I am lucky enough to bring you a selection of items from Gift Company throughout October and November. This UK based family run company prides itself on providing unique and quality giftware, homeware and furniture.
After being contacted by Gift Company we arranged for several items for me to review, these are just some of a range of products available online at their website.
Each week I will be bringing you an item, photographed in detail, and then I will give you a variety of information about that product before giving my final review. This is the ideal time of year to start thinking of Christmas presents, so it’s a good idea to look for gifts you may not have seen before. And by purchasing from Gift Company you are also supporting a UK business.
Today I will be showcasing their White Clock with Calendar Blocks gift. This rustic almost ‘shabby chic’ product is mostly white with black detailing.
The first thing you notice about this gift is the striking bold fonts and the various shapes of the product. I like the archway wooden shaped top, it compliments the circular clock face.
I have always wanted a product such as this in my home. When growing up my mother had a date box (as I called it) where we could rotate small metal turnstiles in order to move the days and months to the corresponding day. I have always liked wooden items, and this piece goes well with so many other things in my home. White products fit in much easier than coloured ornament pieces too. The size is very good and the numbers and letters are in a clear enough font to be seen from across a room. I like the hands on the Quartz clock as well, delicate and a nice addition to the piece.
What Makes This A Great Gift
✩ Strong and durable wood for regular use.
✩ An excellent educational piece in order to teach children about days and months.
✩ Easy to adjust the various calendar elements of the product.
✩ An ideal gift for its usefulness with the clock and calendar, as well as it’s white which is an ideal colour for most homes.
✩ Uses an AA battery which is easily accessible and easy to replace.
✩ Great size so the item that can fit onto a shelf or unit in the home, not too big a piece but with large enough numbers and letters to be seen from across a room.
✩ Blocks can be displayed however you want within the diameter of the framing.
To Be Aware Of
✩ The white painted surface might get dirty over time. Also by continually moving the blocks they scrape against the painted wooden surface as they slot into place, and as the months go by slight scuff marks will begin to appear on the paintwork. This is unavoidable as you use the product.
✩ The writing on the blocks isn’t perfect, some letters haven’t been stamped with much ink, for example the ‘Y’ on the month of May. I would hope that they will not wear away over time and with use but this is a possibility. I would recommend only ever cleaning it with a duster, so as not to take any of the paint off the items.
✩ The glued area of the plastic battery part of the clock was a little messy in my honest opinion. You wouldn’t see this if the ornament was placed against a wall or on a shelf where the back faced away from any view. The only time you notice it would be when changing the battery.
Dimensions and Product Information
Item Description: One wooden frame which contains two square number blocks and three rectangle month blocks. In the top half is a clock face situated centrally. The item is completed with a wooden arch shape at the top of it and curved sides that complement the contrast of the more square shaped calendar blocks.
Colour: White over all with black writing and the hands of the clock are black and red.
Box Materials: Wooden with a Plastic fronted Clock and back for the battery.
Clock and Calendar Dimensions: Unit Width 14cm Depth 7cm Height (highest point of arch) 23cm. Clock face is 7cm.
Products Clock is made by: Quartz.
Requires 1 x AA battery for the clock.
Final Review
I am going to give this clock with calendar blocks a final review of 3/5. My reasons for this is mostly down to the quality of the item. I was a little disappointed with the glue being so messily applied to the battery compartment and the fixing of the clock into place. I also feel with constant use that the white paint will begin to scrape off and mark over time. It gets extra points however for being a well made item that is useful to a home, and can be educational. The clock face is a good size as is the writing on the blocks. Over all it’s a decent piece that I would happily display in my house. The product retails for around £20.00 but Gift Company sell this piece at a bargain of £5.99, a gift worth getting if you know someone who could do with a gentle reminder of what date it is.
Thank you for reading this review today, I hope that you have been inspired, and if you want to visit the Gift Company website to see this item or any others you will find the links below.
✩ Sabrina ✩
Find Gift Company on a variety of Social Media by searching for ‘Gift Company’.
Here is the link to the Clock and Calendar http://www.giftcompany.com/p/15106/X-White-Clock-With-Calendar-Blocks–14*7*23-1-12-R15
Recently I was especially lucky to win some Elizabeth Arden products all the way from Dave Lackie in Canada. It’s always exciting to get post but more so when there is an airmail sticker on the front!
I prefer the more nude and brown shade of lipstick, the pinker shade just doesn’t go with my complexion sadly. However the brown compliments both the colour of my skin and lips, and enhances my natural look. See for yourself in my swatch and application on my lips below.
Here are the two swatches and lipstick shades next to one another, as you can see a complete contrast, one subtle and the other vibrant. They are soft but have great staying power, a lipstick that looks like a gloss.
I want to thank Dave Lackie for holding such incredible competitions on both Twitter (where I won) and on his blog. If you wish to check them out for yourself the link is below 
I am lucky enough to bring you a selection of items from Gift Company throughout October and November. This UK based family run company prides itself on providing unique and quality giftware, homeware and furniture.
I have already begun to place items into the box, it can be something used to cheer you up on a bad day, to look back at fun things you did and places you visited. And it makes you realise just how lucky you are to be able to put these things safely inside a box such as this…
Recently I was sent some Chanel samples, and I was so impressed with both of these scents that I have decided to review them and explain what goes into making each of the fragrances.
Chanel ‘Coco Mademoiselle’ is a more bold perfume designed for the confident woman. This scent features notes of Jasmine, Rose and Orange. An oriental and fresh smell that is meant to be worn by those who are strong and independent. The inspirations behind the fragrance stem from the personality of Gabrielle Chanel, and the vibrant and sensual notes of it make this perfume unique. I loved that it smells like nothing that I own already.
