Thursday 27 November 2014

Notable 'grams: Brooke Fraser

This lady is my hero. Anyone who's known me for a month or more knows that I LOVE her music!!! Brooke Fraser.

She's just released her fourth album 'Brutal Romantic'. 

I'm heading to her Sydney show March 18 next year and can't wait!!!!


A photo posted by Brooke Fraser (@brookefraser) on

You can check out her website here

Tuesday 25 November 2014

My Top 7 Baby Discovery Baskets

I don't know why I didn't do discovery baskets sooner.

They sound difficult to organise and fiddly and time consuming. They aren't. And babies love them.


Essentially, the idea is to fill a basket with everyday items (baby safe items, of course) from around the house or garden and make it accessible to bub in their play area. That's it. And my bub absolutely adores her basket. It is the go to play thing above so many other toys (that cost us a lot more than the contents of that basket). I would say they are better for a baby six months or older who can sit up and grasp objects easily. And make sure the basket is light weight and baby safe too as babies are often attracted to this as a toy as well.


Mix up objects from across different themes or have a specific theme in one basket.

Here are my top SEVEN discovery baskets:




Photo credit, D, Garding

Monday 24 November 2014

So you're going to have a baby.... A rough guide of what to do first

A faint pink line, a plus sign, a digital read out that screams PREGNANT. However you first discover that there is a little life growing inside you, it's a moment you'll never forget and comes with a huge range and mix of emotions. After chatting to a few friends (new mums, hopeful mums, not too far off mums and any other life stage centred around 'two becoming three' mums) and reflecting upon my own experience, I've realised that there can be a fair bit of confusion about what you should do when you find out you're pregnant straight away. So here is a rough guide of what to do first (and a bit before and later)...

Note: I've tried to include a few different perspectives here. AND, this information is specifically for women based in NSW, Australia as other states and countries may have different systems and ways of doing things.



Photo credit, Ryan


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Sunday 23 November 2014

Baby and Family Menu

I am often scouring Pinterest and searching on Google for family friendly meals that will easily convert into beginner finger food for my nine month old daughter. In my search it seems that there are many many other mums out there who are doing the same. I decided that since my daughter is not currently starving that I would track a week or so of foods that have happened in our house and share them here. Maybe if a few of us did the same there would be some excellent, practical resources out there for sparking creativity in the kitchen (and easy ideas!). I hope the list encourages you that you're probably already doing a great job.



Photo credit: Donnie Ray Jones 

I try to avoid a lot of packaged food and always love things that are simple. I try to include variety but this is by no means a perfectly balanced meal plan. It is me doing my best during a pretty average week with its normal change ups and routine. Enjoy!


Sunday

Baby Breakfast ~ weetbix and boiled water with some cows milk added, dry toast fingers

Mum's Breakfast ~ coffee, mashed avocado on toast and a hard-boiled egg (3 leftover hard-boiled eggs go in fridge for later. I write the date on them with a marker.)

Monday 10 November 2014

Reflections on Wardobes

Ergh. We all know that sound we make when we're fed up, trivially annoyed at something or slightly disgusted at ourselves or our situation. 

Just ergh. 

Like when you open the fridge after feeling sick for a week and you still don't want to eat anything inside it. Or when you have just spent an hour making amazing pumpkin soup and the very first mouthful ends up on your light-coloured T-shirt. 

It was exactly the sound I made when I pulled down the stashed space bag from the top of our wardrobe and started sorting my pre pregnant clothes. 



Tuesday 4 November 2014

Notable 'grams: Love My Bambino

This lovely lady's online store is making me all excited for Christmas with the littlies. My notable 'gram of the week goes to these gorgeous chrissy baby girl headbands!!!! Get on down to Love my Bambino to pick one up or just oggle the very gorgeous baby and kids range. 


Monday 3 November 2014

Lessons Learned: Family Road Trippin'

I think the first family holiday must be some kind of rite of passage for a mother. It puts your planning and list making skills to the test and reveals the type of parent you really are. In my case, I was that mum who had the wall space above our spare bed covered in colour coordinated lists with squares instead of bullet points for easy tick-offing. The suitcases were open and piles of clothes and necessities were stacking up a week or more before the day of departure. This was going to be an almost three week trip. And I was going to be prepared. 

Overall, it was such a special time for our new family and the hundreds of photos we did take just don't do it justice. It's one of those times in your life you wish an invisible cameraman was following you and later, whenever you want, you could pull out the video archives and replay the memories. I'd like to think all the hard work I put into planning helped it be such an enjoyable time. Here are some valuable lessons I learnt throughout the process of planning, packing and travelling on that first family holiday. 



Photo credit, Jim Champion