The Perfect Personalised Gifts for Father's Day

 

Image Credit: Pexels

{This is a collaborative post}

Looking for a Father's Day gift? June is the month to celebrate all fathers, be it your own father, your children's father, or a father figure who has a positive impact on your life. Those men involved in raising children deserve to be celebrated, and doing so with meaningful gifts can make the occasion even more special.   

For this special day, why not surprise your father or father figure with a unique, personalised gift? These gifts are designed with the recipient in mind, offering a one-of-a-kind keepsake that can be cherished for years to come.

Let's take a look at some of the best and most well-received personalised gifts for Father's Day this year.

 

Photo Books

Designing a custom photo book means you can personalise every aspect of the book, from the type of cover you choose, the number of pages, and the number and type of images involved. You can use the photo book to tell a story or share a timeline. Or it can be your favourite pictures, the best memories or shots of that perfect trip you cherish in your mind or anything else. The limit is your imagination and the number of pictures you can use. But this modern-day take on the photo album can be the perfect way to celebrate the father in your life.

 

Joke Gifts

Not all personalised gifts need to be serious and sentimental, and there are so many fun gifts you can personalise for the man you're celebrating this Father's Day with. From socks emblazoned with their face or your face or the face of something that you will find amusing to mugs with funny slogans on, beach towels personalised to their hobby, or anything else that will elicit a laugh and be something they can enjoy. Even that cheeky NSFW bottle opener can be a great gift if your dad, or the dad you are buying for, will appreciate it.

 

Story Books

Personalised storybooks are a wonderful gift for new dads or those with young children. These books, created with love and imagination, tell a story of life and adventures, strengthening the bond between father and child and evoking heartfelt emotions. 

Personalised story books for dads include books you need to "dad," which is a cartoon image of "dad." You need options much like the Where Wally books. Or you can insert them into fairy tales or original stories for a truly unique book that they can keep forever.

 

Jewellery

Whether you prefer the classic Dad ring or necklace, or opt for something more discreet, personalised jewellery tailored to the wearer will always be a great gift if they wear jewellery. You can get an engraving on a bracelet, for example, or the back of a watch; you can personalise a necklace via an image of you or children, or you can engrave cufflinks or buy jewellery with their initial on it entirely up to you, but this is a timeless gift that most dads will be grateful to receive.

 

Fathers Day - Gifts to Suit All Dads

{This is a collaborative post - I have received the items in this post free of 
charge for the purpose of writing about them. As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases, any affiliate links will be marked with #ad}

It's only a few weeks until Fathers Day in the UK and as such many of us are thinking about what gift to buy our dads or our kid's dad. It's always nice to get something a little different and I definitely enjoy buying gifts that will be well received and suit the recipient's interests, but men are notoriously hard to buy for. Therefore I am sharing some ideas of different items to get the dad in your life. 

For the Dad Chef - Opinel 4 Piece Kitchen Knife Set from Whitby & Co

A couple of Christmas' ago my son received a classic Opinel working man's knife, which he takes camping and out into the woods. It is a great product that has stayed sharp and still remains his favourite for outdoors work. With that in mind, I ordered my husband this Opinel Loft 4 piece kitchen knife set. It contains all the essentials - a peeler, paring knife, serrated knife and vegetable knife. I love the fact they each come with a different coloured wood handle, and there are loads of colourways available so you can order what suits your kitchen.

Both my husband and I originally trained as chefs, so we are very fussy about our knives and have owned many knives from the big brands, but we'd never had an Opinel between us and I can honestly say they have now become a favourite. I would happily buy their knives again and at £32.95 for the set, I think they are great value. I thinking of buying the 4 piece table knife (#ad) set soon for when we have steak. 

• Visit the Whitby & Co website for loads of excellent knife options. 
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8 Unusual Gifts for Fathers Day and Beautiful Hallmark Cards

If your Dad is anything like mine then he is mega difficult to buy for. My Dad is the most wonderful man but there is never anything he wants and I'm sure for some people he would be a dream come true as he just tells me 'no need to buy me anything Shelly' but I love to give gifts.

The only things I know my Dad likes are a bar of Cadbury chocolate, some nuts, theatre tickets or a meal out and I've bought all these things a hundred times. Add to that socks, personalised frames, photo books, mugs, slippers and the like and that is him done for birthdays, Christmas and Fathers Day.

