Thursday 26 June 2014

Posh new car seat! (and other things that happened today!)

Little princess seemed unimpressed at first!
Me, Elliott and Harper went to our local MASSIVE Mothercare to shop for car seats today, opportune timing considering it's belt-up Britain week and they have a sale on, and I do so love a bargain. I was not expecting the super bargain I got today, however! We've been planning on getting a carseat that stays in our car for a little while, so the belt-up britain thing seemed a good time to go and look! Weeeeellll, let me tell you a thing. I was correct, very good for me, for our bank balance and most importantly of course, for Harper's safety in the car.
We were looking at the Britax first class one at first, or the joie one that I forget the name now, they didn't rear-face for too long though which put us off a little bit.
She soon fell asleep though
Then, the lovely, lovely lady we were talking to said 'Oh! We have a car seat that's been reduced from £389 to just £88!' I thought I'd miss-heard at first, but she took us round the corner to a lovely Besafe izi combo car seat and sure enough, it was £201 cheaper than it;s original price purely because it's belt-fitted and not isofix. This car seat rear faces until little lady is FOUR, it has so much leg-room between the back and the chair itself so it's nice and spacious and it looks really comfy too (I'd quite like one myself to be honest) - another thing I like, that is perhaps a little less important than it's over all safety is that it has magnets. Magnets that hold the harness to the side when you put baby in the seat! Which you know... Simple things please simple minds, and I still reckon I have a touch of the ol' baby brain. I'm pretty sure that my brain's gone on holiday for the past three months... So, after our amazing saving we had a little bit of our original budget to spare on weaning spoons shaped like aeroplanes (adorable) and a super cute sleeping bag...And maybe a couple of toys. So little miss has been thoroughly spoiled today, but she's appreciated everything so far today, and has been enjoying sitting up in her donut ring with all her toys. She's suddenly decided that holding her own toys is the best thing ever (though that doesn't mean she's not more interested in playing with her dress, however).
Mummy isn't ready for this sort of independence!
In other news, Harper held her bottle herself for the first time today! We also got her weighed today, and at 14 weeks and 1 day Harper weighs a very healthy 14 pounds, meaning that she's put on half a pound a week since she was last weighed.
All in all, today's been a pretty good day, the new pram is a huge improvement and we got a shopping trip in without her crying again! Second time this week, we've cracked it!

Tuesday 24 June 2014

Feeling crafty!

Over the weekend I've been busy painting and making, some for customers, some for Harper... 4 for Harper. I've been hand painting baby clothes for a little while now and people seem to enjoy them so I thought I would share them with you too!
I'm going to get round to making a Facebook Page for it at some point, but obviously it's a bit difficult to find the time between looking after Harper, sorting my house (which takes an unfortunate back seat... oops) and updating on here, I need to think of a name for it really because it's something I really enjoy doing! If you see anything you like here, or have any other requests I'll absolutely give it a go! I love Adventure Time myself, so the yellow and purple bodysuits were already assigned a character each and then I got a bit carried away and made two more for her as well... If you would like something made for your little one you can email me here!
Just for reference, here's how the Lumpy Space Princess one looks on:
Isn't my model cute?

Saturday 21 June 2014

What a long week!

This week really has dragged by, it feels like each day was actually 48 hours each - which makes a change, usually there aren't enough hours in the day! Harper had her injections on Thursday so we've been kind of taking it easy since, though, thus far she's a lot better than she was last time! She's much more herself bar a bit of a tummy ache and a little temperature last night (nothing a little calpol didn't fix).
Excuse the litter tray!!
After her injections we went to collect her new buggy, because she seems to hate her silvercross one... She cries EVERY TIME we leave the house, which is nice, fun and not even a little bit stressful and I love taking her out it's a treat; but I digress - the new pram, the Babystyle Oyster seems to be going quite well! It parent faces which I think has made all the difference for her. I don't think she liked facing out and she got a little overstimulated looking out at everything, meaning that she didn't sleep even though she was tired. I got it for a steal on ebay, and it came with a lovely turquoise blue seat cover and hood, but I got a nice black and white spotty one for Harper because I want to put a nice pink bow on the hood... Before she does what I did as a child and refused to wear anything remotely pink or 'girly'. Aaaanyway, I love it. Love love love it. It's tiny when it's folded up, it fits beautifully in our boot, it's really easy to fold and unfold and also I love it. Did I already say that? Because I do. It's so light to push, and I like that it's parent facing because I can see Harper's face and hopefully avoid a meltdown before it happens! I would say that it's well worth the money brand new, purely for how compact and light it is - and all the customisation options! You can even get completely personalised ones in fabrics of your choice online, though I can't really justify spending that much money when I could make a bow and harness covers myself really! So we have a much happier mummy and a much happier Harper too when we go out! (So far at least!)

Thursday 19 June 2014

Review: Wyatt's Little Cavern striped scented candle


Firstly, I'll start by saying that this review is not sponsored in any way. No money or goods have been exchanged for this review, it's simply my own opinion of a beautiful handmade product I bought from a lovely page on Facebook!

