TODDLER STYLE: A week of outfits #58

This week has been crazily busy with so much to do, a toddler to entertain and guests over. This has meant that the week has passed in a flash, with not a moment to relax. I've also been having car issues, long story short my car is old and I need a new one. However, the worrier in me is really scared about driving another car so I'm putting it off. Resulting in a trip to the garage and a loss of £50. I need to be brave and go and buy a new car, but which one? Do you know of any good small/medium (but big enough for a car seat in the back and pram in the boot) family cars?

Day 1

TODDLER STYLE: A week of outfits #51

So summer has mostly definitely arrived this week...it's been so hot! I'm not the biggest fan of the heat and the added stress of work and keeping Isabella cool enough has meant it's been a rather exhausting week. The tantrums seemed to have dwindled off at the moment (touch wood) and it's been so lovely creating happy, smiling memories together again. I really am very lucky to have the life I have and sometimes it's nice to stop and appreciate the small things. 

Day 1

TODDLER: Summer Sale Shopping 2016

It's that time of year again...summer sale shopping! Like most, I love sale shopping and especially when it's for Isabella. The older she gets the harder I'm finding it to buy her clothes that aren't branded with a tv character or Disney - she's not into any of those things so I don't really want to be paying the premium. If you have any good shops/websites that sell non-branded toddler clothes then please let me know below - I'm on the hunt! I've picked all of the items below up over the past week, so hopefully they'll still be in stock if you want to grab a bargain yourself.

TODDLER STYLE: A week of outfits #48

This week has ended up being one of the most social weeks I've had in a while! I went for a lovely meal out with our friends from NCT on Thursday...without the babies. This is a seriously rare occasion and it was so relaxing having a catch up over wine and pizza. I value their friendship more than they probably know, having such a friendly group of fellow mummies who you can share worries/ concerns/ milestones/ achievements and everything in between is so precious. We then had some other very close friends over for a meal on Friday night, hosting dinner parties at home has become the new 'meal out' since having Isabella. I absolutely love hosting and we had such a giggle, this week has reminded me to really treasure all of my amazing and inspiring friends.

Day 1

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #46

Another week has flown by and yet it still doesn't seem like summer! When will the sunshine make an appearance and stay?! Trying to keep Isabella entertained inside has its limits, so I can't wait to be able to get back outside more. Isabella's comprehension and vocabulary has improved so much recently, she can now say 'duck', 'hello', 'muma', 'dada', 'kisses' and 'gone'. It's so strange hearing her say actually words, she just seems too small to be able to understand! We've been preparing for Father's Day all week, with various card making activities, cooking and wrapping presents. It's harder now because I organise my husbands Father's Day as Isabella is clearly too young, as well as my own Dad's. Splitting our time fairly is a big cause of guilt for me, but guilt just seems to be a 'thing' once you're a parent...oh joy.

Day 1

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #38

This week has been a really positive one - Isabella is now eating more and sleeping longer at nursery, I had a good half week at work and filled the other half with seeing friends and family. Sometimes I get nervous about filling up my diary with seeing people because it means Isabella doesn't nap for as long, often resulting in less sleep at night. But this week I've realised I need to change this attitude and embrace everyday as it comes. Recently Isabella hasn't been sleeping well at night whether we go out for the day or not, so why not have a lovely day anyway?! 

Day 1

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #31

This week starts the 'standing up' outfit photo - I can't believe it! When I started this series I took the photos while Isabella was in the bouncer and now she's standing at the end of her cot, crazy how time flies. We've had a poorly week mostly spent indoors, as Isabella has had an awful cold and I've had a bit of a cough. We were both just about ok to make it to Wriggly Readers at the end of the week, which was a nice excuse to get out of the house and catch up with a friend over hot chocolate. I've also been doing more preparations for Isabella's first birthday, excited doesn't cover it! 

 Day 1

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #28

This week we dropped off the paperwork at what will be Isabella's nursery, which felt like such a big moment. I'm looking forward to Isabella interacting with other children regularly and getting all the new experiences at nursery, but I don't want to leave her. It feels more real now and though she won't be starting nursery for a couple of months I'm already very emotional about it all, many tears have been shed. Just one of those parenting struggles I guess. Other than that we've had a good week, my husband was off for a day so we went for lunch and finally put some curtains up in Isabella's bedroom!