But I like Fathers Day to be special, it is the time when I say thank-you for always being there for the last 43 years. Thanks for coming out in the middle of the night to pick me up, thanks for bailing me out with my debt when I was at Uni, thanks for decorating my house when I was pregnant and thanks for having my kids when I need time with my hubby so the least I can do is get him a loving card and fill it with heartfelt words.

Then talking of my hubby, there is another difficult one to buy for. Like me with my dad, my kids also adore their dad and he is a really ace father - taking them away or spending one on one time, playing monopoly when they are sad and taking them to Cubs. The things he does for them are numerous and they want to say thanks too.

Of course the classic way to say thank you is with a card and Hallmark have a lovely selection at Tesco. They will be available right up to the day but try and be a bit more prepared and you'll have a wider selection to choose from. Take a peek at the ones my girls have chosen. Miss M opted for the 'from your princess' card (£2) which is very apt and Miss E's is really classy and had a tri-fold to it, spelling out Dad (£3). I'm loving the Hallmark range at Tesco as there is great variety and you can see the cards are quality with beautiful coloured or patterned envelopes to match.

5 ways for Dads to spend quality time with their kids

Happy Fathers Day all. I have today at the request of Mothercare handed my blog over to my lovely husband. He's only guest posted here once before in the seven years this blog has been live so I'm feeling very honoured.

1.    Find a shared interest

For the last ten years I've been a Cub leader and for many of those my son JJ has joined me to camp and then attended Beavers, Cubs and now Scouts. This has led to a shared love of outdoor scouting pursuits such as hiking, wide games and camping. Recently my daughters have joined Cubs and it makes such a difference to my motivation when I see them all excited on a Tuesday night.

Daddy says this is the best Fathers Day gift ever

My husband is one of the hardest men to buy a gift for. He is one of those guys who does not want anything and whilst many would think this is a good thing as he can just go without, it does not satisfy the kids desire to give him something on Fathers Day.

So this year I asked dh what he would like and quite flippantly with a smile he said he would like a peaceful lie-in on the morning as the girls were forever waking him at 6am when they get up and turn the TV on downstairs in the lounge, right under our bedroom.

I didn't give this much more thought until Aldi got in touch and showed me their gift selection for Fathers Day.  Perfect, a portable DVD player!

For £49.99 you can have a 9" portable DVD player that also plays films from an SD card or USB stick and the girls can watch it in the kitchen away from our bedroom. We had a trial run this morning, I was already in the kitchen when Miss M came down and wanted to watch some TV to wake-up, so I popped Beethoven (the dog film, rather than anything more culturally sophisticated) in and she grabbed a seat.  The best thing is that the DVD player has a sound limit and it is enough to hear it well but not enough to disturb us upstairs! Very soon her twin joined her and they sat there mesmerised for a good half hour before I needed to feed them.

I can see that on Fathers Day morning this will work a treat so daddy can have his lie-in and then when I come down and join them we can cook him a lovely fry-up to enjoy in bed.

I've been really impressed with the Maxtek portable DVD player that we have been sent, it comes with a 3 year warranty and has the after sales support number on the box in case you need help. There was no real set up to it, it is all intuitive and the remote control came with a battery in it ready for use, just remove the tag. There are full instructions and a quick set-up guide if you want to read them though.

As you can see in the picture above, it looks quite sleek, the only problem with that of course is that it shows all the finger marks but a quick polish with a tea towel worked a treat. The case does not feel too flimsy but it is definitely light enough that the kids can use it in the car with headphones. I can see my three kids having to work out a rota for long car journeys as already they are all saying they want it this weekend when we go to visit relatives.

I have been impressed with the built in lithium battery. I charged it when we received it and it has been used for about 90 minutes so far and still has charge, so it really will be good for the car and it also came with an in-car charger as well as a standard plug charger.

The screen swivels 180 degrees and can then fold back flat against the bottom of the case which means it is nice and sturdy. We did not have any jumping when we used it and the screen resolution is really good.Portable DVD players definitely seem to have improved in the five years since we last had one. It was super easy when I inserted a USB stick with a couple of films on it, I just pressed the USB button and a menu came up for me to choose which film we wished to watch. I haven't got a large SD card so I could not try that as all my other devices take micro SD cards.

