Reviewed by
Mary
Mila & Pheebs create stationary and activity boxes for children. They contain a mixture of stationary, crafts, stickers, and fun items, based around a different theme each month. It’s £10 per month plus £2.99 P&P.
On the inside of the box lid is a list of the contents. On top there you can see their lovely newsletter.
The newsletter is a lot of fun. Nice colours, cute pictures, and easy-to read font. Little C always enjoys reading out the jokes and fun facts while I’m unpacking and photographing!
I see some goodies in here!
First, stickers. Mila and Pheebs always have a lovely sheet of themed stickers in each box, and they are usually sparkly.
This is a great travel-themed sheet, because along with your usual vehicles there are also rocket ships and planets! I wonder when we’ll get to go to Outer Space for our holidays?
This is a fun activity. A design-it-yourself jigsaw is a great idea, and the colouring pens are great quality, with a satisfactory variety of nice bright colours. Even better, they’re washable! And also gluten free, apparently, though I’m not sure under what circumstances you’d want to eat them
(Those are the same pens.)
This is Little C’s absolute favourite item. Like many children she adores notebooks of all kinds, and there are many filled with her stories and drawings scattered around the house.
(Extra bonus: her favourite colour is purple.)
The cover is soft foam, and perfect for decorating with these:
Sparkly foam alphabet letters!
There are a generous quantity too, so you’ll have plenty for any other little crafty projects.
Now, what shall we do with these?
As it happened, Little C was saying an hour before this picture was taken, before we had opened the box, that she would like a notebook to write about her summer holidays.
Serendipity!
Mila and Pheebs also include as standard some blank greetings cards. I especially like the one with the fantastic embossed postage labels!
This is a great idea as I’m a huge fan of making your own cards for birthdays and so forth. It’s so much nicer and more personal than buying one. Our stash came in very useful for end-of-term teacher cards!
As an extra bonus there is a postcard to colour as well as a couple of luggage tags to decorate.
Other standard Mila and Pheebs items are the colouring and word games sheets. Little C is keen on wordsearches, so these are handy to have around.
Oh, and a glittery pencil too! Whenever I see these pencils I’m always glad for our electric pencil sharpener. Sounds gimmicky but seriously, they’re brilliant, not expensive on Amazon, totally worth buying.
Ah, the last and cutest items. Inside every Mila and Pheebs box you will find a tiny kawaii eraser. They are so gorgeous that we don’t use them, we keep them on a shelf looking adorable. This month is the little plane you see in front.
As an added bonus there is also a boat-themed pencil sharpener! Very appropriate. While we have the aforementioned electric sharpener, this will be perfect for Little C’s pencil case.
Children seem have an innate ability to shower the floor with pencil shavings. However this little boat manages to keep them contained until you’re near a bin.
I do like the Mila and Pheebs boxes very much. They are cheerful and fun, and the themes are pleasingly neutral.
Everything is neatly self contained. With this month’s felt tip pens you really only need perhaps some extra paper, and you have a great selection of crafts and creativity which should keep you child going for a good while.
The website says it’s aimed at kids from around six years old, but I reckon a four- or even three-year-old would have a lot of fun with this. You might need some supervision when it comes to things like the pencil sharpener, but stickers and drawing? That’s practically any age! And even though the word games might be slightly beyond their skills, most kids are starting to look at letters and things at school, so they would still be a nice learning tool. Get hands-on folks!
If you were feeling really fancy this would be an incredible party bag, or especially at this time of year, a wonderful way to keep children entertained at a wedding.
As well as a gorgeous monthly treat, this box would be perfect to take away on holiday. It takes up very little room, and there is an excellent combination of free and structured creativity. There is even the sneaky education factor!
Part of the point of a subscription box is that you are paying for someone else to do the work for you, and in this case it’s selecting and producing a lovely themed box of stationary. I do think it’s good value, not least because there are items that you can keep and use again and again.
As I said, this is great to have stashed away for a rainy day, especially during summer when, let’s face it, the kids are around an awful lot and need a startling amount of entertaining!
I don’t know about you, but there’s no way I have time to track down and organize something like this that brings little C a great deal of delight! I seriously admire Alexis, who manages to produce these lovely boxes whilst running around after twins.
(Follow her Facebook page, it’s got some super-cute behind-the-scenes stuff on there!)
Happy travels!
By Evelyn 
