BackPack Review with Discount Code: Gaston Luga Classic Backpack

Over the June school holidays, I had a no car day with my boys once a week and I brought them out via the public transport! I was anxious in the beginning - I am used to bringing a small bag and leave all the necessary like diapers, extra clothings, umbrella, raincoat etc in the car. We can always go back to the car to get them right? But when we had our no car days, gosh! I didn't know how I should pack and what I should bring! We had a total of 5 car free days in June and I used 5 different bags (bigger, smaller, backpack, sling bag, tote bag etc!) and over-bring and under-bring many items!! 

The experiences made me want to look for a new backpack! I am a mom of two active boys and we love going outdoors for fun and exploring! Backpack is the most convenient because I will be able to bring most of what we need, and I can still carry Little Brother easily whenever he needs. 

And so while I was browsing online for a new bag, I received an email from Gaston Luga, a Swedish backpack retailer located in the heart of Stockholm, Sweden! I browsed their website and was totally blown away by the style of their bags! 

I was totally in love with their bags! (images from Gaston Luga Instagram)

Their backpacks are uniquely designed to fit any setting, no matter where you would go—whether you are sipping Mai Tai on a beach in Thailand, sailing the French Riveria, going to work or simply a weekend brunch with friends, the Clässic, Clässy and Pråper collections will suit and add to the occasion!

I wanted to work with them, but it took me many days to reply simply because I was browsing their site daily,  and couldn't make up my mind on which backpack I want because I love so many of them! In the end, i decided to get a bag from the Classic collection, because it has a pocket in front specially designed for things needed to be easily accessible. I am a mom.. I NEED that pocket! ;p

Having narrow down my choice to this Classic Collection, I then couldn't make up my mind on which colour to get between this 4 colours that I really love! 

In the end, the very pragmatic me choose to go with the Classic - Black & Black backpack instead. It is easy to maintain, and it will tear my heart apart if I accidentally dirtied the bag (you know how things are when we go out with the kids), so black is the best!! 

I was then amazed by the speed of delivery of the backpack by Gaston Luga, all the way from Stockholm in Sweden to my house! They used DHL Express and I actually received the bag in a time, shorter than the days I took to choose the bag I want! Haha! 

Now, let me flaunt my new backpack!! 

I love how the bag is light yet sturdy, small yet roomy, plain yet stylish, basic yet luxurious! Most importantly, I love how the bag looks good on everyone of us! Yes! I am the type of mom that likes the family to help out, so everyone in the family will help to carry the outing bag! 

I am totally in love with my all black Gaston Luga backpack! Because it's black, i can put it on the ground!

Here's me with the stylish bag, we were having a fun day out at Universal Studios Singapore!

The bag is unisex, and it looks good on Hubby too!

In fact, even Big Brother can help us with the bag and it doesn't look out of place!

On top of the minimalistic and elegant exterior, the backpack has many functional features which made it extremely practical. 

The spacious front pocket allows me to keep things that are needed to be easily accessible

Top: The backpack is also equipped with an inner compartment which can hold a 13-15" laptop with ease
Bottom: There is another two small pockets for holding phone or a power bank

The bag may look small, but it's extremely roomy inside

On the back, the unique Gaston Luga pocket for holding your passport, tickets or handphone, keep them safe yet easily accessible.

There is a keyring holder, which allows you to hang items to personalise your bag

Close up photos to share the workmanship and quality of the backpack:

• The backpack is made of thick and strong cotton fabric for durability. 
• The front leather straps are held by strong magnets for easy access. 
• The inside is dressed with a 100% cotton fabric. 
• Under the backpack are four metallic feet, giving the backpack extra protection and a cooler look.

So I kept saying the bag is roomy right? Let me show you what I put into my backpack!! You will be amazed because even I am amazed! 

From the front pocket: Wet wipes, tissue, a hand sanitizer and a solid perfume
(I happened to love green. LOL) 

Drum roll please....  Below are the things I put into the main compartment of the backpack! :D You can tell how pleased I am with the functionality and style of my new bag!! 

Must bring items (from left to right): My kids water bottles, my wallet & sunglass, a cap, my kids' raincoats & brolly, mosquito repellent, extra diapers, a portable fan, a expandable bag for my purchases, my camera and mobile phone! 

{ { {  Sharing  is  Loving!  } } }

D i s c o u n t  C o d e

Good news!! I am excited to share how you can purchase your own Gaston Luga with almost a whooping SGD100 off!!

