The Ultimate Christmas Gift Guide For All The Family | 2018

Christmas, Product Reviews

I started collating this post back in August, I know no one wants to hear the “C” word in summer but I wanted to get organised this year as with a little one I wanted to spread the cost and spend more time with my family.  Our little boy will be able to enjoy Christmas a little better this year but we still don’ t know what to buy for him.

For the Kids

Personalised Blue Polka Dot Piggy Bank

Firstly I’m going to start off with a gorgeous piggy money box, which you can personalize with a name and personal message from Personally Presented. I can’t wait for Freddie to start filling this up with pennies he gets given.

So Free Chocolate selection

We don’t have any allergies in our family if you do know anyone with an intolerance these would be a perfect alternative as stocking fillers or presents.  Prices start from £1.99 to £4.95.

GEL-A-PEEL ACCESSORY KIT

Your girls will love this, making their own accessory jewellery.  Sadly we don’t have any girls in the family but one of my best friends has a little girl so I am gifting this for her birthday in December.

 

Crate Creatures

Crate Creatures Surprise- Blizz

There are four of these to collect in total, each creature has 45+ unique sounds.  They are available to purchase from Smyths Toys at £39.99

Itty’s Bitty’s from Hallmark

We love Itty Bittys in our home. They are a super cute way to give a gift, of someone’s favourite character, and don’t cost a fortune. These little ones are ideal as a stocking fillers too and adorable!

For Him

Home Brewtique

Any beer lovers out there? How about a home brewing kit? I’m giving this my dad for Christmas to make.

Specialist Brewing Equipment – £35

Milk Stout – £22

12 x Swing Top bottles – £30

Gillette Razor Mach 3

A bit of a boring present but if your partners likes to look trim then this is a perfect little stocking filler for them.

Anti-snoring ring

My husband snores but thinks he doesn’t then I’m the same and he once recorded me just to prove it so I am hoping these rings do the trick and help us both.  It is priced at £29.99 which I feel is a little expensive but if it does the trick it may be worth it for a better nights sleep.

Cufflinks from Dobell

Cufflinks - Green Spirit LevelMulticoloured Striped Cufflinks by Dobell

My husband has to wear a suit to work everyday so likes to have a selection of accessories for it including cufflinks so these are a perfect gift for any man wearing a suit to work.  Starting price is £9.99

For Her

For all the wine lovers out there, how about a bottle of wine?

Botonique Blush

blush drink.png

If you’re after a sober Christmas, or just fancy a soft drink with a difference, the non–alcoholic wine from Botonique is one to try for sure.

If wine is not on her gift list then flowers are surely to put a smile on her face this Christmas with this bouquet below

“Christmas Fudge” Bouquet  from Appleyard London.

The beautiful vibrant colours in this Christmas bouquet is perfect for any women in your life.  Priced at £49.99 I think it makes it more pretty to give to a loved one.

Wax warmer Subscription

What about a Wax warmer Subscription from Wax & Melt with melts delivered through your door every month? Sounds like a perfect gift to me.  You pick your own melts every month.  I love nothing more than to lit a candle when I get home from work as it makes the cold evenings more cosy.

Chameleon: The Color Changing Stainless Steel Bottle

The Chameleon Bottle will be launching on Kickstarter in November.  What a good invention, a colour changing bottle that tells you when your water is getting warm and needs changing.  The starting price for these is £22, which I feel is good value seeing as it is reusable and helps prevent waste.

Design Your Own Fragrance – The Floral Collection

Do you love perfume? Would you love to design your own scent? Well now you can with this set.  It is available in: The Fresh Collection, The Exotic Collection, The Floral Collection, The Natural Collection and the Ultimate Collection. Priced at £49.00

Nutcracker Bouquet from Bunches

Image of Nutcracker

Another beautiful bouquet, another supplier.  I have had several bouquets of flower from this company and you can’t fault them, beautiful in every way.  Order yours today.

Pets

We share our home with 2 rabbits and a dog and I always buy them Christmas presents.  Find gift ideas below for all pets

Hexbug Remote Control Cat Mouse Toy

packaging

Your cat will love this, we don’t have a cat but I would love to re home one but don’t think our dog would.

Pooch & Mutt Christmas Dinner Dog Treats

Our dog will go mad when she smells these in her treat draw at home.  The tube is a perfect size to take out with you on walkies or put in a stocking ready to open on Christmas day.  They are priced at £2.99 per 125g tube.

To Share

The Happy Christmas Hamper

Who doesn’t love a good hamper, then you’ll love this one from The British Hamper Company filled full of lots of yummy goodies to share and priced at £89 is great value for money.

