Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Shopping. Show all posts

Monday 21 January 2019

Valentine's Day Letterbox Cakes from bakerdays - A Review

One of my favourite things about blogging is being introduced to brands that really appeal to me. I love to purchase unique and special gifts for friends, so when I first became aware of bakerdays a couple of years ago, I knew that they were a company that would quickly become one of my favourite online stores.

When shopping for the perfect present, I always try to find something that is personal for the intended recipient. It is nice to show that you have put a little thought and effort in to finding the perfect gift and I believe that bakerdays makes this simple, especially when shopping for friends and family who can sometimes be very difficult to buy for.


The company bakerdays create personalised cakes for all occasions, with a whole host of different themes, flavours and sizes available. This review will focus on their popular letterbox cakes, however they do offer some much larger options which also makes them ideal for weddings, birthdays or even corporate gifts. There is a huge selection available to choose from, but the website makes it easy for you to narrow your options down, by using the search or category functions.

My favourite choice though is the Letterbox Cake which measures approximately 5 inches in diameter. As the saying goes, the best things come in small packages which certainly rings true with this product. They have been designed to fit through your letterbox, so there is no need to worry about the recipient being at home at the time of delivery and they are sure to put a smile on anyone's face when they return to find their gift.


With Valentine's Day fast approaching, I opted to try a cute romantic theme for my Letterbox cake, so after having a search through all the available designs I finally made my choice. The website is really easy to use which makes choosing and personalising your cake, a really easy process. Once I had chosen my selected cake image, I simply clicked on the required size and my flavour option, then added a special message of my choice. You can either choose the template design or amend this to suit your requirements.

The hardest decision I had to make was the choice of flavour as they all sounded delicious. The available options were:
  • Traditional Sponge
  • Lovely Lemon Drizzle
  • Rich Chocolate Chip
  • Gluten Wheat Free Sponge
  • Dairy Free Sponge
  • Fabulous Fruit
I decided to go with Rich Chocolate Chip after some deliberation, as to be honest chocolate and cake are two of my favourite things, so it seemed the most obvious choice for me. Also as the whole family would no doubt be sharing it, I needed to make sure I chose a flavour that we would all enjoy.  Once I had made all of my choices and continued to the checkout page, I saw that there was the ability to add extras to the order such as balloons, teddy bears or a card. I thought that this was a great idea and the price was clearly displayed for each add-on so you can customise your gift package to suit your budget.

Once my order was completed, it was simply a matter of waiting a couple of days for it to arrive. Due to various family members being unwell and having an extremely hectic week, I had actually put it to the back of my mind, so when it popped through my letterbox on Friday it was a lovely surprise and certainly cheered me up. 


The cake came well packaged in a sturdy cardboard box branded with the bakerdays logo and securely fastened with tape. It was good quality packaging and there was no damage to the exterior at all, not even a scratch. On opening the box, we found a beautiful miniature cake tin, a small card and further bubble packaging that prevents the tin from moving around whilst in transit. I thought that the presentation was lovely and my children and I couldn't wait to look inside.

When we opened the tin, we found the cake exactly how it had been displayed on the website. The image and text were clear and it looked a really good quality product. My husband has been poorly for a couple of weeks, so I knew that it would cheer him up and I was really pleased with the whole presentation of the item. 


I had chosen the text "To my darling Valentine, I love you with all my heart now and forever!" This was actually one of the template scripts, but as I was happy with the message I felt no need to amend it and I was really pleased with how it was displayed. I particularly liked the hearts which went all around the border as I felt this created a lovely romantic design that made it that little bit more special.

There was a large paper tag that hung over the side of the cake tin and continued underneath the product itself. The aim of this is to help you remove the item from the tin without any damage and it is a simple idea that works well. I was able to remove the cake from the tin really easily and we placed it on a small plate ready to cut and share between our family.


The cake looked even better on the plate and we went to get a knife to cut it into pieces. Although it recommends this cake as being suitable for 3-4 people, we were actually able to cut six nice size pieces which meant that one of us were able to enjoy two slices. (I wonder who claimed the extra slice?) 

