Tag Archives: Nursery Decoration

May 23 2014

The Coolest New Baby Gift EVER - A Ukulele from My 1st Years

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Every single gift someone gives your new baby is special. Whether someone sends you a hand knitted pair of booties or some babygros from Next, when you peek into that gift bag and see something dinky it’s always exciting. Heidi got all of these things and more from our friends and family and we’re so grateful. But as a blogger, I was also sent some very sweet gifts from baby boutiques and some of these are simply too cool not to blog about.

My favourite, purely for it’s uniqueness, is this seriously cute ukulele from My 1st Years. I love things that are a little out of left field and this is certainly that. Okay, Heidi clearly can’t play the ukulele, and neither can her mummy and daddy, but it’s so adorable that I plan to mount it on her nursery wall. The walls in there desperately need something as they’re pure white and this is a rented house so we can’t change them. My 1st Years Ukulele

It also seems to soothe Heidi when she has one of her ‘moments’. I can honestly say I’ve never experienced anything like Heidi before. If she’s not asleep, she’s screaming. She isn’t placated with cuddles, rattles, singing, rocking, a dummy… it’s all about The Boob. It’s not her fault, I think she has a nasty case of colic that means she’s pretty much uncomfortable all the time. Strumming the ukulele close to her head seems to intrigue her and you can see the look of bewilderment on her face. I think I even caught a smile yesterday (but that might have been wind). Heidi Sleeping

In fact, playing music to your child is thought to stimulate the brain in a way that helps educational and emotional development.There have been tons of studies on this that go wayyyy over my head but apparently it strengthens the neural bridges along which thoughts and information travel, therefore making baby able to retain, recall and process information quickly. I can’t speak for how true this is, but it sounds good hey? And just look at how chilled Heidi looks (above) when I was murdering Old Macdonald yesterday…

In any case, I love it. It’s incredibly dinky (measuring just over 50cm high) made of high gloss MDF, and sounds how a ukulele should as soon as you take it out of the box. As with all My 1st Year’s products it’s personalised (we chose Heidi’s name and date of birth but you can chose any 15 characters) which makes it an extra special gift as it’s the first thing she owns with her name on. The personalisation is on a little silver plaque on the headstock. This bumps it up into keepsake territory so it can be something she can treasure forever.

My 1st Years Ukulele Personalisation

But this isn’t all My 1st Years have to tempt you with. There’s also a vast baby clothes range with everything from robes, to rompers, to dresses, to shirts all of which can be personalised. If you’re looking for a lovely baby shower gift that is just that little bit special, you’re bound to find something unique, affordable and adorable. Here are some of my favourite pieces:

My 1st Years

Polkadot Hooded Baby Robe £25 / Personalised Waffle Teddy Bear £20 / Star Pattern Hooded Baby Robe £25 / Striped Footless Baby Grow – Grey & Ivory £12 / Organic Natures Purest Rag Doll £25 / Ditsy Print Wrap Baby Grow Set £20 / Bodysuit, Trousers & Hat Set - Boys £25

Heidi’s ukulele costs just £25 and arrives in a beautiful big gift box. You can check out this, as well as hundreds of other lovely baby gifts over on the website or say hello on Facebook or Twitter where there are also lots of fabulous giveaways to enter.

Disclaimer: I received Heidi’s adorable ukulele in exchange for my thoughts. All thoughts and opinions are my own.

 

Dec 6 2013

Rugs Fit for a Nursery!

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So now we’ve moved house, I now have two nurseries to create - one for Dexter, and something slightly more girly for the new baby (although not pink. Repeat. NOT pink). To say I’ve got a job on my hands is an understatement. Dexter has some bunting up, but his room still looks incredibly bare, and I have nightmares thinking about the neutral carpet in there. Although he hasn’t discovered the wonders of felt tips yet (on our firs attempt last weekend he bit all the tips off), it’s only a matter of time before he gets his mitts on a bottle of something fragrant from the bathroom and decides to squeeze the contents on his carpet.

I’m a massive fan of rugs from a protection stance. They may have slipped out of vogue for a while, but they’re absolutely back in and essential for a modern-day family where every room has cream carpets and off-white walls. As this house is rented, it’ll just give us peace of mind that the brand new carpets in here will stay bright and stain-free (think runaway-bum-changes and spaghetti-throwing… sigh…).

For me, rugs also bring a bit of personality to a room. We’ve just gone and bought a huge long pile rug for the lounge (who needs slippers when you have this under your feet), and they’ll be one in both of the children’s rooms too. In a rented home where you can’t paint the walls, rugs are often the ideal opportunity to add splashes of colour.

