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Christmas Gift Guide for a Seven Year Old

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Emma turned seven last weekend, she had a blast and enjoyed the whole countdown to her special day but this almost seems like a distant memory now with Christmas now fast approaching (“Only six weeks now, mummy!“).

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If your child is as laid back as mine when it comes to presents, then this gift guide is going to relieve some of the anxiety, the things I have included in this guide have all been tried and tested by Emma and given a resounding five star rating!

First of all, clothes! I like getting Emma clothes for Christmas, they are a sure way to keep her warm and pretty over the coming months.

So, my first suggestion it either a winter suit or a rain suit from Tiny Trolls of Norway. I have written last winter about their amazing winter suits and this autumn, they were very kind and sent us one of their beautiful and truly waterproof rain suits to review.

“The Gauken rain set is an Oeko-Tex certified product which means that it has been tested thoroughly for harmful substances. It is made from PU material which makes this garment hard wearing yet soft and comfortable to wear, perfect for active children. The jacket and trousers have a soft brushed lining and taped seams for extra water protection. The jacket has a removable hood and the neck is lined with soft fleece for added comfort against delicate skin. The Mummitroll rain trousers have removable foot straps. Both our jacket and trousers have been designed with reflective detailing for added safety. This rain set is available in 4 fantastic colour combinations.”

Last year, I had mixed comments about the pricing but, market research done, they do come within the same price bracket as most high quality snow and rain suits out there. The rain suit sells for £69.99 and the winter suit sells for £109.99. They are worth every penny, in my opinion, as they come bigger than the average UK clothing product so they can easily last for several years. They are extremely durable as well, so can be passed on to siblings or friends.

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Going from outdoors to occasion wear, another brand we loved working with and sent us another beautiful item to review is Roco Clothing. This month, they were appointed as exclusive distributors for Paisley of London and generously sent us the most gorgeous Layla party dress, absolutely perfect for that Christmas Day meal and photos.

The dress is a dream, the material feels luxurious and sits extremely well, even after having travelled in the post.

The best bit is the pricing, for such a beautiful occasion dress, you don’t need to dig too deep, as it sells for only £34.99. Do check the link I included above, the collection features a number of beautiful, girly dresses, which will cater for every princess dream and taste.

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Next thing I’m going to suggest gifting this Christmas are dolls with a difference. Again, we have written about the child-body proportionate Lottie dolls before and I was delighted when the brand decided to send Emma a STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) doll bundle as part of our Brand Ambassador collaboration.

I know I have jumped from princess dresses to science and technology but to me, those two should not be separated in a girl’s mind, just like church and state should not have ever been separated in history.

A girl can wear thrills and bows on pretty dresses AND have an inquisitive mind, all at the same time.

Anyway, I have documented my admiration for the Lottie dolls and the company here.

The dolls retail at £19.99 per item and clothing can be bought separately on site.

I also have the same bundle of STEM goodies from the same company to be won this November so keep your eyes peeled, I will be adding the giveaway on the blog shortly. Just the perfect gift to add under the tree on Christmas Day for a very lucky little girl!

Of course, I need to move on now to what I love most gifting: books!

Our house is coming down with them but every time I hear or see a good book for Emma, I have to buy it!

Emma always gets gift vouchers for her birthday from a friend with as much a love for book as ours. This is how I know that Waterstones have at the moment a 25% off Christmas books and gifts offer, so do benefit from the generous discount and buy the kiddies those adorable Christmas stories.

Last but not least, I wholeheartedly recommend games for children this age. Emma was sent two of the new Megableu games this season and has loved playing with them both with us and with her friends, when they visit.

Again, I chose her games carefully when given the chance by the company as I wanted Emma to have that balance between girly and silly. I think I did achieve it when choosing two of the very popular games:

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One is about gentile princesses dancing at the ball, a tad competitive since they all try to win the graces of the dancing prince but very civil, all in all.

The second one, the Giraf’Fun, well, it is all about bodily functions and giraffes pooping fruit balls 🙂 but it has proves as popular, if not more, with Emma as the Enchanted Ball game.

The games sell on Amazon for around £14 each and are well worth the festive fun!

Hope you have found this post useful. I’m still to decide what to get Emma this year so please feel free to add your suggestions in comments!

Disclaimer: we were sent the above items for the purpose of reviewing. All opinions expressed are truthful and entirely our own.

An exciting My Little Pony Equestria Doll Giveaway

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My Emma has a few favourites when it comes to home T.V. and iPad apps and programs.

One of the strong favourites in the past six months has definitely been My Little Pony. How many Saturday mornings have I been woken up by the shrill voice of Applejack demanding justice and order I don’t know, I’ve now lost count!

