Sunday 9 June 2013

Fathers Day Ideas for under £10

This is a bit of a strange post for me to write. For the last 19 years since my Dad died we haven't really bothered with Fathers Day....in fact I've positively tried to ignore it. The last couple of years since Chick has been in touch with her Dad I've mainly let her choose something from Tesco and I've not really had to put much thought into it!

This year however Chick decided that as well as buying something for her Dad, her and the boys also wanted to buy something for The Man. With the kids being 10, 6 & 4 we've ended up with a range of cute presents that I thought I'd share with you in case you're stuck for ideas, the best thing being that they are all under £10.

As most of you probably know we are massive readers in this house and that's the same for the boys too so we were hugely excited when Little Tiger Press sent us two books as presents for The Man. The first one is by the award-winning Steve Smallman, author of Smelly Peter the Great Pea Eater and Dragon Stew and is called 'My Dad':


‘Some dads can cheer you up when you are crying
And hold you so high that you feel like you’re flying’

It's a really lovely book with rhyming text and will be great for all of the boys to read together. It is also full of fabulous illustrations:


We were also lucky enough to be sent a more grown up book which Chick will give to him. This is 'To Dad, You're a Star' by Jill Latter. It has a really cute front cover with a fabric polka dot star and again lovely illustrations which will hopefully tell him how much he means to her:



'My Dad' retails at £5.99 and 'Dad, You're a Star' at £6.99.

We are big fans of the 99p shop (yes, I'm cheap!!) and so have also picked up a couple of bargains from there:



I was happy with all of the above as I think that makes a pretty good Fathers Day but Chick had seen a Vistaprint advert on TV and wanted to make him a t-shirt. Our piece de la resistance to wow The Man on Fathers Day is this:


The best thing about it about from the personalisation, that Chick chose herself, is that it only cost about £8! I shall let you know on Sunday if he's happy with it or not!

Do you have any cheap and cheerful ideas for Fathers Day??

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Printer pix - Wooden Photo Blocks


As most of you probably know, I'm a bit of a hoarder. The things that I have the most of are photos, shoes and books so when someone offers me the chance to review one of these items especially one that is slightly different then I normally jump at the chance.

Printer pix gave me a choice of products and upon browsing through I decided that I loved the wooden blocks. I am running out of wall space unfortunately so I thought that this was a great idea as it can be free standing as well as mounted on a wall. I generally go back and forth with which pictures to transform into an art keepsake but luckily The Man and I recently had our engagement photo shoot so I knew straight away which picture I would use.

The online service was simple and easy to use and my order came within a couple of days. It was really well packaged too so that there was no damage. On really close inspection the picture wasn't quite flush with the block but when I mentioned this to Printer pix they immediately sent out a replacement block.

So this is what the block looks like:


I love this picture as it's so colourful and bright and the trees and sky look amazing. The block has managed to capture everything that I love about the picture and it has pride of place on my fire:


The block is sturdy and well made, which is always a bonus when you are clumsy and so is your daughter. 


The block that we chose was sized at 12" by 8" and is priced at £40 however because it looks so amazing I really wish that I'd been brave and ordered the biggest 20" by 16" size. I'm also eyeing up their hard cover photo books as they would be a great keepsake. 

Check out their website for some great deals on lovely gifts for Fathers Day too!