I think this portable DVD player is a great buy and will be well used in our house.

You can purchase it from Aldi from the 5th June but be quick as it is available a limited time as with all the Aldi special buys. If you haven't shopped at Aldi before, I really would recommend a visit as it is quite different to a traditional British supermarket but once you get over the different layout and try out some products you will find the quality is exceptional and the prices superb.  Those Germans really know how to create something good.

Disclosure: we received the portable DVD player and a pair of headphones for the purpose of this review. I have not been instructed what to write and I remain honest.  Many thanks Aldi.

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Fathers Day at Legoland, Windsor

Legoland is not perhaps your first though of somewhere to take your husband for Fathers Day but I'm really pleased to say that my husband had a fab day today. Life is so different once you have kids, there is a lot of enjoyment in seeing them have a great time.

And thanks to the Mad Blog Awards we all had a great time today with a whole bunch of other finalists on our #MadDayOut.

If you want to read my review of Legoland Windsor then click that link, check out my recent post about the new Lego Duplo Valley and I'll be writing soon about the new 4D show at the Imagination Theatre - Legends of Chima, it is excellent but for now this is just a post sharing our family time for Fathers Day 2013.

I really needed this chilled day to forget about the stress of moving house. I'm praying for good news tomorrow.......

My Dad is a superhero, is yours?

I know I am really fortunate to have a great Dad, we have always had a good relationship and I feel I can talk to him about whatever I need to.  He is my superhero and he is the guy I know I can go to with any problem and he will help me deal with it. He is a funny guy, as he appears to get het up with the smallest of things and he really worries for those he loves and likes them to stay nice and safe, taking no risks at all. However take something really big and important to him and he is that rock that we all need to help us sort problems and make decisions.

With Fathers Day fast approaching us Fragrance Direct have done a survey and asked the British public if their Dad was a superhero who he might be.  I suspect if  had to I pigeon hole my Dad I would name him as superman, as he always swoops in to save the day. I'm not alone as 26% of people surveyed said their dad was most like superman, obvious really I suppose.  We see all those fathers day card with big superdad logos on the front and I know I have certainly over the years probably addressed my cards to super dad!

I was out with JJ yesterday afternoon and our conversation went something like this -

Me - 'Is Daddy a superhero?'

JJ - giggles at me and then said 'no Mum' with quite a straight face.

Me -  'Is Daddy a good dad?'

JJ - with an exasperated look this time 'yes Mum, he is the best'

Me - 'well then, surely he must be like one of the superheros?'

JJ - after a long pause and some thought. 'He is the Hulk Mum'

I burst out laughing at this and said 'surely the Hulk is not a superhero, all he does is burst out of his clothes and be massive'

JJ - 'yes, exactly Mum!'

Hmm, lets just hope my husband does not read this! I can assure you he has far more super qualities than his sheer size.

JJ and his 'Hulk' of a Dad

The Fragrance Direct research also found that some respondents gave some equally funny answers and examples are Thor ('because he is brilliant with a hammer'), Spider-man ('because he drives people up the wall') and Danger Mouse ('he has big ears and long whiskers'). JJ's Hulk answer does not seem quite so bad now!

Batman came a close second to Superman in the responses (with 6%) and that surprised me a little as there has been far more publicity and films about Batman in the last ten years than there has been Superman.  I asked JJ (who is nearly 10) what he knew about Superman and he could tell me that he flies around, saves a woman and has a strange S on his chest - the legend lives on! Which will please my husband as he is a superman fan and I'm sure we will be off to see the new movie in the summer. Far better than the Hulk, I'm positive.

So how about your Dad, is he a superhero? Personally I think it is a great way to think of our own Dads, it surely speaks heaps about the relationship, if you can feel like that about them.


Thanks to Fragrance Direct for providing me with the results of their survey and congratulations to the three lucky respondents who won fragrance from the Marc Jacobs range.

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Fancy winning a beautiful fingerprint personalised keyring for Fathers Day?

It’s amazing how quick time flies, isn’t it? I can’t believe we are now in May, where has this year gone to? In no time at all Fathers Day will be upon us. My husband did such a great job of spoiling me on Mothers Day that I need to make sure he enjoys his special day.