Day 1

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #26

This past week has been one both full of worries and lovely times. The worries are mostly related to my return to work...nothing new there! So now that I don't have long left of my maternity leave I'm really treasuring every single play date, of which we had a couple of fun ones this week. It's so heartwarming watching Isabella play with other babies and makes me so proud (and a little bit sad) when she crawls off and plays without me. It won't be long before Isabella goes to nursery and it's reassuring to know that she can play happily both on her own and with other children. 

Day 1

BABY: Boxing Day Online Sale Shopping #1

Though I do love a bargain I'm not willing to always battle the crowds with a pushchair in tow, so this year a lot of my sale shopping was done online on Christmas Eve. It's so much easier and with free click and collect you often don't even have to pay anymore. Also, if you buy online you have the right to return the items but you don't as easily if you buy instore. Basically, there are a lot of advantages to shopping online! As I mentioned in my 'instore sale shopping' post (see here) I've mostly bought Isabella clothes in 18-24 months, so that they're ready for next autumn/winter. I also picked up some really cheap clothes for when she starts nursery, as I don't want her nice outfits ruined there. I've worked at a nursery and know the messy play that goes on!

Polar bear t-shirt - Marks and Spencers - £4

BABY STYLE: A week of outfits #18

This week has whizzed past in a whirl of chasing a crawling Isabella around our house! She began crawling a couple of weeks ago and she's getting quicker and quicker. Last weekend we had to lower her cot because she could pull herself up to standing using the bars and we've begun baby proofing the house. I've done the living room, so it's safe for her to crawl around and explore...just the rest of the house now!

Day 1

 

BABY: Next, Marks and Spencers and Mothercare Sale Haul

 Last Friday I was putting together our weekly Baby Style series blog post, which required me to go onto the Next website where I noticed they had a sale starting last Saturday. Getting the links for the Baby Style posts is a nightmare for my bank account, I'm constantly seeing the latest baby clothes and more importantly noticing when a store has a sale. I picked up these pieces from Next in a couple of trips, as well a few items from Marks and Spencers' latest sale (the excitement I get from the Marks and Spencer's baby clothing sale is ridiculous!) and Mothercare sale too. There's seem to be a lot of sales on at the moment, so worth keeping your eye out if you are looking for baby clothes.

 

BABY: Next Summer Sale Haul 2015

This is a completely unplanned blog post, but after receiving an email about the Next sale starting yesterday I couldn't not go! Any excuse for a bargain and very much like the JoJo Maman Bebe sale I picked up clothes for next summer. There are a couple of 6-9 month pieces that I thought would be perfect for autumn/winter too. I picked all of this up at two different Next stores, neither of which I visited particularly early. We left the last store at about 3.30pm yesterday and there was still lots of stock, so I'd imagine there would be a fair amount to pick up today (Sunday 19th July 2015). There are also a couple of items from F&F Clothing, Boots and Mothercare that I thought I'd share with you too.

 

BABY: Nursery Tour

 

I've been meaning to do a nursery tour for a while now, as I love reading these posts - any excuse for a good nosey! We have been adding new bits here and there to Isabella's nursery since she was born, so kept putting off doing a nursery tour. It's still not completely finished but she'll be out of the nursery before I do this if I don't get on with it!

NURSERY: Mothercare Carnaby Cot Bed Review

Deciding on which cot to get is not as easy as I was expecting. So many questions - do we get a cot? Or cot bed? Should it be wood? Or metal? What is our budget? What will fit in the nursery? Will it be sturdy enough? How long will it last our child? etc. When we started looking at cots we were overwhelmed by the options and the cost of them! The cost was the main reason we decided to get a cot bed, rather than a cot. If you're unsure of the difference, a cot bed can be converted from a cot into a bed and therefore will last your child for a lot longer. A cot lasts up until your child is around 2 years old, while a cot bed lasts until they are around 4 years old. Therefore I thought that cot beds would be even more expensive than cots, which of course in some instances they are, but generally the price is similar.

So the search for a suitable cot bed began; we looked in magazines, on the internet, in high street shops and there was one that had stood out for us - the Mothercare Carnaby Cot Bed. We first saw it in a baby magazine and its bright turquoise colour really stood out from the usual wooden or white cot beds. We were originally planning on getting a white cot bed because the nursery is all very pale, so it would have fitted in nicely. But there was something about the style of the Carnaby cot bed that we thought would work really well, as a pop of colour in an otherwise pale room. 

