Review: Hawkins Bazaar

Of course we had a birthday coming up and so soon after Christmas, I always struggle to find a decent present. So it was great to try out a new toy shop, which like all shops these days, has not just a high street, but also an online presence. Hawkins Bazaar has branches in Scotland and I tested out their range and service in their online incarnation. Hawkins Bazaar has stores in Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen which is a tad for to travel for me.

The website is rather intuitive and it's easy to browse and find what one is looking for. I also found it easy to browse if one doesn't know what one is looking for (i.e. me). I got lots of ideas and particularly like the section for party bag items which to me seemed a bit more of the unusual and useful type, rather than the usual plastic tat that doesn't last the day. Particularly there were some small toys that in multiple (party bag) quantities were a very good deal.

I'm not quite sure what made the website so user friendly, but my experience was that I found what I was looking for much quicker than in other store websites. For the birthday child, we got a model mini, because she's just really into minis. The idea seemed perfect, and the mini also comes in yellow, however, it wasn't possible to choose the colour (and the one that came was black, but she didn't seem to mind). For Snowflake we got a mermaid tank with swimming life like mermaid which she totally adores, and plays with hours on end. It's perfect for the garden and has been popular amongst the neighbour's girl as well.

The delivery was quick and all went rather well. I stocked up on party bag items and presents for upcoming friends' birthdays too which was rather convenient. The range and selection was good - I'm not sure how it compares to other shops but I definitely didn't feel in any way limited by the range. Postage is reasonable and free for orders over £40. Special deals and multibuy offers are also easy to find, so all in all a good shopping experience that can be recommended. I'm actually quite curious now what the physical Hawkins Bazaar shops look like...

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Disclosure: I received vouchers to buy products for this review (in part payment of my order)

Spring declutter

The clutter is getting the better of me. Spring has sprung and wouldn't it be lovely if there was a bit more space in our home?
Of course, it's hard to declutter with two kids and two adults who have a serious case of the hoards.

Mrs Cartside: books, CDs, craft materials, gardening stuff, random items that may come in handy one day, files
Mr Cartside: books, CDs, magazines, games and games consoles, files
The kids: toys, books, clothes, baby equipment.

Both adults led rather independent lives for rather long so when we moved together, we both brought a lot of stuff in, and two full sets of kitchen utensils etc.
We did declutter at that point by having a stall at Blochairn car boot sale, which was fun but tiring and didn't make any money to speak of.

So right now I'm trying to declutter but I'm not pretending it's going well. We had to empty the loft to get loft insulation so all the stuff we'd forgotten about was brought down. A few things were thrown away; a few things passed on. Most stuff went back up.

The plan of action is to sell valuable items through Gumtree and ebay. It never ceases to surprise me what does sell and what doesn't. I have a perfect SLR camera, much loved, and can't get it to shift. It's heartbreaking because I do love it, I took so many memorable photos with it, it travelled around the world and back and now it's worthless? Surely not. However my TENS machine went for more than I expected in just a few days.

Of course ebay is a hassle for items of small value. I did consider selling some baby outfits (the ones I loved) but after some ebay market research it's clear that baby clothes have no resale value. at all. Too much of it kicking about methinks. I'd be happy to pass on for free just that all my friends seem to be done procreating (bar one and there's only a 50% chance it'll be a girl, while I can't bear to hold on to so much stuff any longer) and I'm the last woman standing, stuck with cupboards full of pink.

So it's going to the charity shop. Not every charity shop will take everything, I know though that the Unity Centre Shop is keen for baby clothes so that'll be the one. Freecycle would be an option too, but knowing how little asylum seekers have to live on, I just know that the shop is the best option as  it's going to people who truly need the clothes, and that it won't cost them a penny.

As to baby equipment, I can't wait to get rid of the first batch and create some more space. I have a preference for Gumtree as opposed to ebay because it's more local and less complicated what with fees and posting, but it's also true that at least with ebay you know where you are after 10 days and don't have to sit indefinitely on your stuff.

It's tough though because I'm rather broody and giving things away seems so darn final. This baby of ours is just the cutest wee thing ever, and seeing big sister jump up and down to make her laugh hysterically is just so wonderful that, dare I admit it, I'd love to do it all over again. Mustn't go there. I'm too old for that. We're lucky to have two amazing girls and wanting more would be greedy and tempting fate. I disgress.