Monty Bojangles 

Winter Wonderland Advent Calendar – £10.00

Winter Wonderland Truffle Assortment– £8.00

These make great gifts for yourself or for others in your family or friends and they are delicious.  I will be sure to buy these in the future.

Cards

Unique handmade Christmas cards from Kio cards there are lots of designs to choose from but I chose the below 5 to send out to friends and family.  They are priced at between £1.25 – £2.50 each.

  • We were sent all of these products for inclusion in this gift guide.  However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Meal Planning Monday 12/11/18

Food & Drink, Linkies

Well this month is going rather quickly.  Christmas will be here before we know it and I haven’t even started my shopping yet.  I also need to go food shopping but didn’t have chance to go, so will go this week or cheat and do an online shop.

This week we have:

Pan fried pork with homemade wedges

Sausage casserole, veg & creamy mash

Cottage pie

Chicken Stir fry with egg noodles

Spaghetti Bolognese

Cream cheese stuffed chicken wrapped in bacon with homemade wedges & veg

Roast dinner with all the trimmings

What’s on your plate this week?

Cheeky Wipes | Review

Pregnancy, Babies & Kids, Product Reviews

We have spent a lot of money on baby products over the years of having Freddie and I love nothing more than trying to save a few pennies here and there on products and not to mention helping and protecting the environment.

This is where Cheeky wipes arrived and came to the rescue.

This box contained 25 Rainbow microfibre wipes, 1 bottle of essential oil and bags to put clean and mucky wipes in before and after use.

They are great for meal times and for taking out and about with you in the handy bags that come with them.

Head over to the Cheeky wipes Website to order yours today.  You can choose your bundle but for this one I was sent for review it is priced at £29.95.

  • We received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review.  However all thoughts and opinions are my own.

Meal Planning Monday 05/11/18

Food & Drink, Linkies

Happy Bonfire Night!

We aren’t big on bonfire night but will take Freddie when he’s older to see if he likes them or not.  I seem to be struggling with new meal ideas to use recently and we are getting bored of the “same old food”

This week we have:

 Cheese stuffed baked chicken wrapped in bacon, homemade wedges and vegetables

Jacket potatoes with tuna mayo/cheese & beans and salad

Butter chicken curry with rice/chips

Burritos

Pizza and chips

Chilli and spicy fries

Roast dinner with all the trimmings

What’s on your plate this week?

Meal Planning Monday 29/10/18

Food & Drink, Linkies

Yet another busy weekend with the sister in law and brother in law coming up for the weekend, a visit to Hatton Country World with friends and the kids for a Halloween fun packed weekend and mine and hubby’s First Wedding Anniversary on Sunday.

Also not to mention I didn’t go shopping last week either and we lived off freezer food or ready meals.  This week we are back on track.

We are eating:

Homemade lasagna with homemade garlic bread

 Creamy chicken curry

Jacket Potatoes, cheese and beans

Bacon mac and cheese pasta bake ( From Katy Kicker blog)

Chicken stir fry with vegetables

Party tea at the mother in laws

Sunday Roast Lunch for our wedding anniversary at our wedding venue

What are you eating?

Cooking with MyCookBox | Review

Food & Drink, Reviews

Working full-time and not getting home till late we sometimes struggle and just think stuff it we will order a takeaway even though I have food in the house, but this is where Mycookbox came to the rescue and offered to send us a box to review.

My Cook box send you pre-measured ingredients and receipts to create delicious meals of your choice.  You can select the box for 2 or 4 people.

Monday Night –  Baked Sausages

we love sausages and mash as a meal but this one but a different twist onto it and was delicious.  Considering I don’t like peppers or courgettes I ate the lot which I think was due to the vegetables been coated in a sauce first.  A perfect winter meal.

Thursday Night –  BBQ Chicken Sarnie

Sadly I forgot to take a photo of this meal, was too hungry after a client meeting in London all day with work.  I’m not keen on BBQ things but this was lovely, really nice and will be cooking it again.

Monday Night – Hungarian Chicken Pasta

This didn’t take too long to make which is what I want after a long day at work, it smelt delicious and tasted good too, the only thing that ruined it was the peppers as neither me or my husband like them so next time I wouldn’t put them in it.

Overall thoughts

Lovely selection of meals but we would remove or add some of our own things and swap them for things we like.  I love the fact you can pick and choose your meals you want each time you order and there are lots to choose from.

Pricing

2 people – 3 meals costs £24.99 includes free delivery which is only £4.17 per serving

4 people – 3 meals cost £39.99 including free delivery which is only £3.33 per serving

You can also choose the vegetarian option when ordering.

We had 3 meals for 2 people and their was plenty for at least 3 people.

