REVIEW: Memories Made Christening Invitations, Banner and FavourStickers

Friends and family and those who follow me on twitter will know I recently organised a christening for Xander!

I booked the church and the local cricket club and quite quickly I opted for a mad hatter tea party theme for the reception! I was completely overwhelmed with ideas and some of them quite ambitious! I knew I wouldn't be able to do it all myself so contacted Jess at Memories Made.

Memories Made offer fantastic party packages including invitations, a banner and favour stickers all designed to your specifications! (Prices differ depending on design intricacies and quantities required. Contact Memories Made for quotes)

I shared with Jess my ideas and with enthusiasm she began designing. Throughout the design process I was involved choosing colours and tweaking the wording. Here's the final invitation design:

Aren't they fabulous!! The print finish was fantastic quality and Memories Made also provided the envelopes.

Continuing with the Mad Hatter theme Memories Made also designed a fantastic welcome banner to put in the banner. I love how the elements of the invitation carry on through!

Additionally I received these wonderful favour stickers. Originally I planned to use these on sweet bags but then changed my kind and used them on bottles of bubbles for the children!
The rest of the stickers I used on the envelopes of the thank you cards!

We received lots of compliments about the invitations, banner and favours! I love the way all these elements tied the Mad Hatter theme together! I recommend wholeheartedly the fantastic service Memories Made provide! They will create products completely unique to you and fit your theme perfectly!

Memories Made can be found on Facebook. Why not give them a follow and view all the fantastic items on offer. Including new baby frames, wedding and christening gifts, mothers day and fathers day gifts and also letters from Santa, the Easter Bunny and the Tooth Fairy! Alternatively email Jess at Memories Made: memoriesmade@hotmail.co.uk

(I received the party package at a reduced rate in exchange for this blog review. All views expressed are my own)

Controlled crying update:

So, it's been just over a week since we started the whole controlled crying routine. Up until now it's been going really well. After just two nights of midnight wake up's Xander began sleeping through!

To say we was relieved was an understatement! The luxury of him sleeping 12/13 hours a night meant we have begun to get our evenings back! It's been lovely to sit and eat a meal with hubby and just talk! To catch up on all those programmes I have series linked but just never got around to watching! I've even managed to get some crafting done over the last few nights! It's been lovely and such a change to the five times a night wake up calls we was experiencing before!

Tonight however is the first night in about a week Xander has woken. We have been to a wedding today. (it was utterly beautiful!) but I think quite mentally exhausting for Xander. He was so fantastically behaved. He stayed quiet throughout the whole service and was very sociable with all the other guests (there were very few other children there so he received a lot of attention) but the day did affect his routine. He had to eat lunch earlier than normal (as the service clashed with his usual lunchtime) as a result he didn't eat much lunch. He then grazed until the serving of the wedding breakfast and then again ate at a time not usual to him. He lost his afternoon nap. He did sleep a little in the car on route from the church to the reception venue but it wasn't a lengthy nap. Finally we left at 7pm (after the wedding breakfast and speeches) and was home by 7.30pm but it did mean that by the time I prepared his bottle and changed him into his pjs he still went to bed later than usual. All of this I think has affected his sleep tonight.

He's been awake about 40 minutes now. I'm religiously sticking to the routine I have put in place, but he's being stubborn! I'm tired... I know he's tired. I'm determined not to give in. I know he can fall asleep on his own. I know he can do it! It would be so easy to give him a milk feed and cuddle him
In until he drops off but I know that's just a momentary fix. I'd just have the same fight on my hands tomorrow night.

I'm putting this night down as a blip! I really hope it is. It's been going so well but I guess everyone has a bad nights sleep every once in a while!

Anyone else had experience of this after a busy day? I'm guessing it's normal?!

REVIEW: Baker Days Gift Cakes

I was bumbling around on twitter and came across the wonderful team at Baker Days. I started following them and shortly after they contacted me and asked if I'd like to review one of their cakes! Well, that's an offer you can't refuse. I instantly accepted

The offer to review a cake couldn't come at a better time as I was in the midst of planning my son Xander's christening. I had already ordered the main christening cake but had the complication of three guests as well as myself requiring a gluten free diet. Not a problem for Baker Days - they offer gluten free sponge occasion cakes in two different sizes! They also offer a whole range of other types of cake, in a range of sizes which all sound yum!

I was sent a letterbox cake (which. serves 3-4 people) As the name suggests it is sent via post and comes packaged in a tin to protect the cake straight through yours (of gift recipient) letterbox!