My candle from Wyatt's Little Cavern arrived yesterday and I opened the box and immediately smelled Chocolate orange. Unfortunately chocolate orange is what I have craved since (and the craving is yet to be satisfied) so I am concerned that I'll burn it all and end up the size of a small apartment building! It just smells so delicious you want to eat it - I've not tried, probably won't, but I don't think it would taste as good as it smells... It came beautifully wrapped up with a handwritten note including a code for money off my next order - which will be placed!
The candle (as you can see) looks fabulous, it goes beautifully with my purple living room, and it makes the whole room smell absolutely gorgeous, even when it's not lit. Kayleigh is also very professional and friendly and you get your candle really, really quickly - which is even cooler knowing that she makes each one specifically for you by hand. I could not be happier with the service or the product and can 100% recommend that you buy candles from this lovely lady. She does so many different scents and colours completely specific to what you want made, at an absolutely fantastic price. My candle cost me £3 in a flash sale she had on the site, and I have been back and bought more of them (one in a jar, and another rose tin candle) that cost me £13 for both, including postage and packaging (which, have I mentioned was lovely? Because it was).I would say that the price is pretty damn good, considering how heavy jar candles are! You'll know just how good a price that is if you are a fan of scented candles - a small Yankee jar candle would probably set you back more than that just for one! So move over Yankee! I think I'll be buying my candles from here from now on!

If you are interested in buying from Wyatt's Little Cavern please click the following banner and it will take you directly to the page:

Wednesday 18 June 2014

13 weeks today!

It's been 13 weeks since Harper was born, and god GOD has it gone quickly. It feels like I only had her yesterday... Well, time-wise at least - I don't still feel like I've been hit by a bus (thank heavens for small mercies). It's amazing how much she's changed since then though, because 13 weeks (3 months tomorrow in fact) really isn't that much time in the grand scheme of things.
In that time Harper has gone from being a tiny baby who pretty much cried, slept, ate and pooped, to a bigger baby who does all that still, but smiles, 'chats', grumbles, looks for her mummy and daddy and tries her damned hardest to roll back onto her back when she rolls on to her front (and then gets cross when she can't). She also tries to grab things now and very rarely misses - showing that she already has better hand-eye coordination than her clumsy mother.

Looking at her comparison pictures through the weeks is amazing, I can't believe how much she's grown and changed, it makes you realise that she's not going to look the same from one week to the next and as the days go by she is learning, growing and changing all the time. I've been meaning to put them all side-by-side for a few weeks, and now that I have it's hit me like a ton of bricks how much she's grown since day one, and though you don't see it in the pictures really, she's getting a little personality too. It's the best thing in the world to wake up to a cheeky smiling baby first thing in the morning, not so much when she realises that she's positively starving and starts screaming at you for her bottle!

At this point, we have a sort of routine established, but obviously her napping schedule is now a little unpredictable still, more-so now that she sleeps through the night. Sometimes she has sleepy days, other times she does. Not. Sleep. All. Day. Those are long days. Very, very long days because it's usually accompanied by a lot of whining because she's tired. She's so nosey though, that it sometimes gets the better of her, so much to look at, she couldn't possibly sleep!

Her 13 week picture and her 3 month picture are very similar this month, and that would be because I took them both today on account of her injections being tomorrow - she was poorly last week. So the 3 month picture will be posted at some point this week, it all just depends on how my little gets on with her vaccinations this time because she didn't like them at all last time (and neither did I!) In my next update I will be reviewing a beautiful handmade candle made by Kayleigh at Wyatt's Little Cavern, I've provided the link for you to go and check out in the meantime!

Tuesday 17 June 2014

Oh, Hello!

The first words I ever said to my daughter, and apparently the first that I'll write to you. It seems to be my go-to thing when I don't really know what to say. I never know what to say in introductions.
You know when you see someone you like sat across from you and you want to introduce yourself, but you're not sure how? Well, this is that. I want to introduce myself (and my family of course) to you, but... I'm not sure where to start really. I guess it'll have to be with my name!
I am Laura, I'm 23 years old, I am married to Elliott and he is 26. We have a little girl called Harper who was born in March this year and I am taking the 5 minutes I have to myself until she inevitably wakes up to write this. She's snoring though, I might even have 10! On to us, anyway!

We are your average young family from Essex, England. Well and truly average. Elliott is working on running his own business and I am a stay at home mummy to my gorgeous little girl. We don't have a parenting style really(that's a thing I see online a lot) we just seem to do what works for us. We use cloth nappies, so if I';m not consoling a crying child, feeding said child or trying (and often failing) to keep my house tidy, I am up to my elbows in washing. I wouldn't have it any other way though. You'll quite often see me talk about cloth nappies, the ones we use most often are tots bots easyfit or other various all in ones- I strive to find the laziest ways to be eco-friendly. 

In my (limited) spare time I like to take photos (my instagram is 'mummysee_mummydo'), draw, paint, make... anything really! I am so excited about one day being able to paint and make a big mess with Harper - though that won't be for a little while yet, so please don't think I'm wishing her life away because I am enjoying every second of being her Mummy (well, almost, being pooed on isn't entirely enjoyable). Before I ramble on about myself too much, which I probably already have, I'll leave you with a couple of links that you might want to follow to find out more about me and my family:
And if you want to contact me for any reason, you can email me right here!