The Towel Shop is an all round one stop shop for all your household towel and linen needs. From Egyptian cotton towels, to goose down duvets and quilted mattress toppers they really have something for everyone to suit all of our household needs. We were sent a selection of items to suit our family home and have happily been trying them out to let you know our thoughts.
Having a grey bathroom, these Grey Luxury Face Cloth Flannels are perfect for every day use. They are a really good size and feel lovely and soft. With 12 in a pack it means we can change them often (usually every few days) and just grab a new one out the cupboard when needed. They are perfect to use when showering and wash really well and have so far stayed perfectly soft.
Mattress Covers are an essential in our house as they help avoid a world of sins on the mattress itself whether it be a drink spill, sickness or other. This one fits our king size bed and is fully elasticated for an easy fit and even reaches over our deep mattress. It helps add a softer layer to sleep on as well as protecting the bed.
I do like a good pillow and am rather partial to a lightweight feather one that your head just melts into. This set of Roma 2 pack Goose Feather & Down pillows are just perfect to lay your head onto at night. They have a strong outer cotton cover and are filled with light floaty feathers that allow the pillow to adapt easily to your head shape.
I’m delighted to be able to offer a giveaway prize of a pair of these Roma pillows – the perfect accessory to give you a good nights sleep!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
So Slime Glam DIY from Canal Toys is a fun, scented slime pack that you create and keep in cute little beauty shaped containers. Perfect for an afternoon of fun and then to get out and play with whenever you fancy a bit of slimy, stretchy fun – what kid doesn’t these days?
Contents of So Slime Glam DIY
3 Shakers
3 Scented Slime powders
3 Bags of glittery decoration
Slime is something my children are very fond of so this set put a smile on their faces straight away and they couldn’t wait to try it out. It’s really simple to make and you simply add one sachet of scented slime powder into each of the shakers. Then add water up to the marker line inside the container, put the lid on and give it a really good shake. We did find you need to give them a thorough shake for a few minutes and then massage the slime through to ease out any lumps. We also found the slime became a lot smoother by the next day which allowed for lots of stretching and playing with it.
Once you have your ready made slime, it’s time to add some sparkle. To do this simply pour the glitter onto the slime an knead it in until it’s all mixed around. This really does leave your So Slime Glam DIY looking really pretty and glamourous.
Each coloured slime has matching glitter with it, as you can see the red one below had little red lips glitter which made it look bold and vibrant. You can see how stretchy it is as my daughter pulled it from one hand to the other.
What we thought about So Slime Glam DIY
Each coloured slime is a great size and smell amazing. We love that each have their own container for storage meaning you can put them away and get them out again another day for play. They definitely improved over 24 hours as well, giving them really impressive stretch. The other things we loved about this slime is that it is totally non sticky and doesn’t leave any mess – you can’t go wrong with that!
So Slime Glam DIY is available for £9.99 from all good toy retailers and would make the perfect party present – I think slime is one of those toys appreciated by most children at the moment no matter what age!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
Aimed at 7-11 year olds, The Comic Club offers children a chance to read a couple of fun but educational magazines each month, delivered straight to their door along with an activity sheet encompassing fun things to do from both magazines. They can either read them alone or great to read as a family discovering things you didn’t know whether that be about wild species of animals or the latest environmental and eco news. There are even fun recipes to bake and we found some delicious gooey brownies to make in one of this months magazines.
We received a National Geographic Kids and Brilliant Brainz magazines along with the activity sheet from The Comic Club. Each child friendly activity refers you to the page in the relevant magazine to refresh your memory and give you some inspiration for things such as writing a short story, drawing ideas for things or for those who love a bit of Maths, how about practicing multiplying up the brownie recipe found in the Brilliant Brainz magazine? My boy enjoyed putting his logical head on for this one but equally used his imagination in his short story about an animal.