Both of these perfumes are rather different in taste but I enjoyed wearing both of them. I feel that the Chance Eau Tendre is more of a scent that I would wear for shopping and time spent with loved ones, where as I am more likely to wear Coco Mademoiselle on a ‘date’ night.
Thank you for reading this review today, I hope you have enjoyed my opinion on these two scents. And remember that perfume smells different on everybody’s skin, so make sure you try before you buy by visiting your local perfume shop or cosmetics store. And don’t forget to #TakeYourChance on perfume to find one that suits you 🙂
I was extremely lucky recently when I won another bloggers competition where she was giving away a Limited Edition Urban Decay Eyeshadow Vault. I didn’t own anything like this so I was amazed at the quality and the amount that I received in this prize.
The vault was rather heavy when I unpacked it, and it was displayed in such a professional manner, with a sleeve covering the box. I was pleased to find inside 20 individual eyeshadow pots and the vault itself decorated in a unique way. The lid even stays up by itself! I will list the pots and names with colour variants later on in this post, but for now I want to review the box as a whole.
I won this incredible looking vault as a prize, which was a collaboration between Urban Decay and the blogger Michelle at her blog Thou Shalt Not Covet (link at the end of this post) but this Limited Edition vault is worth approximately £195!
My two favourite shades out of this whole collection are Solstice and Rockstar (swatches above). I love how deep and vibrant these two colours are, one red based and one purple based.
Here is an example of the size of the pots in my hand.
These pots are great for taking away with you if you plan to wear one shade of eyeshadow for a weekend for example. The convenient sizes and shapes make for easy transportation in makeup bags, then you can store the whole vault together in the mean time. Though I now need to get a bigger makeup drawer after getting mine!
Thank you so much for reading this review, I have been impressed by the quality of the Urban Decay Eyeshadows, and I want to thank Urban Decay and blogger Michelle for the opportunity I had to win this great prize. You can find the links to the websites below.
On my most recent store visit to Dorothy Perkins I picked up a few items in the summer sale. Three bargain vest tops in three floral colours and designs. Two pairs of capri ultra soft jeggings, and a floral bomber jacket.
(It had to be a changing room selfie because I was so pleased with my finds).
Bomber Jacket styling; Black skinny jeans and a blue floral vest, a casual look to be worn with flats or trainers. This is ideal for a cooler summer evening and ideal for Autumn layering as well. The jacket is great to brighten up plain clothing if you’re after a feature piece. Bomber jackets are all the rage right now and many on the high street have a floral design, if you want to stay on trend I can recommend you buy one. They circle around in fashion as well, so try and get a good quality item that you can revisit in a few years time.
This seller also sells a set of a sun, moon and star, as well as just a star and moon. I like the pieces in my next picture because it means you can add a further earring of your choice if you have a third piercing, or that you can just wear the two stud types if you only have two piercings in your ears.
More earring stud styles available from this amazon uk seller include Hearts, Stars, Moons, Circles, Triangles, Round with Silver or Cubic Zirconia and other symbols and shapes (such as the feathers/leaves in my image below). You can see the full range by visiting the sellers amazon page (links at the end of the post).
Here are some images of the earrings in my own ears to show sample sizes, I do have quite small ears, you can normally find specific sizes on the sites that you purchase jewellery from.
Another site that I have previously purchased earrings from is Cherry Diva. They have a variety of sterling silver items for sale. These arrow earrings are fabulous, unique and highly detailed, I like that these kind of earrings can make your ears seem unusual because of the shape and orientation. You can wear them at whatever angle you please to suit your lobe shape.
‘October Treatbox’ is designed to make you happy and make you smile this month. The French quote card in this box made me smile broadly because it is very appropriate for my month of October because I will be taking a trip to Paris in a few weeks time. It reads ‘beauty has no age’ when translated and is something I completely agree with. (Thank you Treatbox for testing my French language skills before my trip!)
So what else are we expecting? The nights are drawing in and getting colder, so we need comfort and happy items, let us see what Zoe has planned for us. So let us open the box and reveal October’s contents…
I have recorded the initial unboxing of the treatbox this month as well, and details of it will be available at the end of this post.
My favourite items in this months box are the Lisa Angel Heart Tassle Bracelet, the Notepad, the French Quote card and the Magnet, all these items are well made or useful and/or pretty. I especially like the uniqueness of the bracelet and the note pad is perfect for someone like myself who lives by lists and organising.
I hope you have enjoyed the October Treatbox reveal, there may well be more of them in the future. If you do decide to subscribe to a Treatbox then please leave me a comment on one of my posts, I would love to know what you think of your own TreatBox when you get it.
If you’re headed abroad it’s always interesting to find some local and contrasting products to what might be available to you back home. I was very grateful to my friend for getting me these pieces to try!
I recently purchased jewellery from Cherry Diva for the first time. I was drawn in partly because of a sale they had on, and also because I had wanted a pair of their earrings for almost a year and decided now was the time to get them. Just in case stocks changed and they no longer sold them, I didn’t want to wait too much longer in case I missed out.
I always purchase sterling silver because I have sensitive skin. At Cherry Diva they have a range of sterling silver products and a great number of choices for all kinds of styles.
So that you can see the size of the earrings I have photographed one in front of a five pence piece.
The other items I bought were two delicate nature inspired sterling silver rings. One has a large flower like a daisy and has hearts on the band. The other has three different kinds of small flowers on one thin band.
I’m impressed with the quality of the silver and I just hope that the items remain in good condition over the time in which I use them. I was happy with the prices that I paid in the sale, I’m not sure if I would pay the prices individually, but collectively with a free delivery is tempting.