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It turns out that the new My Little Pony movie, Legend of Everfree has been so popular on POP that the T.V. channel decided to do a re-run this Saturday. To celebrate the occasion, they are giving every little My Little Pony fan the chance to win a doll!
WIN a My Little Pony: Equestria Girls doll!
Here’s the chance to win some serious brownie points with your kids this half term. In celebration of My Little Pony Equestria Girls – Legend of Everfree airing on kids’ channel, POP, on Saturday 29th  October at 19:00, we have ONE doll to give away!

 

We’ve teamed up with Hasbro to give one lucky winner a chance to win a My Little Pony: Equestria Girls Applejack doll to celebrate this exciting new movie on POP.
This competition closes on Monday the 31st October , so don’t waste any time and get entering. And please don’t forget to tune in to enjoy the movie on Saturday the 29th October at 19:00.
All you have to do to be in with a chance is comment below and let me know which is your little one’s favourite character in My Little Pony.
Good luck to everyone entering! The winner will be announced in this post on Monday afternoon so do pop by to check if you have one and then notified by email.
Disclosure: we were offered an Applejack doll in exchange for this post and running the giveaway on the blog.
Congratulations, Helen White, your number was picked by the random number generator!
An email has been sent to the winner. Many thanks to everyone who entered the competition by commenting on this post.

Hotter Winter Boots – A Review

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I don’t usually spend a lot on myself as a rule. It is not because I wouldn’t like to but because as a self-employed/partially employed/non-employed person as I have been since I moved to the Northern Ireland 10 years ago, I have learned to prioritize my expenses and Emma always comes first and so do her needs.

I am very grateful to have my blog though as through it I have been offered a number of review opportunities that weren’t only for Emma but for myself as well.

Last week, I travelled into Belfast per invitation and went to visit the Hotter shoe store in Victoria Square. I had ordered Hotter shoes before online, for my mum, in sales but I had never stepped into the physical store.

I was overwhelmed from the word go by the warm welcome and was invited to peruse what was on sale at my own pace. It didn’t take me long to spot a pair of short boots for autumn and the lovely sale assistant offered to hoak in storage for my number and the half size up, to make sure I was getting the right fitting.

While waiting, I observed the service offered to other walk in customers and it was exemplary, just like it had been towards me.

Rachel got me the two pairs, I tried them on and decided on the right fit but then I had a change of heart and asked for a different colour for my Whisper boots, something neutral, which would match my autumn/winter wardrobe.

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Without batting an eye, Rachel got onto it and got me the other colour. She also reassured me that I’d be able to order the next size up boots in store, if those weren’t the perfect fit.

Fortunately for me, the boots did fit like a dream and they felt so nice and warm and totally perfect for the season.

Rachel did not stop here and after packing my boots carefully, she also offered me a renovating cream to keep them in top shape as the time goes by!

I left the shop with a huge grin on my face and feeling so very grateful to the girls in store for taking the time to show me around and look after me so very well!

I totally recommend a visit and the boots, of course, I am wearing them every day now, with this cold weather and they are the most comfortable and warmest pair of leather boots I have ever worn!

Disclosure: I was invited for a visit to the store for the purpose of this review. All opinions expressed are truthful and entirely my own.

What to get a seven year old on her birthday

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Emma has once again been very blessed this past few months and weeks by several PR companies, authors and company directors and she got to play with some of the most exciting releases so I thought of putting together a handy list for anyone facing a big 7th birthday in the months to come.

As a list, the ideas below are pretty comprehensive as possible birthday or even Christmas presents and I hope you will find it useful.

  1. A personalised book

I have written about personalised books before on the blog and we have already a number of them in the house, both for Emma and in Georgie’s memory.

This summer, I have witnessed the exciting “birthing” of another beautiful personalised book called Message in a Bottle. Alongside a number of other mummy bloggers, we helped Tuire, the illustrator, decide on the graphics, the wording and the online kids’ club quizzes. I grew quite attached to Kiki, the lovable character in the book and was delighted to see Emma’s joy at discovering her name in the book and the personalised message we added at the end. I did fear that Emma would have outgrown the idea of a personalised book but I needn’t have feared, she still found the whole concept and book magical!

The book is printed in the UK and both the illustrations and the quality of the paper is superb and faithfully reflected in the price (£19.95). Delivery is free; the template option for the personalised message at the end includes beside birthdays, bereavement, parental separation/divorce, being different and self-esteem options so the book can be offered on a variety of occasions.

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2. Subscription box

Emma got two subscription boxes to review this month. One, a toy box and the other, a book box.

The amazing thing about every subscription box is that the people behind them tend to do the leg work for you, so you are almost always guaranteed that the products you are getting are good value for money and age appropriate.

Emma was sent the Kids’ Parcel last week and to be truthful, I was as excited as she was about its contents.

