Playpennies

So here it is. The Easter Holidays. And the weather man keeps telling me it is going to snow around here by the end of the week. If you are as unprepared as I am for the prospect of cold and wet weather (I thought we'd be pretty much in the park all holidays) then this is the review for you.

Find Me A Gift are known in our house for their great gift ideas, but I'd never really thought of them for the kids before. My husband yes - he loves all that innovative stuff.

I received three items from the website. All of which will amuse and entertain children, even if only in a small sort of way. These are the National Trust Flower Pressing and Fragrance Kit, the Teeter-Totter Piggy Bank, and Deep Drink Diver bubble straws. Read on to find out more!

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It can be really hard to find comfort in pregnancy, and sometimes finding both comfort and style can be downright challenging. With my first pregnancy I was lucky, in a sense as I was heavily pregnant through the height of summer, and what to wear wasn’t such a huge issue – I could be comfortable in an A-line dress and flip flops.  During this pregnancy, however, most of my ‘large’ stage has been in the very dead of winter. And I have found it very hard to stay warm, and comfortable, and still look half decent on top of it!

Finding a decent pair of tights to go with the ever expanding middle has been a challenge too. If they fit in the leg, they’re too small in the waist, and I’ve torn more than a pair of tights trying to hike them up over the bump, so I was really pleased to find Emma Jane’s Maternity Tights.

They are available in a range of sizes and thicknesses – deniers, as that’s called in stocking world – and I tried a pair of 60 Denier tights as I was going for added warmth.

There are a few things worth mentioning about these. Firstly, they’re pretty hardy and I despite my awkward dressing routine, sitting, then standing, and sometimes needing hubby to help put things over my feet if I couldn’t reach due to one or other pregnancy ailment, these never laddered or ripped. My toe nails have been a bit longer than was probably acceptable, and the toes haven’t developed holes. The gusset expands with your belly, and they’re a fantastic length: I haven’t had to hike these up every so often to get the crotch back to crotch height…. Yes, you tall lady at the back there, you know what I mean, don’t you!

The final thing that impressed about these tights is how long they’ve lasted. Perhaps it’s because they are a thicker variety than normal tights, but they’ve not snagged in the wash, they’ve not torn under increased growth, and they’ve been perfect for wearing under trousers or skirts and have even helped keep me warm.

Well worth the money, I recommend these to any pregnant mums out there!

Sudocrem Sunscreen Mousse and Sudocrem Moisturising Mousse are two new products from Sudocrem, the makers of the nappy rash cream every self-respecting parent has at least  heard of, and probably tried.

Sudocrem Sunscreen and Moisturising Mousse feature something called ProDerm Technology which means that the mousse mimics the skin’s composition to moisturise and protect the outer layer, and work as a barrier cream too. It is specially designed for babies and toddlers and is said to be very gentle on their skin.

Last year I reviewed the awesome Harumika range of toys that are brilliant for encouraging creativity and independent play. My daughter really enjoyed the kit but it soon lost most of the pieces and slipped away, forgotten, in a drawer.

Then the Petite Harumika kit arrived and she fell in love all over again. And this time the passion hasn’t faded. It is almost as if the tiny version is more appealing to her five year old senses.

Harumika is aimed at girls and is very popular with budding fashionistas who like to make, remake and make all sorts of different designs. There is no sewing needed as the miniature dress form – the doll, if you will – has a slot down the back into which the fabric is pressed to hold it in place.

The Petite Harumika kit comes with a 7cm miniature dress form on a key chain (this has been hung proudly from my daughter’s backpack on more than one shopping excursion), a stylus tool for slotting the fabric into the back, one piece of material, four accents, and a sheet of gem stickers.

What I really like about this kit is that the stickers are fairly robust. You can restick them several times before they start to lose their grip so you can create a wide range of looks before they give up the ghost. My daughter has shown me some sterling creations that honestly amazed me, and continues to spend happy hours pootling around with the fabric.

