Beautiful 'Just to Say' Gifts from Cotton & Grey

Cotton and Grey have come up with a really beautiful gift package, one for yourself or a loved one to help with relaxation and mindfulness.

Their twenty-minute candles were born after a friend of theirs was struggling in lockdown.  Thanks to these beautiful Beeswax Candles and affirmation cards, this helped her to relax and restore her wellbeing.  I think this is wonderful and the best kind of why a business is born.

What accessories do you need to take a Selfie

I was recently contacted by Cotton Bag Co, a lovely eco-aware company, telling me about their Selfie Bag, a great accessories bag for anyone wanting to improve their selfies, photos and memories.

The Jute Selfie Bag is a fantastic bag, I may be biased as I do love a nice bag!  This one is the ultimate accessory for you to carry your camera/phone accessories in, and there is plenty of room for more!

Bring Sidney to your desktop with ClassBento Photography class

#Gifted

I have mentioned before that one of the few good things to come out of 2020 is the use of Zoom and virtual meetings to connect everyone, literally, from all around the world.

In December I was invited by ClassBento to attend the Sydney Harbour Bridge Photography Experience from the comfort of my own home; with my son sleeping upstairs and in PJs and drinking wine, I had no worries of how I was going to get home let alone airfare!

Painting by numbers a therapeutic tool

Painting by numbers and adult colouring books have become very popular over recent years, this is because it has become known that it's therapeutic.  Colouring and painting is no longer (not that it ever was) just for kids.

I have many colouring books which have been bought for me over the years, some of which have been fandom-related, my favourite being my Supernatural Colouring book.  That being said, I've never really given a painting by numbers canvas much thought.  It's something I loved completing as a child and feel a little sad that that joy had left my memory!

How to have hours of fun with these new Activity Books

Button Books have published two new activity books for November that will keep the children entertained for hours.

#Gifted

Turn your photos into a work of art

In our modern technological world, let's not lose the art of printing out our favourite photos, and what better way to do this than to have them displayed as Canvas Prints.

Review: Scatter Cushions from SofaSofa

When I'm looking for accessories for my living room, such as scatter cushions, I don't immediately think to look at a Sofa Website!

It makes perfect sense to really doesn't it, and SofaSofa can offer over 50 different fabric designs in 100s of colours for you to choose the perfect scatter cushions to complement any sofa.

I was fortunate enough to be offered a couple of scatter cushions to review; I believe I've picked the perfect pair for my sofa.  As you can see above, I have grey sofas (tactical colour there) and 'my' sofa sports a rather funky TARDIS blanket over the back (feel free to read that as "I have nowhere else for it to live, and the majority of the time it's over me"....)

With my grey sofa and blue blanket accessory, I decided to choose the Newport Scatter Cushions (stripe) in blue rather than the grey, and I'm so pleased I did, I love them!

Once the cushions arrived I knew I'd made the right design choice, there were many to choose from and SofaSofa makes it really easy to find the perfect pattern and fabric from their length, size and colour menus.

I was not expecting to love these as much as I do, and I'm now looking at purchasing a further 2 cushions to place on my other sofa!

The cushions are just over 40cm in size and 15cm in-depth, meaning these are good thick cushions, and extremely comfortable to rest against.  The fabric is soft to the touch and a beautiful shade of blue.

These cushions from SofaSofa website can be purchased for £20 and you are getting value for money in my opinion.  I think they really set off my sofa lovely and like all accessories, it's the small things that make the biggest impact.


 

I received scatter cushions from SofaSofa.co.uk review.

The above wording is all my own and not influenced by products received.

Review: Blue Kangaroo book series

#GIFTED

On 25th February, 3 new books were released by Emma Chichester Clark, 3 new Blue Kangaroo books.  Books which I had not been aware of until last week, books which are rather beautiful in illustration and storyline.

Review: Bath time fun and child bonding time

We recently received a lovely, little, limited edition Matey bath time book to review.  I remember Matey from when I was a kid so I'm rather pleased they are still going strong for Max to enjoy too!

I gave Max the book before he got in the bath and he looked through it and pointed out various images on the pages and seemed to enjoy me reading it to him, but the minute he was in the bath the book got pushed to one side whilst he played with his ducks, shampoo and 'lets splash mummy til she's dripping wet' game!


I gave him his book a few times but he wasn't interested.  I think for Max at the age of 2 books are snuggling up to mummy or daddy with and bath time is, let's face it - wet messy fun time!

When Max got out the bath he asked for his book back and we sat and 'read' through it whilst he was dried off, ready for bed and snuggles.

I do think that he doesn't associate books with bath and sees bath as energetic, manic fun time rather than anything as sedate as reading a book.

Matey has been doing some research on bath time bonding between parents and their infants and found the top 10 parent - child bonding experiences were:

1. Having a cuddle (29%)
2  Playing together (22%)
3  Reading a story (15%)
4. Bath time (9%)
5. Chatting (6%)
6. Meal times and feeding (5%)
7. Going for a walk (5%)  
8. Bed time (3%)
9. Watching a film or cartoon (3%)
10. Listening to music (2%) 

Which is your favourite bonding experience?

For me, I would say having a cuddle number 1 every time, we also like to dance around the front room to Imagination Movers.....

Disclaimer : We received a Matey Bath Time book to review.  My opinions on the book are my own and the facts regarding parent and child bonding have come from Matey Press Release.