A bit of an early start this morning courtesy of Nixon saw me considering plans for the day pre-7.30am. Plenty of time to cram some more sun into this summer holiday! I was considering inexpensive things the boys and I could do, beaches we could visit …
Dan Carter: My Story. Published by Upstart Press RRP $49.99 Oh lord. I finished this book 2 days ago and I’m still thinking about it. Whether you’re a die-hard rugby fan looking for something to tide you over until the Super Rugby season begins, a …
Welcome to the second post in a little series I’m going to refer to as All the Mummas Say Hell Yes! The Best Nest Goes Back to School 2016! Whoop whoop! Shopping, lunchboxes, uniforms, shoes, pencil sharpeners, stationery, schoolbags………
…..and we really are blessed for choice aren’t we? Sooo many places to choose between when shopping for back to school supplies and you can often tick multiple items off your list with a little smart shopping. That’s what we are going to do today, compare very similar offerings from two different retailers and find out just how much they differ in price.
Our Contenders;
Meet Smiggle® (online shopping not available in NZ), the super popular niche retailer selling bright, fun, colour-blocked stationery and accessory ranges.
Meet Kookie from Warehouse Stationery. Perhaps traditionally known for standard office and school supplies, this large retailer launched multiple ranges of on-trend ‘fashion-ery’ in 2015 and is now armed with it’s own cute and funky brands that will appeal to all ages. Kookie is made for Kiwi kids, featuring bold, colourful and functional products.
*The coloured bar graphs in the centre of the graphic show the price difference to scale.
Kookie Marine Pencil Case Tube $7.99 vs Smiggle Pals Tube Pencil Case $10.95
Price difference = $2.96 / 27%
Two great little pencil cases here! The Smiggle offering is a traditional, cylindrical tube made from PVC I think. Great length, definitely falls into the not-too-big category which some kids will like, but if your child likes to pack a full range of felts and coloured pencils, you’re going to need a bigger boat!
The case from Kookie is a canvas fabric which makes it a bit more flexible and possibly easier to rummage around in. A wee bit shorter than the Smiggle case which could cause some ruler issues lol. The super cute New Zealand endangered marine life series is pretty rad too!
Kookie Marine Key Ring $3.99 vs Smiggle Alphabet Key Ring $7.99
Price difference = $4 / 50%.
Ok, I don’t know that many kids with keys, so this is totally a novelty item for me, in which case price would be the main consideration. Again they’re both really cute and essentially the same quality. The letter from Smiggle is a rigid plastic, whereas the marine animal series from Kookie is a soft rubber.
Kookie Marine Lunchbox Stack of 4 $12.99 vs Smiggle Pop Up Lunch Box $16.95
Price difference = $3.96 / 23%.
A good lunchbox is one of the most essential pieces in the back to school puzzle in my opinion. Too bulky and it makes a school bag awkward and uncomfortable. Too small and it’s useless…
I would use both of these options as part of a bigger set I think. The Smiggle Pop Up lunchbox is definitely quite useful in that it collapses down nicely, not so good if there are any remnants leftover after lunch though. The Kookie set of 4 boxes would be an easy, inexpensive way to use an existing lunchbox cooler-bag as a bento-style lunchbox with individual compartments.
Kookie Fruit Backpack $34.99 vs Smiggle Wow Backpack $49.99
Price difference = $15 / 30%.
Another crucial purchase I think. Especially important for little wee kids and the bigger ones. A too-big bag on a Year 0 is a nightmare as is a too-small bag for a Year 7. Size matters lol.
These bags are essentially identical – same layout, the materials feel the same and are a very similar bright, fun aesthetic. Both are an awesome size for school with great strong zips (SO important!), lots of pockets that are actually a functional size, drink bottle holders on the sides, a slot for earphones (?) and lovely padded straps.
It only comes down to price with Kookie coming in $15 cheaper.
Kookie LED Spray Fibre Optic Crystal Lamp $9.99 vs Smiggle Mega Mix Light $24.99
Price difference = $15 / 60%.
Like the backpacks these are nearly identical, in fact if they didn’t come out of the same factory I would be very surprised! The Smiggle version has multicoloured strands of strandy stuff whereas the Kookie version is just clear. The LED’s in both lamps change colour, though this seems to show up better on the clear strands of the Kookie lamp – which is why Ethan chose that one as his fave.
* Please note some items in this image are not the same as those reviewed.
** Goods in this review were provided free for editorial consideration by Warehouse Stationery.
Welcome to the first post in a little series I’m going to refer to as All the Mummas Say Hell Yes! The Best Nest Goes Back to School 2016! Whoop whoop! Shopping, stationery, uniforms, shoes, pencil sharpeners, lunchboxes……… Bento style lunchboxes to be exact. I’m admittedly …
Beauty Blogger I’m not, but I am a Mummy Blogger who approx. 3 days out of 7 has to pull a rabbit out of her hat and look like she’s had enough sleep, like she’s eating a la Julia & Libby and working out like Makaia. HA! …
The tittle of this book intrigued me until around half-way through when it’s meaning was revealed.