The magazines are both packed full of interesting content that both my boy and I enjoyed reading through. The National Geographic Kids issue featured several pages about wild cats and as soon as we came across Ocelots, my boy said “I know what they are”, “really?” I replied, “yes he said, I have them in Minecraft!”. Well I never knew he’d of even heard of one but there you go, although it was great to read more about them although sad to see that their population is decreasing due to habitat loss. I thought the Real or Fake article was interesting and my boy surprised me with how much he new about all things eco when we read the pages that covered green issues. They clearly are drumming recycling, reusing and beach cleaning etc into them at school these days.
The Brilliant Brainz magazine isn’t one we’d come across before but it has plenty of things to do and think about inside it. The ‘Mind Blowing Brownies’ are on our list of bakes to make! This magazine covers a wide range of topics such as music, science, art, health and the environment so all good subjects for children to be reading and learning about. Most pages include activities to do whether it’s just thinking about something, telling jokes, making something crafty, trying an experiment etc so there is a lot to keep kids occupied.
Overall I think The Comic Club is a great idea and the fact that they are delivered to your door, saves you walking down the supermarket aisles with your kids allowing them to view the realm of kids magazines covered in plastic tat toys with little content inside. By having a subscription also means they have something to look forward to each month from the postman.
Why not check out The Comic Club where you’ll find details of how to subscribe along with a free online Kids Zone with fun facts and activities that they can access at any time!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
Swizzels are the perfect brand to find Sweets for you Sweetheart this Valentines with an array of fun hampers and of course the iconic Love Hearts that never fail to disappoint with their cute messages. Also from now until 14th February 2020 you can use code V15 for a 15% discount!
Love Hearts are one of those sweets I’ll always remember from my childhood and enjoying turning each one over to read the message or logo although these have been updated over the years keeping them relevant and now include fun emoji’s.
You can even get a personalised tube with a name of your choice on for just £9.99 containing 25 mini rolls of Love Hearts – perfect for that special person in your life.
Or if you like pink, how about these cute limited edition pink coloured rolls, they come in a gift bag of 30 packs, tied with pink ribbon and the logo “For You” on the wrapper.
An alternative to Love Hearts are Swizzels rather fabulous range of hampers that cater for all budgets from small letterbox size ones at £2.99 up to £21.99 ones packed full of sweets in a little wicker hamper. We had a 500g one that retails at £7.99 to try out and it’s safe to say it went down a treat with my family.
These are full of your favourites such as Double Dip, Drumsticks Rainbow drops, Squashies and Fruit pop lollies. In fact the choice of hampers is actually really impressive and they are all reasonably priced so it’s well worth checking out as a surprise gift for someone close to you or a lovely treat for a loved one who can’t be with you as how fabulous would it be to receive one of these through the post!
If you think Swizzels could be the perfect choice for your loved one this year then don’t forget to check out the website and use code V15 by 14th February for your 15% discount!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
illooms are the perfect balloons for celebrating with and the LED light up feature gives them a gentle glow so that they shine right through the evening but equally look stunning in colour and design during daylight. Available in a variety of colours, designs and finishes we were delighted to try out the world’s first latex LED balloons for our combined New Year’s Eve and birthday celebrations for my daughter who turned 12 on New Year’s Day. A fantastic way to ‘Light up life’s special moments’.
The illooms are simple to use and come with guided instructions on how to inflate and deflate. There is a paper tab you need to pull from the end of each balloon to activate the LED light inside, then you simply pump the balloon up as you normally would. With a minimum glow time of the LED light for 15 hours, although this may last considerably longer until it fades away, this allows you time to set up your balloons before any event. Fortunately I had a group of helpers to get ours pumped up fairly quickly on the afternoon of New Year’s Eve.
There are some really fun and different designs of illooms to choose from, such as silver, gold, stars, marble, happy faces, aliens, special celebratory and themed designs for things like birthdays, halloween etc and even unicorns! We opted for silver and stars along with a special personalised balloon for the birthday girl. As you can see below they are quite pretty and vibrant in daylight.
When the lights go down, you get this really pretty glow…
They are so pretty close up.
