yorkshire puddings with my Nan for Sunday dinners. They didn't resemble any yorkshire pudding you've ever eaten though. My Nan made them really thick, kind of like cake. If there was any left over we sometimes cut them in half and had jam in the middle like a Victoria Sponge!

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#28. What's In Your Freezer?

Slightly more than is in the fridge, but that's not saying much. I spied some ice cream, a chicken and mushroom pie, and some chicken nuggets.

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#29. Favourite Breakfast Food

I don't usually eat breakfast, much as I should, but I'd love to live the life of American TV and eat pancakes with syrup every morning.

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#30 Your Favourite Seasonal Food

Seeing as I literally just talked about my love of pancakes, I'll go with mince pies instead. I can happily eat one every day from the moment they hit shops. (In, like, October.)

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Review - Room To Grow Toy Storage Basket

One of the things you soon learn upon having kids is that they generate a lot of stuff. Seriously, endless amounts of toys, clothing, equipment, random junk you daren't get rid of in case you absolutely desperately need it eighteen months from now... Worse, you somehow need to cram as much of it as you can into a room they turn into a bombsite the moment they open their eyes in the morning.

So, needless to say, when I was asked if I would like to review a toy storage basket from Room To Grow you can be sure I jumped at the chance.

Room To Grow is a kind of 'one stop shop' when it comes to children's bedrooms. Since 1996 they have been providing ingenious space saving furniture - including some of the most gorgeous beds you'll ever see - along with accessories and storage solutions. The other brands they stock are carefully chosen to provide top quality and to fit with their own brand ethos; the toy basket we're reviewing comes from Kiddiewinkles, an award winning British brand in their own right with a focus on enabling creative play.


The toy baskets come in a range of colours and designs, from blue gingham to candy stripes, and you can even get them personalised. I (bravely) let Marianna choose which design she liked best and she opted for the pink star basket. A few days later our basket arrived, folded flat and nicely packaged, and the real testing could begin!

The first thing you notice is the quality of the fabric. The colours are vibrant and the quilted fabric - 100% cotton - is lovely and soft and, of utmost importance for anything going into a kid's bedroom, machine washable. The second thing you notice is the size! These baskets are 50cm x 40cm, with a capacity of 78L. Marianna decided to demonstrate how big her new basket is the best way she knew how... by climbing into it.


After persuading her to get out of it, we took it upstairs to begin the mammoth task of organising her soft toy collection. I say mammoth not because she has a lot of soft toys - though she most certainly does - but because I couldn't see the floor of her bedroom for the amount of dolls, blocks, books and other sundries strewn across it.

A couple of hours later we actually got to the stage where we could get all the teddies down off the top of her wardrobe and go through them. I've been meaning to do this for a while now because Marianna keeps asking to play with them and, obviously, if they're being stored at a more child friendly height it just makes life easier for everyone.


After much deliberation Marianna parted with just three teddies and I began to worry that we wouldn't be able to fit all the remaining toys into their new home. In truth, she could have got the whole lot in there! I was really impressed with just how much the basket could hold and, once full, how easy it was to move to its 'tidy place' - the little built in cupboard where we keep Marianna's dress up clothes and inflatable ball pit.... The handles are strong and sturdy, and it's lightweight enough that Marianna could get it out herself.

The instant I left the room.

Still, come bedtime she was able to put all the soft toys back into the basket and I just lifted it back into position. Top marks all around, I think!

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GCPD in Miniature

The GCPD - Gotham City Police Department - is the fictional law enforcement agency which works alongside Batman to, er, not bring an awful lot of order to the streets of Gotham.

I'm not a great comics fan, for all that Anthony is forever trying to win me over, so the GCPD is usually of more interest to me than the caped crusader. I especially liked the early seasons of Gotham which played out like a kooky police procedural and, of course, Gotham Central!

DC in general, and Batman in particular, have no shortage of scale merchandise so I figured I'd collect together everything I could find about GCPD miniature for my police in scale series. (Or, what that mostly boils down to, Jim Gordon miniatures.) I've got a few of the 1/12 scale figures already and I want to get a 1/6 scale uniform. What I'd really love is a Gotham based young(er) Jim Gordon in 1/6 scale. Here's to hoping Toys Era branch out into the good guys, or Ben McKenzie gets a role in something that leads to figures I can kitbash. :)

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Hot Toys released a 1/6 scale three pack based on The Dark Knight Rises film, including the bat signal, John Blake and Jim Gordon. There's a good review of the Gordon figure from the set over at Batman News.

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ACPLAY ATX-002 Gotham City Police Commissioner Gordon 1/6 scale outfit from 2015.

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ZC World released this Jim Gordon inspired fashion set as Volume 8 of their Mens Hommes collection in late 2012.

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PIRP released a limited edition (200 pieces) Jim Gordon set in 2012 which came with body and iminime head sculpt.

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If Gordon's anorak just isn't cutting it for you, Hot Toys released a SWAT version of The Dark Knight Jim Gordon as an exclusive for the 2012 Toy Fairs.

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Hot Toys released a 1/6 scale John Blake figure in the likeness of Joseph Gordon-Levitt, complete with his very own working bat signal in 2014. The uniform is movie accurate for 2012's The Dark Knight Rises.

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ACPlay released a US police uniform set in 2015 which was obviously designed for Dark Knight John Blake figures.

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Hot Toys' 2009 release of The Dark Knight Joker was, in my completely unbiased opinion, one of the coolest figures they've ever made. It came with a Joker outfit as well as an awesome GCPD dress uniform, as seen in the movie's assassination scene.