BABY: So many cute Christmas clothes...

While I've been searching for festive additions to Isabella's wardrobe I've come across so many options, all just as cute as each other. I thought I'd put together a collection of festive baby clothes, grouped into their similar themes for you to see what's out there too. I can't wait to get the Christmas jumpers out for Isabella, though I'm being controlled and holding off until December!

Babygrow

CHRISTMAS GIFT GUIDE: For Her

Today I'm bringing you my Christmas Gift Guide for those ladies in your life. It's all about finding gifts that are indulgent, luxurious and personal because us women need a special treat every now and again!

BABY HAUL: The unplanned weekend shopping trip...

We didn't plan a shopping trip last weekend but after going for a lovely pub meal to celebrate my little brothers birthday over towards Loughborough we decided to nip into Leicester High Cross Shopping Centre. The sales seem to still be going on, so there are still some good bargains to be had. As we bought all of this last weekend they should still be available in the shops, but where possible I've included links to alternative products that are in stock.

I'm loving the more summery baby girl clothing that is finally being released. As our baby is due at the beginning of April we really need to stock up on cooler, summery outfits rather than the wintery stock that's been around recently.

Primark

^3-6 Months Blue Summer Dress £6^

^0-3 Months Pack of 2 Dresses £5^

^3-6 Months Cream Cardigan with Bow Detail £4^

^3-6 Months Pink Cardigan with Bow Detail £4^

Zara Baby 

^0-1 Month Pack of 2 was £7.99 reduced to £3.99^

(similar here and here)

^1-3 Months Panda Sleep suit was £9.99 reduced to £5.99^

(similar here)

John Lewis 

^Floral Print Swaddling Blanket was £10 reduced to £7^

(similar here)

^0-3 Months Pink Knitted Long Sleeved Dress was £18 reduced to £12.50^

Are you still picking up any good sale purchases?

Feel free to leave a comment :)

Helen x

REVIEW: Fujifilm Instax Mini 8

As I've mentioned before at our wedding we are going to try to create our own photo booth. I really want memories of our wedding day to be captured in various forms. When we went to The Wedding Show at the NEC in Birmingham there wasn't much for sale, except for wedding dresses of course! However, the Fujifilm Instax stall was selling a variety of instant print cameras - ideal for our photo booth! We choose the Instax Mini 8 (£69.98 (without any films - £17.99 for 20 films) from Fujifilm, £79.82 (including 20 films, batteries and battery charger) from Argos, £89.95 (including 4x AA batteries, hand strap and 40 shots of film) from John Lewis) , as it's easier to hold and came in such a lovely range of colours. We aren't really having a colour theme to our wedding but we want to keep to more pastel colours than bright ones. The Instax Mini 8 comes in pale yellow, blue, pink, white and black. This pale blue Instax Mini 8 camera is perfect for us!

The colour photo's are printed on film that is about the size of a credit card (5.3cm x 8.4cm), perfect size for our guests to peg onto a 'washing line'. I love that there is also a gap on every film to write a message, I think we'll leave colourful permanent markers on the photo booth for our guests to leave a lovely message about our wedding day - I'm already excited to read them!!

Here's a photo of Tom and I using a Fujifilm Instax Mini 8....

The camera came with 40 shots (credit card sized films), so we bought 100 more at The Wedding Show. We hope that will be enough, the last thing I want to happen is not to capture moments of our wedding because we ran out of film! It takes about 2 minutes for the picture to develop, which I think is really quickly (I remember going to get the old style cameras developed at Boots - you had to wait about a week!).  

The key aspects of this camera from the Fujifilm website are:

• Auto Flash/Focus Free – Take bold, vibrant pictures, even in low lighting.
• Brightness Adjustment Dial – Automatically determines the best brightness and suitable setting by lighting the corresponding mode (Indoors, Cloudy, Sunny, Very Sunny).
• High-Key Photo – Setting the brightness adjustment dial to high-key mode allow you to take images with a softer impression.
• Electronic Shutter – 1/60 sec. shutter speed ensures every moment is captures in an instant
• Built-in Lens Cover – Protecting your camera is easy with the electronic lens cover that automatically opens when the camera turns on.
• Fujinon Lens – Take clear pictures effortlessly with a superior quality lens.  

Another feature of an instant print camera that I really wanted, was that it needed to be easy to insert new films. The Fujifilm Instax Mini 8 couldn't be easier - the films are in packs of 10, you just insert the pack into the back of the camera - it's that easy!

Have you ever tried an instant print camera?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Cath Kidston from John Lewis ♥

Yes I love Cath Kidston. Yes I probably talk about it too much. Yes I spend too much money there. But no I don't care :)

I picked up these little beauties from John Lewis, they're 'Wild Flowers Assorted Hand Creams' and only cost £6! Each one is 30ml, so perfect for the handbag, holidays, weekends away or if your feeling really generous then you could split them up and give them as presents!

The 'wild flowers' scents are wild rose, bluebell and honeysuckle, personally my favourite is honeysuckle. They all have very strong scents, there's no denying they smell of flowers, so if you don't like strong scents these may not be the hand creams for you.

I really like the texture of these hand creams, they soak in quickly and their scent stays for hours! Very moisturising and such cute packaging, typical Cath Kidston!

Have you tried these before?

Are you a fan of the Cath Kidston toiletries?

Who doesn't want a pretty home?

I met my boyfriend at university up in Durham about 5 years ago now, we were just friends for a couple of years and then decided to risk our friendship and make 'THAT' change into a relationship. Luckily it worked out and we've now been going out for nearly 3 years! But after 10 month's of being in a relationship our degree came to an end and there came a massive decision, do we move in together or not?! It wasn't actually a hard decision for us, we knew we wanted to live together, so we started looking for a house we could rent. The first house we looked at we fell in love with and took the plunge to sign a 12 month contract! Then it dawned on us, we have to pay for everything to go into the house, rent and bills!

During the summer after our last year at university we searched, shopped and made a lot of the main furniture - wardrobe, bed, sofa, book shelf, chest of drawers etc. I never wanted to see another flat pack after that summer, we practically lived in IKEA. Having said that, it was such an exciting time, creating a home together is such a magical experience! But when funds ran low we stopped buying things and now almost 2 years later we still haven't 'finished' any of the rooms.

Currently we are very lucky to be looking to buy a house but haven't found a suitable house yet. I am so excited to have a bigger kitchen (my biggest priority!) because the kitchen at our house now is very small, with barely any cupboards or surface space. Searching for a house that we can decorate, style and change is very exciting and prompted me to search for pretty house accessories. Also, as it's my birthday on Sunday so I wanted to find some things for the house I could ask for my birthday :)

I thought I'd share with you some of the cute, pretty and shabby chic house accessories I've found....

H&M Bakery Cake Tin - £7.99



dotcomgiftshop.com Bontanical Non-Slip Doormat £19.95



H&M Tea Towel £2.99

  

melodymaison.co.uk Cream Post Rack £9.95



melodymaison.co.uk Postcard Cushion £12.95



melodymaison.co.uk Set of 3 Vintage Floral Suitcases £23.95

 

amazon.co.uk Gisela Graham Wooden Recipe Book Stand Holder £10.80





spottybutton.co.uk Patchwork Bunting Cushion £9.95

This final item is my biggest dream at the moment, I really want a KitchenAid Artisan Stand Mixer in Ice Blue! Problem is, they are edging on £450 - very expensive! But they are such an iconic kitchen accessory, I love the way they look and as I do a lot of baking it would be so useful too! How pretty is it?!

John Lewis £429.95



What do you think?

Do you like decorating your bedroom/home?