With Bean's arrival imminent, I have been thinking a lot about gift ideas.
As the baby is the first cousin for my nieces I wanted to buy a gift for them from "The baby" as a kind of "Hello to my big cousins" greeting.
I also started thinking about ideas of gifts for new Dads and Grandparents, as well as the more obvious gift issues that people face when a new baby is born - gifts for the new arrival and new Mum!
I know that when my sister had her babies, I was stumped for unusual gift ideas - I wanted to get her something special and a bit out of the ordinary, and I didn't want to fall into the trap of buying something that is purely for the baby - after all, a new Mum (particularly a first time Mum!) has just been through 9 months of pregnancy and then the birthing experience - they deserve a little pampering from their nearest and dearest!
So, with this in mind - I have created a gift guide that I wanted to share with you of ideas I have had for other people, as well as gift ideas for the new baby and Mum To Be which I think are absolutely lovely!
1. For The New Arrival - BabyBlooms!
I received a BEAUTIFUL posy from www.babyblooms.co.uk this week and I have to say, I was absolutely blown away by how beautiful it is!!
I was so excited even before I had seen the posy as even the outer packaging was lovely!
BabyBlooms offer many really creative new Baby gifts - their main offering being their beautiful bouquets - which are an arrangement of beautiful artificial flowers mixed in with baby wear (bibs, socks, hats, etc) designed to look as though as they are flowers which are part of the arrangement!
They really are absolutely stunning - so beautiful in fact that I'm a little bit concerned that I will never actually take the socks and other items out of the bouquet because they look so stunning!
I received the natural posy, which is contains 5 pair of socks, a bib and a hat all in size 0-3 months.
It arrived in a gorgeous box and looked absolutely breathtaking before I had even lifted it out....
And once I did, it was just as gorgeous! It is wrapped just as you would expect a real posy of flowers to be wrapped, finished with a lovely ivory ribbon.
The bouquets start from £26.50 and come in Pink, Blue, Neutral or Bright - they even offer special bouquets for twins!
BabyBlooms also offer lots of other creative items, including these Pyjama Cupcakes (which I ADORE!):
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and these Bib Ice Cream Cones which start from just £6:
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You can even buy single Rosebud socks for just £3.50!!!
There are many more New Baby items available from BabyBlooms - including TShirt Lollipops, Gift baskets, Clothing sets, Photo frames and LOADS more!
I will certainly be using this company a lot in the future for any new arrivals that I want to spoil! :)
2. For The New Mum - Spa Day At Home Pampering Products!
After 9 months of pregnancy and then giving birth, new mums could definitely do with the opportunity to pamper themselves! But with a new baby, a day at the spa just may not be possible for everybody.
So these lovely At Home Spa products from Arbonne's Sea Source Detox Spa range make a really lovely gift!
I personally have sampled their Foaming Sea Salt Scrub (£24) and Detoxifying rescue wash (£28) - both of which are really lovely - they're indulgent and luxurious but at the same time you can tell that they're doing you good too!
Available from www.arbonneinternational.co.uk
3. For the new Daddy - Something Personal!
Most men have something in particular that they are into - whether its cars, football, etc - in the case of Bean Daddy - its robots!
I don't know why but he loves anything to do with robots - so when I was browsing www.notonthehighstreet.com for a "New Daddy" gift from Bean for him, this caught my attention straight away!
I haven't received it yet (and I can't show it yet anyway because I can't reveal babies name until my competition has ended! hehe!) but it is basically a personalised Bottle Opener Keyring with a greeting from Bean!
I can't wait to give it to him as I'm sure he will love it! Prices start from just £6 (depending on how many names you want to be included, etc) which I think is a real bargain!
4. For the siblings or cousins - celebratory T shirts!
I have been searching all over the internet for ideas for gifts for my nieces to celebrate them becoming "big cousins" and have finally settled on Personalised T shirts!
I will be ordering one each for them, with the text "I'm a big cousin!" and their names printed on them.
There are many websites offering these services, I will let you know when I've decided which one to go with and what I think of them when they arrive - I think these make really cute keepsakes as well as nice gifts, and I am also planning on buying an "I'm the little cousin" babygro for Bean to wear so that we can get pictures of the 3 of them together wearing them! :)
5. For the Grandparents - Something for the Kitchen
The Bart Ingredients Company have launched their own Periodic Table of Herbs & Spices, which has been developed by a ‘taste team’ that included Peter Barham Professor of Molecular Gastronomy and Dr. Polly Russell, Food Writer and Historian.
It was created to inspire home cooks to experiment with different ingredients in their signature dishes, as well as use up spices lurking in their cupboards that they were unsure on cooking with. It is colour coded into ‘cuisines’ and then categorised in terms of the flavour type; i.e. “Citrus”, “Warm” and “Aromatic.” The herbs and spices are then ordered from mild to intense flavours so you can easily decide how full you want the flavour to be in the dish.
It is downloadable from the Bart Ingredients Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/TheBartIngredientsCompany - and best of all?! It is completely free!!
I think this would make a lovely gift for a new grandparent!
Flubit.com
And finally, if you are considering buying ANY kind of gift for anybody from a website - you might want to check out the fantastic new website www.flubit.com
Basically, Flubit is a new online service which allows you to enter the URL of a product that you are considering purchasing - and they will come back to you within 48 hours with a BETTER offer on the product!
If you're not in too much of a hurry, I can't see any reason why anyone wouldn't want to use this! Its a completely free service and you are under no obligation to buy when you ask for a better offer - What a great idea?!
I have been asked to review Flubit's service and so have made my first purchase with them this week, once my product arrives I will be reviewing the service in full and talking my readers through it step by step! :)
