REVIEW and OFFER: So Kitsch handmade jewellery

As you all should know by now I LOVE items that are handmade! Twitter is a fabulous source of locating talented crafters who create and sell unique and beautiful items and that's where I met Clair, the owner of So Kitsch jewellery!

Clair's jewellery is completely different from any other handmade jewellery I've seen before! It's fun, colourful and a little on the zany side (which I LOVE!!)

Clair sent me two items to review:
A scrabble piece ring:

This chunky ring is made from an original scrabble piece. I love that it is personalised to my initial! The ring is adjustable to suit the size of the wearer. The item is well made. I think this would make a wonderful Birthday or Christmas gift. Or possibly a brilliant partybag gift at a girls birthday, a hen night gift or wedding favour for women guests!

A pair of pink bow earrings:

As I don't have my ears pierced I gave these to my ten year old sister. She absolutely loved them! She's only ever owned studs suitable for school and loved the fun design of these earrings! Again they have been well made, are not too heavy and the backs clip on perfectly so they're fitted securely in the pierced hole. Again these would make a perfect gift/stocking filler!

Please check our Clair's creations all of which are unique. She has a range of fun jewellery on offer from scrabble and Lego rings to m&m earrings!

Clair has kindly offered mycraftymummy followers 10% off her items!! So why not visit her Facebook page today and mention the discount code mummy10 when you order and start your Christmas shopping today!!

Five Baby Shower Games and Activities

In recent months I have been to several baby showers (including my own) all have been wonderfully organised by various family members and friends.

One of the fun parts of a baby shower is the games and activities you do so I thought I'd give you some insight into ones that I've particularly enjoyed:

1) Guess the baby poop: I've seen a couple of variations of this. At my baby shower my friends mixed together several store cupboard ingredients (mustard, raisins etc) and you had to guess all the ingredients by sight, smell and if you was brave enough taste!!

At the baby shower yesterday there was six different melted chocolate bars in six numbered nappies and you had to guess what chocolate bars they were!!

2) Guess the baby food: baby food comes in all sorts of posh flavours these days. At my baby shower my friends heated up several flavours of baby food and we had to try and guess the flavours!

3) Draw the mum-to-be's baby: this ones really funny. Give each guest five minutes to draw what they think the baby will look like. Give them all to the mum-to-be to judge. These could all be collected up afterwards and put into a book for the mum-to-be to keep!

4) A good old fashioned quiz: Appeals to my competitive nature! Could be done individually or pub quiz style in small groups! Rounds could include nursery rhyme questions, celebrity baby names, questions about the mum-to-bes pregnancy.

5) Decorate bibs and baby vests: I loved doing this one! It really appealed to my creative side! Buy some plain bibs and vests, along with some fabric pens and let the guests decorate these items for the new baby.

One nice idea is to buy vests in a range of sizes (0-3, 3-6, 6-9, 9-12) and allow each guest to decorate them with 'Month 1, Month 2 etc) so the mum to be can photograph her baby each month and document the baby's growth!

I hope these ideas inspire you if you're organising a babyshower yourself!

What fun games have you played at a baby shower?! Please leave a comment below!

REVIEW: Padders Ugg-Style Boots From Tiny Toes Baby Shoes

Up until now Xander has either worn baby grows, socks or booties when out and about, however with the cold weather fast approaching i was keen to get some more suitable footwear for him to keep his cute little tootsies warm.

So I was over the moon when Bruce from Tiny Toes Baby Shoes offered to send us a pair of 3-6 month Padders Chestnut Ugg-Style Boots to review:

I had been considering getting Xander a pair of these for a while and when I received them I wondered why I hadn't bought some sooner. They're gorgeous!!

Not only are they fashionable (we got lots of lovely comments whilst out and about in them), these faux sheepskin boots with faux fur trim and lining most definitely kept my little mans feet nice and warm!!

Here's Xander wearing them at his sensory class:

Unlike many ugg-style boots in the shops they're also completely practical to put on your baby as they have velcro hidden up one seam of the boots:

The slip resistant sole coordinates with the upper:

These ugg-style boots from the Padders range come in 0-3, 3-6, 6-9 and 9-12 months. They're a complete bargain at just £10. He's definitely getting plenty of wear out of them. I think they look brilliant on, especially with dungerees:

They are now also available in Chocolate AND excitingly you can now get your baby's boots personalised for just an additional £8!!

Guess what I will be buying Xander for Christmas?!

Check out the Tiny Toes Baby Shoes website today they have a whole range of beautiful baby and toddler shoes to pick from. These baby shoes are beautifully made and of excellent quality. Why would you want anything else for your children than that?

Xander's First Halloween!

