This post contains products sent for the purposes of this review
Mother’s Day is rapidly approaching and lots of lovely companies have sent me products to review and include in a gift guide. The majority of them cost less than £30, and are all guaranteed to bring a smile on March 14th.
Chocolate
You cannot go wrong with chocolate, can you? Cadbury’s Gifts Direct site has a whole LOAD of gift ideas from hampers to personalised bars with products starting from just a few Pounds. NB: bookmark it for Easter as there are some equally gorgeous ideas for that on the website too!
Green and Black‘s also have a gifting section on their website and offer a wide range of personalised products too. There is even next day delivery available if you have left it to the last minute!
Personalised Gifts
Talking of personalised gifts, I don’t care how old you are, getting something with your name on it is always exciting. When Proper Goose got in touch and asked me if I would like to choose something from their website I couldn’t resist the cake tin that allowed me to have “Nanny’s cakes” written on the top. I want there to always be something delicious in Nanny’s tin when grandchildren come over for tea so this is going to take pride of place on the kitchen table. (currently housing a lemon drizzle). There are so many beautiful things on the website, for every gifting occasion, and again the prices start from around £10.
Another fabulous site for personalised gifts is ForYouGifts who have hundreds of personalised present ideas, for every budget and every occasion. I had so much fun rummaging through their site picking a few things out. My favourite might just be my new gin garden sign that I can’t wait to hang up when our garden makeover is finished later this summer. Prices start from just a few Pounds and delivery is speedy too.
Foodie treats
Buy A Gift asked me I would like a voucher for Piglet’s Pantry who provide hampers of delicious goodies. You can choose from just sausage rolls, to a selection of cakes, or a full blown feast for four people. They even have a vegan afternoon tea option. Prices start from about £20 (if you want delivery on Saturday there is an additional fee not covered by the Buy A Gift Voucher). We can definitely vouch for the savoury canapés, they were delicious!
Jewellery
Have you heard of El Camino? “A representation of where you have travelled, that you wear”. It is such a simple idea but one that I adore. You choose a bracelet and then you choose steps (or spacers) to remind you of memorable places, placing them on the bracelet to build a truly personalised gift. I was invited to choose my own so picked three places special to me: The Netherlands where we had our first weekend away, Italy where Bruce proposed, and Barbados where we honeymooned and had ten years of family holidays. Bracelets are all handmade and start from £27, and steps from £11. They can even do a custom step for you if the one you want isn’t available. Or there are “lockdown steps” with 20% of sales going to NHS charities. Honestly you could get lost on the website for hours picking the steps you want to have on your wrist. I will definitely be returning to build a wish list of places I want to travel in the future. A kind of bucket wrist list.
An indoor allotment
Yes really. People wait years for their name to get to the top of allotment waiting lists but you could have one within days. Sort of. Small enough to fit on any windowsill, but big enough to provide three different herbs for dinner, this indoor allotment planter is an absolute winner. It comes with everything you need to grow the herbs, including compost blocks and seeds, and there are even some seed snips to cut the grown herbs. Carefully kept safe in the allotment’s own potting shed of course. Currently reduced to £24.50 this would make a great present for any foodie.
Body products
How about putting together a hamper of pampering body products? Gruum have luxurious shampoo and conditioner bars (all with plastic free packaging) that would not only be great in a hamper but perfect for travelling as they are solid! Alphagreen have a wide range of products, that include bath bombs, body oils, and lotions. Real treats that smells fabulous. Bundle them all together and tell your mum to treat herself to an hour of peace in the bath and she’ll feel like she’s been spoiled rotten!
Wine
These would be top of my mum’s wish list for Mother’s Day I am sure! Both of these are from Independent Wine who sell the most amazing Italian wines. Every wine on their site comes with extensive tasting notes and information about the wine and the producer so you really get to know the wine before you taste it. And they offer gift wrapping and a next day delivery service too! But if you want to do something a little bit different, how about signing your mum up to do a virtual wine tasting?
Unlike other popular virtual tasting events, the focus of their tastings is firmly on fine wine. Each tasting pack includes three full-size (750ml) bottles of award-winning wine from Italy, rather than small sample-size bottles of varying quality. The sessions are taking place just before Mother’s Day weekend – the 11th and 12th March 2021 – and focus on red wines from Northern Italy. Thursday’s session will focus on Pinot Noir from the Dolomite Alps, while Friday will be dedicated to the noble red wines of Piedmont. Tickets cost £99 per household. All the info is on the website.
There are also premium Italian wine and matching Truffles gift sets, by Iain Burnett, the Highland Chocolatier. For each gift-set, they created special pairings with certain Velvet Truffles® in order to accentuate the different textures and flavours which often go unnoticed in the wines.
Non alcoholic Drink
I first heard about Mother Root when Helen (Knackered Mother’s Wine Club) mentioned it on Saturday Kitchen a few months ago. It’s a delicious non alcoholic drink, or switchel, that you add to soda water, or sparkling water to make a refreshing long drink. I absolutely love this and can’t wait to spend long lazy summer days drinking it in the garden. Those long lazy days are coming soon, right?