As Dexter’s room is currently white with a hint of blue, I’m thinking I’ll use a blue rug to tie everything together. He had a sheepskin rug when he was tiny, but now this has turned a curious shade of brown and really needs to go. To warm up the room I’d like something really quite big (his room is a double in its own right) and eye-catching to hide a multitude of sins and counteract the whiteness of the walls. These are the current front-runners from the children’s range at Inhouse Rugs. I really like the idea of the ABC or racetrack ones so he’s encouraged to play and learn in his bedroom.

For the baby, her room is much smaller. Current plans include a yellow and grey theme that is appropriately frilly without screaming ‘Girl’ at you from 5 miles away. I already have a grey mini cot from Mokee which I absolutely love. As I plan on breastfeeding in there, we’ll have soft lighting and relaxing colours that look as nice at 3am as they do in the sunlight. I plan on popping a distinctly more adult rug in there that will help keep the room lovely and warm for late night feeding. Here’s a mini moodboard of my plans! What do you think? Too grown-up?

With this in mind, here are my favourite coordinating rugs. I really like the idea of adding extra texture by plumping for something soft and shaggy. I can already see my nappy-clad baby rolling around in the long pile. If nothing else - it’ll be great for photos!

What do you think of my choices?

In collaboration with Inhouse Rugs

 

 

 

Sep 21 2013

GIVEAWAY & REVIEW: Win a Set of Zappie Wall Stickers for your Childs Nursery (CD: 21/10/2013)

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As we live in an age where technology is so integral to our lives, it’s great to see preschool products which promote a safe and healthy early relationship with technology. Zappie does just that and is sure to entertain and amaze preschool children by bringing their walls, furniture and clothes to life. It’s an interactive collection of wall stickers, gift cards, heat transfers (for ironing on t-shirts, pillow cases, curtains and more) and individual stickers for decorating your child’s chest of drawers, notepads, and anywhere else they fancy sprucing up. Simply scanning specific images through the free Zappie app will launch a bright and colorful video of a nursery rhyme on your smart enabled device.

Zappie is an innovative new concept which uses augmented reality technology to bring children’s pictures, characters and images to life, for the purposes of learning, development and play Zappie

The various products available from Zappie are based around 8 well-loved nursery rhymes.

I’m a Little Teapot
Five Little Ducks
Five Little Monkeys
Row, Row,Row Your Boat
Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star
Old MacDonald Had a Farm
Once I Caught a Fish Alive
Wheels on the Bus

We were sent the Old Macdonald wall stickers and a selection of other little stickers to try. The stickers were very easy to apply making it easy for tiny fingers to give you a hand. They also peel off easily so won’t mark up your walls.

The app was very easy to download to Craig’s iPhone and looks really engaging for little people - lots of colours and noise! The videos are great too - with moving animation from original artwork that matches the stickers, and melodies using real instruments. I’m not sure Dexter fully understood the relationship between the stickers and the app, but he was happy enough clutching daddy’s iPhone and watching the video.

I was also pleased to discover, you don’t need one of each of the sticker collections to unlock all of the nursery rhymes on the app. Although the tractor is the ‘key image’ needed to get access to Old Macdonald, you can also just click into each of the other nursery rhymes from the home screen in the app. Although this is great from a value for money stance, the app would perhaps be better if there were several key images in each of the collections to unlock all the nursery rhymes. This would give your child more to do and stretch the potential of the app further.

All in all, I love the concept of these stickers. Anything that promotes the early discovery of technology is a positive thing in my opinion. The idea of Zappie is to familiarise your children with technology and fire their imaginations. Allowing them to use your iPhone or iPad themselves to scan in the QR code promotes hand-eye coordination, attention to detail, problem solving skills and much more. The videos on the app are also great quality, and the stickers look fab on Dexie’s wall.

You can find out more on the website at www.zappie.com and watch videos of the stickers in action on YouTube, and don’t be scared to say hello or ask questions on Facebook and Twitter - they’re a very friendly bunch!

COMPETITION

For your chance to win a set of Zappie wall stickers of your choice (just like the one’s above) just enter via Rafflecopter! This prize is worth £21.99, and the app itself is free from Google Play or iTunes stores.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Disclosure: We were given the Zappie products in exchange for an honest review. All views and opinions are my own.

T&C’s – a.k.a – the boring bit!
    • Only 1 option is mandatory (leave me a comment) – the rest only improve your chances of winning so just complete as many as you feel like
    • UK entrants only – you must be over 18 too (sorry)
    • The winner will be contacted by email and must respond within 1 week of having been emailed (I’ll try all known avenues to contact them) or a new winner will be drawn
    • When the giveaway is closed, Rafflecopter will select the winner completely at random
    • The winners name will be published on this site

Win competitions at ThePrizeFinder.com

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