The ordering process is really quite simple. There's a whole range of designs and styles of cake to choose from. You can upload photos and your own wording to personalise cakes or simply choose a standard design. There's also another service on offer. A service which I think is simply fantastic - the opportunity to have a cake designed completely from scratch to ensure a perfect fit to your party theme!! This design service is FREE if the design can be done within an hour or theres a small charge if additional times required. I opted to have a cake designed. As Xander's christening reception was a mad hatter tea party theme I requested a cake along these lines. I sent the christening invite for additional inspiration and was delighted with the final result!

The cake fitted in perfectly with the rest of the reception buffet and my celiac guests were delighted that they could have a piece of gluten free cake! The cake provided us with four reasonable sized portions, was deliciously moist and really very tasty!

I wholeheartedly recommend Bakers Days. I love the idea that you can send the gift of cake! That the cake can be personalised to suit the occasion and the cake looks so beautifully presented in the gift tin, with gift card, balloons and party blower that anyone that receives a Baker Days cake as a gift will definitely feel special and loved!

I received this item for free for the purpose of this review. All views expressed are my own.

Fun at the farm!

We have had a jam-packed weekend of Easter fun and we finished the long weekend in true Easter style by visiting a farm and seeing all the newly born spring animals!

Despite the chilly temperatures it was lovely to stroll around Millers Ark Farm in Hook and feed, stroke and hold all their gorgeous animals including lambs, baby goats, donkeys, horses, cows, ducks and rabbits! It was the perfect way to end Xander's first Easter!

He definately enjoyed saying hello to all the animals!! Here he is gently stroking a newly born goat! So cute!!!

Happy Easter!

Hope you all had a fab Easter! We've had a lovely Easter weekend so far! Friday we visited a soft play and farm, yesterday we visited Wisley Gardens and today we spent the day with family!

Tomorrow we're planning on visiting another farm which has an Easter open day! They have lambs and chicks to hold!! Can't wait!!

I leave you with my gorgeous chick in his Easter bonnet we made at play group in the week!

Controlled Crying Progress

A couple of nights ago I posted on here discussing my decision to start using the controlled crying technique with Xander. He was waking a lot, often for no apparent reason - apart from possibly his teeth playing up.

Well the first night was successful. He woke up once. I eventually settled him down using the Jo Frost (Super Nanny) technique. Once he was back to sleep he slept through until morning!

So confident I was with this progress I tried it the next morning for Xander's nap and low and behold within 2 minutes he was asleep in his cot and had a nice long nap waking up in a lovely mood!

That evening I tried the technique again and it worked perfectly! In fact he slept all night! 7pm - 6am, he then went back to sleep until 8.30am! Bliss!

That takes me up until tonight... Night 3. He went to sleep well. But now he's awake. I'm working through the controlled crying progress and it's taking a while tonight. He's not screaming anymore, just murmuring a lot so I'm hoping he's started to settle but he's squirming around a lot tonight and I don't think he's going down without a fight. I suspect his teeth are giving him jip. His cheeks are rosy red. I've just got to be strong. I'm
Sitting outside his door and have two more minutes before I need to go in and settle him again...

So I have just gone it and 'settled' him
and now he's screaming again! I really hope he settles down soon. I just need to stay strong and remember this is for his own good! Thank goodness for facebook, twitter, pinterest and blogging during times like this! All of which are occupying me during the intervals.

About 28 minutes in: Xander has really started to settle now. I'm still sitting outside his door. There's long periods of silence then a bit of murmuring, but I think we're getting somewhere! The cats sleeping next to me in his bed and snoring away, hubby is upstairs in bed...I'm just so tired I need sleep!!

30 minutes in: I'm due to check him in 2 minutes time. He's settling down now. And then I go and have a huge coughing fit outside his door and he's crying again!!! Nooooooooo!!

I go downstairs get myself a glass of water. Compose myself and give myself a talking too. I must be strong! Remember why I'm doing it! I'm the boss! I'm in charge! I come back up stairs and do my check. He's asleep!!

Off I dash to bed! Fingers crossed this is the only wake up of the night!!

More Easter crafting!! Footprint chicks!

Tuesday afternoon we had a wonderfully crafty time all in preparation for Easter! I'm an avid card maker and love crafting with my (8 month old) son, even if at the moment he's not 100% sure whats going on!

For ease we create a lot of footprint art! So we made a couple of easter chick cards to send out to Xanders grandparents! 

They were so simple to make. All we did was painted Xander's foot in yellow poster paint (he likes this - it tickles) and then stamped it down on a white card base. Then using an orange felt tipped pen drew on the beak and feet details. We stuck on some goggly eyes and some yellow feathers for wings! To finish off the card we printed off a happy Easter sentiment using the computer!! 

I just love these Easter chicks!!! Hope you manage to find some time for Easter crafting with your little ones! Happy Easter!