Baby Shower Inspiration!

Well with only a week to go to my little gathering of friends and family to celebrate the forthcoming arrival of our latest addition in only a few weeks time, I thought I'd publish a post about inspiration and ideas for baby showers.

I must admit I am no guru and have only been to a couple of baby shower's myself but they really are a lovely chance to catch up with everyone for some games and nibbles and to spend some time together before new born arrives.

To entertain your guests there are lots of fun baby themed activities you can do. The internet is full of ideas. Here are a few we came up with:

Guess Baby's Birthday:

A modern take on the classic guess the date & weight of baby. Have your guests join in on the sweepstake in an interactive way, and get to keep a gorgeous momento.

Simply create a calendar on Mircosoft Word featuring dates 2 weeks either side of your due date, print this off and attach inside a fancy frame of your choice. Cut out a few blue and pink hearts and apply double sided tape on the reverse. People can then select a blue or pink heart to indicate the sex of the baby and write their names onto the heart. These can then be stuck onto the calendar on their date prediction.

Once finished it can be displayed proudly or hung in the nursery wall as a keepsake.

Left/ Right Game:

Such a simple concept but a brilliant ice breaker between family and friends and bound to create some giggles. Each guess is handed a small envelope and the following baby themed story read out by the host. Every time the word 'RIGHT' or 'LEFT' is read out guests must pass their envelope in that direction. At the end of the story guests can open their envelope to see if they have won a prize :)

Here is the story we used which I have converted into a PDF for my readers to print off x




What's in the diaper bag?

Grab your nappy changing bag and fill it with 10 items you think you would find in there. Then have your guests guess what's inside! The person who guesses the most correct answers wins a prize! Be sure to add in a few tie breakers in case of a draw.

Sperm and the egg:

A fun take on the sperm and the egg game. For this you will need some sperm bean bags and something to represent the 'egg'. I made the sperm beanies from felt and filled them with bird seed to weigh them down!  Split your guests into groups and have them throw their bean bag as close to the egg as possible. The winner of each team can step to the side and then a grand finale of sperm throwing can take place. The overall winner wins a goody bag! Guaranteed to cause lots of smiles and laughs!

Onsie decorating station:

Finally we had a onsie decorating station. Grab some cheap onsies from Primark, Asda or Tesco and have them laid out on a table. Add some Crayola fabric marker pens, some images for inspiration and let your guests creative juices flow designing their very own baby sleepsuit. The designs can simply be ironed over to make them permanent and safe to wash and your new addition will have lots of lovely home made outfits to enjoy :) a nice relaxed activity and fun to make.

Here are some lovely images my little sister put together for the day to inspire people with their designs.

And here are some of the finished designs from a very creative bunch of girlfriends :)

Prizes:

Some gorgeous pink bags filled with goodies for the prize winners! Included mini bottles of wine, chocolates and a face mask!

Favours:

I really didn't know what to get as favours for guests. So I reverted back to my crafts. I made each guest a little felt keyring to take home, including apples, pears, a carrot and some lemons! These come with a stern warning not to attach to a set of keys or anything your child might play with though as although I have secured the eyes as best possible these are beads and could be liable to falling off! Best to attach them to the garage door keys/ purse or something that little ones don't get hold of! Keep them out of reach as they're not a toy :)

Decorations:

We kept this easy and pain free and ordered some cheap pom poms from ebay! Only a fiver from China and arrived in time, simply pull them out into a ball shape and hang them from the string, colourful and effective. We also picked up some heart shaped paper bunting from The Range for 99p and some glitter butterflies.

Buffet:

Saving the most important to last! ;) what to eat! I was lucky enough that both family and friends helped prepare a buffet for my baby shower as food can be expesnive. This included some home made quiches, sandwiches, chocolate brownies and cake! I provided some tea, coffee and fizzy drinks and made some cheese and pineapple sticks.