Dh is not a man who is interested in material things and gifts that cost lots of money. He is much happier with a gift that contains thought and especially if it involves his beloved children. With this in mind it was really fortunate that Little Pinkies contacted me and asked if I’d like to try out one of their products. I showed my children the keyring and they jumped at the chance to make Daddy a special gift.

I have found my contact with Fiona at Little Pinkies to be friendly and efficient. I was promptly sent three sets of inkless wipes to take prints from my children to be used on the keyring. We had the choice to take finger, foot or hand prints from the kids and I took hand prints from each of them, but I could have mixed and matched. Different jewellery pieces are ideal for differing amounts of prints to be put on. The full jewellery range works with a single print, most will take two and three are just suitable for the keyring like we had.

I was a bit worried about using the wipes, I know they are called ‘inkless wipes’ but for some reason I had thought they would be messy and difficult to use. I could not have been more wrong, it was simple and mess free to actually take the prints and once taken I put them in the pre-paid envelope and sent them back.

Just a week later the beautiful personalised keyring arrived through the door. The first thing I noticed was the plush box that the keyring is presented in. First impressions are certainly good. The actual keyring itself was well polished and feels really sturdy and solid. It is silver-plated to ensure that it withstands the knocks that a keyring invariably gets, especially in my husbands trouser pockets with all his coins.

I was a little surprised to find that the actual hand prints feel rough to the touch, rather than perfectly smooth. Don’t get me wrong, you won’t be snagging things on them or anything but you can just feel the indentations and where the print has cut in it gives the print a kind of pinky glow, which I thinks looks attractive. On the other side we had a message engraved for dh and you can choose what you wish to say, if anything,

In terms of the actual ring that you will place your keys on, it feels strong and the ball that screws on and off the end is a good tight fit to ensure your keys stay secure.

The normal cost of the keyring if you want one print on it is £45 and then each extra print costs £10 but at the moment there is a special Fathers Day sale at Little Pinkies and you can buy one for just £25 with one print, that is a fantastic reduction. The cufflinks are also reduced.

Look how fabulous the key ring looks with just 2 prints, and you can have the names under them too - very cute!

Good news, you can win a keyring the same as ours with up to 2 prints

Perhaps there is someone in your life who you would like to give a keyring to for Fathers Day, if yes then enter the competition now. 

Please note:  to ensure you receive your keyring by Fathers Day you need to have completed your order (including sending back the prints to Little Pinkies) by 31 May 2013.

Best of luck to you!  Mich x

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: I received one keyring free of charge for the purposes of this review. I was not instructed what to write and I remain honest.

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A Tale of Two Weekends...

....well one weekend if I am being pernickety! This last weekend both dh and I went away but separately, now don't be worried by that, nothing is wrong, it is just the way it worked out.

Here is my perfectly peaceful ladies retreat in the Shropshire countryside -

It was just a little bit different where dh was! 

For a start he had our 3 kids with him, but then there was about another 40 kids too.  Whereas I had a comfy bed with crisp linen and 2 pilows he had a tent and sleeping bag with 2 over excited little ladies.

We both had home cooked food but mine was things like a roast beef dinner followed by banoffee pie, his was more bangers and mash over the gas stove.

We prayed the rain would stay away and God was kind.  My girls have pronounced this the best holiday ever and it sounds as if they all had a perfect Fathers Day. My dh sure knows how to keep the kids happy!



#TheGallery: Heart Melting Moments

So this weeks theme from Tara  is 3 words, these can be any 3 words and we need to tie our Gallery entry in to them.  So my three words are Heart Melting Moments, you know those times when you are positively ozzing love for your child.  It could be a proud mummy moment or it could just be something they have done or a character trait that makes you love them so very much.

Obviously on Sunday gone it was Fathers Day and my kids had avidly been preparing for this day, they had created a book of doodles for Daddy and a Celebrity magazine spread declaring Daddy was 'Dad of the Year'.  They had all made their cards and taken time doing drawings and trying to form words (that was the 3 year olds in case you are wondering, JJ can write just fine!).  Then before I was even out of bed on Sunday morning JJ appeared upstairs with a tray for Daddy.