Tuesday 31 March 2015

REVIEW | V- Jewellery Personalised Bangle

I am a sucker for anything personalised. Anything with my babies name on it is a winner for me. So when I saw a friend on Facebook had bought a cute little bangle with her little boys name on it I thought 'I have to get me one of them'

V-Jewellery are an independent jewellery maker based in England. They make hand made pieces of jewellery, from necklaces to rings to bangles and even key rings. They make all different items some of which can be personalised. The pieces are really affordable and make perfect gifts, to yourself or your other half, a best friend or your mum. If you don't want a personalised piece then they have loads of fabulous items with lovely quotes if that's what you want.

The ordering process was really simple if you just take the time to read the information provided on the website. I ordered through the website http://v-jewellery.co.uk but you can also order through their facebook page https://www.facebook.com/VJewellery.With.love.by.Vicki. It was really simple to detail what I wanted on my bangle, what colours I wanted and what I wanted it to say. One aspect I really like about the process is, once the item is made, they post a picture of the item on their Facebook page which allows you to see it, check for any mistakes, before it gets sent to you. So when it arrives you know it will be perfect. Their current turn around time for personalised pieces is 1-2 weeks which I think is really reasonable considering all items are made to order. 

When the bangle arrived I was delighted. It looks exactly how I wanted it to. It is really well made and the engraving is super, it's really clear and fits the size of the metal perfectly. I opted for Logan's name and his date of birth with little feet print in between but it can say anything you want within 22 characters and they have a fantastic amount of little characters that you can add on, stars, love hearts, paw prints etc.



The metal is easily bendable and isn't the most durable. I would recommend being pretty careful when putting it on and taking it off because I imagine if you bent it too much it would snap pretty easily. It does recommend that you don't put the metal under too much stress. So I won't wear mine every day because I'd hate for it to snap.

It makes a perfect gift for a new mummy or maybe a sentimental price to remember a loved on. Take a look at their Facebook page for all current offers and price list.

Tuesday 24 March 2015

What To Put On A Gallery Wall



Something I've always wanted to have is a Gallery Wall. We've never been allowed to put any pictures on the wall in our flat because we weren't allowed to make any holes in the wall other than what was already there so its restricted our decor quite a bit, that an we weren't allowed to change the colour scheme from cream and white (can you understand why I'm excited about moving)
I always loved the idea of a gallery wall because I think it's a really cool way to display a lot of pictures and little bits and pieces.
Pinterest has become my best friend again, I spend hours searching for Gray Carpets, Roller Blinds and Gallery Walls.

Photos
Predominately I want our Gallery Wall to have pictures. Since Logan was born I've used the Free Prints App to print photo from my phone. Their service is great, each month you get 45 free standard size prints, you only pay £3.99 for delivery (which is half price for your first order!) You can also order bigger sized photo's which are really reasonably priced. So for the past 10 months I've ordered 45 photos, and a few extra bigger ones of any extra special photos. Now I used quite a few at Christmas to make presents of my mum and my mother-in -law but as you can imagine I have A LOT of pictures just asking to be hung up.

Prints
A quick search on Etsy and I am inundated with beautiful prints. I love the idea of having a few prints of special things. I love the idea of this love heart map from PaperArcadia
My initial thought was we could chose the place in which Gavin and I had our first kiss or something super romantic like that, but seeing as we were 13, in a friends garage, for her birthday party, I thought that probably wouldn't look too romantic (we were 13 OK, you can let me away with it right?!?) So maybe we would need to think about the location we would have, but I think it would look lovely.



I have a tattoo really similar to the third feather on the side of my leg/ankle which Gavin bought me for my birthday a few years ago so I really love this print. Its simple yet beautiful from DecorartDesigns

I could probably make a gallery wall of Harry Potter pages and quotes alone. I really like this piece from PeregrinVintage, although it's from Harry Potter its still really relevant to a new house.

Another tattoo related one would be this print from BWPrints. I have this quote from 1 Corinthians 13 in Hebrew on my ribs. Its a really meaningful quote and I would love something this simple on our gallery wall.


Hanging Signs

My go to place for ornaments and hanging signs is always Next. I absolutely love Next's Homeware department and Erin and I can spend ages trawling round and round looking at cushions.I have two ceramic plaques that I would like to hang on my gallery wall but I think a few new pieces wouldn't go a miss (any excuse to go shopping really!!) I love little signs like this that talk about Love and Home and stuff (aww how romantic)

I know we are still in very early days but I like to be prepared. I will be doing a lot more Homeware and decor posts in the run up to our big move and once our Gallery Wall actually starts to take shape, maybe I will do a tutorial on how we did it and what we used etc. Let me know if that would be something you would like to see.


Tuesday 17 March 2015

Our Big House News

It's not something I've spoken about much recently because I'm not quite sure I believe its happening yet but:

We are moving house!

