Santa Claus is going to town

The countdown to Christmas has now officially begun; it is at long last December. I have been looking forward to Christmas 2011 since last Christmas when I was about 4 months pregnant. “This time next year” …  was how most of my sentences began. I LOVE Christmas and this year is extra special as it is Riley’s first and Santa Claus (that’s me) is going to town! 

I began my preparations way back in August, when “normal” people were jetting away on their holidays. I’m not completely crackers though (see what I did there), but, with one full wage, a maternity wage, saving a deposit for a house and raising a baby, this was the only way I could ensure we would be ready for Christmas. 

Firstly, I purchased both James’ and my family’s presents, getting some great deals in the end of summer sales meaning I didn’t need to sacrifice the quality of presents to fit my budget. I have also been buying presents for Riley each month needless to say, the underneath of his cot and our bed are crammed with toys and we still haven’t been out shopping together to buy presents!

Presents aren’t what it’s all about though and although Riley is not old enough to understand what is going on I still want to create a magical first Christmas, what parent doesn’t? I recently ordered a letter from Santa from the NSPCC website, http://christmas.nspcc.org.uk/santa.  I thought it would be lovely so that when he is older, and does understand, he will be able to see that Santa has written to him every year since his first Christmas. I would highly recommend the NSPCC letter from Santa. Of all the letters I looked in to buying, including various sites who specialise in letters from Santa and Toys R Us, the NSPCC letter was the only one that had options for a special, baby’s first Christmas letter and by choosing this one all the funds raised go to a great cause. This letter can be purchased for a suggested donation of £5

 

NSPCC leaflet.

I have also purchased a personalised Santa please stop here sign - £6.99 from Studio Cards, http://www.24studio.co.uk/ss/index.jsp and a lovely Santa sack from sacks ‘n’ stories, http://www.sacks-n-stories.co.uk/santa-sacks-2-w.asp. Jan, who handcrafts these, makes personalised Santa sacks from all kinds of different fabrics and in a variety of different colours etc. The sack I ordered cost £22 (inclusive of postage) and I intend to get a tag to write Riley’s name and address on it … How else would Santa know whose sack is whose in that big ole sleigh? We have also decided that a few presents will be from mummy and daddy. 

Santa Please Stop here sign to go outside.

Riley's personalised Santa sack. Because it's not babyish, 

we can keep this for years to come. 

Riley will be sending out his own personalised Christmas cards. I got these from poundland, £1 for 6.  You simply put a picture inside the frame, ta-dah! Mamas and Papas sell similar cards, which are priced at £4 for 8, http://www.mamasandpapas.com/product-christmas-gift-cards/481101904/type-i/.  I do still need to purchase an outfit, take his picture and get them developed though … hmmm maybe I’m not that organised. 

Each pack has two designs. 

What I’m most excited about is that we will be able to start our own little family traditions, things that will be with us in years to come. This is something we have already discussed, and debated; important things like what to leave out for Santa on Christmas Eve. I like the idea of wrapping up a nice new pair of special pyjamas to open on Christmas Eve, and have seen a multitude of Christmasy pyjamas to suit all budgets.

I did attempt to make us each our own stocking, an attempt that failed miserably when I stitched the top of the first stocking shut! I have since purchased plain ready-made stockings and will just personalise them myself.

Writing this post has actually got me panicking a bit when I think of all the things I have left to do; dig out the decorations for tree choosing and decorating day on Saturday, make my Christmas crackers (I did say I was going a bit OTT this year), get a recipe for eggnog, find a ginger bread house, or two, write my Christmas cards, wrap some more presents (I could have my own branch of Clintons cards with the amount and variety of wrapping paper I have) and finish my shopping off. How prepared are you?

I intend to make these a bit more grown up, so

need to find something to go inside them and maybe not 

colour them with crayons!!

24 days to go …

D.I.Y Calendar for 2012

I have been thinking about making my own calendar for 2012, you know the ones where you choose your own pictures. Despite the fact I'm on maternity leave and should have plenty of time, I have never actually got round to beginning the process (I wouldn't really know where to start either). 


Last week in Poundland I came across a blank calendar with spaces to put your own pictures in. This cost a grand total of, yep you guessed it, £1. The calendar actually comes with one pack of 12 6"x 4" white glossy photo paper, so that you can print your pictures at home. I however went to my local Tesco and printed them off in there. 

Blank calendar - 2012.

In about 15 minutes, I had transformed my blank calendar into a 2012 calendar full of pictures of Riley. Because the picture spaces were all for landscape pictures and a lot of mine were portrait, I mounted my pictures onto coloured pieces of card to hide the borders already provided. Here are a few pages from my calendar ... 

 January.

 Looking summery for August.

December.

This calendar is similar to the products offered at this time of year,  particularly on websites like funky pigeon and in stores like Tesco and Asda BUT, at a fraction of the price!

I'm now feeling creative ...

Points mean prizes with Tesco Clubcard ...

