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.

Review - Room To Grow Toy Storage Basket

One of the things you soon learn upon having kids is that they generate a lot of stuff. Seriously, endless amounts of toys, clothing, equipment, random junk you daren't get rid of in case you absolutely desperately need it eighteen months from now... Worse, you somehow need to cram as much of it as you can into a room they turn into a bombsite the moment they open their eyes in the morning.

So, needless to say, when I was asked if I would like to review a toy storage basket from Room To Grow you can be sure I jumped at the chance.

Room To Grow is a kind of 'one stop shop' when it comes to children's bedrooms. Since 1996 they have been providing ingenious space saving furniture - including some of the most gorgeous beds you'll ever see - along with accessories and storage solutions. The other brands they stock are carefully chosen to provide top quality and to fit with their own brand ethos; the toy basket we're reviewing comes from Kiddiewinkles, an award winning British brand in their own right with a focus on enabling creative play.


The toy baskets come in a range of colours and designs, from blue gingham to candy stripes, and you can even get them personalised. I (bravely) let Marianna choose which design she liked best and she opted for the pink star basket. A few days later our basket arrived, folded flat and nicely packaged, and the real testing could begin!

The first thing you notice is the quality of the fabric. The colours are vibrant and the quilted fabric - 100% cotton - is lovely and soft and, of utmost importance for anything going into a kid's bedroom, machine washable. The second thing you notice is the size! These baskets are 50cm x 40cm, with a capacity of 78L. Marianna decided to demonstrate how big her new basket is the best way she knew how... by climbing into it.

After persuading her to get out of it, we took it upstairs to begin the mammoth task of organising her soft toy collection. I say mammoth not because she has a lot of soft toys - though she most certainly does - but because I couldn't see the floor of her bedroom for the amount of dolls, blocks, books and other sundries strewn across it.

A couple of hours later we actually got to the stage where we could get all the teddies down off the top of her wardrobe and go through them. I've been meaning to do this for a while now because Marianna keeps asking to play with them and, obviously, if they're being stored at a more child friendly height it just makes life easier for everyone.


After much deliberation Marianna parted with just three teddies and I began to worry that we wouldn't be able to fit all the remaining toys into their new home. In truth, she could have got the whole lot in there! I was really impressed with just how much the basket could hold and, once full, how easy it was to move to its 'tidy place' - the little built in cupboard where we keep Marianna's dress up clothes and inflatable ball pit.... The handles are strong and sturdy, and it's lightweight enough that Marianna could get it out herself.

The instant I left the room.

Still, come bedtime she was able to put all the soft toys back into the basket and I just lifted it back into position. Top marks all around, I think!

Mini Mart: Bad Mother Customs

Supplier: Bad Mother Customs
Website: Ebay store.

Products: Decal transfer sheets to use as scale tattoos, as well as miniature newspapers, comics and magazines. I was particularly interested in the Playboy magazines with pull out centre spreads as I haven't come across anybody else doing those in miniature! The 1/6 scale magazines are $7.00 each - I bought a retro looking one from 1982 (pictured above) which only has a few printed pages in the middle and the rest are blank, and a fully printed Catwoman one.

The print quality is pretty good, but I'm not sure how well it would hold up on the 1/12 scale magazines. I don't think it would be clear enough to read or anything. Still, they look really cool and that's the important thing!

Post and Packing: First class mail from the US at $2.00 per item which isn't bad, but there are no multiple item discounts.