When it came to the taste test, we were all pleasantly surprised. We have eaten bakerdays cakes before and have always enjoyed them, but the rich chocolate chip flavour was so tasty. I had thought that the chocolate chips may be hard, but the chocolate was so smooth and delicious, that we all agreed it was extremely yummy!

Overall we find that bakerdays offer a wonderful product that makes the perfect gift for any occasion. They offer a great range of designs that not only look great, but taste superb too. I love the fact that they can be personalised to your particular requirements, making a beautiful present for friends and family. I would definitely recommend bakerdays to others and my family and I will also continue to use them in the future.

If you would like to find out more about the great range of cakes that bakerdays offer, then you can visit their website or social media channels on the links below:

Website - www.bakerdays.com/
Facebook - facebook.com/bakerdays/
Twitter -  @bakerdays
Instagram - @bakerdays


*Disclaimer - We were provided with a complimentary letterbox cake from bakerdays for the purpose of writing an honest review of the product. Opinions and thoughts are my own unless stated otherwise. 

Thursday 25 January 2018

Making my money go further with the January Sale at B&M Stores

With Christmas out of the way, January brings another two expensive events for our family as my son Ben has his birthday at the beginning of the month, followed by my other son Riley a couple of weeks later. This means that we really need to budget well over Christmas and throughout January, to make sure we can afford everything to make our boys birthdays special.

One thing that really assists us with this is the January sales, as we are able to pick up some great bargains that can help us to save money and prevents us from having to spend too much. One of our favourite stores to go bargain hunting in is B&M Stores as we have a huge shop just less than a mile away from our home and there is always plenty in store. We particularly love their homeware range and toys selection as there is a great choice to choose from, which helps to make a shopping trip enjoyable.

My youngest son Riley absolutely loves building, this can be anything from constructing vehicles, to creating little houses. He will use anything he can find to do this including building bricks, wooden blocks or even cardboard boxes that he quickly takes from me when any post arrives! I therefore recently visited my local B&M Stores to look for some construction toys that I could add to his birthday present collection. There was certainly no shortage of items to choose from! After a good browse around, I found some fantastic bargains that were just perfect for what I had in mind. For less than £20, I managed to pick up this fantastic haul:


Firstly I noticed the Brick by Brick Police Mission set on the top shelf. I saw the £14.99 price sticker, but underneath there was a large mega value label on the shelf stating a price of only £6.99. I thought this was actually an error as it seemed so cheap, so I grabbed one of the boxes and took it to the till to have it price checked. I couldn't believe it when the shop assistant confirmed the price.


The set contained a humongous 487 pieces which gave you the opportunity to build all the following items:

  • 1 x Police Station
  • 1 x Police Helicopter
  • 1 x Police Transporter
  • 1 x Police Motorbike
  • 1 x Police Car

The set also came complete with 6 individual figures and a set of instructions. It also stated on the box that it was compatible with other brick brands, so this meant that Riley could combine these bricks with his existing toys and that sounded like a winner to me!

On my return to the toy aisle, I noticed that there were some different sets in the same range. Realising that this was a bargain not to be missed, I had a look at the other choices that were available. One of them consisted of a dinosaur and some vehicles and the other was of a construction yard. I decided to opt for the construction set as Riley loves diggers and again I was very impressed with what the box included.


The Brick by Brick Site Crew Collection contained 448 pieces which allowed you to build the following:
  • 1 x Building
  • 1 x Scaffolding
  • 1 x Crane
  • 1 x Excavator
  • 1 x Heavy Load Transporter
Again this box also included six figures and a set of instructions to help with the building process. This meant that for only £13.98 I had managed to purchase over 900 building bricks. Bargain!

I also wanted to buy some large base plates for Riley to build on, I wasn't sure if B&M would sell these, but I soon found them located a little further down the same aisle.


These base plates were only £2.99 each and were ideal for Riley to be able to build his creations on. We have only had smaller base plates previously, but these were really large and meant that he would be able to build several buildings on them with ease. I opted for two different colours just for some variation and again I was pleased to see that these were compatible with other building block brands. This took the total price for all of thes items to only £19.96 which I think is excellent value for money!