You don't have to go overboard with food but it's nice to have some nibbles. We didn't buy a baby shower cake so to say but simply decorated some cupcakes with baby themed picks to keep in theme with the baby shower.

Bump painting:

We had the lovely Claire from Funky Faces arrive to paint bump, I believe this may be a fairly recent trend but having seen a friend's beautiful 'cake' design recently I couldn't resist having bump decorated. Be aware this doesn't come cheap as I was soon to find out! Most artists we contacted charged about £60 for a bump painting and a seating of about 1 hr to complete a  design. However these sometimes include additional bumps at the party being painted and some face painting if you'd like for your guests. Each artist seem to have their own packages! Claire managed to complete my bump design in just 30 minutes and is priced at a very reasonable £30, sometimes she has offers on her Facebook page and her January deal was £20 for a bump painting.

Claire painted a beautiful tree with our names on the branches and some blossom, she added a touch of glitter and I was so pleased with her design :)

Check out her page here for latest price range and offers.

 Funky Faces Face Painting 

Gifts:

I cannot thank my lovely friends and family for all their generosity, bump has recieved some beautiful gifts and mummy some useful pressies and treats too! I was overwhelmed with how kind you've all been and the home made gifts nearly bought me to emotional tears including a home made nappy cake and beautifully knitted cardigan! We feel so grateful x

Absolutely huge thank you to everyone that made it today and for making it so special had such a lovely afternoon with you all and can't wait for you all to meet bump in the not so distant future X X X

Feeling lucky!

This week on Facebook I was hugely lucky enough to be drawn as a winner to a competition for a newborn photo shoot.

Emily broadbank a local Hampshire photographer was running the competition in which mums to be we're asked to submit their due date to be in with a chance of winning this excellent and to me once in a life time opportunity.

I sadly never got the chance to have a newborn photo shoot with Oscar because of my broken knee cap. I found myself very isolated and quite self conscious becoming a mummy not able to carry my child in my arms, push him in his buggy or buckle him into his car seat. Still on crutches and with the help of my wheelchair I could get around but I simply wasn't prepared mentally or physically to become a mummy with a broken limb to deal with at the same time. Unfortunately I struggled to come to terms with my situation for a long time and shyed away from photographs, looking at my newborn son sadly brought the accident flooding back to me and the weeks of being unable to move, in pain, highly dosed up on medication, and then suddenly I had something screaming at me, so fragile and helpless and wanting me do everything for him when I couldn't even get myself showered and dressed without assistance.

Tackling the stairs was impossible and Oscar's brand new nursery which had been lovingly decorated and prepared weeks before was vacant with me and him grounded on the downstairs floor.

Whilst other mummies were happily chattering away about breast feeding, sleep patterns and percentiles I was mulling over range of motion exercises, endless physiotherapy just to move my leg one degree by another each day and attending endless hospital assessments, x rays and learning how to inject myself with clexane blood thinners appropriately. I started to feel very envious of other new mummies and desperate to talk to someone going through what I was but there was no one, my situation for me it seemed was unique. The medical professionals would just look at me and shake their heads, almost like they didn't know quite what to do with me.

It was hard. There were tears, lots of them. For months in fact.

And no I'm not writing this for people to feel sorry for me, or to 'go on' about my broken leg again. I'm writing this because it was my reality and my experience of becoming a mother. The term 'labour plan now suddenly seemed so laughable and very far from the real world.

So that's why we don't have many newborn photographs particularly not as a family because well I just didn't have the confidence.

Fortunately I have some amazing family & friends around me and I day by day got through things. No I didn't attend first time mummy groups, I didn't subscribe to baby classes and I wasn't out walking my baby boy in his pram with a big beam on my face because this wasn't a possibility for me but I did overcome things in time and now I look back and the photographs aren't there.

Looking back now I feel an amazingly strong bond with my son, I remember the days I wanted to give up and he kept me going, I see the little boy he has become and I am immensely proud.

