Personalised Birth Block Prints

I really wish I would’ve got one of these when Madame was little, but I guess better late than never.

The lovely Kirsty from Blockart sent me a few samples (personalised birth print, lower case alphabet and a festive reindeer) and I was truly impressed with the product and quality. She not only does personalised birth blocks but also nursery art including Ellie the Elephant, Helen’s Camel and Rory the Lion. Each piece of artwork is mounted on a precision cut block which is then finished to the highest quality.

‘Based just outside Edinburgh, BlockArt is a one woman band dedicated to bringing new affordable but unique nursery wall art to the UK. Currently we are able to provide a product 100% made in the UK, of which we are very proud.’

For obvious reasons these aren’t the exact block prints that I received but this should give you an idea of what they look like. I think they’re gorgeous and a great gift idea (£16.99), even if you’re child’s starting school in January.

Weekend away with the girls!

I’m so excited I can barely contain myself.  It’s a friend of mine’s 40th this weekend and we’re off to Norfolk to spend the weekend in a Barn.  No partners or kids, just 10 crazy women!!!  I anticipate a lot of carnage. I first met my mate back in 1997 in a hostel in New Zealand, she was loud and obnoxious so I was obviously drawn to her and we’ve remained good friends ever since.  We’ve had some mad times.

She’s laying on all the food and booze.  The only things I need to do are pack my bags, drive to Norfolk and buy her a pressie.  My first instinct was to buy her something funny, the last gift I got her was a blow up doll called ‘Mustafa Shag’, but my practical side took over.  Joke gifts are only funny for the first 5 minutes and then they get relegated to the loft.

The folks at www.15gifts.com, contacted me and asked if I would try out their new service.   It’s a search engine that takes the guesswork out of giving; it asks you a few questions (age, sex, likes) about the person you are buying for and then suggests, you guessed it….15 gifts!  If you don’t like what it suggests you just delete the choice and it suggests something else.

What I liked about it is it offered practical, good quality gifts that I wouldn’t have thought of in the first place.  It had some lovely wine accessory kits, cheese boards with groovy knives, good quality pots and pans and some cool gadgets.  However, in the end, I went for the Free Trade Alpaca Slippers.  It seemed fitting for a 40th.  Fingers crossed they arrive in time.  I can’t wait to see her face.

They’ve also asked me to let you know about their launch competition they’re running to find the “worst Christmas gift ever”, the winners will receive a gift with a value of up to £200 worth, and the competition closes the 26th Nov 2010. I’m an ex-primary school teachers so can totally relate to it.  I wish I had some photos that I could enter.

Disclosure:  I received the Alpaca Slippers in return for writing this post