The personalised balloons from illooms are foil and perfect for ‘Making moments more memorable’. Ideal for filling with helium and with a LED light that last for up to 24 hours they really do help to make a celebration special. They come with a large black sticker sheet full of letters, with duplicates for common letters that get repeated in names. You simply peel off the letters you want to use and then stick them to the balloon. I found this really easy to do and they stuck perfectly first time. They are available at Card Factory from £5.99.
Overall we are really pleased with the illooms and they certainly brightened up our evening with both adults and children enjoying the decor. I have to say also that a week later the balloons are still looking fantastic, although no longer glowing but have a great colour and fullness still to them so will make the perfect backdrop when my daughters school friends come to celebrate with her this weekend.
Stockists for illooms include: Card Factory, Tesco, Sainsbury’s, Asda (selected stores) with an RRP from just £1
I’m pleased to say that I’ve teamed up with illooms to offer one of my readers to win both a Silver 5 pack & a Mixed colour 5 pack to use at their next celebration.
To enter the giveaway simply fill in the Gleam form below:
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
TOMY have revealed their top toys for Christmas and they have something for everyone, the list covers across the ages from toddler toys, to games and even a smartphone photo printer. With Christmas fast approaching here’s a chance to check out some great gift ideas for any last minute buys.
You can see them all here in this video or read below for more detail:
Rizmo (rrp £59.99)
First up is Rizmo also coming in the Dream Toys Top 12, this cute friend is sure to be top of a lot of children’s Christmas lists this year. Highly interactive Rizmo will listen, learn, remember and evolve depending on how much you interact and entertain the toy.
This looks fantastic and one that I know my children will enjoy, we can’t wait to see what he turns into and will be sure to show you more about him once we’ve had time to explore his ways. Here’s Rizmo in its initial fluff ball stage before any interaction has started, once we remove him from the box it releases the battery strip ready for action!
With 5 play modes that become 7 once fully evolved and coming in three colour ways, Berry, Aqua and Snow there is plenty to do and keep kids occupied. Each Rizmo comes with it’s only musical style although you’ll only find out what your’s is once you let it grow.
Ritzy Rollerz Dance n Dazzle Spa Playset with Tori Tada (rrp £34.99)
How cute is this? Suitable for ages 4+, this unicorn shaped spa playset opens up to reveal the perfect place for Ritzy Rollerz to go to get pampered in charms. With 30 charms included there are plenty of places to show them store and display them as well as lights and music features. If my girl was younger this would be the ideal toy for her, I think it would be perfect for little ones who love a bit of glamour!
Articulate Phrases Game (rrp £32.99)
We love playing family games and this promises to be a good one. Working in teams, it’s a case of getting the most phrases correct and moving around the board to determine the winner. Although aimed at ages 12+, we’ll have a go at this with my 9yr old and daughter who turns 12 in two weeks. Being a team game you can easily adapt and with lots of family visiting in the next few weeks it’ll be a chance to put this game through it’s paces – stay tuned to find out what we thought of Articulate Phrases game.
Pile up Pirates (rrp £12.99)
This game looks fun and is aimed at ages 5+ and can be played solo or with up to 4 players. With 16 pirates and 8 planks you take turns in stacking them on top of the ship until one of them falls. Cleverly there are two settings to make it easier or harder which also means it will suit different ages and as the child grows you can move it to the harder level. Pile Up Pirates looks like a lot of fun, helping kids with their motor skills and also having a fun contest with their parents – this is fun game that anyone can join in with.
Puff Ball (rrp £9.99)
When my kids saw this they were super excited – apparently there is an advert on tv and they think it will be so much fun to play. Puff Ball is a game with a difference – you use your own puff to move the ball along the assault course going up ramps, over see saws and through hoops – the first person to get to the end is the winner. This should be great fun and we can’t wait to try it out!
Build A Johnny Tractor (rrp £24.99)
How cute is this for little ones – not only is Build a Johnny Tractor a fun toy to play with, you can take him apart and build him together again. It comes with a drill and several attachments so little ones from 18 months plus can get stuck into some DIY action. Covering both motor skills and construction skills this is the perfect toy for those moving on from baby toys.