I must note, I did eventually build up a network of  local mummy friends, I was enrolled on a baby massage course at the nearby sure start where I met the lovely Beckie & Claire who I still keep in touch with, I had contact via email with my antenatal nct group and when strong enough began joining them for meet ups and a friend of ours Gem introduced me to the Ruskateers a pretty cute trio of baby boys. Oscar also has a friend in Penny his little buddy- daughter of a work colleague and fiance due around a similar time  and Lisa & Elliot who visited us after my accident. We also have some lovely little friends in the neighbourhood in Leo & Alexa who Oscar adores and Aimee and Autumn who visited us for play dates and moral support. And I am grateful for all of them for keeping me going during my recovery.

But with all this in the back of my mind when I got an email notification saying I'd won a newborn photoshoot for bump I actually had a tear in my eye. This is the unknown for me and my little family!

A chance to capture our little latest addition in the comfort of our home and 5 digital images to keep forever.

I cannot thank Emily enough for giving us this chance.

And now I will have something very special to show Oscar when he is older. Photographs of the special moment he became a Brother <3

I will keep you posted on the blog of our chosen images and hope they will be as magical to my readers as they are to us.

Check out Emily's beautiful work here:

Emily Broadbank

Natasha & Oscar x

I've written a poem

With a distinct lack of crafts and blogging this weekend and an impromptu trip to the PAH I've been feeling reflective.

I always see those quotes that get circulated, re posted and shared online and I think each of us can relate to some of them at certain points in our life.

But at risk of trying to express my feelings through an existing quote we've probably all seen before I decided to actually jot down all those thoughts running through my mind.

And well I've attempted a poem!

This is for my baby boy Oscar X

Felt keyring cuties!

Check out these cute little key rings!

These are super easy to make, all you need is some felt, needle and thread, some rounded black eyes for the beads, key rings, ribbon and some stuffing. I drew my templates free hand.

What I love about these is they could also be used for a cot mobile if you wanted to make your own home made mobile. Just be sure to use felt fabric for the eyes if using these for a child. Mine were key rings so I used beads but if in doubt stick to something more child friendly.

DIY Baby hamper

Thought I'd write a post about baby showers, gifts and hamper ideas. I know they're rather American but I really do think baby showers are lovely. Everyone is always so excited about the pending arrival of a new little person into the world and what better excuse to get all the girls together have some nice nibbles, a catch up and play some light hearted baby themed games, not to mention all the gorgeous gifts you can have the joy of giving/ receiving.

Trouble is what do you get for someone? There's bound to be plenty of the same ideas and always the worry the mummy to be might be bombarded with a tower of newborn nappies and wet wipes and baby gifts always seem so overpriced, add the term 'baby' to something an it automatically seems to triple in price!

So I decided I would put together my own baby hamper, not only was this a great deal of fun to make, and yes I expect some of the items might be duplicates or similar to what others may bring but I loved the thought of putting something together myself, it shows a lot of thought, time, care and consideration in putting something together which I always prefer to picking something off the shop shelf.

I have a slight 'wicker basket' problem and seem to have gained quite a collection over the years, they're lovely for storage and nice and airy. One of which is a little basket with a handle, this looked perfect for a hamper so I began with this as my starting point.

Firstly I think some baby essentials never go a miss, so I picked out a baby lotion, some talc, baby shampoo and wet wipes. All useful bits to have. I used a range of brands as I find it's nice to try different products to see what works for your baby. Here we have some of the leading brands, Simple, Johnsons, and Aldi's own Mamia.

After this I sought out some cute items for baby. A stroller book in fabric with different flaps and textures to keep baby entertained and in a cute bear shape. Soft and safe for a newborn. Also I chose a wooden 'wiggly worm' in a cute rainbow of colours. Maybe more suitable as the child gets older but would look very cute in the nursery until so.

I decided to finish of my hamper with a home made felt keyring I put together. This is really for the mummy to be and a cute little extra. It is an apple design.

