Thursday 8 June 2017

Beautiful Flowers & Gifts from Prestige Flowers

I have recently started looking for gifts to purchase for friends and family as I have a few upcoming special dates in our diary. Father's Day is just around the corner on the 18th June and July seems to be full of friends birthdays as well as the end of the school term. My youngest son has nearly completed his first year of nursery and I have seen his confidence grow so much throughout the year that I would like to buy his teachers something special to say thank you for all their help and guidance.

Prestige Flowers have a fantastic website, which features a whole host of flower arrangements for all occasions and to suit most budgets. The site is very user friendly and easy to navigate, with the categories clearly displayed across the top of the page. This makes it easy to find the perfect gift for your loved one or friend. The selection of bouquets available are beautiful and you are literally spoilt for choice.

In addition to their wonderful selection of flowers, the site also features a great choice of gifts that can be added on to your flower order or can also be bought on their own. The Father's Day page has some great gift ideas including flowers, sweet treats, balloons, hampers, alcohol and gift sets.

The Birthday Flowers page showcases some stunning selections and there is bound to be a beautiful bouquet to suit all tastes. The combination gift sets offer great value for money and my personal preference are the sets that come with flowers, chocolates and a balloon.

I was therefore delighted when Prestige Flowers kindly offered to send me some flowers from their luxury range to review. I had previously received a beautiful Valentine's bouquet from them back in February and so I was very excited to be able to sample another bouquet from a different range.

I received an email confirming that my order would arrive on Monday 5th June and sure enough there was a knock at the door just after lunchtime. Even the packaging that the flowers arrive in comes well presented in a beautifully decorated box. The box has useful cut out handles which makes it easy to carry and it is very simple to unpack.


On opening the box I found a flower care guide, a small box of chocolates, a card, another small box and some stunning flowers that were neatly and safely wrapped. I proceeded to open the smaller box and was pleased to find a lovely glass vase inside that was perfect for my new flowers.

The beautiful bouquet came wrapped in glossy white wrapping, with some soaked material around the base of the flowers to help keep them fresh. It featured stunning Peonies, Carnations & Roses in a mixture of dark and pale pink colours. They smelt absolutely beautiful and had a strong, but not overpowering scent.


I found the flower care guide enclosed really useful as it provided specific information on caring for the roses, as well as information on other types of flowers. The essential tips on the reverse of this guide also gave great advice and will help me to maintain the flowers for as long as possible. The guide is only little so it is very easy to store away and keep safe for future reference.

The flowers also came with a small box of chocolate truffles which were absolutely delicious. They come in a lovely little gift box and are the perfect miniature sweet treat for any chocolate fan.


To begin with I initially placed the full bouquet exactly as it came, in the vase that was provided to ensure that all the stems received plenty of water. As the week has progressed I have began to trim the stems and rearrange them to make sure they absorb lots of water. I keep them on my windowsill for a few hours a day to receive sunlight and then move them to my display stand early afternoon to ensure they are not in direct light all day. I believe that this helps to make the bouquet last longer and nearly five days later they look absolutely fantastic.


Overall, I have been really pleased with Prestige Flowers and I would gladly recommend them to others. The bouquet was stunning and I was also impressed with the packaging and speed of delivery. The website is very user friendly and I have found some absolutely gorgeous gifts in their birthday range starting at only £19.99 for flowers and chocolates.


If you would like to visit the Prestige Flowers website then this can be found here: Prestige Flowers

The birthday range can be found on this page here - Birthday Flowers

Also if you would like to keep up to date with their latest products then you can follow Prestige Flowers social media channels here:

Twitter - @prestigeflowers
Facebook - PrestigeFlowersUK
Instagram - @prestigeflowersuk

Disclaimer: I was provided with a complimentary bouquet for the purpose of providing an honest and impartial review. All opinions and photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.




Wednesday 7 June 2017

Outdoor Fun with Wicked Vision - Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang

We were recently sent the Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang by the company Wicked Vision who create fun and innovative outdoor toys for all to enjoy. My children were all very excited to see what was inside the large padded envelope and on discovering it was a Boomerang, there were immediate requests for a trip to the park.

We do have quite a large garden, however even with the best of care, you can guarantee that we lose at least one item over the fence at some point throughout the week and so I was in agreement that the best place to test this new toy out would be at the local playing field where I knew there would be lots of space.


Now we have had boomerangs before and to be honest none of them have ever lived up to the hype or actually returned, so I was somewhat sceptical as to whether this would work. However, the packaging labelled this as being "The World's Best Outdoor Boomerang" which is quite a statement to make and so I couldn't wait to find out whether this was, in fact, correct!


The Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang is made in the UK and has a flight range of 15-20 metres. It is available in three different colours which are red, yellow and blue and also has a special feature of making a loud whistling sound whilst in flight.


It took a few attempts to get the hang of throwing it properly as we had all assumed that boomerangs were thrown in a similar way to frisbees, however you need to keep the boomerang almost vertical on launch. To get the best distance and performance it is ideal to throw in light wind as this helps to carry it a little faster and also makes it easier to throw.

