AD / Gifted - Gus And Bella Box July 2019 Edition - Treats For You And Your Cats*

It seems to be an almost unwritten rule that you shouldn't work with children or animals, well in my case my cats are my children, and believe me this blog post has tested every ounce of my patience. I do forgive them though, I've had cats ever since I was a tiny little girl, and my 3 despite their many indiscretions really are my babies, all be it babies with whiskers, four legs and tails!

Okay, I probably do sound a little bit crazy, but I don't think there's anything wrong with that, any pet owner will tell you that their pets, aren't just animals they actually become part of the family, and their health and happiness is as important as any human in the household.

Someone who would agree with that statement entirely is Emily McMahon. Inspired by her experience of finding ways to both entertain and care for her two London born and bred, indoor cats, Gus And Bella. Emily created the Gus And Bella Box, which is specially designed to "deliver happiness to both cats and their humans".

I'm a huge lover of the subscription box idea, and being the crazy cat lady that I am the Gus And Bella box just ticks so many boxes for me. Not only does it contain a variety of high quality treats and wellness items for your furry friends but also contains cat themed treats for us human cat lovers. Every box contains 2 to 3 cat themed products from humans, 3 to 4 treats for your cats, the Gus And Bella Guide To Healthy Happy Cats, as well as the chance to win fabulous prizes with a random golden ticket giveaway.

Like most subscription boxes now there a variety of different subscription options, the best value option is to sign up for a monthly subscription option which costs £26.95 a month with £2.95 tracked P&P, but if that sounds like too much, you can also opt to receive a box every 2 months for £28.95 with the same P&P. If you aren't a cat fan though (why? what's wrong with you?) but someone you know is, you can also buy a one off gift box for £30 with the same tracked P&P.

The first box which is the July box is just hitting doormats now and Emily and the team were kind enough to send me a box to review.

 The box itself is made of a nice, sturdy cardboard, it can be easily closed and sealed back up so it's definitely one that you could reuse. The first things that you find when you open the box are two leaflets. The first one tells you about the box and the contents, and the second leaflet is The Gus & Bella Guide To Healthy, Happy Cats. This particular edition is all about having a healthy happy cat this summer and includes tips on how to keep you cat cool in the warm weather, and how to make your own kitty pool.

Underneath the leaflets, the contents of your box is securely wrapped in a large sheet of tissue paper. There were actually two layers of products in the box separated by a whole pile of white shredded paper. My boys especially have a thing for shredded paper so I'm not sure if it was the box contents itself or the shred that sparked Charlie and Max's interest - I'll let you decide ;)

Sass & Belle Set Of 3 Cutie Cat Lunchboxes

I think the thing that I really like about the whole Gus And Bella concept is the fact that is contains goodies for both yourself and your cats. Every Gus And Bella box will contain cat themed self care, beauty or lifestyle treats for you. Loving cats as I do I have loads of cat themed things around the house, from mugs, to aprons, t-shirts and even a couple of Sass & Belle cushions. I love Sass & Belle and their cute and quirky, home and lifestyle ideas and the first edition of the Gus And Bella Box contains two Sass & Belle items from their Cutie Cat range. The first item in the box was a set of three mini lunchboxes, the largest one is is just big enough for a sandwich or a pasta salad, and the two smaller ones are perfect for fruit or veg snacks. They are microwave safe without the lids and retail at around £6 for the set.

Sass & Belle Cutie Cat Picnic Bag 

The box also contains a coordinating lunch bag, also in the cutie cat design. It features a black and white cat design on a peach and pink background, and it has two peach, fabric carry handles. It's has an insulated foil lining, so all you need to do is add a cool pack, and this little bag is perfect for picnics and even for brightening up your work or school lunch. It has a recommended retail price of £5.