The price of the Carnaby cot bed was the thing that was initially putting us off buying it straight away, so we looked into buying a nursery furniture set. Then after checking Mothercare app almost daily I saw that the Carnaby cot bed had been reduced by 23%, from £299 to £229. Still a lot of money but much nearer to what we were expecting to spend. Whenever anything goes on sale I'm always so tempted to make the purchase there and then (in case the sale ends), but with this cot bed being expensive still I didn't want to be hasty. I tweeted Mothercare to ask how long the promotion would be running for and after a couple of days they were able to tell me it's on promotion until mid April 2015. I'd recommend using Twitter as a way of finding out information about a product you like because, in my experience, the response is quicker and more informative. 

At the moment this cot bed is reduced from £299 to £254, so it seems to be reduced quite often - definitely worth keeping an eye on if you like it!

The cot bed came in one very heavy box, not that I was lifting it anyway as I was pregnant! I was amazed at how easy it was to set up, we made it up in about 20 minutes. I say 'we', it was mostly my husband - I was chief 'hand things to him' person. The cot bed is so sturdy, unlike many of the wooden ones we looked at in shops. We love the look of the cot bed, even though I was a bit concerned it would look like a cage with all those bars! 

You have to purchase a mattress seperately, which I thought would be another big expenditure. As this is a cot bed it takes a 140x70cm mattress, which is bigger than a regular cot mattress. I found a mattress with good reviews (#1 best seller on amazon) and the relevant safety features for only £36.77 - check it out here. I also bought a couple of cot bed sheets for only £6.79 (see here), that again is a #1 best seller on amazon.

Yesterday on social media I saw that Mothercare had their Autumn/Winter 2015 press event, where they we're showcasing some of their new products. Bright colours were prominent in the collections and there looked like there was a wooden cot in the same turquoise as this one.

Overall, we love the pop of colour the Mothercare Carnaby cot bed adds to our daughters nursery. The nursery is finished and ready for her when she's older :)

How did you decide on your cot/cot bed?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x 

SALE SHOPPING: Baby Girl feat. Mothercare, Marks and Spencers, TK Maxx

This year sale shopping was taken to a whole level, I was on a mission to buy as many cute baby clothes as I could possibly justify. Finding out the gender of our baby has meant that clothes shopping is easier, as I know what I'm looking for, and therefore needed some level of control. Baby clothes just pull on my heart strings. I had tried to restrain myself until the sales, which wasn't a complete success but I tried nonetheless! I have fallen in love with so many pieces I picked up in the sale this year and for the first time they aren't even for me! I did most of this sale shopping online on either Christmas Eve or Christmas Day - I knew what I wanted so it wasn't a matter of browsing for a long time. A lot lf these close are for next autumn/winter, as that's the style of clothes that were mostly in the sale. I bought 6-9 months, hoping they will fit her, it's all a bit of a guessing game really.

Mothercare

£16 reduced to £8

£14 reduced to £7

£10 reduced to £5 

£9 reduced to £4

£8 2 pack reduced to £4

£8 2 pack reduced to £4

£7 reduced to £3.50

£6 reduced to £4

Tesco F&F Clothing 

£4 reduced to £2

£3 reduced to £1.50

Marks and Spencer's 

£14 reduced to £7

£14 reduced to £6

£6 reduced to £4

£6 reduced to £4

£14 reduced to £9

£9 reduced to £6

£10 reduced to £8

£12 reduced to £6

Sainsburys TU Clothing 

£6 reduced to £4

TK Maxx

£19.99 reduced to £10

£14.99 reduced to £8

JoJo Maman Bebe 

£24 reduced to £12

£24 reduced to £12

Next 

£10 reduced to £5

£10 reduced to £5 

£2.50 reduced to £1

Boots

£6 reduced to £3

£6 reduced to £3

£10 reduced to £5

Did you pick up any good bargains in the sales?

Feel free to leave me a comment - I love reading every single one :) 

Helen x

BABY: Unisex Clothing Wish List

As I've discussed in a previous post (see here), I've been struggling to find unisex baby clothes and from speaking to other Mum's or Mum's to be they also had the same struggle. A lot of retailers must presume everyone will either find out the gender of their baby or not buy most clothes until the baby has arrived (again, that requires patience. Something I'm not particularly blessed with). I've browsed the internet and high street shops high and low, to put together a wish list of unisex clothes for anyone who has also been struggling...

Mothercare

1/2/3/4/5

Mamas & Papas

1/2/3

The Essential One

1/2/3

GAP

1/2/3/4/5/6

Which is your favourite item?

Feel free to leave me a comment :)

Helen x