Of course, the fabric and stickers from the larger Harumika kit have been added to create some impressive ballgowns too. For £7.99, I think that the Petite Harumika kit is expensive so it would be a special treat or present rather than a fun, impulse buy. However, it is robust, re-usable, fun, and very sweet indeed.

I do love it when new skin care things land on my desk to review, especially if they promise all sorts of lovely and wonderous results.

I was quite tiny when I became pregnant with my eldest son, there was no way I was going to avoid stretch marks regardless of how much cocoa body butter I slapped on my skin; with my daughter following on a year to the day later I had a few more to add to my stretch mark collection.

One of the pots of creams to arrive was Provenance Anti-Scar and Stretch Mark cream; hurrah!  The other pot of cream was dark circle eye cream - I don't suffer from these, but my teenage daughter is going through a phase of having particularly dark ones.

A couple of weeks ago I received several items from Faber-Castell. At first I was perplexed. I had no idea what several of these things were. One was obviously a box of paints. Or so I thought. Actually it turned out to be so much more. But I'm getting a little bit ahead of myself.

Faber-Castell was founded in Germany in the 18th century, to make pencils. It still makes pencils, but also a whole lot of other drawing and painting products, with an emphasis on innovation.

It is just the perfect time to be looking at things like this. The Spring term is drawing to a close. Holidays are nearly here, and the weather forecast is for (sadly) rain. Something to keep little ones occupied, and stock up on supplies for school, all in one hit. Even better if you can find them something a bit more unusual, to hold their attention. A little bit of German precision engineering, if you will!

So the Faber-Castell Connector Paint Box I received isn't just for holding paints. The item that looked like a stylus actually turned out to be a paintbrush, the dish became a pot, and the world's weirdest looking pen was in actual fact a ... well read on and find out!

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I was really lucky in this pregnancy to be able to try out some fantastic brands and clothes and try a wide variety of things that in my first pregnancy I never tried, because, quite frankly, I didn't know they existed. My maternity clothes were off the shelves from leading baby and maternity shops and that was all I wore or knew.  This time round, however, the World Wide Web has been my friend, and not only have I found things that have been comfortable, and practical, but also feminine and simply lovely.

One of my favourite items of clothing this pregnancy has been Black Maternity Camisole and the Roll Top Trousers from Melba London.

The camisole is beautifully soft and stretchy and has a lace trim at the neckline and shoulders. This trim is wide enough to cover your bra straps, so you don't lose the valuable support in that area, and the ruching around the belly area is incredibly flattering as it allows the top to be form fitting and grow with your bump, which with a beautiful bump can be very sensual and certainly made me feel very feminine.

Of course, in this weather I wear it under something else all the time, and have loved that it is so form fitting that it almost hides the other lumps and bumps and adds in creating the blooming beauty mirage, whether 100% true or not!

The trousers are just as lovely. They're soft and flowy and again, incredibly feminine. I think that's probably to do with the slight bell-bottom flair, which is great as it removes emphasis ever so slightly from the abundant hips. It also has a roll-top, so it can easily be worn under or over your bump, as you prefer and feel most comfortable.

Both wash very well and dry very quickly and are very good value for money.

P.S. Melba London have offered PlayPennies readers an exclusive 20% off until the end of July.

Boppy is probably one of the most popular names in the feeding pillow industry. It has received the American Baby Best of the Year award 7 times in the last 8 years and costing anything from £30 to about £50 they’re not cheap, but there is a large following of Boppy fans.

The Boppy pillow is a donut shaped ring cushion, suitable for breast or bottle feeding. It is quite small so can easily sit on the mother’s lap and is meant to adjust to pretty much anyone’s size to fit around them. I didn’t find it very comfortable around me, it squashed a bit and makes me feel restrictred, but it was fine on my lap.

While certainly not an essential to a good breastfeeding relationship, a breastfeeding bracelet and necklace can be a big help in establishing and continuing breastfeeding and Mama Jewels have a lovely range of beautiful jewellery to suit the occasion.

What do you use them for?

