Baby Showers: Gifts and Fingerprint Trees

I've noticed that having a baby shower is becoming more and more popular in this country.

It's a lovely idea to bring friends and family together towards the end of a pregnancy and give the mum a nice party where the focus is on her before it's all about the baby. I found it was nice to have things to look forward to in the last trimester that aren't all due date, due date, due date. For that reason, I also think it's best to tell the mum-to-be before hand rather than throwing a suprise shower.

Personally, I don't love it when the main focus is on gifts and prefer to buy a gift once the baby is born. My biggest reason is that it's really lovely to receive gifts personalised to the baby, gender appropriate, having their name or initials on the gift and name written in a card.

You spend a lot of time thinking of a name and it makes it more real to see it on things when the baby gets here. Maybe that's just me? If you have a shower, I'm guessing you don't get this so much?

I personally didn't have a baby shower, I threw one for K though. There are a lot of baby showers and due dates coming up in the next couple of months amongst our friends so I've put together some of the best gifts we either received or given and some we just really like.

1. Personalised blanket £29.99 Hippins  These are FANTASTIC. I put mine through the washing machine so many times. You can get  lots of variations of colours. George had oatmeal with light blue lettering. This was by far my favourite present. It was the perfect size for using in the buggy and car seat.
2. Marionnette Cushions £30 Ferm Living
3. Storage Bags £20 coxandcox
4. Personalised Name Bunting £20, Home & Love on Folksy
5. Mary Jane socks by Trumpette set of 6 £16.95 (other designs and boy versions available)

Fingerprint guest books have started getting more popular for weddings but I think they make a brilliant extra at a baby shower. This is the setup photo from MODG's baby shower. {Possibly the funniest blogger on the internet by the way.}




If you fancy making your own I found some free Printables - Click the image to go to the download page.

 

Choose pretty ink pads that match the nursery for a lovely piece of original, meanigful art. You could save the print until the baby is born, add their name and birth date and give to the new parents as a framed gift. I also very much like the idea of adding names to the leaves:

Custom made tree by Inviting Moments on Etsy  £12.00

Pinterest:

Have you heard of Pinterest? It's getting more and more popular this side of the Atlantic. I've been using it for months as I read a lot of American blogs so heard about it quite early on. Littlest sister is a new convert.

Pinterest is basically a giant virtual pin board for storing all of your favourite images from around the web. The clever part is that the picture is automatically linked to the website it is pinned from, so can also help boost blog and web traffic

The quickest way to get signed up is either by receiving an email from an existing member or downloading the free app. If you need an email just ask and I will send you one.

Once you have set up your account and followed these instructions to get the 'pin it' button you're good to go.

It's great for saving inspiration photos in one place without using up loads of memory. It also makes it very useful for bloggers to credit photos and remember where they came from.

{If you find a photo on another blog or in Google and want to pin it, it is always best to find the original source so that you are crediting it to the right place.} 

Don't get me wrong, Pinterest is certainly not just for bloggers, It serves as an online scrapbook so whether you want to collect ideas for your next haircut, recipes for your family, plan an event or whatever you can think of it's a great place to do it. When K was planning D's 2nd birthday, we could both pin to the same board and see our ideas.  

To blog your Pinterest photos: click on the photo, choose 'embed' from the right hand side. Copy the html code and paste in to your post under the 'Edit HTML' tab. [instructions for Blogger] The bottom photo is an example of what this looks like (it automatically adds references for you)

 

Source: ideastosteal.com via Anna on Pinterest

My Pinterest boards are here if you're already pinning let me know and I will follow you, if you need an email to join up just pop your address in the comments or feel free to message me on Twitter. 

Further Reading for Bloggers:
The importance of pin etiquette for creative bloggers and professionals
Pinterest and Blogging. What you can learn.  
Pinterest drives more traffic than Google+, YouTube and LinkedIn combined
 How to use Pinterest and why you should

Conserve your battery on your iPhone

This is a little trick I learnt last week from my sister in law. It has meant my phone goes a lot longer before the battery dying now. Did you know about this?

Double click the menu button (that's the round button on the front of your iPhone). This brings up logos of apps that are currently running on your phone:

Hold down on any of these logos for a few seconds until the little red icon appears in each of the corners:

Hit the little red icon on each one until the app logo disappears. Do this every time you put your phone back in your bag/pocket and your battery will last longer through the day.

Coppa Feel! It's Valentine's Day so touch your breasts. Now.

 

Yep. I drew my boobs in MSPaint. That little cross is a scar; I had major surgery after an abcess and severe infection after breastfeeding. I also had a biopsy six months later. It hurt. A lot! I forgot how to breathe when they told me I was right it did feel different and needed checking out.  I was lucky to get a clear result.