KiiPix (rrp £39.99)
This is a great one for the teens or even adult. If you love taking pictures with your smartphone then the KiiPix is a great way to print out your favourites instantly. It’s simple to use, requires no battery or wifi. You do need to separately purchase the film for this so don’t forget to get some if you are buying this as a present this Xmas so it can be used on Christmas day. It requires Instax mini film, which is easily available from Amazon and other retailers.
To use you simply place your phone on the top with the photo you’d like to print on screen, press the shutter button and rotate the dial and out pops a polaroid copy of your photo which is cleverly done by using your phone’s screen brightness to burn the image onto the paper. Available in three colourways, Cherry Blossom, Sky Blue, and Jet Black, I think the KiiPix will be a big hit among the teen/young adult market this Christmas.
Pink Valtra Playset (rrp £34.99)
Wow – I love this! The limited edition Pink Valtra Playset donates £1 of every sale to Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now. It’s a gorgeous high quality toy, you can just feel it in the weight of the box. The diecast tractor comes with a double bale lifter and two pink bales which can be attached and then released again by simply pressing a button on the tractor. So much imaginative play to be had with this one, a timeless toy that has hours of play value for younger ones, or even older ones to have as a collectible – I sure would of loved a pink tractor when I was little!
Adorbs (rrp £4.99)
These are perfect for ages 3-6, a tulip backed dressing up dress that girls can put on by themselves and they come in a handy storage ball. With a choice of dresses available in each orb, you can collect them all!
Overall we think Tomy’s toy selection this Christmas is great, some really lovely products and everything is of a good quality. With something for everyone – make sure you check them out!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
Takeout: The Card Game is a social card game suitable for 2-4 players and with a suggested age of 10 years plus although my 9yr old loves playing it. From Small Monsters Games, it is fast paced card game as you try to beat the other players to get an entire Chinese meal for yourself.
The scene is set for the game:
In Takeout, players are a group of young backpackers in a tiny noodle shop down an alley in China. Although none of you speak Chinese, you’re determined to sample authentic Chinese cuisine. The object of the game is to get one dish of each flavor (sweet, sour, salty, spicy and bitter) and a cold drink into your meal, before any of your friends do.
In the Takeout card box are a variety of cards, food cards and action cards which start together in a kitchen pile but are discarded into either a food pile that other players can select the top one from or a general discard pile.
There are also cards which show the complete range of flavours you need to collect in our meal and each player can have one of these cards in front of them to remind them of what they need to collect.
It’s then time for the game play to start. The instructions are fairly simple although it’s good to have a first round of play where you are not competitive and just getting to grips with rules. After that everyone was at battle to get their meal prepared first!
The Takeout game starts by dealing out 5 cards per player, and then each player takes a turn that consists of drawing a card, playing a card and discarding a card. If you get a food card you have the option of keeping it, playing it of discarding and this is were you get tactical. Sometimes it’s worth playing a duplicate food card to conceal the fact you have another one to complete your meal. But also you have to remember the action cards come into play and you get the option of helping yourself to one of your friends dishes, sending one of the other players dishes to the bottom of the kitchen pile, swap a meal with a friend or pick a random meal you fancy from one of your friends!
We’ve really enjoyed playing this game as a family with my 9 and 11 year old children. It is fun, they are always eager to be the first to complete their meal first and they love the action cards when they can either steal off of others or put a part of someone’s meal back in the kitchen. It’s a game of both chance with getting the meals you need and tactical playing to complete the entire meal. With Takeout being a card game it means it’s great for carrying around with you for play anywhere, great for travelling, holidays etc as well as simply playing at home. A fun game that we’d recommend!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
If you are looking for some fun this Christmas then head to Ginger Fox who have a plethora of fun, family games suitable as stocking fillers, secret santa’s or just to put on the table as an after dinner party game. There are some great ideas out there that will suit all ages and are guaranteed fun – take a look below.
