Baking in style with Babahoot Personalised Aprons

We were sent this Babahoot Personalised Apron for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Over the last few months we’ve managed to shed some of my son’s after school activities and we now get to spend three after school afternoons together each week. For me these are precious hours together. Sometimes we do some homework or reading and sometimes we grab a bag of popcorn and watch a film together. On at least one of these three afternoons a week, we put on our aprons and bake together.

I love baking anyway, but baking with him is a lot of fun too. It’s lovely to be able to work with him, teaching him some baking basics and pulling delicious cakes and treats out of the oven. He’s really starting to get the hang of it lately and we’ve made some brilliant cakes.

Being 8, he is instinctively quite messy in his baking habits. He’s always missing the bowl when he’s tipping the flour in; or pulling the electric hand mixer out while it’s still going – and splattering cake batter all over himself and the kitchen. He lives to lick the spoon and scrape the bowl, but then, so do I.

Last week we were sent an absolutely gorgeous handmade personalised apron from Babahoot. Babahoot make personalised aprons and chef hats, pencil cases, toy storage trugs and knitting bags in their workshop in rural Herefordshire. Every item is made to a unique Babahoot design and finished with bright individual appliqués. They can be personalised with names and they are constructed with strong overlocked seams and good quality, brightly coloured fabrics.

Baking in style with Babahoot Personalised Aprons

Ben was sent this beautiful design, covered in cars, with a handy pocket and a comfortable elasticated neck strap. He put it on and immediately said it was awesome, which is praise indeed. This design, which was specially made for his 8 year old body, using a fabric he would love and personalised with his name cost £18, which is good value for such a high quality, bespoke item.

Children’s aprons are always a godsend; whether you’re baking or crafting, or doing any number of messy things, an apron is a huge step towards keeping him clean and tidy. This apron is so colourful and appealing, he wants to wear it, which is half the battle towards cleanliness!

Baking in style with Babahoot Personalised Aprons

If you’re looking for a lovely homemade, personalised gift for a child, you can find the Babahoot aprons and more on ETSY.

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Snowflake

One of our family traditions is a Christmas Eve box. We pack up a box full of lovely things for Christmas Eve, new pyjamas, some nice treats to nibble on and a Christmassy book to read together at bedtime. This year we’ve chosen The Christmas Snowflake from Wonderbly, a wonderful personalised Christmas story.

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Snowflake

The Christmas Snowflake tells the tale of a lonely snowflake who is looking for a place to call home this Christmas – but only you and your family can help! Like with other personalised books from Wonderbly, The Christmas Snowflake is beautifully illustrated and full of wonderfully festive images.

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Snowflake

This heartwarming story includes personalisation for up to 9 family members, friends or loved ones and as the final page is turned, you’ll find a charming pull-out-and-keep ornament – something that you can hang on your Christmas tree!

The Christmas Snowflake is written in a lovely rhythmic style, which reads well. The personalisation within the book is very smoothly done and children will enjoy spotting familiar names throughout the story.

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Snowflake

The book comes in a hardback format and contains 34 colourfully illustrated pages. The style of the illustrations is almost vintage, and of course it’s wonderfully festive. The pull out snowflake on the last page is inspired and a lovely surprise at the end of the story.

Christmas Book Review: The Christmas Snowflake

The Christmas Snowflake is a wonderful keepsake book which you can bring out and read year after year. I can’t wait to read this special story with my son, personalised stories are such a treat.

Personalising your book with Wonderbly is really easy, just visit their website, choose your story and add the names of up to 9 of your child’s favourite people. You can also add a personalised dedication to be printed on the first page.

The Christmas Snowflake costs £19.99 and makes a wonderful gift for any child or family this Christmas; or you could put it in your Christmas Eve box like me.

We were sent The Christmas Snowflake from Wonderbly for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: My Golden Ticket – A Beautiful Personalised Roald Dahl Book

I’ve been reading Roald Dahl books since I was a child and I’m keen to pass on a love of his stories to my own son. I’ve loved all of Roald Dahl’s books, but Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is an especially iconic tale. Who hasn’t dreamed of finding a golden ticket and being transported into a wonderful new world? Wonderbly have recently released a new personalised story book based on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory – My Golden Ticket.