B&M is now one of the leading variety retailers in the UK and it is easy to see why. Stocking a great range of both value and top brand products, there are now an incredible 560 stores across England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. If you aren't sure where your nearest one is, then you can use this handy store finder tool that is available on the B&M Stores website.

As you can see I chose to make my money go that bit further by purchasing some toys that I know Riley will love. However, B&M also have some amazing products across all their ranges in the January Sale and you can view some of these online on their website, or keep up to date with the latest offers by following the B&M Social Media Channels which are:

Website - B&M Stores
Facebook - facebook.com/bmstores
Twitter - @BMStores


*Disclaimer - This is a collaborative post with B&M Stores. I received £20 vouchers to purchase items of my choice for the purpose of this review.

Wednesday 11 October 2017

Five Reasons Why I Love Autumn

The summer holidays now feel like a distant memory and as much as I love the sunshine, trips to the beach and al fresco dining, I can't help but feel happy when Autumn arrives. To some, Autumn can be a bore as the nights draw in and the weather gets colder, but personally I love it and here's why:

1) Colours - I love the bright sunshine and greenery that summer provides, but Autumn brings a whole host of different colours everywhere you turn. Leaves on the trees start to change and a simple walk down the street can bring such a wide selection of calming shades and tones to your eyes. Our walk to school consists of going past numerous trees, all of various sizes and shapes. Just before we reach school, there is a small grass area that is home to a beautiful large tree, which turns a stunning red and deep purple colour every October. Riley calls this his favourite tree as he just loves the colours it brings.


2) Weather - Whether it is cool and dry, or wet and windy, Autumn is great for puddle jumping, woodland walks and exploration. The heat of the summer has subsided and it makes for a much more relaxing and cool experience when venturing out of the house. My children love getting their wellies and waterproofs on and heading down to the local park, where you can be sure to find plenty of puddles, squelchy mud and woods to explore.


3) Events - October and November bring lots of events for us. Both my daughter and I have birthdays in October, my husband and I celebrate our wedding anniversary, we have October half term to look forward to spending together as a family, as well as getting dressed up for Halloween. Then of course, we have the enjoyment of bonfire night and fireworks displays, as well as it being the time of year that we start to also prepare for Christmas.

4) Cosy Nights at Home - As much as I love to travel and get out and about, there literally is no place like home. I absolutely love it when it gets dark early and you can enjoy the sunset, put the fire on and cosy up in your pyjamas with a nice glass of wine or hot chocolate. I love the feeling of being warm and comfortable at home, whilst it is cold or raining outside.

5) Clothing - I love to shop, so Autumn gives me a great excuse to hit the retail park and purchase some new clothing from the Autumn/Winter ranges. I love being able to throw on a cardigan or oversized jumper and wave goodbye to the figure hugging tops of summer. I always love the Autumn kids ranges that come out in Next and Primark, so it is nice to be able to splash out on some new clothes for the kids and purchase the compulsory Autumn/Winter coat for each of them.


Sunday 4 June 2017

Personalised Father's Day Gifts with Snapfish - A Review

Father's Day is almost here, on the 18th June to be precise and to be honest, I often find myself purchasing the same kind of gift each year for both my dad and my husband. It's not that I can't think of new ideas, but instead I often resort to the firm favourites that I know they will love. For the last few years I have , I mean my kids have, bought their dad Wales Rally GB tickets. My husband goes every year and with the base now being just down the road it is always a welcome gift. However I could easily buy these at any time of the year for him, especially when he has to wait until October to use them and they aren't really something that is 'personal' to him from the children. With regards to my own dad, I often buy him wine or a new shirt to add to his 'Grandad Shirt' collection as my kids call them.

I was therefore delighted to have the opportunity to try something new this year after I was made aware of the company Snapfish. Their website allows you to create fun personalised gifts and cards, which you can design yourself using your favourite and most cherished photographs. This allows you to display your family moments and memories in a wonderful unique way.