• Get 20% off as tax rebate for purchases made from a non-EU country! (Yeah!!)
• Enter discount code "miracule15" for an additional 15% off on the price after tax rebate! (Double Yeah!!) 
• Get free express shipping to Singapore!!! (Triple Yeah!!!)

Remember to apply coupon code "miracule15" for extra discounts! 

More Information

Official Website: http://gastonluga.com/sg/
Instagram: www.instagram.com/gastonluga
Lookbook: www.instagram.com/tags/gastonluga

Gaston Luga loved his elegantly custom-made piece. We understood the industry was lagging when it comes to what customers today want. Most products are designed with big fluffy shoulder pads, plastic materials and thin fabric, which brings thoughts back to the first day of school. It was important for Carl to create something he would wear himself and be proud of. The vision was to make a line with Scandinavian minimalism and elegance to suit all different occasions. As time went on, leather parts, thick quality cotton, metal details and a mix of carefully selected colors were put together and became the foundation of the new brand named after its predecessor, Gaston Luga.



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Training Independence and Helpful Family Member From Young

Hee, trust me when i said it's easier for me to do the housework myself than get my kids involved. Many times, it's more work for me than them being really helpful. :/

But as much as I prefer to do things myself, I am determined not to raise spoilt brats or self-entitled men who doesn't help out in the family - be it our family or their own family in future! 

My husband had the luxury of growing up with having a domestic helper at home, he didn't have to do anything but boy, I am glad army had taught him some things that allowed him to be able to help me out! I am lucky that he is one very hands on Daddy and even though I am the Stay Home Mum and he is the sole breadwinner for our family, he has helped me with many of the household chores too! 

So for our boys, I have been controlling the cleanliness freak within myself and getting my boys involved with some simple household chores. We as parents have to learn to let it go... so that we can raise independent and reliable future adults!  

Since my elder boy turned 3 plus, i have started getting him involved in simple cooking or baking. So I do the same for the younger boy too. :) 

The look on their faces are priceless! Though they are little but they feel proud of themselves whenever they did something on their own! 

You know how much energy the young ones have! So instead of them watching the TV or playing with ipads while i do the household chores, I have started passing them rags or my small wireless vacuum to help clean around the house. Nah.... it's really not clean. LOL. What can you expect from the tiny man right? But it's a good mindset and attitude. Plus everyone have to start somewhere~ 

See how much work the Little Brother can do!

And of course, it helps to drain their energy too! ;p

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The Things He Said: Childcare reminds him of orphanage

My kids sleep at 815pm daily, which is pretty earlier so we have the habit of small chats while we are turning in for sleep. 

One day, while we were going to sleep, I casually asked Big Brother if he remembers his childcare,  the preschools that he went before and why he cried daily last time.

He said he can't remember already.  But he has a memory about those times. A chinese teacher was asking them to do a dance. So I asked him if he remember the color of uniform and it turn out it was of the childcare centre that he went before I become a sahm! (that is age 2+). Big Brother was in an infant care since he was 5.5 mths old. When he turns 18 months old, I had him transferred to another childcare centre near to the place we stayed. And he stayed there all the way until 37 mths old (3 yrs 1 mth old) before I become a sahm.

Then he continued that he doesn't like the teachers to look at them and force them to sleep. If he hadn't fallen asleep, they would call his name and ask him to zzz.. he hated that place cos it looks like the orphanage that he saw from tv shows. 

I was stumped... how did a child so young knows about all theses? My heart wrenched and teared. 

Then he couldn't remember much about his nursery, K1 and early k2. He also couldn't remember much about the place I brought him to for early intervention. I asked him why he cries when he went to school daily, he told me he was scared. But he is no longer scare now...  In his words, he said. I am old already... primary two now. I am 7 years old already. I am a big boy now....... My boy... has grown so much!

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Review: Personalised Book by bookyboo

Although Big Brother has Dyslexia and resists reading on his own, but all these years I have not stop reading to him. :) In order to exposed my children to more reading, I bring my children to the library often to borrow many varieties of books as well as we have procured quite an impressive library at home too. :D

I am ecstatic to add to our personal Library a new kind of books - books personalised to my children individually! We received two personalised adventure books from bookyboo for Big Brother and Little Brother for review purposes.

We received two personalised books for Big Brother and Little Brother!