Candy Kittens Eton Mess Gourmet Sweets - 24g

I think all subscription boxes should contain sweeties, and in keeping with the cat theme, this box contains a packet of sweeties from one of my favourite brands Candy Kittens. Now I'm not that familiar with Made In Chelsea, but if you are Candy Kittens is the brain child of MIC alumni Jamie Laing. The gummies are gluten free and are suitable for vegetarians. These particular ones are strawberry flavoured and contain only natural colours and fruit juices, in the this real strawberry juice and coconut water. The peach ones are my real love but these are pretty nice and their shaped like cats! I can't find this particular size bag online but their 54g Pop bag retails at £1.

Test Your Cat - The Cat IQ Test By E. M. Bard

If you have pets how clever do you think they are? Mine definitely have their derpy moments and at times I think Charlie especially is a couple of sandwiches short of a picnic but there is no doubt cats are very perceptive, and they figure things out pretty quickly. This next item is something for both you and your cats. This 128 page paperback book contains a series of questions and tasks, so you can find out just how clever your cat really is. I'm definitely going to do this with my 3 and who knows they might surprise me! This book has a recommend retail price of £5.99

Now the rest of the box is especially for the furry members of the family, although certain things like this teaser may cause happiness elsewhere depending on how acrobatic your cat is..

Rosewood Jolly Moggy Teaser Collection Premium Catnip Toy - Patchwork Fish Teaser 

When they were younger Charlie and Tallulah loved this type of toy, chasing things and jumping in the air, now they've reached feline middle age and beyond though, they are a lot more sedentary and not quite as playful, but they still have what we call their mad half hours where they'll run round and play with anything in the their way. Still being a kitten though Max loves toys and especially teasers like this, he'll chase them, roll around, and even do somersaults if the mood takes him.

Compared to some of them that we already own this is a nice quality one, it has a shorter, thicker, sturdier wand, that has a nice velour feel. It features three nicely designed and made, patchwork fish, that contain kitty crack itself catnip. Apologies that the video isn't the best but if you have Instagram keep on my account over the next few days, to see how Max really does love his patchwork fish!

As well as treat for us and toys for the fluff, the Gus And Bella Box also gives you the chance to to make better food choices for you cat. A lot of the cat food that we buy contains somewhat questionable ingredients but Gus And Bella promises to give you the chance to try some high quality, natural and grain free cat food brands. Cats can be notoriously picky and awkward when it comes to food, so this a great chance to try before you buy

Hi Life Chicken Breast Treats - 10g

Chicken, every cat I've ever owned has worshipped the poultry god, cooked, raw, in nuggets, or cat food, they don't really care - they just eat it, but what about freeze dried? These treats contain nothing but 100% natural, freeze dried chicken breast. There is nothing added just small bite sized pieces of chicken. Being a vegetarian I really notice how bad some cat treats smell but there was no real scent from these and the proof is in the eating I guess, Tallulah was a huge fan, and I had no complaints from the other two either. This 10g retails at around £1.59 and I will definitely be tracking some more of these down for the chicken eaters!

Purr And Miaow Complete Gently Steamed Chicken With Trout Fillets In Broth - 85g

As well as the treats July's Gus And Bella Box also contained two wet food pouches I haven't managed to try these on the babes yet but I will post "their thoughts" to Instagram when I do . This pouch from the fabulously named Purr And Miaow contains real meat and fish, with no sugar, no grains, no hidden ingredients and no artificial colours, flavours or preservatives. This pouch has an estimated RRP of 89p

Blink! Roasted Chicken & Tender Duck Complete Cat Food - 85g

Now I've seen a few ads for Blink! on Instagram so I'm quite curious to see what the monsters think about this one. Made in Northampton this pouch contains real, natural shredded fillets of meat, it contains no meat, derivatives, and again no added sugar, salt or grains. I can't find a price for the individual pouched but 8 x 85g pouches retail at around £7.50.