Choosing Your Product

Choosing which product I wanted to purchase was probably the hardest part out of the whole process due to there being so much choice. I wanted to pick something that my dad would use, but also something that I could add numerous images to. The website was really easy to navigate and after selecting the Father's Day section from the contents, I was taken to a page full of gift ideas. The products ranged from mugs to cushions, keyrings to mousemats and phone cases to calendars to name a few. After a good browse through the choices, I decided to purchase a mug for both my dad and my husband, as well as a Personalised Table-Top Panel for my husband that I knew would take pride of place on his desk in work.


The Design Process

I was initially a little worried that it would take ages for me to design the products. As I am often short on time, I was concerned that I may be getting into a long drawn out process of selecting and uploading photographs one at a time and then having to rearrange them in a way that I wanted. However, I needn't have been worried as uploading the photographs was very quick and simple and I was able to select multiple photographs at a time to upload into my Father's Day Album. The majority of the photographs I used were original digital images, however some of the photos I wanted to use on my dad's mug were old photographs that I only had original prints of. As I don't have a working scanner at present, I just took photos of them using my camera phone in order to convert them into a digital image. I was unsure how good the quality would be, but they turned out absolutely fine and I had no issues in applying them to my design.

When I selected the mug option, I was then presented with a layout template, which also had a variety of other options displayed along the left hand side of the page. This included a layouts option which allowed you to amend the formation, a designs option which gave you some pre-designed ideas, a backgrounds option which gave you numerous different patterns, textures and colours to choose from and an embellishments option where you could add text designs or images on top of your photographs. The possibilities seemed literally endless!

Once I had completed my first mug design, I moved on to the second one for my husband. The kids joined in with this as I wanted them to have input with it being a gift from them. They chose some of their favourite photographs and also added a couple of embellishments. My daughter Emma who is 10 took control of the design process and working together with her two brothers they completed the mug design in less than ten minutes. We also wanted to purchase something for my husband's desk in work and so the kids then also completed the Personalised Table Top Panel which they thought he would really like. I made sure I was on hand in case my daughter had any difficulties but the process was simple enough for her and so she simply shouted me over as soon as they were ready for us to complete our purchase.

Purchase & Delivery

I registered our account so that our photos would be stored for future use and so that we could also monitor the progress of our items. The total bill for 2 x mugs and 1 x table-top panel came to £25.97 excluding delivery which I feel is excellent value for personalised gifts.

I placed the order on Sunday 21st May and immediately received an order confirmation via email. Only three days later on the Wednesday 24th May, I received a further email confirming that the items had been dispatched. This was far quicker than I was expecting and the following day I received the first of my items. I had expected the products to all be delivered together, however they did all arrive separately.

The first to arrive was the Personalised Table-Top Panel which was quickly followed the next day by the delivery of both of my mugs. I was very pleased with the prompt delivery and everything arrived perfect and undamaged.

The Products

I was absolutely delighted with all the products we had ordered. I wasn't expecting the quality to be as great as it was, so this was a wonderful surprise. All the images were perfectly clear and not blurry at all.

For my dad's mug I had chosen some of his favourite photos from the past including his wedding day and I feel that the design I had created was just perfect. The mugs are 11oz and suitable for tea, coffee and other hot drinks. They are dishwasher and microwave safe, and Snapfish recommend using a mild detergent in order to keep the photographs bright.

This product can be found here: Personalised Father's Day Gifts - White Coffee Mug 11oz




My husband's mug featured a selection of my children's favourite images and again we were really impressed with the outcome. The mugs can be customised with photo's, embellishments and even text, so you can get really creative with your design. My kids really enjoyed being able to do this together and didn't have any problems at all. However I noticed that there was a large help section should we have ran into any difficulty.

This product can be found here: Personalised Father's Day Gifts - White Coffee Mug 11oz




The Table-Top Panel had a high gloss finish and also featured a UV-resistant, scratch free coating and measured 7 x 5 inches. I noticed it was also available in larger sizes should you require your gift to be larger. The photo's were printed directly onto the wood and it had a great easel back feature which means it is easy to display on a shelf, table-top or desk in either portrait or landscape.

This product can be found here: Personalised Father's Day Gifts - 7x5 Wooden Table-Top Panel





Overall

Overall we really enjoyed using the Snapfish website. The whole process from designing the item to actually receiving the products was really simple and it is definitely a service that we will continue to use going forwards.