There is also some useful information on the back of the packaging which provides you with full instructions as to how to hold the boomerang, the direction to throw it in, the angle of the throw and how to throw! I would therefore recommend keeping the packaging until you get used to using the product as we found this advice to be very helpful.

Once you begin to get used to throwing and catching the boomerang, it is also possible to tune by bending the wings into different positions. Bending the wing down will help to create a lower flight, bending the wings upwards will create a higher hovering flight and lastly, if you twist the wing tips this creates a smaller flight circle. I was surprised to find so many options as to how to use it. My son Ben was also keen to try some of the trick catching ideas that were placed at the bottom of the packaging.

Another great idea is that the company has its own YouTube channel where you can view video tutorials that show you some tips and ideas. This was great for the kids who aren't big fans of reading instructions and would much rather view a video that shows them how to use something.

Did the boomerang return? Well actually yes it did! The first couple of attempts didn't go too well as we weren't throwing hard enough or as vertical as we should have been. But we watched the YouTube videos a couple of times and quickly got the hang of it. Before long the Sonic Booma was completing accurate return flights much to the excitement of the kids.

The product is recommended for ages 8 up, however my son Riley who is 4 always likes to be involved in everything and so I had no issue with him having a go. Although he was unable to throw it hard enough for it to do a return circuit, he was quite happy just throwing it anywhere, or to his brother and sister. Therefore although he is unable to understand how to use it properly, it still brings him some enjoyment and he feels involved.

Ben on the other hand got the hang of it quite quickly. He has recently broken his wrist and so has been unable to participate in quite a few activities lately, therefore he was pleased to be able to have fun with this as it only needed the use of one hand and I think he could have quite happily spent hours on the field playing with it.

With the product being very slimline and of a reasonable size, it fits into my handbag with ease. This means that we will definitely be taking it out with us on trips to the park, the beach and the local playing fields. It will be a great toy to take on holiday with us to keep the children entertained at the beach and won't affect our luggage allowance either due to it being very light.

Overall we had a great time with the Sonic Booma once we had got the hang of it and look forward to using it again very soon.

If you would like to purchase your own Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang, then they can be found online here for a cost of £10.00.
Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang

You can also browse all of their other products here: www.wickedvision.co.uk

You can also find more information on Wicked Vision by following them on social media:

Facebook - https://www.facebook.com/wickedvisiontoys
Twitter - @WickedVision
Instagram - @wicked_vision
YouTube - Wicked Vision TV

Disclaimer: We were provided with the Sonic Booma Sports Boomerang free of charge for the purpose of providing an honest and impartial review. All opinions and photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.


Tuesday 6 June 2017

A Fun & Educational Experience at Glasgow Science Centre - A Review

Last week we were very excited to have the opportunity to visit the Glasgow Science Centre. If you are a regular reader to the blog, you may remember my post a few weeks ago regarding the company Letterbox Lab who send fun science subscription boxes through the post. The kit that my children received seemed to ignite a keen interest in the subject and a desire to learn that I had never seen happen with a single product before. Therefore when I found out that we were going to be in the Glasgow area for a couple of days, there was no doubt in my mind as to which attraction we should visit.

The Glasgow Science Centre is located on Pacific Quay in a wonderful building alongside the River Clyde. Their aims are to increase the awareness of science, as well as engaging, challenging and inspiring visitors. The website states that it is one of Scotland's must-see visitor attractions and so we couldn't wait to find out more and see exactly what it had to offer.

We had arrived by train into Glasgow Central at around 1pm and made our way to the Village Hotel which was located a short distance from the Glasgow Science Centre. The walk from the station took us approximately half an hour, but the area seemed very well served by trains, buses and taxis that could have made our trip much shorter. Once we had checked in at the hotel we made our way over to the attraction which was very easy to find and we also took a nice short walk along the River Clyde on the way.


On arrival we were greeted by Susanne who gave us a fantastic welcome and provided us with a map. Her enthusiasm and passion for the centre came across really well and I found her so friendly and happy that it actually made my day. Susanne made me interested in what she was telling us as if it was something she loved. We were told about specific areas on certain floors that the kids would enjoy and it was explained to us about how interactive the attraction is and that we could all get stuck in with learning, not just the kids! I couldn't wait to explore inside and we made our way up to the top floor.

Floor 3 is named Bodyworks, which is a huge hands on exhibit covering all aspects of the body, its functions and how everything works. There is so much to get involved with and my children began by making impressions of their bodies on the giant Pin Art board. They loved this, especially the boys and it helped them to compare their sizes in a fun and unique way.


The first area within the Bodyworks zone that we explored was all related to the cardio vascular and respiratory functions of your body. Each individual exhibit was fantastic and my children were fascinated to find out just exactly how your body looks inside. There were loads of experiments for us to try out including viewing our veins, monitoring our heart rate and watching how your lungs assist with breathing.


