Ikea kitchen: a quick review

Ikea toy kitchen - Duktig - giftNo, we’re not revamping our kitchen just yet!  Our main Christmas present for Scarlett this year (well, last year – happy new year!) was this Ikea kitchen.

We went full circle when we started looking.  She showed an interest in this Duktig in Ikea, so we went home and started researching bigger, fancier (and yes, pinker) kitchens online.  My bookmarks are still full of expensive wooden masterpieces.  But we got a grip.  She’s not even two, she already enjoyed playing with this one, and it does add up with the pots, pans, utensils and food.  This was a fantastic £49 total for the two bits (they split it into the bottom bit and the top bit), not including the accessories.  We did buy it on sale – it’s normally £65 for the two parts. Continue reading

Uniformly Christmas

Barry and I have been talking this week about Christmas decorations.  For a few years now, we’ve hauled the same stuff from under the bed to go on the tree, and that stuff is all red and silver.  Barry tried to put a red and blue bauble on the tree that someone had given us and (in my humble opinion) it stood out like a sore thumb.  It’s now mysteriously disappeared.

Which is better, coordinated colours or a festive free-for-all?  Growing up, my family’s tree was a mish-mash of various inherited baubles, balding tinsel and lights that you had to test every year, along with an artistic sprinkling of lametta at the end by my Dad.  I do think that makes for a welcoming tree, but it’s not like I’ve inherited any of these decorations, so we had to settle for Ikea’s finest.

I have been inspired by a blog for next year though – Jen from A Little Bird Told Me bought some hand-painted baubles from eBay and some ribbon and her tree looks amazing!  I think this may be the way to go next year (which, by then, our baby will be able to pull over herself, no doubt!).

Hope everyone has a very merry Christmas!

Oh, Christmas tree

Oh Christmas tree 2012Has everyone got their Christmas decorations up yet?  I spent Friday night doing that and wrapping presents.  Not all of the presents – I have a threshold – I managed about half and now I’ll have to wait another week before I can face wrapping anything more.

There’s a rule in our house that we can’t have anything Christmassy up until at least a week after my birthday, which is at the end of November (it’s usually two weeks but I jumped ahead this year because I’m excited about Christmas).

Most of my shopping is done now, just a few bits left to get.  On more of a countdown than usual this year as I’m finishing work at Christmas (hurray!).  Nine working days to go!

Booties

One of my schoolfriends who moved away to France after university is expecting the same day as me, so I decided to get crafty and make her a little present – here’s the result…

The booties were a lot less traumatic to sew than the supergirl boots!  I’m working on a sampler at the moment for the nursery, hopefully I’ll get a bit more time to do that when I’m on maternity.