Review post for- Optically.co.nz

I was asked by Optically.co.nz if I wanted to collabrate and do a review for them. Being a wearer of glasses myself, (I need to wear them for driving and watching TV) I was very excited to get some new glasses.

What you need to know

Optically.co.nz was lauched in 2015 and they are one of the largest online providers of prescription glasses and sunglasses in New Zealand.

There are over 3000 frames to choose from, offering a wide variety of brands and styles. So you should find something on there which is affordable as well as being able to browse through the premium brands. There are roughly 31 different designer frames on the website.

The price of the glasses starts from $9, meaning that they are 14 times cheaper than most high street stores. The $9 glasses includes standard prescription lenses with FREE anti-reflective coating.

Prescription sunglasses begin at $49 and there are over 500 styles to look at, there are also a number of designer labels which you may find are well within your budget.

If you live in Auckland, Wellington or Christchurch you can expect your glasses to be with you within 10 working days, if you live outside of these areas you will need to allow an extra 2 working days for delivery.

Hesistant about buying glasses online?

Worried to purchase without trying them on first? I thought about this too. Optically.co.nz has a virtual mirror, so you can see what you look like in the glasses before selecting the BUY NOW option. And if you haven’t fallen in love with your glasses than there is a 90 day unconditional returns option.

Still not sure about the glasses, well there is also the option to an Home Trial, you can select up to four frames to try on at home, 30 styles to choose from. You can see how they look, fit and ask for your family and friends opinions. If you choose this option, the frames can be with you within 24 hours, try them on, love them? Then place an order and pop your trial box in the mail, Freepost.

I had a good browse through the Women’s glasses and the frames I chose are called Walden Daring.

Photo from Optically.co.nz

Description: (taken from website)

An elegant and stylish pair of full rimmed glasses
This pair benefits from slender arms with flex hinges.
Secure but relaxing on the nose due to the fine finish.

I thought they were different to the current prescription glasses that I have. I used the virtual ‘Try-on’, which was really easy to use. I took a photo of myself using the camera on my phone and when I had done that it uploaded the glasses onto my face, so I had a really good idea if they suited me or not.

I would recommend using the ‘Try-on’ option, just gives you a rough idea as to whether the glasses suit you or not, plus it was really easy to use.

The verdict.

When the glasses arrived they were well packed. The case was inside a small bubble bag, which was inside a larger bubble bag. Upon opening the case, you can see that they were well packaged and no scratches or a marks.

To me I thought that the frames look a tad darker than on the website, I have noticed that this can occur for most things when bought online. It can be a gamble buying anything, will I like it, will they suit me? Using the virtual ‘try-on’ definitely helped and I would highly reccommend doing that or using the Home Trial option.

The glasses are lighter in weight that I thought they would be. On the website the measurements are given of each pair of glasses to help you decide if the frames are the right ones for you.

The frames are a little bigger than my other glasses so it has taken me a few looks in the mirror to get used to seeing bigger frames on my face. I do really like them and I am really pleased with my choice of glasses.

If you are looking for a new pair of glasses or just a second pair to keep in the car or use at work, or even to match a favourite outfit, I’m sure a visit to optically will help you decide.

You can find Optically on

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Overall I am really happy with my glasses, a HUGE thank you to optically for gifting me a pair of glasses to review.

Stacey

NB: I was sent a pair of frames including the prescription to review, all opinions expressed are my own.

Review for Little Leaf Eco

Wow, its been a while since I did a review and even wrote a post. A few weeks ago I was fortunate to be approached by Maileen of Little Leaf Eco, to review a couple of her items amd I took her up on the opportunity.

I was sent a Stinky Bag for Little Miss and a Kid’s Backpack for Mr Happy. I am always on the look out for new and different things for my children and the chance to review both items has been well received in our household.

A Little About Little Leaf Eco

They are a New Zealand family owned company, with a focus on creating items to minimise waste, help the environment whilst maintaining a high standard.

The creater is a Mum of two boys and finding she was getting tired of lunchboxes breaking halfway through the school year, as well as trying to find the right shape and not always knowing what chemicals were used to create the lunchboxes, her first product the Lunch Tote was born.

Other products by Little Leaf Eco

On the website you can find the Lunch Tote, Stinky Bag, Kid’s Backpack’s and a selection of Wooden Toys.

On to the Stinky Bag

The Stinky Bag is designed to be used for sports, swimming gear, gym kits, toys, sleepover items and anything else you can think of. Little Miss is starting school in a matter of months and has weekly swimming lessons so I thought this bag would be perfect for her to try.

We were sent the pink ‘Princess in Training’ bag. When I first showed Little Miss her instantly had a huge smile on her face. She was keen to have a look at the different compartments and started discussing what she could use the bag for.

What interested me most about the Stinky Bag is the bottom zippered section that has been designed to store wet, dirty or used gear separately, ie the Stinky stuff! Plus, the bag has been made so you can put the wet/dirty clothes straight into the washing machine within having to touch them. Tip the opened part of the bag straight into the machine. And the bag is also washing machine friendly (note: I haven’t washed mine yet!).

We have used the bag for swimming lessons and it is perfect! No more having to take a plastic bag to put her wet togs, hat and towel in. The first time we used it, Little Miss had to put her wet things in the ‘wet’ section by herself!

Perfect size to fit everything

There a few pockets to the Stinky Bag also, an outside zip pocket and another one with a velcro seal. Inside the main compartment of the bag, there is a pocket to hold a few small items as well as a label for your child to name their bag.

