Review: Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set

Scented candles are something I use a lot at this time of the year. To me there’s nothing better than filling my house with festive fragrances in the run up to Christmas. I’m a little bit fussy about what I choose though, too often cheaper candles can be quite sooty and not scent my home effectively. I’ve been trying out the Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set and I’m impressed with these little wax cubes.

The Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set comes with a stylish ceramic wax warmer and 16 little packets of scented wax. The wax warmer is really contemporary looking and I’ve decided to put it in my whiter than white bathroom, because it blends in really well.

The wax warmer comes in two parts, the bottom is open on two sides and has a place to put your tealight. The top part of the warmer fits on top and you just put the wax cubes in the small basin on the top and the melt pretty quickly, releasing their lovely scent.

The Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set includes two little packets of each of the following festive fragrances –

Christmas Time
Christmas Spice
Robin Red Breast
Cocoa & Log Fire
Frankincense and Myrrh
Mistletoe & Wine
Festive Tree
Snow

Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set

I melted one little packet and it was enough to fragrance the upstairs of my house. The “throw” on these little wax cubes is quite impressive. The throw of a candle or a wax melt means how it smells when it is lit and how far the scent travels within the house.

I think they would make a lovely present for candle lovers (I ordered one last night as a gift for someone). I think the little wax cubes are very sweet and there are probably hundreds of different scents to choose from on the website. So whatever fragrance style you enjoy, there’s bound to be something to suit you.

Review: Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set

I’m very taken with my Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set and I will enjoy using it over the next few weeks, before thinking about changing my wax to something fresher and more spring like.

The Pick n Melt Christmas Gift Set is currently available for £12 on the Pick n Melt website.

I was sent this gift set for review purposes. All images and opinions are my own.

Review: Thomas & Friends Safe n Sound

Earlier this month it was the small boy’s birthday. He’d asked for and got a train party and much to his eternal joy, a good 80% of his birthday presents were train related. One of his many presents was the Thomas & Friends Safe n Sound
Lumiglow vinyl night-light. We’d recently acquired the Thomas & Friends Go-Glow Night-light, which he loved and we thought he’d like this too.

Thomas & Friends Safe n Sound

The Thomas & Friends Safe n Sound Lumiglow vinyl night-light is made by Worlds Apart and costs around £20. You get a sheet with 50 easy peel and apply vinyl stickers, including a big Thomas sticker and a battery operated Thomas face which lights up when you clap near it.

There are 50 stickers of all different kinds, including, train track, the Fat Controller, Harold the Helicopter, signals and sayings as well as Toby, James and Percy. They provide a suggestion for how to lay it out, but like us, you can arrange your stickers however you want.

The stickers are really easy to apply. You just peel them off the backing and stick them on the wall. A few times I stuck them on in the wrong place, but they easily came off the wall and re-applied elsewhere. I was expecting the big Thomas sticker to be difficult to stick on the wall and bubbly underneath, but I smoothed it on a treat and there are no bubbles. I was impressed.

Once all of your stickers are where you want them you can stick the Thomas face on the Thomas sticker. You need 3 AAA batteries to power it, and it comes with sticky fastenings to stick it to the sticker. It looks great when it’s up.

To make Thomas’ face light up all you need to do is clap near it and it will light up for two minutes. I think this is a great idea, especially for those times in the night where you need a bit more illumination than normal. Or if you’re a small boy and need the comfort of having a light come on quickly if you’re afraid of the dark.

The stickers are bright and cheery and the whole thing has made a nice centrepiece in his bedroom, which previously was white walls with just a few pictures and posters. We’d been meaning to brighten it up for a while now, and this was just what his room needed.

He loves his new addition and really enjoys clapping to make it light up and looking at and pointing out all the details on the stickers. He is completely obsessed with Thomas and is genuinely delighted with the new light. It was a brilliant birthday present and it would definitely make a cracking Christmas present for any Thomas fan.

Note: We were sent the Thomas & Friends Safe n Sound from Worlds Apart for review purposes. All images and opinions expressed are our own.

Review: A Personalised Christmas Plate for Santa

We were sent this personalised Christmas Plate for the purposes of this post. All images and opinions are our own.

Christmas is full of traditions. Christingle services, Carols, decorating the Christmas tree, visits to see Father Christmas to tell him what you’d like (train sets and more train sets please); and leaving mince pies, a small glass of sherry and a carrot for Rudolph by the fireplace on Christmas Eve. These are enduring and lovely traditions and things we wholeheartedly embrace.

Last Christmas the small boy was very excited to discover the empty plate and the half eaten carrot on Christmas morning, so when we were given a lovely personalised Christmas plate by Bluebelle Create for that very purpose, he couldn’t wait to fill it with homemade mince pies.

The cute Rudolph Christmas plate arrived quickly and was really well packaged. The box is labelled with his name on it and the plate was safely wrapped in layers of bubble wrap and tissue paper. We carefully saved this so we can wrap it back up every year after Christmas.

