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

And I was right. The boys did really love it. I guess the adventure starts here….

For more information or to browse the extensive selection of personalised gifts from Dust and Things, visit their website.

Review: Serenata Flowers Summer Bouquet

This summer hasn’t been much to write home about. I think we’ve had a handful of nice sunny days and the rest in Manchester at least has been cloudy, windy drizzly. We all need a bit of summery sunshine in our lives, even if we have to magic that up ourselves. Today was one of those miserable, grey June days. I trudged home from work in the rain, opened the door and waiting for me was a huge box emblazoned with the words “Serenata Flowers”. I knew I’d had a little bit of summer sent to me.

Opening up the box I was blown away by the flowers I’d been sent. The Deluxe Sunshine Splendour bouquet (current price £39.98) was a huge bouquet of 4 glorious sunflowers; with 6 delicate white roses, 5 lovely chrysanthemums and a mixture of white alstromeria and stunning blue limonium. This really was sunshine in a vase.

Serenata Flowers

The bouquet from Serenata Flowers arrived in tip-top condition. It was well packaged and came with the stems in a little pot which kept them fresh and watered. My Sunshine Splendour bouquet came with a sachet of liquid plant food, it was prettily wrapped in cellophane and tissue paper, and came with a little gift card from the sender. It is something which would delight any lucky recipient.

Serenata Flowers offer free standard delivery and have a huge and seasonal range of bouquets and gifts such as balloons, cakes and chocolate. The bouquets start at just £19.99, with free standard delivery, which I think is really good value. The flowers I received were excellent quality, as fresh as a daisy and just stunning.

It really was a cheery bunch of summer in a vase. Flowers always make my heart glad, and these did not disappoint.

Serenata Flowers

Disclosure: We were sent this bouquet by Serenata Flowers for review purposes. All images and opinions are our own.

Chatterbox Walls – personalised prints

Being the daughter of a printer and then marrying another printer, I am a huge fan of typography. I used to be a bit of a font geek, but times change, but I still on occasion admire quality kerning. The small boy’s birthday is rapidly approaching and I was looking for something special for him, something which fits our style and I stumbled across Chatterbox Walls who do creative, personalised, typographical prints, at what I think are reasonable prices.

They have an extensive range of prints available for all occasions. We chose the superhero print from the kids range, it’s so easy to customise, just choose your colour, input your information and you see a preview of your print. It is incredibly simple.

You can choose from a range of different print sizes, you can have it printed on high quality glossy paper or on canvas. They also stock frames for your prints too. We chose the unframed A4 print on glossy paper; we ordered it and it arrived quickly and well packaged.

We were very impressed with the quality of the print, the printer husband examined it carefully and his professional opinion was that it was very high quality and an excellent gift.

There are lots of plus points to Chatterbox Walls, the prints will make excellent presents for all occasions, I love that you can personalise them completely, and that there are a range of finishes to choose from. Our print cost £14.99 and the canvas prints start at £39.99, which I think is reasonable, they have free standard delivery on all orders too.

I can’t wait to give him the framed print for his birthday, I think he’ll love it and hopefully treasure it for years to come.

Note: We were sent the Chatterbox Walls print free of charge for review purposes, all images and opinions are our own.