Birthday Bling

A few years ago, my in-laws brought me a silver charm bracelet. It had two charms on it – a wizard who waved his wand, and a spiderweb complete with a spider that jiggled. I rarely wore it, because I found the wizards wand got caught on my clothes, as did the spider legs, and I was worried I’d break them.

A while ago, Daddy P removed the wizard and the spider from the web, and I started wearing the bracelet all the time. Unfortunately one morning a few weeks ago I woke up to find I’d snapped the spiderweb off the hoop that held it onto the bracelet – there was no way of fixing it. I was disappointed, but continued wearing the bracelet and thought to myself one day I’ll get some new charms for it.

It was my birthday at the end of March, and Daddy P asked what I wanted. I had no idea, so I started randomly looking at all kinds of shopping pages online to see if inspiration would strike. I saw a charm bracelet on a page and decided that I’d like to try and find some charms for my existing bracelet.

I went to trusty Google, and typed in simply ‘silver charms’ and the top page that showed up was The Charm Works. I opened the page, and was faced with so many options I didn’t know where to start! If you’re looking for charms, definitely visit this page – there is such a huge amount of variety, you’re bound to find something!

I decided upon two charms – an initial for each of the boys. Daddy P decided he wanted to choose a charm from him – he chose a peridot heart, as his birthday is August so peridot is his birthstone. It so happens both the boys are August babies too, so the heart is relevant for all three of them!

I placed the order with The Charm works late in the evening on Wednesday. Within a few minutes I got a confirmation e-mail. I was pleasantly surprised when my order arrived in the post on Friday morning! What fantastic, quick service!

Unfortunately I had seriously underestimated the thickness of the bracelet I had, so the small size clips on the charms didn’t fit. As this was my error I was really worried that the company wouldn’t be very helpful, but I e-mailed them late on Friday afternoon and received a reply from the customer care team within a few minutes saying it was no problem, and advising me that I needed to send them back with a cover note explaining the clips needed changing to a larger size, and a contact telephone number so they could reach me for the additional payment (the larger clips are slightly more expensive than the small size ones).

I was worried that the medium clips wouldn’t be big enough and didn’t want to change them from small to medium and then find they still didn’t fit, so I took a photo of one of the charms with the small size clip next to the bracelet for comparison and sent it to the customer care lady I was in contact with and asked for her advice on what size clips I would need. As I suspected, she agreed medium wouldn’t be big enough, but that large would fit.

On Tuesday afternoon I posted the charms and cover note back to The Charm Works, and didn’t think I’d hear back from them until the following week. I was amazed when Gemma from the customer care team (the lady I’d been e mailing) called me on Thursday to speak to me about the additional payment for the larger size clips. She told me the charms had been received, she’d processed the order for large size clips, and I would receive the charms back either Friday or most likely Saturday.

For some reason they didn’t arrive on Saturday, but turned up on Sunday (I honestly didn’t think the postal service worked on a Sunday but we got another parcel we’d been expecting as well as letters arrive on the Sunday, which was very odd!) Again, the charms arrived in a padded Jiffy envelope, each charm in its own little grey drawstring bag. The larger size clips had been added to them and I fixed them onto the bracelet immediately.

It’s safe to say I’m thrilled with the charms – they’re beautiful and exactly what I wanted. I’m also thrilled that I chose The Charm Works to make my order with – the speed of delivery was excellent, their customer service (Gemma) was helpful & prompt to respond to my e-mails and I keep admiring my bracelet and the pretty charms and the way the light catches them and makes them sparkle!

If you’re looking for a charm bracelet, charms or both, I highly recommend The Charm Works. I will definitely be getting more charms to add to my bracelet, and I won’t be going anywhere else to get them.

Product Review - Joie Mimzy Snacker

It’s been about a month since our Joie Mimzy Snacker highchair was delivered. I figured it’s about time I got on with writing about it!

For J, we had one of those wooden highchairs that becomes a chair and table as the child gets older. It was difficult to get him in and out of it until Daddy P modified it by cutting the bar across the chair (it didn’t move out of place before) and added extra straps to hold it in place again when needed. It was a bit of a faff to do and I was quite disappointed with it.

I had been looking around at various web pages for a while leading up to purchasing the Mimzy Snacker. Baby A started weaning at 6 months old, but to begin with I’d sit him on my lap, in the Bumbo or even in his bouncy chair to feed him as it was only small amounts of plain food such as baby rice and porridge to begin with. I knew I had to get a highchair for him but didn’t want to make a rushed decision and regret it again.

The Happy Owls pattern

It sounds silly but the first thing that attracted me to the Mimzy Snacker was the pattern I found it available in from Mothercare. It’s called Happy Owls and immediately I liked it. I checked out the features of the highchair and decided it sounded perfect for my needs.

The Joie Mimzy Snacker has 3 recline positions – since Baby A wasn’t sitting independently yet, I felt it was important that he wasn’t harnessed into an upright sitting position. With an upright position, a slightly reclined position and a very reclined position I felt this fit the bill. It has arm rests, and a five point harness which can be completely adjusted as necessary and removed completely for easy cleaning (this point became especially good when Baby A exploded after eating lunch one day and covered the harness in parsnip and carrot vomit!).

The Joie Mimzy Snacker has a large storage basket underneath – our old highchair had no storage – and I felt this basket would be very beneficial for storage of wipes, bibs, and highchair toys. It has a one handed fold which is done by simply grabbing the handle on the seat and lifting; it really is so simple and you can do it with one hand, with a squirming baby in your other arm. When folded, it stands independently – these points sold it to me, totally; I have limited space in my house with two children, two dogs and a dragon, plus the assortment of junk accumulated after nine years of living here (Daddy P is a hoarder which doesn’t help!) Being able to fold the highchair so easily and store it was a huge bonus for me.

The tray is removable, and has a dip in it for the cup to go into; On the underside there are hand grips, so with a hand on either end of the tray you pull the grips and slide the tray onto the chair itself. It has three slots to fit into, depending on how much space your baby needs, making it ideal from a young baby first weaning right through to a toddler about to stop using a highchair altogether. On the underside of the tray is a thick plastic bar to go between the child’s legs, adding extra stability for those like Baby A who aren’t strong sitters and who just slide forwards if there’s nothing there to stop them.

The Joie Mimzy Snacker arrived in a relatively compact box, and when I opened it I was expecting it to be a complicated build process and for it to take me between half an hour to an hour to do. Instead I was admiring the finished product within 10 minutes of opening the box. It was so easy. You just unfold the chair, add the legs on for the height and attach the basket to the hooks on the legs. Then all you have to do is adjust the harness for the size of your baby and you’re done. Baby A was in it as soon as it was built so I could see how big it looked and how comfortable he seemed; he was laughing and smiling, banging his hands on the tray and loving playing with the highchair toys I put on it.

I worried that because it was so lightweight (6.1kg) it would feel flimsy and unstable, but it doesn’t at all – its sturdy and strong and I feel confident that its safe and secure. The weight means it’s easy for me to fold it and take it between the front room and the kitchen as needed, which again is what I need from it.

The other day I put Baby A in the highchair with some toys while I went to the kitchen to put dinner in the oven and sort him out something to drink. When I walked back into the room he was fast asleep and snoring. I used the recline function and laid him back and he stayed fast asleep for another half hour. I think I can say with confidence that he finds it comfortable!

I really like this highchair and rate it highly. If you’re looking for a highchair, this one should definitely be one you look at.