Christmas plate

The Christmas plate is hand painted by Bluebelle Create and can be personalised however you’d like. We chose to have just his name on it, but you can have whatever you want as long as it isn’t too long. The plate says “A gift for Father Christmas & Rudolph… Love from Benjamin xxx” and is 24cm in diameter. There are a few options for what text you’d like on your plate. They’ll even put a personalised message on the back, which is a lovely idea if you’re giving it as a gift.

The plate is hand painted and probably best not put in the dishwasher or microwave; but it’s not too delicate either and will happily be hand washed the old fashioned way. It’s cute, brightly coloured and very festive looking. It would make a lovely keepsake for your child or a pre-Christmas gift for someone.

There are lots of designs to choose from and personalisation options. I cannot fault this lovely festive plate, nor the service or delivery. The price is very reasonable too, starting from £14.99 for a smaller plate; though we chose the larger £18.99 option. I think it’s good value for a hand painted personalised plate, and one which will be used for many, many years to come.

It’s beautifully hand drawn and painted, it’s a real keepsake gift, one which we’ll use year after year and beyond. This is one tradition I firmly approve of, I’m sure Father Christmas and Rudolph will also agree.

Novelty Key Bottle Opener Review

Hodge, bless his cotton Christmas socks, at the grand old age of 38 still (yes still) gets a Christmas stocking from Santa (aka me, Santa only gives good children presents, not grown ups, no matter how well behaved they are). So I’m always on the look out for handy little bits and pieces. Practical, useful little stocking fillers that won’t break the bank.

I was rummaging round the I Want One Of Those website when I spotted the key bottle opener, it was priced at just £7.99, or 3 for £20, which seems a good deal, especially if you’ve adult stockings to fill, or secret Santa’s to shop for.

key

The key bottle opener is a handy key shaped, erm, key which is also a bottle opener which can be added to a keyring, meaning you’ll always have a bottle opener handy. It’s small, neatly designed, sturdy and makes a great stocking filler or secret Santa present.

In the interests of science I had to check if it did the job, so for you (yes you, because you’re worth it) I cracked open a cold one using the key bottle opener. It worked, success! The beer wasn’t too bad either.

Disclaimer – We were sent a key bottler opener free of charge for review purposes.

Get Your Game Face On This Christmas

Like most families we’ve got a wii, originally bought for the purposes of making our bottoms smaller, since it was purchased it’s languished in a cupboard looking forlorn. That was until the boy discovered it, and to his eternal joy and amusement manages to go wii bowling with some success. There’s none of that wearing of other people’s shoes malarkey to contend with either. Result.

So what does Santa get the boy who’s got everything? Coming from a family of keen gamers (Tetris still counts as a game right?) we thought we’d have a little look at some of the new games consoles on the market. To be honest it’s time for an upgrade, Hodge is still playing with his ancient PS1, bless him.

Ideally we want something for Father and Son to enjoy together on rainy days and dark evenings when the park is somewhat less appealing. Luckily we have a room in our house, which we christened “the man room” which has manly stuff in it. We have plans to put a decent gaming TV and comfy chairs in there, so at least I can shut the pair of them away and have some peace.

Both the new PS4 and new Xbox One are due to be released over the next few weeks and are the source of heated debate in this house. Whichever one we go for, it needs to have games suitable for my little monkey and his fractionally more mature father. It needs to be technically fairly easy to master. I’m not sure why I’m worried about that as he already knows how to work my iPad, plays lots of games and watches YouTube videos on Mummy’s “Tumble Tap”.

He loves my iPad, I did consider getting him a mini but it’s a bit solitary and I want him to play games with people rather than by himself. I’ve downloaded some educational games onto my iPad and they’ve been fantastic. They can keep him happily quiet if we’re ever out and about and need him to hush for a bit, like waiting at the Doctors or on a long, boring car journey.

We’re still unsure what to go for out of the PS4 and Xbox One, both look brilliant and pretty child friendly to use. With Angry Birds, Happy Feet and various dance based games to choose from there are game options for children aged 3+. If it was entirely up to me I’d go for the Xbox One as it has Kinect 2 which is a bit like the all familiar wii. But ultimately the boys get to choose.

I do like the idea of sprucing up the man-room in time for Christmas, I sense it’s going to be a long, cold winter so the boys will get lots of use from it. I guess as well as the actual games console and comfy, supportive chairs they’ll need a decent gaming TV and possibly a little beer/apple juice fridge.

I’ve looked into it a bit, asked some of my techie friends and they’ve suggested my best bet is an LED TV rather than LCD. Apparently the picture quality is better and that makes a real difference to the enjoyment of the games. I’ll need one with lots of HDMI outlets too, the more the merrier. My techie chum Ken (real name) suggested getting the best we could afford, something that ticks all the boxes and is a known brand like Samsung, Sony, LG or Panasonic. Sounds fair.

I think while we’re setting up the man room we ought to consider gaming headsets. Not only would they help keep the noise down for those not joining in with the Angry Birds game or whatever, they’ll apparently help Father and Son get fully immersed in the gaming experience.

Lots to think about, but I think sorting the man room out might be a very wise investment. Just need to persuade them to sort me out with a pamper room and everyone’s happy.