Friday Funny...babies and Christmas tree fear!

This year I have to contend with Sam Sam Bam Sam and a fully dressed Christmas tree.

I already have the fear, after an incident at his class this week where he UN-dressed the Christmas tree,

broke the baubles and threw the tinsel on the floor.

This tree was artificial and only 1/2 metre tall!

So I am considering this style of Christmas tree instead!!

A Sam Sam Bam Sam dressed as a Christmas tree!

Safe and impossible to climb!

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Christmas Post... deadline dates

We use the Royal Mail here in the UK to send out our lovely gift wrapped presents!

Each year they let us know the "cut off" dates where they can guarantee delivery to you by Christmas, since we use their Special Delivery Service [so that your parcel is insured and guaranteed delivery by 1pm the next day] our last posting dates are the following:

For Australia, New Zealand, Japan & Asia - Wednesday 5th December

For Africa - Friday 7th December

For USA & Canada - Monday 10th December

For Europe - Wednesday 12th December

For UK - Saturday 22nd December

So please ensure you've left plenty of time for your gift to arrive to avoid any disappointment!

Pop over to www.unikgifts.co.uk now and choose a special gift for someone little to treasure forever.

Wordless Wednesday, A treat of a place setting for a Little One's Christmas dinner

click here

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Christmas... a time of traditions!

Christmas time is special, it's a time where we celebrate many things and we try to do it as a family. Which isn't as easy as it sounds. My family all live 100s of miles away, as does my husbands family, and while we'd love to have both families stay over the Christmas period we just don't have the space for them all. So we share our Christmas between them as much as possible one year with his family, one year with mine!

Sharing your Christmas with another family highlights some of the different family traditions your own family has! Since it's Dec. 1st this Saturday I thought I'd share some of my family traditions with you.

Little hands help decorate

1st December - Choosing the tree! We always have a real tree, and DangerBaby & Daddy run off to our nearest Christmas Tree farm to choose the tree. Once the tree is up in the lounge we decorate, all taking turns to choose an ornament to hang on the tree after Mummy has put the lights on! We don't use tinsel on our tree but it still looks festive once all the decorations are on.


5th December - St Nicholas Day! On the evening of December 4th we put out a shoe onto our doorstep  or near the front door. If we're on Santa's good list he leaves us some sweeties in the shoe to find on the morning of the 5th December. If we're on the naughty list we may find coal in our shoe...

Chocolate decorations may
not last long!!

24th December - Christmas Eve! Everyone is allowed to open one present from under the tree on the night of Christmas Eve. This is the time that we remember and toast those members of the family that are not with us for Christmas (they maybe far away).

25th December - Present opening, lunch eating and Christmas day walk is all we have to do on this day! The Christmas Day walk is usually done in silly Christmas hats - a tradition started when my Dad walked out still with the paper hat from a cracker on his head one Christmas!

26th December - Boxing Day BBQ!! We invite all our friends & neighbours over for a BBQ, regardless of the weather. We drink mulled wine and stand outside cooking sausages, steaks, burgers... and play games on the wet lawn (we even tried croquet one year without knowing the rules... it was a bit Alice In Wonderland!). Being outside blows the cobwebs away and the mulled wine keeps you warm.

So when we start to plan a 'traditional' Christmas in our house these are the traditions we have. We try to give at least one traditional gift, last year DangerBaby was lucky to receive her memory quilt for Christmas. This year Daddy DayCare is receiving something special... and traditional!

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Monday Mentor, Sine Fiennes

Sine makes beautifully soft cashmere pieces for unik gifts.
Cashmere for infants and little ones.
She makes with love and precision.
Her pieces are mathematically balanced to allow her designs to balance aesthetically.
Her seaming is invisible and her cashmere is sublime.
Her styles are classic and unisex to allow for them to be past from generation to generation.

Her cashmere story began when her twin girls, Francesca and Sicily were tiny. Frustrated with a lack of good quality infant cashmere pieces available to buy she decided she try and knit them herself. She sourced a second hand knitting machine and began to teach herself. Slowly her simple styles evolved. Always ensuring they were  easy to wear and wash as every new Mum knows is equally important to being warm.

Her sweaters are easy to put over babies heads. Her styles are unisex. Each piece is knitted by Sine. Each piece is made with love and made to be cherished.

