Christmas tale #1: shopping for a Santa sack

I have just hit purchase on a gorgeous personalised Santa sack for Miss S. Thanks Etsy!

Etsy store: MikesRevivals

Cute, huh? 

This year is Miss S' second Christmas. Last year she was almost nine months old (6 months corrected for her prematurity) so didn't really comprehend all that was going on. It was much more enjoyable for hubby and I and my family as we celebrated our first Christmas together and for my parents their first as grandparents (two grandchildren arriving within weeks of each other). 

This year, at almost 21 months, and 18 months corrected, Miss S has much more idea of what's going on. However, I think it will be another year or so before she understands the Christmas story and Santa. But that won't stop us taking her to Christmas mass and filling a sack with goodies from Santa. 

So, I started thinking about a Santa sack. Some people are into Christmas stockings, but for my sister and I we woke each Christmas morning to find a sack the size of a specially themed Christmas pillowcase full of presents. It was a lovely tradition from my mum. And it's a tradition I want to continue with Miss S. 

My Mum is a very clever sewer and I thought it was something she might like to do. However, she is recovering from surgery on one hand and about to go in for another operation on her other hand. Plus by the time she hunts around for material and puts it all together, Etsy seemed like a great alternative.

I could honestly spend hours looking through the products for sale on Etsy. So many talented people with amazing ideas. And yep, even Santa sacks. 

My mum, dad (yes even my dad, he needed to give the poppy thumbs up), hubby and I all thought this little reindeer was adorable and with Miss S' name on it, it is perfect. And all for $30 (including postage)

I've hit purchase and made the payment through paypal. Now I wait for it arrive all the way from London. Stay tuned for how the reindeer turns out!

I'd love to hear what you have bought from Etsy?

Mothers group: why it worked for me

For many first time mums, mothers groups are almost like a rite of passage. I know they can be a mixed bag, some mums love them and the friendships they offer and others find them a breeding ground for comparisons, guilt and competitiveness. My experience most definitely falls in the former.

My mothers group has been meeting for more than a year now, almost every week, for a regular catch up and play date with our little ones. We have shared our highs and lows, our runny noses, day care waiting lists, challenging and sleepless nights, milestones, first birthdays and all other manner of baby related topics. But we have also shared other aspects of our lives and who we are; our husbands and partners, our careers, our families and little snippets of information shared while juggling a hungry baby, changing a nappy and now chasing after adventurous walkers.

For me, that first meeting was a godsend. After living in our little community for five years and commuting into the city for work, I hadn't really had a chance to meet many other local women. I had hoped that when Miss S arrived, I would meet some local mums. By the time I arrived at my first get together of mothers group, Miss S had been in the world for over three months, but only home for a few weeks. Yes I'd had longer to get to know my little one, but it had been done in the hospital environment surrounded by nurses and doctors, and so being at home with Miss S and me as the responsible adult, meant I came into mothers group with all the same questions and concerns any new mum has.

And what I encountered was a group of mums, all going through the same thing, and a wonderful group of women who have become my friends, women I trust and genuinely like. We don't continue to catch up just because, but we do so because we like each other and genuinely enjoy each other's company. Our catch ups have extended to a mum's night out (planning for another one is underway), BBQs with our husbands and partners, birthday parties for our precious little ones and regular walking catch ups followed by a much needed coffee or in my case, a hot chocolate or tea.

I also have no doubt Miss S enjoys catching up with this little bunch of babies. They have seen each other almost every week for the past year and there is a sense of familiarity. Like most one year olds, there's not a lot of playing together, but I have no doubt in the years to come, they will be great friends. And yes, I do hope we will continue to catch up in the years ahead. Yes, it may become more challenging, if and when more bubs come along, all combined with day care, school and work, but hopefully we will still make the time to get together.

I have recently been asked by a few friends pregnant with their first hub about mothers groups and my advice has been to give it a chance. I think about what I would have missed out on had I decided a mothers group was not for me simply because I was worried about stories of competitiveness and constant comparing of babies. One of the many things I have learned since having a baby and having a baby prematurely is Miss S will do things on her time and so she should. Instead, as mums, we should enjoy the new experiences and friendships our bubs have brought us.

