Mini Mart: Melody Jane Dolls' Houses

I bought some new accessories for my 70s' living room - this is Sindy's Wall of Sound repapered with a page from Pepin pattern book #54; the plates, stands and fruit bowl are Re-ment, while the rest are from a mix of UK suppliers.

Supplier: Melody Jane Dolls' Houses
Website: www.melodyjane.com. Well laid out and easy to use, the only real problem is that the search function doesn't work, which is quite frustrating if you're looking for something in particular.

Products: 1/12 scale dolls' house and miniatures, plus a small selection of 1/24, 1/144 and 1/148.

Based in Conwy, Melody Jane stock all the usual brands (Streets Ahead, Town Square, Farrow Industries) as well as some of the more hard to find like Bodo Hennig and a range of handmade miniatures. The best bit is their clearance section where you can find some real bargains - I picked up a slight seconds 'Harry' hoover for under £2, 6 little dog ornaments for 25p, and 36 Licca-chan sized plastic helmets for £1.50.

Altogether I bought 35 items - my favourites were these two angel ornaments (20mm high and £2 each) and the little sailing ship (£7.20).

Post and Packing: £3.50 on all UK orders - unless you spend over £45 in which case postage is free. You can upgrade to next day delivery for £5.95. Their international postage is brilliant too, at £5. All orders paid for by 1pm will be dispatched the same day. I paid for my order on Thursday night and it arrived on Saturday morning.

My well packaged parcel.

Mini Mart: Furniture For Dolls

I have really been getting back into miniatures in the last few months, which means I've bought some new stuff for my doll house. I plan on doing a series of haul / review posts on the various suppliers I got them from - because you tend to see plenty of reviews for dolls but hardly any for miniatures.

In my Sindy house - the chest of drawers is vintage Tressy, cassette player and sport bag are Re-ment, the book (Scouting for Boys) is Dateman, and the bedding I made myself.

Supplier: Furniture For Dolls
Website: Etsy Store

Products: 1/6 scale wooden furniture.

This is surprisingly difficult to find, especially at prices which don't put you in mind of their 1/1 scale counterparts. I normally use Sindy furniture because that doll had just about everything, but I have been hankering after some 1/6 scale bunkbeds for years so I splashed out and spent £15.77 on this set. I might paint them in the future like the seller has done HERE (typically that one wasn't listed when I found them...), but for now I'm happy with white.

Post and Packing: The seller is based in the Ukraine, and they only offer tracked shipping so it cost a bit more than it might have done (£11.83), but nowhere near as atrocious as it would have been if they were US based. Estimated shipping time for the UK is 10 to 15 days - it actually took 9 days to reach me. It was packed securely in plastic wrap, polystyrene foam and a cardboard box.

Overall I'm really happy with the bunkbeds. I kept saying I would make my own but, really, I hate making things like furniture, and it wouldn't have turned out as nicely. I already have my eye on the shelving sets for the future toy shop diorama...

Review: Baby Concert

Marianna's new favourite thing is hitting stuff, just edging out her old favourite thing of kicking stuff. To capitalise on this my mum decided Marianna really needed a toy drum. Not one that you hit and it plays a little electronic tune (as is the norm with drums for babies), but just a little drum she could hit to her heart's content.

After much trawling of the internet, the Baby Concert set was chosen. These come as five or eight piece sets and, though the word 'concert' might be slightly ambitious, they are great value for money. We've got the five piece version which has a drum with drumsticks and a ribbon to hang it around the neck, two maracas, handle bells, and a whistling trumpet - the eight piece has an ordinary whistle, a tambourine and a tik-tak drum to go with them.

The drumsticks are too tempting a tonsillectomy tool, but Marianna has been having great fun shaking the maracas, slapping the drum and, best of all, hitting the maracas against the drum. If only the same effect could be achieved silently, it would be the perfect toy...

Review: Hauck Dream 'n' Care Travel Cot

Every visit to my parents is a battle of baby vs. dog - neither is willing to accept the universe does not revolve around them. Bracken tries to jump all over the baby, and Marianna tries to yank the dog's fur. Basically, they bring out the worst in each other. Today my dad suggested getting out the travel cot they had from my aunt. The difference is amazing! Marianna and Bracken are separated and peace and quiet reigns (almost) supreme.