Her girls are now all grown up and her pieces have grown too. She now knits her simple baby styles for grown ups too! Show cased in egg, Knightsbridge.

We are lucky enough to showcase her infant treasures on our unik website.

To read more about Sine's pieces read one of our Cashmere blog's here.

Today we celebrate Mummies who find a new skills and passion to make into a business when their little ones are born. 
Today we celebrate a  super Mumpreneur.

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Friday Funny...

Our Friday Funny

www.unikgifts.co.uk

Today we give thanks for all the things we try not to take for granted


Our Family

 

 




Our Health

Our Friends

And all the happy memories that they give us.

(Memory boxes available from unikgifts.co.uk)

Wordless Wednesday

Alun Partridge, Pol Ar-Bear, Rudolf, Robin Redbreast, and Chris Mouse.

Use them as place names at your Christmas Table!

unikgifts.co.uk

5 Weeks and Counting

Only 5 weeks to go...






Remember - our prices include all taxes.

We gift wrap for free -

We post by Special Delivery so your gift is with you the next day.

So we could be your last minute shopping saviours... COULD BE!







Our gifts are handmade, so sometimes we need time for it to be made just for you.

If we've not stocked up on your item, we need 1 - 2 weeks to order, and 1-2 weeks (minimum it's a busy time of year for Santa's elves) to make your gift.

So for something extra special, try not to leave it until December 23rd.

Check out our gifts by prices pages

http://www.unikgifts.co.uk/gifts/girlschristmasgifts.php  &

http://www.unikgifts.co.uk/gifts/boyschristmasgifts.php

Monday Mentor... Children In Need

On Friday night the BBC hosted it's annual Children in Need telethon appeal. The BBC's first ever broadcast appeal for children was a five-minute radio broadcast on Christmas Day in 1927. The response was phenomenal and it raised £1,143 18s 3d which was split between 4 prominent children's charities. Friday's total on the night was over £26 million!

In 1980 the appeal was broadcast on BBC One in a new telethon format, hosted by Terry Wogan with Sue Lawley and Esther Rantzen. It captured the public's imagination to such an extent that the donations increased dramatically and broke the million mark for the very first time.

Terry Wogan remains the telethon's mainstay who has been joined by a diverse line-up over the years that includes Joanna Lumley, Sue Cook, John Craven, Andi Peters, Gaby Roslin, Natasha Kaplinsky and Fearne Cotton.

The famous Pudsey Bear made his television debut in 1985 when Terry Wogan introduced the new, brown cuddly mascot to the audience.

Pudsey was designed by Joanna Ball, a BBC graphics designer, who named him after the West Yorkshire town where she was born. He proved very popular and returned as BBC Children in Need's official logo the following year with his design amended to that of a yellow bear with a red spotted bandage.

Children in Need has a very simple vision:

Every child in the UK has a childhood which is:

• Safe
• Happy and Secure
• Allows them the chance to reach their potential

The BBC continues to support children in the UK who are at a disadvantage, for whatever reason, through it's charity appeals.

So help them help the children:

DONATE - http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b008dk4b/features/cin-donate

The irony of this was not lost on me this morning!

Have a great weekend

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Thinking of snuggling under a blanket?

I'm just back from a quick holiday in Florida. The weather averaged about 27C and the skies were always blue!

Now that we're back, I feel that those long winter nights are definitely upon us, (in fact I started lighting the fire in the evening back in September).

As a family we're all blanket snugglers, Daddy likes the big silver furry blanket from the expensive shop on the Kings Road, Mummy likes her knitted cashmere blanket and DangerBaby likes her Shuktara Blanket as the roof of her 'tent' and her memory quilt as the floor, and her little person's duvet as the thing to sunggle under.

What would be your choice?

Shuktara blanket

Cosy cashmere knitted blanket

A handmade quilted blanket

Wordless Wednesday

No Oompa, click the icon here... Look let me show you!

Diwali, Festival of Lights

Today marks the start of Diwali, also known as The Festival of Lights.

We join in the celebrations with our Rainbow makers. 

Light catches the Swarovski crystal creating wonderful rainbows to dance and try and catch!

Enjoy!

unkgifts.co.uk

Monday Mentor- Madeleine Rogers

Mibo is the brain child of Madeleine Rogers. A surface pattern, textile designer who decided to go solo after finding little originality in home wares. Her modern lighting designs shone and her designs were quickly snapped up by The Conran shop, Liberty, Heals and Habitat.

