Making an Inexpensive Letterbox Gift for Fathers Day

 {This is a paid collaborative post}

After a year of hardly being able to see anyone other than those we live with, I have become an expert at sending gifts and care parcels by post, but what I learnt early on was that it can end up costing a fortune. So, the way to do it cost-effectively is to send letterbox gifts. You can still make a really nice personalised gift but do it on a small and lightweight scale.

I send mine via Royal Mail and second class post, and this currently costs me £1.53 for a parcel up to 250g and £1.99 for up to 500g. The dimensions of the box need to be a maximum of 2.5cm thick, and up to 25cm wide and 35.3cm long. You can make your own boxes (if you're clever at that sort of thing), recycle ones you've been lucky enough to receive or I buy mine for as little as 30p each.

With Fathers Day coming up in the UK in June, I thought I'd show you an idea for making a letterbox gift to send to your Dad or a man you love like a dad. The great thing about making something like this, rather than buying it, is that you can make it really personal and include things you know the recipient will love.

Review: Cheese and Wine Hamper from Blossoming Gifts

Hampers always go down a treat, it can be so hard to find a good gift for some people. Take my dad for instance, there is never anything he wants and I think in the future a sweet treat hamper delivery may be perfect for him.

When Blossoming Gifts asked if we would like to send my husband a hamper for Fathers Day we were eager to say yes. The kids had a look and knew the Cheese and Wine hamper would be perfect as that is my husbands way to relax in the evening after a busy day at work. A glass of red wine or port with some cheese and crackers.

This hamper retails for £53.99 and the website says it includes -

• Arden's Mature Cheese & Spring Onion Bites 100g 
• Barber's Maryland Farm Farmhouse Mature Cheddar Truckle 200g 
• Ford Farm Double Gloucester with Spring Onion Truckle 200g 
• Highfield Preserves Red Onion Marmalade 227g 
• Peter's Yard Original Artisan Crispbread in Box 105g 
• La Umbra Pinot Grigio 75cl Lidded wicker basket with Handle 

But actually our hamper was slightly different and we had Buiteman sun dried tomato and cheese baguettes and Miller's Damsels wheat wafers instead of the bites and artisan crispbread advertised. We didn't mind this substitution at all as the products we received were excellent quality but I could not see that it said on the web page that items might be substituted, so this is probably something to highlight in the future.

As this hamper includes cheese it can only be delivered Tuesday - Friday and the delivery will arrive between 8am - 6pm. Luckily I have a reception to take all my deliveries otherwise ti might have been tricky to stay in a whole day to make sure I could receive this and put the cheese in the fridge as the actual delivery is not refrigerated.

I felt the hamper looked very nice when it arrived but it did come branded as Virginia Hayward. The lidded wicker basket is great quality and I'll use it again either as storage or to make a hamper for someone at Christmas.

As the cheese was in the fridge my husband spotted it straight away so we both tucked in that night and were so impressed with the quality of the products, the cheese was firm but creamy and the spring onions and chive in the Double Gloucester was a really nice surprise. I had no idea I would enjoy it so much. We are even going to seek out the Miller's Damsels wheat wafers to buy again. My husband also commented that the red onion marmalade was really well balanced as too many we buy have a high level of acidity.

Would I buy one of these again? Yes probably as they really do take the effort out of finding a gift and I now know that I can trust the quality of the products to be very high but in truth they are probably a little more expensive than I can justify.

It is worth taking a look round the Blossoming Gifts website as they have a great selection of floral bouquets, plants and wine, as well as the hampers.

Disclosure: We were sent this hamper free of charge for the purpose of this review.

Review: Make-A-Bar Chocolate Factory Creative Kits

The kids were sent through some newly launched Make-a-bar chocolate factory creative kits so they could make Daddy a nice surprise for Fathers Day and they had loads of fun.

The kits retail for £3.99 each and that makes you one bar of chocolate and I have to report that I was super surprised - the chocolate tastes great (100% Belgium chocolate that is preservative and additive free). Normally with kits like this it is low quality products but not so with this, I'd be happy to be given one of these bars and would be really happy to eat it.

You can also buy twin packs at £7.99 or packs of four at the value price of £11.99.

