Mini Mart: Sandie's Little Gems

Supplier: Sandie's Little Gems
Website: Ebay Store

Products:
Great selection of handmade 1/12th scale haberdashery and paper products, like bunting, Christmas decorations, and tiny pretend cross stitch sets. I bought one with little orange flowers for £2.30, measuring tapes (5 for £1.50), air mail envelopes, and the cutest paperchain for £2.85. I would never have the patience!



Post and Packing:You only pay postage for one item; the discount is applied automatically.

Mini Mart: Mini Bazar UK

Supplier: MiniBazarUK
Website: >Ebay Store

Products: If there's a type of miniature I can never resist, it's books, magazines, comics, and other ephemera. I must have tried out almost every supplier in the UK by this point, and quite a few from further afield! These caught my eye a while ago and I kept telling myself I did not need more 1/12 scale comics. But these are thread bound. And retro. And I'd never seen The Phantom in miniature before...

So, I gave in, and brought home three awesome comics. The print quality is good, with enough detail to see the smaller panels, and they also came with a free gift of some cover only contemporary magazines. As I've still not put my 1/12 house together, the 1/18 scale pose Skeletons stepped in to model the merchandise. :)

Post and Packing: Combined shipping is on offer if you request an invoice. Ebay refused to let me for some reason, so, in the end I just went ahead and purchased anyway. The seller got in touch to ask if I wanted a refund or an extra comic, which was really nice of them!

Mini Mart: Bees Miniatures

Supplier: Bees Miniatures
Website: Ebay Store

Products: Fantastic quality miniature books and newspapers. IMO the books look better in 1/6 scale, but the newspapers are true to scale. The books are £5 each - with over 30 pages - and newspapers are £2.50.



The newspaper topics are contemporary, mostly royalty or Brexit, but there's quite a wide range of book subjects. I went for horses and doll houses. :)


Post and Packing: £1 per item.

Mustela #IWantNatural

Before I became a mum my main concern when it came to skincare was a) how good it smelled, and b) how nice the packaging looked. Afterwards I started caring a whole lot more what was actually in the stuff I was going to be slathering all over my baby's skin.

French brand Mustela have been working hard to make choosing baby skincare stress free. The normal skincare range is based around avocado perseose, described on their website as 'patented, biomimetic natural active ingredient that hydrates and helps the development of a baby’s fragile and immature skin barrier'. 95% of their ingredients are of natural origin, and this is reflected in the wide range which can be used from birth.

Sometimes I really wish I had started moisturising from birth!

Being serious though, #IWantNatural for Marianna and I'm glad that Mustela can provide.



I love that it's not simply one size fits all either. They also have full ranges of products for dry skin, very sensitive skin, and atopic prone skin, built around schizandra, beeswax, and sunflower oil respectively.

The other great thing about Mustela is that they aren't only concerned with the here and now, but are passionate about the future of the children using their products too. The ingredients for their products are sustainably and ethically sourced, and the resulting formulas are designed to be biodegradable and safe for the environment. This commitment carries through to the packaging, which again is sourced from sustainably managed forests, printed where possible with vegetable oil based inks, and is 100% recyclable.



We already use Mustela gentle shampoo and body lotion, but for this post we were sent a few extra products to try out. The cleansing gel is particularly great, and the world can never have enough nourishing lotion. Marianna's favourite thing was the face cream though, because she loves any opportunity to be like mum and rub lotions and potions on her face.

She has made sure to put some on every night before bed. Here she is demonstrating the process - including admiring herself in the mirror! :)

Beans & Sparks Club Review

Beans & Sparks Club is a super cute kids' book subscription service. When you sign up you create an avatar for your child with their name, hair / eye colour, freckles, glasses, etc. This is then used to personalise each monthly book for your little one.

Each book gets you one club point, which you can collect together for rewards like magnets, posters, and mugs.



I knew Marianna would be a fan based on how much she loved the personalised copy of The Snowman she got from Santa - via Penwizard. You can't pick the title you get, instead receiving the book for the month you sign up, but it worked out really well for us because Marianna has been interested in space ever since we visited Cardiff Museum to see Tim Peake's space capsule.

This above was Marianna's favourite page because it was her doing her favourite thing, bouncing on her trampoline. :)



The stories are short and sweet, making them a great option for a bedtime read when putting younger kids to bed. The print and paper quality is really nice, and the books are staple bound with a soft cover. Subscriptions cost £12.99 a month (delivery included) or, for a limited time, they're offering the first book free.

Check it out at Beans & Sparks Club.