While every child will at some point dream of going to Disney World Florida, like me, I'm sure every parent dreams of being able to afford to take their children to Disney World. As if getting to America wasn't expensive enough, theme park tickets really push up the cost of a holiday to Florida. Well, I think I've found an inexpensive way to get there, at least!

Parade in the Magical Kingdom, Disney World Florida.

Points really do mean prizes with Tesco Clubcard, if you exchange your vouchers for some of the deals they offer. Your money back vouchers can be worth up to four times their cash value if exchanged for the many deals offered by Tesco, http://www.tesco.com/clubcard/deals/

As of 2012 Tesco Clubacrd vouchers can be exchanged for tokens to pay in full or in part for a Virgin holiday to Orlando, Florida! On this particular offer your vouchers are worth three times the voucher's cash value! furthermore, Virgin Atlantic were awarded "most baby-friendly airline in the holiday extras customers' awards 2011" (Practical Parenting & Pregnancy, December 2011 p.16). Perfect, if you are considering enduring a nine hour flight with little ones!

What you need to know: 

1. Each voucher is valid for two years.
2. When exchanged into tokens, they are valid for a further six months (your holiday needs to be booked in this six months. It doesn't have to be taken within the six months though). 
3. You need to book at least 21 days in advance.
4. You must book directly with Virgin Atlantic. You cannot go through a travel agent. 
5. You cannot just book flights. Accommodation must be included in this. 
6. Each passenger can use a maximum of £525 in tokens to pay for/towards the holiday (£175 in Tesco vouchers, per person). 
7. All vouchers must be in your name. If your partner or someone traveling with you has a Clubcard you can use their points as well but, basically, all vouchers need to be in the name(s) of persons traveling. 
8. You need to have exchanged the vouchers for tokens at the time of booking.

Once you have tripled the value of your vouchers and received tokens, the remainder of what you have to pay (if there is any left for you to pay), for your family holiday to Disney World, can be kept low by by doing the following; go on to the Virgin website, http://www.virginholidays.co.uk/ and play about with the search function to see when the cheapest times of year to travel are. You could also risk booking late (at least 21 days in advance though), in the hope of getting a great late deal. 

We will certainly be handing over our Clubcard every time we visit Tesco and hopefully, in a couple of years when Riley is a little older, we will be going on a dream family holiday to Disney World Florida!

Pushchair review: Silver Cross 3D Pram System In Henley - £299 (Babies R us) and Quinny Zapp Xtra In Electric Blue - £230 (Mothercare).

It’s been six months since Riley was born and I’ve already had to buy another pushchair. Admittedly I wanted a new one, for reasons I will explain in a moment, however I didn’t expect to HAVE to buy a new one.

A pushchair is one of the main/big/expensive items you’ll purchase when you’re expecting. I spent hours looking for what I wanted online, which was probably my first mistake not actually going to look at them. Eventually I decided the Silver Cross 3D Pram System in Henley was the pushchair for us. My reasons for this were based mostly on how this pushchair looked as a pram, BIG MISTAKE!

Silver Cross 3D as a pram.

Silver Cross 3D as a pushchair.

What I initially loved about this pushchair was that when Riley was born we would be able to use the pushchair as a pram, and then as he got bigger we would be able to use the pushchair as, well, a pushchair.

So what was the problem? Well, where to begin; Riley outgrew the pram function of the pushchair pretty quickly. He wasn’t the biggest of babies, an average sized little boy at 7lb 3oz. We therefore found ourselves constantly using the car seat (Ventura £114.99 – Babies R Us), which is compatible with the 3D Pram System, so that we could have Riley facing us, as at a few months old he still seemed too small to be facing outward and I wanted to be able to see him when we were out and about.  The problem with this was that it made the already heavy pushchair even heavier, not to mention it was a bit of an eyesore.

Silver Cross 3D with Ventura car seat attached. 

The size of the pushchair is pretty big in comparison to some of the other pushchairs on the market and this was evident whenever I took Riley out shopping. Navigating the lifts (oh yes, lifts, you cannot go anywhere without needing to use a lift when you have a pushchair) was an absolute nightmare. Trying to squeeze in, and out, with my huge heavy pushchair, which had a mind of its own due to the wheels taking us in whichever direction they felt like, whilst other mums seemed to be whizzing about hassle free made going out quite a stressful experience. Getting buses was equally as bad. Even when folded down the 3D Pram System took up the whole boot space of our Citron Saxo (we have since brought a new, bigger, car) and lifting it in and out was heavy work, as was putting it up. You’re meant to just lift the “1” and “2” labelled levers and just “flick” the pushchair up and vice versa when folding it down, Voila! Easy! Maybe for Superman but not for an energy drained mother.  Furthermore, we always had problems with the right side of the pushchair, which refused to click into place when being put up.