Pawsecco Freeze Pops - 50ml 

The final item is something a bit unusual. I saw a few bottles of the liquid Pawsecco in various supermarkets before Christmas but this is especially for summer! Basically what it is, is a ready to freeze ice lolly not for you but for your pets. Suitable for both cats and dogs these are ice lollies that are created with veterinary experts to help your pets stay refreshed in the summer heat. Obviously they're alcohol free, and they contain no grapes, but they contain lots of safe herbal extracts. I'm going to wait until it's bit warmer to try this out but if I can't persuade them to have a taste (because it isn't chicken!) then you can melt them into a bowl and they might drink it that way. If you fancy trying these for your pet then they retail at around £5.99 for 6 x 50ml lollies.

I've got to say that I love both the concept and the execution of the Gus And Bella Box. A box with cat themed items on its own would be perfect for a cat lover like me but team it up with treats for my hairy children and everyone is happy. I love the whole idea of trying new and more natural cat food brands, and I like the idea of, and the health and happiness information in the Gus And Bella Guide To Healthy, Happy Cats. 

I'm definitely going to consider subscribing myself and if you're a crazy cat person like me, and you fancy trying a Gus And Bella Box either for yourself or as a gift, then use my code LOULOU5 before 14th August to get your box for a special price starting at just £24.90 depending on which subscription option you choose. You can find out more about Gus And Bella and how to subscribe on their website.

If you have any questions please let me know , and if you're a cat own leave me a comment below and tell me about your cats x 

*Press Sample

Home And Stationery Haul Featuring H&M, Ebay, Wilko And More

Hi Guys x Welcome to what is going to the first of 3 haul posts that will be going live over the next week. We've had a fashion post and a beauty post already this week so it's time for a lifestyle post, with a home and stationery haul.

If you've ever seen any pictures of my bedroom or any of my previous home hauls you'll know that I'm a bit obsessed with cushions, I absolutely love the things, so much so that you often can't get on my bed for them. My latest obsession is with animal cushions, I recently purchased a cat shaped cushion from Primark (see it here) and I already have a Sass & Belle cat (read my post on it here) and I was lucky enough to receive one of their owls for Christmas.

My mum is not a bird fan by any means and to be honest she doesn't really like them in the house, but I'm currently in the middle of a bit of an owl phase and whilst searching  on the internet for Sass & Belle I came across this gorgeous owl cushion. What struck me was how unusual it was, the majority of owl cushions in the Sass and Belle range are made for shabby chic, floral patchwork fabrics but this one is made from faux leather and faux suede.

This is so unique and as yet I haven't seen anything else on the high street like it. Another selling point was it's name all of the Sass & Bell cushions have a name and this is... Louise Owl. Well I had to get it then didn't I and I have to say  that despite the fact that he's a little bit more expensive than some of their other owls, I love him (I still think it looks like a him lol).  Louise Owl doesn't appear on the Sass & Belle website any more but I got mine from Amazon marketplace. The seller I used isn't listed any more but there are still two sellers that have him, and the seller that I did use the_peas_knees is also selling Louise The Owl on ebay.

As well as Louise The Owl I couldn't resist another Sass & Belle purchase x Again this one appears to be discontinued, you can still find it on Amazon and on ebay from the seller that I used x  Her name is Polly Cat and the fabric matches my other cat and my purple Megan Owl. She's quite a bit bigger than the other two cushions and it's probably more of a small pillow size. I did have to put a bit of extra stuffing in it because it wasn't quite firm enough for me but again I love it and the colours match my room perfectly x 

I've got a few more ebay purchases to show you but while I'm on the cushion theme, I'll move on to this gorgeous cushion cover that I got from H&M.

I've wanted this blue, floral velvet cushion cover for ages but I could never justify the £12.99 price tag just for a cushion cover. A little while ago though they had an online home event so I managed to get a little bit of money off it. I love it but the only problem was, it is a really unusual size so I've ended up having to order the correct sized cushion pad from H&M. You win some, you lose some I guess but I absolutely love it, as yet I'm not sure when it's going to go as the blue tones match my office, but the pinks and purples match my room, decisions, decisions.

As well as yet another cushion, since there was a bit of money off, I also ended up ordering another duvet cover. 