Love how vibrant the colours are on the book!

Theses books are under the my adventure personalised book series by bookyboo. Each book is a personalised story based on the letters of my child’s name! My boy becomes a hero on a treasure hunt, who finds treasure clues hidden across India. We get to meet many characters and collect a clue from each one to add up to their own names!

Above: I love that I can include a special message printed on the 1st page for each of my child. The message can always remind my boys of their childhood days and the bond they share with us.

Below: Love the printed matt vibrant colours on every page

I think that personalising books for our little ones is not just about creating a unique keepsake, it's also a great opportunity to bond together with our little ones and encourage them to be off screen time!

#turnoffscreens

It's of course effective! They couldn't wait for me to read to them! 

The surprises didn't just end there. My boys and I were delighted to find a colouring page at the end of their own book that we can spend time colouring together! This takes the personalisation to the next level because now they can even colour the pages themselves according to their own liking!

You can even share your kids drawing with Bookyboo

If there is just one thing that I didn't like about the books, they were delivered individually in soft cardboard wrapped with cling wrap. During the freight, one of the parcel was bent and resulted in the dent/crumpled for the spine of the book (see below). :( 

Other than that, we had hours of fun and many nights of reading about their own adventures, again and again! I hope that they will keep the magic in them for longer!  

Thank you bookyboo! 

{{{ DISCOUNT CODE }}} 

Bookyboo is generous to extend a 15% discount to my readers for your order! 

To enjoy the 15% off your own personalised book, enter the coupon code MIRACULE at your checkout! Do note that the discount is only valid for 30 days from today! :) Happy bookyboo-ing! 

More Information about Bookyboo

Web: https://bookybookids.com/

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/bookabookids/

At Bookyboo, we know for sure that childhood experiences shape the kind of personality we grow up to be. And it is parents (especially mothers) who put in immense efforts to make sure their kids soak in quality experiences today, to prepare them with life skills for tomorrow.

It is the reason why we continuously create an ensemble of enriching learning experiences that the children love because each experience is personalized, specially created for them. We want parents and kids to enjoy each experience, one moment at a time – to create memories that stay forever. Our mission is to make parenting an even more rewarding journey.

Disclaimer: We were invited by Bookyboo to try their personalised adventure books for review purposes. We were gifted two personalised adventure books for review and to share our experiences. No other form of compensation is involved and all opinions and photos are my own, unless otherwise stated. No part is to be copied or reproduced without permission.

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The Things He Said

Hubby was going out of town tomorrow, so Big Brother went to him and...

BB: Daddy, have a good trip! I will miss you! I hope your airplane doesn't crash!

Daddy: Why you say like that?!

Me: OMG!! Why you say bad things?

BB: No! I said good things! I hope his airplane doesn't crash! It's good!

Me: No!! I mean, when you want to wish people well, you don't use the bad words in the sentence! You just say, "I hope you have a safe journey!" When you use the word airplane and crash, people feel scared already!

BB: Oh....

-_________-|||

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The Things Little Brother Said

This morning, where I was driving,

Little Brother: Mummy, what day is it today?

Me: Today is Monday, you have got school later!

Little Brother: I know, I know... then it's Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday! Friday we can play playstation again! And Saturday and Sunday no school! 

I was stumped and in awed! Little Brother is not yet 4 and honestly I spent so little time with him because Big Brother really needs more help from me. I wonder how he picked up all theses!

Feeling amazed by the stark differences between a child with learning disabilities and without... Nothing can be taken for granted. I am blessed with whatever I have. ;)

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Preserving Memories with HD FotoJournal by Canon

How do you preserve your precious memories?

I am an avid photo taker - I love taking pictures with my mobile phone, cameras as well as video cam, so that i can capture as many memories as possible. I used to archive my photos and videos in folders and then copied them onto a DVD for storing. But over time, i noticed my DVDs got lost or damaged due to scratches! :( 

So I started buying external Harddisks to store these precious memories... but alas! You know how electronics devices works. They are sensitive and can be damaged easily due to infrequent use or rough use. To put it simply, they have their own short lifespan too.  