My Golden Ticket- A Beautiful Personalised Roald Dahl Book

My Golden Ticket is a beautifully illustrated personalised adventure that opens up Willy Wonka’s chocolate factory to absolutely everyone. This isn’t just a version of Charlie and the Chocolate Factory with a Charlie’s name swapped for your child’s name. Everyone gets a different personalised story; including their own unique candy, Oompa Loompa song and Wonkafied family tree.

When you order your copy of My Golden Ticket on the Wonderbly website there are a few questions you need to answer to personalise the book. Obviously there’s your child’s name, in our case Benjamin. You can also choose someone to go on the adventure with him. We chose Grandad who died last year; but he would have been the perfect person to go on this adventure with.

My Golden Ticket- A Beautiful Personalised Roald Dahl Book

You can also add your names to an inscription on the first page. Ordering the book is really straightforward and only really took me a few minutes to do. My Golden Ticket starts at £19.99, but there are a number of different options to choose from which can build the price. We chose a hardback book which took the price to £25.99. I then added a dedication and someone to go on the adventure with. With added gift-wrap and candy scent the final price was £30.99, but that really is the all singing – all dancing version of the book.

My Golden Ticket- A Beautiful Personalised Roald Dahl Book

My Golden Ticket is beautifully illustrated, rich with colour with a stunning golden embossed cover. If you add the candy scent (which is something I recommend for an extra £2) they slip a scented postcard into your book. This gently wafts chocolate smells at you while you’re reading. It’s very clever and is brought to you by “Wonka Smell-o-Vision”.

My Golden Ticket- A Beautiful Personalised Roald Dahl Book

This beautiful (and I can’t stress this enough, it is beautiful) personalised book would make a really magical keepsake for any child (or Wonka mad adult for that matter). It’s the kind of book which we will bring out to read time and again for many years to come. It really is a very special book.

Disclosure: We were sent this My Golden Ticket book for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Review: Dust and Things Personalised Gifts

My two boys are an adventurous pair, always going off together for some father and son bonding. I have often thought it would be a good idea for them to keep some kind of record of the things they’ve done and places they’ve visited. So when I spied the Personalised Adventure Box from Dust and Things I thought it would be the perfect way for them to store the memories they’d made together.

Working from their family workshop in Wales, Dust and Things make design-led, personalised gifts for all kinds of occasions. With a unique selection of beautiful personalised gifts including chopping boards and cheese boards, jewellery, slate, coasters, photo fames and much more. They have lots of designs to choose from in each category, but the adventure box really caught my eye.

It’s easy to order, you just choose the size of box you want (I went for box 1 which was the smallest box and measures 28.5cm x 18cm x 13.5cm). The wooden box includes a lift up lid secured with vintage style latch and fixings. There are spaces on the online order page where you can add your personalised wording, in my case “Daddy & Benjamin”. On the bottom of the box I had the words “Love from Mummy xx” engraved too.

dust and things

The box arrived very quickly and was well packaged; wrapped in bubble wrap and in a sturdy box. They offer free worldwide delivery too, which is excellent. I was delighted with the adventure box and I knew the boys would love it too. It would make a lovely gift for Daddy’s birthday and extra special with the promise of an adventure to get their keepsake box of magical memories started.

dust and things

The box has a simple, almost rustic look and seems sturdy and well made. It’s plenty big enough to store all the postcards, photographs, train tickets and little trinkets they might find on their adventures. The simplicity of the design and it being a lovely neutral light wood is something I really liked, and it looks great on our shelf, ready to be filled with treasures, or looked through wistfully at a later date.

The personalised adventure box costs £29.95 with free delivery. I think that’s excellent value for a hand made gift of this quality, especially as it’s something which will be loved, used and appreciated for many years to come.

dust and things