I'm a big fan of all holidays and Halloween is no exception!! I couldn't let the day whizz by without getting Xander involved!

I couldn't resist buying him a Halloween costume and managed to purchase this super cute skeleton costume from the Next outlet in Portsmouth for the bargain price of £4!

On Tuesday we went to visit Joanne from Frazer Alexander Photography and whilst in the studio I could resist getting a spooky shot taken of little man:

(Doesn't the black background look cool!!)

On halloween itself Xander went to his baby group all dressed up:

So did several of the other babies. I love it when everyone gets involved!

We then went off into Basingstoke with my two sisters where we had a Pizza Hut lunch listening to lots of Halloween related songs! After lunch we visit the local library which had some Halloween related activities on including Halloween cookie making. Obviously Xander was too little to do this but we enjoyed watching my ten year old sister (dressed as a zombie Snow White!) make these!!

We finished off our spooky day by opening the door to all our Trick and Treaters and handing out popping candy! I loved seeing and hearing everyones reaction to my super cute skeleton!!

Hope you had a fun Halloween! Did your children dress up? Please feel free to leave a comment below!

Xander's First Cold: My Tips and Advice.

I guess it was inevitable, with the weather the way it is and a chill in the air that Xander at some point would get a cold. What I didn't expect was for it to come on so suddenly. Literally within an hour or two Xander went from being his usual chatty, happy self to a little bunged up snot bag with a nasty cough.

The last couple of days with the little man have been tough, but he seems over the worst of it now and this is what we did to help him:

1) Calpol: it's a wonderful thing! 2.5ml every six hours seemed to take the edge of the cough.
2) Baby Vicks: we rubbed some of this on a muslin and tied it to the handle of his Moses basket to help him breathe at night.
3) We folded a small blanket and placed it under his Moses basket mattress to slightly elevate his head . This seemed to help him with his bunged up nose at night.
4) I fed him little and often. We didn't want him getting dehydrated but appreciated he didn't have his usual good appetite. I also breastfeed him more than I usually would (we combination feed 50% formula, 50% breast) I read that breastfeeding would pass on my healthy antibodies.
5) As difficult as it was I stayed in with Xander all weekend. (The one time I needed to go out I called on my sister to babysit.) We stayed in the warm, had lots of cuddles and ensured he didn't pass it on to anyone else and that he didn't catch anything additional to what he had already. Plus a couple of lazy days meant we could both have a little snooze every now and then and catch up on the sleep we'd both missed out on over night!

We must have done something right as a couple of days later he seems to be back to his usual smiley self!:

REVIEW:Your Baby Shower Store Teddy RoseBud Box

Your Baby Shower Store is a one stop shop for all your baby shower supplies, ranging from baby shower decorations to gifts.

When Margaret from Your Baby Shower Store offered an item from their gift range for me to review it couldn't come at a more perfect time as I had been invited to my goof friend Iwona's baby shower!

The item they sent me was the beautiful Teddy Rosebud Bouquet Box. (RRP £45.95) Which Contains a gorgeous soft Baby Gund Teddy Bear holding a stunning bouquet of baby clothes, beautifully presented as a stylish boxed arrangement.

The Baby Gund teddy stands 10.0 inches tall and is suitable from birth.

Additional to the super soft teddybear the bouquet contains:

• 2 pairs of baby socks
• 2 bodysuits
• 2 bibs

This box of gifts is stunningly presented and is beautifully finished with floral wrap, paper flowers and silk folidage, wrapped in cellophane with organza ribbon, gift tag/contents and care swing tag.

I was so excited to take along the i gift to Iwona's baby shower and amongst the other gifts it most definitely had the wow factor!!

The mum-to-be was delighted with the gift:

All the guests oohed and aahed at the sight of the gift and even her hubby sneaked in to watch the opening of the gifts commented on how beautiful the gift looked, he said how it would be a shame to open the arrangement up it looked so lovely!

Your Baby Shower Store has a whole range of baby shower gift ideas to suit all price budgets, ranging from fab bouquet displays like this one to wonderful nappy cakes!

They also stock a whole range of other baby gifts that would be suitable for birthdays, Christmas and Christenings. The website is most definitely a one stop shop for buying all your baby related gifts so check them out today!

I received this item for free for the purpose of this review. All views expressed are my own and that of the mummy and daddy to be.

COMPETITION WINNER: Smash Book Starter Stash

Good morning all!! It's that time to announce the lucky winner of the smash book starter stash (prize provided by the lovely Steph from CraftyBoots - the online craft supply store)

The lucky winner is:

Jane Willis (@janesgrapevine)

To claim your prize please email Steph at sales@craftyboots.co.uk

To select the winner I numbered all the blog comments received and used random.org to select a number.