First up is Space Dash a game for 3-6 players and a recommended age of 8+. The object of the game is to collect the correct sequence of cards in order to ‘touch down’ and be the first player to do so. It’s a quick, fast paced game that my children love as you all play at the same time in a scramble to get your sequence of cards first.
Bump This is a thoroughly modern game that young people will enjoy. Hand shaking and fist bumping galore in a variety of ways. The idea is to build a sequence of hand shakes until a player gets one wrong and then you move onto the next round. From just 2 players upwards this is fun to play with just the two of year or ideal for parties or an after dinner game.
Catchphrase is my boy’s favourite Saturday night tv show so I knew this game would be a hit here. With a recommended age of 12+, we did adapt the game to allow my 9 year old to play and do give him time to make a guess as he loves it so much and has so much fun trying to guess some of the clues. Being a card game makes it very portable and everyone has a laugh with some of the guesses being made.
Ginger Fox have an array of novelty mugs available and I think this Inky the Ghost from Pacman is just the cutest – perfect for kids stocking fillers. They have many for adults too, such as guess the tv shows, films, rude plants and cats to name just a few – go check them out!
Yule Duel has to be the ultimate game for after dinner games over the festive season. With three games packed into this cute compendium of games box, they are ideal for to get the entertainment started and bring on some laughter without having to set up a structured board game. Suitable for 4 players upwards these mini cards are great to play either around the table or chilling out on a sofa, as long as you can grab a card when it’s your turn, play can happen anywhere.
Here are the games included:
Who am I? A classic game of yes-or-no answers. It’s a race against time to work out who you are.
Charades Are you a master of mime? Put your skills to the test as you take turns to act out a TV, film, book or song title!
Slip of the tongue The party game that will have you tongue tied. Describe what’s on the card without saying the forbidden words!
I’m super impressed at this little bundle of games and think we’ll have lots of fun over the festive season playing them when friends and family visit. Available on Amazon although I also these games in Debenhams on my Christmas shopping spree last week, in the 3 for 2 gift section so be sure to check them out!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
An Elf for Christmas is a great way to make the run up to Christmas special for children by using the elf as an incentive to get them behave but also creating lots of fun by getting up to mischief overnight for the children to find in the morning.
The Elf for Christmas Magical Reward Kit contains everything you need on the run up to Christmas. The actual Elf is a really lovely quality and comes beautifully dressed. You can get it in either girl or boy variants, we received the boy who comes in his lovely green cord dungarees. Also inside the box you will find an array of items you can leave with the Elf each day to encourage your child to behave on the run up to Santa’s arrival and add to the fun that the Elf brings each day!
An Arrival Letter from Santa
Mini Elf Report Cards
2 x Letter to Santa Templates
2 x Official Nice List Certificates
Christmas Reward Chart & a Sheet of Elf Stickers
Beware of the Elf Sign & Santa Please Stop Here Sign
Departure Letter
A Thank You Postcard
The Elf’s First Adventure book is a lovely story full of coloured pages to really engage with little ones. I think this is an ideal gift for the Elf to leave out one day and is a nice story to read at bedtimes.
One of my favourite items from the Elf for Christmas range has to be this Magical Elf Door. It’s well made and has some lovely detail on it and is perfect to stand against a wall inside your house. You can use your imagination however you want for this but it’s great to suggest this is the door the elves go through to get back to the North Pole and get busy wrapping presents.
The best feature about this door is that it also lights up. Batteries are included so it’s just a case of putting them in the battery holder on the underside and switch it on. How pretty is this?
I think the Elf for Christmas range is totally magical for little ones and really helps bring the Christmas countdown in December alive and fun. There are numerous products available in the range to help you our so they are well worth checking out. Everything has been carefully thought about and well made.
So if you haven’t got an elf yet or want to add one to your collection (we here have a couple of little mischievous little visitors each night!) then take a look at Elf for Christmas.