The final straw came when we had a drama in Sainsbury’s car park a couple of weeks ago. This spelt the end of our time with the Silver Cross 3D Pram System. It just would not fold down! We battled with it and even turned against each other in our quest to put it down. After about twenty minutes James found a wire, which was linked to the mechanism that folds the pushchair down. We managed to get it down and get home. This was the end of the 3D Pram System’s time with us.

There are some positives to the Silver Cross 3D Pram System. In terms of comfort for baby, the Silver Cross 3D pushchair is brilliant. It’s cosy and has several seat positions, including upright and a recline to laying down position. There is a bar which toys can be attached to (something my new one doesn’t have). The basket can carry heavy loads … I know this from carrying six litres of coke in mine. The pushchair is sold with baby bag, footmuff, raincover and pram liner.

For me however, the negatives outweigh the positives and for my next pushchair I wanted something light, easy to get about with and small.  I chose the Quinny Zapp Xtra in electric blue.

Quinny Zapp Xtra forward facing.

Quinny Zapp Xtra rearward facing.

What I loved about this was that I could have Riley facing me without the need for a car seat on my pushchair, though this is compatible with Maxi Cosi car seats and adaptors for it come with the pushchair.  The seat has two positions when rearward facing and three when facing outwards – perfect! The fact the pushchair has a rearward facing function means it is suitable from birth, whereas the original “Quinny Zapp” isn’t. There is also a little footrest that pops into use, and out, for when baby is older and requires it.

 Footrest not in use.

Footrest in use. 

As I alluded to before, there is nowhere on this pushchair for toys to be attached (I have been hooking Riley’s onto the hood). I also think comfort has been sacrificed to enable Quinny to make such a compact pushchair. The Quinny, I believe, is the smallest folding pushchair on the market.

Quinny folded down.

This pushchair is a dream to take out it’s light and easily manoeuvrable. We don’t take up the whole floor space of a lift or the whole disabled bay on a bus.

One negative is that the seat must come off in order to fold the pushchair down whereas on its predecessor, the “Zapp”, the seat folds with the frame. I don’t need Popeye muscles to lift the Zapp Xtra in and out of the car and so far the wheels listen to me. Putting it up did require watching a YouTube video as the written instructions were wasted on me; pictures, argggg. The video on Quinny’s website consisted of women parading about with different colour variations of the Zapp Xtra … not exactly a guide for idiots on how to put it up and down. It really isn’t difficult once you know how though: press the “1 and 2” buttons in and lift the handles and frame up towards you. Then pull the number “3” handle toward you, until it all clicks into place. To fold down, push “1 and 2” buttons in and fold the handle and frame away from you and then push the number “3” handle in and the pushchair will all fold in.

The Zapp Xtra doesn’t come with all the mod cons the Silver Cross 3D does. It does however come with a raincover, basket and adaptors, for a Maxi Cosi car seat. It also has a built-in sun canopy on the hood and the seat cover is removable and therefore washable, which is good as I can already see some grubby marks. I have done some research, as I would like to purchase the matching electric blue footmuff and I have found that a Quinny footmuff is around £50 to buy.

In my opinion based on the experiences I have had with these two pushchairs, the Silver Cross 3D Pram System would get 3/5 marks and the Quinny Zapp Xtra 4/5.

With the busy lives mums lead and the unfriendliness towards pushchairs on the highstreet, practicality far outweighs any other feature a particular pushchair might have. Whilst the Silver Cross 3D Pram System looks very comfortable, it's not really practical and at a cost of £299 (other shops sell this at a higher price), six months use is not acceptable. We were not excessively rough with this pushchair, though you do expect a fair amount of durability with such a product. On the other hand the Quinny Zapp Xtra, which appears to lack slightly in comfort, is a practical lightweight pushchair and at a cost of £230 isn’t too pricey in comparison to similar products on the market. 

Sew unique ...

I accidently found a great Facebook page whilst looking for a unique toy box for Riley. I have ordered a few items in the past couple of months and would love to share what I have found.

Riley's custom made toy box.

These toy boxes are made to order. Laura, who created and runs "That's sew Laura", can order in fabrics if you have something specific in mind and you can't find what you are looking for in one of her fabric albums. Riley's toy box was custom made with a fabric I found to coordinate with the theme with have for him. 

The lettering and cushion top are attached with velcro and can therefore easily be removed to wash. The toy boxes themselves have wipe clean panels, brilliant for when little hands start touching!

I love these sew much that I have ordered two sets, (cushion top and lettering) in Aliens and Mini Superhero's with "TOYS" lettering, to go on a couple of toy boxes I have already purchased elsewhere to deal with the mass of Christmas toys we will soon have to find homes for. 

I have also purchased a personalised winter pram blanket, again completely made to order and of excellent quality. 

Riley's Postman Pat blanket.

Close up of the personalisation.

And finally I have also purchased some unique bibs and dribble bibs. These are backed in a fleece material. 

Bibs and dribble bibs.

These items are all sew individual and because everything Laura makes is made to order, you won't see every other child with the exact same thing as yours. I particularly LOVE the little dresses she makes, I just need a baby girl of my own to dress ...