gifts for grandparents – The Review Studio

Edifier MP230 Portable Bluetooth Speaker

Birthday Gifts, camping, Children, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for children, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Home, Summer, Tech

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

This retro style portable speaker from Edifier is probably the easiest I’ve ever set up a speaker. With crystal-clear sound, it’s a brilliant addition to your household or as a gift to someone you love.

The Edifier MP230 Portable Bluetooth Speaker has a battery charge of up to 10 hours with a wooden casing and grill cover to give it a retro 50s/60s portable look. The operating keys on the front are piano-style for on/off, Bluetooth, play/pause and two volume buttons. Speaking of Bluetooth, it was incredibly easy to set up. All I had to do was turn on the speak with the button on the front, use the Bluetooth settings on my laptop, which found it immediately and press Connect. As soon as I played a track on my laptop, it came through the Edifier speaker; no need for any instructions or clicking buttons, adding settings etc, it was easy as pie!

The quality of the sound through the speaker is excellent. There are two 48mm driver units, which create stereo sound and an output power of 20W RMS. Along with Bluetooth, the input modes are AUX, USB-C port and even a TF Card. The size of the speaker also lends itself to being taken on car trips, or even packed in luggage. Measuring 16.4cm × 8.43cm × 10.8cm it can even fit in hand luggage, and weighs just 0.85kilorams (that’s just 1.9lbs!)

The Edifier MP230 Speaker can be charged with the USB port and doesn’t take long for a full charge, so can be connected to a laptop or a wall charging point. As it’s so portable, it can be taken with you anywhere, or left on the shelf in a room. The size would suggest it could go outside easily, which would be great for picnics but I don’t think the wood casing nor the grill would survive getting even slightly damp, and definitely not one for the beach! Set up in a baby’s nursery to play white noise or as background whilst in the garden, the Edifier MP230 would be really useful.

I can’t help but think it would be a great present too. The stylish look to it appeals to anyone who likes design or for grandparents who want something that fits in with their pre-IKEA furniture and is small enough to be discreet on a book shelf. Teenagers will love this though, as it doesn’t take up much room and you don’t even need to be in the room for it to connect to Bluetooth. It’s a brilliant addition to any household as well as being a perfect stereo sound for you online music!

Available from £99.99 at: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Edifier-MP230-Bluetooth-Portable-Driver-Bluetooth/dp/B09YMBV5YZ/ref=sr_1_2?crid=740GXVGG0RN1&keywords=edifier+MP230&qid=1687083732&sprefix=edifier+mp230%2Caps%2C71&sr=8-2

Vistaprint

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Mother's Day, Stocking Fillers, Valentine's Day Gifts

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

Valentine’s Day is only a month away and you may (or may not!) have started thinking of gift ideas. Whilst the traditional gifts of chocolates, flowers or fragrance are always well received I always think a personalised gift means a lot more as the recipient will appreciate the thought that has gone into creating it.

Vistaprint have a huge range of products on their website that would make superb Valentine’s gifts including photo books, canvas prints, mugs, cushions and my favourite – a fleece blanket to snuggle up with rather than turning the heating on!

The website is really easy to navigate with all the personalised gifts on one webpage. Each gift has clear images and the prices are clearly shown. Once you have selected your gift it is really easy to create your masterpiece. Simply choose the photos you love and Vistaprint will turn them into personalised artwork and gifts that you and your family can enjoy for years to come.

I created a photobook which was really easy to do – there is a choice of 8 different sizes and once you have decided you are ready to start creating your photobook. I found it very easy to add photos and once I had selected them I just clicked the upload button and the photos were quickly uploaded. I was amazed how fast this process was, the last time I created a photobook I remember this stage taking ages so this was a definite improvement. Once the photos are uploaded you can use Vistaprint’s “Smart Selection” which removes any duplicates, blurry or out of focus pictures so you only have the best pictures in your album.

Once you are happy with your design it is then straightforward to finalise the order, just choose either standard or premium glossy paper and you are ready to go. Vistaprint have a range of delivery options including free economy delivery on orders over £40.

Ordering was very easy, once the order had been placed I received a confirmation email with estimated delivery dates and a second email once my products had been despatched. I actually received my gifts before the estimated delivery date which was quite impressive.

Now that it has arrived I am thrilled with my photobook, it looks very professional and I know my husband will love it. I will certainly use Vistaprint again as after seeing the quality of the photo book I am really interested in trying some of the other photo products that they do. With such a wide choice I just need to decide which ones!

Photobooks start at £7.49 and there is currently 40% off so get those Valentine’s gifts ordered soon!

Find My Past Subscription

Birthday Gifts, Christmas, Family Life, Father's Day, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Subscription Boxes

Disclaimer – We received this subscription free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

For the past 20 years, I have been researching my family history. On both sides, my family originate in London and weirdly, both sides are from Clerkenwell in London too, going back as far as 4 generations in some cases. This makes it even more fascinating as all my living relatives already knew the streets and buildings where my ancestors came from, and in most cases, those buildings are still there today.

I always like to check out the census each time they are published. Find My Past has historical records including not just the census, but military records, Births, Deaths and Marriages and even some educational records.

Although I have researched my family history for a long time, I haven’t ever used Find My Past, and I am aware that new records are uploaded to family history sites all the time, and people from around the world start or work on their online family trees as a result. So, I started to look for my grandmother. Sure enough, her birth was registered at the property I expected. How about looking for a more unusual name though?

