PRETTY YOUNG THING

I was talking to my sister the other day about useful gifts. Amelia is such a lucky baby and we are very lucky to have such wonderful people around us who wanted to give us and Amelia gifts. I had a baby shower so was gifted alot of products at that and then we received more gifts when she was born and then even more for Christmas.

I thought i'd share a few nice gift ideas and some useful gifts. Are you someone who usually buys a blanket or a comforter or teddy? Amelia has so many blankets and even more soft toys, it just seems a waste because there are some that she will never play with or use the same with the blankets, she just has so many and we use them alot but we tend to have our favourites that we stick to.

If you want to buy a soft cuddly toy why not opt for a personalised teddy like this bunny from My1stYears, it's abit more personal and will be a lovely keepsake.

These little Enamel Pins from Old English Company are a lovely gift idea for an expecting or new mum. They will look fab on a changing bag or mum can pop them on her favourite jacket! Head over to the Old English Company website to enter their competition to win a set of Enamel Pins including this 'The no sleep gang' one pictured above.

One of my friends bought us some weaning bits for Christmas and it was such a good gift. Weaning just kind of springs up on you and all of a sudden you need to buy bowls, spoons, cups, highchairs, bibs etc and it becomes quite over-whelming and expensive. We have these munchkin spoons and they are really good. We picked up a few bits from Boots, mostly Nuby, Munchkin and Boots own brand bits. They actually have their baby event on right now so you can save yourself some money.

The Lamaze toys are amazing, Amelia loves them. She has a couple of things and my sister has the peacock and Amelia loves that too! I'm going to buy her one on payday. They are really bright and colourful and have lots of sensory bits for baby to play with. I spotted a few of the Lamaze toys on 2 for £15 over on Argos which is a bargain as they usually retail for around £11+ each. Clint's mom actually bought Amelia a Lamaze toy for Christmas and she loves it! We didn't open it right away and it was lovely having it in her room and when I thought she was ready and would appreciate it I got it out of the box and didn't have to worry about popping to the shop or spending money on toys.

We were bought lots and lots of bubble bath, shampoo and baby lotions etc... alot of it was Johnsons and I know there's lots of controversy about Johnsons not being great for baby as it can be drying. I have really sensitive skin so there was a good chance Amelia would too, she actually has eczema so I ended up giving so so much Johnsons stuff away, we were actually told by the HV not to use it on Amelia. I was gifted some bits from Burts Bee's and Child's Farm and i'd really recommended buying something from one of these brands if you wanted to buy skincare bits as a gift.

I'm loving this Print from Old English Company, they have lots of other prints to choose from, it's another nice keepsake gift to receive. The parents can pop them up in the nursery and they will be there for a good few years. It's a nice gift and makes the nursery look more finished and personal.


I hope you liked my gift ideas. I think they would make lovely gifts for a baby shower or to celebrate the arrival of a new baby. You don't need to spend loads of money, all of these gifts are very affordable. I don't want to sound unappreciative but we got so so many useless gifts and I feel bad that people wasted money. I have already donated things that we haven't used so that less fortunate people can benefit from these things.











* Collaborative post

It was my baby shower yesterday so I thought i'd share a few pictures from the day. I thought it would be nice to document the day on my blog so I can look back at it but also so people who are planning a baby shower can get a few tips and ideas.

We did it on a Sunday afternoon as I felt this would be a good day for most people who work Monday to Friday,  on the invite I said from 3pm onwards so there was no pressure for everyone to arrive at 3 but most people came between 3-4 which was good. We had a few people who came abit later due to work commitments but as I work in retail I was expecting this to happen.

The day was pretty casual, I just wanted people to have a good time, eat some food and have a drink and mingle. We organised a few games but there was no obligation to play them and they were just dotted around for people to have a go. We did stick the dummy on the baby which went down well!
We also did Guess what's in the Nappy and Guess the baby food, These were good because people could play if they wanted to and they could do so at their own pace.

We also had some areas for people to leave messages for us, my mom had seen an idea on pinterest where people write on nappies so you have some fun messages to read when your changing the babies bum. We also had a little station with prediction cards and some note paper for people to leave messages, I think I'm going to make a little scrapbook of my baby shower and include these in here.

We had lots of amazing buffet food and my mom made my amazing cake and she also made the cupcakes. We had sandwiches, pizza, sausage rolls, and your usual party food, snacks, sweets etc. We wasn't sure if people would be drinking alcohol or not, apparently people don't usually drink at baby showers because the mom can't drink but it didn't bother me so we bought some wine, we did Prosecco with elderflower cordial which went down well and lots of soft drinks like juice, coke and more. I wanted to make a mocktail but we didn't have time in the end.

As you can see we had lots of decorations balloons, bunting, pom poms so everywhere was very pink. Everyone was really impressed with the decorations and it looked fab. My mom also made a nappy cake which was a really lovely gift idea as well as a gorgeous decoration.


We were very spoilt and my lovely friends and family went crazy with the presents, cards, balloons and vouchers and we are all very lucky and blessed to have such amazing people in our lives and bubba is one lucky and very well loved baby already. We had lots of amazing gifts and I have no idea where everything is going to go, little bubba has lots of clothes, toys and I don't think we will ever need to buy bubble bath, baby lotion or shampoo.

I need to get some Thank You cards for people to thank them all for their generosity. I also need to thank my amazing momma for pretty much organizing everything and making the amazing cake. Clint was amazing too, he was around in the morning to help us with food and last minute decorations and ended up staying all day he took photos and made sure everyone's drinks were topped up and he made sure I was eating and drinking. The day was quite overwhelming and we had alot of people in the house and I did struggle a little with being stood up and mingle-ing but I think we managed and i'm sure everyone had a lovely day.

My baby shower is next month so I thought i'd share a few baby shower gift ideas. I tried to think of a few things that we still need to get or things that would be useful to be gifted at our baby shower.

I think everyone tends to go for clothing as buying baby clothes is so addictive and you can't really go wrong. I have included this pack of 3 sleepsuits from Next. I love the baby clothes from Next, they are so soft and very affordable and they have some really on trend pieces.

We have been looking at Ollie the Owl since it came out a few months ago! I think it's such a good product that any parent would be happy to recieve for their newborn. Ollie the Owl is a light and sound sleep aid. With a built in cry sensor it's such a good gift idea for any expectant parent. It's suitable from birth and you can use on a cot, pushchair or carseat using the Velcro attachment.

Also from the lovely people at The Gro Company are grobags, I think alot more parents are using sleeping bags now as they are really safe. They have lots of patterns, prints and togs to choose from.
I know one of my friends is getting us a grobag for my baby shower and I think it's such a good gift idea.

How cute is this Emma Bridgewater mug, i've wanted one for ages but I have so many mugs, i'd love someone to get me the Mummy one, it's so cute. They also do personalised ones, and I think i'll have to buy bubba one with her name on as a little keepsake.

Finally, this changing mat is so gorgeous, it's from a brand called Mama Shack. I'm going to order it on payday as I love it and i'm gonna have it personalised with bubbas name, i'm super excited. It would be a lovely baby shower present. You don't have to have the babys name you can have it personalised with a quote or even the surname if you are keeping the name a secret or haven't picked one yet.

There's so much you could buy, don't just go from clothing as everyone buys clothes. Ask the momma if there's anything they need, incase they haven't bought something and you can get that for them, when your having a baby you have lots of random stuff you need to buy, i'm getting my sister her sterilizer as we're both having girls and she will more than likely get lots of clothes once my baby has grown out of them. You can get lots of personal gifts now too online like prints and blankets etc.





* I have not been paid for this post