Steal this Idea*: One Big Letter

Its Friday (yippee!) - time for another Steal this Idea* feature - a tiny show of appreciation for a well executed tutorial. It will come as no surprise to anyone that a typography loving, font hoarding, diy project lusting person like me would appreciate today's project. Straight from the creative mind of Kate Bower over at Bower Power, comes a giant wooden letter DIY



Aside from it looking fabulous, it only cost her $7.25!

Anyone want to make a giant A for me?  Pretty please?

Bower Power needs no introduction but on the off chance you haven't already stumbled into all of the lovely projects that go on over there, go check them out here.

postscript: *When I say steal, I really mean borrow nicely and give proper credit!

**If you have an idea/tutorial you would like me to consider for a feature, email me. I'd love to see!

Most Useless Baby Stuff: Newborn Edition

As a new mom to be who didn’t want to be overloaded with a lot of extra junk, I tried to research all the baby items that were absolute musts for newborns.  I made careful notes and was judicious in purchasing. Turns out that some of those must haves just did not apply to us at all.  Like almost everything to do with baby, so much depends on what kind of mom you are and what kind of baby you have. The items that were life savers for other moms ended up being complete wastes of space for us.  So perhaps useless would be the wrong term.  Let's just say that these were least loved items I had stocked up on and ended up not finding all that critical.   With that in mind, I give you ...

The Top Ten Most Useless Least Loved Baby Items

1. Onsies.  This one seemed like a no brainer – everyone said I should have lots of these as baby will pretty much live in them. I had several in newborn, 0-3 months and 3-6 months sizes all ready to go.  It never even occurred to me that a baby born in the middle of winter wouldn’t have a lot of occasion to wear a onesie without some kind of pants to go with. And considering the number of diaper changes in those first few weeks, the last thing you want to do is add another thing to put on and take off.  Since she needed to be covered from shoulder to toe anyway, why not put her in a footie outfit and be done with it?  Yea, that’s what we did.  With the exception of one time, I never used those white onesies.

2. Diaper Pail.  I was sort of resistant to this one anyway but many people told me it was an absolute must.  So we bought one and then got another as a gift.  Guess what?  We have two unused diaper pails collecting dust.  Perhaps its my overwhelming aversion to having bins full of baby waste laying around but we simply throw it in the trash and take the trash out as needed.  Duh.

3. Boppy Pillow Not only was it useless at home, it was also one of the things I dragged with me to the hospital.  Everyone told me it (or one of the other products like it) would be critical.  I guess I must be an odd shape because my anatomy just didn’t line up with the boppy.  So it wasn’t helpful for nursing at all.  I thought it might be handy to use to put baby in on occasion but she isn’t a big fan of sitting in it in general.  It does make a pretty supportive pillow when I remember to use it but if I had never had it, I would have never missed it either.

4. Baby Towel  I know I’ve personally bought a lot of these for moms to be along with other cute baby bath stuff.  Never again. Much thinner and not nearly as absorbent as one of our regular bath towels.  It only took one bath to realize that using the cute towel wasn’t worth it. Skip that purchase and just use one of your own.

5. The Happiest Baby on the Block  So many people recommended this book to me so I ran out and read it quickly. I was somewhat shocked to finish it and realize the whole book can be summed up in 5 words.  Sure, those 5 words are very useful and I think its handy to know but save yourself the $10 and just read the jacket. 

6. Bundle Me I thought for sure this thing would be necessary since we were having a winter baby.  We did use it a few times but because we were using the car seat in the stroller for those first few months AND using a bundle me in the car seat is a safety no-no, it just didn’t make a lot of sense to put that thing in and out all the time.  The same cozy factor can be accomplished with blankets.  (That said, if I had used the stroller without the car seat right from birth, I think the bundle me would have been handy)

7. Any Swaddle blanket except the Miracle Blanket  Baby A was a world class escape artist almost from the moment we brought her home.  We were given or purchased nearly every kind of swaddle product that exists and the only thing that could keep her little arms in for the entire night was the Miracle Blanket.  Skip the other products and go right to the Miracle Blanket. 

8. Diaper Bags  I only have a couple of them but so far haven’t found any to be all that useful.  They are all too big and unwieldy for me to sift through while  trying to change baby in a public restroom.  If a good one exists, I haven’t found it.  Until then I’m just using a purse.

9. Baby Detergent Perhaps we just got lucky but this seems like a bit of a racket. Why did she need to have her own laundry detergent?  Baby had no reaction no matter what detergent we used.

10. Bottle washing doo-dads I’m referring to special baskets and brushes to help clean bottles.  The bottles we use were very easy to clean both by hand or in the dishwasher without any special tools.  Just buy the bottles and skip the rest.

So there you have my list.  I hope it will save someone from making the same newbie mistakes I made.

What do you think?  What was your most useless baby buy?    

Blessings

Last week we hosted a very small gathering to celebrate the baby's christening.  Despite my inclination to always go the extra mile for any occasion, we did keep it low key.  Of course I had to add a few special touches or I just wouldn't feel right.



In this case, there were three special touches (aside from plentiful food + drink which is always a must!):
1. a beautiful splurge: Sugar Couture made us a stunning cake to work with the pink and gold theme.  Penny does such amazing work!
2. a large visual centerpiece - giant mylar balloons that spelled out baby's name which we will be saving and using again
3. something whimsical - cut outs of baby holding onto a cluster of balloons were floating all around - such a big hit that everyone went home with a 'flat aggie'

Doing something simple was a change of pace for me but I'm kind of itchy to do something more my style for her first birthday party.  I'm torn on what since it would be around Christmastime.  Any winter baby mommies have any advice to share on birthday parties?