Most of our space is taken up by books anyway. And there's the real dilemma: Neither of us can part with books. I do both bookmooch and readitswapit, but see my list in relation to the total number of books owned and it becomes clear that I'm a hanger on to books (and the books I have listed on both sites never find any takers while the books I'm looking for never come up). Why? Every now and again I go through my bookcase and I know I won't read most of the books ever again. Yet there are endless reasons to keep each book:
This is the set of books I wrote my PhD on and they took me years to source.
This is a book I loved and I can't part.
These are the books I've yet to read.
This book looks nice.
These books are about stuff that I once was extremely interested in. I'm pretty sure I won't read them again but they remind me of that time.
This book cost me an arm and a leg. This book was bought in my favourite second hand bookstore.
These books may come in handy in case I lose my job and start teaching again.
These books are Irish easy readers and I may want to brush up my Irish again.
These books are travel guides to countries I've been to and those I had planned to go to but never did.

I'm sure there are more reasons. We even have duplicates, and still neither of us can part with their relevant copy.

The only books though that I think I may be able to part with are the ones that I haven't read yet - after reading. Thing is, I'm not too good reading at the moment. If I imposed an internet ban on myself I might stand a chance.

So there you have it. Blogging leads to unread book accumulation and stalemate in the decluttering department.

Do you declutter? Any tips you can share to help me out?

Christmas Toy Appeal

Last year, I support the toy appeal of the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees. One simple blog post led to an amazing success, I was inundated with presents for some of the most vulnerable children in Glasgow - so many that half of my office was taken up by the generosity of a handful of people who donated such quantities of toys and other useful items. I was truly moved by it all, even though I struggled to actually deal with the sheer quantity of donations.

At the time, it was one last chance I saw to contribute to a bit of a helping hand to the people I had been working with, in the knowledge that my new field of work would be very different. Not less rewarding, of course, just that I'd met such inspiring people when working with asylum seeking and refugee children and parents, and to put it simply, I really and truly enjoyed my work, even though at times the suffering that goes with the refugee experience cannot be left at work when you close the office door and go home.

You may have guessed it, it's this time of the year again and the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugee has launched this Festive Season's Toy Appeal. And yes, I'd like to ask my readers once again to open up their hearts to the children who've been through hell and back, having been persecuted in their home lands, who had to pack their lives into a bag they can carry in search of sanctuary, and maybe, just maybe, a new home. Nobody told them about the weather in Scotland I'm sure, or that they will be housed in Europe's highest high rises, that they will have to suffer abuse by those who fear that they are a threat to the little they have themselves.

I've been to houses of families where there was no more than one toy. If you've got to survive on 70% of income support (or less as is proposed) and you have to pay for regular trips for the whole family to Croydon to present your case from that little money, there simply is nought spare for toys.

So please, if you can, donate a new or nearly new toy or one of these items:
- educational and fun toys for younger children
- clothes for younger children
- goodie bags for babies (cream, shampoo, wipes etc)
- items for older kids, such as t-shirts, sweatshirts, trendy clothes
- games toys and sport items for older kids
- hats, gloves, scarves, socks etc for young teenagers
- gift tokens for books / music shops (units of 5 quid are best)
There tends to be a shortage of gifts for teenagers, so these are particularly welcome.

If you want to do more:
- tell your friends, neighbours, family and colleagues
- circulate this message by email, on your blog, retweet on Twitter etc
- collect toys etc yourself

Now for the nitty gritty detail:
I'm based in Glasgow during the week and weekends in Clackmannanshire. My ability to collect is limited, but I do travel across Glasgow a lot from work so it may be possible. If you want to donate, it would help if you could drop donations off or send gift tokens (if you're not in Scotland, please make sure you send gift tokens for shops that exist in Glasgow - if in doubt, just ask). Please leave a comment with your email address or email me directly to arrange a suitable time and place, my email is blog at cartside dot co dot uk.

Please don't wrap presents for health and safety reasons. You can provide wrapping paper if you like.
Please donate only new or nearly new items.

If you want to contact the Glasgow Campaign to Welcome Refugees directly, their email address is glascamref at gmail.com

Thanks You!

Tolo Toys Review

Have you heard of the Tolo Toys range? I hadn't so far, so I was pleased to be sent the Safari Girl to review.

When it arrived, I gave it straight to Cubling. She played with it a little and then moved on. Not wanting to give in easily, I let my nephew have a go. Cubling had no problem sharing. Nephew was keen, tried out all the features and was done 30 seconds later, announcing "I'm finished, Cubling can have it back".

