Thursday 29 November 2012

FTD REVIEW: HELLO CANVAS

Wow, review number 2!

What am I reviewing this time? Something we already own at least 2 of....Canvas prints.

In our house we love canvas prints. Pictures in frames is so 2000's!

I was contacted by Mark over at Hello Canvas who read about my amazing reviews (Note the sarcasm) and contacted me to see if I would be interested in doing a review for Hello Canvas.

If I'm honest, I have had these offers before, but thought that as I didn't previously do reviews it wasn't for me, or the email I got looked a it spammy so I simply never replied. But, after looking at Hello Canvas and with it not looking like a website I would end up getting 8'542'300 e-mails about Viagra from, I decided to give them a shot.

And I'm glad I did!

Within a couple of days of sending Mark a couple of choices, the packaged arrived.


Our first ever canvas
380 pictures of our baby boy
As mentioned before, we have bought a few canvases before. One of New York which is above our fireplace and we also have one with pictures of Benjamin, made into a love heart, so we know our way round a canvas print.





With that in mind we were really happy with the canvas we received. The quality was great and the frame was strong and sturdy. With things like this the quality of the photograph you use is really important. If you supply a low quality picture, you will get a low quality picture.

From a distance
We used a picture about 235MB, anything less and I think you would have a really pixelated picture. I was really impressed with the quality of the canvas and how clear the picture looked.

Close up
 
One other thing we loved is that the picture came pre-framed. in the past when we have bought canvases for gifts, we actually had to make the frames and staple the pictures ourselves. Although this wasn't difficult, its so much easier (and looks better) if its done by somebody who knows what they are doing! lol




What She Says: I liked everything about it. The way it came made up, packaging was simple and effective and the picture looks really good. Colours don't look 'wishy washy' and it feels like a sturdy picture that I could drop & it wouldn't break....I know what I'm like for dropping things!

What He Says: The wife says it all really (As usual). Thanks to Mark for contacting me. We have another great canvas to add to our collection and a beautiful picture of our baby boy....Maybe I can do another review when Baby boy number 2 arrives! (hint hint) lol

Our score for this one? No complaints at all so it's gotta be the big one!

 (5 out of 5)


Well, that's our opinion, now it's time for you to have your own.

So when your looking for a new canvas, check out "The largest website in the United Kingdom for canvas prints!" http://www.hellocanvas.co.uk/ for a great choice in sizes, effects, frames and anything else you can think of when it comes to great canvas's.

As always, FTD looks after his loyal followers so if you trust our opinion and decide to buy a canvas from these guys, stick the code LBMAR2012 into the box during checkout and 5% will be knocked off your total. (I'm also told it can be combined with any other offer the guys are doing on line, so it there's some real savings to be had!)

Well, thats the 2nd review in the bag. If you've read this and want me to put anything through it's paces, then send me an e-mail.

As always, thanks for reading
FTD

Friday 23 November 2012

History NOT repeating itself.

5 weeks to go!

5! Five! Cino! Cinq! Funf! 伍! It doesn't matter how you say it, it doesn't matter what language it's in... 5 is not a big number!! (That last one is Chinese if you wondered?)

5 blooming weeks!
At this point in pregnancy number one, we were just about to leave the house, with hospital bag in hand. Both crapping ourselves (The Mrs a little bit more than me) about what was to come.

You would never get me jumping out of a plane, but I imagine the feeling is similar. There you are, about to experience something amazing. Something that most people in life would love to experience. But when your just about to take that leap, you cant help but think it may not have been a great idea and you should have kept it in your pants..OK, that last bit may not apply to sky diving.

So here we are. By the end of today, The Mrs has never been so pregnant.

We have had conversations with "Rupert" and explained that it would be helpful if he stayed in there a little bit longer, just so that he is ripe and ready when the time comes and so far he's listening and kicking in agreeance.

We dont want a repeat of last time. The first week Benjamin was in ICU was difficult for both of us. The Mrs had to stay in hospital for a week and I had go back and forth trying to keep the ship sailing. Hopefully, that wont happen this time.

A friend recently gave birth to a beautiful baby girl and she was home within 36 hours. Thats what we want. No fuss. Just have a baby and go home as a new family.

So for the next 2 weeks I can imagine those old wives tales are being avoided.
No Hot curry
No trips down a bumpy road
No doing the No Pants Dance
No Carbonara (This was the meal The Mrs had the night before she went into labor)

Altough it will be difficult to avoid all those ( I really like bumpy roads) these things have to be done, just incase any of thm turn out to be true.

Lets hope in 2 weeks time, I need to learn how to say 2 weeks in Chinese!

5 Weeks! *gulp*

Thanks for reading
FTD


Wednesday 14 November 2012

FTD REVIEW: Anti-slip bath safety circles

Well here goes....my first review!

What deserves such an honour? These guys.....
Why these guys? I chose these guys because they didn't even ask for  review. They simply saw my account on twitter, figured they would do me favour and offered me their product. No strings attached!

Now on the off chance that they gave them to a blogger who has never done a review before in the hope he would start doing reviews and maybe even start with the product they gave him without even asking for a review? It worked!

In the pack I received we got little white circles on backing paper and a template.

The template is a great idea. it shows you how best you can layout the circles and create your perfect non-slip bath surface.