Miss E and I were the first to make some bars and this is how we did -

The bars are very easy to make, Miss E is 7 and after the first bar I was able to allow her to do the second one alone whilst I cooked dinner. Here is how we made our bars -

• Firstly you fill a bowl with tap hot water (not too hot for your fingers)
• Put the three bags of chocolate in the water to melt (milk, dark and white - all labelled)
• Decide which design you want to make. Either use one of the eight supplied with your set, draw your own or create your own online and download it for free. Place the design under the plastic tray (we used blu-tac to keep it in place).
• After about 3-5 minutes the chocolate will have melted, feel the bags to test before cutting open. Massage any lumps in the bag in the warm water. Try to make sure the chocolate is really well melted as you can then get a thinner line/ more precise picture.
• Cut a tiny bit off the corner of the dark chocolate and use this to create the pattern outline in your plastic tray.
• Do the same with the white chocolate and fill in your design.
• Then do the same with the bigger milk chocolate pouch and you need to ensure it goes right across the plastic tray. It can be a bit tricky to get the milk chocolate right across, just a little more in the bag would have been perfect.
• Tap the tray to eliminate bubbles and ensure equal coverage and place in the fridge for about 30 minutes to set.
• Then either enjoy the chocolate or wrap in some cellophane like we did and give it as a gift.

We found it wasn't that easy to get precise lines with the little chocolate bags. I think our tap water was not quite hot enough as the chocolate never really got fully liquid but as you can see in the pictures it didn't matter as the rough and ready look is pretty cool anyway.

We have had toys like the chocolate coin maker before and whilst the kids have loved them they have been a complete faff - expensive, rubbish tasting chocolate, hard to clean and really difficult to use. These are the complete opposite, cheap, easy to use, no cleaning and easy for kids to use alone. -brilliant, we loved them and would definitely use them as gifts again in the future.

They would also make a great activity for a children's party, all the kids can make their own and allow them to set during the party and then they can take them home as their party gift.

Check out http://makeabar.co.uk/ to find out more and place an order. They can also be followed on @magichocuk and Facebook.

Disclosure: We received 4 kits for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review: Baker Days Personalised Cakes by Post

It was my little ladies 5th birthday this week, so what better timing could there be to review 2 Baker Days letterbox cakes?

Hmm whats a letterbox cake I hear you ask?  Well as you may guess, it is a small personalised real cake that is packaged especially to be sent by post and is small enough to come straight through your letterbox and amazingly it stays in tact and still looks complete when it arrives with you and I literally did watch mine come through the letterbox and slam on the floor.

As you can see, the cake arrives in a beautiful keepsake tin, the sticker which keeps it closed removed easily and then my girls have decided to use their tins as jewellery boxes - great idea!

These cakes which are sold as being suitable for for 4-5 portions ( 12cm diameter and 2.5" thick cake) retails for £14.99 including delivery for a traditional Madeira cake.  You can change the cake to carrot, lemon, double chocolate chip, fruit or even gluten and wheat free for an additional £1.20 - £2.00.  The site says that each letterbox cake comes with a party pack included - candles, gift card, party horn and balloons but I have to say none of the 4 cakes I received did.

On the plus side the Madeira cake did taste excellent, my girls were super excited to have a cake with their photo on and it was extra special that it was small and they could take the knife and carve it up themselves. However, I personally feel that £14.99 is more expensive than I could afford.

The cakes arrived quickly after order, which in one way was good but in another it meant I had to keep them for 5 days before my girls birthday, but I suppose it is a toss up of whether they should be there early or risk them not arriving on time.

Here are the girls cakes as they arrived -

As you can see from the photo below, the longer you keep the cake the more the colouring on the icing deteriorates.  The photo on the left is as the cake arrived and on the right is when it was served 5 days later, having been stored in its postal wrapping in a cool and dark cupboard. The photo does deteriorate in quality and the Princess becomes more plastic and blow-up doll like but it could have been a lot worse...

Left - as the cake arrived, right 5 days later

As the cake looks and is advertised on the Baker days site, quite a colour difference, I'm sure you'll agree!

....and talking of worse, the cakes I have shown you above were the second batch of cakes that we received.  As the first ones the postman did not put through the door, so they spent the weekend in the sorting office and the photos below show how they arrived with me.  As you can imagine I was seriously unimpressed.  I contacted Baker Days straight away and their customer service was excellent, they have a 100% satisfaction commitment and they were happy to send me more cakes, which of course you can see from above were far, far better.  I was also pleased to see that they had added stickers to the front of these boxes to say the packaging has been designed to go through a letterbox, so please post them.  It is always good when customer feedback is listened to.

The first batch of cakes that arrived were in poor quality after being stored at the post office depot

Whilst the second cakes that arrived were perfectly acceptable and my girls were very happy, I have to say that I was not blown away and for £14.99 I want to be blown away.  Also for me there is just too much uncertainty of when the cakes would be delivered, how they have been stored in delivery and what condition they would be when they arrived.