This post is dedicated to my middle sister who spent a good twenty minutes groping herself in Mum's kitchen last weekend wondering what she was supposed to be looking for.. . and littlest sister who got us to do it for her. What can I say, she's the lazy one.

We knew about lumps and skin looking weird but I said I'd find out properly and a Google search found me CoppaFeel! Like me, you'll probably recognise Kris' who started the charity from lots of press and in my case the Pride of Britain Awards.

Kris' was diagnosed with breast cancer at the age of 23 after originally being sent away by her GP who claimed it was probably a cyst because of her age. Her campaign is to make young people aware that breast cancer is not an old person's cancer and the best tactic we have to fight it is spotting the signs early. Her story is an incredible inspiration of someone taking their experience and finding a way to make a positive change not just for themselves but for all of us. It works better when everyone who hears about it tells someone else who in turn does the same and so on. For more on Kris' and CoppaFeel! please see the website as it's written so much better than I could ever convey.

This is the CoppaFeel! guide to what you're looking for and you should be looking regularly. The better you know your boobs the easier it is to spot changes and trust your instinct. As the campaign slogan says: Knowing your boobs can save your life.

This next bit is genius particularly for me, H and K who forget everything. I'm still sometimes surprised each month when my period comes.  You can receive a monthly text message to remind you to CoppaFeel!

"To sign up, just text keyword “BOOBS” followed by your boob names (eg. French and Saunders) to 70300 to get monthly reminders thereafter. So we know you’re a fully fledged Coppafeeler, all you have to do is reply “BOOBS CHECKED” to 70300 to let us know you’ve done so. Because if you don’t, we will pester you. But only once. So it’s down to you to keep your promise."

CoppaFeel! Homepage
Kris' Story
Name your boobs



If you have your own blog you can add a CoppaFeel! button to your sidebar by copying the code in the box below and pasting it in an HTML gadget in your sidebar. Once done you will have the CoppaFeel! logo and anyone who clicks it will be taken to their site.

<center><a href="http://coppafeel.org" target="_blank"><img alt="CoppaFeel" src="http://i677.photobucket.com/albums/vv139/bazandanna/sticker_smaller1-2.jpg"/></a></center>

Happy Valentine's Day everyone. Get feeling those boobs.
love from me and my Brad Pitts.

Trash the Dress. Snow days with my trusty Hunters

 

I have always wanted to do a trash the dress style photo shoot, so when it snowed last weekend H and I messed about in the garden. I didn't do my hair and make up properly as we were mainly just seeing what the idea would look like. These are the only two photos I like. 

The top one was my not so clever idea to shake the tree and make it look like the snow was still falling. I guess I forgot that would mean snow would be falling in big lumps on to my head. 

This is my actual wedding dress. I found it in a charity shop with the tags still on, apparently a bridal shop closed down and had given some bits of stock. So instead of paying nearly £2000 I paid £150 and they gave me my veil for free. I wore a corset underneath it to the wedding so it was far more flattering that day than these photos in the garden. Thank goodness.

A quote I saw on the tube yesterday.
Fonts: Pea Jazz Skinny & Rough Movie

Sisterhood Inspirations: Karla Powell, Make Up Artist

I'm still gathering my thoughts from a blogging event I attended yesterday but will post in due time. I do know though that the absolute highlight for me was meeting likeminded, passionate people who are working hard at what they love and creating incredible lives and careers for themselves. 

They and other bloggers I have met in real life and online have inspired me to start a series on this blog. I want to feature strong, inspiring women. Women who are doing interesting jobs, have created charities or businesses, anyone who might inspire younger girls; positive role models and mentors to any of us. Sometimes it can seem so unattainable that you can do what you love but there are girls and women out there just getting on with it.

 I want to kick start with Karla Powell. A make-up artist, beautiful lady and one of the nicest girls you could ever meet.

Trained in beauty therapy and make up artistry including fashion, special effects, photographic, stage and bridal Karla was teaching make-up artistry at a college in her hometown when she started tweeting and blogging her work.

Collaborating with a photographer friend the beauty and style of her projects fast got her noticed and she was snapped up by Makeup Academy (MUA). MUA  launched in May 2010 with a huge range of over 100 lipsticks, eyeshadows, blushers, mascara and nail polishes. In May 2011 Make Up Academy bought out it’s professional range. Karla has been a key part of developing, testing and creating new products and uses her incredible talent to showcase them.

Karla travels the world working on shoots and shows. In 2011 she was recognised by Marie Claire for her work with one of their Twitter awards. There are lots of amazing things in store for this lady in 2012 so watch this space, she's a star on the rise.

"Keep your dreams alive. Understand to achieve anything requires faith and belief in yourself, vision, hard work, determination and dedication. Remember all things are possible for those who believe"

Karla Powell, 2012

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Make Up: Karla Powell 

Wigs: Annabelle's Wigs {her Sisterhood post is coming soon!}

Photography: Ryan Handy