What's your experience of mothers groups? Did you meet other mums? Do you still catch up? What makes it work?

No sick bed for this mummy

The dreaded lurgy has hit our home and hit it hard. All three of us have been knocked down by three different and potent bugs. 

After a visit to the doctor, hubby and Miss S were handed prescriptions for antibiotics and I was left empty handed with age old instructions to keep up my fluids and rest. Rest?

Totally easy to do with a 16 month old.

So before Miss S entered our lives and changed them forever, hubby and I would have retreated to the safety and warmth of our bed, emerging only for food, water and bathroom stops.

Now, we had no choice but to battle through. 

So hubby spent the weekend on his sick bed and now the situation has reversed. Hubby is on the mend and I'm now feeling terrible. With one healthy parent on deck, I'm retreating to bed and resting up. 

I'll be back to the purple notepad once my head has cleared and I have emerged from the fog. 

What does your savings goal look like?

Product talk by Nuffnang

I don't believe that money makes people happy, but I do think it can make life a little easier and often less stressful. And having a family can be expensive (and I speak from experience). It's often a good time to sit down and re-evaluate your finances and goals. It can be really handy to put together a budget, even if you haven't done it before. There are extra expenses, often less income and a special little person or people who factor into planning your future.

My hubby and I are different in our approach to money and budgeting. Yes we have similar goals, especially now that we have a family, but I'm more of a spender and he is the saver.

But I will say, when I have a particular goal I am saving for I can knuckle down and save hard. When my hubby and I travelled overseas and saved for a deposit for our first home I had my goal and could see where I was heading. Once we had our home and mortgage, things changed a lot. Firstly, we didn't have as much disposable income and secondly, our big goal was to reducing the size of our mortgage while trying to build some savings.

I now have a new goal for my personal savings. I'm working hard to save for our first overseas holiday as a family. Once we had Miss S, I had visions of us heading overseas for a family holiday, similar to what we had done when we holidayed in the US for the first time in 2011. However after a 90 minute flight to Brisbane a couple of months ago when Miss S screamed for a large portion of the flight, I've had to rethink travelling with a child under two. So I'm now looking a little further into the future which means I have more time to grow my savings, bonus right!

I hope to travel to NY again, this time as a family 

Having a goal makes all the sacrifices and squirrelling away of money worthwhile. It's easier to forgo a new outfit or pair of shoes when the bigger carrot of a long, overdue holiday to a fabulous location is dangling over you. It's still a challenge to say no, but a little easier. 

A tool like myprosperity makes it easier to compile all your financial information and know its available in one place, making goal setting that much easier. If you're like me and have a few filing systems on the go, then it can be hard to keep a track of everything (tax time is lots of fun). Plus as everything moves online, I get so tired of having a zillion different logins and passwords all requiring strong passwords! Arrghh! 

So while I always have questions about the security of information and putting your details out there (definitely read the security policy and terms and conditions before signing up to anything), myprosperity can be a free handy tool to help you organise your financial resources and goals by category and hopefully help you reach them, big or small. Seeing where your money goes each week can help you find those spare few dollars each week to pop in a savings account for one of your goals.

Setting up a budget can be daunting and a bit overwhelming (all those spreadsheets and fancy formulas) but this is one tool that organises it all and not an excel spreadsheet in sight. And while a tool like this one will help organise financial information it won't take the place of investing your time and effort in knowing where you stand financially. It may prompt you to get your stuff sorted and head out on a bright new track and that's got to be a good thing right!

What are you saving for? Would a tool like myprosperity help you organise your finances and goals?

I can't resist...the royal baby

Well, things have been a little crazy around the purple notepad HQ with Miss S teething and not sleeping as well as usual, work and all those things that add up to keep me busy. As a result, my blogging time has taken a hit. But I'm back on deck, and I couldn't resist a quick post about the topic the whole world is talking about - the royal baby.