Looking up at TV friends...

The cot itself is great - it folds up nice and small, and the extra level on the bottom is great for storing baby paraphernalia (the other side has a zipped compartment for access to it). After the usual amount of faffing to get it together - if you're as clueless as we were, just type in 'travel cot' on YouTube - the structure is pretty sturdy, and the mesh sides are good as it means Marianna can still see me and vice versa.

Bracken.

Manufactured by Hauck, the Dream 'n' Care Travel Cot comes in a range of colours and designs. There's 'animals', 'butterfly', 'bear', and Winnie the Pooh. You can expect to pay £50 and up new, or you might be able to find it going cheap on eBay.

Review: Command Strips

I heard about Command strips fairly recently, within the last six months or so. Basically they're adhesive bits of velcro you can use to hang pictures without damaging the wall - great news if you're renting! Command also make hooks, racks, bath organisers, etc, etc.

I bought the Rasch Parrots Wallpaper from B&M Bargains (£8.99 a roll), while the orange frames and tins came from Tiger. There's also a pretty Russian Khokhloma cup I found on eBay and D.I.Mdoll Gayane.

The strips themselves are really easy to use. You press the two halves together until they click (and they really do click), then peel off the backs and stick one side to the frames. Once they're well and truly stuck in place, peel off the backs of the other sides and stick them (plus frame) to the wall.

I used a pack of large strips (£3.80 on eBay including postage) and I must admit I was a little sceptical. But... they adhered a big 24" by 36" frame with perspex front (£16 from khaksar11 on eBay) to the wall without any problem. For once a product that actually lives up to its hype - I'm impressed! :)

Reviews

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Trade-In Trials

You really have three options when it comes to media you have already consumed: you throw it away, give it away, or try to sell it. The first just seems all wrong to me (I mean, putting a book in the bin? A book!?), so traditionally I've always gone for option two. But, inspired by all the TV ads on the subject, lately I've been using online trade-in sites instead.

Rather than go with the usual tried and tested option (Ziffit), I decided I'd shop around a bit more with this lot to see if I could get a better deal. They all pay within around seven working days of receiving your package, so I was more interested in how much they offered and how easy the process was when rating - as I prefer using Royal Mail to Collect+ that was also a factor.

Plenty of stuff to trade in...

Fatbrain.co.uk 
Trade-in Limit: £15
Shipping: Label is emailed to you, with the option of using Royal Mail or taking the package to your local Collect+ point.
Comments: This came out worst in my test, with no trade in offers for the bulk of my items and typically the lowest offers for items they did want.


ZAPPER.co.uk
Trade-in Limit: £10
Shipping: Label is emailed to you, and package must be taken to the nearest Collect+ point.
Comments: Slightly more offers than Fatbrain, with offers generally around the 20 - 30p mark. The biggest downside of ZAPPER is the high number of items the site didn't recognise the ISBN for, and even popular, well selling books fell into this category.


webuybooks.co.uk
Trade-in Limit: £5
Shipping: Label has to be printed off and package taken to Collect+ point, although they will send you a Royal Mail label if you have no local Collect+ point (doesn't specify how local...).
Comments: The search function was slower than on the other sites, and trade in offers were generally low - but it would take some of the items none of the others wanted.


Amazon
Trade-in Limit: £10 (to be paid in Amazon vouchers)
Shipping: Label needs to be printed, but there is the option of Royal Mail or Collect+.
Comments: Didn't offer trade-in on many items, but did offer a decent price for the items they wanted.


Momox.co.uk
Trade-in Limit: £10
Shipping: You need to print the shipping label or write out your own label, then post it via Royal Mail.
Comments: I've used Momox before and was impressed with the offers I received from them for books which no other site wanted. The only downside I can see is that they're the only one based out of country (Germany), so turnaround time might be slightly longer.


Ziffit.co.uk
Trade-in Limit: £10
Shipping: You can either print out the label or request that they post you one, then you either take your stuff to the nearest Collect+ point or, if your trade-in weighs over 10kg, they will collect it from your house.
Comments: By far the best trade-in site in my experience, offering trade-in on the widest range of items, along with offering the highest price in around 75% of cases. I've also found their customer service department to be very helpful, with a quick response time.


Have you tried out any of the trade-in sites? Which one is your favourite?