I do think the idea is a lovely one but just not for me.

Right of Reply

I received an email from the Mangaing Director at Baker Days in reponse to my review and I felt it was only fair to share their feedback with you.  I do like a company that take customer comments on board.

Here is what she said -

We really appreciate your feedback and valid points that you have made. We are now working on changes to our website to inform people that the colours and print out will be different to what they see on the website as the dpi quality is different to website then to printing on the icing . And you will be able to see it on www.bakerdays.com very soon. So thank you for pointing it out.

With regards to your points on your blog please find enclosed notes from me ( I have highlighted your text in purple)

’’The site says that each letterbox cake comes with a party pack included - candles, gift card, party horn and balloons but I have to say none of the 4 cakes I received did’’

All of our cakes come with party packs ( not only letterbox cakes), Letterbox cakes are the ones that come in the tin but all of our cakes come with balloons , candles and party horn

With regards to both of your order we have agreed with (our search company) that we will be sending cakes to review not the party extras. We have clarified that with (our search company) and you should have been informed. Please accept our apology if you were expecting the extras.

‘’The cakes arrived quickly after order, which in one way was good but in another it meant I had to keep them for 5 days before my girls birthday, but I suppose it is a toss up of whether they should be there early or risk them not arriving on time.’’

Just to let you know we do offer a dispatch date option on our website so customers can choose the dispatch date so if you are ordering from the website you can simply fill that info in . And we always deliver on time ( well royal mail and TNT do).

 Also for me there is just too much uncertainty of when the cakes would be delivered, how they have been stored in delivery and what condition they would be when they arrived.

As I have mentioned in my previous comment we do give our customer a choice when the cakes will be despatched.

 

Disclosure:  I received these cakes free of charge for the purposes of this review.  I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.

Review & Giveaway: Children's Book - Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants

Big congratulations to @BlueBearWood you are the lucky winner.  Please DM or email me your address details.  Many thanks, Michelle

There is a new favourite bedtime story in our house right now.  The girls are just loving this new book we have been sent. Sir Scallywag and the Golden Underpants is marketed as being perfect for boys aged 3 - 6 years and I think they are right, boys will adore the silly poetic verses in this story.  However, equally so two little 4 year old girlie girls are enjoying it as well.

'Read it again Mummy', 'Why has the King chopped his head off and flushed it down the loo?'.  Oh yes, I have been getting all sorts of questions and fielding those can be fun!  As you can tell from the questions there are a couple of bits in the book which I found a little questionable, not rude enough that I would not read the book but just a tad silly, the sort of thing that young kids love.

I felt the storyline carried a similarity to David and Goliath from the bible, in that just because someone is small does not mean they cannot conquer, which of course is a really nice message to give your kids.

The award winning author Giles Andreae was also the creator of Purple Ronnie, which made me smile as I have not thought about that little stickman for a few years. The illustrations in the book are outstanding as you would expect from Korky Paul, the man responsible for illustrating the Winnie the Witch books. In all the poetic wording and superb drawings join together to make a fabulous book, which is great lighthearted fun and a really easy read.

So how do you fancy winning your own copy?

How to enter:

• Mandatory - Leave a comment to let me know how I can contact you - twitter ID or email.
• Additional entry - tweet ''I want to #win a Sir Scallywag & the Golden Underpants book from @puffinbooks & @michelletwinmum #giveaway http://bit.ly/wASURx'

 Terms and Conditions of Entry:

• The winner will be chosen at random
• Open to UK and Ireland residents only
• Giveaway closes at 12 noon on Thursday 9th February 2012
• The winner will be contacted within 3 working days of the competition closing
• The winner needs to contact me within a week of my announcing the winner or I will draw again
• The prize is not transferable and there is no cash alternative
• The DVD will be sent direct from Penguin Books

Disclaimer:  This is a review post.  Many thanks to Penguin Books for this book.

Honest Mummy Recommends Blue Friesian Celebrity Style Spoof Magazine Covers

Did you see my review a few weeks back of the spoof magazine covers by Blue Friesian?  No, then you missed out as I loved them and the people who have received them loved them too.  Click on the link and take a look.

The good news as well, is that Blue Friesian are constantly updating their repertoire of covers available and following the competition run on Mummy From The Heart... they have just launched a baby inspired cover - Mother and Babes will make a wonderful present for any new parent or a really lovely Mothers Day gift.

Go on check them out, the prices are so reasonable...