After this we learnt about how science can assist people with disabilities, or help to provide a new lease of life to people who have suffered an injury or amputation. Some of the mechanics behind these were amazing and my son spent some time trying to pick up a ball using a robotic hand as pictured in the exhibit below.


My son Ben found this area really interesting and it made us all think about how skilled scientists and surgeons are.


My daughter really enjoyed the competitive exhibits where you could test your body and then also compare it to other peoples scores. Everyone's bodies react at different speeds and we all have different strengths and skills, so it was great to be able to compare these and think about what makes us all different. In this game below you needed to watch for the buttons to light up and then press them as quickly as you could. My daughter had several attempts at this to try and beat her score each time.

There were plenty of exhibits to try that assessed both your physical and physcological ability and it was great to be able to test ourselves against one another. My youngest son Riley absolutely loved the sprint track and kept improving his time each attempt he made, much to his excitement.

My husband also enjoyed the grip test and took great delight in the fact that none of us could get even close to his score.


Emma spent some time on a really funny exhibit that shows you how your bones work when moving in a certain way. She began cycling on the bike and was then shocked when a skeleton appeared next to her that showed her exactly how her bones were working whilst pedalling.


The giant hamster wheel was also very popular with all guests and after a short wait my son and daughter both had a go at using their movement to create energy that would make the hamster wheel spin. Around this area we were also able to learn about our digestive system and find our more about DNA and what genetics are.

We absolutely loved Bodyworks and the fact that all the educational information was displayed and presented in such fun and interactive ways meant that my children enjoyed learning. They kept talking about what they had learnt and how they couldn't wait to tell their friends and teachers once they returned to school after the holidays.


Once we had finished in the Bodyworks area, we made our way down the stairs and headed to the Powering the Future floor where we learnt all about how energy is generated and what it can do. There were exhibits to teach us about the storing of energy and how it is transmitted, again using hands on experiments to help make the learning fun.



We were able to learn about how things are made, how things move and how energy that we often take for granted can be generated. We often switch lights on or plug things in without a second thought and so it was great to actually learn more about what happens when you plug something in and how that power is then created.

My youngest son Riley and I had a great time on the huge energy dance floor, where using our own bodies we had to generate enough energy to light up an on screen battery. My husband and eldest son Ben also had a wonderful time playing with the Scalextric track where they used hand cranks to power electric racing cars.




The lower floor was my kids favourite as it featured a large educational play area, scientific favourites such as pendulums and plasma balls, as well as a whole host of different optical illusions. My son Riley could have played in the water zone for hours and he loved watching how the water moved around. He could see where the water was generated and how different valves could change the flow or direction of the water. He also just quite simply enjoyed playing with the boats and moving them from one side to the other.


The crooked room also brought lots of laughter and confusion. This optical illusion made me feel really dizzy as my mind was telling me that the room was straight, but my feet were telling me that it definitely wasn't as I kept walking into the wall. My kids found this hilarious and also came up with fun ways to stand on the floor. If you look at the picture below it appears that the floor is straight and flat, however it is actually a steep slope. Very clever!


Another favourite was the optical illusion below, which made your body disappear using some very cleverly placed mirrors. We had so much fun trying all of these out and watching each other on the nearby television screens.


Overall we had an absolutely fantastic time and it will definitely be a place that we return to in the future. My kids haven't stopped talking about this attraction since we left and I am so pleased that they are so keen to learn at the moment. My husband and I also found out new things during our visit and so it was great as an adult to also be able to enjoy the experiments and interactive exhibits on offer. We found the attraction to be very accessible by car, foot and on public transport and full information on routes can be found here: Transport

There are also some additional attractions here that unfortunately we did not have time to visit which were the Planetarium and the Imax Cinema. For added convenience there is even cafe on site should you wish to have a bite to eat or grab a drink during your visit.

If you are planning on visiting Glasgow anytime soon then I would definitely recommend a visit to the Glasgow Science Centre! Fantastic!

Attraction Details

Address: Glasgow Science Centre, 50 Pacific Quay, Glasgow, G51 1EA.

Opening hours: During the summer months the Science Mall will be open 10am til 5pm each day. Please check the website if visiting during other seasons.

Ticket Prices:
Science Mall Adult £11.00
Science Mall Child £9.00
Planetarium Add On £3.00
IMAX Documentary Add On £2.50
Glasgow Tower Add On £3.50
Glasgow Tower Only £6.50
Planetarium Only £5.50 (Applies to last show of the day only. Suitable for guests aged 7+)
Science Passport  Adult £27.00 (Valid for 12 months entry to the Science Mall)
Science Passport Child £21.00 (Valid for 12 months entry to the Science Mall)

All prices quoted include Gift Aid donation and VAT.

Children under 3 years of age are admitted free of charge.

Car Parking Charge for GSC Visitors: £3.00

For the most up to date information on ticket prices, events and opening hours then please visit their website here: Glasgow Science Centre

Disclaimer: I was provided with complimentary tickets for the purpose of providing an honest review of our experience. All opinions and photographs are my own unless otherwise stated.

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.