  • We were sent this box free of charge for the purpose of this review.  However all thoughts and opinions are my own.

FourFit Fitness Tracker | Review

Health and Lifestyle, Product Reviews

I’m not a fitness freak at all, but I have been trying my hardest to get fitter by eating healthy and walking more, I used to walk to and from the train station every day even on my last day at work before I broke up for maternity leave, pretty good going I thought for myself.

When I was offered a Fourfit smart Bracelet I said yes as wanted to be able to monitor my movement again and hit some target I would set myself.

I have now worn it for a couple of weeks and love it, it’s got lots of features.

  • Heart Rate
  • Sleep tracking
  • Vibration Smart Alarm
  • Sedentary Reminder (reminds you to do activity if you have been sedentary for a while)
  • Calorie counter
  • Step tracking
  • Phone link enabled.
  • SMS, Facebook, Whats app, Email, Call alerts
  • New OLED larger screen
  • Bluetooth
  • Rapid charge
  • 5 day battery time
  • 5 colour choices

Extras are:

Works Independently:
No need to be always connected to Bluetooth – no need to drag your phone into the gym. Unlike other brands the FourFit Band will transfer all workout data once reconnected to the phone!

Rapid recharge:
Charge your battery up to 60% in 15 minutes

I think the only little negative about the the fourfit tracker I feel is the battery life doesn’t last long and only lasts about 2 days which if you go away could be inconvenient.

Priced at just £39.00 I think it is excellent value for money, looks good, slimline and light weight you don’t even know your wearing it.

*I was sent this product free of charge for the purpose of this review.  However, all thoughts and opinions are my own.  

Meal Planning Monday 22/10/18

Food & Drink, Linkies

What a weekend!!  I am so tired and am surviving back at work on less than 8 hours sleep since Friday Morning.

We surprised our friend for his 30th to join him and his wife in Dublin for the weekend – child free too, it was all organised by Laura and was so hard trying to keep it a surprise but it was an amazing weekend and all worth it.  We drank endless Gins, Cocktails and shots and had around 8 hours sleep the whole weekend but was amazing.

I think this week is going to be hard getting back in the swing of things at work.    Plus will be eating out the freezer as need to go food shopping at some point.

This weeks meals consist of:

Tuna pasta bake

Jacket Potato, cheese, beans and salad

Shepherd’s pie

Chicken, Chips & Beans

Lasagna & garlic bread

Chicken Stir fry with vegetables

Roast Dinner with all the trimmings

What’s on your plate this week?

Little Life Toddler Backpack with Rein | Review

Product Reviews

Freddie is walking now on his own, refuses to be carried and sometimes fights when we put him in his pushchair or car seat because he wants to walk everywhere. This is where Little Life Toddler Backpack and Reins is becoming very useful! Freddie has got his Independence and can walk but we have also got control of him so he can’t run off and get into trouble.  

They are much cuter, much more fun and much more practical than traditional reins.  The backpack is a perfect size for us to put some toys in for him to carry or nappy’s and wipes to save taking his large changing bag.  

A little about the product 

  • Zipped top entry to main compartment 
  • Internal name and address label 
  • Adjustable shoulder straps with chest strap 
  • 1.5 litre main compartment 
  • Top grab handle 
  • Built-in Safety Rein with attachment point 
  • Supplied with the Parents Safety Rein 

The straps are easily adjustable and there is a front harness to stop it slipping off his shoulders. I thought he would fight having this done up, but it really doesn’t seem to bother him. 

The rein can just be put in the little pouch at the back, so if they want to run free they can. It’s a good length to give them a little bit of freedom – when I want him a bit closer to me, I just wrap the strap around my wrist a little more. There’s also a useful ‘tug handle’, which is useful if you don’t want to use the reins. It also clips together at the front so they can’t wriggle free easy.  

Our backpack costs £14.99, includes free delivery and can be purchased from here. Whilst this sounds quite expensive, when you see the quality of it and how useful it is for going out and about, it really is worth every penny! 

*We were sent this product free of charge for the purpose of this review. All thoughts and opinions are our own. 

Dream Bralette Lace | Review

Reviews

The MAGIC Dream Bralette is made out of smooth seamless fabric, which gives you the most comfortable fit possible! The straps that run over the back and the luxury lace over the front of the bralette give a nice fashionable touch to this comfortable bralette. Who said comfortable couldn’t be cute?!

I received the Dream Bralette Bra in Blueberry.  This is available in 6 different colours and is priced at £21.00.  It feels high quality and is comfortable to wear.  There is no wire to break and stab you.  I would be sure to buy more in other colours.

  • I received this product free of charge for the purpose of this review.  However all thoughts and opinions are my own.