Penwizard Personalised Books Review

Before Christmas lots of bloggers were running competitions for Penwizard vouchers, a children's book company established in 2004 which specializes in personalised books. What sets them apart from their competitors is the ability to personalise the illustrations as well as the text. After checking out their website I was really impressed by this aspect, especially with the Christmas themed Raymond Briggs books.

I made it my mission to win one!

The overlords of comping luck, or whatever else it is determining the roll of the dice, smiled on me fairly quickly - only for me to get to the checkout and realise that the voucher wouldn't cover the book I wanted. (£19.99 for a large softback and £24.99 for a large hardback.) At the time I literally lacked two pennies to rub together so I went for 'Adventures in Birthday Land' instead at £12.49, fully covered by the voucher.

It's a really sweet little story and Marianna was suitably thrilled with it a couple of weeks ago. :)

Still, I kept thinking about The Snowman book - the animated short being one of my favourite things about Christmas - and when I saw another round of competitions I crossed my fingers and entered them all. This time I was lucky enough to win a £20 voucher and I went straight to the site to place my order.

The website is really easy to use, and it didn't take long at all to customise the child character's skin, hair and eye colour, as well as the length of the hair and a printed message at the beginning of the book. Turnaround time and delivery were super quick, and within days I was putting it away for Marianna's Christmas Eve box.



When the day came we told her it was a special gift from McGinty, our Elf on the Shelf, and Marianna was so excited when she realised she was in the story. Even once Christmas was over she wanted to read it again and again, and told anyone who would listen how she was the star of her very own book.

All in all I was extremely pleased with both books. The printing and binding is top notch, every bit as professionally done as the originals, and though they are a little on the pricey side it's worth it for the personalisation element. They're a great keepsake kids can still get plenty of use from in the here and now. A+.

Butternut Box Review

Never work with kids or animals... Hopefully a less blurry photo to follow!

I found a promo code last week for a completely free trial of Butternut Box - perfectly portioned, freshly cooked meals delivered direct to your door. For your dog! At that price I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out.

How It Works

When you sign up to the site you're asked to fill in some details about your canine friend: their breed, age, weight, activity level, and so on, which enables them to work out how much food your dog needs. You can then choose between two plans - 50% of their daily intake if you want to mix it with other food, or 100% if you plan to switch entirely. 

After inputting your dog's special dietary preferences and / or requirements and picking a delivery date, you just have to sit back and wait for your box to arrive.

Delivery!

The meals are sent out frozen in insulated cardboard boxes, usually in large batches meant to cover two weeks or more. This does mean that you need to have a decent sized freezer to be able to store it but, on the flip side, it helps reduce the company's carbon footprint. 

In fact, their ethos and commitment to making everything they do eco-friendly is something I'm really impressed by. The only aspect of the delivery that is non-recyclable is the plastic food pouch itself, and Butternut say they are already close to rolling out a viable eco alternative.

I loved the cute design on the ice pack, and the nice touch of including a patterned bandana to welcome Bracken to the Butternutter club. Of course, the star of the show is the food itself. There are a range of meal flavours, all of excellent quality, and unlike some dog food we've tried it doesn't smell awful!

Conclusion

Bracken is by far the fussiest dog I've ever known. Even as I was ordering this I wasn't sure if she would actually eat any of it; we've tried the Tails.com trial in the past and she just turned her nose up at it. But, when we put the bowl down, Bracken went straight over and started eating. And kept eating. Every day so far she has demolished her dinner.

If Butternut can get her to clear her bowl, it deserves all the praise I can heap on it and more! :)

Mini Mart: PetiteGiteMiniatures

Supplier: PetiteGiteMiniatures
Website: Etsy Store.

Products: Newspapers, magazines, cards, takeaway menus and other paper ephemera available in 1/6, 1/12, 1/24 and 1/48 scales. Most items start at £2.44 for the smaller scales, then increase in price depending on whether or not you want opening pages in the magazines, for example.

The print quality is really nice, and even though the magazines aren't printed throughout they're still okay for leaving lying about a room. The menus are my favourite things - they're nicely done and not something you see in miniature all that often, at least not with that much detail.


Post and Packing: Shipping starts at £3.23 from Florida to the UK.

Morgan's Magic Moon

Our new favourite bedtime story this month is 'Morgan's Magic Moon' by Christopher Parry. It is the super cute story of a little girl who searches high and low for the missing moon, all with the help of her faithful dog Cwtch - a Welsh word for which there is no literal translation, but is basically a cuddly, snuggly kind of a hug.


I absolutely love the stylized illustrations and the bright colour palette used by Jordan Brown. I am notoriously picky about the artwork in children's books - quietly swapping out books for editions with subjectively better illustrations is practically a fulltime hobby these days! - so that's no faint praise.

Marianna tells me the pictures are beautiful because Morgan has red hair just like her. Who am I to argue? :)

The whole book is beautifully laid out, and the text is clear and easy for little fingers to follow.


What really makes this a firm favourite however is the story itself.

So many children's books fall down over awkward rhyme. Even some of the biggest names in the business have problems with sentences which don't quite flow, or inadvertent tongue twisters that have you stumbling over your words. No such problem here! It's a small thing, I know, but a nice even rhythm is an important thing when it comes to a bedtime story.

In conclusion: this is a sweet wholesome story that flows easily and really lends itself to young readers following along.

Review: Angel & Rocket

Angel & Rocket is a family run childrenswear brand with an online store and a boutique in Marlow. Launched in 2014 the brand has gone from strength to strength, with a babywear range and party pieces available at John Lewis, Next and Coast. I was lucky enough to win a £50 voucher recently from The Frenchie Mummy and couldn't wait to put it to good use!