What will your elf be getting up to tonight? Ours has cheekily jumped aboard the boy’s homemade fire engine!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
Chocolate Emoji Maker from Zimpli Kids is exactly what it says on the box. You get to make two emoji shaped chocolate bars using 100% Belgian chocolate. The set is simple to use and gives kids something to make, then something to enjoy eating after!
In the box you will find:
2 trays to use as moulds
stencil sheet
2 sachets milk chocolate
2 sachets dark chocolate
2 sachets white chocolate
The instructions are clear to follow and there is a really good size sheet with 6 emoji stencils on to follow when drawing with the chocolate. They sit underneath the clear trays so you can follow the design.
It’s then a case of melting the bags of chocolate in a bowl of hot (not boiling) water for a few minutes, cutting a very small corner off of each bag and use them like a piping bag to cover the design.
You can pipe each colour on top of the others so there is no waiting around between the different chocolates. Although bear in mind that you need to work fairy quickly to ensure the chocolate stays runny enough for a good design. Once finished just leave in the fridge for half an hour or so before simply popping out of the plastic mould.
We are really pleased with the results of the Chocolate Emoji Maker, in fact the children were thrilled with the finished piece. The size reminded me of one of those giant chocolate coins you get at Christmas time and was around half a centimetre in depth.
The verdict from the kids upon eating them – utterly delicious – which I guess comes from the set using 100% Belgian chocolate. This would make a great little present over the festive time or even for birthdays. A definite extra to add to Santa’s sack this year!
Zimpli Kids also have lots of products to add fun to the bath tub or alternatively you could just do them in a bucket or large plastic storage box in the house.
First up is Gelli Baff – a firm favourite of my two who have been using it since 2013! Even though they are getting quite big for bathing together, they insisted on putting on their swimmers and getting into a bath full of Gelli Baff to play together.
It’s so simple to use, you just run a bath as normal and then sprinkle over the contents of the Gelli Baff sachet and stir with your arm to allow the water to turn into a bright coloured jelly like substance.
There are various colours available such as blue, green, purple etc to give you a variety of options, this time we used the blue. As you can see it’s a smooth but textured substance that the children just love.
My children have so much fun with this and after they’ve played with it for a while and it goes cold, we do add some warmer water which does make the Gelli Baff thinner but still fun to play in. In fact my children stayed in this bath for 1 hour and 20 mins this time!!! Which to me says they clearly thought it was fun and thoroughly enjoyed themselves.
Just to add then when you are done, it’s best to add lots of water to thin it out even more and add the included sachet off salt which helps to break down the particles. We have used this multiple times over the years and never had any issues with it passing through the drain.
Next up is Crackle Baff Colours which is a simple little sachet of crystals that literally turns the bath a different colour, but also upon sprinkling the crystals on top of the water they crackle away for a minute or so which is quite fun. You don’t know what colour you will get in the packet and we got yellow which is my boy’s favourite colour so he was happy although it wasn’t the best to take pictures with – it was a very vibrant yellow in the bath though.
He’s a short clip so you can listen to the crackles:
Lastly is the SnoBall Play which again is activated by simply adding water. We like to do this in a bucket and the children love a snow ball fight. With the wet dull weather and dark evenings we haven’t really been able to have any garden play but check out my SnoBall Play post from earlier in the year when they had lots of fun outside.
All in all my children love Zimpli Kids products and we think they’d make perfect stocking fillers or great for small presents for friends. They certainly get kids smiling and keep them entertained – go check them out now!
All reviews are my own and my family’s opinions. We are not paid for reviews although we do receive the product to try out and enable us to write the review.
We received a National Geographic Kids and Brilliant Brainz magazines along with the activity sheet from The Comic Club. Each child friendly activity refers you to the page in the relevant magazine to refresh your memory and give you some inspiration for things such as writing a short story, drawing ideas for things or for those who love a bit of Maths, how about practicing multiplying up the brownie recipe found in the Brilliant Brainz magazine? My boy enjoyed putting his logical head on for this one but equally used his imagination in his short story about an animal.
