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.

Mini Mart: Angelkellet0 Books

Supplier: Angelkellet0
Website: Ebay Store

Products: Range of 1/12 scale sewing accessories, chocolate bars, and lots of children's books. They have so many contemporary titles so I had to try and restrain myself and go for stuff that would fit in with my retro theme. In the end I went for a pack of six Spot the Dog books - because Spot, or Smot y Ci as so many parents here suffer, was first published in 1980.

The print quality is very good, and the books come with little paper bands to slot over them to keep them flat when not in use. Though advertised as suitable for 1/12 scale, they're really pretty big so I think they look better in 1/6. Still awesome value though at £2.99 for six; I'm really pleased with them. :)

Post and Packing: Free!

Mini Mart: lanky1349

Supplier: Lanky1349
Website: >Ebay Store

Products: Really nice looking 1/12 scale records, everything from The Specials to Metallica to Jamiroquai. The sleeve is well printed, and I was really impressed with the record itself, it feels like thin plastic. You need to make your own hole in the middle though.

Post and Packing: £1.

eatsleepdoodle Review

In a textbook example of perfect timing, we were asked recently if we'd like to review an item from eatsleepdoodle's new butterfly range. If you haven't heard of the brand before, they make the coolest colour-in bedding, tablecloths, pencil cases, bags, etc.

Each product comes with a set of washable markers so, when you've finished colouring, you can just pop it in the washing machine and start all over again. They also sell separate sets of 20 markers if you need more colours, or have simply done too much colouring!

We have been decorating Marianna's bedroom the last few weeks, making the transition from cot bed to 'grown up' bed. With that in mind we chose the butterfly pillow case, which retails for £14.95.

Marianna was super excited to receive the package - even the wrapping paper can be coloured in. Once the paper was off Marianna was practically bouncing up and down with her eagerness to get started. I was really impressed with the quality of both the fabric and the markers, the colours are so vivid.

It's also a really fun way to help a child's pen control and encourage their creativity. The fact you can wash the colour out means there is no 'right or wrong' way to approach things, and they - or you, let's face it! - can let their imaginations run wild.



We all had a go at colouring in a butterfly, while Marianna went to town with the green marker as it was her favourite colour of the day. The thrill of drawing on something she's normally not allowed to really appealed to her, and personalising her pillowcase has been a great way to sell her on her new loft bed.

I love how the range encourages creativity, and also that there's something for every interest and age group. Butterflies, space, dinosaurs, maps - whether you just want to colour, or want to learn the order of the planets in our solar system, or the 7 wonders of the world, eatsleepdoodle have you covered.