Well, in the first six weeks or so of breastfeeding, breast milk reservoirs in the breasts and is readily available. It can be really hard when your breasts are full all the time to remember which side you last fed from, but doing so is quite important as every time you feed your baby, your body produces more milk, thereby establishing how much milk you need and how often. Around six weeks, the reservoir ‘dries up’ and milk becomes supply and demand, and your body now knows how much your baby needs (incidentally, this is when many women incorrectly think their milk has dried up.) For those first six weeks, having a bracelet that you can wear either on the side that you’ve just fed from, or need to feed from next can be invaluable – especially for night feeds.

The breastfeeding bracelet serves this purpose perfectly – but I did find it a bit small for my hand and ideally you want something that slips off and on again without too much fuss. While the heart adds to the prettiness, I found it a hindrance – but I do have larger hands than the average woman, so it’s probably just me.

I have two Mama Jewels necklaces – one in pink and one in blue and they are both beautiful.

They’re particularly handy when baby is a little older and starts twiddling and pinching and grabbing during nursing. It can be extremely painful and with my daughter I ended up so bruised in the throat and chest area, my husband would only leave the house with me if I wore a polar neck or scarf! A necklace gives the child something to focus on, pull on, tug on and twirl without leaving bruises. Bonus.

Mam Jewels guarantee that their jewellery is baby-proof and they’re so sure of this fact that they’ll give you your money back if baby manages to break your jewellery. They are strength tested, and so far the jewellery has a 100% track record. These sets can also be washed and sterilised, and even go through the dishwasher (although secure it tightly!) if they need a thorough clean.

The components that make up Mama Jewels are non-toxic and have been tested in accordance with UKAS and Toy Standards.

All round, these are great, affordable, lovely and fab to wear and use.

It's always quite amusing when you're assigned a review and instantly conjure up totally the wrong product image in your head!  Juiced Up Blackcurrant?  Ribena on steroids? Really?!

No, not really - but if you like the smell of blackcurrant you're going to LOVE 'I Love...Juiced Up Blackcurrant' bubble bath and shower creme - because that's what it is.  If the smell of super sweet strawberries does it for you, then you might prefer 'I Love...Strawberries and Milkshake' instead.

The three 'I Love...' products sent to me were immediately pounced on by my teenage daughter who adores anything bath or shower.

I never ever thought in a million years that one day I'd be writing a review of a yorkshire pudding mix. To be honest, I thought the only way they came was in a bag from the frozen compartment at the supermarket. Or a box.

Yet here I am, trying out Aunt Bessie's Homebake Yorkshire Pudding Mix. And not only that but also the Aunt Bessie's Delicious Shortcrust Pastry Mix and the Aunt Bessie's Creamy Instant Custard.

All powdery mixes, all from packets. No I didn't know that Aunt Bessie's did this either, but you do learn something new every day in this job!

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Each week my daughter reviews an item or two from the latest Half Pint Chic sale and each week the clothes seem to get better and better. This week the Half Pint Chic sale is for Egg Baby and wow, these clothes are loooovely.

The first item my daughter chose was the Voile Indian Shirt in pink. The picture on the site doesn’t do it justice. There is this soft, light pattern across the fabric that is beautifully complemented by the embroidery in a darker pink colour. The shirt is 100% cotton and drapes like a dream.

The wide sleeves make Tabitha look like a princess and she did plenty of swooping and dancing while wearing it. She said that it made her feel like she could dance like a fairy. And I have to admit, even though I am biased, that she did look a bit like one in this top. The quality of the fabric and the cut make it well worth the fabulously reduced £15.99 price tag.

The next item is the utterly stunning skirt which is made from silk and has an orchid pattern on the fabric. The underlay is pink and the tassels in a lovely purple with a sweet little bow detail at the waist. This comes in two colours and Tabitha spent ages trying to decide which one she wanted. I was surprised when she went for the bolder colour but, as you can see in the pic, it really worked.

The skirt is a charmer and one that I would buy two of in a heartbeat. Just look at how the elasticised waistline fits so snugly – this is especially great for little girls who have tiny waists like mine – and the extra bow adds more security too. And the lining of the skirt is actually a pair of pink shorts! Awesome.

