Personalised Bottle Labels Review

A few weeks back I was sent a personalised Prosecco bottle to review. As I had the personalisation done in Anthony's name it seemed only fair that he do the actual reviewing! :)

Anthony:

It was only a little while ago that you couldn’t go to any event without being offered a glass of Prosecco, networking event, business lunch, or at anything to do with the arts, you were guaranteed to get a complimentary glass of Prosecco. Prosecco was the In Drink, although I couldn’t help but think that most of the cheap stuff you got handed as you walked into whatever function you happened to be at that week has a resemblance to grapes that had been fermented in battery acid.

So when Jessica handed me very own personalised bottle courtesy of Personalised Prosecco I was slightly taken aback, the design of the bottle was actually rather elegant and it was slightly novel to my own name printed on the a bottle, but as someone who is no stranger to decorative booze I would quite happily have had the bottle on my shelf as a conversation starter, and may well keep it.

However to my mind the proof of a good drink is in the tasting, and I’ve mentioned before my experience with prosecco has tended to lean more towards the severe heartburn type. But my fears proved to be completely unfounded. What was apparent from the first sip of this bottle was a crisp and clear taste that wasn’t overpowered by its own alcohol content. It had a real freshness to it that surprisingly hit the spot as a thirst quencher, which isn’t something you find with many wines. And what may be unique in my experience with prosecco is that you could actually taste the grapes that it came from. Personalised Bottle Labels has really got themselves a great product.



Me:

I think this is such a cool gift idea, especially as even after drinking the contents glass bottle are great for displaying all kinds of stuff. (My favourite is sticking in one of those sets of fairy lights with the batteries in a plastic 'cork'.) The labels are professional quality, and there are tons of different options to choose from, up to and including adding photographs. Although we reviewed prosecco, Personalised Bottle Labels actually offer everything from port to vodka to champagne, and with regular sale events and discount codes on top of already good prices you can pick up some real bargains.

They also sell personalised bottles giftboxed with a newspaper from a particular day, or chocolates, or a rose, etc, making it a perfect gift for any occasion.

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!

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! :)

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!

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.

Save Money With Shiply

I decided Marianna's room needed redecorating when I caught sight of her pile of Christmas presents. There was scarcely enough room in there to get the door open as it was, and there was no way she could actually play with anything. The obvious solution was to go for a loft bed to try and make more space - but I just didn't trust Marianna to use a ladder to get in and out of it.

We looked at various options, from making our own staircase using an IKEA trofast, to somehow finding the £400+ for a bed with built in storage steps. To be fair there are some lovely beds with built in storage, but our problem was finding space for stuff Marianna already owned - doll houses, play kitchen, etc - so there would have been no point in us going for that kind at the moment.



(As an aside, if you're an entrepreneurial type there's a definite gap in the market for loft/bunk bed stairs and ladders you can buy separately!)

Finally I did what I should have done in the first place and turned to eBay, where I came across a gently used Scallywag high sleeper for £75. Solid pine was way better quality than we could have afforded new and, crucially, the ladders are designed to be a bit safer for kids. The only problem was that we're in South Wales and the bed was in Surrey.

I'd heard of Shiply - a service which allows delivery firms to bid for your job - but had never actually tried it. I was worried it would be complicated, or something would go wrong and I'd be left out of pocket. I was really pleasantly surprised then when I just input the eBay item number and, within a few minutes, I had a whole list of quotes to go and collect it for me.



You can check out the feedback profiles of each company to help you choose, and there is an easy messaging feature if you have more in depth questions. Once you accept a quote you need to fill out the collection and delivery details - so you need to ask for the eBay seller's email address and phone number - and pay a deposit as confirmation.

It was all so simple I kept worrying that something was bound to go wrong but, in spite of my pessimism, the bed arrived well within the two week time frame, with all the bits in tact. Delivery cost me £70, bringing the cost to £145 altogether, which was about as much as I was going to have to spend on the bed itself, before having to build steps to go with it.

So, yeah, I am definitely a Shiply convert!

(My spare room is already afraid...)