So having lost quite a good few years of my photos stored on external hard drives (too expensive for data recovery!!), I have now move on and upload every single photo I have on a annually paid cloud storage service. My photos taken on my mobile is auto uploaded every time my phone is connected to wifi. Photos taken on my wifi camera are downloaded on my mobile, which will auto upload to the cloud too! Thus, there is no more lost pictures, and i can save a lot of space on my mobile devices by clearing them frequently too! Well, just that occasionally I have to login to my cloud storage to view and delete those nonsense pictures that I really don't want to keep. ;p 

I choose cloud storage over social media accounts so that I can have privacy, as well as maintain the quality & file sizes of my images. :) 

Other than storing them online, I will also create photo books from time to time! Instead of developing individual photos, I prefer to create themed photo books that I can flip from time to time. it's more organised and easier to store. I have a library of photo books at home!

Today, I am going to share my experience creating HD FotoJournal (Layflat High Definition PhotoBook at superior print quality with revolutionary Canon Inkjet Technology) by Canon Singapore and FotoHub! 

There are quite a few size options available!

And you can create your stunning photo books from as low as S$35 per book!
(It can be even lower if you purchase a package!)

I created 2 sets of Softcover FotoJournals - a square 10”x 10” and a landscape 8” x 12”! Each photo book comes with 20 pages which we can create with multiple layouts and fonts of choice! 

To begin, we will need to download a software on our computer to create the photo album. Since I am using Mac, so I downloaded the standalone app that is not installed into applications but it works by itself inside a desktop folder. 

The standalone app for album creation

The startup of the app in the beginning was a little slow as it needs to check for updates and downloads, but thereafter it is fine. :) 

This time round, I took two days to select, download and compile my pictures from last years Taiwan Trip from my cloud storage! But creating the photo book was a breeze! I love how easy it is to use the templates and layouts to add photos into individual pages! I completed each photo book within 2 hours and they were ready to be uploaded for printing! 

There is a pre-print validation which will alert me of any errors prior to uploading!

I experience some hiccups during the uploading though. First time, I got through the whole uploading process, to come to the page to fill in my details. But as i click on view outlet address, the whole thing hanged and I had to restart the app and redo the uploading again. :( 

it hanged when I was uploading

On my second upload attempt, it's hanged at the uploading dialog page.... it's been at least 10 minutes at the last two files... so I had to exit and restart the upload process all over again. 

The good thing is that it went through very quickly and smoothly at the third attempt! :) 

My photo books were ready in a matter of days, and I was alerted via SMS for collection at my selected preferred outlet! 

my square 10"by10" and landscape 8"by12" photobooks in their protective plastic covers!

Although I ordered the softcover HD FotoJournals, but I was surprised when I flipped the books! The softcover is not really soft and flimsy at all! It is in fact quite thick and hard! 

The cover of the FotoJournal is also printed on a special texture paper that has this effect at some viewing angles!

The printing quality of inner pages are very good! It is a matte photo quality type of hard pages! 

My 8"by12" landscape HD FotoJournal is not perfect though. The cover of this particular photobook of mine has many flaws. I was a little sad to find some edges on the cover white, the corner of the cover of the book eared and on the front cover, there was a part that wasn't printed properly, resulting in white spots as seen in the below pictures. 

There isn't any problems with my square 10" by 10" photo book though! This book turns out perfect! So I should have check more thoroughly when I collect my photo books! 

This is my square 10" by 10" photobook for our Taiwan Trip in 2015!

The printout is very high quality, even if it's a picture spread across two pages!

I super super heart and appreciate a Layflat High Definition Photo Book now! It's excellent especially for those stunning landscape pictures taken on holidays overseas! 

MORE INFORMATION

About HD Photobook 
HD Photobook is collaboration between Canon Singapore Pte. Ltd. and print partner FotoHub Pte. Ltd. via FotoIdeas software compatible on Windows and Mac operating systems. Create timeless memories with the Layflat High Definition PhotoBook at superior print quality with revolutionary Canon Inkjet Technology. The pages are printed on High Definition Canon luster paper with Panaromic Flat Spread binding. 

FotoHub Pte. Ltd., the print partner will require 5 working days to process your order upon successful transmission of your photos online via FotoIdeas software that is very easy to download. Collection options are available in the final step before you send your HD Photobook to print. You will receive email and SMS notification from FotoHub Pte. Ltd., once your HD Photobook is ready.

Disclaimer: We were invited by Canon Singapore to try their HD FotoJournal Softcover for review purposes. We were gifted two photo books for review and to share our experiences. The photo books are created by me with my own photos. No other form of compensation is involved and all opinions are my own, unless otherwise stated. No part is to be copied or reproduced without permission.

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