I have to admit that, thanks to Half Pint Chic, I am starting to see why people go designer for their kids. I still wouldn’t pay the full prices (thank goodness for this site, then) but the quality, the cut, the way they look when worn, all these factors together have me smitten.

Have you ever looked at your face in the mirror and wondered where all the wrinkles have come from? Or stood up and groaned at the aches and pains that flare up as you rise? Well, we all hate growing old and we dislike the frailties that come with ageing even more. Enter the Full Life Repair Kit, a book dedicated to helping you undo the damage you have done to your body over the years.

When I got this book I was delighted. It was something I wanted to try out as I am tired of feeling flat and tired. The book starts off brilliantly with an intro that makes a lot of sense and flings out a ton of great facts and figures. It is an inspiring start.

The book doesn’t pull any punches though. Don’t expect to be told that 20 years of smoking and not exercising is going to vanish in a puff of healthy, erm, smoke. Do expect to be given solid advice that is grounded in plenty of research and that makes a lot of intellectual sense.

Some of the facts and figures are scary. Like the fact that in your 40s you are more likely to die of cancer than from an accident. And that a lack of exercise means a shorter life. However, the book is filled with positive reinforcement, clever ideas, great tools and clever input to keep you going.

I have found this to be an invaluable resource on my road to great health and I am definitely going to recommend this to anyone who wants to reinvigorate their lives and their bodies. It would make a lovely Mother’s Day present or a treat for yourself.

The book is on sale at Reader’s Digest for £5.99 instead of the usual £26.99 which is a fab deal!

We received a superb pack of all sorts of goodies from Poundworld to review for you, and I have to say, it was like Mary Poppins’ bag with the never ending treats that came out of it!

It will probably be easiest to divvy it up into different sections: Things to eat, things to do, things to make and things to wear.

I think Poundworld have pretty much everything you need for a lovely Easter weekend, and a party too.

There’s never a bad time for chocolate and if you’re thinking of breaking away from the eggs and going for something a little more special this Easter, Your Surprise have something absolutely perfect: Chocolate Bonbons.

Actually, the list of things these choccies are ideal for is endless: wedding favours, Christening or naming ceremony favours, presents, commemorations… you name it. There’s a way to include them.

Chocolate Bonbons in this instance are a box of 15 chocolates in a selection of shapes – flowers, squares, rectangles, hearts – and with options of white, dark and milk chocolate, filled with cream, caramel or praline, depending on the shapes you choose. You can then personalise the chocolate with an image of your choice, add a card and place your order.

We chose the heart shaped, cream filled, milk chocolate option, which I actually ordered for my husband for Valentine’s day and I put a picture of myself and my daughter on it for him.

These chocolate are really good. Yes, they cost more than something you’ll get at your local supermarket, but they also taste better and make a much nicer gift. The chocolate is really fantastic too. It’s Belgian, and smooth, rich and utterly delicious.

The only note of caution is to make sure the image you upload is clear. In the image above you can barely see my daughter’s face under a white hat against a white background, and on the chocolates you just see a bit of her face as the hat and background blur into one. A clearer outline or her without the hat would have made for a clearer impression of her on the chocolate. Still that’s not the chocolate’s fault!

If I have a party or a Christening or something in the near future, I think a Chocolate Bonbon in an organza baggy with a bit of ribbon and a thank you card would make a gorgeous token of the day for less than £1.50 per person, and as my guests bite into it, I’d be confident in the knowledge they’d think I paid a lot more.

I'll be honest, I'm not a Hello Kitty fan and was a bit nonplussed when I saw my name scheduled for this Angel Cat Sugar review.

Angel Cat Sugar is a new cat phenomenon with an ever-increasing celebrity following - Fearne Cotton, Pixie Lott, Claudia Schiffer, Dannii Minogue, Tess Daly and Alexander Burke, to name a few (I kid you not!) - designed by the creator of the insanely popular Hello Kitty, Yuko Shimizu

I duly popped over to angelcatsugar.com to find out what all the fuss was about and fell in LOVE!  Not necessarily with all the products but with the story of how Angel Cat Sugar came into being and what she's 'about' - she's  a white cat who has angel wings and lives to spread love and happiness throughout the world.

