Thread 2 - the one where I try to get organised

[Reastie]

Hope I'm not tempting fate with that thread title
This is intended as a friendly, kind, safe, warm and fuzzy place for people to share discounts, bargains and Christmas gift ideas both online and IRL. Please note the tone and intention of the thread and join with spirit as generous as DC helping themselves to the Christmas chocolate celebrations .

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You are all wonderful and I’m now going back to my mince pie and stollen (never too early!).

Gosh, it's busy here and aren't you all lovely, helpful peeps :)
Thank you so much for the suggestions for our 7 year old. Thought it best to stay away from the bracelets, though I think she'd love them, just in case they are a choking hazard for her 18 month old sister or their little dog.
So I've gone with a build a bear, but a rabbit, which she can make as an activity with her mum after Christmas and I'll just add a pack of crayons/felt tips and a colouring book next time I'm out shopping so she has something to do on the day if she gets a bit bored. Maybe crayons, we have a cream sofa!
Just perfect so thank you so much.

The Bambu Labs A1 mini is a decent model. I don’t know about offers, but for filament you can buy it on Amazon or Ali Express. Get PLA, you can get it around £10-£12 per kilo, but check that the rolls are actually 1kg, as they do smaller rolls too and it’s not always obvious.

Maybe add a blank pad to that too, my similar age child was given some blank paper with crayons at a pub the other day and you’d have thought she’d won the lottery!

Can you find out if she has a Pandora bracelet? A charm would be perfect or depending on budget a bracelet and charm.

Can you look at recent photos of her and see what her jewellery style is? I got my DDs beautiful necklaces from Hot Diamonds which was recommended on this site. I’ve also bought some extra jewellery bits from boohoo moon which I think they will love.

Thank you for the Hot Wheels. Ordered 2 & 2 more of the flowers in a book - great present.

Lego is on offer & also great water painting books illustrated by Axel Schleffer. I'll link.

https://amzn.eu/d/09xtwsDM

Lego plants £31.99 usually £45+

https://amzn.eu/d/0hCjXPYF

Axel Schleffer water painting book almost half price at just over £5

I cannot believe I bought a Christmas present today (well yesterday). My husband mentioned 3 books. One comes out later this month and another next month both hardback but the other is out in paperback. I have ideas for DD(23) which helps because her birthday is November 29th. I don't think I have ever bought anything this early before.

All 'series 3' clickeez should fit series 3 keyboard but for example we have a series 1 keyboard. They are now series 2 and series 3 on. DDs keyboard is half full, if that, but any available series 1 clickeez are almost seen as collectibles so very hard to complete a keyboard.

This is why I'm not getting back into it this year. You'd have buy a ton to even get close to filling a keyboard and even then ours has collected dust. Found it a very meh toy once past the initial excitement.

This thread is so great

https://tuclothing.sainsburys.co.uk/list/shop-for-kids-tu-clothing-sale/opt/sort:price/

Great savings on tu kids clothing!

We got an A1 mini last year and it’s been a great starter printer that’s still going strong now. We got a decent Black Friday deal but I don’t recall the details.

If you plan to use it for multicolour prints it’s worth investing in the AMS too, which lets you print in up to 4 different colours, although it does creates a lot of waste to do that, as the printer only has one print nozzle so has to purge for every colour change. 3d printers print in layers so if you have, say, 6 colour changes on each layer and the print had 160 layers, you can easily end up with a massive mountain of waste just to print one small item.

The print plate on the mini isn’t large so you may find you can’t print some things. Of course, it really depends on what you plan to print. DD mainly prints fidgets and DS Gravitrax accessories and they have never had an issue. I print useful things and have found the size to be a limiting factor at times, but I would still 100% recommend it as a gateway drug entry level printer (I may be planning to buy a bigger one 😁).

Something I wish I’d known before we started. There are different filament materials. You will mainly see PLA and PETG on the likes of Amazon as the others are more specialist. The A1 copes with both fine as long as you set the filament settings to tell it which type (and if you buy filament direct from Bambu their spools have a tag on so the printer automatically knows and sets the filament settings itself). But, PLA and PETG melt/ print at different temperatures so, if you have the AMS, you can’t do multicoloured printing that uses both materials as they don’t bind together well. To avoid this stick to all of one type of filament. As pp said, PLA is the most commonly available and is also the easiest to print.

My daughters would love the Needoh advent calendar. I don’t think I’m going to get a bargain here, but has anyone found them in stock anywhere?

Not too young for colouring and stickers, but you could also go with something crafty, like modelling clay, Hama beads, a crafty kit.

Also, I’ve been asked for Clickeez. I’ve read on here how the keyboards end up a bit of a waste. Any good deals on the key rings?

Aldi this week. Kipper books. Tried to upload will try again.

Here they are. Absolute bargain.

I managed to grab one from The Entertainer. Just keep an eye on their website, as they seem to come in and out of stock at really random times. It’s also worth checking BigJigToys online, as they had them in too.

Am I being really daft or does it not say what size they are?

Clarins are doing their 9 free samples today. Great for advent calendars.

www.clarins.co.uk/bestsellers/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email_newsletter&utm_campaign=crm_uk_clarins_SampleSunday_13092026&utm_term=online&hccid=054661dba03c4602a7acf99250d5f393875b77f7fa1c1d77c37cc9b7ff39ea1b&mi_u=25166104&mi_ecmp=OP51536

I had a quick look - if you click on dimensions, they have two sizes but they are AUS sizing, not UK

I got one from Smyths instore. I kept checking online and randomly one day a couple of weeks back I looked at the stock checker they had 9 in stock at a nearby store! They were £24.99 then but I think they put the price up shortly afterwards. So just keep checking!

This Gisou set is a great price - just ordered for my 13 yo DD. Good for teen girls.

https://www.spacenk.com/uk/sale-1/berry-bloom-MUK200060396.html

I’m wanting a play kitchen for dd2 she will be 3 after Christmas ideally ready assembled and wooden and sturdy please

Yes I saw that but I can’t see where you can choose which of the 2 sizes to order