Since Mibo was born in  2001, Madeleine's simple designs have moved into wallpapers, ceramics, paper and children's goods. Many of the make at home children's product she designs are just as popular with the Mums and Dads! Perfect for Kiddies and Kidults alike.  They encourage children to develop their motor skills and give a quite thrilling satisfaction of turning something initially 2D into something fabulously 3D. 

These 2D treasures are quickly transformed into these 3D gorgeous animals simply with scissors and glue. 

They are printed using vegetable dyes on recycled paper.We are lucky enough to showcase Madeleine's wonderful paper animals. Whether it be a group of Forest friends, naughty Easter chicks, Jets Setting animals or Festive Friends you'll be sure that these little fellas will give hours of fun.We spotted our Mibo Christmas Creatures in the Decembers issue of Mother & Baby Magazine. Placed perfectly in the "Our favourites" section of the magazine.

Where possible all Mibo products are made in the UK, using organic and recycled materials.

Meet, Rudolf, Polar Bear, Mr Partridge, Robin & Christmas Mouse and all their friends here.

Friday Funny

I couldn't resist! 

He could be SamSam!

Click here

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Wordless Wednesday- Undeniably our most handsome cheeky charming friend.

unikgifts

Bonfire night ginger cake...

2 cups of Self Raising flour

2 cups of Oats

1lb Golden Syrup

8oz Margarine or Butter

1 heaped teaspoon of Ground Ginger

1/2 tsp of Bicarb in half a cup of warm milk

Pre heat the oven to 150C 

Put the Golden Syrup (keeping it in its tin) into a pan of boiling water to warm (first releasing the lid). 

Mix the oats and flour in a bowl then add warmed syrup, margarine, milk and the ginger into the mixture.

Mix all of the ingredients together well. Pour into 2x2lb loaf tins or a Parkin tin and bake for 1 hour.

Serves 20

unikgifts.co.uk

Friday Funny

Something that made me chortle on Facebook yesterday. 

Courtesy of Jason Manford's facebook page (again)!

My Dad came into my room at 7am this morning while I was sat in bed with my daughters watching Disney's 'Beauty & the Beast' and started the following conversation.

"I feel a bit sorry for Belle""Why Dad?""Well she was just a peasant girl who fell in love with a beast who happened to be a Prince""Yeah so why do you feel sorry for her?"

"Because this story is set only a couple of decades before the French Revolution in 1789, 

so soon after this film finished her and her lovely Prince would've been caught up in the political upheaval of the day, the castle would've been taken over and the pair of them, no doubt hung in that very courtyard they're dancing and singing in right now" Open mouthed silence from us three.

"Don't listen to your Granddad girls"

unikgifts.co.uk

WASH YOUR HANDS! Stop colds & flu from spreading

I read this article recently on the BBC website.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-19834975

It's about how as a nation we have become really bad at washing our hands. Apologies that this is a lunchtime blog but really, as parents we need to be teaching our children how to wash their hands. Especially if your child is being weaned via the baby led weaning method.

Basic hand hygeine is essential for anyone who is eating finger food. Not just for babies.

Finger Food - healthy snacks if you wash your hands!

I remember washing and 'antibacterial gel'-ing my hands A LOT when we bought the baby home. She seemed so fragile, and while I have... now how did my lovely neighbour describe it... oh yes 'a healthy attitude to dirt', I didn't want to increase the risk of her being ill through careless hand washing.

In this flu season, most colds and flu will be spread via touch rather than through being sneezed on. So that handshake could be transferring more than a friendly greeting.

Mummies, the cold weather at least brings us the opportunity to dress our children with gloves, mittens, and hats (which we have some lovely examples here). This should protect them a little from the 68% of men who did not wash their hands after using the loo at a motorway service station!! Just think they then push a trolly around the supermarket... and your kid for some reason always wants to lick / touch the trolley!

Although colds & flu are viral, dressing up warm can't hurt!

And people sneeze into their hands, and wipe on a tissue... and then want to touch your baby 'ahh it's such a wee bain'.

Now I'm not putting my kid in a bubble but I'll be taking precautions this winter, especially now I know that we're no longer a nation of hand washers.

Parents of the next generation teach your children how important it is to have clean hands!