There, I said it. Its out, I cant take it back. 
We are moving back closer to our parents, out of our rented 2 bedroom flat which is getting a little too small for us, into a proper 3 bedroom house with a front and back garden and 3 toilets and my own front door and stairs and all the things I've ever wanted. 
Currently we live about a 20 minute drive away from both our parents. Our new house is going to be, as the crow flies, a 3 minute walk slap bang in the middle of both our parents house. I think this is a great thing, Gavin is a little dubious. Something I'm super excited about it is I'll be back living two minutes away from my best friend!
It's a new build house so currently it looks like this:

But its gone from nothing to this in less than three weeks so I don't think it's going to take them log to get it up. They've told us it should be ready in June but I wont hold my breath because I'm sure they'll come up against a fair few problems in the next 3 months.
So as always I have started my lists, thankfully we don't need to much in the way of furniture but I want a few new pieces and I have loads of idea's around decor so expect a fair few house posts.
If you wan't me to do any specific posts about what it's like buying a new build house or closer to the time what its like moving house with a baby then please let me know.

Friday 13 March 2015

First Birthdays

I think, as with everything in motherhood, there's a lot of pressure and expectations surrounding first birthdays.

As the name rightly suggests it's a FIRST birthday, your baby is never going to have another one. Once the first is over then it's on to the second and the third, you will never get that elusive first birthday back. They might never have another birthday that they will 100% never remember... Well actually you might get another one or two of those ones but you will never get another one where they will have completely NO IDEA what is going on. 
Logans birthday is only 4 months after Christmas but I'm pretty positive he doesn't remember that so it will be another day where friends and family shower him with gifts and he is more interested in eating wrapping paper. Though hopefully this time he won't have that horrendous cold.
Say we were to have a party and book a hall, and entertainment, we would need a caterer, declarations, balloons, invitations, party bags, a guest list! I mean he doesn't even have friends. I have friends that have children, there are children he interacts with at Playgroup but they're not his friends. He doesn't need them or want them, hell he probably doesn't even like them! He tolerates them when they play beside him, but if they have a toy he wants then he'll cause them bodily harm to get that toy back.
At one, Logan has the attention span of a teaspoon. He has a big red fire engine that makes lots of sounds that he can play with for about 15 minutes on a good day, other than that he plays with something for a few minutes. So I have a corner full of toys that he works his way through to keep himself amused, would I bring them all to the party? Because I'm sure if I didn't he'd get pretty bored. Add in the fact that every 2 hours of Logan's life something happens, wether that's a bottle or a meal or a nap, he has a decent schedule that I am not mixing up for one day to then suffer for the next week because he miraculously forgets how to nap because he missed 2 in one day and for a day that in two weeks time, he won't remember. 
I'm not judging anyone for having a first birthday party for their little one. Probably if I/Logan had more 'friends' then i'd consider it, but right now everyone that I want to celebrate Logan's first birthday with us can fit in my living room. It might be a tight squeeze but we'll manage it. He can call the shots. He can nap when he wants, he can eat when he wants and he can eat whatever wrapping paper he pleases and I won't have wasted my bank account to let him.

Tuesday 10 March 2015

11 Month Update



11 MONTHS OLD! I honestly think Logan should still be like 4 months old! How is it possible that the best day of my life was a whole 11 months ago? I know every mum says it but it is so quickly how fast time passes the moment your little baby is born.

I've been saying for a the past month that I thought he'd be walking by the time he was one but considering it's only 4 weeks away I'm a little unsure. He is great at cruising around the furniture and walking with his walker or his toys or his high chair, or just anything that he can get around with, and he's taken to pushing himself off the couch and standing on his own for a few seconds then he either falls on his bum or clings back to the couch. He just seems pretty reluctant to try any steps on his own. I guess at this stage he knows he can get everywhere quicker if he just crawls. I'm sure one day he'll surprise us and try that one step on his own but for the moment I'm not sure it will be before his birthday.

Even over the past few days his speech seems to be coming on well. Last month I wrote about my uncertainty over wither he knew what he was saying when he was saying 'mama' or 'dada' but this month I'm sure he does. He doesn't specifically shout on either of us when we are in the room with him but when I'm at work he will spend most of the day saying 'mama' and when Gavin's at work he spends the day saying 'dada' as if he's looking for us. He seems to be understanding a lot more of what we are saying too. He understands 'No' and if I sit on the carpet and ask him if he wants to play Row Your Boat he will come and sit in between my legs and give me his hands.

We had a few iffy days in the middle of the month where I though he was trying to drop his morning nap because he wasn't always sleeping then if he did he wasn't tired enough in the afternoon for his second nap so I tried to phase out the morning nap and bring his afternoon nap forward by and hour but then he decided that he didn't actually want to drop that nap and has went back to napping twice a day. They're fickle little things aren't they!