After living in California myself for 3+ years I have plenty of reasons of my own to explain the seemingly-gravitational pull that many Americans feel towards California and the south west in general, however, the socio-economic explanation of the phenomenon posits the reasons as ‘gold, fame and citrus’.
In her novel by the same name, Claire Vaye Watkins paints an extreme version of all that is characteristic of the land of excess, albeit in a semi post-apocalyptic state after years and years of drought and an ever-encroaching and dynamic desert that spares nothing in its wake.
The west is near uninhabitable.
The natural (yet unrecognisable) landscape is well crafted as one of the major characters in this amazing novel, accompanied by a small cast of lost souls who find, and ruin each other with nothing more than unsubstantiated threats, control via the creation of an idyll against all odds and the human need to want and be wanted.
The beauty of these characterisations is that nothing beyond the shifting sand is ever substantiated. No bureaucracy or ruling power is ever revealed, threats, though exquisitely described by Levi, the charismatic leader of the Mojaves, do not materialise over the course of the novel and the relationships between the characters run their natural course. One that is beautifully scripted from the early pages.
Luz, Ray and baby Ig leave a comfortable hold-out, forced eastwards by a growing paranoia and into the belly of the Dune Sea. Searching for the America of old, or at the very least – water – they are saved only by the remnants of a society that ends up destroying them all, relying on the symbolism of one figure to evoke change, that is ironically nothing more than a throw-back to Luz’s past. An eerie circular narrative that doesn’t fully play out until the final pages of the book.
Such a gripping, gritty read. I loved Gold Fame Citrus. Not a crime, romance, comedic novel; Watkins beautifully lifts the scabs of the human condition and pokes at our ability to manipulate and control one another with nothing more than our words and actions.
10/10.
Inspired by a feature in Frankie Magazine I has had a wee think and come up with a few things that I did last year; Ditched energy drinks. By ditched, I mean I replaced them with coffee. That works right? Was on TV 3 …
Hi everyone! It’s New Years Eve eve! What in the actual fuck. 2015 must hold the record for the most insanely quick blink-and-you-miss-it year on record right? So much happened for us this year and there were many events which delineated the year for me and …
If you’r a long-time reader you’ve probably got a fairly good idea about what kind of kid Nixon is. I mean he has his own hashtag……..#nonixonno…….says it all really lol.
He’s my big-little-guy with a huge personality and an even bigger appetite for fun and (potentially) mischief. After we removed the ladder from the trampoline to prevent him climbing up without supervision he would drag whatever he could find in the garden over to the tramp, pile it up and clamber up his haphazard, toddler-sized Mt Everest and party on. Living with this child is chaos I tell you!
After we rearranged our entire living room to prevent him from using a couch to access the bench tops I realised, prevention is only part of the struggle Dave and I face over the next 18 years or so (OMG!!!). We have to actively keep this child safe and focus on that all day every day.
A big part of this is ensuring that things he uses around the house everyday are fit for purpose, even if that purpose is dragging a step stool from the bathroom into his brothers room to reach the ‘Big Boy Toys’, that step stool should be stable and sturdy.
The Dreambaby® range of baby safety products is the most comprehensive and complete range I’ve ever come across. A quick browse of their website and I found a solution to every household conundrum that comes with parenting a baby through the toddler years and beyond.
We have so many Dreambaby® products in our house (my faves are the foam door stoppers and the furniture anchors which stop heavy pieces tipping) that we use every day, I was totally happy to get on-board and feature a couple of products.
2 -Up Step Stool $24.99 Available in NZ hereThis is now an indispensable ‘member’ of our household, I must pick up this stool at least 10 x a day and return it to the bathroom. Nix takes it everywhere throughout the house, even if he doesn’t quite need it. It’s used in our bathroom for hand washing and teeth brushing, in the kitchen for food scavenging and helping with cooking, outside for climbing on the tramp ::::sigh:::: and reaching leaves he needs to pull from the trees ::::sigh:::: and trying to open the latches on our gates so he can escape ::::::SCREAM:::::
It’s light, non-slip and holds up to 80kg so Dave and I use it all the time as we have some high storage in our bedroom and laundry. I love a product that multi-tasks around the house!
It’s summer here in New Zealand so I can’t put potty training off any longer lol.
It’s going to be a slow, tedious process, compounded by Nixon’s Hirschsprung’s disease, but we will get there and it’s certainly going to be made a little easier by the awesome combination of the 2-Up Step Stool and the Easy-Clean Potty Seat.
This little seat fits standard toilets, is soft and comfy for little bottoms and its genius feature is the handles on each side which help Nix actually stay put long enough to maybe get the job done! He feels safe when sitting on this seat and loves the ocean-themed animals.
Head over to The Best Nest on Facebook and enter to win via the competition image. Prize includes;
Ok. Lets just start by saying I had NO idea what to expect when I was asked to get on board with De’Longhi and create some (hopefully?!) delicious and inspiring content around their new Multifry Multicooker. The name is what threw me off. This fabulous piece of …