Baby's first Christmas

It can be hard to think of gifts to buy for a baby's first Christmas, especially if the baby is born close to Christmas. 

Here is a small list of ideas for what to buy a baby on their first Christmas. All of these gifts can be found at: notonthehighstreet.com

Personalised slippers - £30

£5 personalised wooden block. 

£15. Hand and footprint picture. 

£19 personalised bauble. 

£25 a personalised blanket. 

A musical box - £28

£40 baby's first Christmas tree, I like this because you plant it in the garden and then it grows as your baby grows. A real sentimental present and something that lasts forever. 

Stocking fillers

A few ideas for stocking fillers...all of these items are priced under £20!

Socks. Who doesn't love socks at Christmas??

Yankee candles, because these are just the best Christmas candles in my opinion. 

A personalised phone case/tablet case. These add a personal touch and can be purchased from photobox and other online photo shops. 

A big jar of sweets, after all it is Christmas! 

Selection boxes, these are a really cheap gift as you can pick these up for £1 in poundland!

Hook a duck bath game, because who wouldn't love those memories of childhood fun from the funfair! 

DVDs. Elf is a particular favourite of mine around this time of year. 

Slippers, these are from Next and I think rather cute!

Lush Snow Fairy or any other bath/shower products. This particular one smells like sweets and is a special edition at Christmas!

Christmas quotations

At work this week I have been making a Christmas display board with Christmas quotations on so I decided to share with you all some of my favourite Christmas quotations! And if you want you can try and name the film that the quote belongs to in the comment box!

'Maybe Christmas,' he thought 'doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas..means a little bit more.'

'Every time you hear a bell rings, it means that some angel's just got his wings'

'The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.'

'We're not just doing this for us. We're doing it for the kids. For every kid who ever sat on Santa's lap.'

'If you're really Santa Claus, you can get it for me. And if you can't, you're only a nice man with a white beard like my mother says.'

Christmas gift guide 2014 for men

I find men really hard to buy for, I always have. My grandad and dad usually end up with some alcohol, socks or food related gift every year...

Adam is a little easier to buy for but still a bit of a struggle but I have tried to put together my gift guide for men for 2014. These are all things I would buy for Adam or other men in my family. 

A traditional shaving kit. I actually bought one of these for by granddad a few years ago and it came beautifully presented from Fortnum&Masons. They cost £40+

An Apple iPad air 2. Most men love gadgets. This is a pricier present retailing for £395. 

 

Console games. A lot of men enjoy playstations and xbox and there is a huge selection of games on the market. Prices start from £35. 

A new wallet. I love the Paul Smith wallets as they are very classic on the outside but really funky on the inside. These are quite expensive at between £110-£180. I also like the Ted a Baker wallets which are cheaper at £40-£70

Shirts. If you are buying for someone who wear shirts for work you can't go wrong with a nice shirt! The one above is by Ted Baker and retails for £65. 

Socks, because let's face it, everyone loves a pair of socks on Christmas Day! 

Christmas gift guide 2014 for Women

So it's nearly that time of the year again and I have been thinking a lot about Christmas gifts. I like to her people things that a) I know they want or b) things I know they will use. I hate buying people stuff that I don't know if they will like just to get then a present. I used to be terrible with bath products for example, I used to get bought bath gift sets every year and they would just sit in a cupboard unopened for years. Now I enjoy a bath gift set but as a teenager I never used them. 

So here it is my gift guide for girls for 2014. 

Radley purse - prices range from £40 - £70 

Urban Decay Naked 3 palette - £37

Ugg boots - £160

Lush products - prices range from £2-£20

You can buy lush gift boxes but I prefer to buy lots of bits and make my own boxes! 

Tartan scarf - £28

Onesie - George at Asda £18 

Fun cooking activity for toddlers

A fun cooking activity to do with a toddler - with minimum cooking!

Make your own pizzas!

 I buy ready made pizza bases, obviously you can make your own dough if you wish. I also buy ready made pizza topping although it is very easy to make your own. 

Today we used sweetcorn, cheese and red peppers as our toppings. I cut the peppers up and put all the ingredients in bowls so that it was easy for Mia to spread the toppings on. 

Our finished pizza looked like this, it takes 10-12 minutes to cook in the oven at 180 degrees. 

I then popped some cling film around one of the finished pizza so that it could either be frozen for another day or kept in the fridge for lunch tomorrow!

Random Toddler Lunch

Mia has been really off her food recently. She has only been asking for baked beans and cereal recently and refusing to eat anything else! Today I made a total random lunch of mince bolognaise, pasta with tomato and mascarpone sauce and some vegetables! I was very surprised to see Mia eat it up without fuss! She loved the mince and pasta and ate the sweetcorn and some of the peas. She wasn't overly keen on the carrots but at least she tried them! 

Have any of your toddlers gone through a funny patch with food? What did you do to help them eat more variety?

Gift guide for a 2 year old!

A few ideas for gifts for a toddler :)

Dressing up clothes! These can be purchased from local supermarkets,early learning centre and the disney store just to name a few. Prices start from around £10. 

A trike! These are great as they adapt to a child's age, when they are a little older you can remove the back handle so they can peddle independently. These start at £50. These are available at Argos and early learning centre. 

Puzzles. Toddlers love puzzles! They are inexpensive and can be purchased from any toy shop, supermarket etc. 

An art easel. If your little one enjoys painting, colouring etc an art easel is a great gift! Prices start at £16 (ikea) and they fold up so can be stored away when not in use! 

Happy land sets! These are great and there is a huge variety of play sets! These are available at the early learning centre and retail from £12+

A doctors kit. My toddler loves pretend play now and I think this would go down a treat! These are available from Argos in the 2 toys for £15 deal 

Ballet!

Mia started ballet! This was possibly the most eagerly anticipated class for me! I used to do ballet as a child as I'm sure many girls did and I was so excited for Mia to be able to start! She loves it! The classes are really fun and involve lots of props which Mia loves! 

Here are a few snaps. 

Our mini break!

Here are some snaps of our short weekend break! It rained a lot so we didn't spend as much time outside as I had hoped.