My mother’s family have a very unusual last name, but it is unfortunately frequently mis-spelled. Looking up any references to her father John, I am presented with lots of records, some of which I can’t work out if they are related to my search or not. The ‘Include name variants’ box on the search bar brings up far more entries than I was expecting, with some records going back as far as the 1700s and lots of references in London newspapers. One newspaper article is for a woman who died in a fish & chip shop fire aged 19 when her apron caught fire. She died several days later. When I read this to my mother, it brought back a memory of her father telling her this story when she was young, and it was a memory that was all but forgotten until this article prompted her.

Building up a catalogue of articles and reference finds, users can create their own family tree online. Each member of the family, when added, has their references attached to them so that you can add to the tree over time, or anyone can go back and read the documents. So, if Aunty Jean in Australia doesn’t know anything about Grandma Mabel, with a quick link to the tree, you can see the family history on one page, including spouses, children and far-flung relatives. Their entry also has whatever documents have been linked to them. You can also search for family trees which are created by someone else, thereby allowing you to find living relatives you didn’t know existed!

If you get stuck, there are hints which are peppered throughout the findings, but there is also a handy Help chat on each page, or the Help menu which gives help on your account too. The website, like any good research site, leads you down all sorts of paths to explore with the possibilities being endless and hours and hours of investigating ahead of you. Once you look up one name, such as your grandparents, you can find their parents’ names and places of birth, view their actual documents online and download then, then use the information to look further back, or sideways. The additional information in the form of passenger lists, newspaper articles etc fill out the story of your family effortlessly and often give a background into what your ancestor’s life was like. In some cases, it might even answer some questions.

I particularly liked using FindMyPast.com because of how quickly and easily the relevant records are found. With a quick search of very little information you can find clear information, and then go in deeper to find the actual record, so you don’t have to try and decipher the handwriting either! If you’re not into family history or don’t have a history in this country, then you can always do an address search to see who lived in your house in the past. Now that’s also very interesting! My house, built in 1925 is featured in the 1939 Electoral Register and shows Mr & Mrs Read living at the property. Not only were their professions now defunct (telephone operator and photographic enlarger) but looking at the surrounding households, many of the professions would not be working in this area any longer as industry has changed.

FindMyPast.com is a fascinating website for family historians or social historians looking for background and fleshing out domestic life for the past few centuries. With its ease of searching, you can find out so much more about your family, all on one website.

Subscriptions are available on their website and there is currently a discount until 23 December: https://www.findmypast.co.uk/gift-subscriptions?promocode=gift

Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity Gift 1000 Piece Jigsaw

Birthday Gifts, Children, Christmas, eco friendly, Family Life, Games, Gifts for Her, Gifts for Him, Gifts for teachers, Home & Garden, Stocking Fillers, Toys

Disclaimer – We received this item free for the purpose of this review/feature but all words and opinions are our own.

My grandparents lived just one street away from Great Ormond Street Hospital (or GOSH as it’s known) so I was all too aware of the hospital whilst growing up, especially with the efforts to raise money in the 1980s for its complete rebuild. The hospital is known for life saving work for children who are the most sick and not just in London or the South East, but many children are taken there from all over the world. The hospital was founded in 1852 with only 10 beds at a time when there was very little government funding for general health and in 1915 saved my grandmother’s life when she had malnutrition when she was 4.

So when Great Ormond Street Charity asked us to have a look at some of the items on their gift list for Christmas, I was not only very happy to help, but given the fantastic charity items available today, there were lots of great presents to choose from!

GOSH have their own charity shop and specially selected gifts for Christmas 2022. Among the gifts are collectable teddy bears, items inspired by Peter Pan (JM Barrie donated the copyright of Peter Pan to the hospital in 1929) candles and endless Christmas cards. There’s toys, games and this very lovely 1000 piece jigsaw of Great Ormond Street Hospital from Gibsons.

To anyone who likes jigsaws, the first thing you look at with a puzzle of this size is how difficult it is. Yes, more pieces makes it more difficult but the design is a big factor too, along with the thought of whether you will get bored or constructing it, which typically takes at least a few days, depending on your skill, time and how many people are working on it! At first, I thought it was just a cartoon, but when it arrived and I started to look more closely I realised that it was a history of Great Ormond Street Hospital, along with pictures of the events. Starting with Charles West who was the Principal Founder, we go through some of the more important figures (such as Princess Tsahai who chose to train and work at GOSH) and events such as electricity first being used in the operating theatres in 1898. Can you imagine performing an operation today without any electric light?

I found myself reading all of the captions and looking at each of the cartoons before I even opened the box! There is also a challenge within the drawing to find all of the letters which spell out Great Ormond Street Hospital, which I shall leave to you to find!

This is a gorgeous puzzle which would not only please anyone who is a puzzle fan, but as it’s for charity it will also make anyone feel quite humble at the thought that the gift will benefit children too. I would suggest though, if you keep it for yourself, that you don’t use the diagram to find all the pieces, and instead piece it all together without so that you can enjoy reading all the facts and history as you go along.

So, how long did it take me? Well, it’s currently on my dining room table in nearly all of the 1000 pieces still… I’ll get back to you when it’s finished!

Available on the GOSH website for £16.00:

Great Ormond Street Hospital Jigsaw