The inspiration behind Angel Cat Sugar is explained by Yuko Shimizu, on the Angel Cat Sugar website, and it's a beautiful story...

How sick are you of reading articles that start with a reminder that it is Mothering Sunday this Sunday? You're either agreeing with me or are suddenly in a blind panic shouting what do you mean it is this Sunday, wondering how to make lovingly crafted cards from the kids for their mother/grandmother, and trying to sort out a last minute restaurant booking to take the mother-in-law out for lunch.

Anyway PlayPennies is here to help you out with ideas for cards, and for presents. Like this review. I received a couple of likely Mother's Day presents from online retailer MandMDirect. A bottle of Vera Wang perfume and an Onfire Women's watch in black and cream. Here's what I thought.

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Half Pint Chic has teamed up with my daughter to see if she can offer an “on the ground” review (as it were) of the designer clothing sales that they run every week. Each week she selects two items from the sale, wears them for a day, and tells me what she thinks.

This week the sale is Nicki Macfarlane and wow, we were both really taken with the items on offer. Right from the top of the page to the bottom, Tabitha was pointing at items and going, “I want that! I want that!” And I had to agree with her. The colours, styles and cuts were stunning.

We eventually settled on a pair of Hyacinth shorts in lime down to £12.99 from £34, and the lovely Bluebell dress in pink floral down to £19.99 from £56. The clothes are lovely. Even my husband, he who honestly wouldn’t notice if my dress was made from a sack, was impressed and that is saying a LOT.

The Bluebell dress was instantly put on and did not come off until the end of the weekend. We barely managed to persuade her not to sleep in it. There was a debate about which way around the dress should go, though, as I had left the husband to do it while I made coffee, and came back to her wearing it the wrong way around.

After much debate and my pointing energetically at the picture on the website, he agreed that the ruffle went in front and the buttons at the back. My daughter thought this hilarious but honestly, she adores the dress. She finds it so comfy and says it makes her feel beautiful. It is worth every penny just for that! My daughter is extremely fussy about what she wears.

The shorts were worn under the dress for the weekend. I had to really bribe Tabitha to wear a shirt with them so I could take a photo. She really liked these and said that they were very comfy and she loved the pockets. Our only criticism is that the fabric used as a belt is very slippery so if your child, like mine, has a tiny waist and needs a lot of cinching, you have to keep on retying it. A bit of a pain, especially when those shorts are stunning.

Fancy getting a look in on the Half Pint Chic Nikki Macfarlane sale? It starts tomorrow here….

I’ll be honest, I was very sceptical about this photo book/book making product called Blurb. I thought it would be like every other service and make me slightly insane with frustration. I couldn’t have been more wrong. This has to be the best tool I have ever used to create a book – photo or otherwise – at the most competitive price.

To start with you download their software which is neither huge nor heavy on processing power. Then you create a folder with all the images you want to use. I decided to call mine Adventures on a Mobile Phone 2011-2012, and I took all the photos taken on my mobile, of my daughter, and popped them into the folder I wanted to use.

My biggest concern was that I would have to spend ages putting them into chronological order as I’d simply stored these at random over the year. I needn’t have worried. Blurb’s software gives you the option to lay out the entire book for you and then asks you how you would like them laid out – chronologically or by name, for example.

What a treat, I just left Blurb to do sort out the time stamps for me.

Blurb’s software gives you the option to create and craft each page of your book or you can pick a template and let the software do all the work. I chose the latter due to time constraints and still spent three hours crafting my book. This was not because Blurb was bad, but rather because it was so good I got completely immersed in it and didn’t even notice time passing.

I chose a hardcover book with a dustcover and I had over 50 pages. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that it would only cost me under £30. That is a fantastic price. And the final product matched that in every way. In fact, it is superior in quality to every other photo book product I have reviewed, so much so that other parents have seen my book and gone to Blurb to get their own.