To be fair, that's a 2 1/2 year old verdict. And it was for just playing with the safari girl on her own. I'm pretty sure that the reaction from a 1 year old would be very different, but it does say 1-5 years on the box, and one thing is clear, our 2 1/2 year olds aren't big time into it. Of course this may be different if they had a whole set of Tolo Toys, where they could use their imagination and actually act out scenes. After a quick browse on the internet to see what kind of sets there are, I realised that Tolo Toys aren't exactly cheap as chips.

What does the safari girl do? It's brightly coloured, has a camera and you can turn bits of her body, like put the head facing backwards, her pony tail forwards and the arms and legs in funny positions. And there's a squeaky button on her tummy to do a belly button squeak. When you turn her body parts, it clicks - a nice loud click which I'm sure would delight a 6-18 month old. It doesn't sit unsupported and the camera obstructs the movement of the left arm which is a bit of a shame.

Verdict: Great for a one year old or even younger, potential for 2 year olds if puchased in a set or in context of a playhouse or similar environments. On the higher price range for toys. Sturdy and quality construction. Made from plastic. Would I buy it? Definitely not for my 2 1/2 year old. Would I be happy to buy it for a one year old? Yes. Compared to say the Little People range they offer more activity with the actual figures, they are bigger and would definitely inspire a child's imagination. Of course, you'd probably also spend about three times as much on the set.

If you're interested, you can find out more here.

uphill struggle: kids and climate change

No, this is not an odd title. When it came to thinking about what my contribution to this year's Blog Action Day on Climate Change could be, I wavered between about 5 different ideas. Until it dawned on me that the biggest senseless contribution to climate change and the global challenges it brings is having kids in the developed world. And as usual, it's the grown ups who are to blame.

It's not because they themselves will contribute to CO2 emissions. Although that may be a good point too, just that I'd rather not suggest not having kids to save the planet. Let's for now stick to the premise that having kids is ok and after all, we are meant to procreate aren't we? No, what really enfuriates me, the child of parents who grew up during the war and the dire post war years, who knew hunger and the humility of begging for a slice of bread, a family where waste was unknown because the value of all things was known, is the amount of senseless waste and consumerism we live in now.

Take toys as an example. Our house is brimming with them. We still have less than many other houses. There is not a room without toys, most of them unplayed with, some even untouched. And don't get me started on soft toys. I've never counted them, all I know is that Cubling has only ever played with about half a doyen of them and wouldn't be unhappy if all she owned was Spencer bear (whom we almost lost on the trip to Germany but that's another story). Being A Mummy blogged about the nuisance of soft toys before. And she is right of course, they are mostly cute, some so odd I'd class them as disgusting to scary, but above all, they are unused dust gatherers, an utter waste of scarce resources, as are most of the toys owned by our 2 1/2 year old.

The problem is that people enjoy giving presents to children. I don't blame them, there's nothing like that face of delight when a present is announced, handed over, unravelled, discovered, explored. Unlike giving presents to us, the grown ups who have it all, and are hard to please, nothing is easier than pleasing a toddler. It makes us feel good. And contributes to our destruction of the earth.

And so our house has become, for want of an apter term, a skip of toys and soft toys. We can't throw them out for fear of upsetting a respected friend or relative. And yet they keep accumulating.

To make up for it a little bit, I'm resolved to buying second hand only wherever and whenever I can. Not to save money (although that's a lovely side product) but to combat that senseless consumerism, which wastes unknown quantities of water, oil, and other resources which are really not in unlimited supply, in the process creating CO2 and in the end contributing to landfill and further contamination of the place we live in. I've bought toys from charity shops, clothes from ebay, accepted ridiculous amounts of handed down clothes from when Cubling was born and it's not an easy choice. I always had to combat feeling like I didn't give my daughter the best I could get, that I may be seen as tight or even daft.

The only person who honestly doesn't care that her beloved rocking horse came from a charity shop or all her clothes are from her one-year-older friend is Cubling herself. Which helps. Yes, I do love shopping too, and I miss not having an excuse to spoil her rotten. Until I see her spend full days outdoors, exploring the world without a toy at hand, with her telling me how happy she is. It is then that I realise that the real loss is not the new and shiny toys she doesn't get, but the fact that nature kindergardens haven't made it to Glasgow yet.