Now, I'm not your typical bloke, but in this case, i did what a typical bloke would do.....I didn't bother with the instructions! I also didn't have much chance. It was close to bath time and I wanted to try these babies out.

So, I opened the packaging and placed the circles in a formation I can only described as drunk and uneven!

The circles stuck straight away and I could tell when I tried to move them that without a a good tug, they weren't going anywhere.
When happy with my pattern, we filled the bath and let Benjamin take his place in the tub.

Normally, he crawls around the bath chasing whatever toy he chooses to soak the bathroom with that evening and it normally ends up with him slipping and him temporarily dunking his own head in the water....so far, after 4 nights use, that has only happened once, so a definite improvement there!
This product is great for little ones and there was a definite lack of slipping.

Now of course, Benjamin isn't the only one that uses the bath. So me and The Mrs have to have an opinion don't we!

What she says:
The circles are small and discreet enough that you don't really notice them when your stood on them taking a shower and I have definitely seen a difference at bath time.

What He said:
These are definitely a great addition to any bath time routine. Easy to install and unlike a bathmat, they don't seem to retain any water so there should be less mould.

All in all a great product and I would definitely recommend them. The only thing I would change is that I would supply different sizes, so hat nearer the front of the bath where the bigger members of the family stand in the shower can also benefit from them.

So finally the score.
Couldn't really find anything wrong with the product and my only complaint (if you can call it that, is that they should make them a little bigger for my big feet!
Therefore they get an FTD score of;


(4 out of 5)


Well, my first review and it's finally in the bag. Hopefully you liked it and hopefully you take a look at the Anti-Slip bath safety circles.

Also the guys over at Non-Slip have been kind enough to offer a special offer,. Just for the readers of my blog! Don't you all feel special!
Simply order yourself a pack of these bad boys and you will get another pack absolutely FREE! Make your order as normal and e-mail info@nonslipbath.co.uk and tell them first-time-daddy sent you!

For more information, visit their website at http://www.nonslipbath.co.uk/

As always, thanks for reading
FTD

Sunday 11 November 2012

A View to Review

I realised a long time ago that in the blogging world, I am a very small fish in a VERY big pond. There are many more and much better blogs than the one your reading now, but I don't care bout them, I only care about my blog. I try to make sure I blog about things I want to talk about, not whats the social fad or most popular subject. However one popular aspect of blogging I have always wanted to get involved in is reviews.

When I look at buying a new product, the first thing I do is type it into a search engine and see what experiences other people have had with it. If a product is more expensive than an other, but the reviews are more positive, then that's the one we will choose. Hopefully I can be the review that helps somebody out there buy a great product.

So, my dear readers, in the future your going to see reviews on my little corner of the Internet. You of course don't have to read them but I hope you do.
I'm going to start with products I have already bought as we all have to start somewhere and then hopefully I will be offered some products to review for you guys, my beloved readers.

If there is anything in particular, you would like me to review, let me know and I will see what I can do.
If your a company or organisation, who would like me to review anything of yours, please contact me on firsttimedaddyblog@gmail.com


As always, thanks for reading.
FTD

P.S. I have never done anything like this any more, so any pointers would be greatly appreciated either on the comments below or hit me up on twitter.

Friday 2 November 2012

Fear (The Second Child Edition)

I don't fear alot of things and as I get older, I fear less and less.

Back before Benjamin joined this crazy world, I wrote a post talking about what fears I had leading up to becoming a first time daddy. Find it HERE
Going back and reading that post I can still relate to it, but what was my biggest fear then, I'm not afraid of now!

My biggest fear then was money, or lack thereof.


We never felt like we had a great deal of money. Looking back now, we had plenty and I really had nothing to worry about. the reason for this is really The Mrs. She watches the finances (Spends most of em too, but lets not get into that! lol) and I know she wouldn't let us spend what we cant afford. hence, I am no longer afraid of such things.

Fast Forward to last week where one of the lovely people I follow on twitter asked this of her followers:

@MinistryOfMum:Question: What do you fear since becoming a parent? 

Without hesitation, I gave my answer......Failure

I don't mean failure as a parent. I actually think we (Especially my wife) have been great parents and hopefully our second little boy, will be as great as Benjamin and make our life easy.
What I mean is failure to do the right thing or making the right decision and that thing having a negative effect. 

When you become a parent, there a millions of decisions to make and every parent makes those decisions differently:
Should I give my baby a dummy or try to cope without? Do I use cloth or disposable nappies? Do I let my baby cry himself to sleep or should I rock him to sleep every night?

Whatever answers you come up with, they are not the wrong answer. There is no wrong answer, but there is repercussions to each decision. My fear is that the decisions I make are the right ones for us as a family.

Of course I have other fears now that we are having a second one. What if he is earlier than Benjamin? (That wasn't fun!) What if when they grow up, they don't get on? What if I pick a name and it turns out to, when combined with Benjamin sounds stupid and they get picked on at school? OK....after typing those, it appears I have more than I thought! lol

All I know is this. I don't fear, what I cant control. If there is a problem hurtling towards me, now I'm older and wiser, I don't worry about it. I just brace myself for impact. Then, we pick up the pieces and carry on.

So, after that ramble......What do you fear since becoming a parent?
Answers in the comment section below, or of course tweet @MinistryofMum, I'm sure she wont mind!

Thanks again for reading
FTD