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I had seen the Super Hero dolls in Tesco the previous week and I knew their market value but to find all this wealth of products, all for £29.99 was simply amazing! The toys are spot on for a seven year old who still fantasises about being a super girl, who is getting to grips with writing and needs loads of notebooks to express her creativity and who loves painting neatly. We also got the UNO dice game, another win since children at this age start being much more interested in strategic games and the adorable Tsum Tsums!

I would wholeheartedly recommend this toy subscription box to anyone lacking inspiration for birthday gifts.

The second personalised subscription box Emma got sent this month was the WILF book box. We were actually offered a 50% code towards a monthly subscription box which brought the price down to £10 for us.

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The idea behind WILF is amazing, personalised boxes of books sent out to children and a return service through which the children can gift some of their books to others.

As with the Message in a box, I did see it literally come to life, from an idea to the box we received last week.

The four books we got were lovely and three of them were age appropriate but would I recommend it as a subscription box? Not just as yet, to be completely truthful. There are some things that need tweaked, like the price and also, the choice of books. In this day and age where books are so competitively priced, paying £20 for four books, one of which is too young for Emma, is a bit much. I’ve passed my feedback onto the lovely and enthusiastic founders and I hope to see improvement in our next month’s delivery.

3. Books

Oh no, I’m not contradicting myself, I love books and I will always resort to them first when it comes to birthday parties as books tend to be presents which keep on giving, long after they were received.

This month, we found some gems in the local library and in our WILF subscription box, so these are our recommendations:

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Fantastically Great Women Who Changed the World sits right up there with the likes of Ada Twist, Scientist and Rosie Revere, Engineer, and are amazing books that inspire girls to think outside the box and dream big.

Here is its introduction:

“The women in this book didn’t set out to be thought as ‘great’. They achieved extraordinary things simply by following their hearts, talents and dreams. They didn’t listen when people said they couldn’t do something. They dared to be different.“

In a world where Donald Trump is trying to reverse the society to a primal state where women are nothing more that pieces of meat, books like this one are priceless and their message resounds powerfully against the nonsensical propaganda of this age.

Prebook yours now on Amazon for £6.99, including delivery for Prime members.

Fins, fluff and other stuff came in our WILF subscription box and again, it is a book that totally supports my system of beliefs and how I want Emma to grow, as a happy in her own skin and confident child.

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 The book is relatively new, once again, having been published on the 16th of November 2015 and sells on Amazon from £1.57.

Here is my list, so far. Did anything appeal to you and why? Do let me know in the comments!

Disclosure: we were gifted some of the products mentioned in this post for the purpose of reviewing. The opinions expressed are truthful and entirely our own.

JORD Wood Watches: Review and Giveaway

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Sometimes dreams come true.

A while back, I read a post on one of my fellow bloggers’ blog and started coveting for this wooden watches from JORD. They looked stylish, luxurious and easy to wear with almost everything and I knew I would love to own one.

Time passed and I thought nothing more of it, except for the times when a JORD wooden watch would pop onto someone else’s Instagram feed and make my heart flutter a bit faster.

And then, one evening, the most amazing email landed into my inbox, inviting me to join the reviewers’ team with JORD and pick a watch from the new collection as my very own!

I may or may not have squealed for joy and pinched myself a bit, not believing my own luck!

As you can imagine, I was off in a flash to pour over the choices on the website and took forever to decide, as you don’t get to choose such pretty watches very often!

In the end, I went for a Fieldcrest Zebrawood and Maple, as the nuances in the earthly wood appealed to me the most.

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I waited with trepidation for my wrist measurements to go through to the team and for my watch to make its way over the ocean to me.

Finally, two weeks ago, it arrived and it is everything I did imagine it to be, from the posh packaging right down to the most important thing of all, my watch!

 

I was a tad afraid the watch will look too big or too masculine on my wrist but it doesn’t! It looks stylish and luxurious, just like I thought it would!

Now, the lovely people at JORD have decided to spread some joy around and maybe, just maybe, make someone else’s dream come true!

So they are giving one of our lucky readers the chance to win a $75 e-voucher , and everyone who enters the giveaway, a $20.00 e-gift card (excluding the winner)!

Be sure to enter JORD’s amazing voucher giveaway! Click HERE to enter! 

The giveaway went live last night, and will end Sunday the 30th of October 2016. It is open to all times zones, so please feel free to enter, no matter where in the world you live!

(The $75 voucher will expire on 2/28/2017, and the $20 e-gift cards will expire 2/28/2017).

I wish all entering the best of luck and thank you for stopping by to read this blog post!

Disclaimer: we were sent the watch for the purpose of this blog post. All opinions expressed are truthful and entirely my own.