2013 Christmas Gifts

~ Posted on Friday, December 20, 2013 at 12:08 AM ~

I have previously blogged about our yummy Christmas gifts to hubby's business clients which showcased gifts we DIY and baked and customised since 2008 to 2010. For 2011, we made some awesome Christmas ribbon trees and then for 2012, we made Christmas trees and houses made of snacks and treats for hubby's clients.

This year, 2013, it is really getting MORE and MORE challenging. With 3 kiddos in tow and time constraints as well, it is really a tough task to complete, though thank God, we made it!

We started cracking our heads on the theme for this year's gifts and hubby came up with the snowman idea. We then have to think what we can use to make the snowman. We have always tried our best to handmade if not all, the majority part of our gifts as we believe in putting in some form of uniqueness and personal touch in our gifts (instead of just buying ready-made hampers etc)

So I came up with my first draft of how our snowman should look like. We planned to get 2 plastic containers and stacked them up, filled them with snacks, candies and treats and put the snowman in a basket.

Snowman DIY Crafts

This was how we wanted the snowman to look like. I took this shot while hubby was in the car taking care of our 3 kiddos. Yes, the whole family have to go out and tag along as hubby and I have to decide together on what to get and how it should look like. Then hubby bought the ribbons and baskets while I get the buttons and other decoration items.

Snowman DIY Crafts

The next challenge is to decide how to make the snowman. Spray it? Paint it? And finally hubby said 'We do the Papier Mâché style.' And so begins the laborous tasks to shred newspapers, wet each pieces with glues and stick the first layer and then we need to add more newspapers near the container's base to puff up the snowman for it's belly and head. Picture below on left is the first result after pasting the newspaper on the containers.

Snowman DIY Crafts

Picture above on right is the first result after hubby add in the fillers to smoothen up the snowman, sand papering them and painting about 2 coats of white paint over the snowman. At this point to be honest, hubby was losing confidence in our snowman as some of them are cracking up and making holes when we hold them up and while I persevered on and kept on telling him it looks nice and not to compare our snowman with the commercial adverts showing those smooth rounded snowman image.

I did at one point lost my confidence too when I accidentally cracked one of the snowman just as I picked it up to investigate whether it has dried up completely. I felt so down that I began to make another prototype using ribbons and stuff. Hubby got home, saw my prototype and went 'No. We use our Papier Mâché snowman!'

The next day, he started making the snowman's nose, I gave him an orange colored marker pen and upon gluing the nose onto the snowman head, it really starts to look real nice. I immediately see hubby's face lighting up and as we drew the eyes and mouth (Ben even drew one of the snowman's mouth!) and started gluing them onto the snowman's head, followed by the buttons on the snowman's body, by then it really looks more and more awesome!

Snowman DIY Crafts

Then hubby had to rush out for an appointment and while our kiddos take their lunch, I continued onto touch up the snowman's hat with some tiny glitter stones on the hat's surface and also putting a ribbon all around the hat's base. I also started stuffing the snowman's body and head with snacks, treats and candies.

As for the snowman's hands, I used 2 toothpicks, 1 acted as the arm, while another 1 is broken into 2 as the fingers. Then I used a white paper plaster to plaster up the arms and the fingers. Final touch is to color up the hands with brown crayon. I couldn't find my brown marker pen, so crayon it is!

When hubby got home in the evening, we continued on to seal the snowman's head with a white crepe paper, secured with rubber bands and then we just put on the head onto the snowman's body. I then proceeded to cut out a long strand of red ribbon to tie up around each snowman's neck. Each of the snowman has different scarf style!

Next, we glued the hat to the snowman's head and hubby started adding snacks and treats into each basket where we put in the snowman. After all snacks and treats have been added into the basket, hubby started gluing and pasting the hands onto the snowman. After our kiddos went to bed, I quickly designed the greeting cards, printed them and pasted them onto postcard and cut out the cards accordingly. Punched a hole into each cards and string them with a nice green colored ribbon.

And so we present to you now, some pictures taken of the 2013 Christmas gifts for hubby's clients:

Snowman DIY Crafts

I personally like the one below, the snowman looks so cute with his tiny little O-shaped mouth, as if he is surprised with something!

Snowman DIY Crafts

Snowman DIY Crafts

Like I mentioned earlier, with 3 kiddos in tow and time constraints as well, it is really a tough task to complete this year! I think hubby did most of the tasks (the idea, the painting, etc etc), I only managed to papier mâché a few of the snowman's heads and bodies as everytime I tried to sit down to paste the newspaper shreds, either baby Carolyn will cry or Alyson will be disturbing Benjamin or vice versa.

Anyway, that is history now. The important thing is our job is finally done and I'm glad to see hubby's happy face at the results of our gifts this year. I hope hubby's clients will like their snowman too!

So what do you think of our gifts this year?

** Note: I have disabled the commenting feature on my blog engine thanks to all the spammers who happily spam my blog every day. If you wish to ask me any questions, you can find me at my Facebook page (I'm there almost everyday) or just drop me an email if you wish to maintain some anonymity.