Separate zip to get into the ‘stinky’ compartment, velcro pocket at the front

Plenty of room inside the bag, two small pockets and a label to name the bag

At the top there is the zip as well as a magnetic button, so you can fold over the top of the bag if you don’t need to fill the bag.

At $59.95 the Stinky Bag can be on the expensive side for bags, but for the size of bag it is worth it. I feel Little Miss will get a lot of use from this when she starts school and because of the design and style of it, I think it will be a favourite bag of hers for a few years to come.

The Stinky Bag comes in three different designs. The two other designs are Super Hero Stinky Bag and Hands Off Stinky Bag

Kid’s Backpack

The Kid’s Backpack’s are animal themed and perfect for toddlers and preschool children. They are made with 100% recycled cotton canvas, so lightweight for little people and they have adjustable shoulder straps and I would say they are washable.

There are five designs to choose from, I was given the Blue Dog backpack for Mr Happy. The other designs available are Green Cat, Orange Monkey, Pink Bunny and Red Dog.

Blue Dog Kid’s Backpack $49.95

What I love about it is that it is just his size, easy for him to put on and it can hold his lunchbox, and several changes of clothes for Preschool. It doesn’t have waterproof lining, but its easy for him to open and close.

It also has a handle on the top of the bag, good for hanging up and great for storing the bag at home. Inside of the bag has colourful lining, appealing to young children and has two pockets built inside, always handy to have extra compartments, Mr Happy just loves it. He turns three next month, but I would say that this bag would be ideal from age one upwards, as Little Leaf Eco suggests.

Colourful lining, two small pockets.

So there you have it, my review of two really great Mum-made and of course New Zealand and Eco-friendly products. Little Miss and Mr Happy are proud as punch with their new bags.

Happy Kids with their Stinky Bag and Backpack

Mr Happy ‘modelling’ without realising

Links for Little Leaf Eco

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NB: I was sent the ‘Stinky bag’ and Kid’s Backpack to review and all views and photos are my own. Some information has been adapted from the Little Leaf Eco website.

Easter Time with Lulu n Cat

Yay it’s almost that time again, Easter!!!! When I was a kid, apart from Christmas and my birthday, Easter was another holiday I looked forward too.

It meant two weeks off school and lots of chocolate! I grew up with two younger brothers and we all did pretty well for Easter. We were brought up to wait ~~patiently~~ until Easter Sunday before we could open one of our chocolately treats! (My husband tells me as a child, he was allowed to have his chocolate eggs on Good Friday, to me this doesn’t seem right and I insist our kids have to wait until Sunday).

This year Little Miss is three (going on 13), she will be four in June and Mr Happy is two next month. And this will be the first year I will attempt to do an Easter egg hunt for them. I say attempt, cause I can see it being a tad chaotic. I am really conscious about how much chocolate they should eat/be given at their age, so I have been putting some thought into what they can ‘hunt’ for. I found these cool Playdoh Easter eggs, $12 for 10 eggs which I thought was prety good. The kids, are HUGE Playdoh fans so I think these eggs filled with Playdoh will be a big hit.

I also have two of Lulu n Cat Easter Bunny Jars one in lime green and the other in blush pink. I think the kids will really like these to collect their mini chocolate eggs and Easter stickers in. Plus after the chocolate is gone and the stickers have been stuck everywhere (usually everywhere but paper!) they will get to keep the jar! They will be a great keepsake, plus they can be used each Easter.

Emma of Lulu n Cat also lives in New Plymouth, last year I did a review of her cool creations.

I would love to know of any Easter traditions anyone would like to share.

Review for Kiwi Mummy Blogs- Tama the Kiwi

I was sent two books to review by Kiwi Mummy Blogs Yay!!! The first review is Tama the Kiwi

We love books in our house. Little Miss (aged three), loves story time (as I’m sure most kiddies her age do) and it is cool seeing her pointing to some of the words in books and asking what the word is. My husband and I both enjoy to read, so I’m sure the kids will follow. Mr Happy, (aged 19 months) will often take himself down to the bedroom, sit on the floor with books all around him and look through books for ages. He chats away to himself as he is reading and points at the pictures, its lovely to watch and listen to him enjoying this time to himself and seeing him grow and develop.

We were sent Tama the Kiwi, by Beks Bongiovanni, Illustrations by Laker. This is the first book in a series, the next one is planned to be released mid 2016. I already can’t wait! I was really impressed with how it arrived, I could already tell it was going to be a hit. Just look how lovely it was packaged, I felt like a kid at Christmas opening it!

Couldn’t resist a photo of the awesome packaging

About Tama the Kiwi

This book features Tama the Kiwi as he goes on a Tiki Tour throughout his homeland of New Zealand. The books have been created to inspire travelling and hopefully have some great adventures within New Zealand. I was looking forward the reading this book to my children, just flicking through the pages it was lovely to see bright and colourful illustrations, quite a few New Zealand towns and landmarks are mentioned, as well as words that jumped out at you and would be easy for my children to read in the future.

Beks Bongiovanni, the author was really struggling to find books for young kiwis whilst living overseas, so she decided to create her own. The illustrator, Laker is her Brother-in-Law and there was also a lot of help from her sister Steph.

Front Cover

Back Cover

Thoughts

I think this book would appeal to very young children, it would make an ideal baby shower gift as well as being an excellent Christmas and birthday present for preschool and older children. Due to the big, bold printed writing I feel it would make a good book for children starting to learn to read and building their confidence in the world of reading. My three year old and 19 month old have been really impressed by it, I love being able to read and teach them about the country where we live. The illustrations are beautiful, colourful, bold and appealing to all ages. I have read it several times and so has my husband and it gets the thumbs up from both of us.