Finally the hamper needed wrapping. To complete the look I bought some plastic film from my local florist, you can buy these by the sheet for 50p I tied the film with some ribbon to fix it into place.

To complete the gift I put together a piece of art for the nursery. I kept this neutral because although I know mummy to be is having a little girl, it's never easy to know what people's nursery choices and decor are like. I stuck to an animal theme and a beige background featuring Mr fox inside a white box frame.

So, there you have it! A fun and simple way to put together a baby hamper for the lovely mummy to be! Hope this has inspired you and you have fun making yours!

What to get a geeky daddy for his birthday...

Well it's Daddy's birthday soon so I've been busy thinking up present ideas :)

Firstly we start with the football of course! Daddy is an avid Saints fan and unfortunately due to finance and time constraints we often don't get to go anymore. So when Daddy's birthday was nearing football comes first into my mind!

I text his best mate and asked if he wanted to go to the match on Sunday vs Swansea City and he was up for it and kindly ordered the tickets, I transferred the money over online and am planning to tell hubby on match day so it's a surprise!

I dropped a sneaky email to the club to see if they could feature a birthday announcement in the programme from Oscar and I just to finish of the sentiment :) unfortunately it wasn't featured though! Apologies to Nath for forking out the £4 for the programme doh!

Next I sourced some suitably appropriate geek t-shirts! I saw some lovely matching tees online for father and son. Here are some of my favourites:

1. Big Geek. Little Geek.

These came in at only £11.99 for the pair! what a bargain. They feature glasses and the wording 'Big Geek' and 'Little Geek' and are just adorable! You can grab these at Just Another Tee.com

2. It wasn't me. It was him.

These are just too cute for words. Featuring little monsters on the front, the matching t-shirts feature the wording 'It wasn't me' on the child's and 'It was him' on the adults. So cheeky and fun!

These are available from http://www.bananalane.co.uk/ under the gift sets section of the website, but come in at a pricey £28.

3. Copy & Paste.

Well everyone is always saying Oscar is a mini me of his daddy, so these just had to be the one! Copy & Paste T-shirts found on Etsy!

Not only does the t-shirt imply that Oscar is just like his Daddy but there's also a clever bit of computer geekery in there! Perfect for our little carbon copy ;-)

These were priced in at £23 for the two so middle of the road.

Finally I couldn't resist but hand make something crafty for Daddy! I am sure he is completely fed up with me putting things into box frames and filling the wall with art so this time it needed to be something perhaps he could take to work with him or display somewhere other than the wall.

That's when I came across the idea online of a 'Daddy Cam'

A home made 'camera' photo frame featuring a photograph of his little family. The full tutorial can be found here: Alpha Mom. All you need is a block of wood, some empty lids from the kitchen, some black acrylic paint, nails and a photo!

I must admit I added adapted mine slightly by sanding the wood down between coats of paint, shaping the wooden block a little more to give it a more 'camera' looking shape and I used some silver paint for the trim and 'buttons'. I also used screws instead of nails for a more secure attachment and secured a foam trim so that the camera was more like a replica of Daddy's Fuji! I also had a little help from Grandad who is pretty much awesome at DIY stuff. He's my number one for crafting advice and finishing touches.

To finish it all off Oscar and I made Daddy a card together. Oscar did his very first felt tip drawing on a piece of paper using lots of different colours, we then added some stickers and a photograph of Oscar and Daddy taking off in the rocket ship! Inside we did thumb prints using our ink pads to sign it from the both of us.

Natasha & Oscar X

Trendy Tot Thursday!

This weeks trendy attire is something that can't be found in the shops!

It is Oscar's super warm, super snuggly and super cute shark hat hand made by his lovely Auntie Sally :)

We adore how cosy this is, with little flaps to cover the ears and keep them from getting a chill and a special feature shark fin at the top this is some seriously fun toddler wear!

Here is the little man modelling it himself:

If only I had the skill and patience to make something like this.

Thank you Sally we love it :)

Natasha & Oscar X