The 2013 Big Bad Wolf Books Preview Sale

~ Posted on Thursday, December 5, 2013 at 11:07 PM ~

Last week, hubby received the free passes to the 2013 Big Bad Wolf Books Preview Sale and so this post is to document down our 1st experience in attending the preview sales. I have attended the BBW sales in 2012 but that was like in the middle of the sale period and I was there for 2 hours with my SIL who babysat Benjamin (they went to the indoor playground there) while her pre-teen daughter went to the sale with me babywearing Alyson then.

This round, hubby accompanied me to the preview sale. We left Benjamin and Alyson at our SIL's house and only brought Carolyn along (she's in her stroller the whole time) I told hubby to take charge of the luggage bag while I just took the Toysr'us bag with me while I pushed Carolyn in her stroller. Here are some pictures taken that I can share with you:

Basically for this round, I am going for children books (mostly Scholastic ones) as well, price ranging from RM3 to RM15 for the ones I got. I think this year selections are not as interesting as last year's though I am VERY happy I get to buy a couple of Scholastic books which definitely are expensive (as I googled on Amazon before hesitating to buy due to the price)

There are quite a lot of encyclopedia/picture dictionaries for childrens as well though I was not interested in them at all. I was more interested in getting activities and learning books for our 4.5 years old boy who is going to start his pre-school in Jan 2014. I would like to get him something to nurture on what he learned in his pre-K later - something he can do when he got home from his pre-K classes (half day). I also managed to grab a couple of toddler books for our 2 years old Alyson (learning ABC, 123)

Pictures of some of the children books I managed to snap to show my buddy over WhatsApp:

Pictures of the view inside the building:

I gotta stop to breastfeed our 2 months old girl somewhere facing zone E, which is very nice and cosy though I had to sit on the floor. I don't mind really... :)

Pictures taken as we went to one of the aisle to pay for our books. The staff are courteous, helpful and quick to act. Good job! Too bad the credit cards machines jammed up and took VERY long to respond, we ended up paying with cash as we couldn't wait any longer.

We were there from 5pm to 8pm and total damage RM412. Pictures of our loot (kiddos, mine and hubby's - some of the books are for our friends and clients):

From what I can remember on the floor plan,the moment you enter the entrance door, all the way straight in is the children section, right side has young adults section, the toilets are located on the right side as well, cashier lanes on the furthest left side. Books on the left section are religions, self-help, travel (lots of them), cookery (lots of them too!)

That's all I can think of to share for now! Feel free to ask and share on my Facebook page if you have questions or feedback!

(** Apologies for making you hopping to my FB page as I have disabled the commenting features on my blog due to the excessive annoying spams that keeps attacking my blog the moment I enabled the commenting feature.)

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Day...

~ Posted on Monday, December 2, 2013 at 8:02 AM ~

I started my breastfeeding journey since March 2009, when our 1st child was born and I never stopped breastfeeding since then. I breastfed our 1st child past 1, 2, 3 years old, throughout my 2nd pregnancy, then went on to tandem nursed our first 2 kiddos for 1.5 years until our 1st child self-weaned at 45 months old. As for 2nd child, she is still nursing right now at 2 years old, I nursed through my 3rd pregnancy and currently tandem nursing our 2nd and 3rd child since 1st October 2013.

With all these experiences gained in my breastfeeding journey, I decided to pen down the critical phases which I think contributed to a successful breastfeeding journey.

To read my 1st post, you can click the link on this post: Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : 1st Hour.

For my 2nd post, I will start off with: the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

This post is pretty much similar to the critical first hour after giving birth to your baby. I am just going to repeat the advice given which is to keep on latching and inform the hospital staff that you want your baby to be on breastmilk only.

What differs in this post with the previous post is, in the critical 1st day, you get to experience a day and night spent with your baby.

For my case, my birth hospital is pro-breastfeeding and baby has to be room-in with mum at all times (unless baby is premature or require constant monitoring under neonatal ICU unit due to some health complications) So with baby rooming-in with you, you get to experience for yourself how to handle your newborn, to get used to bay's cues for hunger, stress, etc.

On my first night with baby and being in a pro-breastfeeding hospital, there is no other options to comfort and soothe baby other than breastfeed (after you have checked diaper, swaddled and ensure environment is comfortable) You just gotta latch, latch, latch. With frequent latching, your brain will get signals you really need breastmilk fast!

Picture below showing Carolyn breastfeeding at 3.51am in the morning (I did not have any sleep at all until about 5am on the first day)

I also believe the first day is critical as you'll finally realised this is important and there is no other person but you and baby who can make this work.

Some new mums will be discharged from hospital on day 2 onwards and once you leave the hospital, there will be other factors affecting and influencing you. Husband, in-laws, older children, and in our culture confinement ladies (if you did not hire the breastfeeding friendly ones, they will affect your breastfeeding plan!)

So, yes, the 1st day after giving birth is a critical phase in ensuring a smooth path to your successful breastfeeding journey.

To sum this post up:

Critical Phase For Successful Breastfeeding Journey : the 1st day after giving birth to your baby.

  • Latching early will also help baby to practise his latching technique

  • Latching early will help YOU in your breastfeeding techniques too

  • Please make sure you inform the hospital staff beforehand that you want your baby to be breastfeed and no formula feeding whatsoever

  • If possible, room-in with baby after birth.

  • Only YOU and BABY can make breastfeeding works. Do not let other factors influence your plan!

 

That's all for my 2nd post in the critical phase for a successful breastfeeding journey!

Feel free to ask and share if you have questions or feedback!