You can even have your book published as an eBook for the iPad to share with relatives and that only costs around £1.75. This was a fantastic service and I really do recommend getting mom a Blurb book for Mother’s Day.

Mother’s Day is fast approaching and it’s time to start your shopping, and fortunately Clinton’s has made that quite easy.  They sent us a range of gifts and goodies to review, so here are our thoughts.

We were sent a very pretty Sketch Butterfly Mug and Coaster Set (£7.99), which would make a lovely gift for a mother who likes mugs. The mug itself is decorated with butterflies and flowers and has a butterfly painted on the inside. The mug is not microwave or dishwasher safe, which is a bit of a pain, but it is very pretty. The coaster is cork backed, and has a lovely rose design.

The set comes wrapped in a cardboard box that continues the theme and the whole presentation of it is, as I said, very pretty.

The Sketch Butterfly Mug and Coaster Set is available with the word Mum, Grandma or Nana on it.

If you’re really close to mum, the Two Part Keyring (£4.99) might be more your thing. Basically you have two Me To You Tatty Teddies each holding half a flower in pink and blue, with the words ‘Mum’ and ‘Me’ on opposite sides of the flower.

Once again this is a really cute idea and it would make a nice little item to give your mum.  These are metallic keyrings with glazing on top and a little ‘Me To You’ badge on each key ring. It comes neatly presenting in a cardboard envelope with a window – although I’m sure it’ll be a much more impressive gift attached to new house keys or car keys or something. Hey, we can all dream.

The final gift we were sent to look at was an Especially For You photo frame (£3.99). These are very pretty glass photo frame tiles with a 3x3 inch photo space and the rest of the frame is pencil-style drawings of flowers and butterflies and a little princess (or a little monkey) with the text “To Mummy” and “From your little princess” or “ from your little monkey” written on it.

It seems to be really good quality and it is certainly well made. It’s also exceptionally well priced, I think!

So, whatever gift you give your mum needs to be accompanied by a card, really, so you can tell her how much she means to you, right? Well, Clinton’s have you covered there too.

They have cards available from 99p to £14.99 aimed at every female variant on the spectrum, including wife, Mother, Mummy, Mammy, Aunty, Godmother, Nan, Sister and even Stepmum. There are cards for every style too, from amusing, to sweet, to heart-warming and humorous and everything inbetween.

We received two cards, one sweet with the words “Happy Mother’s Day Mummy , from your little angel” on the outside and “You’re the best Mummy ever! Lots of Love! Happy Mother’s Day” on the inside. It’s also the pencil style drawings, so matches the photo frame quite nicely, although they aren’t an obvious set.

The other says “For a lovely Mummy from your little rascal” on the outside and “A monkey, a monster, a rascal – that’s me!  And you’re the best mummy that ever could be! Happy Mother’s Day” on the inside.

Both are really sweet and aimed at younger mummies and little ones, but there’s enough variety.

And of course, the final touches to the ‘niceness’ of a gift is the wrapping. Clinton’s have plenty of those too, and not all of it is on the website. They sent us two “Me To You” gift bags, one with a ‘real’ image of a Tatty Teddy and one with a drawing of the Tatty Teddy. Both bags are selling for £2.50 and neither is to be found on the website.

One of the bags also had a variety of tags, which I thought was great as it gives you the option of removing the ‘Grandma’, ‘Nan’, ‘Nanny’ or ‘Mam’ tags that you don’t need, personalising the bag a bit.

The Good

These are all lovely and they’re all good. They are pretty, they seem good quality, and they’re really good prices. Their variety and options are good and there’s plenty to choose from.

The Bad

I honestly can’t think of anything to write here. It’s not that I’m trying to be preferential or anything, but it’s all very sweet. Some of the things are a bit too trinket-y for me, but then that’s me – I’m not really a trinkets person. It’s certainly not a fault of the products.

The Verdict

If you’re looking for a token gift or something to let mum know you’re thinking of her on Mother’s Day, Clinton’s is a good starting point and it certainly won’t break the bank.