Canvas Design Review & Competition

I was really excited to be given the opportunity to review a canvas from Canvas Design.  I love taking photographs and have many photos from my travels on the walls, but I hadn't got round to putting any of Little Owl up.

That then became an issue - only just back from India I had some lovely shots of her there, but I also had some older photos which I loved too... I just couldn't decide.  So I didn't.  Instead I opted to have a Photo Collage.

Having (finally) chosen my photos, I emailed them to Canvas Design and waited. I didn't have to wait long, the next day I received an email with 3 different options for my collage.  It was really nice to think that someone had taken the time and effort to edit and arrange my photos and all the options looked great.  I made my selection and waited.

The canvas was delivered by Interlink which meant I received two texts, the first telling me which day the my parcel would come, and the second on the morning of delivery giving me a one hour time slot - perfect!

 The canvass arrived well packaged in bubble wrap and corrugated cardboard.

Little Owl was as excited as me to open the package!

And here it is!

I love it!

And Little Owl?

She loved the cardboard!

The canvas I received was 22x18 inches in size, it is printed on 100% cotton canvas and stretched by hand onto a wooden pine frame.  I am very impressed with the quality, the back of the frame looks almost as perfect as the front!

I'm delighted to be able to offer one lucky reader a chance to win a photo canvas for themselves.  You can have a photograph of your choice printed on a standard canvas of any size.  Entry is via the Rafflecopter below and is for UK residents only.

If you aren't lucky enough to win you can still get 15% off your first order using the code BLOG15.  This is a great offer,  as the canvas prints start at just £5.99 for a 6"x6" frame.  Be sure to take a look!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

I was sent one free canvas for the purpose of this review but all opinions are my own. 

The Toadstool Christmas Wishlist!

Christmas is coming!!!

I am so not one of those people who can do all their shopping months in advance, in fact, if I parted with money before December I would feel like I haven't bought anything for that person by the time Christmas came along and would go out and buy something else!  This is why my friends who live overseas rarely get their presents on time...

However, I do like to start window shopping (online of course) well in advance for Little Owl.  As she is too young to express an opinion on what she would like, I can see the responsibility lying with me for a long time to come!  Being the first born, I have no idea what toys are available or what she would like, and what is age appropriate!

Given all of this, I was quite excited when The Toadstool launched their Christmas Wish list, inviting bloggers to browse their shop and create their own Christmas wish list (or should that be the kids wishlist?). 

This Christmas, Little Owl will be 20 months.  Lets get shopping!

The first thing I notice on The Toadstool website is that the toys can be sorted by age - BRILLIANT!!!  I know these things aren't set in stone but it gives me a great starting point.  You can also sort by a more general option of 'toddler'.  As I went through all of the toys, I pinned them to a board on Pinterest which you can find here.

The first two things that caught my eye were Christmas themed.  One was the First Nativity Play Scene by Haba.  Little Owl likes to carry small toys like this around with her and although she is too young to understand the nativity, we could use it to start introducing some of the characters that she will see over the Christmas period and practise the signs (we've just learnt the sign for camel!).

The second Christmas item was the Haba Nativity Baking Set.  I can see this item becoming part of our Christmas traditions, perhaps always being baked on the first Sunday in advent to mark the beginning of the season.

The main thing that struck me as I browsed The Toadstool website was that all of their toys could be described as 'slow toys' meaning there was little if any plastic available and batteries are not included because they are not needed!   This suits us just fine as Little Owl only has a handful of battery operated toys, all of which I think have been given to us.

So why, when I have so far naturally avoided noisy toys, was I so drawn to the range of Haba musical instruments?  I have no ability for music myself, and I've always considered people who do to have magical abilities which I envy.  I want to encourage Little Owl to explore music and sound, and the items are just asking to be played with!





But the toys that really stole my heart were the Walter collection from Lilliputiens.  Walter is a dragon.  I like dragons.  And how can anyone resist this pouffe?  I think I'm in love.

But there are other Walter toys too...  There's the cute 'musical cuddle' which not only plays music but is a nightlight too!  Then there is Walter's Castle which doubles up as a toy storage box, I could see hours of fun being had with this and the colours go perfect with Little Owl's yellow bedroom.  Actually its been hard to find things to decorate Little Owl's bedroom with, pink fairies and the like just don't go with bright yellow, and while many 'boy' things are brighter colours, cars etc don't rock my boat!  However the Walter wall stickers are just perfect with castles, princess, knights, frogs and flowers they truly are unisex and as the stickers can be peeled off and re-stuck, they can create so many stories!

So that's it, my (Little Owl's honest) wish list and entry to The Big Christmas Wishlist blogger competition and don't forget to look at my pinterest board too!