There are so many possibilities with the products and it is also really fun being able to be involved with designing your own gift.

If you would like to view the full range of Father's Day Gift's, then these can be found here:

Personalised Father's Day Gifts

I will also update this blog post after Father's Day to let you know exactly what the gift recipients thought!

Disclaimer: We were provided with a voucher code of £25 credit for the purpose of reviewing the website and it's products and providing an honest review of the service. All opinions are my own unless otherwise stated.

Thursday 9 March 2017

A Grand Reopening at The Entertainer, Ellesmere Port

On the 25th February, we were invited along to a fun packed day to celebrate the grand reopening of The Entertainer, situated on the Coliseum Shopping Park in Ellesmere Port.

The store has undergone a full refurbishment, and staff were ready to welcome customers back to the new look store, along with a host of very special guests including Kai and Lloyd from Lego Ninjago, Lego Batman, and the amazing Optimus Prime. There were also balloons and goodies galore for children and their families who had made their way to the store to celebrate the reopening.


It was great to be able to attend and support a local event, and the day began with a charity trolley dash, where just under £500 worth of toys were collected. This was soon followed by the arrival of the fantastic Optimus Prime truck, which quickly drew plenty of attention to the store.


The store itself looked fantastic, with toys all neatly displayed and placed within colour coded categories. The signs were placed high in the store, so it was easy to find the area that you were looking for, and there was an absolutely huge range of toys on show. In addition to regular priced toys, there was also a great selection of special offers located around the store, and I was pleased to find that these were Nationwide special deals, and not just one off prices for opening day.






As the morning progressed, more and more customers were welcomed through the doors, and it wasn't long before some very special guests made their way out into the crowd to meet families and pose for some photographs. Orderly queues were formed, and the staff were great in making sure that everyone had the opportunity to pose for a photo with their favourite characters. The first guests my children were able to meet were Kai and Lloyd from Lego Ninjago!



Once the waiting crowd had all taken photos, it wasn't long before we were joined by another Lego favourite in the form of Lego Batman. My youngest child Riley is a huge fan of Lego Batman at the moment, as you may have seen from our recent Legoland Discovery Centre review, and so to have the opportunity to meet him again was fantastic, and Riley was of course delighted!


Queues for the character meet and greets moved quickly, however there was always something else going on to keep children entertained. A lovely gentleman was busy making all sorts of fabulous balloon creations for children, and guests were also invited to take a closer look at the amazing Optimus Prime vehicle.

It was also great to see so many children and their families making the most of the great offers available in store, and we saw many happy faces leaving the store with their new toys!

My daughter really loved the Art and Craft section and found that there was a fantastic choice of products available, including some at pocket money prices. She also saw some lovely gift ideas for her friends for when it is their birthdays, and was also very impressed with the wide range of character toys available for Riley's age group such as Peppa Pig, Ben & Holly and Jake and the Neverland Pirates.

We managed to find a Jake and the Neverland Pirates Skully Soaring Ship Playset that had been reduced from £20 to only £6.66, which was a great bargain! Riley also enjoyed being able to see the new range of PJ Masks toys, which is one of his favourite programmes on television at the moment.

Once my children had each picked a treat, we made our way back outside and met even more characters. This time it was the turn of Bumblebee from Transformers, another popular choice with my children.


We finished the morning with one last browse around the store. My daughter was already busy compiling her birthday gift list in her head as she wandered from aisle to aisle, and it wasn't long before the boys were doing the same. We left the store very impressed with both the event and the refurbishment, and we will definitely be returning again in the future to purchase some more toys.


The Entertainer has over 130 UK stores, and they regularly hold special in-store events, so be sure to check out the Store Finder to find the one closest to you. If however, you prefer online shopping, then great deals can also be found on their website here, or alternatively click on the banner below:

                                                                                          

Disclaimer: We were invited along to the reopening of The Entertainer in Ellesmere Port as guests to experience the event day and view the refurbishment that had taken place. 

This article contains affiliate links, which means that I may receive a small commission should you choose to purchase something online from The Entertainer at TheToyShop.com. These small commissions allow me to maintain this site and are greatly appreciated.