In one of the pictures above you can see my festive duvet set, which was a grey nordic, style cover with white hearts and snowflakes. I never ever thought that I would go for grey bedding but I was surprised at how nice the grey looked with my white and wood furniture, my lilac wall, pale wood floow and my silver, metal bed head. This one is in white and it has an almost French style, grey floral print. It's nice and fresh for spring, but it's something different from the bright  florals and the shabby chic prints that I'm used to. 

Saying that I am still partial to my cuter florals, and like most bloggers and You Tubers I love my fairy lights. Up until late last year I had a lovely set of pink and purple flowers that wrapped around my bedhead, unfortunately they broke so I've been using a set of wicker hearts that were originally destined to go around my curtain pole. We're having a bit of general home change  around at the moment, involving a new bathroom, a new three piece suite and a bit of an office makeover so I've decided to change my room around a bit too. So I've decided to put the wicker lights where they belong and get some new flowers for my bedhead.

I was initially going to for some more purple or lilac lights but I loved these ivory rose ones, They are battery operated and the warm toned, bulbs can either be used on a steady setting or a blinking setting. These lights were £6.99 including postage from this ebay seller.

Sticking with the floral theme I also got this self adhesive lilac floral hook. I don't think that it will hold a great deal of weight but I just want it to hold a canvas and fabric sign so I'm hoping that it will do the trick. Either way it just just 99p from this seller.

As well as flowers I love butterflies and I've been looking at a few wall art pieces but I've never seen anything that I really like. I wanted something with a bit of colour so I thought I'd give these a go.

What they are is fine plastic butterflies, that have a tiny magnetic attached to the back. Obviously I can't use the magnets to stick them to the wall, so I think I'm going to use white tack so I can move them round at will. They also came with a little pack of sticky, foam pads but I'm so indecisive,I'm going to gave the white tack a go first. They were just 99p for 20 different sized and patterned butterflies from this seller x 

As well as a few things for my room, I also bought a few stationery bits from ebay. One of my aims for 2015 was to be more organised and one way that I'm doing it through using diaries and organisers. So in order to mark the pages of my diary I got these cute animal page markers x 

They were just 99p from this seller x Alongside them I also got this set of cute lucky cat post it notes x As bloggers we need sticky notes in our lives and nowadays you don't need to just stick the square ones x You name is and you can probably get a post it note shaped like it x  Again these were just 99p and I bought them from this seller x 

As I mentioned in a recent post one of my favourite shops at the moment is Poundland. Would you believe that between us me and Mummy Lou spent £30 in Poundland yesterday ! Ha Ha never mind I actually bought this a few weeks ago. I already have something similar and it's a bit of a silly purchase but why not.

It's a solar powered, dancing flower, I already have something similar which was a lot more expensive from Urban Outfitters but this is fun and quirky and I think it's going to make a welcome addition to my desk.

My final two home purchases came from Wilko. Me and one of my besties used to have a bit of obsession with pigs - long story but it was her birthday on St Patricks Day and when I saw these I couldn't resist buying them for both of us.

Basically they are Oink Oink, Piggy Wiggy kitchen tools. I got a plastic mixing spoon which was just £1.00, and a fab silicone spatula which was just £1.50. I think they are stupidly cute and I couldn't resist them. I've had a look elsewhere online and they do a full range of things, ranging from egg cups, to mini frying pans and kitchen timers - in love!

If you want to find out more about my haul, you can watch the accompanying You Tube video and listen to me ramble for a bit x 

There is one other thing but it isn't technically mine but I love it anyway. I've seen this vase on a few blogs and instagram accounts and I think it just sums up how right Asda, have it at the moment when it comes to home wear.

I bought this gorgeous honeycomb and bee detail vase for my mum for a Mothers Day present, but seeing as it goes with some of the citrus colours in the kitchen, she using it as large kitchen utensil storage jar instead. It's such a nice item and well worth the £12 price tag. It's out of stock online at the moment but I got this one in my local Asda store.

I'm really into my home style at the moment and seeing as so many changes are a foot I can see a few more hauls on the horizon. If you have any questions on the video or anything in this haul please leave a comment x