He still has 6 teeth, 4 at the top and two at the bottom. I'm sure he's teething again,. Although his mood has been pretty fine he is dribbling again non stop so the dribble bibs are back out! It looks like the two on either side of his top four might be close to coming through but he still only has the two front ones on the bottom and the other two don't seem to be making an appearance any time soon. Hopefully they'll appear with no problems *I wish*




Thursday 5 March 2015

REVIEW | My Buddy Box


When My Buddy Box got in contact and gave me the chance to review one of their boxes I was a bit dubious as to whether I'd use it or not but I thought I'd like to give it a try. Like Wales, Scotland now also has a minimum charge for single-use carrier bags in a bid to tackle Scotland's litter problem, so I thought the box would be handy to take the weekly shopping instead of carting around a million Bag's For Life.  The picture that accompanied their email was of a wicker/reed basket that I thought looked a bit old fashioned and more like a picnic basket, not something I'd take to ASDA with me to pack up my shopping. However when it arrived I was blown away with how cutesy it looked.
I'll admit I didn't do any research into the product before it arrived, so assumed they just had one kind of product, the one I'd seen online when actually they have loads of different designs to suit everyone.

The consumer has already been educated into the 'Bag for Life' concept of shopping - MyBuddy Box is the perfect answer to those regular customers visiting the store by car and particularly appeals to the 'heavy' shopper.
A rigid stackable box when open, it folds flat into a convenient, compact lightweight 'briefcase' for carrying or storage. Using the principles of origami, it folds down and is held together by self-fastenings.

I've used it for every supermarket shop since getting it. I had quite a lot of canned goods/jars on top of all the usual stuff, shampoo, baby food, vegetables. I was slightly worried that the box wouldn't be able to hold it all because it's really light. But it did without a grumble. 

Admittedly I still had to use a few bags for the super heavy things like milk and juice and I kept my eggs and bread in a bag of their own but the box is great for all the rest of the 'stuff' (I'm never sure how I manage to spend so much in the supermarket) I love it so much I'm considering buying another one.

I think it's perfect for anyone who drives to their supermarket and perfect for a busy mum who has more than one think to concentrate on when packing their shopping away.

To have a look at the range of MyBuddy Box's visit their fantastic website www.mybuddy-box.com. Join them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/my-buddy-box and on Twitter.com/mybuddybox. MyBuddy Box have been kind enough to give free postage and packaging to any of you who wish to purchase a box. Just use code: BABYSOCKS at the check out.


*This product was sent to me by MYBuddy Box for the purpose of this review. All photos, thoughts and opinions are my own.

Tuesday 3 March 2015

Mothers Day Gift Guide

With my first ever Mother's Day fast approaching on Sunday March 15th I thought I would do a Gift Guide for great presents for first time Mum's.


Chocolate
Chocolate is a fail safe present. There are very few mothers in this world that wouldn't appreciate a nice bit of chocolate on Mothers Day. Hotel Chocolat are my favourite 'fancy' chocolate brand and they have this super stylish and tasty box of Mother's Day Chocolates for only £22. You can even personalise the gift with a Message Card and have them Gift Wrapped. I definitely love the sound of Salted Caramel & Praline. Yummm!





Flowers
Now usually I'm not the biggest flower fan in the world (I'd rather just have the chocolate) but I wouldn't say no to a beautiful bunch of flowers on Mother's Day. This gorgeous bunch from InterFlora are pretty expensive at £44.99 but my goodness they are beautiful! I love the simplicity of this white bunch. A lovely bouquet of flowers can really brighten up a room and do wonders for your mood, especially in this cold and dreary weather we're having at the moment. I think when it comes to flowers its 'go big or go home' You might as well spend a bit extra to get a really beautiful bouquet.





Jewellery
You can get some gorgeous peices of jewellery but I think for Mother's Day its best to go with personalised. You can get her a beautuful necklace of pair of earrings for any birthday or earrings. How about getting her something to remind her of the little beauty she gave birth to. I came across V-Jewellery on Facebook and I love their designs. They make personalised rings, bracelets and key rings with any personalisation you want.



Sound Wave Print
This is so far up my street it's practically my front door! In fact right now I'm trying to think of a way to ensure Gavin buys me this Personalised Song Sound Wave Print from Handpicked Collection. I absolutely love the idea of this unique gift. You could chose any song in the whole wide world. You could chose your child's favourite nursery rhyme or a song that means something to you. For a Mother's Day gift I would probably chose 'If It's Magic' by Stevie Wonder.






Sunrise Print
Another seriously beautiful and sentimental gift would a print of the sunrise on the day your little one was born. NotOnTheHighStreet.com have this wonderful picture which depicts the sunrise on your special date. the give you a choice of between 5-10 pictures or the sunrise on a beach in Cornwall from different angles and times. You get to chose your preferred image frame and the end result is stunning. It's a pricey gift at £105 but I think for your first ever Mothers Day it would be a beautiful gift.





What has your best Mothers Day gift been? Or is it your first ever Mothers Day? What would your perfect gift be?