Wow, what a wonderful moment this morning (Australian time) to see the proud new parents leave hospital with their precious little bundle. While they may be the most famous parents in the world at the moment, it was nice to see them going through the same first moments all new mums and dads experience when they take their baby home for the first time. And it's nice to imagine them experiencing what all parents go through during their first night at home, (even if home is a cottage in the grounds of Kensington Palace) the feeding, crying, sleeping, nappies and the blur that is the lack of sleep.

I was so impressed the Duchess of Cambridge chose to show off her 'mummy tummy' as some in the British media are calling it. She looked beautiful, glowing and all in a perfectly natural way. No tummy tucks or Photoshop, just a beautiful new mum.

And as much as I love seeing photos of the Duke and Duchess, I hope they can relax and enjoy the next little while together, away from the media gaze.

So that's my little post on the royal baby craze, a wonderful moment in history and so nice to see two become three! I wish them all the happiness in the world.

What do you think about the royal baby craze? Love it or all too much?

11,000 photos in one year...how to preserve those precious moments

For many of us, photos are among our most treasured possessions. They tell a story, capture special occasions and remind us of our moments from our past. For most of us, they are among the first possessions in our homes we would grab in an emergency. But times are changing and a lot of our photos now sit on computers, hard drives and mobile phones or even in the cloud.

I recently put together a digital slideshow to mark my dad's 60th birthday and I managed to track down a handful of his baby photos. I had Mum running around organising photos of my sister and I as babies and children to include as well. While working on this project it struck me how in just three generations the number of photos we take to capture moments in our lives -especially our first year of life has increased to a incredible amount. Instead of lugging a camera to celebrations, outings and events, most of us now have a camera in our pockets or handbags, a camera we take everywhere. We no longer capture just the momentous celebrations and events, but every day life. 

One of my current projects is to pull together the photos from Miss S' first year, something similar to the baby album my mum lovingly put together for me. Of course, my photos are all digital. I don't have to take a film into the store, have the photos printed and then place them into an album. I've chosen to organise mine into a personalised album online and order a hard copy. I have culled all of the photos from those first 12 months, from just shy of 11,000 photos, yes that's right 11,000 photos to a more manageable 1200. A second round of culling awaits. 

So in three generations, the number of baby photos in our family has grown from a handful, around eight of my dad in his first 12 months, to me, around 300, and to my daughter, now sitting at an astonishing and pretty impressive 11,000. 

The discussion then moves to what to do with them. An album is a beautiful way of presenting and preserving them, but what about the ones that don't make the cut. After sharing this figure with my workmates, their advice was to store them all on a hard drive (done) and then in the cloud (need to explore further).

How to choose the best digital album for your photos?

For me, this was a big decision. I love photos, I love designing with them and I love displaying them. We were lucky enough to find an amazing wedding photographer who designed an incredible magazine style album for us. It set the bar high and showed me how the professionals do it.

I spent quite a bit of time researching both online and checking out examples in store. Most of the big companies who print photos also print albums now. Personally, I'm not convinced about the quality of the images, but if you're putting together a simple album and the quality of the image isn't essential then they are an affordable way of displaying your photos.

My ultimate goal was to find an album that would be perfect to display Miss S' first year so I knew I needed to have a test run. A couple of thousand photos from our holiday to the US in 2011 were still waiting patiently in a hard drive. I set about culling them and organising them into an album. I managed to place the photos into two albums, of about 100 pages each. And while it was a time consuming project, I really did enjoy reliving our trip and designing the albums.

I finally chose albumworks as the company to design and print my albums. A couple of reasons:

• the quality of the album
• the fact I could download the album design program to my computer and design in my own time and in my own space. I didn't have to login to a company's site and run the risk I could lose my design
• the program is user friendly, offers plenty of design options and is easy to navigate
• an Australian company - based in Melbourne. I could call with my questions, or email them
• Price - not cheap but I was comfortable with the value offered
• Finally, I ordered my first album titled - New York. And I was really impressed with the final product. I have had lots of family members and friends flick through the album and comment on how fantastic it looks. 

I'd love to hear what you have done with precious photos, how do you store your photos and how do you present your favourites?