Marianna has been, er, gently reminding me for months now that she wants a 'Pollyanna' dress. I've only myself to blame for introducing her to Hayley Mills' back catalogue. Still, this seemed like the perfect opportunity to fulfill the request. There are some absolutely gorgeous party dresses on the website, but the most Pollyanna-esque was deemed to be the Agnes Check Dress with Detachable Sequin Collar (£38).



The dress is so cute, and I liked that the detachable collar meant it had added value. The collar does up with popper fastenings and can be worn under any dress. 100% cotton, the dress is also machine washable which is always good news when it comes to kids' clothes.

I was really impressed with the website. It's well designed and very easy to use, and the product images are nice and clear. I liked that they included the model's age and height, as a visual aid to the sizing. Originally I was going to get an Age 5 but, because Marianna's so tall and quickly growing, I went for the 6 instead based on this.

To use up the voucher I also got the pretty Tilly Floral Hooded Blanket (£12) to put away for future gift giving purposes. The only niggle I had was that although free shipping is offered on orders of £50 or over, the way the cart is set up means once you've applied the voucher you then have to pay postage (£4.50) because your order is now deemed to be below the limit.



Anyway, our order arrived beautifully wrapped and we decided to give the dress its first outing last night, for the Remembrance service at Holy Trinity Church. The quality is excellent, and the little touches like the gold zip tag make it feel special. Marianna looked adorable in it - which was just as well. The moment the minute's silence started Marianna began telling me, in an ever louder and more frustrated tone, that her feet were too hot.

I think everyone knew by the time it was over...



Check out the range for yourself at the Angel & Rocket website!

Review: Jacamo AW18 Menswear

We've been lucky enough to work with Jacamo menswear in the last week, testing out a couple of products from their AW18 range. Seeing as Anthony was the one getting the benefit of this, I made him put the work in and write a review of his choices...

Today I tried on the new deliveries that I’d got from Jacamo. My previous experience of Jacamo extended no further than the adverts featuring Johhny Vegas, so I was pretty pleased to see an easy to use site with a pretty decent looking inventory, that, most importantly, actually carried my size, because the problem that I have is that something is either in my size, or I like how it looks, never both.

I had a long look about the site and for my first purchases I chose the Eterna Double Cuff Formal Shirt (in plain white, size 18 1/2) and the Suede Look Chukka Boots (a size 10 in Tan).



I wear a white shirt most days, its part of the uniform for me, suit, tie and starched white shirt, so the Eterna Double Cuff Shirt was something that has to hold up through meetings, public events, and still look good at the end of the day and beyond to the post meeting drinks. And this shirt manages to do just that, the design of the shirt is a solid quality, with a stiff collar that shouts respect, and a plain front that can be worn as is, or be accessorised with ties, waistcoats or whatever.

The added bonus of this shirt is that being made for the taller gentleman, I’m finding that I have enough length in the sleeve, but also I’m finding that the extra length on the torso manages to get over my somewhat substantial gut, which is often a concern I need addressed when buying clothes.



As for the boots they generally meet my criteria for a really good shoe. Comfortable, looks good, and is inexpensive, normally I have to settle for Two out of Three of these criteria, but in this case I was pleasantly surprised, to hit that high benchmark, the boots really are pretty comfortable, I’ve worn them while walking to meetings and the comfort doesn’t seem to fade, and in terms of looks, the chukka boot is always a classic look, and as for the quality of shoe itself, I know its marketed as suede look, but I honestly don’t think that I could tell the difference, the boots are that well made.

It was a pleasure to use Jacamo and I think I’ll be returning after pay day, as being a bit of a clotheshorse its good to know that there’s well stocked website that carries my size.

Mailto Links Explained

What is a mailto link?

A mailto link, simply, is a link that enables the person who clicked it to send an email. It is created with HTML and, instead of opening a new web page or moving to another point on the same page, it activates the default email client on a user's computer.

If you want an example, here's one I prepared earlier: jess@babiafi.co.uk

---

Why should I use a mailto link?

The main reason for using mailto links is to save your readers time. It means they won't have to copy and paste your email address - or risk typos when they retype it. I often see blogging guides recommend you make the email address on your 'work with me' page a mailto link, for example.

On the other hand, it can encourage spam and baffle people who aren't familiar with the option - especially as it might force open an email client they rarely if ever use. It all comes down to what's best for you and your target audience.

---

How do I create a mailto link?

By using this HTML (you can copy and paste from the box):

<a href="mailto:name@email.com">Link Text</a>

Or, if you want to turn an image into a mailto link (change the width attribute to the percentage of the screen width you want the image to cover):

<a href="mailto:name@email.com"><img alt="description of your image here" src="URL of your image here" width="100%" /></a>

You might want to specify the subject line of the email, again to make it quicker for your readers and to help you differentiate which mailto link is generating interest. You need to use a question mark (?) at the end of the first parameter before going on to the next. To put spaces between the words you need to use '%20'.

<a href="mailto:name@email.com?subject=subject%20of%20the%20email">Link Text</a>

One last step I'll cover is adding in body text - the actual content of the email. Let's say you want to run a blog competition via email. You want the link text (AKA 'anchor text') to read 'Enter my competition', and the email subject line to read 'My Blog Competition'. In the body of the email you want 'Please enter me in the competition! :)'. Your HTML would look like this:

(Note that the second parameter and beyond needs to end in '&' before going on to the next.)

<a href="mailto:name@email.com?subject=My%20Blog%20Competition&body=Please%20enter%20me%20in%20the%20competition!%20:)">Enter my competition</a>

Or, if it's all getting a bit complicated, check out the mailto link HTML code generator over at Rapid Tables.

---

For more posts like this, click the picture below: