I love a good gift site. It takes all the pain out of choosing something unique and special for tricky-to-buy for people. The extent of my Christmas and birthday list for Craig (born on 12 Dec; how bloody inconsiderate!) is usually socks, beer, face cream and a designer tee-shirt. He’s a real lad’s lad with expensive tastes and a propensity to leave-me-to-it present-wise (“You know what I like…” - like I’m some sort of Oracle). One year I even resorted to buying him underwear for me, thinking it might be a treat for him, but he stropped for the entire day so I won’t be trying this again.
FOR HIM
When I spotted a really cool football-inspired gift on Getting Personal, I quickly fired off an email to see if they’d like a review. Although he’s far from being one of those men that spend their Sunday’s in a football shirt, he does follow Manchester Utd with irritating closeness. We can’t nip out to the garden centre if they’re on the telly, and 99.9% of his Facebook statuses will be whinges about signings or sending offs. This personalised football headlines book therefore looked right up his street.
Not only is it superb quality with imitation leather finish and gold embossed personalisation, it’s tabloid sized to ensure an easy read. Each of the pages are produced from original newspaper scans printed onto thick quality paper. It promises to document the most sensational headlines and articles from your club’s history spanning back some 100 years.
Each book has a detailed insight into their favourite team, everything from bank-breaking transfers to cup glory to last gasp winners. It’s all here.
From my limited knowledge of Manchester Utd, I expected to see dozens of articles on the fateful air crash that claimed 22 lives in 1953, Fergie’s takeover from Atkinson in 1986, iconic signings such as Cantona, Keane and Rooney, their treble win in 1999, and some of the headlines that caused grown men to sob when Ferguson stepped down. They’re in all in there, in fab black and white quality print. Okay… this might be my idea of sheer hell, but it’s bound to be a hit with my Craig.
This fab book is just £39.99 with over 60 of the nation’s top flight teams to choose from (including the biggies from the Scottish League). I really hope I’ve managed to get across how chuffed I am with this, and I haven’t made an idiot of myself with dates etc. I’m more of a rugby girl myself!
FOR THEM
We also received a fabulous personalised character bean bag for the Little Dude. Dex has an annoying habit of watching the television just a few centimetres from the screen which drives me mad and sees his daddy whipping out the screen cleaner every five minutes. I chose this as I hoped it would convince him that he can see more from a distance!
This is perfectly sized for Dex. I must admit we have no idea whether this is a Small (£39.99) or Medium (£59.99) but they’ve guessed correctly whichever it is - his feet still touch the floor and he can simply back into it to sink his bum onto its soft surface. To my surprise he also managed to spot it had his name on so it’s made it onto his list of coveted possessions that is dragged from room to room. It seems to be favoured over his leather armchair which I’m guessing is because it’s wobbly to sit on so more fun. I can’t claim my plan to tempt him away from the telly worked though!
It has a suedette finish for both the main fabric and all the trimmings (character design and personalisation) meaning it’s warm to touch and easy to keep clean (alternatively Woolly Sheep and Milky Moo Cow are made from knitted polyester fur fabric). There are no harsh seams to poke his bum and the stitching is robust and will hold its own. The entire cover comes off for machine washing as the balls are held in a little sack. It’s finished to an impressively high standard and won’t lose it’s shape despite being flung around the living room.
I plumped for a dog design (or Dood-Do as Dex likes to call them). The colours are fab for our living room but there are a wealth of other designs to choose from that are more colourful to complement nursery themes. Prices range from £39.99 to £99.99 depending on size (£99.99 had me gawking a bit but the small size is perfectly adequate for toddlers and fairly priced)
FOR ME!
Haha! Well you didn’t expect me to share this did you?
Getting Personal also kindly sent me this personalised bottle of white wine (£19.99). Interestingly, I was able to compare this to a previous review from Treat Republic and to be honest, this failed to excite me as much as their pink bubbles did. Despite it arriving securely boxed in white polystyrene, there was no presentation box. Given Getting Personal pride themselves on gift-giving, it would have been nicer to receive this ready for gifting.
Naturally there are dozens more designs available (with a vintage selection to mark extra special occasions); the labeling was great quality so it’s a neat way of saying thank you, happy birthday, season’s greeting etc. Being a bit of a wine aficionado however, I wasn’t keen on my wine. Of course I would expect for the wine to be far cheaper than retail price (and bought wholesale to boot) but it tasted way too sharp in my opinion. Maybe I’m being too unkind and my taste buds were having an off day. Perhaps I should sample the Rose and Red before being so judgmental!
Our wines come from the prestigious Bodegas Lozano winery in Spain. Located in La Mancha, one of the oldest and largest wine regions in Spain, the vineyard was founded in 1853 by Juan Ramón Lozano.
The family built their first winery on the land in 1920 and Bodegas Lozano is now the largest privately-owned, family-run vineyard in Spain. Amongst the grape varieties grown there are Macabeo, Tempranillo, Garnacha, Sauvignon Blanc and Cabernet Sauvignon.
This wouldn’t put me off recommending them though, there’s soooo much choice on their website and it’s easy to navigate with gifts for every budget. To check out some more of their selection, head to gettingpersonal.co.uk or say hello on Twitter, Instagram, Pinterest or Facebook. Their Christmas shop is also now open for festive inspiration!
